Progressed a bunch more in witcher 3 but got burnt out again. Finished ugly baby and it seems a bunch of side quests become unavailable after isle of mists and I don’t have time to binge them nowadays.
Tried to make progress in celeste and they bleed pixels but they were too hard. I think I’ll give up on golden strawberries and do the other stuff on celeste and might end up giving up on tbp entirely as the fire world seems impenetrable. The difficulty curve on that game is insane
Currently looking for a short ish easy game thag I can just play from beginning to the end without getting stuck or feeling completionist fomo. Suggestions?
When I was young my parents would not let me get DDR: Konamix. They wouldn’t even let me buy it to play with a controller. Nevermind that I’m at the arcade with all of my arcade friends multiple times a week.
I was at my local tiny game store hanging out as I usually did all the time, and the guy working there (I was maybe 12, he was like 24) EXCITEDLY asked “HEY I got my preorder of Konamix, do you wanna play?!” And I was SOOOOO ELATED to try. I told him about my parents and not letting me get the game, and he was like “yo that’s horrible, I am so sorry!”
I played there for about an hour, until he got off work. As I was getting on my bike, I hear
“RAI!”
“Yes?”
“This is yours.”
Like a movie with a sports guy handing over his jersey to an eager fan, he hands me his brand new copy of Konamix. It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me. I told him he can’t do that, it’s his preorder, and he said “it’s okay, I can get another one; you can’t.”
My parents were PISSED (and they knew I didn’t buy it, I couldn’t afford 40USD at that time)… but they ended up buying me a shitty Madkatz pad so I could play at home. I probably put it 400 hours.
Thank you, video game store dude. I hope you’re doing amazing now.
Here is excerpt from the tos, shared by user in steam reviews of the game.
important Info in Terms of Service:• Mods are a bannable offense • Display of Cheats/Exploits is bannable • Forced arbitration clause and a waiver of class action and jury trial rights for all users residing in the United States and any other territory other than Australia, Switzerland, The United Kingdom, or The Territories of The European Economic Area • You can be banned for using a VPN while connecting to online servers • Cannot access game content on a Virtual PC Collected Data Types: • Identifiers / Contact Information: Name, user name, gamertag, postal and email address, phone number, unique IDs, mobile device ID, platform ID, gaming service ID, advertising ID (IDFA, Android ID) and IP address • Protected Characteristics: Age and gender • Commercial Information: Purchase and usage history and preferences, including gameplay information • Billing Information: Payment information (credit / debit card information) and shipping address • Internet / Electronic Activity: Web / app browsing and gameplay information related to the Services; information about your online interaction(s) with the Services or our advertising; and details about the games and platforms you use and other information related to installed applications • Device and Usage Data: Device type, software and hardware details, language settings, browser type and version, operating system, and information about how users use and interact with the Services (e.g., content viewed, pages visited, clicks, scrolls) • Profile Inferences: Inferences made from your information and web activity to help create a personalized profile so we can identify goods and services that may be of interest • Audio / Visual Information: Account photos, images, and avatars, audio information via chat features and functionality, and gameplay recordings and video footage (such as when you participate in playtesting) • Sensitive Information: Precise location information (if you allow the Services to collect your location), account credentials (user name and password), and contents of communications via chat features and functionality.
I wouldnt touch anything this company has produced.
Here is another person, 7 years ago trying the exact same outrage-based engagement farming strategy of linking a TOS update and implying a nefarious intent: www.reddit.com/…/take_two_a_spyware_apocalypse/ It’s exactly the same “Take two is spying on you!!!” content and yet, none of the Borderlands games have added spyware and none have added kernel anti-cheat.
Also, if you read the 2018 and 2025 TOS you will notice notice that the information that they collect in the 2025 TOS ( www.take2games.com/legal/en-US/ ) is exactly the same as it was in 2018.
TL;DR - Just because you read it on the Internet, doesn’t mean it is true.
I sometimes wonder what I casually believe because I read it while scrolling for something interesting. I don’t have the time or inclination to fact check every single detail I come across.
I’m sure I believe a lot of nonsense from reading the Internet.
That’s okay, we’re just human. The problem is when people try to ‘inform’ people of things that they ‘know’ from reading social media. That’s how these situations are created, so many people believe this because so many other people believe it and then repeat it as fact without themselves ever checking.
It’s like a feedback loop of ignorance, caused entirely by people who care more about getting social credit for talking and less about saying things that are true.
