general gaming

[green fulcrum]

It was announced in 2016 too

They had more than enough time and enough money

Maybe it was another Mighty No. 9 situation?

[hasty patio]

MN9 was at least a finished product IIRC. This just got out to EA on steam.

[green fulcrum]

"Finished" is giving it a bit too much credit

[quiet swift]

The WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) is a U.S. labor law requiring most large employers (100+ employees) to provide 60 days' written notice before plant closings or mass layoffs, helping workers, families, and communities prepare for job loss by allowing time to find new jobs or seek training

[visual hill]

TIL

[slim thorn]

ooooh, ok

[visual hill]

I thought this had to do with stocks, i.e. profit warning

[slim thorn]

so not a funding issue

[quiet swift]

So, new leadership fucking everything

Probably venture capitalists again

[slim thorn]

can we, like, stop doing "leadership" when we make game studios

it never ends well

[quiet swift]

...although, apparently said leader is not a saint

I guess we'll have to wait for the Jason Schreier article? he seems to have ears everywhere

[green fulcrum]

"got rich off of cancer patients"

Yikes.

[quiet swift]

Well given that the studio was caught not paying invoices for necessary infrastructure services like, their literal server costs, and we're several months in default when it was caught in other subreddits, I'm sure the stuff their Board was doing was trying to reign in the CEO who drove the company off a cliff.

Oh boy yeah i think we're gonna need to wait for actual details

[hasty patio]

As I was saying...

[quiet swift]

free on epic today

[slate star]

I think recent r2 events caused this restriction. Nintendo doesn't want people sharing problematic miis

Also a lot of people likes hugh morris from the direct trailer

[orchid sundial]

https://youtu.be/Pt2UKqoApQM

surely we're getting a proper anniversary game... right?

[cunning galleon]

Ehh peko peko

Nevermind the damage, i went into a lot of corners too fast with the wrong tires

[wind stump]

do a heckin' nyoom

[bitter stream]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3eAoEZoJ8s
This is art

it's only a few minutes long, but if you like Satisfactory, take a look

[wind stump]

[bitter stream]

what game is this? what's the context?

[wind stump]

Doomspire and I won a run

[bitter stream]

neat! Congrats on winning a run!

[visual hill]

we banjoing and kazooing

[slim thorn]

it's impressive how familiar this level looks just from seeing the speedrun once

[river veldt]

Banjo Kazooie is so cool

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/22nhFoJJ-O8?si=vS1iM7YBygG3_e2Q

that's a deep pull wow

[cunning galleon]

Lebananas lesbians

[cerulean herald]

was not prepared seeing Sonic in a more serious fighting game

[wind stump]

she banjo on my kazooie until i EEKUM BOKUM

[quiet swift]

https://www.polygon.com/highguard-wildlight-interactive-interview/

Various comments I see from the reddit thread I got it from:

They pivoted a bunch during development and the final game is stitched together with assets from previous pivots. It was obviously seen as a win-win for them to have an overly large map where they could have a legit reason for mounts, which means mount skins.
It looks very much like they had one game with NPCs around the map, another where you gathered resources more heavily, another where the bases could be customized or upgraded more.

That's the problem with games made like this. It didn't start with a great game design or vision. It started with a business case to get into a certain market or similar and then a game was developed around that proposal.

That kinda sounds like Anthem's problem too...

The biggest issue with this game is that you can draw clear lines to what it's inspired by in almost every mechanic. It doesn't do any of those mechanics better than where they got it from, which makes the whole project feel very unfocused.
Reading that the devs more or less threw stuff at a wall until something stuck confirms to me that they didn't have a plan, they just wanted to make something and nobody was willing to step in and say "what KIND of experience do we want to make here?

[bitter stream]

hmm, so plenty of good ideas, but no guiding vision for it?

I wonder if they are making enough, I saw they had 10k concurrent atm for Highguard.

I know PoE 1 only needed 10k concurrent to be profitable

[quiet swift]

It depends on how much the game cost to make. 4-5 years and several pivots can increase that quite a lot... and, those 10k (which is steam only, did this release elsewhere?) also have to all be spending. If they don't...

[indigo pine]

behold. barels of meat

[bitter stream]

Yeah not sure if it released on console or not. You're right about the cost of the project determining the ammount of users they need to hook to the game. I'll see if I can find the infio link on the 10,000 users for PoE 1.

[indigo pine]

also my house from far away

[bitter stream]

https://youtu.be/tmuy9fyNUjY?t=471
Here's a timestamped link to the talk where the 10k figure is mentioned. They were running a skeleton crew, which might be another difference to Highguard, though I've not seen any numbers on how big the dev team is for it.

[bitter stream]

The CUBE!

[indigo pine]

yis

i carved it into a mountain and built upward

this is also cube 2.0

[astral steeple]

https://www.complex.com/music/a/markelibert/lil-wayne-headlines-virtual-halftime-show-clash-royale

Oh he's doing a concert in clash royale

[wind stump]

https://youtu.be/3ytqnteXfjw

[indigo pine]

farming peat [basically burnable soil] is fun

[fresh bane]

Wow it was so obvious that this was the biggest problem with this game, people were saying it the day the game dropped
I was kinda hoping that it wouldn't be the case, maybe it had difficulties during development, maybe something happened to restrict development in a way and it came out the way it did, but no, it really is supposedly some of the best in the industry making the most amateur mistake

I have hopes that maybe through updates they can make the game the better version of itself it can be, really overhaul how all these systems work to make the game actually click and keep polishing them and see how people like it, but if they don't plan on doing any of that and they just plan on keeping the game in the state it's in right now and just add cosmetics, I don't see anyone talking about this game anymore in a couple more months

[visual hill]

Alone in the Dark Trilogy is free to claim on GOG's homepage

[gaunt marten]

It is?

Maybe is it a patron thing

Ah wait, it's at the bottom,

[indigo pine]

i made a 5 by 4 by 6 char pit

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miMemOWBNpw oop, Josh stepping in

[slim thorn]

oooh, drama I have zero personal stake in

[quiet swift]

The best kind.

[proud warren]

dude what the hell, how did fraymakers get the internet funnyman to be an announcer for the game?

[visual hill]

I remember Fraymakers getting a lot of indie collabs

probably people with good connections in the team

[proud warren]

are links to steam pages allowed? cus the thumbnail for the add-on is killing me

[random steppe]

yes

[proud warren]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4195770/Fraymakers__Alpharad_Announcer_Pack/

Steam

Fraymakers - Alpharad Announcer Pack

This DLC adds Alpharad as an announcer to Fraymakers!

Features hundreds of voice lines recorded by Alpharad, the internet funnyman.

Toggle your announcer of choice via the in-game sound settings menu.

Price

$1.99

it's so jarring

[fresh bane]

uuuuuh, is this the same game Pirate Software was hyping up like a year ago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-UIejcyrGo

oh wow

well then

4 years ago

I guess there's a little duology of videos to watch

[random steppe]

It's a game that 99% of the the MMORPG youtube crowd was hyping up to be fair

[fresh bane]

It did sound like a cool thing from my perspective, as a person that has played a whopping zero mmorpgs in their life

[random steppe]

Well yeah, it sounded interesting, the hard part for MMOs is not the ideas, is really the execution of said ideas

[slim thorn]

isn't that most media though

[random steppe]

True, the main thing with MMO is that the high barrier to entry.

You can't really make one without a few millions at the lower end

[visual hill]

to be fair, Pirate wasn't very big on the Stop Killing Games thing

Ashes was killed before it was even released

[green fulcrum]

Ashes of Creation was announced in 2016, I think

[fresh bane]

I mean the date of publication of the video talking about not hyping up the game and then the new one talking about it being completely dead

[quiet swift]

Whenever I see the name I keep mistaking it for https://store.steampowered.com/app/507490/Ashes_of_the_Singularity_Escalation/

Steam

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

The human race has expanded into the galaxy thanks to the wonders of the technological singularity. You have become so powerful that you can manage vast armies across an entire world that provide you with an ever greater galactic empire.

Now, humanity is under assault by a new enemy. Calling themselves the Substrate, they seek to annihilate th…

Price

$29.99

Recommendations

2642

Metacritic

81

[visual hill]

I thought it was from the same devs as Ashes of the Benchmark too

[river veldt]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/AnimalCrossing/s/5bYQkcDAJT

[hasty patio]

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/qa-workers-at-blizzard-ratify-union-contract-with-microsoft

[fickle garnet]

https://youtu.be/HSscsSS62oc

I'm so fucking excited

[fresh bane]

I was just about to post it, but from a different channel
https://youtu.be/Xd72Q0Tg4ug?si=MOEMVMVbxsLiU7ew

when it's Capcom involved, they can make good live action RE stuff lol

(Nemesis cameo too when they're escaping from the apartments if you listen and watch carefully)

[fickle garnet]

Yeah, I would love if we could get an RE movie with this kind of quality

[fresh bane]

I would not hold my breath on that, especially not at this point

https://youtu.be/PcDjo_uKeF4?si=5Mf2Zw5bestOpZ8d

also funnily enough, not the first time they do a really great high quality commercial for their game

[fickle garnet]

At this point, it's pretty much a pipe dream

[fresh bane]

Oh!

Okay!

[bitter stream]

oh nice

[rancid herald]

finally finished Bananza

it's kind of fun how deranged it is

[bitter stream]

nice nice

how's the games mechanics hold up?

I've only seen a few levels on streams

[rancid herald]

I think it's a very good game but it's also one of those games where the difficulty seems to spike randomly in ways that made me wish I had spent my skill points differently lol

[bitter stream]

ah yeah, fair enough

I guess there's no real re-spec system or anything?

[rancid herald]

oh I don't know, maybe

but in general it was very fun and very 'joyful'

[bitter stream]

nice nice!

