It is very similar, but you don’t need to know anything to start playing. Just a basic understanding of turn based RPGs. The rest will come with playing the intro tutorials.
Nah, games should be fun and stressing over what happens behind the scenes distracts from that. Do I know Acti-Blizz have major issues, yes, does it stop Diablo 4 being fun, nope.
The only notable thing about the game is that it’s extremely pretty. So I say start it again, see how much this prettiness matters to you on this new TV, and then decide whether to continue.
Pretty sure the PS5 drive can’t actually read CDs, so that’s the PS1 library and most early PS2 games gone right way, even though they can be emulated pretty easily. The PS3 should be possible, but they haven’t bothered when you can play it streaming.
I guess the awkward truth here is that there’s no real business need to have it. Most of us into retro games will have a way to play them already, either via PC emulation or old consoles. And if you show a Gen Z kid some of the horrors we used to enjoy on PS1 (although I maintain Sheep, Dog ‘n’ Wolf is an underrated classic), they’d run screaming back to Fortnite and CoD.
It would be nice to have it, but nobody is not buying a PS5 because they can’t run Terracon. They’re still selling them as fast as they can make them, even with the economy in shambles.
I remember when Sony announced they were stopping production on backward compatible PS3s. I ran out and got one, because I still had PS2 games I wanted to finish. The BC PS3s were more expensive than their non-BC counterparts. And the PS3 was already an expensive machine.
I think I played 2 or 3 PS2 games on it. And never with consistency. Plus, these older games looked terrible on modern HD screens. And frankly, I was more interested in playing current gen titles. For example, I got a PS5 so I could play FF16. Not so I could keep playing FF15 or FF13. It really ended up being a real waste of money to buy that more expensive PS3.
And many of the games eventually re-released on other platforms: PSP/Vita, Steam, Switch, later-gen consoles, etc. I play a lot of JRPGs, so that helps.
Backwards compatibility is something I really don’t care about. It’d be nice, I guess. But I still have my PS3 and PS4. If there’s something I really want to play, I can boot those up. Or just see if the game is available on Steam.
I do software development for work, so the game resonates with me intensely. Doing math to optimize input/output and refactor systems to obtain best capacity compared to the available technology. It’s great.
Satisfactory feels a lot more like other open world games. Not that it’s actually comparable to skyrim, but it is kinda shifted in that direction. There is value to go exploring and find different things or useful areas which can help you progress. Satisfactory has a huge map with a to of beautiful places to explore and build on, but the map is not random generated, so the replayability is a bit limited for the base game.
Satisfactory is a lot slower on progress and never reaches the “endgame” of Factorio, i.e. you won’t get a swarm of drones and slap down huge blueprints to harvest whole areas and the factory will probably not be as “refined” and structured. You get small blueprints so you can easily make parts of production lines.
An obvious point is also that Satisfactory is 3D. So you have a whole extra dimension to use for production lines, and the game features several components which allows you to make use of walls, ceilings and additional platform levels to refine your lines.
But even though the game has very different visuals and several different aspects, they hit that same sense of satisfaction with constructing systems with maximum output and see things work. I highly recommend trying it, although you might want to consider waiting for the full release (which is TBA, but speculated to be “soon”).
The Blaster Master Zero series is a trip down memory lane and a fun romp. Excellent nostalgia feels if you ever played the original.
The horizon games have been good for both storytelling and gameplay.
Firewatch, while much too short, tells a moving story about the isolation that loss brings.
The Stanley Parable is one giant Easter egg with I finite replayability.
I’m a huge fan of “sky children of light” when I’m stressed out.
The free just cause games on PlayStation are kinda meditative in their own way, allowing you to fly across the countryside in a wingsuit.
I’ve also played BOTW, but am fairly disappointed in the lack of challenge. TOTK however, I am looking forward to.
Finally, Control. It has sweet gameplay, a cool story, a creepy as hell atmosphere, and links all the Remedy games together, all of which is love for the same reasons as I love Control. Of all the games I am looking forward to, Remedy is giving me the most antici…
Stray. I liked the length, gameplay, story, colors, and being a little orange cat. The puzzles weren’t too hard either.
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. The controls were a little fiddly sometimes, but it’s VR so that’s not unexpected. The story was mostly a backdrop for the zombie-killing and fetch-questing, but it was a lot of fun.
That’s a hell of a nostalgia trip. Freelancer is probably my all time favourite game, and I had literally a decade of fond memories of Disco before I eventually drifted off.
