Flamekebab
@Flamekebab@piefed.social
- Comment on 2 days ago:
Because hardware, software, culture, incomes, demand, supply, and many, many other factors have all changed since the 1980s. It’s not a straight comparison. Inflation is a factor but it is not the only factor.
- Comment on 3 days ago:
I think it’s a little more complex than that.
- Comment on 4 days ago:
They can set the asking price to whatever they like but a lot of us cannot justify those amounts for what amounts to a toy. By this stage in a console generation I would expect a lot more games and a lot cheaper hardware. The reasons that haven’t happened aren’t of interest to me as a consumer (they’re of interest to me as a nerd!).
- Comment on 4 days ago:
No, but the price points of the current consoles are hilariously optimistic.
- Comment on Day 494 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing 4 days ago:
Eventually I plan on playing Spaghetti Kart - partly for that reason!
I would agree that the sprawling roster and tracklist are a bit much.
- Comment on 4 days ago:
That’s the thing I find amusing in this thread. Consoles are a known quantity and it needs to either compete or undercut them. I have a Steam Deck that I paid £320 for (brought up to £400 by the SSD I added). I would most definitely not pay more than £450 for a Steam Box. It may well cost more than that but it is a luxury and I would seriously struggle to justify more than that.
- Comment on 4 days ago:
s/backlog/library/g
- Comment on Bossware rises as employers keep closer tabs on remote staff 5 days ago:
“to make sure they’re working”
A boss’ job is not to babysit. Keep the higher ups off the team’s backs, run the management infrastructure needed for stuff like project planning, stuff like that. I am not at my desk for my whole work day. However not once has anyone been less than very pleased with my output.
Forcing presenteeism rather than a results-based approach is utterly idiotic.
- Comment on 5 days ago:
…and those are just flying off the shelves!
- Comment on Gaming Pet Peeves 5 days ago:
Whilst I didn’t enjoy the mechanics of Control, I was very impressed at the settings it offered. I could essentially turn off combat if I wanted. Yes, it won’t be the same game experience, but if I choose to play that way - let me!
In the old days we had cheat codes for this stuff. I cheated my way through a lot of games and then revisited later without cheats. Some of those became my favourite games of all time (Theme Hospital and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 both spring to mind).
- Comment on Day 494 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing 5 days ago:
I’ve not played a newer or older Mario Kart game with better fundamentals. I’d like more tracks for it but other than that it’s perfect. The newer ones are pretty but there’s too much going on in many of the tracks (and I’m really not fond of the flying/water thing they do either).
- Comment on I see the patterns 6 days ago:
- Comment on Return to the year 2000 with classic multiplayer DOS games in your browser 6 days ago:
I never encountered a single Windows 9x game that wouldn’t run on Windows 2000 Pro. It was my primary OS in 2003 or so, having moved from Windows 98 SE.
- Comment on Return to the year 2000 with classic multiplayer DOS games in your browser 6 days ago:
XP? The bloated offspring of Windows 2000?
- Comment on Return to the year 2000 with classic multiplayer DOS games in your browser 6 days ago:
I ran loads of normal (Windows 9x) games on Windows 2000 Pro.
- Comment on Return to the year 2000 with classic multiplayer DOS games in your browser 6 days ago:
To be fair, Red Alert came out in 1996 and was available for DOS.
Red Alert 2, not so much. DOS ports fell off hard by about ’98, so this headline is weird.
- Comment on Ex-leader of Reform UK in Wales sentenced to 10-and-a-half years for taking pro-Russian bribes 1 week ago:
I meant the Reform lot are worthless arseholes. Anyway, I’m Welsh!
- Comment on Ex-leader of Reform UK in Wales sentenced to 10-and-a-half years for taking pro-Russian bribes 1 week ago:
A good start. Now get the rest in the bin - worthless arseholes.
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 1 week ago:
I’m sorry that I don’t remember many story specifics from thirteen years ago. I remember the group I was working on behalf of seemed utterly awful so I very much didn’t feel like I was on the side of “the good guys”. The whole system seemed rotten on all sides and I didn’t feel like I was doing anything positive regardless. I recall the boatman just being an arse towards me throughout and having the opportunity to off him at the end was at least satisfying. He does straight up betray the player in high chaos, so traitorous is an apt description.
As I said, my complaint was more with framing that the specific consequences.
I’m reminded of an episode of American Dad in which someone needs to kill someone (…anyone) for plot reasons.
“…and you’ll be doing your killing with this.”When I played Dishonored it felt like I was given tools like that and then reprimanded for my lack of subtlety. If I’d been told “Use these only as a last resort as subtletly is the priority” and I’d used them then I’d have felt like I’d just barely scraped through a mission. Instead I did a thorough job, from my perspective, eliminating threats to the group I was working for, avoiding raising any alarms, and then being told I did a shitty job. You gave me a toolset geared towards extreme violence, why the shocked Pikachu face?
I think it’s really cool that the game is setup so that it can be traversed non-violently (I can’t recall whether there are any targets that absolutely must be killed, but I remember most, if not all, had non lethal options). Given the tools I had though, I didn’t feel like going that route, and I really didn’t appreciate the mission givers acting like I was doing a bad job when I used the tools I was given. It felt very much like “Well the proper way to play this is the sneaky sneaky way - but I suppose deep begrudging sigh we’ll allow you to do things this way” was the message the game communicated to me.
