Video Game Chat Thread - Pre-Alpha Experimental Version

[Lovecraft's Cat]

Shadowrun Returns was good for that.

Dead Man's Switch is too easy. Hong Kong is lethargic. Dragonfall is best. I rolled a Troll Adept, which is almost a contradiction in terms. I named him Mauer, which is German for "Wall." I did not train him to use a katana, which halved his damage output. No cyberware apart from the Adrenal Pump you normally get. This is essentially playing the game on hard mode. Mauer was slow on his feet and couldn't use firearms. I tried to max out his STR without sacrificing the needed buffs. By chance, he landed the killing blow on the last boss, ramming his spiked gauntlet through Audran's chest repeatedly.

I remember getting the Shadowrun Collection on Epic Games when it was free. Might have to check them out sometime.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

I picked up Days Gone, and it's kind of nice.

I've had really bad luck with video game purchases the last 2-4 years. Cyberpunk 2077 was just the stepped on cherry from a wino's ass of the entire shit sundae that has been video games lately.

Textures stay good, no real popin problems. The Hordes looks like fucking hordes. Most games, unless it autokills you, I get good enough to take on the undefeatable hordes pretty quick. The LOTR games pretty much devolve into an Orc Murder Simulator for me where I can just do chained kills in one area for like an hour. Not this time, it's run or die.

I like the story so far (I'm probably 2/3rds through) and it's had some surprises. Not in "what a twist" but more like "Holy shit, the writers weren't fucking lazy as shit".

One thing that's REALLY gratifying?

The people in the encampments appreciate what you're doing. None of this Skyrim/Fallout/Whatever bit where everyone acts like your dogshit when you come rolling in wearing power armor/dragonbone armor, wielding weapons that can level a town, and people act like complete assholes.

The morally gray things are morally gray. NPC's make decisions I don't approve of, but they feel like decisions made by NPC's because of characterization, not just shit writing.

I'm having fun. There's probably lots of bitching by people.

Riding's smooth, the landscape is fucking gorgeous, the graphics as far as characters and outfits go are a fuckton better than CP2077 or Last of Us Troons. I don't mind the scavenging, the skill system is easy as fuck to handle.

I'm running it on a Radeon R590X, a 8 core AMD black, an SSD, and 32GB RAM, and a 36" Ultra-Wide Screen monitor and even the hordes render smoothly.

One thing, if you remember Omega Man and I Am Legend, you'll recognize the Freaks within the first 1/4 of the game. So far, they haven't referenced either (or the book), but I get a kick out of the resemblance.

If you don't want to grab it at full price, keep an eye out and grab it later.

I was pleasantly surprised for a Sony/Playstation port.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I picked up Days Gone, and it's kind of nice.

I've had really bad luck with video game purchases the last 2-4 years. Cyberpunk 2077 was just the stepped on cherry from a wino's ass of the entire shit sundae that has been video games lately.

Textures stay good, no real popin problems. The Hordes looks like fucking hordes. Most games, unless it autokills you, I get good enough to take on the undefeatable hordes pretty quick. The LOTR games pretty much devolve into an Orc Murder Simulator for me where I can just do chained kills in one area for like an hour. Not this time, it's run or die.

I like the story so far (I'm probably 2/3rds through) and it's had some surprises. Not in "what a twist" but more like "Holy shit, the writers weren't fucking lazy as shit".

One thing that's REALLY gratifying?

The people in the encampments appreciate what you're doing. None of this Skyrim/Fallout/Whatever bit where everyone acts like your dogshit when you come rolling in wearing power armor/dragonbone armor, wielding weapons that can level a town, and people act like complete assholes.

The morally gray things are morally gray. NPC's make decisions I don't approve of, but they feel like decisions made by NPC's because of characterization, not just shit writing.

I'm having fun. There's probably lots of bitching by people.

Riding's smooth, the landscape is fucking gorgeous, the graphics as far as characters and outfits go are a fuckton better than CP2077 or Last of Us Troons. I don't mind the scavenging, the skill system is easy as fuck to handle.

