He’ll gladly tell you about how he was hacker/dev whizkid at Blizzard for 7 years. Of course, he’ll leave out the fact that he was only a QA tester and a web security drone who got the job because his father is a big wig there.
I’ve always avoided games based “journalism” (and all journalism really) as in my experience it tends to be full of over opinionated bullshit however your posts are different.
I genuinely enjoy your posts, they are well written, clear and succinct. You offer your opinion on things you genuinely enjoy but usually as a side note rather than baking it into the news or subject you are writing about and it is generally clear you are just passionate about the things you are writing about.
I tens to post there daily, and I’m trying to force myself to take a break on my regular long-form gaming news posts on Lemmy, and instead focus on my health. I have a important appointment with my specialist on the 17th so, its 50/50 odds whether I’ll make another news post here before then or not
But, again, daily on Mastodon!
And thank you so much for your kind, kind words. I feel like an imposter so often when I share these, so your words are really appreciated!
I realise you are having health issues from reading your other posts and you should always prioritise that!
I really have so little interest in that short form twitter esque posting that I actively reject it so if I’m being completely honest I doubt I will go there.
Don’t push yourself to post the long form posts, get better and the best of luck with your upcoming appointments. I will look forward to your return to the long form post and hopefully with accompanying info of how well you are doing physically in the future :D
You are not an imposter, you are the fediverses premier gaming journalist and I’ll fight anyone that says different xD
The problem isn’t mobile games, and it’s not console games, and it’s not PC games. It’s the profit motive and corporations and enshittification. And there’s plenty of that going on in games for mobile, console, and PC. (And, for that matter, TTRPGs. And it’s not like the 300 different collectors editions of Monopoly released every year aren’t enshittification at play.)
Addictive gotcha mechanics are shitty when they’re tied to microtransactions. Even when not tied to microtransactions, I think they can still be shitty depending on the specific circumstances, and it’s definitely wise to responsibly manage your (and/or your children’s) engagement to not cause other problems in your(/their) life. But is addictiveness in a video game inherently a bad thing? I don’t think so. All games cause dopamine squirts whether it’s Pong or a slot machine. That’s kinda the point of games. There are plenty of Open Source games out there that cause big addictive dopamine squirts. (Mindustry, anyone?) And such games aren’t made to milk whales. They’re made because someone wanted to create and play such a game.
Don’t be talking too much smack about shovelware! Low-quality games create their own vibes. Some are accidental masterpieces. Both of my favorite two YouTube gaming content creators do a lot of their content on really low-quality games. This series got me to buy Radiation Island and I had a great time playing it. And here is a great video on all the shitty official games based on the movie Avatar.
“Gaming is as much about socializing as playing” is an awesome outlook to have on gaming! Addictiveness in games can be… concerning. But sometimes particular games are the key by which your kid can be involved in peer group. I’m not saying that automatically trumps any downsides and you should let your kid spend $∞ on Fortnight skins or whatever. But I think probably in most cases a balancing act is superior to a hard “yes” or “no”.
I should probably specify that I’m admittedly an old fart who doesn’t know shit about mobile gaming. (The only mobile games I play are Open Source ones on F-Droid.) And the only modern console I have is a Switch, and I don’t have any plans to get one soon. I’ve played a lot of Breath of the Wild, though. And a fair amount of Tears of the Kingdom.
Some final thoughts:
Open Source gaming is awesome.
The way they’re doing anti-cheat on PC is fucked-up.
But so is the way they lock down consoles and phones.
Hack your games. Hack your consoles. (If you don’t hack it, you don’t own it.) Get your kids interested in hacking stuff.
…responsibly, of course.
Play games with your kids! (And not just the ones you want to play.)
Roughly in order of how much I enjoy them from most to least. (Not that the later ones are bad. Just that they’re more low-key.)
Mindustry is amazing, but as I mentioned above, really really addictive. (The commercial game it’s most often compared to is Factorio.)
Then there’s Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Amazing dungeon crawler.
Endless Sky is a great space mercantile sim.
Luanti is a Minecraft clone.
Unciv is a turn-based civilization development game.
And if you’re wanting to do emulation, there’s Lemuroid. Also, EasyRPG, an engine for playing RPG Maker games like Yume Nikki. Oh, FreeDoom is a great implementation of Doom for Android.
