I'm definitely a little confused about Tango - I'm hoping we'll at least get more details come out about why Microsoft shuttered them. I mean, Ghostwire Tokyo was... whatever, and I could understand Microsoft not wanting to have them working on that kind of scale again any time soon. It wasn't bad by any means, but it was fairly expensive and perhaps didn't do as well as they hoped. But I'm surprised they didn't want to just downsize the studio and aim for another HI-FI Rush-esque game (or sequel).
But Arkane Austin being closed definitely makes sense. Not only was Redfall a disaster, but by the time Redfall released, 70% of the people who'd worked on Prey had left the studio. (Largely because the studio's president had left the studio just after Prey, I believe, rather than because of the Microsoft acquisition of Bethesda.) All that was really left was the name.
Those and reducing the requirements for the early blinds definitely stand out to me, yeah. Reducing the early blinds is a very good change - I think most of my early losses aren't necessarily because I've played badly, but rather because it's too early in the run to have found something to build around or to put any combos together. This change makes you less beholden to RNG in the early game, and also allows you to think a little more about your endgame strategy rather than focusing on surviving right now.
“I found it increasingly difficult to look my NHS colleagues in the eye and my patients in the eye and my constituents in the eye with good conscience.
“And I feel that the NHS deserves better than it has at the moment in terms of how it’s run and governed.
“The party I was elected into valued public services, it had a compassionate view about supporting the more disadvantaged in society. I think the Conservative Party today is in a very different place. Its focus is not on delivering or supporting high-quality public services.”
As much as I disliked Cameron's government at the time, I don't think it was close to the levels of nationalism and right-wing ideals we see from today's Conservative party. I rarely agreed with their approach, but I could at least understand that there were genuinely good-faith Tory MPs back then who simply had a different approach to things than what I would have wanted to see. Maybe they were just better at hiding it, but they did feel less sleazy and corrupt, and more like they actually wanted to work towards changing things for the better rather than just tearing everything down and lining their own pockets.
I don't think it's that, considering he's standing down at the next election anyway:
He said he would not seek re-election to the House of Commons at the next general election. But, writing in the Observer, he says he envisages a role advising the Labour party on its policies on mental health while focusing more on his NHS work.
Whether that advisory role would be paid or not, I don't know, but it certainly wouldn't be to the tune of £90K!
This one feels a little different. He stated previously that he was going to stand down at the next election, which is reiterated in the article:
He said he would not seek re-election to the House of Commons at the next general election. But, writing in the Observer, he says he envisages a role advising the Labour party on its policies on mental health while focusing more on his NHS work.
Defecting - and especially co-ordinating with Labour for months to time his defection and pre-arrange him joining Labour - isn't just fleeing the sinking ship so much as hanging around a little longer and deliberately trying to make it sink faster. It represents something rather than just being about saving his own skin.
It's worth noting he's standing down at the general election:
He said he would not seek re-election to the House of Commons at the next general election. But, writing in the Observer, he says he envisages a role advising the Labour party on its policies on mental health while focusing more on his NHS work.
I'd assume we'd have to wait until he was an actual government advisor before we got any figures (if at all). And yeah, advisors can do pretty well for themselves, although how much they get paid depends on how involved they are. Advisory roles can range from full-time consulting roles and helping with policy creation to "hey, can you just spend a couple of hours reading through these documents and give us your thoughts?" once every few months.
It certainly is a lot, although it's the sort of thing where, when you really think about it, you'd kinda hope it's something the government is willing to spend money on. You don't want all the best and brightest just going to private companies because they can earn 3x as much as the government is willing to pay. (Whether the current SPADs are the best and brightest, I don't know... If they are, it's certainly not reflected in the government's decision-making! But I think the point still stands that there needs to be a financial motivation for talented people to work in government rather than private businesses.)
I don't think the Steam Workshop is the issue here. I'm glad it exists, and direct downloads or snv links are still a reasonable alternative for mods that can't be hosted on the Workshop for whatever reason.
