Who knows what happens when someone else takes the helm at Valve, might not be too long either. Lots of companies see a massive shift in company policies once a new CEO takes over. Hopefully it’ll be someone that upholds the same integrity as Gabe.
The surface is one of my go-to examples of Microsoft’s ineptitude. The surface is honestly an amazing tablet. It works very well, great battery life, and you can either use a standard tablet mode or it as a full Windows machine. For businesses too it was a slam-dunk, where since it’s Windows it already interfaces with most IT systems out of the box, no special setup or store integrations or Apple stuff, it’d work with Microsoft AD. Unfortunately it followed the pattern.
They gave up on tablets before fully vetting the market
Apple lands the iPad, and it takes off, is groundbreaking
Microsoft got butthurt that Apple made profit on a thing they gave up on
They take years coming up with the Surface, in the meantime every 3rd party came out with an Android one that was slow and choppy so the people have all decided iPad was the winner
Microsoft hired thousands of engineers and pivoted the entire world to touch, forcing Windows 8 down everyone’s throats, making the public hate it
Surface finally lands, but everyone already hates the interface, and anyone who wants a tablet already has one
Microsoft quietly lays off everyone. Surface is still around, but on life support.
Yeah who TF are their lawyers? Anticompetitive behavior is just that—there have o be actions taken, at least in the United States. And Steam doesn’t have exclusivity agreements so IDK what they’re gonna argue.
The closest thing they can argue to any kind of “exclusivity” is that the free steam keys developers can generate for their games may not be resold for a lower amount than the game can be purchased for on steam outright. That says nothing about other means of distributing the game outside of steam, and nothing about alternative platforms the devs might want to use. It’s a tiny and far away straw to grasp at.
TF2 lawyers, it would seem.
Their legal Offense has evidently been workgrouped by Scout, Soldier and Pyro, judging by this particular legal argument. To think the Mercenaries would turn on their creator… Well, they’re mercenaries!
The case seems like such a reach. At worst it’s an effective monopoly for devs, not consumers. Devs have a really hard time selling elsewhere.
That said, I love Steam and think it’s genuinely one of the best companies out there. And whilst it’s not great that they’re so big, they aren’t that big due to anti-competitive behaviour. It’s quite the opposite. You can add non-Steam games to your library and use Steam features. The fucking Steam deck isn’t locked down, and you can install non-Steam games. Just because Uplay wants to log me out every time I reboot doesn’t mean Steam should be sued.
There are so many other companies more deserving of the lawsuit
Precisely what the share holders don’t want people to know. They worship money and what the public to think more money = more good. If people realize these investor backed products are generally not anything better than someone can make in their garage they’ll stop buying overpriced junk. So here we are about to see how the sausage gets made.
Well, that literally is the only reason to become a shareholder, right?
I mean, technically you’re participating in the management of the company and can influence decisions such as environmental benefits, but it feels like that only happens when there’s secondary benefits that also improve profit.
There’s a definite sweet spot for a subreddit/social media instance/online community whatever your verbiage. Once you get over around 10- 15k people quality of community goes slowly downhill
I would argue against that. You can keep the quality up even with larger sizes but you need focused moderation and some level of distinction between sub-communities (e.g. large forums of old would have special rules/culture for certain sections).
In defense of the generally indefensible masses of reddit, Hansen is hardly a figure above criticism. Fetishizing vigilante justice, embracing of the far-right, his emphasis on spectacle without regard for the community, that time where they more or less killed a guy… Child molesters are horrible (tho why we keep electing them, I’ll never know), but we don’t need to hail and laud someone as our champion just because they agree.
Hansen’s documentary has an opportunity to shed light on online grooming as a pervasive problem endemic to all online spaces but instead appears to further his usual moral panic about how there’s people lurking behind the bushes, waiting to nab your children while they do the things they enjoy. His productions have never been better than any other schlock reality television, but with a veneer of legitimacy from his LARPing with law enforcement. Targeting a popular piece of pop culture, instead of an expose on say grooming rings on discord or the constant abuses of children from religious institutions as facets of the ever-increasing access children have to unmoderated online interaction seems to be just as morally vapid as his work has ever been.
