It's probably stuff being less "indie" than it appears on the surface. Both of those games you listed appear to have successful publishers, one behind Maplestory and multi-million (in USD) net income (also largest shareholder is investment firm, Maplestory NFTs). The other has more games (and significantly more DLC) on Steam.
That doesn't really answer your question, well aside from saying money. Though there may be a deeper connection as well (shareholders having hands in everything etc)
Huh. My siblings and I love the Trine games, and wanted to like Nine Parchments, but found it to be one of the worst games we’ve ever played. I don’t think we could find a single redeeming quality, and it just seemed like a total misstep.
So seeing it here on this list makes me think maybe there’s something that was okay about it? I’m curious what people liked…
(all the rest of these seem like good games, though, which honestly makes me even more confused about Nine Parchments’ inclusion…)
It’s okay not to like it of course. As you have seen it’s nothing like the Trine games, sharing only a bit of lore with them.
It’s basically a very pretty arena-based top-down shooter reminiscent of Magicka (which I also loved), with a good difficulty curve. There is not much of a story to carry the game forward, so it hinges on whether you like the gameplay and the challenge it offers or not. I for one really enjoyed Nine Parchments, doing multiple runs in single player and co-op with friends (even a “hardcore” one, which we usually never touch).
It’s funny to see this because I have found it to be the complete opposite.
First, the amount is surprisingly copious for a DLC. The new area they added is deceptively large because it has so much verticality. The main story missions for Phantom Liberty are also much longer than normal missions. The “like 5” you quoted is ridiculous because not only is it WRONG, it discounts the size of the missions.
They also added a ton of side missions and gigs, as well as two completely new side activities in car missions and supply drops. It’s a lot of content and just saying “they only added x number of missions” is reductive and frankly deceptive.
And maybe more important than the amount of content they added, the quality of the content is off the charts. The art style and creativity in the new areas is fantastic. It doesn’t feel like just more Night City, it really feels like a different area. It’s visually distinct from the original game; you know you’re in the new area without being told.
And the missions… the main story missions are completely different than anything in the original game. Fighting through the wreckage of a downed airplane to rescue the president and then getting thrown into a spy story complete with James Bond style banter over a roulette table! Idris Elba is amazing. Even the side missions are interesting with different ways to resolve them.
If you liked CP2077, I don’t see how you could possibly not like this DLC. They added more of everything that was good about the original game and did it at a higher level than the original game.
When I think of some of the other DLC’s I’ve paid for that are basically just a few extra missions and maybe a new companion or something, it makes this seem even better.
Now just so I don’t sound like a complete fan boy, I will say they added in a bunch of new bugs making the game less stable than it was in 1.63, which is really frustrating. But everyone gets those regardless if you paid for the DLC or not. So as much as it sucks that they added those bugs, it has nothing to do with whether you think the DLC is a good value or not.
@Stillhart@sederx personally, I was really missing the "crime" aspect of the game, so the fact that there's the ability to steal cars is a big plus for me. Can't believe it took them this long to implement something that fun into the game.
Idk I found the story to be pretty silly and again the bad acting didn’t let me get into it. All those story missions are extremely linear.
I’m not impressed. As I said in another comment I like the base game and this is similar im not sure where you see all this in value in so little.
The car theft is not fun it’s all scripted,the drops became boring after the second one. Like really that stuff satisfies you? A loot box with some average enemy around? Idk man this is nothing for me.
Maybe if they didn’t get Idris Elba they could have sold this for 14.99? I could take him or leave him tbh,I don’t think celebrities have ever helped this game and I thought they learned their lesson.
Honestly, I think Idris Elba blows Keanu Reeves out of the water. Clearly we’re on very different wavelengths if you think the acting in this is worse than the base game.
Cities: Skylines but ecosystem repair. Plant forests, regrade areas of mountains to mitigate landslide potential, reintroduce species and study their functional relationships with each other… Game progression comes in the form of additional research grants or new area assignments which present new challenges and unlock a new set of tools/procedures, but the successes from previous sites allow for migration of the reintroduced species into the new site.
I’ve only watched gameplay of Terra Nil, but it seems like it’s just an environmentalism themed puzzle game. You could replace all the titles with colors, and all the buildings and what they do with arbitrary rules, and it seems like it wouldn’t look anything like an ecosystem sim. It would be like taking the game Lights Out, changing dark spots to “growth”, light spots to “wastelands” and saying the goal is to balance out the ecosystem.
I didn’t see the late game though, so maybe I didn’t see where it shines.
I was hoping this was the direction Dyson Sphere Program would go. I think it would be an interesting twist on the factory management genre if nature was working against you; not in a Factorio “aliens will attack you if they see your pollution” way, but a “you’re producing pollution, this is creating more in-climate weather that is damaging your factories and changing the landscape dynamically” sort of way. I think this was the natural next step given that the game is already about climbing the Kardashev scale, producing more energy so that you can construct the means to produce exponentially more energy. Seemed like the natural next step would be exploring the balancing act that has to happen to achieve that energy production without also creating systemic issues for yourself that make it infeasible.
