Primalchrome wrote on Sep 8, 2020, 12:24:
I was really looking forward to this.... Watching streamers it looks like the AI is janky as hell and you have to watch its moves in real time. Ugh...I don't have time to sit and watch 30 seconds of AI running into obstacles for every enemy action. Hopefully they can tighten it up in a patch and add in the option to display AI moves at 3x speed or something.

The overarching 3D map so that you have a good feel of the battlefield is something that has been sorely lacking from titles like Xcom. Glad to see that...

Yeah, watching the AI routinely run into walls, boxes or other obstacles and just running in place for 5-10s was just sad. Saw a couple of game crash bugs and read lots of people having them. The best part was the AI running to a wall, crouching, staring straight at it for 10s then going into overwatch.

Beamer wrote on Sep 6, 2020, 08:05:

FloorPie wrote on Sep 6, 2020, 04:02:

Beamer wrote on Sep 5, 2020, 15:41:
Part of me feels like, had Epic not launched EGS, many here that are against them would support them.



But if Apple is totally ok here, it would set a nice precedent for Microsoft to say that all Windows software has to go through a Store they create and take a cut of. I think that would be an utterly disastrous business decision, but if iOS can lock itself down to anyone not paying Apple 30%, I can't think of a single reason why Microsoft couldn't legally do the same.

It would be utterly disastrous for Microsoft and they floated the idea years ago. You seem to have forgotten about Windows 8 debuting the Windows Store and Microsoft talking about requiring all windows based software to be only via their store back in 2012. You might recall such luminaries objecting like Gabe Newell from Steam. Steam went on to create the Steam OS based on linux and Proton software, a fork of Wine to run Windows based games in Linux. That project still goes on today. Another objector was none other than Tim Sweeney, Head MuckyMuck of Epic Games. The idea was righly ripped apart by almost everyone in the Windows world.

You do have games sold on the Windows store and via their Game Pass monthly service now and from what I've read, the games are locked down completely, no mods allowed. People use it because its $1 for new members for now.

I enjoy that you reuse my "utterly disastrous." But Microsoft just tried to create a store there, not lock anything down to it, as Apple has done. They wouldn't be that stupid.

But this could show them that it would be stupid not to. I still do not find it feasible, because they'd lose businesses which are now their focus, but the difference between Windows and iOS isn't really huge.

As RogueSix mentioned, it wasn't just a store that scared many big names in Windows software. The only way Microsoft has gotten people to use their store and ecosystem for games, especially after the failure of GFWL several years ago was to create the Xbox Game Pass where for the initial trial period its $1 a month to play new games along with simultanious release of Xbox and Win10 versions of games. Locked down versions that cannot be modded, which makes many games worth less in value. $1 for the new CrusaderKings3 is nice, as a demo but you can't mod it at all which kills longevity for a game like that.

Microsoft could try this if Apple wins but you're offering a what if that has already been tried and failed for Microsoft.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 6, 2020, 06:32:
And yet, if Apple is successful here, you don't think it won't cross Microsoft's mind? Where are people going to go, honestly?

They'll go wherever offers the freedom Windows used to. It might take time but you would have, oh... the income stream of Valve, EA, Ubisoft, GoG, Epic and every major software dev or publisher who doesn't want to be locked into Windows store ecosystem to create a new OS or more Linux compatibility via Proton software. I'd sure drop Windows in a heartbeat at this point for gaming as I detest the loss of control in Win10 at the Home/Pro level of the OS.

Beamer wrote on Sep 5, 2020, 15:41:
Part of me feels like, had Epic not launched EGS, many here that are against them would support them.



But if Apple is totally ok here, it would set a nice precedent for Microsoft to say that all Windows software has to go through a Store they create and take a cut of. I think that would be an utterly disastrous business decision, but if iOS can lock itself down to anyone not paying Apple 30%, I can't think of a single reason why Microsoft couldn't legally do the same.

