general gaming

[gaunt marten]

Often used in Scrabble and nowhere else

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

[green fulcrum]

...Huh.

[cunning galleon]

Sweetie Drops

[minor plover]

it's one of my dad's favorite words, which is why when I had wrth on my first board and then someone played a C I was like ... flex

[quiet swift]

[wind stump]

crab 🦀

[gaunt marten]

https://old.rxddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/1ivgcon/we_wrote_a_tool_to_help_runners_and_communities/
Thanks for nothing, Twitch

[young creek]

Link is a cat and has boobs whats going on

[slim thorn]

Nintendo is no longer run by cowards

[graceful bridge]

https://bsky.app/profile/bdavewalters.bsky.social/post/3liqowijjrk26

B. Dave Walters - Yes, it is I! (@bdavewalters.bsky.social)

BRB new campaign just dropped

Reposts

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457

Bluesky · Feb 22, 2025, 6:28 AM

[river veldt]

new drinking game, take a shot every time Pinkie Pie does something funny

[green fulcrum]

You'd be dead long before you make it halfway through S1.

Kinda surprised that D&D never adopted a 14-sided die, now that I think about it.

[gaunt marten]

The dice sides are all platonic solids except for D10 which exists to make percentages easy

It is harder to make certain shapes have an equal chance of rolling any face, but 10 is easy to make that way and also manufacture

[quiet swift]

I might have gone overboard on that one boon...

[cerulean herald]

playing Nine Sols and I need help if anyone here knows what I need to do with those green ball thingys

[gaunt marten]

Ping Ixrec

[cerulean herald]

@slim thorn is this something I need to wait for an item/ability to unlock?

[slim thorn]

yes

it's a metroidvania; if you can't interact with a thing, you probably just don't have the item/ability for it yet

[cerulean herald]

alrighty, thanks

[visual hill]

shower thought: is real life a metroidvania?

[wind stump]

lmao

[proud warren]

"how 'bout I do, anyway?"

[wind stump]

"Hey, Yx-Sauce, Adol here.
We can't go back into the fog... But what if we did?"
v-sauce music

[uneven epoch]

https://www.tumblr.com/bratzoid/769915134943657984 (puttin it here cuz stardew valley) check the link for other seasons as well :3

[gaunt marten]

Cute

[visual hill]

Complementary shaders never ceases to amaze me.

(this is with Misa's texture pack)

[river veldt]

awwww

i love the chickens

[wind stump]

okay correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure cheese doesn't go in a fruit pie..

[fickle garnet]

Warhammer 40k Rouge Trader is on game pass. Nice

[fresh bane]

It's -45% off on Steam right now too
I was thinking of getting it, especially after getting Boltgun which I still plan on playing just so I can finally see what Warhammer is about, but I kept hearing stuff about the game still getting updates and content and these types of games or games made by this specific developer usually not really feeling ''finished'' until a bit after they come out and after they get some more updates so I was thinking of waiting it out first

But I heard it's good regardless especially for anyone already into Warhammer

[static bluff]

We'd still love you if you did

[visual hill]

Boltgun is pretty good, I heard

[fickle garnet]

Yeah Boltgun is fun. I should finish it sometime

[worldly summit]

realistic texture packs without shaders are so funny tho

[cunning galleon]

They're kinda nostalgic without shaders

[hasty patio]

https://youtube.com/shorts/O-UzCPiVZMw @uneven epoch

[random steppe]

The cow mooing right on cue is the best part

[arctic fern]

hey i finally got around to smelting my first copper tols in vintage tory

just gotta wait for them to cool down before i can actually craft the tool

[bitter stream]

hope you're enjoying it, I've heard good things about Vintage Story, but it looks almost painfully minute about how you do things

[sacred grove]

VS is much more focused on survival and delayed gratification

Personally I don't have enough patience or attention span to get anywhere with it

[cerulean herald]

why is Tirek wearing cat ears now

[hidden elbow]

New ultrakill update is said to be released in 15 or so hours......revamp awaiting

[cunning galleon]

Beautiful

Very beautiful

Why is China getting the good stuff???

[forest shoal]

These are Balatro jokers based on pony stuff

There's a lot of interesting pony related cards that I could draw inspiration from

[static bluff]

Woohoo! I won a run of Star of Providence for the first time. This is the boss fight. Super hard,omg.

[dense crypt]

What game this

[static bluff]

Star of Providence

[gaunt marten]

For the hits you've taken, you seem to be moving too fast.

[static bluff]

Keyboard & mouse problems, haha

[gaunt marten]

You can reduce your mouse sensitivity to help with that, or use a controller. If you have a "gaming" mouse, the software usually has per-game DPI settings

For fine movement, people tend to prefer an arcade stick, then an analog stick

If you move with keyboard, your only option is for the game to have a dash or a slow down button

[static bluff]

Yeah, I should bust out the controller

[gaunt marten]

I personally use a PS4 controller where the left stick moves and the right stick aims

[gaunt marten]

https://pegi.info/news/pegi-complaints-board-amends-classifications-balatro-and-luck-be-landlord-pegi-12

PEGI retracts the Balatro and Luck be a Landlord 18+ ratings, rating them at 12 years

[unreal idol]

They gave Balatro an 18+ originally?

[gaunt marten]

Yeah

Simulated gambling

[unreal idol]

[green fulcrum]

Gambling is exclusively an 18+ game mechanic, so regardless of how harmless the game actually is to minors, by law the developer had to give the game an 18+ rating. Luckily it got knocked down to PEGI 12, so now parents won't have to feel awkward about letting their kids play Balatro.

[gaunt marten]

Well no

PEGI is not a government or law regulator

They make up their own rules

They are basically videogame publishers rating games for parents

That's why loot boxes (actual gambling) don't get a bad rating but Balatro (fake gambling) did

[green fulcrum]

Ah, I thought PEGI was European law for game ratings.

My bad

[random steppe]

It's essentially the attempt of the EU gaming industry to avoid regulations by self regulating "good enough" to the point that they hope it's not necessary to draft actual laws

That said, some countries do incorporate it into actual law

Like, I am 99% sure that if you sell a game with a 18+ pegi rating to a minor in italy, there is a law that applies to you

And they use the PEGI rating for it

But I think it's the only case that is regulated, and it's relatively recent as a law

(like, a few years)

[hidden elbow]

Its here

[wind stump]

Karja is such a mood

[eager bane]

We have the """"independent"""" USK (Unterhaltungssoftwareselbstkontrolle) for age ratings which is...partly state related?
It's interesting to see how much it differs from the pegi rating sometimes.

I wish they'd all just put any game with lootboxes as 18+ tbh

I furthermore would like to see hard regulation on lootboxes in general

[visual hill]

TDU Solar Crown is 18+ because of simulated gambling

[eager bane]

Wait, it is? damn.
Were the older games, too?

[visual hill]

France almost did it like Belgium and Netherlands, but backpedaled after Valve put out its X-ray scanner in CS:GO

[visual hill]

no, 12+ because of sexy car wash segments instead

(first one didn't have those so it's 3+)

[eager bane]

I remember those
TDU2 is one of the very few games I 100%ed (except for the multiplayer content, servers were already down back then)

[random steppe]

Unterhaltungssoftwareselbstkontrolle
You guys need to stop

[minor plover]

I like to wash my sexy car too.

[eager bane]

never!

[uneven epoch]

this nightmarish scenario by gen too good to keep confined in our raid server

squeenix do not take notes

[random steppe]

[wind stump]

i refuse to elaborate on "Head. Mantle. Wednesday."

[quiet swift]

[fresh bane]

the entire arkham trilogy for like 5 bucks

Laika on sale for 50% off too for any metroidvania fans, I'm waiting on a sale of Nine Sols myself though

[wise frigate]

where'd you find this?

[forest shoal]

I wrote it myself.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iQX0MbDhZ2NVGggVz9NKO_qMm0DK_3MLX_Hc5WDuL5s/edit?usp=drivesdk

Hopefully some of these jokers aren't too OP

[minor plover]

"oh no, I attacked the back side of the queen ... the queen is thicc" - uThermal, in a terran vs zerg game

[green fulcrum]

[cunning galleon]

[cunning galleon]

Ok that's it,,, i need that flirt emoji i am joking eqd

[quiet swift]

I have just discovered a video of Mr Bean in... Cyberpunk 2077.

[river veldt]

bought American Truck Simulator along with the Oregon DLC for my steam deck

excited, ive wanted to play this game for a while

plus they're releasing Iowa in the near future

[fresh bane]

The people who have full setups to play games like Truck Simulator are absolute maniacs, I'm talking full three wide screens with sideview mirrors and pedals and a wheel and even an authentic truck chair

I did always want to get a game like that though just because it's one of those infinity games you can just always come back to for a while every now and again, nothing too complex and it never technically ends so you can just get in there and chill for a while, just truckin'

[minor plover]

I love the idea of playing a truck sim game

[hidden elbow]

This new menu is so COOL

[bitter stream]

oh yo! is that from the new update? what else have they added?

[hidden elbow]

Nothing much just A COMPLETE GRAPHIC REVAMP OF AN ENTIRE GAME

[bitter stream]

oh?

[hidden elbow]

New enemy behaviour, balance changes , new models for everything and even a new level encore-0

This is......huge to say the least

[bitter stream]

oh whoa, graphical revamp sounds fun

how much better does it look?

Thought I suppose part of the charm is the kinda pixelated nature of it

[hidden elbow]

Well here is comparison of limbo
https://youtu.be/ApNrTEB3Gg8?si=p-Ja7-iWBAkicxGq

It has....much more mechanical, factory vibe to it

Lust layer actually looks like a big megapolis now

[bitter stream]

oh whoa, nice

[hidden elbow]

We also got updated to the Windows xp

[cunning galleon]

Some unique Headcodes, but it'll be a problem if there's heavy traffic

[cunning galleon]

Old meets new

[hidden elbow]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3545060/Team_Fortress_2_Classic/

Steam

Team Fortress 2 Classic

Team Fortress 2 Classic is a mod for Team Fortress 2 that re-imagines the early post-launch era — circa 2008 to 2009 — of the original game. Starting from there, we've added quality-of-life features, remade and reworked scrapped content, and built onto it with full-size updates in homage to TF2's timeless style and tone.NEW-OLD FEATURESMeet the ...

