Jesus Christ, did people REALLY not know holding down the PS button turns it off? Same for the ps3 controllers, and Xbox controllers.

Just picked the base game up on EGS (my second purchase there), for $8 after using my leftover $10 coupon. A friend did the same, we’re just figuring out when we can both play it co-op, as we’re both “essential” tech workers.

WaltC wrote on Apr 7, 2020, 10:17:
These Win10 stories are becoming amusing. I installed that update on 3/23/20 (xxx335) and it's caused no problems at all. In fact, that seems to be the case with every single problem TechRadar has made a fuss about in the last few months...;) Often, as well, TR seems confused about what the difference is between the Insider's beta-testing of Windows and the standard commercial releases for the general markets. The site is not terribly credible in that regard, I fear.

I've always wondered how people end up with all of these odd issues. I'm 99% sure it's due to them using low end / ancient hardware, or weird devices, or having disabled some of Win10's functions ("they're spying on me!!!1!"). We see people in our shop all the time who want us to "speed up" their Core2Duo laptop, and they absolutely won't accept that it's at the end of its life.
Win10 has been a surprisingly reliable platform on the four machines I have here. None of them are even running a DDR4 platform, as the 4th gen i7s are still reliable workhorses. Maybe when Ryzen switches sockets for its 5th gen chips, along with supposedly changing to DDR5, it may be time for an upgrade.

The computers thing? Oh yeah. I work in a repair shop and the number of people bringing in ANCIENT machines they dug out of a closet in desperate hope they could do their job on it is RIDICULOUS. Then we tell them OF COURSE you can't get your windows 98 computer upgraded to 10, and they get angry. Others bring in clearly demolished laptops (how do they get that bad?!?) and are SHOCKED that we charge ACTUAL MONEY to fix them.
We're refurbishing laptops as fast as we can, to get them out for sale to these same people. We're out of monitors, webcams, any "business-required" devices are long gone. Just recently, the people working at the local GM facility, bored out of their minds, have realized WE SELL GAMING MACHINES.
Our shop is busier than it's been for a decade. We're considered "essential" because of the huge amount of people needing said machines to do their jobs. Unfortunately, it mean that customers are more demanding and less capable of understanding even basic instructions. When their company's IT department is overworked, they expect US to fill in for them (no kidding), asking how to use proprietary software and then call us idiots for not knowing anything about it.

It's fun and infuriating.

Slick wrote on Apr 5, 2020, 00:02:

Sepharo wrote on Apr 4, 2020, 19:23:

So the Pinball FX3 series has inherited the licence to make the old classic Bally, Williams, Stern, Gottlieb etc.

I didn't know that, I knew Pinball Arcade had lost them years ago but there were rumors that each were doing their own thing with various pinball devs.

I've got like 500 hours in Pinball Arcade, I love the recreations.
Pinball FX series has always felt slightly faker to me but it's still pretty good.

I feel ya, FX3's in-house tables just feel like a videogame, and all the extra nonsense they add to the "real life" tables take away from the experience. At least you can turn all those effects off, like the 3D characters, neon ball trails, and score pop-ups like a JRPG.

They released Circus Voltaire, Arabian Nights, Medieval Madness, and Theatre of Magic on FX3, which are some of my fav tables. Unfortunately you have to buy them in 3-pack bundles which come with garbage tables :/

I miss Star Trek TNG, Ripleys Believe it or Not, and some others from Pinball Arcade.

Pretty sad that neither company has ever released 4k versions for PS4 Pro/Xbox One X. Very disappointing. They have them on Steam, so the assets are done, absolutely no reason to port them to console. Games just feel better with a big TV and a controller IMO.

Steam link solves this issue.

Xero wrote on Apr 4, 2020, 19:04:
Remakes and remasters are all the rave these days. Damn though, this isn't even 10 years old and getting one..? The hell?

It’s called “creativity bankruptcy”.

