RogueSix wrote on Sep 3, 2024, 19:08:

Eldaron Imotholin wrote on Sep 3, 2024, 12:41:
Chornobyl! You goddamn barbarians!

^ this ... and you are being too kind by calling anyone still using the Russian spelling merely a "barbarian". I could think of quite a few other choice words for such complete ASS CLOWNS (par for the course for an uneducated PC Gamer idiot "journalist" tho).

That said, I'm glad that the S.T.A.L.K.E.R devs made it but, man, those drab and depressing Eastern Bloc games just aren't my cup of tea. I could never get into the various S.T.A.L.K.E.Rs and only barely into Metro.

I blame it on my 1980s socialization in West Germany with a strong US bias and my aversion to visiting relatives in the GDR (German Democratic Republic a.k.a Soviet-run East Germany for the non-boomers here). Those trips to GDR also had drab and depressing written all over them and the border guards were complete fucksticks if I've ever seen a fuckstick in my life. What a bunch of completely humorless assholes.

Those fuckers even STOLE totally harmless 'The Three Investigators' cassette tapes and Mickey Mouse mags from me and my brother when they searched my dad's Mercedes Benz (in reality those border guard shitcocks were just jelly of the car!).

I dunno... the whole setting just is not for me. I wish them the best of luck and I'm sure the game will do well because there is a demographic that actually loves the Eastern Bloc setting for some mysterious reason but it's a hard pass for me, no matter how "downright gorgeous" it is supposed to look according to PC "Bullshit" Gamer.

I hear ya! That said, I love the stalker series. Been gaming for like 40 years maybe longer and the stalker games are the only titles that I've replayed and some more than twice using mods. (Not counting Vic 20 or Apple 2 days.)

Metro and other titles gave me the vibe you're talking about, but I powered through thinking of stalker. Bought Chornobilite waiting with this one and nope, I just can't.

The Stalker series has that special something. Walking around was never pointless or tedious, you needed everything you found (sooner or later). The world reminded you of the importance of exploration and made sure you where rewarded. (No far cry / borderland moments even though loot is key to survival)

Playing was like reliving the tension from the first alien, predator or die hard movies as a kid, but I'm in control.

The new tech may make the outdoors more enticing, but the indoor areas will have that feeling.. (I have had days where I avoided certain areas just to have a different feel/mood)

Not trying to sell you on the game, it's just a rare gem that I've encountered over the years.

Last thing. I'm the same with The Witcher series. Tried and tried, but hard pass. C'est la vie as we say here.

Not surprised. This is a tricky one to adapt for the big screen or TV. I think they would have to town down the cartoony side and insert it and the humour Deadpool style. Just my take.

As for fallout..yes they did a good job. I got a bad vibe first half. Same happened when I played it, just like when I started BioShock. It went away of course. Then I had to resign cause I abused the fast forward and missed close to half. (Played the game back in the days so it was easy to fill the blanks).

Beamer wrote on Aug 6, 2024, 10:00:
I am so confused by the "I use another service, therefore it isn't a monopoly" arguments.

Microsoft got nailed for IE, but there were other options.

An illegal monopoly doesn't need to control 100% of the market. That's an unreasonable expectation.
I'm also surprised at all the defenses of Google. Have people not realized how bad search has gotten? Google has shifted nearly all its efforts to competing with Amazon, so Search has shifted from learning things to buying things, which take you to very different places. Even Image Search has shifted from giving you images to product listings. And reverse image search went from giving you the image elsewhere to giving you places to buy something that looks like something in the image.

It's trash.

Exactly, anyone who was around when the MS/IE thing went down should've seen this coming. Non story for me since I've been telling folks this was going to happen for so long.

Google knew it was coming and didn't care. They (owner/excom) were already on a path to make enough $ short term not to care, ever.. Plus they are out of the equation enjoying stress free profits after getting out and diversifying/lthe ong game.

Now for those that followed and more specifically those who followed and investors etc. They will pick up the mess and take the short term hits. The pyramid is like the triangle offense lol.

Not living or a citizen of the US, but I still find this interesting. Like someone already said, this feels like they just want to cover their backside because they know something will happen sooner or later. Cheaper than addressing root causes.

