polygon.com

commander, do games w 8BitDo no longer shipping to US from China due to Trump tariffs

The best gamepads. It’ll be a wasteland again once again once stock runs out

hakase, (edited )

Gamesir seems to be vying for that crown of late - their price to feature ratio is impressive.

Edit: Yes, they’ll face the same tariff pressures - I’m just noting that 8BitDo isn’t the clear market leader the way they were 3-5 years ago.

commander,

Ahh ya gamesir. I have a gamesir gamepad for my phone. Really good. They’ll have trouble with tariffs pricing too though

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA,
@HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world avatar

i picked up a gamesir g3s like 10 years ago and it still works pretty good. i need to replace the thumb pads, but other than that it’s in good shape.

tal,

gamesir.com/pages/brand-story

2013 Founding of GameSir by Yao Ma and the establishing of headquarter in Guangzhou, China.

I would assume that GameSir would also be affected by tariffs on China if 8bitdo is.

samuelwankenobi, do games w Are PC handhelds like Steam Deck really competitors for Switch 2?

Think about what the parent is going to buy their kids a easy to use Nintendo console or the Steam deck that doesn’t run every game you can buy on it because it’s really a pc

Simulation6,

If you try to buy a game on the deck that isn’t verified to run there you get a warning. Meanwhile you have a limited selection on the switch of over priced games.

Nalivai,

Deck runs every game that you can easily buy on deck, and then some that you can’t

Delphia,

This is what cracks me up about this topic literally every time it comes up.

Everyone on highly tech savvy and linux loving lemmy not being able to wrap their heads around the idea that busy parents dont want to have to tech support their kids game console. They want to be able to tell Grandma “He has a switch 2 and wants the new pokemon game for his birthday”, they want to walk into stores and buy accessories that WILL fit and they dont want microtransaction laden shit. One of the FEW things I still respect about Nintendo is that their AAA in house releases are FULL games (for the price, they would fucking want to be).

The 6 to 12yo market alone is probably enough to make the switch worthwhile from a business perspective. The “just tech savvy enough to work facebook” crowd adds in the profit margins.

magic_smoke, (edited )

Yes but that group by in large won’t be buying a switch 2 for at least a couple of years. $450 per console plus $80 a game is brutal, especially if you’re buying for more than one kid.

On the other hand a switch lite can be had for like $100 and used games aren’t too expensive either. So for the price of a switch 2 you could get all 3 kids a switch lite + a game. No fucking brainer.

The sort of people who bought a switch at launch, after drinking Nintendo NX leaks like kool-aid, aren’t as impressed this time around. They’re also getting really pissed off at Nintendo’s behavior towards the emulation scene.

Lots of those people, myself included, will be getting a steam deck. A lot of us will also probably end up buying a switch later on after sales/price drops/cheaper revisions. The same time most parents will be snatching them up.

Lifetime sales won’t be affected nearly as hard, but I don’t know that the first year will be as big as the OG switch’s.

That being said if M$ can figure out a good UI for windows portables W/ Xbox integration that might make things even harder for them.

Delphia,

I think you’re definitely right about the adoption speed, people wont be dumping their switches en masse to buy a 2.

The Deck definitely puts a dent in their sales but “i DoNt gEt wHy aNyOnE wOuld bUy a sWitCh” comments on Lemmy show just how skewed the demographics are on here. Its not aimed at us.

emeralddawn45,

Idiots who have never used a steam deck and are obviously scared by the word linux in this thread. You can easily use the steamdeck without ever leaving gaming mode and with absolutely no troubleshooting needed. Its as simple as browsing steam, pressing download, and pressing play. I would absolutely give it to a child with a few games preloaded, and they would be perfectly fine to use it. The UI is way more friendly than the switch one also. Everytime ive tried to play a game on switch with friends theres been some update that takes ages, the Ui is slow and clunky, and connecting joycons is an absolute pain. What troubleshooting do you think is necessary to run a game from steam lmao?

Allero, do games w Sci-fi and fantasy are at odds in Split Fiction, which makes no sense

I don’t think the game wanted to paint an “unbridgeable gap” here, as the author says. The way Mio and Zoe get more into each other’s stories is exactly the testament to the way this gap can be closed through a unique shared experience, and to the way one genre can enrich the other.

I play Split Fiction with my girlfriend, and she is a fantasy fangirl, while I am very sci-fi, so the characters land just perfectly. And I can’t help but notice that, as Mio and Zoe get more open-minded and try to look into the root of how those two preferences formed, me and my girlfriend also get more passionate for each other’s interests.

