APUs like the 5700g during the pandemic’s GPU shortage were already an amazing deal and kept me from blowing too much cash on a couple of new builds. AMD’s a real hero when it comes to value.

Thanks for this curated news update! It almost feels like reading segments from a gaming magazine.

Jindosh’s mansion was peak mechanical map design. A house that changes its architecture a couple of times with the pull of a lever is amazing. Even more so knowing that most of the walls and floors are mechanically sound, like they could be built IRL. It’s unlikely we’ll see something like that again for at least another decade given how poorly AAA developers are doing these days. You can spend hours inspecting every nook and cranny of the place to see how everything just mechanically fits together.

Be careful when purchasing Sony games. There’s no guarantee a future update wouldn’t bring it back when nobody’s looking.

I just played it for the first time 4 months ago and it still holds up incredibly well. The art direction definitely helps cut down on the expanded rendering capabilities of modern PCs. While you’ll still have some reduced resolutions of distant landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, you’ll barely notice it as the distance is often covered by buildings, trees, hills, Nazi fortifications, and so on.

It’s also free to not force paying customers to do it you know.

I think keeping it in an isometric perspective helps to simplify things a lot. The mechanics wouldn’t have to be as immersive and it should allow for more freedom for things to change depending on the player’s preferences. I’m still skeptical but at least it seems they’re going in a reasonable direction.

It’s too bad we never got a third installment. It would’ve been cool to see where they’d go after Serkonos like the Pandyssian Continent. With the way things are going with the devs that’s probably a good thing though.

Fantasian. It was made by the father of Final Fantasy Hironobu Sakaguchi and composed by Nobuo Uematsu and feels just like a PS1 era FF game. It’s a bittersweet sensation knowing this is probably the last time we’ll have such a title made by these legendary figures working together but I’m happy they released it all the same.

AAA gaming is ruining the industry. Indies are still going strong however.

Gearbits Mafia Trilogy Dave the Diver

I’m enjoying the hell out of Gearbits. It’s an indie mech shooter with Gundam aesthetics and fast-paced action like Armored Core for a base price of only $10.

There’s a very crucial fact you’re forgetting about corporations who say they care about anything. They’re liars and only care about money.

I wanted to play Anno 2205 since it was released back in 2015 but not if it meant downloading and registering in Ubisoft’s bullshit launcher DRM. Here we are almost 10 years later and they still haven’t budged on that requirement. I’ll be looking forward to reading the news of Ubisoft either getting rid of UPlay or going out of business. Either way, that requirement will eventually go away too.

I don’t think you were a jackass. You purchased a physical copy and thus shouldn’t need an internet connection to start your game (unless it’s multiplayer only). It’s crazy how easy it is for people to get used to new normals when it comes to things like this.

With how well AMD APUs are doing in regular PCs and the Steam Deck, I see it as a way for developers to standardize their game optimization like they would on consoles.

A lot of newer AAA games rely on ray tracing and AI upscaling to even be able to properly render at 1080p . This is their way to make up for developer’s shit hardware optimization and insistence on investing in diminishing returns for graphical realism.

They had the same processor used in the PS2 onboard until the next revisions cut costs and started to use software emulation to achieve the same results instead. Newer revisions then started getting rid of it altogether.

I’d say the PS3 was the pinnacle of console gaming, at least with the early 60GB models. They had full backwards compatibility with PS1 and PS2 discs and DVDs while adding a Blu-ray player and internal hard drive to eliminate the need of memory cards. Access to online multiplayer and PSN was also totally free until MS showed Sony how much they could charge for the next generation of consoles. While it had its fair share of controversies like the initial price tag, PSN hack, and updating the firmware to no longer boot custom Linux OSs, it generally had the most features that any casual fan would enjoy.

This. Give us a full 3D remake of either FFVI or FFVIII and please don’t spread it out over 3 games! We don’t need to explore the world map and every single dungeon in stretched out, agonizing detail.

