general gaming

[random steppe]

Plenty of games do Early Access well

It got us Hades and Hades 2

[green fulcrum]

And BG3

And D:OS 2

[arctic fern]

https://youtu.be/rhoie9D5zSc

[fresh bane]

Walking around night city you can find so many different details

I found a dead guy on a roof once while I was jumping around roofs trying to get to a mission

no side quest or anything, just a dead guy

[arctic fern]

One thing I like is that there are known Easter eggs, with little stories attached to them, and then there's the tiny details like what's in the vid

There are dead bodies all around night city

Theres so much detail in night city
Imagine what the game woukd have looked like if they didn't promise the game on ps...3 was it? 4? I forgor

They announced the game a decade too early

[dense crypt]

there was a secret area i found that was kinda fucked up

[arctic fern]

(Also a shitload of mismanagement)

[arctic fern]

Oh?

[dense crypt]

there was a shack set on top of some other buildings where a guy had eaten himself to death for an XBD

[arctic fern]

...woah

I never saw that one

Thats wiiiiild

[dense crypt]

theres a bunch of bean cans near him and a whole bunch of splatter on the table he was in front of

i found it when i was parkouring around and was like "yeah this fucking world is hell"

[vivid glen]

just going through night city is such a joy

finished the dlc about 3 months ago

such a fantastic world

[arctic fern]

I did see a little hidden away shack that housed a military vet who snapped and thought he was still at war
Killed civilians thinking they were enemy combatants
Contacted his old CO thinking he was still in charge, and the CO tried to get him to get help but failed and ordered him to commit suicide instead
It was the right call probably, as he woukd have kept killing otherwise

[quiet swift]

man, i've played through it twice and I can't think of those things. Clearly I should play again.

[arctic fern]

Well that last one is one of those Easter eggs i mentioned, there's guides to help you find them

[quiet swift]

ah

[dense crypt]

i encountered a San Andreas reference, it was funny

[arctic fern]

Ye
There are a lot of references
I think i remember a matrix one where someone was trying to escape agents in an office block, was told to jump
I found the story on a body on the ground that had hit several things on the way down lol

[dense crypt]

lmfao

[river veldt]

i still need to play Cyberpunk 2077

huh

according to steam i allegedly have 12 hours in it

[vivid glen]

i have a slight urge to play risk of rain

[worldly summit]

an appropriate comparison would be Baldur’s Gate right

wait why is my chat still up in last week

[wind stump]

New DLC did just drop

And looking at the Steam reviews, it's way better than the last two

[bitter stream]

I booted up a game after a big update, and I forgot how long it takes for it to actually compile shaders lmao.
Estimating off what it's done so far, i've got another 10-20 minutes till it's done, though the game can be played before it's finished

[wind stump]

When you just EXUDE CHARISMA to the point where even the enemy compliments you.

[vivid glen]

thank the lord, bumps it up a couple spots then.

[vivid glen]

one of the silly little quirks i hate about modern gaming, takes an extra 1-5 minutes each session uust to play the game

[wind stump]

[vivid glen]

i forgot who bought out the game and from what ive seen just made it worse

its was gearbox

[wind stump]

restarting Steam fixed the issue, unsurprisingly

... right... i'm bad at RoR2

(and yes of course I use the Prisoner skin for Mercenary, big Dead Cells fan)

[vivid glen]

Very nice

[vivid glen]

they just caught you by surprise is all

[wind stump]

SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG REFERENCED

[fickle garnet]

I just finished Death Stranding 2, it was fucking amazing

[green fulcrum]

........I'm guessing you have not yet played Shadow Generations, lol

It's basically Shadow the Hedgehog 2.

[wind stump]

i know there's a BALLER ||Metal Overlord|| fight

(mindless praise aside, from what i've heard it's Sonic Generations with a few more levels to stealth advertise Sonic 3... Which i already watched)

plus i can't really put more on my backlog

[glad girder]

Anyone interested in playing peak at all? Not this exact minute, but I’m looking to fill out my steam friends list a bit more

[green fulcrum]

Kinda, but also kinda not.

[wind stump]

🔥

[quiet swift]

On one hand, youtuber I usually watch who plays interesting games, has released his video of him playing Dispatch. (A mere 3 hour video).

On the other, I kinda wanna play it myself as I miss the telltale games type, but my backlog is gigantic and i don't wanna spend anything more at the moment...

[arctic fern]

Honestly? Pull dispatch higher on the backlog list
Its very much a game that gets ruined by spoilers
And there are a LOT of spoilers

Its not the longest game out there, 10 hrs or so

[fresh bane]

It's not just a telltale game either

The actual dispatching part of the game is pretty fun too

[arctic fern]

Ye

[quiet swift]

Doesn't fix the spending side of things though

[vivid glen]

how much is it like 30 bucks?

if you wait a bit i would like to think it would go onsale for the steam winter sale

[quiet swift]

Eh, it's too soon of a release to get a discount, I think

[vivid glen]

I would say if you celebrate christmas to ask for it then in the form of a steam gift card

Like you my back log is filled to much already so i am just gonna pick it up later and hope i dont get spoiled lol

[quiet swift]

So far I've managed to avoid everything. I just know that you have two dating options

[mossy flume]

Best Buy had a Black Friday special on PS5 Pros today. So I traded in my PS5 for a Pro.

[quiet swift]

[vivid glen]

very very nice

[vivid glen]

I might be interested in playing some time if that would be fine with youand worse case at least its another friend to add to your list lol

[glad girder]

My friend code is 96334727

[vivid glen]

sent!

[river veldt]

https://www.tumblr.com/shoomlah/189217150250/happy-half-life-alyx-announce-day-ya-nerds-go

Claire Hummel

Happy Half-Life: Alyx announce day, ya nerds! Go watch our trailer, it’s a DOOZY

-# #half-life #half-life 2 #alyx vance #gordon freeman #half-life: alyx #I work there so this is canon right #I just love these babies so dang much

Tumblr · Nov 21, 2019, 10:46 PM

[quiet swift]

[fresh bane]

the fact that this game is already 6 years old is making me feel like crumbling into a fine dust

[river veldt]

what ?

[vivid glen]

nvm i am just completely wrong

[quiet swift]

Watching sebbywebz's vod of him watching the golden joystick award. First award is storytelling, sandfall/E33 wins. In his speech, the CEO recommends Dispatch

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/jH3zvmNcxIs?si=R8iNFkxKXyuPbsjr

God dammit this can't be how I find out VTMB2 came out

I didn't hear anything about this game and that can't be a good sign

[river veldt]

i think Yahtzee reviewed it and it didn't sound too good 😔

[quiet swift]

I believe it's a case of "what players wanted #2 to be is not what we are making" and so there's been little to no fanfare

[hasty patio]

There was the first version and then the runners/devs got axed after being years behind, so it went to a new studio and it finally came out.

[quiet swift]

Right

[quiet swift]

Hee. Once Sandfall won the game of the year at the golden joysticks, first they thanked the team. They had about 8 people on stage, but apparently the rest of the studio was on discord and one person was holding up a phone and showing the audience room 🤣
And then as he was making a speech, he said "We know we are lucky enough to experience all of this, and we wanted to share a deep feeling that we have at sandfall since release, and that's 'what the fuck is happening right now?!' "

[uneven epoch]

i (like gen) also dont plan to buy it anytime soon if i decide to get it, but i have a question regarding dispatch; is it ""dumb fun"" or is it like operator 112/911. because while those games are fun to me in concept, turns out the game is way too realistically stressful to me (all fun and games until you get a call from someone trying to commit suicide and dont succeed in stalling them)

[fresh bane]

spot on question

that whole show was.... well, a shitshow

[quiet swift]

Yeah I skipped most of it, but I think they more meant 'this is our first game and why are we winning everything?!" type of reaction

[fresh bane]

it's super cool when the host is cracking awful jokes and literally going 'yikes' at the end and the crowd increasingly growing louder and louder and talking over the host clearly not giving a single shit

Troy Baker when he was a host at that show had to literally just look directly at the audience and tell them to shut up because he was so fed up with them talking over him and the nominees all the time

[quiet swift]

Pffft

[slim thorn]

I’d say in the middle. There are choices that can lead to character deaths, but nothing like a suicide call. Especially during the dispatching gameplay, usually the biggest risk is a hero getting downed/injured twice so you can’t use them for the rest of the day.

[quiet swift]

Damnit, steam

[wind stump]

ain't wrong

[vivid glen]

looking through some of the discounts and the fact that the first red red redemption is still more expe sive than the 2nd one grinds my gears

[wind stump]

i have hired this Commando to stare at you

[vivid glen]

the 4 syringes and meat strapped to his chest is killing me

[visual hill]

https://x.com/Wario64/status/1993055475252752594/photo/1

Wario64 (@Wario64)

Mortal Kombat: Elder God Bundle is $13.05 on Steam (likely a price error) https://t.co/VQP18b6QWS

includes MK1 + MK11 + MKX and related DLCs

Cheaper than MK1:DE itself

X · Nov 24, 2025, 8:33 PM

that reminds me ^

[wind stump]

this is like crack to me

[bronze abyss]

i dont know how i didnt realise legend levels were already out in dl the beast,just saw the achievement for it without hearing any announcement for it or anything

i was still under the impression it was in the works

[bronze abyss]

so i see the achievement but i cant access it any way in game?

apparently it is not out yuet just the achievements were released accidentaly

[little badger]

Far cry series coming soon

[visual hill]

I hope it'll start with Episode 1: The Definition of Insanity

[worthy rose]

Could be interesting, if done well. #5 was super interesting

[cunning galleon]

Wish they actually hire Michael Mando for this

[vivid glen]

Not sure if that many people here buy visual novels but the Grisia series is 50% off right now on steam

[tiny wigeon]

Omg i thought this was a new game announcement and i was about to freak out

I don’t want no dang tv show

I want to be a 1 man army and kick ass

[quiet swift]

Don't you mean you want to be a one man army and climb radio towers?

