gfunk wrote on Sep 25, 2020, 18:48:
There was news of MGS remastered for PS5 actually, which could appear on PC too

That would take effort and they've already released a working version of MGS on PC, so Konami being Konami I would not get my hopes up for the remaster being released on PC.

Rhett wrote on Sep 23, 2020, 17:58:
Damn, that's a lot of gorgeous update material. Not too much content, necessarily, but for explorers.. That's gonna be killer.

As always, this game is worth the $20 on sale, if you like flying around or exploring, in any capacity.

Of course, if you live in the EU it's 27.5€ at 50% off.

They went hard on the regional price differences: https://steamdb.info/app/275850/

NKD wrote on Sep 23, 2020, 12:38:

Mr. Tact wrote on Sep 23, 2020, 12:33:
I've been away from the game since before the update previous to this one. Probably need to fire it up again and see the new stuff. Saw the previous one added the ability to put a teleporter in your freighter, that's something people have wanted for a long time. There was a mod which allowed you to install one, but you could only leave the freighter, not teleport to it. Still, I'm pretty busy with ONI right now, so it might have to wait a bit longer...

LOL. Literally playing ONI right now. Game is crack.

You're referring to the Bungie title, right?

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 14:20:

roguebanshee wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 05:06:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 00:43:

Dacote wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 22:07:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 21:36:
Had WeChat installed when DreyerDaughter was doing homestay in Chengdu so I could communicate with her. Uninstalled it as soon as she came home, and ended up wiping the phone and doing a factory reset soon after.
There are stories that either TenCent or the Chinese government hold onto the data.

The post is a rare admission by the Chinese regime's judicial agency that it could access private WeChat messages even after users have deleted the corresponding chat history on the phone, which would indicate that the messaging app is storing private data elsewhere.

NPR:

As Chinese technology companies expand their footprint outside China, they are also sweeping up vast amounts of data from foreign users. Every day, millions of WeChat conversations held inside and outside China are flagged, collected and stored in a database connected to public security agencies in China, say cyber researchers.

DreyerDaughter left it installed however, so she could communicate with her host family.

The NSA saves all of the exact same data.
It's a good backup plan if you can afford it.

The US government does not collect all of your texts and store them on a central server. China does.

That is some high quality naivety. Every intelligence agency in every nation collect as much data as they can get their hands on, regardless of local laws. Their reasoning is usually that they need as much data as possible to have a higher accuracy in preventing threats to national security such as terrorists or enemy spies. And even if they do get caught in breaking their nation's laws, they will be right back at it once the waters have calmed.

And with as large amounts of data as we're speaking of here, you should in general not be worried that your local government homes in on a single instance, nor that they're rifling through your personal emails or texts. They are instead using big data analysis tools to find patterns to identify what they classify as troublesome behaviour.

The real differences between totalitarian regimes and most western nations are what they consider troublesome behaviour and what actions they're willing to take.

In cases where they've needed access to texts, like the San Bernadino shooters, they had to access the device. The telecoms don't have infrastructure to track and store the text content.

If they admitted they had access to a set of compromising texts without a warrant they'd have to shut down that kind of data gathering for as long as eyes were still on them, which in turn would reduce their overall effectiveness for that period and some time after.

While there is a degree of conspiracy theorist thinking behind that line of thought, do also consider that most intelligence agencies are staffed by people who are more or less professionally paranoid and they also have a broad set of powers in relation to intelligence gathering. While it's nice to think that they're decent people who would never go outside the rules actually set forth, history has repeatedly shown the opposite to be the case (at least for some of the agents) in just about any nation you can think of.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 21, 2020, 00:43:

Dacote wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 22:07:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 20, 2020, 21:36:
Had WeChat installed when DreyerDaughter was doing homestay in Chengdu so I could communicate with her. Uninstalled it as soon as she came home, and ended up wiping the phone and doing a factory reset soon after.
There are stories that either TenCent or the Chinese government hold onto the data.

The post is a rare admission by the Chinese regime's judicial agency that it could access private WeChat messages even after users have deleted the corresponding chat history on the phone, which would indicate that the messaging app is storing private data elsewhere.

NPR:

As Chinese technology companies expand their footprint outside China, they are also sweeping up vast amounts of data from foreign users. Every day, millions of WeChat conversations held inside and outside China are flagged, collected and stored in a database connected to public security agencies in China, say cyber researchers.

