bin.pol.social

WolfLink, do games w Why do you need a launcher? (asking older gamers actually)

I too prefer to buy from GoG, but I often add my GoG games to be launched through Steam as non-Steam games so I can take advantage of features like Proton and Steam Input.

If I want to take advantage of certain features Steam only offers to games you buy through them, I will buy through Steam instead of GoG. Usually when I do this it’s for multiplayer or save file syncing reasons.

Steam features you can use with non-Steam games:

  • provides SteamInput which allows me to use any game controller in any game with a lot of configuration options. It’s the best tool for that purpose I’ve ever seen.
  • provides Proton for playing Windows games on Linux (and I do 99% of my gaming on Linux these days)
  • provides VR headset drivers and tools for using different VR headsets with games not designed for them
  • provides a TV and controller optimized interface (“Big Picture” mode)

Steam features exclusive to Steam games:

  • updates games automatically
  • backs up my saves and syncs them across devices
  • provides multiplayer server infrastructure making it easy to play with friends
  • provides modding infrastructure, although not all games use it
  • provides tools for managing which version of a game you have installed
lightnsfw, do games w Why do you need a launcher? (asking older gamers actually)

The biggest thing is the updates. If the game can update itself or is no longer getting updates I don’t care about it having a launcher. If I have to go to their website and download a new .exe every time they do an update it is annoying. Steam does provide a lot of other QOL features as well though.

Blaiz0r, do games w Why do you need a launcher? (asking older gamers actually)

I never liked Steam when it was first released, it was problematic, slowed down my machine and caused me frustration.

Now it’s different. I agree with Gene Newell that piracy is a service issue, I haven’t pirated any games since steam started to fill its library with other non Valve games that I wanted.

I also appreciate the additional features that it brings like the community features and guides and managing updates for me.

It’s not perfect, nothing is, buy I prefer it to managing my own files and updates.

Phineaz, do games w Day 560 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing

Oh my, so much (accidental) foreshadowing in your post. I hope you enjoy the ride, our cult ended up with some rather … debatable ethics despite never indulging much in the more perverse and outright evil practices.

Duranie,

Growing up Gen X in the midst of the Satanic Panic, this game potentially becomes everything we were warned the world would become if you listened to rock music lol.

That said, my boyfriend and I made our entire cult out of cats.

Tattorack,
@Tattorack@lemmy.world avatar

I would’ve loved to see this game come out back then. The pearl clutching would’ve probably broken a few knuckles.

ztpq,

Yeah even just the potential for “pure” follower aesthetics (aka eugenics) to satisfy our sense of order is so fucked up if you think about it.

Tattorack,
@Tattorack@lemmy.world avatar

Fuck that. I opened the game and the first thing that came to my mind was “let’s see how close I can get to a literal blood and sex cult”.

Not that close, I found out.

Or at least, a very tame version of it.

MyNameIsAtticus,
@MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world avatar

Thank you! I’ve been enjoying it a lot. i’ve been struggling a bit with ethics after some followers have been asking for various things. One wanted me to sacrifice another follower, which i turned down, another asked me to sacrifice them, which i also turned down.

Then there was a dissenter which wanted to leave. The game told me my only option was to talk them out of it, put them in prison, or let them go. I chose to let them go and the asshole stole some of my gold which i’m not too pleased about. So far though i’ve kept a pretty clean moral slate (outside the bowl of shit)

mrfriki, do games w Day 560 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing

Been on the fence for this game for a while but not too sure what it’s about exactly. From what I gather it has a part that is pure roguelike combat, something similar to Hades, and there is another management part where you grow your community. It’s that so? Is the combat fun and satisfying like in Hades or is more like a filler?

popcar2,

Combat is fun and similar to Hades but not quite as deep. That said the community management aspect is a big part of the game so if you’re not into that you might struggle, there’s a lot of deciding what to build / talking to your cult.

Tattorack,
@Tattorack@lemmy.world avatar

It’s a Hades rogue-like and a colony management game. But it’s not deep on either front.

The combat and rogue elements don’t come close to a dedicated rogue-like game as Hades.

The colony management doesnt come close to the depth of a dedicated management game.

It is centred around the novelty of a taboo: managing and dictating a cult. There are plenty of little things to do besides the two pillars of the game, but it doesn’t take long for you to have “seen it all”.

