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Veraxus

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Profil ze zdalnego serwera może być niekompletny. Zobacz więcej na oryginalnej instancji.

Veraxus,
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Hi-Fi Rush

Pure joy and happiness from start to finish.

Steam Deck Owners: What’s been your favorite game that you first discovered on Steam Deck and now you can’t seem to put down?

Looking for those games that you may have heard about but never tried until you got a Deck. Or old games on systems you never had that you’re trying for the first time. Or new AAA games that just released in the last year or two that you picked up for the first time specifically to play on Steam Deck and have kept you glued to...

Veraxus, (edited )
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I don't think I can rank things that way any more. I think of my "best games of all time" category as "absolute masterpieces".

So here are my "absolute masterpieces" in the order in which they come to mind, which is as good an indicator as any, I suppose.

  • Daggerfall
  • Fallout 1 & 2
  • Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
  • Sekiro
  • Bloodborne
  • Alpha Centauri
  • Disco Elysium
  • The Longest Journey
  • The Journeyman Project 2
  • Asheron's Call (the original)
  • The Witcher 3
  • Horizon: Zero Dawn
  • Close Combat series
  • The Outer Wilds
  • Crysis (ONLY the original)
  • Far Cry (ONLY the original)
  • Planescape: Torment
  • Ghost of Tsushima
  • Alien: Isolation
  • Shadow of the Colossus
  • Baldur's Gate (the entire OG saga)
  • Planetside (ONLY the original)
  • Arx Fatalis
Veraxus,
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Hello, fellow person of fine taste!

Veraxus,
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I hope to the gaming gods that Squadron 42 can recapture the feelings that the old Freespace games did. The desperation, the feeling like you are part of something... nobody else has even TRIED to do anything like that since.

Veraxus,
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I really wish Nightdive was a little more ambitious with these.

The System Shock remake looks exactly how my rose-tinted memory remembers it.

This, however, looks awful. This is not how I remember SS2, even if it's literally how it originally looked. :-(

Veraxus,
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I am so happy for them and proud of them. This is the correct response to unnecessary layoffs or any other worker abuse. I hope more people in the industry will follow their example!

Veraxus,
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I thought it was okay. It fizzled out pretty quickly for me as it felt half-baked and overly "gamey", which kept breaking the immersion illusion for me. I never did finish it. But I started over when Phantom Liberty dropped last week and it feels soooo much better. The immersion doesn't feel like it's being killed by a thousand cuts... everything feels more natural and believable now. It still has it's gamey moments, but they are a lot less obvious now.

For me it went from a 6/10 to 9/10.

Veraxus,
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But still no metro system! Literally unplayable!

/s

Veraxus,
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Yes and no. The AI is significantly better… but it’s still not great. Case in point: cops will chase you now, but it doesn’t take long to get a feel for how to fudge their pathing and lose them.

Veraxus,
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Ye gods, that is almost as bad as Denuvo.

Ubisoft, what is you doin?

Veraxus,
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The technology is cool. I will say that.

But Meta/Zuckerberg is squandering it. There is a huge disconnect between the price of thing (OVER $500) and the value proposition. It's bad at gaming. It's still less powerful than even current-gen smart phones, let alone modern consoles or gaming PCs... and what little gaming content is out there makes that abundantly clear. Asgard's Wrath 2 does it no favors given those realities. And what are the uses beyond gaming?

Exercise could be a compelling value proposition, but they aren't leveraging even that obvious marketing angle. "You can do your supernatural workouts!" How many people know what that is? I do, but ask a rando on the street. They have no idea. And what are the other options beside Supernatural workouts? Oh, nothing? Nothing for my stationary bike? Nothing for a rowing machine? Nothing for treadmills? With all those funds, they are not exploring the practical applications at all and the product is failing as a result. Instead, Zuck STILL hasn't given up on his Metaverse/Horizons MMO idea.

And that's before we even get into Meta/Facebook's inherent creepiness as a company.

Veraxus,
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I think we’re still YEARS away from this tech taking off. It’s too expensive, it’s too bulky, and it’s not powerful enough.

I think the Apple Vision headset will be the first meaningful step forward since the CV1, and even that is just one step on a journey that could take another decade.

Veraxus,
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If you look at all the useless AR features that Apple has pushed into iOS over the years, you can tell that they've already been working toward this for at least a decade. They aren't giving up on it any time soon... they're playing the long game. Wearables are inevitable, and they want to be way ahead of the curve.

Veraxus,
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Give me an R! Give me an S! Give me a rock. And. Stone!

Veraxus,
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DRM ONLY ever affects paying customers, ergo DRM is always unethical malware.

