general gaming

[fresh bane]

The Ninjaneer

[frozen gate]

"i didnt like it that much but it was a nice historical artifact" is like me talkin about jet set radio and fallout 3 lol

[fresh bane]

And then Bomb Rush Cyberfunk came around...

[arctic fern]

Nothing personelle kid

[fresh bane]

And it still needed a few tweaks anyways but mods fixed that

[hidden elbow]

Ngl while i am thankful for Fallout 3 for saving franchise, its definitely felt like downgrade compared to two and New Vegas is just....better in everything compared to it now

[fresh bane]

Fallout 3 isn't even the historical artifact here

That would be Morrowind

[frozen gate]

i could probably stomach morrowind better but i have no idea

but yeah i went from fo3 first to nv and all that did was make me appreciate nv better

[hidden elbow]

Morrowind suffering because of a unbalanced nature of it where you go from being beat up on every turn to the god of death with very little in between , you either die in every fight , or you broken monster who breaks the game in half , still gorgeous atmosphere, amazing music and story

[hidden elbow]

I was surprised just how.... inconsequential most choices were and the fact that you have a total of 2 paths to take (Hero and cartoonish villian) definitely didn't help either

[frozen gate]

i think my biggest thing was everything being disconnected from each other, like nobody has any take on the enclave or brotherhood outside of the main quest and one ghoul saying they suck, and so many named npcs are purely set dressing

new vegas immediately fixed that, it's so wild

[frozen gate]

it's hard to feel like anything you do matters if nobody acknowledges it in-world or even makes any comments about the enclave or brotherhood's affect on it, and ur already not really the main character of the main story nor a handful of its side quests

[obsidian salmon]

oh ya for sure but an f smash at 90% (pit) woulda killed even without it, i was more surprised at tanking one of pit's strongest single-hit moves and not even flinching from it

[visual hill]

I down threw a Bowser at 236% with gnw the other day and he didn't die

(middleweights die from this at ~206% with perfect DI on Battlefield)

[teal sonnet]

This is beautiful to see

https://hive.blog/hive-143901/@davideownzall/ubisoft-shares-continue-to-collapse-after-announcements-of-cuts-and-closures-from-a-total-value-of-dollar11-billion-in-2018-to-

Overall, the value of the stock has fallen by 95% in five years, from $100 to $5

Ubisoft being run by pure greed

Got what it deserved

I hope this shakes the company up

Fire all those shitty people in charge

and becomes a good company that was one day

[light gate]

It will die before that happens

Or gets absorbed.

[slim thorn]

I’d like a version of this chart with game releases on it

[teal sonnet]

I wanna know what fuck up shit they release, that even during the pandemic they lost money

That is actually a feat that should be study

[graceful bridge]

https://youtu.be/RoCW_wgGZy8?si=aNU2QawcVaUha2JH

[worldly summit]

oh dear. Have they tried using generative AI?

[slim thorn]

seems likely

[worldly summit]

surely an NFT marketplace would help their financial prospec- nevermind they did that too

[mossy flume]

https://youtu.be/nVvaCe4esCQ

Surprising feature revealed at the end: You can change the color.

[dense crypt]

De virtual boi! Ultimate classic system.

[sacred grove]

There was a recent slowmo guys video about it. The engineering behind the display is kind of impressive for its time

In short, it barely has a "display" to begin with. It is quite literally an elaborate trick involving lights and mirrors

[wind stump]

https://youtu.be/qB0GaYA-RnI

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/CK5gdf5cMPM?si=5JYmKrYKU7skkLfA

man 10 years ago

feels like a relic from a different time but that was just 2015

ouch my hip ow

[cerulean herald]

my back

[arctic fern]

Its both!

Pre-covid was a whole different era

[astral steeple]

What

[mossy flume]

What

[astral steeple]

I thought bluey was like a show for toddlers

What overlap even is there between people who watch bluey and people who play minecraft lol

[visual hill]

Bluey is the good one

you're thinking about Paw Patrol

[fickle garnet]

From what I hear, Bluey is actually a really good show for all ages, kinda like FiM

[visual hill]

yeah

[fickle garnet]

There is overlap, Kids watch Bluey and kids also play Minecraft

[visual hill]

Play Minecraft, Watch Top Gear, Get Pig!

[fickle garnet]

I should get back to working on the true ending in Hollow Knight

When I'm done with HK, I might move onto Nine Sols, and then i'll play Silksong

[visual hill]

I don't have a lot of time for gaming these days

I did get the news recently that I'm too good for the QuakeWorld league I was in though, so I'll have to find other leagues to play in.

(it's a rookie-oriented league, and I was consistently topfragging in nearly every game)

[fickle garnet]

I have lots of time to game currently, cuz I don't have a job

[slim thorn]

my job is maintaining randomizers

[cerulean herald]

i cant beleive manechat doesnt not pay their moderation team

[river veldt]

i'm gonna try disco elysium again

[slim thorn]

how far did you get before

[river veldt]

iirc not very, but when i tried it last i was in the depths of my RDR2 obsession

[slim thorn]

oooh that would do it

DE's very much a story that expects you to fully immerse yourself in its setting

[fickle garnet]

I should play that sometime, I got it free on the EGS

[cerulean herald]

when was the last time u played RDR2

[river veldt]

2024

[visual hill]

https://hub.quakeworld.nu/games/?gameId=193226&from=736&to=764&track=84
the kind of things that happened last week 😛

[river veldt]

i may have miscalculated

[slim thorn]

I think I made this exact same miscalculation

[quiet swift]

i just checked, is real

[slim thorn]

huh

I am so curious what corporate power structure leads to that being the reaction

[robust latch]

given there was no reviews before and reviews now. its probbaly unrelated and the fact that the reviews are just after launch

its going to just be becuase its well bad not becuase of the corperation

[slim thorn]

I meant the owners reacting by editing the game's description

[robust latch]

oh hmmm, maybe standard distancing from a total flop

[green fulcrum]

@light gate You called it, lol

Literally all of us were clowning on this game the moment it was announced, haha.

[tawny jacinth]

Review: Highguard uses UE5, is buttery smooth

Looks inside:

You have a 7950X3D and a 5090 and it’s doing 160FPS at 1080p High??? This is supposed to be a competitive hero shooter???

[tawny jacinth]

The answer is “surprisingly big”

It’s actually a really good show lol

[fresh bane]

I'm wondering if it's actually some sort of legal problem because I can't imagine all Apex/Titanfall creators went to Wildlight so maybe the right owners just didn't want to be associated with this because it might give people the wrong impression that it's the same studios or publishers or whatever

[tawny jacinth]

The show is now an Aussie icon and the Australian mint even made Bluey-themed coins

Then they were stolen in a heist from the storage facility before they were released into circulation

The New South Wales police then launched a special investigation into the heist codenamed “Strike Force Bandit”- named after Bluey’s dad

They then raided a warehouse and arrested the suspected thieves

Yes, this actually happened https://www.vice.com/en/article/bluey-coins-dollarbucks-heist-strike-force-bandit/

Also yes, the “Dollarbuck” is now legal tender in Australia

[light gate]

I mean, it did check all the boxes. Did I wanted it to fail & have a laugh? No, the game looked okay from the trailer, it did look bland for my interests however.

So to see the game dealing with a “Concord situation” is still sad and most of the said behavior is just to dunk it for fun.

Even if the game is fine or has some problems, I figured folks wouldn’t even think of giving it a chance…

I sure was not wrong about that, and I really hope I am wrong when Marathon launches and does not suffer the same fate.

But knowing how the gaming club reacts, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

[tawny jacinth]

The main issue is that the game was flawed to begin with to the point the studio was planning to just “shadow drop” it

Unironically I think with such low expectations the game might have had a shot with a small fan base, which the 3v3 format could’ve worked with

[indigo pine]

freakin temporal storm

[arctic fern]

Love going insane

Also theres a #1462610954385887359 thread

[indigo pine]

didnt know that

[arctic fern]

Its ok, theres very little activity there lol

[slim thorn]

gotta get the active people into the threads somehow

[random steppe]

@slim thorn this seems interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cafPCloPgtc

Have you played it by any chance?

[slim thorn]

don’t think so

[random steppe]

released 1 week ago

[slim thorn]

ah, thought so, I do have this on my wishlist

[indigo pine]

behold. fire

[indigo pine]

char

[teal sonnet]

If they had made a titanfall clone, would have been perfect, that is all they had to do

but they manage to make a even more generic hero shooter than concord

concord crawled so highguard could break both legs falling from bed

[bitter stream]

ooh big

[arctic fern]

what on earth are you building

[indigo pine]

storage

[river veldt]

Disco Elysium- these children keep calling me the f slur

[slim thorn]

yup

[cerulean herald]

[slim thorn]

(they're just trying to get a reaction out of you)

[fresh bane]

Escalate, Cuno!!!

[quiet swift]

I've had a ball x pit session going with the radical and tactician, so it's playing by itself (the radical is a character that chooses upgrades and plays the game by itself). I let it do endless mode on this map... it's been going for 40 minutes.

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/F0WkItKBqaI?si=urdLOMPkdmh0br8c

collaborating with Shroud of all people to promote your single player story focused RPG is a bold choice

I wonder how this strategy will play out

[quiet swift]

The same guy crying endless tears about E33 winning, right? yes, excellent choice

[arctic fern]

who's shroud?

[river veldt]

he's like a twitch guy

i think he plays multiplayer games mostly

[fresh bane]

the guy in the video, he's a streamer who mostly focuses on online competitive games, and has had various takes over the years about single player games and the online games he plays

the most controversial so far was probably how he spoke about E33 and how he wanted arc raiders to win over it

so it's a very bizarre choice for Bethesda to collaborate with a guy who doesn't seem to really like single player focused games that much and mostly keeps to multiplayer competitive experiences, who also had pretty noticeable disdain for E33, to promote their single player campaign focused RPG franchise

[slim thorn]

...all that does is make me wonder what genre the next Fallout will actually be

[fresh bane]

Implying there's even gonna be a next Fallout, they seem content with just sorta throwing some content updates on F76 for now

I don't even know if Bethesda is even gonna make any new games at this point really

[slim thorn]

probably not

[fresh bane]

In a recent IGN interview Todd seemed perfectly happy with the idea that 1 season of the Fallout show = a new game entry, he also seemed fine with people still playing Fallout 4 10 years later and he directs people towards Fallout 76 too

so safe to say, they're not exactly hurrying to make a brand new Fallout anytime soon that's for sure

[slim thorn]

come to think of it, has Bethesda "done" anything since Starfield

I'm still curious if that will lead to any changes internally

[green fulcrum]

They still haven't done anything with ES6

[fresh bane]

Yes, actually!

they made a mobile elder scrolls game

[slim thorn]

is that better or worse than doing nothing

[green fulcrum]

...Worse, I'd say

[fresh bane]

did you even know the game existed?

[slim thorn]

well I don't care about ES either way so of course I didn't

[fresh bane]

then that answers that question

I don't even think elder scrolls fans heard of it either it seems like shovelware really

but it is the only other game developed by bethesda studios after starfield

[slim thorn]

-# do people still say shovelware

[fresh bane]

I still say it at least

even if it's not technically correct anymore it gets the point across

[quiet swift]

A guy was promised the director position of ES6 and that they'd make it next... but then they made FO 76 and startfield and it's now 10 years later... so he left the company

[mossy flume]

Isn't Shroud also like... an esports guy or something?