Mind you, this doesn’t mean the game isn’t fun. But it’s very light on its individual gameplay mechanics compared to dedicated games.

MyNameIsAtticus,
@MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world avatar

That’s basically how i’d summarize it. I like the Combat, it’s far easier than Hades though, as it feels far less focused on repeat loops. I have died maybe a total of twice, and i’m someone that doesn’t really touch Roguelikes

Katana314, do games w Why do you need a launcher? (asking older gamers actually)

On Linux, running an exe isn’t often as simple as “wine frog-fracker.exe”. It’s usually “proton PREFIX=~/steam-proton-10/ TRICKS=b DXIMPL=1.7.8 blah blah … frog-fracker.exe”

As a result, Linux gamers tend to have launchers even for hobby games they downloaded. Arcade launchers for emulated games are especially common now.

caut_R, do games w Day 560 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing

Oh hell ye. I‘ve been eyeing this game for a long time. Imma ask you how you like the game once you‘ve clocked in more hours. Are you planning to 100% it?

zerodawn,

I picked up a steam deck just before the holidays and this was one of the first few games i played on it and across 4-5 weeks i put nearly 50 hours into it. It’s so fun/addicting i couldn’t put it down.

One of the best parts, for me, is under accessibility settings you can turn off damage and magic drain making you immortal wth endless magic in the combat side of things. As someone who isn’t the biggest rogue-like fan this was perfect. As couple stress free dives for resources and advancing the story then right back to my silly little farm for hours.

MyNameIsAtticus,
@MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world avatar

I was considering 100%ing it, at least as far as Steam Achievements are concerned. I find they’re a good metric to measure whether you’ve explored all the interesting sides of a game, at least when they’re done right. I saw though the DLC achievements are bundled in with the main game. It’s trivial but it has kind of put me off 100%, at least until i get the DLC that is

caut_R,

Yeah, that DLC thing is custom for Steam, they‘re ALWAYS bundled with the main game, there’s no way for devs to not to, it‘s the biggest downside to hunting on Steam.

MyNameIsAtticus,
@MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah. It’s one of the things I miss most about playing on PlayStation. I wish separating main game and DLC was more common

maltasoron, do games w Day 560 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing

I know the rule of thirds, but what are powerpoints? DDG is of no help

TheLeadenSea,

I’d also like to know lol, all I think of is the Microsoft presentation software

Nelots,

I’m not into photography so I could be mistaken. But from what I’ve gathered, power points are the four points where the lines intersect in the rule of thirds (or the four corners of the middle box). Supposedly the eye is drawn to these four points of an image.

MyNameIsAtticus,
@MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world avatar

It may have been a colloquial thing my teacher used, but with Rule of Thirds it’s basically where the grid lines intersect, at least, if i understood right. A bit embarrassing but i was out of it for that class due to how early it is

maltasoron,

Cool, thanks!

zerofk, do games w Why do you need a launcher? (asking older gamers actually)

You don’t. When Valve first started with Steam, everybody hated it. I myself held out for a long time, not wanting a useless program hogging resources.

But gradually it became clear that Steam was actually just a game store. Except having to go to a store and rifle through boxes, you could do it from your PC. Yes it launched the games, but that was just like having a single folder with all game shortcuts. Its main purpose was discovering and buying new games.

Other vendors saw its success and wanted a piece of the cake. I think they mistakenly thought the launcher was an important part of Steam’s success, when it was in fact the large catalogue and good discoverability. They use exclusivity to lure customers, but can’t possibly compete with Valve.

Now we are at a point where the landscape is divided again. The majority of games is on Steam, but enough have their own place that the “single folder with shortcuts” became relevant again. That’s where the likes of Heroic and Playnite come in. These are no longer stores to buy games, but are simply a convenient way to quickly start the game you want, regardless of its source.

JackbyDev,

It’s really easy to forget, but yes, Steam was annoying back in the day. I hated it so much I bought Borderlands 1 from somewhere else in protest. My friends bought it through Steam. The patch dropped and they got it, I didn’t, and I couldn’t play anymore. It finally came later, though. This pushed me to give it a second chance. Now it’s amazing. Apart from some gripes about the UI of Steam itself, there’s not really much to complain about.

