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OP didn’t mention games that have Denuvo in them. They simply mentioned pre-ordering games.
And before anyone says this is a post about Denuvo, OP’s comment was phrased in such a way that it could sound like, “Why would anyone pre-order games in the first place in 2024, regardless of whether or not it has Denuvo?”
I said I hardly ever buy PC games.
If I’m interested in a PC-only game, I check GOG first, then I check Steam. I will rarely ever pre-order a PC game.
Edit: Also, I appreciate the (probably unintentional) Attack on Titan reference.
ten years at least.
If you haven’t seen the show, don’t look it up. It’s a spoiler.
Yeah, it’s still pretty common for big publishers to sell their games physically. Games from smaller devs that self-publish are usually only sold digitally, though they can sometimes end up getting published physically later on if they get popular enough.
Edit: Or were you talking about Best Buy and Amazon selling physical games?
If I can, I try to get my pre-orders through Best Buy’s in-store pickup, which means I can simply walk in the store and pickup my order. It’s essentially the same as going in and buying the game on launch day, except I’m guaranteed a copy that I’ve already paid for. If I don’t pre-order, there’s a chance the store either won’t get any copies by release day or they may sell out of them by the time I get there after work.
Also, try as I might, there’s been several times where I haven’t been able to get a copy from Best Buy for one reason or another. That leaves Amazon as my only choice. So, in that case, pre-ordering means I’ll get my package on launch day, typically in the early afternoon.
So, for me, it’s less about the pre-order bonuses and more about the logistics. I want to play a game on the day it comes out. I’ve usually planned to have free time specifically to play the game on release. So pre-ordering means I spend less time looking for a copy of a game I already know 100% that I’ll enjoy and more time actually playing the game.
(I apologize for the really long comment.)
I still pre-order, but I’m very selective. I only pre-order games I am 100% sure I’ll enjoy it.
If something comes up in the months before release that makes me question whether I’ll enjoy the game or not, goodbye pre-order.
There’s also very few companies and franchises I trust enough to pre-order from. They’re mainly the Kingdom Hearts (but only the “main” games; I’m not buying that rhythm game) and Persona (also only the main games, not the spin-offs) series. I also pre-ordered Metaphor (because I trust Atlus as a developer after having played all three games in the modern Persona series, and because I liked what I saw in trailers and what I played in the demo) and am actually enjoying it more than Persona.
To put it another way, I pre-order games from developers and directors I 100% trust to deliver a good game that I will enjoy immensely. Any less than that, and I will not pre-order. Like I said, I’m very selective. If I haven’t played anything from the developer before, I won’t pre-order. If they’ve broken my trust in some way, I won’t pre-order. If I don’t like what I see in the trailers or what I hear in the interviews, I won’t pre-order. If I see that DRM will negatively impact my play experience (which admittedly doesn’t have much of a chance of happening since I rarely play on PC), I won’t pre-order.
Yeah, I’m just a big JRPG fan.
As for the Trails series, I’ve been told that the best place to start is (understandably) the beginning. Play in release order. The first three games are in 2.5D (as opposed to 3D), but they actually hold up really well.
Most people (myself included) will recommend that you use a spoiler-free guide to avoid missing hidden quests and collectibles (such as a book series you’ll collect in its entirety over the course of the first game). I’m using this spoiler-free guide for my playthrough of the first game.
It’s also recommended that you go around talking to every NPC in the town you’re in every now and then. Dialogue updates as the main quest advances and, at times, if you’ve had an interaction with an NPC in (for example) a side quest and that NPC later pops up in the main quest, the NPC will remember that interaction from the side quest. Some NPCs also pop up in later games with their stories continuing (or so I’ve been told).
Almost every single Trails game is also available DRM-free with achievements on GOG. The only one missing is the latest game (which has a “coming soon” page). The series goes on sale on GOG pretty frequently, too.
Also, examine every chest twice: once to open it and once to see the “empty chest” dialogue. The English localizers noticed that, in the Japanese version of the game, instead of having the empty chests call a single line of dialogue multiple times, each chest had its own line to call. (It was the same thing copied and pasted every single time.) So they had some fun with it and made nearly every empty chest have unique dialogue.