Shitting on Hansen I can understand, but defending Roblox? It’s no grand conspiracy that it’s riddled with predators, it’s an actual fact, so that’s kinda disgusting.
A bigger problem is the predatory behavior of the company that owns Roblox. You can teach kids how to wall themselves off from the pedos on that site but you can’t really protect them from the company that runs it. Short of keeping them off it all together… Which is what I do.
What blows my mind is the child predation isn’t even half the problem with Roblox. Gambling with real cash, child labor, black market for digital content.
It’s an absolutely dumpster fire of problems, and yet balatro is the one the EU cracks down on.
Hansen is generally more of a grifter these days to be fair. And even back in the heyday of the show, it had a lot of issues both legal and just moral. I really feel weird about this kind of predator catching stuff being made as entertainment.
I think it brings awareness. Which is needed to change the culture. I do think it’s weird to gain financially but I don’t think it’s the only “benefit” of making a show.
Historically the kind of awareness it brings is less constructive information on the problems with these websites, and more on the line of unhelpful paranoia.
I don’t use reddit, but tbf roblox is what you make of it. My kids enjoy the heck out of it. There’s the same issues with most games - exploiting the users for profits with micro transactions or whatever and the dangers of lousy people in chat. The real issue is that Roblox has become a mecca for kids and that attracts more of the worst aspects I mentioned.
I hate to say it but parents gotta parent. Roblox offers decent parental controls. I employed them and relaxed them as my kids got older, and check in on what they’re playing. Problem is parents treat games like babysitters and then get upset when their sitter hiring policy is leaving the front door open and let anybody walk in.
I had to click anyway, though, just to be sure… they’re announcing that they’ll announce an announcement they’re going to announce tomorrow. Kinda baffling. Hopefully they’ll announce something interesting when they actually announce the announcement they’ve announced. 🤦
How about just the completely entitled attitude of the execs that think they can tell us how to enjoy something. Only to then whine that nobody wants to buy their 70 euro no better than mid game
Honestly, Outlaws has flaws, BUUUUT it’s fun as hell. It’s a 7/10 game, but it’s fun. I enjoy my time with it even though I see some glitches here or there, or that the lip sync is a little jank.
It’s a big ass Star Wars game (with no AC towers hooray!) where you get to rub shoulders with scoundrels and play Sabacc and visit honestly cool locations that are visually impressive.
I feel like most of the issues it has is probably a function of “we need this game out by X date” versus the devs’ ability.
I finished the main story last night and I basically agree with you. It’s got plenty of issues, but overall it’s fun. It is neither the 9/10 game of most reviews I saw nor the 4/10 game that people want it to be.
I think my main issue is that it wants to have a story about the underworld and how you can’t trust anyone and you’re a huge underdog just trying to survive but it doesn’t want to commit to it. It feels thematically janky in places and ways that feel design-by-committee. It fills the shoes of Shadows of the Empire decently enough, but it feels like it was trying to be 1313 and failed.
I have this feeling that once it starts going on more sales and more people play it the general consensus will be that’s it’s a pretty solid game. I also imagine like a lot of these games there will be a patch in the next month that fixes a litany of issues.
You’re right it’s kind of interesting that the factions don’t really add a lot of meaningful gameplay mechanics, but oh well. At first I was like, “I’m not working with the Pykes AT ALL because I know what happens in your spice mines.” But you end up just being friends with all of them as needed (to get their rewards).
Just having this big coat of Star Wars paint over this otherwise fairly standard action/shooter/open world game really does make it more fun, though. I still have a bit to go in the story, but I’m just basting around cleaning up side quests right now because it’s fun to do.
9 years old is pretty old for a video game. When it first came out, the goofiest thing about it was the guy who could heal you by throwing a syringe at you. Now everyone has goofy super powers and things that would never make sense in the same world as something like a Jack Ryan novel.
