UNSTOPPABLE!!

Yeap! On principal, I won’t buy any game that dumps pre-orders of games on Steam in lieu of exclusivity, from other non-Epic platforms, even if I liked the game series before. For instance, I have really liked the Metro series of games. However, as soon as the third game was announced as exclusive to Epic, I refused to purchase it on Steam even after the exclusivity deal expired. It didn’t help that the creator of the Metro games caught wind of people refusing to buy the game and threatened to not make anymore if sales bombed on Epic.

I’m just so tired of all the entities in this world that would rather make a quick buck, then milking as much from the player-base as possible, while standing in the way of me eeking out some sort of happiness in this shit-ass capitalistic hellscape. Would I rather be doing more creative shit with my free time or enjoying life in some capacity? Sure, but until we tear down this shitty pyramid scheme our society has bought into, games are the one thing that I still enjoy. I watch them actively deleting content for games I love, or making the content only available on specific platforms, and it makes me want to flay these wealthy fucks and leave them for the crows…

To be fair, what else are those points for other than blowing on awards to dump on reviews and guides?

You joke but I read they may get out of this without issue due to a TOS entry about them not being responsible. They’ll still get dragged from shareholders and the government, but only a handful of large companies may be able to recoup some of those damages from the company itself.

It’s like the Sackler’s and the opioid epidemic from a different industry!

I bet the Onion had an article about Crowdstrike offering the world a pizza party and expired Bed Bath & Beyond coupons to say they’re sorry. Real life might be quicker than satire, it seems!

Gotta agree with others that mentioned The Outer Wilds. I haven’t stopped thinking about that game in some capacity since I played it and the second (part? Game? DLC?) about 6 months ago. I never looked up anything before or during play, but loved reading all about it after finishing them.

It bears repeating…Do not read/watch anything about this game online. The best way to experience it is through discovery and I wish I could wipe the experience from my memory just to experience it again!

Other notable mentions are…

• Dead Space for it’s integrated menus and systems that never take you out of the game.
• Prey (the Indigenous People one) for the unique story.
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent for the story, voice acting, and fear.

There are other games to mention, but my kid just came in and broke my train of thought.

…(which I’ll admit I thought was a scam back when I was forced to make an account way back when I had dial up)…

Oh man, I cursed Valve and Steam back then. It effectively made LAN parties of the time impossible since you could no longer share media and needed Internet access to play. Back then, only business had the “fast” Internets while everyone else had 56k baud modems. Hard to do much when your max download speed for the entire connection was 5kb/s.

Microsoft is the guy who designs cupholders and never tries them out!

Windows Update Blocker (WuB) is great, has CLI to use in scripts, and effectively turns off Windows updates and prevents the dickhead “Windows update medic” or whatever service from re-enabling updates. No need to modify registry or GPO. When you want to check for updates, you just click a button in WuB! I love it and even use it in my VM for work.

I’ll pass, thanks. Too many streaming platforms already.

I’ll give up on YouTube before I give up my ad blocks or 3rd party apps. Fuck off Google.

They really shouldn’t…

Interestingly enough, I did the same thing. When it launched, I was big into piracy and had a shitty job to pay for games with. Played until I could fly the ship, flew into the sky, then promptly lost control of my ship and didn’t touch it again for at least half a decade. So glad I bought it and played it without spoilers!

No other game has had the impact on my way of thinking more than Outer Wilds.

But that’s never how these things go. They put so many resources into FPS aspects that they almost entirely abandon the space sim. Just look at E:D for an example. They dedicated a whole DLC to walking around your ships and then threw ground assault missions into it.

The immersion from being a part of the world, walking around and experiencing stuff is neat and immersive. If the focus was on that stuff first and FPS second, cool, but that feels rarely the case.

Thanks for the comment!

That’s a cool aspect of it, no doubt, I just wish it took a backseat to the core game play. We have so many FPS games, but not many great new-gen space sims.

You’re right, getting out and moving around and hoping into the pilots seat of your ship is cool and I love to see that stuff. However, I don’t know why it always has to tip toward violent encounters instead of just having the ability to feel immersed in a space ship or station.

I admit, I was a backer of the original campaign for Star Citizen. However, with the dev cycle what it is, I think I’ll be a grandparent before the game releases from early access. Last time I played it, it was a buggy mess, with only combat, and was not fun to me. I also admit, a lot of my angst comes from the way Elite: Dangerous tried to make FPS combat, etc., a thing. As someone who plays that game to explore, that entire DLC, as well as the alien shit they added, was part of system I had no interest in and, in my opinion, has further led to the downfall of E:D, a game that has been waiting for atmospheric landing, etc., but still, years later, barely has non-atmospheric landing.

I get the desire to walk about your ship, have carrier ships you can walk around with other players, and space stations you can visit actual NPCs in. However, if I wanted to shoot stuff, I’d play an FPS. I play E:D to explore and get that fear/anxiety/dread I only ever feel watching American politics. Just not my game play when I wanna just chill and narrowly avoid crashing my ship while exploring!

Worse than all that, it’s a fucking space sim. Why are all these space sims wanting to add FPS?

If you haven’t tried it, Control is a fantastic narrative-driven game with unique gameplay mechanics and play options. Highly recommend that if you liked BioShock and Prey. I’m currently playing Outter Worlds and, wow, is it rewarding as you play it.

Lee from the Walking Dead game by Telltale, your character in Knights of the Old Republic, Abe from Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey, Octodad, and Ricky the sock puppet from My Friendly Neighborhood.

I finished the first, bought the second but have yet to start it. You really should finish the first, if you have time to really enjoy it. It was extremely well done, and even as a cis male, was extremely impactful and emotionally worthwhile!

The first time you ever play Portal 2 and get to the part where Wheatley is going to kill you was one of my favorite gags in the franchise.

As a sysadmin, if I’m ever told to not provide browser choices to my users, I’ll quit. It’s sad that your work pigeonholes you into a single choice.