Kxmode wrote on Sep 17, 2020, 02:19:

RedEye9 wrote on Sep 17, 2020, 02:01:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 17, 2020, 01:38:

Kxmode wrote on Sep 16, 2020, 22:35:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 16, 2020, 22:22:
Meanwhile, Apple continues to abuse it's monopoly position.

Just hours after the reveal of Apple’s new services bundles, the tech giant has already taken criticism for evidently favoring its own apps over those with which it directly competes in its App Store.
Spotify, which has been feuding with the tech giant for years now over its hefty App Store fees, quickly seized on the opportunity to raise Apple antitrust concerns.

But is it illegal? Meh. It's WRONG, no doubt. But Illegal, I don't think so. Apple owns the operating system and hardware. Like any platform, they create and govern the rules; rules companies agree to when they sign up for an account. So it is less a monopoly and more like a massive and unethical conflict of interest.

It's textbook anti-trust. It's why the studio system was dismantled in the 1950s. Just because the Trump JD doesn't prosecute doesn't mean it's not illegal.

As long as Billy Barr is at the helm don't expect nuthin to change. Shit, they might even get immunity from prosecution and a preemptive pardon.

This thread couldn't go more than 20 comments before it derailed into political things. I'm done.

It's almost like discussing what constitutes monopolies, trusts, and cartels is... somehow... a political topic!!!

HorrorScope wrote on Sep 13, 2020, 11:46:

Elcabong wrote on Sep 13, 2020, 04:48:
Would someone kindly explain what's so bad about the game?

Right if you just want to play the traditional sport with the team as is, just go there and play. That said, man each year they jimmy up the main menu's more and more to the point it isn't even that easy to find the traditional game. This also is like NBA 2k, while people seem to only focus on the Build your team from cards/micro trans, you can completely ignore that and play like you could in 1995, but with better graphics and still better mechanics, rose glasses or not, they are overall.

Then the repeated claim of it's only an updated roster, it is more than that but a lot of it is in areas non-traditional. But hey if people want to buy a version with updated rosters to stay current, why not? Reasonable and there are some gameplay changes each year, but it's an actual sport so it is going to be nuanced changes on the field. I went to a REAL ball game once in 2010 and then again in 2011, fuckers played the same game, no updates to it other than roster changes. It also cost me 2x of what the retail video game cost to, each time.

And the fact that they routinely and predictably take out "features" every few years just to bring them back a few years after that. Or like one year, about 15 years ago, they were touting "we recorded thousands of animations to give you the most realistic looking game ever" and then, the very next year "our new animation engine creates catches and tackles and stuff so that every moment is special and unique" and then a year or two later "we have thousands of individual animations"

Dozens of things like this. Every... single... year...

It's called pattern recognition.

GamesAsAService has been around vaguely 15 years. Madden should have been one of the founding games of subscription-based gaming.

But no... 60 bucks. Every... year... for recycled shit.

That's why most decent human beings who DO pay for Madden (or NCAA back when it existed) rarely did so more than once every 3-5 years. If you were someone who paid 60 bucks for it EVERY YEAR... you were undeniably part of the problem.

GothicWizard wrote on Sep 10, 2020, 11:48:

Bill Borre wrote on Sep 10, 2020, 11:35:
They seem to be putting some work into the expansion. I wonder if that had anything to do with the game's removal from the EGS freebies?

How exactly?

This has been in the works for about a year if not more. I don't see how a expansion is affected in any way by some second rate steam wanna be giveaway that did or did not happen pretty recently. shrug

Stopping a sale for the base game when dlc comes out isn't exactly unheard of...

wtf_man wrote on Jul 14, 2020, 16:42:

jdreyer wrote on Jul 14, 2020, 15:14:

maddog wrote on Jul 14, 2020, 14:57:
Correct me if I'm wrong but haven't the courts all but killed municipal broadband? I get that some municipalities have it but it's far from being common.

It's usually not the courts. It's usually telecom lobbyists pushing state-level laws banning the cities and towns from setting them up.

This.
The biggest legitimate concern opposition reason is that it is financially risky for taxpayers because current ones mostly operate in the red.
The biggest political reason is because it "hampers the free market". (As if lack of choice / competition didn't already hamper it)

That said... since most people in the country think that broadband should be treated as a utility... it either needs to be regulated like one, or allow municipal broadband as a choice (Not sure how that would work tax-wise).

I have zero sympathy for the carriers / ISPs in this country... and I'm usually on the "fiscal conservative" side of things.

And one of the only California laws I agree with, would be an non-defanged version of their privacy law. FSCHK all these @sshat Carriers, Big Tech search and social media, and Marketing scumbags on the internet tracking everything you do without your permission. That shit needs to be stopped cold.

