Man, I managed to completely forget about that. My dad was really, really into that game. Like, that’s about all he did for most of 4 years and ended up leaving my mom for someone he met in game.
I guess SL wasn’t really any worse about that than any other game, plenty of people meet and get married in MMOs, but I think the raging custom-content sex parties in SL probably didn’t help matters at the time.
Wonder how that game is doing these days. Cursory web search says it’s still alive. I probably would have found it to be pretty interesting if I wasn’t so turned away from it by my family experience.
Encased is a CRPG, heavily inspired by the classic Fallout games, bringing it’s mechanics into the modern age. It’s story is based on the classic book “Roadside Picknick” (known for being the inspiration of the Stalker series) and is very well written. It has a story narrator, similar to the Divinity: Original Sin games and a very in depth character creation. At the start you choose a department of a research company to work in, which will change the way you interact with many characters, adding some replay value. Anything more I could say would be a spoiler, but the entire beginning (first half to one hour) is an absolute banger.
It’s my favorite indie game of the last few years and at the time of writing this, it is currently 90% of on steam, an absolute bargain
I may have to try it again some day. I thought the story and world was interesting and engaging. I played without guides and despite trying to explore and do everything while following the main story line, I soon found myself extremely underleveled to enemies. I thought it was hilarious that each person in the game is assigned a color based on their role in the colony so sometimes you meet someone who is introduced a being “a black”
I mean we have tons of anticheat games working on Linux. More than people realize. Elden Ring, The Finals, Overwatch 2, CS2, Apex Legends, xDefiant and more that I can’t remember right now. It’s not that bad even as a multiplayer gamer. The ones that don’t work R6S, Val, LoL, Fortnite, CoD and Destiny pretty much.
Yeah, quantity over quality right here. If my favourite game doesn’t run on Linux, Linux is dead to me. Even if I had 5 favourite games and 1 doesn’t work, it’s still dead.
So for a lot of people it’s either 100% or it might as well not exist.
Are you cherry picking the good games out of older libraries? I find people do that a lot when remembering. It’s a survivorship bias thing. The good ones get remembered more and the bad one forgotten, so they seem like the population is better.
My guess is that they just want to separate GOG and their game accounts from each other because they are easier to manage that way. I think in legal sense GOG is still a separate corporate entity even though it’s owned by CD Projekt.
They are legally separate entities, but why should that affect customers? Why are CDPR games no longer being sold on the GOG store? This almost would be like if Valve stopped selling Half Life on Steam.
I don’t think it has anything to do with being “easier to manage”. I think the corporate structure is purely for financial reasons. Valve never spun up a second business for Steam.
I also suspect it has something to do with the fact that GOG is a staunchly DRM free platform. It sounds like either CDPR want to sell games with DRM (which means future titles similar to Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Baldur’s Gate 3 would no longer have a DRM-free option, as CDPR would simply have them on their main store rather than GOG), or CDPR want to include DRM in their own games.
I understand your concern based on how corporations tend to run these days, but this is a lot of speculation. It’s good to be skeptical though.
My guess is that they want to use a single account across more services unrelated to GOG, akin to the way google SSO works for gmail, YouTube, drive, etc. If the account is owned by a subsidiary that might not be possible for other subsidiaries to use the same account per data regulation rules.
I’d like to think I’m not so much speculating, but rather concerned about what this might mean. There’s certainly no apparent reason why splitting CDPR games away from GOG would be good for consumers.
My guess is that they want to use a single account across more services unrelated to GOG
The specific reasoning they’ve given is pretty clear:
You are receiving this email due to your use of online features, including Cross Progression and My Rewards, in CD PROJEKT RED games, as well as your participation in platforms like the CD PROJEKT RED Forums.
None of these things have a clear advantage in being separated from GOG. GOG is owned by CDPR, GOG is a CDPR subsidiary. CDPR have full authority to dictate how their games are sold on the GOG platform. The only unique thing about GOG is the DRM-free position.
By separating CDPR games from GOG, they can separate CDPR games from the DRM-free position, without facing the inevitable backlash that doing so would normally face. Then, newer CDPR games won’t be bound by the GOG philosophy, while GOG can die off somewhat naturally and without such significant backlash. This could be seen as commercially preferable over the current situation for a publicly traded company such as CDPR.
