I really loved stalker 2 but between the blood suckers that take 4 mags to kill, and crashes and corrupted save files. I had enough and I’m back to playing anomaly. anyone else?
Not really, though I can understand your point of view. I went into STALKER 2 fully aware that it wasn’t Anomaly, and I was able to enjoy it for what it is (despite needing to use console commands on three separate occasions to progress past hard-locking bugs). I finished it probably a month after release so don’t know its current state.
I was sufficiently engaged in the story and the presentation to definitely want to finish the game, and I enjoyed the new map and the blend of new and familiar locations. After spending so much time with the originals and the Anomaly map it was great to get a fix of more new content with the same vibe - some of the underground lab locations managed to hit classic STALKER vibes for me and kept me going to the end.
If I were to boot up some STALKER right now I might go for Anomaly over another run of S2 though, and that will probably continue to be the case until the DLC drops.
Video games’ influence on popular culture has never been more prevalent. Their effect is visible and audible in today’s music, across the world of TV and cinema, and on the catwalk. Even your favourite language-learning and fitness apps feature progression systems and rewards popularised by games. To reflect the medium’s...
Oh, you know what happened? I just realized, I hadn’t even read the introductory material and realized it was from a public survey. It’s a “first past the post” problem.
First past the post is remarkably shit isn’t it. I think your analysis is completely right.
I mean, it’s not like that at all though? Even setting aside the popularisation of the free-to-play model and its monetisation - which has defined mobile games (an industry dwarfing all other types of games in revenue by the way), FarmVille was the first innovator in terms of really invasive big data analysis of customer behaviour to maximise profit and retention. The way Zynga did player data analysis (back in 2009 I might add) literally set the tone for all modern internet. There are plenty of articles about the influence of FarmVille, here’s one.. There is another one here.
I’ve almost completely stopped keeping up with M:TG these days. I used to be into it but it just feels like it’s completely jumped the shark these days.
I enjoyed the early mythos of M:tG, but I already started losing interest when they went all Marvel with their whole Gatewatch thing.
Even though individual sets (like LOTR) have been well made and successful, the whole Universes Beyond thing just further dilutes the identity of Magic too much for me. I’m sick of endless exploitation of existing IPs from all over the entertainment business. I understand why they do it from a financial perspective, but it doesn’t appeal to me at all.
Add to that the endless garbage of Secret Lair drops like goddamn Spider-Man and SpongeBob and I think MTG just isn’t for me anymore.
Enjoy it! BG2 is still my favourite in the series, even having played BG3. Savour ever line David Warner utters as Irenicus, there have been few performances so perfect in a video game even all these years later.
The closure of Monolith Productions, an innovative video game developer, shows what’s wrong with an industry in which game publishers have the ultimate power to shut down projects and fire workers.
I’ve been trying to get through NOLF this year (never played it before) and it definitely feels janky and clunky. Some pretty awful stealth too. It doesn’t really feel like they’ve aged all that well. Maybe the sequel is better, who knows.
I gave up after a couple of hours as I just wasn’t having fun at all, I realised I was only playing because it’s a classic and I wanted to be able to say I had played it.
For me it’s Super Metroid. I have played Zero Mission, Fusion, Metroid: Samus Returns (3ds) and Metroid prime remaster, three of these games are remake/remaster. So you can see why I’m hesitant to start Super Metroid, I’m sure that game still holds up, but playing it with modern controls annd other bells and whistles would...
System Shock 2. I’m basically also holding off on playing the SS1 remake until I hear official confirmation that the sequel is getting the same treatment.
Finished my first BG3 run, man the acting is great, especially at the when characters get their big emotional moments. I’m thinking “that’s acting!”, also recognised Omni Man immediately....
BG3 is great and all but there are other games with at least equal voice acting quality. For all its qualities I never felt like “wow, I’ve never seen voice acting like this in a game!” when I played BG3. It’s really good and really consistent but nothing earth shattering.
