general gaming

[graceful bridge]

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/1nm0p2e/the_new_sony_dualsense_controller_update_allowing/

[rancid herald]

I just wish I could get it to display how much power is left

[gaunt marten]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/GamePhysics/comments/1nk0sm5/skate_4_the_ideal_way_to_get_around/

Skate 4 is out and people seem not to like it on many fronts

[frozen gate]

thank god they added the long jump from mario 64

[fickle garnet]

I'll have to try out Skate 4, cuz I love Skate 3

[fickle garnet]

I'm playing the new Destiny mobile game, and I'm pissed off cuz I can't be an exo

[bronze abyss]

I wnated to shit on it so long ago ever since the private pre alpha tests came out

I despise it as a huge fan of previous skate games

[cunning galleon]

roblox gaming and we built a museum

[wind stump]

At the very least, I kinda vibe with the idea of changing the subgenre name of "Metroidvania" to "Mapformer".

Very doubtful it'll happen, because the term has culturally osmosed itself to the point where it's a legit tag on Steam, but I'll try and change the tide by using mapformer over metroidvania. Hell of a lot easier to type, at that.

also like, it kinda makes more sense to call say, Hollow Knight a Mapformer rather than a Metroidvania.

[bitter stream]

what does Mapformer mean? it sounds like transforming Map or something

[wind stump]

well it's an alternate name for metroidvania
like, you're filling out a map while platforming

[bitter stream]

hmm, interesting.

Should we call "soulslikes" as "action combat RPGs"? I wonder what the generic term would end up being

[wind stump]

I mean, it makes more sense from a casual perspective, but I understand the venacular is also sorta "locked in" so to speak

[bitter stream]

I'm unsure, I feel like, to seperate Tales of Bersia from Darksouls would require a lot of words, that makes any one-two word combo too broad to capture the differences

both are technically Action Combat RPGs, but they offer completely different experiences

It's jargon, but it's jargon with a purpose for seperating very broad categories i think

[wind stump]

Hmm, makes sense

[bitter stream]

I suppose this is true of Roguelike / Roguelite and such. Both are named after Rogue, because that's the most well known version of the kind of, random generation levels and reset of progress on death at the time people were trying to name it i guess.

that and there were a lot of games following in it's wake

i wonder if a glossary is out there for "gaming culture" terms in english

I know there's one for FGC terms

[gaunt marten]

I count Tales of Berseria as an action JRPG

[bitter stream]

I don't recall off the top of my head, what's the difference between a JRPG and a RPG? I assume it's not just country of development.

[gaunt marten]

It's about the style, rather than the country of origin

JRPGs tend to be narrative-driven with a fixed cast of characters and focus on story arcs and relationships, as well as a bunch of specifics regarding the mechanics that I can't put into words right now

[bitter stream]

that's ok and that makes some sense.

[gaunt marten]

While a regular RPG focuses more on the world than the characters, and tends to offer customization and focus on the mechanics before the story

[slim thorn]

I like how this implies Disco Elysium is a JRPG unless you put points into skills like Shivers

[gaunt marten]

So Dark Souls is not a JRPG despite being from Japan, because it feels like it I guess

[slim thorn]

fwiw I usually think of “JRPG” as RPGs that have a lot in common with Final Fantasy and/or Dragon Quest

[gaunt marten]

But that means Final Fantasy is not a JRPG

[slim thorn]

indeed

more generally, I suspect the least wrong short definitions we can give these days are
"JRPG" means FF/DQ-like (Final Quest and Dragon Fantasy don't click the way MetroidVania does )
"CRPG" used to mean Computer RPG, but now it's retronymed to Classic RPG with the meaning of Baldur's Gate-like (especially 1-2)
"ARPG" used to mean "action" as in real-time combat, but now it's shrunk in scope to Diablo-like

to state it explicitly: I usually prefer to define genres based on mechanics and tropes, so they can outlive any single game, but sometimes that's just not how genres evolve in practice. RPGs in general and even most of their subgenres have, IMO, been mechanically diffused so much throughout the rest of gaming that we now have to retroactively define them by example games rather than mechanics.

e.g. if you were to take an old mechanics-and-tropes definition of Action RPG, I suspect you would find everything from Borderlands to Kingdom Hearts technically qualifies

[gaunt marten]

Borderlands is actually one of my big examples of an unexpected Action RPG

[slim thorn]

"looter shooter" is such a useful term

come to think of it, is Soulslikes the only "new" RPG subgenre term to get traction lately?

I mostly don't play the Souls-influenced games with actual RPG mechanics so I'm not super clear on how people have been using that term in practice

[gaunt marten]

Deckbuilder

[wind stump]

orange makes my dopamine go brrrrt

[slim thorn]

next up: is Zelda a metroidvania?

do Pokemon-likes count as an RPG subgenre now?

[gaunt marten]

Ocarina of Time is absolutely a metroidvania, and Pokemon games are JRPGs

[slim thorn]

it's funny because to me Pokemon has almost none of the "vibes" of a Final Fantasy (at least the 7 and 9 that I actually played myself)

[wind stump]

Well with FFXIV adding Beastmaster soon...

[slim thorn]

the diffusion continues

[wind stump]

7.5!

we're in 7.3!

[frozen gate]

there's a lot of vibes shared with dq bc of like heavy inspiration, and there used to be a ton of like

teen goes on grand lighthearted adventure jrpgs

grandia and skies of arcadia

[slim thorn]

oh damn you're right

I should've caught that, but I've never played a DQ

or been to a Dairy Queen

[frozen gate]

haha no worries

LOL

yeah

[gaunt marten]

Pokemon would be a regular RPG if it had less dialogue and the ability to make custom Pokemon

[slim thorn]

fwiw, my serious answer is that mechanically, most of the pre-BotW Zeldas qualify as metroidvanias, but Zelda is just such a popular and influential series that it forces its own identity that somehow never merged into the main concept of a metroidvania

in practice that somehow ends up meaning that a 2D metroidvania is a Zelda iff it has a top-down camera (can you think of a single top-down camera 2D metroidvania that isn't a Zelda, or clearly imitating Zelda specifically? I can't)

and then in the 3D space we have this weird split between the Ocarina-likes, Metroid Prime (did we ever get a -like here? I don't think anyone ever imitated Prime ), and the Soulslikes

[gaunt marten]

Does Hyper Light Drifter count?

[slim thorn]

crap, I've never played that

[gaunt marten]

It's a top down 2D metroidvania but is not like Zelda.

[slim thorn]

"Hyper Light Drifter is an action adventure RPG ..."

[gaunt marten]

Yeah they're probably not gonna call it a metroidvania in the store description

[slim thorn]

no one can decide what this thing is

separately, I just remembered Crypt Custodian is top-down, so that's two that aren't Zelda

it's still a weirdly strong trend

[gaunt marten]

I actually stopped playing Hyper Light Drifter after a few hours because it felt too slow

[slim thorn]

hm, I also feel like I'm missing "Ocarina-likes" that aren't Zeldas

the only 3D metroidvania I can think of that isn't Zelda or a Soulslike is Pseudoregalia

[gaunt marten]

Tunic

[slim thorn]

ah but see that's an isometric camera so it's actually a CRPG

fair, that feels like it doesn't count because it's emulating the early 2D Zeldas more in every other way, but it is 3D technically

[gaunt marten]

Okay, uh

[slim thorn]

...oh, duh

[gaunt marten]

Psychonauts

[slim thorn]

all the Resident Evils

what even is genre

[slim thorn]

good catch, I had that mentally filed under "just platformer" but you're right it does follow that progression

I guess it doesn't feel like a Metroidvania because it's ultimately too linear to capture that vibe (without the randomizer mod)

[gaunt marten]

Yeah

[worthy rose]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2088550/Dying_Breed/

Another rts. Anyone hear of this one? Looks intriguing. Don't remember seeing about it in rts lists

Steam

Dying Breed

A throwback to the golden age of real-time strategy PC games
Dying Breed takes players back to the first generation of real-time strategy games. This game will take you on a journey through a post-apocalyptic world where you'll have to build your base, gather resources. Along the way, you'll encounter a cast of memorable characters, explore a…

Release Date

Oct 7, 2025

▶ Play video

[gaunt marten]

Cool looking game

Thumbnail guy looks like he put on a Halloween costume and took a photo in his bedroom

[worthy rose]

I imagine most of the budget went towards the game and not the wardrobe

[gaunt marten]

Yeah my issue is that they have a small wardrobe budget instead of a zero wardrobe budget

[worthy rose]

Also he reminds me of Seth in c&c...

[gaunt marten]

Yeah

[visual hill]

seems to be like Tempest Rising in trying to be a modern take on C&C, but this one is much more literal... not sure if it'll take off

[visual hill]

I just noticed the backdrop looks a lot like a Doom map

[gaunt marten]

I'm finally at the part of the game where you kill vampyres, but now everyone's doing that https://i.imgur.com/u1wULsV.png

[wind stump]

they vibin

[frozen gate]

is this trails?

assumedly the fc remake

im like halfway thru the original sc since.......

last year

i would continue esp since i enjoyed the cozier vibes as i usually do with my choice jrpgs

it'll be a while probs

and i really wanred to play crossbell cuz i like their designs

oh also og games soundtrack was hella jazzy iirc

that was a boon

[frozen gate]

biggest thing tho is that this is kind of the one series i would be like killing for a story-only mode honestly

[slim thorn]

esp?

[frozen gate]

sry esp?