It would be utterly disastrous for Microsoft and they floated the idea years ago. You seem to have forgotten about Windows 8 debuting the Windows Store and Microsoft talking about requiring all windows based software to be only via their store back in 2012. You might recall such luminaries objecting like Gabe Newell from Steam. Steam went on to create the Steam OS based on linux and Proton software, a fork of Wine to run Windows based games in Linux. That project still goes on today. Another objector was none other than Tim Sweeney, Head MuckyMuck of Epic Games. The idea was righly ripped apart by almost everyone in the Windows world.

You do have games sold on the Windows store and via their Game Pass monthly service now and from what I've read, the games are locked down completely, no mods allowed. People use it because its $1 for new members for now.

Eh, doesn't look half bad.

"* It is probably very tempting for Microsoft to have their own Walled Garden and money printing machine."

They've tried when they brought out the Windows store with Windows 8, about 8 years ago. What was the reaction of Valve/Steam? The creation of Steam OS and then making Proton (a Wine fork) compatibility program to run Windows games on Linux OS'es. Timmy Tencent was also rather unhappy with MS when they announced a desire to lock most software behind the store. It was a silly idea because it would kill much of the reason people still use Windows, its open nature.

Epic would have more of a legal and moral leg to stand on here if they hadn't played games with Apple and Google by putting in their in-app purchases against the contract terms of Apple and Google. I'm sympathetic that devs, especially small devs where that 30% is too much of a cut that makes their apps pointless to release on the iOS/Play stores but thats where you push the public awareness of the issue and try to negotiate with Apple. You don't play PR games, break the contracts and enlist kids addicted to your game to demonize your opponent. I'm not surprised though given that Epic's strategy for the last two years on PC was to demonize gamers as toxic for any criticism while they locked people into their store for some games with an inferior digital retail store/launcher program. But you know, game makers need more money, support them! Oh, and many of those game devs had no problem putting their games out on all the consoles with their 30% cut of the pie.

Epic and Sweeney's double standards just kill any argument they have here.

jdreyer wrote on Aug 21, 2020, 14:47:

Cutter wrote on Aug 21, 2020, 12:05:
Gee Timmy, I thought walled gardens were a bad thing.

Monopolies are a bad thing. Timmy's trying to change that.

And funnily enough, I'm only buying stuff on Epic when its on sale, sometimes discounted 50%. I've been burned enough buying games on all platforms where if I'd waited 6-12 months I'd have saved $40-60. Where I pay more if I buy the season pass after the fact even if the season pass is valued at half off if you buy it bundled with the base game.

Cutter wrote on Aug 21, 2020, 12:05:
Gee Timmy, I thought walled gardens were a bad thing.

Only for Tencent Timmy. We toxic gamers should just shut up and buy his real customer's products. Think of the Devs and publishers man! Its gonna help the gaming industry in the long run, you know.

RedEye9 wrote on Aug 14, 2020, 06:22:

Orogogus wrote on Aug 14, 2020, 06:15:

drloser wrote on Aug 14, 2020, 05:22:
Offering exclusivity on the EGS is a side effect of what is required to break the statu quo in order to reach this goal. It looks nasty for the consumers, but it's only temporary.

Why would it be temporary, and how does it advance that goal? I don't see how exclusivity deals and free games will break the status quo. What do they do to incentivize people to buy non-exclusive games from Epic? EA/Origin has had their own exclusives, and they offer third party games, but for a long time it was unclear to me why anyone would buy them on Origin if there was no price advantage (and there never was), and all reports suggest that in fact no one was. Now they have a subscription system, so that's something. But for Epic, once the "temporary" exclusives and free games end, why would anyone but Redeye and Slick buy from their store instead of Steam, GOG or any other storefront?

A multi-million dollar corporation probably didn't put any thought into what they were doing but a person posting in a gaming forum understands how it works. And you are correct, only two people will ever buy games from them again. It was all for naught.