Release Date

2025

▶ Play video

Tf classic got a steam page and will release this year

[cunning galleon]

Is this because TF is open source now? (well, having tf2 code into source sdk

[hidden elbow]

Yeah pretty much

[hidden elbow]

Oh........i think i might be in danger

[wind stump]

do you have games on your phone

There's also Dead by Daylight, Fallout, Assassin's Creed themed face cards too.
Makes me wonder how much the dev is making from these "Friend of Jimbo" updates

[quiet swift]

Huh. Japanese crpg... as in, set in an alt universe 1800s Japan with mechas and yokais? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1173980/Shadow_of_the_Road/

Steam

Shadow of the Road

Step into 1868 Japan, a land fiercely divided by a brutal civil war between the traditionalist forces of Shōgun Tokugawa and the technologically superior army of Emperor Mutsuhito, backed by the British East Nippon Company. Amidst this turmoil, warriors, spies, and mystical beings navigate a world where magic and machinery intertwine, the jarrin...

Release Date

To be announced

▶ Play video

[random steppe]

Looks pretty unique

[quiet swift]

Indeed!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3306400/Redemption_of_Liuyin/

Steam

Redemption of Liuyin

Preface guidanceAs the third installment of the Ryukyu Hidden series and the Ryukyu Hidden Nine Ultimate Reincarnation Chapter, the game is designed with a combat system that advocates for attack and the belief that hesitation will lead to defeat. The goal is to create a sweat drenched combat experience for players in every game.Story outlineThe...

Release Date

Mar 23, 2025

▶ Play video

[smoky sonnet]

options menu being alligned with the left side of the screen bugs me so much but that's my only complaint

it looks so good otherwise

[rancid herald]

what do you mean 'alt universe', that's just 1800s Japan fr

[wind stump]

beeg feesh

[cerulean herald]

fishing game

[wind stump]

i genuinely believe fishing mechanics are only a boon for any game

and if you disagree, it's okay to be wrong :)

*for legal purposes this is a J K

[tropic kindle]

I bring the BOOM

[fresh bane]

https://bsky.app/profile/jasonschreier.bsky.social/post/3lizk5skwps2d

Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social)

BREAKING: Warner Bros. Games is shutting down Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB San Diego, sources tell Bloomberg News.

Warner Bros. is also canceling the Wonder Woman game.

Reposts

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1331

Quotes

802

Replies

131

Bluesky · Feb 25, 2025, 6:57 PM

It's like every single gaming company is scrambling to see who can make the worse decisions

[light gate]

The problem is that the industry has stalled.

So they’re losing investors.

Hence, choppin block!

[hushed onyx]

What game is that?

Oops, didn’t mean to ping.

[tropic kindle]

Rise of Nations Roblox

[tropic kindle]

It’s fine

[arctic fern]

playing vintage story in voicechat if anyone is interested

[cunning galleon]

Choo choooo

[uneven epoch]

a report from kingdom come deliverance II, now that im at point of no return for first map (you can still come back later actually, just stuck in main line for a bit); most importantly, i am having a blast. very fun very enjoyable much recommend.

60 hours in, me being me i did all side quests, tasks and about 98% of activities (theres one i just dont care about rn so, meh maybe a lot later).

favorites include (mild spoilers for side quests) ||stealing a lute for two dumbasses and regretting my decisions (they sing an ode to my name, badly), drinkin so hard i hallucinate a talking dog who tries to impart my life's mission to me but i tell him getting more drunk is my goal, and having deep sociopolitical discussions with a sheep (in this case im sober and doin a silly baaah noises in liueu of responses, its adorable).||

so far ive run into two bugs, both in side activities. which is frankly incredible given what the first game was like. in both cases i accidentally broke the "planned" sequencing; in one i met an npc too early by exploring and when i came back later i wasnt able to interact with them, and in another i finished a main quest preemptively, thus lockin me out of a room i needed to get in (i solved that one with teleport console command). slightly sad bc the npc gives an achievement, but oh well, maybe in a future patch or such.

id say the early game is rougher than in first installment, but the level curve slings in ur favor a looot earlier. granted i am deliberately makin it worse by doin everythin under the sun and not touching main quest until forced. and also stealing a lot bc its actually doable in this one. also also in next playthrough i wont be gettin the preorder gear quest bc it turns out tis just a biiiiiit ovepowered (ive had some pieces equipped for 40 hours now ).

really enjoy all the additions and revisions, though multi person combat still sucks. also i can do controls correctly now wahoo. no more blockin with Q on reflex!

all in all 12/10, will level drinking skill again

[river veldt]

looks interesting and it's steam deck compatible, might have to try it out

[proud warren]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3000120/FISH_FEAR_ME/

Steam

FISH FEAR ME

FISH FEAR ME is a top-down Vampire Survivors-style roguelite where you fish up your enemies to fight, defeat, and sell them! Catch fish, uncover secrets, and hunt bounties to earn cash and forbidden knowledge, and use those resources to upgrade your boat, unlock new weapons and tools, and gain new abilities. Each region has new fish to catch, ne...

Price

$7.99

▶ Play video

not the doom pose

[quiet swift]

[hasty patio]

and also stealing a lot bc its actually doable in this one.
I got the achievement for stealing 30k worth during my first bout with the game during the launch days, so just get good/try harder /s.

Glad to hear you're having a blast and it seems to be a more polished version of the first game.

[fresh bane]

Wooooo
Fox rank

and that's about as high as I'll ever go because I'm not doing Extreme/European Extreme lol

but hey, you get to mess around with infinite stealth camo after if you load up the save and I get to do my favourite thing in these games, punching guards in the nuts, and that's enough for me

[hasty patio]

Congrats. That's tough to do.

[fresh bane]

I may have used some underhanded tactics, like the weird glitch with The Fear fight where if you fake your death and stun him and then shoot him with an AK, it counts as non-lethal damage for some reason, and using Volgin's camo for the final bike chase which makes enemies not shoot at you at all so you just kinda chill for the entire ride, but I just wanted to do a casual run to test out my new controller, and also see how quick I could finish Hard mode since I had just beaten the game earlier a few weeks ago too

Funnily enough, The Pain's boss fight was a total pain, probably the most annoying one out of the entirety of all of them, even The Boss isn't as hard
Although I don't know if I'd call it hard, he's just got so many i-frames and the bees are very annoying so there's very little openings at all during that fight, you really have to wait him out the entire time

[quiet swift]

[fresh bane]

WoW has cartels?

[quiet swift]

Goblin cartels, yes

[fresh bane]

[dense crypt]

the bilgewater cartel in particular

[wind stump]

sanae pls no conversion in my Christian Izakaya

[little badger]

Games this month for PlayStation all tiers of membership get the games

[graceful bridge]

Wow, holy shit

https://blog.playstation.com/2025/02/26/playstation-plus-monthly-games-for-march-dragon-age-the-veilguard-sonic-colors-ultimate-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-the-cowabunga-collection/

Yeah, that's... a really good set of games for the month.

[little badger]

[snow tartan]

i hope colors ultimate does better on my ps5 than switch

and also stops randomly crashing when i go into the options satellite

[fickle garnet]

Balatro on game pass

[little badger]

It will as it has more power

[fickle garnet]

On my very first run of Balatro, I got all the way to the ante 8 boss and then I failed

I think I understand why people love this game now...

[fresh bane]

https://bsky.app/profile/kaiserneko.bsky.social/post/3lj3z7qjiz22b

Scott "KaiserNeko" Frerichs (@kaiserneko.bsky.social)

Apex Legend's French VAs all refused to come back and provide their voices for A.I. training to replace them.

www.reddit.com/r/Games/s/1F...

I cannot begin to express how truly and deeply I want these anti-human, scum fuck, corporate ghouls to lose their jobs. Minimum.

Reposts

358

Likes

873

Bluesky · Feb 26, 2025, 6:32 PM

Good for them

[visual hill]

I didn't know localized VAs were even a thing for Apex to be fair

I tend to assume games don't do localized VAs quite as often as back in the day

Overwatch also has those, but the only time I've heard it is when Widowmaker uses her ultimate with subtitles on

(because you hear the English VO if subtitles are off)

[fickle garnet]

I beat a run in Balatro

[minor plover]

GG

[azure lichen]

Hell yeah

I got to the ladder part in MGS3

[fresh bane]

SNAAAAAKE EATEEEEEER
🎺 🎺 🎺

[fresh bane]

alright well let's see what these games are all about
I haven't really played Hades 1, and I'm not particularly super huge into these roguelike style games but I just happened to have some leftover steam wallet mone and I could go for a game I can just dump some hours into plus I dig the isometric action style gameplay

[river veldt]

Hades pog

the first one is incredible, im waiting to play the second until it's finished

[fresh bane]

Usually I would too, before getting it I was looking around to see what people were saying and a lot of people were saying that especially after the recent update the game has a lot of content much more than the first so I thought why not

[slim thorn]

I expect I'll try Hades 2 someday, but I just have too much else to do to seriously consider it anytime soon

[quiet swift]

Lorewise hades 1 is kinda necessary and I'd be shocked if it isn't cheaper right now than hades 2~

[fresh bane]

yeeeeaaah... I just played a quick hour of this and this game's dangerous lol
It's kind of exactly what I was craving right about now but it's one of those games that seem like they're so fun and addicting that you can just dump so many hours in this without noticing

Decently challenging too I needed to get that upgrade that gives you hearts when you go through a new area because otherwise I'd just be dying all the time

[fresh bane]

I'm sure it probably is, but to be completely honest, right now I'm just craving some fun gameplay so I didn't care too much about the fact that I'm jumping into a sequel that probably benefits from context from the first game

[fresh bane]

supposedly it should be coming out fully this year so I guess wait until it's fully out of early access, I just happened to not have much going on right now and I could use an arcade-y style game I can just jump into for some fun and then get out and continue doing other stuff, all the other games I was in the middle of a playthrough of were all RPGs and I'm just not in the right headspace right now for something like SMTV

[light gate]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/02/fresh-leaks-suggest-half-life-3-development-may-be-nearing-completion/?

Don’t… Don’t give me hope….

I know Tyler McVicker tends to… overhype. But he was right about HL:VR.

[river veldt]

copium administered

i want to believe so bad

[random steppe]

Ok listen, it kind of has to happen

The universe just needs to get its kicks in so that HL3 comes out before Silksong, after that happens I belive we can finally get a Silksong release date

It's just the natural order of things

[green fulcrum]

Leave it to the 2020s to be so damn mind-bogglingly weird.

[river veldt]

please god

i want to see Gordon and Alyx and Eli and Kleiner and Barney again

people on the half life subreddit just want Valve to put up the steam page on a random day with no fanfare and honestly that would be hilarious

[green fulcrum]

It would be very much a Valve thing to do.

[light gate]

Or maybe... just maybe... we traded one for the other.

