general gaming

[mossy flume]

Yeah, not surprising. The instability and management model of the games industry would indeed result in an insanely unsustainable attrition rate.

[green fulcrum]

I wonder if we're gonna eventually see a full-scale revolution/reboot of the gaming and entertainment industries with brand new indie studios.

[arctic fern]

Yes

[cerulean herald]

a remake, if you will

[arctic fern]

A remaster

[mossy flume]

Some might argue that we're in the middle of such a shift as we speak, with high production indie titles going around these days, such as E33, Hollow Knight, Hades...

Games which are giving AAA game studios a run for their money and viable competition for game awards, sales, and general mindshare

The democratization of game engines has certainly been a massive help in enabling this

[wheat aurora]

I think there's going to be an increasingly wide rift between two communities

The community of "involved" gamers, which I assume is everyone here, that plays big games like RPGs and platformers and just kinda like, involved games and that know their way around the scene

And the "casual" gamers that will keep playing fifa and call of duty until the sun explodes

[mossy flume]

There's also been a quiet boom in FOSS and free/low-cost alternatives to Adobe and Autodesk software, which, in turn, massively reduces the barrier to entry.

[rare dew]

I just play whatever game seems good

And I'm not aware of anyone involved in production being a complete piece of shit

[slim thorn]

it's kinda wild reading about this period of extra instability, because I picked my current job in part because I didn't want the instability of game dev, even back then

[mossy flume]

Indeed. By the time I made it to college I had already basically given up on my dream of getting into game dev because of the instability of the industry. Since then it has only gotten worse.

[bitter stream]

yeah fair enough

[fickle garnet]

Bloodborne is mildly difficult (and by mildly I mean infuriatingly difficult)

[bitter stream]

is it fun to play though? if not, maybe the juice ain't worth the squeeze

[fickle garnet]

It is fun

I'm just being silly

[bitter stream]

nice nice

[fickle garnet]

The difficulty is mostly manageable

[indigo pine]

ive been playing mindusrty. this is the latest sector

[bitter stream]

okay, what am I looking at? laser game? base building?

[visual hill]

Mindustry

[gaunt marten]

With mindustry you build on resources to harvest them, build conveyor belts to convey resources to your main base, and build defenses to protect it

[bitter stream]

ah ok, neat

[winter cargo]

Isn't that factorio too?

[mossy flume]

Yeah, Mindustry and Factorio are very similar.

[cerulean herald]

lotta factory games
they mass produce "fun"

[gaunt marten]

Mindustry is factorio with a lot more focus on the tower defense

[arctic fern]

Its a factower defencory game

[indigo pine]

great example. this is an defencive wall. this was.. all i needed for a round. but i tend to overprepare

and this is the entire defense structure [i am slightly annoyed you cant zoom out further]

scratch that. i found it

here is the full setup.

i go by the phylosophy "cant hide from my air coverage. if i cover the entire map with flak

[river veldt]

Master Chief Collection is on sale for 10 buckazoids if anyone here hasn't ever played it. great value

[cerulean herald]

been thinking of buying it, any tips or stuff for someone who never played Halo and doesnt know much about it

[river veldt]

uhhh

well my problem with it was that i was playing it like a Doom game when it is, in fact, a Halo game if you're like me and are used to faster paced boomer shooters Halo can take some getting used to due to it being slower, and only having two weapons rather than 8

[cerulean herald]

[river veldt]

when you meet it on it's terms it's a great games though

[ripe mica]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnsJSjArVs4

[slim thorn]

what kinds of shooters have you played?

I might be able to get more specific than "play Halo like a Halo game"

[cerulean herald]

The Finals is really the only multiplayer shooter I played
ig Fallout 4 is the latest "shooter" I played

[slim thorn]

ah

well, no RPG mechanics in Halo then

what was The Finals like...

hm, seems not that dissimilar in the core loop

well I'll just say this then

obviously the single player Halos are gonna have way less loadout customization than a modern live service multiplayer frenzy

but the general idea of run, shoot, use cover to not get shot, that's pretty consistent

you do want to think a lot about what weapon you're using since all the Halos let you pick up/swap weapons with whatever you find throughout the levels

but mostly it's the kind of PvE shooter where you want to see the enemies in each new "room"/firefight, think about how to engage them for a second before alerting them to your presence, and if you do things right save a lot of ammo or take a lot less damage than if you just ran around mashing buttons

especially if you choose to play on Heroic

(do not pick Legendary your first time; even for veterans some levels are just completely unbalanced on that difficulty lol)

[cerulean herald]

yeah I'll do normal difficulty

[slim thorn]

fair, Normal's the one where a "good" player can kinda make run-and-gun work

personally I think Halo's at its best around Heroic where the enemies are smart enough to really pose a danger and force you to use your toolkit optimally, but ofc that's at my current skill/experience level and it's often best to start lower and work your way up

anyway, since you said MCC it's also worth talking about the specific games

(if you care about story, then either play in release order, or start with Reach since it's the prequel)

Halo 1 is the oldest and in many ways the simplest one. I personally have replayed it the most, in part because I tend to like relatively simple shooters with a smaller number of well-designed weapons and enemies to keep track of. On the other hand, some of 1's levels are easily the weakest in the franchise due to far too many copy-pasted rooms.

Halo 2 has a lot of great new ideas but it's also the jankiest IMO because so many of those ideas were new. This is where they add dual-wielding, vehicle hijacking, playing as one of the aliens, lots of new weapons/enemies/etc.

Halo 3 is easily the most polished one, probably my 2nd favorite in the MCC. In many ways it's all the ideas of 1 and 2 simply done better this time. If you're here purely to see what the best possible Halo gameplay experience is, consider starting here and just accepting the story being out of order.

[cerulean herald]

I'd probably start from the beginning

[slim thorn]

cool

[mossy flume]

Yep, just doing them in release order is probably best

Or starting with Reach, either way

[cerulean herald]

does Reach make references to the other games

[mossy flume]

Agreed. I’ve done Legendary on all of them, but Heroic is where it’s most fun IMO

[slim thorn]

Reach is the one I don't think I ever got around to replaying. It's also great but I honestly don't recall specifics about gameplay differences; I imagine it's similarly good to 3 since it's from that same era and they'd pretty much nailed the formula at that point. Story-wise, Reach is a prequel, and it takes a very different tone in part because it's not following the Master Chief.

[mossy flume]

It’s a prequel to Halo 1, based on the book, so no

[slim thorn]

oh very much so, the final mission of Reach is literally making the opening of Halo 1 possible by defending the ship Halo 1 starts on

[mossy flume]

Oh, in that way, yeah

Yeah, Reach happens immediately before the events of Halo 1

[slim thorn]

and then Halo 4 is the one only I like

[cerulean herald]

oh then I'll do release order then

[mossy flume]

Halo 1’s opening is like 2 minutes after the conclusion of Reach

[cerulean herald]

what exactly is the differences between Heroic mode and "Normal" mode

[slim thorn]

like most games, the main difference between difficulties is damage dealt and taken

[river veldt]

i'm trying my best ok !

[mossy flume]

Normal is the casual player difficulty

[slim thorn]

Halo is one of the rare cases where this simple difference is enough to force you to actually employ different tactics, instead of just doing the same thing but more tediously. But as far as I know it is just damage sliders. I don't think the AI is dumber on easy, just that its smartness matters less?

[mossy flume]

Heroic is when you know the mechanics well and want a balanced experience that’ll challenge you without being too hard as an experienced player. Legendary is tuned for a serious, unfair challenge

Yeah I think Easy just has even less health for the enemies?

And less damage taken

Story mode

[slim thorn]

The way I like to think about it is: If MC and an Elite are looking directly at each other, and just start unloading all their ammo, on Normal MC always wins. On Heroic MC wins if he/you can aim competently. On Legendary, MC only wins if he outmaneuvered the Elite first or is shooting from partial cover or something.

[river veldt]

i only have played on Normal so far

[slim thorn]

when I replay these on Legendary I spend a lot of time playing duck hunt/whack-a-mole where the Elite and I both poke our heads out of cover and try to punish the other for doing it, but little does he know I moved to the other side of the cover where he wasn't aiming and then maybe I win if my aim is perfect...

[river veldt]

i remember liking Halo 2 more than Halo 1 though

[mossy flume]

That’s a common sentiment

They’re both very good but for different reasons

[slim thorn]

was it the library

[mossy flume]

Hehe

[slim thorn]

you're allowed to say the library sucked

[river veldt]

honestly probably im on that level on my replay and it's such an insane slog

[mossy flume]

Library is a crazy level

Like, I get it, but man…… it is only a slog

[slim thorn]

honestly half the reason I played Halo 1 the most is probably that I'm the kind of person who looks at a great level copy-pasted four times into a mediocre level and go "holy shit, four cakes!" instead of "wow that was a slog"

still, I'm not redoing library on legendary anytime soon

[mossy flume]

Library is the one level in Halo 1 I don’t care for. The rest are fine.

[river veldt]

ye

[slim thorn]

even Two Betrayals has a completely different path through the level with way more vehicles and totally different enemy arrangements, it's not just Assault on the Control Room but backwards

[fickle garnet]

Fuck the Library

[slim thorn]

could 343 really not have just lowered the thing a few floors

(I'm also the one guy who thinks Halo 5 is one of the best but it's not in the MCC so blargh)

[cerulean herald]

RIP

[fickle garnet]

Blocked/j

I didn't get far into halo 5

I'm pretty sure halo 5 was the only one my dad liked

I like Halo 1-3 plus Reach, Halo 4 was okay but not my favourite, I barely played 5, and Infinite was kinda just disappointing

Never played ODST tho

[cerulean herald]

how long do Halo games usually take to beat, on average

[fickle garnet]

A few hours iirc

Maybe at most 10, but it's been awhile since I've played any of them

[hushed onyx]

I've never actually played Halo itself, so Halo 3 or Reach would have to take the cake...hard to choose between them...