[arctic fern]

i forgor this was a thing steam added, thats neat

[astral steeple]

- Faster loading times & stability
- Community Spaces
- Player Profiles

[indigo pine]

rot chest

[indigo pine]

also. league of legend levels of salt

[quiet swift]

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/DivinityFranchiseSale2026 ooh. An entire franchise sale for Divinity

[wind stump]

funny this is uploaded after Groundhog day. https://youtu.be/MQAX02WzHMs

[indigo pine]

char :3

[astral steeple]

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/smash-bros-creator-masahiro-sakurai-shares-heartbreaking-update-on-pet-cats-health-3313782/

😦

[mossy flume]

Noooo D:

[wind stump]

yay A-Rank, getting my groove back

[wind stump]

FINALLY.

Fuckin' hell not having a midair attack is ROUGH

[mossy flume]

Damn. Metroid Prime 4 hasn’t even sold a million units.

[wind stump]

people too busy playing the superior Metroidvania

RABI-RIBI

[mossy flume]

Between that and the series director’s retirement, I guess the Prime series is very likely to be dead

[wind stump]

[indigo pine]

behold

[bitter stream]

what do you think are the reasons why it's not sold so well? Is all the momentum from 3 just too long ago or was 4 just not engaging a new audience?

[proud warren]

For me specifically, it's just cus a. I dont want to spend $70 on a game I feel pretty certain I won't care for b. I still haven't found my gateway metroidvania game and c. I heared that the npcs that tag along with you in the game is like, pretty damn annoying, but I haven't seen too much of the gameplay to say that last one is true or not

[bitter stream]

yeah understandable. I guess I would have expected more of an audience for Metroid Prime, given the relative success of Metroid Dread

[fickle garnet]

My gateway into metroidvanias was Metroid Dread, but it wasn't till I played Hollow Knight that my interest in them was fully realized

[bitter stream]

fair enough, Hollow Knight is really fun

[fickle garnet]

It is. I'm getting closer to the true ending in it

[mossy flume]

Metroid Prime has never been a hugely profitable series. Metroid as a whole already underperforms, and the Prime series in particular underperforms even in relation to the 2D Metroid games. Especially in Japan, where it’s a pretty much entirely irrelevant game that almost nobody plays. It’s a very western series.

Prime 4’s critic reception and price probably didn’t help, but it’s also based on an older philosophy of game design that doesn’t really appeal to today’s mass market.

It’s ultimately not surprising that it didn’t sell well. I kinda predicted that.

But I was kinda hoping it would at least hit one million sales by now

Metroid Dread is the best selling Metroid game of all time and it has sold “only” over 3 million units worldwide

[bitter stream]

nods

[mossy flume]

Which to be fair is generally pretty good

But it makes justifying expensive new installments hard, which is why releases are far and few between.

Like in the context of Nintendo’s other IPs, it’s a secondary filler franchise more than anything

[bitter stream]

right right, I wonder if it'll get used for more AA-style projects instead... though Idk how often nintendo does that?

[mossy flume]

They do that sometimes. They’ve had some spinoffs, like Pinball or Hunters or Federation Force. And technically Prime is itself a spinoff. The 2D Meyroidvania model is the core of the series.

But yeah, I dunno

[slim thorn]

does seem like it'll probably be shelved until they feel like having a new Metroid as a launch title for some other console or service is worth the investment

[mossy flume]

I’m sure Metroid will continue, but it wouldn’t be smart to hold one’s breath for more Prime games despite Prime 4 having a hook for a sequel, and the director saying that it was supposed to start a trilogy

Yeah

[slim thorn]

fwiw, that issue is real but very minor; the actual "problem" is more that Dread and Prime 1 are just kinda better? so if you haven't played those yet there's no reason to go for Prime 4 specifically

[mossy flume]

He admitted it was supposed to start a trilogy, but also he’s not sure if Sylux’s story will ever be finished

Yeah

[slim thorn]

and we already saw the sales of Prime 1 remastered

[mossy flume]

Also, the Prime 1 Remaster was very expensive to develop. It’s beloved by fans, of course.

But it barely broke even for them.

Metroid’s definitely in the category of “Nintendo will do it to be nice to their fans, not for the purpose of profit,” and so… yeah, it’ll be slow going

[slim thorn]

it is sad that Prime coming back after all this time was such a nothingburger

[mossy flume]

Yeah

[slim thorn]

I mean I got a good game out of it, but it's a nothing to anyone who wasn't already into the series

[mossy flume]

I nolife’d the game and I really liked it, but I definitely see why people are chilly on it

[slim thorn]

fortunately the genre has been incredibly strong these last few decades so it doesn't sting as much as it might have otherwise

[mossy flume]

I’m also stuck on hard mode. XD It’s brutal

[slim thorn]

lol I never have time to replay anything on hard

I've still got another dozen indie metroidvanias to try out

[mossy flume]

I think Prime 4 is the hardest Prime game.

Which is interesting. Each game in the series is harder than the previous installment.

IMO, at least

[slim thorn]

(at this moment literally 4 indie metroidvanias I have installed and not yet started, before we even get to the wishlist)

[mossy flume]

1 and 2, I always play on hard and still think it’s not remotely a challenge.
3 pushes me in a few places in hypermode
4, even the trash enemies hit really hard

Some trash enemies will hit you for 70+ points

[bitter stream]

wild haha

I wonder how much the remaster is here

though I've got enough games I've not played through yet haha

(XC3 is still waiting for me to get through all of it)

[cerulean herald]

what are the 4 games

[slim thorn]

well, as a rule I prefer not to mention games I haven't played yet and have no idea whether they're any good

but since you asked, right now it's ||Dandara, Sundered, Momodora Moonlit Farewell, Biomorph||

[cerulean herald]

that's fair, thanks though for the names some of the games I hear about for the first time are from this channel lol

[slim thorn]

looks like I got around to trying... 10 metroidvanias last year on Steam, and Prime 4 would be the 11th

[little badger]

Marketing will begin in the summer

[slim thorn]

of those Ender Magnolia, Crypt Custodian, Bloodstained Curse of the Moon, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, Supraland and Hyper Light Drifter were all somewhere in the good to great range that I'd recommend to a genre fan but not quite breaking into my personal top ~10 MVs

[cerulean herald]

the Ender games I do want to try out, the others are new to me tho

[gaunt marten]

you are marketing it right now

[visual hill]

I feel bad for people who were hyped from 2017 to late 2025 for that game

[little badger]

[visual hill]

after something like this, you're probably not going to hype another game for life

[visual hill]

Primehack tends to make the first 3 games too easy, it's the 1964GEPD syndrome

it probably needs additional challenge mods if you're playing with keyboard/mouse, especially for repeat playthroughs

[slim thorn]

hahahahahahahahaha
this is like every other AAA game since I started paying attention, if anyone hasn't figured it out by now they were either born (into gaming) yesterday or genuinely do not want to figure it out

...I genuinely cannot remember what my first big game disappointment was

[visual hill]

as a kid, I remember being hyped for "indie" games in the 2000s that never came out like Clusterball 2

(we didn't call it "indie" back then, but these were the descendents of the shareware era)

[indigo pine]

behold. workers and resources tutorial town

[visual hill]

me as a kid: "This is the future of gaming."

[hushed onyx]

I thought 2 was harder than 3, not least because of the Boost Boss in 2. Man that dude was tough as nails, at least back when 2 was new and I was young(er).

[slim thorn]

huh, I don't remember having any trouble with the boost ball guardian after I figured out how to damage it

[hushed onyx]

I mean this was over twenty years ago so I don't remember why it was tough, just that I did find it very tough.

[slim thorn]

maybe because it's one of the few (only?) bosses you have to fight in the dark world completely unprotected?

[hushed onyx]

(I should note that I never played more than small parts of the game, and in this specific case I dropped in to help...probably my sister because she was struggling with it, so that certainly colors my judgement)

[slim thorn]

so if you went in there with too few energy tanks that could be accidentally speedrun difficulty

[gaunt marten]

I want to see more angles of Fisherman's Horizon

[hushed onyx]

I think we had taken care to get many energy tanks for that part of the game before hand, we just struggled to avoid getting too damaged.

[wind stump]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4tOxBBq4dzc?feature=share

BLJing with a fucking guitar

[indigo pine]

i hate the track snap on this game it doesent work most of the time

[little badger]

@green fulcrum @fresh bane

[green fulcrum]

Oh wow, official VAs!

I hope this means we'll see them in future games that aren't just spin-offs.

[river veldt]

the lesbian flag in the background, very subtle

[hushed onyx]

Holding hands in front of a giant lesbian flag...they must be friends!

[green fulcrum]

I mean, Sega mandated that there would be no romance between any of the main characters, but the artists and writers still wanted to ship these two, so they had to slip something in.

But yes, they are both absolutely in a lesbian relationship, and I cannot be convinced otherwise.

Also, fun fact, there is another LGBTQ+ couple in the comics: two bird radio newscasters, both male. While the rest of their city chose to flee for their lives with the Metal Virus was spreading, those two stayed behind and barricaded themselves in their news station to keep broadcasting information for survivors on where to go to get help.

[gaunt marten]

Honkerton and Crowley

A goose-raven couple

[green fulcrum]

Actually it's these guys:

Happily married <3

[gaunt marten]

I like the couple I imagined better

[robust latch]

https://www.gog.com/en/game/alone_in_the_dark_the_trilogy_123 free giveaway on these classics

[cunning galleon]

haya

78 average and 116 on a strait

[frozen gate]

iirc in an interview the flag here is p much entirely cuz of ABT, but everyone was already p onboard with whispangle anyway the whole time so it got in haha

ian flynn had said like "read the room" about those two characters at some point too

and he's admitted before he's tried to hint at sally and nicole (from archie) being a thing too, post-reboot, after all the mandates while he was writing them

so he's got that history

[frozen gate]

for these two the IDW team also did explicitly ask sega if they could make them gay

so they're allowed to just go out and say it or smth

got confirmed by one of the artists

[cunning galleon]

Lancia Delta 💖

[hidden elbow]

Playing through Banjo-kazooie for the first time with recompiled port and oh my god....i get it

[indigo pine]

here is a real one!

grandpas old car

[eager bane]

o h - thought you called it a "grandpa car" for a secnd

[indigo pine]

it is a 45ish year old car [i think/ thats how long randpa had it]

the cube grows

[arctic fern]

Ok seriously can you make it not a cube?