I know I bring up Disco Elysium a lot, but that is one game where I got repeatedly shocked at the quality and diversity of the voice acting. With the exception of one single character I think it’s acted to absolute perfection.
I also didn’t really feel the same about Alan Wake 2 like, at all. I thought it had superb acting (both voice and full video segments) and probably hold the quality of its acting above BG3 personally. Alan Wake 1 less so.
I played BG3 straight after Cyberpunk and that really stood out to me as well. The immersion and emotional impact of voiced protagonist lines really got me invested in Cyberpunk in a way I missed in BG3.
Today’s game is some more Assassin’s Creed Shadows. I was originally going to play some more Far Cry 3, but this game has somehow managed to get me completely hooked in just 2 days. What i meant to be a few hours, turned into me spending my entire day off playing the thing....
They’re mostly also just all the same, so playing one after another back-to-back exacerbates the issue, at least for me. There are some exceptions, but that checklist filled Ubisoft collect-a-thon design philosophy really wears you out quick. At least it does me.
Today’s game is Assassin’s Creed Shadows. I had Assassin’s Creed Shadows gifted to me by a friend. I was hesitant to pick it up, and if i did, i was going to wait for the usual Ubisoft price cut when it goes on sale....
It’d be kind of like if Assassin’s Creed Unity played the same song that was in that famous reveal trailer (…)
God, that AC Unity trailer with “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” might still be my all time favourite trailer. It’s so good.
I’m glad AC Shadows is going in a good direction though. I thought the series was completely lost after the shift to RPGs. Still not sure I’ll play it but I might consider it now on sale. Yours is not the first surprisingly positive review I’ve seen.
I tried playing Harvest Moon on the SNES today and having played Stardew Valley for hours, I thought I'd try and see how tolerable the original Harvest Moon was in comparison. I know and understand it is unfair because there's a 20 year gap between Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, while also discrediting Harvest Moon's later...
I haven’t gotten around to them myself yet (they’re on the docket this year) but I’ve heard this said about Yakuza 1&2 since the release of Kiwami 1&2.
The classic Fallouts do have some quirks, but I hope you get through them and can get into it. They are absolutely amazing games, well worth your time.
The original is rough yes, but I don’t know anyone that would play it over the Remaster these days. And the remaster is fine as far as playability goes. However, it’s still a candidate for this thread simply because the DS1 bosses will feel very anticlimactic for anyone who has played DS3/ER/Bloodborne/Sekiro.
I've seen a lot of people lately saying that upscaling (fsr, dlss, etc.) is a bad thing, including some calling it 'fake frames', which is probably due to them confusing it with frame generation....
I’ve personally gotten a lot out of all the AI enhanced graphics technologies, and pretty much consider these applications the absolute perfect use case for the AI we have today. Yes, they shouldn’t be a substitute for optimisation, but overcorrecting the other way and attempting to claim that DLSS is garbage that ruins everything and looks like shit is also bad (and untrue).
Even frame generation has its uses, as long as you don’t play something fast paced where there is a lot of camera movement and/or you’ll feel the added input lag too much.
A special shout-out to the redheaded stepchild of the family too: DLDSR is a fantastic technology and once you’ve tried it you’ll never want to go back.
The F1 season kicked off, so I played around a bit with F1 Manager 2024 since it was free on Epic a few weeks ago. It’s much like the previous iterations of the series - great presentation but vapid and shallow underneath. It’s a real shame, because there are things about it that are compelling. Having all those real team radios and proper circuits and gorgeous cockpit views during races and all the official branding does make a difference. In-race management is also pretty damn fun.
The problem is that it was designed by a team that don’t understand management games. Everything about it starts falling apart the more seasons you play, which is the complete antithesis of what management players are after. The great things like team radios disappear as you replace your drivers and staff members with youngsters or generated people who don’t have voice clips. Nobody has a personality, there are no off-track events that make you invested. The greatness of the perfectly replicated race calendar fades as tracks aren’t added or removed between seasons. There are no interesting regulation changes over time that change fundamental aspects of the car or the rules. The power ranking and properties of the engines never change.