[random steppe]

Silksongs will come out, eventually, there is no doubt, it's the when the problem

[quiet swift]

So most of the stuff you get like hearts/mana/gold just go for the one run. The other materials (ashes and arcana) is what you probably want to seek out since you're just starting, as that's the stuff you need to unlock/use arcanas, which gives you permanent buffs across all runs

[fresh bane]

I was trying to figure out how that worked yeah, I figured as much for hearts mana and any other upgrade you get for your weapons or abilities but I didn't know it applied to gold too so I'll be less stingy about wasting gold now when I find a shop

the heart recovery one I mentioned was one of the cards you can unlock which I'm guessing those are the permanent upgrades

[quiet swift]

Yep. The gray one (ashes) unlock the cards and also let you upgrade them, when you get to that point (with other rarer materials). The arcana (green) are what lets you increase the maximum amount you can 'use' for the cards - that green hand on that window. Goes up to 30

One of the cards you'll want to unlock is the one that gives "death defiance". Basically, they're 1 ups

[fresh bane]

Yeah I saw it but I didn't get that one yet I think, I ended up getting one that makes me invulnerable and faster when I'm casting which sounded pretty useful

at least I appreciate that they let you deactivate these and just go with other stuff if you want so I don't feel pressured to pick the ''right'' upgrades

at least that's what I assume happens I haven't tried doing that yet

[quiet swift]

You do get quite a lot more so you can mix and match to find what you like, limited by the max arcana (30 as mentioned)

Death definance is definitely the most important one to get, imo~

Especially upgraded

[fresh bane]

Yeah probably after that boss fight I kinda got killed by regular enemies just because I was already low on health and got careless, I'd probably prefer that not happening again but I'm not stressing too much about all that yet just because it's so early still

I'll probably get to that point after a few hours

[cunning galleon]

Life and death

[river veldt]

i hope half life 3 will run on steam deck

[cerulean herald]

It won't, you'll need a Steam Deck 2 by the time HL3 releases

[fickle garnet]

🙏 please god let it happen

[tawny jacinth]

Ready or Not might just be the first non-horror game where I have genuinely been scared beyond my wits

[plain harbor]

Just finished my first run of Dynasty Warriors Origins. It's like other DW games, but also not. Yes, there is a lot of its trademark hack-and-slash action, but it's very refined and definitely not as easy as other games. I'd say it's both a return to form and Koei-Tecmo and W-Omega Force learning from past mistakes in trying to innovate and follow trends.

[cunning galleon]

Canterlot Special. The only passenger service running from Ponyville to Canterlot, the Class 40 can't survive the winding rails of Canterlot Mountain

[river veldt]

James ???

[cunning galleon]

It is James the Splendid Red Engine

He's my only complete tender engine so i just changed his number and replaced his 5 with CNER

I just noticed the wrong Headcodes

Maroon looks so good

Maroon feels... Royal

[river veldt]

ooo

[fresh bane]

lol wow that's awesome

all the tracks so far in this game have been great honestly

(I like that Charon doesn't even speak he just goes ''hmmmmmmmm.....'' and Melinoe seems to understand him anyways )

[quiet swift]

Fucking awesome music is a trademark of Hades, yes

Also, the music composer (and I think instrument player, for the most part?) also voices Schellemeus (and another character in Hades 1 as well)

[green fulcrum]

The King and the Bull is one of THE greatest tracks I have heard in a video game. The first half is pure awesomeness, but the second the metal starts going to town, the song just becames the best head-banger of a tune that ever graced the world with its presence.

[fresh bane]

Yeah that sounds pretty sick

I like the first half of it I really really dig that style of music

First area in this one has a great track too
https://youtu.be/T10-e2zgcTk?si=TxrEg3ZixGHpJ1ab

Probably because it reminds me of Age of Mythology's soundtrack which was my entire childhood lol

[quiet swift]

Yes, but

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

Also, going back much further, I believe this was their first game under the name Supergiant. Also phenomenal music. https://store.steampowered.com/app/107100/Bastion/

Steam

Bastion

Bastion is an action role-playing experience that redefines storytelling in games, with a reactive narrator who marks your every move. Explore more than 40 lush hand-painted environments as you discover the secrets of the Calamity, a surreal catastrophe that shattered the world to pieces. Wield a huge arsenal of upgradeable weapons and battle sa...

Price

$14.99

Recommendations

27458

Metacritic

86

▶ Play video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3BDiQQ98ik in particular, I love this track

(okay i'll stop linking now)

[fresh bane]

Bastion aahhhhh that's a name I haven't heard in a while

I remember hearing a lot about it back in the day

[quiet swift]

You can see the DNA of Hades in all of Supergiant's past games

[little badger]

New PSVR2 Pricing https://play.st/43eGsPH

[light gate]

... So it went up?

What was the original price??

[forest shoal]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=1OzE8kFmhBI

[bitter stream]

is this starting in 30 minutes?

[forest shoal]

Yes.

[bitter stream]

are you hoping to see anything in particular?

[cunning galleon]

Pokemon mystery dungeon

Or sneak peaks for Z

[bitter stream]

I'd love to see either

[cunning galleon]

Pmd is highly unlikely and is basically false hope

Holy shit new battle mechanics that actually seem cool

[blissful sand]

games looks like a singleplayer gmod map

[little badger]

Nearly 600

[light gate]

https://youtu.be/wWd6ox2dgec?

Silent announcement ehh?

Wild that is at the top of trending.

[eager bane]

it's so weird to see

[quiet swift]

Huh, must've missed a week, I guess? Everything before bioshock infinite is a new addition for free with prime

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/ea-just-released-source-code-for-a-bunch-of-old-command-and-conquer-games-and-added-steam-workshop-support-to-bangers-like-c-and-c-3-tiberium-wars/

[wind stump]

LETS
FUCKING

GOOOOOOOOOOO

[light gate]

No TSun or RA2

Also they’re under GPLv3

[gaunt marten]

GPLv3 is exactly what's needed for modding

And since they didn't release the assets, you still need to buy the game to play it

[slim thorn]

well, permissive licenses are usually even better for modding, but yeah copyleft works too

[light gate]

The only crazy thing is that Tiberian Dawn source code was recovered.

It was lost before, or thought to be lost.

Still, makes me wonder why TSun and RA2 remain the exception.

They’re the most demanded titles to be recovered, and are considered the best in the series (RA2 at least).

https://youtu.be/qN2gryZYz6g?

Beta footage and other goodies has been uploaded

Goddam I’m still pissed at EA for handling the C&C franchise as a joke.

[wind stump]

SUIIIIIIIIII GENERALS WORKSHOP

(aka the best C&C game)

[visual hill]

unexpected but welcome

[visual hill]

this makes me wonder if they are getting remastered 🙂

so their source code release would only happen at the same time the remaster is out

[light gate]

Doubt it.

[visual hill]

it's kind of the season of remasters of sequels right now, with Tomb Raider IV-VI, and now THPS 3+4 being leaked by ratings

(and the 03/04 announcement date making it super obvious anyway)

[light gate]

EA's uhh... laughing stock leader is so obsessed with LIVE SERVICES.

[visual hill]

https://manebooru.art/images/1779546
finally this will be an actual thing in the game

[light gate]

Uhhh, okay Valve... thanks for the uhh... notification?

[green fulcrum]

Why did nobody tell me just how awesome this soundtrack was??? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMh5sXxTV-A

This is BOPPIN'

[cunning galleon]

[toxic seal]

Playing Tales of Zestiria right after Tales of Berseria hits different. Zestiria was released first so you can tell the story/lore beats that smoothly tie into Berseria and the ones that were afterthoughts. Big difference in cast and voice acting, though. Berseria's is on-point in both aspects, Zestiria has a great cast but the voice acting feels bit more stiff--like yuou can definitely tell when a single scene was done in different takes or in different stages of production. I guess it also feels different because one game has a party of fine upstanding citizens who want nothing more than to bring peace to the world and the other is a party of misfit troublemaking morally grey people following a girl hell-bent on doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

[cunning galleon]

hm

this fucking dumbass cuts me off and runs me off the road?????????

come on now

my car is a beater now

[fresh bane]

that was quick

that was the longest time I got so far, 30 min, not bad not bad, got through the last boss I died to and reached the other location's boss

I spent the entirety of that time after the siren fight with low HP so.. I was sweatin' that whole time
(which, speaking of, I really love the detail that if you kill the drummer or the guitarist during that fight, their respective instruments will stop playing, that's awesome)

also this whole sequence was just beautiful

(also also, axe)

[arctic fern]

im sorry? who gives a shit steam?

[gaunt marten]

Having played them in the natural order I came to similar conclusions

[visual hill]

I'm curious about it but I already completed the story years ago

and I don't care about online (tried it in 2016, I felt like I was spending most of the time in loading screens or waiting)

but that's a general problem I have with a lot of online games, too much time spent not playing for various reasons

[random steppe]

That was the main reason that turned me off Starfield, I don't mind doing stuff in menus if it's compelling, i play PDX games, that is exclusively clicking on things in menu, but inventory managment is the death of the soul.

[little badger]

New bot to use in game

[graceful bridge]

https://www.gog.com/en/news/gog_preservation_program_introduces_the_legor_series

[umbral zinc]

somebody's making a MLP mod for balatro

those are going to be digitalized for the mod

they're @poxy_boxy on twitter, idk if they got a bluesky tho

[chilly mural]

that's so cool

[wind stump]

damn that Rich Presence tho

[little badger]

Bug horse mentioned

[unreal idol]

Oh damn I might get it if it has pony mods

[fresh bane]

Yeah Boxy's got a bsky too

They do cool poster art too

https://bsky.app/profile/poxyboxy.bsky.social

Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/poxyboxy.bsky.social/post/3lj626fq54s2a

[PoxyBoxy] (@poxyboxy.bsky.social)

Bluesky · Feb 27, 2025, 1:54 PM

[unreal idol]

Interesting

[sour hill]

Looks clean

[cerulean herald]

I've now finished Nine Sols
Reached the ending, || and holy fuck the final boss was stupid hard (I did true ending so she had 3 phases) but somehow I managed, was pretty much on the verge of giving up bc that was an obscene difficulty spike ||
Either way it was a great game and I enjoyed it very much, 9(sols)/10

[slim thorn]

for me the final boss hits that perfect sweet spot of being very hard, but in a way that I consistently get better at with practice, so even though it took me literally three days to beat her ||on normal ending! though I later went back and did true ending|| I loved every minute of it

[cerulean herald]

Yeah I had to put the game down and try another day bc I was getting frustrated, I started to wonder if i lacked the skills to beat the boss it really was a whole nother level compared to the other bosses
Really just needed to keep going, I figured I could possibly do it just needed more time and practice, it's a very cool boss battle ngl and definitely fitting for a final boss, music was great too. the OST has some bangers my favorite ||is the music during Ji's battle||

[slim thorn]

I'm actually working on a randomizer mod for it atm

someone else already made a mod that makes the bosses harder so I'm likely gonna try combining those

[cerulean herald]

oh sweet
for the harder version mod, what exactly does it do that makes the battles more difficult?