Its quite ugly

You have so many tools at your disposal to make it look decent

[indigo pine]

i value tinkering over appearances. its why im in bumblefuck nowhere

[arctic fern]

Then stop boasting about the damn cube pls

[gaunt marten]

Why?

[indigo pine]

map of our island

[arctic fern]

Because its making me not want to play anymore
We're on the same server

[indigo pine]

i have distanced for cube related reasons

[gaunt marten]

I see

[indigo pine]

why that

is me having fun making a giant cube that bad?

[arctic fern]

Its more that you keep boasting about building a giant cube
I get that you wanna focus on tinkering over making a nice house, but every day i swar youre posting more pictures, not of nice builds but a growing cube...
Like it wouldnt be as bad if you used other resources than cobblestone, i showed you the quarry mod that lets you get different stone types but you volunterally chose to keep using cobblestone (this isnt minecradt btw, cobble takes werdly more effort and resources to craft)
Its just making me not want to pkay anymore

[indigo pine]

i want to make a gint tower basically. imagine lighthouse. ill add details later. but also. it isnt boasting more so. "hey i made this silly thing"

[arctic fern]

...no its boasting

Thats how it comes off

[indigo pine]

why would i boast for a freaking cobble cube. thats my question. like think about it from this side. i know its ugly the only thing i got its fireproof and spacious. plus the 3 basements i dug

[arctic fern]

Thats a good question! Why are you?
Also wdym "its the only thing i got thats fireproof"

[indigo pine]

i burned down the dirt hole the first time because i build on peat. i then burned all of my equipment due to bad placement. so i made it spacious

[arctic fern]

Youre supposed to put the pit kilns outside

[indigo pine]

and to add to that. i wasnt doing it as a boast. i told you before. youve built more beutiful then i did. i wasnt going for beuty in the first place with the inner building

[indigo pine]

this is a death map. i got sick of dying

if i could put an industiral scale char pit in the house i would

[arctic fern]

Why are you going out at night and making charcoal pits and pit kilns far bigger than you possibly could need

[indigo pine]

my cahr pit is 4/5/6 and its because im constantly smithing tools

[indigo pine]

half of these are at day as well

[arctic fern]

From what then?

Oh you starve to death a lot, fall from high places and go caving into monster infested dungeons

[indigo pine]

yup. i know. i build a good farm. so starving isnt as prevelant.

[arctic fern]

All three of those are self inflicted btw, i keep telling people that i have more food than i can ever eat and that they should take some, falling is only a problem because you built a giant cube and just dont go caving

[indigo pine]

so basically. you tell me to dont do anything of the fun things in this game

without caving i cant progress due to ores
and building the cube is ammusing

[arctic fern]

...starving to death is fun?

[indigo pine]

i am eating

[arctic fern]

Now

[indigo pine]

so it stopped

[arctic fern]

It took a very long time for you to do that

[indigo pine]

yes because i joined in winter

[arctic fern]

You walked over to my house, starving, so i gave you a stack of food, told you to eat it
You said no and starved to death

[indigo pine]

yes that indeed happened.

[arctic fern]

This happened at least twice

[indigo pine]

the seond time you gave me some pie

still tho. for the most part. i keep to my self and stay in the bottom corner of the island for reasons like these

[arctic fern]

Thats actually a problem too you know
I wanted to play WITH people
Not jist happen to have people in the same world
I built the farm i did, built the blacksmith, make extra clay pots and crucibkes and bowls, smith tools for everyone

[indigo pine]

you could have said so. "hey guys. wonna make a small town thingie toether so we can all play together"

[arctic fern]

I did

[indigo pine]

where.
[and everyone else is also spead through the map]

[arctic fern]

When i set up the server
Rom moved away but he wasnt exactly far

Dont know what ivy is, or was, doing

[indigo pine]

was i there when that happened? i recall joining a bit after that

[arctic fern]

You know what? Thats fair
I genuinely didnt consider someone joining after the fact, moving miles away from everyone, to not interact with the other players, while the other players were talking about their plans for things to share and work together towards and focus on

I wasnt expecting a village but i was hoping for a bit more community

[indigo pine]

because i felt like iw asinterupting something. you all had your shit set up already

[arctic fern]

I literally kept telling you to use my stuff

Take what you need

[indigo pine]

yes. but no one told me "hey. stay with us here. no need to be away" and because I know I would clash stylistically on average then how you all build I just decided to fuck of the other side of the island

my usual mode of work is "don't annoy anyone" and my most successful way of doings that on servers was isolation.

so I did that by default to be able to have breathing room to do stuff I wanted to do

I do have something in mind to remedy all of that tho.

I'll porrobably just rebuild

[indigo pine]

\

town :3

[astral steeple]

New partner nintendo direct tomorrow

[astral steeple]

Starts at 9am est and runs for 30 minutes

[young creek]

No one cares, Nintendo!! Where is Mario!!

WAIT

SKONG EXPANSION!!

[quiet swift]

So helldivers apparently added a tank, and they immediately put it to good use

[cunning galleon]

Flamin' Hot Brakepads

[arctic fern]

The tank is really fun lol

I love it

Best addition

[astral steeple]

why is overwatch doing a hello kitty collab lmao

[worthy rose]

🤑

[mossy flume]

Also, Pokémon 30th anniversary stream on February 8th

https://youtu.be/yogNTgCr9-A?si=kRtDd_UIvuQisVkW

[astral steeple]

oh overwatch is just straight up renaming overwatch 2 back to overwatch now too lmao

[mossy flume]

Hahahaha excellent

[mossy flume]

Damn, I was hoping for a first party direct

[astral steeple]

im sure there will still be good stuff in the partner direct

[mossy flume]

Oh does Manechat have its own Minecraft server? I was thinking of spinning one up, but sounds like y’all already have that covered

[cerulean herald]

#1032723658940096592 message

[mossy flume]

Coolio

[cerulean herald]

(tried forwarding it, but got timed out bc of the discord server link )

[true maple]

Ye, i run it, activity ebbs and flows. It's a new world from the last one you were on

[astral steeple]

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/epic-wants-to-bring-its-store-to-the-next-gen-xbox-as-it-begins-to-show-serious-growth-weve-been-talking-to-the-folks-at-microsoft

[teal sonnet]

Welcome back 2016

just

why

it literally makes no difference

[random steppe]

So they can announce Overwatch 2 at the next blizzcon, duh

[teal sonnet]

you are a genius

[astral steeple]

oh they actually kinda cooked with these

[fresh bane]

Overwatch 2 has to be one of if not the most unsuccessful relaunch of a game in gaming history

I remember a bunch of people weren't too happy about CS2 replacing CSGO but it never got to this point

[river veldt]

omg PomPomPurin

[visual hill]

nice thumbnail, I just got back from playing a bunch of Melee matches as Puff

[visual hill]

I tried OW2 shortly after launch (having never played OW1 before) and found it a decent game to be fair

but it should really have been Overwatch 2.0. If you keep your expectations in check, it's good

TL;DR: good game, bad marketing

[bronze abyss]

until recently it was by no means good if you wanna play it competitively

[river veldt]

i genuinely forgot how much fun Spider-Man ps4 is

[arctic fern]

overwatch was good?

when?

[bronze abyss]

since marvel rivals gave them a lil scare they have stepped their game up if being honest

[astral steeple]

ive never played 2 or the original

the characters seem cool but ive just never had the time etc to actually give it a try

[random steppe]

OW for the first year or two from release was pretty great

Worth remembering that the hero shooter TvT formula wasn't quite as saturated back then.
Well, largely because OW is the reason that the genre got saturated

[slim thorn]

I only recall hearing good things about OW back when it was new

[random steppe]

The only negative was that it was a paid game with lootboxes

Which wasn't really unique to it, it was kind of the standard of the genre

[bronze abyss]

mostly cuz it was new,it was always a mess

[random steppe]

It was a really good game

[bronze abyss]

(GOATS meta is all ill say)

[random steppe]

It was only bad if you made the mistake to try to play it competitively

[indigo pine]

overwatch was ok back then

[bronze abyss]

weelll thats kinda what the game markets itself towards and is tuned for

[indigo pine]

more sweat then a league of legends veteran

[random steppe]

I don't know if it markets itself that way

It was a much more casual friendly game than CSGo, Valoranot, league, etc

[indigo pine]

it markets itself as new and slick

tf2

[bronze abyss]

im still sad bout what happened with paladins,it was heading down a good path but the marketing and presentation were really lacking in comparison to the competition

[random steppe]

I'd argue the fact that the focus was pretty split and wasn't really that much on the competitive side, is a main reason as to why it was bad to play competitively

[indigo pine]

now "that's something I haven't heard in a hot minute

[river veldt]

i should try out Marvel Rivals

[random steppe]

It is very OW-like in a good way

[astral steeple]

see i want to check out marvel rivals but its not on xbox one at all

despite releasing on ps4 recently

makes no sense at all

[fickle garnet]

Don't you have a ps5 and pc?

[green fulcrum]

I just finished watching this video from DoshDoshington, about the Star Control series. It actually made me want to download the public freeware version of the second game, The Ur-Quan Masters, because it's apparently considered one of the greatest games ever made, and the epic space opera adventure/RPG style of its gameplay and story is right up my alley. Specifically, I downloaded the MegaMod version, since it's the most up-to-date and also allows you to install various additional packages for the game, including a brand new HD graphics pack, remixed music, and re-recorded voice lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUbxlQJ-nSA

[astral steeple]

i do but my xbox is my main console

my pc i dont use for gaming and my ps5 i havent turned on in like months

all i play on my ps5 when it is on is spiderman remastered and spiderman 2 and thats it

i just prefer playing stuff on my xbox one way more

it will always be my main console

[hushed onyx]

It is indeed a pretty great game if you are decent at the gameplay.