There is no soul or depth here to hook you for years upon years and make you want to build a dynasty. It basically only works if you pick a top or midfield team and try to manage a championship win during the first or second season, beyond that it loses its shine. Still, it’ll be a decent distraction this week as there is no race to watch.
Yeah pacman and pong were seminal but so was elite on the BBC, and Populous which I think was on the spectrum. Also unreal tournament, silent hill, vice city, homeworld, doom 2016, beam ng, I enjoyed em all but I can’t decide. Ppl here have done much more gaming than me, I’m wondering what you all think is the best game...
I’m taking this topic to be less of “what’s the most important video game” (which we already had a long discussion post about recently re: the BAFTA award thing) and more of “what’s the best game to just sit down and play right now”. In which case, probably Portal 2? I can’t think of a much better candidate in terms of being a perfect execution of what it sets out to do with an appeal that can be compelling for absolutely everyone regardless of taste.
Hi people, I currently have two friends who injured their dominant arm in unrelated accidents and mostly can’t do anything but sit around and watch movies....
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is basically just more BG3 (though with less production quality) so that should be right up your RPG-loving friend’s alley. Turn based combat and click-to-move lets you play the whole thing with just your mouse I’m pretty sure.
I’m in the minority that says the newest games don’t need to get 60fps 4k ultra on the newest GPUs
This is a great take tbh and I agree. Future proofing is a thing and we’ve seen old benchmark games hold up remarkably well thanks to it - hell, look at Crysis! I also think a lot of people underestimate just how demanding 4k is. We’re still not at the point where 4k is the new 1080p imo.
I’m kind of in the same boat. SS2 will always be there if I wanted to play it, and a remaster isn’t really making me more or less likely to. But a full remake would be very interesting especially since the studio was so successful with the SS1 remake and it turned out so well.
Today’s game is Far Cry 3. I’ve been wanting to play this for the longest time after hearing so many positive things about this one specifcally, and after picking up 5 while on sale, and i guess this came with the bundle so i decided to play it after Red Dead 2....
Graphically it looks awesome too. At the native settings it would have had around 2012 it didn’t look to great, but after raising it to the max it looks really good. It can be crazy how future proofed older games are with graphic options.
One of the best things I’ve found for cleaning up older games is DLDSR. Hell, I try to use it on any game I can get away with, but on older games especially it’s great because you have so much excess FPS to play with that it’s basically free. The anti-aliasing effect of it is especially nice on older games and typically much better than the native AA solution.
Intent is critical for my enjoyment of art. What makes art wonderful is that it lets you connect with another human being, get a glimpse into their mind, see their perspective, feel their feelings.
Gen AI as it exists today has no intent, so I have no interest in it.
I have a good PC but not top-of-the-line and I was getting playable frames at launch already. The only way 40 FPS on a top PC makes sense to me is something like playing in 4k and with DLSS turned off.
I feel like my “all-time favorite” changes depending on my mood, but if I had to pick just one, I’d probably go with The Witcher 3. That game just hit all the right notes—amazing story, incredible world-building, and so much stuff to do without feeling like pointless filler. Plus, the expansions were just as good, if not...
It’s a difficult question to answer. I personally barely consider Disco Elysium to be a game, more like an interactive story that uses certain game mechanics as grammar elements and punctuation in its storytelling. It’s a novel masquerading as a game. It’s three novels in a trenchcoat. But if we do count it then it is my pick, by a landslide.
Otherwise it’s probably Baldur’s Gate 2. It’s the story game I’ve replayed the most over the years and it was absolutely fundamental in my journey as a gamer, the definition of a formative experience. Even though parts of it are dated now (some clunk is to be expected from a 25-year-old game) I still prefer it to BG3. It’s got a great story, great companions and an all-time great villain. David Warner put in an incredible performance and even all these years later there aren’t many video game villains who have surpassed Irenicus in sheer aura.