And that’s one of the most powerful things about the game. It helps to deconstruct our notions and perceptions about both genres, and become more open to each other’s vision.

MyDarkestTimeline01, do games w Sci-fi and fantasy are at odds in Split Fiction, which makes no sense
@MyDarkestTimeline01@lemmynsfw.com avatar

I guess I’m the odd one out then. I’m a huge Sci-Fi fan. Ender’s Game still stands as my favorite book after all these years. But I’m not too crazy about fantasy. I’ve bounced off of books, shows, and movies that my friends and family loved. They just seemed to be mediocre stories with fantasy paint on it and people who like Wizards were able to gloss over the holes.

It’s not unheard of for people to not be interested in the other genre. But those people are outnumbered by consumers who just want the new thing.

tonytins,
@tonytins@pawb.social avatar

There’s nothing wrong with that. I tend to lean more to sci-fi myself. But the premise argues that it and fantasy are somehow different, when they’re not. It’s a criticizes generative AI, which is valid, but doesn’t question why the two genres have to be at odds when it obviously has a blend of both.

MyDarkestTimeline01,
@MyDarkestTimeline01@lemmynsfw.com avatar

I feel that Sci-Fi and Fantasy are different. Especially enough to be seen as two different genres.

DragonTypeWyvern,

Depends on the sci-fi and depends on the Fantasy!

Dil,

Tell that to everything I like, star trek is fantasy adjacent, star wars too, all of chinese fantasy (especially the movies) are technically fantasy but have so much stuff that works like scifi just using magic engines and shit, low magic matches epic scifi, its literally just is science driving the cool thing or is magic, its set dressing, it can be swapped. Harry potter can be the same story but with a scifi setting, idk what im even saying im rambling at this point.

Imo scifi is under the umbrella of fantasy.

qarbone,

Have you considered that everything you like is just some level of sci-fantasy (an existing genre[-fusion])?

They are both under the umbrella of “speculative fiction” but they go in different directions.

Dil,

Yeah, stuff like venture bros, tom strong, etc. with science heroes, next to fantasy stuff, shows how its pretty much the same stuff just different devices, science fiction explanations are as realistic as fantasy explanations for how things function, its all bs and not real science typically either way, I love hard magic where they explain it like its science and theres a deep logic to the world and how everything works. Like brandon sanderson stuff

tja, (edited )
@tja@sh.itjust.works avatar

Fein the article:

People might have a preference, sure, but that’s not what’s happening in Split Fiction; the game makes it seem like sci-fi writers think fantasy isn’t a form of legitimate artistic expression, and vice versa. It’s hard to imagine any fan of either genre today being that hardline about the other.

Flagstaff, (edited )
@Flagstaff@programming.dev avatar

the game makes it seem like sci-fi writers

What? No, it’s just Mio. Still, the dialogue is somewhat tropey; I hope it stays ultimately better than ITT.

Update: Okay, wow, it got way better once the characters really start opening up about their personal life struggles.

caseyweederman,
@caseyweederman@lemmy.ca avatar

Check out Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh.
Ender’s Game was my favorite book for many years but I can’t recommend Card’s books any more.
Luckily, Some Desperate Glory ticks all the boxes and then some.

bionicjoey, do games w 14 great games to try if you loved Baldur’s Gate 3

About the level of writing I’ve come to expect from a listicle, but I take particular issue with the fact that they list Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 as separate items but clump the three Dragon Age games together into one, when the Dragon Age games have much more variation between each game than the POE games do.

johannesvanderwhales,

Yeah that blanket rec for Dragon Age is kind of not great, especially since I don’t think 2 in particular is very similar to BG.

bionicjoey, (edited )

I haven’t played 3, but yeah I’d agree with that. DA:O is basically the source of the formula used to make BG3

Vordus, do gaming w 2K pulls Spec Ops: The Line from digital stores without warning

Oh god, it’s 2K publishing.

Which means that the game disappearing from storefronts is one of the better case scenarios. It’s entirely possible that they’ll patch out the licenced songs from the soundtrack from every digital copy of the game.

HKayn,
@HKayn@dormi.zone avatar

That’s why I buy on GOG. There I can pull the installer for a game and hoard it when I know the next update is going to go bad.