(I was not )

[static bluff]

I watched that one as well. I played the first one a lot on the Sega Genesis. Awesome video.

[visual hill]

Ur-Quan Masters is one of the finest open source games out there

the devs are working on a crowdfunded sequel

(I remember getting an email from them shortly when they launched it, they contacted me directly because they just like Godot that much :P)

[green fulcrum]

Just...this soundtrack. This is the kind of soundtrack I love hearing in my space operas and science-fantasy stories. It's technically a remix but the MegaMod version of the game allows you to use it and other remixes in place of the original, if you want to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W_fzCW0L84

[dense crypt]

https://youtu.be/s0XO-J2v_cY?si=XyE37sdXoKvIbMRV

favorite remix in that pack

VERY pinkie pie

[mossy flume]

Oh, I forgot to mention here?

Turned out Metroid Prime 4 did in fact sell over a million units, between Switch 1 and Switch 2 combined

[hasty patio]

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steam_hardware/announcements/detail/625565405086220584?utm_source=SteamDB

[river veldt]

this is a cool idea

[mossy flume]

Some VR headsets do that

The Apple Vision Pro for example has support for custom prescription lens inserts that magnetically attach to the lenses (and have NFC chips that convey the lens prescription information)

This is a nontrivial thing to support, because the headset needs to know the optical properties of the lens inserts in order for the resulting user experience to be fully correct.

Because it changes how the entire optical system works, so you need to do some crazy math and adjust your display rendering accordingly

It’s really good to see Valve making an effort there

[rugged flax]

I'm still curious what kind of performance Valve is gonna get out of the Frame
It's a Snapdragon CPU, so it's ARM64
which means that anything that doesn't have a native ARM port is gonna need an x86 translation layer...and combine that with anything that doesn't have a Linux port will also need to pass through Proton's Windows emulation as well...there's gonna be a whole lot of translation layers going on.

[mossy flume]

I’m also curious, it doesn’t seem like it would be the most ideal hardware situation. Very middle of the road at best.

[rugged flax]

Apparently Valve is going to be using fex-emu as the ARM translation layer
https://fex-emu.com/

[hidden elbow]

Pocr night in inventory returns on steam and switch on march 20

[indigo pine]

poker

[hidden elbow]

Which means..

[hidden elbow]

Fixed it

[indigo pine]

finally. chance to some of the lost equipment

[hidden elbow]

Especially happy with dangeresque Too because now i can be....an authentic demopan
https://youtu.be/bIg3rygMAuk?si=wnw36WXySV5jnDZA

[indigo pine]

YE!

[wind stump]

oh no this is a mood

[little badger]

New horizon game but it’s co-op https://youtu.be/JubgL46Xkmk?si=0adP59fGoH-u05c1

[worthy rose]

Elden ring nightreign but I horizon world? 🤨

[little badger]

Coming to switch 2 Skyrim available now

[indigo pine]

only 2 achivements left

[wind stump]

yay

[cunning galleon]

??

Losing to uss bolo

[arctic fern]

boy i love helldivers 2 lol
the devs have been having so much fun on social media and discord, their entire staff team are automaton themed atm, and been sending out cryptic binary messages all day

[gaunt marten]

What's it say?

[arctic fern]

i dont know that one

it translates to swedish

in general the messages have been saying undemocratic things like "super earth lied to you, we mean you no harm, we have never known freedom"

patent falsehoods

[gaunt marten]

"Imagine if the roles were reversed. Imagine if you were in our place."

In Swedish:
TÄNK OM ROLLERNA VAR OMVÄNDA. TÄNK OM NI BEFANN ER I VÅRT STÄLLE.

[arctic fern]

dont be silly

automatons arent intelligent enough to make cohesive arguments

[indigo pine]

so this has been the true faction controlling the automatons. the swedish

[arctic fern]

(helldivers has a strong emphasis on propaganda and deliberately misinforming the its population, i just find it funny to follow with that)

[gaunt marten]

It's true, all I had to do in order to read the message was taken a proper gander at it

[arctic fern]

if you're interested, here are all the released messages translated

[bitter stream]

this looks neat, but is it locked to Ps5?

oh, you can wishlist it on steam, but I wonder if it'll come to ps5 first or something

guess time will tell

[teal sonnet]

OW2 was a collective fever dream

at least they changed some maps from night to night and night to day

[indigo pine]

i did it! :3

[bitter stream]

woo, Achivements, Achieved!

[indigo pine]

yes!

now i can start the second chapter

[bitter stream]

good luck

[proud warren]

Question for the masses: what's everyone's most anticipated game as of right now?

[river veldt]

RE9

though i won't be able to play it i'm excited to watch Vinny play it

[proud warren]

I'm personally looking forward to the new Edmund game that's been in development molasses for 13 and a half years at this point

[river veldt]

YES omg im so excited for Mewgenics

[little badger]

Starfield is meant to be coming this year as well

[proud warren]

I heard that isaac walked so that mewgenics can run; as in Edmund says that Mewgenics was his most fun game as of yet.

[river veldt]

ive heard that too

[gaunt marten]

Crystal Project 2

[indigo pine]

this. is one of the funniest thingies ive seen in a while

[indigo pine]

half life 3.

[gaunt marten]

I have good news for you, it's already out

[indigo pine]

laugh it. chances are that half life 3 may come out with the gabe cube

[fickle garnet]

Resident Evil Requiem

[proud warren]

Oh right also Slay the Spire 2 is supposed to come out at some point this year iirc

[gaunt marten]

I can't believe chess 2 is coming out

[cerulean herald]

will chess 2 have microtransactions

[proud warren]

Do you count dlc as microtransactions? If so then likely no.

[slim thorn]

"SUPER JORDAN"

[rotund forge]

Next 3D Mario

[slim thorn]

for me it's still "having the free time to play what I already bought"

I'm not currently aware of any upcoming releases that'll be must-buys for me

[visual hill]

Brawlback

[worthy rose]

Probably gta 6, and a few as of yet unreleased smaller scale Rts games

[indigo pine]

THE ORB

[worthy rose]

[worthy rose]

(Is a video that is almost a 1 to 1 copy of e33, level and character)

[shell shore]

I love going back and playing your first video game ever and seeing it in a new light now that your older and more experienced

[green fulcrum]

I don't see why people are so surprised by this. This is the same exact company that created a lazy copy of Among Us and several other games, and got away with it.

This was bound to happen

Roblox can literally do nothing by its own merits, it has to copy and leech off of others.

[indigo pine]

new desktop wallpaper

[wind stump]

[slim thorn]

wallpapers you can hear

[gaunt marten]

Cannot hear

Closest thing is Batman:TAS theme song

[cerulean herald]

what game is that wallpaper be from

[indigo pine]

its the first thing you look up to in hl2 ep1

[indigo pine]

half life

2

episode 1

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/yqhKGBWvyqM?si=HwY3-6LI2JWIpR4J
Let me help you

wait, that's the wrong one
https://youtu.be/-Vu5-NNLaXU?si=xmWlFgKK9QAXQ8r5

[gaunt marten]

Can't turn audio on

[cerulean herald]

lmao what in the

the bad guys (i assume) have good musical taste

[fresh bane]

Dansa med oss, klappa era händer :twidance:

[indigo pine]

play half life

youll love it and its cheap

[cerulean herald]

i do have it installed, just a backlog/time issue at the moment

[indigo pine]

1 or 2?

[cerulean herald]

both

[indigo pine]

when available. play them

it is worth

[shell shore]

Pic of the moon

Then i realized i floated away from the space station

[mossy flume]

What game is that?

[green fulcrum]

"The citadel is on full alert! I've never seen it lit up like that!"

I love the Caramelldansen meme

[shell shore]

Prey

Alien stuff, surprised this actually isn’t apart of the alien series

[indigo pine]

I love for all intents and purposes that. while the source engine is hellcode. it's still freaking hilarious to play in. cause the bugs are fun

[astral steeple]

https://deadline.com/2026/02/baldurs-gate-3-tv-show-craig-mazin-hbo-1236710583/

[worthy rose]

[fickle garnet]

So people that detest turn based games can witness the story! Seriously though, I don't get why it needs an adaptation, I think it works better as a game

Oh it's continuing the story... Why tho?

[random steppe]

I don't get the hate for adaptations now.
Do you think the Lord of the Rings movies should have been made?

[fickle garnet]

I don't hate adaptations, I just don't think it's super necessary.

[random steppe]

Nothing is necessary

It's entertainment

[fickle garnet]

I also haven't finished the game, so I don't know why they would want to continue the story

[slim thorn]

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

[random steppe]

You can make the same argument for every adaptation ever, I am sure the LOTR story is perfectly fine in book form, why is it necessary to adapt it to a movie trilogy?

[slim thorn]

I think what people are getting at when they play the "feels unnecessary" card is that some settings or stories don't leave a whole lot of obvious space to tell additional stories that'd be as good as the original. Though even that's probably being a bit too charitable since IME these claims do tend to align with a broader "I like this thing, nobody gets to touch it" mindset.