[slim thorn]

oh that was "especially"

there were so many other abbreviations I thought that was one of the games

[frozen gate]

oh yeau

i know esp i just figured it meant like a specific game term haha

yeahh especially trails

uhh it's bc every single game is canon and an overarching story and like

the other aspect is these games have npcs changing dialogue, like EVERY npc, after each story event

at some point it feels a bit much to also have to play the game on top of this where im entirely wanting to see the story through

and the combat does have some occasional nasty spikes

tho for the most part it's unbalanced in the player's favor u just have to deal with the orbments

it's just a thing where i only want to see the story over anything tbh

[frozen gate]

oh brainfarted, yeah, it means especially

sorry it's like so normal in my vocabulary i didnt think about it

literally did not register LOL

[slim thorn]

no yeah I've heard that before, it's just in context I first parsed it as a game abbreviation so I was wondering if there was a Tales of Esperia or whatever installment I hadn't heard of

[frozen gate]

yeahh my bad haha

[slim thorn]

which I now realize is because I had heard of Vesperia

[frozen gate]

ixrec i got like 2 days in a row of embarrassing myself in front of u from the brainfarting im gunna remember this stuff forever

LOL

im like wow my brain straight is not working

[slim thorn]

I'm the one who asked the dumb question

aaaaanyway

[wind stump]

yes it's the FC remake

[frozen gate]

nahh u asked normal stuff haha

[frozen gate]

looks super good tho

[wind stump]

i have no idea what i'm doing

[frozen gate]

if it's 100% like fc/sc/third too there's also plenty of missables aha

only these bc u cant go back to areas unlike crossbell

but like u should be good

1 foe a specific ultimate weapon type deal and for extra quests basically that effect a rating at the end

but that's also determined by your dialogue choices so that needs a guide in the first place

but the first story is not super high stakes, like a saturday morning cartoon feeling, so u can just enjoy the experience and chill out n all haha

[frozen gate]

number 1 rule: talk to the npcs and then pick one as ur favorite and come back to them after each bit of story progress

rule 2: interact with chests again after opening them for an occasional laugh lol

honestly ykw im gonna go play sc

[fickle garnet]

I just got the platinum trophy for Elden Ring

It took me 139 hours to get

Over the course of three years

[gaunt marten]

I keep typing stron to look for the muscle emote

But it gives me aSTRONaut emoji instead

[hushed onyx]

🧑‍🚀

[slim thorn]

fwiw, I have now watched this; he's planning to do videos on the rest of the series, so the point the title refers to is that the original NES game had a lot of rough edges and straight-up mistakes (even by the standards of the era) due to things like a rushed development schedule and less experienced team, but on the flip side many of the things we now know were added in a rush turned out to be iconic or foundational elements of the series and genre it spawned

[gaunt marten]

Thanks

[frozen gate]

played skies of arcadia instead

the second battle theme feels like a final dungeon deal for some reason over fighting a weird sky jellyfish

and i have a lot of love for that James Brown - Funky Drummer sample

https://youtu.be/b45bLJkZvn4

had me really excited

[graceful bridge]

Okay, help me out here: how do I actually use DLSS in a game for better framerates? Do I just make sure it's on and then set the game resolution lower?

[gaunt marten]

Don't change your resolution. It handles that for you

[bronze abyss]

what game in particular? different games give you different options for it,but generally turn it on and set it to either balanced or performance,if you dont mind slightly worse visuals

[gaunt marten]

If it has a performance mode, set it to do that

Otherwise, turn it on

[graceful bridge]

Dying Light: the Beast

[graceful bridge]

Okay, then I guess I need to start setting options lower. Getting nasty framerate drops in some environments.

[bronze abyss]

yep tghen just turn it on and set it to prefered mode,names of the modes are self explanatory

[bronze abyss]

town hall?

[graceful bridge]

That and the woods at night.

[gaunt marten]

First settings to turn down are usually shadow quality and resolution

[bronze abyss]

hm havent had issues in the woods,and for town hall dont bother it will be similar no matter the settings

i tried doing it and i think its just a badly optimised area thats all

[graceful bridge]

I made the mistake of heading out for a quest right before sundown. Now I'm stuck in a fight against a ton of zombies, a banshee, and sometimes volatiles spot me. Frames drop down fast.

[gaunt marten]

It might not be fun for all games, but playing in windowed mode with only part of the screen helps a lot in all cases.

[graceful bridge]

Alright, thanks for the advice!

[bronze abyss]

i dont think the volatiles should be an issue there? they shouldnt be able to cross water if you are fighting it in the swamp

unless you got really unlucky and they spawned on the island,then my condolences

[graceful bridge]

It's a side mission in the forest. All I know is I was fighting the bansheee and suddenly I'm in a Chase, then I'm dead.

[bronze abyss]

i just wasted around 1000hp trying to get down from a safezone

not hp xp i meant

[graceful bridge]

Oh yeah, I fall off things constantly.

[bronze abyss]

not usually an issue for me but its on a factory chimney and the drops are barely above the threshold where active landing works but it still looks like it does so i fell thinking i can negate it

bullet to the head:insta kill
arrow to the head:maybe tickles a lil idk

[graceful bridge]

Yeah, arrows seem a bit weak.

[bronze abyss]

oop nvm not anymore,now even the rifle bullets to the skull dont 1 shot,i may or may not be like half the recomended level for the quest

[graceful bridge]

Yeaaah, I need to grind up some levels myself, things are kicking my ass.

Anyway, #1124419531788525670

[wind stump]

Fun fact: The opening for ASGORE's theme was inspired by The Fog from Persona 4

[river veldt]

ye

[uneven epoch]

(i know nothin of hades II story just yet, pls no spoily if thats adressed)

melinoe the retcon baby: >:c

[gaunt marten]

Maybe it's just polygamy

[hushed onyx]

According to the Orphic hymns her father was Zeus...but her mother was still Persephone, so 🤷‍♂️

[fresh bane]

what a time to be alive, the new main silent hill game coming out soon and it sounds like it's actually good
(still super iffy on the combat with the dodging and the hitstop and bosses looking a lot more hectic)

I wonder if I could even run it though... I did upgrade my pc not that long ago but it's still not a super impressive build, at least my gpu still isn't

maybe if I just... turn everything down to the minimum settings...

[visual hill]

640x480 lowest settings, a truly horrifying experience 😛

[fresh bane]

That's just the way I used to game back in the good old days

2017, Dark Souls PTDE, had to mess with the text file on the directory of the game to force the resolution down to 800x600 to play at kind of 30 fps

[gaunt marten]

Back then games were designed at resolutions closer to that

[visual hill]

the lack of TAA also meant games looked sharper at a given resolution (even if aliased)

I know TAA is often blamed in modern discourse, but before it, it was impossible to have an aliasing-free game without a ridiculous cost 😛

I played The Talos Principle yesterday, and it's kind of asinine how many pixels I need to push to get rid of aliasing

it does look very sharp in return, even in motion, but still

(4K with 4x MSAA + 2x SSAA)

[quiet swift]

Bringi: it's not a big spoiler, just Hades 2 plays after hades 1. Easiest and most accurate way to explain 😛

[slim thorn]

oh god that's right, Silent Hill f comes out the same day as Hades 2

I'm gonna have to just pick one

[fresh bane]

~~well technically Hades 2 is already out ☝️ 🤓 ~~

If SHf follows survival horror tradition then it's probably gonna be a much shorter experience, Hades 2 is kind of like a forever game to me at least as far as I've played

[slim thorn]

yeah, I'm probably gonna pick SHf for my week off, and then have Hades 2 as a game I chip away at during normal weeks after that

[fresh bane]

I guess some people are getting this earlier? It's supposed to come out the 25th

well, I guess I'm not gonna be able to even run this game anyways so I might as well tune in

I guess in a way it's a good thing I kinda paused playing Hades for... well pretty much the entire year, if there's any major changes to items or power ups or anything at least now it should be way more well documented and discussed now that everyone else is going to be playing

[robust latch]

https://youtu.be/MzafKJEzYko - ok the characters in this look damn cute

[slim thorn]

ok that's going on the wishlist

uh... Steam, are you drunk?

[gaunt marten]

If I recall correctly they check tag similarity, audience overlap, and a few other factors

It relies on a lot of data, but a bunch of it is low quality

[slim thorn]

mostly I'm surprised that it didn't even find the other point-and-clicks in my Steam library

I'm guessing it ended up here because "cartoon animals"

[hasty patio]

https://bsky.app/profile/wario64.bsky.social/post/3lzhqqrejc22b

Wario64 (@wario64.bsky.social)

Palworld x ULTRAKILL collaboration announced www.gematsu.com/2025/09/palw...

Likes

117

Bluesky · Sep 23, 2025, 1:15 AM

[cerulean herald]

a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one

[teal sonnet]

Fuck GTA 6

https://youtu.be/BMzzXYQ8zoQ

Anime GTA

thsi thing looks incredible

I hope is not all fake

and the game cames out like shit

[river veldt]

is the DMC HD Collection any good ?