Those are the ones that’ll keep your attention for a good long time. There are tons of much simpler games that are still fun like Frozen Bubble and Hyper Rogue. And plenty of games that I haven’t really gotten into very much but that people really seem to like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.
Man. There are a lot now that I’m listing them out. Lol.
I would just like to mention that it is called “gacha” not “gotcha.”
“Gacha” is short for the Japanese term gachapon, which means “capsule toy.” You remember gumball machines? You put a quarter in and twist the handle and a gumball comes out. Gachapon is like that, but with a small plastic ball with a random toy inside. Those are less common than the gumball machines, but there were also some that had sticker/temporary tattoo sheets and those hard candies that looks like fruits(mostly bananas).
Gachapon is a bit different from gambling. Gambling comes with the inherent understanding that you have a chance to lose. With gachapon, you always get exactly what you are paying for: a random capsule toy. You just don’t get to pick which one you get. With gachapon, you always “win,” there is no chance that your money is spent and you get nothing in return. This is why games with gacha mechanics makes duplicates of characters or items useful. Whatever you get is still useful to you, even if you don’t get what you wanted.
I think you already understand the negative aspects of gachapon, but I just wanted to add that little bit of information.
With gachapon, you always "win," there is no chance that your money is spent and you get nothing in return.
Although you're technically getting something, typically the common items are nearly worthless, and may as well be nothing. You only "win" when you actually get the ultra rare 5* SSR Jackpot waifu.
Sometimes, but most of the time duplicates let you level up a character beyond their basic level (Limit Break, most commonly called), or give you materials to pick a new character (sometimes called Pity System, but that is a little different), or materials to forge new weapons.
I have played many gacha games, and I have only ever spent money on NieR Reincarnation because I wanted Square Enix to see that I like Yoko Taros games and want more of them. I am not a whale, dolphin, or a minnow. I am a “barnacle” F2P player, and I have never had a problem with the games I play. They’re not really designed to be constantly played all the time like a “regular” game would be, instead being level or session style games. I don’t compare my game progress with other players, and I play to have fun and pass time. I get exactly what I want from them for whenever I play them.
I’m not sure why you’re on a crusade to convince people to like mobile games. I’ve always got my phone on me, and I frequently find myself on a subway ride that’s too short to bother with a Steam Deck. Mobile games would fit in great there. My options are pretty terrible. For the kinds of games I like to play, the only ones that actually have mobile versions are basically digital versions of board games and a small handful of roguelikes. I tend to just read on the subway instead. It’s not for lack of trying. The library just sucks, and it offers less value than other places I can buy games. Your daughter is playing games designed to keep you “engaged” and addicted with all of the greatest tricks of the gambling industry; you can find the GDC talks with a quick search on your favorite search engine.
Whenever I see an echo chamber where people parrot the same shallow talking points—no nuance, no real analysis—the contrarian in me kicks in.
You claim there’s “no library” on mobile, but even a basic look at the stats and available titles proves otherwise.
If you actually want fun, premium mobile games with zero microtransactions, they’re not hard to find. You just have to look beyond the surface—and actually try.
I’m not parroting anything. I’ve looked. Sure, sometimes you get a port of XCOM or Slay the Spire, but then it’s not going to carry over progress back to my PC, where I’m more comfortable playing at home, and my reluctance to buy a version of the game like that explains why there isn’t enough money in trying to port the kinds of games that I like to mobile. Sometimes a game has a port, but it fell out of compatibility with modern Android and never got updated; and let me tell you, that’s a great way to convince me to stop looking. Even crazier is when something like Fire Emblem Heroes happens, because it’s adapting a traditional handheld/console game into an interface that makes way more sense for controlling the game, but it’s not a proper version of that series; it’s a gacha game. If I have any kind of extended anticipated desire to game on the go, my Steam Deck is just a better answer than trying to find the few games I would like that also got Android versions, because I’m going to spend more time playing them at home anyway.
Don’t understand why anyone even wants this underpowered, overpriced, uninspiring piece of shit. If mobile gaming is that important to you, just get a Steam Deck and install the inevitable Switch 2 emulator on it.
Seems more to me like they’re gonna get the ball rolling then rely on 3rd parties making the consoles.
Like they’d rather do what Android did and get their OS on as many different types of hardware possible rather than locking you into buying only their hardware.
