It might be, but the point of the Microsoft handheld is to grant access to Game Pass and games with lousy anti-cheat on a UI that doesn’t suck like desktop Windows does.
The imagine if their cloud runs the game using proton. The provider with the lowest overhead would have lower costs and thus a cheaper service. If Microsoft doesn’t do it, someone else could.
I think the issue here is DirectX, so unless there’s meaningful changes to how DX works internally, DXVK at this point can always be a step ahead with all the changes it can make without tech debt to worry about. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why Series X despite being stronger than PS5 on paper, struggles to match performance in non zero count of games.
They don’t want to miss out the “hype” but also Valve deem the hardware jump is not that much to consider “Deck 2”. If only these manufacturer also consider bringing software optimization rather than keep producing portable handheld with small performance jump.
That might bias the results towards gaming cafes and people building test machines. Cases where an account is used but a single snapshot doesn’t necessarily reflect what they normally use or that would capture the same machine multiple times.
There’s some ageless classics. HoMM3 came out 25 years ago and is still pretty much the top of its genre. Freespace2 more or less shut down the spacesim genre 25 years ago, as well…
Robocaft was my most played game on steam for many many years. It’s sad to see it shutting down, but it hasn’t been the game I fell in love with for so long it doesn’t feel like i’m missing much. The armor changes and the physics changes and then the regen and the pivot to loot boxes took so much from a great game
The loot boxes came along with the beginning of the changes that really spoke to me. Not the loot boxes themselves, but the pivot away from grinding for objectively better parts and toward a flatter structure where everything had its use case. Of course, it sucks that neither of us can play either of those versions anymore.
I started to fall off the game around when they reworked the chassis blocks to all be one tier. There was so much depth in balancing durability with trying to stay in the right tier. And having to actually protect your pilot seat.
Losing the specialization with the weapons and letting you out all of them in the same vehicle further removed any kind of tradeoffs and then the loot boxes completely ruined the progression system.
I wish they’d release server code, it would be sick to be able to run small community games
The presence of tiers at all was what bothered me. The version I liked most did have light and heavy blocks with tradeoffs so you could have that depth without wreaking havoc on matchmaking by splitting your player base into 10 different pools.
Ahh you may have played earlier than I did. Most of my playtime was around rise of the walkers. I think I started playing a couple months before the nano machine heal gun things.
I liked being able to pull higher tier stuff into lower tier games, and even grinding up the ladder before I was T10 it was pretty rare for it to feel super unfair.
I started playing at the end of 2015. I saw the game go through a bunch of different forms. The people pulling higher tier weapons into lower tier bots were mostly doing all-in strategies around that weapon, because they didn’t have enough budget left for much else, IIRC. But it was going to be mathematically impossible to support to 10 tiers of 10v10 matches as the game went on anyway, and it became a really fun competitive game with no tiers in early 2017. Then they went for some kind of half-assed return to tiers at the end of 2018 that made no one happy.
Yeah, I can totally see how matchmaking for 10 tiers would implode. It really requires a ton of new players or each tier to be unique enough to go back to
I tried to get into terraria so many times, but this 2d perspective is just not doing it for me. For the same reasons, I don’t play metroidvanias and platformers. There are some platformer that I like, Gris, for example, but that’s not exactly the same. I have no problems with Core keeper or Stardew valley, so the genre is not the problem. I need to reconcile with it and accept that some games are just not for me.
What this means is that now you can play GOG games that previously required the (non-Linux native) GOG Galaxy client!
…for multiplayer.
And I’m not sure why these developers forgot how to add LAN and direct IP connections to their games, but it sure does muddy the experience of buying “DRM-free” games.
While I agree it can be painful to do anything multiplayer without dedicated network support in the game itself, it’s a nontrivial thing for devs to add. Expecting every dev studio to be network experts as well as having the infrastructure for the cloud peer connections is why Steam finally added a way for games to simulate couch co-op between remote players. I try to buy games on GOG as my first choice but there are definitely factors (including price) where I’ll consider Steam instead.
It’s a nontrivial thing to make a good product for your customers, but it should still be done. If only GOG had the market muscle to require this without shooting themselves in the foot, like when Apple pretty much universally made digital music purchases DRM-free.
EDIT: Wait, what does this mean?
as well as having the infrastructure for the cloud peer connections
What infrastructure? You need some port forwarding know-how, but other than that, you type in an address and go.
Doing things with a direct connection to friends is something no one does anymore. Port forwarding for a game? Yeah it’s fine for people who are technically minded like I’m sure anyone in the community is, but walking a friend through it on their router just to play with them is a nonstarter. No, the cloud connection is how this is handled now. I haven’t seen a game in a decade do it via a direct connection from player to player.
The unanimous game of the year did it just last year. No one uses seat belts or air bags until you have to either. LAN, direct IP connections, private servers, etc. are essential for when services like GOG’s or Steam’s are no longer functional or available. Without them, some part of the game will effectively always have DRM.
