tuckerm

@tuckerm@supermeter.social

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How’s the progress of (insert retro game title) going?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Been mostly playing Capcom vs SNK 2 on my Anbernic Arc handheld lately. IMO, it's the only handheld with a d-pad that you can enjoy fighting games on, so I've been using it for that. Current goal is to get through arcade mode as Terry and Evil Ryu with no deaths.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE is now available on GOG⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  In case anyone doesn't know, this game is basically Devil May Cry but in the Metal Gear Solid universe.

  I'm telling you that because I didn't know that when I bought it. I had played MGS 1 and 2 before buying this game, and it took a couple of hours for me to realize, I don't think I'll be sneaking up on anybody in this one. It's a good Devil May Cry game, though!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New Feature to Highlight journalism on Mastodon⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is very cool. I'm hoping 404media.co and aftermath.site do it -- those are two independent sites that I've subscribed to after hearing about them on the fediverse. Seems like most of 404media's writers are on Mastodon, at least.

  I also like that this feature creates the ability to have a known link for an author across multiple websites. With that, you could show posts that link to any other article by the same author, regardless of which site the article was published on. So then you can see all the threads of discussion about all of the articles that particular author has written.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Poor Sega just didn't get the timing right.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes! It's the only kind of game where an LLM would be a good addition.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Games where an emulated console version outclasses the PC port?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I bought Rayman 2 on GOG a few years ago, and it had a hard time recognizing controllers. I even tried launching it through Steam, which usually fixes all controller problems, but it still didn't work. The Dreamcast version still looks good enough, and your controller will definitely work.

  Due to licensing issues, Crazy Taxi 2 has a different soundtrack on the PC from the original Dreamcast version. The Dreamcast version is the one with The Offspring.

  Sonic 3 has also had music licensing issues, so the version included in Sonic Origins has a different soundtrack. Sonic Origins was also buggy at launch, but I hear that's fixed now. Sonic Origins also adds a bunch of new features though, so this one may be a tossup.

  Question for y'all: did anyone buy the recent PC port of Metal Gear Solid 2? It seems to have both a lot of praise and a lot of complaints.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Poor Sega just didn't get the timing right.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Me too; in fact I have two games for it on the way right now! Games made in the last few years! Intrepid Izzy and Postal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Poor Sega just didn't get the timing right.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Seaman is one of those games that I'm intentionally not replaying, because it absolutely blew my mind when I was ten years old, and I just want to leave it that way. I'm guessing the tricks they used to mimic conversation would be very obvious to me now, but back then it seemed completely real. That game turned your CRT TV into a fish tank with an honest to god talking fish inside of it... and Spock gave you updates about how he was doing when you checked on him after school.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your plans for when the Milky Way galaxy collides with Andromeda?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I'm more than happy to jump over to whichever side is winning. Got my Andromeda flag ready to fly as soon as things start leaning in their favor.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨GOG Summer Sale has arrived⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  copy-pasting what I posted on !pcgaming for some that are $5 or less:

  A few super cheap, not-new games I've played that aren't on the main promo banner:

  • Aragami - $3 - Pretty challenging stealth game. The sequel is also on sale, but I hear it's more action-oriented, less stealth-oriented than the original.
  • Anomaly: Warzone Earth - $2 - Strategy game.
  • Bastion - $3 - Same developer that made Hades.
  • Mount & Blade: Warband - $5 - Sid Meier's Pirates, but with horses. (This is not the newest game, Bannerlord)
  • Sid Meier's Pirates - $2.50 - Mount & Blade, but with ships.
  • X3: Reunion - $2 - Sid Meier's Mount & Blade, but in spaaaaaaace. (I've only played the sequel, X4. But this one looks kind of similar, and is two dollars.)
  • Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six - $2.50 - Tactical FPS. Been a while since I've played it. Was definitely cool when it came out.
  • Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon - $3 - Ditto. This one probably holds up better.
  • Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - $2.50 - Who do you think would win in a fight, Tom Clancy or Sid Meier? I think Sid Meier.
  • BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger - $1.50 - Fighting game. Combos are not as timing-sensitive as games like Street Fighter or Tekken.
  • Rayman 2 - $1.50 - 3D platformer.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨GOG Summer Sale has arrived⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And if you do run into any problems, the Steam overlay should solve any compatibility problems, if you're OK with launching your games through Steam. I end up doing that with all of my games (including the ones I didn't buy on Steam) since I think its controller mapping UI is the best.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Sega Dreamcast⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I've heard this argument before, but I'm not sure that the numbers support it. Despite the Dreamcast having a head start, the PS2 started eclipsing the DC's sales almost immediately, and that's even with the PS2 having some supply problems early on.

