general gaming

[dire gate]

[chilly mural]

yes, unironically virtua fighter has some hard techinques to master, stuff even I don't know how to fully do and I've been playing it for 5 years at this point

[little badger]

I only got 4 hours sleep after the game awards

[eager bane]

Same

[bold sonnet]

It was a fantastic show

[quartz pawn]

I like the fact that a new Onimusha is happening

[fickle garnet]

I am so fucking excited for this

[bold sonnet]

Please be real

[rugged flax]

it's not
all signs point to AI/crypto shovelware garbage

[eager bane]

honestly that was my first thought watching the trailer

metaverse ai crypto something

especially the ending

[green fulcrum]

Apparently it very likely isn't. They're using AI-generated pictures on their website, and the game's description on Steam is AI word salad. On top of that, it's a cinematic open-world MMO made for...the Apple Watch.

[rugged flax]

this is the top comment on the trailer on IGN's channel

[eager bane]

it's amazing to me how these buzzword scheme thingies gather so much capital

Booking a spot at the game awards sure isn't cheap

[rugged flax]

take it all with a grain of salt and whatnot, but it doesn't look good for Catly

nor for TGA for showing this trailer. Guess the only thing that mattered is the check cleared, eh?

[eager bane]

yeah, that

[green fulcrum]

The Game Awards, ultimately, is a large corporate ad. The individual people who are on stage, like Sven and that guy who made the spreadsheets for helping jobless devs get back into the industry, are still good people who believe in games and the artistic value and virtues they hold. But the suits and shareholders at the top of the corporation still want money.

[visual hill]

that game is guaranteed to be a Catastrophe

[eager bane]

Ha Cat astrophe

[slim thorn]

this is a good example of why I never watch the show and just skim the list of trailer reveals afterward

[arctic fern]

the fact that someone like randy pitchford, whos toxic AF to everything he touches, shows a lot
dude took money from sony to make aliens colonial marines and spent it on the tiny tina game
and thats one of the least bad things hes done

[green fulcrum]

Oh...that Randy Pitchford. The Borderlands guy that was on stage during the presentation. I was wondering why people were groaning when he walked on stage.

[arctic fern]

they did? HAHAHAHA

[green fulcrum]

Not on the stream, no (or at least, not in the audience, I wasn't checking the livechat because that shit's TOXIC)

But in here they did.

[arctic fern]

oh

[slim thorn]

it's nice when I genuinely cannot tell if a boss is supposed to be unbeatable or not (Lost Crown ||2nd Vahram fight||)

[little badger]

I’m interested to see what intergalactic will be like

[worthy rose]

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/s/6aWwPOdhwR

[wind stump]

Skill issue

[worthy rose]

Why target Sven, he was only reading the results, not like he made the decision...

[hasty patio]

Astro isn't even on Steam either, which makes this better.

[green fulcrum]

It really is though, because other people simply countered with positive reviews, so the review bomb literally did f*ck all and it still sits comfortably at "overwhelmingly positive".

[river veldt]

gamers being babies like always ive also seen people complain about Ciri in Witcher 4 not looking like a woman, which is like, ????

[visual hill]

Ciri 🤝 Joanna
upsetting gamers since 2024

[hasty patio]

I've seen people complain that it is Ciri that's the problem (female lead).

[green fulcrum]

Chuds and incels, basically. They've been given a platform since 2015 and refuse to get off of it.

The people who complain about there being a single female lead and who want both gender options are the same people who tell others to "suck it" and "f*ck your feelings" when it's a lone male protagonist.

It's projection and whining, nothing more.

[cerulean herald]

on them for unnecessarily narrowing down options to play and missing out

[visual hill]

I like having both gender options available, but it's very much a "right tool for the job" thing

for some kinds of games, it just doesn't make sense

Witcher is so story-based that it would be extremely difficult to make this viable - it'd divert development resources away from more important topics

[little badger]

What’s everyone been playing?

[slim thorn]

there are also a lot of stories or settings for stories where gender is more involved than simply swapping skins and (un)locking a few sidequests, because they would be treated differently by many characters

(Mass Effect is a good example where plausibly it doesn't matter; everyone's too busy with per-species prejudices )

[fresh bane]

I must've been on the nice part of the internet then because in the channel I was watching it from the chat was nothing but ''hot'' ''oh god she's hot'' ''she looks older and hotter'' when the witcher 4 trailer started playing

[fresh bane]

I'm checking out that virtua figher beta right now

[little badger]

Oooh

[river veldt]

those people are correct

[slim thorn]

meanwhile I went "oh cool the best W3 ending is canon now"

[fresh bane]

https://bsky.app/profile/cartridgegames.bsky.social/post/3ld7owesidk2v

Cartridge Games (@cartridgegames.bsky.social)

Update to the PlatinumGames situation:

Hot off heels of Kamiya’s Studio Clovers, several lead developers from PG have removed reference to the studio

Saito (MGR), Taura (Nier, astral chain), Tinari (Bayo Origins), and Yamanaka (anarchy reigns) are rumored to have left the studio

Reposts

110

Likes

222

Bluesky · Dec 13, 2024, 9:07 PM

damn platinum is cooked

Hopefully they'll end up at Clovers maybe...

[slim thorn]

the real irony is that Platinum was founded partially by the closure of the Clover (singular) studio that made the original Okami

time is a flat donut

[chilly mural]

2P/down punch is one of the best buttons in virtua fighter

it starts up at 12 frames (fastest button in the game) puts you in a crouch state that ducks all highs, use it as a tool to stop people after throwing out moves like crazy

if you blocked said moves

[little badger]

Previous winners https://x.com/culturecrave/status/1867711229986558092?

Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) on X

The past 10 Game of the Year winners at #TheGameAwards

What's the best game here? 🎮

Twitter · Dec 13, 2024, 11:20 PM

[green fulcrum]

My personal favorite will always be BG3.

[fickle garnet]

How the fuck did Overwatch win a GOTY

[green fulcrum]

Oh. Imagine if they made an orchestral arrangement of the themes for all 10 of these games? Imagine the sheer godly brilliance.

[green fulcrum]

It was a different time. Overwatch hadn't been f*cked up, and Blizzard wasn't as shitty.

[little badger]

God of war beat Red dead redemption 2 that year

[green fulcrum]

I remember when that happened. People were salty

[little badger]

But we all know who will win next year

[fickle garnet]

I know, but there were such better games released in 2016 than Overwatch even in its prime

[young creek]

mario odyssey 2

[green fulcrum]

Which one?

Because there seems to be quite a lot of big-name games coming out next year

And hopefully most of them will be spectacular.

2025 is gearing up to be another 2023 with all the huge releases.

[fickle garnet]

Only the Larian CEO knows

[little badger]

GTA 6 if it does come out next year

[green fulcrum]

That's assuming it's good.

Remember, Starfield was hyped for years and then it released like a fart in the wind.

But yes, GTA6 is definitely the most anticipated game. That award it got was an obvious win.

[little badger]

we should get some good trailers at summer games fest next year.

[fresh bane]

well well well look who it is

John Persona himself

[river veldt]

that's insane

[little badger]

They were both very good games

[river veldt]

i guess

i havent played God of War but RDR2 is one of the best games ive ever played

[little badger]

The story is excellent in RDR2

[random steppe]

I feel like this was overdue, the only reason it didn't happen when they were forced to make that horrible game as a service which lasted for about 25 minutes is the japanese stiff loyalty to companies people worked for a long while

Something must have been the last straw on the camel's back

[fresh bane]

I wanna say it's the same old story of developers having creative differences with a company, leaving to make their own studio, after a while that studio also becomes riddled with issues, so they end up leaving again
What's curious about this case is that Kamiya went back to the studio he originally left in the first place

but, to be fair, it's been a long time, and the people who worked there back then probably aren't there anymore

mmmhmmmm, check out that groundbreaking block puzzle technology

[random steppe]

I must have done that puzzle at least 50 times

This is right before entering the first boss fight right?

[static bluff]

ooohhh my god (Pinging @gaunt marten so they can see it later)

[fresh bane]

Nah this is quite a ways before Melchiah, I think this is just about entering his whole 'dungeon'

The area right before the boss room is the one with the square torches and the big platform that drops

[random steppe]

Oh, this is where there are the 4 pillars to burn?

[fresh bane]

And the lighting changes to be more red which is kind of cool

[random steppe]

I literally consumed the Legacy Of Kain ps1 disk I had and had to rebuy it, literally my comfort game for years

[fresh bane]

For me it was both games, although in both I never really got super far into them as a kid, I think I did that thing where I was so young I didn't even know saves were a thing so you just started from the beginning everytime you opened the game

I will say, this game feels surprisingly good to play even today
Movement is quick and responsive, shifting between realms is quick even though it would be perfect if you only needed to press a single button to do it, the new added camera works great and really helps make the game feel modern even though it's so old, I also don't really hate playing it with the original visuals, maybe it's just because I'm used to the aesthetic, having grown up with these games and also just enjoying any new games that do the whole faux PS1 visual style, but just having a nice resolution, widescreen and a good camera makes this game feel more modern than you'd think

SR1 actually feels a bit better than SR2 in comparison having gone back to the first one after just finishing the second one lol the gliding and combat feel weirdly better in the first game particularly, something about the movement when you're locked in on SR2 is a little jankier than the first one somehow

Really there's just small stuff like that that you'd need to tweak to make these games just perfect, but I think that'd be going more into remake territory, I hope this opens the door for that because that'd be great, no need to re-write the game or re-record lines, just rework the combat and the areas to make them more expansive (and maybe a little less block puzzles ) and you'd have the actual perfect games in every regard

[worthy rose]

Speaking of okami, 75% off!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/587620/Okami_HD/

Steam

Okami HD

甚具和風色彩以華美世界‧日本為舞台的感人活劇「大神」，將化為高解像度登場。

Price

$6.24

Recommendations

6516

Metacritic

92

▶ Play video

[gaunt marten]

Lmao, this will happen sometimes. By the way, I strongly recommend against going the slow worms path — it's a big trap a lot of players fall into. Fast worms are a lot more useful in runs shorter than three hours

[static bluff]

In this particular case, slow worms may have made sense. This was the relic hunt where the resources are very, very spread out

[gaunt marten]

Unfortunately they are worse in every single assignment

In Find the Relic and Guild Assignment modes you will want upgrades as soon as possible so you can dig faster. Slow worms are 600% the time as normal worms for 50% more ore. (Don't forget that normal and fast worms both have a 100% base bonus)

It is remarkable how deceptive they are!

The only place they make sense is prestige mode, where you want to maximize all iron gain and can guarantee you will not lose

[fresh bane]

ayyyyyy there I am

maybe I'm not so bad at Virtua Fighter after all

[bitter stream]

nicely done

[bronze abyss]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PpLMOJYtKk im gonna lose my shit the fuck is this

"hmm everyone seems to hate viktor and everyone hated noctis in the previous game,lets make another one" celestiabless bamco 🙏

[rancid herald]

is Okami better on console or is it okay on pc?

[toxic seal]

I have not played it on PC so I can't attest to it. I only played it on the Wii and really liked using the Wiimote to paint

[rancid herald]

well it'd probably either be switch or steam for me

[fresh bane]

I think the Switch version has the motion controls too?

[quiet swift]

I believe it controls fine on steam, don't have a switch to test

[dire gate]

It seems so, from what I've read you can use Joycon/touchscreen to do the paint control

[bronze abyss]

setting homo scores today

[craggy vine]

gay

[gaunt marten]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttVtllHkb4E

Brilliant and clever trailer. Ironic clickbait thumbnail is still clickbait, right?