[rancid herald]

the biggest problem is going to be if they don't cast the VAs as the FA (flesh actors)

[random steppe]

I mean, I don't think it's a problem

[rancid herald]

it's a problem if they don't

[random steppe]

The VA don't really look anything like the characters, and there is a reason they are voice actors and not actors actors

It's two different skillsets

(some of them I should specify)

"wyll could pull it off, I am not sure Shadowheart could personally, amazing VA but IDK if she ever acted in anything big, all of her big works are as VA

[quiet swift]

On Prime

[fresh bane]

When it comes to things like cinema or TV show adaptations of videogames there's just a bit of an insecurity wedged deep in there that plays a big role in why so many people are apprehensive about them
It kinda stems from how little regard people have for videogames as a legitimate form of art and are rarely taken seriously compared to a book or a movie or a tv show much in the same way cartoons or animated series are, and how oftentimes there's a very prejudice-y attitude about something getting a big screen adaptation and how that's seen as that thing reaching a certain status where now it can be taken seriously and now it's finally 'valid' as a piece of art, again in the same way as something getting a live action adaptation in the case of things like animated series for example, like Avatar
it's like ''okay yeah you had your little videogame where you stomp koopas and get coins but now that it got a movie adaptation it's real art!''
not every project is made with that attitude in mind that goes without saying but it was an attitude people had about these things and honestly people still really do with how many movie adaptations so many people pester videogame companies and devs to make about virtually every game out there

something unique about videogame adaptations though is that there's not just the concern of not having enough time to put everything in a movie like with book adaptations that have to cut out so much material but also the aspect that you can't really adapt gameplay to a movie, and a lot of games even the more cinematic ones still have gameplay and that still is a part of the experience and for a lot of games it's a big part of the experience, so having to adapt that into a movie you're gonna inevitably just completely change that aspect of it and how you present it to a viewer vs an active player, that can also be a thing that people worry about
It's why I think it's always the best idea to make a movie or a tv show set in a videogame world but not as a 1:1 adaptation and more of a spin-off sort of deal, I think it's always the safest option to make

for things like movie adaptations of books I don't feel like that whole ''now it's real art'' sentiment is there, because a lot of movie franchises based on books didn't make the book franchise more popular usually the book itself managed to get so big in the first place it birthed the movie adaptations from that popularity, but I do think most people would probably think of you as a nerd if you were to tell them ''well, ackshually, Severus Snape is completely different in the books than in the movies ☝️ ''

[slim thorn]

mm-hmm, Whitelight's TLOU video made had a lot of great, specific examples of aspects of the games which got lost in the adaptation to TV

[random steppe]

I really feel like, that attitude exists but it's greatly exaggerated.

Here is the truth, when you adapt something from one medium to another, you have to change things, it is obvious if you think about the act of adapting a movie to a video game, but for some reason, gamers have this weird attitude when you try to do the reverse, that you can't touch anything about the story if you want to adapt it or it's bad.

[slim thorn]

tbh I feel like I see roughly equal amounts of "you can't touch anything" whether the original was a book, comic, game, whatever

even when it's a sequel, spinoff or "new generation" in the same medium

[random steppe]

Ok fair.

That's not wrong.

[hushed onyx]

Starship Troopers though

[slim thorn]

like how I can make any Tolkien fan cringe by bringing up certain details about Rings of Power

[hushed onyx]

Homer had his copyists as well...

[random steppe]

Here is my thesis though.
Some adaptations are good, some are bad, and there is very little correlation between a good adaptation and how much they changed from the source material.

[rancid herald]

I'm not even sure starship troopers is an adaptation

[fresh bane]

The more and more I got into it the more I definitely see a lot of original fans from the books of things like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings/Hobbit definitely be super mad that they either changed this character or missed this plot detail or did this or did that and swapped this

[rancid herald]

it's more of... reply or something

[fresh bane]

I think that, because a lot of us aren't into those book circles, we just don't see it so we think it doesn't happen

but it definitely super happens

[slim thorn]

oh no I'm very aware that how much of it I see depends on how many of the OG fans I'm talking to

[hushed onyx]

I am, though, so I thought that this was an infelicitous example

[slim thorn]

but also, how many of those OG fans are the kind of reasonable people who don't hold unrealistic expectations of adaptations

[rancid herald]

I expect lord of the rings to be filmed on location please and thank you

[slim thorn]

like when my mom enjoyed Villeneuve's Dune as much as I did, and she got to tell me all about book details that did and didn't make it in

[hushed onyx]

The Lion King and Hamlet...

[slim thorn]

or when we watched Netflix's Sandman show and I'd read the comics so I got to point out all the changes (and overall I'm extremely happy with it as an adaptation)

[slim thorn]

as a statistical aggregate, strong agree

however I do think there are certain aspects of a story that affect how much change is good or bad for certain adaptations

the easiest example being video game -> TV, if most of that game's story is told by traditional cinematic cutscenes, you can probably get away with "just deleting most of the gameplay" as your adaptation strategy

[river veldt]

"bad adaptations are more common" factoid is actually just statistical error. average adaptation is actually just ok. The Hobbit Georg is a statistical outlier and should not be counted

[astral steeple]

😦

RIP

[random steppe]

Well...I don't know if I agree, the pacing is usually really weird in most games because there is a lot of gameplay in the middle, but I generally agree that you can probably keep the story structure largely resembling the original if you want to

[slim thorn]

yeah it's probably not the optimal adaptation, it was just the simplest example I could think of

(or rather, if "just delete the gameplay" is the optimal adaptation, there was probably something wrong with the game)

[random steppe]

Also there is another problem, if you remove the gameplay in a game where the gameplay is really good, it might actually be that you need to change the story because a lot of games the story is largly just a vector for you to do things in the game.

[mossy flume]

Oh hey, the mechanic on your ship in Helldivers 2 is back

[slim thorn]

I don't think anyone would disagree there

[random steppe]

And maybe it has a handful of good story beats, and a bunch of excuses for you to shoot bad guys in the mouth

[mossy flume]

[slim thorn]

there are a lot of video games where the gameplay is all of the appeal and there's just nothing worth adapting to a non-interactive medium

[random steppe]

Even games that have a good story, The Wichter for example.
There is a lot of fluff in the main story that is there so you can be a witcher because that's a fun activity to engage in

[slim thorn]

true

there's a reason the netflix show is adapting the books, not the games

(well multiple reasons but this is one of them)

[random steppe]

I think adaptations are super interesting.
Even the bad ones, actually sometimes especially the bad ones.

But yeah the act of adapting something from one medium to the other, requires someone to understrand both mediums pretty well.

They need to know why the original worked, and what can be brought over and what can't

And sometimes that is vanishingly little.

[slim thorn]

there have been cases where a brand name is the only thing brought over and somehow that worked anyway

[random steppe]

It's very fun in book adaptations because you usually lose whole characters internal monologues, which is so damn rough.

[slim thorn]

guess which film series I'm thinking of: ||Pirates of the Carribean||

[slim thorn]

I've also heard that the Twilight movies are better than the books because the internal monologue was so bad and you don't have to deal with it in the movies

[random steppe]

lol

Twilight I don't know, I know it's true for 50 shades of grey, thanks to Dan Olson

[quiet swift]

Internal monologues are alive and well in vertical dramas. Usually as a voice over read by the director while we're on set

[cunning galleon]

Perfect 90 degree angle and the torpedo was apparently a dud??

(2TM is target)

A torp clearly hit it's stern but i guess the angle of the stern is too sharp

[cunning galleon]

This is also not early war equipment

It's late war mk18

[hasty patio]

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/report-claims-nvidia-will-not-be-releasing-any-new-rtx-gaming-gpus-in-2026-rtx-60-series-likely-debuting-in-2028

[mossy flume]

Huh, notable gap

[fresh bane]

I want to say that's probably good considering just how little people actually have top of the line high end GPUs right now

[hidden elbow]

Maybe it will be a sign for some devs to not make their games only rtx compatible

[slim thorn]

it's almost certainly a good business decision until the high-end consumer market shows signs of picking back up

[hushed onyx]

I was about to say, lol. Even the late war equipment did still have problems, though--Tang was sunk by a circular-running Mark 18 in October 1944.

[cunning galleon]

I can't for the like of me figure out how all of my torpedoes are duds

[quiet swift]

Hmm. GOG offering a newsletter based discount on JRPGs called Asdivine Dios and Asdivine Menace. Anyone ever heard of these?

[gaunt marten]

Did not hear of them

[quiet swift]

Looks like those two at least seem to be a port from mobile games without the pay to win. Earlier Asdivine games might've not been mobile from what I can tell

[teal sonnet]

That is honestly a blessing

We need to have bigger grabs in hardware

So they can actually cook and have enough for demand so we can have humane prices

[quiet swift]

That and with the ram issues, the current high end GPUs will probably end up being priced at scalper level prices but even by legit retailers

So no one is gonna buy that or a new card that'll be even higher

[quiet swift]

[wind stump]

I love dev rooms.
Also, hidden tech!

[cerulean herald]

[visual hill]

Steam family sharing has blessed me with this recently. 🐺

[gaunt marten]

I bought that game but it didn't run on my machine so I refunded it

[fickle garnet]

Good game

[mossy flume]

Alleged screenshots of in-development prototypes of Pokémon gen 10 have supposedly leaked.

It’s unclear if they’re at all authentic, but they’re screenshots of unfinished play areas. No NPCs or anything other than geography with unfinished lighting and textures. Here’s a link to them ||https://imgur.com/a/tSiLOab#aJWH1hJ||

Supposedly they’re screenshots from a July 2024 build of the games.

[bitter stream]

Does ZA count as a gen? or is it a spin off?

[cerulean herald]

ZA is mainline

[mossy flume]

It’s officially a mainline gen 9 title

[cerulean herald]

as is Legends Arceus (gen 8)

[bitter stream]

oh interesting I didn't realise they were mainline.

Have y'all played ZA? how's the battle system?

