I really tried to enjoy RDR2. It’s got some great qualities, and the acting, writing, and cutscenes are phenomenal. But… The gameplay… I’m all for slowburn walking simulator type games (e.g. I loved Detroit Become Human, among others).
But with RDR2, the world is so massive and yet there was no sense of excitement when finding stuff. You get just about all your upgrades fairly early in the game. There’s no sense of character gameplay progression. And after just a few hours of traveling around, it felt like I quickly had seen all the random event variations on the roads/trails (e.g. stop bandits hijacking a wagon, robberies, etc). I don’t know, it just felt like a hyper realistic GTA5: Western, but without all the plethora of goofy shenanigans that game has.
“For quality games media, I continue to believe that the best form of stability is dedicated reader bases to remove reliance on funds, and a hybrid of direct reader funding and advertisements. If people want to keep reading quality content from full time professionals, they need to support it or lose it. That’s never been...
We definitely play on the XSX as a family a lot more than the PS5 that’s collecting dust upstairs. Its smaller form factor makes it much easier to use as a gaming console in our main living area. But yeah, GamePass is a crazy good deal if you know how to use the conversion trick (buy GamePass core for like 2 years for $80-100 from key reseller, then convert it to Ultimate on MS site at a 2:3 ratio or whatever).
That being said, everyone knows GamePass isn’t sustainable long-term. Microsoft truly is killing their gaming division with such short-sighted planning.
Rather, it isn’t sustainable at its current pricing model. It takes the average studio team 3-5 years to make 1 AAA game.
Microsoft’s internal studios (excluding the ones they just bought over the last 4-5 years) have made Halo Infinite and… Hmm… Is the Forza studio considered OG first-party? I’ll just lump them in as well, since they’ve been associated with MS for awhile. So 2 major games in the last ~8 years. Then you have the major studios they just bought: Bethesda and Blizzard/Activision. Bethesda has released 2 major AAA games in the last 5 years while under MS ownership (I think Doom Eternal came out before the purchase). Blizzard has done 1 and Activision has done 1 CoD game.
So MS paid $7.5b for Zenimax/Bethesda and $68.7b for Blizz/Activision, for a whopping total of $76.2b. Starfield sold around 3m copies, Diablo 4 has generated around $1b in revenue since release (chose revenue since it’s a live service game and that includes copies sold), and Black Ops 6 has sold… I’m not sure, a quick search doesn’t show any hard numbers, just Xbox propaganda that it “was the biggest release in franchise history.” (I say propaganda bc many of their larger shareholders weren’t super pleased with how much it cost to purchase Activision, so of course they wanted to spin it as being a smart investment).
And it costs MS a lot of money to license some of the bigger games to come to GamePass.
I just don’t see it being sustainable without cost increases. And if the cost goes up, they’ll turn off customers. And we’ve already seen that their cheaper, indie studios aren’t safe from being axed despite releasing successful hits.
But yeah, there are quite a few AAA/higher graphical fidelity games I just won’t bother, even if it’s technically playable at a "smooth’ 30FPS. Like Kingdom Come 2 ran pretty decently on it, surprisingly, but damn did it really make the game look pretty rough.
I expect there’ll be a new Steam Deck in the next year or two.
But, honestly, I still use my Deck a shit ton, especially at work. It’s hands down the best portable emulator machine and there are tons of indie games that run great on it. It also works great as a small laptop in desktop mode. I use it almost daily at work.
I, too, can’t handle 30FPS on many games. Fortunately, there are still lots of recent games that can hit ~45FPS, which–while not great-- makes it much more bearable. And if it’s too poor of performance, I will often just stream from my desktop while in bed or on the couch. But again, I primarily use it for less demanding games to begin with (e.g. I’ve been playing a lot of Dragon Quest X on it recently).
I’m not saying it’s worth it for everyone, but if the choice is between its closest competitors and the Deck, I think the Deck offers more value for the money spent.
Wow, holy shit. How fucking far Vice has fallen. There was a time they would go the extra mile to cover wild shit that no one else was doing. Greed and the wealthy’s critical need to have control over the media ruins everything.
That really sucks, man. I fully empathize with getting fucked by a greedy government that protects the wealthy while abusing the working class. The world needs to unite against the elites destroying it.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was the most creative game I’ve played in years and years. Amazing story, amazing characters, amazing art and world design, all topped off with a beautiful soundtrack. The gameplay was of course good-- not perfect–but, very satisfying when it hit its stride.
All that to say: Yes, I want more weird and creative games of that caliber. I haven’t played Death Stranding 2 yet, but I definitely plan to at some point.
