I was thinking of getting it, what’s up with Stalker 2?
I don’t know about the GoTY thing, this year has not been that great with games.
I’d go with either Satisfactory or Slay the Princess, despite neither of them being real 2024 releases, they both got their most recent actually complete edition released this year, and they are better than anything else I’ve seen that was actually released this year.
Maybe MSFS 2024, but it’s niche and also, fuck MSFT.
Best game I bought myself this year is Hearts of Iron 4.
I was thinking of getting it, what’s up with Stalker 2?
It’s very buggy and an absolute mess from a technological perspective. The NPC simulation has been restricted to a tiny radius around the player, so you can for example see snipers spawn in when you get close to their towers. Even with that limited distance, the game is very CPU bound and performance takes a huge hit in populated areas. In general the NPC AI is pretty braindead and much worse than previous Stalker games. I’ve had to reload earlier saves a couple of times due to NPCs randomly getting hostile, the conversation UI staying permanently on screen and other progression stoppers. The graphics completely rely on TAA or DLSS and look like a checkerboarded mess without them. Despite all that though, I think it’s a pretty fun game and a remarkable achievement given the circumstances of its development.
I haven’t played Stalker 2 so I don’t really have a dog in this fight, but it’s very politically charged and has Russian state sponsored disinformation campaigns running against it. I’m not sure that you can get a truly accurate read of it online.
The developers are Ukrainian, and development had to be paused because their office literally turned into a warzone. The fact that the game came out at all is extremely based, and that certainly adds to the mythology around the game. But again, I haven’t played it, and gameplay-wise that doesn’t actually indicate anything about the game.
I want the game to succeed because of the developers’ existential struggle. The people causing that existential struggle want the game to fail. Neither of us have actually played the game, so again, there’s all this bias around it and we haven’t even looked at gameplay yet.
Well of course the victim is going to play the victim. That’s just good marketing - and what is marketing if not propaganda?
Your comment reads as though the invading state’s actions aren’t propaganda. This is the whole reason why I came here to warn people to be skeptical of what they read online.
Again, you should be skeptical of what you read online. In a vacuum, I’m inclined to believe the victim of invasion. In reality, I know that the situation is more nuanced - although the credibility of the aggressor is extremely suspect.
For what it’s worth, my impression on the game is that it’s yet another over-hyped game that couldn’t possibly live up to its expectations. The developers are financially incentivized to deflect that criticism through any means available to them. But that doesn’t mean I don’t acknowledge that malicious actors are also trying to discredit the game.
I’ll buy the game in a year when most game breaking bugs have been corrected. I’m a fan of GSC and own the three prior games. My favorite is Call of Pripyat, it was so revolutionary that I was able to identify pripyat in film. I love these games. That said, that whole “Russian campaign” to discredit S2 is complete and utter BS. As soon as you start digging there’s literally no credible source for that info. It was a clever marketing ploy, good on them. It still doesn’t make the bugs not exist and the fact they sold their souls to MS and had to release a broken game because Ms likely refused to concede any further extensions is the real news there, but, of course, the marketing machine had to redirect from the fact MS is to blame for the state the game released in. The head of GSC tweeted the could not further delay the game. Anyone can read between the lines. Fuck MS.
I’m not into or even a fan of the PC vs console war, but watching a franchise I hold at such high regard release with missing complex features like A-Life, and simplified AI in general, going for an 80meter spawn radius with messy cool down timers which spawn enemy AI on a loop.
Other things like the over use of lip service through iconic mutants turning up way too often also using the same spawn loop system which repopulates every few minutes.
Loot balance, in the original medkits were very necessary but were in short supply meaning when going out the player would do everything to avoid damage making for an even tenser atmosphere, stalker 2 however the player will find medkits, bandages, a sausage and a bottle of vodka every 10 metres. Things like body armours and weapons are thrown at the player through out the main story negating any sense of achievement.