I wasn’t cheesing the systems presented, messing with pathfinding bugs, that kind of thing. I used the tools given in a canonically acceptable way. Don’t give me a loaded gun and then complain about a loud bang!
“This person is a problem. We’ve left some tools for you."
(events transpire)
“Oh my gods, what did you do?! They’re dead!”Sorry, was I supposed to have a little chat with them, convince them to mend their ways? Was the collapsible sword for cutting cake? The gun for firing into the air in celebration of an understanding? Those exploding knife mine things for… uhhh.
These are my perceptions and recollections, over a decade later. They may not be entirely accurate, but it’s what I remember. The game left me with a lasting impression that it disapproved of my approach and I found its mixed messages deeply irritating. I didn’t feel I was being mechanically punished and I was aware that being more violent would increase “chaos”, but I felt that should be my choice for tackling the problems and the mission givers should treat it Corvo making decisions in the field that he felt were appropriate. He wasn’t there to just be a triggerman, as far as he was concerned, but to make decisions in his area of expertise.
If you disagree with my experiences I can’t stop you, but that was what I took away from the game. If it failed to communicate things to me it’s certainly not because I lack media savvy or gaming experience. I’m annoyed that I didn’t have more fun with it - I played to the end because throughout I hoped that I would enjoy the next bit more. Then it was the end of the game and a bunch of people were telling me that my opinion was wrong.
I’m really not interested in dragging this out further.
…because I knew that if you continued to engage I would feel compelled to do so, rather than going to bed or whatever. Dishonored annoys me to this day. I do not get the love for it. I’m glad the rest of you had such a good time with it and annoyed that I didn’t get that enjoyment. I put the effort in, where’s my fun?!
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 1 week ago:
It sounds like I’m incapable of expressing my point in a way that you can understand.
It is not that there are consequences I take issue with. The chaos system is fine. It’s a matter of framing.
I’m really not interested in dragging this out further. How about you just decide that I’m dumb and we both get on with our lives?
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 1 week ago:
Let me put it another way then:
They made the creative choice to build the game that way. I think it was a bad choice and hurt the narrative experience significantly and can think of multiple better options that would have made it a better game. Evidently I am very much in the minority on this but my experience playing the game is just as valid as anyone else’s.I’m not some strange creature that has emerged from an undersea cave with no understanding of narrative conventions or game structures. I’ve been playing games since the early ‘90s, including plenty from the ‘80s, and have continued playing since, across many genres.
I think the way they chose to structure their game could have been better and I was actively annoyed by the way they went about handling “high chaos”. Other games before and since did it better.
You are more than welcome to disagree with my opinion! Most people seem to!
…but it is not me being some idiot who doesn’t understand gaming and I’m frankly rather tired of being told I’m the problem here.
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 1 week ago:
A better equivalent would be a GTA game giving you a mission with a tank and then the mission givers seriously, not for comedy, giving the player shit for doing anything but driving on the road avoiding all cars.
My problem is with the tonal dissonance of giving the player weapons designed to be fun only for the game to complain when they’re used.
The opposite being a Bond game. Really he should only be using sneaky spy weapons but he’s given a ridiculous arsenal and expected to use it. If you give me a machine gun then why would you expect me not to use it?
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 1 week ago:
To be fair, that’s the best explanation I’ve seen. It’s been too long for me to remember the specifics.
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 1 week ago:
Whilst it’s been twelve years I remember returning to the between mission hub and characters literally complaining. The boatman in particular.
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 1 week ago:
I think you’re confusing getting and agreeing with. I understand what it was going for, that doesn’t mean I like it.
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 1 week ago:
Much like in Spec Ops: The Line the player can just stop playing. I mean, you’re not wrong, but it seems silly to me.
Some games handle this by making it the ultra-violent approach essentially non-viable but that’s not how Dishonored decided to roll.
the narrative framing sets you up to be a highly-trained stealthy assassin
I quietly took out guards rather than avoiding them. No alarms were raised, etc.. Seems pretty stealthy to me.
Ultimately I just didn’t appreciate the mixed messaging of “here are tools for extreme violence” and “why did you commit extreme violence?”. If non-lethal means were such a priority why was I given tools that heavily favour lethality?
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 1 week ago:
I’m reminded of a show I was watching and lampshading. One of the characters is exhausting to watch and the other characters comment on how much the character sucks. That’s great an’ all but I’m still stuck watching this character suck. Commenting on it doesn’t make it go away.
Similarly I could not use the tools the game gives me but they’re there for me to use. If I’m not supposed to use them then I might as well instead play something that wants me to play it!
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 2 weeks ago:
I grew up playing Fallout 1/2, Deus Ex, stuff like that. Dishonored framed its morality system as “chaos” rather than good vs. bad but ultimately I had characters complaining about my methods. You brought in someone to specifically be an assassin and then you’re outraged that he kills people? I shot the damn traiterous boatman in the head at the end of the game.
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 2 weeks ago:
I think I’m the only person who played through the entire game and didn’t like it. Yes, yes, I should probably have quit but I’m a bit of an optimist and hoped it would get better.
It felt to me like the game really didn’t want me to kill anyone. However it had any number of fun ways to kill people and then scolded me when I was naughty enough to (gasp) use them!
Also the rats were bizarrely low poly compared to everything else. Odd gripe, perhaps, but given how crucial they are to the setting it felt strangely shit.
- Comment on Microsoft confirms Windows 11 is about to change massively, gets enormous backlash - Neowin 2 weeks ago:
Mobile-first seems to be the future 🤢