Yeah, this looks awful to use. It’s okay on the Deck because that’s a mobile device and has a lot of functions it needs to satisfy on the go. For a dedicated controller? Why the hell would you prefer this over the better ergonomically designed SC 1 or literally any other console controller?
All fair points. I can definitely see the appeal of wanting the same functionality that the Deck controller brings, as I myself really enjoy the extra flexibility the trackpads and back buttons provide. But the ergonomics in this example just looks awful and feels really reminiscent of the original Xbox controller.
I thought the core of GW: Tokyo was pretty good, but it suffered from far too much open world bloat. I’d love to see them revisit that world, but it’d be great if they made it focused on a smaller scale. Just my two cents, anyway.
Oh for sure, and I did enjoy some of the side content and thought some of the optional quest stories were good. When I say smaller scale, I think a game like Expedition 33 nailed the balance of having plenty of side/extra content that’s fun to do while also ensuring that completionists don’t go mad from trying to hunt down everything.
Regardless, I agree with you on everything you said; it all boils down to preferences :)
I got into it for the first time back around this last December/January. I was amazed how active the community still is. I didn’t even play on the most populated English server, and chat was always active. Sidenote: There’s only a quasi-global chat thru Yelling while in cities, you have to join Linkshells for more consistent chatting (that game’s version of guilds, and yes you can have more than one linkshell at a time).
As for the gameplay itself: It’s a very clunky game, and it’s very slow. But, that’s part of the charm when compared to today’s MMOs where everything is designed for instant gratification. Fortunately, there are tons of add-ons the community has made to enable some Quality of Life features, such as updated HD textures, a minimap, auto-inventory manager and sorter, etc. I got to around level 70 after about 6sh weeks/120 hours of game time, until my annual MMO interest dried up. I might dive back into it again next year whenever the MMO itch hits again.
Supposedly Square was working on a remaster of the game back around 2018, but it got scrapped a couple of years into development. Which is a shame, because the game with some modern UI sensibilities and graphics would be really nice (as long as they didn’t change hardly anything of the core gameplay).
Overall, it was nice/kind of sad to see it still had a lot more depth than FF14, which I consider to be very watered down nowadays even compared to its 2.0 re-release. But again, for anyone considering trying it out: It is a slow game, and it has alllll the jank of a 2003-era MMO. Just getting it installed and your account setup is janky, so make sure you watch a video before even attempting it.
I get that Steam is where everything and everyone is at. And that the user experience and functionality is best there BUT having another player to try an compete with Steam is a good thing, right?...
People are going to list all the features Steam has over Epic, ignoring that Steam has had ~22 years to get to where it is. The original Steam experience was garbage, and lots of us older gamers knew what would happen and hated that Steam would be the primary catalyst to killing off physical media for PC games back in the mid-2000s, especially as broadband internet access was becoming far more accessible.
Don’t get me wrong, Valve has done alright so far in terms of game ownership, but once Gabe dies/retires, it’s only a matter of time before some greedy fucks force Valve to go public and the pure enshittification process begins.
I don’t disagree that Epic could definitely be doing better with their storefront. They have made improvements, albeit at a glacial pace. They’ve added achievements and reviews, but it’s still a pale comparison to what Steam offers. That being said, no one seems to dig at GoG’s shitty storefront and app nearly to the same degree. Luckily, GOG allows third-party access, so you can at least replace their app with other alternatives.
Regardless, I’m not defending Epic, I was simply trying to avoid doing the mindless “fuck Epic” and offer some counterargument. Epic is a shitty company, but some competition is better than zero competition. Yes, GOG exists, but they hardly have any marketshare at all and if CDPR ever stops supporting it as much as they have been, their future likely isn’t looking so great. It’s like AMD vs Nvidia. Both companies aren’t great, but I’d rather both exist than only Nvidia and/or AMD; and of course, even more competition would be even better.
Their Guides feature didn’t come out until 2012sh, same with workshop. The only thing Steam had in 2010 that Epic doesn’t have right now is Community, which launched around 2007sh.
Like I said, Steam was not that good for a long time.
Hard disagree. Doom Eternal was a rhythm game disguised as an FPS and I hated it. It’s crazy to me how widely acclaimed it was even over Doom 2016, which I thought was amazing. I’m glad they shifted back towards a more grounded FPS style that doesn’t force you to juggle your entire weapon arsenal nonstop the entire game.
