general gaming

[fresh bane]

Careful with spoilers Ixrec just started

[slim thorn]

I haven't gotten far enough to add anything to that

[fresh bane]

Finding out the MC's name is part of the journey and the main quest

[river veldt]

i dont know any spoilers i know almost nothing about this game

oh whoops

[slim thorn]

Thought gained: Hobocop

what the hell did I just commit to

[fresh bane]

Hobocop!

yeah!

[quiet swift]

[river veldt]

lmao

[slim thorn]

god it took me an hour just to get out of the building

and it was glorious

[quiet swift]

[fresh bane]

4 hours later:
''Alright... now the game starts''

[slim thorn]

just to check, there is no combat system in this game, right? except for skill checks against more physical traits

[fresh bane]

No traditional combat or anything no

[slim thorn]

perfect

[fresh bane]

it's all mostly pure skill checks and dialogue

[slim thorn]

I like that I lost health because I failed a "walk away casually" roll so badly

[fresh bane]

it's so good

this game is so smartly written

and it's so funny

[slim thorn]

it really is

this is also a really nice change of pace after Planescape

not just because of all the modern polish and lack of a combat system I'm not interested in

but because Planescape was never a comedy

(it had a designated comic relief character, but the story was always serious, and that character turns out to be doing a lot of deflecting)

[fresh bane]

Disco has so much comedy on it but it never really stops being serious

a lot of the themes are extremely serious and sensitive

but it's also so funny all the time

sometimes subtly sometimes directly to your face

[slim thorn]

ok that's enough of Cuno

[fresh bane]

Cuno doesn't fucking care!

[quiet swift]

I still need to finish the game

[slim thorn]

ooooh healing items are their own separate thing outside the inventory

welp that's officially the first thing I needed to google

[fresh bane]

Above your portrait there's a little cross icon

[slim thorn]

yeah I know that now

[fresh bane]

I don't remember if you can still use them in the inventory though

[slim thorn]

they don't even exist in the inventory

[fresh bane]

Oh huh

[slim thorn]

Kitsuragi has been an incredibly good sport about how... unprofessional we are lol

[fresh bane]

Kim is super patient with you

he's the best

[river veldt]

can you gay in this game

[fresh bane]

Short answer no

long answer is spoiler

[river veldt]

:(

[slim thorn]

"+1 Disingenuous grandma"

[quiet swift]

Also

[fresh bane]

''why do your eyes look like that''

ahh that subtle racism that you can sometimes blurt out if you fail checks (and sometimes NOT so subtle)

I actually LOVE how the game later on || acknowledges the existence of the multiple speech trees and directly confronts Harry about it ||

also Kim is like

THE coolest

[fresh bane]

How's the investigation going, Lieutenant?

[river veldt]

this Lena lady is so sweet 😭

OMG Kim is pointing out how weird i move because im a video game character

[slim thorn]

huh, I did not get that comment

(I stopped for tonight after ||finding clothes in the dumpster, and only then realizing the game expected me to examine the body more first ||)

[river veldt]

im in literally the second screen i just keep finding more and more stuff to read

[slim thorn]

I thought Kim was on the 3rd screen

(4th if you visit the balcony?)

[fresh bane]

did you find the mug in the dumpster?

[slim thorn]

I did and the narration gave me a lot of crap for it

[fresh bane]

I love that you can show it to Kim

He's not a fan of the mug

[slim thorn]

there are many things I've elected not to share with Kim

he already knows I'm a pathetic loser but I don't need to add to the pile

[fresh bane]

I want to say you probably should but I don't wanna tell you how to play

just hey it might be funny content you're missing

[slim thorn]

✨ role playing ✨

[fresh bane]

you can always just savescum so you don't have Kim thinking you're a pathetic alcoholic racist asshole, he will only think you're a pathetic alcoholic NON racist asshole

[slim thorn]

speaking of the dumpster

remember when the narrator pretends to find a rifle in there?

||I was hoping I'd accidentally found my gun already but alas||

[fresh bane]

I actually don't but that doesn't sound too far off

you'll find your gun, eventually

...maybe

maybe not

[quiet swift]

i like how kim commented at the end of my first day that I was running a lot. Since I was double clicking all the time to go faster

[slim thorn]

yeah... in Planescape you shift+click to run, and there's an option to invert this so running is the default, which I turned on after the first area

[quiet swift]

Sounds about right

[slim thorn]

after I figured out it was double-click this time that's just all I do

[mossy flume]

Help, I'm getting called out

[river veldt]

what game

[mossy flume]

FFXIV

[craggy vine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQDlEsv-OyI Very interesting video about the current state of the 3DS. The title is a bit misleading though.

Wish my current 3DS didn't have the control stick crumble

[river veldt]

im watching Jerma play Elden Ring and goddamn this game looks like a lot of fun

[random steppe]

I'm gonna say that if you don't like Dark Souls you are unlikely to enjoy ER, but it's more accessible than DS at least

Not a lot more accessible

But there is a chance

[river veldt]

i mean its not like i can play it

its not on Switch and I doubt my computer can run it

[random steppe]

Yeah just saying in case you ever end up considering buying it

[river veldt]

ye

[river veldt]

why is it called Elden Ring

[rugged flax]

man
this was a great analysis/breakdown of firearm calibers and all the weird ways that video games use them.
Dave and Jonathan are great.
https://youtu.be/webwt79nI1k

[river veldt]

this doesnt answer my quesiton

[fresh bane]

The entire plot of Elden Ring revolves around the Elden Ring breaking and sending the world into shit

[rugged flax]

Elden Ring takes place in the Lands Between, a fictional landmass ruled over by several demigods. It was previously ruled over by the immortal Queen Marika, who acted as keeper of the Elden Ring, a powerful force that manifested as the physical concept of order.

there :P

[fresh bane]

Queen Marika is...

phew

[river veldt]

jerma

[river veldt]

hold on

holy hell

[true maple]

whoa

[fresh bane]

they really didn't need to make her that hot

but they did

[thorny cedar]

gets the firehose

[bleak lintel]

There's a story trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_03kFqWfqs

This trailer should have been the intro.

[fresh bane]

I will say, almost all E.R endings are very disappointing to me personally

almost all

[rancid herald]

Well, miles morales is done

Rip

JJJ really is the best part of spider-man lol

[fresh bane]

JJJ: ''Oh great, there's two of them now''

[craggy vine]

Resident Evil Village on Macbook really is impressive

[rancid herald]

“This is getting out of hand. Wait, wrong franchise”

[craggy vine]

I have such a tiny thin laptop with very little fan noise playing this game

[craggy vine]

I gotta say even on an ARM macbook, I wish it could have some better battery life while gaming like this

[mossy flume]

Gaming is just an inherently power-inefficient task, more or less.

How much time are you getting out of that battery while gaming? I'm curious.

[craggy vine]

I wish I got the exact time that I started playing the game

[mossy flume]

You could probably open activity monitor and get the age of the process

[craggy vine]

2 hours cpu time. Only 1 hour and 15 minutes on gpu time though

At 40% battery now

[mossy flume]

Pretty good

[craggy vine]

That is actually. I could never get this kind of battery life out of my old laptop while gaming, and definitely no other gaming laptop

Damn 30% now though

Would be nice to have some more performance though. Graphics settings are quite low and it does drop below 60 fps

Again, is a little jarring coming from playing games on an rtx 2070 super

Also Resident evil village is a very good game

I find it funny how the battery thing says no apps using significant power

I am quite pressed for memory having 8 gb of ram though..

7.3gb used, 2.3gb virtual memory

Like 9.6gb total

I probably should have gone for 16gb of ram. But I never anticipated gaming, or using my laptop this much.