Mostly I just played them on co-op with my brother, so Legendary wasn't that bad overall.

[winter cargo]

I thought the final mission of reach was ||dying like a true warrior, in battle||

[fickle garnet]

It is, yeah

[winter cargo]

Depends on the difficulty and how good you are at using your kit. And how much shenanigans you can tolerate from Halo 2

[slim thorn]

that mission is many things

[winter cargo]

When I played Halo 2 at 16, it was my favorite game til reach came along. When I played it at 37... oh boy

I don't know if it's MCC's bugginess or what, but I've noticed some... problems

[slim thorn]

depends heavily on skill level and which difficulty you pick, but if you're playing at a difficulty that mostly doesn't slow you down I would expect maybe 5-15 hours per game, depending on how much you rush the main story objectives?

nah Halo 2 was always the jankiest one

[winter cargo]

You mean enemies always fell into level geometery?

[slim thorn]

oh, well that level of bug I don't think I've had in any Halo game in MCC or when they were new

bugs tend not to find me

[fickle garnet]

Same

[winter cargo]

Also DAO, do not play Halo 2 on Legendary. Just a fair bit of warning

[slim thorn]

I think 2 is the only one I never fully cleared on legendary

[winter cargo]

Unless you love playing a game of, "Where is the Jackal Sniper that put a hole through my head and sent me back to the checkpoint"

[slim thorn]

not that DAO's at risk of making that mistake, given their statements earlier

[winter cargo]

One thing I loved about Halo 2 though is the BR. I hated it as a kid. As an adult however? If I could marry a gun, I'd marry the Battle Rifle

[cerulean herald]

yeah i dont ever use hard mode on first play thry

[winter cargo]

Three shot burst, 2x zoom. A weapon made for precisely throwing 3 bullets into an enemy's head. You could not get that out my hands the moment I found one

[hushed onyx]

My top weapons in the Halo games tend to be the designated marksman rifle/br on the one hand and the shotgun and punches on the other

[slim thorn]

honestly the lack of battle rifle is one of the weaknesses of 1, now that literally every other Halo has it

[hushed onyx]

I'm either a goodly distance away or on top of you, no in between.

[fickle garnet]

CE magnum

[winter cargo]

Reach has the DMR which is the battle rifle switched to single shot and slightly tuned up damage

[hushed onyx]

WDYM, the designated marksman gun is on your hip

[cerulean herald]

oh yeah I'm not rly much a fan of melee usually

[slim thorn]

the CE magnum is really good, just not as good as the BR

[winter cargo]

Shame, DAO, because the Energy Sword is really good

So good in fact that Bungie had to try and nerf it because it if I recall correctly could literally break Halo 2's physics and send you flying

I also love the gravity hammer... when it's not coming fro me

[slim thorn]

melee can be important in these games for a number of reasons: meleeing an unaware enemy in the back is an instant kill (especially in Halo 1, this is huge for some levels), and you can do melee while waiting for a plasma weapon to cool down or instead of reloading a human weapon, so it's often a necessary finishing blow if your regular shots only mostly killed a guy

[winter cargo]

Or if you already closed the distance and want to save some ammo

[slim thorn]

energy sword is a whole other thing you can worry about when you get to 2

[cerulean herald]

yeah I might still try and give it a shot, ig it depends how implented it is

[winter cargo]

There are a lot of times I've rushed an elite with the AR, and then smashed their face with it

[slim thorn]

it's definitely not required on normal

[hushed onyx]

Using the AR to blow an Elite's shields off and then meleeing them with it is pretty much the weapon's intended use case.

[slim thorn]

but one of the satisfying things about legendary and occasionally heroic is properly setting up a tricky elite kill, where you start running forward and shooting only when you know you can down his shields with the weapon you have and melee him right after you run out of ammo, and that's not putting you too close to other enemies

[winter cargo]

Is it weird that I never use the plasma pistol? Even on Heroic?

[slim thorn]

I never use it either

[winter cargo]

Yeah, it's great and all, but I prefer the Plasma Rifle

[slim thorn]

it feels like the backup weapon for when I run out of better stuff

I know I could do the noob combo (do people still call it that?) but I find the plasma rifle (and in later games, PR plus BR or carbine) much more fun

well, that, and if you don't have the opportunity to safely charge up a full pistol shot because the enemies are too close or actively hunting you, then the rifle is just kinda better than the pistol in every other way

[winter cargo]

I should probably warn you DAO. Don't try to do corner bank shots with frag grenades.

[cerulean herald]

why not

[slim thorn]

I think right now we should be more worried about whether DAO plays more than five minutes of this

[winter cargo]

Every time. Literally every time I have tried... I had it in my head that I would do this cool bank shot and it'll land at the enemy's feet.

What actually happens is that it bounces off one wall, bounces off the other wall and then explodes in my face, killing me

[cerulean herald]

I mean if I buy the games, I kinda have to play it, yknow what I mean

[slim thorn]

I just realized Halo 1 never even tells you the difference between frag and plasma grenades

tutorial standards were different back then...

[cerulean herald]

what exactly is a bank shot

[winter cargo]

You bounce it off a wall.

[slim thorn]

that's a general English term for making a projectile bounce off a wall before it hits the real target

[cerulean herald]

oh wait, I forgot to say I played Ready or Not before
which isnt like Halo either...but its a shooter!

[winter cargo]

I play pool

[slim thorn]

not specific to Halo or even shooters, I also hear it in billiards

ha

[cerulean herald]

ok I see

I think I've done that in games then

[frozen gate]

got halo on the sale?

[slim thorn]

MCC is pretty amazing value on sale

[frozen gate]

yeah

[winter cargo]

As for plasma grenades. They're sticky grenades. And if you see a blue light emitting smoke and moving away doesn't increase the distance from it. Just accept that you're going back to checkpoint

[frozen gate]

10 bucks forrr

was it 5 full games?

and theyre like peak of fps genre

[winter cargo]

2 great games, 1 good game, one decent game and Halo 4

[slim thorn]

I forget, is a plasma grenade sticking to you a guaranteed death on every difficulty? or just the higher difficulties?

[winter cargo]

When I played it on normal. It just killed me

[slim thorn]

ok

incidentally, this is one of the concrete ways the game encourages the "think, then start shooting" philosophy: half the time if you can see the enemies before they can see you, then you can throw a plasma grenade at the unaware Elite and basically win the fight before it even begins

[fickle garnet]

It's instant death on every difficulty, at least on CE, I remember cuz my dad accidentally stuck one to me when we played together

[slim thorn]

(way more feasible in the indoor areas ofc; one reason level variety matters)

[fickle garnet]

We were playing on the easiest difficulty

[winter cargo]

The shotgun is also at its best in CE

With a single caveat

It's not til Halo 2 that you can interrupt reloading by firing.

[slim thorn]

huh, I thought I've done that in 1 too

not that it makes a big difference

[river veldt]

Master Chief, mind telling me what you're doing on that ship
sir, sailing

idk i never played Halo 3

which is the best (?) one

[slim thorn]

see my comments above for the long answer

[fickle garnet]

Has anyone made a fps game that's like Vampire Survivors? I feel like that should exist by now

[slim thorn]

I've never played VS, is the vibe we're after explainable in words

[river veldt]

Vampire Survivors is characterized by like, a bunch of bright lights and flashing colors

gives you the same dopamine rush a slot machine gives you

[fickle garnet]

It's kinda like a wave based survival rougelike

[river veldt]

oh the gameplay

yeah idk

[fickle garnet]

I'm bad at explaining things

[random steppe]

I don't think that they ever did because the main thing that Vampire survival does is not having an attack button but relying exclusively on movement and upgrades that get exponentially more powerful, so the equivalent would be a shooter where you just ponint the camera and never actually fire you weapon right?

It just attacks automatically

And I don't think if that works quite as well as the top down perspective

[fickle garnet]

Yeah, true

[river veldt]

vampire survivors really is like

dopamine the game

[hushed onyx]

I can actually see that working, like you're controlling a turret or some other kind of system, or maybe you have a wearable "smart gun" like in Aliens that shoots for you...

[worthy rose]

Serious sam? Minus the crazy weapon evolution

Also isn't megabonk close to that? Not first person but still

[fickle garnet]

Maybe, I've never played it

I guess Megabonk does have the sniper weapon that you can manually aim with

[slender wolf]

Serious Sam has the waves and stuff but it's not an rpg at all

I like serious sam

You just go to giant arenas and kill hordes of enemies

I also dig the ancient Egypt theme in the first game which comes back in several of the later ones in certain levels

Big ole temples

[random steppe]

I definitely wouldnt call Vampire Survivor a RPG either

[mossy flume]

Isn't that more like a bullet hell sort of thing?

[cerulean herald]

Vampire Survivor is Bullet Heaven

[cunning galleon]

Electric state vibes

[arctic fern]

https://bsky.app/profile/pantsutank.bsky.social/post/3mjtn3zkwok26

PantsuTank : Twice the Trouble 💜💣 (@pantsutank.bsky.social)

STOP PLAYING FORTNITE ????

I mean for real, its been tapping harder and harder into AI shit.

I had to stop myself after playing for years, i am certain you can too.

Bluesky · Apr 19, 2026, 9:25 AM

[fickle garnet]

They also did a colab with H*rry Potter

[arctic fern]

Yeaaaaahh

[little badger]

It gets new missions from time to time

7 months today until GTA VI is released

[astral steeple]

I mean ai powered npcs aren't nearly as bad as generative ai

Such a non issue to make an issue out of lol

[slim thorn]

do you really want to start that "discussion"

[arctic fern]

You really wanna die on that hill?