The angry customers and the state of the game are problems.
it's hard to feel sorry for people who pre-ordered because they got exactly what they paid for - a game of unknown quality and quantity of content
it's hard to feel sorry for people who bought post-release because they also got exactly what they paid for - a game where reviews detailed poor quality and quantity of content
customers being disappointed and/or wanting a refund is perfectly reasonable
people wanting the game to be better is also reasonable
people abusing the devs is not reasonable
I'm not going to defend the poor quality of the game because it's obviously bad (from what I gather, anyway - I've not played it myself) and should be improved. But I do think gamers could learn to be a little more responsible with their purchases and inform themselves before buying a game.
I'm pretty over the whole cycle of games coming out and not meeting expectations, people buying them anyway (through pre-orders or day-one purchases), people being unnecessarily rude/hostile/sending death threats to developers as if they were forced to buy the game as gunpoint. Yes, developers should try to do better, yes publishers should often give developers more time to polish up games rather than announcing the release date two years in advance and refusing to delay, but also consumers could really take some responsibility for what they decide to give money to.
these people SHOULD be putting this negative pressure on them. It’s deserved
Was it not implied I agree with that when I said:
The angry customers and the state of the game are problems.
and;
customers being disappointed and/or wanting a refund is perfectly reasonable
people wanting the game to be better is also reasonable
I'm not going to defend the poor quality of the game because it's obviously bad (from what I gather, anyway - I've not played it myself) and should be improved.
?
I don't see why that would make my opinion stupid. Yes, the studio/publisher should be held to account for the crappy release. But a big part of holding them to account should be not giving them money for it in the first place; not just handing over money and then complaining afterwards. Complaining afterwards is reasonable for the people who did hand over money, but they should also hold themselves accountable for financially rewarding a company that puts out a crappy product - they're part of the problem.
I think it's important to look for the nuance in situations and not treat everything as zero-sum. Both sides can have good points and be open to criticism at the same time (this isn't an "enlightened centrist" take, I promise!). I think a lot of discussion online does tend to strip away nuance and take the position that if you show any empathy with one side then it means you must hate the other - I do my best to avoid that!
“It’s absurd that we live in a society where people feel the urge to tell me to greet them with ‘sallam alleykum’”.
There's already a huge difference between what happened and your example here. Your example is "people saying you must do X" . What happens when it comes to gender is people asking, "please do not do X".
They're not saying you must refer to them as, for instance, she/her, but rather asking that you do not refer to them as he/him/they/them/whatever. You're free to just not use pronouns to refer to them at all if that suits you better - you can refer to them by name instead. You're left with plenty of options and only a handful of restrictions.
Your example, on the other hand, is completely restrictive; you must take this single course of action, and there are no alternatives.
For what it's worth, I do think we're in a fairly transitional stage (ha) of how we as society deal with transgenderism. I think people being made to change their pronouns in order to feel comfortable is silly. Not because those people are silly - they're just doing what they can to feel comfortable with the restrictions society has placed on them - but because society and language are silly.
Why do we refer to people by gender at times when it's completely irrelevant? Someone having a penis, or male hormones, or whatever other "masculine qualities", is irrelevant 99% of the time when I refer to them as he/him. If I say, "Donald Trump? Yeah, he's a corrupt idiot," then why does him having a penis have any bearing on the language I use there?
And why do we have such gendered roles in society? Why can't men just wear dresses and make-up and link the colour pink and still identify as men? Why can't women cut their hair short and wear baggy clothes and like engineering projects and lifting weights at the gym and still identify as women? I guarantee that if we could remove all those kinds of gender associations, you'd see a lot less trans people.
People transition because who they are and what they like, and what society says they have to be (based on their gender) are at odds with each other, and it's literally easier for them to change gender in order to be allowed to be themselves than to change society. Being trans isn't some kind of personal failing; it's a failure of society to accommodate people who deviate even slightly from its rigid roles and expectations.
The ideal future, such as I see it, is for there to be no trans people because no-one feels a need to transition - they can just feel comfortable and accepted as they are. But until then, you need to recognise that there's a societal issue and stop being a part of it. It takes such a small amount of effort on your part to use the pronouns someone requests, or to avoid using pronouns at all, and it makes such a huge difference to them to be gendered properly. So just be a decent, respectful person and accommodate their wishes and stop making their life worse.
An analogue would be: petrol stations stop being a thing as the world transitions to electric/hydrogen/whatever cars. You start working on a way to modify your car in some way to account for this - perhaps you plan on making your own biofuel, or manually converting it to a electric/hydrogen/whatever car. The manufacturer of your car hears about this, comes along to your house and repossesses your car and takes it to be crushed, despite it being something you own and that they should have no say in any more.