[uneven epoch]

ooh, ixrec is finally divin into disco elysium? good good

in sittin over here like "i wanna share the best way to gain exp points quickly but would that be ruining the game experience or not aaaa"

[uneven epoch]

i do think disco elysium is the kinda game that absolutely deserves a second playthrough, so when u have the idea where to go n what do u can focus on passin the hard checks for that extra fun, like ||the light bending guy, or the pinball game, or getting the full version of church kids' music n dancing with kim, or the brow-off, n i thiiink the hole in the world had a high skill check too||. i even missed ||the glorious bear fridge|| the first time because i managed to pass a high skill check and ||found the bullet during first autopsy|| (so neat that failure can actually lead to much cooler stuff than success sometimes in this game). these arent integral to plot, but wow they are so good. i do have one question to the already-played-de people, ||is it possible to miss the cryptid? i got them in my first playthrough n it seemed like kinda a beeeeg deal so i wonder if game can just, not engage with this plot point if u are a say, no nonsense wont even entertain the idea of cryptids cop||

[craggy vine]

Ok seriously I'm looking through the library on steam of Mac games and like... It really feels like mac gaming is quite a bit of a thing

Sure there isn't all the most popular AAA games, but there are a fuck ton of games there

Just today I was thinking about what if I try parallels to run L4D2 and play it with my sister next to her laptop, but I can just do that on MacOS without windows

Now I am curious to try HOI4 on mac because that is really cpu intensive

Dear god I might really try ditching my windows desktop for my macbook. Even though I know I don't need to, I can happily use 2 machines, laptop and desktop.

Oh wait l4d2 is 32 bit

[craggy vine]

Horsey

[uneven epoch]

now granted, even with lets say seven playthroughs u probably wont see everything. the game literally has over a million words i know for a fact that in the two runs i did i never had particularly high shivers, and i believe that skill ||gives you the ability to basically "talk" with martinaise||. im honestly really tempted to try a "hacked" playthrough with skills maxed out just so i can hear them all talk on any given situation. horrible idea for a first playthrough obviously, but third? im certain ive seen a guide on how to change up the values on the internet somewhere n while it looked intimidating im nothin if not persistent

[craggy vine]

This port of resident evil is so weird. It is optimized for mac hardware, but yet I have no way to exit from within the game itself it seems

[grave tide]

With everyday, I lose hope because of Twitter

Making list of streamers playing Hogwarts Legacy... 🤦‍♂️

[teal sonnet]

just ask them who owns twitter

[slim thorn]

ah, so much stuff I can't read yet

(so neat that failure can actually lead to much cooler stuff than success sometimes in this game)

I'd even go so far as to say that this is a hard requirement of any game that wants to lock dialogue/narrative choices behind some kind of skill check (rather than a previous discrete narrative choice)

of course I've only seen this maybe twice in Elysium so far but those two times felt great so it seems like it's executing it well

[thorny loom]

https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-suspends-automatic-housing-demolition-following-the-turkey-syria-earthquake/

[fresh bane]

Considering that I saw a streamer play through it the first time and she saw a bunch of the things you mentioned I'm sure that Ixrec doesn't have to, nor SHOULD he wait for a second playthrough

Any checks that aren't an instant failure you can always try again later on like one of those you mentioned and even then you can always just save scum every single check If you so desired

for example you can totally savescum the || two dudes with jackets so you can get their jackets if you don't get it the first time, you can also totally try later to open the container with the light bending dude and you can save scum that one also||

[uneven epoch]

ah, no i didnt mean "wait", i simply meant you probably aint gonna b able to get a bunch of checks unless you build for them

yes of course u can save/load i just assumed ix probably isnt the type to do that 45 minutes in a row to clear that 3% chance

[fresh bane]

I don't think it's even possible to see everything in the game considering each player goes a different route and has different attributes and all but there certainly is a whole lot a first playthrough player can see on their first time, it really only takes time to just make sure you scraped absolutely every little corner and inch of every map and scraped every interaction

[fresh bane]

Yes, so in Disco Elysium failure doesn't always mean failure

[uneven epoch]

again i, didnt dispute that

nor was it my intention

[fresh bane]

Failures will still like, ''work'', it will still move you forward, and sometimes failing checks can be more advantageous or even better than actually succeeding in the skill check

[fresh bane]

I am

finger guns

[uneven epoch]

so did i, but ix just doesnt seem like the type

shrug

[fresh bane]

I also don't wanna tell you how to play Ix but me personally I would super recommend putting some points into Shivers if you haven't already lots of good lines and dialogues there but that's up to you

it's worth it

[uneven epoch]

meh personally i like volition and visual calculus chimin in so thats my "probably a bit "overleved" but i just think theyre funky" skills

[slim thorn]

I don't have a good enough sense for what most of these skills do to really make any choices yet

and no, I'm not save scumming to make a 3% check lol

(unless the game does something really dumb later where that's effectively required to make progress, but since the usual RPG overcomplication is absent I'm expecting it to be actually balanced and not do that to me)

[fresh bane]

You will never not make progress in the game so don't worry about that

I don't know if the game actually explains what each of the skills do but I just recommend doing that just because I think it has a lot of worth seeing dialogue and all that but it's up to you of course

I guess I'm the bad type of player because I would absolutely savescum the shit out of a 3% check I wouldn't be able to handle not being able to succeed it

mostly talking about the white checks here though,

[uneven epoch]

to my knowledge there is one point where you can softlock i you cant pass one check. teeechnically. the chance of u actually hittin it is like, staggeringly low tho

and i do mean in a "you'd have to actively try" way

[thorny loom]

it begins

https://www.pcgamer.com/thomas-the-tank-engine-steams-straight-into-hogwarts-legacy/

[gaunt marten]

I would like to see less news about this game

[slim thorn]

this is a rare case where I'd endorse that as a moderator

this isn't exactly an interesting or useful topic to write an article on, which normally is at least harmless, but with a game this controversial it's best to avoid bringing it up at all

[thorny loom]

Very well

Here is some minecraft then

https://www.pcgamer.com/minecrafts-archeology-feature-is-finally-getting-dug-up-for-120/

[chilly mural]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7x582T5Y8g @fresh bane holy shit, real

[fresh bane]

oh god what's this

I haven't tuned into a CSB stream in a while

[chilly mural]

they're just talking about a shitty empty lot that is the main plot point of Yakuza 0

and how someone found one in that looks exactly the same in new york city

[fresh bane]

Oh wow

I never played Yakuza

[gaunt marten]

It's very good

The empty lot is both central to the story and completely irrelevant

[heady bridge]

So I wonder what the guy who created the NieR games is up to now…

https://metro.co.uk/2023/02/10/new-mobile-game-turns-retro-sega-games-into-sexy-anime-girls-18263388/

Oh….

[slim thorn]

now that's a grudge

[dire gate]

Metroid Prime Remastered shows an amazing start with whopping 96 in metacritic

[fresh bane]

No reason why Metroid Prime would flop or not perform well

I wouldn't expect anything else

I'm interested in seeing if it will succeed Dread in sales

[green fulcrum]

Lots of people have been wanting 3D Metroid for a while. Even if it's old Metroid, guaranteed they'll be getting Prime Remastered in droves.

Metroid Prime was THE definitive Metroid experience for many of them.

[fresh bane]

Regardless I'm glad that Nintendo didn't just discard the ''true'' Metroid experience by making Metroid 2 remake and Dread as FPS in the style of Prime and kept the same way Metroid has always been

I guarantee any other company especially outside of Japan would have never done that

[thorny loom]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T-8OWscXXE

You can port your morrowind character as an npc in oblivion

[mossy flume]

Further, apparently physical copy preorders are selling out.

Despite it being just a normal box

[sour hill]

Ppl want to lick the cartridge

[slim thorn]

gotta get that limited edition plastic rectangle

[mossy flume]

[slim thorn]

i wonder if any of that is just to support the series

[mossy flume]

Apparently Amazon and Target stopped taking preorders, probably temporarily.

[slim thorn]

I've thought about buying the Switch remaster just to have it even if I won't (re)play it anytime soon

[gaunt marten]

I don't think most people buy things with the intention of supporting the thing

They just buy things to have them

[slim thorn]

probably

[rose rose]

Given that the plastic rectangles have associated production and distribution costs and are sold at the same price as the digital bits that don’t have those, it seems unlikely.

[sour hill]

Nah, people (including me) just like having physical copies of stuff

[fresh bane]

I find it so weird that nowadays you usually have to explain why you buy things in physical

As in, people will find it wierd and ask ''why?''