[frozen gate]

feel like being in the first person perspective inherently makes the player expect active input that VS would feel very strange with because its whole thing is it's all automated

[fickle garnet]

Tru

Gunfire Reborn is close enough tbh

[frozen gate]

gunfire's nice

borderlands has some roguelite mod, that's about as close as i can get to gunfire

[fickle garnet]

Huh, I could see that working

[frozen gate]

i guess if third person works then RoR2 very quickly gets to a "the room clears itself when i shoot" level p quick n i think the runs are about as long, u just have to know what items are really worth it (but usually grabbing as much as possible works)

sorry

Risk of Rain 2

[frozen gate]

it's a fun idea n im glad bl2 still has such an active community

think it's something i usually jjst watch tho

[fickle garnet]

Yeah fair enough. I'd rather just play a roguelike shooter than mod borderlands to be one tbh

[little badger]

What games has everyone been playing?

[fickle garnet]

I've been playing Metro 2033 and Bloodborne lately

[frozen gate]

haha i played 2033 for a lil bit n then suddenly 2039 got a trailer that same day

ive been playin a bunch of ascii roguelike games

orrr changing them to ascii by choice

and trying out dwarf fortress

[river veldt]

New Vegas

im gonna play Elden Ring today

[cerulean herald]

been trying to finish Fallout 4 myself lol

[quiet swift]

first time, or continuing?

[dapper cedar]

hollow knight! coming from a deep love of metroidvania (and as of last year, soulsies) it is checking all the boxes. i am lost and loving every second of it

[little badger]

Oooh nice.

[slim thorn]

I'm glad HK got as much recognition as it deserves

it practically created a whole new era of metroidvanias, which now contains multiple of my all-time favorite games

[fickle garnet]

I still need to get the true ending on HK

[dapper cedar]

i'm just as excited to play all that is influenced by HK, but am still a little intimidated by silksong, both in difficulty and in some more personally unnerving sequences

have seen the lot of it tho courtesy of a pal, it is incredible hornet's awesome

[slim thorn]

yeah, Silksong gambled hard on "it's a sequel, they can handle it"

I think it would've been better being a little more forgiving in places, but since my skill level was still within their target range, it was still one of the best MVs I've ever played

[dense crypt]

Tanki Online, Red Dead Redemption 2 Online, Street Fighter 6, and just reinstalled Total Warhammer 3

[cerulean herald]

if I can beat Nine Sols, would you say I'm within Silksong skill level

[little badger]

Very nice

[slim thorn]

on Standard? then yeah Silksong should be doable

[quiet swift]

WoW's xpac Midnight, and on my deck: slay the spire 2, hollow knight, darkest dungeon 2....

[mossy flume]

This tweet didn’t give any context, so I had to look up what it was talking about

https://wccftech.com/fortnite-uefn-ai-npc-conversations-gemini-elevenlabs/

[river veldt]

uhh

kind of both

ive played all the way up to Fire Giant before but for some reason steam lost my save file

so i have to start over

[arctic fern]

Thx

Anyway fuck fortnite

[fickle garnet]

O no

[mossy flume]

Tales of Arise, yet another replay of Mass Effect, the new Tomodachi Life, Pokémon Pokopia, and FFXIV

[river veldt]

eh it's fine

Elden Ring's a great game so i have no qualms about having to play it all over again

[fickle garnet]

Tru

[river veldt]

though fighting Radahn again will be...... "fun"

[mossy flume]

Yeah, it’s reminiscent of that one RPG that had LLM-powered NPCs.

I never cared for Fortnite so I don’t really have a horse in that race

[slim thorn]

I've been focusing on non-game stuff for a bit, but my "current" game is Hades 2

[mossy flume]

I’d like to try it again… but I very quickly hit a brick wall and I don’t know what to do. I just die without making any progress.

[arctic fern]

There was a colony builder game that had AI powered npcs
I remember the demo, trying to get the npc to actually give you the items they agreed to was a genuine challenge
Becayse theyd say "ok you can have the stuff" and just... not give you the stuff

It was dumb

[mossy flume]

Heh

There was another where you could tell them you did the quest that it gave you without actually doing the quest, and it would mark it as complete and give you the reward

Because the keywords they used to set those flags were very obvious

For a little bit I wondered if there could be legitimate utility for generative AI-powered quest systems in video games which vastly expand gameplay potential, assuming the infrastructure built around them was well-developed. While I haven't concluded 100% no, it does seem plausible that it would involve so much additional supporting tooling for sanity checking and safe constraints that you could just instead build out a standard procedural generation system and that would possibly give you about 90% identical results anyway.

Alas, I expect most attempts at this to be half-assed and therefore not any good for a real game.

[arctic fern]

Its very much something that sounds good on paper, but would requre so much work and money for an extra 10% of payout
Plus the constant internet access and data centres, unless you hosted the AI locally some how

[gaunt marten]

AI Roguelite is the most popular compromise between rigid structure and making up the rules as you go along

(it can run on local AI)

[arctic fern]

You couldnt have an ai skyrim either
The various quests have too many moving parts and an ai would need so much training to have natural feeling lines while maintaining a cohesive story

[arctic fern]

Wouldnt that require boatloads of local resources on your hardware?

[slim thorn]

I think there's potentially a way to get some legitimate value out of this idea, but it's definitely going to take far more serious research and design iteration to make it worthwhile than any of these "chatbots as NPCs" proposals we're currently seeing

[arctic fern]

Agreed
Youd need a fundimentally new idea

[slim thorn]

oh local AI has been a thing for a while, most of our computers can run decent models decently efficiently

[arctic fern]

Huh
My bad then

[slim thorn]

it's already becoming commonplace for new computers to have "NPUs" optimized for this sort of thing

[gaunt marten]

It requires a gaming GPU and plenty of RAM

[mossy flume]

Not necessarily

[gaunt marten]

So lower end computers won't be able to get a good model running

[mossy flume]

Viable small models are only about 25-500MBs in size

Phones run local models these days

[slim thorn]

like so many things with LLMs, the exact numbers have been changing so rapidly that it's kinda impossible to keep up

[mossy flume]

Android devices have secretly had small generative AI models installed for a bit now, it's how they can do a lot of Google Assistant tasks without needing to hit Google servers

[slim thorn]

for me one of the biggest genuine surprises about recent AI trends is how small the gap between open and closed models has been (the quotes I keep hearing are "open models are only 6-18 months behind closed ones"), and how long it's remained that small

[rancid herald]

running the model locally isn't very hard, it's training that's expensive

[slim thorn]

so even if all the hilariously unprofitable companies evaporated tomorrow, we'd still have pretty decent models anyone could run locally for free

[mossy flume]

Yep

[rancid herald]

of course the humanoid robots are coming too

[slim thorn]

so LLM-powered NPCs are feasible as far as raw performance metrics go; at least as much as graphically intense games already are

it's just not an idea that's going to provide any real benefit to the game experience until they put more design effort into it than "when the NPC talks, run the LLM and TTS instead of a static audio file"

[rancid herald]

I'm actually really interesting in LLM powered NPCs tbh

[slim thorn]

yeah, I'm very curious about a serious design for that

[rancid herald]

particularly for 'romance'

(not that I want to date an NPC, please understand)

[slim thorn]

like... you'd have to find some way of modelling story structure and possible character actions in a way the LLMs could reasonably interact with and the player could understand?

[rancid herald]

I doubt SWTOR was the first game to do romancable NPCs but there's been this issue with RPGs for a while where character relationships are often just like 'give gifts to enhance score'

[slim thorn]

tbf I think that's mostly a structural issue: when romance is conceptualized as an optional sidequest, it's gonna feel like a mere optional sidequest, and there's limits to how non-artificial that could be even with amazing moment to moment writing

[mossy flume]

Yeah. I feel like it could work. I just wonder about how much work it would need to be good

[rancid herald]

I think it's more that it's difficult to create a compelling romance from static trees

[slim thorn]

fwiw I believe the best serious answer might be... Baldur's Gate 2? if I'm remembering my "history of RPGs" videos correctly

[rancid herald]

Maybe?

I'm mostly just getting at the fact that relationships are treated as a sort of progress bar that you can either fill up (or, sometimes) subtract from it

but it's not something that makes much sense

[slim thorn]

party members with optional dialogue goes at least as far back as the later Ultimas, but I think the early Bioware games were the first ones that really fleshed out the "companions" with proper backstories and sidequests and everything

[mossy flume]

And you don’t even really need the NPUs, either. Inference with small models is actually very very fast on standard consumer GPUs, even laptops could do it with great response times. It’s not really a hardware problem in terms of running the small models.

[slim thorn]

tbc I completely agree that this model is unsatisfying

[mossy flume]

Indeed

[slim thorn]

but I personally also find it unsatisfying for a lot of the non-romance stories that games have been telling as their main quests forever

[rancid herald]

yeah

[gaunt marten]

Don't let Concerned Ape hear you say that

[rancid herald]

but I suppose it just feels particularly obvious with romance because I remember (I think this was in the MMO SWTOR) where I basically crafted 50 items, all of the same time, and just spamed it to enhance the relationship. bit gross tbh.

[slim thorn]

Mass Effect 3's main plot being a great example that everyone loves to pick on

with a very literal progress bar

[slim thorn]

yeah, I'm fine with games having "simplistic romance", especially as side content, but I would appreciate it if the gift-spamming kind in particular would go away

[river veldt]

marriage and relationships in video games have never done anything for me tbh

[slim thorn]

the whole gift thing can be done well, but if it's gotta be a fetch quest at least make it a one-off unique fetch quest, that's not so hard

[quiet swift]

I would recommend looking up a guide or two to get a leg up on things. As in 'get here to get a few more potions and runes easy'. It was hell without that on my first attempt

If you don't know those tips already

(also the youtube channel Nizar gg has some really interesting builds that are not always the standard ones, had a lot of fun with the dual whip one and the dual twinblades one)

[rancid herald]

the problem is that a lot of the gift giving intended to function (I believe) as something of a time gate, but it's just not one that meaningfully works out

[slim thorn]

Probably the more fundamental problem is that in most video games, the primary way of interacting with the world is combat. And (usually) that has no overlap with romance. I think I've only seen good romance in games that are basically choose your own adventure novels, so they have the text volume to do it properly. Whether that's the CRPG style of dialogue trees for days, or the Telltale style of relatively few story branches with high production values.