[worthy rose]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/metaphor-refantazio-and-persona-5-director-wants-to-usher-in-the-age-of-jrpg-3-0-which-will-change-the-genres-structure-and-presentation-at-a-fundamental-level/

[wind stump]

tell me you hate bucketheads without saying you hate bucketheads

[wind stump]

i dunno why but my 10% winrate in GG Strive is something I'm proud of

[arctic fern]

damn, that is a LOT of magnets, wow

[wind stump]

yea this I Zombie Endless level was... Something alri

Even the Disco Zombie is kinda cooked by the amount of Gloom Shrooms

[arctic fern]

can you even beat it? the digers have their picks taken by magnets, dont they?

[wind stump]

Yer, they do. I did beat it I think by using the pole vaulter on the 4th row

and then I could place a Disco on row 4 to take care of the bottom half

(i don't remember what i did exactly)

[gaunt marten]

One bungie guy and one baby zombie

[visual hill]

[sweats in Trackmania]

[visual hill]

consider it done! first time in Master 3

[vivid glen]

I'm not quite sure what that means but it looks impressive so congrats!

[quiet swift]

Calinou drive guud

[vivid glen]

amazing driving skills

[vivid glen]

trying to talk about the game awards with anyone in my social social is more annoying than I thought it would be this year lol

[quiet swift]

Whyso?

[vivid glen]

Just a massive wall of e33 being one of the most overrated games they have ever seen which if they had at least gotten to the halfway point it might not have bother me

in all honesty its just a silly award show that doesnt really amount to much so i shouldnt really be bothered but

[tiny wigeon]

jump off the radio tower into a outpost

preferably with a slingshot and arrows

[random steppe]

Social media has turned hard into ragefarming lately, especially X, I wouldn't really engage much with it for anything that is meant to be a serious conversation

[vivid glen]

unfortunatly i am prone to getting baited so maybe it is time do put it away

[quiet swift]

Rage baiting and/or they are being a contrarian because 'it's too popular and i don't like popular stuff"

[quiet swift]

...Does he watch/follow the fps player/streamer Shroud, by any chance?

[vivid glen]

nah, pretty sure im the only one of my group who knows who he is lol

[quiet swift]

'Cause he's been being a dipshit and just ranting about E33 being overrated and how Arc Raiders should be GOTY (not saying it isn't a good game but, what is he smoking..)

[vivid glen]

that is a crazy almost batshit take

[quiet swift]

And I wouldn't have been surprised if your friend's talking points sounded exactly like his

[vivid glen]

LMAO

[quiet swift]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/third-person-shooter/former-fps-pro-shroud-says-arc-raiders-should-win-goty-over-clair-obscur-expedition-33-even-if-he-thinks-multiplayer-gamers-are-the-minority/

(multiplayer the minority, lol, LOL, LMAO, what the actual fuck)

[vivid glen]

personally I love the game and it has sound design that at least to me is almost as good as Hunt Showdown which puts a game up high for me

but no not game of the year

i would choose hades or e33 50 times before i picked it

maybe once i have longer to ait with it i might say its top 5 contender

at the moment its to soon to tell

[quiet swift]

Yeah like I said. It seems to be a good game by what I'm hearing, but it doesn't compare to E33 or many others this year

(and multiplayer being a minority is such a delusional take, what was he smoking)

[vivid glen]

absolutely insane lol

but its fine, it'll pass any everyone will forget about it in like a week l

[fresh bane]

https://bsky.app/profile/brandon.insertcredit.com/post/3m6fuipkh4k2u

Brandon Sheffield (@brandon.insertcredit.com)

We did something different with the credits for Demonschool. We used this format: name, title, lengthy description of what they did. Often you see credits in games where you don't know what the credited developer was actually responsible for. We wanted to give people proper, actual credit.

Reposts

1750

Likes

5756

Quotes

145

Replies

113

Bluesky · Nov 24, 2025, 10:23 PM

ahhhh just when I'm on saving up money mode cool games like Dispatch and Demonschool come out

[vivid glen]

I love that a whole lot actually

and its cool enough to where I'll check out the game

[cunning galleon]

Got lacerated and infected with knox, visited my old body inside a box truck and they died together.. Doomed yuri

700 zombies tho, new pb

[dense crypt]

i really gotta get this game

[cunning galleon]

Bro the zombies around this character were all rotting or skeletons

There were a fuck ton

[vivid glen]

its such a fun game

soon they will be adding new towns, higher buldings and basements

[cunning galleon]

Basements wooo

And higher buildings to jump off from when worse comes to worse

[cunning galleon]

Before succumbing, i watched a bar burn down

[vivid glen]

amazing

I tried to take on the rosewood prison with absolutely not enough ammo once

it uhh didn't end well

[cunning galleon]

700 zombies on just low pop muldraugh is crazy ngl

[craggy vine]

https://youtu.be/emIBv3gn9fY?si=YKSpXeqmgLUkNv_M

tf2 cover

[arctic fern]

Those already exist in unstable
Theyre awesome as basement are often randomised, allowing each house to be far more unique

[little badger]

@bitter stream you can get the founders pack to play early https://youtu.be/3OTXsgACvIA?si=y4H45mlG08DFfCSP

[bitter stream]

I really don't think I want to get a founders pack for soulframe. It seems cool and all, but I don't think I'll enjoy it long term, besides I barely have time for warframe, I can't imagine doing it again lol

[little badger]

Ah

[random steppe]

To be fair, if you just want to play the game nowdays you can just watch a soulframe devstream and the have drops with closed beta keys

Or ask in the official discord, so many keys going around that someone is likely to find you one

They aren't open yet because the server infrastructure can't quite support that so far, but the play early part isn't really the founder packs draw

[bitter stream]

yeah, the real draw of founder packs are usually the one-time cosmetics and feeling like part of building up the game from the start

[random steppe]

In this one you also get an exclusive weapon (or 3 I guess if you buy the paragon founder pack) and the ability down the line to generate blueprints to give to other players of that weapon with your name of it

WHich is kind of an awesome way to do founder only weapons, since they aren't exclusive to founders, but they can give them away freely to other players and they still get recognition for it

All other stuff is premium currency and cosmetics

[bitter stream]

oh that's a neat way to do it

how's the gameplay looking now days anyway? I never quite understood what the loop was going to be for soulframe

[random steppe]

It's been a few preludes since I've played.
Last time there were like 4 pacts and I think there are like 8 or 9 now so my info is probably a bit out of date

Last time I played i liked the direction but still needed quite a bit of polish.

Supposedly they are doing updates to the bow weapons this one but I haven't logged in to try them yet

[bitter stream]

fair enough! I think I got access last tennocon, might log in at some point just to see how it feels

though, that's probably a bad idea for my time lmao

Gets sucked into the Digital Extremes vortex

Warframes next update isn't too far away either

[random steppe]

Yep, and it's looking pretty good

The game is in an excellent state right now, that they fixed damage attenuation

[bitter stream]

Yeah, I haven't tried bosses since the change, does it feel a lot better?

Well I did effervon tank, but that's sort a weird one anyway

[random steppe]

My main gripe was when you got to very high level bosses

Like 200-400 level it became a 15 minutes slog

so if you play in normal path it was like, fine, but if you went in steelpath or god forbid Elite Archimedia, it sucked ass, I got to the point that I skipped archemedia if it had an assassination.

[bitter stream]

ah yeah like EDA fair enough

[random steppe]

Now it's hard because they do a lot of damage, as before, but you are out in like, 3 minutes tops

[bitter stream]

that's so much better lol

[arctic fern]

there was an attempt to make my oc fila
i did ok i think
hair isnt great but its really a trade off between hat and good hair in the sims

[rare dew]

BALD

(Which i blame entirely on the game engine)

[dense crypt]

Snipin's a good job, mate

[wind stump]

needs more bisexuality

yes i know he looks like a Village People reject, that's the point-

[quiet swift]

🎵 Young Man! 🎵

[visual hill]

that's very nice, I wish more games did this

I wish more credits screens supported scrolling at your own pace too (e.g. like a web page with a scroll bar, or using keys to speed up/slow down automatic scrolling)

they're often just a bit too slow for a fast reader like me

[dense crypt]

I thought he looked more like an older Judas Priest fan

[wind stump]

I thought the Macho Mann was based on this guy from the Village People

You don't have to be in the navy to sport aviator glasses and a confident moustache -- also acceptable are cowboy, policeman, native American, construction worker or international mercenary!

[arctic fern]

not baold, bad angle i suppose
ponytail at the back, short one tho
she has a hughe head of hair in non-hat outfits

[robust latch]

why have Village People when you can have Village Ponies
https://derpibooru.org/images/933941

[wind stump]

i got fucking deleted by a Torgue grenade

god dammit i need to stop gambling

[rare dew]

... they actually look GAYER

How is that possible

X3

[wind stump]

ye i got those

Voxel Wars is like Into the Breach if it was a puzzle game

[gaunt marten]

But Into the Breach is a puzzle game

[wind stump]

Okay it leans more into the puzzle aspect than roguelite

[quiet swift]

Gawd damn

[visual hill]

hopefully I'll be able to play it in 2026 🙂

[quiet swift]

Ah, haven't been able to yet? May I ask why not?

[visual hill]

price, waiting for more sales

[quiet swift]

Fair enough

Oh cool, they showed what each category's percentage was. On twitter tho so I can't link it. But pretty much every category that E33 was nominated in (and won), it was a similar absolute domination. Not quite as stark as this one but usually 15-20% + leads

[visual hill]

sales-wise, RDR1 + RDR2 is starting to be decently cheap (it's cheaper to buy separate on different sites than in a bundle). Around €34 right now

so I may be able to start those in 2026 too

[fresh bane]

Silent Hill F should absolutely win best storytelling category but I already know it won't

Even with the recognition that games like the RE series and Silent Hill have gotten with the remakes they're still survival horrors and survival horror has always been less mainstream than pretty much almost every other genre

And Clair Obscur hit the mainstream hard I absolutely expect it to win most categories, even if I think F should absolutely win Storytelling

[fickle garnet]

I hope I get Silent Hill F as a Christmas gift

I still need to continue my playthrough of Silent Hill 2

[quiet swift]

Nire: Oh these are already finished votes, at least here. Not sure that Game Awards has a storytelling section

Ah, narrative

And it's E33, Death Stranding 2, Yotei, KC:D 2 and silent hill F. Yeah, don't think SH is winning that

[fresh bane]

I know, I meant for the game awards, the golden joysticks already showed a peek at E33's domination in most categories which is probably gonna happen on the game awards too

[quiet swift]

Yeah, this year is giga stacked but I think E33's just gonna absolutely dominate - but admittedly aren't the Joysticks more player vote based and Game Awards is a mix of critics and public vote?