He'd be better served to team up with Musk and promote his Starlink

Um... MOST public utilities start in the red. That's literally one of the reasons they're often funded with public money. Society pools their resources to get the foundation in place and private companies take over.

Yknow, like large scale railroads. Large scale electricity products, especially out west. Phone lines. The internet.

I'll never understand the ultra-conservative demand that all public functions be profitable.

While UbiSoft may be completely tactless... I can't help but notice that Kotaku chose to completely fail to summarize the plot that occurs in FC:L. Just because they're not actually Nazis doesn't mean they can't commit a fascist genocide.

Jonjonz wrote on Jun 30, 2020, 06:22:
To anyone who is all fine and good with witchunts as long as you sympathize with the political stance of the accusers, beware further legitimizing this, or don't be surprised when the opposite political groups pick up this tactic and run with it.

Your just choosing chaos over the rule of law, good luck with that.

While I passionately hate the "It's okay to do what I criticize others for doing because I'm on the right side" hypocrisy, this is NOT that.

That explosion has nothing on Ghetto Blaster!
https://youtu.be/AND1YZSp6YI?t=976

Veinman wrote on Jun 27, 2020, 18:21:

Cutter wrote on Jun 27, 2020, 16:00:

theglaze wrote on Jun 27, 2020, 15:54:
Just don't take away my car liveries of scantily clad hentai babes

Oh no. That's certainly next on the chopping block. There isn't anything the moonbats won't be coming after if anyone is offended in even the slightest amount. Big Brother is coming to be sure. Another year or two they'll be opening the "re-education" centers. Doubleplus good, comrade.

One thing's for sure... if Cutter isn't happy about it, decent human beings are probably all for it.

That's one of history's best litmus test.

The Rise and Continued Rise of Half-Life.

There... fixed it for ya.

In all seriousness, this channel is superb. Great series!

crazedgironemo wrote on Apr 20, 2020, 19:51:
I have an idea for "The Ultimate Paint Drying Simulator" where you are a painter making sure that his paints dry properly.

Do you think it'll catch on?

If the past five-ish years have taught you ANYTHING, it's that satire has been murdered.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/903880/Drying_Paint_Simulator_VR/

WannaLogAlready wrote on Apr 5, 2020, 20:15:
Luke,

Please do bother to research a little bit.

I know, it´s work, but worth the effort, man !

At the moment there are some 600 quality VR games on Steam, -a lot are premium titles- and more come out every month.

https://i.imgur.com/wqY7bGE.png

They also include classics (Skyrim, Fallout, Serious Sam, and a long etc.) for a brand new ***re-experience***.

Yep, a good VR experience is almost so far from non VR, as accelerated 3D was from old pixelated games.


****Also you can use VORPX for playing in VR, any number of non VR games.****

It supports both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and surely any head mounted display.

Works with hundreds of DirectX 9, 10 and 11 games.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xQom_2-Hgno-zO_wQtjarapZEyW_1XCL5LB8TX8v7zc/edit#gid=0
https://www.vrgamerankings.com/last-90-days-20-best-rift-games
https://www.vrgamerankings.com/top-200-htc-vive-games
etc.

You never post a positive thing on anything, every time you disparage "the others".
Watch that pervasive bitterness, that´s a bleak road to walk.

From personal experience, talk with someone about it, your life deserves it.

Or you could be like me, pass summary judgement on his reading and comprehension skills based on his post, and save yourself some time.

Of all the reasons to be a dick to Cutter, voicing a personal opinion on this topic is not one of them.

And obviously the Fourth Amendment is at question here, welcome to fifty years ago. What other amazing insights do you have? Want to tell us about how political cartoons are related to the First Amendment?

Since I'm an American citizen, I presume I have your permission and blessing to voice my opinion. I don't think adding software analytics to already existing technologies will make an ounce of difference in a Constitutional sense. The question is the cameras themselves.

Believe there's a typo in the first sentence, though I'm new to Anno so it's possible there's not.

The tiny bit I've seen makes me think this will be like 2016's Thief:. COMPLETELY missing a large % if the appeal.

The interface is among the most immersion-breaking I've ever seen, which is an incomprehensible sin in a game like Gothic.

Literally all you need to do is update the graphics, make the control scheme less mind-numbing, and fix a few huge flaws in combat.

But for some reason they seem to think we need massive outline-highlights on EVERYTHING that can be interacted with, huge on-screen arrows pointing to every potential quest objective, and a ? or a ! above the head of every NPC on-screen, because apparently the target audience is too stupid to know how to play a game without literally everything explained to them on-screen.

