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Video Games: Devils Die Twice


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I think Googles Stadia platform might have made my question irrelevant!

You'll need a hefty internet connection and as Ran said, there may be considerable costs involved depending on your time involvement.

That said, the OnLive service nailed this in 2012 (if you had a great, wired connection), so I suspect the technology will be far improved now, especially with Google behind it.

 

 

 

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You'll need a hefty internet connection and as Ran said, there may be considerable costs involved depending on your time involvement.

That said, the OnLive service nailed this in 2012 (if you had a great, wired connection), so I suspect the technology will be far improved now, especially with Google behind it.

The internet connection is going to be an issue for many in the UK as I've found that its pretty inferior to a lot of other places I've been. Personally I'm ok right now as I selected an area with good 1GB connections. 

I think the whole idea is very exciting, the sheer weight that Google can put behind the technology could potentially remove Sony from the market. Why would I buy a PS5 if in the future I don't really need hardware to play games.

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2 hours ago, Wolfgang I said:

Steam has started suggesting a lot of weird porn games to me. 

To my surprise there is a filter option for that though.

I can get rid of early access titles too now. A pleasant surprise. 

That's probably relieving. The early access porn games are the worst.

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So Epic Games have taken their offensive against Steam to the nuclear level.

Having already snatched up The Division 2 and Metro: Exodus (the latter apparently outselling the Steam release of the previous game in the series by 250% in the process), they've now snatched up Control (Remedy's next game) and The Outer Worlds, Obsidian's big new space RPG. They've also nabbed Phoenix Point, the XCOM-killer by the creator of X-COM. All of these games will be released on 12-month exclusivity agreements, and cannot be released on Steam until that 12 month period is up. The exceptions are The Division 2, which is also available on UPlay, and The Outer Worlds, which will also be available on the Microsoft Store.

Now they've gone even further by teaming up with Quantic Dream. All three of their big games - Heavy RainBeyond Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human - are coming to PC for the very first time, having previously been PS3/4 exclusives.

Epic Games aren't resting there and seem to be going after every single major PC release coming up. Most startling is Take Two agreeing to put The Outer Worlds on Epic. If they deem it worthwhile, they may consider making the PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2 Epic-exclusive as well (and, you never know, might get that RDR1 port finally done), which would be a roundhouse kick to Valve's face.

Grabbing former console exclusives is also impressive (Journey is also on the way). It's unlikely that Epic can convince Sony to let their own published games come over (no Last of Us or Uncharted games, probably), but they can snatch up other games as they leave their exclusivity agreements. Bloodborne, for example, appears to be a time-limited exclusive on a deal between From and Sony, so at some point that game can come to PC, if From can justify doing that. Epic could provide the reason.

More competition is great, but creating another gated store is probably not the way forward. There's also concerns over Tencent, who have a 40% stake in Epic and are rather keen on putting spyway on customers' computers.

Interesting times.

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Yeah, Epic won't be taking my money any time soon, or possibly ever. Sure, competition is healthy, but I doubt this kind of exclusivity deals they're pushing for are anything but. How much will the new releases cost, I wonder? 

The Phoenix Point case is particularly disturbing - not only they made this deal without giving the crowfund backers a heads up, it was really Snapshot Games who approached Epic for this deal; so they used people's money to get a good enough build going, and then they got Epic to invest in the game. Here's some free DLCs for you, fools!!! 

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My assumption is that Epic will cut back on the exclusivity deals once they have a market share that's competitive with Valve. Epic is going to want to eventually see a profit from this marketplace and the Fortnite gravy train isn't going to last forever.

Personally, I'll go where the games are, and the biggest legitimate knock against multiple storefronts that I've seen, the disruption of social functions, doesn't apply to me; I don't have friends lists in games. I play solo. I already have the Epic launcher installed, I haven't bought anything yet, but I've been getting the free games they release every two weeks.

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10 hours ago, Corvinus said:

The Phoenix Point case is particularly disturbing - not only they made this deal without giving the crowfund backers a heads up, it was really Snapshot Games who approached Epic for this deal; so they used people's money to get a good enough build going, and then they got Epic to invest in the game. Here's some free DLCs for you, fools!!! 

This is not what happened. Snapshot went to Epic to ask them to put the game on their store alongside Steam, GoG etc. Epic said yes, then took a look at the current build of the game, the hype etc and then came back and offered Snapshot the chance to go exclusive in return for enough money (the estimate is that it was between $5 million and $10 million) to keep the studio going for another 3-5 years even if every backer and pre-orderer of Phoenix Point refunded.

When you're the studio boss employing 25 people and with enough money to keep going for maybe another year, tops, and completely relying on your game to come out and be a smash hit and not getting lost alongside the 3,000 pieces of shovelware shit that Steam has decided to release in the same week, that offer goes from "tempting" to "irresistible." Was it morally or ethically the best move given the crowdfunded nature of the game? Probably not. But I can understand the reasoning behind it. Snapshot aren't rich and those are people's livelihoods on the line.