But yeah, he has such weird hot takes on the entire concept of single player games.

I only know of him from people bringing up his rants about single player games and TGA nominating him for best twitch streamer or something (why is that a category???)

[slim thorn]

This reminds me of that time Roger Ebert said video games can’t be art, and got immortalized for my generation as the clueless old guy who said that obviously wrong thing by the countless articles refuting him

[random steppe]

I mean it wasn't from bethesda but there was that Oblivion remaster that did well

And Starfield got a massive Starwars mod that according to everyone is actually fucking ballers, so it might actually gets saved by oscurity if Disney doesn't decide to strike it from orbit

[slim thorn]

Oh did you see the Bread Circus video about that mod too

[cerulean herald]

what exactly did he say singleplayer games

[mossy flume]

I keep hearing about that mod, apparently people keep saying that it actually makes Starfield interesting.

Which really just says that Starfield should've just been a Star Wars game.

[mossy flume]

Basically his hot take is that single player games are so aggressively pointless that nobody should even be making them in the first place.

[river veldt]

oh man i like Roger Ebert but that's a bad take lol

[mossy flume]

He seems to exist in a bubble where nobody he knows plays single player games, and thus he has the mindset that literally nobody plays single player games???

[slim thorn]

which sure feels like its been the industry’s de facto attitude since… I mostly stopped playing shooters

[random steppe]

I think the idea for starfield was very good

They just like, didn't make the game for that idea

[mossy flume]

Idea was great.
Bethesda is just horrible with execution.

[random steppe]

It's not even that far from greatness

[mossy flume]

I feel like Bethesda's leadership just doesn't know how to make interesting games.

[slim thorn]

that seems to be true of any studio large enough to have “leadership”

[random steppe]

Every system across the board just need to be 10% tighter, and the inventory system needs to be 200% tighter, and they are there

[mossy flume]

Yeah, but Bethesda is a particularly weird creature

Todd Howard is hailed as a genius, but like... I have some serious reservations about stuff he works on.

[random steppe]

I am not sure if it's the leadership this time, I feel like it's just like, the systems are off enough that the game becomes frustrating.

[mossy flume]

Unfortunately true.

[mossy flume]

Well, a lot of those decisions were apparently Todd's own specific ideas.

[random steppe]

Like, an exec I doubt has anything to say about how much the suits weigh compared to your carry capacity, that's a development and balance problem

[mossy flume]

Apparently he figured that if there was too much space in his space game, then it wouldn't work

Which is like.....

Bruh

Bro

Dude

Come on

[random steppe]

Yeah okay, but like, why do I have to manage my inventory every 5 minutes of gameplay, you can't blame TOdd for that one

That's someone else that fucked up

[mossy flume]

Ah yeah, that does indeed suck

I have Many complaints about Starfield and it's 0% surprising to me that it basically immediately faded into obscurity

[river veldt]

i bet there's a freak out there who loves Starfield

[random steppe]

There are some high level broad scope mistake, but the problem is that the systems are also not good at the minutia,
And they aren't even that far off from being good, they are as I said, 10-20% off to where they need to be to enjoyable.

[mossy flume]

Yep

They just wanted Fallout In Space™ which is... fine, but you need to actually embrace the genre that you've chosen.

[slim thorn]

You know what's really sad about it? At the time I actually bothered to read what Ebert himself said, and the main argument was that developing a game requires so many people that you couldn't get a single person to fully own the creative product at the end of it all like a book author or movie director. Which I don't think was true even back then, but imagine if he'd lived to see the PC indie boom...

[mossy flume]

Starfield kinda fights against its own concept.

[random steppe]

To be clear, I don't think that Starfield is awful, the more accurate statement is that Starfield is frustrating to play, and not very frustrating, just mildly frustrating over a long period of time

[quiet swift]

Isn't part of the problem that they are still using an older engine even on newer games like starfield? Almost like a refusal to spend time and money improving it (or licensing something else) that would allow for possible improvements of the game as a whole

[random steppe]

I thought the engine was fine, very few of my problems came from bugs

[mossy flume]

Yes, they're still using the same engine that they've been using pretty much since Bethesda was founded.

[random steppe]

Well there were NPCs getting raptured occasionally, but apart from that it seemed to work okay

[mossy flume]

That was hilarious, though

[random steppe]

Yeah I wasn't even mad, it added to the fun TBH

[quiet swift]

I'm more thinking the absolute lack of emotion in the NPCs

[mossy flume]

"Hi, I'd like to turn in this quest..... oh, okay, bye...."

[random steppe]

Listen, I did cry at PS1 polygons, if your writing is good enough the rig being a bit stiff doesn't actually matter.

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0ufhrgWJw ah, this is what I remember seeing

[slim thorn]

honestly part of the reason I check in on this channel is to avoid bubbling myself

[mossy flume]

I didn't get this far. That tint filter on the camera is jarring to me.

[slim thorn]

might as well post the actual video given how much chat this generated, and it was a pretty in-depth review of the mod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1NSLnJI12Y

[mossy flume]

Just doesn't look natural at all. Couldn't just make colored emissive lights?

[teal sonnet]

Damn I really want a Cyberpunk 2 already

Hopefully not a fucked up release like 1

[mossy flume]

It'll be like ten years until Cyberpunk 2, but man I want it

[teal sonnet]

The release was a shitshow? Yeah but DAMN

that game is a fucking vibe

[mossy flume]

They fixed it

[teal sonnet]

Yeah now is good af

[mossy flume]

Some of the bugs were pretty funny back in the day

[random steppe]

I am considering another playthrough, at some point, I have kind of many games lined up but I do want to do an hacker build

The sandevistan tech weapons build was a blast

[fickle garnet]

I want to play this, but I don't have enough space on my pc

[mossy flume]

Cyberpunk 2077 ended up becoming one of my standard PC benchmark apps, oddly enough

It has like... all the modern CPU and GPU features that many games don't bother with. CDPR kinda went overboard with it.

[teal sonnet]

yeah it is an amazing game to benchmark stuff

[mossy flume]

Man, I guess I really need to try this

I usually don't like messing with community overhaul mods (or mods in general), but...

[random steppe]

Now the actual trial will be WItcher 4 release and if they manage to not actually try to lie and mislead their customers

Never forget that, it wasn't just a mistake, they actively lied with Cyberpunk77 release

[mossy flume]

They did indeed

[random steppe]

Same for Hello Games and NMS, now they did redeem themselves, but also, never forget that they did

[mossy flume]

They eventually got their act together, but they did indeed fuck up their communication game.

[random steppe]

If they actually learned their lesson we'll know at their next big game release

[mossy flume]

CDPR supported and updated the game for a lot longer and more intensely than I ever expected them to.
They rightfully impressed me in the past few years when they kept going "Okay, this is the last feature update"
...
"Actually this is the last update, have some more features"
....
"Actually THIS is is the last feature update, for realisies this time we swear"

[random steppe]

Yeah, they never brought it where they promised they would, but it's an extremely good game, can't be too mad about it

[mossy flume]

Actually adding in a sorta working train based transit system was a wholly unnecessary addition and it's not what they originally wanted to do, but I'm glad they at least tried.

[random steppe]

They actually did what I wanted Bethesda to do with Starfield, get all those systems that need a bit more work, and actually put the extra work to tease out all that potential they never realised on release

[river veldt]

i dont really get the Cyberpunk hype, didn't do much for me personally

[mossy flume]

I kinda hope they can achieve more of the original vision with Cyberpunk 2. A lot of the reason why they didn't is because building the engine ate up so much of their feature development time. But since they have the engine now... maybe they can build up the final game a bit more this time around.

[fickle garnet]

Oh, apparently it doesn't work with the pc game pass version

[random steppe]

Listen, when a game kind of lets you do this, you gotta admit, it's kind of cool: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1HHq2Sx-BMs

[mossy flume]

Basically what makes it interesting is that it's a technical achievement while also being a damn good game that pushes what games can do as a medium. While it didn't meet the original ambition, it is still nevertheless one of the most ambitious video games to have ever been released.
I guess the thing that really should grab anyone's attention is the Phantom Liberty expansion. Feels like you're playing a movie.

[slim thorn]

I’m honestly a little confused by this paragraph because “feels like playing a movie” had been achieved many times before Cyberpunk

[mossy flume]

Yeah, that doesn't really get it across terribly well

I guess I mean the presentation is easily one of the most immersive experiences I've seen

[random steppe]

It does a lot to let you live your fantasy of being a highly enhanced mercenary in a Cyberpunk dystopian city.

[mossy flume]

CDPR really understood the assignment.

Man I kinda want to play Phantom Liberty again.

[random steppe]

Like, back to Starfield, it has a lot of system that work against the fantasy its trying to sell you.
Cyberpunk it has a lot of systems that reinforce it, it works, you are in it while you play it.

Now if the fantasy has no appeal on you, probably it's not the game for you

[mossy flume]

And not really just that, it just feels so weirdly grounded in itself in a way that I don't see very often.

[random steppe]

Phantom Liberty adds the fantasy of being a ||temporary spy for the government too, which is pretty cool||

[mossy flume]

I guess that means it's so detailed

Songbird was so good

[fresh bane]

I think I talked extensively about how I feel about Cyberpunk as I was playing it for the first time, I think if I can recall what I felt like and what I said I mostly felt like the RPG aspects weren't as fleshed out as I was hoping them to, I don't know why I Just ended up feeling like I didn't need this whole build your own V thing choose your own path stuff and I think I would've probably enjoyed the game better as a regular campaign with none of the choices or anything, there's obviously some big choices of course, but I kinda didn't feel like for example which of the starter '''''classes''''' you choose really matter that much, I feel like my V probably behaved herself about as similarly as others barring the one dialogue choice you get if you pick being a corpo or a street kid or something sometimes

[mossy flume]

Also, (minor spoiler I guess) ||I absolutely love the Blackwall skill and the AI gun XD||

[fresh bane]

But asides from that I really had a good time with everything else, maybe the combat was a little okay, I think I played it in a way where I made the game easy mode though because I went full hacker and I grinded the hell out of everything before I even touched the main story, so by the point I did the main story I breezed through it in one sitting and I was way too overpowered

well, not the entire story, I still haven't gone to Embers...

so technically I still haven't finished the game

[random steppe]

It's not an open RPG, it's definitely a specific story they are trying to tell you get to shape within a certain boundary.

Same as the Witcher actually, in the Witcher (all of them) you are playing that specific story, that can end in a few ways, but you can't IDK; go and be something completely different than what the game expects you to be, Geralt of Rivia

[fresh bane]

Yes but that's why I feel like I would've been completely fine if some choices were taken away from me

Like V's background for example I feel like I would've been fine if she was just by default a streetkid or something

and then you can make some different choices yourself sure but stuff like that I feel doesn't really matter if you go corpo or streetkid or whatever

[random steppe]

I definitely liked the ability to pick

The background didn't come up all the time, and it could have been more impactful, but I liked it enough personally

[mossy flume]

Also can I just appreciate their depiction of rogue AIs? They do such a fantastic job of depicting how I imagine sentient AIs to act and how they might work, both the human-aligned ones and the evil ones.

