Yes. I like free games, and while I won’t pay Epic a cent, I’m not so self-righteous to look a gift horse in the mouth.
They’ll learn I claim every free game, and they’ll learn what I install and play, but whatever they learn from that will be wasted effort, since it will never turn into a sale.
It was kind of the same for Photoshop. Once it (and similar tools) became accessible to everyone, everyone was a “graphic designer.”
I don’t know if it’s a great analog, but I expect a similar revolution in a lot of fields, with the experts who are able to wield it effectively being the ones making the big bucks.
I do QA for a living, and that was an interesting read.
…VR is constantly innovating. But the work conditions for QA folks who learn the inside out of these technologies rarely are.
Welcome to the world of QA, where upper management is constantly asking, “What is the point of your department? Why shouldn’t we just roll this into Dev’s workload?”
I think these two deserve more love. The sidescrolling presentation and gameplay makes them stand out, but they also boast a competent combat system, interesting narratives, colorful and detailed visuals and soundtracks so memorable, I ended up whistling some of the tunes for years.
Moonring has been really fun, and it’s free! Not F2P, just free. The developer made it as a passion project, and it’s easily worth $10, imo. Lots of reading.
It’s akin to an old NES or early 90s PC game with the polish and applied game theory of modern times.
Yep, one of the co-creators. Has a website that he hasn’t updated in a year or two that’s geared towards teaching people programming, so seems like a pretty cool guy!
You say that like it’s something to be ashamed of. “Casual” is an underrated genre, because sometimes, it’s nice to just take your time and enjoy the experience. Life has enough complexities that escaping to a world of simplicity and calm can be truly rewarding.
Oh, for sure. But so what if it’s “not really serious?” Isn’t that kind of the point of the Casual genre? Play the games you like; don’t listen to a bunch of tryhard, self-important gatekeepers.
PC. We played through all of the 3+ player ones around a year or two ago in chronological order and it was stupid fun, what we liked about it and are hoping to find elsewhere is it being a shooter with an emphasis on movement and it’s physics sandbox (AKA CHAOS) while still having at least 3 full campaigns to play through in a...
They probably specified to emphasize that despite NMS being interstellar, this one isn’t. Since they’re known for the former, that reputation comes with the baggage of expecting a similar experience.
I think that the massive explosion of really high-quality smaller games means there’s ultimately less money to go around from buyers…
I don’t think it’s so much that, as it is getting lost in the crowd. I’ve never heard of this game until just now, and I haven’t heard of half of the games you listed. There’s plenty of money to go around (just look at how well the Steam Deck has done), but nobody will buy your game if people can’t find it.
And that’s why big companies often do well by default; they have massive advertising budgets, so reaching their share of the market is often much easier.
This is a fascinating deep dive into the development of the game, with many people involved giving interviews. Instead of being in a long development hell, Lionhead knocked out the game in a stunning 18 months - which made Microsoft happy, but resulted in the cutting of a ton of content.
Such a short development cycle didn’t make Lionhead any less ambitious. Developers who were there from the very start of the series decided to stick around, like Dene Carter and Georg Backer.
Reminder that Moonring exists, it’s free, and it was made by Dene. It’s a seriously great RPG.
Sounds like SecondLife (another of his creations) with NFTs, or the various failed attempts at a Metaverse, except rich crypto-whales get to be the Lords, and the rest of us are the surfs. Then again, maybe there’s some aspect to it I don’t understand.
Yep, buying a Steam Deck this Christmas. Not played one, myself, but I have been a Steam Controller user for years, and they seem to have nailed their latest offerings.
There was definitely a period in there when they felt very anticompetitive (apathy-competitive?), though.
Depends on people’s age! I was beyond childhood when that came out, but it was a game changer for me getting to play a FPS that was couch co-op. All FPS games to that point were mostly (all?) multiplayer competitive. PvE was always a solo experience until then!
I’ll skip the skins, because I assume you’ll want to pick your own that fit your tastes, but you can find all of these at NexusMods. Some of my favorites are:
Speed Launch
60 fps in cutscenes
No fall damage
Infinite Respec Amulet
Party At The Winter Palace
Shorter War Table Missions (75%)
Party Banter Time (5-10min)
All Bard songs for CC Music
Stay still in CC - Natural Edition
Face Ash Begone
Bugs Be Gone
Skills Enhanced by NinjaReborn
Inventory Capacity
You’ll also need Frosty Mod Manager to set all those up (they seem to work for me in the order I listed) and Frosty Fix.