And if you’re getting a game 48 hours prior to release, you’re at least getting a finished game.
True. But, personally, I think it has all the downsides of pre-ordering but at extra cost. The game could be an absolute disaster (Suicide Squad, anyone?) and there's no way for anyone to know that. Not waiting to be able to properly inform yourself about what you're spending money on is so stupid.
I'm honestly reaching the point where I think pre-ordering games should be legislated against. Sure, it's only stupid people being parted from their money, but it's clear some consumers need protecting from themselves and it's only really the corporations that would lose out.
Don't get me wrong, I will probably cave at the last minute and vote SNP again for a number of reasons. Mostly, being supportive of a number of their progressive policies that I have benefited from over the years, and also because my constituency is a two horse race between them and the Tories who I will never vote for. Though...
I wouldn't spoil my ballot personally unless I felt every party right now was actively bad. I think there are a few things you should consider:
Some of the parties aren't necessarily the same, policy-wise or values-wise, as they were in the past. They might have the same name as they did ten years ago, but that doesn't mean everything else about them is frozen in time. Parties evolve, and you should judge them as they are now and the direction they're heading in rather than holding vendettas against them for things that aren't representative of how they are now. This is particularly important when parties have new leadership and direction - Labour, in particular, feels like quite a different party to how it was in 2019. Is it better? In some ways yes, in other ways no, I think. But whether you think it's better or not, I think it's distinct enough, and tried to distance itself enough from what it perceived as issues it had in 2019, that holding it accountable still doesn't achieve much. I don't think it's fair to blame Ed Davey's Lib Dems for Nick Clegg's coalition either (although I do think Clegg did a reasonable job of moderating the Tories during that time - things got so much worse once the Tories got full power).
I also think it's important to think of every election as a stepping stone to the future, rather than hoping for perfection to happen overnight. Taking the Labour party as an example, because they're the biggest rivals to the Tories on a national level: do I think things will be perfect if Labour get power? No. They don't necessarily represent my views on some issues, and I actively disagree with them on others. In another voting system, they probably wouldn't be my first choice. But I also think that if Labour gets in, things will move in a better direction. If I think about where I'd like things to be in ten or twenty years, Labour winning this election is probably what ensures the best (or at least most realistic) chance of getting there.
Don't let "perfect" be the enemy of "good". None of the options are perfect as far as I'm concerned. But Labour, Lib Dems, Greens and SNP are all good compared to the Tories, and doing what you can to help the one that gives the best chance of keeping the Tories out in your constituency is going to move things in a good direction. I think that having the chance to actually get rid of the Tories is not the time for apathy, also. I'd hate to see the Tories win again because the left gets complacent or apathetic, or starts splitting the vote because Starmer's Labour isn't perfect. Because do you know what else isn't perfect? Another five fucking years of Tory government. It looks like they're on their way out, but let's not fumble it at the finish line.
Get these right-wing ghouls out of power, and then write to your MP telling them how you'd like to see things change. Because chances are it'll achieve more than spoiling your ballot. Spoiling your ballot expresses that you're angry but it doesn't tell anyone why and it doesn't do anything to bring about change.
Personally, I would like to be able to follow individual Threads users if I so desire but not have Threads content showing up in my All feed. I don't know if that's possible with how federation/individual blocking currently works, but it would be the ideal, I think.
That sounds like a good solution. I don't want to need an account on a different platform to see Threads, but I also don't want the feeds to just be overrun by Threads users, and that seems to achieve that.
I guess the ideal situation as far as I'm concerned would be for users to be able to choose that setting on an individual basis. Obviously anyone can set up their own instance and achieve that, but being able to do it without being an instance admin would be the best.
So as per @Kierunkowy74's reply to me, limiting (basically what I described) is a feature on Mastodon already. It basically just sets things to follower-only mode on a per-instance basis. I'm not sure how well that would translate to the threadiverse, but I do think some level of opt-in integration would be best.
To go on a slight tangent: I've never used Imgur as anything other than a image hosting site, but I'm aware it has people that use it as a social network in its own right. Whenever I've hosted anything on Imgur in the past - even images that don't need any context - I've noticed it always ended up downvoted and sometimes with some negative comments, while the reception on reddit was generally far better. It doesn't bother me - like I said, I just used it as an image host - but it's clear Imgur has its own culture. Threads could be the same, and trying to merge its culture with ours could prove difficult.