[random steppe]

I love how they made them feel like eldrich entities

[mossy flume]

Yep

[random steppe]

Such an inspired choice

[mossy flume]

And honestly, it's a PERFECT choice

[random steppe]

It's literally the same as contacting a demon in 40k, really well done

[mossy flume]

I also like that they weren't afraid to take the route of "they act faster and more powerfully than anything else in the world"

[fresh bane]

It's not even that it's bad that there were choices just that I wish that it came up a bit more or that it had more impact, I didn't not like that I was given a choice I just felt bummed when I realized it barely comes up and doesn't significantly alter your V's demeanor or behavior or something so I would've liked it more if it was just already predetirmined and they just went iwth that because the actual story of Cyberpunk I actually really really liked and I liked all the characters a ton

Like imagine if you pick Corpo V and she just... talks differently

It would've been so much work but isn't that what RPGs excel at at the end of the day?

[random steppe]

There are a few missions where being Corpo V open different approaches, not sure for the other picks, as I haven't played them yet

[fresh bane]

sort of, it never really goes beyond a speech check sort of thing

[random steppe]

Might be that there are just a handful

[fresh bane]

the one where you get tangled up in another gang's bussiness I can't remember the name of right now, the voodoo guys

[quiet swift]

Night city really feels lived in

[mossy flume]

Each origin yields original quests and dialogue options

[fresh bane]

and you meet up with that netrunner in there being a corpo opens up a different end to that encounter for example

but it's small stuff like that really

[mossy flume]

But the relevance of that fades out kinda quickly as the story progresses

[fresh bane]

the one at the mall with the boss fight with the giant hammer

I can't remember

[random steppe]

There is one where you have to infiltrate in an Arasaka base that you just convince the dude you are there for a surprise inspection, thereaten the guard with calling the superior, and they let you in, it's pretty cool because you know how those organisations work and you can just like, brute force it that way

[mossy flume]

Yeah, the Corpo origin is great

[fresh bane]

It is cool, I just wish there was more of it, and i hope there's more of it in the sequel
there better be, if the whole issue before was the engine, now that they switched to a different engine anyways if the engine isn't gonna be a problem anymore, I definitely expect more in depth RPG interactions

[random steppe]

I agree that more would have been good

[mossy flume]

Agreed, they needed more of the benefits of each one

They faded too quickly

[fresh bane]

I don't even want it to look any better I don't want them to waste time on that anymore just work hard on creating a world where I feel like the choices I make actually matter all the time not just sometimes

[mossy flume]

You get dialogue one-liners throughout, but the actual impact of it meaning anything is contained largely in the prologue.

[fresh bane]

if they make the game look any better I'm not gonna even be able to get to the title screen

[mossy flume]

And in each origin's unique quest

[mossy flume]

Heh, well... I suspect they'll once again push the limits of what GPUs can do in Cyberpunk 2

[random steppe]

In Phantom Liberty they do give you more opportunity to end sidequests in a variety of ways, so they definitely know the players wanted more freedom to make their own path than they did in the main game

[mossy flume]

That's true

Phantom Liberty was definitely a large slice of what they originally wanted to do

It's basically like "Here's the real experience"

It's just so thoroughly polished, moreso than the rest of the game

[random steppe]

Like, the patch that came later did change the game systems, but like, they couldn't realistically do that much for quests design without recalling voice actors for every NPC involved in those quests and record more lines, so the base game does feel more restrictive by comparison

[mossy flume]

This is kinda why I have high hopes for the sequel.

[fresh bane]

I remember being so bummed about putting points into things like intelligence and technical ability because more often than not, asides from obviously helping with skill checks, when it came to the dialogue it would only ever really result in an optional extra dialogue for V that wouldn't even really matter anyways, I think reflexes was one of the stats I maxed out too
and it's stuff like that that adds up through the.... 100+ hours I put into that game and makes me more and more bummed, so I hope they put more importance in those things, if I choose to build my V differently then actually make it so those skills I'm leveling up matter other than just getting an extra dialogue where V is a little bit more of a nerd

[mossy flume]

They have the lessons from the first time around

[random steppe]

I might, I want to see W4 first and maybe I'll have high hopes

[mossy flume]

Fair

Cyberpunk 2077 definitely convinced me that I need to play CDPR games, though

[fresh bane]

I think the only stat I remember being more of a hindrance in that regard was Body because I didn't really put that many points into that for V initially so there were some areas like weak fences or doors that I could've broken into if I put more points in that but ultimately I had to find other ways because of how I build my V

[random steppe]

Even though Witcher 3 main problem was uninspired open world and kind of meh combat, the quest design was very good, so I hope they focus on that first

[mossy flume]

Also I'm just glad that they make use of all of the latest GPU tech

And not just arbitrarily, they put real work into making them fully integrated

[fresh bane]

also speaking of RPGs and such, Dragon Ball Online might be back?
https://youtu.be/pLscMRafsLI?si=e1Or06Wpz7tT1bvv

if anyone even remembers that Dragonball MMORPG

[graceful bridge]

Don’t want to interrupt, but this should be of interest.

https://steamdeckhq.com/news/gog-galaxy-is-coming-to-linux/

[fresh bane]

Oh that's cool I remember that being a huge complaint about gog is linux users having issues with even running it

[arctic fern]

i think a lot of programs are gonna be supporting linux in the next few years
windows 11 is a dumpster fire

[mossy flume]

I think you're right

I have a bit of a hunch that Linux support will be seeing a slow renaissance within the next ten years

(Arguably it started when Proton became a thing)

[light gate]

I just hope devs start making more native binaries.

Proton isn't perfect.

[mossy flume]

Proton annoys me because if it’s used as a crutch and an excuse to not make native binaries, then Linux cannot become a viable alternative.

It's useful, but it's an intermediate step, not a destination.

[arctic fern]

(Theres also the push by steam for steam machines and steamOS)

[green fulcrum]

I have Windows 11 right now. Even with all the bloat removed and everything set up the way I like it, it still isn't as good as late-life Windows 10, and definitely not as good as Windows 7 or XP.

[arctic fern]

Ngl
It would be fucking funny if steamos accidentally takes a big market share away from windows

[astral steeple]

I still use windows 10 ngl

[green fulcrum]

It really would

[mossy flume]

https://bsky.app/profile/snapcube.gay/post/3mdjhcupchk2s

Penny Parker (@snapcube.gay)

okay there is no need to be condescending

Reposts

252

Likes

1471

Bluesky · Jan 28, 2026, 11:44 PM

[fresh bane]

I don't think I would even be able to see that creature's eyes if it was standing directly in front of me like that
all you'd get is just pure muzzle

oh hey it's the penny parker

[river veldt]

im watching Markiplier play Cruelty Squad and it seems like a really cool game but my god do my eyes hurt

[gaunt marten]

Oh no the devs couldn't figure out how to get her to point directly at the camera

[fresh bane]

''Huh I wonder who that's for''

[quiet swift]

Seems like it's an indie dev

[mossy flume]

Shouldn't be that hard, though

The camera is itself an object and most engines support just pointing one object right at another

[quiet swift]

I mean, she's looking right at it and saying "mind your own business". Seems more like she's pointing in a "go the fuck that way" sense

[fresh bane]

It looks like the animation for pointing isn't tied to the head movement so it's pointing forwards towards wherever the body is facing instead of the camera like the head

[mossy flume]

https://bsky.app/profile/ninpatentswatch.bsky.social/post/3mdiu3smlf22u

Nintendo Patents Watch (@ninpatentswatch.bsky.social)

In Macronix’s (旺宏) Q4 results conference, President Lu confirmed what Nintendo tech watchers had pieced together for sometime—Switch “ROM” is essentially MLC NAND plus a controller chip.

The abysmal ROM revenues, however, suggest that they hadn’t volume-produced any Switch 2 Game Cards yet.
1/

Bluesky · Jan 28, 2026, 6:00 PM

This is good news for the longevity of Switch 2 game cards. MLC NAND is more durable than the chips they’ve used previously, so the problem of cartridges gradually losing their data should be reduced.

It would also explain why Switch 2 game cards are more expensive to produce, since MLC is more expensive per GB than TLC or QLC.

[fresh bane]

https://fxbsky.app/profile/gamingonlinux.com/post/3mdikw3vgfd2n

oh honey it's time for your daily AI-related news!

if you want me to save you a click, just because these things are always much more nuanced than a headline implies

the sad part about things like that is they take away the opportunity to give an artist free reign to create something like the steam sale girl and just sort of make that a whole cute marketing thing

[light gate]

GOG finally decides to make the Linux client while also deciding to dip on the slop.

That is some monkey paw stuff I swear.

[fresh bane]

well, not fully yet, if there's enough pushback internally hopefully they'll realize this isn't the way to go, it's not quite there yet and when they're using it for small stuff like this is the best time for people to make it known they don't care for this kind of stuff being done

[indigo pine]

fallout Vegas 2. the electric boogalou

[cerulean herald]

im holding out hope for a Fallout 77

[astral steeple]

Fallout 6 7 lol

[indigo pine]

i like gold bronzeee

[quartz pawn]

https://medal.tv/games/red-dead-2/clips/m0GwbkVyhWcONKZiP?invite=cr-MSxWTmssNDA4MTg4Mjcy&v=30 me to myself in the morning

[indigo pine]

right in my door

[rare dew]

... so... im probably horribly uneducated about this but

What's even the beef with Highguard?

[gaunt marten]

It was oversold, apparently

[rare dew]

I'm getting the impression everyone HATES it

[gaunt marten]

Well have you talked to anyone who does? I haven't seen anyone who finds it worse than a disappointment

[arctic fern]

As i understand it, the game itself is fine
But because it got major press at the game awards, people were confused and/or expecting a hidden masterpeice

It wasnt literally the second coming of jesus so people are mad

[sacred grove]

No, it's over watch

[indigo pine]

behold/ my room

[river veldt]

the new Tomodachi Life looks soooooo good

[bitter stream]

what did they show on the direct? anything in particular you're happy about?

[river veldt]

it just seems like more Tomodachi Life which is what i wanted haha

being able to have queer relationships is a big plus

[bitter stream]

hell yeah

[quiet swift]

[hidden elbow]

https://youtu.be/SF1RfHQYMqQ?si=Opzzml8C8sVwLpWD

[mossy flume]

I'm not a fan of how editorialized PC Gamer is, but they do make funny headlines

[astral steeple]

https://deadline.com/2026/01/steal-a-brainrot-movie-story-kitchen-in-works-1236702374/

Dawg

💀

[fickle garnet]

https://youtu.be/hm-dlgeYDwA

[orchid sundial]

https://kotaku.com/tomodachi-life-living-the-dream-direct-image-sharing-screenshot-block-2000664167

[mossy flume]

What.

Why.

[visual hill]

anti-dick measure, maybe?

can you build things in that game?

[mossy flume]

You can

[visual hill]

if so, that's going to happen sooner or later

[mossy flume]

It's very customizable

[visual hill]

to be fair, they did not restrict this in AC:NH

even Smash Ultimate with its photo mode and stage builder 🙂

[mossy flume]

Or Minecraft or whatever

[slim thorn]

it was annoying enough to share Metroid Prime 4 screenshots from my Switch 1

[orchid sundial]

At least there's the option to connect the console to a device via USB, the option to take out the microSD card and plug it into a device, and best of all, using a phone to screenshot the moment

and i'm sure switch hackers will make a mod that gets rid of the limitation

[mossy flume]

I didn't know that they even could restrict screenshot sharing from certain games

[light gate]

I wonder if they’ll block capture cards now.