[rancid herald]

this is a bit of an issue with MMOs/other games in general, where you have to grind for particular items because you never get enough of them through normal gameplay to actually do what you want/need to with them

Like a good example of this is crafting in Guild Wars 2: in normal game play you'll get various raw material for crafting, but unless you go out and grind for it you rarely have enough to craft at a pace that's comparable with your own level

[river veldt]

i was using this one rune farming method in my last playthrough but i did it so much it kind of messed up the leveling system because bosses were giving me less runes than i needed to level up

[wind stump]

CW: Hardware Gore
Apparently you can fit a full sized disc onto a Gamecube... With some uh... "adjustment".

[gaunt marten]

You can fit a car into a GameCube with enough adjustment

[fickle garnet]

Wtf

[wind stump]

Yeah, apparently this is what pirates did to avoid using the mini CDs the Gamecube used

i do NOT CONDONE this.
not because piracy, but Gamecubes are rare enough already, please treat them with respect.

[fickle garnet]

Yeah

That poor gamecube

[wind stump]

also people did crack the anti-piracy without resorting to... fucking mutilation, lmao

plus probably a bad idea to have a spinning disc exposed in either case

[mossy flume]

Why would you do this

[mossy flume]

Yeah, this has been a solved problem for ages

[arctic fern]

https://youtu.be/9lpTfVxwwSU same energy

[little badger]

What have you Been playing Mega

[arctic fern]

I havent
Im away from home

[little badger]

Ah

[arctic fern]

Well
Pikmin 2 on my switch but ive been busy

[little badger]

hugs

[quiet swift]

The bird farm?

[river veldt]

ye

[indigo pine]

i did a fuckup on the water system after my third repair

although there is this beutoful feeling when you succesfully revive from a black start

[indigo pine]

this is how the entire map looks like. yellow is infrastructure

[green fulcrum]

This looks like Factorio

[river veldt]

finally caught my White Arabian horsey

[indigo pine]

it sdiscount factorio. its tower defense one called mindustry

[fickle garnet]

I need to find a new game preservation site that I can get rom's from

[fickle garnet]

I don't know where to find games for emulation now that Myrient shut down

[fresh bane]

https://fxbsky.app/profile/chenginerd.bsky.social/post/3mjru6ioghk2x

Chengi (@chenginerd.bsky.social)

**💬 27 🔁 1.2K ❤️ 3.7K **

FxBluesky · Apr 18, 2026, 4:26 PM

It's bread and water soup

It's a proper meal...

[robust latch]

im disappointed they didn't use the proper name for hot glue.

Hot Snot

has anyone else given sintopia a try?

[river veldt]

the "A Quiet Time" mission in RDR2 might be one of the funniest quests ive ever done in a game

[cerulean herald]

is this a pigeon Korone?

[mossy flume]

[little badger]

Elden ring movie releasing on march 3rd 2028 https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/elden-ring/news/alex-garlands-elden-ring-theaters-3328-filmed-imaxr-production-underway-full-cast?

[quiet swift]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/978520/Legend_of_Keepers_Career_of_a_Dungeon_Manager/ currently free

Steam

Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager

In this original mix of Dungeon Management and Roguelite, you will lead your career as a Dungeon Manager!Features

• Join the Dungeons Company and climb the corporate ladder
  • Crush so-called "heroes" and protect the company's treasures
    …

Price

$3.99

Recommendations

3899

Metacritic

76

[shell shore]

I have never been so excited and then horrified in my life

[wind stump]

plants are growing well :)

[cerulean herald]

PvZ2...

mattdamonaging.gif

[wind stump]

specifically Reflourished, because Fuck EA

about to unlock Wild West world

[random steppe]

This is actually happening huh?
We have a cast already?

Yes we do

We don't know who plays who yet, we don't even know where the story will focus on

I kinda wish this would be a prequel movie

[arctic fern]

it will be a silent movie

ironicaly link will be the only one with lines

[random steppe]

In Elden Ring you are dealing with the aftermath of a whole lot of bullshit that stems from a fight between a family of Gods, with backstabbing drama, betrayal, etc.
It'd be nice if they made the movie of THAT

I guess it'd be hard because it wouldn't end, as in, it'd end with the shattering of the ring and the "end of the world" or at least of the world as it was.
But the characters would still generally be alive (most of them at least)

That said it'd make for a wonderful companion piece of media to the game

[fickle garnet]

Yeah, that would honestly be great

[random steppe]

It'd be challening because they would have to explain concepts like what the ring is, what it does and a whole lot of fantasy bullshit, which you never really even learn in the game.

But since it's the main center of the drama, the symbol of power in the world, it's not that unreasonable to spend some time on it

[slim thorn]

to me the big question is whether they'll try to explain wtf is going on like a "normal" fantasy story, or if they'll go in a more avant-garde route and try to be as ambiguous as the source material

[random steppe]

I don't know if it's possible to do a "normal" fantasy story when a bunch of characters are canonically ||Aliens|| in Elden Ring but maybe they can do it Stargate Style

That part I would probably keep ambiguous if it was up to me

[river veldt]

do you think Patches will be in it

[random steppe]

Don't know, maybe a Cameo but for the moment I'm more concerned to know what the fuck they even do with this.
IMO you can't just adapt the game, it'd be impossible to follow

[gaunt marten]

The Elder Scrolls has canonically alien characters

[slim thorn]

yeah games like this have totally the wrong structure for a passive story

[random steppe]

Which is why I think adapting the lore is the way to go.
That has several characters with strong motivations that do stuff.

I wonder if there will be a protagonist, if you adapt the lore it'd be hard to pick one since the focus shift.

[river veldt]

i think it's really cool that Elden Ring has been so successful that it got a dlc, a spinoff, and a bug hollywood movie

[random steppe]

I think it should be Marika/Radagon since they are the ones that end up being responsible for the Shattering.

[river veldt]

i need to watch more Vaati

[quiet swift]

I feel like Offerman would be Gideon the All Knowing.

That or Pryce

[random steppe]

Possible, even though if there is Gideon they are adapting the game not the lore (I think)

As the duders don't show up until after the shattering

Unless they mix things up

Also Offerman would make a great Godfrey

[quiet swift]

Would need camera magic for the size though. He's laaaaarge

[river veldt]

y'know

it's funny how Gideon was like "i bet i can take on this person that's defeated literal demigods"

[random steppe]

Size is very much an artistic choice more than anything else in From Soft games, they could just make them regularly sized people

Pretty much every character is otherwise a giant in ER

[orchid sundial]

https://insider-gaming.com/playstation-to-require-age-verification-for-certain-online-features/

DO NOT COMPLY

[wind stump]

comedy

[fresh bane]

no.....

no it can't be

[slim thorn]

oh well

[fresh bane]

''terrible story that's adapted straight from the poorly written ''dead shall rise'' graphic novel, bad basic Metroidvania gameplay with non existant level design and limited combat and poor bosses''

[winter cargo]

It's real, unfortunately.

[river veldt]

do you guys have a favorite video game easter egg ?

[green fulcrum]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waL8K2SGR1M

[river veldt]

i never watched Red Vs Blue but this is funny

also jesus 18 years ago

idk what my favorite easter egg is tbh

i gotta think on it

maybe the vampire in RDR2 or the ghost lady in GTAV

[cerulean herald]

wasnt there like a frozen alien in the river in the beginning level of GTAV
or was it when Michael went back up north

[river veldt]

yeah ! if you veer off the road just before the bridge in the prologue you can find an alien in the ice

[dense crypt]

bass boosted x-files theme

[river veldt]

if you 100% complete GTAV you can see a UFO above Mt Chiliad i believe

there's also a UFO/Heaven's Gate reference in RDR2

[fresh bane]

the GTA 4 Liberty City heart always freaked me the hell out

[river veldt]

Rockstar has lots of good easter eggs

[river veldt]

that's a good one

but yeah super freaky

[fresh bane]

San Andreas was so full of easter eggs that there were entire series back then dedicated to confirming a bunch of the myths in the game and a lot of series showcasing mods based on those myths I remember thinking were real as a kid

Like Leatherface being in the abandoned cabin in the woods or the Loch Ness monster or the UFO locations on the map

and these things

from Mario Galaxy

[river veldt]

yeah Mario Galaxy 2. those things always freaked me out. these and the ghost in Mario 3D Land

on the right

[fresh bane]

Sonic CD had that creepy screen also

[river veldt]

FUN IS INFINITE

[fresh bane]

Hitman Contracts also had a ghost

and GTA 5 added a ghost easter egg too I remember people were going crazy about when the game came out

which is a weird feeling now that the game is around 13 years old because I remember those videos and theories

[cerulean herald]

2spooky4me

[river veldt]

Miyamoto was like "this will traumatize a child someday, put it in"

[mossy flume]

https://www.ign.com/articles/mass-effect-tv-showrunner-refutes-claim-that-show-got-rewrites-for-non-gamers

[gaunt marten]

Immortal evil horse nemesis in CK2

[river veldt]

classic Fallout has some funny easter eggs/random encounters too. in one you can find the TARDIS and another has a Godzilla footprint

[river veldt]

googles

you can make your horse chancellor in that game ???