My god Siege was good for the first few years. Intoxicatingly good multiplayer. Too bad they fucked it up trying to make it more CoD like. For example, I used to play with a completely hidden hud because it was so immersive and fun. Now it’s like rainbow six and Roblox had a baby and the weird game popped out. I can’t even hide my hud or crosshair any longer
they did a little bit of this to hell let loose. The primary thing that bothered me was how when the game came out there was no hit indicator whatsoever. no visual no sound nothing. it made for some very interesting gameplay. then they added it indicators, even if you’re like 100 yards away from somebody you can hear this bullet go “whap” if it hits them
But also, I don’t buy games from EA for the past 10 years.
So all I’m hearing is that the Madden series will either be sold off, or die.
I only bought every few years. Because really, why buy 2013 when you have 2012? Buuuuut, you can justify buying 2017, when all you have is 2012.
I think that was the first Madden game I bought where it didn’t have a season mode.
I do not give a FUUUUUCK about franchise mode. I don’t care about running a team. I don’t care about controlling an individual player from high school to NFL. I don’t care about designing plays. I don’t care about roster trades.
I don’t even know the names of the players. I don’t know what a nickle or dime is. I just know this play is a passing play, and I can either throw to L1, or X. Then I let the play develop, and see who’s open.
All I want to do is play 16 games, and if we make it, the playoffs. Once we either win or don’t win the superbowl, the game is over for me.
Literally the only 2 modes I give a flying fuck about are exhibition and season. Don’t know don’t care what player packs are, or elite cards, or any of this XP bullshit. I do not give one flying fuck.
But let the guy run, and I press the button, and he throws the ball. Then if he catches it, let me run with it.
And they took away the part of the game I spend 80% of my time in. So I took away any sales I gave them since.
See, the thing is, the guy with the ball? He’s the one with the ball.
And the guy with the ball??? Well he’s the one with the ball!!! And as we all know, the guy who’s playing with his balls, is the one who controls EVERYTHING!!! So you can’t just give the ball to just anyone. I mean my god! What if you try to give the ball to some guy who’s not ready to run??? You don’t see Brady throwing a football to Stephen Hawking!!! You know why??? Because he’s dead! And also because he can’t run…because, again, he’s dead. Dead people can’t run.
I’m honestly baffled why Usain Bolt never played football. Imagine giving that guy the ball and telling him “your job…is to RUN!!!”
Wasted oppertunity is what that is! Yeah, sure, he competed in the olympics. But just imagine if he made the Cleveland Browns into a winning team! He’d be the highest paid athlete EVER!!!
People would say “You won the BROWNS a championship??? Holy fuck! Lets get you on a box of Wheaties!”
But Infinite growth!! How do you affirm the ability for a new CEO to make tough decisions without going on insane hiring sprees to show growth, and then firing those same people to cut corners and also show growth!? The economy needs blood!
Oh wait, they’re not publically traded? I thought only corner shops were allowed to stay off the market.
That’s just a name we give to “a share of a well-known, profitable, and established company with a history of success”. I.e. “companies that experience constant and consistent growth”. That’s literally what OP is criticizing. They do the same things. Microsoft is a blue chip. You think they don’t have layoffs to appease shareholders? Google? Apple?
Honestly this is what pissed me off about the reaction to cyberpunk bugs. I remember how the fallout games were at launch. And I think even now trying to play new Vegas on Xbox (360 I think?) Has an issue if your save file gets too big where the save will corrupt.
CDPR definitely over promised. But every business does. They probably should’ve not released on last gen consoles at all, but that is tricky as fuck. I mean when they started to dev cp2077, I doubt Sony and MS even had dev units for next gen. Probably should’ve delayed last gen release only, made a transparent explanation and apology, and did what they ended up doing after release. But I had a low mid tier PC that played it at a solid 60 fps without major issue at launch. And it was exactly what I had hoped.
I’ll probably also really like starfield, warts and all, when it drops. These are just my type of game.
To be honest, half the stuff people claim they lied about was always entirely speculation hype that never had any backing.
Otherwise, for some people the game worked just fine. For others the game was nearly or entirely unplayable, and everything in between. Cdpr certainly lied and should have delayed their game’s release, probably upwards of a couple years, but the situation is rarely portrayed accurately.