[craggy vine]

Technically yes

[bitter stream]

yeah, it's fun

[wind stump]

(Still) coming to Early Access 2025

I thought they were going to say 2024, lmao

[visual hill]

I've activated the gamepass trial and revoked it immediately, I have 3 months to finish all this now.
(also Hi-Fi Rush which I installed on my Ally X, but haven't installed on my desktop yet)

I'm already being treated to NVIDIA not recognizing MS Store versions of games though, so they perform worse than they should and have some features disabled

[eager bane]

oooh nice! Have fun!

If you ever need even more recommendations for game pass games, I can give some

[bold sonnet]

You played first Plague Tale?

[visual hill]

yes but I haven't finished yet... alas, due to the time constraints, I may have to play Requiem first

which probably makes no sense in terms of story, but well

Indiana Jones and the Pathtraced Circle

[bold sonnet]

Amazing game I hope you will enjoy

[visual hill]

60 FPS in 4K DLSS Ultra Performance though - and it's not 100% steady

frame generation seems broken, despite my best efforts to fix it (the NVIDIA driver doesn't recognize the MS Store version of most games out of the box)

on my handheld, I got Forza Horizon 5, Wreckfest and Palworld all running pretty well. Low settings + high textures is the key to achieving good framerate without needing turbo mode

[little badger]

What mission are you on?

[visual hill]

it's the prologue

[little badger]

I’m a few ahead of you

[arctic fern]

https://x.com/pheenoh/status/1866697066879258790

Pheenoh (@pheenoh) on X

Majora’s Mask Decomp reached 100% today! Huge congrats to the team who worked on it!

Twitter · Dec 11, 2024, 4:10 AM

[steep flax]

is kernel level anti cheat software required, and is it really superior to anti cheat detection that runs in userland?

[bitter stream]

which game are you talking about?

[steep flax]

my cousin has shown me a game that uses it, i'll find it gimme a sec

https://www.playdeltaforce.com/en/

this game

[bitter stream]

Hmm let me check

[steep flax]

but im more referring to in general since i think a few other games are using kernel level anti cheat

[bitter stream]

Yeah yeah, Hm in general, I don't think it's required. In theory it protects against more cheating software by running in the kernel, but like, even Valorant with it's super invasive version of Kernal level anti cheat has cheaters

So it discourages cheating, but doesn't stop it

It's a really annoying thing to have to let run on your computer to play certain games

[steep flax]

i dont like the idea of it, since a buggy update could really mess up someones system

[bitter stream]

yup yup

[visual hill]

heh, a mod for Indy came out already: https://github.com/Lyall/GreatCircleFix

[visual hill]

all games that use kernel AC require it for their multiplayer mode at least

it is technically more robust against cheating, but it opens your whole PC to a third party... who knows if the kernel AC will have a vulnerability in the future

it's why it's called "ring 0", it runs at the lowest level possible

I think it's a terrible idea, and Valve will tend to agree too - it's why VAC is not kernel-level and Steam requires kernel AC to be disclosed on store pages now

[steep flax]

its the vulnerability and higher attack surface im worried about

[visual hill]

(standard AC disclosure is optional)

[steep flax]

not that i play much games that uses it anyways lol

[visual hill]

I'd rather not have kernel AC touch my devices so I don't play those games

standard AC is intrusive enough as it is, some of it really dislikes developer tools like virtual machines, debuggers and so on

(most of them will not allow you to have a running VM as the same time you're playing, for instance)

[fresh bane]

The way I remember reading Vanguard works from the words of a dev at Riot themselves is that not only is it running constantly even if you're not playing the game, it also tries to boot first before anything else in your computer so that it can "race" to the kernel before any malicious programs can and then avoid detection, I think they said that as an answer to why Vanguard is so invasive and runs all the time
After they implemented it to League a lot of people reported things like Vanguard stopping them from booting their computers entirely to other apps and even drivers being stopped by Vanguard because it detected them as malicious, recently I saw people reporting things like Vanguard kinda shitting itself mid match and disconnecting you from the game because Vanguard must be running to play, and then you get a penalty for leaving the match, or apparently Vanguard can also detect any other apps it thinks are malicious and give you a ban for cheating, even if you weren't at least that's what people have been reporting since Vanguard dropped

And that's what got me to quit League after 10 years

[green fulcrum]

It seems the Helldivers devs did a little something: https://youtu.be/kR7KRfV9sVY

[random steppe]

Riot has some good aspects, but any league player that had to deal with its old client absolutely know that they shouldn't be trusted with a kernel level anticheat.

[visual hill]

or apparently Vanguard can also detect any other apps it thinks are malicious and give you a ban for cheating
I know someone who has a ban from CoD because of this

I think he tried to use SpecialK injection or something

(which is a perfectly legit tool and can't be used for cheating on its own)

bans are not negotiable so he can't get it revoked

[visual hill]

I like how a big reason to play Dota 2 nowadays is "no kernel anticheat"... it's kind of like CS2

but you gotta do with a more hardcore playerbase

[fresh bane]

Dota is a very different flavor though, it's a different beast entirely compared to League and I'd understand why a lot wouldn't make the change, especially because after all a big draw of League is the characters and the world

[wind stump]

I miss HoTS

[fresh bane]

Really, the best choice for any league player right now who doesn't want to play because of Vanguard is to just switch to Wild Rift, the mobile port, which I hear even plays better than league and because of shorter matches you don't waste as much time on long drawn out 50 min matches

It also looks way better since it was all done from scratch

[wind stump]

like yeah blizzard bad and all that but HoTS was a good time and really kinda fun for a casual game against bots

plus Alarak's Q skill was called Discord.
Reminder that Alarak, Q and Discord are all voiced by the same person.

[fresh bane]

I think it made the mistake of releasing when League was pretty huge and Dota was already on people's sights so it didn't get a chance to take off despite being arguably the answer to a lot of "problems" people had with the genre

[wind stump]

that's just cute attention to detail

[green fulcrum]

Honestly, even though he doesn't have chaos powers, Alarak is what Discord would be if he was truly evil and vicious. He's the only Protoss with a genuine sense of dark humor, laughs maniacally, insults both his enemies and his team regularly, is extremely smug and snide, and has a chaotic morality where he switches sides constantly.

[minor plover]

Alarak doesn't so much switch sides constantly (at least not in SC2 where his core lore comes from), as he realizes that Amon is lying so he uses his own place in the power structure of the Tal'darim to turn them against Amon by taking over as high lord. He's not "on Artanis' side", it's just that the enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less (Maxim 29)

I view him as fundamentally lawful evil, far away from Discord's chaotic neutral.

DeLancie is brilliant at playing a smug, snide, not-really-on-your-side partial antagonist. But Q, Discord, and Alarak are all different takes on that in terms of how they are partial antagonists.

[quiet swift]

Voteless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bED70FNa0Jg

[wind stump]

holy shit is this a Oshi No Ko reference?

[gaunt marten]

Yes, and yes. It is a superset of userland anticheat, and even it can't guarantee users don't cheat. Personally, I think the tradeoff is undesirable. I do not trust the people running the anticheat with my computer, and having cheaters in my game is the lesser evil.

I will simply not play a game if the publisher wanted to have more control than me during normal operation of the computer.

[cerulean herald]

gotta be, it is Sora too lmao

[little badger]

What games from the game awards is everyone looking forward to?

[quiet swift]

OOOOOOOKAMIIIIIIIIII

[fickle garnet]

Dying Light The Beast, Elden Ring Nightreign, and The Witcher 4

I still need to actually play The Witcher 3

[visual hill]

it's a loong game

easily 100 hours if you want to play the DLCs as well, which are known to be very good

particularly Blood and Wine

[little badger]

I think the Witcher 4 will be a few years away yet but the trailer was good

[green fulcrum]

Sonic Racing Crossworlds for me, obviously. Aside from that...honestly not much? Most of the games presented are from genres I don't care about, like Soulsbourne or Gacha or ARPG, or are straight-up co-op games that I can't play anyway.

I suppose Solasta 2 is kinda interesting, but from what people are saying, the first one had a crap story and was very short overall, so that doesn't give me much hope for the second.

[little badger]

Yeah I’m looking forward to Crossworlds I’ve been wondering if that means we will get characters from the different universes.

[fickle garnet]

I know

[gaunt marten]

I don't recommend looking for games before reviews are out

[fresh bane]

Hoping for Surge...

[little badger]

Would be nice If some sonic underground characters were in it

[fresh bane]

https://bsky.app/profile/nesbot.bsky.social/post/3ldcb5s2qbm27

NESbot (@nesbot.bsky.social)

Black Myth Wukong Studio CEO Wrote Game of the Year Acceptance Speech Two Years Ago; Questions Selection Criteria of The Game Awards
www.resetera.com/threads/10...

Likes

172

Quotes

271

Bluesky · Dec 14, 2024, 9:39 PM

The whole Black Myth Wukong thing is so strange to me, because everyone keeps going on about how it's so great and good but I've never naturally encountered it anywhere I've been on the internet, usually when a game gets big you never stop seeing it everywhere, you see people sharing clips, memes, bosses, game moments, you're just bound to see something about it, but I can't say I've had that happen with Wukong at all

Was it just a hit in China specifically or did I somehow manage to dodge any and all mentions of this game? Because I can't think of any posts on social media I've seen about it, or even any random Youtube clip I encountered

It's really strange to me

[bold sonnet]

I have the same experience! But also I'm not very into souls so maybe that's why I don't see

[green fulcrum]

This is normal for CEOs to do for video games, it's just getting attention now because all the gamers™️ thought that Wukong was gonna win.

Todd Howard wrote speeches for award acceptances for Starfield despite not winning a single one.

[slim thorn]

I have heard that Wukong was more popular in China, because duh. From people who actually played it I've mostly heard that it's good yet not really great compared to some of these other nominees and past winners. However, I've yet to hear that from anyone I know well enough to be super trusting of that take, nor have I heard what it's apparently good/bad at in any detail (and soulslikes historically tend to be extra bad about "people's opinions" on a game being wildly unrelated to the actual game).

[hasty patio]

To quote a friend and mod elsewhere:

If they wanted to win GotY they shoulda made a game that stayed good after halfway point

It really is truly stunning how rapidly that game loses quality, if you've not played it, btw. Like Chapter 1? 9/10, Chapter 2? 8/10. Chapter 3 and 4? like 3/10.
IIRC, they uninstalled after that point.