[slim thorn]

I haven't fiddled with it myself but: https://thunderstore.io/c/nine-sols/p/Gogas1/BossChallengeMod/

atm I need to focus on completing my randomizer, its status is more or less "dangerously close to playable" so I really want to get it over the line

[umbral zinc]

i got nine sols in my wishlist based on how beautiful it looks but i'm not the biggest metroid-vanian out there

it is a skill issue, but sometimes... games are too hard for me to enjoy them

[slim thorn]

I know that feeling, more than one genre falls into that for me

metroidvanias have a wide range of skill requirements though, and for Nine Sols it's worth noting it has a "Story Mode" that lets you adjust damage dealt/received modifiers, so in theory almost anyone should be able to get that to a difficulty they're comfortable with

(my "three days" was for the final boss on standard mode; I could've dropped to story mode if I wanted to, but I was fully in "I can do this" mindset by then)

[umbral zinc]

that convinces me to give it a try

also, i've enjoyed hollow knight quite a lot

[slim thorn]

ah, you should be fine then; I would say 9S (standard) is harder than HK, but not by a large margin, especially if you include HK's harder optional bosses (some of HK's DLC bosses I simply cannot beat, unlike 9S)

[fresh bane]

hello there....

so I played for a bit more today and I actually || got to Chronos || this session, and in less time than it took me to get to Cerberus last time!

Unfortunately same problem, too little health already, Eris gave me a little blessing before she flew away making it so each room I receive more and more damage from enemies thanks...

but we're getting there, I'm actually not entirely sure if all that stuff is spoilers or anywhere close to the end because I kinda just started playing it's really been a few hours

well.... a little more I guess

I had to use two abilities that revive you to get through this fight
I got the centaur card after this though (which apparently is free of cost which is insane because the effect is crazy good) so hopefully next run I'll be able to maybe get through that guy

I don't know if I wanna go back to the dex build with the daggers or if I wanna keep this str build with the axe because the damage and the AOE attacks are... pretty damn good

[quiet swift]

@fresh bane Grats! And yeah, Eris is hot. But then again, the entire cast is hot, really. Good job getting there!
For cards, I'd also suggest getting the ones that increase the chance of boons being of higher quality. Real game changers.
And don't forget to give everyone at least one Nectar~
For the weapons, when you are at the main camp, one of them will tend to glow with a dark smoke or something. I'd suggest picking that one for the run, as you get 2 bones per room clear, which does add up

[visual hill]

https://www.reddit.com/r/NightdiveStudios/comments/1j0ljjm/turok_is_now_available_on_xbox_series_x_and/
Turok patch!!

[bronze abyss]

@uneven epoch apologies for ping,currently playing kcd1 and im struggling quite a bit with combat,any tips on that? rn my issue is that everything i do gets blocked and i cant seem to get around that even if i try faking attacks n all that

especially a lot of difficultiies with multiple enemies at once

[hasty patio]

There's a trainer in the first town you have to go to that can help with that. It's free, outside maintenance for weapons/armor.

[dense crypt]

PONY MAP

[fresh bane]

oooh that reminds me so much of this one map I used to play in all the time back in like 2014
I somehow found a random yt video precisely showcasing some mlp maps and luckily the guy shows the one I happened to play in a bunch

there was one teleporter in there that took you to the skybox of the map so you would see gigantic versions of the players running around in the skybox all the time which was really fun

I doubt whatever server it was in is still running probably

[cerulean herald]

lost media

[fresh bane]

Nah not quite lost media
https://gamebanana.com/mods/71439

but I don't know if any server with this map is still active

and if any mlp themed server is still up they probably have better maps, to be quite honest this map was really shitty but we liked it anyways

[dense crypt]

there was a map set in celestias maze garden, i think that's lost media.

[river veldt]

holy shit i think i remember this

[uneven epoch]

hi, like lunar says the best way is to train with bernard some more. have you unlocked master strikes yet? those make combat simpler significantly. and even in general, the higher the combat level the easier time you'll have and enemies will suck at blocking you. also not no tell you which weapons to use, but yeaaah long swords are the dev's special little star and are the best weapon type but honestly, just leveling up helps a ton. as for fightin multiple enemies, if you have the chance (say, clearin out bandot camps), try to pick them apart one by one. a sneak kill on someone sleepin here, tryin for a lucky arrow there, baitin one by lettin them sorta-spot you to investigate n murdering them away from others, that kinda stuff. if you cant, having the higher ground and backing away after a hit or two helps. alchemy is a very good thing to pick up, if only to make savior schnapps to save before every planned encounter (but there are plenty supportive options in (and out) of combat; nighthawk for night camp raids, artemisia for easier combat, poisoning your weapons my adored, so on). plus you can sell for a neat profit, and once you unlock autobrew you're home free money wise. even if you're doing an illiterate henry run (my condolences if you do) (oh yeah, learn to read! itll help!) you can still make potions because the game doesnt actually check if you bought a recipe, and well, internet is a thing similarly, dependin on how much you view it as "cheating", treasure map locations are still there even if you look the location up on internet instead of spendin a fortune on maps. the best sword in the game is just, hangin around in a forest but, yeah the train with bernard some more is the key

[hasty patio]

There is a trick with the master strikes that requires some space to run in. Essentially, you target an enemy, get a swing in, disengage, run back a bit, wait for them to get close, target immediately with a master strike and it should hit each time. There's a video or two on that.

As for the trainer, be sure to unlock the Master Strikes (there are skills for it IIRC) and wear decent armor if you plan to train for a while (also a decent and risk-free way of gaining repair skill).

[uneven epoch]

and since you probably have the dlc version, mutt is helpful best boi who loves distractin opponents

[hasty patio]

bringi has it nailed for the rest, but note that there are sections of the game where you are forced to fight multiple people. Having a favored weapon or having the right type of weapon for the fight at hand helps a lot.

[uneven epoch]

as far as i remember you also do those sections (or at least most of them) with npcs, and there's no shame in leanin on them. come my meat shield/bait, i wanna do some slashes to the back!

there are some specific parts that can be cheesed too; during pribyslavitz portion of midgame, ||when you're supposed to go and sabotage the camp, you can sneak in as cuman (wearing cuman armor, just go raid a camp of theirs), hop onto a cart in north portion of the camp, and start shootin. the enemies cannot touch you (apart from some lucky arrows) and ai gets confused. proceed to murder fifteen ish well equipped bandits and cumans, and reap the rewards. and well, do all the tasks in poisoning food and burnin arrows bc the raid itself resets the enemies||

[tropic kindle]

This to this. (FHP Patrols)

[uneven epoch]

delightful developments, my brother bought kcd II. naturally i sent him extremely long guide of how to get started immediately after tutorial (get a bed, early decentish gear, pebbles that kinda stuff)

... granted its effectively just a translated guide i myself followed i did throw in some alchemy n combat tips tho

[gaunt marten]

Nice

[bronze abyss]

Im in that quest rn,didnt do any of the optional stuff cuz i was afraid id have to do stealth

Already modtly done with it just need to finish the last couple sections of the raid

[visual hill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJreGbVPDx0
Source 2 confirmed

[green fulcrum]

Still visually the best Sonic game, 16 years later.

Also yes, it's been 16 years. Sonic 06 is almost 20 years old.

[umbral zinc]

man, is it normal to cry every time i play celeste?

it became such a comfort game for me and every time i complete a chapter that little piano melody turns me into a baby. i already 100%'d it on PC and i'm workin on it when i can on PS4 and my brother's PS5

it's a silly platformer game

why does it make me feel so human on every replay

[green fulcrum]

Because it's a very emotional game, and its entire theme is about accepting yourself and becoming the best "you" you can be.

[unreal idol]

I really should play it sometime

[cerulean herald]

its recommended for sure

[cunning galleon]

Outpost

[gaunt marten]

https://youtu.be/Bp_1iyxKr4w?

[bronze abyss]

bought rivals of aether 2 ended up refunding near instantly,playing that game for 40 min was enough to make me depressed

had so much hope in it but now its just a garbage replica of smash ultimate instead of its own thing that it was in RoA 1

[forest shoal]

Fuckin love Lego Star Wars

I just beat the prequel trilogy

[bitter stream]

woo hoo! had fun playing?

[river veldt]

this was a great video thank you flitter

[forest shoal]

I like swinging the lightsaber and making the clones explode

[gaunt marten]

Glad you liked it. This guy has a bunch and they're all like this

[visual hill]

the game is designed around sweats, it feels like the CS2 of platform fighters

which kind of puts me off it

I wish more people played HDR...

I don't think Rivals 2 is a clone of Ultimate though, it's closer to P+ (with input assist and auto L-cancel) or HDR

Ultimate is very much is own thing and nobody is really trying to clone it... for the better, I'd say 😛

[wind stump]

Is that because of Steve?

[bronze abyss]

That was the intention but they failed with it,and the similarities between smash ultimate are massive wirh the general flow and feel of it and the addition of mechanics like grabs,ledges and shields(all of which suck ass) being shoved much closer to ssbu,the movement n shit just does not feel good in this game at all compared to the first
Visuals are also fucked up being both more distracting and less consistent looking in combat while having miles less character than the first game
The combo system feels completely butchered as well compared to roa1 not to mention balancing issues because the game wasnt made with shields ledges and grabs in mind and it probably was a last minute addition

Idk why they thought all of this was a good idea,but ig whne you have Ludwig involved anything may seem like a fine idea for a price

[wind stump]

oh hey it's this event!