DreyerDaughter left it installed however, so she could communicate with her host family.

The NSA saves all of the exact same data.
It's a good backup plan if you can afford it.

The US government does not collect all of your texts and store them on a central server. China does.

That is some high quality naivety. Every intelligence agency in every nation collect as much data as they can get their hands on, regardless of local laws. Their reasoning is usually that they need as much data as possible to have a higher accuracy in preventing threats to national security such as terrorists or enemy spies. And even if they do get caught in breaking their nation's laws, they will be right back at it once the waters have calmed.

And with as large amounts of data as we're speaking of here, you should in general not be worried that your local government homes in on a single instance, nor that they're rifling through your personal emails or texts. They are instead using big data analysis tools to find patterns to identify what they classify as troublesome behaviour.

The real differences between totalitarian regimes and most western nations are what they consider troublesome behaviour and what actions they're willing to take.

Kxmode wrote on Sep 15, 2020, 12:48:
Completely different industries. There's no confusion between a name like Monster Energy and a video game called Gods and Monsters. Trademarks are almost always associated with certain goods and services. So unless Monster Energy decides to register Monster Energy under entertainment, and variations of it, I don't see how they have a case.

They might be able to successfully argue their brand name has penetration into the gaming market due to sponsorships and branding deals. It's quite possible that Ubisoft could find several holes in whatever angle Monster Energy would have gone for, but it's also likely that it would have cost them far more than they expected to gain to defend their trademark application.

eRe4s3r wrote on Sep 9, 2020, 03:20:
Still can't believe they didn't fix the inventory GUI or carry weight limits. The only 2 things that really needed fixin.

Apart from fixing some issues with high resolution, there's nothing really changed about the game according to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GepAtB6cKpM

Also, a large portion of the negative reviews on Steam complain about frequent crashes.

Bill Borre wrote on Sep 8, 2020, 12:57:
wtf did I just watch?

A trailer that tries to be far more serious and edgy than the game series actually is.

Best Remaster

The fact that they even considered this as a category is a good reason to not pay any attention to these awards.

Acleacius wrote on Aug 24, 2020, 13:24:
Doesn't Harvest Festival start in Nov or Dec

Depending on where you live, the harvest tends to start early to late September and ending late September to late October. A Harvest Festival, as the name implies, is traditionally held right after the harvest is secured.

A late harvest could potentially push the festival into early November, but much later than that would imply very unusual weather or a non-standard crop.

eRe4s3r wrote on Aug 20, 2020, 11:04:
Also in what universe do you fire your LEAD writer in the MIDDLE of development?

At the start of this year the game was originally planned to be released in March this year, which means that if they'd stuck to their plans the game would have been out just around the time COVID got everywhere. The game was then pushed to late 2020 and now recently (after Mitsoda was replaced) to 2021.

So unless Mitsoda was not finished with tying up the plot and sideplots of the game, his departure should have no impact on the story at all. The original release schedule should have seen him finish this at the end of 2019 or at the latest at the end of January 2020 (months before COVID was a consideration for the vast majority of western developers). So he either already finished his primary task and his departure has no/minimal impact on the story of the game or he just wasn't very good at planning out his work schedule.

Ratican wrote on Aug 20, 2020, 05:32:
In case anyone's wondering, no this isn't due to some sexual harassment thing (clarified in their Discord as well as a post on the Steam forums). So if it's not that, I can only think of one scenario that makes sense:

• The project is over budget/behind schedule
• Paradox is pulling the plug and wants the game released ASAP
• This new guy (Alexandre) is former Ubisoft who was probably brought in as a hired gun who doesn't give a shit about the game and will do whatever it takes to get it out the door, even though quality will inevitably suffer
• Mitsoda actually cares about the project, so Paradox sees him as an impediment to the new strategic direction and therefore decides to get rid of him

Maybe a miracle happens and the game turns out halfway decent, but this ain't a good look. Office politics out in the open is an ugly thing.

The replacement guy.

Do keep in mind that the original Bloodlines had a very rocky development cycle, rocky enough that Troika went under because of it. But while Mitsoda was part of that team, there is no evidence that he had any impact on Troika going under.

Quinn wrote on Aug 16, 2020, 06:11:

TriggleDiggle wrote on Aug 15, 2020, 23:20:

RedEye9 wrote on Aug 15, 2020, 21:05:
The brain trust on China.
Thanks for the lolz.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. China ain’t going anywhere and the world needs China more than China needs the world. Also, thinking the military are an option in dealing with China is pure insanity.