[slim thorn]

damn, it is so rare I play a game that genuinely gets much worse later on

[fresh bane]

I didn't get to play it myself, but I saw a full stream of Wukong when it dropped, and just like Stellar Blade it seems to not know if it wants to be a Soulslike or a character action game ala Bayonetta-MGR-Devil May Cry

I guess Sekiro-like would be a better comparison than Soulslike for these types of games

[slim thorn]

maybe, though I had to drop Sekiro early enough I have no concept of what that means

other than "judge it compared to Nine Sols"

[hasty patio]

More from that friend:

it's just
Like mid
in the truest sense of the word
The jail section is just horrific, with unavoidable damage on a timer, dark corners that obscure / hide the path forward, and locked doors that it doesn't tell you when they unlocked on how to unlock them
and pitfalls that the combat seems dog horny to chuck you off, with enemies positioned to knock you off, etc
leading into little snow covered mountain area, where an npc tells you to be sure to go right, the camera is focused right... but that isn't the right path. If you go to the let a little you proceed further, sure, but the most important item is directly behind you. Because why not.
Then it goes into a snowy forest that has no clear direction and looks like someone literally just copy pasted a bunch of areas
into an enormous temple filled with damage sponge enemies that has maybe 3 things to actually pick up of consequence
and then finishing off with a boss that, during both phase changes, has unavoidable damage it does in the phase change cinematic
one of which does a follow up bit of unavoidable damage unless you have a specific item that is behind a standard darksouls quest bullshit thing
(and you have no indication that you should use this item)
(and you have a literal interupt spell that doesn't work here, for no good god damn reason)
(and those hits are like, 2/3rds of your health)

all the while the entire chapter is filled with mobs that drop your speed to ~10% of what it should be if you get hit once, or just sorta stand in the wrong white mist aoe in the snow biome.
... and then chapter four started with a bundle of rock spider things that stunlocked me to death and I think I'mma uninstall it
ALSO WHILE IM AM RANTING ONE OF THE DEFINING QUALITIES OF SUN WUKONG IS THE STAFF FUCKING EXTENDS HOW THE FUCK IS THE HIT RANGE SO FUCKING TINY

also hey why have a good "YOU DID THE THING" sound on a perfect dodge if it doesn't actually give you a chance to punish

what fucking combat system does that
to be fair you are just the reincarnation of sun wukong so, yeah, why the fuck are you silent
but hey good news they give you a sidekick in chapter 3 that has quips
that are fucking awful

FTR, they loved the first two chapters.

[quiet swift]

I got too frustrated with the very first boss/optional boss and just gave up there. And I've beaten malenia

Thankfully, was using the steam share from my fiancée's library, so 0$ spent~

[slim thorn]

no wonder no one makes demos any more

[quiet swift]

It is pretty much a separate version/program ya gotta make and if it sucks then ya shot yourself in the foot

[craggy vine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suyExFiydjY This video is simply amazing, the world of metal gear solid is so interesting.

Also in terms of this guy, I'm kinda happy he is gonna be going back to making more content like this. Moving away from being a 'slop' news channel, that I watch too much of myself even.

[random steppe]

I just realised in the soul reaver remaster

They added a compass so when Raziel says "I must go north" at the beginning of the game your extremely understandable reaction isn't "where fuck is north"

[bitter stream]

heh, nice

[visual hill]

I remember taking the expression "things went south" literally once

[white phoenix]

I finished the game with 65 hours, and I'd say that if you grew up with the stories and the culture surrounding Wukong, the game is a 10/10, because there are so many references and callbacks that almost feel like fan service in a way. Journey to the West in China is like if Shakespeare wrote a fanfic on an ancient mythology and it maintained a fandom comparable to Marvel superheroes.

But like most western players who are only playing the game for the game, I don't know if the gameplay would hold up by itself as a 10/10; if you're completely new to the story, I would understand people giving it something more like an 8/10. The gameplay itself does indeed have lots of varieties in moves and combos you can make, and the fact that you can respec skills for free to try out things is very welcome. Watching people online take out bosses on youtube with no damage just shows you the variety of moves and spells you can use.

However, like LunarWolves' friend said, there are many super annoying parts of the game that do make you want to rip out your hair out at points, although for me I wouldn't say it ruined the game to their extreme. The jail part indeed sucks, and the boss with the scripted damage is indeed a mindboggling decision. I kinda disagree on the sidekick part; he's a popular main supporting character in the original novel, and it's his whole character. While I agree that I would have liked the main character to talk, it's kinda explained further on in the story.

Overall, my whole point is that if you grew up with and know the lore, it's a 10/10, otherwise I wouldn't expect a 10/10 experience coming in completely blind. I haven't played other souls games so I can't really say on how similar it is to that point, but for me the combat was fun throughout the whole game. The ending in particular was worth all the pain in the middle chapters for me.

anyway that's my impromptu review lol

[visual hill]

it's a reverse Daikatana

I started playing Palworld last evening, I wanted to check it out.

I noticed the post-lawsuit update quickly

(you no longer throw pal spheres to invoke pals, they spawn next to you instead)

but you still throw them to capture pals

[wind stump]

something something streisand effect

"Okay we're suing Palworld for copying Pokemon- WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S RESURGED IN POPULARITY FUCK"

[craggy vine]

Shows that people want more out of a pokemon game

[wind stump]

apparently I can pull a wheelie with a goddamn tank

[dire gate]

They, while this sounds crazy, probably don't care about the popularity of the game

I mean fair, Palworld likely will never be more popular than pokemon itself

[sour hill]

This is good insight, thanks

[wind stump]

anime was a mistake

[dire gate]

Is that anime

[random steppe]

I would bet any amount of money that if palworld didn't sell as good as they did they would never have come after it

[dire gate]

I mean obviously, because if it didn't sell well they wouldn't have tried to make a whole media franchise out of it

[wind stump]

the skin is called "Otaku Tank"

[dire gate]

Making "Palworld entertainment" with Sony

[random steppe]

Just because it'll probably never be as popular as Pokemon doesn't mean that they don't care how popular it is.

It's IMO the largest part of the reason as to why they sued

[dire gate]

The point here is that from the situation Nintendo didn't really care about the game itself

Most people agree on that what Nintendo truly tries to avoid is that it trying to become something more than a game

Especially with Sony behind it

[random steppe]

IDK the other Pokemon clone that came out a while ago wasn't as popular and didn't get sued, until I see something that indicates otherwise my running assumptions is that they will sue any Pokemon clone that gets popular enough

[dire gate]

What, did they have Aniplex and Sony trying to throw money and make anime and merch and stuff? Then it would be comparable

[random steppe]

I don't see why is that something that matters

[dire gate]

The timeline aligns exactly, that is the popular assumption.

That Nintendo went for legal case after seeing them trying to make a media franchise out of the game

[random steppe]

I don't want to belive that because that would actually make me think so little of Nintendo

[dire gate]

Which, also, can be damaging for Pokemon due to the "Pokemon but guns and slaughter"

[random steppe]

Also what they sued them for doesn't stop them at all in making it into a media franchise

[dire gate]

Well I can't stop you from refusing to believe that, but it is what many think currently

[random steppe]

So it would be a weird suit to file

[dire gate]

I do agree that it is a bit weird, but it can damage the brand enough I guess

It's not like every gamer community is against Nintendo anyway lol

[random steppe]

I don't think this damages Palworld brand in the eyes of the consumers personally, it can damage them the company bank account tho, depending how the suit goes

Literally everyone knew what it was and it sold an absurd amount of copies anyway, so a suit that says that a few game mechanics are infringing patents I don't see chaning public opinion on it, if anything it made quite a few people pretty hostile against Nintendo for trying to enforce game mechanics patents, which are pretty controversial.

If they filed for having copied assets then I could see people saying "ehh, that's bad, don't do it"

[quiet swift]

An added apparent annoyance to Wukong: you only get the "True ending" if you kill all side bosses/secret bosses on top of the normal ones too, some of which are apparently gigantic pains

[dire gate]

idk, from my viewpoint, for Nintendo, a popular pokemon clone is just a mild annoyance but a popular pokemon clone media franchise with guns and killings is probably more than just a mild annoyance

I do have to say I am also not 100% sure how they are going to stop it entirely with this lawsuit

[random steppe]

Yeah the problem is that they don't own the concept of cute monsters in games.
As long as you don't use their designs you can make a brand of plushies that have guns, it's weird that a company gets to try and stop you unless there is an attempt to create legitimate confusion in the people that buy them

And if their argument is that there could be confusion among consumers, then that's the wrong lawsuit they filed

[dire gate]

I mean it will probably create confusion even if not legally a copy

[white phoenix]

not all the side bosses, but yeah
I got the true ending on my first try, it just took some more of that natural gamer intuition to explore more
definitely can see how someone can miss it though

[dire gate]

I can see like, most of people not interested in neither the situation nor the game easily think that palworld plushies are some weird new pokemons

Not that it is legally enough for nintendo to sue them

But it is a legitimate concern for them

[random steppe]

They could if they think that there is a purposeful attempt at tricking consumers, there is discovery for fact finding about that.

[dire gate]

Is it a corporate ass move to sue with something they can win instead of what they are actually worried about? Sure.

Is Nintendo zealous about Palworld being successful and want any popular clone to die? Hell nah.

[random steppe]

You are generally allowed to put out similar things as other things that exist.
Every modern smartphone design copied the iphone.
It would have been very weird if apple started suing them for unrelated reasons to try and stop them from putting their spin on a modern smartphone while having their own software, hardware and mark on them.

[dire gate]

Which is exactly why they didn't go with the design copyright

As I said, yes it is a very corporate move for them to sue with something they actually have a legally valid argument and a reasonable chance to win.

From which I can see that Nintendo is quite uncomfortable with Palworld

[random steppe]

Here is the thing that they could have done if they though that there could have been confusion legimately.
They should have waited for the plushies to come out, and see if for example, their package resembled official pokemon merch.

Or if the palworld logo was hidden so to give the consumer the impression they were pokemon.
The way they are doing is first of all an underhanded tactic.
2nd and most importantly, enforcing game mechanic patents which has a pretty strong chance of completely destroying the indie industry if that particular pandora's box gets opened, which is what I care about in this situation.

I 100% see a world where AAA games companies start filing a bunch of patents and start sniping indie games as they pop up.
Right now if it happens the players will absolutely gut any company that tries to do that, but once Nintendo makes it a thing, who knows, it could get normalised

[dire gate]

Well game mechanic patent lawsuit always existed, so

[random steppe]

When was the last one that was brought to court for it?

I legit might not know it was a thing that happened

[dire gate]

I'm pretty sure Konami has done like

A dozen

Recent case I remember is Konami suing Umamusume

Nintendo had a patent lawsuit case before, but it was a much more defensive case so it's slightly different

So at least in Japan it's not as uncommon

And Nintendo v. Pocket Pair is indeed an entirely Japanese domestic lawsuit

[random steppe]

Doing a quick google it doesn't seem clear what was sued for, but some people seem to suggest it was for gacha mechanics, so arguably you could say it was more about monetisation than game mechanics if you want to split hairs

[dire gate]

Konami v. Cygames? It's not really a gacha mechanics case

[random steppe]

I checked, seems like they claimed the patent where "athletes compete against each others and they can be sthrengtened by the consumption of ingame items"
Which is essentially the whole gacha genre

Seems about as disgusting as Nintendo suit

[dire gate]

No, the game Konami owns with that patent is not a gacha game

[random steppe]

Yeah but that patent would cover the whole gacha genere

And probably a few more genres

[dire gate]

I'm pretty sure the patent is much more specific

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOkVOvmqrFM about my reaction (well not the more extreme screaming ones, but that level of HOLY SHIT)

also major volume warning

[dire gate]

It is about one of the game modes in the game, and Umamusume indeed has a quite identical system

[cerulean herald]

TemTem, they also just made another game just last month https://store.steampowered.com/app/2510960/Temtem_Swarm/

[dire gate]

At least what I can tell is that it was probably a lucky miracle for Nintendo that Pocketpair is somehow an entirely Japanese company

[quiet swift]

So the GOG daily gift thing is ongoing, but it's not all free games. 12th was a free game, 13th is a seasonal wallpaper thing, 14 and 15th are discounts on certain games (20% off on Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged, and 90% off on all Thief games, in my case)

So I'm guessing the free game might be every 4 days, or maybe every week

[wind stump]

man, i did one room in Hades (not Hades 2) and I'm like "why did i drop this for two years?"