I’m not saying they didn’t lie, there are many of features which were at best skeletons of the features that were expected. But I’m just saying a lot of the hype around the game was so out of control you had people on the sub reddit talking about how cool the car customization will be, or how they can’t wait to play, what would’ve amounted to essentially, gtav but with arasaka. Talking any l about features which actively were never even slightly implied to exist.
People get way too excited for any game, should always expect a pile of shit these days and just be pleasantly surprised instead. People are die hard fans of games like CP2077 before they even release, it's not good.
But expectations don't come from nowhere, a lot of the city stuff they were selling was like GTA, but the AI didn't even release at a 2004 San Andreas level, it's still not as good as GTA AI and that's just people walking/driving around convincingly. GTA V itself was 7 years old when CP2077 released, it's not surprising people were expecting a simulation of the world to be at least as good as that. I think their scope was too big, there was probs a lot of mismanagement behind the scenes. I don't know how they spent 8 years on it and it still turned out like it did, I guess we will never know what happened. The story is the only saving grace, they should have just delayed it and tried to make it a more linear story game and just abandon any RPG-esque/open world elements that were left.
Being critical of games is good, especially ones that completely shit the bed, defending it just leads to more of that in the future. I love BG3 for example, but it has it's fair share of issues that I can point out every time I play it. Why would I not want better products? Why settle for less? There's too much submissive consumerism these days.
For sure. And who knows, much of that could be guerrilla marketing to stoke the hype.
Expecting cp2077 to be anything like GTA is just silly. They are entirely different games.
And the RPG elements are fine, it’s already very linear, and plays like you’re the focus character of a cyberpunk campaign. They did just fine on that front, so I don’t really understand your critique there.
I played through the whole game last year and while I had fun, you can definitely tell the scope is too big. There’s lots to do but when you do things, there isn’t much depth. Systems that you think should be in place just aren’t there. The game also has a lot of features that align with open world action games of the era like Ghost of Tsushima or Horizon Forbidden West. There’s stealth, there’s a crafting system, there’s collectibles and fetch quests. But there’s few features that align with most other role playing games. You cant get a bite to eat at nearly any restaurant. You can’t have a conversation with an NPC that isn’t one of the dozen that’s relevant to the story. (My favorite activity in fallout is to chat with random characters about random things.) Dialogue trees are shockingly stiff and inconsequential. Most missions have choices but it boils down to “X character is alive instead of unconscious.”
There’s a lot more I could go into but in general it just came across like it was almost unfinished. The only mission I played that felt like a true RPG mission instead of a stealth game or a shooter was the Flathead mission, so it makes sense that’s the mission they relentlessly previewed back in 2019.
Agreed. The biggest issue for me, as a PC gamer who expected bugs at launch, was really that it’s a stealth/action game that was marketed as an RPG even though it has precious few consequential choices or playstyle options.
Honestly this is what pissed me off about the reaction to cyberpunk bugs. I remember how the fallout games were at launch
I bought the fallout games at launch. I bought Cyberpunk months after launch when I found it on clearance. Cyberpunk was still far less playable for me than the fallout games were at launch.
This was due to:
The game crashing at least once per hour
Falling through the ground at least one per hour
Dying suddenly though nothing was attacking me at least once per hour
Questlines breaking and being un-repairable
Additionally, CP2077 had all the same bugs in Fallout/Elder Scrolls releases.
I usually power through buggy RPG releases, but I waited to give CP a couple more patches before actually trying to play through it.
Not to excuse Nintendo, but I think people need to stop being such big consumers. Having new phones and new consoles on release is completely unnecessary; I bet most gamers have bought games that they haven’t even played yet, let alone finished, and are already anxious for a system that hasn’t even been released.
I think we all can be more patient and frugal, and stop following trends and releases so closely.
I’d love this comment to be a sticky post on every new thing announcement. Trouble with us humans is we like to really get into a thing that’s completely out of our control, and then we get very upset when it goes in a direction we don’t like. Being able to take a step back and say “ah well, guess that’s not for me anymore” is much better for your own mental health than getting angry at consumerism.
I appreciate this and agree 100%, but there are a LOT of factors besides just having the thing that make it harder than “just stop consuming”.