  If piracy was the main problem, I would expect to see huge system sales and small game sales. Instead, the DC just didn't sell very well outside of its initial launch.

  I'm not saying piracy didn't exist, but Sega had lost so much support from customers and developers with the 32X, Sega CD, and Saturn, I suspect those are more to blame. They'd have been able to handle the problem of game copying better if they didn't have a dozen other problems at the same time. Heck, it was the first console with built-in online services, and that's the industry's main way of dealing with piracy now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bethesda Quietly Removes Denuvo DRM from Ghostwire: Tokyo⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I suppose they only did it now due to some license agreement expiring?

  Yep, if I understand it right, Denuvo charges an annual fee to be used. That's why you always see it getting removed after the game loses relevance, when sales aren't enough to justify paying for Denuvo anymore.

  Kind of weird how, because Bethesda (and other publishers) are Denuvo's consumer, this particular anti-consumer license agreement is actually benefiting the players, haha.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hades II Technical Test - Live Gameplay⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I'm late to the party with Hades, but am enjoying the first game right now.

  Also, wow, there's a familiar face in that video! I remember watching Greg Kasavin do reviews for Gamespot back when video reviews were still a pretty new thing. (found one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhb9ZpfU-mQ)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has anybody played music on their disc-based systems?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, recently! About two years ago I realized that I wanted more physical media in my house. I wanted stuff that I could put on a shelf, so that when someone came over, they could look at that shelf and say, "Hey, I like that album," or "Oh, I've read that book."

  So I went a used bookstore near me (and immediately fell in love with it, why the hell was I not spending more time there before), and bought an extremely beat-up paperback copy of A Game of Thrones and a CD of Santana's Greatest Hits.

  When I got home I realized I had no way of listening to the CD. I didn't own a CD player or a Blu-ray player, my computer didn't have an optical drive, nothing. Then I remembered my old Dreamcast, which was in a box in the garage. So I got that out, set it up, and listened to Santana's Greatest Hits on ye olde Dreamcast. CDs sound so much warmer on a Dreamcast...

  That is also what renewed my interest in retro games. Wanting to listen to a music CD reminded me of how great that system was.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Which Mortal Kombat games across the years should I start with?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I remember thinking that it was the pinnacle of graphics. I mean, it was photos of real people, that had to be as realistic as games could possibly look.

  AND I WAS RIGHT.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Which Mortal Kombat games across the years should I start with?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  MK9 is also the start of the modern game mechanics, in addition to the story. They established the current gameplay formula in MK9, and have been iterating on it since then.

  Unless you really want to play the classic games, I think MK9 is the best starting point.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your favorite Dreamcast games?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  For sure. Plus, I'm a sucker for fighting games where the characters are 2D sprites in stead of 3D models. The DC probably had the best lineup for that, ever.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your favorite Dreamcast games?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I like the fact that there are games that are still best played on the Dreamcast, or only played on the Dreamcast, since there was no follow-up console after it, or because the ports were not great. Today there's always a remaster, backwards compatibility with the next console, or at the very least a sequel, so games just move along with the hardware. But the Dreamcast had some games that just lived and died on that system.