Also, it's called Gaggle?! Makes me wonder if there's a message in there. To many say 'so be it' when reminded of how much Google shops, slurps and scrapes. The same people add that they know and don't care. They just want the full ecosystem experience. Let's see if this goes to court, I would not be surprised that a few complainants loose if the Gaggle or school district lawyers ask them about their personal devices and Google integration and follow up by saying and demonstrating that Google and social media is doing similar things. Won't even go into app permissions.

Anyone that's been interviewed for a certain security clearance level or above in the last 20 years probably thinks we've all been in police states for a long time. When the agency ask you about a random college party in a NATO country decades ago and they already have the names of all those who attended..(the subject/army kid only knew a few, they had all the names).

Bottom line, this is just sad for human kind. A good reminder that important positions are staffed from the same pool of humans as we see going about our daily personal business..

Like was already said, not sure they can recapture the feel of bygone eras with remakes. They often turn out to be adapted to the day's flavor.

P.S. My name is Nobody, my fav of the genre and childhood favorite and no remake please. (The original West world though not same genre IMHO is another western that I really enjoyed as a child).

Burrito of Peace wrote on Jul 3, 2024, 12:22:
Surely I can't be the only one to have figured out how to trivially defeat the Death Angels.

I probably used a similar strategy 35 years ago to defeat a middle school teacher and Principal. To much free time and cheap musical bday cards can be dangerous in the wrong hands lol.

With regards to Canada, I would add N.B. English sounds the same as everywhere else in the country, but the variations on French side can be huge.

Based on my observations, French seems to have bigger variations, but little usage outside New Brunswick and Quebec. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia French can throw off we'll travelled francophones that have no issues with international accents.

I'm probably oversimplifying things, but here is my general view.

They have the lore, weapons, gameplay. Why not keep that as a base and build on it by fleshing out the environment. For example, imagine a map like in Far Cry with good physics and a destructible environment. The game could evolve and force players to decide if they shoot and cause a structural collapse that imprison or crush them. Players can analyze the environment and trigger a rock slide to slow down or divert someone skiing away..

I OC so I live testing the best looking stuff, but I would still prefer to see this implemented. BFBC2 was a blast, I used to shoot railings to jump behind attackers rushing me. I also remember laughing when I lead my squad on a stealth mission just to hear the other team put c4 after waiting for us so settle in... Heard the beeps and just had to laugh and say well played after getting crushed.

Anyways, I feel like this about all titles. Been gaming since the early 80s and feel like we're stuck on graphics. Gamers and games will evolve if the sandbox evolved. It has to be done correctly so flattening the map isn't and option (no more ammo resupply because no bridges or no power grid to feed the respawn or to power radar for a safe deployment/drop..

I guess I should get back to work after posting this poorly written essay lol.

I get that things change with time, but this is an example of why I only play ttitles with a server list with an option for to joing the one i prefer. Yes, i still prefer the days when folks ran servers. Matchmaking doesn't improve anything for me. Cheaters, greiffers and biggots got booted on the spot. Last but not least, playing on clan servers always brought good and fun challenges.

Hmm looks like another disjointed rant on my part..back to work now.

Just reading the name "MicroProse" brought back memories. Saved $ walked home for lunch in grade school just to be able to order F-15 Strike eagle.

Good thing my bro was a few years older. He was flying and i handled the keyboard. Only light was from the monochrome screen..

Read the manual in class for a week lol. (Had saved & bought a stick the previous year..no Internet so a kid calling computer stores to see if he can order through them). That store remembered me.. 9y later, bro's gets his first IT job and that store mentioned getting calls from a kid who would send money orders and hand written orders).

Anyways, just reminiscing..

Prez wrote on Feb 18, 2024, 15:44:

Online games have queues sometimes, that's not new.

It is a fact of life - that used to be isolated to MMO's and multiplayer-only games like Overwatch. I'm sorry - I will not accept that "this is just how it has to be". That's demonstrably false. There's no non-corporate, non-monetization reason whatsoever for there not to be dedicated servers that I will accept. If people are okay with that, that is perfectly fine. You do you. Just don't pretend that those of us who refuse to put up with this shit are crazy, because we have played and are still playing co-op and multiplayer games that don't require us to be allowed to play the games we paid for. It's frustrating, because this game looks like it is a lot of fun. I want to be clear; I am not putting down anyone who decides that this isn't a factor for them. That's their choice to make.