Can’t wait for “to play this game, please enable HDCP”

Already happens but with cutscenes

[mossy flume]

Yeah, Sony does that sometimes

[light gate]

Which I get

Music rights bs

[mossy flume]

They argue it's for spoiler reasons

Most of the time

[light gate]

Ehh, its mostly rights but rarely spoilers.

[mossy flume]

But yeah, music rights are nuts

[light gate]

And the occasional one dev that believes their games shouldn’t be streamed

[bitter stream]

yo holy shit! I know it's typical crossover stuff, but I feel like Solid Snake fits as well as Zero did, so why not haha

Maybe I should re-install R6S

[fickle garnet]

Having Snake and Sam Fisher in the same game is pretty neat

I haven't actually played R6S in a long time

[bitter stream]

yeah fair enough, did you enjoy it when you played?

I bet it's changed a bit, but also, probably still plays very similarly overall

[fickle garnet]

It was alright, maybe a bit too competitive for me

[bitter stream]

fair enough! It can be pretty brutal

what do you tend to play (if you do) in shooters atm?

[wind stump]

i forgot who the other big rabi-ribi head is here

[bronze abyss]

me

[wind stump]

well NEW OUTFIT DROP

and like, merch and shit

[bronze abyss]

the outfit looks adorable and the content sneak peeks look interesting as well

[fickle garnet]

When it comes to shooters, I've been playing New Vegas and Trepang2 lately

Although I haven't played any Trepang2 since the start of the month

[bitter stream]

Fair enough! I should give F:NV another go, I never really got into the meat of it,

Trepang2 looks wild haha

[fickle garnet]

It's pretty fun

Oh, I've also been playing the MGS3 remake, which is more of a stealth game

[mossy flume]

https://www.youtube.com/live/K_0kl1WiSPg

I’m a bit surprised that they kept their word on a detail here: They added support for same-sex relationships.

And added gender options on top of that too

Back when the previous title came out on the 3DS, about when SCOTUS legalized gay marriage in the United States, this was a much fresher cultural topic. Some were annoyed with the 3DS installment for only supporting traditional relationships and Nintendo said at the time they would consider it for future titles. I’m surprised they actually did.

[river veldt]

im so excited

[mossy flume]

Same. Tomodachi Life is such a bullshit game and I love it.

[graceful bridge]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/39140/view/514107648813039662

[mossy flume]

The entire thing is a shitpost and it’s great

[graceful bridge]

Looks like they're replacing the old PC version of FF7 with basically a copy of the Xbox / PS4 versions ported over.

[river veldt]

oh cool

[mossy flume]

Huh

I guess the console port is considered to be better?

[graceful bridge]

Well, apparently the PC version had some... nonsensical button-mapping.

[river veldt]

the console ports have a few QOL changes too

[mossy flume]

I seeeeee

Neat

Always good to see improvements to the quality of game preservation

[river veldt]

ye

i was gonna replay FFVII on my steam deck but yeah the weird button mapping put me off. so this is a welcome upgrade for me

[fresh bane]

“We understand that some players may find these restrictions limiting,” said Nintendo on its support page. “However, they reflect Nintendo’s ongoing philosophy of creating experiences that bring smiles to everyone who plays.”
this is like the ultimate ''we're doing this just for corporate reasons'' thing

[slim thorn]

why do they even append these non-sequiturs

[fresh bane]

nobody in their right mind would ever see some crazy stuff someone made on tomodachi life and think ''man this really reflects nintendo's philosophy right here'', but I know companies care so they're just doing it purely because of that and it's so dumb

[rugged flax]

oh my god
I just read the latest Payday 2 patch notes
It only took until 2026 for Borderless Windowed mode to be added
for a game that came out in 2013

[fresh bane]

Our mission is to create experiences that bring smiles to everyone who plays
wait no, not like that, do it the way we tell you to do it

[slim thorn]

"ok, let's try that again, but without the furries this time"

[fresh bane]

''very funny, now who put that giantess there?''

[quiet swift]

🎵 Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jäeger! 🎵

[bronze abyss]

SHINZO WO SASAGEYO

[quiet swift]

No, the first season's, not the second

[fresh bane]

all the customization options are actually so good I'm so happy to see a brand new mii maker with all these new options (even if having to explain what a mii is made me feel a little too old)
and all the other customization options like fully customizable islands, being able to basically make textures for pets tv shows to wrap around buildings and make your own buildings, shirt patterns, floors

makes it so much more baffling that they'd then go and make it so much harder for people to share those creations with others

that's a very nice custom cityscape you got there nerd
now only share it with your local friends and nobody else!

from the nintendo website also

so I guess you better practice how to make those custom miis and items if you want them

[quiet swift]

Something tells me this is not a game for the easily overstimulated

[visual hill]

Ball x Subway Surfers

[quiet swift]

OH GOD IT GOT WORSE

[mossy flume]

Me, off to get the Star Wars Genesis mod before Disney takes it down
Checking requirements
Starfield: Shattered Space Expansion is required
Me: ".....Starfield got an expansion???"

[visual hill]

yeah, I kind of forgot about that

[mossy flume]

Man, Starfield matters so little I never heard about this

[visual hill]

I will probably check out Starfield at some point, but after I play the various Elder Scrolls... so maybe in 2030 at this rate

Starfield is notable for two reasons to me:

• First Bethesda game to correctly handle > 60 FPS gameplay
• First Bethesda game with actually good gunplay (or so far above what's been done before, at least)

[mossy flume]

Wait, Bethesda didn't fix their framerate coupling until STARFIELD????

[visual hill]

yeah

[mossy flume]

Oh my god

[visual hill]

Skyrim still can't have its issues fully fixed by mods, same for Oblivion, or Fallout 3/NV/4

for Daggerfall and Morrowind, I don't know if DF Unity and OpenMW fix this. It should be easier since they are full engine rewrites

Oblivion Remastered has the same high FPS issues as the OG, although you have frame generation to compensate (kind of like MGS Delta)

[mossy flume]

Oh, I already have the expansion. Right, since I was stupid enough to get the CE for this game.

[indigo pine]

behold my storage

[visual hill]

Jedi: Survivor is $8.39 on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1774580/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Survivor/
$7.55 if you have Fallen Order already

[wind stump]

Super Monkey Ball 1 + 2 can be played on browser

monkeyball-online.pages.dev

[gaunt marten]

When you make an announcement that you’re doing something that upsets people, your options are:
1- say nothing about why. This makes you look arbitrary and unreasonable.
2- give a functional reason (“We didn’t want to spend the money”). This invites arguments that attack your justification even if you've already studied it from all angles and made a decision.
3- give a reason based on values or ideology. It's hard to argue against because it's stating a values-based viewpoint.

[slim thorn]

I don't think it succeeds at being 3 when it's a non-sequitur / obviously nonsense though, that's just 1 and 2 with extra steps (and a wider range of arguments because everyone's guessing the real reason)

[gaunt marten]

wait until the Nintendo defender logs on — it won't matter if it's nonsense

[river veldt]

man i don't get it either

[mossy flume]

I don't either

[bitter stream]

"Corperate Loyalty folks, it hardens in response to argumentual trauma!" - Senator Nintendo. (referencing Senator Armstrong of Metal Gear Rising)

[hushed onyx]

I'm not so sure it's an obvious non-sequitur or nonsense given that Nintendo has been saying much the same sort of stuff since the 1980s and has always been weird about online interactions.

[fresh bane]

It's not thaaaat hard to argue against the values or ideology standpoint though
People sure got creative with the stuff they made with TOTK, would that then justify a hypothetical (and not very unlikely) scenario where Nintendo absolutely prohibits and maybe even goes so far as to completely disable taking screenshots of the creations you made in TOTK and even take down any and all people bypassing that restriction because they believe it might negatively reflect on their reputation?
I know why they do it but I still think it's very stupid because ultimately people don't really care about stuff like that it's just companies that care so much about it, nobody in their right mind would ever see someone create a massive mecha schlong in TOTK and think ''man Nintendo made this and is perfectly okay showing this to kids? wow problematic much?''

and it's either that, or it's Nintendo being a japanese company and fully prioritizing their local market/audience instead and just choosing to do everything locally because they think it's just as easy as doing it through an online feature, which isn't as insane as you may think, fighting games have been horribly lacking and super behind the times when it comes to things like netcode because japanese companies just did it the old fashioned way because at the end of the day they just care about the japanese playerbase and they get good connections regardless of where they are because of how small Japan is

which would make it even stupider, really

[hushed onyx]

Yeah, but as I said Nintendo has pretty consistently taken the point of view that 'mega scholongs' and the like should be excised from their properties since the 1980s, so clearly they really believe it. They've also pushed local connectivity over internet connectivity many times with similar justifications.

[gaunt marten]

It's harder

[fresh bane]

Maybe before, but they were just sort of leaving that mindset behind a little bit, local connectivity is not bad when you also let people do it over the internet, almost all nintendo consoles since the gameboy were doing that local connection thing, but animal crossing new horizons didn't have that restriction, I don't think the previous tomodachi life did either and that was on 3DS, so they were already doing good on that by then

[gaunt marten]

Nintendo recently banned that one Animal Crossing Island which was themed around Japanese brothel culture (with only implied stuff)

[mossy flume]

Which was described to me as really famous, but I hadn't heard of it until it was banned

[fresh bane]

So they show they can actually enforce the rules and guidelines they make the players agree to before playing the game online then, so it's extra useless

[gaunt marten]

Well it was probably famous in Japan given that the culture doesn't translate

[visual hill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70mZq8bUStw

[astral steeple]

They need to make a duke nukem time to kill remake/remaster ngl

[fresh bane]

Duke Nukem is the type of thing people in the internet seem to love but nobody actually buys/plays the games

[astral steeple]

I mean yeah there hasn't been a new duke game or remake etc in a long time

They've kinda just pushed him to the back to be forgotten

The last new one was duke nukem forever which most people didn't like

Even though I absolutely love the hell out of it

[quiet swift]

I mean, it didn't help that the last Duke game was like 10 years too late and was pretty awful

Also misogyny a lot more frowned upon these days and he was pretty much all on board with that

[fresh bane]

Yeah but it would be different if it was a character that actually was like that and it was played straight instead of a character that is meant to be a joke and a hyper stereotype, which at least I always assumed the character is supposed to be anyways

and also there is that adi shankar show that's gonna come out someday, unfortunately

so duke nukem fans have that to look forward to

[quiet swift]

On the topic of looking forward to stuff, what's everyone looking forward to next? Not necessarily something this year, can be further off. Also we don't count GTA because that's the 8000000 pound gorilla 😛

[slim thorn]

nothing comes to mind for me

my problem is finding time to play games, not games coming out

whatever I should be "looking forward to" is probably already on my wishlist if not already out

[fresh bane]

I guess just RE9 for me really, I've been perfectly content with just replaying old games, getting around to playing games I've been wanting to for a while, or just discovering some games that have come out in the past few years that might interest me, since there's such a ridiculous amount that comes out in just the span of one year

anything that might interest me like a new zelda is likely a couple years away still so for now I guess I'm gonna be catching up

Wanna finish Hades 2 if I can (just need to find a new cable for my controller )

[slim thorn]

there's a game I still haven't made time for

[astral steeple]

All I'm hoping comes out at some point is another tony hawk game lol

[river veldt]

im so excited for RE9

[astral steeple]

Like iron galaxy has shown they can handle the ip with 3+4

Activision should let them do an entirely new tony hawk game and not another remake

Just have entirely new goals and characters and levels etc

Especially since 3+4 showed they could do completely new and unique levels

With pinball and movie studio and Waterpark

[bitter stream]

I'm looking forward to this anime arcade racer I saw today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bquSFypRUE

4p split screen ^_^

only thing is the price is Mario Kart World territory.... so I might wait for or hope for some serious sales

[visual hill]

it's a lot more expensive than Screamer 4x4 😛

[bitter stream]

also, I'd mention MENACE, but that's going to early access so it's not really out proper.