I am making assumptions, but that is the very nature of future predictions. I ask if you could make any other assumption that really challenges mine.
Their games might end up on both, but when it comes to a new 3rd party game being put on CDPR store with DRM or GOG store without DRM, which do you think will happen? Long term, do you think GOG would survive if CDPR shift their focus to another store?
It’s not really the same as Rockstar Launcher and Steam, because Rockstar don’t own Steam.
They are legally separate entities, but why should that affect customers?
Because they are not doing it because of customers, they are more likely doing it for themselves. It’s easier to manage things on a corporate level when the data is also separated similarly as their companies are.
I’m not confusing anything here. For clarity, CPD is the parent company, CDPR is a department within the parent company that develops games. The two are basically synonymous.
What I’m doing is inferring that their statement “online services including…” is in no way an exhaustive list, and directly implies that other things are migrating also. Furthermore, when I logged into GOG Galaxy I could no longer shop for new games (not just CDPR games, but recent games from other publishers - only old titles were available), which further leant into the idea that games were being removed from the GOG store. I’ve since checked gog.com and they’re still there, though.
In any case, even if it doesn’t happen right away this move absolutely is a step towards CDPR games not being listed on the GOG store and potentially even coming with DRM.
I’ve created a support ticket with them asking for further details about the change.
Doom Eternal. I don’t usually enjoy FPS games and I’m not very good at them but I absolutely loved Doom (2016) as it took out most of the things I hate about FPS games. But in Eternal I just felt like I was constantly out of ammo, and there was too much focus on using specific weapons against specific weak points on enemies which I couldn’t get the hang of
Yeah I also couldn’t get the hang on Doom Eternal. Loved the first one but the second one cramped so many unnecessary elements into it and made it too complicated. The first one was a simple but highly effective shooter, but the second one was just bloated with stuff nobody asked for.
I quite enjoy Doom Eternal, but it's true it's a very different game from Doom (2016). You either vibe with the combat flow the game enforces or you don't. There is exactly one way to play it, by rotating between all the abilities as they go off their cooldowns, so you can keep restoring your ammo, HP and armor respectively.
I agree, when I first picked it up I couldn’t get into the rhythm of the game and hated it, but once it clicked it was a lot of fun. You can’t really go in expecting to play exactly like Doom (2016).
I didn’t even like Doom (2016). It was ugly, dull and I hated the finisher system. Really disappointed because I’m old enough to have played the other Doom games as a kid and I mostly enjoyed the new wave of boomer shooters. Great soundtrack though.
The only thing I really hated about Eternal was the Marauder. As a mini boss it was fine, but as a recurring enemy it absolutely kills the pace. I tried the DLC and as soon as I encountered another Marauder early on I turned it off and haven’t gone back.
It’s a shame because I really enjoy the lore, and contrary to yourself I liked most of the other changes Eternal made to nu-Doom. Fewer rooms where you get locked in until you defeat all enemies, mainly.
I agree with the Marauder bit. As a boss it was fine, but as a recurring enemy it just killed the pace of the game.
As for ammo, the game gives you so much chainsaw fuel that if ever you run out of ammo, you just chainsaw the next enemy and you’re back to shooting with your preferred weapon.
The problem I had was that their way of making the game harder was just to throw more enemies at you. Some of the battles were just way too long, fighting dozens of the same enemies that spawned in as you killed the previous ones. It just got so tedious at some point, and rather than being excited for what was coming next, I was just hoping the fight would end so I could move on.
Doom hit the right balance, but Eternal just overdid it.
From memory it respawns the low level enemies constantly, since they’re just ammo/health/armour pinatas. You needed to kill the big enemies to complete an arena.
Not really a fan of the design choice, but I had a decent amount of fun when I clicked with how the Devs wanted you to play.
Funnily enough, the Marauder is one of the only things I kind of liked about Eternal.
And the grapple hook on the super shotgun was fantastic, especially in that boss fight where you grapple and then punch the boss.
Other than that, I find 2016 so much better. Some of the things in Eternal were just not fun at all, like the enemies that are invulnerable except for 3 seconds while charging their super attack AND EVEN THEN ONLY THE HEAD TAKES DAMAGE. Felt just unfair rather than difficult.
Yeah, Doom 2016 is easily one of my favorite singleplayer fps games. Doom Eternal is just worse in every way, and I couldn't get through more than a few hours.