I'm running it on a Radeon R590X, a 8 core AMD black, an SSD, and 32GB RAM, and a 36" Ultra-Wide Screen monitor and even the hordes render smoothly.

One thing, if you remember Omega Man and I Am Legend, you'll recognize the Freaks within the first 1/4 of the game. So far, they haven't referenced either (or the book), but I get a kick out of the resemblance.

If you don't want to grab it at full price, keep an eye out and grab it later.

I was pleasantly surprised for a Sony/Playstation port.

Days Gone PC Data Collection Policy Is a Privacy Nightmare​

Sony's latest first-party game to make its way to PC, Days Gone, is facing flak for its data collection policies. Caught by Steam user Higgsterman (via IGN reader Aworas), Days Gone reportedly tracks every keystroke a player might make on their computer while the game is running.

Other data collected by Days Gone while it is running includes details on folders and all of their contents regardless of file type. According to users on Reddit, there is no way to properly opt out of any sort of data collection.

Players, however, have found workarounds to be able to play Days Gone without having to sacrifice their privacy. The methods involve essentially blocking the game with a firewall so that, even though it collects data, the data can't be transferred to a server.

According to Sony Bend, the draconian data collection policies in place are supposed to prevent the use of cheats and hacks. Players don't approve of this since cheating or hacking a single player game is a player's own prerogative, since there's no multiplayer balance that would be upset, and griefing isn't really possible in a single player game.

Days Gone is the second Sony first-party game to come to PC, following Horizon Zero Dawn. Leading up to its release, studio Sony Bend revealed that Days Gone on PC will not support Nvidia's DLSS technology, which essentially uses machine learning to keep visuals looking good while offering higher frame rates. Ray-tracing is similarly not supported in Days Gone on PC.

Days Gone is available on Steam, priced at Rs. 2,999. If you're curious about why that's poor value, here are some details.

https://in.ign.com/days-gone/159155/news/days-gone-pc-data-collection-policy-is-a-privacy-nightmare

 

[Marissa Moira]

https://in.ign.com/days-gone/159155/news/days-gone-pc-data-collection-policy-is-a-privacy-nightmare

The data collection thing is allowed by Steam's TOS and it's not a unique situation.

However it's being used entirely for the marketing of Playstation so they can collect user's parts data and what manufacturers they use so any mid generation update to the PS5 or future playstation will factor in parts that will draw people from PC over to console. Steamboxes never took off because the PS4 existed, so there is a lot of logic behind it. It's also routinely done by all popular smartphone games so many people have probably already done something similar without realizing it.

So really any and all future PC ports are all going to be designed like this. They're only giving PC some crumbs so people will eventually want the full experience.

 

[Indian J.C denton]

Is just cause 3 any good or valkyria Chronicles both are on sale on psn

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

https://in.ign.com/days-gone/159155/news/days-gone-pc-data-collection-policy-is-a-privacy-nightmare

Of fucking course.

Can't have one good fucking thing at all. Ever.

Son of a bitch.

 

[Lovecraft's Cat]

I've been thinking about getting Morrowind for the first time. What mods so you guys recommend? Should I get it on Steam or GoG?

 

[Pissmaster]

Steamboxes never took off because the PS4 existed

Steamboxes never took off because they were overpriced, underpowered Debian OS PCs aimed at a market that doesn't give a shit about computers. Imagine buying one blind as a console gamer because you read a bunch of idiots online busting a nut over Steam and PC gaming in general:

• over half of everything on Steam won't work on your machine because it's not running Windows, and Proton won't be released for several years
• everything you try starts up in 4:3 stretched and you think that's just how it's supposed to be because you don't know about changing graphic settings
• some games have controls that just don't work despite the store page saying they work with your Steam Controller, but you don't know that you're supposed to configure all the controls yourself
• then you buy a brand new game that just came out and surprise surprise it runs like total shit and looks terrible compared to the console versions because it's one of those retarded games that defaults to everything running at high settings but at a low resolution and has shit like godrays enabled by default

I don't know what they were thinking. It's kind of reminiscent of the PlayStation TV in a weird way: both had next to no marketing, game libraries where a lot of titles just won't run, and the only people who cared are enthusiasts that had better ways to play their games anyway.