Also, let’s never forget how Ghostwire Tokyo had Denuvo patched IN over a year after release.

Veraxus,
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What does Epic have to do with this?

Veraxus, (edited )
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I can't believe how this guy just keeps opening his mouth and telling us how Starfield used to be fun and interesting, but that they removed all that stuff until all that was left was this sterile Far Cry clone that feels more like a chore than a game.

I'm already mad at how unbearably boring the game is, and the more Todd Howard talks about the development, the more angry I get. It's callously just rubbing salt in an open wound.

Veraxus,
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Everyone: "Games are getting WAY too expensive."

Out of touch executive: "Games are too cheap! Why are our sales going down? I promised the shareholders infinite growth!"

Veraxus,
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In 1994 you were buying a physical, manufactured product which you owned.

Now you are temporarily licensing access to something that doesn’t exist, can’t be transferred or resold or backed up or modified, has unlimited reproduction potential for no cost, and sells at scales unimaginable in 1994 dwarfing all other consumer markets in total revenue.

Games are dramatically overpriced.

Veraxus,
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Because they realize that a huge number of their customers are small indies, and they want to be able to squeeze them - the majority of their customer base - not just the minority of big companies (who are also the most likely to fight back legally).

Just look at how their scheme squeezes smaller, poorer developers way more than big ones. If Unity went by points like, say Epic does with Unreal, they could shake down the big developers… but wouldn’t get much out of the indies.

Veraxus,
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Unity "Vadering the deal" is enough reason that no business should choose Unity for anything whatsoever going forward. They are now a huge legal and financial risk to any business endeavor at all.

No matter how much they relent, developers should not get complacent and trust that things will stay this way. Unity will go back on the offense once the outrage quiets down a little. Don't do it. Transition now before you end up in a worse situation.

Veraxus,
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There is nothing to "clarify" - Unity is a toxic, predatory company with toxic, predatory leadership and developers and investors need to get out as quickly as possible.

Unity reveals plans to charge per game install, drawing criticism from development community (www.eurogamer.net) angielski

Unity has announced dramatic changes to its Unity Engine business model which will see its introduce a monthly fee per game install beginning on 1st January next year - a move that has already send shockwaves across the development community....

Veraxus, (edited )
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UE5 is great. Honestly, it would have been the better choice even before Unity decided to curb-stomp their entire community and customer base.

But then, what did we expect after Unity merged with a company known for malware. Predatory practices are their whole business model.

Veraxus,
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Makes good business sense

I would never call such horrifically predatory tactics “good business sense.” It’s abuse of market position and should draw the ire of antitrust regulators, as well as make their product a major business risk for any new projects.

Let’s not forget that Unity recently merged with a malware company, so borderline-illegal predation is their entire business strategy.

Veraxus, (edited )
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"I'm old, stubborn, don't know how to manage remote teams, and have no interesting in learning." - Todd Howard

Every time this guy opens his mouth, it sheds so much light on Bethesda's decades-old problems.

Edit: I'm looking forward to seeing what Ted Peterson, Vijay Lakshman, and Julian Lefay do with The Wayward Realms. These three are the actual fathers of The Elder Scrolls. Todd has been shitting on their legacy since Redguard.

Veraxus,
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I am so sorry.

Do these people know that Slack exists? Because that is why Slack exists.

Veraxus,
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This is where tools like Slack Huddles or Zoom come in handy. Need some face time? You are a click away. Need to collaborate on one screen? That’s one more click. Need to pair program? That’s a click.

There is nothing that is done face to face that can’t be done faster, better, and more efficiently using readily available digital collaboration tools.

Veraxus,
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I played for a few hours last night and, so far, I feel exactly the same. I'm going to try to barrel through the main narrative for a bit, which is supposed to "open up" the game a lot more - but the game systems and UI themselves are a major part of what is killing it for me. That, and the fact that the game so far seems to be little more than a mediocre FPS.

Veraxus,
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Good news for you: It's not very good. At least not the first 5 hours, which are painfully boring and full of jank.

Veraxus,
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Spent a few hours trying to fix the broken ultrawide support. Eventually, the good old hex edit fix for aspect ratios on the EXE did the trick. After that, the FOV was messed up, but the game doesn't have an FOV slider (or HDR, or DLSS)... so eventually I managed to fix that with a custom ini.

The next few hours was spent shooting pirates like I was playing Far Cry in Space, and struggling with the game's horrifically designed UI, menus, and inventory. So far, I am feeling very angry about the game. Like we were flat-out lied to about what the game was. There is no exploration. There's barely even "space". You just teleport from map to map shooting pirates... with a little scanning creatures and mining rocks mixed in. I don't understand how anyone is okay with this.