[quiet swift]

Because you're a fool

[wind stump]

True

anyway started a fresh save, didn't feel right going back into my old one, i might go back to it eventually when I un-rust a llittle.

[worldly summit]

every time I hear tidbits of drama channels I pat myself on the back for successfully avoided another waste of my energy lol

[wind stump]

So many choices!

[river veldt]

shield

[wind stump]

i can't afford it

[river veldt]

😔

[fresh bane]

I remember feeling so smart when I was going through it the other day and I had to go back to the sanctuary of the clans and I thought ''where the hell is that '' and the map ironically didn't really help so I situated myself based on the fact that Raziel's clan territory is to the west of the entrance to the lake of the dead since they tell you to go south

[wind stump]

"Head to the corner."
"IT'S A FUCKING CIRCLE."

[fresh bane]

The game is really good at giving you directions like that in a very diegetic way even when it tries to tutorialize you in a way that feels natural to the context of what's going on

[wind stump]

Not entirely related to what you're saying but it always comes up in my head when it comes to directional fuckery

[wind stump]

The context for this is me and a friend were trying to do some Savage or other in FFXIV and they said that when I was panicking about getting distance from the boss in a circular arena.
In hindsight I think I get what they mean, like heading to the NW/NE/SW/SE part of the arena but it's still funny

[visual hill]

flying spaghetti super shotgun monster

[fresh bane]

oh geez

that's bigger than I thought it'd be

[wind stump]

.q hc 11

[thorny cedar]

Hclegend, #11: yeet https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1032731043041640488/1169720890909524028/yeet.mp4

[wind stump]

TO THE MOOOOOOON

[visual hill]

also wow, I just learned they have a web-based demo viewer: https://hub.quakeworld.nu/games/?gameId=104750&from=991&to=1001&track=61

so you can view it as if it was a stream, but without the limited quality or framerate

[fresh bane]

added more secrets to discover in night city

what do you meeeeeean

that's pretty cool

[visual hill]

This is what Super Mario 64 will look like in 10 years from now.
(loud warning)

[fickle garnet]

My dad bought me the Cyberpunk ultimate edition on my pc

[quiet swift]

Enjoy, it's now a fantastic game

[random steppe]

They recently added the ability to recolor vehicles too

And a pretty in-depth one too

[bold sonnet]

Just finished Little Kitty, Big City

[fresh bane]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/hideki-kamiya-on-leaving-platinumgames-and-forming-clovers-staying-at-platinumgames-would-have-killed-my-artistic-spirit.1062063/

and also Capcom is apparently looking into reviving old franchises that haven't had a new entry in a long time too
https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/news/html/e241213.html

In addition to regularly releasing major new titles each year, Capcom is focusing on re-activating dormant IPs that haven’t had a new title launch recently. The company is working to further enhance corporate value by leveraging its rich library of content, which includes reviving past IPs like the two titles announced above, in order to continuously produce highly efficient, high-quality titles.

Hopefully more cool stuff is coming in the future

I'm glad Kamiya doesn't seem to want to stop making games and that he specifically wants to focus on smaller titles, he seems really displeased with how companies are more focused on ensuring a big AAA success these days and don't leave any room for creative smaller scale titles though he obviously knows that it's not a simple matter

[toxic seal]

This is why I'm fucking over the moon for the Okami sequel

It is my favorite game of all time and with Kamiya at the head I'm confident it will be free of the rot of so many games nowadays

[slim thorn]

the fact that they put Kamiya's name so prominently in the teaser also implies the business end of things is on board with it

[robust latch]

I bought a ps2, a ps3 and a wii all just for the versions of okami.

[bold sonnet]

I recently bought Okami HD for Xbox I haven't played it yet I'm trying to do finish Sidequests in Little Kitty Big City. I got Okami because when we were watching The Game Awards many ponies were super super happy about new one coming soon

[quiet swift]

I had it on PS2, I might've gotten it for PS4 and I definitely got it for Steam

[fresh bane]

Yeah the HD version of Okami on Steam is like 4 bucks or so right now

[quiet swift]

I have to wonder if the art style is gonna be similar to the trailer or if that's just purely for the trailer. 'Cause it would be super interesting if it was the game style

https://store.steampowered.com/app/587620/Okami_HD/ get it, you fools!

Steam

Okami HD

Experience the critically acclaimed masterpiece with its renowned Sumi-e ink art style in breathtaking high resolution. Take on the role of Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess who inhabits the form of a legendary white wolf, on a quest to defeat Orochi, an eight-headed demon and tyrannical monster responsible for turning the world of Nippon into...

Price

$4.99

Recommendations

6583

Metacritic

92

▶ Play video

[toxic seal]

I imagine 20 years of hardware and software improvements allows for many more ways to stylize like they did for Okami 1. I'm excited to see what they come up with

Also I am now buying Okami to play it again

[quiet swift]

Definitely gonna be replaying it at some point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ6J55S1sVM but yeah, the part in the sunlight and all the blooming flowers looks stunning

#1032716748887179434 message and something from earlier, streamers watching the show and absolutely freaking out at the announcement 😄

[toxic seal]

I haven't played it myself in a very long time. My last experience with it was watching the vtuber Kureiji Ollie's playthrough, which was also amazing.

[quiet swift]

Oh shit she played it? I might have to watch that

[toxic seal]

She had a great time, also did great voices

[quiet swift]

I didn't recognize it yet by the drums alone, and the dark forest made me think something like the ghost of tsushima sequel or something. By the time I saw the canine form it was a "Wait, what? No..." and then when it got to the sunlight I was

(I swear, listen to the crowd at the end. I don't think anything else got that loud of a reaction)

[toxic seal]

I kinda wish I was watching live. I already lost my mind seeing the news afterward

[quiet swift]

I was watching it live, I honestly shed some tears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME7yk_hwVVY

And it was what, the 2nd to last announcement so the hype was already big

[slim thorn]

I "already" replayed Okami a few years ago, so for now I'll probably focus on more new-to-me games

[robust latch]

ive been watching quite a bit of potion craft videos recently

the music is rather relaxing

[fresh bane]

I never actually played Okami

I never quite looked into it enough to know if it'd be a game I'd enjoy

[quiet swift]

A common joke is that it's the best Zelda game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1CsUNKsAt0 ha, Geoff was even getting choked up when presenting the announcement

[bold sonnet]

On Microsoft Store too! Even cheaper than VPN'd codes on buying sites!

[slim thorn]

and I thought I was being so original /s

[quiet swift]

Interestingly, I'm seeing okami bundled with this game - which is about 40$ after a 20% discount

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2510710/KunitsuGami_Path_of_the_Goddess/

Steam

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

A new tale of the Kami awaits...Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is a unique Japanese-inspired, single player Kagura Action Strategy game. The game takes place on a mountain covered by defilement.During the day, purify the villages and prepare yourself for sundown. During the night, protect the Maiden against the hordes of the Seethe.Repeat the...

Price

$39.99

Recommendations

1239

Metacritic

85

▶ Play video

ponders, checks Twitch

Okami 1's on the front page - nowhere near the top, but in the top 50 of most watched. Not surprised to see some resurgence

Oh. That's because of the 5.8k viewers, one person has 5.6

[toxic seal]

I have that game, too. Pretty fun. Probably bundled with Okami because both are about restoring Japan and fighting a bunch of monsters in the process

[quiet swift]

Oh, it's Sinder!

[cerulean herald]

https://vxtwitter.com/OkamiOfficial/status/1868480623700308172?t=sSrh-CHLDZ9KeVuLxG-Nnw&s=19

[fresh bane]

Oh wow we already got Okami 2 leaks huh

[quiet swift]

But yeah, this is what I mean by the arstyle and wondering if that's what it's gonna look like. If yes, that would be super interesting/super cool

[rugged flax]

More info was found about Catly
It's a scam
https://www.rxddit.com/r/Games/s/qA0wskjgKt

[bold sonnet]

No please

Do you think someone will see and step in and make a cool cat game?

[cerulean herald]

[gaunt marten]

They won't make Catly, but a bunch of other cat games are in production

[slim thorn]

don't we already have quite a few good cat games anyway

[gaunt marten]

Can never have enough

[cerulean herald]

friendly reminder for yall to play Stray 🔫 (never played it)

[gaunt marten]

I don't like Stray

[bold sonnet]

What other than Stray and Little Kitty Big City?

[gaunt marten]

Little Kitty, Big City is much more my style

[green fulcrum]

Too dark and depressing?

[gaunt marten]

Bad art style

[gaunt marten]

Copycat, I am Cat, Cat Quest, Night in the Woods, Nine Sols, Crypt Custodian, Cattails: Wildwood Story

Lots of games in various genres

Hey, don't eyeroll me. I don't control my preferences!

[green fulcrum]

...Not what I was expecting you to say, ngl.

Fair enough I suppose, though I disagree. I think it looks fine.

[gaunt marten]

I'm a big fan of crisp 2D styles

Stuff with high saturation, clear graphics, and generally cheerful themes

[light gate]

still am mad about Stray winning the indie debut while Tunic lost because most people enjoyed the cat game.

[slim thorn]

it's a pretty clear indication of what that particular venue values, which is not what most of us are looking for when we ask for good "indie" games

(as much as I enjoyed Stray, it can't compete with Tunic)

[green fulcrum]

Yeah, I love that stuff too, but sometimes I like moody stuff too. Stray's atmosphere strikes a good balance for me. Not too depressing despite the post-apocalyptic setting, and mixing humor with genuine moodiness. It's a very surreal game at times.

[gaunt marten]

Stray particularly strikes me as the sort of games that wanted to use a lot of tools in the 3D game engine they had, instead of deciding on a style first then figuring out which tools to accomplish that as style

Which happens a lot with indie games since the developers are still learning

[bold sonnet]

On Xbox from these are Cat Quest 2 and 3, Night in the Woods, Nine Souls and Crypt Custodian. Which 2 do you reccomend?

[green fulcrum]

I still love how Stray was nominated for game of the year. The little cat that touched hearts and helped keep us sane in a dark time.

[river veldt]

lots of people like Night in the Woods

[light gate]

I just find it funny how most streamers were like "OMG CAT!" while the game is basically a linear platformer. Nothing wrong with that but y'know, its not groundbreaking either.

[gaunt marten]

For you, I recommend Cat Quest 2. If you don't mind reading, Night in the Woods is beautiful and emotional and smart and I recommend that too

[green fulcrum]

True, but it's very rare to have a good game that truly makes you feel like you are a cat. Not just playing one, but being one.

What I loved too was seeing all the images and videos of cats watching their owners play Stray, and looking very pleased and comfortable doing so.

[light gate]

I mean, I've yet to play it but I assume it has an IK and controlling the cat is straightforward.

[bold sonnet]

I think Stray was super cool

[river veldt]

yeah it's a cute game

ktiy

[slim thorn]

many of the games mentioned are totally different kinds of game beyond the presence of cats so hard to say; Night in the Woods is mostly a narrative game, Nine Sols a metroidvania with challenging parry-based combat, and Crypt Custodian I know is also a metroidvania but I haven't gotten to it yet; the others I don't know at all

[green fulcrum]

It's a bit sad at points, but the cute kitty keeps you going.

[gaunt marten]

You can absolutely enjoy Stray to your heart's content. I just resonate a lot more with Little Kitty Big City

[river veldt]

funny cat game

[light gate]

I really wished there was a GOG version of Stray, gonna have to bite the bullet either on the PS5 or Mac port.