That’s how it looks to me, anyway.
I love the Steam Deck, but if competition comes along and makes something with better hardware and repairability then we all benefit in the end, and Valve benefits even moreso if that new thing comes with SteamOS.
It’s the repairability that concerns me. Valve has been very open about their hardware, even giving support to those with the intention of modifying their Steam Deck. I haven’t seen any other company sell hardware like that.
Are you sure about that? After seeing the specs of the Switch 2, I’m convinced that Nintendo put the weakest hardware they possibly could get away with putting in a modern gaming device. I mean Nintendo literally lied and said that it could run games at 120 FPS, when a 4090 can’t even do that with literally 10x more CUDA cores.
I mean I believe you, but are you certain that it’s actually more powerful than a Steam Deck? Regardless, it doesn’t matter because Steam Deck 2 is on the way. Just buy that one when it comes out (or stick to desktop gaming like me if you don’t need to game on the go.) Nobody needs a Switch 2.
More like 240p lol. In most modern single player games games, my 4090 can’t maintain a steady 120 FPS at 4K, even with DLSS Performance (which at 4K is upscaling from 1080p).
So either Nvidia made a special version of DLSS for the Switch 2 that is more extreme than DLSS Ultra Performance (which is going to look like shit on a giant 4K TV), or Nintendo is just straight-up lying. I’m banking on the latter.
Well I have a GTX 1080 Ti and I can get 120fps raster graphics (without RayTracing, usually maxed out settings in games released nefore 2020) in 1080p ultrawide. Maybe something is wrong with your 4090, or the games you play are unoptimized or something.
I don’t doubt that the Switch 2 can actually output 120fps at 4k in some games, because if it couldn’t that would be a losing lawsuit for false advertisement. But since Nintendo never really said how it achieves that, I am guessing it uses DLSS to render the actual game at a sub-1080p resolution and upscales it to do so. They said 120fps 4k, but they never said without artifacting or reduced image quality.
Sound to me like a you problem, because I absolutely am getting 120 fps on Ultra settings in 1080p Ultrawide. Maybe you built your PC wrong or you got a faulty PCIE slot on your motherboard, or your installation of your GPU is a little… forceful… I don’t know. But games like Cyberpunk 2077 definitely hit that on Ultra without RayTracing.
Well you’re not using Ray Tracing, and I still don’t believe you. Regardless, we went on a tangent here and I don’t feel like continuing on with this pointless argument so ✌️
8 core ARM processor for the Switch 2, custom-made by nvidia. I played on the Switch 2 on a 4k monitor, pretty sure upscaling was involved, but it’s very smooth.
Pretty sure a Deck 2 would significantly out-perform the Switch 2, but I haven’t heard anything about the Deck 2 yet.
Actually, looking at raw specs… the Switch 2 seems to have almost similar specs to the PS4… except it’s ARM, and the Switch actually has more GPU compute cores. And since the Steam Deck can’t emulate the PS4…
It’s confusing because it doesn’t make sense, what is it the left/right third of? There is no feature on the controller that has any amount of sequential things. There is no identifiable “first” or anything ordered anywhere. That’s why these buttons should be called LS, LB and LT for stick, button and trigger, which is still not perfectly intuitive without knowledge of the layout, but better than 123.
The general population has no clue what a button or a trigger is most of the time and also have no clue what LB,RB,LT,RT even mean. You have to sit there and go “hmmm okay I see it’s right but now I need to remember what T and B mean” and it’s unintuitive, only makes sense to those who know it already.
Whereas numbers people actually know how they work and when you just say L and R people pick up on it easier. They can just figure out that top is 1 and 2 is bottom. Even helps them understand L3 and R3 better.
I have almost never seen someone new to games understand the stick button prompt easily with Xbox. Whereas a lot of PS controller sessions taught me that people who are new can even figure that out before I jump in to help them. Plus the icons are better. Shapes are less brain work than letters for a lot of people I know.
7 year old me which didn’t know English was way more confused about the Xbox controllers. Plat station’s were way easier to understand. The problem with L3 and R3 is that I didn’t even know the sticks could be used as buttons, once I learned that, L3 and R3 made a lot of sense.