Nire might know but i don't wanna ping them

[fickle garnet]

Yes it is

[frozen gate]

two pretty good games and also dmc2 as a bonus

[river veldt]

is dmc2 bad or something

[frozen gate]

it went in a strange direction and is horribly unbalanced

see like

aesthetically/narratively dmc1 is them still trying to figure out what dmc is and going into 2 they decided for a darker route and that sucked so they really went hard on being goofy in dmc3

also important noting dmc1 was supposed to be a resident evil game and swapped midway in conceptualization so you're getting a surprisingly horror-esque tone for the game than u would expect if ur familiar with the series beforehand

[river veldt]

obligatory https://youtu.be/GVLXmZYjHVk?feature=shared

[frozen gate]

LOL yeahh

haunted by the ghost of dmc1

[river veldt]

i remember this ! i watched a history of RE4 video

[frozen gate]

yess

so dante is a lil broody in that one iirc

still like a bit cocky ofc cuz that bit of him came had to come from somewhere

dmc1 is also like 100% a fun game but p dated, u'll be able to see its age and maybe appreciate it more going into dmc3 after

[river veldt]

noted

moted

fucking

[frozen gate]

[minor plover]

.addquote CaptainMario moted

[river veldt]

i always thought that screen on the original Resident Evil saying "this game contains scenes of violence and gore" was funny

[fresh bane]

yea

even better with mods, if you care to set them up

DMC3 has major visual issues that mods easily fix

as well as gameplay revamp mods like the brand new DMC3 Crimson which amongst many other things allows for free style switching like in DMC4 and 5 whereas in the vanilla version of the game you can only have 2 weapons equipped and 1 style at once

DMC1 also has DDMK mod which allows for quick switching for weapons (and technically guns too but it's glitchy) which really opens up the gameplay for that

[frozen gate]

im normally like, first run with no gameplay mods kinda person, but i would probably still end up agreeing that a mod that lets you switch styles on the fly in dmc3 is just a flat upgrade

afaik u can do that with ddmk alone

[fresh bane]

Crimson is much more customizable and much easier to install now

[light gate]

Its a free to play open world rpg title developed by Naked Rain and published by NetEase. So I'm gonna assume some serious in-game purchases.

[river veldt]

hmm

kind of put off learning that DMC3 has major visual glitches without mods

[fresh bane]

Not glitches, issues

Things like not proper transparency which is very common with ports and remasters of Playstation 2 games, missing or skewed UI effects and text that are more minor than major, and most notably things like the bright large moon sky texture and final area sky textures are incredibly pixelated and distractingly low res

[river veldt]

ah

[fresh bane]

For example, it's no donguri gameplay but i think it shows off the potential of the game pretty well with a mechanic like weapon switching

I think setting up the mods is worth it for the full experience, DDMK in DMC1 can be more tricky, especially because there are certain settings that can break the game if you don't know how they work, some missions I think Mission 10-11 can crash the game if the mod is enabled, so you have to disable it, get into the mission, and bring the mod interface up and enable it again, but it's small stuff like that that is very easy to figure out and I could help since I had to mess around with it too, it sounds annoying but it's honestly not that big of an issue
Crimson is even less of a hassle, and I'd say it's arguably worth setting it up even if only for the style switcher and nothing else, Crimson even has a separate preset option that only enables the style switcher and none of the other additions

It makes both games arguably more enjoyable and even though I'd normally not recommend mods for a first playthrough the reality is a lot of people fully drop DMC1 and 3 because they're either too hard or they're too old for people's current sensibilities so I'd rather recommend a more enjoyable experience than possible annoyance

[river veldt]

hrm

there's a clown

in the third game

[gaunt marten]

When I play there's a clown in every game

[river veldt]

this music is insane

im watching Jeremy 985 playing 3

dmc3

[fresh bane]

He's a jester

his name is literally just Jester actually

[river veldt]

i love that

[fresh bane]

https://tenor.com/view/jester-dmc3-devil-may-cry-edit-dmc3-dmc-gif-27239955

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/eHCqxLtwy5g?si=K8Xf6Z2svCfYDBZC

https://youtu.be/GFLoRTwPtic?si=QDovFEvbVliCA8eh

what the fuck kojima

This game is not even in active development yet Kojima what the hell

[little badger]

I was just about to post that

Did you get crossworlds Nire?

[river veldt]

gonna save the OD trailer for when i'm more awake, im very excited for it though

i doubt i'll be able to play it bit still

[plain harbor]

I know I'm replying to this super late, but looking at the trailer, I'm expecting a lot of lawsuits. Lawsuits that won't go anywhere because the game is Chinese in origin and the Chinese don't really give a crap about any country's copyright or IP laws. I saw elements of so many games in that trailer, I'm certain the lawsuits will happen. But again, they won't go anywhere because China. I do like the looks of a lot of the characters, though. And the gameplay looks fun. I'm thinking of checking it out unless it turns out to be a mobile thing despite the flashy PS5 trailer.

[fresh bane]

I didn't know it was even out already

62 bucks oof

yeah I'll probably wait on that

[little badger]

It you don’t have the deluxe version you can buy each pack for £7

[frozen gate]

the way this guy lands exactly like spider-man thru a window and swung on some drapes like he was

makes me think this is some sort of open world city superbaby

rather than specifically gta

[plain harbor]

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds? Yeah, it's out now for those who preordered. Full release for everyone else is on the 25th. I'm going to wait to get it, too.

[quiet swift]

[dense crypt]

kitty earning their keep

[bitter stream]

Let's go, the cat has the eyes

[little badger]

State of play tomorrow wolverine is meant to be getting shown

[bitter stream]

is Wolverine an XMEN game or something?

I can't say i've heard of it

[little badger]

It’s basically the Spider-Man game but with wolverine

Was revealed 4 years ago https://youtu.be/Zcj9AzHv_l8?si=T6LgetaZ5f64qBw-

[bitter stream]

hmm, open world wolverine game? that's interesting, see how it goes I suppose

[fickle garnet]

This looks fucking awesome

[rotund forge]

My Copium supply is telling me there will be FNAF news because of all the fnaf tubers talking about the suspected teaser that dropped the other day

[bitter stream]

hahah I hope your copium is well stocked. /positive tone

[wind stump]

Fun fact: You can use the Level Select code in Sonic Origins to skip to the last stage and still get the achievement

The only game this doesn't work in is CD

[gaunt marten]

Fun fact: You can just edit your steam achievement to say you did any achievement. This works for any game.

[wind stump]

But that's cheating

And probably against ToS

Don't tell anyone but I did that once to get TF2 items

[gaunt marten]

It is also cheating to use the level select code in sonic origins to skip the game

[bronze abyss]

apart from tf2 only time i used SAM was for the opposite,to remove all achievements from a game so i could 100% it again

[frozen gate]

you can do that with SAM?

ive done it for like

csgo, tf2 and audiosurf when i was younger

audiosurf i have 0 clue why

tf2 for items

i just hide the games now since the achievements are unearned

except csgo bc all those achievements turned to dust when it rebooted to cs2 anyway

[gaunt marten]

Yeah it's done for achievement speedruns

[little badger]

What have you been playing Flitter

[gaunt marten]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Ape Escape, Crystal Project, Oldschool Runescape

[little badger]

[frozen gate]

pokemon mystery dungeon is baller

mystery dungeon was first a dragon quest thing, featuring Torneko from DQ5, which means pmd ends up sharing a couple stuff

the whole really misplaced stone stairs thing is in both with similar sprites lol

[river veldt]

i finally watched the OD trailer and OMG it looks so good

im so excited

[worthy rose]

https://share.google/cqND3rKfu0dM6UCjf

[river veldt]

oh shit

[fresh bane]

am I going insane or is the steam store layout changed slightly

something feels different

[frozen gate]

the top section i think

menu bar

side bar was also removed

random screenshot off google lol

[fresh bane]

so it's extra clicks to get to any information I want to get to instead of just letting me see the info on the screen already and fully taking away the last bit of green there was

weird

[bitter stream]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/507340197095015492?l=english more detail enclosed

[astral steeple]

Oh pubg mobile is doing a skibidi toilet event lmao

[cerulean herald]

man why they gotta fix what ain't broke

[bronze abyss]

idk what changes they made to it but i despise the store previous layout so i dont think it can get any worse

[gaunt marten]

If you don't like changes, you should complain about it in the beta forums before they move to the main product

You can get a review of what they changed and why they think it's better here https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/500579345320904590

[visual hill]

more details here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/09/baldurs-gate-3-gets-a-native-linux-version-to-improve-it-on-steam-deck/

wow, I did not expect a big game to go Linux native in 2025

Now that there is a Steam Deck Native build, is Baldur’s Gate 3 supported on Linux?

Larian does not provide support for the Linux platform. The Steam Deck Native build is only supported on Steam Deck.

unfortunately, it's still claimed not to run on desktop Linux, even though it does. It was locked to being downloadable from a Steam Deck only earlier today, but it looks like this was fixed

[light gate]

One entire engineer made the native port.

Damn

[bitter stream]

💪 🧠 - Brain Strong Engineer

[light gate]

Its a bit weird it took them that long but also weirder that only one person worked on this. Did like everyone else not want to make a native port?

Well, at least it exists now.

No more proton for that title on the Steam Deck.

[visual hill]

it's quite common for studios to only have a single employee knowledgeable with Linux porting, as it's quite a niche field

for example, id Software famously had TTimo for this... so once he left, there was nobody to fill in his role. It was done out of passion, more than trying to make money

[sacred grove]

Not that there's any money to be made in native Linux builds compared to the amount of Windows users

which is why it's rarely done

[fickle garnet]

For some reason I cant launch Wolfenstein 2, because i'm getting an error that says my drivers are out of date

they aren't out of date

[craggy vine]

Hopefully it keeps recieving attention and doesn't get abandoned or become buggy like some other games

I still hate that l4d2 loads the linux version on steam deck by default, the game behaves differently to windows in some things.

[wind stump]

KIWAMI 3 IS REAL

And they dubbed it- oh god it's dubbed.

[visual hill]

it's a Vulkan game, so you probably have a broken layer somewhere... try a clean install of your drivers

[visual hill]

all Valve games use the native Linux build by default, thankfully

[little badger]

@untold laurel https://youtu.be/07SF99EeZ1M?si=5z_dbt_cJxpP28my

[rotund forge]

Still huffing it. I'll know if it was worth it soonenough lol

[bitter stream]

is the State of Play starting soon?