If you are someone who typically only plays games with friends, it can very much be a case of “Buy or miss out”. I have a group of friends who will probably buy GTA VI and play hundreds of hours of multiplayer together. I know I will not be rewarding Rockstar for their inevitably shitty choices and behaviour with this game (Fuck them for what they did with GTA VI, greedy assholes), and I know this means just…not playing with my friends. I’m okay with that as a thirty something adult, but for others they won’t be able to “just not”.
Then you have all the FOMO stuff - I refused to buy Diablo 4 on launch in protest of prices and Blizzard, etc. But it was VERY hard for me, being aware I was missing out on an exper
Limited time items, exclusive events, etc, can all play a factor for those who’s brains are tickled in just the right way.
I wish it were simply a case of patience and frugality.
Fuck them for what they did with GTA VI, greedy assholes
Did you mean V? And by that I mean: do you mean Online?
V is still a great single player experience for a reasonable price. Online is considered separate and always was, and I can completely agree with what they did to that. I can also agree that not giving us dlc for V in favor of Online updates was crap, too. But R* still gave us a game worth the money that’s still playable right now
If there’s been some huge update with VI that I missed then, well, shit. I think I saw the price went up $10 on some retailers site, but idk if I trust that kind of shit
I don’t consider myself an early adopter, heck I never am, the only time I recall is getting a New Nintendo 3DS Black Friday edition even before the BF (the thing arrived first in Mexico) just because it was a special edition and the only way to get that model here officially… And for a good price even!
The only reason I am tempted to get a Switch 2 is because it probably means it will get exploited easier/earlier than the next batches.
At this point, I guess they are either ignorant, unethical, or they are just lying to themselves because they can’t resist the temptation to play their games.
Look I don’t fault developers for kissing the ring. I know and have spoken with multiple devs at different Nintendo affiliated companies and they don’t enjoy it either but it lets them make the games they love for the people that they want to entertain.
I can’t say I support hating a full group of people because that’s not great either. “… except for the Amish but it’ll never get back to them” - John Pinette
In my case, I don’t hate them. I respect those devs, people have to put food on their tables somehow, and this way isn’t one of the worst… I just believe that by doing so, we are helping to perpetuate vicious corporativism.
Nintendo isn’t just the nestle of companies to users… they are the same or worse to their own.
I’ve seen people lose teams over errant comments about a novel idea for the IP they would love to see happen, or maybe even be developing as a passion project, purged for the notion that they were anything more than drones.
It’s a disgusting work culture taking advantage of bright eyed developers that grew up with fond memories of the brand. I genuinely love some of the IP and worlds made by the developers - but I will never, ever, spend a fucking penny on that company until it is changed.
I‘ll still buy their controller because you can‘t sue Chinese companies either so what‘s the difference? However I‘ll use it for PC gaming. No way I‘m going back to their ecosystem. Those days are gone.
I’d kind of like Steam to have the ability to indicate games that can run offline in its Store and enforce this by running the game in a container without network access.
I run all my games in Linux and everything but Steam goes via Lutris which I configured to, by default, launch them inside a Firejail sandbox with no network access (plus a bunch of other security related limitations) something which I can override for specific games if needed.
It’s interesting that Steam games are actually the least secure to run in Linux and with a configuration as I have it’s literally safer to run pirated shit downloaded from the Internet than Steam games.
I run all my games in Linux and everything but Steam goes via Lutris which I configured to, by default, launch them inside a Firejail sandbox with no network access (plus a bunch of other security related limitations) something which I can override for specific games if needed.
That sounds like a neat setup! And no messing around with firewall rules either. I’ll have to look into it.
In Lutris there’s a “Command prefix” configuration option both per-game and one in the global config with the default for all games, which is where the firejail command line goes (basically for sandboxing with firejail you’re supposed to run “firejail firejail-options original-command original-options” and putting firejail and its options in “command prefix” does that).
Note that there are other sandboxing options that run in the same way as firejail but I found firejail to have more straightforward options.
Also note that this won’t sandbox the actual setup of a game, only the running of the game.
insider-gaming.com
Ważne