Empress is barely active anymore, if at all. Look at the last few dozen DRM-enabled games released in the last few years and I don’t think a single one was cracked. There was Dragon’s Dogma 2, but it turned out that was just a leaked pre-launch dev build and its performance was awful (because the game has shit performance that was even worse at launch than it is now).
I’m not a huge Linux stan, but it’s pretty damn close to it. I rarely run into compatibility issues, and when I do, there’s a very high chance a workaround exists. Hell, there’s even times when a game actually runs smoother on Linux.
In regards to the topic at hand, Denuvo’s activation limit fucks over Windows users, too. It just happens far more often due to the compatibility layer (e.g. proton, wine, etc) making it look like it’s a new computer trying to access the Denuvo servers for a game each time you change it when testing (e.g. proton v8, v9, experimental, etc). That being said, you don’t usually need to change the version that often. I usually only need to try 1-3 versions before finding one that works the best, and I think the Denuvo daily limit is like 4-5, but I could be wrong.
Have someone that’s even just moderately good at Eternal and then watch their keyboard strokes. It’s a combo-centric game, where you’re constantly juggling weapons and jumping to and fro, and eventually it slides into a “flow.” It’s not literally a rhythm game, but it actually kind of is once you hit that flow. I don’t know how to explain it beyond that; but, it’s not a hot take in the least, as even huge fans of it have agreed with the sentiment.
Yep… ARPG gamers are literally among the worst, most unpleasable types of gamers. They will bitch about everything, because they all want a very specific type of game for them and them alone. Just look at every other isometric ARPG and their communities; 90% of the time, they’re filled with negative posts and comments, constantly upset about balance, end game, leveling, loot, etc etc.
I think NRFTW is fantastic, and it’s exactly what I was expecting it to be. However, people saw it at the same “style” as Diablo or Path of Exile and expected the game to be like those… except they’re not. And for those that do realize that, you have the other idiots that refuse to accept that it’s an EA game that still has a long roadmap until completion and bitch about the lack of an “endgame.”
For what it’s worth, the second Ori game is miles better than the first one. I didn’t finish the first one because it started to feel tedious, whereas I couldn’t put the second one down. I’m not sure if it’s because it had better pacing or just a better design approach, but I really loved it.
Agreed on all points. Just spending more than a few seconds watching gameplay footage would put a lot of initial misconceptions to rest. But yeah, while the game is great (in my opinion), it definitely still has a ways to go to fully come into its own and I really hope they secure more funding to see their vision to completion.
So, I’ve spent over 2 hours on Steam searching for a nice game to play. But it’s all junk, as far as I’m fed with Steam recommendations. I liked ksp2 1, cities skylines 1, age of empires 2, baldurs gate 3 a lot, I just finished Divinity original sin 2. I like rpgs and management / factory games like workers and resources,...
++++1 for Rimworld. The first time I really committed to learning to play that game, I lost almost 100 hours in ~3 weeks (which is a ton for me, since I have kids and a job… I lost a lot of sleep). The best part of Rimworld, is if there’s a vanilla mechanic you don’t like or wish was fleshed out more, there’s a 98% chance someone has made a mod for it.
But yeah, it isn’t for the faint of heart. It definitely has a learning curve and it isn’t super easy to just pick up and play for small amounts here and there. It’s a game that you really need at least 1-2 hours per session.
I’d recommend watching a quick start tutorial video before you start playing, as that’ll also give you an idea on whether or not you’ll like it.
I mean, I think Nintendo is a shitty, awful, greedy corporation, but this is just the tip of the iceberg for how tariffs will effect consumers. It’s bad for the economy and the GOP are a bunch of fucking morons for letting their prophet get to this stage.
And yes, I know all the chums will pipe in that their strategy is for all the billionaires to swoop in and buy up everything cheaply. But that’s very short sighted, as this type of bullshit is causing long-term damage to the US’s soft power and influence. Our allies and trading partners are literally forging new agreements without us, meaning even once the tariffs are over, things are not just going to magically go back to normal, if they ever even do.
To be fair, their predatory DLC model for Sims 4 means that their primary customer base has hundreds of dollars invested. Abandoning it at this point might piss a ton of them off. It’s also worth considering that a lot of their users aren’t normal gamers. They typically have basic devices that aren’t really geared towards gaming, so a newer game that’s more demanding might further alienate their base.
A million sales is a lot, but it’s nothing compared to over 85 million copies sold that Sims 4 has achieved.
It sold almost 470,000 copies on PC in its first week 11 years ago. The number of PC gamers has dramatically increased since then, so comparing launch numbers between now and then isn’t really an apt comparison.
