nfreak

@nfreak@lemmy.ml

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After GOTY pull, Clair Obscur devs draw line in sand: 'Everything will be made by humans by us'⁩ ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah this is something that keeps getting completely lost in this conversation.

  The assets in question were from development during 2022-2023 at the latest. GenAI image tools at that time were extremely primitive compared to what’s out there now - remember DallE-Mini? That’s the kind of thing they were using. And because these tools hadn’t breached containment yet, literally no one was talking about ethical issues yet. Sandfall was basically just experimenting with brand new tech long before it was “good” and long before anyone was talking about it.

  Now? It’s good to see them committed to avoiding it. GenAI is a plague and should be treated as such. But 2022-ish was totally different than today.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The biggest video game stinkers of 2025, according to Metacritic⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I was already leaning against getting a Switch 2 when they first announced it, but advertising a tech demo as a paid product sealed it for me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  A contractor used it for placeholder background assets in 2022 when the best genAI tech available was DallE-Mini and literally no one was even remotely aware of any ethical concerns yet.

  Like I get that time feels nonexistent since 2020 but people seem to forget genAI was literally not even a known thing until 2024 at the earliest.

  Today genAI and all those who support it in any capacity deserve to rot in hell, and it shouldn’t even be used for placeholders or concepts at any stage in the process. That’s a given. But why are we applying 2025 standards to something clearly done at a time before anyone knew anything about this shit?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  GenAI shouldn’t be used in any part of the process, including concepts and placeholders.

  That being said, the assets that slipped through in E33 were from 2022. The most powerful publicly available genAI tool at the time was fuckin DallE-Mini, which basically just spit out fuzzy messes. None of the ethical concerns were common knowledge yet, Altman and his ilk were basically nobodies at the time, this was far before any of the current tools and companies that are driving everything to hell.

  On top of that, there’s a dogshit article going around where Sandfall says they “use a small bit of AI” internally, and elaborate that they’re referring to Unreal machine learning tools and such, not genAI.

  Fuck genAI, fuck Altman, and fuck anyone who intentionally uses any of this shit today, but the E33 case is a literal non-issue. They had 2022 fuzzy garbage slip through the cracks, immediately removed it, and there’s absolutely nothing to indicate that they’re using the modern, problematic tech today.

  The only issue here is that there’s no reason for it to be considered an indie game. That’s it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Also based on development timelines, these couple of textures were likely from the DallE-Mini era, long before anyone was even talking about ethical concerns with the tech and before fuckass Altman was a known name.

  There’s another article going around where they say they use a “little bit” of AI but they’re very obviously referring to Unreal tools and regular old machine learning.

  This whole thing is dramatically overblown. Absolutely fuck genAI and every data center should be bulldozed over. But this is a huge case over literally nothing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨One of the most hilarious 2000s indie game tutorials.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  God I forgot about this one. Spent so much time with this back in high school before Clone Hero took over.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your opinions of using Pi-hole for DNS within a homelab environment?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve thought about switching to Technitium but dealing with network tools is a whole can of worms I don’t want to open up again until PiHole or Unbound shits the bed on me lmao. PiHole’s working just fine for what I need it to do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do we have No Man's Sky fans here?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I think this is why it never quite clicked with me. It’s a gorgeous game and it’s really come such a long way, but personally I could use a bit more direction.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Any games I missed in the last 21 months?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Silksong surprise dropped this September after 7 years with like a 2 month heads up

  Clair Obscur Expedition 33 came out of absolutely nowhere and is a work of art in every way

  Deltarune chapters 3 and 4 finally launched, 3 is fun but 4 is incredible.

  I think Balatro came out in that timeframe, and CloverPit in a similar vein this year (though the latter’s most recent update is frankly terrible and hopefully most of the charges will be reverted in the next update)

  Ball X Pit becomes more of an idle game once you make progress, but it’s a great little casual take on Breakout, with a fair bit of grinding for completion.

  Eden Ring Nightreign is an interesting take on the formula and IMO a far better game than its original counterpart

  Alan Wake 2 may have been 2023, my memory’s a bit fuzzy, but I think if anything they dropped a decent sized update last year.

  Mycopunk is a fantastic early access FPS, coop emphasis and super chaotic

  Path of Exile 2’s early access is phase is finally nearing its end. Game has solid bones

  Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is pretty underrated, first modern game in the series that builds on the classic NES formula instead

  Antonblast is a great little Wario-inspired platformer. Not as speedy as Pizza Tower, but really tight.

  Yakuza Pirates I guess, though I’d argue it’s legitimately the worst game in the franchise. It’s not bad but it’s not good.

  Witchfire is another early access FPS about to hit 1.0. It’s been out for a few years now but they’ve been really cracking down on the updates lately.

  These couple years saw a huge resurgence of casual party-based games. Lethal Company, REPO, and Peak are all fun with the right group, though popularity of the first two is dwindling last I checked. A bit of a fad but they’re fun.

  I’ve definitely missed a handful here and got my years wrong in some places, but these have been some standouts for me lately.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Left 4 Dead co-creator is directing a mysterious co-op shooter for JJ Abrams' production company, and Sony's going to publish it: "We hope to deliver a bold, innovative experience"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It feels like so many devs and studios have been trying to bring back the magic of that era but L4D was such a product of the times. Hard to imagine any similar games in that vein succeeding today.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Because this list is almost entirely made of and written by AI slop lmao

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Last Epoch players turn on the action RPG for announcing a paid DLC class, tanking its Steam reviews: 'go play Path of Exile instead'⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  After ditching D2 last year well past the 10k hour mark, I’ve been bouncing around a bunch of different games, mostly working through the backlog but also looking for a long-term grind to scratch that same itch. Out of everything I’ve tried, PoE2 and Warframe feel like the only ones doing live service “right”, especially the latter. Between both games, the only MTX gripe I have is PoE2’s stash tabs.