[rotund forge]

4 PM for me

So 4 hours from now

[bitter stream]

ahh good luck good luck

[rotund forge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFcwad0MNHM

[dense crypt]

Hows about new Phoenix Wright games, huh Capcom

[worthy rose]

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/s/QLXwegq1Re

(Verdict so far: pretty fucking awesome)

[fresh bane]

''3 new resident evil remakes? you got it''

[fresh bane]

Latin american spanish update!??!?!?!

[unreal idol]

Ay, he

[frozen gate]

oh cool

afaik theyve always had spanish localization in the ds games but like

licensing issue i guess so the script wasn't in the remakes

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/o7ziu2cpNZk?si=cb_eTZ-bTtQlvyM4

Might legitimately be the first DLC character I consider buying for sf6

[chilly mural]

[fresh bane]

mother

literally

[chilly mural]

she is a mother, that is true

[little badger]

@graceful bridge new trailer https://youtu.be/HPRTeT0H-Jw?si=xs28djQxFUB0N8hf

[graceful bridge]

Oh this looks fun

Oh fuck, not ||Tuvix||.

[wind stump]

[rotund forge]

I deleted my ping because I felt like it

[little badger]

Starts in about 10 minutes https://www.youtube.com/live/0QcEoGC51ZY?si=aLURb26TTcZyo5Hy

[rotund forge]

yes

[little badger]

Starting now.

[light gate]

So bullet hell in 3d space?

[river veldt]

is that Rahul Kohli ?

[light gate]

Disco Elysium 2?

[little badger]

I knew flight simulator was coming!

[light gate]

Nvm it was something else, but yeah I guess my stream was behind

[little badger]

What’s next Starfield?

[light gate]

Probably

[little badger]

It was rumoured

Battlefield?

[light gate]

Yeah

[little badger]

Yeah I recognise the crane

[light gate]

Oh my god this looks sick

[little badger]

[light gate]

Deus EX?

Remastered?

[visual hill]

Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (PS2 port of the OG game) was already on PS2 Classics a few months ago

[light gate]

This is the OG Deus Ex

But enhanced with better graphics

[visual hill]

wow, I'm pretty impressed to hear this then... it means they managed to get a hold of the source code somehow, or reverse engineer it

(unlike a lot of UE1 games out there, we don't have Deus Ex source code)

[light gate]

https://youtu.be/f1RdKezTYNk?feature=shared

[visual hill]

interesting mouse cursor in there (and tiny UI elements :P)

but wow, this looks pretty interesting. Certainly a lot better than the fan-made HD assets we have so far, although it looks a tad plasticy (gives me PS3-era vibes)

[light gate]

Its certainly different

[river veldt]

i hope it's on pc

[light gate]

It will be

That’s for sure

[visual hill]

it's Aspyr so yeah, and the mouse cursor makes me think this was recorded on PC anyway

[river veldt]

oh duh

sorry my brain isn't operating at full capacity

[visual hill]

also, we are finally getting some kind of new Deus Ex content almost 10 years after the last game

(it's slated for release in May 2026... I guess it means Deus Ex truly can compete with GTA VI, it's that good of a game)

The year is 2052.
it's funny to think that the remaster will come out exactly half-way between the OG release and "Deus Ex_irl", as I like to call it

[light gate]

Let it Die Sequel

Excuse me

Sony, why are you selling speakers?

[little badger]

Driveclub??

Never mind

Finally!!!!!

[light gate]

Wolverine

Fall 2026

[little badger]

Think that’s everything

[light gate]

Yep

Very short

No news on any of the other projects.

[rotund forge]

Sadge

[light gate]

Yeah, all the studios are probably working full tilt.

Its unsurprising.

[fresh bane]

holy shit that looks terrible

definitely no System Shock that's for sure...

[light gate]

I’m not sure what exactly is wrong.

I’m honestly way too excited for BF6

It just looks, plays, feels right.

Wolverine looks interesting… I hope we get to see actual gameplay.

[little badger]

In spring

[orchid sundial]

ok who in the world said "you don't need a ps5, a ps4 is all you need" because today's state of play proved that claim to be wrong

granted, nothing in it interested me since it was all graphically-intensive games or m-rated stuff, but still

[astral steeple]

The only even somewhat interesting game from the state of play was wolverine

[river veldt]

it's nice they put a content warning for Silent Hill f i wish it was up longer than 5 seconds

[fickle garnet]

I wanna play Silent Hill f, but idk if I could handle it

I just watched the Wolverine trailer, and it looks sooo good

[fickle garnet]

Same. I'm really hoping its good

[light gate]

The only thing I expect to let me down for BF6 would be the campaign since DICE never seems to hit base on that. Last time they ever did a good campaign was Bad Company but Bad Company also had a few issues. (Minor issues tbh, just some weird level decisions)

Regardless, I loved the beta so I know the Multiplayer is gonna rock.

[fresh bane]

Silent Hill f so far is pretty damn stellar

also, surprisingly hard for a Silent Hill game in hard difficulty mode, like actually properly hard

[slim thorn]

I have SHf preloading now so I should be able to start playing it after work tomorrow

[fresh bane]

It's a proper hard game if you play it on hard mode

It's probably the first silent hill game I've come across where a boss fight might actually be a wall for some people

~~....like a souls game ~~

well in hard mode anyways which is the only mode I've seen so far

[random steppe]

I'm pretty surprised that Konami actually knows how to make a game still

I was 100% wrong on the state of their game development capabilities, and it's clear since the Silent Hill Remake, but it's good to confirm that wasn't a fluke

I don't plan to play this because Hades 2 and like, half a dozen other games I kinda want to play more of real badly.

Plus horror isn't a genre I'm especially fond of

But I wonder if it'll snag some game awards, some nominations for sure judging by the reception

[rotund forge]

@little badger Well I died from an overdose of copium today, but I will still stand by that a fnaf teaser is coming soon...Or that's just more copium per square inch

[slim thorn]

personally SHf takes priority over Hades 2 for me, partly because it's what I'm in the mood for, but also I feel much more confident I can actually finish a SH game in a reasonable time frame without getting stuck than a Hades game

I have "134.6 hours" in the first Hades, which is insane for me

[random steppe]

I'm looking for a dry spell to sink an ungodly amoubnt of time in X4 diplomacy update
Thing is, there is no dry spell this year, it's all bangers no stop

It's IMO one of those years when even cutting down to 5 for the GOTY nominations will be difficult

[fresh bane]

They don't lol

Konami is just the publisher now

[random steppe]

Well at least they know how to pick their studios

[fresh bane]

the developers are separate from Konami, they just kinda work with Konami

Delta is the only one I think Konami actually developed in-house

[random steppe]

Which is also an important skill, ask Games Workshop

[fresh bane]

MGS Delta that is

[random steppe]

Delta is pretty strong too right?

[fresh bane]

I mean it's literally just Metal Gear Solid 3 again so yeah it's pretty good

the new gameplay seems good too

original camera and original controls selectable too, but unfortunately they're kinda forked and not really the original controls

I'm pleasantly surprised with MGS Delta honestly I think it's one of the best remake jobs up there with some of the best ones

[random steppe]

As I said, I have too much to play so I don't think I'll be able to play Delta myself, but there is one thing that they have to nail for my seal of approval and only one

The way they were able to get ||The End to blend in with the foliage|| was one of the most magical things I've experienced in gaming up until then, and if they can't recreate that they failed

I will always remember being at a friend's house, his gun literally trained on the dude's dome, maybe 5 meters from our point of view and we going "is that him?" "Nah I think it's just terrain" "IDK try to shoot, I think it's him"

[fresh bane]

See I can't really relate to that because this is what that fight looked like to me

[random steppe]

Oh we did that too in future playthroughs, don't get me wrong

IIRC the termal is kind of out of the way and first time we got there we didn't have it, and having replayed it multiple times the fight is a lot more fun without it

[river veldt]

is The End the one that can die from old age ?

[random steppe]

Yes

[river veldt]

that's genuinely such a cool idea

[random steppe]

There are so many things that can happen in that fight, it's peak Kojima nonsense

You can even bypass it completely if you snipe him in an earlier part of the game

[river veldt]

dont you have to fight a harder boss then ?

[random steppe]

It's been forever, I don't think so but I don't remember

[fresh bane]

If you snipe him from earlier then Ocelot's GRU units swarm the forest instead

[river veldt]

i gotta play these games

[random steppe]

I know that for example if you sneak up on him you can get a his camo

I think he falls asleep if you don't fight him for a lenght of time allowing you to get in a cheap shot or two

[river veldt]

old man

[fresh bane]

That's wht I did in my fights against him too, you have to hold him up 3 times but you can get it by holding him up and aiming at him then away and then at him again 3 times and he will drop his camo that lets you regenerate stamina in the sun and has like 90% camo index

[random steppe]

Also his objective is to delay you, so he never kills you, he shoot tranquilizing darts, puts you to sleep and then carry you out of the forest.

[fresh bane]

Yeah if you lose the fight against him he will carry you like 4-5 areas back

[random steppe]

He is like, one of the best encounters in gaming for a reason

[river veldt]

apparently he's over 100 years old

[little badger]

Maybe at the game awards in December

[rotund forge]

👀

[little badger]

[fresh bane]

Jesus christ this game.... goes places

it just.... it goes places

[smoky sonnet]

https://fxbsky.app/profile/sonicstadium.org/post/3lzlv3hy5o22u

The Sonic Stadium ✪ 25 YEARS OF SONIC NEWS (@sonicstadium.org)

BREAKING: A CG teaser of the Sonic x #PUBGMobile collab has been leaked by Sonic Hotspot!
︀︀
︀︀In it, he helps Kaiju No 9 fight Skibidi Toilet. #SonicNews

**🔁 151 ❤️ 424 **

▶ Play video

FxBluesky · Sep 24, 2025, 4:44 PM

hmmmmm

did everyone involved sign off on this

[untold laurel]

I saw it, but tbh I'm not very hyped for the game in general

[little badger]

Just about to start https://www.youtube.com/live/8NlWzg73kHw?si=peBykQAuSd9w97Mj

Starting now

[untold laurel]

Tokio

[little badger]

@green fulcrum @fresh bane

[quiet swift]

Hades 2 is now fully out!

