If you like rougelikes then you’ll get your money out of it. Honestly it’s worth more than that, but it does go on sale occasionally and they’ve already released (in early access) a sequel Hades 2.
Al’right, thank you. I have it on my wishlist, it’s just that I don’t trust games anymore, which is why I wait for better deals. But the positive reviews speak for themselves in this case
I’m bending rule 4, because the official 1.0 release is announced for less than 1 month from now.
ZERO Sievert is a tense top-down extraction shooter that challenges you to scavenge a procedurally-generated wasteland, loot gear, and explore what’s left of a devastated world. When the odds are stacked against you, you’ll need to do more than just survive.
I’ve played through it a 2nd time recently, it’s a fun solo experience, the difficulty is largely customizable, the different zones feel unique, lots to explore, even just a little morality testing on some quests. Decent enemy variety, the guns generally feel different, and different ammo types do matter. Skill will take you far, and carelessness, even in the easy areas, will be punished.
DirectX, OpenGL, Visual C++ Redist and many other support libraries in software programs typically require the same major version of the support libraries that they were shipped with.
For DirectX, that major version is 9, 10, 11, 12. Any major library change has to be recompiled into the game by the original developer. (Or a very VERY dedicated modder with solid low level knowledge)
Same goes for OpenGL, except I think they draw the line at the second number as well - 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4.
For VC++, these versions come in years - typically you’ll see 2008, 2010, 2013, and the last version 2015-2022 is special. Programs written in the 2013 version or lower only require the latest version of that year to run. For the 2015-2022 library, they didn’t change the major version spec so any program requiring 2015+ can (usually) just use the latest version installed.
The one library that does weird things to this rule is DXVK and Intel’s older DX9-on-12. These are translation shim libraries that allow the application to speak DX9 etc and translate it on the fly to the commands of a much more modern library - Vulkan in the case of DXVK or DX12 in Intel’s case.
Edited to remove a reference to 9-on-12 that I think I had backwards.
I know I’m a bit late, but here is some more info that may be of use to some.
OpenGL/GLSL
OpenGL, is a set of “extensions” (currently 160 as of OpenGL 4.6), which is a subset of features that has to be implemented by each vendor/manufacturer driver.
To be considered compliant with OpenGL 4.0, you have to implement all its extensions. This base serves as the first stepping toward the next step, OpenGL 4.1, which is basically 4.0 with some more extensions, and so on untill the current OpenGL 4.6.
But as everything in OpenGL 4.0 is also in OpenGL 4.6, a driver for 4.6 will run any 4.0 games. But if you used an extension found in the 4.3 spec, your game won’t work on a 4.2 level driver… Well, most of the time, as it may already have implemented the extension you need, but did not implement yet enough of them to reach the 4.3 specs.
To complicate things even further, you have the cut-to-size versions, aka OpenGL ES, which targets embedded devices with a stripped down version of OpenGL.
As an example of this, you can find here the compatibility matrix for the open-source Mesa collection of drivers : mesamatrix.net
DirectX
DirectX, in contrary, is a monolithic spécification. You either support DX11, or you don’t.
Part of it is implemented in the NT kernel (Linux équivalent in Windows) by MS, through its libraries, and the other is implemented by the GPU manufacturer, in their drivers.
DX version are often tied to Windows versions (DX12 with Windows 11), for multiple reasons. It requires the right features available in the NT kernel, the right hardware to be run, and, lets be honest, it is a great sale argument to try to push users to get the latest Windows version. Same goes with hardware manufacturers, it is a great way to make sure your customers upgrade for a GPU that support the latest DX version.
Subsequent versions are not compatible with each other, that’s why, if you play a DX9 game, you have to install the correct driver that (still) supports DX9, and the DX9 libraries.
To convert or not to convert to new API version ?
To convert a game from DX9 to DX10, you have to rewrite part of the underlying engine, which mean putting ressources and money into it.
Most publisher won’t bother, as the return on investment isn’t good enough to motivate such work. The new features won’t be used, and even though it usually give a substantial boost to performance, those games are often old enough to work exceptionally well on the current era hardware anyway.