But I need to fix the controller. x_X

[slim thorn]

it's not mechanically groundbreaking, but I would say I haven't played any other game that emulated the feel of running around a 3D space the way a cat would quite like Stray does

[gaunt marten]

Cat Quest is an accessible and cute action RPG that is a little shallow but fun to play even if you're not a fan of RPGs

[slim thorn]

ofc there probably is another out there which I just haven't played

[gaunt marten]

I've played 1 and 2 but not 3

[bold sonnet]

It has smart delivery on Microsoft Store meaning you buy once and play on PC and Xbox and maybe on cloud

[light gate]

I don't have an Xbox or Windows device.

[bold sonnet]

Do you play on Linux?

[light gate]

Its best to save up and buy the game tbh.

Mac & Ubuntu, yeah.

Probably works fine under Proton, but unsure if it'll work fine on a 1060 lol

But right now I'm eyeing Nine Sols or Soul Reaver Remastered.

[slim thorn]

hopefully I can get to Soul Reaver during the holidays… after 3 other games

[light gate]

I want a physical disc of that game.

[bold sonnet]

Nine Souls would be something in an alley of Ixrec no I feel

[light gate]

Same with all Tomb Raider remasters.

I love OG Tomb Raider.

[gaunt marten]

Ixrec loves Nine Sols

[slim thorn]

it’s my GOTY

[bold sonnet]

I go to see now trailers

[light gate]

The trailer looks sick as heck.

[slim thorn]

and the next game I’ll be modding

[gaunt marten]

Nine Sols is often compared to a Hollow Knight Sekiro hybrid

[light gate]

I never finished Hollow Knight although was close.

[slim thorn]

I feel like it's misleading to specifically compare to Hollow Knight, unless we're using HK as the go-to for what "metroidvania" means these days, maybe I'm too immersed in the genre to tell

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown probably would've been my 2024 favorite if Nine Sols didn't exist

[bold sonnet]

Nine Souls is so new why is it good you think?

[slim thorn]

I feel like I'm missing context, why is the new-ness relevant?

or are you just asking what it excels at?

[bold sonnet]

Because I haven't heard much and I'm curious

Yes except of cats

[slim thorn]

ah

[river veldt]

my goty is RDR2

[slim thorn]

probably the strongest appeals of Nine Sols would be
a) the hard but fair combat, with a unique (for 2D metroidvanias) focus on parrying, and exceptionally great main boss fights
b) the striking setting/aesthetic mixing sci-fi and taoism, combined with the strong narrative digging into those themes

compared specifically to Hollow Knight, the storytelling is much less cryptic (though still deep), especially with how much it fleshes out the main character and his personal issues/growth, the combat is much more about parry timing than it is about jumping and dodging around enemies, and the progression is significantly more straightforward (i.e. in HK you'd spend a lot more time lost and wandering)

[green fulcrum]

It's been your GOTY for years now.

...I want so badly to post that Jimmy Neutron classroom meme right now, lol.

[light gate]

I want to keep playing RDR2 but the game's mechanics are way too dense for me right now.

I keep pressing the wrong buttons at the wrong time.

Like one moment I think I've pressed lasso, but nope instead I got out of my horse and now am getting shot.

Which is something I fear GTA VI is gonna do.

[river veldt]

i only just played it this year !

[slim thorn]

did that answer your question?

[river veldt]

maybe ive just said it so often it's felt like years

[bold sonnet]

I cannot tell you how much I would love to get into 2D souls or even 3D ones but I am trying Ori and I'm not good so far

[slim thorn]

well, Ori would be metroidvania rather than soulslike

Ori 1 especially is "just" platforming, with not much to the combat

and as long as you're making progress it's fine, I have zero talent at these games myself, I only get through them as quickly as I do nowadays through sheer familiarity with the genre

any particular reason you'd "love to get into" them, that might help with recommendations? (I know we've touched on the genre before but I can't recall if this specific question came up)

[gaunt marten]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1730700/We_Love_Katamari_REROLL_Royal_Reverie? 75% off

Steam

We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie

The King of the Cosmos once accidentally destroyed all the stars in the universe. He sent his son, the Prince, to Earth and ordered him to create a large katamari.The Prince rolled the katamari and made the katamari bigger and bigger, rolling up all the things on the earth. The katamari that he created floated in space, sparkling, and brought ba...

Price

$7.49

Recommendations

1506

▶ Play video

There's a Steam sale on a lot of Capcom games

[dire gate]

Bandai Namco.

not capcom

[gaunt marten]

Same company honestly

Oh what threw me off is this sale

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1685750/Capcom_Fighting_Collection/

Steam

Capcom Fighting Collection

Ten of Capcom's most popular arcade games in one epic collection!

Price

$15.99

Recommendations

657

▶ Play video

There is a capcom sale! It's just not on the front page

[little badger]

https://x.com/witchergame/status/1868629386557337852?

The Witcher (@witchergame) on X

Ciri's ready to take her first steps on the Path of a witcher — join her! ⚔️

Pre-order Ciri's Lynx Medallion from @CDPRGear 👇
NA: https://t.co/Sr442gSpHx
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#TheWitcherIV

Twitter · Dec 16, 2024, 12:08 PM

[river veldt]

ooo

[dire gate]

[random steppe]

Tad too memey, apologies

[graceful bridge]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/balatro-dev-swings-at-pegi-for-rating-it-18-because-of-its-evil-playing-cards-jokes-that-he-should-add-microtransactions-like-ea-sports-fc-25-to-lower-that-rating-to-a-3/

[fickle garnet]

He has a point

[wind stump]

"If these other games were rated properly, I'd happily accept the weirdo 18+. The red logo looks kinda dope."
honestly hella based

[sour hill]

Yeah I'm totally with him on this one

[arctic fern]

given that he's a solo dev who expected maybe 6 people to play his game, and then won most of the awards at the game awards, the fact its 18+ doesnt really affect him business wise
but it is a fucking stupid decision, holy shit

[slim thorn]

I didn't even know we had a problem with video game ratings but wow

[visual hill]

TDU Solar Crown is 18+ in PEGI for a similar reason. Simulated gambling is insta-18+, no questions asked. (Real gambling does not allow you to get a PEGI rating at all... in theory, because lootboxes that have real world value are a thing)

[slim thorn]

and literal microtransactions aren't???

[visual hill]

nope

[slim thorn]

[visual hill]

the poker minigame in Super Mario 64 DS was quite close to getting Nintendo in trouble IIRC

[rancid herald]

There’s a reason the gambling corner disappeared from Pokémon games

[visual hill]

not sure how it flew under the radar - probably because it doesn't have betting mechanics?

[fickle garnet]

That's insane

[arctic fern]

it didnt. the dev had extended conversations with the ratings board about the game

the ratings bord were "yeah this obviously has nothing to do with gambling"

[visual hill]

oh, right

[arctic fern]

but it seems folks complained?

[random steppe]

Largely the reason lootboxes and stuff like CSGO gambling stuff is still mostly legal is because the regulators haven't yet caught up to that stuff

[sour hill]

And because if the ESRB gave those games an AO rating for gambling, a lot of those games would lose some child customers - and also major storefronts would have to rethink their stance on not allowing AO rated games

[random steppe]

Yeah it's part of the reason the process will need some pushing along to get moving

[arctic fern]

thats....a good thing tho

[random steppe]

Well, the ESRB probably doesn't want to put out a ruling like that, and then it turns out it was an overreach and they wiped off like billions of revenue for a few thousand companies off the map

[sour hill]

Not for the companies, which are the ones whose opinions really matter

[random steppe]

Especially if the laws on the book don't actually support the ruling, in which case the laws will have to change first

[gaunt marten]

Truer things have not been said. I've always been talking about how my opinions about societal good don't matter. Put for-profit companies in charge

[random steppe]

In some european countries some stuff has moved, but it's not something that it's in the forefront of most people mind so it's not something that will get handled fast

[visual hill]

they were definitely considering this in France (see the x-ray scanner that's still present in CS2 to this day), but it never happened

Belgium and Netherlands did their thing, China mandated the publishing of drop rates, then not much else happened... my guess is that lobbies caught up to other countries

I doubt any significant change will happen now, discussion on the subject has been quiet in the last 5 years. If it's socially accepted, it's here to stay for a decade+

[slim thorn]

what I'm curious about is whether it is "socially accepted", or if most non-addicts are simply unaware of the issues, and we're being the weird hyper-informed minority on this

[random steppe]

Stuff like that usually comes in spurts rather than being linear

[slim thorn]

I know I'd be far less aware of predatory monetization if I wasn't regularly hearing others complain about it, because in the games I personally play it's almost unheard of

[random steppe]

Also worth mentioning, lootboxes basically disappered outside of gacha

And ultimate team games I guess

But EA is gonna EA

Like, a few years ago it was every multiplayer game main progression system

and even some single player games

[slim thorn]

oh, I had no idea they declined in any sense

[random steppe]

They weren't in the recent battelfield, they aren't in the finals, I think they arein't in the recent COD

All games you'd expect to see them in

The industry retracted from them so fast, OW even removed them for OW2, despite all the other problems

[inland ravine]

I still remember PvZ Garden Warfare’s sticker packs, they were a super fun way of doing unlocks and you did get a ton of coins for just playing a match

[random steppe]

It's really interesting that they disappeared, like...it's not what I would have expected

My guess is that it happened because some countries did start regulating them

But like...the smart thing to do IMO is to keep the system, make them not possible to acquire with real money

And then sell for real money the items directly

That way you get the lootbox cycle, and if you really wants an item and it doesn't roll, you can buy it...I wonder why that's not the solution they got to instead of full retreat

[slim thorn]

maybe that would still run afoul of this "simulated gambling" stuff?

[gaunt marten]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1082710/view/4480613701830836384?l=english

The anniversary v1.2 content update contains features designed to delight both seasoned adventurers and fresh explorers:

Fishing in The Fishing Village: Catch worms and reel in some fun!
New Post-Game Boss Fight: Face off against the heroes of legend in B.O.S.S. mode!
Team Up with Allies: Watch allies you support join you through a new special medal!
11 New Medals: Expand your strategies with even more new gameplay-altering medals!
New Items to Discover: Scattered across the overworld, waiting for explorers to find.
One New Music Track: A brand-new addition to Bugaria’s already beloved soundtrack.
Quality-of-Life Tweaks:
Vi’s Beemerang now has an option to lock angles to the nearest 8 cardinal directions outside of battle.
A grace period added after falling droplets allows for easier freezing.
Various language fixes, minor balance & bug resolutions and more!

Details on the update we talked about earlier

That's a lot more than I thought

[arctic fern]

yeah

its a suprisingly good update

i am geuniely suprised they didnt use it as a PR moment to announce a second game, but they're currently still not working on it

[visual hill]

that kind of makes sense, the gaming sector has a history of self-regulation

that's how ratings originally worked, they were 100% self-declared. Now they are still somewhat self-declared, i.e. the developer sends the footage to the rating organization, and they rate based on that

the people rating games don't actually play the games, they just watch a video and judge it. The developer could hide something but it'll cost them big bucks if they are caught

[green fulcrum]

Wait. They're bugs. Why are they using worms to fish? How are they fishing? Aren't they normal-sized bugs compared to humans, as confirmed in the final area? Wouldn't the worms be gigantic if that's the case? And wouldn't using them as bait be murder? And like, aren't the fish enormous anyway?

I have so many questions.

