I felt like the game had enough puzzles running simultaneously that I wasn’t waiting for a particular day to work on one particular puzzle. Once everything started coming together and it was down to the final run, there was a little bit more reliance on RNG, but that’s rogue-likes. Any day that didn’t pay off in puzzles usually paid off in rolled over resources (freezer, moon pendant, trove, coat check).
I have seen a lot of complaints about the RNG in this game, but I never felt it, even on bad days.
True, but I feel like Blue Prince gets a lot of flack for its RNG, despite being part of the genre. I think it’s the lack of tangible upgrades between runs. Games like Binding of Isaac, Hades, or Balatro expand your arsenal between games with actual upgrades or perks. Blue Prince’s upgrades are pretty sparse, because what changes between runs is your knowledge of the house and the larger mysteries.
my take on that is that it’s bullshit. when your metaprogression is based on knowledge, it’s dependent on letting players access that knowledge to begin with. personally it took me until day 40 to roll credits because i simply was not given the rooms i needed to understand the puzzles. i showed my gallery to a friend who got there much quicker and they noted that i was still missing some of the more basic rooms.
the risk in rng-based games is always that someone gets shafted, and when the game is also story based, those people effectively get locked out of the story. the people thinking it did not deserve the reaction simply did not get the worst rolls.
The RNG finally started to loosen its grip around day 60 because it started giving me items and rooms I had never seen before that, as it turns out, were pretty essential.
The RNG beat me up too. I will say that there’s a handful of permanent upgrades that either allow you to mitigate some RNG or give you buffs so you’re not as reliant on it.
I think their goal was to make it so you’re not hardlocked on a single puzzle so that you kind of wander into the manor without a specific puzzle to solve and see what you can solve/find as your tools for that run expand.
This kind of makes hours 0-10 kind of miserable because you don’t know what puzzles there are and you don’t have much you can do to avoid RNG so you’re just wandering and hoping for the best, but it does get better after that point.
I feel like it got worse. I hit room 46, and was trying to clean up some of the remaining stuff. Had a run with 130 coins, but the gift shop and luxury shop would not appear. When they do appear I have very few coins. I know there are ways to increase my allowance but its a slow grind. Similarly, crafting all the workshop items is pure luck. Filling in all rooms on the board isnt too hard, but still mostly a luck thing. I like the puzzle elements but the rng really killed my motivation to do the extra stuff
Isn’t quest 3 sold at a loss? Selling similar hardware at no loss will present a challenge.
Though, at the same time, there’s not much wrong with making low quantities of something and selling them at a profit, slowly.
The steam machine is, hardware-wise, just a regular Mini-PC. Valve even lets you put whatever OS you want on there. So if this was a loss leader, that would mean that non-gamers and even small businesses would buy these, would install Windows on them and use them as office PCs, with Steam probably not even installed on the PC.
With the Steam Deck, the form factor made it impractical or at least really weird to use them as office PCs. The steam machine doesn’t have that issue.
You’re 100% correct at a sane company. At my employer the hardware team is incentivised to cut costs and impacts to productivity are someon else’s problem. Corporate metrics lead to some pretty hilarious situations.
This happens so often. The new version of the framework our frontend developers use has massive performance problems, which meant that our FE devs couldn’t test their changes locally, they had to upload a release to the cloud to test every single change. That reduces productivity to close to 0. A developer isn’t cheap, so you’d think the company would be quick to issue macbooks that we are also allowed to have so that they can work again.
Nope, it took 3 months for our manager to convince the helpdesk that they can get macbooks. Helpdesk originally said they’d have to wait for 2 years for the scheduled replacement of the laptops.
Was it confirmed that you can install Windows? The video said software, I don’t remember that you could install any operating system. It comes with an Arch Linux.
OSX has several things going for it, primarily, it’s got the clowns at apple running the show, thus, it has a bunch of “natural” interface bullshit that only make sense if you intend to live like a caveman and not understand that computers can function differently to physical objects.
On top of that, they pushed themselves as an “alternative” to windows back when they were even more corporate than fucking Microsoft, while blaring out the ignorant ass ipod adverts whose goal was to make the user into consumers making computing choices based on fashion. The iphone and it’s money gated, walled garden BS was just the cherry on top.
If you wanted a fucking alternative to microsoft, linux has been there for you all along instead of the “worse but shinier” osx, which mac served to just overshadow with its increased advertising budget and psychotic CEO.
And I mean that literally, Steve Jobs was actually fucking insane and a horrible person. From firing people at random, to abandoning his kids, to stealing livers and trying to cure his cancer with smoothies.
Also, it’s basically open/free BSD with more propriety bullshit on it than you can shake a stick at.
I don’t know how anyone can use Windows after 7.
Yeah, windows 8 , 10 and 11 are toxic shitholes. You know what macs did before windows started begging you to log in and create microsoft accounts? Force you to have Icloud or whatever the fuck it is accounts. You know how I know? My work laptops suck ass and force me to have mac accounts, and is complaining that it can’t sync HEALTH DATA. MY WORK LAPTOP WANTS TO SYNC HEALTH DATA.
