I checked the Steam depots. It seems the game files haven’t been updated since 2022. All that seems to have changed is some license agreement in February. Seems to be a thing across take two games, and not specific to borderlands 2.
Basically nothing has changed in real terms for this game. Maybe borderlands 4 might have draconian DRM, who knows.
Big issue for me is the direction towards incentivised exclusivity. I can tolerate it on consoles (barely nowdays) because you’re paying someone to use your hardware instead of another, and you have to specifically develop for console hardware. That takes time and effort.
Different distribution platforms do not have such issues, and I don’t want exclusivity anywhere near PC gaming, unless you’re self publishing. Frankly if they weren’t banging on about steam using the industry standard % take, while they themselves are trying to undercut and use garbage tactics, I would have absolutely no problem with them, same as Ubisoft and EA’s garbage store.
Also there’s a sneaky little “Support your local artist” on the crying wojak.
Artist/gamedev here, and AI slop does nothing but saturate our spaces with worthless garbage. Feel free to remix my content in any way you want. My game engine is also open source, you can either just use it as it is, or even use some of its parts for your own. But if you think AI is somehow good, then please don’t even touch my content, just ask ChatGPT or watever to make you the same thing based on the same idea I had, but AI.
When I first joined lemmy local AI was pretty popular here. Popular opinion has shifted a lot in the anti-ai direction recently, especially after the recent internet-wide outcry after OpenAI announced that model a few weeks ago. Corporate AI was never liked, but there used to usually be popular comments defending local AI.
It’s probably partially because the last notable advancement in local image gen AI was about 8 months ago now IMO (the flux model release). Also, ‘open source’ ai has become progressively less of a thing, with most models (even ones with released weights that you can run locally) released under restrictive licenses, probably turning away the foss-leaning fediverse population.
I think I have personally realized, since then, that the benefits of from-scratch image generation on society as a whole are almost nonexistent and “it’s fun to play with for a few hours” isn’t enough really justification for the potential harm to artists.
I really don’t have issue with AI, the issue i have is post like these. Real people are getting affect by this AI and losing income due to this, it’s real dick move to mock their anger and frustration.
If you make a claim like that then you obviously got it from somewhere. That means that it should be easier for you to quote that source.
From the other side it could be very difficult to disprove it because it might not explicitly be stated that it isn’t allowed. It might just not provide the functionality to resell the games. Looking for a source to prove that something doesn’t exist is very hard.
You said “I’ve learned” meaning it’s not common knowledge. This post also makes it sound like something you’ve recently learned. So you should have the source handy, no?
There is a balance, though. Just saying, “Source,” and expecting to be spoon fed information from a stranger on the internet is just as bad.
Like, if I was dubious about a claim, I wouldn’t trust the person making the claim to give me unbiased sources, so I research it myself. Trying to be a pedantic ass is a large part of why I’m knowledgeable on so many subjects.
In fact, I’ll only ask for a source if I know they can’t provide one.
The Court said the exclusive right of distribution of a copy of a computer program covered by the license is “exhausted on its first sale”.
The ruling means that gamers in European Union member states are free to sell their downloaded games, whether they’re from Steam, Origin or another digital platform - no matter what End User License Agreement has been signed.
The ruling continues: “Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy.”
Pass, no idea. There appears to be a European Court of Justice ruling saying that you are entitled to sell individual pieces of software and Steam cannot stop you from doing so, ie their EULA is invalid in this regard.
But I am not aware about any legislation which would force them to create a mechanism for you to do so. I have only googled the entire thing out of curiosity.
I guess it is easier with GoG games, you can just copy them to someone else’s pc, delete from your machine and it is sorted, someone else can use them.
Looks like all the games you’ve listed are games where you can spend hours just to grind to the next level, or are filled with mundane fetch quests to keep you busy. If you don’t want to take a break like someone else suggested, you could try to play a single player game with a definite ending. Even if it’s a short game that is only a couple of hours long, you might just need something that has a final cutscene/boss fight and then the credits roll.
Not really sure what games might interest you, but look into Turnip Boy Commits Tax Fraud for a short, 4-6 hour long fun adventure. Or TUNIC if you want something similar to a Dark Souls esque experience, without getting all sweaty and try-hard
Agreed, seems OP is getting tired of the live service grind. Subnautica (start with the first) and Hollow Knight are both excellent single player games to try out.
Oh how I wish those TV manufacturers would get rid of HDMI and replace it with DisplyPort. HDMI mafia does not allow opensource implementations of HDMI specification and so not all latest features of it can be supported by graphics card drivers on GNU/Linux. Death to HDMI!