[gaunt marten]

I guess you'll have to play the game

(Worms aren't bugs)

[robust latch]

https://bsky.app/profile/culturecrave.co/post/3ldgvyctsbk25

Culture Crave 🍿 (@culturecrave.co)

#Okami2 director Hideki Kamiya was asked by a fan if the announcement trailer was made with AI

"Don’t ask such pointless questions, you idiot… Go away"

Reposts

841

Likes

2925

Quotes

128

Bluesky · Dec 16, 2024, 6:02 PM

[toxic seal]

Based

[visual hill]

their answer can be taken both ways

either they're tired of the shitstirring that can happen on this topic, or they confirmed AI isn't used

[river veldt]

wait is this the guy who blocks everyone on twitter

[robust latch]

yes yes he is

[river veldt]

i love him

he's the only person who uses twitter correctly

[fresh bane]

https://fxtwitter.com/HidekiKamiya_X/status/1868801071159918742

https://fxtwitter.com/HidekiKamiya_X/status/1868549806031011847

He can be a sweetheart sometimes though

[river veldt]

this is so sweet

[fresh bane]

For context: He's saying that he saw a video of a fan reacting to Okami 2's trailer and being very happy, and he thought she looked familiar so he looked through his stuff, and he remembered she asked him a question before and he replied very rudely, and he says remembering that makes him want to twist his own head off

he retweeted the girl's response and apologized about it

[light gate]

Never understood why Hideki always got block happy.

But nice to see growth.

[fickle garnet]

I dont blame him tbh. Get all the negative stuff off your timeline

[light gate]

I don’t have twitter anymore lmao.

But idk, he always blocked folks even when they were nice because he often got tired of repeating himself. Which seems pretty ego-ish but idk.

Adjust your notifications tbh.

[slim thorn]

eh, it's a valid move when you're dealing with messages at that scale

we all have spam filters on our emails and most of us don't have a fanbase

[light gate]

Twitter has a mute option

Well, had… unsure now.

[slim thorn]

I wasn't aware of that distinction myself so for now I'll give him benefit of the doubt that either he's not aware or it wasn't there when he formed the habit or it's no longer there etc etc

[light gate]

I mean I do give him doubt as well, I’m sure he is a busy person.

[fresh bane]

He's just that kind of person, I don't think there's any specific reason

[light gate]

Eeehhh…

I guess.

[fresh bane]

He's just that kind of guy who's a little difficult to get along with and has generally low patience, some people just are like that
Some people get asked the same question over the years and they answer it every time, other people will call you an insect who can't read and block you

It also doesn't help that mixed in with genuine questions there's a lot of jokesters and clowns trying to be funny or just weird and awful people, so mix that in with the kind of person Kamiya is and well there you go

[slim thorn]

another factor may be that as a mod, more than once we've told people to block someone they don't like instead of starting an argument with them

[fresh bane]

Mmm, I also don't know if it's a cultural thing, I remember when Twitter was gonna roll out the block update I heard the japanese side in particular was very upset about that and it's why so many of them went into Bluesky almost immediately, but it might not be, regardless he's a special case, I don't know if he stopped doing it but he would also block anyone who didn't tweet at him in Japanese, so a lot of people would ask why the hell was I blocked by Kamiya if I told him his games are amazing and masterpieces? And more likely than not it's because they wrote to him in english

[cerulean herald]

there's also this, where someone asked if the Okami 2 trailer used AI, and he basically told them to buzz off

https://fixupx.com/HidekiKamiya_X/status/1868643014043910212

[light gate]

I would say the same

For AI at least

[slim thorn]

that tweet of his is how this conversation started actually

[cerulean herald]

ah I mustve missed that, it was a topic of convo on another server

the baseless accusations can be tiring, so I sorta understand the response

[slim thorn]

yeah, it could've been better

but personally I feel more comfortable knowing that it's a real person behind that account and not a PR firm double-checking him

[fresh bane]

Another japanese game dev who has similarly slowly descended more and more into these types of blunt no nonsense replies is Masahiro Ito from Team Silent who has always been very active on Twitter sharing concept art, illustrations, development stories and behind the scenes stuff, talking about other projects, himself, his famous 'fuck-toast', etc

[cerulean herald]

fuck-toast?

[slim thorn]

that is a lot of not toast to put on one's toast

[robust latch]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_sandwich

[quiet swift]

https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/live-action-movies/idris-elba-wants-him-and-keanu-reeves-to-make-a-cyberpunk-2077-movie-a-reality-lets-speak-that-into-existence/

Mr game journalist, the corpos are the fucking problem

[toxic seal]

The dude voicing Indy in The Great Circle sounds just like Harrison Ford

Like prime Indiana Jones age Ford

[fresh bane]

I wanna say I'm pretty sure it's Troy Baker

[river veldt]

yes

[quiet swift]

gaming chat: trying to think action/rpg esque games for somewhat older gamers (someone in their 50s who is extremely new to games that aren't detective/mystery games like various sherlock holmes ones).

I was thinking okami because i have that on the brain at the moment, and they remembered seeing me play it many years ago and thought that might be too fast paced, which is possibly true. Something of that style, or action rpg ish, but slower and more generous to a new but older player. Anything comes to mind?

[fresh bane]

As always when asking these types of questions it's always helpful to know what the person even likes generally to get a better idea of what to even start recommending, the list of games only keeps growing every year
I also know I'm not exactly answering directly but I would recommend looking up recommended games for children or elderly, I'm sure you're far from the only person who wants to recommend games to someone past 40 so you're bound to find something

If we're talking about a person that enjoys detective games then anything like an adventure or narrative driven game like the Telltale games I'm sure are easy recommendations, anything actiony or RPG related might be too much since they usually ask a lot more of the player and a lot of people who never played games can very easily be turned away from videogames who ask them to do multiple things at once or keep track of multiple mechanics, but I'm sure there's some easy entry level rpgs out there, but again it's easier to know what a person likes beforehand, I'm not about to recommend something like Super Mario RPG or Persona or Final Fantasy to a grown man who isn't into cartoons or anime, as good as those games may be

[quiet swift]

Seems like their main games played

[fresh bane]

Seems like the easiest recommendations would be any The Elder Scrolls game, Witcher and-or Fallout if that seems like his cup of tea

I wasn't expecting an MMO to be in there kinda unrelated but I always wondered why non-gamers seem to be so drawn to MMOs, I've heard more than once people talking about their dads or sometimes even their moms being obsessed with some browser or full fledged MMO before

Maybe browse around the adventure genre in GOG's library and see if you find anything he may like? GOG has some good stuff old and new, don't necessarily need to buy it from there if you can find it on steam too

[quiet swift]

Wait, which is the MMO?

[fresh bane]

Drakensang

[quiet swift]

It's an rpg

Think Dragon age origins style

[fresh bane]

Oh the first results for Drakensang are from Drakensang Online apparently

[quiet swift]

This is an older release, from 2009. Might be an MMO based on it later I think

[fresh bane]

I don't know how accessible it is nowadays but could he enjoy something like Fable? Or Diablo even?

Pillars of Eternity is another name that comes to mind, just general fantasy RPG style worlds and games like that

The type of world and aesthetics that most people are probably into, and similar gameplay ish to Drakensang that someone who doesn't play games that much can probably understand and get into easy, I was gonna say Dragon Age but I see he already got to that one

[quiet swift]

Pillars would be too hard to get into imo. Fable... maybe? Diablo seems like it's not quite what it's aiming for

But yeah it's hard to figure out

[fresh bane]

He seems to enjoy adventure games specifically point and click so again if you browse around in GOG's adventure games tag you're bound to find something for sure, I saw some of those Sherlock Holmes games in there while I was checking it out, and again maybe anything Telltale related might be up his alley, The Witcher, Fallout, Skyrim/TES, Ultima, Planescape, Baldur's Gate, Divinity Original Sin, Rogue Trader...? (if he'd seem like he'd be into the Warhammer universe) just to throw some examples your way to give you some ideas maybe

[uneven epoch]

@hasty patio figured you'd like this trivia; since KCD II will take place in Kutná Hora (Kuttenberg), the city is preparing special tour programs after the game's release to attract/retain more tourists there is some precedence since people visited rattay after the first game too, and thats a waaay smaller place

[hasty patio]

So similar to the effects that the Fallout games did for those respective areas. A town in Nevada and Helvetia are sorta catering to those folks because of the games.

[uneven epoch]

really wondering if we get the ossuary located in nearby village in the game, it was bein constructed right when the game takes place

"side quest: help build this ossuary, yes really"

[visual hill]

it is

[sour hill]

If I don't know who voices a male adult character in a video game I just assume it's Troy Baker

[wind stump]

Or Keith David

[graceful bridge]

https://youtu.be/lpC3N-WoYfo?si=DoxbKGNF1heKiqvg

I want to play Tupperware Lesbians III

[gaunt marten]

Snound?

[bold sonnet]

Is me I'm voicing

[graceful bridge]

Making fun of how early consoles didn't have very good features, but tried to give the tech "fun" names.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/12/ps-placeable-the-adorable-mod-that-turns-a-playstation-portable-into-a-console/

[gaunt marten]

Blast Processing

[steep flax]

hehe floppy disk

[fresh bane]

https://fxtwitter.com/HidekiKamiya_X/status/1868993974540845514

Thank you Kamiya

[wind stump]

You could do divine deuces in the original game

[teal sonnet]

https://x.com/FortniteGame/status/1869050071574024652

Fortnite (@FortniteGame) on X

🚽🪠📹
12.18.2024

Twitter · Dec 17, 2024, 4:00 PM

peak is coming

[river veldt]

omg lmao

[cerulean herald]

this is the worst timeline

[astral steeple]

lmaoooooo

[slim thorn]

not quite what I had in mind when I said this, but it counts

[unreal idol]

I don't get it

[wind stump]

i think it's skibidi toilet

[rugged flax]

yes

[astral steeple]

Yes it's skibidi toilet

More specifically the plungerman as a skin

With the skibidi toilet as a backbling

[cerulean herald]

best you dont know

[fresh bane]

Those are all certainly words

[slim thorn]

I might question the word-ness of one or two

[visual hill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juoXKs43FAU

real widescreen mode made thanks to the decompilation!

[arctic fern]

Project zomboid build 42 unstable is out now! No multiplayer yet, but big news still!

https://projectzomboid.com/blog/news/2024/12/build-42-unstable/ I should gave copied this not taken a screenshot lol

[random steppe]

Gamers are so cooked, they have to call the update unstable and also add a disclamer that it might in fact, not be stable.

[arctic fern]

It's only been hyped up for a whole year

Fans, like me, are very excited

Excited fans are assholes

[hasty patio]

Also have to be told that:

• Higher chance of crashing/not working as intended
• Your mods will not work
• Your saves will not carry over
• No MP for now
• Better to wait if you want a better experience

And people will still bitch and moan

[hasty patio]

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/secret-level-season-2-amazon-prime-video-1236251726/

[green fulcrum]

Badass!

[fickle garnet]

Nice

[green fulcrum]

Hopefully we'll get some more variation. I'd loooove to see an Uncharted episode, and a Spyro one would be the dream.

[fickle garnet]

I liked what i watched of s1 (except pac man. That was weird)

Also very disturbing

[cerulean herald]

what happened with the pacman one?