It completely breaks the combat flow state that made the original great
Instead of having the freedom to prioritize enemies and weapons, it wants you to do things a very specific way
Instead of the minimal but interesting story from the 2016, we get a convoluted mess, with random characters that we have no reason to care about.
Also, despite 2016 looking quite good, they decided to make Eternal garish and cartoony for some reason??
I could go on, but anyway I hope we get a proper 2016 sequel some day.
I’m replaying Doom Eternal right now and I feel this so hard. Even with ammo upgrades and judicious chainsaw use I’m constantly out of ammo. Really makes me wish for a melee weapon that doesn’t have limited fuel or whatever.
This is a few days old but I might be able to help. Are you switching weapons or just sticking to a single one?
A single chainsaw gives you something like 20 shotgun slugs and a bunch of ammo for every single other weapon, you shouldn’t have ammo problems unless you are trying to kill a heavy demon with the assault rifle primary fire.
A complete downgrade from Doom 2016 in every way. Combat was complete madness, there’s no such thing as planning ahead. You can only endlessly dash away while insta-swapping weapons ad infinitum.
Doom 2016 made you think. Is this glory kill to risky? Is the gap wide enough to make it through, who do I have to kill first? Doom Eternal reduced that to a single repetitive four button loop.
I disagree but I understand you… I don’t know why it didn’t click for me as an old Yu-Gi-Oh! Player (that is the only card game I have ever played… And several minutes of a “Duel Master” card game for GBA… Perhaps that one would trigger some old memories for some it was based on an anime too).
It suffers the same problem every trading card game does: if you don’t have the best cards, you lose. Skill and strategy and even luck are nothing compared to just having better cards.
IMO pay-to-win mechanics work really well for a game-within-a-game since rather than exploiting the player for money, they are exploiting the player character for effort, which can lead you to go on more epic quests
Personally I found it really annoying that halfway through the game when I decided to give gwent a go, i got absolutely trashed and was basically tole to go back to the beginning of the game and redo a bunch of areas I’d already spent too much time in.
Not to mention none of the gwent quests were epic in the slightest. They were literally “play these people, if you win you get a card”.
That’s a really superficial take. For instance in MTG every format has “must have” cards, like fetchlands or shock lands (or dual lands), but beyond that there’s no “best” cards. There are “meta” cards that go into a specific meta deck and when you have one meta deck playing against another that’s when skill and strategy come into play. And it’s not like you must build a meta deck to play, you can build anti-meta decks or lab out a completely new meta deck. The problem is that such a level of deck building skills go way beyond what 99% of players are capable of doing. Even some of the best players in the world suck at deck building, because is an entirely different skillset to playing the game.
But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. The modern meta looks very different to when I got into MTG 10+ years ago. Some are still around in some form, like regular Tron turned into mono-g tron and burn turned into boros burn. But the bans on Twin and Pod have killed those decks while Jund and Affinity have dropped out of the meta. In those place we have brand new decks like amulet titan or 5c Omnath. Somewhere in that timeframe we also got Eggs that was literally jank cards thrown into a pile of meta-defining solitaire playing, and then it got banned for being too boring.
You can get meta cards to build a meta deck but you can’t explicitly buy “best” cards because a new combination of “bad” cards can create a meta deck and then those become the new “best” cards.
The one with a better deck wins. If a homebrew deck goes against a meta deck then it’s likely the meta deck wins, but if you homebrew a deck with meta cards vs homebrewing without meta cards it comes down to how well the deck is built. A homebrew with all the meta cards but without any game plan or poor mana source distribution is going to do worse than a homebrew without meta cards, but with a clear plan and cards that support that plan.
People not building their own decks and instead just copying meta decks is another discussion.
I wish someone had taught my friends and me how to play D&D when I was 10, but my parents were part of the “satanic panic” generation, and had zero interest in anything to do with fantasy or improv. Once you get out of highschool, finding a night that everyone can meet up for D&D gets exponentially harder, let alone finding someone who wants to put in the time to DM.