[gaunt marten]

Basically, under extremely rare conditions you can trigger a very difficult quest chain where upon success (~5% chance if you do everything right) you become immortal. The longer you live while immortal the weirder things get. People hate you, you meet other immortals who become your nemeses. You may turn insane. If you turn insane, you can appoint a horse your chancellor. If you do, you can share your immortal blood with that horse. If you have an immortal horse friend, that horse can get an immortal horse nemesis, and you have to fight that immortal horse to protect your friend

[gaunt marten]

Yeah, and you can marry it to other people. Horses are incompatible with human since they have the horse trait that grants them -1000 fertility, but you can make the horse your court tutor, and it may randomly give your children the horse culture, giving them horse graphics and horse culture bonuses. These horses can breed and fill your court with other horses, and that's how you yourself can become a horse: give the throne to one of them so you can play them after you die.

[river veldt]

that's badass

seriously badass and awesome

[gaunt marten]

It's amazing, and it's a shame the sequel didn't bring it back

[cerulean herald]

oh yeah, In Fallout 4, theres a ghoul kid inside a fridge thats def an Indiana Jones reference

[river veldt]

in New Vegas if you have Wild Wasteland (which why wouldn't you it's the best perk in the game) just outside of Goodsprings there's a skeleton in a fridge with a fedora

[gaunt marten]

I use a mod that gives me wild wasteland for free so that I can vary my runs instead of being forced to pick it every run

[river veldt]

that's fair

i do wish it was just on by default

i like the WW aliens too

[cerulean herald]

aliens in general are fun in Fallout

[fresh bane]

Oh hey, that's actually really nice

I have so many of these videos on an entire ambience playlist that I love putting on the background pretty much all day, just randomly thought to go with the Xbox 360 this time and the actual composer saw how much people like the 360 music too

I don't even know if newer consoles even have like menu ambiance and music since I'm not a console user but if they don't they should

[quiet swift]

[dense crypt]

so, im a fucking psychopath in Red Dead Redemption 2 Online, and i like to inflict vast amounts of carnage and slaughter wherever i go. and this here is my knife. with it, i serve my god of blood and murder.

oh and also, a dual-wielded pair of sawn off coach guns.

[bitter stream]

it is a cool knife. How's it work in RDR2? can you make these just by playing or is it a cosmetic shop thing only?

[dense crypt]

you can customize them visually at a gun store, it all costs in-game currency

so yeah all you gotta do is play the game

[quiet swift]

[dense crypt]

if i had nitro i'd post the emblem of Khorne

[cunning galleon]

My name is John mustard

[bitter stream]

ah yeah, that's neat Red Mountain

[cunning galleon]

thinking of vintage story, but due to it not scaling on regional pricing its far too much of a spend for me

[arctic fern]

i LOVE vintage story

i think @indigo pine found a method to get the game on the... very cheap, but i do strongly recommend buying it or getting somoene else to buy it for an exchange or something

[indigo pine]

I did

free is the price I paid.
for I am poor as shit but still want to play

[craggy vine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qf9MLsbY9o

[cunning galleon]

I too am poor as shit and want to play

[indigo pine]

okie dokie

[cunning galleon]

I think i have message reqs enabled

[indigo pine]

I'll send it over when I open pc

[visual hill]

one more pathtracing mod: https://youtu.be/JkknIOvamJc?si=--s0i16lWtfgopf5

[wind stump]

that's so far away

[little badger]

Call of duty will no longer be a day one game pass release. It will be added a year later, also game pass ultimate price is decreasing

[fickle garnet]

https://youtu.be/Jaag4cVKOo8

[little badger]

@random steppe apparently the Elden ring movie has a budget of 100 million

[hasty patio]

https://youtu.be/WB1sxrBxKwQ

[sacred grove]

A rumor, but, reasonably substantiated I think: https://www.techpowerup.com/348382/valve-uploads-steam-controller-unboxing-video-launch-imminent

I want it. Take my money, valve

[river veldt]

new steam controller looks very cool

[bitter stream]

this honestly felt like a bad trailer T_T. Why are the necrons shown off so poorly?

[orchid sundial]

okay, this seems to be for the uk and ireland only

[indigo pine]

the factory grows 1/4th is anti air emplacements

[fresh bane]

This is the franchise of Warhammer games that's real time strategy right?
Maybe the player controlling them just sucks

as someone who knows next to nothing about Warhammer all I can say is it sure looks like there's a lot of Warhammer going on in that trailer

Hmmmmm I do have Dawn of War and all its expansions on GOG, and Boltgun, I should probably play those sometime and finally learn a thing or two about this franchise

[bitter stream]

Fair enough, I guess it might just be I'm used to the Terminator-esque portrayal of Necrons, rather than stormtroppers from Starwars hahah

It works fine as a stand alone I suppose, but if you've played Dawn of War, then 10 necrons being delayed by 1 tech priest is a little strange.

which Dawn of War do you own Nire?

[fresh bane]

these ones

[bitter stream]

ooh nice nice DoW 1 then, it's good

The controls are a little jank for DoW 1, at least I found the camera control beign a little weird at times, but it works well, is fun, and you can just play and have a good time

Dark Crusade has a cool campaign world map thing going on too

[worthy rose]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-cancels-animal-crossing-inspired-game-report/1100-6539522/

[winter cargo]

My nephew made a terrible mistake

He challenged me to Mario Kart 8. I am about to end any dreams of winning

[bitter stream]

You sound locked in, remember to have fun too!

[winter cargo]

I'm rusty

But the last time I played multiplayer with people in person, I pulled so far ahead the AI gave up

[cunning galleon]

Gotta protect your factories

I didn't really scatter anti air in mine, i focused all of it on where they spawn

Anti air around main hub and dangerous power plants like thorium

[indigo pine]

i go a defrent direction

they cant get through safe airrpace if there isnt any airspace

also i try to always keep my coal mining in its own grid

[winter cargo]

He got buried

He had his dad helping him on a team. I buried both of them

[winter cargo]

I decided to play Super Dragonball Heroes.

Look at what I just pulled early game

SSJ4 Burori

[winter cargo]

I also have Broly's wife on this team

[cinder hatch]

He’s so cool

[chilly mural]

it's been 8 years since the game's launch and world tournament arena and ssj vegeta are still the combo trial training dummy

😌

[fresh bane]

I'm just pissed off they had a perfectly great looking SSJ4 Goku model and never put him in the game

[cerulean herald]

monke

I only somewhat recently found out theres a forme that gives them tails

[fresh bane]

If you're referring to SSJ4 it's less that the form gives them a tail and moreso the tail is needed to access the transformation in the first place

[cunning galleon]

i love the ibishu 200bx

[dense crypt]

"I AM THE GHOST OF MURDER'S PAST I AM HERE TO KICK YOUR ASS, FUCKER"

[cunning galleon]

the lone grave with the cross is for my past character

maybe i should burn the rest after filling these mass graves

using scba but i think a respirator is better

i forgot if i had transmission enabled or not because my character is "extremely uncomfortable"

oh. shes an alcoholic so shes badly craving beer

welp, time to continue clean up

[arctic fern]

nice.

[cunning galleon]

Wow the new barricade thing is shit

[arctic fern]

wdym?

[cunning galleon]

It's now an extra 2 button clicks away, unplayable

[arctic fern]

i havent played unnstable in a while

uuuh

i thought they re-added that?

[cunning galleon]

In b41 it wasn't in a subcategory

I guess this is fine

[arctic fern]

oh are you on the absolute latest version? as i understand it theres multiple betas right now for som reason

[cunning galleon]

Yee, it's the latest one on the steam page

Does vanilla b42 have an animal trailer or could i just stuff a cow in the back of my van

Also, your offer to play I accept because i could just play anytime tbh

[arctic fern]

yes you should find animal trailers more or less anywhere, depending on settings
sure! id love to! ...in maybe a week or two, im not home and have no windows machine

i have a chomebook

dont get a chromebook

they suck

[cunning galleon]

Never will. I settled with an aspire 7, it's pretty cool!

[cunning galleon]

That works

[arctic fern]

oh i think 42.17 isnt out yet? im not sure
havent been following 42's development in a while

oh no it is

i swear that barricading was part of it but guess i misremembered

[cunning galleon]

it is, i think im playing on it

[arctic fern]

cant see it in patchnotes anyway

i think they just want everyhting to be more consistent

[cunning galleon]

they changed it from a couple categories to just "Window/Door > Barricade"

[arctic fern]

oooh ok

[cunning galleon]

I think an early b42 build you had to do it in the build menu

[arctic fern]

yeah

didnt spend a lot of time in early 42 tbh

[cunning galleon]

42.17 feels more polished than before

I think i played 42.13 once and it crashed like 5 times and lagged the shit out of the pc

[arctic fern]

i was in a big group trying to survive with minimal resources

i tried making a salad

you need a surface to make salads now, fine

the box with ingredients was behind me, the table to the front

[cunning galleon]

The inability of the zomboidian to turn around then back again

[arctic fern]

i order the craft in front of the table, my char turns around to grab an ingredient, im no longer in front of a table so the craft is invalid, the craft stops

it was annoying when i had 40 ingredients

oh foraging was weird and annoying too, my friends bring back a million herbs, so i had the option to add thyme 30 times, then dasies 30 times.... had to scroll the whole list every time i wanted to craft something

[cunning galleon]

Those need to have craftable bundle versions

[arctic fern]

They do, dried herbs

[winter cargo]

GT SSJ4 is superior to Daima.