[rose rose]

Physical objects are such a pain

[gaunt marten]

I love having physical copies of stuff. I just have one physical data storage drive and put a lot of data physically into that drive

[slim thorn]

well for books at least it still makes sense to prefer the experience of tactile paper and such

[mossy flume]

Heh. #1 bestseller over Tears of the Kingdom and sold out.

[slim thorn]

with video games it was always the same experience

[fresh bane]

But the art box is nice

[mossy flume]

It is!

[slim thorn]

and the "really owning it" argument kinda stopped applying after the physical discs became glorified DRM keys (though that was probably always a minority)

[rose rose]

There was the “internet is slow” argument, though this only works if they actually bothered putting the game on the disk

[mossy flume]

Physical copies of Nintendo games makes sense given that Nintendo will happily axe their digital stores and thus remove your ability to download the games you purchased, as demonstrated with the WiiU and 3DS

[rancid herald]

yeah that's why I'd prefer physical copies in general

there's always a risk that the digital store will go away

[slim thorn]

hm, do the physical discs actually protect from that in practice? I've never lived through a game I care about getting delisted

[rancid herald]

I'm very tempted to buy a collector's edition but I imagine it's already long gone

[rose rose]

They are not currently intending to remove that

[mossy flume]

Nintendo games survive it because they don’t need additional downloads of anything to run. I don’t know about Xbox or PlayStation.

[rancid herald]

Kind of?

[mossy flume]

Are they not? Only the ability to purchase?

[rose rose]

You won’t be able to buy things, but downloading things you already own will remain possible

(Note that you don’t own free content unless you previously made an effort to download it, so if there are free 3DS apps you want, now is the time)

[mossy flume]

It is gone. I want one as well but have apparently narrowly missed that boat.

[river veldt]

Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball

[slim thorn]

yeah, it's the games that needed to download tens of gigs of day one patches after I brought the disk home that make me skeptical the disk can promise to keep working

[mossy flume]

Yeah, in the Xbox and PlayStation contexts they’re just there to save you download time if you have bad internet

[rancid herald]

now the tears are for real

[rose rose]

I don’t think any platform holder has ever actually removed downloads from any old system

Maybe the PSP?

[mossy flume]

Of course this seems to no longer apply in PC land at all. They just give you Steam codes, which is… really dumb.

Nintendo DSi is dead, I think

[rose rose]

No it still works for the PSP too

[mossy flume]

Nintendo Wii lost its store for almost a year before Nintendo noticed and fixed it

[rose rose]

Nintendo says DSi also still works

[mossy flume]

Huh

[rancid herald]

I actually wonder what happens when you try to use a ps or xbox without a internet connection

or switch for that matter

[mossy flume]

Switch will work, but I think Xbox and PS will refuse to in a bunch of cases

[slim thorn]

back when I used my physical consoles they were fine without an internet connection, since I never did multiplayer or DLCs or e-shop stuff

(most of the DLCs for games I liked came out long after I was no longer in the mood anyway)

[rose rose]

So for now it’s pretty theoretical - since console online purchases were introduced just under twenty years ago, none have (intentionally) stopped working.

Nor are any planned to

Though Nintendo does keep threatening that it will happen at some indeterminate future date

[quiet swift]

https://vxtwitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/1624084762636824589 it was indeed Doomfist

[chilly mural]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzItS5BmUNw

[rancid herald]

I think I have the impression that games that need the update had the update on the disk

[mossy flume]

Yeah that’s the thing

[rose rose]

It was certainly true of some consoles - they had on-disk firmware updates

[mossy flume]

Indeed, the Xbox 360 did for example

[rose rose]

As did the Wii

[mossy flume]

Ah yes

That gen in general had them. Did the PS3?

[rose rose]

I would be somewhat surprised if the PS5 does.

No idea

[mossy flume]

Xbox One-onwards seemed to need an internet connection

[green fulcrum]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRwB7RH1lVE

So excited! :D

[dire gate]

I can't wait for We love Katamari

That is my nostalgia game

[visual hill]

the PS3 has downloadable firmware as a PUP file, you can install it using an USB drive on an actual PS3 IIRC. It's also what you need to use RPCS3

so there is a way to preserve the latest available firmware, same for the PS Vita

[thorny loom]

Likely cause word got out of the $70 preorder increase they also took down preorders for metriod prime 4 and tears of the kingdom

[mossy flume]

Well in the case of Prime Remake it’s because they sold out of their allocated prerelease stock

Tears of the Kingdom got relisted

[thorny loom]

Probably cause of scalpers too

Yeah tears did

[mossy flume]

Target orders for Prime Remake are back up, I noticed

GameStop and Best Buy haven’t run out

[dire gate]

Apparently Nintendo said "$70 price is not a trend, and the games will be priced individually"

[thorny loom]

Sure nintendo.

[gaunt marten]

They will all be priced individually according to the market, costs and other relevant factors

[dire gate]

Fun fact: Korean price of TotK has not changed

[thorny loom]

Thats what activison said. Then sony then microsoft

[mossy flume]

I expect Switch successor titles to be largely $70

[gaunt marten]

They will just happen to be seventy dollars

[dire gate]

Many assume that it is because of JPY-KRW ratio

[thorny loom]

$70 is gonna be the norm for new releases of triple a games. They just didnt want to admit it

Especially since nintendo stuff almost never goes on sale

[rose rose]

Sort of weird that they stuck at $60 for so long

[thorny loom]

Why wouldn’t they. Most of the triple a companies made billions of dollars in micro transactions

Activison “games are to expensive so we need to raise the price to $70”

Also activison

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/84421/activision-made-record-5-1-billion-from-microtransactions-in-2021/index.html

[rose rose]

In general I expect the price of everything to gradually increase over time, because money is generally worth less over time.

Except things that it actually becomes cheaper to make, which video games sure haven’t.

[thorny loom]

Depends triple a companies can afford to put more in there games. They just chose not to

Indie games absolutely

[slim thorn]

AAA games have been adding more and more stuff over the years

[rose rose]

$60 when $60 became the standard game price is $90 today

[slim thorn]

whether it's the right stuff is hotly debated, but there's definitely more stuff

[thorny loom]

Also really depends on what company to be fair

[slim thorn]

yes I'm making a broad generalization

[thorny loom]

Yeah. I know

[slim thorn]

since that's what this entire conversation is

[thorny loom]

And were proud of you for it

[sour hill]

So much stuff...

[slim thorn]

(I'm pretty firmly in the "too much of the wrong stuff; make smaller games" camp)

[sour hill]

You said you don't like GTA, right? That checks out

[slim thorn]

yep, and most other open worlds

[thorny loom]

Gta 5 is 10 years old this year

[dire gate]

2077

"We will add more and more and more and more and..."

[rose rose]

Personally, I enjoy the modern games with lots of stuff.

[dire gate]

Cyberpunk 2077

[thorny loom]

2077 to be fair at least got better with updates

[rose rose]

Which I assume is the common (if perhaps quieter) opinion given they keep making them.

[thorny loom]

Some companies would have just abandoned it after the first couple updates

[slim thorn]

I've always wondered to what extent that really is what the silent majority feels

especially given how few people seem to complete these games

no idea how to tell though

[sour hill]

It really depends on the game. Sometimes lots of stuff is fun and/or immersive (rdr2, Yakuza) and sometimes it just does nothing for me (Far Cry, mostly)

[thorny loom]

One thing weve seen recently is the rejection of live service games

[slim thorn]

I don't think people ever did like the non-multiplayer live service games, that model just got attached to games people wanted for other reasons

[thorny loom]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-live-service-game-bubble-looks-ready-to-burst/1100-6511171/

[dire gate]

I think the general consensus is that majority is always considered casuals

[slim thorn]

yeah we've seen roundups of this posted here before

[rose rose]

Was single player live service a thing?

That just sounds like an awful idea.

[slim thorn]

the lists that have been posted here were mostly games I'd never heard of

[rose rose]

I guess Marvel’s Avengers was pretty close to that (and an awful idea).

[slim thorn]

so apparently it was a thing and completely went over my head

[rose rose]

Technically it was coop though

[thorny loom]

Yes. Also always online single player like with redfall

[mossy flume]

Diablo III

Sorta

But it has multi

[rose rose]

I’m pretty sure red fall is co-op first, so the online only requirement is not that surprising.