Heh, yeah Calinou?

[visual hill]

I had that installed last year, I should replay it

[astral steeple]

Speaking of racing games who remembers this one lol

[visual hill]

I don't

looks it up on MobyGames

[quiet swift]

I'm very curious about Judas, still. Basically Bioshock IN SPAAAACE by Levine himself

[visual hill]

HSX: HyperSonic.Xtreme
aka: G-Surfers, G-Surfers featuring Trackman, HSX: HyperSonic.Xtreme Featuring the Xclusiv TrakEditor!!!
lol, that's a lot of alternative names

[astral steeple]

Was super fun

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5_r-un--bA

[visual hill]

it didn't review very well, it sits at 6.0 on Moby score

seems to be very close to Wipeout but with a track editor

[river veldt]

im looking forward to Mewgenics mostly

[visual hill]

007 First Light (cautiously, because I think licensing can be a real issue in this game)

[astral steeple]

With it the tracks could go like upside down and fully vertical etc and you went like super fast

Could do lots of insane stuff with the track editor too

[visual hill]

I've played a lot of futuristic racers (including some not-so-well-rated ones), maybe I will check it out at some point.

there is a spiritural successor to TrickStyle on PS2 I wanted to try

but I know it wasn't received quite as well as the OG

[astral steeple]

Apparently the tracks themselves in hsx were thousands of miles long and the vehicles themselves could reach up to 4000mph wtf

[fickle garnet]

Im looking forward to RE9, and Divinity mostly

I'm just excited to play a new crpg by Larian

[visual hill]

everything is relative, it's just the displayed units being scaled by a factor of 1000 or so 🙂

[mossy flume]

007 First Light, Persona 4 Revive, Tomodachi Life, Beast of Reincarnation, Forza Horizon 6, Star Wars Galactic Racer, Jedi 3, Halo 1 Remake 2, Exodus, Pragmata, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, PVKK, Mina the Hollower, Star Trek Voyager, Danganrompa 2x2, Ace Combat 8, EVE Vanguard

And KotOR remake

[fickle garnet]

Oh, I'm also excited Star Wars Zero Company

And KotOR remake, yeah

[visual hill]

on the mods side... Unreal Redux, as always

[mossy flume]

This too! And Star Wars Eclipse

[random steppe]

To some of the ones that MA cited, Tides of Annihilation mostly because I'm curious if Jennifer English can be in another game of the year

[river veldt]

oh yeah Mina

when is that supposed to come out

[random steppe]

Also because it reminds me Chaos Legion

[mossy flume]

Last year.
It was delayed indefinitely like a day before it came out.

[random steppe]

Also Silksong DLC

Eventually

[fickle garnet]

Ngl, I hope the KotOR remake has turn based combat

[random steppe]

To add a few more for me: Light No Fire, Starminer, Falling Frontier

[mossy flume]

All of those, yeah

[random steppe]

+Crimson Desert in the offchange it's actually good

I'm skeptical but I'm open to have my mind changed

[fickle garnet]

I'm trying to think of other games I'm anticipating

[mossy flume]

And I'm hoping that the Pokémon Gen 10 games actually get some effort put into them...

[random steppe]

I want to say Total War Warhammer 40k but we are so far away that I'm not even bothering to look forward to it yet

[mossy flume]

Beast of Reincarnation proves that Game Freak is entirely capable of doing something interesting if they actually allow themselves to.

Of course, BoR might not actually end up on the Switch at all

[random steppe]

I am feeling the need of a WH40k game though, might actually finally play Rogue Trader sometimes soon

[mossy flume]

I'd also like the next mainline 3D Mario, pls

[fickle garnet]

Im also looking forward to the new Lego Batman

[visual hill]

I would like a new Smash game to come out so the local scene can be revitalized

(this would probably make me buy a Switch 2 too... the current first-party games don't compel me enough)

[mossy flume]

I think we're facing the very real possibility that there won't be a new Smash game

[visual hill]

to be fair, the game has historically sold so well that it would be silly not to see a new game on a console that's selling well

even when the console failed, the game sold well and helped the console not fail as hard (Wii U)

[mossy flume]

Indeed

[visual hill]

Smash Ultimate is still one of the world's most sold games in units

[mossy flume]

But I wonder if they'll just do a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and call it a day

[visual hill]

maybe, I don't know for how long they will release Switch 2 editions of existing games

[astral steeple]

I need to get another wii u at some point

Mine broke a long time ago

[fickle garnet]

Im also looking forward to Control Resonant

[mossy flume]

Sakurai said he sees no point in doing another one, and there's been a tacit acknowledgement from Nintendo that Smash doesn't work if Sakurai's not directing it.

But who knows, really. The Smash scene may also need to accept that Ultimate got too big and they probably won't make a game of that scale ever again.

Might just make smaller installments?

[astral steeple]

Instead of a new one they should just do a remake/remaster of 64 and melee and brawl

[visual hill]

Nintendo's best in 4-Fox action!

[mossy flume]

[visual hill]

Melee on NSO would be kind of cursed, given the input delay issues and poor netplay

bad enough that it might give newbies a bad experience of what the game actually was like back in the day

[astral steeple]

Well yeah a remake/remaster would fix that lol

[visual hill]

to be fair, this kind of exists with Rivals 2 already

[quiet swift]

On Prime

[quiet swift]

E33 folks shouting out a fellow french Dev and their game release:

[cerulean herald]

Expedition 69? how did they make 36 more games and I didnt know about it??

[quiet swift]

(is this tongue in cheek or do you want an actual explanation? :P)

[cerulean herald]

...didnt know there was an actual explanation
yes, elaborate pls

[sacred grove]

In the least spoilery way possible: In the game's story, there are those who came before you.

I think you can extrapolate well enough from that

[bronze abyss]

reminded me,due to library share i can actually try that game now

[cerulean herald]

oh yea, I meant like was there an inside joke I missed, other than the obvious "nice" joke
I thought it was about ||60|| but no the tweet shows the wrong number

[gaunt marten]

Steam now includes accessibility tags in the library view. Some tags aren't applied to all games yet

[random steppe]

Basically in the world of Expedition 33 ||your Expedition isn't the first to attempt what's being done, others came before, numbered in reverse order from 99; Some of them specialised in some kind of approach to the mission, expedition 69 specialisation was climbing and are responsible for a lot of the handholds you use during the game exploration||

[quiet swift]

Yes, that. I asked if you wanted to know more and promptly forgot about the channel

||It offers an actual explanation for the handholds in the world, rather than YELLOW PAINT you see randomly all the time in other games.||

[cerulean herald]

okay yeah that makes ||I didnt quite 100% the game, so there's some content/details I missed, one of them being the 69 climbing stuff||

[mossy flume]

"We recently provided a retailer with an image of Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics titles that incorrectly included games that are not planned for release at this time," Nintendo of America has now stated. "The image has been removed, and we apologize for any confusion."```

[indigo pine]

an old classic

[arctic fern]

Calling portal 2 old hurts
I remeber it coming out
Fantastic game

[indigo pine]

it's an new classic more so but point still stands.

[smoky sonnet]

ahhh ps3 portal 2

the only particularly viable way to play the motion control levels

unless you want to play on a screen in vr

kinda messed up the steam integration doesn't work anymore

i remember getting a pc code with it for crossplay

[indigo pine]

skipped picking up Wheatley

[indigo pine]

:3 i am tottalay within normal amounts of ingot molds

[indigo pine]

i love ingots

[fresh bane]

that.... seems like a big big mistake

[little badger]

[rancid herald]

oh the head guy

the Bob the Skull for the norse folk

[fresh bane]

I don't wanna be a negative nancy over here but I really can't think of a more redundant adaptation than this (I guess asides from TLOU) unless this show ends up being some sort of interquel between ragnarok and whatever the next god of war game will be, then I can kinda understand

but still... first non videogame related god of war thing and we're just skipping over like, 6 games?

[random steppe]

Probably for the best TBH

The soft reboot they made definitely changed the narrative style of the story in a way that fits much better with TV

Like, GoW games were great before, but no one played them for the story let's be honest

[fresh bane]

I don't know if I fully agree with that, there's just a weird implication that exists when people say ''nobody played this game for the story'' that I don't like, especially when GOW 1-2-3's story isn't bad by any means at all
But that's exactly why I think it's so redundant, they're already making the games more cinematic to appeal to a wider audience, so now we're just making a TV show adaptation on top of that? And we're skipping over the games that aren't in that style? If anything the earlier GOW games could benefit from being '''remade''' in a TV series format and making them fit more with the narrative style of the new games and at the same time introduce Kratos' story to new audiences, which introducing Kratos to new audiences was kind of already the point of the soft reboot-sequel, you know what I mean?

this of course doesn't matter at all if this ends up being some sort of sequel to ragnarok or interquel between gow 2018 and ragnarok

in which case it would be something completely original and that's perfectly fine

[random steppe]

I feel like even the games post reboot kind of expect you not having played the previous games

So I don't see it as a problem

They are definitely meant to be a new entry point for new players at the very least

Like, the previous events are referenced but never in a way that are too central to the plot.
All the stakes and the character drama revolves around the characters in the new games

[fresh bane]

I would say Kratos' previous life is definitely very central to the plot of gow 4, the entire plot is constantly bringing up his previous life and is all about precisely how much he's actively trying to change, and it even bleeds into Ragnarok despite following a new set of characters in a new setting, I wouldn't say it's something that just doesn't matter, but it's also true that if you go into it as your first game in the series it is written with that in mind and the mystery of who and how Kratos was like is built into the story and it adds more if you do know all about him from before, and Atreus can sort of act as a vessel for that because he's the only one that never really knew about Kratos' past
that aside, I do still think this would be a redundant show regardless precisely because it's kind of trying to do the same thing those two games were already trying to do, but again it wouldn't matter if it ends up being something set in-between rather than an adaptation of the events of either of the two games

[worthy rose]

These shows are often made not FOR the existing gamer audience that has already played it, but also to get a new audience too. Pretty sure people now know the TLOU story than when it was just the games

Similarly, look at the one piece live action. People who wouldn't give the anine the time of day watched that and are now curious

[fresh bane]

That's precisely what I'm saying, the games were already made to appeal to a wider audience than those who already liked GOW, that's why they completley switched up the direction of those games, and it's also a weird point to start with if you want to introduce this character to a completely new audience going into it from scratch

[worthy rose]

I would say the newer games have a better written story than the old trilogy

Which can basically be boiled down to KRATOS MAD RAAAAAA

[random steppe]

I think it's fine to want to bring one thing from a medium to the other.
Like, most things are inspired by books but I don't really subscribe to the "just read the book" idea when they adapt something like that.