Oldbean, do gaming w 2K pulls Spec Ops: The Line from digital stores without warning

It’s still available on GoG.

www.gog.com/en/game/spec_ops_the_line

shapesandstuff,

Good old gog aka gogog

CannonGoBoom,
@CannonGoBoom@lemmy.world avatar

Unfortunately it’s gone from there now too

ocassionallyaduck, do games w Diablo 4’s Season 2 patch rebalances each class and nearly every Unique item

Can I play solo offline?

Then no thank you.

Naatan,

Can I use group finder?

Then no thank you.

Kinda funny how they screwed it up for both the online and offline use case.

arefx, do games w Overwatch 2 season 10 will make all new heroes free, Blizzard announces

Still not going back.

Deckweiss, do games w 10 great indie games you might have missed in 2023
  • Bread & Fred
  • American Arcadia
  • El Paso, Elsewhere
  • A Highland Song
  • MyHouse
  • Videoverse
  • A Space for the Unbound
  • Tape to Tape
  • Moonring
  • Backpack Hero
Deckweiss,

In my opinion they forgot:

Path of Achra

toroknos_07,

My click has been saved, thank you

Intrepidtron, do gaming w Terraforming Mars team defends AI use as Kickstarter hits $1.3 million

The artwork on some of the Terraforming Mars cards already has a janky, AI-generated look, frankly.

roguetrick, (edited )

From the interview, all the artists originally used free stock art as a base in the first place. They've just expanded their... breadth.

psx_crab, do games w Microsoft has never been good at running game studios, which is a problem when it owns them all

All this to feed 545 insatiable hunger for another halo slop.

TheKingBee,
@TheKingBee@lemmy.world avatar

Maybe I’m missing context on this, but halo slop?

Infinite came out 3 years ago and though they’ve done updates and general live service garbage there haven’t been any major releases since. Halo isn’t a yearly release schedule, charging full price for the same game every year like sports games, so i’m not seeing the slop…

psx_crab,

Ever since 545 take over from Bungie, halo fans hasn’t been eating good. 4 is really bad, 5 is subpar, infinite is just ok. Not to mention the spinoff and tv series.

Stovetop,

Do you mean 343/Halo Studios or is 545 some sort of reference I’m missing?

Rekorse,

Maybe calling them 545 is an insult?

psx_crab,

Yes that 3 digits number.

Duamerthrax,

Halo 4 was mostly good, especially the story, but they listened too closely to the complainers and scrapped the story line. They haven’t been able to commit to villain. Didact? Killed off at the end of 4, and then resurrected and killed off in a comic. Jul 'Mdama? Introduced and explored in Spartan Ops and books/comics. Killed off in the beginning of Halo 5. Cortana? Resurrected/Introduced as a villain in Halo 5 and killed off between 5 and 6(Infinite). Atriox? Introduced in Halo Wars 2 “killed off” between the opening cutscene of Halo 6 and the first level. Escharum(Atriox lite), Introduced in 6 and killed off in 6. Harbinger? Introduced in 6 and killed off in 6. But wait, Atriox isn’t really dead and he’s totally going to come back in Halo 7 and be a long term villain. For real this time.

Stovetop,

Agreed, I think it also hurts the games trying to even have a singular “villain” in the first place. Halo 1-3 had villainous figures, but I don’t think anyone was under the belief that just killing the 3 Prophets would solve the problem of the Covenant, or that killing the Gravemind would mean that the Flood would never be a problem again. The Halo series relies on having compelling factions with clear purpose and ideology to act as antagonists in a more general sense.

The Prometheans in 4 weren’t bad, but outside of the Didact, they had no real purpose or personality. They were just an obstacle. I was really looking forward to the premise of 5 with the concept of going rogue and tackling the underlying themes of fascism at the heart of the UNMC, but then it just rapidly pivoted to some other garbage with Cortana and the Guardians which led to nothing in the end anyways. And so I didn’t even bother to play Infinite.

Duamerthrax,

Well, the Gravemind is definitely not dead as it’s mind resides in either the Domain or an adjacent dimension. Hell, the Flood aren’t even sterilized from known infection locations. But like you said, the factions all have a clear purpose. Even the Flood in Halo 1, before the Gravemind was even introduced, were working towards a goal though consuming the minds of the species it encountered and fixing the Covenant ship. Hearing Cortana say that the Flood were fixing that ship was chilling. Zombies repairing an FLT capable spacecraft?!

A lot of my disappointment in 5 was how irrelevant and misleading the advertisement was. Nothing even remotely similar to this happens in the game. Hunt the Truth had so much better writing then 5 did. Let those people write a spinoff game.