It also doesn’t make it live service.

[slim thorn]

I think the closest I personally got was Dead Space 3 having microtransactions, which contributed to me not playing it until long after it was new

[rose rose]

Always-online and live service are different things

(Though the latter usually implies the former)

[thorny loom]

Also killed the series for a while

[sour hill]

What's the difference?

[rose rose]

Live service implies constant updates, probably constant monetisation, and a game with no endpoint (because it keeps moving away)

Always online just won’t run if it’s not online.

[dire gate]

I remember a massive failure that was named SimCity

[sour hill]

That caused quite a hullabaloo

[rose rose]

SimCity’s problems were not really live service problems, I think

They were mostly about scale

[slim thorn]

IIRC some were, but it had so many problems that's not saying much

[dire gate]

So I remember this one particular single player only live service game

[slim thorn]

was the live service model why they had to restrict playable map size so much?

[rose rose]

No

[dire gate]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Eden

[rose rose]

That was because the agent simulation was too expensive.

[slim thorn]

huh

that's weird considering how disappointing the agent simulation was

[dire gate]

I think Another Eden is a perfect fit for the definition of Single Player Live Service

[rose rose]

It was also partially disappointing because it was too expensive

So it was scaled down and then numbers were inflated

[sour hill]

Isn't The Crew another online only single player game? (I know there is also a multiplayer component)

[rose rose]

The crew was definitely multiplayer-first.

It was supposed to be a shared world type thing

Discount Forza Horizon

[slim thorn]

wow I forgot all about the crew

[sour hill]

But I think you can also play by yourself

And there's a single player campaign

[dire gate]

I never imagined that I would see a Single player free to play liveservice JRPG with microtransactions

[sour hill]

We all did lol

[dire gate]

And stumbled upon that mobile game

[rose rose]

Technically Forza Horizon works offline too and also has (and is built around) a single player campaign.

But nobody would call that a single-player game.

[sour hill]

What I'm saying is I'm pretty sure the single player components of the crew are online only

[rose rose]

Possibly, I don’t recall.

[slim thorn]

maybe the lesson is that another modern game trend is blurring the distinction between "single player games" and "multiplayer games"

even the most popular MMO these days is known for being "solo friendly"

[rose rose]

Having checked, it is online.

[random steppe]

A lot of live service games have quite a bit of single players activites

Destiny and Warframe come to mind

[visual hill]

to me, a service game is one that depends on a server to function for singleplayer

it's not about providing regular content updates, having microtransactions, etc

[dire gate]

Me : plays a Hearthstone video
The YouTuber : "Thank you for Marvel Snap for sponsoring this video!"
Me : visible confusion

[quiet swift]

[gaunt marten]

Live service games can exist without any microtransactions and they'd still be something I avoid because I can lose it at any time, but live service as a term usually refers to the monetization model from the developer side

They keep providing content and they keep getting money

[dire gate]

I'm still genuinely amazed that at this point people were basically saying that "It's probably impossible to make a stable 60fps game with a good visual on Switch" and then Retro Studio just straight up said "fuck you all, watch our game"

[river veldt]

why did Dead Space 3 have microtransactions

[arctic fern]

EA

[river veldt]

was it multiplayer

[arctic fern]

why does X have microtransactions? look at this graph
money

always money

all of the money

[random steppe]

IIRC it was a 2 players co op

Also it had a cool idea, that didn't save it

Basically one of the two players saw things

[fresh bane]

Because when one game starts doing microtransactions then all the execs and corporate people look at it as a waste of money or losing an oportunity to make more money so they start doing it as well regardless of whether or not it would work in the game or if people will like it

[random steppe]

In the sense that his game had differences from the other guy, like they were going crazy

[fresh bane]

I was super disappointed that it even spread to DMC but DMC5 has very little microtransactions

Mostly purchasing alternative colors for the main characters which I feel is super lazy but whatever and buying extra content like more music, alternative announcers, a whole new character campaign that I think is worth like 3 bucks, and buying game currency

[quiet swift]

Live services exist so you keep paying for them to add more stuff. Be that content (story/quests/etc), cosmetics (horse armor or your own armor/weapon looks), power (new weapons), or convenience (xp boosts)

[random steppe]

My friend, I like DMC5, but this sentence is wild

[dire gate]

1000000 Red Orbs

[arctic fern]

sweet mother of christ

[fresh bane]

[random steppe]

I wouldn't say it's very little tho

[fresh bane]

It's not exactly what I meant

[random steppe]

That's like, a very disgusting amount of MTX for a Devil May Cry game

[fresh bane]

there is extra purchasable content but it's not as egregious as other live service games with microtransactions

When you boot up DMC5 you won't have a pop up asking you to buy microtransactions or something like ''hey low on red orbs? why not buy a pack in the store? ''

that kind of shit

[random steppe]

They don't get in you way, that's true

It's still pretty bad

[quiet swift]

Well, at least it ain't Train simulator

[river veldt]

holy shit

[fresh bane]

It's not pretty bad, it's bad, I would rather there be none

but it's not as bad as other games

[random steppe]

I kind of defend Train Simulator because it's a specific kind of thing

[quiet swift]

Yes, but 2000+$?

[random steppe]

It's aimed at hyperfans, and you buy your favourite train, and on paper, if they do their job, it's a very accurate and specialist simulator

[river veldt]

what about The Sims 4

[random steppe]

Now, from what I heard some of the models are not as accurate as they should be, and sometimes people that purchase them feel ripped off, and that's shit, but like...if you want a simulator, and someone to go and literally model a train as accurately as possible, to sell it to very few people, it's not going to be cheap

[rugged flax]

There's a gazillion and one paid aircraft and scenery and add-ons and things for MSFS too.
Like, 1:1 functional study-level replicas of real aircraft.
and that's before you even get into physical hardware. Some people have built entire cockpits in their house from real aircraft parts.

[gaunt marten]

The Sims 4 does have a lot of content that should not be that expensive or sold in parcels that small

[fresh bane]

I will say that even though the microtransaction stuff isn't super egregious in DMC5 I hate that the music packs only include 3 tracks of each previous game

And also the fact that Cavaliere R has an extra move and has different properties than Cavaliere making it something that changes gameplay and not just a cosmetic item

not cool

Other than that it's pretty alright, just extra content like more music more announcers and costumes, and the other stuff is generally just more currency or unlocking stuff that you can unlock through gameplay

but you unlock it by finishing DMD which most people probably don't do lol (DMD/Dante Must Die is kind of like the very hard difficulty for these games)

[unreal idol]

Curious, has anyone played any of the NSO N64 games on handheld mode? How well do they control and feel to play?

Just because the original N64 is such a fucking goofy controller, but its layout and feel for its games are permanently hardwired into my psyche

[river veldt]

pretty good i think, though tbh i havent spent a great deal of time on it

even though ive been meaning to play OoT

[unreal idol]

What face buttons correspond to AB on the N64 controller?

[thorny loom]

I play n64 games with an xbox controller and it works fine

[unreal idol]

Well 9/10 I play my Switch in handheld mode because it's comfy and I'm too damn lazy to find an extra HDMI to plug it into my TV

[river veldt]

uhhh I think A and B? im not sure let me check

[thorny loom]

I would assume theres an a and b button yeah

[unreal idol]

Well yeah but I dunno how Nintendo mapped things

[thorny loom]

Thats like the two mandated buttons on a controller

Unless your sony and just use symbols

[unreal idol]

And I'd half expect them to like be flipped or some dumb shit because >Nintendo

[thorny loom]

Nah. By that point controller buttons were pretty standard

[unreal idol]

True, but when I play NES games using an SNES layout, I try to map NES B to SNES Y, and NES A to SNES B

But NES games on the Switch don't use the Y button at all so I have to adjust which is weird for my brain

[river veldt]

ive kind of stopped playing the NES games because when I play Mario I use B to jump and Y to run and afaik there’s no way to remap

[unreal idol]

Exactly

It messes with my brain feng shui and undoes like 30 years of vidya for me

[river veldt]

omg a fellow B jumper

[unreal idol]

Although weirdly enough I've not had any issue with Kirby's Dreamland or SML2

[river veldt]

hold on im downloading the N64 app cuz i had it uninstalled for some reason

[unreal idol]