So there might still be upsets

[fresh bane]

It doesn't really matter either way, people are going to vote for E33 regardless, and I bet not that many players/game reviewers went through the at least 3 different playthroughs Silent Hill F requires to get the full story, but that's why it should get best narrative, in a fair world anyway

But the amount of people that played E33 is too big so I already know it just won't win

[vivid glen]

not sure if this would be low enough but on GoG (CD PROJEKTS game store) its on dale for 20 USD

[quiet swift]

I knew it was a high chance byt jesus christ

[mossy flume]

Yeah, I don't see any world in which it doesn't win

The only question I had was whether GTA6 came out this year or not

[fresh bane]

I don't even need to calculate it, the way E33 blew up guaranteed it was going to win GOTY, just seeing how many people that game reached was enough for me to know

[mossy flume]

Surprisingly, a bunch of my friends have somehow never heard of E33 and I'm just like... how.

[visual hill]

I want the ultimate edition 😛

for less than €20 at least

[vivid glen]

Good choice

[visual hill]

(ideally €15 but that's kind of dreaming for now)

[fresh bane]

Base Cyberpunk is not really worth getting, I think getting PL bundled with the Ultimate edition is slightly cheaper

[mossy flume]

Yeah just grab Ultimate Edition and call it a day

[visual hill]

I try to always buy games in complete edition

[fresh bane]

Ultimat Edition is -50% off right now on GOG but it shows up as 27 USD for me

I'd still get it honestly but if you're aiming for 20 or below it'll maybe go on sale for that low on Steam at some point or something

[river veldt]

i still need to play 2077

[quiet swift]

Do they live in the mariana trench or something?

[vivid glen]

winter sale is gonna be soon so expect it to be pretty cheap

[visual hill]

yeah for sure, Witcher 3 complete is €10 on sale

[quiet swift]

Witcher 3 is also what, 10+ years old?

[vivid glen]

dont say those words

i dont want tot hink about it

my bones might blow away in the dust lol

[mossy flume]

No idea. Even within my telegram group two of them said they had never heard of it, which… seems like a memory problem more than anything because the chat was filled with E33 discussion for a few weeks

[vivid glen]

It is one of my favorite video game worlds to explore and play in, I cannot reccomend it enough

[fresh bane]

I think it's already been two years since I started it, and a bit around or over a year since I finished all the main quests and I still haven't finished it by doing the final quest

[mossy flume]

Yeah, Cyberpunk 2077 is damn good

Especially the expansion

[vivid glen]

songbird my beloved

[visual hill]

yeah, it was €10 on sale starting from 2022 (with the next-gen update)

so when it was 7.5 years old

Cyberpunk 2077 turns 5 next month

[slim thorn]

yeah, there's mainstream and then there's mainstream
aka https://xkcd.com/2501/ moment

[visual hill]

of course, inflation and increased development costs are a thing, so I don't expect Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition to be €10 for a very long time

[slim thorn]

I forget, Nire, have you played E33?

personally I'd struggle to make a choice between SHf and E33 even when it's narrowed down to "story"; they're both so great, yet also both demand a lot from the audience to fully appreciate

[fickle garnet]

I need to finish E33, I just struggle to get myself to play it even though I like it

[slim thorn]

I only play one RPG every ~3 years, but when I do I finish it

[fresh bane]

I've only started seeing playthroughs of it and I only got up to the part where || they meet that big guy that can fly || but both times I didn't really keep up with it because I wasn't super interested in it, probably would be more fun to play it myself but I haven't had time to really dig into a new game this year much less an RPG

[fickle garnet]

I managed to get myself to finish Death Stranding 2, but I haven't been able to with E33

[slim thorn]

ah, then yeah you've seen none of the payoff yet

[fresh bane]

the way I see it it's different having a really good story and doing something cool with the narrative and storytelling in a videogame, which Silent Hill F does, on top of also having a really good story, which is why I'd pick it over E33
but again, I know that won't happen, because way too many people liked E33 over SHf

[slim thorn]

I completely skipped over DS2 because there's just too much else going on

[fresh bane]

DS2 is nowhere near getting best narrative

DS2 was fine

just okay

[cunning galleon]

DS2 got my vote because of Pekora and Norman Reedus

[fickle garnet]

I enjoyed DS2

[fresh bane]

DS2 wasn't bad it just wasn't the insane follow up I expected it to be, it felt less like the sequel that shakes everything up and does something new and felt like more of DS1 instead which isn't inherently bad

It was simply underwhelming is all

[slim thorn]

yeah, I'd probably enjoy DS2 if I did play it, but I already played checks ~70 hours of DS1, so I'm not exactly dying for a "more of the same" sequel

[visual hill]

DS2 is definitely on my to-play list, but by the time it's on PC and on a good sale, it'll probably be 3-4 years from now

[fresh bane]

It feels kind of bizarre to compare but it felt like what TOTK felt to BOTW, I expected TOTK to be super different and have a completely different narrative focus, but instead it was just more of BOTW in almost every sense, which wasn't inherently bad and definitely didn't make it a bad game, but it still was very underwhelming especially after playing BOTW and if you were expecting it to do more

[visual hill]

I was lucky to have someone gift me DS: DC last year, but I haven't played it yet either

[fresh bane]

I'd only recommend it if you really liked DS1, but even then for a super Death Stranding fan you might still come out a bit disappointed because the actual plot itself I felt was very underwhelming

[visual hill]

(I have DS non-DC from a Epic Games Store giveaway too, but DC is better)

[fresh bane]

but as is the case with anything a lot of opinions vary on this, some people really liked DS2

[fresh bane]

I got Death Stranding DC for free, but it's on Epic so I may as well not even actually have it

[river veldt]

too many gamrs have ds as a acronym

i thought we were talking avout Dark Souls

[slim thorn]

indeed, if Whitelight ever puts out a 7 hour video essay on DS2 I'm watching that whether or not I played the game

[fickle garnet]

I'm one of those people ngl

[visual hill]

play it with Heroic, it's DRM-free

EGS is the only platform where Death Stranding is DRM-free, like a lot of AAA games

it just doesn't advertise this fact 🙂

[fresh bane]

Ehhh I think that and Subnautica were the only games I even had on that account and I don't even have the launcher installed anymore, I think I'm good but that's still cool, I think at this point it's not gonna get on GOG if the first game isn't there already
who knows, if I ever see DS2 on sale for super low in a couple of years I'll probably snag it, but for now I'm good on Death Stranding

[river veldt]

what is drm

[mossy flume]

DRM = Digital Rights Management

It's a system for copyright protection of software or data

In the case of games, it's a program that validates that you own a legitimate copy of that game. It will block the game from running otherwise.

[fresh bane]

Yeah.... that'd be fine, I fully expect a video of that kind to be filled with ''wait, that was it?'' and ''yeah, I called this happening 2 hours ago'' moments, it's how I felt the whole game anyways once you're past all the cool new characters being introduced and once you're past the feeling of experiencing something new

[fresh bane]

It's when you open a game and it has to open Steam and launch the game from Steam before you open the game

[arctic fern]

Drm is anti-piracy measures

[river veldt]

OOOH ok i get it now

[fresh bane]

DRM-free means you can just play it and it just runs without needing anything extra like just playing it off a CD

like a dinosaur

[arctic fern]

Cds had DRM tho

[fresh bane]

dammit

[mossy flume]

Needing to have the CD in the drive was itself DRM

[fresh bane]

my cool analogy is useless now

[mossy flume]

Being able to run the game without the CD in the drive is DRM-free.

Usually

[river veldt]

so why do people want drm free versions of games ?

[slim thorn]

yeah, despite the D being "digital", DRM has been around long before digital distribution

[arctic fern]

You often had cds with 16 digits codes printed inside the box, usually in the paper manual, that you had to type in when you installed the game

[arctic fern]

Drm sucks

[visual hill]

so you can carry it on an USB stick, NAS, etc and it'll work forever with no connection needed

[arctic fern]

Its inconvenience on people who own legitimate copies

[visual hill]

(it also starts faster, no launcher needed)

[slim thorn]

the whole anti-DRM thing is largely about when DRM doesn't work as intended and prevents legitimate paying customers from playing the game they already bought

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/QZYy9KzFT2w?si=XKis3ddxnp8nHHNZ

This is a good video on the topic

[slim thorn]

things like wanting to transfer a game to a new PC but not being allowed to because it's "installed on too many devices" or whatver

and people who were used to selling their games after playing them of course can't do that any more

[visual hill]

technically, there is nuance between "copy protection" (= DRM) and "crack protection" (= drunk camera and stuff like that)

but here, it's the former

[fresh bane]

Yeah that was fun doing that...

[slim thorn]

and the infamous always-online DRM in single-player games

my impression is that talk of the anti-DRM issue peaked in the early 10s, in my world especially when SimCity (2013) released with always-online DRM and [Everybody Hated That]

[mossy flume]

Yeah

It got better after that.

[slim thorn]

and that it's declined in relevance since then because monetization issues became a far worse problem to talk about

[mossy flume]

Diablo III's issues, too

[slim thorn]

and also because if you aren't playing live service or multiplayer games, most of the DRM you'll encounter is super lightweight stuff like Steam DRM that I've never heard of causing serious problems in practice

[mossy flume]

Couldn't play offline single player because their DRM servers were broken for several days

[slim thorn]

oh and also because kernel-level anti-cheat became another significantly worse problem for the multiplayer people

[fresh bane]

I've noticed that's been the trend with videogames since microtransactions and lootboxes became an issue

[slim thorn]

ok I'm done

[fresh bane]

People make a fuss about it, but then something worse comes around, so people tolerate the previous thing to focus on the new thing

[slim thorn]

anyone want to go back to complaining that E33 won too many awards

[mossy flume]

What is the problem that it provides?
I've seen it expose a security vulnerability exactly once.

And that was patched quickly.

