Maybe they’ll give it to The Chinese Room who will turn it into a walking simulator with a smidge of awful, repetitive combat mixed in.

E33 is the only game to have ever made me ugly-cry, and it did it multiple times. That alone secures it a place in my personal pantheon. I didn’t love the combat system, but I will admit that’s because I have never liked JRPG systems, and I eventually grew to be okay with it. The game was a work of art and passion that we rarely ever see, and that came through.

A seller doesn’t get to walk in your home, hand you a check and take your couch. The same should not be allowed for digital goods. A voluntary refund should never revoke ownership rights. But we don’t actually have ownership rights any more, do we? Or any rights.

They are also hellbent on infecting everything they touch with Denuvo malware. I haven’t bought anything of theirs in years for that reason alone.

I am not sure anybody is surprised, but I am happy to see so much solidarity.

I’m hoping that that ARM support on the new VR headset means a Steam Phone may be in the works.

Steam does a lot of shitty things — including using gambling mechanics on kids and failing to moderate the neo-nazi clubhouse that are their forums — but they are not a monopoly and do not behave in a monopolistic or anticompetitive manner whatsoever. Their success and market share is genuinely earned on merits.

Personally, I would prefer GOG, but many games don’t release there, or release there much later. Epic could compete, but their heart is clearly not in it as they refuse to give customers features they want out of a platform and do engage in anticompetitive practices.

I still enjoyed Elden Ring, but I agree completely. I prefer the metroidvania world design of earlier From Software games. The sense of progression is one of the best parts of those games, and Elden Ring’s open world robs the it of a lot of the magic of earlier titles, where discoveries were around every corner and in every nook and cranny. I never felt the same joy of exploration and hard won progress as I did in Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro.

There was a time when I could not have imagined liking those kinds of games. My partner got me Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition and I hated it. Hate may be too kind a word for how I felt. I’ve always loved metroidvanias and the style seemed right up my gothy, witchy alley, but I couldn’t get past the first basic zombie.

Then we watched a bunch of videos and realized that the game was designed to be played slowly and deliberately. There were no “junk” enemies and paying careful attention at all times was the game. When it clicked, it clicked, and now From Software games are my favorite.

Remaining developers have begun openly protesting the company.

https://www.dexerto.com/gta/protests-erupt-at-rockstar-games-offices-accusing-gta-6-developers-of-union-busting-3280277/

Fairphone has partnered with Amazon. They are no longer remotely fair. Look elsewhere if you want ethical hardware.

If you are organizing a union NEVER EVER use company controlled channels to communicate about it. This is organizing 101.

At the same time, make sure that whatever you do use is private and secure. Union reps will warn you about how companies spy, and it is not paranoia.

That is exactly what happened. All corporations operate like this. They know what they are doing is illegal, so they just use words to warp reality however they like. It’s the Republican strategy.

I am looking forward to Light No Fire and have played countless hours of Minecraft and Star Citizen.

“Too big” doesn’t exist as long as I am enjoying myself.

I asked about them earlier this evening and was considering getting their new printer. I didn’t really need one, anyway. They just seem fun.

You know what isn’t fun? Genocide. Fuck genocide supporters.

I played a little of the open beta. It was an interesting concept, but it was very dull and the PvP was toxic and a turnoff. I won’t be playing again.

Icarus is solid and Kitten Space Agency appears to be coming along nicely.

It’s very easy to uninstall.

Step 1: Download Bazzite
Step 2: Install Bazzite
Step 3: Erase Windows

That’s all there is to it.

I don’t want to tell others what to do with their art, but I would certainly appreciate that. For every PvPvE game if they replaced the human opponents with NPCs I would probably be happy. I avoid PvP games. There is enough toxicity in the world without willingly subjecting myself to something that has been specifically created to generate toxic situations and behavior.

I don’t understand PvP. In games like this it’s toxic by design and I don’t understand how that is supposed to be fun for anyone. It makes me concerned for society that games specifically designed to ruin someone else’s day are this popular.