What’s it looking like these days? The pop count and surviving factions were looking a little sad the last time I checked in a year or two ago.
I got a ton of games on CD from years past; but I got no disc drive on my computer anymore, so I just pirate them instead of buying them again on Steam or GOG unless they have something new to make it worth buying (like an engine port or new features or whatever).
I think the only game I have tried that with that worked has been Oblivion and Shivering Isles. Some of them are so old, they don’t have any keys. Like Quake and Doom. But those were put in bundles and with updated engine ports and such a couple years ago on Steam and I got those. Like the entire pre-2016 Doom collection, plus some other games on the original engine for $5 total. Not a bad deal. Some of those games I didn’t actually already own, too, like Strife and Hexen 2. Always wanted Strife, but only had the shareware as a kid. Couldn’t beat that as a kid back then anyway; I only ever got through the entire thing pirating it in my 20’s at a time when it wasn’t able to be purchased anywhere.
Now that you mention the older games you own. It might be worth it to make some backups in the form of iso’s or copies. In case they get disk rot at some point. I think some of them must be close to 30 years old now.
Funny you mention Strife. I never really knew about Strife until much later when I found out about it. I have played the shareware version of Heretic quite a lot. But what really fascinated me back then where the early Grand Theft Auto and Carmageddon games. I guess my interest for cars translated into my games as well. Since those are technically open world driving games beside other things.
Is it illegal? Possibly, but it’s a grey area and it all depends on your country whether it breaks the law.
(I am not a lawyer so take this as an armchair opinion at most) In Canada, you are allowed to do “format conversion” of media for personal and archival use. So even if on the label it says “Copying this tape is a crime”, making a copy to replace an older tape nearing the end of its life (implying you don’t intend to use it), converting it to CD or digital file format is allowed in order to play the media in respective devices built for the formats. So it’s arguable that conversions/changes to be compatible with Linux or a low-disk space computer could fall under this, for a game which you have a license/genuine copy.
The caveat is that in Canada breaking or circumventing “digital locks” is strictly against the law. The overall definition of what constitutes a digital lock is (to me) very broad and vague. So DRM-removal would arguably fall under digital lock circumvention, but other cases would be less clear.
Legislation is in the House of Commons right now (Bill C-244) to better define in what cases circumvention of locks would be permitted for fair and reasonable use of a product.
If I’m not mistaken with digital download games you are paying to lease them rather than buying them outright. So technically you don’t own the game, you are just borrowing it. This would make pirating the same game you bought more of an illegal act.
(Again I’m not an expert) With the Steam Subscriber Agreement it’s effectively a purchase of a perpetual/indefinite license to non-commercial use of a game. But purchasing a DVD is, arguably, the same thing, you are given indefinite license to view the video non-commercially in a home setting. What difference does it make between a game on your hard drive and a movie on a disc?
By my moral standard, games with Steamworks bypassed by something like Goldberg is functionally equivalent to DVD decryption. It’s my opinion that the continued access to social and internet connected features like Friends list, Workshop, Matchmaking, Redownloading games, Cloud Save Backups is contingent on accepting and adhering to your agreement with Valve and/or the server hosting the matchmacking service. That’s why I’m very much against always online type of DRMs for single player games.
Imagine having a pool in your backyard, but the pool installers have to permit and supervise you while you use it. For a public pool it would make sense to be supervised for everyone’s safety to ensure no one’s messing around, but for your own pool it doesn’t.
There’s a big moment in SOMA that really stuck with me. Not gonna spoil it. Mostly it’s a horror game but it engages with some pretty intense ethical questions and does so in a way that feels very personal.
Oh fuck… I remember getting to “that point.” I was so engrossed in the game that I wanted more and didn’t want it to end. But I was also happy to see how the story concludes.
For me it was later when the child crosses over. My son was the same age at the time and when the kid says "I'm afraid," I completely lost it. Ugly cried for a solid five minutes.
Thank you! I woke up that morning to a frontpage full of low effort memes posted by one person and felt dread that it would be allowed to continue. I ended up blocking them for safe measure, but a mod response is the best outcome I could hope for. The worst aspects of reddit subs do not need to migrate here as well. There’s nothing worse than finding a new community or magazine and finding the top content is nothing but memes. The discussions in the comment sections are what brought me here. Memes, as funny as they can be, don’t really allow discussion. They seem more of a response to any given topic, so seem better fit as a reply rather than submission on their own.
The other mods and I are regular users here as well, so we are just as committed to seeing the community here be an enjoyable place as everyone else :)
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