[mossy flume]

I have! I think it’s fun, the realtime system is a good idea that I hope they keep exploring and refining

It was really refreshing to me

[cerulean herald]

I played ZA (but no Arceus) it's combat is fun enough for the most part, aside from some jank when it comes to pathfinding and such

[bitter stream]

ah nice nice. Hopefully the combat system sticks around

Idk why, but the recent pokemon mainlines just haven't wow'd me, and I don't know if it's because I'm just not feeling turn based combat or graphics or something else

[mossy flume]

Yeah it has some rough edges, but I feel like they can refine it over time

[mossy flume]

Same

Basically gens 6, 7, 8, and 9 have bored me to death and they kinda just felt phoned in

Z-A hooked me though

[bitter stream]

nods fair enough

I'd love to see another Pokemon Colleseum type game

that was pretty fun, though i wonder if it wouldn't work with how many pokemon exist atm

[cerulean herald]

I do love the reusable TMs, accessing your boxes without needing a PC, freely able to change a Pokémons moves as many times you like, a lot of great QoL features

[bitter stream]

those do sound pretty good

It has a fashion system too right? I remember liking that from XY, and it's really fun to have something to spend pokedollars on that isn't potions and other battle related items.

[cerulean herald]

yeah its pretty customizable
the default options you get from right at the start (charactee creation menu) is pretty bare bones, you'd have to go shopping lol

[bitter stream]

makes sense haha

[cerulean herald]

this be my player character for instance

[bitter stream]

oh wow! nice outfit + pokemon combo

[cerulean herald]

ty!

I took quite a bit of pics, but here's one with my starter

Giga Drain spam is insane

[wind stump]

dino baby

[bitter stream]

cute!

[wind stump]

@bronze abyss FIRST TRIED ALL 3 PHASES
I AM FUCKING CRACKED HOLY SHIT

[bronze abyss]

gg wp ez

whats your badge setup actually?

[wind stump]

kept forgetting to change it, lmao

could have used that extra HP, but eh, i didn't need to use the Golden Carrot, that's a W in my book

Close enough.

I mean, my Town is a lot better than I thought it'd be, ngl

[bronze abyss]

this is where i left off on my playthrough

still havent finished it though cuz a lot of other games are distracting me

[wind stump]

Gunned straight to Vanilla, interesting strat

Guessing you got the shoes first, then went to Sky Bridge?

[bronze abyss]

think so yeah

[wind stump]

(You can actually recuit Lilith as your first if you're crazy enough.)

[bronze abyss]

dont tempt me

[wind stump]

trust i did it

[bronze abyss]

alright thats enough motivation to fire up rabi ribi after like...almost a year of not playing

[wind stump]

There's also a sequence break to the Before Next Adventure DLC that gives you an achievement too

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

i think this is BFA content, I don't remember

all i remember is that this is an actual sequence break that skips you into the post-game if you decide to like, continue, I believe

ah no it's Chapter 7, so before BNA, but after main story.

[gaunt marten]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1511950/Magellania/

Steam

Magellania

After the rulers of the other planets turn down his birthday invitations, Prince Lofty of Pluto decides to invade their kingdoms and force them to attend.

• Travel the Solar System reimagined in a new light. Visit planets and collect CDs to change the BGM for certain scenarios.
  • Assemble a team from a diverse selection of classes. Defeat enemy fa…

Price

$9.99

100% off. Neat style

[random steppe]

WH40k Rogue Trader is so silly, I love it.
You have this ship you have inherited, and so far it has been a clown car of weirdos.
||Sometimes you are just going around the star system and your people go "oh btw, The Blood cult aboard your ship would like to have a chat with you, they brought gifts"||

||"Dude, we had a blood cult? And it was so low in the scale of relevant information that it wasn't even adressed so far? Sure I guess"||

Sure I guess, a girl has to have hobbies after all

Oh wait, ||she is a recuitable companion? What the hell ||

[green fulcrum]

I mean, aren't those ships you control basically floating cities in space? Millions of people aboard?

So it kinda makes sense that there'd be a few weirdos that slip through the cracks

[random steppe]

This one is on the smaller side I believe, thousands

[green fulcrum]

But yes, I need to play this game. Once I finish the Avernum 4 remake I'm getting into this one.

[arctic fern]

most things that would be automated even today are done by hand in the 41st millennium

[indigo pine]

observe this osha violation

win :3

[quiet swift]

🤩

[quiet swift]

Getting back to this (roblox's new AI tool immediately copying E33), finally got around to downloading the video about it and it's unbelievably blatant.

[slim thorn]

that's... not even a "cave"...

[shell shore]

Guys remember to pause your game when your taking a drink, something walked into the room i was in and i spit my drink all over my dog😭

[fickle garnet]

That's not Expedition 33, that's Journey 22😭

[quiet swift]

[rancid herald]

it's a philosophical cave

[random steppe]

Ok another thing that I absolutely love in Rogue Trader, is that in almost every encounter, being someone important you are given the option to have one of your party members announce you.

It's fucking funny.

[quiet swift]

This sounds like as a fellow crpg (I think this is one?) fan, you're telling me to play this next

[random steppe]

Yes, I refrained on release because I heard it was pretty buggy.
They recently did a big balance patch and I heard it was in a good place so I started, it's great so far

Bit of an advice, crank the difficulty on this one

Started in normal and it was really really easy

I upped it once and I'm probably going to up it again

But yeah, getting in a room, finding a bunch of cultists that want me dead and going "ABELARD; ANNOUNCE ME!!" really sells the fantasy, they did a great job

So far the biggest flaw is that it's not fully voice acted.
But it's good enough that it's worth it

[green fulcrum]

It's Owlcat, it's always gonna be buggy. But it's also always gonna be awesome regardless. Their writing is, without a doubt, some of the best I've ever seen in the CRPG genre.

I'd even go so far as to say that Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is one of THE best-written games I've ever played.

[random steppe]

In this one, I like how they did the buying gear and trading in general

You are a Rogue Trader, it makes zero sense for you to go to a shop and buy a piece of random armor, since you are meant to own fleets and put planets under your protection.
So the way they did it, is by reputation and a value that is called "profict factor"

When you meet a new faction that you can trade with, you talk to their representative, and as long as you meet the profit factor required for the item, and you have high enough standing with that faction, you can have it.

Simply, with enough profict factor you can just afford stuff, you don't have to spend it as long as you are wealthy enough

[fresh bane]

There's a streamer I watch who's familiar with Owlcat games and likes WH40K a lot
whenever Rogue Trader is brought up, he always mentions how the game looks so cool, and that he can't wait for it to get actually finished and released

but I guess it's finally there now

I remember thinking it looked really cool back when it had actually first released and he streamed some of it, but it would be the first of this sort of genre I play and I also wasn't sure if I, who has no idea about anything 40K related, would get a lot out of playing it

[random steppe]

It's a good game and it does a good job of introducing everything if you pick the right dialogue options

Like, everytime you meet someone from some faction, the game doesn't assume you just know who they are, you can pretty much always pick something that says "tell me more about what you do here" or some equivalent

[fresh bane]

Oh yeah I did see the game has a little glossary for a bunch of 40K related terms and titles or whatever that you can hover over while in dialogue to get more info on certain lore things

that is super cool

I actually really like that, it feels like reading the manual when playing a tabletop game

[random steppe]

A bunch of terms in dialogues are also highlighed and you can hover them to get some more quick non exaustive info

[green fulcrum]

I mean, in fairness, that's a standard CRPG text option

[quiet swift]

checks his library

Huh, I don't have it yet

[random steppe]

Yeah but like, this being an extremely well established franchise, it's a bit less obvious it'd happen

[green fulcrum]

What I like about Owlcat's in-game conversations is that they highlight various names and phrases within dialogue, and when you hover over them they open up more boxes filled to the brim with lore about whatever that name is from and what it means

For example, let's say they talk about Lord Whatchamacallit III of House Mushrump. Both the lord's name and the House name will be highlighted, and more context for each one will be provided if you hover over them.

As well as a brief history

And like, I like that, that shows that a lot of thought, care, and passion was put into the writing and the worldbuilding.

[fresh bane]

Yeah I think that's the mechanic I meant

It's really really nice and appreciated

[river veldt]

holy shit Mewgenics is getting like 10s across the board

[random steppe]

This so far has been the mechanic I liked the most, plust the fact that all the loot you pick up, like, let's say, 20 random armor from a bunch of people you killed, you just pack into the cargo of your ship in neat little packages and you trade them for reputation.
Like, you don't trade in singple pieces of gear, you trade in shipments of gear

[mossy flume]

What does this sentence mean?

What's Mewgenics?

[fresh bane]

So is it more like a story set in the 40K world where you're some nobody or is it like some big lore game?

[river veldt]

new Edmund McMillen game

he made Binding of Isaac

[mossy flume]

Oh that guy

Huh

[river veldt]

im so excited

[random steppe]

It's a story that starts with you becoming a Rogue Trader, that in 40k lore are some of the most powerful individuals in the Imperium of Man, and it's definitely set up to be a big epic journey from the get go.

Hence my absolute need to have Abelard intoduce me at every possible opportunity

[fresh bane]

Right, I don't know if that question made much sense actually
I guess what I mean is, if it were Star Wars for example, are you like Trader McTraderson guy shipping cargo across the galaxy sort of thing following your own story and your own little adventure in the world or are you like, hanging out with Luke Skywalker and getting caught up in and playing a part in a big lore event sort of deal
...does that make sense?

I don't even know if 40K operates like that though, since I know nothing about it

[random steppe]

You are kind of shoved into the events if you want it or not, but can definitely play the willing partecipant.
Rogue Traders aren't traders in the SW sense, Rogue Traders are more like, high nobles that go around the galaxy that go and put planets under their protection.

Or in general, do whatever they kind of want to

[fresh bane]

I see
I mostly asked because I wanted to know if it's a sort of standalone experience enough that you could just go into it knowing nothing about this world or anything, sort of as your own little story set in this world rather than taking part in some big lore event like the Rebel-Empire war and having to know all these moving parts about what's going on sort of thing

[random steppe]

Okay, a feature of the 40k universe, is that it's big and spans a very large amount of time.