I don't know what full-on federation with Threads would look like, but federating vote counts could definitely lead to Threads culture overwhelming threadiverse culture. But I assume that's also something that can be done on a per-instance basis; I know kbin (which I use) already doesn't federate downvotes from other instances, for example.
I'm not sure I have a fully-formed opinion on it all yet, unfortunately. I don't like the idea of cutting Threads off completely unless they do something to earn defederation. I think finding a way to smoothly federate with Threads could give the fediverse a boost in users that could be significant for more niche communities that haven't managed to find a large enough audience yet (because yes, I'm still missing some of the smaller communities from reddit). But I do also think there are very valid concerns about both the long-term and immediate impacts Threads could have on the fediverse.
In a message sent to staff when the job cuts were announced, Spencer said the decision was taken after Microsoft and Activision’s leadership teams “set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth”....
That's not even the big reason; microtransactions are often very lucrative (as much as I tend to dislike them). The main thing is just the COVID hangover and general economic downturn the world has seen.
during the height of COVID, people had more time and money to spend on gaming. While brick and mortar stores and quite a few service industries suffered, the gaming sector was seeing record profits and growth.
investors were also investing a lot. Crypto was booming, interest rates were really low, and a lot of investment companies were just throwing money around as a result. With gaming companies not only not being hit too hard by COVID, but also thriving during it, gaming-related investment shot up. See Embracer Group for the prime example in gaming.
like good little capitalists, these companies saw all the extra money coming in and tried to grow their companies - more staff, bigger projects, etc. They scaled up to levels that were sustainable for their newfound income and investments.
Now, not only have all of those factors been reduced, they've actually gone the other way. Consumers have less disposable income than they did pre-COVID due to rising cost of living. Investment companies can't just throw their money at absolutely anything and still turn a profit because the interest rates are much higher. And the companies all found their expenditure and growth unsustainable once the money dried up, which is why we've seen so many layoffs in gaming already this year.
On top of all that, we've seen game budgets just go up and up and up, to the point where some games are costing upwards of $200M to make. The price of games hasn't really budged that much, which means the only way for the increasing budgets to be sustainable is for sales and microtransaction spending to keep increasing. Obviously that's not happening, and until some novel tech comes along that draws in new gamers - like the Wii did, where people who didn't care about games at all were interested in getting the Wii for Wii Sports, Wii Fit, etc - I think gaming's not likely to attract too many new people.
Microtransaction scandals and less and less innovation in the AAA(A) space obviously don't help, but they're not the big reasons why the industry has hit hard times.
What does this even mean? And shouldn't it be a herb? (Not trying to correct you on it, I know you're just quoting, but I can't figure out how or why you would say an herb.)
Ahh, that would do it! I don't know if I've ever actually heard an American person say "herb" so I just assumed the "h" was pronounced like it is everywhere else! Thanks!
You can't expect 30p Lee to stay with a party for a full government term, surely?
On the one hand, I do actually like that he puts personal values and policies over party loyalty; I wish we would see more politicians be willing to cross the aisle if their party shifts away from their own values. I'm not a fan of the party system in general. On the other hand, I despise his values and policies - and those of the Tory and Reform parties - and I hope he fades into irrelevance.
This is definitely a blow to Rishi Sunak. A little over a year ago he personally selected 30p Lee as vice-chairman of the Tory party and now he's defected. That's a huge political embarrassment - and Rishi was already looking weak.
Something I hear commonly when talking to people, is the dreaded phrase "I'm non-political". Usually said to mean that they either don't know, care, or understand politics. It's likely true that a lot of these people don't understand or know about the intricacies of politics in the UK, but it's usually a complete lie that they...
Lastly, you would do well to cut down on “I” statements. They rarely engage the reader and can feel out of place when writing about a subject as universal and academic as voter apathy.