Instead their latest patch adds aliens that attack you 😕.
I guess this game just doesn’t exist, but remember that tweet of the guy who had a dream about an open world pirate exploration game with Waluigi in it?
Now I'm just imagining AC Black Flag, but Waluigi just replaces Edward whole cloth, just does all the voicelines and everything, everybody else just pretends he's a normal guy.
There is/was a fan made version of this in development! I don’t know the status of it currently, and I heard that development was rocky for a while… and they haven’t posted on the blog since 2020. But take a look anyway!
You need to grab the Duolingo APK from a source like APKpure or APKMirror and patch this file.
This is because the installed Duolingo app consists of multiple (split-)APKs.
But wasn’t that the evil AI very explicitly trying to psychologically hurt the protagonist and being really lame about it? I mean it’s the evil AI doing it and I remember the point of it being that fat jokes are lame.
I always sort of read those jokes as illustrative as GLaDOS being a bad person fielding weak material more than like, an earnest expression of the game writer’s values. Like, the game itself doesn’t present the remarks themselves as funny so much as GLaDOS being rude, snippy, and actively incorrect given that Chell is mega-fit.
Yeah, that always came across as “I’m trying to neg you but I ran out of my best insults like an hour ago so I’m throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.” Same with the adopted joke.
I get that context, and I think that was for sure the intent, but they did not stick the landing. We already knew GLaDOS is evil. Casual fatphobia was not necessary. Plus the fact that some people won’t get that context or choose to ignore it and just think it is funny, as evidenced further down this thread.
Edit: The person saying they would replay it for the fat jokes was removed, so my last sentence makes less sense, but that was the reason I said that
There’s an extremely long list of creative works made to be satire that idiots don’t understand. The Colbert Report, Starship Troopers, hell there are people that think Homelander is the good guy in The Boys. I think it’s a little too restrictive if someone can’t make a point that certain jokes are lame out of fear of how a few idiots might misinterpret it (many times deliberately). There are people right now arguing that the Barbie movie is actually “anti-woke”.
Also consider how many people actually did get the message. They heard how lame the jokes sounded and realized how stupid fat jokes are. From what I recall, the game really makes an effort to deconstruct these jokes. There is no audience within the game laughing at the jokes, and the evil AI explicitly states that it’s making the jokes solely to to negatively affect the protagonists psychological well being to prevent her from achieving anything. And the jokes are directed at the player, so someone that might have made these jokes themselves hears someone else directing these jokes at them and can hear how lame they are. The evil AI comes across as lame, petty, and desperate. Someone who made fat jokes before playing that game might have had the realization “is that how I sound?”
I feel like the people that didn’t get the context likely made fat jokes before playing the game, and would be making fat jokes even if they never played the game. So I don’t think there was any negative impact. Someone that committed to being an idiot isn’t going change in either direction from any kind of media.
Like I said, I understand the context. I don’t need more of it.
Jokes like this and the other examples require either a very deft hand or an extreme level of satire. The jokes did not achieve either of those for me. The harm it causes by folks misinterpreting or ignoring context is not worth the people who get it. I have friends that would 100% understand the context and would still be made uncomfortable by the delivery. That to me is the best indicator to how well it aged.
Also, posting a wall of text full of ableism is also not a great way to convince me otherwise
Yeah I never except anyone on the internet to admit they’re wrong about anything. But randomly accusing someone of being ablest based solely on a disagreement over the interpretation of a piece of media is rather petty behavior (even by internet standards), don’t you think?
In keeping with Nintendo naming conventions it with be the “switch u” or more likely “switcheroo” It will be a VR based system that seems like an add on peripheral for the switch, but is actually a new system that nobody buys due to confusion and lack of titles.
I have doubts about the VR thing. Since VR in general doesn’t seem to be healthy or safe for kids under 13. The lowest age recommendation for a VR headset is 12 and that’s just Sony. I highly doubt Nintendo is going to put their brand in the line for a gimmick as weak as VR is. Besides Nintendo gimmicks are about unique innovation. Not rehashing an already dying gimmick.
Yup. Steam is my go-to because of easy game steaming, steam deck integration, etc. But I know what I’m sacrificing for that convenience. Luckily Valve is an incredibly customer focused company and I have a huge amount of (well deserved IMO) faith in. GOG however is definitely still the best way to own your games.
A lot of things can cause “the mind to wander” and, frankly, I’m not a health professional but as a person who sometimes has trouble focusing I somewhat sympathize. There are times when I simply can’t sit down and enjoy myself, and there’s nothing that can be done about that. Usually times of high stress and anxiety.