Is just cause 3 any good or valkyria Chronicles both are on sale on psn

Just Cause 3 is pretty good and worth $3 if you want a fairly shallow but giant sandbox where you goof off and destroy buildings in a tropical environment. If you've already played Just Cause 2, it's just the same but prettier.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Of fucking course.

Can't have one good fucking thing at all. Ever.

Son of a bitch.

Well it wouldn't have happened if people didn't insist on going all digital.


Uplay and other things attached to steam have served the same function. Even modern battle.net collects player data like that.

Steam even decided to end windows support for 7 because they track what OS people log in and use.

 

[Fagnacious D]

Steamboxes never took off because they were overpriced, underpowered Debian OS PCs aimed at a market that doesn't give a shit about computers. Imagine buying one blind as a console gamer because you read a bunch of idiots online busting a nut over Steam and PC gaming in general:

• over half of everything on Steam won't work on your machine because it's not running Windows, and Proton won't be released for several years
• everything you try starts up in 4:3 stretched and you think that's just how it's supposed to be because you don't know about changing graphic settings
• some games have controls that just don't work despite the store page saying they work with your Steam Controller, but you don't know that you're supposed to configure all the controls yourself
• then you buy a brand new game that just came out and surprise surprise it runs like total shit and looks terrible compared to the console versions because it's one of those retarded games that defaults to everything running at high settings but at a low resolution and has shit like godrays enabled by default

I don't know what they were thinking. It's kind of reminiscent of the PlayStation TV in a weird way: both had next to no marketing, game libraries where a lot of titles just won't run, and the only people who cared are enthusiasts that had better ways to play their games anyway.

and yet the Google Stadia is still so much worse in every manner.

 

[EmpGulcasa]

The data collection thing is allowed by Steam's TOS and it's not a unique situation.

However it's being used entirely for the marketing of Playstation so they can collect user's parts data and what manufacturers they use so any mid generation update to the PS5 or future playstation will factor in parts that will draw people from PC over to console. Steamboxes never took off because the PS4 existed, so there is a lot of logic behind it. It's also routinely done by all popular smartphone games so many people have probably already done something similar without realizing it.

So really any and all future PC ports are all going to be designed like this. They're only giving PC some crumbs so people will eventually want the full experience.

Nobody who doesn't already have a PS5 is going to drop PC for PS5 even if Sony upgrades it a little bit. By the time they release the PS5 Pro or whatever, PCs will have upgraded further. Trying to compete with PCs is a stupid, stupid move for consoles.

and yet the Google Stadia is still so much worse in every manner.

Stadia isn't great but at least it runs the few games it has well. I 100%'d Jedi Fallen Order and have just started Judgement (the only 2 games on the thing I care about, after this I'll probably never log in again until the Judgement sequel) and they both look and run great.

Unrelated to all that, how is Star Citizen doing these days? I haven't seen it talked about in a few years. Is it still just a string of tech demos with no actual release in sight or have they made some progress?

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Nobody who doesn't already have a PS5 is going to drop PC for PS5 even if Sony upgrades it a little bit. By the time they release the PS5 Pro or whatever, PCs will have upgraded further. Trying to compete with PCs is a stupid, stupid move for consoles.

Consoles aren't competing with PC, they're the rulers of PC and have been for some time and at this point PC holds consoles back. Every new console is RT capable, every new console have a super-fast SSD, unlike PC, so games can't be built around that if they're going to be multi-platform.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Nobody who doesn't already have a PS5 is going to drop PC for PS5 even if Sony upgrades it a little bit. By the time they release the PS5 Pro or whatever, PCs will have upgraded further. Trying to compete with PCs is a stupid, stupid move for consoles.