It also just sounds more authoritative if you state things as fact rather than as opinions that are subject to disagreement, or that perhaps suggest the author doesn't have the full information and is simply interpreting the information that's available to them. And if you write things confidently, too. For instance, if I began this paragraph with "I also think it tends to sound more authoritative..." then it sounds a lot more like I'm chiming into a conversation where I'm not trying to be too domineering. Starting it in a more assertive way (like I did) makes it sound like it's something that's universally acknowledged, like you know what you're talking about, and will change the way people perceive your writing.
1.0 is getting a "true offline" mode where there won't be any chat (and where a connection isn't required for server authentication). Personally, I quite like the chat and the sense of community it brings (apart from when it's filled with "D4 bad") but I can see myself wanting it turned off if the game gets much more popular and attracts a more casual playerbase.
Honestly, though, I feel like that's such a minor quibble to have - especially for a game still in beta. While Last Epoch obviously doesn't have the budget behind it that Diablo 4 or Path Of Exile has, I think it's done a great job of cementing itself as a worthwhile addition to the genre already. The developers have done a brilliant job of coming up with creative solutions to problems (both LE's own problems and problems that other games have suffered from) and I think they've laid a very strong foundation to continue to build upon going forward. The game is mechanically interesting, has probably the most interesting itemisation and by far the best crafting in the genre, and generally feels good to play.
I agree that the art style isn't as strong as Diablo 4, Path Of Exile or Grim Dawn, but I think it looks much better than a cheap Unreal asset - especially with the lighting overhaul in 1.0. And I'm glad that it isn't just another dark fantasy setting; as much as I love those kinds of settings (Grim Dawn's, especially), having the more lush, vibrant style of Last Epoch makes for a nice change.
It's not a perfect game by any stretch, but I think it's a very good game and I think it has a lot of room to grow going forward.
There's so much actually great content posted across reddit over the years, it blows my mind that people decided that was something that needed to be mentioned all the time.
I absolutely agree about Herbert not being a good storyteller or writer. I found it a difficult read simply because of the prose, and I really didn't like his use of an omniscient narrator. I don't really like omniscient narrators in general, but I found Dune's narrator especially difficult because of how freely it switches between characters. I often found that if my focus slipped even slightly, I'd realise a couple of minutes later I had no idea whose perspective the narrator was giving any more and have to backtrack paragraphs or even pages to work it out.
I think I perhaps appreciated the book more than you, but I didn't find it an enjoyable read. It certainly gave me a greater appreciation of the film, though, which I also very much enjoyed! And I'm glad I read it simply because it's such an influential book in a genre I love - it's interesting to see how so many things have build from its foundations.
Grim Dawn also has a mod called Reign Of Terror that lets you play the entirety of Diablo 2 in GD, complete with classes, skills and items! It has some differences because it's built on Grim Dawn's systems, so it has the dual-class system from Grim Dawn (with similarly laid out skill trees), item affixes work like Grim Dawn, etc, but it feels great to play! And you can combine Grim Dawn classes with D2 classes, D2 classes with other D2 classes, or just play the D2 campaign with a regular Grim Dawn build. It's great!
Last Epoch and Grim Dawn are probably most in line with Diablo, I think.
People have mentioned Path Of Exile, and I've played a lot of it, but I don't think it feels particularly like Diablo any more, even though it started out that way. It's quite unforgiving, and even a lot of experienced players feel like they need to follow build guides rather than work things out for themselves. Its learning curve is hundreds or thousands of hours long. Of course, the reason for that is that it has incredible depth, variety and complexity, which may be a selling point or a deterrent depending on what you like! I definitely like the complexity of it myself, but it's very overwhelming when you're new. The reason I don't think it's all that in line with Diablo these days, though, is simply the pacing of the gameplay. You blow up screens of enemies at a time, and your deaths are often so fast that you're not really sure what killed you.
Path Of Exile also heavily revolves around its trading economy. Item drop rates are balanced around players being able to trade for them, which makes trading somewhat mandatory (unless you're a bit of a masochist). The economy is fairly complex, with there being a lot of different currencies, and quite a lot of factors that can affect the value of an item. I'll let you decide whether you find this appealing or not - some people do, some people don't! I do think it causes some issues with the balance and progression of the game, but it's interesting to say the least, even if you wish you didn't have to engage with it.