[random steppe]

Starting it later

[sacred grove]

https://bsky.app/profile/gog.com/post/3lznzc34roj2y

GOG.COM (@gog.com)

As part of our 17th Anniversary celebrations, we’re thrilled to announce:

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is now available DRM-free on GOG!

👉 bit.ly/CO_E33

Tomorrow comes for those who come after.

Likes

213

▶ Play video

Bluesky · Sep 25, 2025, 1:04 PM

[light gate]

It’s great to see more modern games on GOG, but it would have been better if GOG had focused on improving their Galaxy client. Its UI isn’t that great, the connection extensions aren’t that great, and takes forever to start up on a client that’s supposed to track and store your achievements and saves. Not to mention the online optional components. Even the GOG overlay doesn’t have anything other than to message friends.

Like idk why its been left so barebones.

Even people have complained in the forums, but nobody at GOG seems to listen. Its so weird.

[wind stump]

[sacred grove]

Silent Hill f, Hades II, and Sonic Racing: Crossworlds all releasing at pretty much the same time

Too much game

[random steppe]

Playing Hades 2, Amelia Tyler absolutely destroy as Hecate

[wind stump]

and Trails First Chapter

[wind stump]

No context Blue Archive.

[cerulean herald]

train twins

[little badger]

Bowser is retiring at the end of the year

[unreal idol]

Devon
bowser replaced by dedede

[quiet swift]

Yesss, she's so good

[fickle garnet]

I think i'm going to start playing The Evil Within

[astral steeple]

https://www.uuinstagram.com/reel/DO7ZQ0xEQGo/

AHHHHH

IT'S BEEN FOUND

20+ YEARS LATER

[slim thorn]

man, Silent Hill having ||Soulslike combat|| was not on my 2025 bingo card, but I am here for it: ||I just spent half an hour death looping a boss until I mastered the dodge/parry timings ||

[random steppe]

NGL it makes me so much more interested in the game

[slim thorn]

now tell us a fun fact about Hades 2

[gaunt marten]

I Iades

[fresh bane]

You know the funny thing is the developers would be really mad if you said that to em

They got pretty irked at people pointing out that the game looked to have || souls-like combat || when the trailers were coming out

That said I should boot up Steam today and update Hades even if I'm not gonna play anything today

I should probably start a new save.... but eh

I only have six hours on Hades 2???? Gee, yeah, no way I'm starting over, I barely played that game

Probably didn't miss any important updates anyways

[gaunt marten]

Why are they making a trailer for a sale? https://youtu.be/aJZko_5b4KE

Do they have too much money?

[hushed onyx]

I mean, yes?

[fresh bane]

Doesn't Gaben have his own submarine now to study marine life?

[green fulcrum]

He has a yacht that I think launches submarines to study marine life

[random steppe]

Idk there aren't many surprises for now, it's great but about what I expected so far.
If I had to pick one is that I really like that ||Artemis|| seems to have a larger role as a character compared to Hades 1, and I am overjoyed since she is my favourite of the Olympus deities.

Oh right, ||Apollo|| is here and he is kind of awesome, that's also a plus

[peak berry]

[cerulean herald]

pinkzza tower

[peak berry]

yup

[quartz pawn]

Just got my copy of Sonic Racing Crossworlds!

[rotund forge]

that is beautiful

XD

[dense crypt]

My only complaint about this mod is how it doesn't make Pinkie energetic or wacky in a particularly expressive way, like how peppino is.

[chilly mural]

IS THE MOD UPDATED TO WORK WITH THE NOISE UPDATE?????

[peak berry]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[chilly mural]

[peak berry]

old version l play

[chilly mural]

sorry for caps, but I think about this mod a lot and was saddened to see you need to play an older version of pizza tower in order to use it, I did play it when the current version of pizza tower was mod compatible

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3111192900

[peak berry]

oh

[fresh bane]

https://bsky.app/profile/jonathancase.bsky.social/post/3lzobqdcwl22i

Jonathan Case (@jonathancase.bsky.social)

Happy Hades 2 launch day, all! #hades2 #watercolor #fanart

Likes

229

Bluesky · Sep 25, 2025, 3:35 PM

forg 🐸

[quiet swift]

That's Frinos to you

(Toula, Hecuba, Frinos, Raki ( ) and Gale )

[frozen gate]

thats the frog from chrono trigger i think

[proud warren]

holy shit I was electrically charged like no one's business

[quiet swift]

Those are fun. Combine that with Hephaestus' boon for the duo and you're an electric cataclysm

[hidden elbow]

So I started playing trepang 2 recently and wow they did an amazing job with enemy voice lines , everything from them giving orders reacting, screaming and swearing as you attack , it makes fight feel even more dynamic , but cultists might my favourite enemies

[hidden elbow]

Their high pitched voices , esoteric nonsense and just purely funny lines makes them really entertaining enemies to fight against

[dense crypt]

yo i love that game to pieces

[hidden elbow]

Yeah its really good , reminds me os severed steel in some aspects , i am surprised how its able to switch between you feeling "I am death , who's next ?" And "I am so freaking scared right now" So effectively

[cunning galleon]

someone fell off and rage quit here because i could grab the rocks\

[visual hill]

I like how closely it matches the OG art style

Flutter Tower

[obsidian salmon]

I wish it hadn't told me it was a very bad idea, now I want to do it

[arctic fern]

I always do the very bad ideas

[graceful bridge]

https://youtu.be/Gf5yAfi96HM?si=27smHqnwvtqmlIpL

The business signs for Voight-Kampff and Tyrell had me laughing.

[orchid sundial]

question for you all: which platform does achievements/trophies/rewards the best? xbox, playstation, or steam?

[bronze abyss]

personally i find xbox achievements the most rewarding but its purely a mental thing,i dont think they really have any major differences between them

[graceful bridge]

I like Steam's system best.

[slim thorn]

what are the differences?

I've barely used consoles since the 360, and achievements were still pretty new back then

[forest shoal]

Nintendo

Achievements are for tryhards 🤪

[bronze abyss]

nah i cannot play without achievements they are like the best reward for progress

[slim thorn]

when I'm nearing the end of a game I will typically look at the achievements as one way of checking if I "missed" anything that sounds fun enough to be worth doing, but I basically never go for 100% achievements on purpose since there's often a few that are clearly not fun

[orchid sundial]

xbox's achievement system gives you gamerscore (i've always called it gold because in my brain g = gold, and i'll refer it to that from now on) and each game has up to 1000 of it, with additional ones added with dlc. also some games have 2000 or more gold since they include multiple games inside it (i.e. the crash and spyro trilogies and the halo master chief collection). playstation trophies are divided into 4 trophy types, each with their own exp for your psn profile; bronze, silver, and gold, which reward 15, 30, and 90 exp respectively. there is also a platinum trophy, which is rewarded for obtaining all other trophies, and the platinum is worth 300 exp. it encourages people to get through games way more, and the trophy hunting videos on youtube show that, they get tons of views. steam achievements are nothing to write home about, they don't give exp or score, but you are allowed to show it on your profile and flex on people

[slim thorn]

Steam achievements do show the % of players, and have a visual difference for "rare" acheivements with a low %

I guess Steam also has that whole trading card drops and experience and levels system, so really all three of the listed platforms have some form of cross-game scorekeeping, and what's actually unqiue about Steam's is that it's not tied to achievements

[visual hill]

RetroAchievements feel more rewarding than Steam achievements for me, maybe because of the hardcore points and leaderboards

standard leaderboards are not a thing on any other achievement system IIRC

it gives you an incentive to speedrun portions of (almost) every game if you wish

[slim thorn]

I guess if I had to pick a better system, I'd have to say the whole premise of "gamerscore" seems at best pointless and at worst kinda unhealthy? so on that basis I'd have to favor Steam where the exp system that does exist is much easier to ignore completely as I do

it makes sense that retroachivements would be all around better since presumably it's a fan project focusing on things that make sense to be on a leaderboard in the first place?