Well said! I've yet to see the advantages of the current approaches vs what we had in the early Quake/UT days. Never had to wait, plus griefers, bigots and cheaters were dealt with before the round/game was over. No friends list just join the server with people worth gaming with playing or do a round of clan servers to test your skills etc.

Didn't even know this existed. I was happy for 5min thinking that i was finally going to retire The Div 2 (not into games as a service). Div 2 made consider this 3rd person ish shooter (FPS guy).

They could've done everything the div 2 failed to do, but here we are.

Last BF game was a bust. Nothing with good DM for me to go old school on some current gen gamers who could technically be my grand kids (time flies, but still pretty quick @ 50). Just a sad period with only div 2 to scratch my competitive itch.

Cram wrote on Jan 8, 2024, 13:49:
Bold NVidia numbers, particularly on Alan Wake 2 which I'm playing right now, on the 4080 Super when compared to the 3080ti, which I'm running.

Will wait for reviews... Would consider the upgrade and selling the 3080ti if those numbers pan out, which they won't.

Yup, they are probably showing best case with frame generation. Been waiting for the next gen so running a refurbished 3080. Could've had a 4070 for the same price, but not sold on the tech since it could introduce some interesting input lag.

Will wait for the 5000 series and see AMDs response and go from there. (.. realistically, I'm probably getting a 5080ti or 5090 if those lines continue).

?! Didn't expect this type of passion lol,..

Anyways, not a lawyer, but I'm old enough to remember the MS court cases or their outcome.

Been telling folks on wear os threads that demanding/expecting google to make all the apps didn't make sense because of the very concept addressed by this case, the MS cases etc.

Wow, not even reading what the fuss below is about. Elections looming somewhere I guess lol.

Cutter wrote on Dec 6, 2023, 23:50:
Why would anyone trust Google with their DNA to begin with?

Exactly, plus DNA is shared by family members. They release that info to companies not realizing what they may be doing to anyone related to them..

Fingers crossed. Played the last one despite it's flaws. Felt like the 90s getting HOTAS to work early on. Finally a mech game after a long wait and so many cancelled titles.

Hope we can build our mech inventory, arsenal as the story progresses, joystick/hotas support and environments worthy of the franchise. The $ in next Gen consoles might motivate someone to make something good. The tech is there to get it done.

Like with the next stalker game I'm gonna stop myself from thinking and hope for a nice surprise when the time comes.

The 2 billion deal that fell apart, same thing is happening in boxing. Guys were salivating over 100 million dollar paydays for 1 fight, now it's all gone. Won't get into the politics.. From the comments, most know who got played, how and why.

Love the game, it went from stop gap to my main source of gaming. It's about loot and loadouts you create, they added expertise to add a little more juice to the gear owned. New game mode doesn't even use your gear so what was the point? The power plant mode where run and run to the next objective.

Hope I'm wrong about how this works. If not, I'd take a ut99 hoard mode with my gear with the option of 4 or 8 player teams and all the difficulty levels from challenging to legendary. They can reused control points as maps and we have to hold..

Rhett wrote on Jul 21, 2022, 20:54:

Darks wrote on Jul 21, 2022, 19:31:
GR was a game no one was wanting. They should also pull the plug on the Division game that's similar.

Agreed.. but I just saw an ad for it, for the mobile version. So... Ugh. Screw that game, give Division 3 or Division Survival game.

And they need to re-evaluate GR games, so I hope this is a good sign. Breakpoint and Wildlands were just too empty and arcade-y.

I'm still amazed that i actually loved playing a 3rd person shooter like Div 2, but it was so badly managed it's beyond words. I'm old now and given what i've seen in my career (non gaming), I should expect this stuff..

RRP is different. I accompanied a relative to buy a stroller and we were shocked to see the same stroller a 15min drive away and the RRP was at least 50% lower. Yes, i'm aware of the local sales variable. I figured that one out seeing an elderly couple arguing with staff at Mcdonalds cause the bill was 75 cents more than in their borough.

That said, not my field of expertise and the laws prob allow this behavior. It's just sad to see all the people getting fleeced since prices are higher around say downtown gov offices and the downtown core isn't exactly rich.