Kx, why do you need 30 days return policy? Steam’s two weeks or two hours one seems fine. I suppose “30 days or 2 hours” is also fair, and you’re not suggesting they have one without a played-time limit, are you?

Turns out I still had a $10 coupon! Picked up Journey to the Savage Planet, as did a friend, for $8. Should be a fun adventure!

Mordhaus wrote on Apr 2, 2020, 02:50:
I wonder where all that Epic money went? Did they not sell some copies on Steam as well, or did people boycott them after their CEO deep-throated Sweeney and vomited the party line about how Epic was going to be the savior for devs?

I think people saw the reviews, saying it doesn’t innovate at all and is basically the exact same game as the first two. I was bored out of my mind halfway thru BL2, only finished it when friends wanted to play co-op. If they make a Bl4, they need to redesign the gameplay and add more variation to it. Just “tons of guns!” isn’t enough.

RedEye9 wrote on Mar 27, 2020, 18:22:

fakespyder wrote on Mar 27, 2020, 16:04:
Worthabuys gameplay video to me really highlights how immersive VR must be. I love the way he opens a door with one hand while gingerly sticking his pistol through with the other.

[url=]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKO3WJpvV9Y[/url]
/The end of the video made me genuinely smile for the first time in a over a week.

So I started watching and when he didn't know the name of the manhacks at the beginning I was a little perturbed. But I stuck through till the end and you were right.

Stupid question; what is the inventory management. The continual grenade juggling looked annoying and awkward.

You get two spots for items, one on each wrist. Grenades are SUPPOSED to be hard to come by, and you have to choose if you're going to take a self-healing syringe or a grenade for each. They do that so that when you're reloading, which is done by reaching back over your shoulder (into your backpack), you'll only pull out the ammo for THAT gun.
Ammo inventory is done by dropping clips over your shoulder into your backpack. Alyx will say out loud when she's low on clips (take one out, she'll say "only three left" or "last one!").

Just finished the game, took about 14 hours, and I missed some stuff even though I THOUGHT I was quite thorough.

Valve never, EVER said "We guarantee our games will never need advanced equipment to play". In fact, Half life 1 and 2 required hefty rigs when they came out, I don't see what the difference is here. Their goal with each HL game was to push gaming forward, and Alyx is no different.

If you don't want to get a VR kit, go watch someone else play it on YouTube. It'll be a far more authentic experience of the game than if you played a hacked together, absolutely feature-devoid version of it.

Slashman wrote on Mar 26, 2020, 15:15:

HoSpanky wrote on Mar 26, 2020, 12:35:
They'll then use these completely broken logic conclusions to determine that VR is terrible, since they can't even imagine that the headset and controls are absolutely key to making the game spectacular.

Maybe that right there is the whole problem with VR.

I wouldn't call it a problem -with- VR, but it's definitely a problem -for- VR.

Most of the friction is from people who haven't tried it, and yet have already made up their minds about it. Or, worse, they've tried cellphone VR, which is awful, and assumed that was how PCVR works. It's where most of the "VR makes me nauseous, even using teleporting" comments come from.
Then there's the assholes who put their "friends" in PCVR, and force them to do rollercoasters and other intentionally nauseating experiences. That's PRECISELY how you get people to think VR is sickening, but I've read a disappointing number of accounts of this being done.

I've had somewhere in the range of 3 dozen people try VR using my setup. Every single one of them was awestruck, even my tech-grouchy MOM. Each person wasn't shown the same things....I tailored the experience to what level of gaming/electronics prowess each had. My mom was never put into any time-restrictive games, but into exploratory experiences. Meanwhile, my nieces were put into TiltBrush, where they went nuts painting things. Friends with gaming experience were put into game types that interested them.

Now, out of those 3 dozen or so, how many bought VR headsets? Four of my friends now have headsets, although one of them had already purchased his without trying my setup. I'll be conservative and say that probably two of them found it compelling enough to buy the hardware.

