In a statement posted to Steam, developer Shiny Shoe said […]
What a sloppy and lazy article. They don’t even bother linking to the statement from the devs. Seriously, that would have taken less then 1 minute to add.
The badness this game had at launch really can't be overstated, though. At launch, this was a paid early access always online mostly-singleplayer-with-coop game with a premium currency shop and a battle pass. And it was one of those games where the shop was the most fleshed out part.
They've added offline mode and are now reworking the microtransactions to Steam DLC, but I'm still very skeptical of them. That launch was so blatantly over the top bad.
I ignored all the mtx stuff, which was pretty easy, and have had a blast with co-op. I can’t think of anything else that comes close to this in terms of meaningful synergies with friends. And Shiny Shoe has proven they know how to use EA to turn out a good product with Monster Train so I wouldn’t give up on them quite yet.
I don’t think you’ll regret it. Shiny Shoe knows what they’re doing in terms of design and Inkbound is phenomenal. They’ve been making solid improvements throughout EA.
Microtransactions in general are the reason I avoid the majority of games like the plague, if you have to purchase the title and it’s on PC. The only exceptions I accept is the one RPG series I play and the spin-off auto chess card game. They have it figured out, at least, that shoving the paid features down your throat is bad for the player.
Gonna read this later, but already thanking you for posting this! Random super interesting gaming deep dives is one of my favorite things to stubble upon in my feeds. So thank you so much!!!
Realised it's not that cheap, US$500? Feels like it's at a price point where I could spend a couple of hundred more and not get Meta involved. Made more sense when it was US$300.
Yea, but the cost of having FB acquire your data doesn't feel so... worth it? I'm not completely privacy-focused like many on the fediverse but I do view it as a trade-off, and at US$500 the trade-off no longer feels warranted.
Was thinking about the HP Reverb G2, it's a little more expensive than the Quest 3, last I checked.
Privacy isn’t normally my primary concern but with VR I find it to be a bigger deal than I usually would, particularly because the headsets can hypothetically gather data about what you’re looking at exactly (especially once eye tracking becomes more of a thing - then it’ll be exact, and that’s kinda terrifying at that point).
And this is Meta/facebook, so. They’ll 100% do it and say they aren’t.
And they probably scan your surroundings and upload it to the cloud. Only thing creepier would be Amazon making the same thing and then sending you ads for stuff that goes with whatever they saw you had or replacements for old stuff you have.
I don’t care how cheap it is or how amazing it allegedly is. I clawed my identity back from Zuckerberg, and I don’t intend to go back to that abusive relationship.
500 not even on sale. It often goes for $350 these days.
Honestly, it’s a steal. The reverb G2 is really good, easily used with Valve Index controllers.
In the long run though, anyone currently interested should probably wait for Valves next release. Then you can decide if MS-lock is worth it, it can certainly be frustrating at times being locked to Windows.
yeah i only put 500 as its the MSRP, its actually lower than that. more of the point is, if someones claiming that 500$ is expensive because its a meta product, they weren’t even intending to go into VR, as the HP Reverb, and what it sort of replaced before that, the Samsung Oddessey+, were sub 500 for a long time.
A fake meta profile for your games attached to it. Meta also has asked for ID confirmations, so you better either be okay with risking it or losing access to your account and your investment.
It’s worth mentioning that for folks who VR socially, the proliferation of the Meta hardware is a privacy concern regardless of whether one personally uses the device. There’s a fucking reason Meta subsidizes the damn things.
Haha, o god, no. Bit a guy like him would probably not even for a second think about working for them even of they would give him 100% of the funding they receive now (50k?)
I’ve been loving BattleBit Remastered lately. It’s cheap, fun as hell, and the very small dev team has been very active and responsive. I bought 3 more copies to give to friends so we could squad up.
Dotage just released, it's a relaxing boardgame / city builder made by a single guy over the span of 9 years. It's very addicting in that "one more turn" way, if you're into these types of resource management games.
Factorio and Rimworld have kept me entertained several thousand houers each. Hands down the best value for money on steam. Even beat out free to play games ;)
Haven’t touched factorio but played Rimworld. If you value your time don’t buy rimworld, it is the most addictive game I’ve ever played. It’s a great game don’t get me wrong but I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and played it for less than 3 hrs. You just get sucked in like a void.
The competition! lol! Activision is going to put out 2 games this year. Whatever will we play now that these 2 games are owned by a platform holder?
You are correct though that there are a million cool ass games you can play right now and put your money in the pockets of people who make THINGS instead of people who make value for shareholders.
Not to detract from your argument (I agree completely), but indie game devs not only make actual games, but they tend to pour passion into them rather than a formula.
If you’re into metroidvanias (platformers where you gain abilities over the course of the game, expanding gameplay and allowing you to access new areas in earlier zones) there are lots of really good indie titles. Hollow Knight is the reference, both Ori games are awesome. Dead Cells is also worth a try if you’re into fast-paced action games, though it’s more of a platformer rogue-lite.
I’m really enjoying Valheim lately. It’s similar to Minecraft in a lot of ways, but leans a little more into RPG elements with leveled skills. There’s a bit more of a story, heavier focus on combat, and NPCs to interact with (though I haven’t reached that point myself).
I just finished playing Cocoon. It was short-but-sweet - it took me two evenings to finish, so probably in the 5-7 hours range - but it was one of the most interesting and engaging puzzle games I've played in a long time. What's especially fascinating to me is that its controls are so simple - everything is done with one analogue stick / WASD and a single interact button - and it's a very linear game, yet it still feels so engaging to play. It's from the lead designer of Limbo and Inside, so it has pedigree.
I played it via Game Pass (ha...) so it's hard for me to say what the value proposition is like. It certainly isn't going to give you the most time for your money, and it doesn't really have much in the way of narrative or themes, at least beyond abstract ones. But it has a gorgeous aesthetic and some fantastic puzzles.
He’s been involved in several of the big Unity scandals, yes.
This most recent event wasn’t one thing, it was a culmination of poor decisions. If Unity had been sunshine and rainbows all up until now, then the reaction wouldn’t have been so bad. It was the final nail in the coffin, really.
Since he’s been involved, it’s been fuck up after fuck up.
Off the top of my head there’s failing to prepare for massive changes to the ads they could run on Apple and Google’s platforms and then realising that the money they were making was way less than expected, purchasing a company associated with malware, calling game developers “fucking idiots”, growing the company enormously over lockdown and then realising they’ve pissed all their money away. I don’t really know what a CEO actually does so a lot of that could be just company decisions, but JR definitely seems like a loose cannon who can’t help being wildly unprofessional.
There was also a bunch of sexual harrassment that was swept under the rug. He’s an incredible scumbag and a shitty CEO, which is why the psychopaths that inhabit corporate boards seem to love him
9 years of everyone telling him that forcing the UNITY splash screen on “baby’s first game” was a bad idea and was hurting the engine, because people were assuming all games made in the engine were bad, because good games didn’t show they also used Unity. Now that he is gone this changes.
Also he is a huge fan of the “metaverse” idea: venturebeat.com/…/unity-ceo-john-riccitiello-the-… and I am sure some of Unity’s money went there at a time they could not afford it and with nothing to show for it.
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Aktywne