BurgerBaron, do games w Why do you need a launcher? (asking older gamers actually)
@BurgerBaron@piefed.social avatar

I don’t. I was still buying physical releases and renting games from my local video stores until both things died out against my will.

Steam is convienent for the services they provide.

Since the USA is turning to shit, I try to buy from stores outside USA now so GOG is increasingly seeing more of my money. Let’s say Valve falls off or goes to shit after Gabe dies: I’m a skilled pirate so whatever.

Mostly I’m Ambivalent but kinda apathetic about launchers because I can just go and find whatever I potentially lose again elsewhere. A self educated privilege combined with grey morality I suppose. Or a resignation to an ever worsening reality I was born into without my say.

zecg, do games w Why do you need a launcher? (asking older gamers actually)
@zecg@lemmy.world avatar

Not having a launcher is my requirement to buy a game lol

Good luck with that. I need it because I’ve fiddled with my screwdriver adjusting the cassette head position to load Scuba Diver on ZX Spectrum too many times.

tburkhol,

Nothing from GoG requires their launcher.

zecg, (edited )
@zecg@lemmy.world avatar

That’s true, but it’s also a pain in the ass compared to Steam, was my point. I can click on Dishonored and have it ready in 15 minutes while I make coffee, or I can download like


<span style="color:#323232;">    Dishonored - Definitive Edition (Part 1 of 5) 2 MB
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    Dishonored - Definitive Edition (Part 2 of 5) 4 GB
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    Dishonored - Definitive Edition (Part 3 of 5) 4 GB
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    Dishonored - Definitive Edition (Part 4 of 5) 4 GB
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    Dishonored - Definitive Edition (Part 5 of 5) 2.4 GB 
</span>

and then install it by hand, after which I have double its size in used diskspace and have to delete those files. Also, there may be patches to install. People don’t realize this, but Steam doesn’t actually necessarily mean imply DRM. I 'member the time before Ubishit launcher when you could just take a Steam install of Rayman Origins and plop the directory from steam’s common files onto another computer.

tburkhol,

Use the launcher to install, then just run the exe. Point is you don’t need to interact with the launcher, its ads, and its bugs every time you want to play.

Chais, do astronomy w Orion's Treasures over Snowy Mountains
@Chais@sh.itjust.works avatar

That’s a composed image though, isn’t it?

photonic_sorcerer,
@photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Most definitely some kind of exposure.

Chais,
@Chais@sh.itjust.works avatar

Was thinking more like satellite imagery as background. I feel like there’s no way such faint an object would be visible through the atmosphere. But maybe I’ve just never been far enough away from civilisation.

jamesanderson, do krakow w Best Way to Upgrade ANSI PST Files to Unicode PST Format Without Data Loss?

Is your Outlook PST file in ANSI format, and are you worried about corruption due to large file sizes? Easily upgrade your ANSI PST to Unicode PST with Softaken PST Upgrade Software, without any data loss.

Key Features

  • Migrate ANSI PST to Unicode PST.
  • All emails, contacts, calendars & notes remain intact.
  • Compatible with large PST files.
  • Simple & user-friendly interface.
  • Supports all Outlook versions.
Regrettable_incident, do games w Why do you need a launcher? (asking older gamers actually)
@Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world avatar

It’s there, and I’m lazy.

ZoopZeZoop, do astronomy w Orion's Treasures over Snowy Mountains

Simply amazing! Thank you both for the amazing photo and the explanation of everything in it. Sharing this with my kids in the morning!

Also, love that we can see Betelgeuse.

  • Wszystkie
  • Subskrybowane
  • Moderowane
  • Ulubione
  • muzyka
  • krakow
  • FromSilesiaToPolesia
  • shophiajons
  • tech
  • esport
  • antywykop
  • test1
  • NomadOffgrid
  • Gaming
  • fediversum
  • Cyfryzacja
  • warnersteve
  • rowery
  • healthcare
  • m0biTech
  • Psychologia
  • Technologia
  • niusy
  • MiddleEast
  • ERP
  • Spoleczenstwo
  • sport
  • informasi
  • turystyka
  • Blogi
  • retro
  • Radiant
  • Wszystkie magazyny