Like I said, the game itself on its store page claims to be a “detective game RPG” while in reality I would argue it’s barely any of those things. So a lot of people probably come into it with the wrong expectations. It’s more like a novel about love and loss, about addiction, depression and the past looming over the present like a grey ghost. It’s a story about finding hope in the midst of overwhelming nihilism. As someone who has struggled with all those things it hit incredibly close to home, and was the most meaningful experience I’ve ever had playing a video game.
Fallout 2 is absolutely stellar. I get the arguments some old-heads levy against in when they prefer Fallout 1, but I think I just played FO2 at the perfect time. The wackiness and pop culture references and humour hit with me when I first played it. It is sprawly, but it is also amazing for how big it is and how much there is to do in it.
Did you ever play it modded? The Restoration Project, Updated has two amazing addons that add more talking heads and more voice acting and they’re both of phenomenal, basically seamless quality. It’s really like putting on a fresh coat of paint on the old thing.
I agree that the original is tighter, but I love the free-form adventure of 2.
While that is also true, what I hear most about is the tone. Fallout 1 is really rather dark, grim and gritty. It leans more into the heavy side of a post-apocalyptic setting and some people really liked that, and were disappointed when FO2 came out and leaned noticeably more into the wacky side of things.
Played it? I voiced a talking dog in it!
Wait, really? That’s so cool! Do you know the current status of the project? The last update was over two years ago…
I think that’s another thing as well, a lot of people go in with the idea that you can to some extent “play as yourself” like you do in many RPGs. And they get frustrated when they’re only given stupid or horrible dialogue options like “why would I ever say any of these things?!”. Because the game is actually rather restrictive in terms of roleplay: yes you can choose your flavour and variety of crazy but at the end of the day you’re always Harry, you’re always insane and damaged and you can’t change that.
For me personally, I’m also an utter failure and I hate myself deeply, so maybe that’s why I easily resonated with the protagonist. And in the end, much of the actual story is about dealing with failure, about finding hope amidst despair and about overcoming and letting go of the past.
I honestly wish Larian had just left the IP alone and done a standalone D&D game. There is absolutely no narrative reason for any of the tie-ins and callbacks, it was literally just a case of wanting the brand recognition for better marketing and then shoehorning in some old fan favourites and calling it a day. Seeing Sarevok and Viconia as they were in BG3 just makes me sad.
I don’t know how far you got, but you might have gotten unlucky with who you spoke to in game. Lena, Anette, Tommy, Mañana and Roy are all immediately accessible for example and are all rather lovely people, providing some soft contrast to other more abrasive characters.
Can’t say anything about the delivery of the content though. It’s certainly extremely info dumpy and text heavy - part of why I was saying to start with that it’s less than a game and more of a novel.
I love Woolsey but have never played Chrono Trigger. Is there a mashup “best of both worlds” version out there that adds the best Woolsey-isms to the longer script version, like the Woolsey Uncensored for FF VI?
Reading this makes me feel slightly better about my obsessive and paranoid habit of keeping unnecessarily extensive backup save slots at milestones through any game I play, despite basically never using them.
Damn Martin Luiga is involved with Longdue now? I’ve only heard negative things about that studio before and I also thought he was already a part of Red Info with Kurvitz and Rostov. The Disco Elysium drama vortex just keeps on churning it seems.
Everyone is a little in the wrong, I think. But Argo is one of the good guys, and for me one of the biggest takeaways I was left with after deep diving onto this whole mess is a deep sadness over the friendship between Kurvitz and Argo falling apart.