I have to be in the right mood for an NES game. I like the NES but I feel only a few of the games really hold up for modern replay value

If I'm gonna play any of the original SMB games I'd rather just play All-Stars, for example. Probably the few I ever semi-consistently return to are Zelda and Final Fantasy

[river veldt]

oh yea Super Mario All Stars has effectively replaced the originals for me

i prefer the graphics and presentation more

[unreal idol]

Yeah, I feel like they were integral to helping establish a big part of Mario's overall identity and feel for me as a kid

It probably helps that I played All-Stars first. My first system was an SNES, and I didn't get to play an NES until a bit later at my aunt's house. Her son gifted me his NES and modest game collection though, which I still have today

[river veldt]

ok

so

[unreal idol]

I remember being confused when I first played SMB, asking "why are there no pictures of the goombas at the beginning???"

ohey, while you type, i am going to check the mail real fast before it gets any darker out, it'll just take a minute

[river veldt]

testing on SM64
A is jump
B is punch/slide/etc.
right bumper switches from Lakitu cam to Mario cam
Left Trigger is duck/long jump
Right analog stick is camera

in conclusion SM3DAS has better controls

[unreal idol]

Seems like it'll be good enough for me

[river veldt]

cool

[unreal idol]

I need to wait a few days before I upgrade my subscription though. Waiting for my current credit card statement to close because I'm gonna get nailed with some interest on it

[fresh bane]

Jill is such a fucking badass what the hell?

[thorny loom]

Nire

“Notice me senpai” https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-ceo-bobby-kotick-says-sony-is-not-returning-our-calls/

[river veldt]

cool! i hope you have fun

do you have the MK8D Expansion thingy?

[unreal idol]

I don't own MK8 but I might get it

Anyway time for D&D

[river veldt]

oooh

have fun!

[dire gate]

I still think the fact that Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4 and then never gave us anything, even a trailer, then proceeded to drop Metroid Dread out of nowhere and then also shadow drop Prime 1 remaster/remake

is hilarious

[arctic fern]

i imagine matroid 4 is going through development hell

[mossy flume]

I expect that’s true to some degree. The fact that they killed it and gave it to Retro after two years was certainly jarring.

[thorny loom]

MA!

https://www.pcgamer.com/square-enix-developer-lets-slip-that-yes-a-final-fantasy-tactics-remaster-is-probably-on-the-way/

[fickle garnet]

I finished God of War Ragnarök

It was really good

[fresh bane]

is gud

a little rushed but good

they should keep Kratos with his || spear || as the main weapon moving forward

[fickle garnet]

Yeah that weapon is cool

I cant wait for the next game

I hope it's as well done as this one

I still have a lot of side stuff to do though

[river veldt]

has anypony here played Kirby’s Dream Buffet or Kirby Fighters 2?

[teal sonnet]

https://twitter.com/VGC_News/status/1624041931389927426

VGC (@VGC_News)

Sega and Nier series creator Yoko Taro have officially announced their upcoming mobile game, 404 Game Re:set.

The game reimagines classic Sega titles as women, and has the player taking on an evil version of Sega that controls the world.

https://t.co/WhDQVsMQQW

Likes

999

Retweets

233

Twitter · Feb 10, 2023, 1:45 PM

w h a t

[static bluff]

Yoooooo Virtua Fighter

[quiet swift]

https://www.gamesradar.com/life-is-strange-devs-next-game-is-harmony-the-fall-of-reverie/

[static bluff]

Virtua Fighter was really fun

[dire gate]

Holy shit I realized the big brain move Nintendo made

They recently started to resell their NSO game vouchers

And then now they sell TotK at $70

And I just checked it, it's eligible

[mossy flume]

Yep, you can get a $10 discount

[dire gate]

TotK is $70 and vouchers are $50 each

You can get a $20 discount

[mossy flume]

Ah, yes

[dire gate]

Big brain

By raising the price after reselling the fixed-price voucher, they can now convince people that voucher may be worth it

And then if you feel like it's better to use voucher, now you will pay $100 instead of $70 unless you were planning to buy 2 games anyway

[mossy flume]

It can qualify for other $60 games as well, right? So ultimately you could save $30

[dire gate]

Yeah currently maximum you can save is $30

Was $20 before

I think it is legit a working strategy

[river veldt]

@slim thorn have you killed these men
https://at.tumblr.com/suppermariobroth/the-2016-multiplatform-game-hitman-contains-a/ahc54soxlk5h

[dire gate]

I am relieved that Nintendo does understand what they are supposed to do with the NSO expansion pack

They are steadily making it more and more valuable

[mossy flume]

Hecc, it works

Alas, it lags pretty hard once you get to gameplay

At least with the default config

[light gate]

Try using Ryujinx, or better yet...

Try Ryujinx on an M1 device.

[dire gate]

TIL: Mario Kart is literally the best selling Nintendo franchise without any doubt

Mario Kart DS : sold 23.6m, #3 among all DS games(NSMB is #1, Nintendogs is #2)
Mario Kart Wii : sold 37.38m, #2 among all Wii games(Wii Sports is the undisputable #1)
Mario Kart 7 : sold 18.97m, #1 among all 3DS games
Mario Kart 8 : sold 8.46m, #1 among all Wii U games
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe : sold 52m, #1 among all Switch games

It's unironically the strongest series

[teal sonnet]

Mario Kart is insane

I think does numbers do not even count the DLCs

[dire gate]

MK8D is the most sold Mario game ever

[mossy flume]

It would be nice if we could compile all the shaders ahead of time

Instead of JITing it

Ryujinx is close, though.

Some inaccuracy problems but it's the best candidate for 60FPS in gameplay

Once it finishes with the shaders

Oh heck, got it

Ryujinx in Vulkan rendering mode

That's the working config

[light gate]

How's the performance?

[mossy flume]

It'll skip 1-5 frames when compiling a new shader on first instance, but other than that it's a solid 60FPS with VSYNC on @ 1440p

[light gate]

holy shit, 1440p... on M1?

[mossy flume]

It's a winner

Oh that's not M1

It's my i9

One second

Let me set it up on my M1

[light gate]

Ah! Okay

I expect native switch resolution on M1, because of the GPU.

But yeah, I'm... curious.

I don't know how to set Ryujinx up too.

[mossy flume]

I'm hesitant to help with that since I'd like people to buy the game. I'm just setting it up so I can play it in 4K later

Since I already bought it

That said, it's not that hard

I think getting the decryption keys is the hardest part

[light gate]

Yeah, I have a few games that are physical, and an unhackable switch.

Egh

[mossy flume]

Oof

[light gate]

Yeah, don't know how to get some of the games that I own on Mac.

I don't even think you can use a physical game dump, unless someone has made a tool reader.

[mossy flume]

M1 test in progress

[light gate]

[mossy flume]

Hmm, well it has some errors

[light gate]

Graphical errors right?

[mossy flume]

Yeah

When Samus' gunship spawned and subsequently Samus herself, they were given zero lighting

[light gate]

MoltenVK probably being a problem or the emulator needs additional work.

[mossy flume]

So they're black

[light gate]

oh lol

[mossy flume]

Along with a little stuttering it's working fairly well

And lighting needs work

Oh and it crashed, ha

[light gate]

OOF

[mossy flume]

Let off a coupel shots and it crashed when they landed

[light gate]

Was the frame rate at least consistent?

[mossy flume]

More or less

Stuttery but basically consistent

[light gate]

At what resolution was it running at?

[mossy flume]

I left it at native

[light gate]

Ah okay, well its exciting it even hits 60fps.

A good start for a very wip emulator.

[mossy flume]

Stutter was probably due to translation problems rather than GPU performance

Yep

[light gate]

Wait what its translating?

[mossy flume]

MoltenVK is doing Vulkan > Metal translation

[light gate]

Ah right.

Still, I thought it wouldn't even run it.

[mossy flume]

Just a 8-core M1

On an iMac

Running just fine in 1440p

Well, the same

[light gate]

Ooooo

[mossy flume]

Oh it's dipping into the 50s

[light gate]

Ah okay

[mossy flume]

And 45 now

Ha

[light gate]

Yeah the GPU is being a bottleneck lmao.