So, once again, why bother ?
The specific case of DX12 (and Vulkan)
DX12 is to DX11 what Vulkan is to OpenGL. Both are a dramatic philosophical shift in the graphical API world. Previously, graphical APIs where at a higher level in the stack, which reduced their complexity, at the cost of bigger overhead.
Now with those two new beasts, you get a lot lower in the stack, which mean a lot closer to the hardware itself. You loose some of the ease of use in exchange for a lot less overhead, and thus potentially better performances.
But if your game worked on previous APIs, your are out of luck, as the changes are so radical you’d probably have to rewrite the whole engine renderer. It cost a lot, so only very few games goes this way, mostly the very successful ones, and probably mostly to gain experience with those new paradigms before starting to go all DX12/Vulkan for future games.
Thanks! I learned something new today, and that makes today a good day. I’ll strike out a few relevant parts of my answer when I get a minute to open the beast.
I got the impression they won’t like either of those based on the post. Which is a shame because they’re great. You can spend a night with a couple friends going through pretty much any of the Halo games, and with the Master Chief Collection you can turn on skulls and such and have access to all the great Halos in one.
Yeah, not what we’re looking for right now but we’ve played through halo games and it was a blast. GOW didn’t sit right with us, perhaps due to the third person view, but we are going to give it an another try in the future. Just now, we got the COD itch. We’ve completed world at war campaigns so many times that now we just blaze through it on full autopilot now…
I played through final fantasy 16 on PS5, and well… Let’s just say I’m not in any hurry to play through it again.
Once you’ve figured out how the combat works, there’s really no additional depth to it. The summon fights look spectacular but aren’t all that engaging. Lots of spectical, not a lot of challenge. The game is absolutely gorgeous, but it’s so so shallow in gameplay. The side quests are extremely boring. The main story is ok too. They really tried to be a lot more serious like game of thrones, but still kept it like right below that mature line, so it felt like a half measure to me.
There is absolutely no depth to the weapons or equipment outside of ‘number go up’. There aren’t any elemental weaknesses in you or the enemies, so The only challenge comes from the actual fighting technique, perfect blocks perfect parries, and chaining together different summon powers. If you like the combat, you’ll enjoy doing the monster hunts, but there aren’t many hunts compared to other ff games.
Overall, the story is decent, if a little lacking in focus. I’d probably say it’s worth picking up on sale, but it is not really worth the current price tag at all. It really is a shell of a final fantasy game compared to the past games. It’s a great looking action game, but it’s shallow.
The nail gun was so satisfying! The AI was cool! The way they would flank was pretty good for the time! The light and shadows were really great. Lots of tension mixed with the gun fights. In a lot of ways, Condemned reminds me of it, too.
Yeah now that you mention it, there really haven’t been too many releases similar to FEARs gameplay style since then. It was a very unique combo of fps and horror. I would love to see someone tackle that style again
It’s a shame that I’m a quivering pussy, because I think the combat against the replicants in FEAR fucking rules. The shooting feels awesome, slow-mo karate is awesome, the game feels awesome to play.
…and then the game goes quiet after the shooting stops, and it delivers some of the spookiest atmosphere I’ve experienced even after two decades of age. A single light fixture moves suddenly, showing the shadow of something just behind me, and I jump out of my skin and have to take a break from playing.
Boktai series: These games were so near and dear to my childhood, especially 2. Really though you want the Solar Sensor hardware for the full experience, but I love these games too much not to plug them anyway. Emulating them is worth it over not playing them at all. And for the third game, you'd have to pick between original hardware or the translation patch anyway.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - It's Castlevania. Also play Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance, but Aria is by far the best of the GBA installments.
Golden Sun 1/2: These games were way ahead of their time for how they designed a combat system that encourages you to use all of your tools and not just click basic Attack as if you gotta hoard your MP for a rainy day. Fantastic puzzles too.