[astral steeple]

Oh discord and xbox are working on something together

[green fulcrum]

Inb4 their April Fools joke game was actually real

[wind stump]

Landfall Games.jpg

[cerulean herald]

oh hey Cyberpunk 2077 is on sale
might buy that along with Halo MCC

[river veldt]

noice

Halo is fun

[slim thorn]

wort wort wort

[cerulean herald]

this works out perfectly
I have a friend who was kinda nagging me to get the MCC since it's on sale now lol

was hesitant bc my eyes were on Cyberpunk, waiting for that to go on sale.
expectation was that it wouldn't be til summer, but I guess they're having it now despite just being part of spring sale like a few weeks ago

either way I'll see about getting them then

[winter cargo]

A fair bit of warning about Cyberpunk, if you get the full package with Phantom Liberty, you're going to need a beefy computer.

Dogtown alone raised the minimum requirements for it

[cerulean herald]

noted, I feel like my PC should be able to handle it

and yeah im thinking of getting the DLC too since the bundle is also on sale

[cunning galleon]

I keep thinking I'm bit in zomboid but I forgot my character is a raging alcoholic so she's always "extremely uncomfortable"

[winter cargo]

I forget this place allows swearing. So here's my deck in World Mission

Or as I call it, "My get fucked in Round 2" deck

Buu and Gotenks are there for Buutenks. So I can just yank 3 Energy from my opposing team, enabling Vegito, Gogeta... and if my opponent somehow still has HP, SSJ4 Broly their supers

You go first in R2? Cute. Freeze Mode

[fresh bane]

https://youtu.be/OCZXvblpNSM?si=kIGC3CTtfizsNLLb

Incredible

I haven't heard the phrase ''amaze-balls'' in like.... forever

[cerulean herald]

I heard it one(1) other time and you just had to Frequency Illusion me

[fresh bane]

it was that or epic bacon

[river veldt]

should i play New Vegas or Red Dead Redemption 2

[indigo pine]

new redemption 1,5

[dense crypt]

Rad dad redadinator

[cerulean herald]

Fallout: New Pegasus

[winter cargo]

Red Dead Redemption 3

[cerulean herald]

somehow it'll come out before GTAV2

[indigo pine]

i got it :3

[dense crypt]

White kuh-nuckle

[worldly summit]

simple solution: we make a cozy indie farming game featuring professional football players

[graceful bridge]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1634080/Nocturnal/

Steam

Nocturnal

Nocturnal is an action game where you play as Ardeshir, a soldier of the Enduring Flame, returning to his homeland, Nahran, after many years of absence.

Following the appearance of a mysterious Mist, the island has recently fallen into chaos, and Ardeshir must wield his flaming sword and use powerful abilities to confront its mysteries and free N…

Price

$16.99

Recommendations

420

Metacritic

81

100% discount (aka free)

[little badger]

Assassins creed black flag Resycned releases July 9th https://youtu.be/WjsTLe7bBUA?si=GEF_PUMJhskDfi7o

[orchid sundial]

https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxSeriesS/s/H3Vqz1xOop

[little badger]

Yeah I seen that the other day

[orchid sundial]

have an option to remove all the M-rated slop and I'll consider switching back to Xbox

I don't care if M rated games print money, they aren't within my interest because of how realistic/graphic they are and very often make me uncomfortable

heck, why don't they have an option to play a selection of backwards compatible games, frequently rotated out

because that's all i use our xbox one for

[gaunt marten]

Two of these news sections on Steam are different from the others

[wheat aurora]

2 weeks ago

[indigo pine]

[wind stump]

god Twin Caliber looks so shit, LMAO

[quiet swift]

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/doomblade-afdf9a speaking of free, this week on epic

And https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_whispering_valley on GOG if you are signed up to the newsletter

[astral steeple]

Terry crews operator coming to call of duty lol

Oh robocop too nice

[green fulcrum]

Call of Duty stopped being Call of Duty a long time ago

It's a joke now

Endless microtransactions, hyper-monetization, and absolutely no innovation.

[astral steeple]

lol

I pretty much only downloaded warzone/black ops 6 for skeletor and beavis and butthead

Haven't touched it since then

So like once last year and once the year before

After buying those bundles and then playing a few matches

[arctic fern]

so you literally wasted your money? buying the game to buy a skin then using it only a few times?

[astral steeple]

I mean yeah it's my money from my own job that i worked hard to earn lol

Plus I didn't pay for either game

Blops 6 is on game pass

Warzone Is the free battle royale of cod

Only paid for the skins

[slender wolf]

I also have cod and warzone via game pass.

I didn't pay for any skins tho

[arctic fern]

ok thats less bad i guess

the... fact you can buy skins for a game you are only renting concerns me greatly
not a dig at you but a bigger concern for the gaming industry, given that we just had a big win from stop killing games

[astral steeple]

That reminds me how I'm annoyed that spellbreak shut down years ago

Had gotten super into that game for a good bit

Had a decent amount of skins bought in it too

[arctic fern]

exactly why stop killing games is a thing

[slender wolf]

If the skins are for warzone, that's f2p...

So you can play that as long as servers are up

[astral steeple]

Yes

Warzone skins transfer over to Blops 6

[arctic fern]

what the fuck is call of duty anymore

[slender wolf]

Warzone is f2p battle Royale using cod assets

[fickle garnet]

Slop

[slender wolf]

Regular cod is other thing

[astral steeple]

Multiple simultaneous releases and a free to play battle royale lol

[slender wolf]

I don't think warzone comes out yearly either they've done like two major versions over its life?

The second one replaced the first

[astral steeple]

It gets new seasons every few months

[slender wolf]

Ah, yeah, like fortnite

[astral steeple]

Yes

[slender wolf]

Just new sprinkling of random crap on the same core engine

[astral steeple]

A battle pass and then sometimes a smaller event pass sprinkled in later on focused around a collab

This new one being robocop based

[slender wolf]

I never paid for any of the fortnite passes

[astral steeple]

lol

[slender wolf]

I do play fornite from time to time

For a free game, fortnite is quite fun , ignoring the massive attempts to pull you into buying shit. Which you can ignore because it never felt like the game was like, mobile game style preventing me from playing the game unless I paid

[fickle garnet]

I stopped spending money on fortnite. Unfortunately I used to spend money on it. I really don't want to give them money anymore

[slender wolf]

You can spend hours a day on it without paying and the game won't really mind

[arctic fern]

good

[astral steeple]

I pretty much alternate between it and rocket league and tony hawk 3+4

[arctic fern]

we've all had a game we spent money on that we regretted

[astral steeple]

Skate 3 sometimes too

[slender wolf]

It'll advertise things to buy but never prevent you from keeping the grind going

[arctic fern]

for me that was GTA online, fuck GTA online

[fickle garnet]

True

[astral steeple]

I think I'm at like 43k usd spent on it since 2019 lol

[arctic fern]

i have spent money on helldivers 2, but i never felt forced to spend money on it
although i suppose i may feel different if id started playing a year later

[slender wolf]

My guiltiest purchase is spending like $40 on a copy of Madden 23 on a key website so I could play Madden on a steam deck

[astral steeple]

I buy every new cosmetic that releases

[slender wolf]

It was delisted and that's the last version of Madden that doesn't use steam deck incompatible anticheat

It's a guilty purchase because Madden sux

But I want to play it on steam deck

It sucks too because before the game was delisted it was often on sale for like $10

Since it was an old sports game, no longer current version

But I forgor to buy it until it was delisted and ofc key sites jack up prices of delisted games

[astral steeple]

Fall guys is pretty much on autopilot now so I still buy the fame pass each season since that's like the only new stuff even releasing in it now

I Have a decent amount of cosmetics in it too

[fickle garnet]

I wish we could just get less live service games

[astral steeple]

lol

[hushed onyx]

Hasn’t that craze kind of died down a bit because of how many have flopped hard?

[astral steeple]

Mostly yeah

[fickle garnet]

I didn't think so but idk

[arctic fern]

yesnt

[bronze abyss]

its not as agressive anymore but still exists

[astral steeple]

The last few that have tried releasing have ended up sort of just dying off after a few months

[river veldt]

was CoD ever good ...?

[arctic fern]

yes! cod 4 and 5 were most excellent, and the newxt few were still good

[astral steeple]

Like back during black ops 2 yeah

[arctic fern]

i thnk blops 2 is where things started to go wrong yeah

[astral steeple]

That one was like the best one

After that it just sort of fell off

[arctic fern]

...debateable, it depends on your metric

i tink 5's zombois was the best for example, and 4's campaign was fantastic

[astral steeple]

Mw3 was really good too

[arctic fern]

the multiplayer i dont remember anynore

[astral steeple]

Warzone on its own is decent but the sbmm Is annoying

Blops 6 multiplayer is kinda enjoyable

[fickle garnet]

I don't like warzone

[astral steeple]

I placed like 3rd one match then got annoyed because of it

Cause I had beat the other guy in the gulag thing and spawned back in and then immediately got eliminated after

[fickle garnet]

I've kinda gotten tired of battle royals atp

[arctic fern]

p much

[astral steeple]

Those are like the only shooters I'm somewhat decent at lol

I'd probably play pubg more if they didn't stop support for it on xbox one

Back in like October

[bronze abyss]

im surprised battle royales lasted that long to begin with,in general its a very problematic format for both casual and competitive play so its only viable for like the inbetween zone of players long term

[fickle garnet]

I prefer boomer shooters, especially indie ones

[arctic fern]

well because it was a new format, it has a combination of RNG and skill, you got the feeling of gambling when looking and skill when killing opponents
i liked them because despite the bullshit it felt fairer than most PVP games
cod for example lets you unlock new guns and attachments as you play, and some are factually better than others, so a newer player was just fucked
battle royals you have at least the RNG chance of getting good weapons and such

and it culturally built on other games, such as DayZ

that game had 3 main groups, those who looted up to kill, those who looted up for PVE and those who wanted a chill survival experience

the former group naturally migrated to battle royale

[slender wolf]

I like boomer shooters. Doom 2016 is the reason I got back into gaming

[gaunt marten]

Is Doom 2016 a boomer shooter?