[fickle garnet]

I tried playing Kingdom Come Deliverance, and I couldn't get into it

[visual hill]

not really, I don't have that much of a problem with Steve at my level... it's more that the gameplay is centered around passive play, spamming safe options (mainly aerials) until your opponent commits slightly too much

every Smash game other than Melee seems to devolve into this in the long term, Brawl, Smash 4 and now Ultimate

it's probably why I expect Ultimate not to live on competitively once its successor comes out

[wind stump]

[river veldt]

steve is so funny

[proud warren]

Steve really is the "rules? what rules?" character

[visual hill]

I remember struggling in World of Light and being like "hmm, maybe I'll try out Steve for fun", then wiping the floor just by spamming his cart and anvil at every opportunity

[visual hill]

there's a nice video on the subject too (with great animation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUIeZHV8QcU

[dense crypt]

Im a snake player, and im sad he wasnt in smash 4

[visual hill]

Indiana Jones and the r_textureLodBias 16 really looks like Jusant 😛

[fresh bane]

Looks like an unreleased TF2 map

[gentle grove]

It has a lot of unenjoyable (for a lot of people) features

[visual hill]

it's almost an immersive sim, but it sold too well to be considered one

hides

[worthy rose]

https://youtu.be/khDISNaZIls?si=8GwLM1h2y_TCDPji just an average day in Skyrim, innit

[forest shoal]

Oh yeah, Them's Fightin' Herds is free on Epic Games next week, if you're into that

[cunning galleon]

I bought it 😔

Hey atleast i got Hell let loose for free

[visual hill]

Them's Fightin' Dead 😢

it was already offered before and I bought it on Steam anyway, but never played it before development ended

[worthy rose]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/monster-hunter/monster-hunter-wilds-might-be-a-bit-too-popular-as-one-indie-dev-says-their-sales-totally-flatlined-around-the-action-rpgs-launch-we-havent-sold-a-single-game/ oh dear

[visual hill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohLLEphDzDw
@river veldt did you see this? I thought it'd interest you

[light gate]

Nerdy and gamer related so here https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/03/picochat-recreates-nintendo-on-ios/?

Have fun before they come…

[green fulcrum]

I think "they" are already there.

[visual hill]

Nintendo already has iOS apps out, so yeah

[cerulean herald]

so I've been playing Hollow Knight and like, I hate playing this game but i wanna keep playing and cant stop playing
is this supposed to be normal

[visual hill]

trial and error is a hell of a drug

[bronze abyss]

omfg

[river veldt]

holyyyyyyy shit

[bronze abyss]

csec stopwatch AND fucking sacred heart idfk what this run is

that was in caves 2 as well

going for unlocks rn,specifically damocles

added uranus on top of that as well,borderline invincible now that enemies that shoot on death cant do shit

[river veldt]

iirc the only times i played J&E are when i wanted to unlock Rock Bottom, Birthright, and Tainted Jacob

[bronze abyss]

im gonna go for full completion marks with jacob and esau when im done with the lost,rn i have the beast i think

rn i have only the beast done with them

[obsidian ridge]

😮

Flew it on the dev servers and yep. flies and shoots things down pretty quickly and efficently, Radar also is very simple to use...

[river veldt]

i think ive attempted Lost runs before (never T Lost lmao) and i just cant do it haha, even with the mantle

i havent played Isaac in a while

[bronze abyss]

only dabbled a lil lately

total playtime is nto correct ive played pirated for approx 30h if i had to guess

[river veldt]

i have around 300 hours on my Switch and 10ish on my Steam Deck iic

[bronze abyss]

final items of the run,beat satan lamb and delirium

[plain harbor]

What game is this?

[dense crypt]

war thunder by the looks of it

[obsidian ridge]

This is War thunder, and that there is the upcoming FA18C Early which is coming out in Update Hornets Sting, The FA18C can be preordered for around 80 bucks after tax.

[obsidian ridge]

It's a very nice aircraft, Idk why everybody be saying it needs to be a BR lower I think it's fine where it's at judging by what it's already able to do.

Spamming Aim-7s be like

https://tenor.com/view/dcs-f15e-nvg-aim9-fox2-gif-5007886707347725185

[bitter stream]

80 bucks... for 1 plane?

[bronze abyss]

data leak lawsuits probably cost a fortune to maintain

[bitter stream]

that's some warframe level "micro" transaction for sure

[drifting tendon]

It's pay to skip what is effectively six months of non-stop f2p grinding for a new account

[bitter stream]

I mean, at that point you just buy a big game surely? 80 dollars can buy a lot of smaller games or one AAA title

[cunning galleon]

What the thunder

[cunning galleon]

6?

Oh, non stop 24/7

[cunning galleon]

You'd be surprised

[drifting tendon]

Like getting the F/A-18C in DCS for the same price.
That is probably where the War Thunder devs is getting the idea for the price, and people are willing to pay for it at the end of the day.

[cunning galleon]

1 gaijin coin is 1 dollar i think

There are tanks that cost over a grand?

[cunning galleon]

It's kind of sad irony

[drifting tendon]

I would not buy any of the top tier vehicles in War Thunder as a new player because experienced players will stomp them, and the top tier gameplay loop is awful. It really is pay to be miserable.

[cunning galleon]

Same

I'm content in br 8

Powering the blind German main stereotype

[astral steeple]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/iconic-game-publisher-acclaim-has-been-resurrected-with-wrestler-jeff-jarrett-as-advisor/

THEYRE BACK

[unreal idol]

Wasn't someone working on a pony mod for balatro

[rugged flax]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3168600/Among_Us_3D/

Steam

Among Us 3D

Among Us 3D is a party game of teamwork and betrayal. Experience the core Among Us gameplay you know and love — tasks, sabotages, Emergency Meetings, and venting — now in an extremely immersive, 3D environment where everything (yup, everything!) is close up and personal.Grab your crew of 4-10 players and launch into a fully 3D version of the hit...

Release Date

Coming soon

▶ Play video

oh

oh no

[quiet swift]

[wind stump]

wasn't there already Amogus VR?

[green fulcrum]

I think that one was unofficial. This one is an actual official version.

[wind stump]

[visual hill]

the nostalgia bait is strong with this one. 😛
Also, the timing with the Turok update that came out recently is interesting (Acclaim was Turok's publisher)

[little badger]

https://gear.bethesda.net/products/doom-the-dark-ages-wearable-helmet-replica-helmet-bundle @river veldt

[river veldt]

ooooooh

[little badger]

[fickle garnet]

Ofhgf

Need

[little badger]

Pro skater 3-4 artwork. Can’t wait for this game

[proud warren]

I can only remember the edit of this with the markiplier punch meme

[astral steeple]

Wtf Is that level

Like it's a remake of 3 and 4 but that's not a irl location or a location in 3 or 4 itself

[little badger]

That was only the artwork reveal but we will be getting gameplay of it soon the artwork leaked the other day

[proud warren]

Ah, I think it was prolly a different game cover-art that got memified then, ignore this then

[little badger]

I do remember it though

[river veldt]

i hope it has Doomguy

[astral steeple]

Doomguy is included in deluxe edition yeah

[little badger]

And the revenant as well

This is what you get

[river veldt]

holy fuck i might have to get this lol

[proud warren]

The wireframe one in a dark level would just look like the skateboard is skating itself around

[river veldt]

good thing it's not a preorder bonus, im probably gonna wait until i see how it runs on Steam Deck

[river veldt]

the Unmaykr hoverboard is awesome

[proud warren]

Ah, I thought they meant like, completely see-thru wireframe

[river veldt]

me too lol

[little badger]

I hope they make underground soon

[chilly mural]

I am excite

[little badger]

Apparently the career is now 2 minute goals

[astral steeple]

Revenant has a trumpet doot special trick

👀

[proud warren]

[astral steeple]

https://youtu.be/qMQjmmmTbdk?si=Sn7muA1oek0V0eCw

Shown in the deluxe trailer

[gaunt marten]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx415nqeeSg

[little badger]

@river veldt

[visual hill]

remember when you could unlock him without paying? Doom Farm remembers.

[astral steeple]

lol

There's a new pinball level too

And a waterpark level

Seems to be a decent amount of new levels on top of the original ones

[little badger]

[uneven epoch]

i should not have stolen so much in kcd ii the merchants do not have purses large enough to balance the giant armory i collected and now that im on second map its worse because the pieces are even more valuable now and i dont want to just leave it on bandits! "hiii i wanna sell some six leg guards for 2k each. what do you mean you have 219 total. the economy is in shambles..."

methinks its time to download a mod for that

crime is just so shiny now that it actually works unlike the first game. i love you lockpicks

thinkin that my second playthrough (whenever that happens but i accept the inevitability of it) will in fact be a minimum stealin not-goin-out-of-my-way-to-kill-bandits-unless-story-says-so henry. a true knight run if you will

but until then hehee hohoo lockpicks

[bronze abyss]

idk whats up with my runs lately

[quiet swift]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-sells-8-million-copies-in-3-days-the-fastest-any-game-has-done-so-in-capcoms-history/ jesus

[bitter stream]

wow

[cunning galleon]

plane

I think the ivy model is off of sketch fab

Car is by me

[graceful bridge]

https://bsky.app/profile/commandersterling.bsky.social/post/3ljnfehz5uk2j

Commander Sterling (@commandersterling.bsky.social)

As if I wasn’t sick of Alma getting in the way of my monster hunting, her deliberate photobombing when I am trying to use photo mode is driving me up the fucking wall.

She actually moves the player out of the shot to gawp at the camera and wave.

She’s the real monster.

Likes

124

Bluesky · Mar 5, 2025, 4:25 PM

[bronze abyss]

Eh shes cute she can do that

[hushed onyx]

I need to go over my games and figure out what I want to play

I just installed everything I have and my head wants me to focus on achievement hunting or doing “new” games (i.e. games I haven’t played yet) but my heart wants me to do Starbound again

[quiet swift]

This is basically MH:Wilds in a nutshell

[wind stump]

lacreture

[bronze abyss]

reyna,its time to hunt

[quiet swift]

"Alma, I crave violence. Unleash me."

[bronze abyss]

violence has been authorized by the guild

[quiet swift]

[green fulcrum]

This is a pretty chilling line, ngl

[visual hill]

game pass ends in 10 days for me, so I have 10 days to finish Indy and the CoD BO6 campaign

I also started Sunset Overdrive () but I don't think I'll have time to finish it. Maybe I'll try to copy my save and buy it on sale elsewhere. Buying on Steam means I can use a FOV changer too

[little badger]

what the new maps will look like https://t.co/U8oHDZ3eti

[quiet swift]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/absolum-is-a-fantasy-roguelike-beat-em-up-that-looks-great-and-plays-even-better/1100-6529843/ this looks pretty interesting. Streets of rage meets Dead Cells?

[fresh bane]

Hhhmmmmmm... that looks pretty damn good actually
I'll keep an eye out for that

speaking of streets of rage I had no idea Streets of Rage 4 was a thing at all! I only just found it while I was browsing around steam the other day and it looks really damn good and I can't believe I've been missing out this whole time

looks like that's actually the same people who did SoR4 too so hey

[chilly mural]

In dong dong never die, if you beat the arcade mode they show a preview for their version of streets of rage 4, but it was for the psp

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx8K9xVp2VBY_Sv5UXWKzpIYesYCqodmRo?si=F9F-murZh23osVMh

[little badger]

https://www.eurogamer.net/xbox-update-resetting-consoles-to-factory-settings-insiders-say

[bitter stream]

whoops!