Some people don't play games, if the story works well as a tv series it will resonate and more people will appreciate, that's good.

[worthy rose]

(I haven't played them in a while )

[fresh bane]

not really though, but I'm not really talking about the quality of the writing of either of the two anyways

I'm not even saying it's a bad thing either, all I'm saying is I find it redundant if it ends up being just an adaptation of the games but for tv is all I'm saying

[river veldt]

fuck Delirium

[cerulean herald]

who is that

[arctic fern]

Binding of issac boss

[fresh bane]

Binding of Isaac has to be the longest standing out of all those indie games from the indie game surge of the 2010s

I don't hear about Braid or Super Meatboy nearly as much

or Limbo too

[dense crypt]

Rogue Legacy, FTL...

[slim thorn]

tbh I only hear about Isaac here, and in a way that always gives me a "the few people who loved it so much they never stopped playing" vibe (which is fine ofc)

I'm aware of those all being relevant at the time but it's not like there haven't been other great roguelites since

[fresh bane]

I don't hear about Isaac often, but I definitely still come across people discussing it or actively still playing it to this day sometimes, but I can't say the same for other indie games from the same timeframe, I just think it's interesting

[slim thorn]

(Limbo and FTL are the only ones of that list I played myself)

[fresh bane]

I never played Isaac so I don't even know what might be the draw

[river veldt]

Meat Boy and Limbo are really cool, i don't care for Jonathan Blow so ive never played Braid

[slim thorn]

oh well I do see occasional mentions of Braid of Meatboy or FTL

admittedly it's usually in comparison to something else

(Braid comes up because of Witness, Meatboy comes up because of Celeste, FTL comes up because of that new Voyager game, that kind of thing)

[fresh bane]

maybe I'm just not too in tune with any games Braid, Meatboy or Limbo may have inspired, I also didn't play any of those games so I wouldn't know

well, Limbo did inspire Inside, but those were the same guys so it doesn't count

and Inside is already like... 10 years old.....

[slim thorn]

-# well Witness is overrated so that's fine

realistically there's just so many good games it's impossible to have played them all yourself

I'm glad I played Celeste but it's not my favorite genre so I'm not likely to ever make time for Meatboy or other precision platformers

[fresh bane]

I remember Celeste being the one I heard the most out of all those names but I never even saw anything about it

I just know it was big

[slim thorn]

and roguelites really aren't my thing either, Hades was an exception so I'll play Hades 2 probably eventually but that'll likely be it for that cluster

[cerulean herald]

I enjoyed Celeste, and played Limbo not too long ago

[slim thorn]

oh Celeste is one people never shut up about

[fresh bane]

and by heard the most all I heard about it was just ''duuude this game is sooo gooood'' over and over for years

[uneven epoch]

now yes these are sorta genres i dont play like ever but does. celeste not have the metroid half of metroidvania?

[slim thorn]

no?

[uneven epoch]

do you not like metroidvanias???

[slim thorn]

Celeste is a precision platformer, there's nothing metroidvania about it other than maybe "platformer"

[fresh bane]

it feels like one of those games I should have played at the time but I don't think I ever really naturally was attracted to it so I never did, and I still haven't kinda like if I never played Undertale, except I did play that one

[uneven epoch]

platformer and convoluted maps to get lost in

[slim thorn]

the progression is a perfectly linear sequence of numbered levels

[cerulean herald]

I wouldnt say its easy to get lost in Celeste tbh

[river veldt]

wtf is the Witness parody game called

[slim thorn]

The Looker

[uneven epoch]

i guess it was just me then i was lost hopelessly in the hotel mal where i ditched the game

[slim thorn]

there's maybe one or two stages of Celeste where getting lost is even possible

[river veldt]

YES that game's hilarious

[slim thorn]

but at no point does it do anything like metroidvania map design

[fresh bane]

the funny thing is a game doesn't even need to be a platformer to be metroid-like, Dark Souls certainly isn't a platformer and it's still a good example of a game having a lot of Metroid-like qualities

[cerulean herald]

what Metroid stuff does Dark Souls utilize

[fresh bane]

a fully interconnected map and non linear progression

[slim thorn]

yeah "metroidvania" is a sort of higher-level "genre" than the strictly mechanical, more about world/map design and progression than about the moment to moment gameplay

[fresh bane]

with various ways to open up the map and create shortcuts or open new routes

[uneven epoch]

i think yall just have hell of a lot better sense of navigation in that style of "connected room maps" so to speak

[slim thorn]

of course, the most common type of metroidvania is a 2D sidescrolling platformer with melee combat, but the "metroidvania" term gets applied to plenty of games which aren't that (Metroid itself was mostly ranged combat, Pseudoregalia is 3D, Yoku's Island Express is pinball, etc, etc)

[uneven epoch]

the zelda version of crypt of nercodancer was another game i really tried with but just kept getting lost in all the dang time

[fresh bane]

and of course, Resident Evil games are in a way metroid-likes too

[slim thorn]

yeah, it is likely that metroidvania veterans will naturally not struggle with slightly-non-linear levels in mostly linear games

[uneven epoch]

tbf im just really not the intended audience. "wauugh, platformers"

[fresh bane]

I never thought about it but I guess I'm just attuned to it too, I like Dark Souls, I like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Metroid, all games that have these sprawling big interconnected maps that basically require you memorize them and really get to know each nook and cranny and swiftly navigate their space

[slim thorn]

which is fine, I don't expect everyone to care about the distinctions between precision platformers, puzzle platformers, collect-a-thon platformers and traditional metroidvanias

[fresh bane]

Are precision platformers things like... Jump King?

[slim thorn]

I suspect the main reason "survival horror" and "metroidvania" feel like mutually exclusive categories is that I've never seen a survival horror game with metroidvania-like ability-based progression. Survival horror progression is always "key X for door X".

[river veldt]

i think Jump King is more of a rage game

[slim thorn]

and that's probably because the tension of managing limited resources doesn't jive well with being 10x more powerful at the end of the game because you can triple wall jump backflip ground pound all the zombies

[fresh bane]

well, at least not back then

I'm sure any member of the original RE cast could do that now

[slim thorn]

ok well Isaac still can't do that

[cerulean herald]

the og rage game is Super Mario Bros 2

[river veldt]

true

[slim thorn]

okay, precision platformers are very much not my thing so do not quote me on this but

I see it as platformers where pushing your moveset to the limit is a core focus and basic expectation throughout the game. Things like understanding exactly how long/high your jump goes, how much control you have over that, how many air dashes you can do per jump, exactly how many directions you can do the dash in, which of these moves can be chained together and which need resetting. You know how in a typical Mario game you can probably get to the end without even learning how triple jumps work? Precision platformers are the antithesis of that.

As a result most precision platformers are 2D games with no analog inputs, and they tend to favor the traditional "collection of numbered levels" progression model, with generous/quick restarts as you're expected to fail a level many times before completing it. I still remember ending Celeste with a death count of exactly 1,234.

I'm also like 99% sure Celeste is the best and most popular game in the subgenre anyway so just try that if any of this sounds intriguing

[cerulean herald]

Super Meat Boy would fall under that category too

[slim thorn]

yep

[cerulean herald]

imo Celeste is a decent enough beginner entry

[slim thorn]

that is in fact exactly how we ended on this subject: someone said no one talks about meatboy, I said I hear people bring it up but usually only in a Celeste conversation, and then Nire asked what a precision platformer even is

[fresh bane]

I guess this must be a blindspot of mine because I'm drawing a blank on trying to think of any games that might fall under that description and I'm having trouble even imagining it just because a platformer game that requires precision is something I thought was just a quality games with platforming sometimes have not an entire genre in itself

like, some metroidvania games sometimes require precise platforming, something like Pseudoregalia also does, but I doubt they're precision platformers

[slim thorn]

it's definitely a matter of degree that's hard to appreciate if you haven't actually played games like Celeste and Super Meat Boy

[cerulean herald]

''platformer but hard'' is the absolute gist of it

[slim thorn]

just like how "metroidvania level design" is a matter of degree you can't pin down exactly, but after playing enough of those games you know it when you see it

[uneven epoch]

like those ridiculous kaizo marios

unhinged

(meant to reply to dao, whoops)

[slim thorn]

I was avoiding the kaizo comparison because kaizo is more about sadism and rote memorization

[cerulean herald]

theyre rly fun to watch
playing it...not so much

(even if i cant tell whats even happening half the time)

[slim thorn]

I was also avoiding the "but hard" angle since there's plenty of ways "imprecise" (lol) platformers can crank up the difficulty

some of A Hat in Time's DLC "Death Wish" levels are up there with kaizo in terms of "wtf who finishes this", but it's not at all like a precision platformer

[fresh bane]

I was gonna say if maybe A Hat in Time counted as a 3D precision platformer since I remember that game having a focus on platforming and movement but I never actually played it, I probably should because it does seem fun, but maybe it's just not a genre I'm particularly into

[cerulean herald]

havent played it, but from what I've seen, I dont think itll count as one, since being challenging is not rly the point of the gameplay majority of the time(?)

[slim thorn]

yeah the normal game is totally chill

[fresh bane]

I did find a game similar to that I remember watching a video about a while ago, it's been on my wishlist since, maybe it'll interest anyone who does like this genre
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1325900/Demon_Turf_Queens_Edition/

Steam

Demon Turf: Queens Edition

DEMON TURF
The Demon World is inhabited by all kinds of nasties... Most of them lumped into gangs battling for dominion, each led by its own head honcho. Yet even these bad dudes are no match for the Demon King himself! Instead the task falls to Beebz, a young demon barely a thousand years old, who decides it’s time for her to kick every t…

Price

$29.99

Recommendations

510

or maybe you know it already

[slim thorn]

I think I tried that once but got bored and dropped it

[cerulean herald]

yup I heard of it, its something I'd like to try one day

[slim thorn]

come to think of it, Rusted Moss probably counts as both a precision platformer and a metroidvania

the rule of thumb is it's "precision" if I suck at it

[cerulean herald]

i raged so much at Rusted Moss, its unreal

[slim thorn]

I'm still sad I can't play the DLC

I skill issued so hard I can't even get into the DLC

[cerulean herald]

if they cranked the difficulty higher than it already is, then yeah i might not try the DLC

I do appreciate the game giving you in-game cheats, makes it more convinient to explore after beating the story

[slim thorn]

Ixrec — 12/8/24, 03:28
precision platformers I'm very sure I would enjoy more if I was just a little bit less awful at them

meanwhile I'm doing speedrun tricks and challenge runs in Nine Sols, whose final boss is regularly placed on "hardest boss ever" lists

all of us have genres we're better and worse at

[cerulean herald]

yeah that boss was quite the wall for me, but I do think I have gotten better at dealing with them, like when I streamed myself replaying the game to a friend, I did not struggle nearly as bad as the first time

[slim thorn]

if she wasn't learnable, she wouldn't be the best boss fight ever

one of these days I'm going to get a legit Level 0 clear

[cerulean herald]

we believe in you

[fresh bane]

Oh yeah Nine Sols that's another one on the wishlist

I remember wishlisting that before I even heard anyone here talk about it

[slim thorn]

I should finish my randomizer for it sometime this year

[fresh bane]

all I know is it's good and that's all I really need to know about any new game in a genre that I like

[slim thorn]

that's probably when I'll properly focus on L0

[cerulean herald]

yup, its def a highly recommend

it was fun seeing Flitter document their journey in Nine Sols and watching Ix stream the L0 challenge, so I would look forward to you getting into it as well

[slim thorn]

meanwhile I'm going to stare at the one puzzle in Talos Principle 2 I still haven't solved and see if it finally yields

[fickle garnet]

I'm gonna play Nine Sols when I'm done with Hollow Knight

[slim thorn]

IT YIELDED

that might genuinely be the hardest (non-combat) achievement I've achieved 100% legit

I have redeemed myself for giving up on Tunic's golden path puzzle

[river veldt]

im not going to play Nine Sols because i find the main characters design...... not ugly, it just looks weird to me

[river veldt]

i know i know it's very irrational

[fresh bane]

it's just a cat though isn't it?