[cerulean herald]

it's a demon shooter

[arctic fern]

so yes

[mossy flume]

I think the Doom games are generally considered boomer shooters

[arctic fern]

i mean, it is? its got better graphics than most boomer shooters but plays pretty similarly to the classic boomer shoters, like, uh, doom

not sure how else you'd class it other than FPS and possibly RPG

[astral steeple]

I think I tried doom 2016 like one time cause the map creation thing lol

[gaunt marten]

I would just call it a modern third person shooter

[fickle garnet]

Yes

Imo

[mossy flume]

gun stick goes boom
boomer shooter

[gaunt marten]

To me, a boomer shooter tends to have resource management, crunchy graphics, fast paced combat, lots of enemies, interconnected levels, no story that interrupts gameplay, lots of silly weapons.

Of these, Doom 2016 misses the "crunchy graphics" , and maybe the "lots of enemies" and "story" parts

[astral steeple]

Inb4 a game company makes a literal boomer shooter game where the main protagonist is an old person lol

[mossy flume]

Alternatively, FPS marketed towards boomers /s

Doom 2016 seemed to have a lot of enemies running around

[gaunt marten]

Yeah but I wanted it to have like

A hundred times as many

Like in classic Doom

[arctic fern]

did it tho?

in some levels i suppose yes but not all the tie

[river veldt]

Doom Eternal has way more enemies than 2016, and then Dark Ages has even more

[arctic fern]

i think 2016 went from loads of enemies to less but more difficlt ones

[mossy flume]

I'm a terrible gamer because I've never actually played the original Doom for more than two minutes

[cerulean herald]

I've never played a DOOM game

[fickle garnet]

When I think of boomer shooters I think of if it has gameplay similar to games like Doom, Wolfenstien 3d, Quake, and maybe even Half Life

[arctic fern]

2016 is probably my fave of all of them

[gaunt marten]

Ironically Wolfenstein 3D fails most criteria I listed

[fickle garnet]

I don't really take the graphics or story into account

[fickle garnet]

I felt like it needed to be there, so many people seem to forget about it

[gaunt marten]

The arcadey feel is very important to me. Story can exist as long as I can start playing in less than thirty seconds from booting the game

[fickle garnet]

That's fair

[arctic fern]

really? the arcadey feel of the later dooms really took me out of the game
ive mentioned this before but 2016 felt like a world, when you found a gun or power up, it was a thing, you had an animation of picking it up, but the next game you just found a glowing outline of the gun and you just walked through it and you had it
kinda sucked, in my opinion

[gaunt marten]

I mean, that is how classic Doom games worked

[arctic fern]

plus stopping you every time you found a new thing to explain how it worked or how to kill it in great detail, rather than letting me figure that out myself

[gaunt marten]

That detracts from the arcadey feel

[arctic fern]

yeah but classic doom had 3 pixels and 2 animations total

[gaunt marten]

Right, the point is that it is the par by which "Boomer shooter" is measured

[arctic fern]

thats... your par

[gaunt marten]

Of course

[arctic fern]

it helps, sure, i agree that pixelated games do feel closer to boomer shooter style, but it doesnt make it one automatically

[gaunt marten]

My par and many other people's. That's why the term "boomer shooter" exists. Games that emulate the style of old shooters

If it doesn't emulate them it can still be a good game, and in fact, may be better off not emulating them

But it would be less of a boomer shooter

[fresh bane]

Honestly compared to the other Dooms, Doom 4 might as well be a boomer shooter

it's so much more slower paced, doesn't really focus on the whole quick switching weapons mechanic as much as Eternal, there's no dash or anything of the sort, you just run and shoot and occasionally do the finisher for cool points but that's about it

speaking of boomer games I see the appeal of Symphony of the Night now
Yesterday was Pat's (from Two Best Friends Play) 40th birthday, and he did a full 24 hour stream playing some games including a full run of SOTN, I already had played a part of the beginning of that game earlier this year and I had a big ''oh I get it'' moment the second I controlled Alucard, it's unlike any other Castlevania I've played it really feels incredibly good to just play that game, now I might actually go and finish it myself after seeing all that game has to offer, which is weird because usually if I watch a full LP of a game I don't feel like playing it afterwards

I'll say one thing, this is one case where I fully think nostalgia is fully blinding people because everyone made a big fuss about him playing the PSP-PS4 version of SOTN which has the new dialogue and voice acting and everyone was pretty mad about it being ''worse'' and I fully think those people are completely insane, I understand enjoying that one because it's the one you're familiar with and because of some occasional funny line reads but the newer voices and dialogue are an objective improvement, it actually sounds coherent compared to the original lines, the only ''bad'' part is that it's taking itself more seriously and isn't hamming it up which... is completely fine by me

I do think it's interesting the original Alucard has a super deep voice which kinda breaks a bit of the stereotype of him looking so young and pretty but Yuri Lowenthal's Sasuke voice just fits like a glove too

so I'll probably be playing that, surprisingly a lot less plot going on in that game than I originally thought, I thought there would be way more but no, a whole bunch of the game really is just kinda running around doing metroidvania stuff and enjoying the awesome groovy vibes especially if you're trying to clear a lot of the map so, I'm down

[river veldt]

if i had to rank the Dooms it'd probably go like
Eternal, 2, 1993, 2016, Dark Ages, 64, 3

[fresh bane]

I would put Dark Ages at the bottom for the simple fact that it bored me and made me not want to go through with seeing the rest of it and that's worse than 3 and 64 which actually had something interesting about them in that they're much spookier versions of the usual tone of Doom

[wind stump]

you know it's bad when you're using 2 lanes of twin sunflowers

[river veldt]

that's me with Doom 3

[wind stump]

oh and using Wallnuts AND Tallnuts because you need to keep swapping them because of the fucking cooldown

(i hate this level)

[cerulean herald]

fuck the beach world, honestly

[cerulean herald]

why is 3 in last place

[river veldt]

it's just so boring

it's a horror game which is not what i come to Doom for

it also has the honor of having one of the worst shotguns in video games

[orchid sundial]

https://youtu.be/26eiOk3jrSc

is this REALLY going to be rolled out globally? or is it only in the UK and Ireland

[fresh bane]

Eventually probably, and they're trying to get some laws pushed for operating systems to have age verifications too
Usually I would be wary of fearmongering to other people and saying things like ''oh this will happen'' and whatnot but for this specific topic of age verification at this moment yes, they're pushing pretty hard on it and if there's no resistance to it then yes most likely than not it's gonna be rolled out everywhere

[orchid sundial]

just checked on my PS5, the option isn't there

so it's a UK/Ireland only thing atm

but I wouldn't be suprised if it gets rolled out globally

[little badger]

New Xbox logo

[mossy flume]

Ooo

....huh, it looks like that might be a real photo

[little badger]

It logged everybody out until you accepted the new T&C

[little badger]

It was posted by the official Xbox twitter

[mossy flume]

A lot of Microsoft logos are photos rather than CGI

But I think all of the Xbox logos have been renderings up till now

[hasty patio]

Introducing the new old logo, now with a more sickly Fallout Green. /s

[mossy flume]

The new Apple TV logo is also a series of photography shots of a glass Apple TV logo, no CG

[little badger]

A discord based gamepass subscription tier got leaked you can play 10 hours of cloud gaming a month. And you still need to pay to get nitro

[mossy flume]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sX_BfDnyrg

Here's the new logo if you haven't seen it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bJQfUHDZsM

And a brief making of

[little badger]

Also good evening midnight

[mossy flume]

If this is also photography I'd like to see them release a little making-of of this too

[orchid sundial]

me who doesn't read the T&C: https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1188466556905209876.webp?size=128&animated=true

[mossy flume]

Also if you're not familiar, the default Windows 10 wallpaper is also a photograph

This one

[little badger]

I know that one well

[astral steeple]

i used to love that wallpaper lol

[mossy flume]

Yeah, the new head of Xbox has emphasized that a lot of changes will be coming, with a complete mindset shift on how the Xbox brand and platform is handled

[astral steeple]

hopefully more 360 and og xbox games get added to backwards compatible lol

[mossy flume]

And I think she has the right ideas

Microsoft clearly just had no idea what to do with it other than just treat it like a poorly defined service

[astral steeple]

like sure a lot of games cant be brought onto BC because of the music licensing etc but like there has to be a way to bring those other games back

[little badger]

Well she wants to bring back the blades from the 360

[astral steeple]

need all the original tony hawk games playable on xbox one lol

1+2 and 3+4 are cool but it would be peak having the actual original games themselves

[mossy flume]

She suggested that could potentially happen, or something along those lines. Her basic pitch being that the entire Xbox dashboard is a disaster and needs to be completely redone. (This is true)

[astral steeple]

idk

i like the current xbox one dashboard and ui etc

blades was cool but the dashboards that released after it were 1000x better anyways

[mossy flume]

Sure, but the current one is just completely nonsensical

[river veldt]

i remember the minecraft version of this

[orchid sundial]

i literally only use my xbox one to play backwards compatible games lol

[mossy flume]

It's functionally 90% ads and your own games are an afterthought in the UI

[astral steeple]

my favorites were always this one

and this one

[mossy flume]

I rather liked this one

[orchid sundial]

so if they made backwards compatibile games playable on pc then i won't need to use my xbox anymore

[light gate]

I miss the blades one.

The color changing blades was so cool.

[astral steeple]

it was a neat novelty sure

[little badger]

I remember the day having to update from the classic blades to the newer version

Yes I'm that old

[orchid sundial]

i never owned a 360 so my opinions are definitely not to be trusted, but the blades dashboard looks ugly ngl

[astral steeple]

i had the white 360 on launch

[light gate]

My 360 died lmao

[astral steeple]

then later on got the black one

[little badger]

I still have a 360

[astral steeple]

when that one came out and the kinect came out

[little badger]

And a ps3

[astral steeple]

same

throwback to playstation home lol

peak game

i miss it

and my damn hoverdisc in it lol

[light gate]

The only console I have is the PS5 & the dead as hell Switch 1 that continues to rot spectacularly.

