I've been working through my first playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 - it's fairly enjoyable, I'm glad I ignored it outright until well after big patches rolled out. There's something very satisfying about blowing up enemies through a camera.
I've also picked up Dwarf Fortress (Steam) for the first time. It has a lot of depth but has been fun to learn and try and figure out. I just flooded a section of my fortress by digging into an underground river.
My chill-out puzzle game has been Can of Wormholes and it's pretty fun! It's weird for sure... but definitely fun.
this is a wake-up call to this industry and any other industry enjoying a glut of "free" (as in beer) proprietary tools owned entirely by private (or worse: public!) organizations.
this will always be the result. every single time. if you think you and your industry are immune to getting bait & switched, you are very wrong.
chaining your livelihood to a for-profit organization is begging to eventually be extorted in this manner. greed is inevitable.
Blizzard has opened up about the impact Overwatch 2 "review bombers" have had on the team, acknowledging that the "dissatisfaction" stems from "the cancellation of the much larger component of PvE that was announced in 2019 [...] that Blizzard ultimately couldn't deliver"....
Developers were right to be in fear of Baldur's Gate 3 resetting expectations. This isn't close to all of the reason for this backlash, but for me it's a notable part.
Here we all have for contrast suddenly an expansive, complete, player-respecting game that isn't trying to squeeze money out of you at every turn... it reminds me of old PC games, before the enshittification of the industry began, before the corporate rot set in. When I bought my copy of Heroes of Might and Magic 3, it was complete. It was expansive. It was before micro-transactions were really a thing, so it was a finished product. BG3 makes me think of those games, but with modern technology. My gaze shifts back to the allegedly "modern" games we have now, to Overwatch 2, and it just feels cheap and disgusting. A minimum-viable pile of gameified gambling covered in greasy MBA penny-pincher fingerprints, shrouded by half-truths from marketers trying to puff it up to look like a complete experience. It is still possible to deliver the better experience. It's clearly just a matter of "want".
I feel like I've just come from a family-owned restaurant on the beach in Cabo and came back home to a McDonald's in a roadside casino, and I've just realized how genuinely shitty it all is.
I think I would actually rather just go outside or start a new hobby than touch "games" like this ever again.
Cutscenes can be memorable for many reasons, such as their emotional impact, their humor, their shock value, or their artistic quality. Some cutscenes are so iconic that they have become part of gaming culture and history....
I for one dislike your comment because you used non-ASCII characters (emoji) in your reply. I am viewing this conversation chain via mutt on a tty, as is my preference and hobby, and would appreciate if you avoid using characters that cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII. If you're going to the effort of having a discussion in a public place, you have an obligation to keep those of us on mutt in mind.
Sent via mutt 2.2.10 (gcc Version 2.7.2.3 (linux_3.3.1-1-i386))
Irdeto is working on a program that would provide two nearly identical versions of a game to trusted media outlets: one with Denuvo protection and one without. After that program rolls out, hopefully sometime in the next few months, Huin hopes independent benchmarks will allow the tech press to "see for yourself that the performance is comparable, identical... and that would provide something that would hopefully be trusted by the community."
Doubt. I don't expect they're going to release two copies that differ only in Denuvo presence: they're going to release one copy that has Denuvo, and another with intentional performance degradation that matches Denuvo's raping of your computer. Then they'll claim, "see? no difference! we're fine!" Meanwhile, the Denuvoless crack copy will perform 200% better, "somehow."
Even after being charged, Ouahioune asked Canadian newspaper La Presse to unban his Rainbow Six Siege account: “Can you say that I am kindly asking the Ubisoft team to ‘unban’ my account please,” Ouahioune said. “I have put over $1,500 in cosmetic enhancements in my profile.”
Good luck with that, assholes. Denuvo can fuck off. They're sure right that they have an image problem: I don't buy Denuvo protected games anymore, period. Their claims that it doesn't affect performance is laughable. Every Denuvo title I've had the displeasure of owning has seen massive performance and stability boosts after I just get fed up with my legit copy and go get a pirated Denuvo-removed version of the damn thing. Without fail.
Irdeto is working on a program that would provide two nearly identical versions of a game to trusted media outlets: one with Denuvo protection and one without. After that program rolls out, hopefully sometime in the next few months, Huin hopes independent benchmarks will allow the tech press to "see for yourself that the performance is comparable, identical... and that would provide something that would hopefully be trusted by the community."
Doubt. I don't expect they're going to release two copies that differ only in Denuvo presence: they're going to release one copy that has Denuvo, and another with intentional performance degradation that matches Denuvo's raping of your computer. Then they'll claim, "see? no difference! we're fine!" Meanwhile, the Denuvoless crack copy will perform 200% better, "somehow."
I've been playing through Control, which has been pretty fun, but... I just came out of TotK and every other game so far feels a bit... shallower. I don't know how to explain it. I've also been taking breaks into Infinifactory again to finally finish it. Been a while since I've felt the itch for Zachtronics, and it feels good. The mechanical intricacy overshadows that hollow feeling.
What should I play next if TotK has set my bar so high? Will it just fade in time?
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 3rd
What have you all been playing! I’ve been playing… Not much! I’m moving states and haven’t had a lot of time to game 😢
Devs on Unity Runtime Fee: "The trust is gone forever" (www.gamesindustry.biz)
Blizzard notes Overwatch 2's review bombs but insists players say it's "in the best state it's ever been" (www.eurogamer.net)
Blizzard has opened up about the impact Overwatch 2 "review bombers" have had on the team, acknowledging that the "dissatisfaction" stems from "the cancellation of the much larger component of PvE that was announced in 2019 [...] that Blizzard ultimately couldn't deliver"....
Which cutscene is and will forever be burned into your memory?
Cutscenes can be memorable for many reasons, such as their emotional impact, their humor, their shock value, or their artistic quality. Some cutscenes are so iconic that they have become part of gaming culture and history....
Steam forcing updates to Win 10/11 to play games - do you actually "own" games bought through Steam? (inv.tux.pizza)
Denuvo plans to offer independent benchmarks in an attempt to prove its DRM doesn't cause performance problems (www.pcgamer.com)
Steve Huin, chief operating officer of videogames, said, "there is no perceptible impact on gameplay because of the way we do things."
Rainbow Six Siege cheater sentenced for swatting Ubisoft Montreal offices (www.polygon.com)
French gamer gets three years of community service from Paris court...
Denuvo wants to convince you its DRM isn’t “evil” (arstechnica.com)
What are you playing this week?
Tell us!