That sounds like a bad percentage, but it's not. If you take friends out on your boat, how many of them would you expect to go buy a boat because of how much fun they had? Right now the main issue for VR is perception, and EVERY person who tried my setup had a blast. Not one of them would say VR isn't neat; it's fucking magical. As headsets drop in cost and setup friction (the Quest is definitely heading in the right direction), I'd bet a couple more of those 3 dozen people ends up with a headset of some variety.

Anyway, INSANELY huge wall of text tl;dr: You really need to try VR prior to passing judgement on it, otherwise you're arguing from a platform of ignorance.

I wonder how people will manage the tripmine defuser in 2D. It's a 3d puzzle with a VERY short timer.

Other puzzles could probably be done over time, as there's usually no time crunch. They'd be infuriatingly difficult, but rarely are they "you die if you fail". Well, mostly. You can see where they used to have two-handed requirement puzzles in the game that were toned down for those complaining that they only have one hand to work with. If Valve finds that only a handful (hurhur) of people actually use the one-handed mode, expect their next game to demand both hands.

What will happen, though, is people will use a 2D mod, and complain that it doesn't look like a AAA game (because AAA games don't have to squeeze a solid 90x2 FPS), the combat is too easy (it's designed to compensate for human imprecision), and the levels are claustrophobic in design (VR works best when things are close up). They'll then use these completely broken logic conclusions to determine that VR is terrible, since they can't even imagine that the headset and controls are absolutely key to making the game spectacular.

so, which publication listed this game as their GOTY?

opie wrote on Mar 24, 2020, 19:39:
FYI: the "trial" is still 63+Gigs to download. #makegamesthatfitonDVDsagain

#makegameslooklikeshitagain

LurkerLito wrote on Mar 25, 2020, 07:44:
Always wanted to give this a try. Finally got it and I can't run it. It looks like it's one of those games that can't handle high core/thread counts. Setting affinity doesn't work, looks like if you can do more than 17 threads it just crashes immediately on start according to old steam forum posts. To run it you'd have to boot windows to a limited mode using msconfig. So uninstalled.

That makes 2 games I know of that can't handle high core counts (this and Technomancer). It always surprises me when a game made after 2010 can't handle high core counts while games made in the 1990's handle it fine like Baldur's Gate, Fallout, etc...

Super weird. You'd assume it'd only use as many as they programmed it for, and extras wouldn't be an issue. I stopped programming prior to multicore being a thing, so I dunno how deep the issue is, if it's a simple error that the programmers could fix if they bothered (or if the dev studio even exists now), or if it's some deep-rooted problem that would take days of poring over code to fix in several places.

aka_STEVE wrote on Mar 24, 2020, 08:08:
Pretty sure the real reason is 1 word = lazy , or complacent.

They don't have any members with the ability or the drive to work years long on any kind of a game anymore.... If it can't be completed in a week or two, like a 'hat' or a 'skin' for an already established game... why should they bother.?

They spent 4 years on HL:Alyx. What's this trash you're spewing?

* REMOVED *
This comment was deleted on Mar 24, 2020, 18:48.

lol I did the same thing in Alyx. The markers are right at the beginning, work on a window and has a dry eraser too. Works exactly as expected, as does almost everything in the game so far.

Keep right on with your invalid complaints against VR. Tomorrow, I'll be playing the new Half-life game. Meanwhile, you'll be watching videos of it on Youtube, not understanding why it's slower paced and using that as a crutch to help you feel better about missing out on it.

If it gets stellar reviews, you'll claim reviewers are only saying it's amazing because of some agenda. If it gets so-so reviews, you'll say it's flat-out awful and the worst thing to ever happen to gaming. Either way, it'll help you sleep at night.

In a few years, when you finally pick up a VR headset, you'll kick yourself for being so closed-minded. But you'll never admit to it.

VR isn't going to replace monitor gaming. It'll be another way to game, with its own types of games. If you want to play those games, you'll need to pick up the hardware for them. It's literally that simple.