If you can’t fathom why I compare a game’s total sales to its competing newcomer, maybe you’re missing the whole point of the specific comment thread I responded to. If you want more recent numbers for a better comparison , EA claims they sold an additional 15 million copies in 2024 alone.
The main point is, I do not think EA is sweating quite yet. They’re a shitty, massive corporation and I’m sure they’ll pump out a sequel if they determine the newcomer is actively taking large enough chunks of their player base.
Lame. Discord has already been dipping their toes into the enshitification pond the last few years, so I imagine it’s going to get worse as they move closer to going public and moreso afterwards.
Playing with randoms is often the best example of our dysfunctional society, haha
But I agree, more often than not, it’s a bad time. And after awhile, when the whole team is experienced, your last point is accurate as well. I haven’t played it since the pandemic, but with friends, playing as the imposter had an even harder time after awhile. I think we eventually just made up our own social game with a similar goal back then and had more fun deducing the imposter/murderer.
I think it’s more the fact that games like Witcher 3 and Bloodborne are still discussed so much despite being a decade old now. Just kind of crazy 10 years have passed already.
Agreed for the most part, but that’s not really the gaming industry’s fault. I will say environmental graphics (e.g. ambient details, texture depth, lighting, amount of miscellaneous background and ground clutter density) have gotten much better. If you play The original W3 (before the official “remake” and/or mods), it definitely looks very aged versus something like Black Myth Wukong or Cyberpunk 2077. Bloodborne even more so (although, I’d argue that game’s graphics were never its strong point to begin with, but it did have excellent art direction, as From’s games always tend to have).
That being said, they all have aged pretty well for the most part. And the difference between a game made in 2000 vs 2010 is definitely a way bigger difference than something made in 2010 vs 2020.
And to think Larian is some small company is also silly. It has over 400 employees and 7 offices. It’s privately owned, yes, but it hasn’t been an AA studio since the success of Divinity Original Sin 2 and most definitely not since the massive success of BG3.
I thought everything just went to the 4x formula and/or the micro/hero focused route. I actually wish there were more simplistic Warcraft 1/2 or C&C type games to come out, but I’ll admit I haven’t paid much attention to the genre for awhile, pretty much since StarCraft 2.
I’d argue FF12’s content is primarily grinding, though. I liked the game, actually just beat it this summer. But, I was definitely ready to be done with it by the time the credits rolled. I finished with around 70 hours, I think. There are a lot of secrets and whatnot, I just wish their crafting/bazaar system wasn’t so tedious with its requirements.
Got the gamepass deal for $1 again, somehow, different email? So I took the opportunity and holiday season to try out Black Ops 6 and Diablo 4. Obviously the main reason was to play Indiana Jones, but that’s another story…...
Diablo’s story is now entirely detached from its gameplay, the protag can see the villains cutscenes due to a plot device, no more clever writing to explain events after, you get rewards not from an NPC but from the menu from completing world events, and somehow there are localised areas of 100s of enemies just waiting for you to start a fight in a random spot on an open field, theres a GPS showing you the way to the next objective
Diablo 2’s story is also detached, it’s nothing new lol. I’d say Diablo 3 actually had the most protag focused story besides Diablo 1. In D4, all of the cutscenes at least involve main characters you regularly interact with.
Regardless, no one plays those games for the story. They’ve always been purely about gear grinding and demon/monster butchering. D4 is probably the most polished in the series, except for maybe D3, which was a very streamlined experience, for better or worse. I like all of the Diablo games, but I still think D2 and D3 are the most fun I’ve had playing with friends. Fun is always the most important aspect, and D4 was making strong strides to improving that aspect when I last played over the summer. Not sure if that’s still the case in the new expansion, but I figure I’ll try it out when the xpac is on a deep discount.
Grim Dawn is fantastic! I can’t wait for the new expansion coming in a few months. I also heard they’re making a sequal after they finish their town building game which is coming out of EA soon.
Because, unfortunately, millions of people still use it. If you’re selling a product, it’s in your best interest to have as much social media presence as possible.
Also, it’s better to have an official presence on those platforms so others can’t impersonate you as easily.
That’s the first description on the website. It says it’s a cloud native Linux image that comes pre-installed with all the apps for gaming, e.g. Steam, Lutris, etc. I was asking a question as to why it’s better than SteamOS, as when I see cloud native I just assume it’s something designed for and around streaming. I may be misunderstanding its purpose, but that’s the impression I get from the site.