  Last Epoch had a ton of potential but the team were in way over their heads and forced to start cashing in, and the Krafton buyout was the nail in the coffin. It feels like they just flat out didn’t have the budget to keep it going.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Last Epoch players turn on the action RPG for announcing a paid DLC class, tanking its Steam reviews: 'go play Path of Exile instead'⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  As soon as Krafton bought them out it wasn’t just downhill from there, it was a steep drop off a cliff. The game had so much promise but got royally fucked.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Last Epoch players turn on the action RPG for announcing a paid DLC class, tanking its Steam reviews: 'go play Path of Exile instead'⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Everything is cosmetic last I checked aside from stash tabs, which granted should be earnable in-game, but it’s nothing like an entirely MTX-only class

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plex’s crackdown on free remote streaming access starts this week - Ars Technica⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  When I first set up my server this year it was a VERY easy decision between this and jellyfin. Why would I ever go with the corporate, closed source option?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Keeping .yaml files up to date...⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I set this up a while back (and recently moved to Forgejo, see the update note at the beginning of the article):

  nickcunningh.am/…/how-to-automate-version-updates…

  Probably a tad overkill honestly but it works amazingly well, and turns every potential upgrade into an approval process so nothing will update when you don’t want it to.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Immich Is Now Stable!⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Their usage is basically just the same old machine learning that’s existed for ages, long before the genAI bubble started. They really should avoid the buzzword for accuracy’s sake but it’s far removed from all the LLM generative dogshit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What game is a guilty pleasure of yours?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For a bit it was Destiny Rising, I quit D2 over a year ago but DR does genuinely do a lot of things much better than the base game and directly addresses a lot of my core complaints that made me quit after 10k hours in the first place. Stupid mobile gacha game with predatory monetization out the ass, and I was shrugging aside the handful of AI NPC voicelines.

  Needless to say I came to my senses and dropped it entirely on a whim. Can’t support the AI bullshit, I found I’d spent much more than I thought on the game already, and the endgame is entirely just p2w or get a handful of mats you need every 2 weeks.

  That entire franchise is just a warehouse full of monkey paws

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your favorite Metroidvania?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You know at first I didn’t really think it would be considered one, but looking back you’re absolutely right. I really need to replay those games.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Figured I'd join in sharing what I'm playing- my platinum team ☺️⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I love how so many of these old games has custom servers up and running. Metroid Prime Hunters apparently has a thriving community too (though I left the biggest discord as soon as I joined because it looks the lead admin is literally a DHS nazi 💀)

  The bigger hurdle really is the DS’s wifi compatibility since WEP is so outdated and insecure.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨iRobot’s revenue has tanked and it’s almost out of cash | "Roomba customers are understandably concerned about the impact these current financial troubles might have on their home cleaning robots."⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve been eyeballing this, doesn’t seem too difficult for most compatible models either. Might be a little after Christmas project

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sony cracks down on Concord custom servers, issues DMCA takedowns on gameplay videos⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Considering how much Bungie has fucked over their one game and its playerbase for years and seem to keep finding ways to double down on it, I never had any faith in Marathon from the beginning.

  What’s wild is this is far from the first time that studio’s been caught for art theft too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sony’s Concord Is Playable Again Thanks To Fan-Made Custom Servers⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Tbh the marketing and price tag are what killed it. The game itself was actually pretty fun, played a lot like Destiny 1 pvp and really didn’t feel like a hero shooter at all (which is a good thing). The abilities complemented the gunplay, not the other way around, and movement was crisp.

  Firewalk had a great core, but Sony fucked it up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A bit of a tangent, but tbh I feel like Half-Life Alyx was a perfect example of where they can take the franchise, but being a PC VR title (and one that really leans heavily into the tech and loses a ton if played with non-VR mods), it didn’t have nearly the same impact as the rest of the franchise. It was definitely innovative but not in a way to appeal to the mass market.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve started playing it and it hooked me for a bit but once it really opens up I’ve been struggling to stick with it. Very interesting premise and characters so far though, I have no idea who can actually be trusted and that feels intentional.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mario Kart DS was released 20 years ago today on November 14th, 2005⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I remember getting in so many stupid internet arguments over this shit as a kid because I couldn’t keep up with it LMAO but looking back it added a skill ceiling to this game that I can’t say for sure if any future game in the series really matched.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Subnautica 2 and inZOI publisher Krafton launches voluntary resignation program for employees as it transforms into an “AI first company”⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  God I forgot about that one too. I feel so bad for that team, they put out a banger out of nowhere and keep getting thrown to the wolves.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Subnautica 2 and inZOI publisher Krafton launches voluntary resignation program for employees as it transforms into an “AI first company”⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Huge shame to see Last Epoch get bought out by these assholes just before all this too

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a huge part of why I quit Destiny 2 entirely. A game that doesn’t respect the player’s time and pads it with RNG on top of RNG to extend playtime feels awful.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If it were more linear akin to their older games and dramatically reduced the visual clutter of most bosses, it would’ve been perfect, but those two things brought it way down imo. These sorts of games excel in smaller, more linear but interconnected environments.