What are the complaints with kernel-level anticheat otherwise?

[mossy flume]

Not enough awards.

[river veldt]

E33 is winning too many awards

[slim thorn]

I don't have a horse in that race but I feel like it's mainly the fundamental trust issue, and that one time it broke a lot of peoples' machines

[mossy flume]

Oh? When did that happen?

[gaunt marten]

Stop praying for my uncle he broke out of the hospital and is throwing cars at cops now

[slim thorn]

I certainly don't trust any of the companies using kernel-level anti-cheat enough to install it on my systems, but they also aren't making any of the games I care about so it's not like they care what I think

[river veldt]

my GotY is Dispatch anyways

[fresh bane]

when LoL started implementing Vanguard

[mossy flume]

Huh, I haven't heard of this

...I haven't heard about League of Legends in a LOOONG time, actually

Is that still popular?

[river veldt]

i think so

[mossy flume]

What is Riot even up to these days

[gaunt marten]

TV

[mossy flume]

Heh, true

[quiet swift]

Selling Hytale back to its creators*

[slim thorn]

after Arcane finished, I only hear about LoL from the recurring jokes, since no one I talk to frequently plays it

[mossy flume]

Yeah, Arcane finished and I haven't heard of League ever since

[fresh bane]

It always depends from system to system but there were a lot of reports of Vanguard messing with people's drivers or other softwares that it considered to not be safe, I think the most recent example that was really funny was it didn't allow some people to install or launch BF6, basically both games' anti-cheats really hate each other
and that's another complaint about anti cheats which is just the inconvenience of it, some games' anti-cheats will only boot up when the game launchers and then close when the game closes, but Vanguard requires to launch at the same time as the system itself, and it will continue to run after you exit League, so if you wanna play League or 2XKO, you gotta restart that computer or have Vanguard running at all times

which a lot of people obviously don't want to do

[fresh bane]

Yes, it's still incredibly popular and only growing more and more with each year

I stopped playing before Vanguard got introduced though

[visual hill]

Diablo 3 is only offline-ready in its Switch version, which is a reason alone to emulate it

[mossy flume]

The thing with the anticheat outcry though is that people were absolutely furious over the flood of cheaters in online games.
Do people prefer that over the solution to that problem?

[gaunt marten]

They are not the only options. I'd rather developers take the hard way and engineer games in ways that are hard to cheat without spying

[visual hill]

anticheats don't really do a great job at reducing cheating in my experience, even the more intrusive one

community moderation has historically been the #1 way to prevent cheating (and other abusive behavior, like toxicity)

[fresh bane]

I think asking people ''well, would you rather have cheaters in your game?'' is a bit of a tricky question because of course people are gonna say no, but I also don't wanna give you that level of access to my system either

[visual hill]

things all went downhill when matchmaking made it so the community no longer moderated itself

[gaunt marten]

Right, it's not a dichotomy — there are more tradeoffs

[slim thorn]

anecdotally, it does feel like whether a multiplayer game has a cheater problem has no correlation whatsoever to how much anti-cheat stuff it has, but that's just a vibe

[visual hill]

also, I find it interesting that for all its faults, Overwatch 2 doesn't have an anticheat nearly as intrusive as e.g. Valorant. It plays on Linux fine, it won't try to ban you randomly for trying to play it on Linux too

popularity = cheaters, usually

[quiet swift]

Yeah, most of the complaints about the anticheat is how it was a Root-style anticheat, I believe? Or whatever the term is

[visual hill]

the link is pretty direct

[slim thorn]

"kernel-level" is the term I'm used to

[visual hill]

it's called kernel-level (or ring 0)

[quiet swift]

Ah, that's the term

[slim thorn]

(probably because "root" is a Linux concept and this stuff tends to be Windows-first?)

[mossy flume]

I’ve observed markedly less cheating in these games than previously, anecdotally

[fresh bane]

There's also the fact that cheaters can also bypass kernel level anti-cheats, of course the goal is to just make it really difficult but the fact remains, people can still get around it
I've seen a lot of people say ''well I never got any cheaters in my matches after Vanguard got implemented to League'', but I played League for 12 years and I also never encountered a single cheater so those types of arguments are always really finnicky

[mossy flume]

The dedicated cheaters use external hardware solutions

Which are unsolvable

[visual hill]

kind of, but also because root/administrator != kernel-level

[slim thorn]

oh true

[visual hill]

if I run a program with sudo, it's still in user space

to get something to run in kernel space, it needs to be a kernel module

(or on Windows, a driver)

[mossy flume]

The other option is a heuristics approach which determines if you’re just too good at the game or not.
Fuck you if you’re just naturally talented, though.

[quiet swift]

One of the youtubers I watch occasionally does videos of trying to figure out if a player in League is a cheater, or just straight up mocking how some valorant cheaters / cheat creators are streaming and then get banned live

[visual hill]

League and other top-down games are probably harder to spot cheating in, as a player

the main sources of cheating (ways to get more info than normal, macros, etc) aren't super obvious, except on a detailed VOD review

[quiet swift]

You have to go through replays and slow it down, usually. Two easy ways to tell is if the cheater shoots at you despite being out of sight/in a hidden zone, or if the character moves to dodge an attack the millisecond the animation starts, not when the shot is fired (at the end of the animation)

[fresh bane]

I also never played at a high level anyways, I don't think I ever got past bronze because I rarely played ranked either (and the few times I did I came close to wanting to rip out my own hairs with my bare hands) so that may also explain it, but again that's why these types of arguments of ''well, I never experienced so and so'' are unreliable

[visual hill]

I play Trackmania and catching cheaters took a surprisingly long time

some cheated records took over 10 years to be caught

(the investigation on riolu brought light to his slow motion approach, people have been doing this since 2008 at least)

[quiet swift]

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

[fresh bane]

Usually for League the kinds of scripts people get are for nailing every single skillshot which most players can tell when it happens, but the trickier one to figure out is if they have some script to show them any map timers or visibility scripts to see where other players may be

[quiet swift]

Video's an example of what I was talking about 🙂

(and that content creator is pretty funny, him and his gaming group)

[fresh bane]

I think when you get to the point where each games' anti-cheats are devouring each other and asking you to uninstall other games because they refuse to run otherwise is when it gets to the point where I would consider it a big problem

which is what happened with League and Battlefield 6

[slim thorn]

ah, I knew I was forgetting some examples

[visual hill]

anticheats are also problematic for developers, they often require disabling Hyper-V, shutting down VirtualBox VMs that may be running or uninstalling some utilities

[fresh bane]

I'm reading similar examples of games like Infinity Nikki and Elden Ring's anti cheats also clashing with each other

[mossy flume]

The only issue I had with B6 was Windows’ strict memory protection preventing it from running. (This is not the default setting)

Never had one ask me to kill Hyper-V or other VM technology

[visual hill]

Faceit AC does, at least

WSL2 needs Hyper-V too, so you can't use it anymore

[mossy flume]

I’ve certainly had issues with DRM, but not anticheat software (except B6, as mentioned)

[mossy flume]

What’s Faceit? Haven’t heard of that one, looks like it’s for CS2?

[visual hill]

competitive gaming service, mostly used for CS2

I used it a little back in the CS:GO days

it used to be preferred for its faster servers (128 tick), but now it's just preferred because it has fewer cheaters at a high level

[mossy flume]

Ah, that's one of those games I haven't touched in like 15 years

[fresh bane]

It's a shame about Vanguard because the prospect of a League of Legends fighting game was incredibly appealing to me, but alas still uses Vanguard on PC, and despite how much I'd love to play that I'm not gonna put up with the annoyance (and potential hindrance) that is Vanguard
honestly this is the kind of use I'd give to something like the Steam Machine, because I'm definitely not a console player, but I wouldn't care about anti cheat if I had a dedicated gaming device

so that thing might be good for anyone who feels similarly to me

[visual hill]

Vanguard for a fighting game seems odd, fighting games don't have a lot of ways to cheat in other than macros

(the game is deterministic, it'll desync if you try to change your character's frame data to give yourself an advantage)

[fresh bane]

FighterZ used Easy Anti Cheat I think, so a fighting game having an anti cheat wasn't that weird to me, I just am not going to put up with Vanguard's specific way of doing things at all

SF6 and Strive don't have anti cheats that I know of though

[graceful bridge]

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/599669707226744434

[visual hill]

6 4 - b i t

at long last!!

32-bit is being EOL pretty soon too

[mossy flume]

About bloody time

Valve loves to stave off these things until the operating systems publish EOL/hard-block notices

[sacred grove]

Now do the Linux client next, valve

Wine switched properly over to 64-bit (as in, being able to run 32-bit apps on a 64-bit wine) fairly recently, but Steam is the only remaining thing that litters your Linux distro with 32-bit libraries

[bronze abyss]

iirc stuff like auto blocking is a thing that wouldnt alter game data,but in fighting games for the most part cheating is messing with the network to selectively make the game playable or not

[craggy vine]

I do hope linux continues to support 32bit at least in some form for a long while. Quite a few games I play are still only 32 bit

I'm sure they will

[sacred grove]

I don't think you have to worry. The Steam client being 64-bit is seperate from what kind of games it can run

[mossy flume]

https://bsky.app/profile/eurogamer.bsky.social/post/3m6ljvrzzol2p

Eurogamer (@eurogamer.bsky.social)

Sega has admitted sales of its games may be lower-than-expected due to players awaiting "definitive editions" before buying. bit.ly/4imXUqA

Bluesky · Nov 27, 2025, 4:30 AM

[hasty patio]

No shit they are. Why spend up to 100% extra when you can just wait a year and get the best at one price that tends to be better overall.

[fresh bane]

https://bsky.app/profile/patstaresat.bsky.social/post/3m6kfiftdl22n

Pat Stares At (@patstaresat.bsky.social)

If people have limited income and you literally always release an upgraded version of your game then it's a smart idea to wait. It's pretty obvious. Even games with season passes massively benefit from waiting, you can get the game + season pass for launch price on sale. Look at KCD2.