[little badger]

Some people are saying they just had to do the settings and log back in again

[bitter stream]

sure, but that means re-set up of all the linked accounts and such

[umbral zinc]

we should all grab them's fightin herds now that it's free on epic games

[gaunt marten]

Nah I'm good

[gaunt marten]

CK2: Horse culture baby is born to the human, Kunigunde Von Pommern and her human husband, Zaslavid Sokal.
https://preview.redd.it/xcfaqcjkh2ne1.png?width=1020&auto=webp&s=a581294dfa8d2119564bb9ad3063f381ec6c26b5

The game does not mention it in any way and pretends it is normal, but if you investigate, or look into the debug data, you will find that she is likely cheating with a horse culture character

[hushed onyx]

[static bluff]

oh Suikoden I HD Remaster: Gate Rune War is out

[bitter stream]

@cunning galleon Did you ever play Company of heroes? the RTS? They use Pak 40's IIRC, at least the original one

[cunning galleon]

Yes, i have it on mobile

[bitter stream]

er... it's on mobile?

[cunning galleon]

They're pretty useless tbh, the American AT is better because you can airdrop them

[cunning galleon]

Feral Interactive ported the game around 3 years ago

[bitter stream]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at phone processing power

[cunning galleon]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.feralinteractive.companyofheroes_android

They optimised it great actually

[bitter stream]

oh wow, it even has the expansions

damn

that's cool AF

[cunning galleon]

It's such a fun game

[bitter stream]

I remember in the PC version the German Pak 40 being really good with just 1 veterancy upgrade from the buildings. Harder to position than the airdropable ones obviously, but if you get them where they need to be, they can wreck smaller vehicles and with two, bigger tanks

[cunning galleon]

I found it impossible getting them to the frontlines when you can just use the stug

Or hetzers if you like that doctrine

[bitter stream]

sure, the Stug is better, but the Stug costs fuel, so it should be better =)

the pak 40 is just requisition

[cunning galleon]

True

I'd prefer capturing the airdrop AT tbh

[bitter stream]

Hetzers are the Artillery piece? I can't recall which one they were, not the Nebelwerfer right?

yeah fair, if you can de-crew the AT and grab it for yourself, that's the best "deal"

[cunning galleon]

Hetzers are the tanks

[bitter stream]

"what did you pay for this cannon?" "Pay for it? the enemy did Sir"

[cunning galleon]

You need the doctrine with the jagdpanther to get the hetzer

[bitter stream]

oooh the angular box

I just checked the wiki, yes I recall this thing

[cunning galleon]

My favourite doctrine is the British airborne one

[bitter stream]

Heck yeah, Commandos

[cunning galleon]

And the Royal engineers

I love the airborne one because the gliders crash landing tickled my brain lol

[bitter stream]

it's fun! it's cool. I can't recall if you can "Squish" a squad with it

[cunning galleon]

You can't, I've tried numerous times

You can crush a squad with tanks tho

Only works if they're pinned down or suppressed

[bitter stream]

right, that makes sense

So bring the MG42s!

[cunning galleon]

I prefer the fg42 ngl

[bitter stream]

granted, people tend to retreat on seeing a tank advancing on a surpressed squad

[cunning galleon]

I think it's only for the panzer elite faction?

[bitter stream]

yeah, for their elite troops? something like that

[cunning galleon]

They're upgrades for fallschirmjaegers

I wish veterancy was achieved via experience like the American one

But i guess it makes sense

Have you heard of men of war?

[bitter stream]

I can see wanting it to be similar, but I like the differentiation between the sides

Heard of it yes, but I've not played, I know a recent version of it came out? but i heard mixed news about it

[cunning galleon]

I've heard of it aswell. Seems like tons of fun!

One feature that caught my interest.. The ability to hijack enemy vehicles. I think CoH3/2 had that feature aswell

[bitter stream]

yeah, I think... Coh 3 has the "salvage vehicle" or something that you can use to recover damage wrecks?
I didnt' buy coh3 given the debacle of it's launch

It launched in a really really poor state

[cunning galleon]

Oh! CoH1 has that feature

It's in the panzer elite, a bergetiger

It can also recover allied tanks/vehicles

Which is OP, you can make numerous one time spawn vehicles with the bergetiger

[bitter stream]

ahh that's right, Allied vehicles only, which makes sense from a "logistics/spare parts" sort of view

truly, a powerful vehicle

restoring dead units "to life" is some strong stuff in a resource constrained game

[cunning galleon]

It's definitely great for clean up since wrecks never despawn

Unless bots trample em lol

[bitter stream]

yeah, though funniliy enough

the bergetiger can also crush wrecks

even by accident

[cunning galleon]

I've had it happen, that's why i position it for it

I don't trust coh pathfinder

[bitter stream]

hahah yeah fair enough

sometimes it's a bit wacky

or at least, it doesn't account for wrecks within it

which, I can understand given the usual desire is to path throgh it anyway

[cunning galleon]

Hope they add multiplayer to coh mobile soon

[visual hill]

same studio which made Shredder's Revenge too... it's a French studio

[bitter stream]

yeah hope you get to try out multiplayer, it's pretty fun to do Neowemu.

[hasty patio]

There's also Call to Arms- Gates of Hell:Ostfront that might be worth looking at. Conquest mode is their main selling point.

[bitter stream]

what's conquest mode like in that?

Conquest (dynamic campaign) mode offers singleplayer and co-op modes to play with your friends. Both modes allow you to compose your own army group, research new units and strategically advance in different paths to dominate the battlefield. The dynamic campaign can range from short to unlimited campaign lengths.

oooh i see

[hasty patio]

And at some point, you'll have more enemy war pieces than your own (since those are "free", with a five finger discount).

[bitter stream]

neat! I'll see if I can find some reviews

or maybe wait for '83 to come out

hmm

I'm really hoping that's a good game

though people are currently testing the new battlefield alphas under NDA, so maybe that one will be better than 2042

[little badger]

Games with prime this month http://spr.ly/6004L2Sle

[sour hill]

Mortal shell and deus ex: invisible war are both games I would love to get for free and then never play

[visual hill]

I've been meaning to play Deus Ex: IW

I know it's a slap in the face to OG Deus Ex fans, but still

[sour hill]

Sometimes you gotta

Mortal shell on the other hand is like souls but worse, except the weapons feel really good so you keep playing cause of that

Until you realize you could be playing better games ig

[river veldt]

what is mortal shell

[sour hill]

#1032716748887179434 message

[river veldt]

oh

yeah but like is it a FromSoft game or a knockoff

[sour hill]

It's a knockoff, basically

Idk it has some unique mechanics

It's a fun game, just not one I'd recommend

[river veldt]

you have unique mechanics

[gaunt marten]

Play Death's Gambit

[sour hill]

Haven't heard of that one

[river veldt]

no i need to play Elden Ring and become the Elden Lord

[gaunt marten]

Death's Gambit is one of my favorite Soulslike games

Great world and enemy design, especially the endgame. All the bosses have a lot more depth than they appear

[fresh bane]

So the other day I said I wouldn't do Euro Extreme but...

I kinda wanted to see how much harder it would be and then I just kind of kept going

[cunning galleon]

uh..help?

[glacial oyster]

Geometey dash

Has anyoje got 10000 stars in gd herr

Here

[cerulean herald]

its been ages since ive played geometry dash

[graceful bridge]

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/thems-fightin-herds

Free on Epic this week

[graceful bridge]

https://localthunk.com/blog/balatro-timeline-3aarh

[unreal idol]

Was Balatro on sale last week

[gaunt marten]

Whenever you have a question like that just google "Steamdb gamename"

https://i.imgur.com/8x9BASg.png

It was not on sale last week, but it was on sale the week before

[unreal idol]

Damnit

[gaunt marten]

It goes on eight sales a year, so don't worry

[unreal idol]

Hopefully the next one will be soon

[gaunt marten]

The steam spring sale is in five days

[unreal idol]

Do you think Balatro will go on sale at that time?

[gaunt marten]

Likely, but if not, then the summer sale is more likely because it's the big one

[unreal idol]

I'll try not to forget about those sales

[rancid herald]

I'm still waiting for substance painter 2025

one day ;_;

[bitter stream]

what's Substance Painter?

[rancid herald]

is software for texturing 3d models

[bitter stream]

ahh neat

when did it last get updated?

[rancid herald]

probably a couple of weeks ago; adobe charges a subscription for it, but there's a version they've put on steam that's a one and done buy, but they haven't yet released the 2025 version of that... they're probably not going to

[bitter stream]

ooooh nooo

[wind stump]

FIGHT ME COWARDS

[bitter stream]

good luck

[wind stump]

ez 👏

-# almost like this is the tutorial or something

[hasty patio]

1st or 2nd one?

[wind stump]

1st.

[wind stump]

Rigged!

[little badger]

Can I help with your extended car warranty?

[hasty patio]

The reverse "Nope!"

[fresh bane]

https://kotaku.com/thps-3-4-tony-hawks-pro-skater-3-4-career-mode-timer-1851768305

woof

kinda bad news for any THPS4 fans out there

Just to give some quick context to save some clicks, apparently THPS4's Career Mode is not going to be like the original
For anyone who may not know and may not play these games, Pro Skater 1-2-3's Career Mode worked by giving you a 2 minute timer on each level to complete certain challenges and missions to progress, but in Pro Skater 4 they completely revamped the whole thing, made maps way more open, removed the 2 min timer and added a lot more things to find around the map including NPCs with little challenges and missions they'd give you, a lot of people really liked this change and it's why Pro Skater 4 is their favourite precisely because they can just complete stuff at their leisure instead of having that time limit, and apparently for the new remasters/remakes they're not going to do that for 4 and instead it'll be just like it was previously, so I'm guessing a 2 min timer with various challenges and missions but with the Pro Skater 4 maps

and a lot of people are pretty mad about that especially because knowing Pro Skater 4 was gonna get remastered it kinda gave people hope for Underground and Underground 2 remasters too but this kinda takes that away since those two games built up on the Pro Skater 4 career mode even more with Underground 1 basically just having a full blown story mode

Kinda hoping that maybe they'll walk back this decision inbetween now and release but I dunno since it's a few months away and they'd either have to delay or rush that a lot
It kinda sucks because a lot of people get the feeling that it could've all just been DLC to 1+2 if it was going to be this way and that it's a cheap cash grab but people seemed to really love 1+2 and there was a lot of genuine passion put into that so it kinda sucks to see all that goodwill just sort of crash down immediately because of one decision

[astral steeple]

From what tony has talked about and different stuff that's leaked online etc, vicarious was originally working on 3+4 a few years ago before the blizzard merge happened

So the state of the game as its been shown in the trailers and b roll footage etc was likely iron galaxy picking up where vicarious got scrapped and they just simply finished it up

Hence thps4s career being reduced to how 1+2s was and how 3s is

[light gate]

Yeah, that decision is gonna blow up in their faces.