[fickle garnet]

I dont even know how to describe it tbh

The Crossfire episode was okay, i just had no idea what was going on the whole time

[river veldt]

the Pac-Man episode is the only one im even interested in because the game looks weird/awesome

[green fulcrum]

Part 2 of S1 is still coming

[fickle garnet]

I know

[green fulcrum]

Just finished the Unreal Tournament one. That was AWESOME.

[green fulcrum]

And the Pac-Man one was...weird, lol.

[visual hill]

join us in the nostalgia FPS camp 😛

[green fulcrum]

The Crossfire one was cool, but the ending was weird.

[fickle garnet]

Yeah i loved that one

[bold sonnet]

Oh I want to play it I sometimes play Quake 1

[green fulcrum]

https://x.com/ign/status/1868770851266429067?s=46

IGN (@IGN) on X

After accusations that Catly looked like it might be using generative AI, the creator has responded, saying the virtual pet simulator contains no AI, no blockchain, and no NFTs. https://t.co/BukAIPjveD

Twitter · Dec 16, 2024, 9:31 PM

Someone in another server I'm in did a test too:

[fresh bane]

I wouldn't use any of those AI detect sites as trustworthy proof that something was generated with AI, they're simply not really accurate

[green fulcrum]

Not saying it is...but we all know the guy is lying anyway.

[gaunt marten]

No guys you gotta believe the studio. It's called SuperAuthenti and that means it's super authentic

[smoky sonnet]

besides, one glance at the website will tell you everything you need to know

[green fulcrum]

Missed the golden opportunity to call it SuperAuthentikitty

[bold sonnet]

I just wanted to cat game to be cool and now it's not real

[hasty patio]

https://vxtwitter.com/civgame/status/1869119118928191949

[quiet swift]

The Pac Man one is hella dark

[eager bane]

There's some rly cool human created cat games I could recommend if that helps

[gaunt marten]

You should make a list of recommendations

[craggy vine]

I just had a realization.. Where are all the good new horror games?

[gaunt marten]

What do you define as good or new?

(also horror)

[craggy vine]

Games like Outlast

Also smaller games like SCP Containment Breach that got popular, or even slenderman.

Slenderman might not be seen as good now, but at the time it was a new thing and got popular, and it was fun.

[gaunt marten]

Does Once Human qualify as horror?

Does the Soul Reaver remaster count?

Is Crow Country new?

[craggy vine]

Idk, I tried once human and I didn't get into it, and I didn't feel like it was a horror game at all.

[gaunt marten]

Yeah, that's why I'm asking the questions

What do you think of as horror?

For some people, Minecraft and Fallout both qualify

[craggy vine]

Ah I seee

[gaunt marten]

This game seems to fit really well and was released last month

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1507580/Enigma_of_Fear/

Steam

Enigma of Fear

In a place that doesn’t exist, young detective Mia and her little dog Lupi investigate the disappearance of her father, one of the most skilled agents in the world and the leader of Ordo Realitas, an organization of paranormal detectives.Enigma of Fear is a game of investigation and mystery in Pixel Art/3D where your deduction is your guide. Pla...

Price

$24.99

Recommendations

1594

▶ Play video

[craggy vine]

What I count as horror is more on the far end. Like, you being in a confined dark space with something chasing you.

Again things like scp containment breach. Or even something like outlast.

[gaunt marten]

Does Resident Evil 4 not count?

[craggy vine]

Oh, Amnesia as well!

Not to me

Think more along the lines of Amnesia, one of my favourite horror games.

[gaunt marten]

Okay, does Lethal Company count?

[craggy vine]

Yes I would say it does

Also content warning

[gaunt marten]

So you want atmospheric 3D survival horror games specifically

Unfortunately that genre is full of shovelware

It's very easy to make a bad game in it

[bitter stream]

A friend got me a gift of the game: 1000 X Resist ^_^. I'm really happy about it and it's put a positive spin on an otherwise regular day

[slim thorn]

red to blue

[craggy vine]

Yeah there are lots of bad ones in it. Like one I saw set in a zoo, but the game ended up being kinda bad from what people said.

You know... As cool as it is having my only gaming pc be a handheld, it is a bit awkward for those games I like playing that really expect keyboard and mouse.

[gaunt marten]

Why not hook up a mouse and keyboard to it?

[craggy vine]

I do sometimes, but not often. I guess because I love gaming portably

[gaunt marten]

Well you can't have both games that demand a mouse and keyboard and also not need to use a mouse and keyboard for them

[craggy vine]

You can. Just need steam input to set controls. And sometimes may need to bring up the steam keyboard.

Also in multiplayer games I can't type in chat, can only do voice

[gaunt marten]

Right, but it's going to be a bit awkward when the game doesn't support it

[craggy vine]

Yeah

Also only after I switch to linux do I think about playing fortnite and r6s... Because I have friends that play those

[visual hill]

try using gyro for FPS

it helps for subtle aim adjustments

[light gate]

https://www.polygon.com/news/498953/sonic-music-live-and-learn-copyright-lawsuit-crush-40-sega

Will Sega live and learn? Or the other way around?

Find out on the next episode of SonicXD!

[snow tartan]

i’m sorry, he wasn’t aware of the MULTIPLE USES OF IT OVER THE PAST 23 YEARS???!?!?!?

dude needs to keep up with the franchise

[arctic fern]

well, if you dont play sonic games, you wouldnt know that the exact same song was used in all those games. you might think that folks really liked the lyrics and your original version

[wind stump]

Everywhere I look... I see her face.

on an unrelated note, oh god help, i'm binging nier music again

[snow tartan]

even so, sonic fans talk about it all the time and it’s usually the go to song for sa2 (which is referenced a lot until 06 and then brought up again for sonic and then shadow gens

if there were other versions used im sure he would’ve known but so far every version has been his

[light gate]

https://www.polygon.com/news/499129/stalker-2-gsc-game-world-profitable-dlc-expansions-multiplayer-netflix

Happy to see Stalker 2 to be a success.

[rotund forge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gi0ZP9o9qg

[snow tartan]

watch the qbert one be about a guy named bert in space battling monsters named Qs

seriously what is it with studios and going hilariously inaccurate to the source material lmao

its both annoying and hilarious at the same time

[sage iris]

a surprise to literally no one, but I sure did play this a lot this year

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1081185029885009962/1319022253903446016/image.png?ex=676472b3&is=67632133&hm=5b2e3a2ff5611ceff87cf8ba5e56e94bee5421560d2e0d83113ef740af4468ae&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1270&height=552

also this streak lol

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1081185029885009962/1319022389933113344/image.png?ex=676472d4&is=67632154&hm=081b1a9868f361de0548370e610d7357dd8cd4130b21abe0e2b53198a1a52ffe&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1106&height=552

[river veldt]

fuck off Steam this is an evil tagline 😭

[sage iris]

how are the steam medians so low??

[slim thorn]

classic median vs mean moment

[sage iris]

I played A LOT but I did not play a lot of games this year huh

[young creek]

im going to post mine and you'll understand

[young creek]

insane Spore sneak

[river veldt]

Spore

[sour hill]

This is a perfect score

[young creek]

Score?

[river veldt]

New Vegas gang

[sage iris]

the finals in top 3, gigachad

[cerulean herald]

[river veldt]

what about mine kratta

[young creek]

Even I beat the median..

[sage iris]

I played this game for over 1000 hours this year
that means on average I played every single day for 3 hours

[sour hill]

It's good but not as good as Artiks's

[river veldt]

what are your parameters

for a good score

[young creek]

probably how funny it is

spore is really funny..

[arctic fern]

huh i thought i spent more time helldiving

[sour hill]

The only parameter is the score itself

[river veldt]

what is the scote

[sour hill]

This #1032716748887179434 message

[wind stump]

my Castlevania looks weird.

[river veldt]

IM SO CONFUSED

[wind stump]

no this is thancred

[gaunt marten]

Here's mine

https://s.team/y24/ftqjcfm?l=english

No square picture since I'm on mobile and it didn't want to copy

[unreal idol]

I was going to check mine but I don't remember my password lol

[slim thorn]

I'll do it after I finish playing games

[fickle garnet]

Thats wild💀

[arctic fern]

https://s.team/y24/fbtdccg?l=english oh i can just share this

[wind stump]

jesus fucking christ...

[cerulean herald]

helldivers sweep

[wind stump]

https://s.team/y24/mhmkmhd?l=english what is wrong with me

[cerulean herald]

where are the touhou games /s

[wind stump]

how did i get
NINE
HUNDRED
ACHIEVEMENTS

Man
40% of my game time was FFXIV
i need to find some bitches

[cerulean herald]

Cobalt Core looks interesting, would you recommend it to someone who's not familiar with deck-builders?

[gaunt marten]

Yes!

It is the most accessible game in the genre

[dapper cedar]

positively adoring Demon's Crest lately, wanted to recommend here
the very vibe of it is precisely Sweep's brand of cosy

[robust latch]

My steam Replay has the Best Info

[fresh bane]

https://fxtwitter.com/maximilian_/status/1869208650453221496

probably one of the biggest ''fine we'll do it ourselves'' in gaming

[light gate]

C&D inbound.

[green fulcrum]

Why though? It's big enough that Capcom could've taken it down months ago.

[light gate]

Not authorized.

Legal dispute with Disney.

They’re waiting until its out.

[fresh bane]

Max is not an amateur and he has a very good relationship with Capcom, if there were any legal issues with this mod he would've caught onto it way sooner, it's not an entirely new fan game, it's a mod, it requires you to have purchased the game, I don't see where the problem is

[light gate]

Oh, thought it was standalone.

[fresh bane]

All the new content is all fanmade too, like new tracks

[light gate]

The trailer really made it feel like a standalone game.

[fresh bane]

No, it's not a fanmade game, it's a mod, a very big and ambicious mod that overhauls almost the entire game, but still just a mod

[light gate]

But idk bout fighting games, still a C&D can occur.

[fresh bane]

Not likely, a lot of work and money went into this, enough that it's probably pretty close to development of an AA game, there were a lot of hands involved in this project, a lot of professional coders, modelers, developers, artists, if there was ever the chance that anything done could've gotten any of them in legal trouble or the entire project shut down it would've been caught sooner

[light gate]

Like I said

Not saying it will.

They still have the right though.

If it was standalone then yeah, no way in hell.

[slim thorn]

oh god don't remind me

[hushed onyx]

I have laundry tonight

[visual hill]

press F to pay respects for TFH. 😢

[toxic seal]

Watching more people react to the Okami sequel reveal and there's this guy so shocked he breathes into his cat

[craggy vine]

pf I know, I have done that for ages

[fresh bane]

I'm almost certain Kamiya also reacted to that one lol

[dense crypt]

gonna play a full save of Doom 2: Whispers of Satan. Heard it's a stellar map pack, gonna play using God Complex and corruption cards.

[minor plover]

if you run into trouble figuring something out, let me know. I have that campaign basically memorized. It's got some pretty neat secrets.

[proud warren]

(if we're not counting TModLoader cus that's basically just more Terraria, Balatro would come in at #5)

[fresh bane]

TIL: completely avoiding starting the final quest which locks you into a point of no return is apparently extremely common to do in Cyberpunk and there's a whole meme about it in the community
that makes me feel a lot better about making Hanako wait for me to do the entirety of Phantom Liberty and still keeping her waiting because I'm just running around enjoying my time and having fun lol

[cerulean herald]

me when messing around the world and doing DLCs in Fallout before progressing the main story at all

[fresh bane]

I booted up the game today again, been running around the place, mostly taking some nice pics of V in various places, I even went to check on Panam and hey she has some dialogue related to Phantom Liberty's events that I didn't know about!