Oh yeah, DnD is a great idea, and if they aren’t into dragons (but who isn’t) there’s all kinds of variations of rpg games. Mutant Year Zero, Vaesen, Alien, Pathfinder, Starfinder, etc. The list goes on and on. And since you have mentioned you have a pc, you can use a virtual tabletop like Fantasy Grounds, for them to play where you don’t have to get them all together in the same room. I play a few different games each week with people I have only met in game. You could buy the FG Ultimate license for one pc, whomever is going to be the DM, and all the other kids could connect with the free beta license, and only the DM needs to own the books. Everyone else can just get on and read the manuals, or play the game with no expense.
Personally I have played dnd with those virtual tabletops and… they’re pretty bad. You spend about 3x as much time fiddling with it than you do playing. Plus you then get distracted by electronics when you should be getting into your character.
Well I guess it all depends on the dm and the material. I play a couple of games each week, and one is a 4 hour session and it’s pretty immersive. We have a few hiccups now and again, but it’s not anything that bad in my opinion. There is some work on the dm side, but since we are all spread about the planet, it allows us to get together and run a campaign. Even my local board game peeps use FG to play. We talk about playing local, but when we get together it’s usually to break out some board games we have and want to play, and one person playing our dnd game is a couple of states away. We joke about putting him on an ipad and facetiming him with his head sitting on the table. LOL.
Dnd (and tabletop gaming in general) is really fun, but I can foresee problems when you try to replace the electronic gambling skinner box of Roblox with a game where the core features are math and imagination.
For immersiveness, I recommend miniatures to use on a grid (can be just paper with 1”x1” squares drawn with a pencil). One thing I can say for doing it cheap and quick is to buy a bunch of those small game piece holders (1”x1”) and find monster art online to print, cut, and put in the holders as your minis.
[For example](LLMSIX 24 Pieces Game Card Stand Clear Card Holders Plastic Place Card Display Stand Photo Card Holder DIY Board Games Stand for Business Cards Price Tags Labels Menus Party Favor)
You can get basic rules online for free and you could probably pick up books used.
There’s many things I can overlook here but the lack of bikes nixed my hype fully. I don’t want to build car hell yet again. I can leave the house if I wanna see that.
I mean… If I want to build a hell, I still want options.
Like, realistic space use for car hell would be interesting but maybe sometimes I wanna build a university on a hill and student housing at the top of a different hill and to get to class you have to bike up a hill both ways.
No bikes??? I hadn’t heard that, one of the most satisfying things about playing C:S1 to me was making great bike routes and useful public transit, without bikes I really don’t feel a drive to play this one now honestly hah. Maybe they are going the Sims route where all the useful basic things they added in the previous edition will be released over time as DLC, ffs.
I don’t think the first Cities Skylines shipped with bikes either? Wasn’t it part of the After Dark DLC? Or maybe that was just bike lanes? I hate the DLC for Paradox games… It’s so confusing that I think I’m just not going to buy their games anymore.
You’re right. After Dark was one of the first(?) DLCs and I’m not sure if bikes were part of that or the eco-friendly DLC but bikes definitely are not part of the vanilla experience (I have quite a few DLCs that are important to me and no bikes yet)
Yes you are making an unreasonable complaint. You’re complaining that the story doesn’t include one particular niche element of interest to you and comparing it to having shit thrown in your face.
Yes, but I was under the entirely reasonable expectation that I would indeed get my niche thing (that being three or four lines of dialog), given the game’s overall setup, mechanics, advertising and franchise. It wasn’t just not included, it was actively averted as hard as possible.
Would you not be disappointed in the same circumstances?
I exclusively use a VPN with everything and have done so for years. If steam has an issue, they have yet to inform me lol.
On a serious note tho, there is an issue if you use a VPN to access store prices for a country outside your own. Regional pricing means that some people game the system and Valve rightfully cares about that.
You don’t have to, your regional price is linked to your account’s regional setting so that if you move you can legitimately change your region but VPN doesn’t affect it at all.
I was watching The Spiffing Brit’s exploit video of Spore. It definitely made me wish for a modern Spore game. To be clear, the visuals don’t need to be much better just better lighting and it’d look modern enough. If they overhauled the gameplay systems then it could be a 10/10 game.
I know you’re joking but thanks to the Internet, I can confirm you do get the shotgun in the lost valley stage where dinosaurs are found. Now that I read up on it, the funniest part to me is that this meme might have actually chose a shotgun for that reason, especially since apparently you can totally take on a T-Rex with a shotgun.
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