The other day someone asked this and everyone recommended a $1,400 chair. I can’t afford that, I can’t even dream of affording that. I’m looking for something with good lumbar support for ideally under $400 tops. Does anyone have any ideas?...
The other benefit with Costco is that they have an extremely generous return policy.
Some obvious stuff has different rules (electronics is 90 days, stuff like tires that have clear expected lifespans have their own rules), but it is extremely liberal. And my experience is that I pretty rarely have to use it, because while not everything is a premium product for a bargain price, they tend to ensure that the suppliers for products they sell have reasonable build quality and make stuff that isn't trash designed to fail.
Emulation has already been litigated to hell and back. It's very clearly legal, including relying on users pulling a blob or two from their hardware for the whole thing to function.
I have played it a decent amount, but I probably wouldn't still play it if it wasn't also on my iPhone (there's a "plus" on Apple Arcade that looks identical, too).
I like Monster Train better mechanically for the reason that it does feel like there's a lot more variety, though I dislike how short the runs are to build a deck with. (I'd like Slay the Spire to go longer on a good run, too).
I haven't been too far on ascensions. I don't think they're really more entertaining. I mostly do the daily runs because at least there's variety there.
If they were to do that, and have cross platform purchases/saves (provided I could make it work reasonably on Linux), I would be way more likely to think about buying games from them.
The PS5 is a nice piece of hardware. You can do a lot of stuff better on PC, but the loading tech is still legit. But I'm not buying multi platform games on PS5 over Steam for a bunch of reasons (steam deck being the biggest, steam input being another, just generally the fact that my PC gives me a lot more future options and modding potential).
Even if they did the UWP locked file shit, being able to bring games from PS5 to Steam Deck to desktop would make them pretty competitive. And I'd start using them regardless for the library I already have.
This also gets rid of match making, which is whatever.
In the real world, probably.
But it doesn't actually have to. There's nothing stopping you from letting users add multiple matchmaking servers, and even adding some basic rules to queue up in multiple (eg: primary matchmaking for 30 seconds, if no signal indicating good progress towards a match, fall back to also joining server two, etc). It would take a little thought to the base server you provide to handle everything gracefully, but if your priority is actually to give your players the best chance to have a long term ability to form their own communities and play the game reliably instead of to maintain an iron grip to squeeze every penny out, you could do it.
Action-RPG colossus Elden Ring is reportedly getting a free-to-play mobile adaptation with in-app purchases, which takes inspiration from miHoYo’s Genshin Impact. It’s being published by Tencent, who apparently acquired the licensing rights to Elden Ring back in 2022 and put a few dozen people to work on a prototype, even as...
My daughter (4) is very into exploring cities, homes and villages in Skyrim, feeding aliens in No Man’s Sky, and cleaning houses in House Flipper. She gets annoyed in games like House Flipper because she can’t leave the property to explore all of the visible houses on the block. I’d like to find other PC games that are...
If you're open to dealing with emulation, both the new Zeldas pretty much fit the bill. There's combat but probably less than Skyrim.
Slime Rancher is one I enjoyed for a while that's definitely kid friendly. Supraland didn't really grab me, but in terms of being super tame and having varied stuff to explore it fits again.
If it specifically has to be houses/cities, none of those fit that well. But they have worlds that are varied and interesting.
It's also worth noting that they're both Japanese companies, and Japan has different views on IP than the rest of the world. I don't really know enough to go into detail, but it's entirely possible something a company from the US could laugh off is enough to get action taken in Japan.
I'd wait, at this point. The switch was nice as the first legitimate handheld that could play real 3D games, but the steam deck exists now and the switch is just my Nintendo machine. And even that's largely because I'm too lazy to rip my games and saves over. The stuff I've tried plays better on deck.
I could see a lot of the enthusiasts that drove their early sales on the Switch just not bothering and making it look rough until an OLED version comes out. It's not like they've never had consoles flop because they're out of touch with what people want.
It could be that Walmart was planning to start winding down physical game sales and made that clear to Microsoft, but Microsoft made a deal to foot the bill for extra inventory to keep supply available during the holidays. Even with packaging and distribution, the actual cost per game to Microsoft isn't really that high.
They also straight up refuse to discount anything meaningfully ever. And actively harass anyone streaming gameplay of their games without their permission, and are extremely litigious about emulation that's clearly established as perfectly legal, among a bunch of other shit.
Billy Mitchell didn’t win his defamation lawsuit against Twin Galaxies. Not only was Billy not in a position to get a financial settlement, Billy’s cheated Donkey Kong scores were not reinstated(as he’s claiming), and his claimed Pac-Man score from 1999 is also not on the main scoreboards. What had happened is that the...
Fuck the always online shit, but since last time I played they added a rogue lite mode. "Just kill randomly selected NPCs on existing maps" doesn't sound mind blowing (and occasionally a level feels kind of trivial), but the "die and they're on alert, die again and start over without your gear" format combined with limited access to gear really does give a fresh, high stakes feel.
It's worth it just for my PS4 library not punishing me with a ten minute wait every time I die. The loading entirely changes the experience and enables punishing gameplay to be far less frustrating, in the same way Celeste can have harder sequences and be less annoying than something like Mario at the same time.
