Quetzalcutlass
@Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world
- Comment on Take a shot of vitamin M and keep fighting, Soldier! 17 hours ago:
Metal Gear Solid had a weird halfway version of this: you would automatically eat a ration and heal when taking a fatal hit, but only if it was equipped in the active item slot. It was always fun to get an unexpected game over because you forgot to swap items back before a boss battle.
- Comment on Keeper - Official Announce Trailer 23 hours ago:
Same here. Though considering how the last attempt at a Dungeon Keeper revival turned out, it might be a good thing it’s not…
At least we have War For The Overworld.
- Comment on Day 323 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing 4 days ago:
I could never get into Stellaris, or most other Paradox games for that matter. I have a thing where I want the complete experience on my first playthrough, and Paradox’s DLC practices are like anti-catnip for me. I can’t enjoy the base game because I keep thinking of what all I’m missing out on, but the game with all DLCs is overwhelming for a newbie.
Side note, I got excited seeing this post’s thumbnail because I thought you were playing Starsector. Great game if you haven’t picked it up yet, one of those indie games that does a half-dozen genres and does them well.
- Comment on True story 4 days ago:
Bric indeed hard.
- Comment on Cyberpunk 2 is now in preproduction, CD Projekt says 1 week ago:
Could you remind me what features people were upset about? I stayed away from most of the drama since CDPR has a long history of releasing a free major upgrade a year or two after release that fixes everything people complained about.
I remember the dev diaries being pretty open about dropping features during development, like the RC drone turning from a staple of your kit into something shown off once in a mission and immediately forgotten.
- Comment on EA Cancels Black Panther Game, Closes Cliffhanger Games - IGN 1 week ago:
I’d really rather gamers focused their energy into showing support for the developer groups making cool projects, than specifically deriding any works made under publishers they dislike.
The thing about EA is they have a long history of acquiring the developer groups you’re talking about, then mismanaging them into the ground before dissolving them entirely. I know just as many if not more only exist because of EA and their funding, but it’s hard not to feel bitter when many of my favorite studios no longer exist due to their incompetence and greed.
- Comment on Cyberpunk 2 is now in preproduction, CD Projekt says 1 week ago:
Every major Unreal Engine upgrade sucks for the first few years. Eventually it’ll get optimized (the source is available and studios regularly contribute to it) or the documentation will start pointing out pitfalls and ways to increase performance. We’ll just have to suffer through a deluge of chip-melting games until then.
I wish there was more competition in the high-end game engine scene. Unreal tries to do all of the things all of the time and suffers for it, Unity requires tuning to look good and its management keeps shooting itself in the foot, Godot isn’t nearly there yet and has a bare-bones approach that requires devs to implement nearly everything from scratch, and the dozens of in-house engines that have been open-sourced lack the community or documentation quality to foster significant uptake.
- Comment on Cyberpunk 2 is now in preproduction, CD Projekt says 1 week ago:
The Saints Row devs are cackling right now.
- Comment on Cyberpunk 2 is now in preproduction, CD Projekt says 1 week ago:
If CDPR hadn’t forced the team to crunch to get the game running at all on PlayStation, it probably would have been much more polished on release. A lot of the bugs you see in YouTube glitch compilations were due to this over-optimization (like NPCs vanishing or changing models when you looked away for a second).
I wonder how much better the game and its reception would have been if they’d dropped the last-gen console support during development. Those were the truly awful versions; the PC version was about even with Bethesda’s launch day jank.
I also wish they’d properly managed expectations. The PC release was buggy and missing promised features, yes, but a lot of the hate came from it being a game with an open-world city with guns and driving but not mimicking GTA’s systems.
- Comment on Cyberpunk 2 is now in preproduction, CD Projekt says 1 week ago:
I can’t not read AV as ΔV. Damn you, KSP!
- Comment on What level of interest do you have in "empire building" location based games? 2 weeks ago:
Produced by Niantic-ed Off.
- Comment on Which of the Half-Life Expansions are your favorite? 2 weeks ago:
There’s a weird level of hatred for the HD pack. Almost every video I’ve seen on the expansions shits on it and tells you to disable it.