[mossy flume]

Yeah, so can't quite pull that off on the basic M1

[light gate]

You could probably run the game at 1080p though.

[mossy flume]

At least on this WIP emulator

Yeah, 1080p isn't a problem

[light gate]

already a better switch

[mossy flume]

Or whatever native docked mode is for this game

[light gate]

I presume its 900p, but I could be surprised. Maybe its 1080p... idk

[mossy flume]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

I also assume it's sub-1080p

[light gate]

Regardless, the emulator is aiming for High Accuracy

And that... is bloody impressive.

do not heck around with high accuracy emulators

[craggy vine]

Wonder how it would do on my m2

[light gate]

1440p easy for you

[craggy vine]

M2 plays resident evil village at I think 40-60 fps going off feel.

Could certainly handle switch games

@mossy flume I'm curious, do you use your m1 or i9 more?

[mossy flume]

My i9 for sure. The M1 iMac was bought as a work computer, but I use my i9 Windows and Macbook devices more for everything.

[craggy vine]

Heh

If only I had the restraint to not end up gaming on the machine I got for work

[mossy flume]

I am planning to buy the M2 Pro or M2 Max Macbook Pro

[craggy vine]

Portable gaming is just too good

[mossy flume]

Once I land a new job

[craggy vine]

Ooh, 14 or 16 inch?

[mossy flume]

I'm thinking 16

[craggy vine]

Interesting

I'm loving my 13 inch mac so damn much. It is so tiny yet does so much. Again why I wanna game on it, it is so easy to take anywhere, have it in bed, or connect up to my tv

I actually somewhat forget that Resident Evil Village is a big AAA game. Because this mac makes it look so effortless to run.

[mossy flume]

I would like a smaller laptop, but on the other hand I already want for screen real-estate whenever I'm trying to actually do anything on my existing 15.4-inch.

So I feel like I would regret getting a 14-inch

For a laptop that'll need to last me probably five years at least

[craggy vine]

Yeah makes sense. When doing audio work I feel quite pressed for screen space.

[mossy flume]

Maybe I'll get myself a cheaper Air further down the line for travel purposes

Been putting that off for a while

[craggy vine]

Well my laptop is for travel purposes too

[mossy flume]

Well, I have local travel and I have national/international travel.

They tend to be fairly different affairs

[craggy vine]

A week after I got it was when I went on tour doing sound for a band.

[dire gate]

Interesting

Apparently Metroid Prime remastered's package version will start selling 3/3 globally, but 2/22 in America?

[cunning moat]

Stable Orbit after you get past the early game

25 shuttle docks because shuttles are the only way to get water to the station

And they don't share lol

and since shuttles don't bring oxygen, you need that water to turn into oxygen

But yeah this is endgame

Nothing left to do besides build

[mossy flume]

ISS if it was funded by cryptocurrency /s

[cunning moat]

Lol

The early game is hard though

Lost so many stations

But late game you just coast

The astronauts want things like oxygen and water and will leave if they don't get it

And then your run is over

Not by default but it's unrecoverable

You need them to do research to make money

If you rush in the early game you'll overextend

Optimal number of astronauts per lab slot is 3, and you only get a starting module that can hold one

If you try to go for the other two right away you'll run out of resources

[fresh bane]

It's already playable on the switch emulator? Oh my fucking god wow

[slim thorn]

is it just me, or does the forum search not work at all?

I was just talking in the Resident Evil thread so I'm pretty sure it exists

[mossy flume]

It only works on exact string matching, no fuzzy search and no substrings

It’s pretty useless

[slim thorn]

wow

that is literally worse than no search at all

[mossy flume]

Right?

[craggy vine]

If it isn't exactly right, it'll prompt you to make a new post

So stupid

[fresh bane]

It was all in your head

"in my restless dreams, I see that thread
Resident Evil
You promised you'd go there again someday
But you never did"

[arctic fern]

so
i had forgotten the voicelog in dead space where a guy ||literally cuts off his limbs and records his screams|| (spoilered because gore)
man this game goes hard when it wants to

[craggy vine]

Sounds like something you would find on the dark web

[slim thorn]

it's weirdly easy to forget that stuff

I'm fairly sure the original was similarly intense, but I haven't gone through a list of all the little additions

[fresh bane]

Made the mistake of reading the comments while watching this DnD campaign and apparently one of these characters will die this episode

damn

seems like the comments are pretty torn on whether or not it's something you should do to allow the players to mess up and own up to their mistakes by killing their characters or if you should purposefully give them plenty chances to recover and not kill them

I honestly don't even know what the best action would be

[green fulcrum]

Are you watching Critical Role or some other D&D campaign?

And if it's another campaign, which is it and are they any fun?

[fresh bane]

It is Critical Role yeah

[grim stirrup]

i mean, if you dont let characters die then your taking any intimidation from an enemy

like, if its some bull that the player couldnt have expected, sure, but if its something they chose to do, thats on them

[slim thorn]

this is a lot like the debate over difficulty levels in video games

IMO it's ultimately personal preference, and the interesting debate is how wide a range of preferences a single experience can be designed around, and when the experience needs to actively be designed differently for a much easier or much harder game

one of the things that made Planescape an interesting experience for me was one time I got a potential new party member killed... and chose to stick with that instead of save scum it away

(well, that and it's probably harmful to talk about "difficulty" as if it was a simple linear scale; more specific questions like whether a TTRPG campaign allows player death probably are, but not all other forms of difficulty)

[gaunt marten]

For DnD especially, it's a collaborative storytelling game. You agree with the players on how strict the DM should be while applying consequences. Sometimes letting the players learn from their mistakes consequence free can be desirable

For a game like Critical Role though, they're all professional actors, so it benefits them most to keep the story as engaging to watch as possible

[fresh bane]

A lot of the comments appreciated how commited they all were to the overall narrative even if it meant killing off a beloved character

seems like the same player comes back almost immediately with another character, but still

It did seem like they were all incredibly bummed out, which is why a lot of people seem to prefer prioritizing the fun aspect of DnD and not be super hadcore about it

[slim thorn]

huh, are you suggesting there'd be an advantage to a player whose character died no longer playing any character at all in that campaign?

I figured the narrative duty was satisfied by it being a sufficiently different character

[fresh bane]

what do you mean?

[slim thorn]

^

[fresh bane]

I said it because to a lot of people that may seem like there's no point if the same player is going to just come back immediately but it's still impactful to the overall party and the player when they lose that one character

not to mention what lasting effects it could have on the other members of the party

or the narrative overall even

I also said it because I was surprised that person came back immediately after their character dies because I don't know how DnD works but to be fair I would do the same too I'd be so bummed if you are banned from playing after your character dies just to make it realistic or something

that would suck

[random steppe]

I don't think that anyone that ever played a PnP game would ever think that a character dying has less impact just because the player come back into the game right away...
If anything, I am impressed they were able to whip out a new character fast enough to continue the session

As you said

[slim thorn]

oh wow, the same session?

[fresh bane]

I don't think it's in the same session

like, a session or two after I think

[random steppe]

Oh okay, that makes more sense

If anything the "now you have to watch" part is the most sucky part of when someone loses a PC

[fresh bane]

According to the most viewed moments of the video it seems like the death happens riiight at the end of the session

The only worst part is that two very important moments have happened in this campaign and the players who those moments affect the most aren't there

A very important goodbye moment happens and the player who plays a character involved in that isn't present and another character very related to this character who dies is also not present

So that really sucks

[random steppe]

Like, thinking about it, what would be the alternative?
It's not like that at my house, when someone character died I stood up and shouted "Leave this place and never return, you are now banished from this friend group"

[fresh bane]

I don't know, I was just surprised because I don't know how dnd works

[slim thorn]

funny you should put it that way; ^ this happened because the guy was a huge jerk to one of my other party members

[fresh bane]

90% of the time I have no idea what the characters are doing because I don't know a bunch of these terms and details and stuff

[slim thorn]

I feel like I know more than I really should for someone who's unlikely to ever play the game

[grim stirrup]

i personally stab someone every time they get stabbrd in my dnd campaign

[fresh bane]

Ahh a method actor eh

[grim stirrup]

its pretty difficult for some of the magic

[quiet swift]

