I've not read PA in ages, and saw that and thought "Oh wow, the new art style looks pretty good!" Then I saw this was from 2012, and decided to see what the art actually looks like nowadays.
What the fuck happened? Tycho looks like Handsome Squidward with encephalitis, and Gabe looks like every Nickelodeon character in the last 20 years merged into one. I'm curious to know what PA fans think about the style these days, since I've not followed it for a long time, myself.
Who is the Tycho you’re referring to? I’m not a basketball guy, or really any sports guy at all. In my book, Tycho is possibly my favorite musician and plays mellow electronic music.
PA refers to Penny Arcade, a gaming culture webcomic that’s run since '98 that’s linked by Corngood up there. Tycho Brahe (besides being a 16th centure Danish astronomer) is name of one of the main characters in the comic as well as the pseudonym of it’s main writer, Jerry Holkins.
OMG ME TOO!!! At the Greek Theater? I’ve seen him 3 times so far. Most recently I saw him at the Lightning in a Bottle festival. It was a sunset on a beautiful day and it was my first real acid trip. It was phenomenal 🤌
Yes, fantastic show! Someone in the crowd yelled something like “Anyone who isn’t excited for Tycho has no clue how good this is going to be” and he was totally right.
I also prefer the 2012 art to the modern style, but if Mike likes to draw the way he does now then good for him. He’s clearly demonstrated his artistic prowess over the years and I’d guess wanted to make his own exaggerated style. It’s definitely instantly recognizable as his
I remember reading it years and years and years ago.
The newest one seems like lazy commentary on things in nerd/gaming news, but maybe it was always like that, lol
Scrolled back a bit from the newest one, and they all seemed to follow the pattern of “Worried Nickelodeon Guy says something that bothers him, Handsome Squidward makes cynical comment about it”.
The newest one seems like lazy commentary on things in nerd/gaming news, but maybe it was always like that, lol
As far as I know, it was pretty much always like that. My tolerance for that used to be better. Reminds me of CAD in that fashion, a comic that for a bit I actually genuinely liked but as I got older and the author got… weirder… it’s one that I moved away from.
Not that I recall. It turns out that most people have their Xbox in a place that sucks for dribbling a basketball, so I think the correct way to play this game was to move the setup to your garage/patio. :)
Yeah exactly. And it’s often the only feedback that gets any attention unfortunately. It was getting media attention and getting very loud.
Plus the whole thing was just stupid. They could have accomplished exactly the same thing with little backlash by offering some little in-game trinket for voluntarily linking a PSN account where it was possible to get one. This wasn’t my idea, I saw it somewhere on Lemmy, but that person needs to get a job at Sony stat because the chucklefucks working there now have no clue.
PLAY GWENT. The minigame became somewhat notorious because it’s really good - you can spend dozens of hours travelling the world and just playing cards.
If I have played someone a bunch or am on a quest then definitely. Otherwise I try to keep it like live cards. Remember you can always cheat IRL too! It’s up to you if/when/where
I only save scummed the Gwent tournament as it’s a one-shot type deal. The rest of the game there was no need as it autosaves frequently and there is basically no consequences to losing a game of Gwent to a rando
I have done literally zero Gwent quests after the first match and even googled one time how to remove quests because they were annoying in the journal (you can’t)
I’ve literally got a save file prepped where I rushed getting to B&W before doing literally anything else so I can play the whole games’s Gwent with the Skellige deck when I decide to play it again. You don’t get enough time with it and it’s such a fun deck!
I didn’t finish the game because I am still playing gwent haha it’s that good. I would look up which cards you can only get from quests because you can’t get them afterwards. Just look up a mapping for quests to cards (no spoilers of course). I am on mobile and can’t find one currently
I swear the less A’ a game has in the context of “AAAA”, “AAA”, etc, the better it is.
In recent years I’ve found more niche or mid sized studios have my interest at heart. The more A’s a game claims to have, the more bullshit predatory crap it has, micro transactions, etc.