Well, given Epic/Sweeney's silly moralistic PR campaign for the last 1.5 years since the launch of the Epic games store it doesn't take a genius to question why they've gone the insult your customer route (toxic gamers who are all review bombing jerks) and promote solely their suppliers concerns. That tends to indicate that they really only care about themselves and suppliers not the actual end users aka the gamers buying the games on their store of so far mostly freebies and exclusives.

Shock wrote on Aug 13, 2020, 17:32:

Jivaro wrote on Aug 13, 2020, 17:28:
They should do what comic books do when their franchise is going through a slow spell. CROSSOVER! Marvel or Transformers would be my suggestion but I don't see the Joes attracting much of an audience right now on their own. Also, why does Cobra Commander sound like he is doing a bad Mark Hamill's Joker impression?

GI Joe has crossed over with Transformers several times. It is odd timing for a GI Joe game.

As I said in the other thread, I think a tactical X-com style game would be a lot more enjoyable than this.

I'm pretty sure there are GI Joe mods for Xcom2 out there already. There are some good Star Wars ones I've seen.

Rhett wrote on Aug 12, 2020, 17:28:

Sigwolf wrote on Aug 12, 2020, 16:24:
Why do I have this feeling there is going to be a massive EGS crash tomorrow...

Last time that happened, you couldn't even launch any games. Excellent store, connecting your library to your storefront...

(I guess some games can be launched from the executable, though. Still, very, very dumb and archaic.)

Oh come on! First you want to buy more than one game at a time during a big sale and now you want to be able to play the games you bought during a freebie give away? Gamers are just greedy gus' these days. Toxic to boot.

Heh, its not cheap hardware causing the problem and well, this game was originally on a ps4 at 1080p. It shouldn't take much HP to run it.

HWUB does a good rundown on GPU performance in the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT-0Arz1E8E

theglaze wrote on Aug 6, 2020, 22:10:
Install size on Steam claims to be 80gb.... is that true?!

Its currently 105GB on my system. Might be the DLC content. I really should actually get around to playing the game.

Kxmode wrote on Jul 30, 2020, 02:58:

Burrito of Peace wrote on Jul 29, 2020, 23:07:
BeOS was the last original OS. Everything since has been regurgitated shit. Yes, even my much beloved Linux after Canonical came in to being.

For the people with their finger stuck up their nose saying "I don't have problems with Windows 10", great. You're an infinitesimal point on a data plot. Meanwhile, my colleagues who are responsible for 100K+ deployments would viciously, and probably rather violently in the physical sense, disagree with you. KB4556799, in particular, required a team of software engineers from Microsoft to fly down to see why things had gone so catastrophically wrong. The first half of this year alone saw a multitude of high profile Windows failures worldwide. The latest problem seems to be with Windows' own window manager if you're opening and closing the lid on laptops with external displays attached based on the last sysalert thread I read this morning. Not exactly an uncommon scenario in the professional, governmental, and academic sectors of the world.

<Cue anecdotally based rebuttals based on one machine in a home setting in 3...2...1...>

I'm not an infinitesimal data plot. I'm a person!

I thought you were a meat popsicle?

Not a bad bundle. Iratus is a good game, much like Darkest Dungeon. The warhammer bundle is amazing if you don't own any of those yet too.

Acleacius wrote on Jul 20, 2020, 12:49:
I'm not sure if it's GOG or paradox, but for years they never sold dlc to Pillars of Eternity for less than 50%.
Last week, I bought the PoE Complete Edition on Steam for cheaper than one dlc on GOG, for the last 4 years.

Its mostly Paradox. They don't have many great deals in general sans the occasional mega sales on Steam for some games.Devs/publishers make it hard to buy on GoG given all the price competition with steam key 3rd party sellers. DRM free is great but when you see deals that are half price? Its hard to pass up.