What have y’all been playing? I’ve been continuing my Avowed grind. I’m starting to be ready for it to be over. But it is still very enjoyable. I just have other games I want to play lol
Finished Skald: Against the Black Priory, and it was a lovely experience overall. It’s one of those games that knows exactly what it attempts to do, and is very good at limiting its scope and not biting off more than it can chew. I might have liked a bit more agency and player choice - it is very linear for an RPG - but I can see how that would have been a challenge for a small studio and could well have ended up hurting the quality of the experience. As is it’s a very enjoyable ride, full of retro charm, nostalgic music and pretty pixel art but without retro clunk like memory limitations or poor controls and UX. I liked the story and found the writing solid, with a great gloomy atmosphere and some nice cosmic horror touches. The combat and character customization could have been a touch more elaborate, but at around 20 hours the game isn’t long enough that it really becomes a problem.
I’d give it somewhere around an 8 to 8.5/10 and definitely recommend it, especially to anyone who enjoys retro RPGs. It’s quite cheap too, even at full price.
To celebrate the enduring influence of video games in the arts and in our wider culture, we’re asking players from around the world to help us decide the Most Influential Video Game of All Time....
I’ve said before that I genuinely think FarmVille is in with a shout. The trends it started in terms of monetisation, user retention mechanics and analytics driven intrusive big data player behaviour analysis and behaviour prediction was extremely far-reaching, not just in the context of gaming. Not to mention how it got a whole new demographic into video games and showed corporations that games are not necessarily only for gamers. It is very much possible to reach your grandma’s wallet too. It heralded things like Candy Crush.
I recently finished Assassin’s Creed Unity and loved every minute of it. The story, the gameplay, the revolutionary Paris setting, the movement—everything was amazing. Even in 2025, Unity’s ultra settings look incredible, and I don’t think any other game has managed to handle crowds of NPCs as well as it did....
It’s as if two completely different studios made these games, and the one behind Syndicate had no idea what made Unity great.
Funny you say that. Unity was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the primary Ubisoft studio who are responsible for much of the good work they’ve done (think Splinter Cell, Far Cry and AC: Black Flag). Syndicate was developed by Ubisoft Quebec, and it was also that developer’s first AC game.
Anyone else quit S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 to play Anomaly? angielski
I really loved stalker 2 but between the blood suckers that take 4 mags to kill, and crashes and corrupted save files. I had enough and I’m back to playing anomaly. anyone else?
The most influential video game of all time - Bafta (www.bafta.org) angielski
Video games’ influence on popular culture has never been more prevalent. Their effect is visible and audible in today’s music, across the world of TV and cinema, and on the catwalk. Even your favourite language-learning and fitness apps feature progression systems and rewards popularised by games. To reflect the medium’s...
Magic: The Gathering devs unban cards as ‘an experiment’ (www.polygon.com) angielski
Embracer studio Eidos-Montreal has laid off 75 employees (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
Steam Deck / Gaming News #8 angielski
My week’s news!...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 30th
Whatcha all been playing?...
18+ The Video Game Industry Failed Monolith Productions. (jacobin.com) angielski
The closure of Monolith Productions, an innovative video game developer, shows what’s wrong with an industry in which game publishers have the ultimate power to shut down projects and fire workers.
What game do you really want to play, but haven't yet because you feel it in your soul that it will get a remake/remaster soon enough? angielski
For me it’s Super Metroid. I have played Zero Mission, Fusion, Metroid: Samus Returns (3ds) and Metroid prime remaster, three of these games are remake/remaster. So you can see why I’m hesitant to start Super Metroid, I’m sure that game still holds up, but playing it with modern controls annd other bells and whistles would...
Is Baldurs Gate 3's voice acting so great that it ruined other games for me? angielski
Finished my first BG3 run, man the acting is great, especially at the when characters get their big emotional moments. I’m thinking “that’s acting!”, also recognised Omni Man immediately....
Day 254 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots angielski
Today’s game is some more Assassin’s Creed Shadows. I was originally going to play some more Far Cry 3, but this game has somehow managed to get me completely hooked in just 2 days. What i meant to be a few hours, turned into me spending my entire day off playing the thing....