There are some rare events that are felt across the universe, but for the most part, even an epic huge adventure that end up with the destruction of entire star systems, end up being relatively minor events in the grand scheme of an Imperium that span over 1 million inhabited worlds

So it's kind of both, it's big in scale, but it's also not really something that other works will likely have to reference going forward unles they really want to

Unless they happen to be in the exact same pocket of space

I don't know if any of the worlds that are seen in this were even seen before in any other work for example, in SW terms, I don't think you go to Tatooine.

That said I haven't finished it yet, maybe you go someplace famous.

[fresh bane]

Ah I see

[fresh bane]

Yeah fair enough, that's a good enough answer

[mossy flume]

Heck. The Guild Wars 2 soundtrack has been re-released. After so many years of being in copyright hell.

https://materia.store/products/guild-wars-2-original-soundtrack-4xlp-vinyl-boxset

Also now on streaming services

Materia Collective seems to now own the distribution rights/and at least some of the copyright.

There must've been some serious shenanigans if they wrested that from Jeremy Soule.

[river veldt]

oh god Materia Collective

they manage Toby Fox's soundtracks too

[mossy flume]

Yeah, Materia Collective is awesome

[arctic fern]

https://youtu.be/PzO1b-sm9dw

[tiny wigeon]

Get fixed boi seed is the most frustrating thing ever

The entire world is corruption/crimson

Bees everywhere

The surface is in space

The entire world is underground

And as you can see, spawn rates are just obnoxious

[little badger]

Horse comes to Heartopia https://youtu.be/gpXYuk5CFnY?si=fdonOm8A6WYi2_B_

[astral steeple]

https://youtu.be/cuUd3a72L5U

Open world thomas game???????

[gaunt marten]

& Knuckles

[cunning galleon]

That's not a lot

Hold on hold on

Mattel is giving this the greenlight?

CLASSIC thomas theme too

They've never used that since.. The model era

No obnoxious Thomas talking? Just them

It's just them going

Yea, season 13 they changed themes https://youtu.be/ExDGm7pdmUY

Not even season 13

They've never used that theme since season 8

[little badger]

Yeah it’s a full open world standalone game

[cunning galleon]

Probably not full as of now

Maybe from tidmouth to crovan's gate

I'd be impressed if they made it up to Vickerstown, and even having the claypit mines

But the character line up seems pretty lax

If it spans the entire map, they're missing the narrow gauge gang, miniature railway, dockyard engines like salty

Hell, they're fucking missing EDWARD

But I'm getting my hopes up because the models look great

Probably pulled from the show but the show models are also great

[cunning galleon]

Even if he's ingame.. Why isn't he in the lineup

Seriously? Sir topham hatt can be driveable

[little badger]

https://wondersofsodor.com/gb

[cunning galleon]

Holy shit it does span to vicarstown

Not a fan of the troublesome trucks

I prefer the model series ones they look really funny

Oh it's just TSW

Britt Allcroft still getting the recognition is great

Thanks, Mrs. Allcroft 💖

[cunning galleon]

Look at him, just a Lil guy

Them

I love this show so much, does it show?

[little badger]

Better play the intro theme music when you start it up

[cunning galleon]

I have an odd connection to old trainz 2004 addons

[sacred grove]

I know this is going to make a certain YouTuber/animator very happy

[cunning galleon]

UnluckyTug?

[sacred grove]

There's this person who crosses over Thomas with MLP, and their animations are oddly really good

[gaunt marten]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/500597484211404992?l=english

Steam introduces optional dates for early access games, letting them display when they intend to launch

2) When in doubt, wait. Setting a specific calendar date can cause confusion or disappointment if you end up missing that date. Building and maintaining trust with your community is an important part of Early Access, and there is no pressure to establish a 1.0 release time far in advance.

I think this is entirely unnecessary

[random steppe]

I think it's good that it exists as an option

Like, the devs that are confident on their shipping date, are probably putting it in other places anyway

That way that information is more immediatly accessible directly on the store, without having to go dig in blogs and stuff

Plus it's something they can add as they get closer to 1.0 release

So someone that goes and check on the game, they see "oh, the full release is a week away, that's awesome" and not just go away because they see it's in early access and who knows when it comes out

[rugged flax]

what're you up to Sean

[bitter stream]

I'm watching Sean!

I honestly thought they might be done, but there's another update coming

[shell shore]

That 100% should be called the tree of life

[bitter stream]

oh whoa! is that PREY? hope you have fun with it, I can't comment, I've only played a little bit

[shell shore]

YEAH, prey was my first video game so i decided to replay it

[bitter stream]

Hell yeah,

[slim thorn]

it's definitely a game that wants to be replayed

[cunning galleon]

This cool war thunder render of the Cologne tank duel

It took out a Sherman moments before hesitating on shooting a Super Pershing

[rustic veldt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m3wnCtWxRI

This is... something?

This is from the steam page tho (Of the game)

[cunning galleon]

I mean, it's not used in creation of content

[astral steeple]

https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-patents-system-to-generate-ai-podcasts-in-the-voices-of-your-favorite-playstation-characters

Why

[cunning galleon]

They think it brings them money

[gaunt marten]

They patented Google's podcast generator?

[rancid herald]

reject joe rogan podcast, embrace Aloy of the Nora Podcast. Today's episode: Aloy smokes weed with Laura Croft

[fresh bane]

Last night I played a little bit of Tomb Raider Anniversary because I got tired of not knowing a single thing about this franchise and stuff about TR kept popping up lately
now I always knew you fought dinosaurs in this game, I just wasn't ready for how quickly it would happen

[fresh bane]

not directed at you specifically but I happened to find this drawing precisely about people calling her Laura instead of Lara

[indigo pine]

her name is tomb rider

[fresh bane]

I guess if I end up liking Anniversary more I'll add the remasters to my wishlist and properly get into the games and see what the whole deal is, so far Anniversary is really fun

[minor plover]

the real Lara is way more triangular than that

[quiet swift]

🚩

[minor plover]

yep that's her

[fresh bane]

you're not wrong

https://tenor.com/view/lara-croft-tomb-raider-angry-gif-13282398

they did grace her with more polygons on the second one

it's probably not gonna be too noticeable on the remasters but they did get better and better with the visuals even though they're all within a pretty close timeframe

I think the remaster lets you toggle between the original and the remastered visuals though

[visual hill]

consider the following: Lava_Croft

(that's someone from the Quake 2 community :P)

[fresh bane]

[cunning galleon]

Got me on my knees

[dense crypt]

hmph, this triangles my breasts.

[teal sonnet]

I do play wait not have

[indigo pine]

Godzilla had a stroke trying to read this and died

[green fulcrum]

Reminds me of this classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqTpHhaKtL8

Just listen to this video if you want to feel like you've stepped into an alternate reality. Watch it while high for an even better time, lol

[slim thorn]

ah, same energy as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w

[green fulcrum]

There was one about cars too, I think. Somewhere in...Nebraska? Arkansas? I forget where.

[little badger]

State of play on the 12th

[chilly mural]

https://bsky.app/profile/gamedeveloper.bsky.social/post/3mehaha43rc2e

Game Developer (@gamedeveloper.bsky.social)

Riot Games lays off roughly 80 employees from 2XKO team

-# Riot Games lays off roughly 80 employees from 2XKO team
'Overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term.'

Bluesky · Feb 9, 2026, 8:01 PM

[wind stump]

SKUL

[fresh bane]

''thank you for working over half a decade and restarting development on this game once or twice, we really appreciate it, now if you'd please empty your desk by the end of the day''

[teal sonnet]

That is some insane bad management

[arctic fern]

riot is the definition of bad management

[fresh bane]

Riot will literally shoot itself in the foot in the face and in the arm and wonder ''why am I bleeding out right now???''

[green fulcrum]

They somehow choked with Hytale, a game that even after basically getting killed twice still sold something like 2 million copies on launch day of early access.

[indigo pine]

yes

[teal sonnet]

Riot fucking up with Hytale was insane

they had a possible Minecraft in their hands

and they fucked up

[indigo pine]

they already had a cash cow. they didn't need a second one

[gaunt marten]

But cows usually come in groups

[fresh bane]

I don't even know what Hytale is I completely missed that entire thing

so I don't know what happened but I'm not surprised if it's Riot involved that they fucked it up

[cerulean herald]

another block game from the ppl who are behind the Hypixel Minecraft Server
its early access but looks pretty promising

development history for Hytale was..pretty rough to put it lightly

[fresh bane]

2XKO took like 9-10 years of development and went through like 1 or 2 restarts in development, they definitely at least completely scrapped everything and restarted the whole process at least once

and that League of Legends MMORPG is going the exact same route too

there's absolutely zero word on it, probably restarted development, probably has been in the works for at least over 6 years at this point

Legends of Runeterra was super good, they killed that one
There were multiple League of Legends related games that came out, a Metroidvania starring Ekko, a roguelike starring Sylas, the Ruined King RPG, and a couple other ones

but they never bothered to even advertise those at all and they went by unnoticed and Riot ended up just killing Riot Forge anyways

It's maddening how little they seem to know how to run their company and projects

[teal sonnet]

only thing they manage to make work was TFT

because its literally in the same launcher as LOL

[fresh bane]

https://fxbsky.app/profile/pattheflip.bsky.social/post/3meh7ko2g2k2g

Smokage of the Burning Leaf (@pattheflip.bsky.social)

Ten years on 2XKO, 12 at Riot and I got laid off with 30min notice lol
︀︀
︀︀Gonna take some time.