Set up the mods and load order in FrostyMM, and close.
Launch Frosty Fix.
Choose the profile/pack you want.
Mash go.
FrostyMM should open back up.
Open the pack you created.
The game should launch automatically with the mods correctly enabled.
All these mods feel “vanilla-ish” and shouldn’t spoil the original experience to any significant degree.
The Forest should be on sale (just checked, it’s $5 on Steam until Nov 28), and it’s somewhat Subnautica-like. There’s a definite horror element to it, though, so in that way, it’s a different experience, but you still do the “find food, find water, build a base, craft tools” thing.
I don’t think it’s as good as Subnautica, but for $5, it’s still a fun experience, and there is an ongoing story/quest to give you something to focus on. I sank 8 hours into it in the first two days, and there’s still a ton to uncover, so I think it’s worth a play.
You can make a contained column of water with trap doors on their side (need two high) which prevents the water from escaping, soul sand underneath, and no boat needed. To come down, I made an empty column beside it with a water block at the bottom to stop fall damage.
Not as fancy as a mechanized dual-purpose elevator, but it got the job done, and it was quick and quiet.
I think you alluded to this earlier, but I think we can agree that $6/hr is an insane amount to pay for a short game that’s just a remake, not a novel experience.
Imagine if Xenogears had a modern remake and sold for that amount. The original was about 50 hours to finish, so if we’re generous and say they streamline the experience down to 40 hours, that would be a $240 game if $6/hr is treated as an acceptable price.
Nintendo knows their fans will pay the nostalgia tax, though.
Seems like the rest of the free games from Epic Store have been leaked (i.postimg.cc) angielski
It’s a tweet from user PC_Focus_ that states:...
A New Year's Letter from the President | SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS (www.hd.square-enix.com) angielski
of note:...
Ghostrunner is free on Epic (Dec. 31 only) (store.epicgames.com)
Vomit And Ginger Candy: Inside The VR QA Process - Game Informer (www.gameinformer.com)
Freeware recommendation: The Spirit Engine and its sequel, two unique and refined side-scrolling RPGs (www.thespiritengine.com) angielski
I think these two deserve more love. The sidescrolling presentation and gameplay makes them stand out, but they also boast a competent combat system, interesting narratives, colorful and detailed visuals and soundtracks so memorable, I ended up whistling some of the tunes for years.
Lost Ruins is on giveaway at GOG for the next 3 days (www.gog.com)
Subscribing to the GOG newsletter will allow you to add the game to your library, which can then be downloaded DRM free...
Looking for a rec: story oriented RPG with minimal focus on combat
Preferably in the high fantasy or sci fi genre....
How many stinkers did you play this year?
How many and which bad games did you play this year?
What are the best multiplayer games to try if me and my friends are looking for a similar experience to a Bungie Halo campaign marathon on Heroic+ difficulty? angielski
PC. We played through all of the 3+ player ones around a year or two ago in chronological order and it was stupid fun, what we liked about it and are hoping to find elsewhere is it being a shooter with an emphasis on movement and it’s physics sandbox (AKA CHAOS) while still having at least 3 full campaigns to play through in a...
New single planet fantasy game from Hello Games (www.youtube.com) angielski
Armello studio lays off over half its staff and 'indefinitely' pauses development on its ongoing early access game because 'almost all funding and investment has evaporated from the videogame industry (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
The Inside Story Of Fable 3, The Game That Broke Its Creators' Hearts (www.thegamer.com)
This is a fascinating deep dive into the development of the game, with many people involved giving interviews. Instead of being in a long development hell, Lionhead knocked out the game in a stunning 18 months - which made Microsoft happy, but resulted in the cutting of a ton of content.
What game company from your childhood do you remember with fondness?
I was thinking about how I remember Maxis fondly, and I got to wondering what other people’s experiences were like!...
Embracer CEO confirms TimeSplitters studio faces closure before Christmas (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of November 26th
What have you all been playing? I’ve been playing more dicey dungeons and cross code! Want to really commit to finishing cross code this time
Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update - Half Life Uplink, New Multiplayer Maps, Updated Graphical Settings, SteamDeck Verified and More (www.half-life.com) angielski
I made a boat elevator for Minecraft Bedrock 1.20 (youtu.be)
I tried posting to the Minecraft subreddit, but the post would get deleted immediately. I just want to show someone!...
Super Mario RPG (2023) Review Thread
Game Information...