It would be like if the amazing 2016 DOOM played like a poor CoD clone.

I truly hope the horrendous pile of crap I saw being played was NOT a proper representation of what's in store.

As someone who has been an avid Blues can for decades now, I'd HAPPILY be on that Patreon as soon as possible.

No need to remove ads. All that matters is that they're not intrusive/abrasive. You never have ads that are full-screen interrupters. You never have obnoxiously animated ads.

Heck... sometimes I'll intentionally click on a BN ad if it's something I'm interested in, with the intention of BN potentially getting a few cents from my purchase.

I'd consider the Patreon to be a friendly tip on top of whatever as revenue is already flowing in. A tip to express my thanks for the many, many years of both quality news gathering/distribution AS WELL AS superb minimalistic, functionality-first, web design.

Fully aware of that, and it's not relevant to my post reflecting things like inflation. Feel free to type a sentence or two of your own thoughts if you like instead of copying and pasting and calling it a day.

Simply put, in terms of income of consumers, a single 60 dollar game costs me, the consumer, LESS now than a regular-priced game has ever cost.

Feel free to ACTUALLY respond to that concept if you are capable.

chickenboo wrote on Jan 29, 2020, 12:31:
Also, it was never "£2 for a hat" but $X for a loot box containing one of 99 items, most of which will occur more commonly than the select actually cool things you might uncover. I'm much more likely to pay for a cosmetic I can see and buy than a mysterious box which contains one or two cool things and a metric ton of useless crap. The loot boxes in Quake Champions was a good example of this. A handful of unique cosmetics for each hero, and then like 250 "shaders" of varying gaudy colors. It's neither fun nor interesting nor rewarding.

I think the best solution is to simply raise the price of games from $60 to $100. The whole point of microtransactions is to increase money given to the publisher over the lifetime of the product beyond the initial buy in cost to make up for the cost of development approaching the cost of the game per unit. If their marginal return is so damn low, just increase the cost of the game.

It would be lovely if gamers understood basic economics, since have are cheaper how than they've ever been, but the gaming industry is STILL stinging from the backlash (and eventual acceptance) of the price from fifty to sixty dollars.

I've paid well over a hundred for certain games, but those are games I have four-digit hour totals the devs support for nearly a decade. PERFECTLY fine with supporting them.

Most aren't.

Gojo wrote on Jan 1, 2020, 12:25:

InTIMidator wrote on Jan 1, 2020, 11:37:

RedEye9 wrote on Jan 1, 2020, 10:14:
Damnit man, it’s a trifecta
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/darksiders/home

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/darksiders2/home

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/steep/home

I'll just leave this here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trifecta

His usage was correct, so I'll just leave this here (check the examples of usage)
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/trifecta

Over of my favorite examples of schadenfreude is when someone tries to pass themselves off as smarter than others (an instinct I *FULLY* empathize with) and, instead, end up outing themselves as less-than-superior. It's great fun!

Also... I'm asking this as a legit question: Does Blue intentionally have EGS freebies as the last post of the batch in order to have the post at the top of the page? Or... is this pure coincidence?

It truly depresses me how long it took before someone mentioned Mass Effect 3.

As for this list... get rid of Disco Elysium, which I love, but c'mon... eliminate Pokemon Go because a brief MASSIVE fad does not qualify. After that, it depends on what you mean by "Top."

If I pick Top people of the 20th Century then I have to ask... do you mean INFLUENTIAL or BEST? Cuz one of those lists definitely WILL include Adolph Hitler and the other definitely WON'T.

But yeah... Mass Effect 2, for so many reasons, needs to be on the list.

GTA5 I'll accept because of impact, BotW COMPLETELY reinvented the mechanics and gamplay of one of the most beloved franchises of all time, and did so incredibly well, Dark Souls invented(ish) a genre, LoL, along with Starcraft 2, was the breakthrough of professional competitive gaming, Skyim just cuz people keep buying it for so long, it's massive... Portal 2 DEFINITELY, and yes... as much as I hate the game, the IMPACT of Fortnite is incomprehensibly bigger than PubG. And if you need explained why Minecraft should be on the list then I wonder how you found this site.

So yeah... replace Pokemon Go and Disco Elysium w/ Mass Effect 2 and Starcraft 2 and the list isn't terrible by any stretch.

NKD wrote on Nov 18, 2019, 14:54:

Ahumado wrote on Nov 18, 2019, 12:50:
Alyx is a boy just so you all now that

You know that glue isn't for eating right?

What a stupid question. He CLEARLY knows it's for sniffing.