Difficulty, in the original trilogy the game loop was cautious but in combat act fast, moving from cover to cover as the enemy was unpredictable, they would retreat and push as well as flank, now in stalker 2 enemies always know the players location but no fear as the player is a walking pharmacy and combat has turned into shoot get hit use meds and repeat, essentially its very hard to die in stalker 2 while also having laser accuracy for AI but its no issue as the abundance of meds negate that issue.
Then there’s the bugs, its alpha build. Bugs that block main quests, bugs which put random items in inventory, and bugs that make anomalies invisible.
Its also missing little touches that I have come to expect, no AI companions for quests, no mutant parts making hunting and even fighting mutants a thankless task, the flash light sucks, no NVGs, no roaming NPCs, blind dogs don’t retreat when one is injured, bloodsuckers are missing their glowing eyes, unkillable enemy AI with snipers to stop the player from progressing, factions feel like a gimmick whereas they were the bread and butter in the original trilogy, no tiredness out side of the debuff effect from certain enemy’s, limited NPC dialogue, lack of consumable variation, no buff debuff icon/timers apart from bleeding. and so on.
Most of the people who enjoy the game seem talk about it as a predecessor to fallouts franchise or measure it against other major AAA games open world games, which tbh its in that realm now, I wouldn’t call it a stalker game but maybe in a year after modding tools are releases it will be a successor to one of my favourite franchises. Currently though its locked down by console hardware and made by a studio thats lost teach.
Anyway I have played 120 hours and I think for any one new to the franchise they should wait another 6 months so they can get a better idea of the zone. For old timers give it a go to scratch the itch but don’t expect to be blown away.
I just finished The Pristine Cut of Slay the Princess, and I fully agree that it should be the GOTY.
It’s amazing how different it feels when you play a really excellent game. With most games I regularly pause and tab out, to browse the web. With Slay the Princess I did not. It completely absorbed me, even though it was my second play-through.
Settlers 2 via some DosBOX version. Back when I still used Android I used Dosbox Turbo, but it seems to have been removed from the Play Store. No clue which DosBOX build for Anrdoid is good nowadays…
Space Chem: Zachlike puzzle game. (Actually not only zachlike - it’s form zachtronics)
and basically any Android game that ever was part of a Humble Mobile Bundle. Those happened before Humble Bundle was sold and consequently became boring.
Stealing implies a transfer of ownership. Downloading a “COPY” of a digital game only infringes on a copyright or licence or whatever the multi-million dollar company wants to claim it has.
If you don’t own the game by purchasing it, then it’s not stealing if you pirate it.
As long as that means the games I buy physical are still manufactured and sold by the publisher and not Joe Bloe on eBay for a 900% “rare retro game” mark-up.
Yeah, see, that's why my take on piracy is more nuanced than that.
Copyright is weird and broken, digital commerce is weird and broken and certainly the retro physical games market is weird and broken. There are ways in which that slogan works and ways it breaks, both in the direction of being pro and anti-piracy.
But that's a legitimately tough conversation with a ton of nuance and big implications that goes way past the other "Epic bad" nonsense.
And make sure to avoid stores that actively promote the store exclusives concept, even for stuff that isn’t an exclusive (anymore). They don’t deserve our money. Looking at you Epic.
I remember when Metro Exodus was about to release, Epic bought them out and they made the game unpurchasable on Steam after people already preordered. So only those who preordered were able to play on Steam for the first year after release. Valve left this statement on the store page.
Ubisoft pulled something like that with Anno 1800. If you pre-ordered it on Steam it was possible to install and play it, as it was only delisted but not removed entirely. Buying the DLC was a bit of a pain as you couldn’t search Steam for it, you had to dig up the direct Steam Store link from one of the official posts on the Ubi forum. It wasn’t ideal, but at least they had the sense to make everything available immediately on Steam for those that already bought the game there.
Store exclusivity is paid, this means that the devs get a guaranteed income instead of relying on the Steam gamble.
Would you work for your employer if you might be paid more than average but no guarantee on that and only in two years if it happens at all as it depends on the number of clients you got and how influencers feel about your work once it’s complete?