-# Eurogamer (@eurogamer.bsky.social)
Sega has admitted sales of its games may be lower-than-expected due to players awaiting "definitive editions" before buying. bit.ly/4imXUqA

Likes

353

Bluesky · Nov 26, 2025, 5:38 PM

[hasty patio]

For other systems, a lot of games are incorporating DLC until the base game, so they don't have to keep up numerous editions.

[fresh bane]

Lately videogames are giving people absolutely zero reason to actually get a game on launch, not only are there hundreds of games on like 80% of people's backlogs to keep them busy for a while but also with the constant updates a lot of the times you're not even getting the actual complete definitive experience until sometimes months after the game comes out (sometimes even years, look at Cyberpunk)
So yeah, I'm waiting to buy a game

[mossy flume]

Indeed. Also I’m not sure why Eurogamer would be pitching this observation as “admitting” anything.

[hasty patio]

It's clickbait for everyone but the folks that need to hear/see it.

[quiet swift]

I really do want to play Metaphor, but yeah. p4g and p5r make me suspect that something is coming, so i gottta wait 🙁

[mossy flume]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2105620/Sektori/

Steam

Sektori

SEKTORI
Sektori is an intense, fast paced twin-stick shooter infused with hard hitting techno music. Choose your upgrades carefully and create powerful builds to take on the relentless enemies and epic bosses on a constantly evolving battlefield. Sektori is a game that requires your complete focus, a game where the high-adrenaline visuals, mus…

Price

$14.99

Recommendations

121

Metacritic

93

Remember Geometry Wars? Well, someone did and realized we should probably do that again.

[minor gorge]

A long time since I played that. Is neat.

[astral steeple]

Huh Apparently the epic games store has gifting games and add-ons now

[mossy flume]

Palworld has just reached Overwhelmingly Positive in both the All-Time and Recent reviews categories on Steam.

[vivid glen]

A little surprised by that

then again i haven't tried it recently since all the updates

[arctic fern]

nuuu the sims didnt save my char!

it crashed yesterday and apparently i didnt save anything

[gaunt marten]

That sucks

[wind stump]

My wife threw out my card collection (So i bought a dump to find them all) has a surprisingly fire OST

I mean, in an ironic sense

But credit for making 11 songs themed around dumpster diving for cards

[bitter stream]

the game is about dumpster diving?

how does that work lol

also that's one Isekai styled name

oh, it's AI gen music, but they refused to disclose it

T_T

[proud warren]

Went from to in seconds with that info

[bitter stream]

yeahhh

[wind stump]

oof.

nvm then

explains the mixed rating

Oh well, pirated it anyway

[bitter stream]

fair enough hahah

[wind stump]

Was going to buy it because it's 40% off but ehhh

i'll save the investment for of The Devil

Nothing wrong with AI genned music (in my opinion) but not disclosing it is a big ethical oof

[arctic fern]

Theres nothing inherently wrong with AI itself. My issue is how ethically it us being used, by stealing human art and turning it into slop, then claiming it as your own

In my opinion

[bitter stream]

they also didn't pay to use peoples music in the generation

lmao

[arctic fern]

Eeeexactly

Example: James earl Jones selling his voice to Disney to train an ai
I don't like it still, but that is at least above board, legal and not theft

[wind stump]

Yeah, if more people tried to used it ethically, I wouldn't have to preclarify "Well I don't hate the idea of it inherently."

Unfortunately, Gaming Sucks!

🌈

[forest shoal]

This is why I only play games on systems that were released before the world ended

[astral steeple]

All ai generated pictures and videos and music is good for is shitposts and other dumb stuff

Like a country song about a guy who falls in love with a grilled cheese sandwich lmao

[forest shoal]

Isn't that a song in "Pinkie Pride"?

[astral steeple]

No I meant like an actual grilled cheese sandwich

The food

[forest shoal]

I can't believe you would grill him

And besides, you can just ask him to make the song for you

[astral steeple]

lol

[arctic fern]

its not even good for that
do you have any idea how much processing power, and therefore electricity and water for cooling, is spent on just one prompt? and you have to generate a LOT of prompts to get something useable
plus ahve you seen the cost of pc components? that might just be slightly related to the growth of ai as shitposts

[astral steeple]

I've dabbled a bit with suno for like a year now just to have it come up with some of the most off the wall songs

A lot of which ended up being good catchy songs on the first generation

[forest shoal]

This thing is very pretty

[wind stump]

I knew the Irish were evil

[cerulean herald]

wonder what triggered that

[mossy flume]

Yeah. I do like that he did that, allowing his iconic voice to keep the character of Vader going.

But I agree. As much as I really like AI technologies, I’m also of the camp that it must be used responsibly. If a model is being specifically trained to imitate someone’s likeness or specificity tuned to their unique style, some sort of legal framework should probably be in place. The way Disney and James Earl Jones did that is a good example of keeping things straightforward and honest.

There are unsettled legal issues and questions regarding whether training general models on materials counts as fair use or not. Those questions have yet to get to the court system. But models specifically meant to imitate something specific, I can buy there are clearer legal issues there.

[mossy flume]

A single prompt of an existing model is actually pretty cheap to run, on the order of a few cents of electricity.

The expensive phase of building generative AI is during the training phase. That’s the part that uses a ton of energy.

(Of course, it starts to get interesting once you tabulate all the collective user-facing prompts of generative AI models. Collectively that’s a good amount of energy.)

[slim thorn]

do we know the cost of e.g. the non-LLM parts of a single google search?

[gaunt marten]

Yes

[mossy flume]

Probably a lot cheaper, I’d wager. But then again, it does involve a ton of servers responding to your query.

But yeah, I’d bet money on it being cheaper by multiple orders of magnitude

[slim thorn]

I wonder how the web crawling part compares

[mossy flume]

Ohhh, interesting question. I’ve never thought of that

I’d still bet on it being quite a lot cheaper. Training AI models is expensive as heck.

[gaunt marten]

Google operates at a large enough scale that many of the fixed costs are amortized away

And the per-search or per-crawl costs are minimal

[bronze abyss]

im super disappointed,dying light the beast just got the NG+ and legend levels update but im stuck at 0 hp and stamina when i start the ng+ and keep death looping when i spawn in,i cant do anything at all

i was waiting since game's release for this and i cant even play it

[wind stump]

That's impressively shitty!

i got about two words into this before giving up

Guessing it's something like "THE RETRIBUTION IS AT HAND" or something

Interesting that one of the Not 4chan threads foreshadows events later in the game

Hindsight is fun

[wind stump]

I'm like 90% sure this is a Deus Ex reference

Specifically with the nod to Hong Kong

[slim thorn]

maybe, this particular screenshot alone doesn't feel that specific, but I'd be surprised if nothing in this game was a Deux Ex reference

[wind stump]

A lot of Human Revolution at least centers on augmentations

[slim thorn]

well yes I mean it's far from the only franchise with cybernetic augmentations

[wind stump]

And one of the missions in the original does take you to Hong Kong

But yea, less blatant than "I'D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR" or Mr. Donovan

[slim thorn]

oh, I completely forgot there was a guy named Donovan in Deus Ex

[wind stump]

I... thought he was a Spiderman reference, with the fact he runs a paper and has the triple aliteration name

-# i mean, could be both

Subtle as a brick

[slim thorn]

who knows lol, I'm not in context for it right now

ok that is definitely a reference

[wind stump]

Going by the swimsuits and southern california... Baywatch, maybe?

Iris and Dana worked together in Sukeban Games' point-and-click game Sales Pitch, and currently owns and operates the N1-RV Ann-A bar. She is described by Dana as a "red-headed, glasses wearing gun nut"
Hey, another game that ties into the greater canon and- PAIN

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az71VG-2MOo

Snrrrrk. So the video starts with a new rts called "crimson freedom". Narrator says something about how it looks like it'll be an APM heavy game.

Direct quote from dev

[I'm in this picture but I do like it]

[quiet swift]

Followed by "but if you do play fast then you'll trash those guys in multiplayer". GOod, i don't do multiplayer 😛

[green fulcrum]

Ooooooo.........still expensive as hell (mostly because it includes all the DLC too), but 30% off is still decent for a relatively new title.

Should I wait until the winter sale? Idk if it'll be on sale then or not.

[gaunt marten]

It's never been on sale before

I recommend waiting multiple years until it goes on significant enough sale

[green fulcrum]

I know you're right

[gaunt marten]

Odds are, if you wait until the winter sale it will go on another 30% sale

[uneven epoch]

persona games are all on sale, my backlog is a bit big rn so ill wait but like, if u wanna complete ur collection or lose a couple houndred hours or stuff

[gaunt marten]

I'm waiting for Royal to go on a 90% sale but I'm excited

[quiet swift]

I am extremely eyeing P3R

[uneven epoch]

this is its biggest sale so far yea

[quiet swift]

That and Metaphor might/might not have a 'full' version, we don't know yet, so it's the better buy

..screw it, i'm grabbing p3r

my wishlist is like 180 games, but that's #3 so it's worth it

[uneven epoch]

ah, i dont rlly use the intended function as actual ranking

lazy

[slim thorn]

I've never ordered my wishlist because for me it's more about which type of game I'm in the mood for than whether it had slightly higher vibes than the other game on the day I added it

[quiet swift]

I order maybe the first 20-30 or so, because I also used to swap game codes from working at EA for some other games, and the top 20-30 were the ones I most wanted

[quiet swift]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/adventure/dispatch-leads-say-the-clair-obscur-expedition-33-teams-shout-out-at-the-golden-joysticks-means-so-much-and-ive-never-had-a-game-make-me-cry-so-quickly-before/ E33 team being bros

[random steppe]

They really come off as loving gaming deeply, it's so nice to see them win stuff, and Dispatch was robbed as far as game awards nominations this year so it's good it's getting highlighted in other ways

[quiet swift]

Did they make the deadline for game awards? Wondering if it'll appear next year

[slim thorn]

iirc Dispatch was nominated in "best debut indie"

[quiet swift]

Ah

[green fulcrum]

I nominated them in the Steam Awards for unique gameplay

[slim thorn]

E33?

[wind stump]

Eeeeeee

[quiet swift]

You're missing 26 e's there

[green fulcrum]

No, Dispatch

It's not as prestigious as the Game Awards, but the Steam Awards are still nothing to sneeze at.