[orchid sundial]

i feel that the word gamer is a derogatory word, it sounds so cringe and it definitely does not represent who i am, which is why i'm not a fan of xbox achievements

i'd rather just get playstation trophies or steam achievements

[visual hill]

gamer words

[slim thorn]

to be fair to Microsoft, "gamerscore" was introduced in googles 2005, and at least for me personally "gamer" became an unambiguously cringe term when Gamergate happened in 2014-5

[bronze abyss]

wtf is gamergate

[slim thorn]

oh god

literally all of the rule 2 applies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate

[bronze abyss]

which kind of "oh god" is this

[slim thorn]

the same kind if someone were to ask "who tf is Trump"

[bronze abyss]

ah

[bronze abyss]

ok i heard enough after reading the first paragraph

[visual hill]

I recall when it was in full force, I was terminally 16 but largely ignored the thing

[slim thorn]

I remember being extremely confused, as I was still too young and naive (in my 20s ) to understand what was really going on there

[visual hill]

same

[bronze abyss]

seems to be in character for gamer stuff

[slim thorn]

this, uh, "movement" is certainly the reason why unironically calling yourself a capital-G "Gamer" in 2025 is likely to come off as a euphemism for terminally online incel

[frozen gate]

ya a lot of it nowadays is still because of like 2016 gamergate stuff

but i also find a lot more positive spaces nowadays too which is cool

made a lot of people move away from that Gamer stuff

[slim thorn]

the silver lining is it made a lot of non-awful people more aware of the issues

[frozen gate]

neogaf -> resetera incident

[frozen gate]

ya

[river veldt]

gamer rage

[frozen gate]

they like accelerated it so fast to extreme misogyny and it pushed people away lol

backfired hard

[frozen gate]

me when uhhhhh uhh dark souls

[visual hill]

it's a reason I don't really like hanging out in many esport communities where toxicity is king

[slim thorn]

"hot" take: if you rage when playing dark souls, you're doing it wrong, or playing the wrong game

[visual hill]

or swallow your ego and use a difficulty mod 😛

[frozen gate]

oh yeah if i get into something fucked up knowing it's fucked up and gettinf mad then i probably am a lil silly

[visual hill]

lots of games are better enjoyed this way, but Dark Souls is the epitome of ego-based singleplayer gaming

[river veldt]

me when i keep dying to a boss: Miyazaki must pay for his crimes
me when i finally beat it: another masterpiece of game design from Miyazaki and the team at FromSoft

[frozen gate]

LOL

[frozen gate]

also yes i feel u

some game communities i cant be in at all

[hushed onyx]

It can be hard to suppress getting mad at times even if you know you ought not.

[frozen gate]

fighting game ones are usually pretty open but theyre also like horribly macho and it pushes me away

[visual hill]

I used to play a lot of CS:GO (and early CS2) but stopped rather quickly

the game came around at a perfect time when I started to have less free time available 🙂

[slim thorn]

me when playing Silksong (literally in this case): I have legitimate concerns about the difficulty increase locking me out of endgame content
me after playing Silksong: yeah that was one of the best games of all time obviously

[frozen gate]

oh ya it isnt like bad to be mad anyway surely, i just find im a lot more muted knowinf its what's intended

[hushed onyx]

The only multiplayer game I've ever played is Elite: Dangerous and mostly with the Equestrian Naval Fleet, so...pretty chill.

[slim thorn]

there's also an important but subtle distinction between getting "mad" in the way that's just part of the fun of a game (or movie, or show) and actually getting angry in a deeply unpleasant way

[frozen gate]

i was into overwatch but like that community too was ultra jaded

[bronze abyss]

depends how you engage with them honestly,reddit? good luck for your mental health,smaller space dedicated to the game? you'll probably be fine if not even welcome there

[hushed onyx]

I guess it kind of depends on the game, the subreddit for Imperator: Rome is alright.

Paradox games in general have okay subreddits.

[frozen gate]

i dont get angry bc multiplayer games i can chill and i also played the fun character (lucio) so i was blessed but it does make you feel suuuper empty after a couple games

[hushed onyx]

(Of course, the joke with Imperator: Rome is that there's like a dozen people playing it at any time )

[bronze abyss]

well,in this context the relvant ones are esports ones,and from the little bit ive got to see,its a yikes

[slim thorn]

it's also not actually feasible to get into the fandom/community/etc of every game you play

[frozen gate]

if u get to that point where it's like "one more match" then i think it's time to take a break cuz yr chewing ya gums or something

[slim thorn]

by a lot of metrics I'm only "in the fandom" of the two games I've modded

[frozen gate]

also ya ofc having fun

[hushed onyx]

That just means you're playing too many games

[frozen gate]

yellinf at an npc for being an idiot

[bronze abyss]

jealous,as a mercy player half of the fun is dependant on the team 💀

[frozen gate]

i lurk around the thief community but that's it, yeah

[frozen gate]

LOL

lucio at least i found my fun in wallriding incessantly

[slim thorn]

I hear soooo many jokes about what it's like to be a healer despite never playing any of the games where that's a thing

[frozen gate]

trying to go for style points droppinf on people then going eek and running away 1hp

[frozen gate]

unity bc when people see theyre taking damage rhey assume the first issue is not enough healing

so supports n whatever get enough flak that it's a big meme now

[slim thorn]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/v5IcXja5CNE might be my favorite on that healer attitude topic

[frozen gate]

same as the guy who assumes he loses a match over cheatinf every game

[orchid sundial]

see this is one of the reasons why i call it gold instead of gamerscore

[slim thorn]

no argument here

[bronze abyss]

the mmo side surprisingly enough applies to overwatch 2 as well to some degree 💀

[visual hill]

when I played OW2 a bit in 2023, people managed to be toxic in chat even in quickplay there

how do you manage to be toxic in a game with zero stakes is beyond me, but well

[bronze abyss]

the only way to play quickplay is to mute all the possible chats

[slim thorn]

yeah I suspect this is a general multiplayer support/heal thing, even if a little of the wording is MMO-specific

[bronze abyss]

its honestly significantly more toxic than ive seen comp be

[frozen gate]

i figured it's always going to be an issue in games where it's more team focused than individual impact

def a case of they shouldnt be playing this game tho

[cerulean herald]

reminds me of the meme "video games dont make people violent, lag does"

[frozen gate]

LOL

[visual hill]

Blizzard eventually did this by default for the global chat at least

(maybe even the team chat, I forgot)

[bronze abyss]

is that a quickplay only thing? never heard of it being a thign

not elsewhere atleast*

[frozen gate]

in the fps sense the only additional line is "your positioning sucks so im not healing you"

but that is basically the "if you stand in the red..." line now fhat i think about it lol

[slim thorn]

can FPS do gradual enough damage to cause the "I'm already healing you" situation?

[bronze abyss]

niche cases when going against characters like moira maybe

most damage is generally in bursts

[visual hill]

I miss games being FFA by default and teamplay being a nice extra

[frozen gate]

i guess there's always the "i need healing" from 1 hp gag?

[frozen gate]

yeah and movement being a heavy focus

that's why i only played lucio

otherwise i feel painfully slow

[visual hill]

holding W to get back to the fight is one of the worst parts of most modern shooters

[frozen gate]

tf2 is still nice since the playercount for each game is too large for anyone to really care for playing as a team

oh yeah that absolutely

[visual hill]

honestly, I wouldn't mind a bot doing this for you 😛

[frozen gate]

respawn for 10 seconds walk back for 20 seconds

[slim thorn]

I love how complaining about runbacks applies to all genres of game

[bronze abyss]

thats the reason i couldnt get into dota/league,i loved the game otherwise but god forbid you die,just go scroll youtube at that point

[frozen gate]

games should really work the mitigate the amount of time you end up doing nothing, like there HAS to be a solution, right?

[slim thorn]

"there's so much game where I'm not actually gaming" is such a weird problem for games to still be having after, what, over 50 years of gaming?

[visual hill]

unskippable splash screens too, I installed The Crew Unlimited and there's like a 40 second delay between launching and actually playing

[frozen gate]

yeah you get legitimately minute long respawns

[visual hill]

for a 11 year old game that can probably load in < 10 seconds on today's hardware

[frozen gate]

dota has a quick mode a bunch of people only play and at least league has recently added mode

[frozen gate]

i want loading screen minigames back haha

you could paint it all in pawprints in okami

[bronze abyss]

its onyl really a thing in comp games though from what im aware of,and it that case it kinda makes sense cuz like if you kill someone and they are back right away its not exactly rewarding or anything

[frozen gate]

it's nothing but like it feels like something

ykw

run tetris on a loading screen

if it's long

gimme tetris when im loading

[slim thorn]

oh I'm talking way more generally than a multiplayer respawn runback

I'm including boss runs in single player games

cal mentioned loading screens

unskippable cutscenes are also still a thing

[bronze abyss]

oh yeah that is a huge bitch

[slim thorn]

that kind of time wasting

[frozen gate]

yeah, dying at a boss in an rpg and ur save point being an hour back kinda thing too

[bronze abyss]

it was such a blessing when playing ender magnolia knowing that if theres a boss theres a bench right next to it

[slim thorn]

yeah, at least in single the best games tend to be pretty good about avoiding that

Nine Sols also has none of the bosses more than ~10s from a checkpoint (if you open shortcuts)

[cerulean herald]

its also pretty generous with fast travel

[bronze abyss]

even worse when games include enemies in that route,like at that point its not difficulty its just devs being bitches

[frozen gate]

runback to the capra demon in ds1

just like

ugh

[visual hill]

QuakeWorld is largely immune to waiting times, but not every game can be as fast-paced 😛

if you die, you only have to wait a second before respawning and can get to anywhere in the map in < 10 seconds with good movement

even Doom deathmatch has slightly longer waiting times, because you have to pick up a weapon and switch to it which is very slow, while Quake has instant weapon switching

[frozen gate]

ya ultimately it is also more accessible to have rhat downtime i suppose

[visual hill]

more ad-friendly too, for esports

(although that doesn't prevent some esports events from having ad breaks at highly inappropriate times)

[frozen gate]

call for an adbreak stop everything for ads

i dont tune in to esports much at least

just like well after when i can see it on its own occasionally

but im not big on streaming

[visual hill]

same, I rarely watch anything live

stream highlight VODs have a reputation of being low-effort content, but I appreciate their existence 😛

[frozen gate]

too much energy for me to be like actively in the moment i would prefer to watch it back without feeling obligated to do that lol

ya

highlights r a blessing

[slim thorn]

I can give games a lot of leeway with fast travel restrictions since (especially in metroidvanias) there is a lot of potential fun in figuring out a long route from point A to point B, and potential opportunity for the game to change areas on revisit if it knows you'll actually have to revisit them

but checkpoint restrictions? not so much

I understand not providing the full power of quick saves or save states since there's so much bug/softlock potential, but it's very difficult to have too many checkpoints, and very easy to have too few

[wind stump]

It's going to be so weird seeing Godzilla and Ichiban in Dave the Diver

thank god they brought the Godzilla DLC back

oh and Dredge but
Dredge is Dredge, lol

[graceful bridge]

https://bsky.app/profile/magic.wizards.com/post/3lzr4dxiflu2x

Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com)

We're going to warp! Destination: #MTGxStarTrek in 2026! #StarTrek

Bluesky · Sep 26, 2025, 6:37 PM

[little badger]

how many good cards have you eaten today

[bitter stream]

Damn, maybe I should check it out when it comes out... though the perils of gacha are many.