[fresh bane]

Oh man I don't know if it's because they're all professional voice actors but that was intense

Ah man

Everyone including the DM is like visibly in disbelief and super bummed

Oh fuck the player left the table he actually can't sit down and watch

I can see why the comments are discussing whether or not giving them a second chance was the thing to do because the player did something very stupid just as they were about to get attacked and they were low health

[untold vigil]

I know exactly the thing you are talking about but

I will say that the DM sorta gave him a chance to walk it back, at least right at the moment, and he stuck with it

It's a rough one tho, and like fifty episodes later I still miss that character

And I will also say that I am far from a professional voice actor and I've still had people burst out crying or start screaming in rage: you get really invested

(sometimes after sessions my wife just won't talk to me)

[gaunt marten]

Yeah

[visual hill]

you don't know shader combinations in advance, the only way is to download someone else's precompiled shaders... but their GPU and driver version must match yours. Also, compiled shaders are covered by copyright, so distributing those files is illegal

I think a skip rendering mode would be better, so you have missing geometry instead of stutters (like in Dolphin)

ubershaders are great but they have a performance cost on their own, and their usefulness depends a lot on GPU driver quality

[hidden elbow]

So.....I think I've got addicted to Pizza Tower

[slim thorn]

I'd just assumed lots of games try to precompile shader combinations they know they'll need as part of their first-time setup

sometimes an emulator will explicitly give me a shader compilation loading bar

[gaunt marten]

Pizza Tower is great

[river veldt]

i want to play it

im sold

[slim thorn]

fiiiine, inner smartass voice

[uneven epoch]

kim should get a cap tho complete his look

[slim thorn]

when did I get a point in "Ultraliberal" and what does that even mean

[uneven epoch]

cant believe ill have to murder ix now

[slim thorn]

I'm going with "My soul is puny"

ok serious question time

I see that e.g. having 1 Psyche puts a hard cap of 1 on how much I can upgrade skills in that category

do those four attributes ever change, or are these caps eternal after I roll my character at the start of the game?

[quiet swift]

I believe eternal, but Bringi's the expert here I think

[slim thorn]

I really appreciate the explicit "(Proceed)" and "(Conclude)" and "[Leave]" markers on choices

[quiet swift]

[uneven epoch]

as you gain an internalize thoughts, some of them can raise the caps on each category. barring that, drugs and alcohol can temporarily raise the cap, then u can invest skill point(s), n ull be allowed to keep those.

[slim thorn]

strategic intoxication you say?

well I'm nowhere near needing/wanting that atm anyway

[quiet swift]

But stuff like, if you have 1 in physical at the start, your maximum cap with those buffs is lower than if you have more points

[uneven epoch]

i do "clean" runs, but yes it is an option

to my knowledge at least

i admit i have not tried myself

[quiet swift]

Same, been going dry on my run

[uneven epoch]

but ye, heres an example of what u can get with thoughts. so the trick is to learn to balance the skill points between upgradin ur skills and unlockin space for thoughts n knowin which thoughts are worth equippin

[slim thorn]

of course I have no way of knowing what skills I even want this early in the game

[uneven epoch]

i can give one tip

[slim thorn]

for now I'm going to keep giving this game benfit of the doubt that "casually" role-playing is viable, without reading an external wiki about the mechanics and exact distribution of skill checks, unlike anything made in decades past

[uneven epoch]

[fresh bane]

Maybe next time you shouldn't drink to the point where you get amnesia

[slim thorn]

that was past me, I'm a completely different person now

I'm only wearing this horrible necktie because I haven't found a better one yet

[fresh bane]

Are you?

Oh no

You would CHANGE your tie?

[quiet swift]

||Tequila Sunset!|| (Ix don't click)

[fresh bane]

[uneven epoch]

the first one with "one xp for every orb clicked" is invaluable in my eyes. you click s o many orbs

it doesnt look like much but boi does it accumulate

[slim thorn]

plus I did just finish playing Planescape, where a major chunk of the lore is how wildly different personalities your past incarnations had, and the closest thing to Arc Words are "what can change the nature of a man?"

which may or may not have some small influence on Disco Elysium

[fresh bane]

|| I can't believe Ixrec would really change his tie and miss out on all the very important and super valuable inputs from the horrific necktie ||

[slim thorn]

I'm gonna assume all spoiler tags in this channel are for DE unless otherwise specified lol

[uneven epoch]

||i like equippin lena's gift to you, just cause i like her character a lot....||

[slim thorn]

progress!

[fresh bane]

|| I really wanted to see her and Harry having something in that little date but somehow I also like that nothing really happens either, it's a lot more realistic than if you dated her and she was immediately into you or something, it feels genuine she's nice ||

[fresh bane]

This game is so fun man

[green fulcrum]

[astral steeple]

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/crocs-minecraft-collab/

HUH???????

[grim stirrup]

finally onosa gets a crossover

[river veldt]

epic

[cunning moat]

https://youtu.be/rSCNW1OCk_M

This is chess but if you are trippin

[green fulcrum]

Duuuuuude, someone made an amazing cosplay of Isaac Clarke from Dead Space! https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/10zu4af/self_dead_space_remake_full_coslpay/

[fickle garnet]

That's insane

[mossy flume]

I refused to believe that wasn't a 3D render until I saw the associated video.

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/O2ucR7fHWlE

Oh yeah it's really well done

the gun even rotates and all

[slim thorn]

[quiet swift]

What did you do

[fresh bane]

What did you do?!

|| also holy shit ''I never loved that woman!!'' jesus christ.... that hits different after finishing the game... ||

[slim thorn]

apparently you need to click the morale button before it finishes applying the penalty or you can't heal it any more

[fresh bane]

Oh no Ix

what will Kim think?!

[slim thorn]

...I found out where my gun went

[gaunt marten]

You chewed it up and swallowed the bits

[fresh bane]

That would be a possible scenario

I could see that happening

[fresh bane]

Oh nice, go grab it now

[mossy flume]

[quiet swift]

[green fulcrum]

Are you kidding? Fallout: Equestria is not only one of the largest-spanning fanworks in fanfic history, it's also popular even among non-bronies (just like EaW). I'd be shocked if someone didn't put a Littlepip model into the game day 1. There's probably someone out there with a model ready to go right now who's been waiting for this moment since Fo:E was released.

[light gate]

This is not what you think it is.

This is just to make the game launch on modern machines, so far there is no mod support or capability.

I mean you could modify, but its gonna be tricky considering they're trying to make the game work like it was intended.

Perhaps in the future they will.

[slim thorn]

I think that "easier to modify" stuff is just there for people who have no idea what "open source" means

it doesn't mean they're adding "mod support", which is a whole other thing

back to DE for a sec

I seem to have run out of people to talk to and stuff to try as far as getting into the harbor, and I'd really rather not ||internalize racism || when Kim keeps strongly hinting there's another way in; I'm at the point where normally I'd give up and check a walkthrough but since there's multiple active fans of the game here maybe one of you has a better answer than I'd get from google

[quiet swift]

A leap of faith

[slim thorn]

that's one of the things I tried, can't retry it without a level up

[quiet swift]

I admit I savescummed that one >.>

[fresh bane]

Embrace the power of save scumming

do it

[light gate]

Authority check failed.

[fresh bane]

dewit

Embrace the power of multiple timelines /s

[slim thorn]

well I've also done a hundred other things since that skill check failure

[quiet swift]

RIP

[fresh bane]

Maybe Cuno has some answers?

You can always trust in Cuno!

He would never lie to you!

[slim thorn]

I exhausted his dialogue tree a while ago

including the stuff about the armor

[fresh bane]

Could always take a look around, doesn't hurt

|| I'm totally trying to nudge Ix in the right direction because there's a way to access the harbor via Cuno's shack ||

[glossy narwhal]

https://twitter.com/GoodSmile_US/status/1624569484496306179?t=viq7GnwLja2_oHqDcVKC5Q&s=19

GoodSmile_US (@GoodSmile_US)

#WonHobby36 Figure Update!