[slim thorn]

interesting

[green fulcrum]

And Dispatch, from what I can tell, really does offer a very unique experience compared to most other CYOA games

[slim thorn]

I never play "management" games so I have no idea how unique that aspect of Dispatch is

[green fulcrum]

It's not just a management game

It's also TellTale-esque

And its story is like a show

[wind stump]

I don't want to get mooned.

[slim thorn]

...I'm aware

let me spell that out the long way

I've played several narrative choice games including actual Telltales

so I know that aspect of Dispatch is pretty much exactly how "they used to make 'em" (not in a bad way, just familiar and well-executed)

so the management part was the one I can't vouch for the mechanical originality of

[rugged flax]

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[slim thorn]

it was a response to your "unique gameplay" comment

[cerulean herald]

E33 is the successor to E3 if u really think about it

[green fulcrum]

It's not so much the individual aspects, but rather how well they blend together into one unique experience.

And that is what got Dispatch my vote

Because it blends each aspect of the game seamlessly, and makes it look like an interactive movie/show that still feels like an actual game.

[slim thorn]

that's fair, it's certainly a novel combination

[green fulcrum]

That's very hard to pull off

They deserve a good win, at least one.

[slim thorn]

and they do a great job of shaking up the management mechanics as much as they possibly can to reflect what's happening in the narrative

[green fulcrum]

Exactly

[slim thorn]

but for me that "I've seen all these pieces before but this combination really achieves some unique emergent property I've never seen before" also applies just as much to E33

[green fulcrum]

Yes, but I already nominated E33 for several awards in both the Steam Awards and the Game Awards, so I wanted to give one to Dispatch.

[slim thorn]

of course I also have not played nearly enough JRPGs (or management games) to tell if that's just because I didn't try to be a genre expert, it could be a weird me thing

[green fulcrum]

Because Dispatch deserves recognition too

[slim thorn]

at least I've yet to see anyone else describe E33 as "the first time I ever liked a turn-based combat system, instead of merely tolerating it"; that exact wording probably is just me

[uneven epoch]

im just happy kcd II got a mention at all

big w for a czech game we dont get to international stage all that much

[green fulcrum]

Not even BG3?

[slim thorn]

and there you hit on the point I was originally trying to make

I haven't played any of the BGs

[green fulcrum]

Oh it's been nominated for a fair amount of categories

[uneven epoch]

yeah but like, lol lmao to anyone who thinks itll actually win anything

so yay for mentions

[green fulcrum]

And I know one major RPG youtuber who considers it his personal GOTY, even above E33

(MortismalGaming, great guy, super relaxed and passionate about RPGs.)

[quiet swift]

I think it might be a contender in more things than expected, a lot of comments I see on various reddit or article posts usually boil down to E33, Silksong and KCD2

Hades 2 as well but I think it being in early access for a year + kinda knocked the wind out of its sails

[slim thorn]

it's wild that this year is so stacked that the first great Silent Hill game in decades has gotten so overshadowed you can talk about the award nominees for hours without mentioning it

[uneven epoch]

its a bit surprising to me that silksong isnt completely dominant, i mean. its the silksong you know?

[slim thorn]

also Silksong yeah

also Hades 2 yeah

[uneven epoch]

maybe the meme went so far ppl arent aware its out?

[slim thorn]

pretty sure it's not that, seemingly everyone in the target audience has been playing it

[green fulcrum]

What's even weirder is that Nintendo's big game of 2025, Bananza, isn't even being considered as a serious contender, despite being a fantastic game in its own right.

Usually Nintendo sweeps

[slim thorn]

like I get people putting E33 above Silksong

as excellent as Silksong is, it's very similar to the first HK, and the influence of HK has already permeated its genre

E33's the one that's going to influence how games are made in the future

[green fulcrum]

Yes, but the wait killed quite a bit of the hype, unfortunately. The remaining hype carried on through memes, for the most part.

It's fantastic, but for some, it might not have been worth the wait

[quiet swift]

Posting it again just to show the absolute madness this year has been. I think some of the legendary years in gaming were what, 1997 and 2008? This is up there with them.

[river veldt]

didn't Silksong literally crash steam

[slim thorn]

it did

[quiet swift]

Steam, GOG, everywhere it was lol

[green fulcrum]

It did, yes. But the reactions afterwards was the important part.

[slim thorn]

hell, I keep forgetting Ender Magnolia was this year except when you post this image

[quiet swift]

Though MH:W on there is a bit... awkward

[green fulcrum]

This isn't even including Crossworlds, which scored higher than Mario Kart for the first time in Sonic's racing history.

[quiet swift]

I think this is a list of good games this year, despite any 'issues' they might have

[river veldt]

what kind of game is KCDII anyways ? is it like the Witcher

[slim thorn]

yesn't

is bringi still here?

guess not

[green fulcrum]

It's kinda like Skyrim, Witcher, etc.

[slim thorn]

the first big difference is that KCD2 has no fantasy elements, it's historical fiction, specifically medieval times in the Kingdom of Bohemia / Czech Kingdom

[green fulcrum]

RPG, but not turn-based

Also, no fantasy. Completely historical

Lol, dang it Ix

[river veldt]

oh interesting

[slim thorn]

but yes it is an open world RPG with real-time combat that's primarily hack-and-slash

I have not played it myself so that's as far as I can go

[green fulcrum]

Same, I like turn-based more than real-time.

[uneven epoch]

sorry i was voting steam awards bc i forgot i didnt do that

but yeah, kcd II is similar to witcher 3 in ways like "action rpg" and "theres stats" and "intricate side quests" and "cinematic cutscenes" and "funny protagonist with set personality and story"

[gaunt marten]

I found a sealed crate of bottles of captain cat's black rum. Upon sampling it this cat spawned in my boat

If you have a catspeak amulet, it says Sailing cat: Wow, I'm really at sea!

[slim thorn]

I want this to be a Flow reference but I don't think it is

[uneven epoch]

ill dispute hack and slash a little bit bc that term kinda implies you can swing wherever however, which will get your butt kicked and stabbed. kcd's thing™ is you have directions affecting your swings. if you're in a sword duel and your opponent is swinging left, block from the right and then transition to their ungarded side, that sorta stuff. theres ripostes, dodging, combos, master strikes, all mechanics you can and will have to utilize, bc unlike geralt you are not a sponge for damage. you will die quick. armor goes only so far, especially if archer hits you in your face or your opponent knows how to swing a mace. more than three people running towards you? fear. fear. skedaddle. you still have options, in II there's early gun-canons™ theyre clunky as fuck and slow and inaccurate and personally i hate them but they are devastating. crossbows are there for when you suck at bow, they are slower but more powerful (the intention was probably also easier to use but personally i preferred bows, i blame kcd I for makin me git gud and i couldnt seem to get used to crossbows slightly different aiming system). sorry, what were we talking about? oh yeah, so multiple weapons but no magic (tho long swords remain dev's special babies with most care). unless you count getting so drunk you hallucinate a talking dog judging your life choices magic

oh yeah you have dog aiding you in combat, i think geralt has just the horse? i havent played witcher 3 personally

[slim thorn]

yeah the horses in W3 are just for transport

[uneven epoch]

oh i see, you can teach kcd II horses some combat stuff

[random steppe]

Also the horese doesn't aid you, s/he hinders you

(roach memes are the best part of W3, and W3 is pretty good)

[uneven epoch]

but also i will judge you if you dont stick with "pebbles" i love you šedivka

https://www.tumblr.com/forystr/775323089626152960/horrified-to-hear-an-npc-say-this-about

[river veldt]

Roach my beloved

[uneven epoch]

pebbles starts with bad stats and npcs do in fact shit talk her constantly. you just gotta stick with her for some amount ridden (30 kilemeters to be exact), then she gets a perk and her stats are boosted

[quiet swift]

me: buys P3R.
me: starts my steam deck to install it there.
Deck, picks a random startup animation: HI I CHOSE METAPHOR
me: ...are you questioning my purchase, Deck?!

[slim thorn]

oh, like the Fire Emblem characters that start out useless but supposedly have amazing growth values if you can be bothered to level them up?

[uneven epoch]

"buy more, bully your wallet"

[quiet swift]

[river veldt]

i still just use the default deck startup

[quiet swift]

Not like I spend my steam points on anything else so I just buy most of the startup stuff and let it randomly pick

[uneven epoch]

it ties to henry doing the same thing, both kcds employ the "do the thing to level it up" approach

[random steppe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF_--w5DCAs

Witcher will never not have the soul of an eurojank title, no matter how much you polish it.
That's just how it is

[river veldt]

eurojank ?

[uneven epoch]

eurojank :3

yeah kcds are those too

[slim thorn]

it's pretty rare for an open world game to not have visible jank of some flavor

[uneven epoch]

II to a lot lesser degree than I admittedly, but still eurojank

[quiet swift]

"Eurojank" is a slang term for European-developed video games that are ambitious and deep but lack polish, often due to a tight budget"

[uneven epoch]

....... i just realized the polish pun.....

[random steppe]

IT's a term that was coined around the time of the Gothic series popularity, basically lots of ambitious European devs at the time made ambitious RPGs (usually medieval RPGs, Witcher 1 is an example for sure) on very tight budgets with very interesting results

[uneven epoch]

you can tell its late usually id get it immediately

[slim thorn]

oh, is "Roach" a pun?

[random steppe]

They aren't good, but they are rarely uncreative

[slim thorn]

I've always heard that name has different connotations in the original language...

[quiet swift]

Launch day Cyberpunk was S tier eurojank

[uneven epoch]

"polish it". witcher is polish.

[wind stump]

Is slavjank not acceptable anymore?