[wind stump]

Crossposting from #1032731043041640488 https://bsky.app/profile/magic.wizards.com/post/3lzr4yflnec2y

Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com)

Every Chocobo bundle comes with a promo Birds of Paradise in the form of Paradise Chocobo!

#FFXIV #MTGxFINALFANTASY

Bluesky · Sep 26, 2025, 6:48 PM

[graceful bridge]

https://www.reuters.com/business/electronic-arts-nears-roughly-50-billion-deal-go-private-wsj-reports-2025-09-26/

This would be a leveraged buyout, which means EA may wind up dead in a few years as the new owners just siphon all the funds away.

[slim thorn]

huh

[arctic fern]

im impressed that EA can get even worse than it is

honestly incredible

[light gate]

How do you know this for certain?

[arctic fern]

because thats how these companies operate?

[slim thorn]

the irony is that going private, if it was a stable kind of privacy, would probably be one of the few ways for EA to suck less; not being subject to shareholders' short-term tunnel vision

[arctic fern]

also masque literally said may not will

[light gate]

I'll remain skeptical regardless.

[slim thorn]

I assume the question is about "would be a leveraged buyout"; I had the same question since "would" is pretty strong

ok the text of the article does explicitly say "leveraged"

it's all "according to sources" but this is Reuters so probably a safe bet

if they ever stopped being a safe bet my employer would crush them

[arctic fern]

A group of investors including private equity firm Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia's PIF and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners could unveil a deal for the publisher as soon as next week, the sources said on Friday. If it goes through, the deal would mark the largest ever leveraged buyout in history.
second paragraph

and its a short article

[light gate]

I don't think EA is gonna end up dead to be honest, they make a shit load of money with Madden MTX, their mobile PopCap division, and among other things. I often seen Madden, FC, and College Football at most popular for consoles while PC is obviously not as popular.

So in hindsight, this move makes sense.

They're profitable.

[random steppe]

I mean I could believe it for Ubisoft given they are in a bad spot sale wise, EA prints money right now

[light gate]

I'm shocked Ubisoft is still around.

But yeah, EA prints so much money in the mobile department. So they have essentially good money flow, like we talkin nearly 2 billion every quarter.

Ubisoft though.... I really expect bankruptcy.

And as much as some will hate reading this, I am planning to play BF6. Heck I'm planning to preorder because the Open Beta was that good. The gameplay loop is solid and thats all I care.

[random steppe]

I think we are at least a few downsizing/reorganising away from a bankruptct for UBI

[light gate]

Perhaps, if they're still making some income to start with. Well, Rainbow Six Siege does come to mind.

[random steppe]

Even only the fact that they hold the AC IP, which is one of the most well known IPs in gaming ever give them some space to manouver

[light gate]

make new rayman game

ez monay

[random steppe]

Also I must say one thing, for all its flaws, there are things I kind of admire from Ubisoft

The fact that they very rarely abandon a game they put out, no matter how rough it initially seems

It's so counter to what similar companies do, there has to be some passion there for that to be the case

For Honor is still getting updates.
That came out 7 years ago, they just won't let it die.

[worthy rose]

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/ea-private-deal-buyout-video-game-maker-808aefec

[arctic fern]

yeah we were just tlaking about that

[worthy rose]

Ah oops

The pundits will have a field day with this

[gaunt marten]

https://www.gameswithnoreviews.com/

It's a website that lists random steam games that had zero reviews

It's a challenge to find one that's mildly interesting

[hushed onyx]

Well it's Reuters repackaging the Wall Street Journal.

But, y'know.

Same conditions apply.

[hushed onyx]

The article discusses how they are relying on sports and shooters moving forwards ("to weather a sluggish videogames industry").

[little badger]

PlayStation themed cards http://play.st/3KuERxP @graceful bridge

[rancid herald]

....playstation?

[little badger]

[rancid herald]

I hope the playstations are cards

Playstation
Playstation 2
Playstation 3
Playstation 4
Playstation 5
Playstation 6

(stealth announcement when someone pulls the card)

[gaunt marten]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3661280/Desert_Dino_Run/
"Damn, I want to make games but have no idea what to make"

Steam

Desert Dino Run

Dash through the desert in Desert Dino Run, a thrilling infinite runner where you play as a powerful dinosaur on the run! Test your reflexes as you sprint across sun-scorched sands and moonlit dunes, dodging spiky cacti and swooping pterosaurs determined to end your run.

With realistic graphics, a dynamic day-night cycle, and heart-pounding a…

Price

$4.99

▶ Play video

[hushed onyx]

The history of leveraged buyouts is not often a very good one, though, even with companies that seem like they're doing well. They fundamentally involve greatly increased financial risk to the companies involved given the amount of debt needed per definition, and often the "efficiency" tactics used just juice short-term profits while killing the long-term outlook (one infamous and frequently-used tactic is selling off property holdings of the company being LBOed and then leasing them back, which generates a burst of cash initially but then saddles the LBOed company with ongoing liabilities for lease payments).

[graceful bridge]

In a leveraged buyout, the buyers take on a bunch of debt in order to secure the company... but that debt is placed on the company itself. Some investment companies use this in order to saddle the new company with mountains of debt while they bleed it dry, then when the company goes bankrupt they pay off the debt at pennies on the dollar. They walk away with wads of cash, while the people who worked for the company are out of jobs.

This is what happened to KMart and Toys 'R Us.

[hushed onyx]

So even with an excellent outlook for EA, being privatized through an LBO creates a nontrivial risk of financial failure.

[slim thorn]

boy, this sounds like something that should be straight-up illegal, doesn't it

[rancid herald]

rip EA

[light gate]

This is implying that the company itself is not profitable though.

[graceful bridge]

It really should. The problem is proving the motive of the buyers is to kill the company for profit, when they can just claim they tried real hard but it didn't work out.

[hushed onyx]

I'm not sure the general concept should be illegal, but definitely some aspects should be regulated out.

[slim thorn]

I mean specifically the part of taking on debt and then immediately pushing that debt onto the company you bought

[rancid herald]

wait, does EA have 50 billion in debt?

[hushed onyx]

The probability of being non-profitable is greatly increased if you have to pay off large amounts of high-interest debt, yes.

[graceful bridge]

No, it implies that the company is given more debt than it can ever possibly pay off. Especially if the new owners use underhanded tricks to siphon the money it does make into their own companies/pockets.

[rancid herald]

They should partner with wizards of the coast so sell EA themed cards

[light gate]

EA profits around 1-2 billion per quarter, I understand that they're given more debt when the deal goes through but this is only agreed if the partners are confident they can pay it off.

That's essentially it.

Its a promise.

[graceful bridge]

And as I stated, that kind of promise was made to Toys 'R Us, and other companies that went through this process. That didn't save them.

[light gate]

That doesn't mean it will happen.

Its a risk.

Gambling even.

[hushed onyx]

Not now, but the whole point of "leveraged" buyout is that the "investors" take a large amount of debt to execute the purchase, and then pass it on to the target's books. For example, one early LBO, of Gibson's Greetings (a greetings card company) in 1982, cost $80 million, and it was "rumored" that the investors contributed $1 million, getting the other $79 million from loans.

[light gate]

Besides, EA feels confident to do this so its their own doing.

[graceful bridge]

... yes, it's a risk. And I'm explaining that sometimes the deck is stacked against the existing company. I'm not saying it's inevitable, but it's happened enough times that it's something to be wary of.

[graceful bridge]

No, the executiives getting their golden parachutes are confident they'll leav ewith enough money they don't care what happens afterwards.

[light gate]

Well, I just know that their mobile business is not gonna crash and burn anytime soon considering the gambling systems and addiction systems in place work.

Maybe the console business might get a few tweaks.

But yeah, that is true. Golden parachutes galore.

[frozen gate]

"With realistic graphics, a dynamic day-night cycle, and heart-pounding action, every run feels fresh and immersive. How far can you go before nature catches up?"

this is probably a perfect 10 game

[gaunt marten]

It just needs to add the card building zombie survival dating sim part

[visual hill]

Ubisoft is one of those French companies originally owned by a family business, and these traditionally go strong even if they are financially struggling for various reasons

[visual hill]

same for Trackmania, although it's decently successful. One more year and its support lifespan will be longer than Trackmania²'s 🙂

[worthy rose]

A youtuber i follow does videos where he plays 0 review games. Some are hilariously broken, others just awful, and some are the kind. Most really deserve their lack of reviews

[fickle garnet]

I've been playing Skate 4, and ngl, as someone who loves Skate 3, I think it's pretty good. Not as good as Skate 3, but still good

[random steppe]

Even Skull and Bones, that is by all accounts just a massive pyre they burned several million dollars at, is just going.

Getting new content

Like nothing happened

Sounds stupid, but it's the kind of stupid that is also sort of charming

[visual hill]

the new content was most likely planned well in advance, sometimes even finished in advance

it's quite common for a game's first DLC to be nearing completion when the base game goes gold

[random steppe]

As far as I know we are alrady 1 year in and they already announced more stuff for year 2

I tell you, they don't plan to close that one, they usually don't
The one game they gave up on was the Rainbow Six Siege PVE spinoff so they could definitely end up killing it, but they always give it a good solid try to keep it alive if it finds any audience

[robust latch]

https://www.deviantart.com/nnaly/art/Slime-Rancher-1245423936

[cunning galleon]

War

[rotund forge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCu51C1ibJs

Ranken Bass Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer game!