Part of the reason is because most people don’t notice the lawsuits or think this is boilerplate legal stuff that happens in the background all the time. They’re too distracted by the entertainment side of things.

It’d be nice if JRPGs would go back to the old school overworld design like in Star Ocean 2. It’s a good compromise between sense of scale and interactivity with the world.

Maybe, but you’d have to have more than a dozen exclusive titles for that to matter much compared to the thousands available for PC.

That makes it a hard no for me.

The Japanese love small multifunctional gadgets so it makes perfect sense.

He’s earned it. Hopefully retirement doesn’t suit him though and we get another Mistwalker OST.

Can’t wait to see what industries that handle sensitive data will do when Recall becomes an integrated part of Windows 11. They might have no choice but to migrate to Linux.

The game was a lot of fun. The only issue I had with it was how the endings branch out. I won’t go into too much detail but let’s say I didn’t expect a seemingly benign choice leading me to become such an asshole.

The prohibitions in question would include vehicles with certain bluetooth, satellite and wireless features as well as highly autonomous vehicles that could operate without a driver behind the wheel.

Chinese vehicles sold in the US would have the same internet connectivity as a base 2007 Honda Civic. Surveillance by the Chinese would be practically impossible with those limitations. You know who gets a pass on installing everything from internet connected cabin-facing cameras, accelerometers, microphones, and GPS tracking? US-based auto manufacturers!

That’s right, they can and will take all the data they have about you and sell them to data brokers. Enjoy paying a higher insurance premium because you braked too hard one time. Did your shiny new GM’s shitty drivetrain give out on you because their engineering is garbage and you want to claim the warranty for repairs? Too bad, you accelerated a little too hard that one time to get out of the way of a speeding truck and now they claim it was your bad driving that broke it.

I get you hate the CCP, most of us do (except the tankies here but they’re a special case) but until we rein in the lazy and corrupt domestic vehicle industry it’s gonna be a hard fight to get rid of Chinese vehicles encroaching on the market even with 100% tariffs.

Nice to know Chinese EVs will be the choice for privacy-minded individuals in the US soon. Being cheaper than western brands is a nice big fat cherry on top.

Nomura should have been allowed to do FFXV without distractions. Now we gotta see his vision through Disney themed lenses. The first few FFXV trailers were very different than the final product we ended up getting.

It helps if you barely ever play Ubisoft games to begin with. BOTW and Horizon are just about all I can take for that style of map design.

Are you planning to have this on GoG as well?

But think of Nvidia’s shareholders! /s

So there’s no MP and all spells have a recharge mechanism instead? That seems like a great way to encourage players to use them more often.

Can’t wait for the crack to show up a few weeks after releasing. I really don’t want to sign in to Rockstar’s bullshit Social Club DRM to play it.

Lost Odyssey, Fantasian, Halo 1, Desperados 3, Arcanum, Pillars of Eternity, and Bastion are pretty good to listen to when trying to focus.

Japan Studio was one of those developers that were allowed to experiment and take risks with smaller/cheaper titles for the PlayStation platform. Sony seems to be aiming at only making recognizable franchises and safe bets, kind of like how Disney is still leaning hard on Star Wars and Marvel to keep making money. This is a terrible move as they’re no longer even trying to compete with the creativity and smaller budget of indie developers.

So there’s a chance the Deck and modern PCs could emulate the system pretty quickly. Thanks Nintendo!

It’s not quite “full 3D” but Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3 can certainly scratch that stealth itch. They have clear consistent rules that utilize traditional stealth mechanics like vision cones and sound radiuses but improve on it by having a squad with multiple different skills and abilities that allow you to plan and execute elaborate takedowns with the press of a button. The best part is they usually go on sale for dirt cheap, especially now.

Vista sucked for sure, but Windows 7 was pretty great IMO. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the shit that’s Windows 10 because Steam stopped supporting 7.