I don’t know about you but I look around and I don’t know anyone who would accept those conditions. That’s where exclusivity becomes an option, you might not have as high an income, but that employer tells you ahead of hiring you how much you’ll make in the next year with a commission on every sale you make once your work is complete.
I’m fully aware, and I don’t even blame developers, especially indies, as I can completely understand their reasoning and commercial consideration. But from a user perspective I just see a store trying to buy market share and either forcing customers to wait a year or cave and use that store. Epic doesn’t fork over money to help developers, it does so to grab a piece of the pie and create value for shareholders.
Personally I prefer not buying or using platforms from companies whose policies I don’t agree with. I avoid Amazon for that reason, and Epic’s store is therefore also on my personal blacklist.
It’s a choice I’m allowed and willing to make. Of course you are free to disagree and by all means, do whatever you feel is right.
Do you purchase on Steam? Because it is in a monopolistic position and that’s much more anti consumer than anything Epic or GOG can do in their position.
That’s not even talking about the 30% cut which means less money going to the devs (and before you say they use the money to innovate, devs being able to afford making games is much more important for gaming than developing virtual trading cards or enriching a billionaire with a yacht collection).
Do we need to wait until they start abusing their position before we react to the fact that they can do whatever the fuck they want with the PC gaming market?
Do we need to wait until they start abusing their position
Should we be punishing Steam for things they haven’t done?
Epic was already trying to abuse their position as soon as they started up.
“You should purchase from the shitty company because if you purchase from the better company they might maybe one day become shitty” is not a compelling argument.
If Steam starts abusing their position and becomes shitty then I will stop using Steam. There is nothing morally or ethically wrong (or difficult) with “pirating” the games I have legally purchased on Steam in order to access them outside of the Steam environment.
Except that yes it does. You’re expecting all devs to spend their life savings to develop a game in the hope that Markiplier or Northernlion or whoever else decide to play their game out of thousands of suggestions they get? Some of them prefer a guaranteed salary in exchange for exclusivity, just like the vast majority of people exchange a guaranteed salary in exchange for work exclusive to a single employer. But somehow you guys expect devs to just gamble while you wouldn’t play slot machine for a living.
I’m making a parallel between those businesses who still need money to come in in order to pay employees and the way people who are complaining about exclusives wouldn’t submit themselves to the same process of working without any guaranteed income. Money to pay employees doesn’t come out of nowhere and plenty of publishers have went bankrupt leaving the employees without anything to show for their hard work.
You’re also completely forgetting about indie devs.
You can’t hide behind a bad analogy simply due to it being an analogy. It’s still bad. McDonald’s doesn’t get paid until someone buys a burger. Walmart doesn’t get paid until a customer leaves the checkout. This is very normal for businesses that you don’t get money until the consumer buys your product. If I start an independent business selling socks I can make all the socks I want, I don’t get paid unless people buy them. That’s a normal risk to starting your own business.
All of this is besides the fact that I don’t blame devs for taking the offer, I blame Epic. If a game later becomes available on another service I will consider it then, I will not let Epic have any of my money.
You’re also completely forgetting about indie devs.
To make that burger they need to acquire the property, get permits, build the restaurant, purchase and receive equipment, get more permits, train staff, get supplies, advertise…
Yes, all that will take 2-3 years. I worked at a McDonald’s that was getting rebuilt and the process for a restaurant that already existed took longer than 2 years.
Thank you for focusing on the last relevant part of my comment to signal that you don’t have any actual valid criticisms of what I said.
My partner and I have been playing some of the board games from the recent humble bundle and having a lot of fun! Cats and Quilts of Calico is a nice little strategy game where you place colored tiles and get points for their adjacency, plus it has a cat creator. Terraforming Mars is like the board game but waaaaaay easier because you don’t have to track your little cubes and all your actions manually.
Hoping to try out the new Pavlov update tonight, even if it is a little disappointing (ported maps and paid skins 🥲)
Circling back and confirming it’s a lot of fun! The digital version is a little buggy but we played it a few hours last night and will probably play a few more rounds tonight
bin.pol.social
Aktywne