- Comment on Which of the Half-Life Expansions are your favorite? 2 weeks ago:
It was originally a bonus campaign for the Dreamcast port of Half-Life, which is why it was so short. When that port was canceled Gearbox turned it into a full paid expansion despite it having a fraction the content of Opposing Force.
- Comment on SAG-AFTRA Files Unfair Labor Practice Complaint Against Epic Games Due To A.I. Darth Vader 2 weeks ago:
You’re getting downvoted, but the move to fully-voiced dialogue absolutely killed the level of reactivity in games and AI is one of the few ways to bring that level of detail back without bloating budgets even higher than they already are.
Voice acting is expensive and anything players don’t hear is “wasted”, so you rarely see meaningful branching in storylines anymore outside of the biggest budget games. Look at the freaking encyclopedia that was Morrowind dialogue compared to the sound bytes used for conversations in Oblivion and Skyrim.
I’m not a fan of how AI has been handled by corporations, but if they set up a system where voice actors (and other creatives) could be hired to train models, get paid for every project that uses them, and have the right to look at and refuse projects the same as if they’d taken the contract normally, I’d be all for the AI revolution.
There’s a middle ground where generative AI is fair to creative talent and opens up a world of possibilities. It’s unlikely, but hopefully one day we get there.
- Comment on SAG-AFTRA Files Unfair Labor Practice Complaint Against Epic Games Due To A.I. Darth Vader 3 weeks ago:
TL;DR: their argument is that using AI trained on an actor, even with said actor’s blessing, is unfair because it shuts out actors who used to get work by imitating that voice.
- Comment on What level of interest do you have in "empire building" location based games? 3 weeks ago:
I think dueling is still technically legal in a few places.
- Comment on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone - Enhanced Edition Trailer 3 weeks ago:
Modification of any other file types (like scripts, configs or libraries) is not allowed and the files will not be loaded by the game
It seems they’re blocked by the game itself.
- Comment on Hideo Kojima proposes a game where the protagonist forgets abilities if players take too long a break 3 weeks ago:
MUDs and early MMOs used to have skill rust. It sucked and was universally hated. There’s a reason most games don’t implement something like this, but developers seem to insist on bringing up long-buried ideas and calling them innovation.
- Comment on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy Enhanced Edition announced with Steam Deck support 3 weeks ago:
Bad news for modders. From their FAQ:
The types of files that can be modified:
- Animations
- Textures
- Models
- Videos
- Sounds
- Shaders (only on PC)
Modification of any other file types (like scripts, configs or libraries) is not allowed and the files will not be loaded by the game and accepted by moderation.
So it looks like they are dropping the vast majority of existing mod support despite the new Steam Workshop integration. I guess we won’t see updated versions of Anomoly or any of the other mods that kept the game alive and popular all this time.
The limitation on modified configs is especially baffling. In the old games they were the primary way of fixing the game’s jank, and you shouldn’t be able to make anything malicious with them (short of bad entries that crash the game).
IIRC the old XRay engine is open source (or the source leaked and the devs gave the okay for modders to improve it), so here’s hoping someone can reverse engineer and backport any major improvements this edition adds to the originals.
- Comment on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone - Enhanced Edition Trailer 3 weeks ago:
Bad news for modders. From their FAQ:
The types of files that can be modified:
- Animations
- Textures
- Models
- Videos
- Sounds
- Shaders (only on PC)
Modification of any other file types (like scripts, configs or libraries) is not allowed and the files will not be loaded by the game and accepted by moderation.
So it looks like they are dropping the vast majority of existing mod support despite the new Steam Workshop integration. I guess we won’t see updated versions of Anomoly or any of the other mods that kept the game alive and popular all this time.
The limitation on modified configs is especially baffling. In the old games they were the primary way of fixing the game’s jank, and you shouldn’t be able to make anything malicious with them (short of bad entries that crash the game).
IIRC the old XRay engine is open source (or the source leaked and the devs gave the okay for modders to improve it), so here’s hoping someone can reverse engineer and backport any major improvements this edition adds to the originals.