[slim thorn]

for you it does track though

[fresh bane]

like a maneki neko

https://tenor.com/view/dandadan-neko-turbo-granny-stare-corner-gif-15723092332058858093

[slim thorn]

(which is fine, half the point of analyzing why we like or dislike certain games is so we can accurately predict what we would or wouldn't enjoy playing next)

[random steppe]

Ok Cap, good point, but also

Have you considered

[fresh bane]

You were quicker than me

I was just about to say this is the only other character I'm aware of out of this game

and it's just from a video thumbnail I didn't want to watch because I did actually want to play this at some point

[slim thorn]

yeah if you ever do get around to this we'll probably be talking more about Eigong when you get that far in

[random steppe]

(I'm mostly joking, when I played I somehow didn't clock this as a furry game, as I am somewhere around the spectrum closer to the "not furry" compared do some in this server, but this definitely made me notice the inspirations)

[slim thorn]

it's there if you want it, but that's not what makes it 2024 GOTY for me and many others

-# Lady Ethereal's more my type anyway

[cerulean herald]

Nine Sols waifu tier list when

[river veldt]

man what games even came out in 2024 that i played

[slim thorn]

amusingly, gameplay-wise my 2nd favorite is Jiequan

[rancid herald]

idk how the fuck you people find the time and money for all these games

I got three games for christmas and I haven't even opened one

I'm drowning

[slim thorn]

I mean we're talking about a game I played 1.5 years ago now

[random steppe]

Very simple, I'm an insomniac.

[slim thorn]

I just finished TP2 today, after which I still have 10 installed Steam games that I haven't even started

and dozens on my wishlist

[rancid herald]

when will CERN make that black hole so time slows down and we have time to play

[visual hill]

I have a lot of trouble playing through my backlog, it's not just you

I started playing Banjo-Kazooie because of the recomp earlier this week

funny how much I can notice the similarities with Conker (which I played last summer), in terms of how the character moves

[visual hill]

did you play Ratchet & Clank and Spider-Man at least?

[slim thorn]

even when I do play games I regularly debate how much completion I want to go for, and I'll often choose to move on to a new game rather than go for tricky achievements or stricter interpretations of "100%"

[random steppe]

Lately I've definitely been playing longer games so like, I play a few per year, and I also keep up with Warframe and sometimes with NMS if they put out cool shit

[river veldt]

i still need to play Spider-Man 2 but idk how well it performs on Steam Deck

[slim thorn]

E33's probably the best one to use as a concrete recent example. I did most of the optional content, up to one last superboss I decided was too much for me. I have not touched the DLC that came out later. If there were far fewer games I wanted to play, I likely would've at least tried the DLC by now, if not made serious attempts at that superboss.

[random steppe]

I have a few I go back to occasionally, like X4

And FFXIV too when mood strikes me

[river veldt]

nice

[random steppe]

I am almost done with KCD1 and I don't feel like playin 2 quite yet, so I'll have to decide on a palate clenser that isn't an open world RPG

[slim thorn]

speaking of platformers earlier

[river veldt]

maybe i'll replay Spider-Man 1

[slim thorn]

Banjo-Kazooie is another one I probably would've played by now if there were less competition

[random steppe]

Menace is looking really good, but it's coming out in Early Access and IDK if I want to spend my time in it until it's complete

[slim thorn]

any early access game is a hard sell unless you really like a subgenre/series/dev that has little else outside of early access

[river veldt]

im trying to think, are there any other superhero games that are as good as Arkham or Insomniac Spidey

[slim thorn]

Dispatch though that might "not count" for your purposes

[river veldt]

ooh right Dispatch

[random steppe]

That is the thing, I REALLY like the subgenere

[slim thorn]

fair enough

[random steppe]

That said, on the other hand, Warhammer 40k: Roguetrader exists

[river veldt]

the really good Superman game is coming any day now :cope:

[fresh bane]

I mean, yes of course but are you talking new games that came out in recent years or any game from any year because there's a lot

[river veldt]

any year i suppose, i just couldn't think of any others

[fresh bane]

Midnight Suns is a good recent superhero game

[slim thorn]

is Master Chief a superhero

[river veldt]

i think NorthernLion had an arc where he played that

[river veldt]

the answer lies in your heart

[fresh bane]

Hulk games are pretty good, Ultimate Spider-Man and Web of Shadows are some of the best for Spidey, the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, X Men has some pretty good games too

Ghost Rider had a GOW-DMC clone that was pretty good too

Wolverine Origins was pretty good too actually

[slim thorn]

and I've played none of the above

[river veldt]

X-Men has some good beat em ups

[slim thorn]

I only played Insomniac's PS4 Spider-Man. Like some kind of normie.

[river veldt]

tbf it's an amazing game

that wasn't on purpose i swear

[fresh bane]

Punisher had a pretty cool Max Payne-like game too

[slim thorn]

it was one of the few times I bought into pre-release hype for a game, and largely because it was Insomniac; R&C was too big a part of my childhood to ignore that

[fresh bane]

Oh yeah Guardians' game was really good from what I heard, I actually bought that one but I haven't even installed it yet because the size is absurd

[river veldt]

ive never played Ratchet and Clank are they good

[slim thorn]

they are yeah

[fresh bane]

for Batman it gets a little eh but the Batman Begins PS2/GC game is top tier

[slim thorn]

I've "only" played 1-3 and Rift Apart which is nowhere near all of them so I couldn't tell you which ones are the best, though I can't think of any reason not to recommend Rift Apart over the older ones (as great as 2 and 3 still presumably are; 1 was more jank)

[river veldt]

Batman on NES is pretty good

where Joker can inexplicably summon lightning

[fresh bane]

For X-Men:
X-Men: Children of the Atom (Capcom fighting game, the origin for MVC arguably)
X-Men Legends/Legends 2, co-op action RPG Ultimate Alliance style
The Sega Genesis game and Mutant Apocalypse people seem to really like too, it's your usual side scrolling beat em up style game

but yes there's a bunch of other superhero games besides arkham and insomniac

a bunch of good superhero games*

[slim thorn]

did you know there are Zelda games besides Ocarina and BotW

[river veldt]

yes

Zelda 1 was my first Zelda game

[river veldt]

i didn't think it was a silly question because i feel like all i hear about is Arkham and Insomniac Spidey these days

[fresh bane]

This one was made by the devs of XCOM I believe, so it's a sort of card building strategy game, but I hear the story is pretty cool and the characterizations are good so it's a fun ''every superhero is here!'' kind of game, that is also good from what I've heard, just nobody really played it at all

[fresh bane]

It's not a silly question precisely because those are the games that are played by the widest audience possible and are the most discussed but to anyone who might even know a thing or two about superhero games the question can come across a bit silly because it's almost like asking if superhero games even existed before insomniac spiderman or arkham because, yeah of course they did but it's not actually a silly question to ask

and also a lot of the really good games are like 20+ years old now too

you don't really get to experience like 15 different superhero games being published and developed in the span of 4 years anymore

[slim thorn]

there's also a fair question about how many of the older games still hold up; especially with games even a lot of beloved classics "were good back then but there's better options today"

[river veldt]

oh right Spider-Man 2 is good

the original one i mean

[fresh bane]

If there were better options sure but a lot of these superhero games don't really have better options nowadays, they're not exactly making the same style of games anymore and a lot of comic superheroes don't get the same luxury of being batman and spiderman so they never really show up unless it's something like Midnight Suns or Marvel Alliance 3 where they just put them all together in one

also a lot of these superhero games actually hold up really well it's just... it's been 20 years, and there's not exactly an accessible way to get them so really the only people that remember them are the fossils who played them at the time and only a handful of people are nerdy enough to actively seek out older games to play which is not a thing people really tend to do these days I've realized, even when older games are easily accessible like through PSN or something

[slim thorn]

Good point. The first time I "looked into retro games" was in the PS2 era, and I was looking at N64 and PS1 games; even before we get to the wildly higher number of games available today, that's also just a far smaller time and quality gap.

[mossy flume]

I’ve seen this character a few times out of context lately, where is this from?

[cerulean herald]

Nine Sols

[mossy flume]

Ah dang, I have that but haven’t started it yet. Thanks

[cerulean herald]

its good, much recommend

[slim thorn]

wow is she really escaping containment that much

[cerulean herald]

tbf I saw her too before playing Nine Sols

[mossy flume]

She’s been in some furry art circles for a bit, yeah

[fresh bane]

I'm not exactly surprised by that

it's the one character I know of and I didn't even play the game

[cerulean herald]

I think its easy to see why that is. story Spoilers ||she is hot and one of the first (major) bosses, well for me, the first boss encountered||

[hushed onyx]

It took me a minute to realize that wasn't someone's Sneasal OC

[slim thorn]

oh no I completely get that, it's just I've always been seeing that discussed in 9S servers

[fresh bane]

I do kinda have trouble picking up on what animal she's even supposed to be but I don't want to look anything up because I learned to not do that the hard way plenty of times

[cerulean herald]

fair

[mossy flume]

I thought the same when I first saw them

[fresh bane]

I didn't even know people made Pokemon oc's

[cerulean herald]

its pretty common

[fresh bane]

I guess I just thought pokemons just looked a certain way and never really vary so I never thought about it

[mossy flume]

Bruh

It’s a huge thing

[slim thorn]

I think every fandom large enough to be called a "fandom" has OCs

(I've been in Nine Sols servers long enough to see Nine Sols OCs)

[cerulean herald]

havent seen any 9S OCs but I dont doubt their existence

[mossy flume]

There’s also the whole Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series which is literally self-insert, and thus just begged players to basically make their own OCs

[slim thorn]

yeah I highly doubt any of those have broken containment

[fresh bane]

I guess I'm not too in any of these circles, being here is the closest I've been to being on any furry community of any kind so even though I like furry stuff I've never been in any furry circles or community or anything so I never came across any before

[hushed onyx]

Yeah this, lmao.