[slim thorn]

oh

[random steppe]

Listen, it was noticed but not intended.
As in, "if I write it this way it will sounds like making a pun, but I can't find another set of words for this concept, whatever"

It was a reluctant pun

[slim thorn]

see this is why I hate riddles

I'm trapped below the skill floor

[river veldt]

why is this the first picture that comes up when you google witcher roach

[uneven epoch]

representative

[quiet swift]

Because that's his default state of being

[wind stump]

'Cus I mean, Eurojank sounds fair, but I'm far more familiar with slavjank

[slim thorn]

it wasn't when I played, but I've never been the type to provoke bugs

[random steppe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M36eKH8r5wk

Why does this have 10 views

This is great

I was looking for another video

[wind stump]

maybe the name

[random steppe]

This one too, I've never seen this, when did all this undiscovered gold comes from? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVePoCSg_7Q

[river veldt]

what the hell is she doing

[random steppe]

Her code is perfect, I wouldn't change a word

[river veldt]

does Witcher have an independent wiki

[slim thorn]

no idea

[gaunt marten]

It does not

[river veldt]

damn

[mossy flume]

The Everdrive 64's compatibility with the Analogue 3D has been fixed via a firmware update for the ED64.

Although apparently in order to make it work, you need to first run the Everdrive 64 on an original N64 console for the purpose of updating the bootloader during runtime.

[glad girder]

what are your thoughts on the steam deck price reduction

[gaunt marten]

I like when things are cheaper

[glad girder]

I'm thinking of getting it but I need to get plane tickets to visit my mom figured out first

there's supposed to be a 20% cashback offer from paypal for pay in four I want to use but I can't find it :c

[orchid sundial]

what games do you recommend that are on ps5

[fickle garnet]

I've heard Astro Bot is good

Same with Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart

[vivid glen]

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

[slim thorn]

I can vouch for Rift Apart being just as fun as the classic R&Cs

[vivid glen]

fun and it has rivet in its so its automatically great

[fickle garnet]

I would say Death Stranding, but I know you're not huge on mature rated games

[astral steeple]

Spiderman remastered and Spiderman 2

[fickle garnet]

Those are good choices too

[quiet swift]

Hmm. LTT just released a vid about what they estimate the steam machine will cost. They're thinking absolute bare minimum is probably 699, likely between that and 799 unless some huge market problem emerges between now and release (ie ram prices getting even worse)

[orchid sundial]

will ram prices ever go down?

[fickle garnet]

Ram prices scare me

[mossy flume]

I’m also theorizing about $800

[mossy flume]

Yes

[minor plover]

for those of you who know the game Euchre: I'm derping around vs bots while decompressing from a busy Thanksgiving and I got this hand

[mossy flume]

This RAM price spike is temporary

It will take some time to normalize, but it will

[quiet swift]

Yeah, it's what I've been thinking since the start since they mentioned "PC priced"

[mossy flume]

No more than $1200

[quiet swift]

Anything above 1000 would be DOA, imo

[mossy flume]

I could see it being north of $1k, but $800 target is reasonable, if ambitious

The only reason why I’m not ruling out sub-1K is because if the 8GB of VRAM

[fickle garnet]

DOA?

[quiet swift]

dead on arrival

[mossy flume]

Dead on Arrival

[fickle garnet]

Oh I see

I always forget acronyms

[quiet swift]

699 would be fantastic, 799 is most likely, 899 is I think still acceptable to most gamers, 999 I think is pushing it for most gamers but the psychology of 'hey it's under 1k!' might still work. Anything 4 digits I think is enough for people, especially nowadays, to balk

[fickle garnet]

I think it'll be around 800 usd probably

Hopefully

[mossy flume]

Eh, I still consider "PC prices" to be 4 digits and the realm of consoles to exclusively dominate 3 digits, but shrug

We'll see

We can push a lot out of them these days

[orchid sundial]

im just going to get my games on ps5 digital

[mossy flume]

I agree that it'll be a tough sell above 800

[fickle garnet]

I just hope the steam frame is reasonably priced

[mossy flume]

But honestly, people are going to complain regardless of what it's priced as

[quiet swift]

Yeah, people who think it'll be console priced are delusional. It's expressly a console shaped PC, with all the versatility that brings that consoles do not have

[fickle garnet]

I'm not that interested in the steam machine, I'm fine with my desktop, so the price doesn't matter to me all that much

[mossy flume]

Yep

I already have my own "steam machine" that I built myself, so this device would be a strict downgrade aside from the nice benefit of being able to wake it with a controller.

I am potentially interested in the headset though

[quiet swift]

Same, I want it more for the "ooh, shiny!" side of things as my desktop is probably stronger, and the convenience of couch playing and whatnot

[fickle garnet]

Me too

[quiet swift]

Headset looks great but I'd love to be able to try it out in advance somewhere. I get motion sick in cars so I suspect projectile vomit if I try VR 🤢

[fickle garnet]

I'd rather get a steam deck than the steam machine, personally

[quiet swift]

Already have one!

[fickle garnet]

[mossy flume]

I would like a Steam Deck 2 at some point

[fickle garnet]

If I get the Steam Frame, I am definitely also getting the wrist strap accessory. Assuming they sell them separately, that is

[sacred grove]

They're probably just waiting for the right timing so that they don't lose too much money on new hardware. Deck OLED still seems pretty usable

[quiet swift]

s'what I got, the 1tb oled

[river veldt]

i was reading about The Witcher on Wikipedia and this cover of one of the books is hilarious

[quiet swift]

Man, that's like 1980s movies posters

[tranquil tartan]

That does look like a nsfw meme face for sure 😂 😂 😂

[vivid glen]

thankfully since i dont plan to play many graphic entensive games on my deck it should last me for a while

as of now its mostly to help me clear up games from my backlog

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XASAd2lxzzg okay, posted it in the e33 channel but also here because even the first few minutes is already interesting. Apparently shortly after the release of the game, something like 50 production companies contacted Sandfall saying "Something is happening with E33's music, do you guys wanna do a concert?"

[quiet swift]

"For those who come after... we restock the toilet paper, okay? 🚽"

[craggy vine]

I like the steam machine, but it's also like, if you know how to install anything aside from windows, you have been able to do the exact same thing for many years. Maybe one with better specs, or make one even cheaper.

It's more for the kind of people who would buy a pre-built PC or a console and don't know how to install an OS really, so like, it isn't really for me specifically.

[mossy flume]

Heh. Well deserved, too.

I can’t imagine how weird yet staggeringly exciting it must have been for them to get the reception they did.

[quiet swift]

That was for the France tour, but they've since announced a European tour

Oh, you saw that in the other channel already

[glad girder]

I'm thinking I need to buy Clair Obscur Expedition 33

that and a steam deck

[quiet swift]

E33 deserves to be played on a large screen

[glad girder]

I have an ultrawide monitor a foot away from my face, I can get the peak experience

[quiet swift]

Good good

...I wanna play it on an imax screen

[vivid glen]

ai was thinking about getting an ultrawide sometime in the future

have 3 monitors and it would be nice to condense it down to one

[glad girder]

What the fuck apparently I was wanting to buy a steam deck 4 years ago

Life and time and escaping poverty really took priority I guess lol

[vivid glen]

oh goodness lol

yeah that's some fair priorities

[glad girder]

for real I tried reserving one and everything

[vivid glen]

kinda regretting getting a dock but it is what it is

[cunning galleon]

did you ever get your steam deck

[glad girder]

I am going to get it in 3-5 business days, only 4 years late

also Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is bought. I didn't get deluxe but I might pick up the soundtrack

[quiet swift]

[vivid glen]

I hope you enjoy them both!

also if you are into it the steam deck is great for emulating old games and doesnt take long to set up

[quiet swift]

I will warn that E33 can run on the deck, but the performance isn't stellar (not horrible but not great). Best on a full console or PC rig that can run it

[glad girder]

I really want to do that. I have an anbernic rg35xx h that I bought for that and need to use but it has that cheap hardware jank that I hate. Hard and inconvenient to buy, have to set up custom firmware, limited to no consumer support, etc

I'm not a fan of how big the steam deck is but I trust Valve ergonomics. Hopefully the stuff coming with the development of the steam frame means that a small indie-only device is feasible

[vivid glen]

we can hope

also if you arent scared to work on it yourself they have a whole lot of guide on ifixit

just incase it were to break

but i have heard that steam is very generous with returns and such

[craggy vine]

What kinda wack ass steam issue is this

[vivid glen]

what the hell has gabe done

[craggy vine]

The decky ui crashed even though I wasn't using it, I'm in desktop mode

I restarted it and now the gaming mode ui is open in a window on the desktop. Like, it looks like I am in normal steam deck ui but I can alt tab out

[fresh bane]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/597397170160701460/

[craggy vine]

Not exactly my issue

It came up once while in desktop mode

Like, the steam window displayed the error

Like huhh

I guess this all kinda proves that the steam ui on steam deck really is just big picture mode without the desktop running in the background

[fresh bane]

If you want an exact solution to your issue you can just look up the error number and see if anything comes up, it may not be your exact same problem but a lot of people complaining of similar issues all say the same solution worked for them
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/1ba5z8b/something_went_wrong_while_displaying_this_content/

[craggy vine]

I don't care for it much to be honest, it is just the most wack ass thing ever to see

I'm not looking for a solution, I already know what it is

It seems there is nothing wrong with decky, it just decided to have an error while in desktop mode.

Idk what it even tried to render because everything is rendering fine under the error message

(also not on steam deck either but close enough)

[fresh bane]

honestly as long as everything else is still working, I'd just ignore it if it works it works

[craggy vine]

It's just funny, that's all

I like how the my putrid ponies community page is just full of mlp

Man I miss the way windows handled audio at times for games. Linux gives every app my entire 32 in/32 out audio device and some games audio just breaks when it sees that. But at least the solution is just open the game with a normal 2 channel audio output selected instead.

[craggy vine]

Deckyloader is actually being annoying

I do wonder if it is more annoying for me sometimes because I'm not on arch linux like steamOS normally is

[astral steeple]

Lol apparently marvel rivals gave out 25 dollars worth of in game currency to players for free but its limited time and you only have a few weeks to actually spend it before the currency itself actually expires

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EwZelaQ78c for when you have 4.5 hours to spare

[cerulean herald]

the one place that hasnt been corrupted by capitalism

[craggy vine]

My Putrid Ponies is a pretty interesting little horror thing, but as of right now it isn't finished at all

Got this sad feeling screenshot from the end

[teal sonnet]

this is the future (this is a league of legends chat)

[craggy vine]

pony maker

[wind stump]

I can vibe with that.