Grim Dawn feels a little mechanically dated at this point but it's still solid. It's got some good builds, the dual-class system and constellations system make for some interesting variety. It's got an offline mode, as well as online co-op play. Its real selling point, though, at least for me, is it's absolutely soaked with atmosphere. It's very, well, grim, but the world is really immersive and it has a great setting in general with a solid story and some great lore. It also has quite a lot of mods available (including the Reign Of Terror mod I mentioned in another comment in the thread that adds the entire Diablo 2 campaign and all its classes to Grim Dawn).
Last Epoch is more mechanically interesting than Grim Dawn, I think, but it's lacking in the story and world-building. It's still in early access, although its full release is next week. It has quite a lot of depth and complexity, but it's all done in an intuitive way that means you can jump into the game blindly and work things out for yourself fairly easily. It has a good variety of skills, and the fact that each skill has its own fairly comprehensive skill tree means you can play the same skills in very different ways. It has a wonderful itemisation system that does a great job of making you actually engage with the loot you find on the floor (which is an issue in other loot games), and some of the best crafting I've ever seen in a game. The dev team also manages to come up with some really creative and somewhat intuitive solutions to things they perceive as issues in other ARPGs.
Last Epoch's biggest drawback is that its endgame is currently a little lacking in comparison to POE (which has a very rich and deep endgame, but is also a ten-year-old game that's been updated constantly). It's still far, far better than Diablo 4's, though, and will obviously only improve as more is added. Last Epoch has some truly brilliant systems in place for the devs to build off - and frankly, I still think it's great now - but it'll only get better as more content gets added over time.
I love all three games I've talked about for different reasons, and honestly, they're all well worth playing!
I heard about it when Skill Up, whose YouTube channel I have notifications turned on for, posted his review of it. Before that, I'd seen absolutely nothing about it, and I heard very little about it after that, too. I was shocked to find out it was an EA game - partly because it didn't look (visually) polished enough to be an EA game, and partly because of the complete lack of marketing I'd seen for a major publisher game.
Finding out it was an expensive flop and not just a smaller AA game they decided to put out on the side is a surprise, too.
I can definitely think of quite a few non-live-service games with an "end game" that I've enjoyed:
(Older) Pokémon games with their battle towers, where putting together a flexible team with as few weaknesses as possible is the aim.
Loot games like Borderlands, Grim Dawn and Last Epoch where I want to make new builds and test their limits against harder and harder challenges.
Factorio, where I want to optimise my factory. Although there's absolutely an argument to be made that that is the game, but I think it becomes more about player-set goals once you've launched the rocket.
All of them are either offline or have offline modes available. All of them have potentially infinite "content" if you're the sort of person who like optimising, or just being able to set yourself new targets. They're all enjoyable to play for their "campaigns" alone, but they also have very strong sandboxes that players can continue to engage with even after the game stops giving them objectives.
I don't necessarily disagree with your overall sentiment, though. I think MMO-style "end games" where you login for your daily, time-gated quests and do the same thing you always do with no variation or sense of progression (be it narrative, emotional, build-related or some other kind of progression) isn't necessarily healthy. And I dislike the way "end games" have tended to move away from being optional post-game content for people who aren't ready to finish playing yet and instead are often viewed as the main game that you have to get through the sorry excuse for a campaign/story to access.
that game is over for me once I've launched the rocket
Ahh, well that definitely isn't the case for me! I usually keep playing long after I've launched the first rocket. For me, launching the rocket is a somewhat arbitrary "ending"; it's a good objective for people to focus on - especially new players - but I don't think anything really changes before or after the rocket launch in terms of gameplay loop (and there's no narrative to change). Just like before the rocket launch, there are still things to optimise, new ways to build, etc, (some of which are supported by the science you get from launching rockets, in fact).
I suppose it partially comes down to whether you're an objective-driven player or someone who enjoys the process. For me, it's all about the process/journey, and the objectives are more of a guide than anything. If the objectives are complete and I'm still enjoying the process, and there's still room for me to enjoy the process, then I'll keep playing.
Even of that were true (which it may be), there are loot games and loot games. Personally, I want itemisation to make a meaningful difference to how my build feels to play and how it performs. I want to be able to have a unique/legendary item drop and think, "wow, I'm going to make a while new build around this".
Games where the loot is just +1 damage or 7% extra armour, and where there's no real depth to the loot, would be better off without loot, I think - I'd rather just see an armoury where I pick the weapon I want, and not have to deal with the loot scaling, enemy level scaling, etc. Save the looter aspects for games like Path Of Exile or Borderlands where loot is actually engaging and impactful.