[light gate]

Also nice blog post honestly.

[wind stump]

Caused by: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
i think i've hit the upper limit on modding Slay the Spire

[gaunt marten]

Nah

Just increase heap size

[wind stump]

[gaunt marten]

Keep in mind that a bigger heap size will result in freezing whenever it runs garbage collection

It's ideal to just not use mods that are memory hogs

[wind stump]

yea

[visual hill]

-Xms128G -Xmx128G ought to be enough for anybody.

[sacred grove]

Minecraft modders: "first time?"

[rugged flax]

I have acquired a book
Bless you Amazon discounts

[random steppe]

That illustration goes pretty hard

[fickle garnet]

[rugged flax]

it's a THICC book

[river veldt]

i love game guides ☃️

[fresh bane]

I thought that was a guide for a tabletop version for some reason

Which makes me think I really wish they'd do a cyberpunk crpg too... at least I think that'd be cool, even if it's like a smaller spin off game or something

[river veldt]

that could be neat

[fresh bane]

I'd really love to get an artbook for this game, I actually don't even know if it has one since i haven't checked but surely it has to have one

[fickle garnet]

I'd play that

[bronze abyss]

just beat hotline miami 2,its good but also mid as hell at the same time

baiting and melee only is too damn op

[wind stump]

swag

[light gate]

https://www.theverge.com/news/626588/forza-horizon

so where are the people who hate account requirements?

[gaunt marten]

I don't know anyone who plays Forza who cares

[light gate]

Its crazy because folks freak out for single player and multiplayer games on PC for Sony to demand it, but when Microsoft demands it… its all okay?

Like, really?

Forza can be played offline.

[gaunt marten]

Well they're different people

The people who care don't play Forza

[light gate]

Ah so screw me I guess

[gaunt marten]

If you care you should definitely complain

[light gate]

Well thank heck hi-fi rush doesn’t have a requirement.

[light gate]

I’ll probably send an email or something, but I doubt it would get noticed.

[gaunt marten]

Good luck!

I'm doing my best to discourage this kind of behavior by not buying or playing games that force you to make additional accounts for no benefit to you

I was interested in Forza at times but decided that I cannot buy it for monetization reasons

[river veldt]

i dont even know what kind of game forza is

racing ?

[gaunt marten]

Yeah kinda

[river veldt]

does it have funny items

[gaunt marten]

There are actually two Forza series

Forza Horizon is about exploring a big map and racing around it in an arcadey racing style.
Forza Motorsport is about highly accurate simulationist racing

[river veldt]

i see

[gaunt marten]

Motorsports is the original series, so Horizon tends to still be a bit focused on accuracy, even though it's a lot more arcadey

It's fun

[bitter stream]

Forza horizon 5 is fun, though I found myself kinda aimless with it. Maybe I should give it another shot sometime

[eager bane]

Okay, that...is kinda funny

not good

but funny

[eager bane]

I've played all the Horizon games and yeah....it's my main gripe with them. I just use them as a car playground nowadays because I'm really missing a red thread to follow.

Forza Horizon 1 was amazing in that respect! It had a well rounded singleplayer campaign that didn't overstay it's welcome and had a nice progression.

[light gate]

I mean the account requirement is the same on PC, but gamers are okay because its Windows and MS owns the ecosystem. I know its such an odd way to complain about accounts, but this is like an additional drm layer. If it was restricted to multiplayer then I’d be okay since Forza Horizon MP requires server hosting. (But I’d be more okay if they gave us the tools to host servers ffs and remove the requirement entirely)

[tropic kindle]

Here i come!

[bitter stream]

that's a lot of planes

[smoky sonnet]

are microsoft accounts blocked in as many countries as playstation? that was what people were complaining about originally

plus having that be added AFTER release to helldivers, locking people out of the game they bought

[light gate]

Even if the answer was no, it’d still be ridiculous to demand an account for Single Player.

[smoky sonnet]

which was the big one

[wind stump]

https://youtu.be/ES-gWDn7On4 Can it run Crysis, tho?

[fickle garnet]

https://youtu.be/eT_A2gPhTIw?si=Yqr4HwDvnapiY05D

I cannot contain my excitement

I never actually finished the first game. I should buy it and finish it

[slim thorn]

it was a lot of game

[fresh bane]

10 minute trailer lol

If Kojima is brave he will have this game break his record of longest uninterrupted cutscene in a game ever

[slim thorn]

what is that record?

[fresh bane]

MGS4

70 minutes

[slim thorn]

how do I not remember a 70 minute cutscene

[fresh bane]

The entire ending of the game after you defeat Liquid is 70 minutes up until Big Boss dies and you get the title drop sequence with the extra dialogue

It also has the longest amount of cutscene time in a game I think, like over 8 hours of cutscenes alone

Fun fact, this isn't even the first time Kojima did a 10 min trailer though

He already did that with, funnily enough, MGS4 too
https://youtu.be/JnYZW0cT24U?si=AAMS7Ryy623e3Ljs

[fickle garnet]

I wonder if Death Stranding 2 will be longer than the first one

[fresh bane]

|| Oh wow, actual real baby time now ||

[fickle garnet]

I also want to replay it to get a refresher on what happens in it

[fresh bane]

|| ''Servers line the beach. Deliveries have been automated'' Oh is Kojima gonna do an MGS2 again with this I wonder? ||

[random steppe]

Seeing Sam ||daughter actually growning up is legit a bit emotional || after DS1 ending

[fresh bane]

I would replay Death Stranding too just because I think my PC could handle it and you usually see the game going on sale every so often but I don't know if I have it in me to start another 30-40 hour game again

but I am excited for DS2

I don't think I'll be able to run it though games are getting to the point where even just installing one is hard enough

Looks like there's gonna be way more regions to explore in this one

I wonder if it's gonna be open world or if it's gonna have these regions segmented somehow

[random steppe]

I mean, my guess is similar to the first one

[slim thorn]

I'll be disappointed if the true ending isn't unlocked by carrying a pizza all the way from one side of the country to the other without fast travel

[random steppe]

Each zone was pretty much a puzzle that offered a bunch of ways of tackling it, so it'd be weird to be a lot more open than that and offering perhaps a less curated experience in your traversal

I do like the bigger variety of terrain a lot tho

[slim thorn]

in all seriousness I do hope they stick to the "zones" model, a true open world would most likely lead to all the interesting routing decisions of the first game simply not existing any more, like in most "too-open world" games

[fresh bane]

I was mostly wondering just because of how much more varied the areas seem now, in the first game there were areas with some snow and some green but it all seemed like it would ''realistically'' be able to exist in the same overall region on a map but if you're going from this jungle area to a snowy mountain I wonder how much distance is gonna be between those two points in a map or if they're gonna go with maybe different regions you can travel to where you can find these different regions

[river veldt]

i want to play Death Stranding but it's kind of intimidating lol

[fresh bane]

Oooooh wow look at them flexing their technology brand new nose scrunching tech

that's like a yakuza bread moment right there

[slim thorn]

have you played/watched any of Kojima's other games?

[river veldt]

no

wait

yes

i watched a little bit of a playthrough of i think MGS 1 ?

[slim thorn]

probably best to call that a no then

[fresh bane]

Pffffff nooo wayyyyyy he actually did it

wow

alright then

[slim thorn]

I would start with watching or playing (all of) MGS1, that one is extremely Kojima but it's way, way shorter than Death Stranding, and (by Kojima standards) far more grounded and easy to follow

and of Kojima's work MGS1 is by far the most influential on gaming history as a whole, so even if you don't like it you'll still get that out of it

[river veldt]

i forgot about the remasters that came out recently

[slim thorn]

if you like that then you can decide whether to continue with other MGSes (1-4 form a larger whole plot, 4's where I stopped personally) or Death Stranding

[fresh bane]

I'm gonna be completely honest and this may be a personal bias here but I really think you get way more out of Kojima's games by playing them than actually watching them, there's just so many elements in his games that have to do with player interactivity that I just don't feel right telling someone to experience MGS by just looking up the cutscenes (it also personally irks me because it reinforces the idea that Kojima ''just makes movies'' which is completely untrue as much as he may go crazy with the hollywood inspiration)

[slim thorn]

(for completeness: Zone of the Enders The 2nd Runner is one of my favorite games, but despite Kojima's involvement it's nowhere near "as Kojima" as an MGS or a DS)

[fickle garnet]

I find the MGS games difficult

[slim thorn]

well, fwiw, I would definitely object to "just looking up the cutscenes"; at the bare minimum you'd need to watch the gameplay too

[river veldt]

ofc

[slim thorn]

but as much as I got out of MGS 1-4, I do think the gameplay is very janky and cryptic in 1-3 in ways that were often just frustrating for me, and I really don't think you're going to lose much by watching someone else play it

(4 and DS are the ones where I actually like the gameplay)

[river veldt]

how do they do the Psycho Mantis fight in MGS1 on consoles that aren't ps1 and pc ? don't you need to plug your controller into the second port or something

[slim thorn]

that was never required, it's just one trick you can use

[river veldt]

ooh

[slim thorn]

I think I chose not to do it when I played

[fresh bane]

Well there are other ways to fight Psycho Mantis but that's probably the one the game wants you to try that it tells you directly, any other ports that aren't on the PS1 will have a virtual menu where you can change the port of your controller

[cerulean herald]

what exactly is the plot of death stranding

[slim thorn]

excellent question!

we're not sure

[cerulean herald]

[slim thorn]

Nire: are you doing the serious answer or should I?