Apple blew the doors off for enshittification. They primed the fucking pump, and now microsoft and google are following through the door, you guys are like “yeah, putting osx on a steam box would be cool” fucking no. Ew.
It seems like you’re too emotionally invested to have a normal conversation like a person.
Health is an app you can delete. It’s not forcing you to do anything. You don’t even need iCloud for anything. You don’t even have to use their walled garden App Store. I know because I download and install shit from the internet all the time.
Yes, it’s free/bsd based. Who cares? I just want it to work and the chassis and build quality on the laptops are excellent.
It seems like you’re too emotionally invested to have a normal conversation like a person.
My bad for having opinions. Sorry. /s
Health is an app you can delete. It’s not forcing you to do anything. You don’t even need iCloud for anything. You don’t even have to use their walled garden App Store. I know because I download and install shit from the internet all the time.
I found an answer on the Steam Machine page: Yes, Steam Machine is optimized for gaming, but it’s still your PC. Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?
It’d be interesting seeing Microsoft in a position where the vendor isn’t automatically making their drivers for them. It’s a massive advantage they have.
Lol this reminds me of that time the US Air Force built a giant compute cluster using PlayStation 3s. Idk if Sony sold those at a loss, but they certainly didn’t see any game purchases coming from the US Department of Defense
Exactly, but I don’t see anything keeping them from selling the Frame at a loss or tight margin. What else are you going to use that with but Steam games?
Even the Steam Controller is useless without Steam Input, but I’d argue it won’t necessarily sell more games. Maybe they could include it with the Steam Machine for “free” to bump the price of the machine up enough to not make sense for a company, but still sell it at a tight margin to sell more games.
Why would they sell any hardware at a loss at all? Console manufacturers do it to lock people into their ecosystem and sell them games at a premium, Valve doesn’t need that, people are already overwhelmingly favoring their store.
The same reason people go into debt for a burrito. It’s easier for people to justify a smaller cost now, and valve will make than money back later with extra games sold, especially in the case of the Frame.
That was a good time for the story portion of the Ubisoft formula. 360-era and early One-era Assin and Far Cry games did a lot to make you question your own morality while not giving you a clear “good guy” ending. I only played a little of AC3 and I guess AC4 wasn’t that deep on the topic. FC2 had you aiding opposing factions in a foreign conflict and manages to make you, potentially, sympathetic to the Jackal at the end. FC3 kinda saves it for the ending when you realize the fantasy mass-killer hero life is incompatible normal life. FC4 has you actively watching competing revolutionaries advance with different drastic flawsgiving validity to Min’s dictatorship. ACU gives a strong case for the Templars while giving you such a hollow ending. I’d say ACOri also has a hollow ending, though the baddies are shallow along the way. .
I can’t recall any major moral conflicts in ACOdy (played 2020) and they definitely went light in FC6 (played 2024, dictator makes the country money with drugs but gives nothing back to the people). Haven’t played anything later.
AC4 always kind of struck me less as morality motivated and more just a story of Edward’s growth as a person. There is of course, some there, but not like with the other games.
Unity was where I feel it started to decline. I did enjoy the story but that ending definitely wasn’t very good. (speaking at least from a purely AC stand point. I’ve only played FC4, FC3, and part of 5)
I wonder if GPU/motherboard manufacturers are not leaving money on the table by not selling an all-in-one gaming motherboard like the one in the Steam Machine.
Built-in GPU and VRAM with the CPU, RAM and cooling optional.
Why would anyone who’s in the market for a by-itself motherboard ever want something you can get as a modular piece as a built-in to another expensive piece?
Besides, if you want everything soldered on you can just buy a laptop motherboard.
For the same reason there’s other options. Having options alone is more than enough reason.
A motherboard with a built-in GPU has obvious price, cooling design and size advantages.
The only things I suggest to be soldered are the GPU and the VRAM since GPUs are extremely sensitive to their memory setup. CPUs can use off-the-shelf stuff without issue.
For the same reason that people are interested in the steam machine. It’s nice to be able to just throw some money at people and get a complete product. I can see businesses getting these things if they need a moderately powerful GPU for business reasons. Unless valve go utterly mad on the pricing here, it’s going to be much better value for money than a Mac mini, and it’ll have better compatibility with existing software as well.
On the steam hardware page it says the CPU and GPU are discrete although also “semi-custom” which I think means it’s not Gigabyte and has some cooling features that are tailored to the form factor.
Built-in GPU and VRAM with the CPU, RAM and cooling optional.
I don’t think that’d be a wise idea. After watching Valve interviews, it’s clear that they designed the entire system around a specific max TDP. Apparently they figured out the TDP, picked a fan to move it, then designed the rest of the cooling system based on that.
If you start swapping out different CPU’s that’ll change the TDP and very quickly become a problem. Plus, the CPU is soldered to the board. Having a socket to allow for swapping would require a redesign of the cooling to account for the increased height
True to that. Having worked in stadiums before at games, they usually don’t stay that neatly sorted. I was just impressed from a hardware perspective was all
I agree we don’t know if they’re loss leaders yet. I will say that even if the hardware is priced at a loss, though, it’ll sell more Steam games. Ultimately I don’t know if it really matters.
Though yeah, people should get past headlines. Lol
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