I actually shelled out for the invisible-ink “strategy guide” (i.e. cheating instructions) just to finish the damn thing. I suspect the guide was written by Adams as well, because it was almost as entertaining as game itself. Halfway through the section on how to get the Babel fish—the single toughest puzzle I’ve ever encountered in a game—it tells you that “it is at this point that grown men begin weeping uncontrollably.”
Hmm… I definitely had at least one of those for an Infocom game… Maybe I had that one? But I don’t remember getting to the end of the game. It was so long ago, I don’t remember. I just remember it was basically a FAQ where you had to use a special marker to reveal the answer.
There were a number of books back then like that (mysteries and such), with the idea that you only revealed the answers to things you couldn't figure out.
As for the game itself, the one part that I have a continued memory about is where you could press the button labeled "Do Not Press". Only doing it a few times gave you the same "nothing happens" message, but being persistent got a different one. Infocom games were so great and full of humor, even the non-Douglas Adams ones.
Yes! I remember that too! And yes, I was a huge Infocom fan. I think the only one I got all the way through without help was Wishbringer, but I can’t remember one I didn’t enjoy playing.
I remember working that one out with my brothers. Every step you take just leads to further problems getting the fish. It was easy to figure out to put the towel over the perfectly towel-sized grate and hang your robe on the hook. Blocking the cleaning robot access panel with Ford’s satchel also seemed to make sense as well. But when we put the stack of junk mail on the satchel and it actually worked? Well holy shit, were we ecstatic. It opens up some of the best parts of the game, though I would argue not as much as figuring out how to get the spare improbability drive to work. I think one of my brothers bought that same guide book long after we retired the C64, so though he knew how to finish it, I don’t think any of us ever did. I remember getting to Magrathea and not ever being able to figure out the proper tool bit. Tried taking the proper tool, and storing another tool in the thing your aunt gave you, but never seemed to work.
Genuine question: why does bedrock exist? What does it bring? Why is there the choice between java, bedrock and “Minecraft for windows”?
How do you fuck up this badly?
I tried using the launcher to move a java install from C: to another drive and it just points there and doesn’t do anything? Steam had this stuff figured years ago
Minecraft rewritten for better performance with platform interoperability in mind and so on. Essentially what could’ve or should’ve been a replacement to Minecraft if done right. It was not done right. Quite the opposite.
What’s that got to do with making things cross platform? Java programs only need to run in a Java runtime environment of which there’s one for basically everything. If you make something that runs in a JRE, it’ll be able to run on any device with a JRE that’s up to date for it.
given how many targets are supported by llvm there’s really little difference in cross platform support asides from building artifacts for the specific target platform. wrapping package delivery in a package manager removes the additional complexity to the end user.
Oh yeah that totally explains why it’s always been perfectly fine for me as long as I’m not looking at a giant wall of those shelves that display their contents from whatever modpack that was.
I wasn’t strictly talking about cross platform. I was talking about performance, which is tangential to the cross platform thing.
If you’re planning on making a game cross platform, you should choose a language that performs well for gaming on all platforms. Java ain’t that. Which answers your question:
In what world is c++ better for cross platform than Java?
Because Bedrock runs on phones, tablets, consoles, and a host of other random crap, and does so relatively well. Because of that the install base and playtime especially among younger players is actually massively skewed toward Bedrock being the more used. Add to that rumors that the Java codebase at least was a terrible mess, and the performance issues Java edition still has to this day and it’s no wonder they wanted to do a full rewrite, especially after having to make things like the console editions and even one for the 3DS.
There’s also the fact that Bedrock patches bugs that the Java community freaks out about patching. Several chunk update glitches and undesirable redstone behavior are exploited by the Java players, and they go nuts over the idea of fixing the issues. Bedrock, being a new codebase, obviously didn’t port over old crusty bugs and therefore doesn’t have to carry over those expectations.