I know the L-R of Xbox were buttons, I just wasn’t able to understand which was which. Sony being a Japanese company, imagine if they named their buttons some random japanese characters. That’s what Xbox buttons were to me.
It made more sense if you grew up with the evolution of the controller. SNES - L and R are the left and right buttons on the top. PS1 - L2 and R2 are the buttons behind the left and right buttons on the top. PS1 dualshock - L3 and R3 are the left and right sticks being pressed in.
PlayStation 1 came out having R1, R2 (right side buttons) and same for Left side buttons. The thumb sticks didn’t exist yet on the controller. So when they were added the joysticks, they needed a designation, so they said right 3 and left 3
Pretty much every single game has a massive drop off in concurrent players after the initial spike. That’s just how humans work, not everyone who tries something will like it.
I bounce around and go through “phases” of games I like to play quite regularly. Sometimes I like boomer shooters, sometimes I like platformers, sometimes I like RPGs, sometimes I like a weird mix of all of them.
Was gonna say it. This perfectly describes the last few Assassins Creed titles. Not bad enough to put them away, but also not good enough to leave any kind of lasting impact.
Yeah, Assassins Creed was cool at first but they just bled that shit to death with too many releases. It’s hard to keep things fresh when you put out like 10 sequels.
You can make your character as pretty as you please (though, no “sex appeal” -slider like in Saint’s Row :D). Also, no 3rd person camera, so you’d only see your character in inventory screen. Otherwise there’s bit of boobies to be seen - and massive amounts if you so choose with modding.
Difficultywise it’ll cater to very casual approach, but the game does the “bethesda-thing” where you will end up as destroyer of worlds regardless of difficulty.
edit: btw, you might want to specify your platform? No modding for cyberpunk on consoles as of yet, I just assumed PC here.
Sorry, CDPR is too close to the companies they’re trying to satirise in the game. Satire isn’t funny when it’s hypocritical. After that cosplay contest, I’m never giving Projekt Red a cent.
One of the finalists was a cis woman who pretended to be trans. She put a glowstick in her pants to cosplay the Chromanticore model. CDPR decided to reward that with a feature on their Twitter.
I’d rather not wade into the larger “CDPR is transphobic” debate, but here’s an article from Polygon from a few years ago detailing some stuff, including the cosplay contest controversy:
To save you from reading the whole thing, basically, during the run-up to Cyberpunk’s release, CDPR got very… edgelord with their marketing.
One of the more controversial pieces of marketing was an in-universe poster advertising a drink called “Mix It Up”, which depicts what appears to be a trans woman in a highly sexualized manner.
They then organized a cosplay contest for further marketing and that resulted in another controversy related to the poster, wherein a cisgender woman cosplayed as the depicted trans woman, CDPR made it one of the finalists in the contest, and it predictably led to outcry for being tone-deaf at best, malicious at worst.
The larger issues with the poster itself (and CDPR as a whole) are in the article, but the cosplay thing really comes down to this bit in the article:
CDPR also included a cisgender cosplayer as the Mix It Up girl among their cosplay contest finalists. Even if you buy the company line that the poster represents how queer bodies have been appropriated for marketing, their entire argument is negated when they have a cis person dress up in that queer body as part of their own video game marketing.
If you’re thinking perhaps the model was well-meaning, attempting to create a trans-positive cosplay, trying to further highlight queer commodification CDPR spoke of originally, or just a misguided ally who got it wrong this time around, I have bad (yet predictable) news for you. Yugoro Forge, the cosplayer in question, tweeted that her costumes are “beyond politics,” and when pushed on the fact her Cyberpunk 2077 costume dehumanized trans people who are already subject to violence so frequently, she replied, “many cis men and women face acts of harassment and violence on a daily basis as well.”
So you’ve basically got them saying the poster is satire, but then they’re not only doing exactly what they claim they’re satirizing, but doing it in a way that can be seen as rubbing salt in the wound for people who were already hurt by the initial depiction.
My personal opinion on the whole thing is that they really just fucked up and couldn’t read the room, but they do also have a history of being less-than-kind to the queer community themselves (seen in the article), so I can understand why people view the company as hypocritical in regards to the whole thing.
This isnt always valid excuse tbh. Ofcourse rushing and dying is bad, but if your team put together a strategy and you failed to even be there for that that strategy and are therefore left alive by yourself then that is lame of you.
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