[fresh bane]

I like that I read that question as I reach the part in the trailer where || Sam puts on a VR headset and we see Heartman piloting a giant BT putting on a Metal Gear REX head into its body like a Megazord ||

I would give the serious answer if I actually even remembered the intricacies myself but it's been a while since I've seen anything Death Stranding related and even back when I was experiencing it for the first time I was having trouble following (especially if you didn't interact with the main story for a while and went to do side quests for like hours at a time before continuing)

[slim thorn]

ok I'll do it

[random steppe]

I will definitely also give it a shot, I want to see how different our answers are

[gaunt marten]

Yeah, count to three and answer at the same time

[slim thorn]

Death Stranding is set in a unique post-apocalyptic setting, where the titular "Death Stranding" apocalypse involved the metaphysical boundary between the living and the dead radically changing. The exact rules are often unclear even to the characters, but some people are inexplicably able to come back to life after any number or kinds of death, and what appear to be spirits of the dead or the not-yet-born roam the land as monsters, and if they contact a living or recently deceased human it can lead to a devastating explosion large enough to wipe out whole cities (which we see happen in the game's prologue sequence). The main plot kicks off at a time where little of humanity is left, and most of it is living in tiny isolated underground communities supplied by the few willing to carry supplies across the surface. The player character is one of these "porters", and has that rare ability to come back from death, so he's tasked with reconnecting most of these communities after some new tech is developed, in the hope of preventing humanity from going fully extinct. The full scope of the plot also involves a bunch of other characters with unique relationships to this whole "the rules of life and death got thrown in a blender" situation, and I won't spoil what those are exactly.

[fresh bane]

It's about delivering mail!

[slim thorn]

also pizza that one time

[gaunt marten]

If it fits through the mail slot it's mail

[slim thorn]

they do have very big mail slots in this particular future

[random steppe]

Death Stranding plot: The world is going through what seems to be a cataclismic extinction event where human bodies after a while turn into odd creatures and if they get in contact with living humans they create massive, nuclear explosion size holes, making cities disappear.
This brought a collapse to the US, as everyone is scattered and hiding in extremely well controlled city which are made to prevent it from happening, or in isolated shelters.
This for some reason, also gave some humans weird superpowers.

You are a courier, and you get recuited by the current acting president of the US (which is your mom) to bring this new device that will enable cities to connect through a new technology network and break the isolation, and hopefully, afford humans a better chance at not only surviving but thriving.
You go through that, lots of weird shit happens along the way.

[fickle garnet]

I wonder if DS will be on sale in the next steam sale

[fresh bane]

I've seen the director's cut version go on sale a couple times, I think it was free one time on Epic, I can't remember if I got it or not, but I don't use Epic so I might as well not have it

[cerulean herald]

this is def a more unique story ive heard for a game

[slim thorn]

and that's before it gets weird

[river veldt]

dont forget the babies

[slim thorn]

yeah, that's part of why I included the "not-yet-born" detail

[fresh bane]

If there's one thing I'll never forget about the DS story is || the damn Mario and Princess Beach sequence ||

[river veldt]

😭

[fresh bane]

My jaw was on the floor the entire time

[random steppe]

That did get cringy even by kojima writing standards

[slim thorn]

by far the easiest way to review this game is "They gave Hideo Kojima complete creative freedom. That's all you need to know."

which works if you've ever played one of the MGSs

Death Stranding has all the strengths and all the weaknesses of Kojima's other stories, and they're all turned up to 11

[random steppe]

It's definitely a "sadly he is the boss, we tried telling him no but it didn't work"

[gaunt marten]

I played 4 and I recall very little of it other than the bosses were creative and cutscenes were too horny

[random steppe]

DS2 seems even wilder which I mean, I'm very interested

[slim thorn]

there is more to it than that but those points are not wrong lol

[random steppe]

"Every time we told him this line of dialogue was reduntant, he added it again to another point of the game"

[slim thorn]

MAKE AMERICA WHOLE AGAIN

(boy did that slogan age like milk, not that it's Kojima's fault)

[random steppe]

Lowkey why I'm eager to see the next one plot

Kojima subtext is basically a brick to the face, it's gonna be great

[slim thorn]

"don't worry, subtext is just text we haven't gotten around to yet, nothing will stay subtle forever"

[random steppe]

It's true, you get subtext that isn't even subtle in the first place, and an hour later the game just says it anyway, in case you missed it

[slim thorn]

the closest you might get is a repeating visual that none of the characters ever explicitly address in dialogue

but, like, nobody is going to play Death Stranding and miss all the umbilical cords

even if they don't read that obscure little codex entry about them

[random steppe]

You'd think that'd be bad, and it sorta is in some ways, but I appreciate it for some reason, IDK the game feels like desperate for you to get its story because it really likes it.
Like a kid bringing you a drawing and then explaining to you the drawing in case you are an idiot, but it's still endearing, except the drawing is actually professional level art.

[fresh bane]

I mean that's kind of how Kojima is in all his games

[random steppe]

Yeah it just especially is in this one

[fresh bane]

Basically ever since MG2 all of the things in MGS is ''this character will proceed to tell you a fact Kojima learned 2 weeks before making this game that he really finds interesting''

[slim thorn]

"The name's Higgs. The particle of God that permeates all existence."

literally his opening line, just in case you didn't do your physics homework

[river veldt]

Kojima just fascinates me for some reason

when i had twitter i followed him because his posts were always so great

[slim thorn]

I wouldn't be surprised if you liked Kojima

[fresh bane]

My favourite podcast clip that's very relevant
https://youtu.be/Wtlhs26Bj3o?si=glDpiyos8Xi2RsBM&t=187

[slim thorn]

the way Kojima's work defies complete explanation reminds me a lot of Lynch

albeit not in the "dreamlike and surreal" way that Lynch does it

[random steppe]

There must be a term for it, I agree that surreal isn't necessarily the one but it doesn't feel necessarily wrong

For death stranding at least

[slim thorn]

yeah, the parts of Death Stranding that are in some not-our-world-but-not-quite-an-afterlife places probably are the most straight-up surreal thing Kojima's done

[random steppe]

Also how everyone is called in very literal ways

That has a surreal quality to it

[slim thorn]

Sam Porter Bridges is certainly one of the protagonist names of all time

[random steppe]

Diehardman, Heartman that lives in the zone shaped like a heart, deadman which literally calls back to the frankestein monster, these are almost fairy tale like characters

Red Riding Hood could just walk in the cast and I wouldn't notice

[slim thorn]

those are probably the most blatant but Fragile and Higgs are pretty up there too

[fresh bane]

Peace Walker is so heavy handed with name stuff too
You have Paz, a peace-loving schoolgirl that's researching and studying the Peace Constitution at a Peace University, but wait she's actually an evil spy for Cipher, and her real name is Pacifica Ocean, like the Pacific, but wait, because Pacífica actually does mean Paz because it's the word for Peaceful!

Peace Walker also has a character called literally Hot Coldman

Enough said

[slim thorn]

see this is the kind of subtext-is-for-wimps naming I expect from a comedy anime like Komi-san or 100 Girlfriends

not that it doesn't ever happen in the west; Max Payne comes to mind

[random steppe]

Max Payne definitely has the surreal thing down like a science

[river veldt]

iirc Sam Lake is very inspired by Twin Peaks and Lynch in general so that makes sense

i know some parts in Control felt Twin Peaks-y

[slim thorn]

apparently I just bookended myself on accident

personally I didn't specifically get "Twin Peaks-y" out of Control, but that's probably because I watch a lot of shows / play a lot of games with varying degrees of surreal unreality going on

ofc Alan Wake 2 is absolutely Twin Peaks-y

[river veldt]

there's this part in Control that's a lot like when Cooper goes into the Red Room in the last couple of season 2 episodes

[slim thorn]

oh, that might've been after I dropped Twin Peaks

[river veldt]

aw man i know season 2 kind of sucks but there is some incredible stuff in those last couple episodes (not coincidentally, i believe that's when Lynch had come back to the show after working on Wild At Heart)

[fresh bane]

Peace Walker also has a character called Dr Strangelove, very directly inspired by the character Dr Strangelove from the movie Dr Strangelove, especially since Peace Walker deals with a lot of similar themes about nuclear deterrence, the cold war and the threat of a full blown nuclear war, they also have similar designs with the white short hair and the glasses (she actually directly references this in her first tape)

But wait, that's not actually why she's called Strangelove, she's actually called Strangelove because she's a lesbian and was in love with The Boss and her scientist coworkers made fun of her for being a ''strange-love'' (this is actually how Kojima also described it in an interview before the game came out)

[river veldt]

wait does this mean you haven't seen Fire Walk With Me or The Return, Ix ?

[slim thorn]

he can do multiple layers of meaning when he feels like it, but none of those layers will be "sub"text

I have not

[river veldt]

omgggg

[slim thorn]

The Return didn't exist when I watched Twin Peaks

[river veldt]

ooh ok

[slim thorn]

I was aware of it when it came out but haven't felt like it yet

[river veldt]

that's fair

[robust latch]

same here. one day il get around to it

[river veldt]

imo it's Lynch's magnum opus

[slim thorn]

I think I rewatched Utena instead

[slim thorn]

thought so, I already had the impression that The Return is maximum Lynch in the same way that Death Stranding is maximum Kojima

[river veldt]

yeah there's a scene where a guy sweeps the floor for like 2 minutes and it's incredible

[slim thorn]

and it's not Ahti?

[river veldt]

man i wish that would have been awesome

[fresh bane]

The whole Herald of Darkness dance sequence in AW2 is probably the most Genius Lakejumbo moment from that entire franchise

It's no wonder Sam Lake and Kojima get along

[river veldt]

they're the only two video game auteurs i can really think of

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiKSJe11GQk

Absolute cinema

[craggy vine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSQvmkor0TE

[little badger]

Verdansk returns https://youtu.be/OX2LeqDlkBg?si=PSiMiaUuY16OhK7f

[wind stump]

So it's Mar10 day and I've seen no annoucements or anything. Am I missing something or is Nintendo just being slow?

[river veldt]

nah it's just a slow year this year i think

[wind stump]

Fair. Switch 2 must be taking a lot of resources.

[snow tartan]

april direct will probably bring all of the mar10 day announcements

i hope it’s substantial (hoping a new 3D mario at the very least gets revealed)

[fresh bane]

Fucking finally Konami remembered Silent Hill f is supposed to be a thing

Hopefully we'll get to see a little bit of gameplay and maybe even a release date

[river veldt]

i forgot about it too

[fresh bane]

I can't believe they started their whole triumphant return with things like Ascension and Short Message

F and Townfall looked really promising, so I'm hoping we get to see those two finally

Townfall is being developed by Annapurna Interactive which I thought was a very interesting choice

[proud warren]

finally, a reason to use my shitty emote

[minor plover]

one of my best runs, I managed to get duplicated Constellations early and then a ton of blue seal cards, and I ended up setting what was at the time the Balatro record both for Constellation mulitplier by the end of ante 8 and for an endless run.