But outside of those extreme cases, there’s generally a few things here and there that can help alleviate. The first, and maybe almost stupidly obvious one, is to do some of those tasks beforehand. I don’t have to stress about doing the dishes or paying the bills or returning a call if I just do it beforehand. Logging into the bank app is just 5 minutes, why worry about it otherwise.
Another is to get comfortable and shut yourself off. Leave your phone in a place you can’t reach from wherever you’re gaming (or watching a movie, or reading or studying. Your phone should actually be in a different room every time you don’t immediately need it) as well as any other electronic devices. Close the windows and doors, turn off your PC. Make it a bother to stop enjoying yourself.
Take a bathroom break (or if its in the evening, a shower+grooming) and maybe have a snack or a full meal. Have a bottle of water nearby. That crosses out basic biologic annoyances (until you need a pee break but that’s at least a healthy obstacle).
Exercise a bit. Sounds out there, but exhausting yourself physically isn’t only healthy, it also takes your mind off a lot of things. Since that’s a relatively boring activity that can also have your mind wander, have some podcasts handy, but something light and preferably with 2+ hosts so you can have several voices in your head that aren’t yours but also don’t need to follow a story or anything heavy. Going on a walk while listening to a 1 hour episode should be good enough (and something we all should do regardless of attention issues)
On the subject of podcasts, I’ve found that some games aren’t gripping enough to draw my attention or are repetitive enough that I don’t need to dedicate all of my attention to them, so I’ve dubbed them Podcast Games and do both at the same time. Roguelikes do very well in this regard, as well as management games, or anything that isn’t story heavy (or if the story blows) and where the sound isn’t exactly necessary.
And sometimes, ultimately, maybe you just aren’t really in the mood for a game. There are hobbies of mine that I enjoy, but don’t do much because I’m not “in the zone” as often, like reading or watching a TV series. So if gaming is like that for you, swap around and enjoy yourself, time spent doing something you like isn’t time wasted.
Optional: I’ve found that I’m much better at sitting down and watching a movie or a show when I have someone alongside me to chat up. Maybe having someone along to play/watch together, or simply streaming through Discord for a friend might be a solution. You’d be surprised at how many other people are also bored and would accept an invite to watch you play while chatting about their day.
It saddens me that my country (Italy) has such a low percentage of signatures. Most of us are either ignorant of anything happening outside of our borders, or straight up doomers who don’t believe anything can ever change for the better.
Big congrats to my fellow northern cousins. I was expecting Poland, who has a healthy videogame industry, to gather a good enough number of signatures, but 160% is wild! It’s refreshing seeing so many people joining the petition - It’s not even about videogames: this initiative will have huge repercussions on the lifespan of other, unrelated products and, in general terms, planned obsolescence.
I think it’s been very hard for us to spread awareness into countries where a majority don’t also speak English, as the organizer and much of the coverage is only in English.
If you know of any big Italian gaming YouTubers or streamers that might be receptive to helping or talking about the campaign, could you reach out to them about it with a comment?
Unfortunately, that’s not my area of expertise. I don’t follow streamers or YouTubers (Italian or international), nor do I have a close enough relationship with any of them that I’d be able to talk to them and convince them to mention this petition to their fans.
The one and only time some friends and I attempted to interact with a few local content creators (to publicize our free fan games we poured hundreds of hours into and NEVER attempted to monetize in any way), we either got ignored, insulted, or received vague answers that went nowhere. It soured me towards Italian content creators and vowed to never interact with them again.
One thing you can do: In person organising. It’s something the campaign has been really bad at. Have some flyers printed up and start handing them out. I don’t know the Italian school schedule, but if universities are still in session they might be good targets.
I did it last year, first at Gamescom and then at a local uni and I think it helped spread the word.
Here are the up-to-date numbers, the threshold percentages are now better than shown the image in the post but there’s still a long way to reach the total of 1 million
I think maybe I'm spoiled by the movies, but... I kind of hate it? I hate all the ways they had to cherry pick Dune stuff to turn it into a survival crafting MMO like Conan, especially in the parts where the lore fits worse than Conan. And the story is extremely videogamey. I think the new films are already a bit overly literal when it comes to choosing between the politics and the psychedelia, but man, does Dune Awakening do videogame-ass videogame dream sequences.
The disconnected, patchy reality of the original Cryo Dune got to the right feel accidentally, but there's something to seeing the setting reduced to a skin over Conan Exiles that seriously rubs me the wrong way.
The videogamey parts are really funny to me. I laughed my ass off when I saw Thufir Hawat standing around in the heat outside the Leto residence in Arrakeen because I guess players have to talk to him at some point, and the interior of the residence doesn’t exist in the game, so he has to stand around under an awning in the parking lot like a valet or something.
Totally agree. I only got it to play with friends who are into it but was hoping it would be good. The story / cutscenes are so incredibly cheesy to me. It’s almost a parody but the joke never quite lands.
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