I wonder if other characters also have anything to say about it

maybe one day I'll go meet up with you at Embers, Hanako
maybe one day...

[craggy vine]

Oh yeah characters do have things to say about phantom liberty

I went to do a date with Panam and asked her to come to Dogtown and she refused

They did good at making it feel like a little more then just add on content

[sacred grove]

Playing some Descent II through a source port. The game is so much more enjoyable if you disable the thief bot

I don't mind so much the idea of an enemy that steals your shit and runs away, but there is literally no way to guard against it if you don't see the thief first. It makes things tense, yes, but it's tense in a profoundly unfun way to me, because now you are forced to chase it down if you want your stuff back, and the idea of that makes me not want to play

[minor plover]

you rang?

I'm the resident Descent guy. My wife and I met on the DescentBB, she made me a birthday cake that was a Descent robot, our 3 kids are named for Descent players, she wrote one of the modern ports (Retro, which formed the base for the newer Redux source port by Arne), we ran the Descent Champions Ladder for several years starting in 2013, we attended the wedding of two Descent players who met on our ladder, and I have Mike Kulas' phone number from when we helped with the Descent prequel game (Overload).

if you stream your game on twitch with the right tag, the bot on the Overload discord will automatically repost it

and, yes, the thief bot is broadly hated. Some people really like it, but to a lot of people it's just like ... you just set it off, run back to the beginning of the level, lay mines in the doorway, and use your rearview to watch it ram into the mines because it only approaches if you're facing away from it. Then you repeat the tactic enough times to eventually kill it. Stupid enemy. Too many HP, too effective at possibly destroying your ability to fight effectively, too evasive, and there are too many of them.

[sage iris]

Apparently they... Yeah
https://vxtwitter.com/dexerto/status/1869540528326689228

[sour hill]

huge

[cerulean herald]

jfc I wanna gauge my fucking eyeballs

[minor gorge]

[arctic fern]

When you do the final quest you can always return to a save before it
You even get rewards based on your ending sometimes

Or you can post 2.1 at least, as that's when I beat the game lol

[gaunt marten]

Comparing Steam replays in 2022, 2023 and 2024

[arctic fern]

play more games in 2025, smh my head

[gaunt marten]

I did! It was just more of the same games

[arctic fern]

smh my head

[uneven epoch]

i dont have much point in these statistics personally because its lackin my by far most played game, ff14 that i have off steam so its all completely skewed anyway

[cerulean herald]

if steam had Minecraft, that would def be a high contender

[arctic fern]

Oh yeah I have a few off-steam games too

This us just a bit of fun tho

[cerulean herald]

What off steam games do u play a lot of

[arctic fern]

Mostly Cyberpunk and vintage story atm

I also had rimworld before it was on steam

[craggy vine]

Woo cyberpunk

Has anyone here tried panicore? My sister wants me to try the game but I am unsure if I will like it..

I like other silly multiplayer horror games like escape the backrooms, content warning, and lethal company, and I think this game is in the same sorta area as those. But I am just unsure from looking at the steam reviews, I'm worried it won't feel interesting enough.

[gaunt marten]

"AI monsters"

Like... monsters?

[craggy vine]

Some people say the levels and monsters are very basic and that it just goes off the gimmick of using your microphone.

[gaunt marten]

Yeah, it just looks bad

[craggy vine]

Yeah I hate that the steam page says that. I doubt they do anything different then any other game.

Yeaah

[gaunt marten]

Phasmophobia seems like the same idea with a lot more polish

[craggy vine]

I feel bad not getting it and playing it with my sister, but I also just don't even know if we will enjoy it. Can't find any good youtube videos on it that are just hyping everything up for views.

Yeah I do have phasmophobia. I found it quite tricky though.

[gaunt marten]

You can try the demo to see if you like Panicore anyway

[craggy vine]

Yeah I can

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Sti9BztFY&t=1320s This video seems sorta useful. Took ages to find.

Just seems really basic. Hide from monsters and try to find items to escape. Escape the backrooms even seems way more interesting despite being a meme game sorta, it has some very unique levels all with different challenges.

Just kinda sucks.. I want to play games with my sister. She wants to play games that I am sorta not too interested in, and I just wanna keep playing l4d2.

[gaunt marten]

Sometimes, playing a game you don't enjoy with someone you value is worth it

[craggy vine]

hm maybe

And perhaps, I might not like the game on its own, but if I play it with people I like it will be much more fun.

Some games are like that, they feel empty on their own but great with good friends

Also my steam review is exactly what I expected

It's actually an ROG Ally with steam game mode on fedora but sure

Also have this as well

What a weird selection of games

I hope steam implements something into steam gaming mode that basically has better support for other devices. It works perfectly fine on other devices, it just thinks you are on a steam deck, even if you are on a couch pc with a 9800X3D and an rtx 4090 it seems.

Actually that is slightly wrong, it seems that it only works on AMD GPUs. But you can have an RX 7900XTX and steam will think you have a steam deck it seems.

[static bluff]

My Nintendo Switch year in review summed up in 9 seconds

[graceful bridge]

https://x.com/LocalThunk/status/1869487027231830053

localthunk (@LocalThunk) on X

Talked with PEGI and they do not see anything wrong Balatro being rated 18+, nor with EA sports FC (and similar games) having a 3+ rating

Blaming EU laws, blaming storefronts, waiting for the future. Sitting on their hands

I thought some good might come of this, this sucks

Twitter · Dec 18, 2024, 8:56 PM

[arctic fern]

actual fuckers

[gaunt marten]

PEGI, like other rating boards, is not an official regulator but a coalition of companies in the industry that offer self regulation in the way that suits them best

The Japanese CERO, as well as Brazil, China, India and others do have governmental ratings boards

So while PEGI is technically independent, the conditions where it was established were under the control of the videogame companies, who could easily manipulate these conditions to their advantage

[arctic fern]

see previous satement

[unreal idol]

I should check mine but I'm not at home

[graceful bridge]

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/vampire-survivors-f699a1

Free game of the day on Epic

[quiet swift]

https://www.gog.com/en/game/chicken_assassin_reloaded and on gog, this is free

[dapper cedar]

i have now completed the game, absolutely fantastic stuff i need more actiony platformy occasionally-explorey type games like it

[gaunt marten]

What's Demon's Crest?

[quartz pawn]

Argued as one of the best snes games. Related to Ghosts & Goblins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon's_Crest

[gaunt marten]

Right, but I want to hear about it from Sweep specifically

[quartz pawn]

oh oof my bad

[little badger]

@green fulcrum https://x.com/discussingfilm/status/1869797941265011002?

DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) on X

‘SONIC 4’ is in the works.

In theaters in Spring 2027.

(Source: https://t.co/mOBu8VH2XI)

Twitter · Dec 19, 2024, 5:32 PM

[green fulcrum]

Already knew this, based on the leaks I saw

It was in the works long before the trailer for the third one released

[little badger]

yeah I just hope Jim returns wouldn’t be the same without him

[arctic fern]

STEAM SALE

[gaunt marten]

Oh yeah it is christmas

[blissful sand]

Hell.fucling yeah!!!

[fickle garnet]

Oh my god

[wind stump]

Balatro?

[fickle garnet]

yes

[green fulcrum]

Oof, Steam is not loading well for me today.

[wind stump]

ah, makes sense

[cerulean herald]

same

[cerulean herald]

it's everywhere

[wind stump]

[unreal idol]

How much does that.game cost?

[static bluff]

I got it on Mobile and paid for it with money I earned from Google surveys. I think it was, like, $10?

[unreal idol]

Oh that's not bad

[wind stump]

JESUS CHRIST

[unreal idol]

I tried watching a gameplay video the other day but I didn't get it

[static bluff]

It's a great spin on Roguelikes

[unreal idol]

I don't think I've ever played a roguelike

[wind stump]

that was one hand

[unreal idol]

Infact I'm not entirely sure what a roguelike is

[static bluff]

Honestly it's one of those things that's hotly contested, so I'm not even gonna begin to explain it. But here are a few examples:

• FTL:Faster than Light
• Slay the Spire
• Into the Breach
• Hades
• The Binding of Isaac

[unreal idol]

I've never played any of those games

I'm a little familiar with Hades but isn't that an action game?

[static bluff]

Play all of them real quick

[unreal idol]

I'm at work and in debt

[static bluff]

Excuses excuses

[cerulean herald]

the most basic gist is: you play through levels/stages/rounds/etc to get a high score
if you die, you start all over again from scratch
the goal is get higher scores/survive longer

[static bluff]

It's very common for each run to feel unique based on different power-ups your characters get. So, think of it kind of like a deck building game, in a sense.

but like i'm painting in broad strokes here

[cerulean herald]

yeah
not sure if you know what PokeRogue is PK, but its kinda like that

[unreal idol]

I've never heard of that

I watched the trailer for Balatro but it didn't really explain much

[cerulean herald]

thing is, Balatro is also a Deck-Builder, another genre
If you're still confused by the game's premise, that's alright if you're not interested. Best I can say is to buy it and refund it if you still arent convinced (refunds only possible if you have less than 2 hours of playtime and withitn 14 days of buying it)

[unreal idol]

Yeah I don't get it

[minor plover]

the original "Rogue" game that "roguelike" comes from is a game where you start a new RPG-ish character, go through a randomly-created dungeon trying to go up in levels, trying to become more powerful, and there aren't "lives" or "saves" except for between sessions. If you lose, you just lose and start from scratch. Nethack is probably the most famous game within that genre.

other games are "rogue-lite" in the sense that you start from scratch, sort of, but there are also unlocks based on what you've done in past runs

[unreal idol]

Oh. Does that happen in Balatro?

[minor plover]

so in balatro, you're basically using playing cards to make poker hands to try to beat scoring targets, and trying to gather up powerups (jokers, modified cards, etc.) to increase your score. You try to score enough to beat the Ante 8 boss (I think it's 1 million points on the base difficulty.) If you don't make enough points for any round, your game ends and you start over from scratch.

but it's "rogue-lite" because you do unlock jokers as you play, and some of the unlocked jokers are super good

[unreal idol]

I see

Thank you for the explanation

It doesn't seem like it's a game for me

[green fulcrum]

Don't worry, it's not for me either. I was never one for card games.

There will never be a game that appeals to everyone.

Some people even hate Mario

[fresh bane]

Oh! That was a Balatro reference?

I just got that text too

[sage iris]

the guy who made Helltaker released a new game and it's actually really fun https://store.steampowered.com/app/3274300/Awaria/

Steam

Awaria

Welcome to the tunnel maintenance crew. If the generators fail, it's your job to fix them. Check what's wrong, craft all the needed parts and deliver them. It's simple. Just stay clear of anything that randomly cracks bolts of electricity, spews fire, throws sharp pieces of scrap at high-velocity or radiates with ominous green light.Features:Enj...

▶ Play video

[unreal idol]

Yeah that's true

I was curious since it won goty

[green fulcrum]

It didn't win

[cerulean herald]

you talking about Balatro? it was Astro Bot that won goty

[green fulcrum]

It was nominated, but Astro Bot won.

[unreal idol]

Oh I thought it won

[green fulcrum]

Would've been funny af if it did, but nah

[random steppe]

It was nominated for GOTY, which to be honest, for a one person game, is more rememarkable than Astro Bot winning it

It's absolutely insane that it was up there to begin with

[worldly summit]

OFF SWITCH

OFF SWITCH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2CuUUYuYw0

[river veldt]

oooo