To be fair I’d call it a wash. Bedrock fixes a lot of weird stuff like quasi connectivity and being able to push things like chests with pistons but also introduces it’s own bugs like weird timing things and randomly taking fall damage. There’s also weird differences like being able to do things with cauldrons or just like minor texture differences that they are slowly bringing into sync.
Yes exactly. Java runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and any x86 compatible operating system that supports the Java runtime environment. Minecraft bedrock removes support for all of those but Windows.
Go into desktop mode, there’s a bedrock launcher in the package manager store thing, I forgot the names of both of those things, but search “Minecraft” and you should find it. Anyway, it basically loads the Android version of the game. It works pretty well. I play bedrock because everyone I play with is on Xbox
Also swapped performance issues with more bugs that were there years ago and still persist because they are almost impossible to fix.
In the end, we all know it was done either because they wanted to shove microtransactions down our throat and/or had some kind of deal to maintain the Java edition without microtransactions.
Or, maybe, just maybe, they though “it’s just a block game, what could be so hard to rewrite it?” and absolutely failed what a single person got right almost immediately back in the day (like not falling through the floor all the time).
I haven’t modded as of yet but I started off with Java and am now a C# Dev and the transition wasn’t too hard since most of the same principles apply to both languages. Unity games, that are often written in C# to me are the most moddable ones, especially considering that there’s a ecosystem for Unity mods out of the box
Minecraft. Runescape. Mindustry. Slay the Spire. Project Zomboid. Doodle Jump. Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Delver. Lots of mobile games. Also It’s rediculous to say Java is inappropriate for games when C# is used for games via Unity (unity is the value proposition there - c# is very similar to Java)
Only if you’re incompetent. Otherwise just not optimal.
Starsector, Rise to Ruins and Project Zomboid run well and are made in Java for example. It’s harder to pull off but it can be done. (still needs native libraries though)
Is there even a choice? You now get both games when you buy one(and you get the other game for free if you already own one) and you can play on bedrock on java servers with geysermc
I accidentally bought Minecraft for windows for someone when I wanted java… so that was fun.
The launcher just says “here are the options” it doesn’t say why you might want to choose one over another. Ive played since day 0 so I’ve always gone with java.
Just felt like if bedrock was meant to replace java they should have just done it and dealt with it instead of having so many choices.
Honestly? Most large companies are more like high school. It’s all, friend groups, people rubbing each other’s backs, and in-fighting between departments.
A lot of VERY LARGE decisions get made for the stupidest reason.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Portal 3 is released at some point. I’m skeptical, but I’m not outruling it. The game is whacky enough that there are probably a lot of interesting and cool things that can be implemented into a worthy successor.
I am, on the other hand, utterly convinced that HL3 is not going to happen. The previous two were groundbreaking, stretching limits of what one can do with a physics engine. I’m having a hard time imagining that it can be pulled off a 3rd time, simply because I am unable to imagine any sory of content that would all: a) fit with the series so that it still feels like a HL game
b) interesting enough to allow for the innovation that the previous two games had
c) good enough to justify a new game rather than just a tech demo
I sincerely hope that my opinion on the matter is simply a matter of failure of imagine, and that a good HL successor is released at some point, but sadly I think I’m right on this one.
Half-Life: Alyx is mostly what I hoped we’d get from HL3, inasmuch as it hits your points a & b for sure, and IMHO c (though I know that’s not agreed on by everyone). It had great action and expository setpieces (avoiding spoilers), and the (albeit relatively simple) puzzles definitely added something to Half-Life that really worked for me.
Unfortunately it didn’t solve all VR issues (melee being an obvious one), and not least of which the cost. I played it on a cheap (~$100), janky old WMR headset, but not everyone can do that without vomiting, so a great PC and good headset are a hefty price, which is probably the biggest hurdle for a full-scale 3 in VR. Especially considering there just aren’t many other games worth making that investment in, IMHO. I played the hell out of Alyx, a little of a few other games…but Alyx was the pinnacle of what VR could do for me.