Absolutely. I think perhaps my all-time favourite romance of any RPG is Parvati's from The Outer Worlds, where you play wingman and confidant to Parvati. It feels so much more fleshed out and intimate than any player romance has ever felt to me, despite the player only being an onlooker.
Branching dialogue and decision trees are great for letting players decide what actions to take, but I feel that giving players that level of freedom with their romantic relationships feels very limiting and shallow - especially when the player is given multiple romanceable NPCs to choose from. The fact that the player character is often a blank slate means it's impossible for there to be any real chemistry built up, too.
Give me railroaded romances between clearly defined characters where I can actually believe the characters are into each other, or give me no romances at all.
Nitter link: https://twiiit.com/DestinLegarie/status/1752363668988449004 (Now fixed!) Might have to use this link multiple times to find a instance that isn’t rate limited or check the wiki and change the url manually.
Mine, too! It really showcases the kind of narrative that is only possible with the interactivity of video games as a medium. If I could experience any game again for the first time, it'd be Outer Wilds!
It seems like targeting vaping at children has worked for them. The handful of millennials I know who vape are people who started smoking at ~14 years old before transitioning to vaping instead. I don't personally know any millennials who went from being non-smokers to picking up vaping. And the millennials I know who vape all use the rebuildable, customisable ones, too.
The percentage of zoomers I see who vape is far, far higher. A lot of them have never smoked a cigarette in their lives, they just went straight to vaping. And it's almost exclusively disposable vapes, too.
I think vaping is preferable to smoking cigarettes, but I think not doing either is ideal. And I'm obviously dead set against disposable vapes.
So yeah, in this case, "for the children" actually seems to be appropriate. And not that Sunak really gives a damn about the environment, but I think framing this as "for the children" rather than for environmental reasons is the right approach for a conservative government anyway; left-wing people will support it for environmental reasons anyway, but the government directly saying it's for environmental reasons would probably upset a segment of right-wing people who think doing anything for the environment is "woke". This way, it's seen as a good thing for everyone (except the disposable vape buyers, I guess, but it is good for them, too, even if they don't agree now).
I reckon the number of sales of the game was pretty irrelevant to them. They lived off investor money for years, and the fact that they released something makes it rather difficult for them to be sued for fraud. I suspect that's why they never took pre-orders, too - it makes it more difficult for any "false advertisement" class action suits to get any traction if they weren't accepting any money.
Here's something that isn't that widely known outside of developers/publishers: Steam holds any money from the sales of a game until the end of the following month - it makes refunds easier, it gives them time to deal with processing fees, etc. So The Day Before's devs, who said they had to shut the studio because they'd run out of money and couldn't afford to stay open because the game hadn't sold well enough, wouldn't have seen any money from the game until next week anyway. And they'd have known this - this wasn't their first game.
Unfortunately, I doubt it'll have much of an impact. Most of the properties/studios Embracer owns aren't popular enough to get people to make noise about it. And people don't tend to see the bigger picture - especially when these stories about studio closures are trickling out rather than all happening at once. I'm sure there'll be a lot of talk about it if something happens to do with Gearbox/Borderlands or The Lord Of The Rings, or if multiple studios all get shuttered at once, but other than that, I expect it'll just be small stories that continue to fly under the radar.
And regulators don't seem to care about video games unless people make noise. They get involved in things like loot box regulations or Microsoft acquiring Activision because those are big deals that almost everyone in the gaming sphere has an opinion on. But unfortunately, I don't see Piranha Bytes having issues or being closed getting enough attention for anything to change.
BREAKING: Microsoft has closed Redfall's Arkane Austin, HiFi Rush's Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda. | IGN ( twitter.com )
Balatro - 1.0.1f - Patch notes ( store.steampowered.com )
Top Tory MP defects to Labour in fury at NHS crisis ( www.theguardian.com )
Ex-health minister Dan Poulter who also works as a hospital doctor, says Conservatives have become ‘nationalist party of the right’
Garry's Mod to remove ALL Nintendo content from the Steam Workshop due to takedown ( store.steampowered.com )
Holy shit, I can't even imagine the amount of mods that will get erased. There were so many fan-mods, maps, minigames, models... Fucking Nintendo...
