Power, Domain Name (if using a standard paid one instead of the cheaper route), VPN are the 3 that I pay for that I feel are the bare minimum.
I pay for a domain that's $12, but you could easily get the $1 ones for the same purposes. I pay for a static and service VPN with Windscribe, which comes out to be like $35+$89 respectively. So that's already $136 a year excluding the cost of power. I could cut that cost easily, but I use them for more than just my selfhosting so I feel like it's a fair price for what I get out of it.
Some of them seem pretty bad. I feel like the example image with the eyes and the teeth is quite a damning stylistic choice, compared to some of their other monsters which look more like a palette swap and animal change with some model variations. Save for the few that straight up have the same attack, like the Deciduueye example, I think it's reasonable enough to use them for inspiration, although not necessarily the best option. It's a shame they felt the need to rely on something that is popular I think it hurt them a bit by not having as uniform a vision.
That said, even if I do think it's pretty obvious I don't want them to lose this if anything comes of it, Pokemon is just as bad and they have nothing to gain from ruining this persons work other than asserting dominance.
I do hope they use this as a learning opportunity for next time and maybe stop being so goddamn blatant in their "homage". I would have been much more inclined to the game if it felt like the monsters had some rationale behind them because the game is pretty solid overall. All I can say is that I hope the game continues to exist but maybe gets a more original in-world bestiary and not Pokemon Gen 15
To add to this, DD1 has quite a number of NPC's that travel between regions and you can come across them. As you progress through the game their patterns and locations change.
I actually am ambivalent on the latter mechanic as it really makes it a pain sometimes, but it still has lots of ways that it can work well.
I don't go as hard as other members of the community, I just want to have the parts in case of an issue. I have my key caps, switches, and tools all in the same Ziploc bag (not loose though, each are separate just consolidated).
That's why they decided to kill it, but people who were interested in it had some reason for hope.
On the PS3 it was basically a team death match with the mechanics of the game. That's all it needed to be and it was fun.
Now people get angry if the game doesn't have support with content updates for at least 3 years and if it's not monetized then there's no point for the publisher to do it (and the inclusion of it angers the players). It's rough.
However in the case of the PC version, I think it's for the best. If Sony wanted it to be profitable beyond the games price point, that means mtx. If there is development happening on mtx then it's budget not going into the development of the game, which considering the state of the game that did get released... Well...
I would disagree with your 50 hour Starfield assessment, only on the basis of Todd Howards own comment that the game was made to be played for a long time.
50 hours for a game meant to be played for a long time just isn't very long at all. Heck, I enjoyed my time in Starfield and I had more than 50 hours. However I could not continue with NG+, it was just godawful.
For a game meant to be played extensively it failed in most regards.
What I'm curious about is how is it a big open world MMO but also procedural? Isn't that by nature not easy to accomplish? For example, if there is a big city that exists (2, even). Is what's in between them what's procedural? So is there no consistency, landmark wise?
On top of the sheer size, where there's a lot of empty space between these cities. There's a lot of ways to travel which is always good, they even flashed 3 or 4 methods as they showed the sprawling landscape.
That aside, the game just kind of looks like Rust and RuneScape but with a "worldwide open world".
Haha no worries! Honestly it's still worth picking up that game for that price alone, I genuinely feel that Arizona Sunshine is one of the far better FPS VR games!
The main thing I'm confused about is why they didn't include some of what they'd worked on for Payday 2. Like, it has a genuinely decent VR but it's just not present (I guess they've "hinted" at it).
The 911 should have been, I remember doing the quest to get it and then hating the car lol.
The metros are exciting, I used a mod that put a system for it in the game and it was fun to use. Though, what I'm really looking for is the ability to ride as a passenger in cars any time!
It's a fun game. Part of its strength is the freedom it gives the players, I was playing with friends last night and we were having a blast. It's that mix of Phasmophobia fear and fun exploring.
I personally am not as big of fan of open random lobbies which is why I don't continue to play Phasma or likely this game, but they are great with friends. Excited for a VR version if they can make it work :)