It’s a shame. I tried it last night and it has a lot of good ideas and atmosphere, but it was ruined for me by the one thing that ruins every game in this genre, PvP.

I would eat up a purely co-op version of this, even if other humans were replaced with NPCs, but I don’t have the stomach or tolerance for any kind of PvP.

I’ll buy it just to support this ideologically. The graphics look like one of those old TTRPG map maker programs, which I love.

GamePassBox is not popular while people struggle to afford even the basic costs of living? Who could have predicted this?

This is a dream come true. I just need someone to do this for Alpha Centauri and I can die happy.

Steam needs to shut down their forums. It’s clear they have no intention of moderating them and they are so incredibly toxic, hateful, and disgusting that I feel bad about using the platform at all.

I love that indie games are eating greedy corporations lunches. Growth isn’t slowing as an industry, growth is slowing for the parasites as regular people reclaim their equity.

Whoops.

I stopped using them a long time ago. Since they don’t seem interested in moderating their own forums in the slightest, Valve should really shut them all down. The Steam forums are such cesspits of hate speech, bigotry, and toxicity that I actually feel dirty every time I buy a game on Steam. That is not okay.

That one universal linux is Fedora, or OpenSuse, or Debian, or Pop_OS. Take your pick. They are all excellent daily drivers.

I recommend Bazzite to gamers. If you primarily play games, there is no reason to look at anything else.

If you want more control and like to experiment, try one of the above distros I mentioned. I like Fedora and constantly come back to it, but any Linux with KDE Plasma is going to be fine for most people. I am very excited for the upcoming version of Pop_OS with the Cosmic desktop beta. There is a strong chance that becomes my go-to once that releases, since it has the good parts of Ubuntu and none of the bad ones.

Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu are the only ones I tell people to avoid. Also, avoid Arch until you get really into Linux and crave complete control.

I was trying to figure out whether it was a complete experience on its own. @[email protected] clarified that it’s a remake of the first game in a trilogy. I was concerned it was being released episodically and I’ve been burned on incomplete episodic releases too many times.

Thank you, that’s what I was trying to figure out. I’m guessing that the worst case scenario is that I can play the originals if they don’t remake the sequels. I think I’ll pick this up. I could use a good story-based single player game.

I saw this on Steam but the “1st Chapter” subtitle is a red flag. Is this a remake of a complete game or a partial release like the FFVII remakes?

Edit: Although the above concern has been addressed, this $60 game now has $75 worth of DLC just a day after release. I think this may be a patient gamer situation.

It’s infected with Denuvo malware so I’ll pass.

The game is grossly overpriced and infected Denuvo malware. Those things are all symptoms of Randy Pitchford being involved. I’ll pass.

I got enough enjoyment out of it for what little I spent a lifetime ago. I go see whats new every couple years, which is usually quite a lot. The game is still a disaster, but it’s a strangely interesting disaster.

There have been some bad Humble Choice bundles in the past, but this was the first time I felt insulted by one.

For me, much of the fun is making progress. i never finished the first game because I kept getting lost and stuck and unable to progress for extended periods. In a From Software game I can spend weeks on a single boss and masochistically enjoy every moment because I know what I have to do. The problem I had with Hollow Knight was I kept finding myself completely at a loss about where to go or what to do. I would spend days retreading the same empty caverns looking for a clue or a new path and not finding any. When I knew what I had to do, I enjoyed it immensely, but progression was often too obscure and my interest slowly evaporated.

It shipped with Denuvo and I don’t pay for malware. It’s the first Civ game I haven’t bought at launch. I’m including the original.

There was a time I was okay with their DLC policy. It kept their games fresh for years for very reasonable prices, assuming you bought them as they came out or waited for deep discounted sales.

But then they got greedy. They raised prices, the quality fell through the floor and games got worse instead of better, and they kept trying to sell less and less for more while clearly cutting corners that should never be cut. It’s disappointing how far they’ve fallen. I hope someday they can recover their old magic, but I don’t expect that. Enshittification comes for everything under capitalism eventually.

You can download it and play it. “Released” is something of a misnomer when it comes to software.