[astral steeple]

me who hasnt even used my switch since like beginning of 2022 lol

[light gate]

I don’t even think I can sell it

Its just bad, like dying ultra bad from everything.

[astral steeple]

my nintendo online still renews every february despite not even using the thing at all lol

[light gate]

Might as well use Nintendo Music app.

Can’t go wrong with that

[astral steeple]

i think my ps plus still renews each year as well

Despite not really playing on my ps5 except maybe like once every other month lol

mainly cause of ps plus packs for rocket league and fall guys and fort etc

like ill turn it on, open up spiderman remastered/spiderman 2, swing around for a bit, then get bored and turn the thing back off lol

then go straight back to my xbox one

[light gate]

I haven’t turn on mine since ps plus is an obstacle

I don’t want to pay more.

[quiet swift]

Very pleasant surprise given how she came from AI lead roles

[light gate]

Don’t jinx it

[orchid sundial]

I know rpcs3 exists but not everybody has a beefy enough computer for it so I'd say ps plus premium is worth it if you want to play ps3 games (and the game you want to play doesn't have a pc version)

[astral steeple]

my ps3 has been modded since 2018

so i can pretty much play whatever ps1-3 games that i want to play lol

its still using the original HAN mod method

not HEN or a full on mod

mainly due to me being lazy and not wanting to go through all the dumb shit just to re set the mod stuff back up

with a newer version of it

[light gate]

I hope it lasts a long life

[astral steeple]

sony keeps being stupid and releasing a new update for the ps3 like every year to try and stop people from modding it lol

they claim its to fix issues but in reality its whole point is to stop modders

[light gate]

Its probably that and cert renewal.

I’m surprised the PS3 outlasted the Xbox 360.

But I guess I shouldn’t considering the terrible moves MS made with Xbox.

[astral steeple]

if the 360 were easier to mod im sure the 360 would have outlasted the ps3

360 modding has always been really annoying to do

sony made the ps3 really hard to code games for to begin with on top of being like way too expensive at launch

[gaunt marten]

Today I learned Wikipedia has a full ocarina of time (and master quest) guide

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Ocarina_of_Time

[bitter stream]

oh interesting, TIL wikibooks is a thing

[slender wolf]

It has a story but it doesn't take the story very seriously and it's not particularly intrusive. The enemies come in waves rather then hordes all at once. But there are tons of enemies in a encounter.

Also holy crap that message is old

I do like games like serious sam 4 where the enemies come in all at once in massive hordes

Or dusk, if we're going crusty graphics

Doom 2016 also has certain other boomer shooter aspects like secrets that impact gameplay (like secret weapons and powerups) and keycards and large open maps with, in some cases, optional areas and backtracking..

There's one map that has an optional key that leads to an entire section locked by that key which is also optional, which is a very classic doom thing (several classic doom levels have this)

Admittedly, many other maps are more linear with less backtracking allowed.

They still tend to have large arenas rather then hallways like a call of duty map

[river veldt]

Dusk my beloved

[bitter stream]

ugh, I've taken psionic damage.
I was wondering why my aim seemed so inconsistent in a game, and it turns out when I changed OS It defaulted to pointer acceleration this whole time T_T.
I can't believe I forgot to check that first

I only saw it when I was trying to fix a scrolling issue in terraria

[cerulean herald]

what OS did u change to

[bitter stream]

I swapped from Win 11 --> Bazzite Linux

It's been pretty smooth honestly

like 95% of things just work and after a little bit of getting used to how to install things, it's been rather nice

the like 5% is an old RTS that I can't use the community launcher for without some tweaks, but I can look into it later and it works fine vanilla

[cerulean herald]

how did u get rid of the old OS and install a new one how does that work

[bitter stream]

it's straightforward enough to describe, but there's details that might make it a bit tricky depending on your setup.

Simplified version is:

1. Get an image of the OS installer, and burn/etch it to a spare USB.
2. Boot your computer from that USB and (Be damn sure you want to install a new OS) choose where to install your OS. the typical method involves overwriting or formatting the storage device the new OS is going to be installed on, so make sure you have a backup of key files.
   3.Run the install process, remove the USB, boot from the drive the os is installed in.

Test what you want to run, make sure it all works, etc.

I made a back up of my Win 11 installation before I did all this, just in case I fucked up and broke something

[mossy flume]

Keep in mind that replacing the operating system will require reformatting the existing hard drive, so all of the data on it should be backed up somewhere if you want to keep it.

[bitter stream]

Aye indeed! Exactly as Virtus says

[fresh bane]

Not necessarily

You can install more than one OS in the same hard drive, but that's going into more complicated stuff and partitions and stuff that most people will usually not be doing

[mossy flume]

Yes there are exceptions, but for simplicity’s sake I’m not going to elaborate on those edge cases

[fresh bane]

also I've heard Win 11 kinda makes it hard to have more than one OS in the same drive too, I don't know if it's purposeful or not but still sucks for people that may want to do that for whatever case

but it's usually something that more hardcore computer nerds are gonna be doing

[bitter stream]

I've never tried Dual-booting myself, just didn't have the use case for it.

[mossy flume]

Dual booting works, but the problem is that Windows and Linux disagree on how to handle some things, such as how to set the BIOS clock. And if you’re not careful you can run into bootloader problems.

[fresh bane]

At least the current Windows, I dunno if win 8 and prior create any issues

[mossy flume]

Mhmm, some of these issues have been longstanding

I get the vague impression that the modern Windows bootloader is more of a pain, but I haven’t messed with dual booting since Windows 7.

[bitter stream]

yeah, I'm glad that the pointer acceleration was the issue i had and not like, something more major.

It would have been a long process to restore my old windows backup hahah

[fresh bane]

the only other OS I'm familiar with is Ubuntu because that's the OS that they would put on all of our computer schools when I was going to school, I've been trying to hunt down my old laptop from school they gave out that I still have just to kinda see what it even has, maybe put another Linux distro in it and just play around with that whenever I find it
then we also had the middle school computers they'd give out which used another Linux OS which I think is actually called Sugar? It was very much a limited interface purely for education but it was actually really nice

I don't know why, but all the school computers came with Doom so we would play that a lot during class

[bitter stream]

heheh that's neat

[fresh bane]

Nowadays they beefed up the laptops a bit more and changed all the OS in school computers to Win 11 which bummed me out a little bit when I learned that

I just think kids learning how to navigate Linux is pretty neat, at least I thought Linux was pretty cool anyways

It's weird because at the time I didn't even know about linux distros or anything of the sort so I just kinda associate this screen with that part of my life and school
it's a pretty nice interface though

[cerulean herald]

man, I remember when I was in elementary and the school computers back then used Windows xp and the monitors were bulky

[bitter stream]

aye, CRT's are bulky, and heavy to move haha.

I think there are a small amount still being made right? Idk how Smash Bros melee folks keep getting em otherwise

[cerulean herald]

not familiar with Melee, other than Nintendo screwing the fandom over

[bitter stream]

It's smash bros, but the competitors took it and ran with it for way longer than anyone really thought would happen

[fresh bane]

I think most Smash players just kinda hunt down for any old CRTs mostly, I don't really think there's any company actively making new CRT monitors or tvs right now

[cerulean herald]

whats the reason they use CRTs specifcally

[mossy flume]

CRTs have pretty much instant response times that modern displays can’t really touch. Also aesthetics.

[fresh bane]

Supposedly input delay and mostly because it looks nicer probably

[bitter stream]

Cheaper than alternative with less input lag than standard setups as far as I can gather.

[mossy flume]

CRTs don’t have to do much of anything to process the analogue input signal before displaying it, so the image gets displayed as quickly as the CRT can draw to the screen. (CRTs are insanely fast)

[bitter stream]

IIRC there's also the resolution thing too, melee is like 480 p or something akin to that, and upscaling it is either expensive, or slow

[mossy flume]

Meanwhile, modern displays perform a lot of image processing on their digital inputs before refreshing the panel

Yeah, GameCube’s NTSC resolution is 480i/480p

[bitter stream]

ah, right and the PAL version has something odd due to TV standards at the time? i think?

[mossy flume]

This usually results in the displayed image being anywhere from 1-4 frames behind where the game actually is, depending on the display and its operating mode.

[mossy flume]

Yep, PAL is 576i

Also 50Hz for PAL

[bitter stream]

funky, yeah I remember that. You could select between 50-60 hz on game startup

[fresh bane]

Ever since the PS2-Gamecube, I remember because pretty much all my games which were European because we never got South American releases for games at all would have the 50-60 Hz option

[mossy flume]

There are modern displays which have 1ms response times, but those tend to be expensive PC monitors and that’s rarely available on proper TVs

(And that doesn’t solve the analogue to digital conversion you have to do with modern displays since none of them support analogue input anymore, which also incurs a latency penalty…)

[bitter stream]

I guess it's less a problem for modern fighting games because the output is already digital, and there are some monitors that do that well. Or at least, pay advertising bucks to be used as such on big competitions lol

[mossy flume]

Yeah, pretty much

[rugged flax]

Google says that there're a few current model TVs with 1ms timing
They're all OLEDs
LG C4 and B5 and Samsung S90F, just at a first glance
You're pretty much not getting anything other than HDMI on modern TVs though

[mossy flume]

Oh the C4 has it? TIL

Response times have been low-key getting better, so I guess that makes sense

[visual hill]

Deus Ex re-enables mouse acceleration system-wide every time you start the game, you need to disable it in control mouse after starting the game