- Comment on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy Enhanced Edition announced with Steam Deck support 3 weeks ago:
The press release noted that if you already have the originals on PC you will get the Enhanced Editions free, and the originals are included for anyone who purchases the Enhanced Editions.
- Comment on Derek Smart unveils ACE Platform, a multi-blockchain ‘virtual town hall of engagement opportunities’ | Massively Overpowered 4 weeks ago:
As is tradition.
- Comment on Just months after reportedly cancelling two live service games in development, Sony announces a new PlayStation studio with a live service game in development 4 weeks ago:
I don’t think it’s actually gotten much worse, it’s just slowly made its way out of mobile games and into regular gaming. A F2P gacha game on Android being scummy is nothing new, but an $80 (soon to be $90) AAA game double- and triple-dipping into your wallet with paid season passes and FOMO banners and all that other junk, plus adding in-game advertising? That’s still relatively new to consoles/PC and putting that crap in paid games represents a new level of greed.
- Comment on Just months after reportedly cancelling two live service games in development, Sony announces a new PlayStation studio with a live service game in development 4 weeks ago:
Not that video specifically, but the others were along the same vein. They were all completely open about how they abused psychology to get people hooked, and spoke about players using dehumanizing terms like assets or cash cows. It was disgusting how shameless they were.
- Comment on Just months after reportedly cancelling two live service games in development, Sony announces a new PlayStation studio with a live service game in development 4 weeks ago:
I’m still salty they turned Marathon into an extraction shooter. Marathon, one of the all-time narrative greats!
Why make millions releasing games people want when you can potentially make billions by abusing addiction research to keep users playing long past the point they enjoy your game?
(I’m vaguely associated with the gaming industry. I knew things were about to go downhill when I started getting invites to lectures on retaining players and extracting money by using unethical psychological tricks - this was nearly fifteen years ago)
- Comment on Just months after reportedly cancelling two live service games in development, Sony announces a new PlayStation studio with a live service game in development 4 weeks ago:
*Monkey’s paw curls*
Your wish has been granted. Look forward to our upcoming Syphon: Extraction, an exciting extraction shooter with none of the gameplay you remember!
Also on the docket is Ape Escape Infinity, a gacha featuring all your favorite apes and up to several minutes of gameplay. Now supports importing NFT apes, because our execs are still pushing crypto as the next big thing for some reason!
- Comment on Minecraft’s VR support is now gone 4 weeks ago:
Isn’t there a major graphics update coming soon? Maybe they didn’t feel like it was worth testing and maintaining VR compatibility with all the changes.
- Comment on What are some good examples of "Where the fuck do you go" kind of games? 5 weeks ago:
The funny thing is being enslaved by the religious zealots is one of the best starts you can pick in the game. You’re stuck in a quarry doing backbreaking work (which levels strength), are fed just enough that you won’t die (acquiring food is normally a nightmare in the early game), and most importantly the guards won’t (intentionally) kill you, only knock you unconscious if you misbehave. Which matters because taking damage is how you train toughness, making it one of only a few places on the entire world map where you can train it without a high risk of death.
And it gets better. Every night after your shift you can sneak out and practice lock picking on doors and slave shackles and assassinating sleeping guards (since failure only results in a beatdown), which combined with the strength and toughness grinding leads to you becoming a ninja powerhouse by the time you escape.
10/10, would lead a slave uprising again.
- Comment on There's a new Honkai game on the way with characters from Star Rail and Impact 3rd, and it sure does look like a Pokemon clone 5 weeks ago:
A Pokémon-like spinoff of Honkai? Isn’t that basically what Star Rail was, with its type system and turn-based battles?
Pokemon doesn’t seem like the only game that HoYoVerse is going after, as there’s been leaks and other social media accounts spotted to do with a game that might be in the vein of Stardew Valley.
Gacha crops, gacha tools, gacha townsfolk, paid assistants… This sounds awful and like they’ll make a fucking mint off it. There’s so much room for unethical monetization in the farming genre!
- Comment on "You Wouldn’t Steal a Car”... But Would You Pirate a Font? 5 weeks ago:
I copy+pasted my lunch without thinking and overwrote my clipboard; guess I’m sans vehicle now.