cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7679868 > >I have a love-hate relationship with MOBAs, but Deadlock—after its new Old Gods, New Blood update—has dragged me back to the genre kicking and screaming. I've got over 2,400 hours in Dota 2 from my misspent uni years, and I'm currently sitting on 183 hours with Valve's latest and counting. > > >I'm having a good time, and by "good time", I mean I am magnetically attracted to this dopamine machine and cannot pull away, even while I learn about all the fun new slurs I can be called by strangers online. But that comes with the territory. I'm deep in the paint enough that I've been viciously consuming voicelines, lore, and worldbuilding when I'm not playing. > > >And yet, I can't shake off this sense of malaise—a feeling of "what if", and I think it's that worldbuilding to blame. Not because it's bad, but because it's very, very good. > > >Deadlock might be one of my favourite videogame settings in a while. It's placed within a fantastical 1950s America where magic is not only real, but it's become a heck of a lot more real within the past few decades. > > >An event, called the Maelstrom, opened a bunch of Astral Gates across the world—including one right above New York, dubbed the Cursed Apple. The reason it's a MOBA is because there are two patrons trying to manifest fully in this magic-flooded planet, and you've gotta stop them. > > >Valve's character artists and writers have taken this concept and run with it. In no particular order, here are some of my favourite facts about this setting: > > - There's a governmental agency that invades people's dreams called the Sandmen. > - The Vatican has supersoldier exterminators. > - 'Hell', actually another realm called Ixia, has been permanently connected to the Earth, and also South Ixia is a member of the United States. > - Ixians have been a part of human society for so long that the game's newest character has a conversation about identity and diaspora with the New York-born Ixian Infernus. > - There's an entire Vampire: The Masquerade-style society of vampires with their own baronies. > - There's a thieves guild of time-jumpers called Paradox whose literal goal is to just put priceless items on display at pop-up museums. > - The souls of the dead power machines of war. > - New York has a Municipal Coven of witches. > - There's a Lovecraftian entity who got so bored he decided to join the service industry. > - The Djinn want part of Wyoming. This is an actual plot point. > - Jacob Lash is an asshole. > > >This is a game, need I remind you, which has an incomplete roster—some of whose models are also deeply unfinished (my poor Vyper), but when Valve's polish does apply, it's been cooking up some of its best designs ever, and the map is getting downright pretty, too. I whisper a quiet "hell yeah" to myself whenever I romp through The Hidden King's subwoofer-drowned base. > > >Which is why I'm a little sad, because, well—it's a MOBA. As we all know, introducing your friend to a MOBA (and worse, getting them into one) is a sin that will mean your soul will never see the light of heaven. But it's also, by its very nature, a pretty constraining setting. > > >It's three lanes and a single map—we might get a little more from Valve in the form of animated shorts and comics a la TF2 (indeed, there's already a visual novel in the works) but that's it. Deadlock's setting is worthy of its own singleplayer game—be that an RPG or a first-person shooter. > > >Heck, there's enough juice here where I'd subscribe to a Deadlock MMO, or merrily run my own Deadlock TTRPG campaign (maybe I still could, with Blades in the Dark's new sci-fi supplement? Oh man, don't give me ideas). > > >I wanna meet other agents of the OSIC. I wanna run errands for the Municipal Coven. I wanna see what Ixia and the rest of the Baroness look like. I want to chase a time thief through a Paradox exhibit. I wanna get caught in a turf war between the vampire baronies. I want a terrifying boss fight with a Venator that has express permission from the Pope to stake me. > > >… Ah, crap. This is what League of Legends players feel like waiting on that Riot MMO, huh. > > >These are, to be clear, pie-in-the-sky dreams: But they're the kind of games I think about through the tiny windows of the game that Deadlock actually is—Deadlock has an ocean-deep skill ceiling and incredible complexity, true. But it's also an infinitesimal slice of a much more interesting world I wish we could see more of. > > >Which, hey—it's a good problem for Valve to have, right? I salute you, artists and writers under Gabe Newell's employ: You have cooked hard enough to leave me hungry for more.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/55502160 > https://www.gamedate.org/

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7672226 > >If you had to pick a good love story, you might think of something classic, like Jane Austen's Emma or Casablanca. Or maybe tragic, like Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin or Romeo and Juliet. Or possibly cozy, like Heated Rivalry or Netflix's Nobody Wants This. What probably doesn't come to mind is a video game love story, and there's a good reason for that. Despite the appearance of variety, video game romances only come in one type. And it hardly even counts as a romance. > > >Games are still young as a storytelling medium, so the lack of memorable love stories compared film or literature is hardly surprising. What is surprising is just how little romance has changed in over three decades. In 1994, Konami's Tokimeki Memorial made popular the idea of dating in video games. It was hardly what you might call romantic, with its stat-based progress and checklist approach to relationships. But it set a precedent for how to Do Romance in games, and later titles, like Harvest Moon, built on that formula. By 2000, the likes of Baldur's Gate 2 added a stronger element of personality, with more complex characters who played important roles in bigger stories, but not necessarily in each other's lives. Relationships consisted of saying the right thing at the right time and then, like magic, love occurs. 26 years later, game romances are still written like they were in 2000, with obvious exceptions like (usually) not being as sexist anymore and occasionally being decent enough to show more than one type of love. > > [Full Article](https://www.polygon.com/video-game-romances-need-to-grow-up/?taid)