**🔁 322 ❤️ 1.1K **

FxBluesky · Feb 9, 2026, 7:45 PM

this is just stupid at this point

you know how people keep saying ''man videogames are gonna have a crash'', this is the crash, it's been crashing for years at this point

you could work your ass off for so many years and it doesn't even matter, literally straight up does not matter whether you worked hard on a project and whether it ends up successful or not

whether you stay employed is purely a coin toss at this point

[slim thorn]

at this point half the reason to support indie devs is that in that market there's still some semblance of a connection between what people choose to spend money on and how rewarded the creators get for it

[fresh bane]

https://fxbsky.app/profile/wistfulhopes.bsky.social/post/3mehdt5zis222

Ryn (@wistfulhopes.bsky.social)

anyway i made a patched version of 2xko that doesn't require vanguard for archival reasons, can't connect to servers (obviously) but it also allows modding so there's the potential to reimplement online for when the game inevitably sunsets

**🔁 20 ❤️ 45 **

FxBluesky · Feb 9, 2026, 9:01 PM

[gaunt marten]

Yes! The majority of your video game spending should go to smaller groups, who are more accountable, more in-tune with what you want, and not beholden to other stakeholders

[quiet swift]

I believe it was something like a full quarter of all gamedev workers in the industry got layed off last year?

[slim thorn]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022–2025_video_game_industry_layoffs look at the quarter-by-quarter chart here

[quiet swift]

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/one-third-of-us-games-industry-workers-were-laid-off-in-the-last-2-years-gdc-survey-says/

A third, jesus

And heck, I am no game dev, was just customer support for games, but you can include me in that list for 2024 from EA customer support

[mossy flume]

Absolutely bonkers

[bitter stream]

T_T that sucks.

[visual hill]

Not all heroes wear capes...

[green fulcrum]

Sounds like some new indie studios are in order.

[quiet swift]

Yes and no. A lot of it is due to covid, how money seemed to be flowing like water for studios, shareholders / venture capitalists/etc all thinking that the huge numbers increase from covid could be sustained. But that's obviously not the case and a lot of the money that existed has vanished. It's much, much harder to go indie nowadays

[green fulcrum]

shareholders / venture capitalists/etc all thinking that the huge numbers increase from covid could be sustained.

What is it with these people and being short-sighted idiots who can't understand that it's impossible to just grow exponentially forever?

[quiet swift]

[green fulcrum]

It's like they're living in an entirely different universe

And are just completely blind to reality

Well, even if going indie is a lot harder these days, I hope those devs are able to get back on their feet soon.

One way or another

[quiet swift]

A fair amount are just leaving the game industry entirely

Plus with the vibe coding / ai coding coming in, a lot of shit in the air when trying to find a job

[slim thorn]

the latest updates I've read about AI funding imply that the bubble has gotten so absurd there's signs the market is literally running out of venture capital to pump into it

[quiet swift]

I think it was in #science-and-tech ? something about a $10 trillion bubble

[slim thorn]

the number I remember is 2 trillion (for what they have to make to pay off all the investors, I think?) but I wouldn't be surprised if a 10 came up in a different calculation

[quiet swift]

https://intellectia.ai/news/stock/ai-investment-cycle-estimated-to-reach-10-trillion

[slim thorn]

-# I'm so glad I picked a boring stable job instead of video game programming

[quiet swift]

I would've thought that acting was decently safe, up until a few years ago~

[rancid herald]

(Ixrec programs horse stables)

[fresh bane]

programming horses on the other hand

or hoof

[quiet swift]

(what is even the status of sweetie bot these days)

[slim thorn]

inexplicably still alive

[quiet swift]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc6siQbzv9o this is all i remember

[visual hill]

engine programming still feels like the most stable job in gaming

[rancid herald]

She's gone rogue and had herself sent back to the 1970s to kill john connor

[slim thorn]

everything we care about has been moved to Izzy (or built-in Discord features) for years so we'll be unharmed if Sweetie just randomly goes dark one day

[visual hill]

either that, or be in a highly sought after position (tech art, physics/audio programming)

[rancid herald]

unfortunately, she fell into a pile of crack cocaine after popping out of the time bubble and hasn't been doing much since

[quiet swift]

Might I interest you in an anime that mixes something Hatsune Miku-ish with Terminator (but the robot instead gets sent back in time to stop the robot apocalypse)?

[rancid herald]

that's literally just terminator 2

[quiet swift]

I don't remember Arnie looking like Hatsune Miku

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y653dJQ_ecs

[bitter stream]

so what's the gist of this anime? They have to become an idol to save the world?

[quiet swift]

Nah, they go back to their same body a hundred years ago, and find out exactly what was the inflection point of why the AI went rogue in her original time. It's not just one point, she goes through the entire 100 years finding things out and trying to change things that she (and the other ai that accompanies her virtually) think had a large influence on things

It was very good but sadly not too popular. Deserved a lot more attention too. Music was great, there's some fights (one on one) that were fantastically animated too

[indigo pine]

look at dis adorable goober

[bitter stream]

fair enough Tcher, I'll add it to my list to check out

[fickle garnet]

The MGS3 remake is soo good

[bitter stream]

glad you're enjoying it. What makes it so good?

[fickle garnet]

The gameplay is very fun

[visual hill]

MGS Delta is a very good looking game, but it needs a fast PC

the original has also aged quite well visually, with Master Collection + mods

I have Master Collection thanks to family sharing, but I don't have MGS Delta

[fickle garnet]

I have it on ps5, got it for Christmas. I'm really pissed off, cuz I'm pretty far into the game and I have one singular kill😭

I wanted to finish it without any kills to get the achievement😔

[visual hill]

I don't care about non-lethal personally

[fickle garnet]

I can definitely do it, I just need to do another playthrough

[visual hill]

I find stealth games more fun if you allow yourself to be violent, especially in games where stealth is clunky (hello Deus Ex)

Thief is a bit different, because you need Expert difficulty to experience the full game. Most missions forbid killing on Expert, sometimes knocking out or worse, getting into any confrontations

[slim thorn]

it's been a long time since I played a proper stealth game, but back when I did I always went for max stealth because a kill always felt like taking the easy way out instead of "solving it properly"

(there's probably a correlation there; I have way less time nowadays and the way I like to play stealth games is very time consuming)

[quiet swift]

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/remedys-new-ceo-is-a-former-sports-betting-guy-and-ea-executive-who-aims-to-scale-remedy-in-a-way-that-builds-lasting-value/

🪦

[river veldt]

oh god no

[bitter stream]

oh dear, i hope that's a not an ominous sign for that companies employees

[mossy flume]

[fickle garnet]

Please no

[quiet swift]

Enshittification continues 🙁

[quiet swift]

Meanwhile, this? https://www.eurogamer.net/blizzard-reportedly-partnering-with-nexon-to-revive-starcraft

Could be interesting... a starcraft ghost revival, kinda?

But with it being nexon, who knows

[hidden elbow]

You know playing Banjo Kazooie made me think maybe i should check out Yooka Laylee replayee , the original while wasn't as bad as people said was definitely lacking in a lot of aspects , impossible lair was amazing (being developed by DK country returns/tropical freeze devs it was destined to be good) and replayee looks like a good overhaul of the first game

[arctic fern]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1850570/DEATH_STRANDING_DIRECTORS_CUT/ death stranding is 75% off, is it worth it?

Steam

DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT

From legendary game creator Hideo Kojima comes a genre-defying experience, now expanded in this definitive DIRECTOR’S CUT.

In the future, a mysterious event known as the Death Stranding has opened a doorway between the living and the dead, leading to grotesque creatures from the afterlife roaming the fallen world marred by a desolate society\…

Price

$9.99

Recommendations

41524

Metacritic

85

[dense crypt]

It's kind of a walking sim game with occasional horror elements. I like it, but it's definitely also got a lot of cutscenes.

[random steppe]

If you have a taste for Kojima bullshit, there is an awesome story,a very unique gameplay loop, and a truly engrossing world in there.

But it's really Kojima at its most Kojima, so you kinda have to be okay with that

[proud warren]

out of curiosity, what exactly is "Kojima bullshit"?

[random steppe]

The way I like to define it, is that he tells smart stories for dumb people.
That's not to say that people that like those games are dumb, but more that the point of the story is hammered so unsubtly that is almost possible to miss.

[proud warren]

blaring story beats, got it

[random steppe]

The stories are interesting, but if you are anywhere near sentient you probably are gonna to "get it" at the 2nd time they explain to you the themes, and have to endure them repeating it the subsequent 12 times

[green fulcrum]

Ah, the Netflix Method.

[random steppe]

There is enough depth in it to really get something out of it though, I respect Death Standing a lot for that, but yeah, it's not a subtle game

[arctic fern]

well its only £9

[random steppe]

It is really good, also kinda of a goated podcast game when you aren't doing major story beats.

Pretty well optimised too as far as I can remember

[teal sonnet]

This game was dead the moment they named it 2XKO

that alone shows how disconnect people in charge are with everything

[cunning galleon]

This tank took me a year

The end result my beloved Panzerkampfwagen VI "Tiger" Ausfuhrung E (Mid-War)

This is based on the Last tiger to fall in Berlin because it has the early war rubber roadwheels opposed to the late war steel roadwheels, and instead of an early war turret to match the roadwheels, they mounted a later Turret

Well, the last tiger was my irl basis because the blue archive tiger was low poly

Oh, the last tiger in Berlin was an early war Tiger

[wind stump]

Unwelcome School in the background

[little badger]

Creator of split fiction is making a new game

arm totally not hiding anything

[arctic fern]

that is a very funny pic lol

[little badger]

@green fulcrum @fresh bane

Whisper sounds so much like Fluttershy!

Their voices start at 4:28 https://youtu.be/-8vf3Rs3YTY?si=4m0qqcOXlfL89mUf

[frozen gate]

you know

[frozen gate]

oh no yeah that's what i was gunna say

"you know it'd probably be perfect if whisper was just voiced by fluttershy"

[random steppe]

@arctic fern you reminded me that Wall World 2 is a thing, I love the 1st one, how does it compare?

[arctic fern]

i dunno

in some ways better, others worse

one was focused on one long run if i recall, but 2 is very much lots of small-medium runs

you pick an area on the wall to go to

each area is more chalenging and has one specific resource that you use to upgrade things mid run and anything left brogght back to base for perminant ugrades

[random steppe]

It's still a blank slate every new run like the first one right?

[arctic fern]

uuuh