[mossy flume]

Also several of my OCs are Pokémon OCs

[hushed onyx]

Pokémon is probably the largest single subfandom of the furry fandom, or at least one of the top few, so...

Especially (but far from only) because a number of Pókemon are even in their official forms rather anthropomorphic, e.g. Lucario, Gardevoir, Alakazam, Delphox, etc.

[slim thorn]

tbh I always thought of "furry fandom" as an inherently non-franchise thing, distinct from any franchise's fandom (despite obvious overlap) rather than a superset of other fandoms

[mossy flume]

It should be. Pokémon is the single largest entertainment franchise on the planet, so the dominant class of IP-derived OCs should be Pokémon by just sheer numbers

[slim thorn]

in particular "Pokemon OCs" could easily include alternate human characters

[mossy flume]

Relevant meme

[cerulean herald]

there are Trainer ocs, but Pokemon ocs make up the vast majority

[mossy flume]

I’ve always considered the furry fandom a superset of conceptually related fandoms, while also being its own thing, i.e., the generic furry OCs or whatever. Which is why I also throw the brony fandom under the furry label, but maybe this is where that disagreement comes from, whether one considers the furry community a superset or not.

(Of course this sort of label is always inherently fuzzy anyway)

[fresh bane]

I know I know of course, it's just the idea of pokemon ocs that was kinda new to me and I guess I somehow didn't encounter before
I of course encountered artists that maybe had like a pokemon they liked and they drew but I never thought of it as a pokemon oc I just thought of it as just drawing that pokemon, but I never imagined like a pokemon oc with a more unique appearance than what their default is

[fickle garnet]

Ok, I definitely need to play Nine Sols now

[slim thorn]

Mostly, I think fandoms and communities just aren't the kind of thing that have clean "superset" relationships. I don't identify as a "furry" because I'm not doing any activities for which that is the best label; what I am doing is moderating an MLP server and working on Nine Sols mods. The fact that "furries" are also interested in these franchises does not automatically mean that I am attending furry conventions or have a fursona or make fursuits or peruse (non-franchise) furry art, i.e. do any of the things that the "furry" label actually implies. To me, describing me as a furry on this basis would be silly in the same way that it'd be silly to describe me as part of the "white guy community"; that is a characteristic I have but it's not the basis for any part of my social life.

[cerulean herald]

PokeOCs can be pretty varied, some will change their colors (akin to a Shiny) some do minor tweaks like giving a tuff of hair on their head, and/or like the image above, clothing accessories

[fresh bane]

Yeah, I've always thought of myself as someone that definitely enjoys furry stuff but I don't know if I'd call myself a furry, just because there's an implication that you're in ''the furry community'' and an implication of certain activities that I just don't really partake in but are usually what people do when they describe themselves as furries

I'm not gonna go out to furry cons and wear fursuits and whatnot it's just not something I do but I do still like all the stuff people make

[hushed onyx]

See, I would not consider 'attending furry conventions, having a fursona, making fursuits, or perusing (non-fandom) furry art' as being particularly essential to 'being a furry'.

[fresh bane]

It's not, but it's what's understood as being a furry by most people even if it's not correct

[slim thorn]

"furry" has such a wide range of uses I don't know that you can call any of them "correct"

I favor the fandom meaning becauase, frankly, it's by far the most useful meaning the word has ever had

("people who are capable of finding animal people hot" is probably just all non-asexual humans, we don't need a label for that)

[hushed onyx]

By 'fandom meaning' I take it you mean "a furry is someone who actively and self-consciously participates in 'the furry community'"

[slim thorn]

right

[hushed onyx]

I wasn't actually done, I accidentally hit Enter in the middle of my sentence

But I guess that's fine.

To me that definition seems too narrow and restrictive since it defines a lot of related but slightly narrower groups out of being 'furry,' like defining 'European' to only include people who are self-consciously 'European' and not people who are 'German,' 'British,' 'Italian,' etc.

But I don't think that 'being a furry' is connected with any fixed behaviors or activities, in other words you can very well be a furry and not go to conventions, not have a fursuit, not have a fursona or any OCs, and even not actually look at 'furry' art much or at all.

[mossy flume]

This is the sort of problem you run into when trying to make rigid definitions for concepts which are inherently nebulous

[slim thorn]

sure, but for the word to be useful it has to mean something, even if a loose family resemblance kind of meaning

[hushed onyx]

I was just reading about definitions today, funnily enough

[fresh bane]

Again of course that's the case but when you're talking to someone who has an idea of what furries are like and isn't into any kind of furry circles or anything there's an idea and a certain implication of what a person who calls themselves a furry is, again even if it's not ''correct''

[slim thorn]

it's just that in my experience, there's the fandom/community meaning, and most of the other meanings are "basically all humans whether they know it or not" which is not useful, and I never understood the weird fixation with broadening it to the point of meaninglessness

[hushed onyx]

Right, but I also do not care what they think because they are wrong

[fresh bane]

That's why I initially said ''the furry community'' in quotes because that doesn't even really mean anything because it's so absurdly big it's like saying ''the cartoon community'' for anyone who likes cartoons

[fresh bane]

They are but the whole point of the conversation was precisely that I wouldn't call myself a furry because of that understanding most people have about furries, just to cause less confusion if I'm talking to someone who might not know

[hushed onyx]

I mean, there is the 'anime and manga community'...or the 'gamer community'...

[fresh bane]

and it's the same for those too

[slim thorn]

eh, I think "the furry community" is a meaningful thing, even if it's not a single monolith, in the same way that "the MLP community" is a thing even though it's a lot more than just Manechat

human subcultures are fractal

[hushed onyx]

Well, for one thing I strongly resist any definition of furrydom which would have defined me out of furrydom for a significant part of the portion of my life when if asked I would have called myself a furry

[slim thorn]

I wasn't attempting to provide an exhaustive list of all possible furry activities

[hushed onyx]

Well, for a basically the whole time between when I started to think that and a few years ago, I didn't actually do anything that would be considered uniquely 'furry' versus being involved in MLP (which by complete coincidence took off only slightly after I came to that realization). So any definition of 'being a furry' that included specific activities and didn't treat furrydom as a superset of the pony fandom (or the pony fandom as a subset of the furry fandom) would have defined me out of being a furry.

[fresh bane]

obligatory ''I'm not a furry'' sticker

[light gate]

Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all same.

[hushed onyx]

Yeah, but I was the opposite, I would have insisted I absolutely was a furry

And I keep using rdnsrk, but that's because she fits really well!

[slim thorn]

it is objectively the best snrk emoji of all time

[hushed onyx]

Actually looking back on this I think this last sentence is (perhaps unintentionally) revealing; you think of 'being a furry' as an activity, whereas I think of it as a descriptor--someone who happens to like some form of art with nonhuman, animal characters more than the average person (and since it's 'more than the average person' it is not trivially true that 'everyone' would then be a furry).

Obviously a descriptor need not imply that the person engages in any particular activity beyond possibly a very limited subset (for a different example, a classical music fan must listen to classical music more than average, but need not go to live concerts or collect all of the works of any particular artist or have merch of favorite composers, etc.)

So given this approach or thought process, my saying 'you' are a 'furry' is like saying you are a 'white guy' precisely in that neither one actually implies that you are part of some conscious 'community' around that thing, even if both do have communities around that thing ()

[cerulean herald]

(need a gif version of this )

[quiet swift]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379910/Dystopika/ Ooh. Big discount on this cyberpunky city builder

Steam

Dystopika

Dystopika is a small city-builder inspired by cyberpunk and the wanderlust of cities that never sleep.

Place buildings, giant billboards, and towering holograms, working in harmony with procedural generation for landscape, traffic, and lights to create your own future metropolis rich with vibes and ambience. Escape to your own little dystopi…

Price

$4.05

Recommendations

3068

[fresh bane]

wake up samurai, we've got a city to burn build

I've never played city builder style games but I do like cyberpunk....

Seems like it's more of a sandbox to chill and vibe with rather than something with a hard objective to aim towards mmmm wouldn't hurt to at least put it on the wishlist pile

[light gate]

Apparently, GOG just got four FF classic games DRM free. https://www.gog.com/en/promo/final_fantasy

That's pretty cool.

I assume FF7 will be added later once they remove the ancient PC DRM.

[fresh bane]

Oh hey the 3D versions of FF3 and FF4, I can't remember if people liked those or not, but I know them because i have them on my PSP

[light gate]

I have the DS FF3 version.

But I couldn't enjoy it simply because everything looked like ants.

That screen is small as heck lmao.

So this is gonna be a welcomed change!

[fresh bane]

Easily one of the biggest drawbacks of NDS/3DS/PSP ports is that and the framerate, so yeah this would help

and if any modders can get texture replacement mods working, then even better

[light gate]

Lets see if I can CrossOver it.

ngl, this is cursed as hell

[gaunt marten]

Why does it need a launcher? Square, please

[light gate]

But yeah, its working for sure... weird audio crunch but hey no DRM at least.

[fresh bane]

ahhh I like that artstyle

[light gate]

Same

[fresh bane]

maybe this will get me to finally finish FF4

[gaunt marten]

I played it on DS

I prefer the GBA style personally

[fresh bane]

it reminds me a lot of the ff tactics artstyle for the characters

[gaunt marten]

Aye, it's cute

[fresh bane]

another FF game I also have on the PSP.... but there was that new remaster

hmmm

I'll have to look into that

[light gate]

The reason seems that the game has no settings in the main menu, I wonder if there are any settings. Gotta test it further.

[fresh bane]

Oh I thought they were upcoming, they're already out

[light gate]

Yeah! I literally bought them because GOG sent me a discount code.

Which is sick.

So the game has some touch mobile systems but allows you to play with a controller, so that's good at least.

[rugged flax]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/758690/Occupy_Mars_The_Game/

Steam

Occupy Mars: The Game

Occupy Mars is a complex open-world sandbox survival game for fans of the genre.

Occupy Mars is a technical, open-world sandbox, survival game about Mars colonization inspired by the most promising technologies and companies that are working towards the goal of humanity becoming a multi-planet species.…

Price

$14.99

Recommendations

2292

neat
apparently Occupy Mars finally made it out of EA

[cunning galleon]

This is strange

[astral steeple]

https://www.uuinstagram.com/clashroyale/p/DUGU31LjATY/

Why Is clash royale doing a lil wayne collab lmao

[indigo pine]

42 brass ingots :3

[indigo pine]

i have died a few times

[indigo pine]

am farming bears :3

[bitter stream]

how do you farm a bear?

[indigo pine]

patience and a dirt hole

with myself as bait

[bitter stream]

oh no! haha

[green fulcrum]

I'll keep that in mind next time I'm hiking in Alaska.

[bitter stream]

I know it's too expensive, but the idea of having "UwU Onslaught" on Montagnes Riot Shield as I push someone is very funny to think about

Alas, I rarely play with friends, so I doubt I could get the co-ordination needed to really use him properly.

[hasty patio]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/intrepid-studios-developers-of-ashes-of-creation-lay-off-all-250-staff-and-shut-down-the-studio.1421968/

[bitter stream]

ah dam, i heard people were looking forward to that one

[quiet swift]

Yep, just came across this on the 🐦 site. Seems very sudden

[hasty patio]

Guessing funding issues ultimately.

[green fulcrum]

How? The initial cost of the project was $750000, they raised $3M.