[tiny wigeon]

@hushed kestrel

I’m sure you already knew it was coming

[little badger]

@green fulcrum @blissful sand just got the A rank on the hardest time Trial in the game on super sonic speed!

[green fulcrum]

Congrats!

[little badger]

only took 2 hours

[rotund forge]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/L4TyZQxC1yY

[wind stump]

Points for honesty.

[tiny wigeon]

Maybe could’ve had a coinflip animation or something?

That way, the user isn’t forced to choose

[wind stump]

Maybe

[gaunt marten]

That doesn't make sense

Let's look at all the possible audiences:
1- If someone specifically wants a nonbinary character, having a coinflip option doesn't make sense because it'll never land on the option they want.
2- If someone doesn't care, having a coinflip option doesn't make sense because they can just select the first option in the list.
3- If someone cares and doesn't want one specific gender, having a coinflip option doesn't make sense, and they should just select the gender they want.
4- If someone cares and doesn't want either gender, see 1.
5- If someone doesn't know what they want, having the first option be randomized makes more sense than a coinflip option.

[tiny wigeon]

For whatever reason the dev didn’t add a nonbinary option. Personally, I think the option to have the game choose for you randomly (via option “neither”), would be better than forcing a nonbinary person to choose one or the other.

Im not nonbinary, so maybe that’s ignorant of me. But im just thinking of a one-line-of-code solution to an otherwise larger problem.

The devs could also still specify that they didn’t explicitly make a neither option, so that was the best option they could do

[wind stump]

Unrelated: A YouTuber coverred a game with 9 players on it from 2020 and it may have affected playeer count

(Slasher's Keep, for context)

[gaunt marten]

That is a game I have not heard of in a long time

[wind stump]

also apparently Megabonk just peaked.

[gaunt marten]

I don't like Slasher's Keep but I'm glad it's getting more activity

[tiny wigeon]

What a neat art style

[wind stump]

Amazing what content creators can do for a game

Ignore the fact I bought Hakoniwa Explorer Plus and Doomspire because of content creators

i am not part of the problem /s

[tiny wigeon]

I saw nothing

[hushed kestrel]

oh yes ive been aware for months

looks like ass

[cunning galleon]

ashamed

this game is fucking repair simulator

[gaunt marten]

I have finally rated every song:

Here

My favorite is the credit theme:

@slim thorn may want to compare and contrast, too. Ratings are 1-5 stars

Notes:
1- File names are a bit messy. That's because I wrote a quick script to extract them from an XML file that contained private data.
2- I rated the songs in three listening sessions, from shortest to longest.

[bitter stream]

I'm impressed by the effort alone, nice work Flitter

[cerulean herald]

whoa nice! this game's ost is one of the best that I've played

my top favorites from it include Long Awaited Death, The Path for Us All, Our Passion, and Smile at My Cursed Dream

is there anything in particular that you have a preference for when it comes to music, or nothing specific?

[gaunt marten]

I like clear instrumentals and vocals. I like melodic stuff. I also prefer songs between 5 and 15 minutes long

[cunning galleon]

The little ears peeking out 🥹

[bitter stream]

there's a pony in that IFV!

cute

[cunning galleon]

gold ship's father

[wind stump]

https://youtu.be/KG8uok6gd1s

"So believe it or not guys, I have a wife!"
FAKE GAMER

[slim thorn]

outdated joke /s

[slim thorn]

oooh, new Majuular video

[wind stump]

wwhomst?

[slim thorn]

video essayist who's been linked here a few times

I know them primarily for their series of Ultima retrospectives, but they've also touched on a bunch of other classic RPGs and other very early gaming topics from before I was playing games myself

[wind stump]

Ah, these videos seem a bit short for me

[slim thorn]

on the one hand, a 3 hour video beats a 100 hour playthrough of a game I was probably never going to play anyway

the Ultimas in particular all seem like games that are historically fascinating but would be kinda awful to play in modern times when so many other series have just built better games on their foundation

e.g. it's wild that Ultima 7 in 1992 had the "every random object in the world is interactable and can be picked up and thrown around and sold off" aspect that we usually associate with Oblivion (2006) or Skyrim (2011)... but if you're into that idea, you probably should play one of those Elder Scrolls games instead

[hasty patio]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SErsXR-VAB0

[arctic fern]

the fact that they didnt use dawn of four as the tagline sucks

[quiet swift]

Interesting. The youtube views going down thing potentially was because of this. It's not 100% confirmed but it makes a lot of sense

The heck, red dot?

[gaunt marten]

Blocking all telemetry, both the invasive and genuinely helpful part, is a mistake a lot of people make and it makes development harder

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/PeEz_aRibRQ?si=qGbxzyYGnWZvS46z

Close enough

Welcome back, Parasite Eve

https://tenor.com/view/parasite-eve-aya-brea-aya-gif-17720080333365475646

[cunning galleon]

Testing a midi

[proud warren]

Got to the credits of Hades II and all I'll say is that that wasn't the ending I was expecting

[graceful bridge]

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250929186526/en/EA-Announces-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners-for-%2455-Billion

EA stockholders will receive $210 per share in cash. The per share purchase price represents a 25% premium to EA’s unaffected share price of $168.32 at market close on September 25, 2025, the last fully unaffected trading day, and a premium to EA’s unaffected all-time high of $179.01 at market close on August 14, 2025.

...

The transaction will be funded by a combination of cash from each of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners as well as roll-over of PIF’s existing stake in EA, constituting an equity investment of approximately $36 billion, and $20 billion of debt financing fully and solely committed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., $18 billion of which is expected to be funded at close.

Emphasis mine. Shareholders are making out like bandits, while the company is being saddled with tons of debt.

[bitter stream]

yikes, that sounds like a recipe for disaster

Battlefield 6 to be filled with Micro transactions in 6 months T_T

[robust latch]

I wonder how many of their shares are owned by the board who would have approved the decision

[worthy rose]

https://news.ea.com/press-releases/press-releases-details/2025/EA-Announces-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners-for-55-Billion/default.aspx

Well, that looks to be confirmed

[graceful bridge]

I mean, even the non-board shareholders likely jumped at this. Getting paid out at 25% premium over the best share price ever? Yeah, they're going to take that and run.

[worthy rose]

Man, I used to get stock options, but always sold it immediately cause as a call center drone i didn't get much base salary and needed it quick...

[graceful bridge]

https://www.gog.com/news/gogs_17th_anniversary_new_additions_to_the_gog_preservation_program

Gothic 1 (-75%)
Gothic 2 Gold Edition (-75%)
Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness (-80%)
Mortal Kombat Trilogy (-35%)
Freespace 2
XIII Century: Gold Edition (-85%)
Stranglehold (-80%)

All of them are now part of the GOG Preservation Program, which means they’ve been updated, tested, and will continue to be maintained to ensure they remain accessible on modern systems.

[wind stump]

How to solve gender dysphoria: Go for a PB. https://youtu.be/b8qZE4S7YTY

[fickle garnet]

Every fucking time I launch a game, it just launches to a black screen, and then crashes. The only games that don't do this are Deltarune and Undertale

I have no clue what is wrong

I restarted my pc multiple times and it didn't work. I also tried doing a clean install of my drivers, and that didn't work either

[worthy rose]

Oh hey, steam sale is active

[green fulcrum]

This may be the first Steam Sale in a while where I don't get anything. None of the games interest me.

[slim thorn]

it's pretty common for me to ignore sales, and my backlog is even more full than usual right now so this will be one of them

[green fulcrum]

Yeah, my backlog is pretty heavy right now. I still have stuff on my wishlist, but most of it isn't on sale, and the ones that are on sale are either in early access (which I don't really care to get just yet) or are only like 10% off so it's not worth it just yet.

Or they're new releases like CrossWorlds.

[random steppe]

Yeah there is no way I can play anything new right now, I have so much stuff I want to play, replay, or mods I want to try

Like, right this moment POE2, NMS new expedition, Warframe and Hades 2 are already competing for my time

Adding anything else is just madness

[green fulcrum]

I atill have to finish Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and then I'll be moving on to some JRPGs to give my CRPG craze a rest for a bit.

I'm not sure which one I'll start with first.

[random steppe]

Expedition 33

[slim thorn]

I would still like to try E33 at some point

but SHf is gonna be this entire week

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b13-4oSzilY

[slim thorn]

and probably Hades 2 after that, depending how much modding I want to do after SHf

[random steppe]

It's a great recommendation because unlike most JRPG it's not gonna take you 100 hours to finish

[quiet swift]

[green fulcrum]

Don't have it yet

But it's on my wishlist

[green fulcrum]

But I like my RPGs taking hundreds of hours to finish. That's usually a sign to me that they either A) have a lot of side quests (I don't eve care if it's bloat, I love side quests), B) have a lot of replayability, or C) have a very long, epic, and/or compelling story.

[random steppe]

I am of the opinion that if you cut 40% of the exposition you could improve most JRPGs massively, at least the ones I've played

They might be the genre more guilty of overexplaining if you don't count anything made by Kojima

Kojima stuff is worse, but JRPGs in general come close

[green fulcrum]

We'll agree to disagree 🤝

[random steppe]

Don't get me wrong, I love JRPGs, play them a bunch when time permits, but I do question if you need that much time to tell a good story

I know you can use that much time to do it, but I do think many of them would benefit from some trimming and be just as good and arguably better.