Palworld Has Huge Weekend, Sells 5 Million and Overtakes Cyberpunk 2077 in Steam’s Most-Played Games List - IGN
Palworld Has Huge Weekend, Sells 5 Million and Overtakes Cyberpunk 2077 in Steam’s Most-Played Games List - IGN
People must be bored, that game is less than mediocre
Or they've been dying for a different way to play Pokemon than what Nintendo's been selling them for decades.
Yup, it’s pretty fun 👍
Not to mention in a more impressive format. I thought Arceus looked graphically barren and I know there are still plenty of people annoyed at the pop-in in Scarlet and Violet. I know it isn't really Nintendo's thing to play into the performance competition but a lot of people just expect better these days and the much bigger scope of Breath of the Wild and impressive level of expansion in Tears of the Kingdom has made even Nintendo fans see that there's better out there.
Idk, it's definitely not some sort of life changing experience or high art or whatever. It is however kinda cute, a little bit funny, has an enjoyable gameplay loop, adequate exploration, and satisfy combat. It's also pretty cheap.
The monster mechanics are surprisingly well integrated into the world. Just basic shit like pulling out a burny fox to see when in a cave is pretty immersive. Then discovering special mechanics like the boar that rapidly mines by charging rocks has you throw out your pick and start careening around like a loon.
It only really has legs during the discovery phase I think, but that's fine. Games aren't bad if they end.
Id hope they use the popularity to improve it further but I really don't wanna get invested in the same way I have with valheim, they have been mostly resting on their laurels so far and these developers will probably do the same. I hope I'm wrong tho, seems like a game I'd enjoy if it had more depth.
Nah, it's actually pretty great. I've played hundred of hours of ARK, and this scratches the same "survival-crafting with monsters" itch that ARK does, but with a lot of big improvements (not being heavily PvP-focused, being able to safely store your 'dinos' when you're away, having a reason [loot, npcs, pokedex completion] to explore the worldspace beyond finding dinos or resources, etc).
It's a fun game with a nice mixture of looting & leveling, survival, base optimisation and progress, exploration and fighting.
I also like the humor of paldex entries hahaha.
It's just the "pokemon with guns" hype
"Pokemon with guns on PC."
That's a great sales pitch.
While that's part of it, it's definitely not "just" that.
Sadly, part of it is that the game has released in a fairly stable/polished state, which is considered a positive in the world of broken releases. The multiplayer also just works with little issue as opposed to some problems of yesteryear.
There's also a perhaps surprising pent up demand for good co-op PvE focused games. They blow-up hard but tend to fade out depending on gameplay quality. Part of this is the streamer effect, streamers like to play group games with other streamers because it helps cross-pollinate their audiences. Sales are also improved due to group/peer-pressure, if someone can pull in their friend group, that's a lot of sale multiplication.
I also think that the developers tried to make a game that's fun. A lot of decisions seem to have followed the rule of cool for this type of game e.g. pal mounts, firearms, catching people, automation of survival elements via slavery.
It also manages to have both a clear and guided progression system while maintaining the freedom for the player to just fuck off and do whatever they want while still at least partially progressing.
My only honest gripes with the game are how world saves are handled (they should use the Grounded system in addition to having dedicated servers) and that I for some reason can't find the exit button on the title screen so to quit I need to alt-f4, for the rare times I need it.
I played a bunch over the weekend, didn’t even get to use a gun yet… the game is so much more than that.
Sorry, you're wrong. It's good.
Sorry, you're wrong. It's bad.
I'll play when it's out of early access
Thier last game (released over three years ago) is still in Early Access and they already got thier pay day. This is why I hate modern gaming. Gamers can't help but pre-maturely ejaculate over some new thing, so devs are able to keep shoveling eternal Early Access games. I vote with my wallet and don't buy EA games, but my game group still does. I miss out on a lot of gaming sessions because of it.
Personally I think gaming companies should not be allowed to charge for Early Access and basically just go back to free betas for testing. Or if they do have an Early Access, they should be forced to have a published release date or automatic refund if they miss. That will prevent devs from releasing half baked content and coasting on it for years.
They can still provide content and fixes via standard updates.