That’s news to me, but looked it up and confirmed you’re absolutely right. That blows my mind, because in many circumstances it can be impossible for players to connect, especially in a double NAT situation or you’re playing on a network you have no control over (e.g. university network).
But comparing a safety feature to a technical requirement is a bit misleading here, no? This is more about making sure gamers can just play rather than having to reconfigure network equipment, which they may or may not have access to.
Honestly if Steam is down at this point, I’ve got bigger things to worry about personally. Does it happen? Do I curse the name of GabeN? Sure, but it’s such a rare instance and happens maybe once a year for a matter of an hour or so typically.
But let’s not confuse using a client app as being DRM. On GOG Galaxy, it’s not doing anything DRM related other than providing you access to download the game itself. All the client is doing is providing a “friends network” that everyone is connecting to and creating a cloud bridged connection. This solves any double NAT problems, obfuscates your IP, removes any need to make network config changes, and no one has to think about it.
It’s convenient for players, who don’t need to know anything about networking to play, which is why we all use it despite its downsides. But it always has downsides. Steam networking goes down for regular weekly maintenance and kills your multiplayer session in a lot of cases. If you and a couple of friends are on a train or in a rural area with terrible internet, you can still play with LAN.
But these online connections are in fact DRM. If you need to connect to your store’s servers to play multiplayer, I imagine that reduces piracy compared to being able to copy paste the executable a few times and send it to a few friends that can all play together. Still, I want the guarantee that what I’m buying is built to last, which means no DRM, which means requiring that connection to my store’s servers is not it.
I completely agree with you that Steam itself is DRM and that we use it for convenience.
But I do disagree with the same statement about GOG Galaxy because it doesn’t provide the same digital decrypting functionality that all DRM provides. They don’t do it because they don’t have to, proven by the ability to download the EXE and BIN files directly even in Galaxy. I liken the Galaxy app to using a VPN or other network tool like Hibachi people have used when a game only had couch co-op support.
Either way, your point is made, but I don’t see an issue with running a client app that provides so much. I don’t inherently trust Valve or GOG, but they haven’t done anything that I know of to betray me as a gamer or consumer. I do NOT however see a point in running a client app that also has additional launchers required afterwards like all Ubi games. DRM on top of DRM is anti gamer imo.
Steam itself can be DRM but isn’t always. I would use GOG Galaxy if I could, but they don’t let me. What bums me out is that it’s required for multiplayer functionality in some cases, and I can no longer just assume that the entire library of GOG fits my values the way that it used to. A lot of this information I’m looking for is often not clearly communicated on store pages and requires lots of extra research.
I don’t know of an instance where it’s not used as DRM. Maybe on F2P games since there’s no license management? Would be interested in knowing where you’ve found it isn’t used. And yes, more clarity on what is happening under the hood would always be welcomed by me. I do feel I have a decent grasp of things just because of my IT background and work with cyber security, but closed source software will always have its secrets.
Also, definitely like the play on words with your username lol. I have a domain that is a pun on my last name, so I always like seeing creative ways people use their own names.
It’s not exactly an advertised feature when a game is DRM free on Steam, so this list may not be comprehensive or accurate for every game. DRM is optional on Steam. You can copy these game directories out of Steam and run them on a totally separate computer with Steam not even installed, and they’ll still work.
And I’d have just made my username &rew if they let me, but this is the one I use when that one is taken or they have limitations on special characters. With the special character, it has the benefit of fitting in old-school four character clan tags as well as Smash Melee names (and I don’t like going by Drew).
I read that games with ads were already banned from Steam a long time ago. That explains why we don’t have more junk in the Steam store. Judging by how many never completed early access asset flip games there are, it would be a complete cesspool with ad-supported games. Good decision by Valve.
I have two computers that I attempt to install Windows 11 on just out of curiosity. My old gaming rig which has a motherboard from I would think 2016 (technically the entire computer is from 2010 but other than the case I don’t think any component is that old) can install Windows 11. A laptop I got in 2019 can’t install it. How does that work?
Ditto. Windows is now impossible to decrapify. Have dipped my toe in Linux gaming about a half dozen times starting in 2004 but it never felt ready til now, Proton, nvidia drivers and distros like Nobara making it not just possible but a better experience.
Absolutely devastating. Prey, high fi rush, evil within. All amazing games. Hate this shit. Love that one of the wealthiest companies in the world bought these studios and are still closing them. Fuck this shit
Arkane Austin was hemorrhaging talent before and during Redfalls development. In the end, there wasn’t much left of the studio that had developed the Prey reboot. Hi Fi Rush and Evil Within are critical darlings, but the former only got its player base thanks to Game Pass and both didn’t sell enough to keep a studio of more than 130 people alive (for perspective, that’s about as many people as worked on Skyrim).