Interesting. So the terms of service have not changed, and yet people are saying that they did. I wonder if there are criticisms that are still valid. For example, the terms of service that you linked:
do not let me use a VPN (¶6.4)
do not let me use glitches (¶6.4)
do not let me own the copy of the game that I bought, but instead give me a limited license to it (¶2.1-2.2)
do not inform me about future updates to their terms of service (¶10.2)
force me to enter arbitration and do not let me be part of a class action lawsuit or have a trial by jury (¶17.5)
link to their privacy policy, which:
does not let me opt out of having my data bought, merged, and sold through ad networks or data brokers (§ Categories of Information Collected, § How We Use Information and Our Legal Grounds, § Sources of Information We Collect, and § When We Share Information ¶ 5— all sources combined)
does not attempt to deliberately minimize data collection to protect my data. With the only exception of children’s data, their purposes are extremely vague (§ How We Use Information and Our Legal Grounds, as well as the entire document, because they do not attempt to do this in their privacy policy)
does not attempt to anonymize my data (I cannot provide a citation because there is no attempt to do this in their privacy policy)
does not specify the purposes of gathering and using information about any installed application on my device (§ Categories of Information Collected— this is especially worrying)
does not let me opt-out of data collection categories for specific purposes (cannot give a direct citation because they simply do not do it; instead, they wrote vague types of information they collect —such as “details about… other information related to installed applications” in § Categories of Information Collected, as well as vague purposes in § How We Use Information)
So, coming back to the original claim you were debunking:
They added spyware to it.
Your response was
No, they didn’t.
And I agree with you, now that I have read their terms of service and their privacy policy. Of course, we’re assuming that they haven’t changed their terms of service. If we assume that, then their spyware clauses weren’t added. No. They were always there. They have always said that they gather “details about… other information related to installed applications” on my device for purposes that can include merging and selling my data to data brokers and ad networks.
The language about collecting and using data have been in TOSs for basically every online service since the early '00s.
I’m not saying that this is okay. The data that these services collect, which we’ve given them unlimited rights to, has only become more valuable and the incentives for these companies are always for them to gather more data about you.
You can use archive.org if you want to look at older policies from the same company. But, if you pull up any other game with an online component you will see that they all are essentially “Don’t cheat our services or hide your identity, We’re going to collect your data and use it how we want, and you have to enter into binding arbitration” with various levels of detail and verbosity.
spoilerBreathing in treekake makes people commit suicide. Other people panic about it, and run around in some fields. Then it ends in some forgettable way.
Well I can already predict this thread will be full of comments on the price so I’ll go ahead and give actual impressions on the game.
It’s really good! The free roam mode is maybe a bit more bare bones than I thought it would be but it’s still great fun driving around and doing challenges. Some of the challenges are legitimately difficult and some of the special ones have taken me ages to complete. The driving feels great, the new movement mechanics are really fun. Knockout tour is absolutely the star here and a great new mode. The AI is harder this time around which makes racing against them much more fun in my opinion.
Overall I’ve been having an amazing time. I do think $80 is steep. But that aside, the game is outstanding
I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I’m not going to be having a switch 2 any time soon but I do really like Nintendo games, so I’m glad I’ll be able to get some of the excitement through you :).
I’m a bit sad about the free roaming part being a bit bare bones. When they first announced it I was hoping for the creativity of a Mario Odyssey crossed with Breath of the Wild in a Kart, discovering secrets and fun places everywhere.
Also with respect to pricing: I think it depends on the game to decide what an honest price is. I would gladly give 100 or more for the joy that Slay the Spire has given me over the years. I think that a big and polished Mario game is not immediately the worst offender for being this expensive. It’s when the less polished and more cash grabbing AAA games start to follow this example that it becomes a problem. I do like how some games decide their price points differently, like Clair Obscur for example.
I’m not a Nintendo gamer, but I’ve been watching a streamer play the game, and whenever I see the Knockout Tour it reminds me of the opening set pieces of the Forza Horizon games, where you’re going through all the different biomes, to introduce you to the game. And afterward you’re let loose on the Mario Horizon festival (aka the empty open world).
The game itself doesn’t look fun at all for me, but who cares, if people enjoy it.
I do think $80 is steep. But that aside, the game is outstanding
Isn’t the launch deal essentially getting the game for $30 off? Seems like a fair price for the game when you consider that - if you are buying the Switch 2 at launch, you are buying it to play the new Mario Kart, so I guess the $80 price tag is just to push you towards the bundle? I wonder what kind of discounts they will do this gen. Nintendo has historically been very stingy with deals, but I wonder if $80 price tag will mean slightly deeper discounts in the future?
Obsidian backlinks from my daily notes :) Though I use it more often to track my books, as I mostly play endless live service games 😅
I can sort of use my Steam review date stamps too to track what I played, bc I review the vast majority of games I try.
Edit: and in Steam I put the finished/dropped games in their own categories, but my tag setup there is really extensive, so probably not the best example :) (I have at least 5-6 tags on each of my games.)
bin.pol.social
Aktywne