Cutter wrote on Jan 14, 2022, 14:22:
Anyone play this yet? Is it as good as Conquistador?

The demo is on Steam and I liked it enough to pre-order it (30% discount helped). I've not played the other two games though.

asmodeos wrote on Jan 13, 2022, 14:42:
Star Citizen allows me to get out of a virtual bed, go to my space ship, leave the hangar, the planet, travel to another, land, get out of my ship. Load some cargo on the ship. That is physically put a box from the new planet on my ship. Not just an inventory menu! Fly back to my apartment. No loading or interruption whatsoever. That is incredible.

The game runs well on my RTX 3080, i9 10900k, 32GB system. It’s an experience.

Apart from the moving a digital representation of a box that you can physically move as it were and prettier graphics, welcome to Empyrion Galactic Survival (among many other survival games out there). A game where you can do all that, while building your own ships, bases, go mining, farm food etc..

I saw that they added in a new Grav Beam Tool to move the cargo faster. Perhaps they realized people would get bored with playing a space delievery man that has to unload all the boxes by hand all the time.

Jivaro wrote on Dec 27, 2021, 23:09:
Valheim is the kind of game I can't play right now due to a lack of available time...so it will go on the backlog list for now. Nexus has a modding section for it, which sounds fun as well.

I got about 50 hours out of it so I can't complain too much but Valheim needs mods these days to make it interesting and fill in the gaps of the game design. It also needs some better server admin support

eRe4s3r wrote on Dec 23, 2021, 11:07:

What you gonna do with people like that? At least gaming cheaters we can hardware ban, how do we hardware ban in the meat world?

Concentration camps?

Hmm, this might push me over the edge to buy it. 5 player co-op could be fun too.

Ahh, the cloud giveth and the cloud taketh away.

Kanrad wrote on Dec 17, 2021, 15:05:
I'm not sure who they think will buy this. It was a great game 21 years ago. You can't release a 2 decade old game with zero updates and enhancements and ask people to pay $30 bucks for it.

Yup, I saw the price and just laughed. Then I read its a weak port with no graphical updates. I think I still have the disc for this for the original xbox, somewhere in a storage box.

Darks wrote on Dec 15, 2021, 14:43:

Rhialto wrote on Dec 15, 2021, 12:55:
You are not alone... https://twitter.com/stalker_thegame/status/1471148058708791308

Oh, Steam forums are lighting it up too. this is not going the way the devs hoped it would. They better do some real soul searching and rethink this, or it will be the end of this game. The sales will plummet and pirating this game will take on a whole new meaning.

Come on guys, its just for cosmetics! At least, for now anyway. The new loot boxes I suppose.

From the CM "SuperProphet" on the Steam forums:

"I can understand all the disappointment. That's why I'm here, checking the comments and reading all the arguments. At the moment, I'm trying to point out a few things:

- we are not breaking the Steam rules cause we are not a blockchain-based game
- the stuff you may choose is only cosmetics, which has no impact on the story or the gameplay"

The Half Elf wrote on Dec 8, 2021, 16:16:
Great yet another mission that's given to you by assholes who make Lamar seem tame (Still would pay 20 bucks to kill him).

My working theory is Rockstar meant for you to hate the two street racers you open the tuning shop with with how over the top annoying they are. But then, it is Rockstar. Still more fun to rob the casino or the island heist. Dre did show up at the start of the island heist with what was a now clear teaser about this new storyline.

But... but... win8-10-11 boots faster! Thats worth it over 7! Modernize!

And then wonder why your laptop battery is dead after a few weeks of leaving it in hybrid sleep mode if you don't turn it on.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Dec 2, 2021, 22:33:

Braden wrote on Dec 2, 2021, 21:44:

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Dec 2, 2021, 21:14:
Hopefully the Godfall Challenger edition has the full game? It is somewhat vague, it has bonuses listed, so one would assume it has the base game, but who knows.

It is not the full game. The story campaign has been completely removed. From what I've read, you get a boosted Level 50 character so you can try out the endgame content - and evidently they are hoping you'll like it enough to buy the full or deluxe versions of the game.

Those devious bastards... they've reinvented Shareware!

Gotta get some warm bodies to try the game I guess. FYI, the same shareware version is coming to PS+ for PS4/5 next week.

Cutter wrote on Nov 30, 2021, 14:50:

RogueSix wrote on Nov 30, 2021, 14:32:

TheBigVlad wrote on Nov 30, 2021, 14:02:
It's gold but we won't be playing it until February?

I won't be playing it until there is the Platinum Enhanced Edition or whatever they are going to call it. Like most games these days, it will be much more enjoyable when fully patched and (extra) content complete.