Tom wrote on Jul 13, 2020, 16:58:

Eirikrautha wrote on Jul 13, 2020, 15:39:
What's the armament loadout on a Cessna? Does it have an internal weapons bay, or do I need guns on the hardpoints?

Or maybe I'll just stick to DCS...

Cessnas typically carried white phosphorous rockets in Vietnam: https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/cessna-vietnam-korean-war-legend

Even cooler was the 0-2 (Oscar Deuce) aka Skymaster 337. Push/Pull two prop design used for forward air control.

Beamer wrote on Jul 14, 2020, 23:02:

Greentiger wrote on Jul 14, 2020, 22:33:
As I understand it, Orcs 3 is a timed exclusive on Stadia.
I don't have a lot of faith in Stadia as a platform or service, but I'm definitely looking forward to Orcs Must Die! 3. I liked the first game and LOVED the second game.
I just hope that map editing becomes a feature in the 3rd game, it's been requested eversince the series started--I don't even care if the player maps are up to par in visual quality with the core maps, it would just be nice to have as an option.

It also only exists because of Stadia, too. 1 and 2 were among my favorite games. Never even bothered with Unchained, like so many fans. Seems they wanted something bigger and with more consistent revenue, but alienated everyone.

From what I understand, they were on the verge of collapse until Google threw money at them to make 3. It's the only reason the product, and the studio, is around. So I'm perfectly happy with this timed exclusive.

Thats about the only upside I see. I don't have much faith they won't screw things up still. I'm surprised they didn't up the co-op to 4 players.

Cutter wrote on Jul 5, 2020, 17:33:
What you idiots continually fail to grasp is the simple fact that this is just the beginning, overt and aggressive acts of racism and sexism. Next it'll be for things much smaller and inconsequential, bullshit like "microagressions" as you moonbats like to call them. Not too long from now regardless of anything you say or do if a woman, and god help you if she's black, says you did something she didn't like - maybe didn't laugh at her joke - and the mob will turn on you. You'll be the next white fascist male being fired, sued, and having his life destroyed. When you're the victim of this PC idiocy you won't be loving it then.

Come on now, they'll be protected because they have lived a life without sin! They have the evidence to back it up! But the court of public opinion will demand he be tested for being a sexist by floating or sinking evidence be damned.

That or they'll walk in on their married female boss, the city manager screwing the sewer dept. manager. at her desk. Then they get fired and demonized as a harasser. But hey, it got that female relative of mine a nice work place harrassment lawsuit settlement check when it happened to her 15 years ago!

RedEye9 wrote on Jul 6, 2020, 12:47:
Rule number one of the Entitled Gamers Creed, "If you don't like a games price, Steal it."

Remember kids, you are owed any and every game ever made.

And developers/publishers are entitled to their 88%.

"Satisfactory has sold 1,326,518 copies in total as of today, July 3. 958,917 of those sales have been on Epic, and the remaining 367,601 sales have come through Steam. Epic reached the 500k mark just under three months after launch, and Steam has reached 367k in under a month, so the game is certainly selling faster on Valve’s platform.

Community manager Jace Varlet attributes the speedier sales on Steam to a few main factors. First, “obviously, Steam is a goliath, so there’s just so many more people there. That’s gonna weigh into things.” Second, Coffee Stain’s take on building games has also enjoyed extra promotion with a 10% discount as part of the Steam Summer Sale – the first discount on Epic happened early, but not within the first month."

Meh. The Epic sale started in early May 2019, the game was released to early access on March 15th. The Epic sale was also the subsidzed one that dropped the price to $16.99 vs the Steam sale of $26.99. We still only have Coffee Stain and Epic's word on sales numbers. Though if the rumors are true, it looks like Epic didn't have to subsidize any guaranteed sales to the devs after the 1 year exclusive. If you don't count the $10 discount offered in the summer and winter sales anyway.

Congrats to Epic though on picking a good exclusive to go with early on to drum up the user count of their store. They're still clowning themselves with the whole monopoly arguement of Steam though.