The Outer Worlds is more disturbing. Obsidian, as far as can be told, aren't entirely happy about the decision but it was made by Take Two alone and they can't influence it. Fortunately (!) Microsoft's purchase of Obsidian resulted in a renegotiation with Take Two which meant that the game has to come out on Microsoft Store was well, but that's not what fans were after.

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After the latest patch started a new stellaris game as a rogue servitor race, hoping they fixed the ai that assigns worker jobs. (Previously the Coordinator jobs just cost a shit ton of energy for a small bit of unity and crashed your economy without massive micromanagemnt.  And the worker drones wouldnt prioritize amenities even if there was a local deficit.)

Totally lolled when the inhabitable system next door got discovered.  "Though none of the new life forms appear to possess the self awareness neccessary to appreciate Dekron pampering, it's likely only a matter of time until before we encounter beings that do!"  With the only event choice being: "wonderful:  prepare the gift baskets!"

For those without the context a Rogue Servitor race is basically Skynet that decided to maximize what the computer thinks is human happiness rather than just exterminating them. Think grass fed free range beef owned by vegans.

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Okay, so... in an attempt to relax a bit, I continued my Europa Universalis playthrough. Things have gotten a bit rough.

I succeeded with my mission to amass 2000 ducats (which really feels like my character saying "I could invest this money into our economy right away, but please let me take a dive in it like Scrooge McDuck first!"). I then unlocked the first manufacture buildings and started to decorate my country with with them. It feels good to read that Brandenburg at that time (1550s) was wrecked with debt and had no industry to speak of, while in my game the stats tell me that I had somehow ended up 7th place in administration rating and I highly suspect that it's because of my economy and development. Damn, a tiny backwater Elector 7th place? In world rating? Damn! And I haven't even built my 20 manufactures yet!

Meanwhile, because now I have enough money to go to war without ever getting into the minus, I nabbed a couple of tiny German states, expanding westward till Hamburg and Oldenburg. The last fight was strange. I was just thinking that I shouldn't break my alliance with Mecklenburg because they had proved to be a really good ally so far... and then they immediately break their alliance. -.- In any case, they allied with Dithmarschen and ended up dragged into my war with them. And... I did the mistake of annexing all 4 provinces of Mecklenburg instead of Dithmarschen, which I think raised my Aggressive Expansion rating far more as if I had annexed my original target. A whole bunch of German states banded together in a coalition and... didn't dare attack me. So I shrugged and went on with my life, focusing to further raise my economy to ludicrous levels, but unfortunately seven years later they finally decided to attack me and then it was game over.

So I actually went back to an older safe from when I made peace with Dithmarschen and did it the other way around. I just forced Mecklenburg to give me cash and annexed the two provinces of Dithmarschen, actually achieving to lower my aggressive expansion rating... not quite enough. Like before, the bigger powers like Bohemia and Austria didn't care again, but 5 tiny states still formed a coalition and did nothing. Fine with me, I'd say. It doesn't seem like they are in a position to attack. Until suddenly the game decided to screw me over big time. First came an event that my 2 years old heir died. Okay, shit happens. A year later my ruler died and suddenly it was game over. Russia got a personal union on Brandenburg for some reason. Bloody hell...

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I picked up Sekiro. It... might be good? I think? It's hard to tell. The movement is very satisfying and the regular enemies aren't a big issue so far, but the miniboss fights are punishing, and sometimes the controls or camera get in the way. I have played four hours of it, according to Steam, and in that time I have killed one (1) boss outside of the tutorial area, skipping another. I'm not sure I'm going to have the patience to get far in this.

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On 3/21/2019 at 6:21 AM, Fez said:

My assumption is that Epic will cut back on the exclusivity deals once they have a market share that's competitive with Valve. Epic is going to want to eventually see a profit from this marketplace and the Fortnite gravy train isn't going to last forever.

Personally, I'll go where the games are, and the biggest legitimate knock against multiple storefronts that I've seen, the disruption of social functions, doesn't apply to me; I don't have friends lists in games. I play solo. I already have the Epic launcher installed, I haven't bought anything yet, but I've been getting the free games they release every two weeks.

I'm more in line with this position--go where the games are, but it is kind of annoying that I currently have Steam, Origin, Uplay, and GOG. I don't want to add another program, just because, but on the other hand, I hear Epic is offering a friendlier money deal to devs, so that's something worth supporting.

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18 hours ago, GallowKnight said:

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 has been announced and I have never been more hyped for a game.

 

You just blew my mind. I bought Vampyr recently and every time I play, I keep thinking, "this is probably the closest we'll ever get to Bloodline." Bloodlines, if I remember, bombed pretty bad, but I loved it so much. I still think it's a great game, so this is exciting news.

 

Edit: P.S. Vampyr isn't very good.

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