CeeBee_Eh,

For the longest time I refused to watch the Halo show because I heard that Master Chief takes off his helmet. But then I gave it a shot and it’s a really really good show, and they did the adaptation solid justice.

They made changes where it (mostly) made sense and were truthful to everything else.

They set up a back story that explains how we got a John-117 in the games. Someone who is socially reserved, doesn’t talk much, never takes off his helmet, and prefers to work alone. The ending of the second season was a setup for season 3 to start exactly where Halo 1 started.

The music was phenomenal, cinematography was on point, acting was great, story line was compelling.

I’m normally the person who’s a stickler for not changing a story at all, but the Halo universe was originally told through a game that was more about story beats than actual literary writing. So there’s a ton of room for the in-between conversations and events.

I think the show got an undeserved bad rap. If more people gave it a chance they may have actually liked it.

Halo fans got an actually decent show. Whereas Wheel of Time and Tolkien fans got the abominations of a show we got.

prole,

The reality is that Halo has never really been anything more than a mediocre fps when compared to what had already been coming out for years on PC.

Blackmist,

The first few were really good on console. I played the first one on PC as well and there was definitely something missing with mouse and keyboard controls. The vehicles especially.

You have to remember that most FPS on consoles were pretty terrible back then (e.g. Medal of Honor series), and there was a lot of experimentation to try and find a control scheme that didn’t completely suck, along with just the right amount of aim assist. Other devs were still wrestling with that into the Xbox 360 era. Sony put so much effort and money into Killzone, and it wasn’t anywhere near as good as Halo.

Plus, split screen co-op made it very popular. It’s one of the few games to keep that into the modern era as well.

prole,

You have to remember that most FPS on consoles were pretty terrible back then

As someone who was busy playing Battlefield 2, I beg to differ.

Blackmist,

Halo predates BF2 by nearly four years.

prole,

Oh, then Battlefield 1942 then. People here were saying 2005 so I went with the one I knew from 2005. Also, first isn’t always best, the BF games made Halo look like a school project imo

I did miss the “on consoles” part of your quote though as I was referring to playing on PC so my bad.

Xttweaponttx,

RIP halo, my favorite competitive shooter ever 😭 infinite is such an absolute botch.

Omegamanthethird,
@Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world avatar

Even Halo 5 had redeeming qualities. I legit wish Infinite would be treated like a fan made game and ignored so they can make a Halo 6 that concludes the Promethean saga.

big_slap, do games w Phil Spencer wants Epic Games Store and others on Xbox consoles

my steam library on my xbox, yes please 🙏

atocci,

Can Win32 programs run on the xbox? I know there's Edge, but iirc, that's packaged in some unique way.

cyberpunk007,

I thought all xboxes were x86 hardware running some variant of windows under the hood?

Edit:

“The Xbox system software is the operating system developed exclusively for Microsoft’s Xbox home video game consoles.[1] Across the four generations of Xbox consoles, the software has been based on a version of Microsoft Windows”

"Though initial iterations of the software for the original Xbox and Xbox 360 were based on heavily modified versions of Windows, the newer consoles feature operating systems that are highly compatible with Microsoft’s desktop operating systems, allowing for shared applications and ease-of-development between personal computers and the Xbox line. "

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_system_software

altima_neo,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

Just slap proton on there

atocci,

I'm pretty sure the shared applications it's referring to there are UWP apps, which use a different set of APIs to traditional Win32 apps that are only available on full Windows versions. I looked into how Edge works a bit more, and it sounds like Microsoft made a special translation layer to take Edge's Win32 API calls and turn them into UWP ones. I guess games would be possible to run like this too?

Wodge, do games w PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan stepping down in March
@Wodge@lemmy.world avatar

Compared to Phil Spencer, he comes across a bit of a Superintendent of the Fun Police.

Good that he’s going, hopefully the next CEO is someone who actually likes games, maybe that’s why Kamiya stepped down at Platinum…

Zehzin,
@Zehzin@lemmy.world avatar

Kamiya has no business being the CEO of a billion dollar megacorp subsidiary and that’s one of the best compliments I can give someone.

yesman, do games w The biggest video game stinkers of 2025, according to Metacritic

The problem with articles like this is that they only focus on games that are bad as a game, and ignores games that are good to excellent, but that are still bad because they screw their players over, engage in abusive business and labor practices, or are simply owned by dogshit people.

As you can tell, I’m waiting for the Jimqusition end of year lists.

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