They're targeting the people who run shit on toasters who have disputable performance among many multiplat titles. So switching to a console could be made more appealing to them if the price and performance are right. These are people who usually don't upgrade their PCs or are the ones who buy pre-builts.

And well considering we're going on 7 years of bloodborne begging there's certainly enough to warrant investigating and gathering data. This is pretty much the caveat to the whole thing. Sony of Japan is driving all avenues of the company towards somehow being in service of playstation. I mean we haven't had this much supplementary media being in production to advertise games since the late 80's and early 90's. And this is just across the board, we have a new Nintendo theme park, mario Movie, and possibly a new Mario TV series, a new Sonic TV series, a new Sonic Movie Sequel, a fuckload of HBO Playstation shows, anime being made that's based on long running game series, and possibly a crash and spyro TV series.

 

[ZMOT]

Steamboxes never took off because they were overpriced, underpowered Debian OS PCs aimed at a market that doesn't give a shit about computers. Imagine buying one blind as a console gamer because you read a bunch of idiots online busting a nut over Steam and PC gaming in general:

the main problem was there was no standard. valve's usual approach is to put something out, sit back and let the playerbase handle it, but that doesn't work if you want to sell hardware - hence underpowered shit sold at a premium to retards.
all they needed to do was have baseline hardware profiles you have to hit, so every casual knows how the games will run. I pains me to say it, but microsoft's "windows experience score" was a step in the right direction. ask yourself, why do people buy consoles? to pay more more for worse hardware with added service fees, or knowing they can just buy a game, pop it into their console, and that shit will run like in the videos? convenience is king, and it's incredible how valve missed the mark so hard when they pretty much nailed it with software (most of the time).

Consoles aren't competing with PC, they're the rulers of PC and have been for some time and at this point PC holds consoles back. Every new console is RT capable, every new console have a super-fast SSD, unlike PC, so games can't be built around that if they're going to be multi-platform.

options sweety, you know you can disable half that shit on pc, right?
not to mention the majority are indie games, but sure those totally care about raytracing and fast loading times...

 

[Groundbreaking-maize]

I picked up Days Gone, and it's kind of nice.

Nice write up, getting it as soon as it's on sale.

 

[Quantum Diabetes]

Knockout city launched and it feels like Rocket Arena part 2.

It's structured like a free to play game with lots of grindy achievements. I'd like it better if it didn't make my old Xbox overheat and shutdown every other time I launch it.

 

[Lovecraft's Cat]

Knockout city launched and it feels like Rocket Arena part 2.

It's structured like a free to play game with lots of grindy achievements. I'd like it better if it didn't make my old Xbox overheat and shutdown every other time I launch it.

Take the PC redpill

 

[Elysian]

I don't know if anybody here remembers how I couldn't get the sound to work in the Bejeweled games (or any of the really old PopCap stuff for that matter) but the sound is magically working again now. I have a theory that the issue was exactly the same one that I was having with Rune Classic - in that game the sound wasn't working until I changed the Windows 10 desktop UI scaling from 150% back down to 100% at which point it magically started working for reasons that I still don't understand. Now that I have a new monitor that's bigger than the tiny old TV I was using as a placeholder I don't have to upscale the Windows 10 UI to be able to read it better, and therefore because the UI scaling sits at the base value 100% all the time now the sound in the Bejeweled games actually works. I have no idea why old PC games on Windows 10 are so picky about screen resolution and UI size and how that relates to the sound in any way whatsoever but hey at least it works now.

 

[Massively Strong Greed]

This is some sort of ruse, right? Surely if it ever goes back in stock, it won’t be this cheap.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Take the PC redpill

So those Playstation PC ports are apparently geared towards China, India, and Russia. Those are the markets that play PC and their PC systems are shit enough to find a PS5 an upgrade to what they're using. Places like Korea and the US are not the primary markets for ports like that since they both want to buy consoles.

The next one is supposedly Uncharted 4, but yes the proud master race is nothing but Pajeets, drunks, and gold farmers.

You sit among an ever shrinking gated community, white man. It's literally South African-tier.