Veraxus,
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Your ship is basically a TARDIS. You pick a destination from your star map and then your ship magically disappears from one place and appears at another. There is "space" but it feels completely fake, like they tacked it on at the end. Really, so many of the games mechanics feel fake and the effort it takes to suspend disbelief is really high.

Veraxus,
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You shoot pirates, scan animals, and mine things... repeat. It really does feel a lot like "Shitty No Mans Sky" so far (about 4h in so far).

Veraxus,
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How did you get it working on the Deck? I can load into the menus, but when I try to start a game it crashes.

Veraxus,
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New Vegas is the only post-Interplay Fallout game that actually feels like Fallout. It would be nice to get a remaster, though... it's not aging well.

Veraxus,
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Oh yeah! I was all-in on the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter and bagged the CE of Wasteland 3. Those do scratch the itch a bit, but Fallout's universe is so much more interesting and weird. Wasteland is a lot more straight-laced, comparatively.

I'm fine with the visual presentation of Bethesda's Fallout games, but I hate the gameplay. Fallout was the ultimate exercise in player agency and consequences... so many different ways to approach situations with so many possible outcomes. It's not just shooting things. While New Vegas flirts with those principles, BG3 is the first game in 20 years to REALLY recapture that magic for me. That's the kind of game I want more of, and that's the kind of game I want Fallout to be.

Veraxus,
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Huh. Never heard of this before.

But if I'm being honest, crappy indie pixel art games are a dime a dozen, so it takes a lot to overcome my general resistance to games like this. It can happen, though... Dave the Diver, Blasphemous... it's just a much steeper uphill battle for pixel art games than other styles.

Veraxus,
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They’re advertising that this has support for 120fps, ultrawide resolutions, and RTX. I am feeling cautiously optimistic that From Software actually nailed the PC support this time.

Now if only they could backport those features to Elden Ring!

Veraxus,
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This is Paradox we're talking about. There will be 2,000 pieces of DLC for $10 a piece.

Veraxus,
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I used to be perfectly happy with Paradox's "slew of DLC" business model... until they raised their prices.

Before that, I would buy everything as soon as it dropped. No biggie. Now I only buy DLC when it eventually gets those deep discount sales. I'm open to their experimental "subscription" & "seasonal bundle" models, though... so long as they include everything and they don't get cute with exclusions.

Veraxus,
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What do you mean? I thought the first one was one of the most "grounded" city builders ever made. Do you mean specific mechanics or maybe visual styles?

Veraxus,
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Ohhh, I hadn't thought about it like that. I do really like the idea of having more granular mixed-use zoning control.

Veraxus,
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It's called a PC. All consoles are based on them. Develop for PC first... problem solved.

Steam Deck VS rivals

I was interested in buying a Steam Deck… Until I discovered all the (apparently) better alternatives. Asus Rog Ally, OneXPlayer, Aya Neo etc… I like the idea of an handheld console and obviously I would like to have a device that can run almost everything, so the Windows based handhelds seem better than the Steam Deck. Is it...

Veraxus,
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Steam Deck's secret sauce is the software. Steam Deck's software isn't all OSS yet (it's NOT the same as the publicly available SteamOS), so the alternatives are all running on Windows which... is not good (especially for a handheld).

Honestly, just get a Steam Deck. The "power" differences are just not meaningful at that form factor right now.

Veraxus,
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That article completely misses the forrest for the trees.

It’s a complete game. It was created with vision, passion, love, and complete creative freedom. It has a great story and interesting characters. It provides lots of player agency. It is unflinchingly candid, mature, and uncensored. Your choices, actions, and inaction ACTUALLY MATTERS. There is no DRM. There are no live service strings. You can play alone and/or with friends. There are no strangers or PvP to ruin your game. And yes, there are also no micro-transactions.

The lesson that BG3 offers isn’t just one thing… it’s a LOT of things. But the best way to sum it up is: it’s a great game and it treats players/customers with respect.

Veraxus,
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It’s a small percentage (10% on avg), but those who do spend, tend to be repeat spenders.

Veraxus,
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Yeah, fair, but I didn’t like the first season, either. Cavill was perfect, Joey Batey as Dandelion was… fine… and that is where the positives stopped. The show was a mess from the start and you can’t just erase those seasons if they did happen to do a little better on 3… and knowing that Cavill is out for season 4… there is just no point. I’d rather replay Witcher 3 again than ever watch another minute of that show.

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