Bugs me when audiobook series do this ( lemmy.world )
Why is one book in the middle of series narrated by someone else? The Zoey Ashe series did the same thing. Mildly frustrating.
Cities Skylines 2: "Beach properties assets are all gone and my city is screwed. Thanks a lot." ( forum.paradoxplaza.com )
It doesn't stop. It just never stops.
Back 4 Blood suddenly has thousands more players on Steam and good ratings ( www.pcgamesn.com )
Rishi Sunak sets out plans to tackle 'sick note culture' ( www.bbc.co.uk )
These mods on their power-trips really need to stop
I just got banned from [email protected], which seems to be the biggest Linux community out there....
[Reddit] Ubisoft is now revoking licenses for The Crew ( old.reddit.com )
Star Wars Outlaws' $110 and $130 editions prompt a collective sigh from potential players tired of season passes and ill-advised early access periods ( www.pcgamer.com )
Anyone else considering spoiling their ballot in the next election?
Don't get me wrong, I will probably cave at the last minute and vote SNP again for a number of reasons. Mostly, being supportive of a number of their progressive policies that I have benefited from over the years, and also because my constituency is a two horse race between them and the Tories who I will never vote for. Though...
Conservatives set for worst election result yet, research shows ( www.theguardian.com )
Report – Unsafe: Meta Fails to Moderate Extreme Anti-trans Hate Across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads | GLAAD - might be a reason to defederate from Threads ( glaad.org )
Xbox claims mass layoffs were the outcome of a ‘concerning’ lack of industry growth | VGC ( www.videogameschronicle.com )
In a message sent to staff when the job cuts were announced, Spencer said the decision was taken after Microsoft and Activision’s leadership teams “set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth”....
Kotaku EIC Resigns Over New Editorial Edict - Aftermath ( aftermath.site )
Lee Anderson joins Reform UK after losing Tory whip over Khan comments ( www.theguardian.com )
The former deputy chair of the Conservative party, Lee Anderson, has defected to Reform UK, said the party’s leader, Richard Tice....
Skull and Bones’ price has been slashed by $25 after less than three weeks ( www.videogameschronicle.com )
The myth of being 'non-political' ( farrellperks.substack.com )
Something I hear commonly when talking to people, is the dreaded phrase "I'm non-political". Usually said to mean that they either don't know, care, or understand politics. It's likely true that a lot of these people don't understand or know about the intricacies of politics in the UK, but it's usually a complete lie that they...
Last Epoch 1.0 Patch Notes ( forum.lastepoch.com )
Reddit Signs AI Content Licensing Deal Ahead of IPO ( www.bloomberg.com )
It's almost here! (Pic of Dune 2 film on IMAX platter) ( i.redd.it )
Are there any games like Diablo but not Diablo because Diablo?
EA flop Immortals of Aveum reportedly cost around $125 million, former dev says "a AAA single-player shooter in today's market was a truly awful idea" ( www.gamesradar.com )
Personally I would not call Immortals of Aveum an AAA game. 😅...
Palworld down 1.3m players in Steam’s biggest-ever two-week drop ( www.pcgamesn.com )
Steam Next Fest is back and underway with "hundreds" of playable PC demos ( www.eurogamer.net )
If it's demos you want, today's your lucky day; Valve's thrice-yearly Steam Next Fest event is back for another outing,…
[OpenCritic] Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League Reviews (63 Top Critic Average 45% Critics Recommend) ( opencritic.com )
-Areajugones 4 / 10...
Obsidian’s Avowed Will Defy One Major RPG Trend (romance) ( kotaku.com )
It looks like Suicide Squad is going to clock in around 9-10 hours based on my capture time. Probably a little shorter if you don't do some boss fights with under-leveled characters. ( twitter.com )
Nitter link: https://twiiit.com/DestinLegarie/status/1752363668988449004 (Now fixed!) Might have to use this link multiple times to find a instance that isn’t rate limited or check the wiki and change the url manually.
Disposable vapes to be banned for children's health, government says ( www.bbc.co.uk )
The Day Before Is Now Well and Truly Dead, 45 Days After It Came Out ( www.ign.com )
Piranha Bytes, devs of Gothic and Elex, are next on Embracer's chopping block ( www.rockpapershotgun.com )