* 2017 - **LawBreakers** by Boss Key Productions, Nexon * 2018 - **Metal Gear Survive** by Konami Digital Entertainment, Konami * 2018 - **Artifact** by Valve * 2019 - **Crackdown 3** by Sumo Digital, Microsoft Studios * 2020 - **Cruicible** by Relentless Studios, Amazon Game Studios * 2020 - **Hyper Scape** by Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft * 2020 - **Marvel's Avengers** by Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix * 2021 - **Grand Theft Auto The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition** by Grove Street Games, Rockstar Games * 2022 - **Babylon's Fall** by PlatinumGames, Square Enix * 2023 - **Redfall** by Arkane Austin, Bethesda Softworks * 2023 - **The Day Before** by Fntastic, Mytona * 2024 - **Skull and Bones** by Ubisoft Singapore, Ubisoft * 2024 - **Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League** by Rocksteady Studios, Warner Bros. Games * 2024 - **Concord** by Firewalk Studios, Sony Interactive Entertainment * 2025 - **MindsEye** by Build a Rocket Boy, IO Interactive Partners * 2026 - **Highguard** by Wildlight Entertainment What constitutes to a game to be a big failure? There is no strict answer to this, as we can look it from mulitple perspectives. There is this overhyped expectation vs reality failure, promises not being fullfilled. But are these games really a failure? I mean Anthem sold more than 5 million units. Fallout 76 and No Mans' Sky was a failure on launch, but they redeamed and are successfull now. Similarly Battlefield 2042 and Call of Duty Black Ops 7 are failure compared to the previous entries in the series, but are still one of the top selling and played games of the year. For some Halo Infinite would be a failure, but I don't think it's that bad to be on this list. It's just disappointing like the newest Call of Duty entry. Also there are failures, which I personally do not see it as such, but they are failures from development cost. Shenmue on the original Dreamcast is cited often as such.

As in the title - its on sale on all consoles at the moment for a very good price and I was wondering what console should I get it on. I like the idea of playing it on the go and I thought as it looks like it should run no difference what console im playing it. But I heard some mixed reviews regarding the performance on Switch.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4650295 > Can't spell ignorant without IGN... > > I don't know why I just said that; this video was fine lol

It's way cheaper than the app store and Steam and Humble Bundle

Early 2024, for all platforms

I've long been a fan of text adventures (aka interactive fiction) so when I saw that Aaron A. Reed was Kickstarting a book covering 50 years of it, I immediately became a backer. For each year, he selects one text adventure that encapsulates what the state of the genre was like for that year. Well, he's recently released it to his backers in electronic form and has set up a website where everyone can find links to each of the games he covers so they play, download, or buy the game in question. It's definitely worth a look. [50 Years of Text Games Portal](https://if50.textories.com/portal/)

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 relatively kid-friendly (or at least with my guidance and supervision) and easy for her to just wander about and be nosy. Any suggestions? Simple adventure/fantasy would be great and provide us with something to progress through together, but anything that lets you explore a neighborhood and/or poke around in buildings and such would be perfect. I'm picking up Goat Simulator today for that exact purpose. I appreciate it in advance.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/385117 > YOOOOO. It even includes the artbooks, soundtracks, and digital graphic novels.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1495034 > The "Unending Layoffs" section goes starts at 2:44 of the video. > > Lasts about 14 minutes, but it's quite powerful. > > Also, I'm at around the 1:00:00 mark and they've mentioned the "live-service bubble" here and there. What can I say? I like Easy Alllies, or EZA, for comments like that. I wish there were more "leftist" gaming podcasts, but I believe that EZA aren't ostensibly "leftist" and I've only started listening to them within the last month. > > They avoid politics for the most part, which is why I was surprised to hear all this. > > Oh yeah, and they accepted their trans friend and she's a valued member on the show.

I've had this question looking at the Quake con sale, and Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth is for sale on both platforms. I ended up buying it on GOG. What is your opinion?

A critique of the AAA games I (Triple Iris) have played from December to March. These games include Ys X, Ys Seven, The Outer Worlds, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Watch Dogs: Legion.

They only have to list all 10 games on that app. Easiest article ever.

See also [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnNosUBBWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnNosUBBWM) by a guy who actually did the tutorial properly and has a more productive time of things

Hey everyone, I'm a bit of a fan of the [Emergency series](https://store.steampowered.com/app/404920/Emergency_2016/) sadly the game hast lost a lot of quality over the years and the resent installments are just the same game with minor changes. So do you know any games that are like Emergency? I know of 911 / 112 Operator and they're good but not quite the same.

Dead Island 2 embarked on a rollercoaster production journey characterized by delays and shifts in its development team. However, perseverance paid of