If it's anywhere as good as DL1 you'll be playing it at launch alright. If the reviews are good I'll be all over this like cheap cologne on a German hooker.

Except DL1 wasn't that good. The parkour stuff was alright but the underlying game there wasn't that good. The gear system and repairing them got tedious. I'll be waiting for the Platinum Year 1 Gold Ultimate Edition, preferrably on GoG.

Though perhaps I'm still bitter over having to waste 45 mins running the tutorial all so I could play co-op with a buddy and having hardware issues with it on top of that. Game didn't like my AMD hardware at the time IIRC.

jdreyer wrote on Nov 29, 2021, 23:57:

FloorPie wrote on Nov 29, 2021, 23:55:
It doesn't help when publisher/devs play even more pricing games on GoG then they do on other platforms. Since there are no 3rd party key sellers (well a few games via humble that activate on GoG), the prices are not as competitive. Even during the holiday sales you are forced to pay an extra fee for DRM free because many games are cheaper on Steam, let alone the 3rd party sellers that under cut Steam a few more percent.

I saw at least one game that was only 50% off vs 65% off on Steam and that same game's DLC content nor their deluxe edition was on sale at all. Hmm, buy a game on Steam for $30 on sale or pay $45 on GoG.

Its one thing to pay $5-10 extra including foreign transaction fees, its another when it hits $15-20 for the same game.

IIRC, publishers set prices. What does GOG have to do with that?

Uh re-read what I wrote. I don't blame GoG here. I blame the game makers who play pricing games which usually lead to me buying a game on Steam because its so much cheaper. While all those dame devs/pubs cry about how bad the 30% Steam takes is. AA devs are the worst these days. Season pass content is frequently more expensive than the base game and they keep the prices elevated and screw over the early adopters.

It doesn't help when publisher/devs play even more pricing games on GoG then they do on other platforms. Since there are no 3rd party key sellers (well a few games via humble that activate on GoG), the prices are not as competitive. Even during the holiday sales you are forced to pay an extra fee for DRM free because many games are cheaper on Steam, let alone the 3rd party sellers that under cut Steam a few more percent.

I saw at least one game that was only 50% off vs 65% off on Steam and that same game's DLC content nor their deluxe edition was on sale at all. Hmm, buy a game on Steam for $30 on sale or pay $45 on GoG.

Its one thing to pay $5-10 extra including foreign transaction fees, its another when it hits $15-20 for the same game.

theglaze wrote on Nov 4, 2021, 15:49:

jacobvandy wrote on Nov 4, 2021, 14:52:

theglaze wrote on Nov 4, 2021, 14:03:

jacobvandy wrote on Nov 4, 2021, 13:57:
It's disappointing to see that DDR5 makes so little difference in general

Did you see the Anandtech comparison of DDR4 to DDR5? They've done the deepest dive into the new memory that I've found. When it comes to gaming, it looks significant to me, especially considering how tight performance is with AMD.

Their Alder Lake review shows a difference of 5% or less average FPS on every game but Far Cry 5, where it's nearer to 10%... and that's at 1080p. Have you seen the prices on DDR5?

First generation modules, early mobo BIOS versions, mem settings probably not yet optimized by testers, and DDR5 is consistently beating DDR4 beyond the margin of error. That's better than DDR4's debut, and DDR5 will only get better moving forward.

As for price... we're talking about the launch of the fastest hardware on the market, so I give that a pass, for now!

There is no doubt DDR5 will get better but you're buying high priced now and in 1-2 years can maybe upgrade to faster/stable speeds for less money. And then sell your older, slower ram? Yet, in 1-2 years you will be at gen2 of these new Perf/Efficiency core designs from Intel and Zen4 stuff from AMD. Not to mention out of the bug phase of Windows 11. Maybe if ram prices settle down in 3-6 months, ddr5 will be more enticing but I doubt it. The current rumors are AMD's 3D tech is coming out early next year with a 15% perf boost in gaming.

This is what happens every new ram tech generation. If you're on Intel 8th gen/Ryzen 2000 cpus or newer, I'd say hold out. If you need a new system now, look for the deals on the previous gen parts. The only decent deal I see here is the i5 12600k and probably only with quality DDR4. Even better will be the non K i5, aka the i5-12400 which I bet will be priced at low $200s.

RogueSix wrote on Oct 18, 2021, 18:26:

Dash wrote on Oct 18, 2021, 17:21:

Saboth wrote on Oct 18, 2021, 15:46:
I don't remember having to wait for a login queue back when I used to play D2 like 20 years ago...

IN THE BEFORE TIMES....