Also, just today, during the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 1st, a remake of the first game in full 3D with the modern Trails aesthetic, was announced for a 2025 release worldwide. Though I don’t know how faithful it’ll be to the original game or to its localization. So you could wait for that if you want or just play the original trilogy immediately. But, again, the originals still hold up really well.
Sadly, it’s not available on PC, but it is available on Nintendo Switch (US eShop page linked above) and PlayStation 4 (and PlayStation 5 through backwards compatibility).
It’s a sci-fi game made by the creators of some games you might’ve heard of in passing (namely Dragon’s Crown, Odin Sphere, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, etc.), Vanillaware. I can’t go into any details about the game itself because of spoilers, but I will say it is quite simply the best and most uniquely told story I have ever seen in a game. It’s a game you have to experience for yourself. You should go into it as blind as possible, too.
I will say the English dub of the game is also surprisingly good, considering it was recorded almost entirely in COVID lockdown. The Atlus West sound engineers (Atlus published the game in the west) must’ve worked some incredible magic to get it to sound as good as it does.
I’ll also plug SmartTube, an Android TV app that has many of the more widely-used functions ReVanced has (blocks ads, supports SponsorBlock, etc.) among other things.
It’s at least partially because these games have been available on PC in areas where PSN isn’t available. So people bought them, not knowing that, eventually, PSN would be required.
What’s more, Sony has also removed the game from sale on PC where PSN isn’t available. So now some people can’t even buy the game on PC anymore. And people who do own the game are left with two choices: violate Sony’s own TOS to create a PSN account for a country they don’t live in (something that, ironically, some of Sony’s own support reps have supposedly suggested) or attempt to refund the game.
It’s also worth noting that some countries actually require you to own a PlayStation console to even be able to create a PSN account. You have to create an account via the console. It’s not available on a web browser. One country in particular that I’ve heard this is an issue in is Ukraine.
Fortunately, it seems Game Pass subscribers have pretty much stalled out since 2021. There’s been no significant ride in subscribers since then.
Now play the other route.
Also, if you’re interested, there’s an official Omori orchestral concert on YouTube.
Jimmy Wales actually isn’t as directly involved in Wikipedia as he once was. These days, he only holds the chair emeritus and the founder’s seat on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
His chair position changed to a chair emeritus in 2006, and the site implemented the unified login feature in May 2008, though they’d been discussing implementing the feature since 2005.
Have you followed the instructions in the devs’ Reddit thread? (At the bottom of the thread, they also have a section of instructions for people who’ve already gone through the process of purging their filters before.)
Also, make sure nothing else (ex. another adblocker, including your browser’s built-in adblocker) is causing issues.
Believe it or not, Wikipedia actually does use a single global account for all of its wikis. That includes Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons, and almost every other site listed on their website. The only one you have to create a separate account for is their test wiki where they test new versions of MediaWiki (the software they develop for their wikis).
Looks like you may be right. Most requests came from api.twitter.com (and variations of that, such as api-33-0-0.twitter.com). The only different one was from global.albtls.t.co, and it was already blocked thanks to Peter Lowe’s Blocklist.
Because there’s no viable replacement.
Before you or someone else mentions Mastodon (and probably compare it to the Reddit migration to Lemmy; I’ve been through this conversation before): Both Twitter and Mastodon are built on the concept of following people. If those people don’t migrate to another platform, then the people following them won’t migrate, either.
But Reddit and Lemmy are built on the concept of following ideas. It doesn’t matter if one person who, for example, enjoys anime, only stays on Reddit. Others who who enjoy anime may move to Lemmy and become part of one or more of the anime communities on Lemmy instead.
Basically, the comparison isn’t 1-to-1.
I’ll also add The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC. I know there’s a remake coming out next year, but there’s a bunch of shady stuff surrounding how they’re gonna localize it. (Supposedly, they’re gonna use AI to try to do most of it and then have real people brush it up.)
So I’d recommend playing the original instead. It’s a 2.5D game with a mostly 360° camera. It uses turn-based combat, but not traditional turn-based combat. And it has a great story.
It’s also on sale for only US$9.99 on GOG (which is DRM-free) and Steam.