I do like demos, I’ve bought a few games from them. I bought Factorio years and years ago because of that. I liked the Next Fest on Steam and have wishlisted a few games for when they leave Early Access. I don’t buy ea games (or EA games, lol). The most recent demo game that got me was dotAGE. It’s slightly in the vein of other settler/logistics games but it’s quirk is that you unlock more options for the next game by losing, a la rogue-likes. Also has random events.
Demos work well for me, because I like games based on their minor details. UI/UX is important to me, so the original Dwarf Fortress didn’t work for me. I also like QOL features a lot, 90% of my mods are based on QOL shortcomings, so if a game is just awful then I’ll avoid it. There were a few demos that I quit within 15 minutes because they were too unpolished. (I’m sure they’ll be fine in time, but this was too early for them.)
I play a lot of logistics games, so crafting time and speed and such. There’s always an effective input rate and a maximum output rate. Item takes 12 seconds and crafting machine has a speed of 3.14… So what’s the items per second? Sure it’s 12/3.14 but nowhere does the game show that. Not all games make this sin, but those that do drive me mad.
I’ve stopped playing Subnautica because it’s too grindy/stingy. Sometimes games get better about this further in, but I don’t wanna have to play 10 hours of garbage to get to the good stuff. (side note, I use Skip First Hour mod in factorio for this. Love it.)
Major studios pander to current sentiment but don’t seek to resolve the issues.
Lol, seek to resolve issues? They’re not the government. They’re art. Art critiques things and suggests people to change things. It came write laws.
Yet Cyberpunk 2077 with partner with Amazon Prime gaming and let the man leading Neurolink voice a character in their game.
The devs and writers don’t make the business decisions. Wish they did, they’d have a better product, imo. The marketing is done by someone else who the devs, usually, have no control over.
I listen to the entirety of why capitalism is bad.
Capitalism is pretty bad, so it didn’t bother me. It was refreshing to hear it in a narrative. Game devs don’t usually get to say stuff like that, so it was nice.
Hardspace Shipbreaker. You’re a wage slave (literally) in a space dock, taking apart ships and throwing the bits into the right bins. Doesn’t sound super fun, but it is. 1) You’re chopping up ships but you get to use LASERS!!! and the energy grappling hook. So satisfying. 2) The physics is 90% spot on. You’re in 3d, but it’s not purely inertial. There’s a dampening field that slows things down, so it doesn’t get too outta hand. There are a couple of other quirks, but they’re not hugely impacting. 3) The soundtrack is perfect. It’s a very bluesy, banjo style for a very bluecollar type job. 4) The voice acting is amazing. Every line from Weaver is just perfect. You hate Hal with a passion (you’re supposed to). The writing is a little hammy, but they have to rush it bc it’s really a minor bit of the game. (Spoiler, it’s very pro-labor and anti-capitalist, so if that triggers you, don’t play it.)
I’ve played it thru twice. The first time as-is, but the 2nd time I shut off the “15 minute shifts” option. I think that breaks things up too much. I think open-shift is better. I bought the vinyl soundtrack. I’m not a huge fan of vinyl, but this is the right style of music that would benefit from it.
I honestly don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. Metzen is charismatic and seems like a nice person, but wasn’t he part of the old guard that oversaw/neglected/enabled the sexual harassment environment?