[craggy vine]

indeed it can

[hidden elbow]

LETS GOOOO

[toxic seal]

World of Tanks enjoys cooking with their holiday videos. This year with Benedict Cumberbatch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY7ZVZrrbQE

[bitter stream]

sure, I'll bite

that's incredible, wtf is going on

[visual hill]

that reminds me, I ordered a Legion Go 2 today

[rancid herald]

I tried to play world of tanks once

it kind of ate my windows and I hated it for it

[quiet swift]

Dang, that's a pretty good bundle. 15$ gets you all 8 items on greenmangaming

[sacred grove]

https://discord.com/channels/98609319519453184/1444030585009078302 Started a thread!

[random steppe]

That's an insanely good bundle

Bioshock and Xcom alone are more than worth it IMO

[visual hill]

I already have them, I would have bought it only for Rollerdrome and Lego, but the latter is MTX hell even though it's a paid game

[fresh bane]

https://bsky.app/profile/debjitduttaart.bsky.social/post/3m6padxnk3s2d

Debjit Dutta (@debjitduttaart.bsky.social)

What a great headline

Reposts

3694

Likes

11467

Replies

103

Bluesky · Nov 28, 2025, 3:49 PM

didn't Microsoft proudly announce once that a good chunk of their code was written by AI?

[slim thorn]

at this point I feel like all the big stupid corporations have done that

ironically who knows if it's even true

they might be misrepresenting a "code generated" figure as a "code actually used in production" number or something

[arctic fern]

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/microsofts-head-of-ai-doesnt-understand-why-people-dont-like-ai-and-i-dont-understand-why-he-doesnt-understand-because-its-pretty-obvious/ the actual article if you're interested

[quiet swift]

I linked that a few weeks ago, yes

Also oooh: there's a local one hour 'playtest' survey I signed up to here where I get an early preview of a game in development (nda signing and all that). The recruiter for the day had to ask a few questions and they were about disco elysium. My favorite moment, favorite side character, what the game is about.

...which makes me very intrigued as to what the actual game I'll be testing will be

[gaunt marten]

OSRS's sailing is pretty neat and unique

I just got the option to recruit people to help on deck

[craggy vine]

I'm pretty sure it was confirmed that they are now heavily required to use ai in everything. Including Microsoft games, or games from conpanies microsoft owns, hense why black ops 7 was so much ai use.

I genuenly hope Microsoft starts failing as a company

I wouldn't mind if google started failing too, but I do still use youtube

[wind stump]

Stonks

[quiet swift]

:|

[wind stump]

Tallnuts OP

(ignore the ladder)

[quiet swift]

I will not!

It is a monument to your hubris

[wind stump]

I got unlucky with a ladder spawn

also really could have used Winter Melons for this

NOT THOSE KIND OF MELONS

[slim thorn]

~~wait this isn't #1033585093526179840 ~~

[wind stump]

You're not a vtuber!

[craggy vine]

https://gpdstore.net/product/gpd-win-5/
Nah I don't need steam deck, I need this

[gaunt marten]

You don't need a portable computer at all

[craggy vine]

I neeeed it

How else am I going to play cyberpunk with ray tracing on the bus

[rotund forge]

Cyberlink implant

As the game suggests

[craggy vine]

yes

[quiet swift]

This is interesting. Total amount of games on steam, per year.

[graceful bridge]

I may have found a new game to obsess over.
https://youtu.be/pKyv1l9e08k?si=FBDdcgASGhkXx5cj

[robust latch]

is that the city builder with rats having to work for cats?

i thinjk i saw afew people on youtube playing that

[quiet swift]

🎵 There are no cats in america and the streets are paved with cheeeeese 🎵

[robust latch]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2976440/War_of_the_Western_Deep/ i am looking forward to this one the characters are soo adorable

Steam

War of the Western Deep

War of the Western Deep combines classic narrative adventure gameplay with a cinematic combat system, brought to life with gorgeous hand-animated artwork, a stunning orchestral score, and a fully voiced cast of memorable characters.

War is coming to the peaceful kingdom of Sunsgrove. As your northern neighbor secretly prepares for invasion, y…

Release Date

To be announced

[rancid herald]

I've been looking for a 'nice' fantasy city builder

like surviving mars, but it's redwall

(it's red because it's mars)

[glad girder]

I started Clair obscur expedition 33

[robust latch]

have you played timberborn

[glad girder]

Damn why the fuck is this so bad and jittery

I’m on low quality settings with xess scaling at 58% resolution scale and it’s jittery washed out garbage

[mossy flume]

Try disabling XESS scaling

Scaling techniques can sometimes cause more problems than they solve

Also, I think part of the issue is that E33 performs runtime shader compilation, which introduces stutter.

Try reloading and seeing if it’s any smoother

[glad girder]

I did and it helped a little bit but for some reason the game is forcing a 4K screen resolution on me

Setting an FPS cap and enabling boost and frame sync seemed to have helped. Back on XeSS and it’s much smoother now

[sacred grove]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH6mUTHZ5C4

[rancid herald]

no

[glad girder]

This is bullshit I’m crying and I’m only an hour in

How is this game touching and exploring so many of our anxieties and the bad things that have happened in recent years

I won’t say more but holy shit

[slim thorn]

if you're gonna give someone flowers...

(also post full spoiler thoughts in #1382143400975012030 so we can relive the game vicariously through you )

[glad girder]

I will

[quiet swift]

Ah, yes. Time for more popcorn.

[mossy flume]

https://bsky.app/profile/theverge.com/post/3m6q7nx6ejh2c

The Verge (@theverge.com)

The Super Mario Galaxy bundle for the Switch is 20 percent off today only

-# The Super Mario Galaxy bundle for the Switch is 20 percent off today only
Reach for the stars (and your phone).

Bluesky · Nov 29, 2025, 1:10 AM

Just an FYI in case anyone has been eyeing Galaxy 1+2 on Switch

[random steppe]

YES YEEEESS!!

Time to engage in some emotional vampirisim

[quiet swift]

[teal sonnet]

oh lawdy

you not ready

[quiet swift]

🍿

[mossy flume]

[quiet swift]

https://www.kkinstagram.com/p/DRiX0SpETiQ/

[mossy flume]

Whoops

Editing error, that’s great XD

[green fulcrum]

Nah, this is endearing. It's like the guy in-universe keeps making the same mistake

[fresh bane]

https://bsky.app/profile/maxkayart.bsky.social/post/3m6qh5zd6ec2i

Max Kay (@maxkayart.bsky.social)

Sammy's Journal #03
---
#metroid

Reposts

125

Likes

326

Bluesky · Nov 29, 2025, 3:24 AM

heh
you know what I'm not entirely against the idea of Samus keeping a personal journal of everywhere she goes and everything she does actually

https://bsky.app/profile/maxkayart.bsky.social/post/3m4mk2ya26s2b
also, X jumpscare

Max Kay (@maxkayart.bsky.social)

SA-X || Decamouflage
--
#metroid

Reposts

276

Likes

923

Bluesky · Nov 2, 2025, 3:15 AM

[cerulean herald]

Metroid Symbiote

[wind stump]

Me dropping literal nukes on my enemies in Command and Conquer Generals

[arctic fern]

https://youtu.be/jQd4ju1eQ3I

[graceful bridge]

Yup! You play as mice building a colony for your cat overlords. So kind of a 17th century feel, you've got to gather resources to both build up your colony & pay off your debt to the cats that are funding your expedition.

[wind stump]

[bitter stream]

Looks at cosmetic Miku Skin in fortnite
"Hey, that's nice, why don't I check the price."
30$ of Vbucks to be able to buy it.
"Damn, I guess i'm better off buying a game lol"

[wind stump]

Yay.

[astral steeple]

I mean yeah you get a lot in the bundle lol

The skin by itself is only 1500 which is 15 dollars

[gaunt marten]

Oh, can you buy the skin without the other items?

[bitter stream]

Depends on the skin, but most times yes

[gaunt marten]

Makes sense

[bitter stream]

Idk. I've not been playing a lot lately, and only occasionally with friends so it's hard to evaluate how much I'll use the skin compared to other possible purchases, even if 15 is within budget.

[gaunt marten]

You know what else is fifteen dollars?

The entire Steamworld game franchise https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41119/SteamWorld_Essentials/

[bitter stream]

huh, wild

[astral steeple]

The bundle includes the instruments, emotes, jam tracks and backbling etc for her

[bitter stream]

I'll take a look

[gaunt marten]

I can recommend Steamworld Dig 2 and Steamworld Heist. If you enjoy dig 2, dig 1 is good too. I have not played the rest

[bitter stream]

nice nice! I'll playthrough some of these, and I recall playign Dig 1 on another platform, so Dig 2 seems like a good deal

[gaunt marten]

Dig 2 is a highly polished version of Dig 1, and a solid metroidvania

[wind stump]

Dig 2 was free at some point, i think

[bitter stream]

yeah, but even now it's only 2$ haha

at least on this sale

[wind stump]

$2 is worth

[gaunt marten]

For 90% off, a small amount of support offered to the developers is not a bad idea

[bitter stream]

nods. Thanks for letting me know about the Steamworld Sales Flitter. I've got to hop off for now, but will try Dig 2 sometime this week.

[wind stump]

I also did this by accident

[mossy flume]

Yep. In other words, battle passes, microtransactions, FOMO, seasons, competitive gaming, play timers, all that. I’ve said it before, they all fundamentally ruin video games.

[slim thorn]

"and I mean every single game"
uh...

[wind stump]

Me having dropped cash on the 2nd RoR2 DLC earlier today:

you know, the one everyone hated

YOU CALL THIS RESPITE?

[astral steeple]

lol

[mossy flume]

Is there a reason you pinged me for that?

[slim thorn]

it's a metacommentary on how pings and other notification systems are yet another part of the unhealthy attention economy

[fickle garnet]

I think they're paid by Epic Games to tell everyone how great Fortnite is/hj

[slim thorn]

these could both be true

[mossy flume]

Ah

[river veldt]

game awards is soon

exciting

[mossy flume]

Hype

E33 going to just sweep the competition. Which is cool in its own way but also unfortunate because the nominees are just really damn good this year.

[little badger]

Midnight I ordered a Normandy statue

[mossy flume]

Oh, epic!!

Which one?

[little badger]

I ordered a while back but it’s sold out now