An SSD on PC is definitely a step up from anything before this gen.
This gen (at least PS5, which leans hard into the tech with hardware decompression on top of the silly raw speed of the drives) is better than PC, though (for now). The hardware you're buying now can do pretty much everything the PS5 hardware can, but because the software stack to use it isn't the same and universal, there's definitely more loads. It's similar to how PS4 games load fast (especially compared to on the actual PS4), but get blown out of the water by PS5 games. I die in Horizon: Zero Dawn, it's 5-10 seconds. Which is fine. But I die in Forbidden West, which is prettier and has more complexity (mechanically and the environment) and it's maybe a second.
I had a lot of games on PS4 where the difficulty isn't "why" I stopped, but the lengthy loads when I died was.
I'm perfectly happy dying a bunch of times in a row, provided the deaths are fair and consistent. I have a big issue with waiting 5-10 minutes to replay a section that doesn't last meaningfully longer than that.
Getting a PS5 let me go back to a lot of those games and properly enjoy the brutal difficulty without the headaches.
They didn't say piracy is good. They said piracy is (by a massive amount) less malicious and less harmful than buying from fences for stolen keys like all the disgusting sites you're promoting.
In this video, TeaserPlay recreated the classic mobile game Subway Surfers in Unreal Engine 5, aiming to capture the nostalgia of the original with enhanced, photorealistic graphics.
A nice mix of different types of wards against certain magic in certain areas and magic detection spells with different traits could definitely make it interesting.
I feel like there's been a glut of clickbait articles being submitted lately. It would be nice if these posts could be taken down and allow the user to resubmit it with a more accurate title?
lol no one is claiming the users are turning it into clickbait.
Almost all clickbait titles are written by the website it's posted on. And 99.9999% of titles of an article about a game that don't include the name of the game are clickbait.
The story is fine, and they do a good job mixing it into the gameplay, but it's not one of my favorite games for the story. (On higher difficulties) It's an excellent stealth game that has really well designed encounters with very believable AI and uses resource scarcity to make every action have weight.
I wanted to like it more than I did. The story was fine, and the world was more alive, but it didn't do as good of a job at balancing the police response to give the sandbox "collect wanted stars until there's full on military vehicles" experience.
Admittedly it's possible that that's because people thought it would be fun to play that game in real life, but between that and focusing all their development on online bullshit I was kind of let down.
Even MGS5, which was pretty clearly pushed out before he wanted it to be and broke him up with Konami, was extremely technically sound, just not filled out as much as it should have been.
For me it was basically that every encounter should have been multiplied by three. Those little checkpoints being two soldiers aren't worth it, and it's the same up the line. Even the big stuff almost always feels empty.
Sniper Elite 4 and 5 are comparable in terms of stealth mechanic quality, but their bases are actually filled in and they're better games for it. MGS5 could have been that, and I'm pretty sure Kojima wanted it to be that, but they pulled the plug and shipped a partial game instead.
I really like the pixel art in this game. It doesn't pop in screen shots, but in motion I think it does a really good job executing the style they chose.
It's a really good, well done stealth game that rewards very deliberate action and awareness of your surroundings. The multiplayer in the original was unique and really fun.
This isn't "his doctor". It's an independent doctor making an evaluation for the purpose of determining if he's competent to stand trial. It's not private.
So yeah, I want to discuss or point out why I think Valve needs to fix Anti-Cheat issues. They have VAC but apparently its doing jackshit, be it Counter Strike 2 (any previous iterations) or something like Hunt: Showdown the prevalence of cheating players is non deniable. For me personally it has come to a point that I am not...
Server side anti cheat can’t distinguish good players from aimbots.
Neither can a rootkit, which should be unconditionally illegal and send CEOs to jail for putting in their product. There are no exceptions and no scenarios where it can possibly be acceptable for a video game to access any operating system anywhere near that level. Every individual case should constitute felony hacking, with no possibility of "user consent" being a defense even if they do actually clearly and explicitly ask for "permission".
If you don't physically control the hardware, it is not secure.
The only valid approach to preventing cheating that matters is to have authoritative servers. Nothing else works, nothing else theoretically can work, and nothing else can possibly be described as anything but malware. There is literally no possible scenario where any entertainment company knowing anything about what else is happening on your computer can be justified.
I don't think buying used is unethical if the law establishes that, just buying to download and immediately resell, which I don't think that many would rationalize as any better. I think the people most likely to do it are people who pay to pirate now who might pay a little for a slightly easier experience.
Good chair that is *affordable* ?
The other day someone asked this and everyone recommended a $1,400 chair. I can’t afford that, I can’t even dream of affording that. I’m looking for something with good lumbar support for ideally under $400 tops. Does anyone have any ideas?...
Nintendo is suing the makers of the Switch emulator Yuzu, claims 'There is no lawful way to use Yuzu' (www.pcgamer.com)
Nintendo says Yuzu played a large role in encouraging piracy of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Let's discuss: Slay the Spire
I wanted to try a new type of post: just taking a particular videogame and see if there are others who would like to talk about it....