Red Dead Redemption 2 overtakes Mario Kart 8 as the 4th best-selling video game of all time, boasting 79 million sales (www.gamesradar.com) angielski
More than 1,200 games journalists have left the media in the last two years | VGC (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
“For quality games media, I continue to believe that the best form of stability is dedicated reader bases to remove reliance on funds, and a hybrid of direct reader funding and advertisements. If people want to keep reading quality content from full time professionals, they need to support it or lose it. That’s never been...
Forza Horizon 6 Japan setting confirmed (www.rockpapershotgun.com) angielski
Nintendo reportedly gets even more obnoxious about patent law by taking a 'mods aren't real games' stance against a Dark Souls 3 mod that could invalidate its Palworld lawsuit (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Didn't see that coming angielski
Xbox Series X and S: Microsoft Has Reportedly Sold Less Than 30 Million Consoles This Generation (in.ign.com) angielski
For reference, Sony was recently boasting that PS5 sold over 80 million copies. This is terrible for Xbox.
Nintendo Switch Console & Accessory Prices Are Going Up In The US (www.nintendolife.com) angielski
Steam gets a brand new video player for trailers (store.steampowered.com) angielski
Finally. The old player was buggy and kept defaulting to 1080p when it's not fullscreened.
Last Epoch developer Eleventh Hour Games gets acquired by KRAFTON (forum.lastepoch.com) angielski
Poor timing considering the subnautica drama
Itch.io apologise for "frustration and confusion" after delisting thousands of NSFW projects (www.rockpapershotgun.com) angielski
YouTuber Faces Possible Jail Time for Reviewing Gaming Handhelds (www.androidauthority.com) angielski
'Death Stranding 2' proves more video games need to get weird, experts say (news.northeastern.edu) angielski
One gamer got so tired of waiting for Valve, he made his own 'Steam Controller 2' out of Steam Deck parts, and it even splits in half like Switch Joy-Cons (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Persona 4 Revival and Stranger Than Heaven will both release in FY2027 or beyond (after April 2026), according to SEGA fiscal report angielski
Tango Gameworks is back with a new look... and a new website! (tangogameworks.com) angielski
Square Enix considered ending Final Fantasy 11 in 2024, but player interest was high enough to keep it alive even after 20+ years (automaton-media.com) angielski
TIL Final Fantasy 11 still exists
I'm a console gamer so, Why the hate on the Epic Games Store? angielski
I get that Steam is where everything and everyone is at. And that the user experience and functionality is best there BUT having another player to try an compete with Steam is a good thing, right?...
‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ DRM Is Locking Out Linux Users Who Bought the Game (www.404media.co) angielski
Ori studio in crisis: No Rest For The Wicked could be their final game (www.gamereactor.eu) angielski
I'm bored and desperately search for a proper game angielski
So, I’ve spent over 2 hours on Steam searching for a nice game to play. But it’s all junk, as far as I’m fed with Steam recommendations. I liked ksp2 1, cities skylines 1, age of empires 2, baldurs gate 3 a lot, I just finished Divinity original sin 2. I like rpgs and management / factory games like workers and resources,...
Switch 2 preorders [in the US] delayed over Trump tariff uncertainty (arstechnica.com) angielski
The Sims Competitor inZOI Sells 1 Million in a Week, Krafton Declares It a ‘Long-Term Franchise IP’ (www.ign.com) angielski
Square Enix will be revisiting Chrono Trigger in several projects in 2025 to mark game's 30th anniversary (automaton-media.com) angielski
Gaming chat platform Discord in early talks with banks about public listing (www.ft.com) angielski
archive.is/…/4ab9efe7-36bc-44ff-b2cd-06eb2c38203a...
How it goes (lemmy.world) angielski
Bloodborne, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V will turn 10 in 2025, believe it or not (en.as.com) angielski
Age of Empires designer believes RTS games need to finally evolve after decades of stagnation (www.videogamer.com) angielski
What games have you sunk the most time into? angielski
I was looking at my playtime for some games and realized I have over 450 hours in PlanetSide 2....
My recent experiences with big budget AAA after years of avoidance angielski
Got the gamepass deal for $1 again, somehow, different email? So I took the opportunity and holiday season to try out Black Ops 6 and Diablo 4. Obviously the main reason was to play Indiana Jones, but that’s another story…...
PEGI gives Balatro an 18+ rating for gambling imagery angielski
Clown emojis all around
'Caves Of Qud': Roguelike RPG Finally Launches After 17 Years in Development (And It's Really Good) (www.belloflostsouls.net) angielski
'Powered bv SteamOS' gaming handheld validation leaks in Valve documentation, Asus ROG Ally may be among first handhelds with official SteamOS support (www.notebookcheck.net) angielski