  Weirdly, most of these turned out to be fighting games. Probably because Capcom liked the Dreamcast.

  My favorites that are still best (or only) played on that system:

  • Crazy Taxi (the ports don't have the original soundtrack, an absolute sin)
  • Power Stone and Power Stone 2
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (literally one of the best fighting games ever, and it can't be purchased on any systems today)
  • Cannon Spike
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
  • Project Justice
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your favorite Dreamcast games?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Wasn't Border Down the very last Dreamcast game? I think it might have been. (Well, the last official one, anyway. Homebrew games are still coming out.) I bet a lot of people missed it for that reason. I hadn't heard of it until a couple years ago. I hear it's good, though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your favorite Dreamcast games?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Still some of the best pixel art and animations ever, in my opinion.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AAAA!!!!!!!!⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, it came out in January! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1372460/AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA_Remastered/

  I'm not sure what the development process was like -- they were calling it a sequel for a while before then changing it to a remaster. The reviews suggest that a lot was changed from the original. I kind of want to get it anyway.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AAAA!!!!!!!!⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They're late to the party anyway. The first 25-tuple-A game was released in 2009, and it's an indie gem. Got a remaster just a couple months ago, even. https://store.steampowered.com/app/15520/AaAaAA__A_Reckless_Disregard_for_Gravity/

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨For those thinking of going back to reddit. Gaze upon this comment section and reconsider.⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Preach 👏 it 👏 louder 👏

  (But like, for real, though.) I certainly don't feel bad for Reddit when the CEO says he intends to use that forum's users to train AIs, and then every comment turns into some "please upvote me" catchphrasey nonsense. Hopefully, whoever buys training data from them receives nothing of value.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨🤤🤤🤤⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This live action colossal titan looks worse than the anime.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First game you played⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This wasn't my very first game, but was definitely an early one I played. I beat the remake recently and it was exactly the way I remembered it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First game you played⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and I played a couple levels as recently as a few weeks ago.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨My Dreamcast Setup⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh nice, I hadn't heard of Dreampipe! I'll have to check it out. I mostly just play DC games using an emulator for convenience, but sometimes I feel the urge to use the actual system.

  What are you using to connect it to the TV? I have a Dreamcast VGA box from forever ago, and then I bought a VGA-to-HDMI converter. Is there a better setup nowadays?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Many players have become "patient gamers". What are games people might miss out on by waiting for sales?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That's a really good point. Sometimes the fun you can have with the game's "multi player" community isn't in the game itself.

  Baldur's Gate 3 is probably the best example I can think of. (And I don't have it, and it is really tempting for the reason you just gave.) I actually overheard two people talking about it at a coffee shop today, and three people talking about it on the train a couple weeks ago. I can't think of any other game that has been like this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Many players have become "patient gamers". What are games people might miss out on by waiting for sales?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This also highlights a huge advantage that popular fighting games have: the constant arrival of new players. You don't want to be the only person who picked up the game that week.

  Thankfully, there are multiple really popular fighting games out right now (at least, really popular compared to how the genre was doing a few years ago), which is great.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Many players have become "patient gamers". What are games people might miss out on by waiting for sales?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  For me, the only reason to jump on a game early is if it's necessary for there to be a thriving multiplayer community to enjoy the game. That's something you would miss out on by waiting for a sale. That early stage, where everyone is still figuring out how the game works and finding new strategies, can be fun. But I rarely play multiplayer games now, so I just skip that and I don't mind.

  If it's a singleplayer game, there's no reason to jump on it early -- and certainly not to enjoy it as a technical spectacle. It'll look just as good five years from now.

  I remember replaying the original Half-Life in 2008 for its ten year anniversary, and thinking, "This is still fun, but the graphics are almost distractingly outdated." But when I replayed the original Mass Effect from 2007 just a couple years ago -- which was more than ten years old then -- I thought it looked just fine.