Day 253 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots angielski
Today’s game is Assassin’s Creed Shadows. I had Assassin’s Creed Shadows gifted to me by a friend. I was hesitant to pick it up, and if i did, i was going to wait for the usual Ubisoft price cut when it goes on sale....
Steam Deck / Gaming News #7 angielski
As is now a tradition (this is my 7th of these posts - after rejoining Lemmy just 28 days ago!) you’ll know the drill....
What are some old games that are hard to revisit, because a more modern and superior version exists? angielski
I tried playing Harvest Moon on the SNES today and having played Stardew Valley for hours, I thought I'd try and see how tolerable the original Harvest Moon was in comparison. I know and understand it is unfair because there's a 20 year gap between Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, while also discrediting Harvest Moon's later...
Upscaling is actually good (as an option) angielski
I've seen a lot of people lately saying that upscaling (fsr, dlss, etc.) is a bad thing, including some calling it 'fake frames', which is probably due to them confusing it with frame generation....
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 24th
What have y’all been playing?...
Best game ever? angielski
Yeah pacman and pong were seminal but so was elite on the BBC, and Populous which I think was on the spectrum. Also unreal tournament, silent hill, vice city, homeworld, doom 2016, beam ng, I enjoyed em all but I can’t decide. Ppl here have done much more gaming than me, I’m wondering what you all think is the best game...
One-handed games? angielski
Hi people, I currently have two friends who injured their dominant arm in unrelated accidents and mostly can’t do anything but sit around and watch movies....
Assassin's Creed Shadows Drops To 40 FPS At 720P On The Next-Gen Nvidia RTX 5070Ti (pkinsight.com) angielski
The System Shock 2 remaster comes out June 26th (www.theverge.com) angielski
I did not know this was a thing, SS2 is one my fave FPS titles, so hopefully this will be a worthy release.
Day 246 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots angielski
Today’s game is Far Cry 3. I’ve been wanting to play this for the longest time after hearing so many positive things about this one specifcally, and after picking up 5 while on sale, and i guess this came with the bundle so i decided to play it after Red Dead 2....
ARK DLC Trailer Slammed For Being Made Entirely Through Gen AI (insider-gaming.com) angielski
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Patch 1.3 has arrived! (store.steampowered.com) angielski
Your all-time favorite game? Let's discuss the best options! angielski
I feel like my “all-time favorite” changes depending on my mood, but if I had to pick just one, I’d probably go with The Witcher 3. That game just hit all the right notes—amazing story, incredible world-building, and so much stuff to do without feeling like pointless filler. Plus, the expansions were just as good, if not...
Chrono Trigger Is Timeless (www.dcgameblog.com) angielski
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 16th
What have you all been playing?...
Spectre Divide to end service within 30 days, developer Mountaintop to close (www.gematsu.com) angielski
Another live service flop…
More Disco Elysium alumni join former staff at Longdue working on spiritual successor (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 9th
What have y’all been playing? I’ve been continuing my Avowed grind. I’m starting to be ready for it to be over. But it is still very enjoyable. I just have other games I want to play lol
Split Fiction's Josef Fares says they'll never offer microtransactions: "Just make games. Period." (www.retbit.com) angielski
The most influential video game of all time - BAFTA (www.bafta.org) angielski
To celebrate the enduring influence of video games in the arts and in our wider culture, we’re asking players from around the world to help us decide the Most Influential Video Game of All Time....
Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 show that the future of RPGs is in games way more ambitious, weird and unexpected than anything Bethesda and Bioware have to offer (www.pcgamer.com) angielski
Why AC Syndicate Is So Bad? angielski
I recently finished Assassin’s Creed Unity and loved every minute of it. The story, the gameplay, the revolutionary Paris setting, the movement—everything was amazing. Even in 2025, Unity’s ultra settings look incredible, and I don’t think any other game has managed to handle crowds of NPCs as well as it did....