Alyx did what most Valve games do, it advanced the industry. It is absolutely a half life game and it fits but it isn’t HL3. It isn’t that grandiose.
For people who accuse it of being a glorified tech demo, well, that’s exactly what Half Life 1 and 2 are. The sole reason for the existence of HL2 is just to sell the source engine to devs and to push Steam forward. It is a tech demo. Its puzzles are tech demos.
What Alyx did is implement proper gunplay and looting mechanics and really showcased how possible it is to tell a story in VR without taking your POV from you. I’d argue that there still isn’t a single VR game that nails one of the foundational pillars of Alyx as much as Valve did.
IIRC, Valve pretty much admitted that they really have no interest in making games anymore, unless they have a interesting technology to play with and learn, and the game is an excuse for that.
Thats why Alyx got made, cause they wanted to play with VR.
That’s some survivorship bias shit right here. I can’t tell you how many shitty, buggy games I played in the days of early console and PC gaming. Even games that were revolutionary and objectively good games sometimes had game-breaking bugs, but often it was harder to find them without the internet.
Plus, don’t you remember expansion packs? That was the original form of DLC.
Yeah, if a DLC isnt just content taken out of the main game (in a way that makes the main game worse) and is reasonably priced for the amount of content it contains, then it is a good way for developers to get paid for continuing development of a game after launch when it was already finished at launch.
Oh man, while I was reading the first part of your comment I was thinking of the Witcher 3 DLCs the whole time, I’m so glad that you mentioned them at the end there!
I don’t see how the amount of “completeness” can even be measured. Is it really so much worse that you can buy extra fighters for the Street Fighter 6 that you already own rather than buying Super, Turbo, and then Super Turbo at full price every time? Or that you can choose to buy just the stuff you want for Cities: Skylines for half the price instead of paying twice as much to get stuff that don’t care about along with it? Plus, expansions like Phantom Liberty and Shadow of the Erdtree are bigger than most entire video games from the 90s.
Except for when they did not, which was actually somewhat common.
But it also became quickly known, respectively stores stopped stocking buggy games. So in return, larger publishers tried their utmost to ensure that games could not have bigger bugs remaining on launch (Nintendo Seal of Excellence for example was one such certification).
But make no mistake, tons of games you fondly remember from your childhood were bugged to hell and back. You just didn’t notice, and the bigger CTDs and stuff did not exist as much, yes.
PC:
It was just flat-out worse back then. But we also thought about it the reverse way: It wasn’t “Oh this doesn’t work on my specific configuration, wtf?!” but “Oh damn I forgot I need a specific VESA card for this, not just any. Gonna take this to my friend who has that card to play it.”.
Counterpoint: budget re-releases of games (e.g. ‘Platinum’ on PlayStation) were often an opportunity to fix bugs, or sometimes even add new features. A few examples:
Space Invaders 1500 was a re-release of Space Invaders 2000, with a few new game modes.
Spyro: Year of the Dragon’s ‘Greatest Hits’ release added a bunch of music that was missing in the original release.
Ridge Racer Type 4 came with a disc containing an updated version of the first Ridge Racer, which ran at 60fps.
Super Mario 64’s ‘Shindou Edition’ added rumble pak support, as well as fixing a whole bunch of bugs (famously, the backwards long jump).
Those are just off the top of my head. I’m certain there are more re-releases that represent the true ‘final’ version of a game.
That’s the exception rather than the rule. If you have the opportunity to make some changes in a new batch, why not take it?
Generally, when the game was released, it had to be done. If there were any major bugs, then people would be returning their copies and probably not buying an updated release. It’d also hurt the reputation of the developer, the publisher, and even the console’s company if it was too prevalent of a problem.
I don’t think anybody I knew ever got an update to a console game without just happening to buy v1.2 or something. There were updated rereleases, but aside from PC gaming, I don’t think most console gamers back then ever thought “I hope they fix this bug with an update”.
lemmy.world
Ważne