Mother 3: Surely you have already heard of this game and do not need me to tell you to go play it. Have you not played it by now? Why not? Well, okay, if you haven't played Earthbound first, go do so, then play this.
Rhythm Tengoku: A wonderful game about pressing the A button. Sometimes you press the d-pad too. Translation patch.
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1/2: If you've ever played the classic 2D Tales games, these are excellent spiritual successors to those. There's a third game that's JP-only, translation patch is being worked on but it's been stuck in development hell for years...
If the intent here is to discuss games that are actually doing something new and different, Space Marine 2 really needs to be in this conversation.
At first glance it’s just a very, very polished third person action game, but the more you pay attention the more you’ll notice the excellent mechanical design of the combat. There are some very smart, very subtle choices that have been made in the gameplay mechanics that affect the dramatic flow and tension of combat in surprising ways. Someone designing this game actually thought about the pacing of fights, and that’s something you just don’t see in games all that often.
Also on a purely technical level there’s the extremely smart bit of coding that allows them to render ungodly numbers of enemies in screen at once, behaving as coherent swarms that move and flow together, and dear God is it incredible to watch.
The first game was a great Warhammer game (for the time). This one is just a great game, no qualification needed.
I’m taking this as an opportunity to illuminate issues with particular games, since… well, play on easy if you wanna, naturally. So, for my recommendation: If you don’t use the mod that makes all weapons very dangerous, Mass Effect Andromeda. Without a mod to speed it up a lot, every fight becomes ages of tedium. There’s one weapon that can be made any good and even that doesn’t make fights bearable. You’re basically sitting for like ten minutes at a time hosing down foes with off-brand Super Soakers until they get frustrated and leave. It’s quite bad. Just play it on easy. Not just easy, the easiest easy. Whatever the lowest difficulty is, pick that one. There’s just no point in anything higher unless you’ve got infinite patience. And ammo. Bleeegh.
So, generally I play things on easier difficulties when I feel like anything higher will get tedious rather than interesting. The Mass Effect trilogy, I play on the maximum difficulty because that adds a bunch of mechanics that give me more to work around. Fighting armoured enemies should be done differently from fights against shielded enemies, that sort of thing. Enemies become more dangerous when they’re not shut down so there’s that encouragement to get them figured out before they bring out the scary attacks. Some games just increase health amounts, which… okay, just shoot them more? 😴 Boring.
tl;dr: Games like Mass Effect Andromeda where difficulty settings only increase tedium. Am never gonna want to crank up the tedium setting.
I play Overwatch since OW1’s launch. It’s competitive/ranked play mode is incomparable to say… CounterStrike 2’s level of polish for example. That said, it’s crazy fun in Quick Play (unranked), and if you are looking for a hero shooter where the whole hero is entirely different from others, then it’s the best free to play hero shooter since all microtransactions available are only cosmetics. No pay to win mechanic available whatsoever.
The bad press is because between OW1 and OW2 they completly trashed the competitive scene, while also overpromising and not delivering at all, a PVE campaign mode. After that, they moved to a semi-pay-to-win model where there where timed exclusive heroes behind a battle pass, after that you could unlock them by grinding, but that model has evolved into a cosmetic-only model. So, no more semi-pay-to-win, only cosmetics.
So, right now, OW2 is closer to OW1’s greatness than it has ever been since they trashed it. Not there yet in terms of balance, polish, competitive mode, but it has grown in the amount of modes, heros and maps.
For me, for what I value, OW2 is the best hero shooter. We’ll see when I get a hold of Marvel Rivals.
Interesting. I don’t have the biggest hands (fuck the Duke) and I didn’t notice the size difference. I don’t think I could go back to a 360 controller. The XBOne feels like the final form
Sorry to keep asking questions, but what is harder to repair? Swapping the sticks? I’ve worked on so many JoyCons at this point regular sized controllers don’t bother me much
The trigger on the xbox one controller is loose and easy to take off, and it has a spring on it that flew off and I lost upon disassembling it. The 360’s controllers will remain completely function even without any shell, but are also able to be disassembled.
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