Well…except the next installations of Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Let’s be honest, that’s what Microsoft were really buying, and neither are anywhere near a release.
Judging by how Starfield turned out, will missing either of those games (which are almost certainly going to be using the same incredibly outdated engine) be much of a loss?
For those of us that miss the lore and story/atmosphere of this games, absolutely.
Don’t get me wrong, Starfield has made me truly worried about the next installment, and I truly believe that milking Skyrim has ultimately left Bethesda in a position where open world gaming just leapfrogged them. The likes of TOTK and Elden Ring have absolutely shattered what they can show to deliver in a supposedly improved generation.
All I can hope is that Bethesda really look at the feedback they received, and take the time to make the necessary changes to their engine. That alone might be enough to at least give a retro feel to the games. I’ll still eagerly await them, but my hopes for them being GOTY are long gone.
The engine isn’t why Starfield sucks. Sure, the constant loading isn’t great but it isn’t the reason there’s nothing fun or interesting to do. It’s also a solvable issue, but they haven’t made the investments they need in the engine.
Starfield is just soulless. The characters are boring, the stories aren’t interesting and don’t let the player choose fun options. The universe is static and nothing matters. There’s just no reason to be involved in the world, so there’s no reason to want to be in it.
They could fix this. I’d say the way they need to go to do so is to stop targeting literally every player. They need to figure out who they’re making the game for and target them. I’m a big sci-fi fan, and I like older Bethesda games. I should have been an easy target for Starfield, but I hated it, not because of the engine but because the stories, characters, and universe weren’t engaging. The engine is an easy target to complain about, but it isn’t what’s holding them back. Indie games can do more with worse engines.
The engine really isn’t suited for the kind of game Starfield wants to be, so it really works against it. But you’re right, even if it were a new shiny engine with the same writing and characters, it would still suck. Likewise, if it had the same creaky engine but actual good stories and characters the constant loading would be easier to overlook. It just has the worst of both worlds.
Bethesda’s game design is just too old. Playing Starfield felt like playing an RPG from a decade ago. Bethesda just got complacent from back when they were one of the only companies that could seriously do an open-world RPG, now we have CD Projekt-Red and FromSoftware with wildly different, significantly more innovative gameplay experiences. Hell, even other AAA devs like Capcom have been able to outperform in the open world space, Dragon’s Dogma 2 was a ton of fun.
No, sadly I think the design is too new. Morrowind was 22 years ago. It is the direction I’d like to see them go again. A complex world that feels lived in, and actually gives players options to play how they want and figure things out for themselves. The newer boring “design for everyone” approach sucks. There’s no soul and nothing interesting.
FromSoft is somewhat notoriously old-school. Their game design has directly evolved from their older games. Look at King’s Field and then look at Dark Souls. There’s so much similarity. Yeah, ER is more cleaned up with a fuck-ton more money and technology available, but it’s essentially the same design.
Obviously Balder’s Gate 3 is just an evolution of classic RPG design, and it did very well. I’d argue CDPR also has taken classic RPG inspiration more than modern ones. A modern RPG design wouldn’t do half the stuff Cyberpunk did, because it’s not targeting everyone (and no one).
Modern AAA design doesn’t pick a target. Their target is everyone and everything, so they do nothing well. Classic design is knowing who your game is for and making a game for them and not anyone else. Bethesda is doing the former.
Holy fuck gamers really do have the worst memories. Cyberpunk is still a shit game after 4 fucking years of patches. CDPR has like 5 titles and one of them is pretty good. FromSoftware has a legacy of bangers a mile long. These 2 companies aren’t even in the same wheelhouse.
Cyberpunk is very much not a shit game, it’s a pretty good RPG with a great variety of character builds and fantastic writing. The devs did an absurd amount of work in order to make the gameplay significantly more fun. I’d also make the argument that Witcher 2 is a really good game, and is what popularized the series enough for Witcher 3 to be such a colossally known hit. The two companies make very different RPGs to one another, for sure, but you’re just being a contrarian if you think the pedigree of the two companies is vastly different.
but you’re just being a contrarian if you think the pedigree of the two companies is vastly different.
Even if we ignore all the other bootlicking and fanboying in the above comment, this statement alone is completely absurd. FromSoftware has developed over 50 games and CDPR has…4? Maybe 10 if you count mobile trash? By the year 2000 FromSoftware had released more successful games than CDPR has released total, good or bad, to date.
It’s no wonder that cyberpunk is such a piece of garbage really when you realize every other game CDPR ever developed has “the witcher” somewhere in the title.
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