I get how sad it is to see these studios disappear and it’s of course devastating for individual employees (at least in the short term), but it isn’t all that surprising. Also keep in mind that the talent doesn’t evaporate into thin air. We as players should pay far more attention to game credits and individual developers than the studios these people are working for. Talented developers are very likely to reappear elsewhere and continue making great games.
I think the blame for the demise of these studios is at least equally shared between Zenimax, Microsoft and the studios themselves. Blaming it all on Microsoft is a bit simplistic.
Idk id argue it is surprising. Say what you want about the performance of these games financially, but these studios were bought by one of the wealthiest companies in the world. Sure maybe the games weren’t a huge hit, but like… So? You have money. One flop and they’re axed? Xbox said they want to be bigger in the Japanese market, yet they closed their only Japanese studio. A studio with a bunch of talent and training that is gone now. Xbox has a huge problem bringing studios up and getting good output. Their best exclusive (at the time) of 2023 is now without a developer. Why not eat that cost? Yes I get a lot of studios are closing right now but that shouldn’t be happening at a company like Microsoft. But line must always be going up I guess
I think this comes from the mindset that if someone isn’t generating immediate success. It’s time to fire them. We see this a lot in sports. Team off to a terrible start with a new coach? Fire the coach and start trading players.
It really highlights how organizations see people as disposable. If people don’t make line go brrr, out the door they go.
the only reason why i think they do is because they had recently shut down the source 2 tf2 port project, but kept other fan projects like portal 2 prequel and oked it. makes it seem like they have something in store for team fortress, albeit the port job was illegally moving assets into a different development ground.
I think that it’s just on life support, which is fine. Many companies would have completely abandoned TF2, so Valve putting in some effort to keep it alive is nice.
A proper sequel would be very cool, but I don’t think we can have such nice things.
Just for some extra clarification as not everyone will read the article (not meant rudely), this is $100k to both Godot and FNA each, for a total of $200k, and $1k monthly to them both as well, for a total of $2k per month.
This will fail. You don’t start with step 1 being enshitification. That’s like step 100 after something is already really good. Like if valve sold popup ads inside steam or some shit.
Coming straight out of the gate with this bullshit is a dumb idea and it will fail. Not to mention, having to make your own OS is no small feat, even if you’re forking a Linux OS.
Anyone who is even remotely involved in developing commercial software knows this.
Step 1 is growing a customer base,
Step 2 is making that customer base loyal,
Step 3 is and in ads, free tiers with more ads, bonus currency and other BS
Everyone knows that if you’re ever going to charge money for your product you charge money for your product day one. You don’t have a free alpha release or something and then expect everyone to pay later on, that sort of misdirect gets up people’s noses. Star citizen is an absolute master class in how to do this well, not morally of course, but definitely done well.
I suspect they don’t even believe in this themselves, this is just a last ditch attempt at squeezing a little more cash out of dumb investors before declaring bankruptcy eventually. Seeing how one of their investors was Square Enix, that might even work.
It looks like the inbred cousin of the Xbox “Duke” that ended up being surprisingly ergonomical. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I genuinely hope it’s something close to that. Most controllers are too small for me.
It’d be cool if controllers could just be adjustable size. Hand sizes are wild. My fingers are pretty short; my best friend has E.T. length fingers. We are otherwise about the same height and build.
It’d be cool if controllers could just be adjustable size
True, especially in width. I remember being extremely disappointed when I bought a PS3 and could barely play it because the joysticks so close together that my thumbs were constantly touching. I think the total amount of hours played on this system was somewhere in the double digits. Biggest waste of money of my gaming career.
That’s a neat idea. A little dial that flares out the shell where the palms are would be pretty sick. Maybe that’s too complicated and heavy to be worth it, but what if it could be adjustable with a screwdriver?
Duke? Is that the Xbox 1 pad? Because I actually loved that. It's a chunker but was very comfortable for my larger hands. Reminded me a lot about the Dreamcast gamepads.
Yeah, that’s the one. The Original Xbox Duke and the X360 controller are the GOATs imo. The Xbox One controller is also fairly decent but it took a while to get used to it.
The 360 & One pad look nearly the same to me in regards to their form. I have a 360 one still and I hate it because the dpad is the absolute worst garbage. It's inaccurate as hell and gets tiring real quick. Really struggled with that in CrossCode. I also hate how only the Chinese pads seem to have hall sensors.
Fair enough, but the dpad on the 360 one was an improvement compared to the one from the Duke.
I was mostly ranking them in regards to general ergonomics. The Xbox One controller just feels more “slippery”, the 360 had a better feel to it, probably because the handles were more rounded.
I only used the Duke on the actual Xbox, while I use my current pad on my PC - or at least very rarely. There's generally more games on the PC where I can make use of the dpad (retro & indie gaming). Never really had to use it on the Xbox back then.
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