Well, even IN THE BEFORE TIMES I seem to remember that the original Diablo 2 launch was many things but not flawless. However, thanks to the absence of a queuing system, all we had to do IIRC is hit the 'retry' or 'reconnect' button like a woodpecker on steroids to get into the game.
My memory is not the best but I seem to remember that it took quite some time back in the day until all launcher issues were ironed out. To be fair, the concept of Battle.net and a distinction between offline and online characters was a novelty back then so we shouldn't be too hard on the Y2K incarnation of Blizzard.

That said, there is certainly no excuse in the year 2021. Diablo 2 Resurrected should be working flawlessly around the clock. Period.

That said once again, my personal experience has been positive (online character in EU) and I have not had any issues at all all the way up to the end of Act 2. The only "issue" I am having is finding the motivation to pick up the corpse of my Necromancer from Duriel's chamber. I know that it will be a grind because to raise skellies you need corpses so first I'm going to have to get back my army of skellies and then I'm going to have to find a way to make them last longer. The first and so far only time I entered Duriel's (very small so no kiting) chamber the skellies lasted all of ten seconds while my Necro was more or less one-hit killed by Duriel. It's going to take some effort to get past that bugger and I'm enjoying other games more at the moment so we'll see... maybe I'll even start over with a Sorceress or a Druid. A summoning-focused Necro was a bit boring and limiting to begin with...

Indeed, in those old old times you could even just play with 3 friends via TCP/IP direct connect or lan play or simulated lan play. Amazing how we have somehow lost that technology. But then I used to use FSGS battle.net emulator for Starcraft 1 to avoid connection issues.

jdreyer wrote on Oct 1, 2021, 15:23:

Slashman wrote on Oct 1, 2021, 13:27:
As much as I'm loathed to admit this, the DLC for Stellaris is actually good value for money...the last several updates have actually added to several DLCs in their list. I can't speak to their other games but so far I'm much less raged at Stellaris than I thought I would be.

Must be getting old...although with age comes crankiness...so ...hmmm

Personally, I think all of the DLC for their properties is a big turnoff. I bought Stellaris recently, since I love sci-fi and civ-style games. But I just couldn't get into it, and part of that was knowing there were more than a dozen DLCs out there that complete the game. F that noise. Two or three expansions I get, especially if there's a GOAT edition, a la Civ or XCom. But a dozen??

To be fair to Stellaris, at this point much of the DLC is fluff and role play things that don't matter much. Its not as bad as EU IV apparently is (I've never been able to get into that one or CK2) when it comes to DLC being needed to enjoy the game. The recent Necro dlc stuff is only needed if you want to play as that race and those win conditions. I doubt I'll ever pick it up unless its dirt cheap (50%+ off in bundles usually) like all the others I've bought.

That said, the Federations DLC was nothing other than a paid patch for the federations mechanic that had been in the game since the begining and sucked. Stellaris has had basically 3 game designs. 1.0, 2.0 and 2.4/3.0 or whenever they added in the planet economic changes. 2.0 changed how system claiming worked in 1.0 (aka made it actually work) and killed the concept of having 3 different types of warp travel leaving only warp lanes (no direct warp or wormholes).

Last I read, the best meta strategy in the game was to be a slaver empire. After 2.0 I realized that the only way to have any fun in Stellaris was to just conquer the galaxy no matter what race you wanted to play as. That kinda killed all of the so called role playing aspects of the game.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 8, 2021, 19:34:

WannaLogAlready wrote on Sep 8, 2021, 18:44:
10 DLCs, no less, way to go Paradox.

Yeah, their DLC strategy has really turned me off to their games over the past few years. And I'm a pretty big TBS player.

They are the kings of dlc nonsense but there are a lot of publishers taking up their cause. Many AA publishers have bought into that mindset, I guess to maximize their profits given their customer base not being as big for other genres. All it has taught me in the past five years is to be more patient and buy games 6-12 months after release up to 2-3 years in some cases.

Darks wrote on Sep 8, 2021, 15:15:
Its still misleading dude, I'm on the west coast, do you know what that means? It means that by the time Blues got this posted, the deal had already expired for me by the time I got a chance to get on and see it because most of the time, blues doesn't get his updated news posted until around 10 am time my time.

Eh, guess thats life. Ya snooze ya lose. The game has been free on Epic for a week and in several Humble bundles and the monthly the past 1.5 years. I'd be more sympathetic but I have major gripes with the pricing on this game (paradox published so no surprises there) and own it on 3 platforms now. Only one of which has the full version, minus the new dlc anyway.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Sep 8, 2021, 12:10:
SFC 3 but not 1 or 2?
No Starfleet Academy?

As for Bridge Commander, the fan modded "Maximum Warp Edition" is absolutely the definitive version.

SFC1 has been on GoG for a couple of years at least now.