Rudderless

Not sure I can justify paying full whack for this when I'm likely not going to have the time to play it for a little while, but I'm getting serious FOMO. Is anyone loving it who didn't really get on with Samus Returns?

Half true. It's not dogshit.

RIP to a real one* *bigot

This tallies with my experience. I probably wouldn't do guide writing again for all the reasons stated ("gruelling" is the right word) but the actual writing part is a great deal easier than reviews/previews/features etc. Having done both, I have a lot of respect for guide writers. Even if you love the game in question it's very time-consuming, often tedious work.

Started off as a core team of two, but in the later stages there were between six and ten people working on it at any given time. Exclude all the external stuff a game needs in terms of publishing/marketing etc (and not counting contributions to map/UI programming and logo design), it's 13 people on the main development team. Still a small group, but more than two.

I mean, I imagine their target market for premium posts is a relatively small subsection of their regular audience – the kind that wants to support writers they like – as opposed, say, to catering to people who are snarky about them on forums. (It's not the first premium article either.)

Protip: every review is biased

Not since March 2018. Had a dark chuckle at the title of this one: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-03-14-serf-and-turf-a-week-in-stardew-valley

It doesn't say that at all. The three-hit comment is specifically about bosses, which do have significant range in their attacks. As for the collectibles criticism, a lot of collectibles in other games have tangible gameplay benefits; here, they're just cosmetic. Malindy evidently didn't feel like the game made it worth her while.

I don't think it's quite right to say Malindy didn't like any of those games, she just didn't think they were good enough to give them the Recommended badge (or bad enough for an Avoid).

11pm tonight

It's not entirely accurate to say it's a plucky little indie studio. It's an experienced CG animation house with a small core dev team, helped by an absolute ton of external contractors. Not nearly as many as worked on, say, Rift Apart, but they've got more resources than your average indie, that's for sure. Performance mode is definitely the way to go.

Yep. Even the bosses are easy in Story mode.

That's a lovely cover. Nice one.