PlayStation Wants to Aggressively Improve Profits With First-Party PC Releases (mp1st.com) angielski
Helldivers 2 Is Too Popular For Its Own Good (kotaku.com) angielski
Arrowhead Game Studios’ PS5 and PC third-person shooter is struggling to keep up with its player count
Elden Ring is getting a free-to-play mobile version with in-app purchases (www.rockpapershotgun.com)
Action-RPG colossus Elden Ring is reportedly getting a free-to-play mobile adaptation with in-app purchases, which takes inspiration from miHoYo’s Genshin Impact. It’s being published by Tencent, who apparently acquired the licensing rights to Elden Ring back in 2022 and put a few dozen people to work on a prototype, even as...
Seeking: Kid-friendly Adventure/Exploration Games (PC)
My daughter (4) is very into exploring cities, homes and villages in Skyrim, feeding aliens in No Man’s Sky, and cleaning houses in House Flipper. She gets annoyed in games like House Flipper because she can’t leave the property to explore all of the visible houses on the block. I’d like to find other PC games that are...
Report: 95% of studios are working on or aim to release a live service game (www.gamesindustry.biz) angielski
Are you enjoying Palworld? angielski
Sorry if this is redundant, I didn’t see another thread focused on reactions to the game itself (just the Pokemon-ripoff news cycle)....
Nintendo’s Next Switch Coming This Year With LCD, Omdia Says (www.bloomberg.com) angielski
Archive link...
The Day Before parody, built by one person for $1,500, looks better than the actual game (www.pcgamesn.com) angielski
Walmart Reportedly Starting to Purge Physical Games Next Week (comicbook.com)
Specifically Xbox Games.
'You won’t find our games on a subscription service' says the founder of Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian, after Ubisoft forecasts a future of players 'not owning' games (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
"Subscription models will always end up being cost/benefit analysis exercises intended to maximise profit."
GTA 6 and Alan Wake parent companies are locked in a trademark dispute over the letter ‘R’ (www.gamesradar.com)
Billy Mitchell has surrendered (perfectpacman.com)
Billy Mitchell didn’t win his defamation lawsuit against Twin Galaxies. Not only was Billy not in a position to get a financial settlement, Billy’s cheated Donkey Kong scores were not reinstated(as he’s claiming), and his claimed Pac-Man score from 1999 is also not on the main scoreboards. What had happened is that the...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 14th
What are you all playing? I’ve been playing a ton of Mario world ROM hacks. I beat super nothing world. Now I’m playing some hacks by the jump team
This console generation seems skippable angielski
I’ve never skipped a console gen starting from Super NES, PS1 through 4 plus the Switch Oled 5 years after launch of the OG Switch...
A decade long Steam issue, is everyone just too fast for Valve? (blog.freudenjmp.com) angielski
Analysis of the No user logon issue in Counter Strike 2, and older CS titles.
What difficult games/game challenges did you give up on?
Be it a game that’s difficult in its entirety, or a particular challenge in a game that you just couldn’t complete....
Get Humble Choice and other package titles for cheaper angielski
tl;dr: key shops… use https://gg.deals as a finder...
Switch 2 predicted to match Steam Deck price, $100 more than OG Switch (www.vg247.com) angielski
It's pretty likely that the Nintendo Switch 2 is due out this year, and according to one analyst, it's going to get a b…
Subway Surfers has been created in Unreal Engine 5 - it is Mind Blowing (www.gamingarcade.co.uk) angielski
In this video, TeaserPlay recreated the classic mobile game Subway Surfers in Unreal Engine 5, aiming to capture the nostalgia of the original with enhanced, photorealistic graphics.
Someone needs to do a fantasy Hitman game. (kbin.social) angielski
Magical accidents. Potions. Demon summoning accidents....
Could we ban clickbait titles in posts? (kbin.social) angielski
I feel like there's been a glut of clickbait articles being submitted lately. It would be nice if these posts could be taken down and allow the user to resubmit it with a more accurate title?
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 24th
Merry Christmas!! 🎄 What have you all been playing!!
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Why Hideo Kojima is so popular? (gearsrealm.com) angielski
Hideo always has his 10 minutes on Game Awards, why? Why other game devs don't get that much recognition or screen time?
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...
The Last of Us multiplayer project officially cancelled by Naughty Dog (www.eurogamer.net)
Say what you will, but last of us 1 factions was one of my all time favorite mp games. Really sad to see this cancelled
GTA 6 Hacker Vows to Continue to Commit Crimes After Being Released From Jail - Insider Gaming (insider-gaming.com) angielski
Valve needs to step up on Anti-Cheat angielski
So yeah, I want to discuss or point out why I think Valve needs to fix Anti-Cheat issues. They have VAC but apparently its doing jackshit, be it Counter Strike 2 (any previous iterations) or something like Hunt: Showdown the prevalence of cheating players is non deniable. For me personally it has come to a point that I am not...
EU court rules people can resell digital games (www.gamingbible.com) angielski
Finally some good news! I’ve been waiting for quite a while for such a ruling....