But you said yourself that you miss out on a lot of gaming sessions because you won't buy EA games. If the game is fun, then who cares what it's labeled? Presumably, your friends think the game is fun enough to play in its current state.
I don't really understand the problem with "Early Access"; just make a decision based on whether the game is currently worth what they're asking for it.
People will really eat anything
After 4 decades of active video game play, the last year or so has been very empty for me.
Nothing seemed to be satisfying, nothing captured my attention for long.
Sure I got my Elden Ring character ready for the DLC, but not with enthusiasm.
Sure I made it to diamond in Duel Masters finally, but it brought me no joy.
I bought Palworld last night on a whim and it has been 15 hours and the only time I have stopped was to take care of basic needs.
I am engaged, excited, and enthusiastic to game for the first time in a very, very long time. And the last time I liked a game this much it was Elden Ring at launch and I literally did nothing for 3 months than eat, sleep, work and Elden Ring.
I feel that Palworld is heading in the same direction.
Is there jank? Sure, but nothing that has broken my enjoyment yet.
I just cannot go past the bootleg aspect of everything they take inspiration from copied straight from other games. It just look like a soulless AI-generated game to me.
But sure it didn't sell for nothing, the game is surely enjoyable and I didn't mean to take that from you in my (somewhat caustic) comment.
I just wish the devs didn't make such blatant ripoffs, it seems their whole studio is taking existing Nintendo games and remaking them. Their previous game is literally a breath of the wild clone, down to the game starting in a cave, exiting and seeing the panorama of the world zooming in on where you need to go. For comparison: https://twitter.com/Potatoe4Bored/status/1749271229025092052 I guess the link is dead, sorry.
The monsters in this game aren't much better in that regard, someone posted a thread comparing 111 of the monsters to Pokemon (and Digimon) and it was pretty ridiculous. It's hard to say they're even "inspiration" because so many of them are just changing the color palette and type of animal. Even some of the attacks are the same (like one of the monsters with a bow).
Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Pokemon. I'm not upset that they ripped it off, it's more that I'm disappointed that it's not very original when the game seems like it's already a no brainer. It seems like there are very few strong Ark style games so it would have been nice to have a new IP mostly unrelated outside of mechanics. Instead we get a bunch of Pokemon that went through Digimon evolutions. It's just too bad since the game is clearly decent enough overall.
a breath of the wild clone, down to the game starting in a cave, exiting and seeing the panorama of the world zooming in on where you need to go
Wow, I didn't know BotW predated Fallout 3!
I also feel like Elden Ring did this... damn BotW clones everywhere! /s
Skyrim had a huge world reveal coming out of a cave after the opening sequence.
https://twitter.com/Potatoe4Bored/status/1749271229025092052
That's not fallout 3, that's breath of the wild.
Why is this an issue for you? Taking stuff and remixing it is how new stuff gets made. Nintendo surely won't go into bankruptcy anytime soon.
I literally said I have no issue with it, just that I'm disappointed they couldn't make something more original.
Here's the comparison https://twitter.com/CeciliaFae/status/1749183059877085396
Maybe it's just a consequence of growing up poor but I just don't get all the drama going on about what a ripoff it is. It's not like off brand stuff is anything remotely new.
I'm not comfortable with this image
Excuse me while I buy and download this game to further add to the brainrot
Finally, pokemon taken to its logical conclusion.
Right? I see people saying "oh but the violence! the slavery!" as if it wasn't a collective act of childhood goodwill that prevented such associations being made to Pokémon. They talk a lot about friendship, but it's a friendship built on beating up creatures in the wild, which then obey and fight for you unquestioningly. Even some which are human-like and stated to be as intelligent as humans.
I consider myself a Pokémon fan and I defended them often, but it's a concept that gets a little iffy if you think about it for more than a minute.
Sounds like any RPG to me. Except that your party consists of the same creatures that you're fighting. In that sense it's maybe more egalitarian than RPGs featuring classical enemy races like orcs or goblins.
In Pokémon the concept of evil comes in the Form of Team Rocket and other shady exploitative organisations. Interestingly Palworld also has a counterpart organisation called Syndicates. But I still don't know what their crime really is since you're really doing the same thing of fighting and catching Pals. Nevertheless you have to treat the creatures in your party right, if you want to make progress in the game.