And here you are as a rep for the tiny brain trust defending a genocidal fascistic communist dictatorship. "Lolz"
Didn't their dictator Xi just warn everyone about a coming food shortage? Arent they about to run out of chips for phones and computers?
But yea ok if you think China doesnt need the rest of the world then you should have no issue with tougher sanctions.
You know its ok to dislike Trump AND the CCP right?

Redeye played his hand, again. He's the stereotypical far-left pro-China communist that would be on the streets reaping havoc if he ever came out of his basement. Only reason he ordered his "Biden & Harris facemask" is so the postman won't infect him.

China may not be good, but US led by Trump is nearly as bad.

Ant wrote on Aug 13, 2020, 23:51:
I wonder how many will understand the original 1984 references.

I doubt Cutter will.

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.)

TWS:Troy is available now, client and store function as normal.

Stay safe, be happy.

El Pit wrote on Jul 26, 2020, 14:28:
The Batman Arkham games deserve every cent they made with the exception of the rehash that was Arkham Origins. All the other games are great and I WANT MOAH!

You misspelled Arkham Knight there.

Origins added the crimescene reconstruction, which gave an additional layer to the portrayal of Batman as a detective. Knight added the abomination that is the implementation of the batmobile, and they tied massive sections of the game to it notably the Riddler and several boss fights.

Or are you one of those people who have the supremely wrong opinion that the batmobile in Knight was a good addition and well implemented?

Arkham Knight had good sections despite the addition of the batmobile, while Arkham Origins had good sections both using the new crime scene mode and previously established stuff.

wtf_man wrote on Jul 22, 2020, 18:24:

roguebanshee wrote on Jul 22, 2020, 14:46:

wtf_man wrote on Jul 22, 2020, 12:49:

roguebanshee wrote on Jul 22, 2020, 11:49:
For a solid portion of EGS titles (over half the titles I've grabbed through the weekly freebies), the EGS launcher can be ignored after installation.

I've seen this expressed before in another thread... but never got my subsequent questions answered.

* How many of those "over 50% EGS Titles" that can allegedly ignore the launcher are AAA games that have all forms of DRM removed? (Not Indies)
* Do they clearly state that the launcher is not required on the game's page? (Before I buy)

Since I haven't purchased any AAA titles on EGS (or on any other platform in the last couple of years), the AAA games I have on EGS are limited to the various freebies.

Of those, the Batman games (LEGO and Arkham) all run without EGS and the Ubisoft titles require Uplay login (like they do everywhere else),

So, you are basically saying that my chances of finding a DRM-Free AAA game that is not already on GOG is slim to none? Sign me up!

No, I'm saying that 99.99% of AAA games aren't worth my money or time.

wtf_man wrote on Jul 22, 2020, 12:49:

roguebanshee wrote on Jul 22, 2020, 11:49:
For a solid portion of EGS titles (over half the titles I've grabbed through the weekly freebies), the EGS launcher can be ignored after installation.

I've seen this expressed before in another thread... but never got my subsequent questions answered.

* How many of those "over 50% EGS Titles" that can allegedly ignore the launcher are AAA games that have all forms of DRM removed? (Not Indies)
* Do they clearly state that the launcher is not required on the game's page? (Before I buy)

Since I haven't purchased any AAA titles on EGS (or on any other platform in the last couple of years), the AAA games I have on EGS are limited to the various freebies.

Of those, the Batman games (LEGO and Arkham) all run without EGS and the Ubisoft titles require Uplay login (like they do everywhere else),

wtf_man wrote on Jul 22, 2020, 11:29:

Ultimately, ownership of digital items should be a universal notion, independent of stores and platforms. So much of the digital world today is frustrated by powerful intermediaries whose toll booths obstruct open commerce to keep customers and their purchases locked in.

Then get rid of the effin' "DRM Launcher Requirement" like GOG has done (Back-up Installers... not Galaxy). If people want all the crap that goes with a Store's launcher (Achievements, Friends lists / contacts, Auto Updates, etc. etc.), then they will run said launcher because the like it... not because they are forced to use it.

For a solid portion of EGS titles (over half the titles I've grabbed through the weekly freebies), the EGS launcher can be ignored after installation.