Good Smile Company
Friday Night Funkin'
Nendoroid Boyfriend

Web Gallery: https://t.co/B2rdZXPguL

#FridayNightFunkin #nendoroid #goodsmile

Likes

9544

Retweets

2396

Twitter · Feb 12, 2023, 12:42 AM

Oh, what a time to be alive

[teal sonnet]

holy shit

[wintry canopy]

My Sunbreak Title Update 4 Highlights.

[thorny loom]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VMhdcnuUqs

@mossy flume

[quiet swift]

@green fulcrum https://www.gamesradar.com/this-indie-is-a-fast-paced-low-poly-divinity-original-sin/

[gaunt marten]

But the beauty of CRPG is that it's turn based and involves planning

[grim stirrup]

looks really fun, i might pick it up on sale

[green fulcrum]

So, I looked up the game and checked out a couple of reviews. Apparently there is barely any story to Stolen Realm, the dungeons are procedurally generated meaning not a lot of great world-building (which is half of what makes or breaks a CRPG for me), there isn't much variety to the dungeons themselves, and while there's a lot of loot it's mostly just reskins of the same items with slightly tweaked stats rather than unique and powerful items. Plus, not a fan of the art style upon closer inspection.

The gameplay looks okay, but I don't think I'd enjoy this one with such a lack of story, world-building, and depth.

[quiet swift]

Fair enough! I just remembered we talked about these style of games before and I just saw this link ealrier

[slim thorn]

that might be on me since I've been doing Planescape and Elysium lately

speaking of which, since I've now heard this complaint from multiple RPG critics about unrelated RPGs, I feel the need to ask

was there ever an RPG where the loot wasn't "mostly just reskins of the same items with slightly tweaked stats"?

[quiet swift]

Nah we'd talked about this style of game (DOS 2, and pillars of eternity) months ago and we're looking for similar style turn based RPG stuff

[slim thorn]

like, to me, that's part of what I mean when I say I prefer Metroidvanias over RPGs; part of the former's design is that you get only a few dozen pieces of "loot" and every one makes a big difference

[green fulcrum]

The basic items, no. Nor does anyone expect them to be anything other than reskins. But usually in CRPGs there's also a lot of artifact items or unique loot that does stuff the normal items cannot do.

[gaunt marten]

Disgaea has tons of procedural generation but the story and worldbuilding are done separately from battlemaps

[slim thorn]

I guess Hades is another example of that

[gaunt marten]

Hades goes even further in that direction

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/Cyy7_veSFSE

''Oh, look at that, .10, time for a little drinky poo, cheers genitals''

if I hadn't already finished D.E I'd imagine this would be an actual conversation in the game

[gaunt marten]

Cheers genital

Is that a reference to the fact a private investigator is sometimes called a private dick?

[fresh bane]

It's a reference to the fact that the person is drunk and tried saying gentlemen

[gaunt marten]

But the men part is very easy to say

[sonic dune]

!!!!

[gaunt marten]

For seventeen dollars it's not worth it

[sonic dune]

It costs more digitally for just the base game

This has all the DLC

[mossy flume]

This is pretty cool

[sonic dune]

Plus it's the first physical copy I found

[harsh kestrel]

Oh look, another series Rockstar buried in recent years

[sonic dune]

Online isn't dead (yet)

[harsh kestrel]

It pretty much is

[sonic dune]

The player base hasn't caught on then

Also there was a leak that there's an update coming in a month or two

Probably just a privacy bug fix but, there is hope with the games recent new boom of players

[gaunt marten]

Aren't they just fixing the remote code execution exploit that was found in GTA online?

[harsh kestrel]

I wouldn't be surprised considering GTA Online is all they really care about now

[slim thorn]

time for more Disco Elysium, I'm gonna take a stab at exploring the whole area again in case I can get a level up or find my badge somehow

[gaunt marten]

Oh you have a super bowl avatar

Have fun

[harsh kestrel]

Who does?

[gaunt marten]

Not you

[harsh kestrel]

Who was it?

[river veldt]

Ixrec

and now me

[harsh kestrel]

I honestly couldn't care less about the Superbowl this year

[quiet swift]

https://twitter.com/SteamDB/status/1624802063883415554

SteamDB (@SteamDB)

#SteamTopSellers for week ending 12 February 2023:

#1 - Hogwarts Legacy: Digital Deluxe Edition
#2 - Hogwarts Legacy
#3 - Hogwarts Legacy
#4 - Hogwarts Legacy: Digital Deluxe Edition
#5 - Steam Deck

https://t.co/HOZbib8nxm

Likes

246

Twitter · Feb 12, 2023, 4:06 PM

[proud warren]

It's Velma all over again

It got way too much attention

[harsh kestrel]

The reason why Velma got so much attention is because of hate watchers that actually benefitted the show by doing so

[proud warren]

Ye ye

[slim thorn]

I don't see what this has to do with Velma

[proud warren]

It's a little different cus you actually needed to buy the Harry Potter game, but my point still stands that any kind of publicity is still publicity

I dunno, I just woke up, and my reasoning might be skewed

[harsh kestrel]

Don't let the username fool you lol

[uneven epoch]

how disheartening

[gaunt marten]

The repetition is counting both preorders and post-orders

Also, don't lose too much sleep about it. January and February are basically a dead period for releases

[river veldt]

that’s cuz everyone’s waiting for the new Zelda baybeee game of the year

[proud warren]

Something something Elden Ring
Just trying to be snarky

[river veldt]

hopefully i can dye Link’s hair pink in the new one

i miss pink haired Link so much 😩

[rose rose]

Shocking news: very good game in wildly popular franchise is also very popular

[slim thorn]

with seemingly no competition

[river veldt]

look how much better this is

[rose rose]

Advertising everywhere, too. I saw two ads for it on the TV at the restaurant where I was having dinner last night.

[slim thorn]

mm-hmm, my parents reported being inundated with it

[rose rose]

Plus things like those buses in London.

What does it cost to buy an ad that completely wraps a bus? It must be kinda expensive to just physically do.

[mossy flume]

Huh, that’s a good question. I wonder what the process is for that.

But yeah, game is super fun.

It also managed to become the most played game on Steam

And set the record for most viewed single player game ever on Twitch

[slim thorn]

I figured that was a given for the first few days after release of a AAA blockbuster like this

ok maybe not the Twitch record

[mossy flume]

It beat Cyberpunk 2077, yeah

I didn’t expect that one

I wonder if hackers will manage to break the denuvo DRM on it

Genuinely curious if it can be done

[rose rose]

I think on average a AAA game might not actually overtake CS:GO at any point (especially if it’s single-player)

I do not quite understand how CS:GO just sits at the top forever

[random steppe]

I never got the appeal

But to each their own

[mossy flume]

Nor do I. But I imagine it being free to play is a big advantage. Wait, it’s $15? The heck?

Yeah I don’t get it either

[random steppe]

Was

Now it's free

[river veldt]

TF2 always at the top 😎

[mossy flume]

Oh, I see

[slim thorn]

ok I'm completely lost as to how you're supposed to get past this part of Disco Elysium without save scumming a skill check

[mossy flume]

But they have a $15 thing there that Google misread as the price

[rose rose]

Thanks Google!

[random steppe]

It was the price for a long while

[mossy flume]

Ahhh, gotcha

[random steppe]

There is also the fact that CSGO was big because of the lootbox gambling

Thing everyone conveniently forgets when talking about how good of a company Valve is

[mossy flume]

Being an ancient game that just about any toaster can run also helps I bet

Low barrier of entry

[random steppe]

True

[mossy flume]

Always a good plus

[random steppe]

Kept WoW afloat

[rose rose]

Looking at the list of most popular Steam games by concurrent players ever, I would not have called Life is Strange 2 at 16th place

[mossy flume]

Wow, me neither

Genuinely surprised that’s in the top 100

[random steppe]

I mean it's pretty ridiculous that Cyberpunk is there as well

Given the release state

[rose rose]

Cyberpunk was fine on PC if you had a good one.

[mossy flume]

It was playable on PC if you had enough power, yeah

Console was the true disaster

[random steppe]

Eh....the game was still missing a bunch of the promised features

[mossy flume]

Yeah, that’s true

[random steppe]

No PC made the police system acceptable

[rose rose]

And still is! But it was pretty fun anyway.

[mossy flume]

It was definitely still buggy