Video Games: Keanu Re3ves Is Breathtaking

[The Anti-Targ]

7 hours ago, Fez said:

Since there are examples of FTP games being profitable without lootboxes, such as Path of Exile, examples of full-priced games being profitable without lootboxes, such God of War (2018), and examples of subscription games being profitable without lootboxes, such as Final Fantasy XIV; I think any argument that lootboxes are necessary for the modern video game industry is complete nonsense. Games are viable without them, it's just a way of making even more money.

But that's the whole problem, the corporate mandate under which most of our countries operate is maximise profit by whatever means is legal, or not yet proven to be illegal. So even though all forms of game can be financially viable and profitable without lootpoxes, they can all be more profitable with them, so the corporate mandates suggests you should always use lootboxes and you should have a good reason why you don't.

When Belgium declared lootboxes to be gambling and thus illegal in a video game, for Belgium that meant companies could no longer make profits legally from lootboxes so they had to remove them, for games sold in Belgium. But there are obviously ways around that in a global marketplace. Even so, EA sought to challenge the ruling, not sure where this situation is at right now.

[Toth]

Okay, I guess I have now truly reached the "surviving" part of Surviving Mars.

Well, so far my European Mars base had a good run, here a pic from around 50 days in: https://s17.directupload.net/images/190624/24xorvkz.png

There is also a wind park on a plateau to the north west: https://s17.directupload.net/images/190624/rsvtrpwt.png

As well as another medium dome built near a metal deposit in the South: https://s17.directupload.net/images/190624/6zhje3a3.png

I've also finally reached the point with my greenhouse gases production where there is liquid water on Mars, resulting in me digging a huge lake in the north west to increase the surface water. It's... a very slow procedure, to say the least. I also, as already visible in the pic by the golden rocket, started the "Beyond Earth" Mystery... which resulted in me just diverting all of my research towards it, because I couldn't exactly spare other resources besides metal and some polymers. I finished it, albeit with a few production hiccups.

But... that was actually just the start of my troubles. I went through some insane days lately. I made the mistake of building the southern base in one go with all the buildings, resulting in me emptying my storage of electronics and machine parts. Which coincided with pretty much all my drone hubs and research institutes to spontaneously decide to combust all at once. And while I was focusing on increasing my electronics production (seriously, how come one fully staffed factory barely makes 5,5 pieces a day?!?) my water extractors and half of the wind park decided to break down as well, with me not having nearly enough machine parts to fix them right away. Three days without power later I was wiping the sweat upon my brow away. The people were pissed and leaving en masse for Earth. And... admittedly, those were the lucky ones.

... in the middle of the machine parts shortage came the announcement of a meteor shower. It arrived the moment things started to normalize. Unfortunately, unlike the previous meteor showers who came down somewhere unimportant, this one hit the Southern part of my main base and my newly built south outpost (and, of course, the connecting pipes) with absolutely merciless precision. Naturally, the very first impact blasted my fully staffed polymer factory, robbing me of the resources needed to fix damaged domes. And the majority of my domes were cracked and so many pipes were broken that I leaked a ridiculous amount of water and oxygen. Especially oxygen. By the time I repaired my MOXIEs (of which I lost three in different parts of my base...) and fixed the major leaks, more than a dozen people had suffocated while the rest had mental breakdows and started to kill themselves left and right. The medics and psychiatrists first, naturally, so that I had no one left willing to treat the other folks...

Now the meteor shower is over. Things are starting to normalize. Nobody is trying to leave anymore and I have started to stockpile resources again, but because of the low sanity many buildings remain unattended. I guess I have to give them a few days of a break until things have normalized again... My god, what a dreadful week. I was so pissed...

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Anyone here read the Kojima Code? I have it on my Kindle, and I decided to read a bit last night because I couldn't sleep. I read for hours! His attitude about Metal Gear Solid 2 being a huge "fuck you" to western audiences is...something. I think Kojima is a truly eccentric and interesting person. I loved Metal Gear Solid, but hated for Metal Gear Solid 2 because of obvious (Raiden) reasons. One of my favorite games--and potentially favorite series--all shattered with the second game. When MGS 3 came out, I got it, and I don't know if I ever finished it. MGS 4 I rented but didn't get very far (more trolling, now your stupid hero Snake is a stupid old man who is outsmarted at every turn!). I think MGS 5, though, is one of my favorite games ever, so it took a long time for me to come back to the series. 

A side note on 5--Ground Zeroes blew my mind when I picked it up. I worked the prison camps in Gitmo in 2004 to 2005, and I carried a ton of guilt home with me about what we did to the people (prisoners) there. When I realized I could save prisoners...and they thanked me and cried as I carried them to the helicopter...I don't know. That was one of the most cathartic things I've ever taken part in. Every time I play Ground Zeroes, I have to save all the prisoners. No matter what. I love that game and the Phantom Pain, and I think, after reading the Kojima Code that Kojima finally got to say what he wanted about the imperialistic--and in his eyes, evil--nature of the U.S.

[Jace, Extat]

I really liked MGS2

 

[TrueMetis]

Jim Sterling talks a bit about streaming services for games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecpkOvx4FVY

Makes some good points I think. Couple I hadn't even though of. Couple I did into better words than I could have.

[Caligula_K3]

On 6/20/2019 at 10:21 AM, KiDisaster said:

I've been playing a bit of Outer Wilds and it's one of the coolest games I've played in a long time. It's overwhelming and somehow relaxing all at once. There's just so much to see and explore, so much information to take in, and I'm a very easily distracted person so I end up going off in random directions and forgetting what I had originally planned to check out. The ship computer thankfully does a great job of keeping track of everything you've learned though and is the only thing that persists through the reset. 

Watching the sun explode in the complete silence of space at the end of a run is really hauntingly beautiful. 

I really want to try out this game! It sounds like such a cool idea, with hints of Majora's Mask, one of my favourite games. I just wish it was available outside of the Epic Store, but downloading that launcher seems inevitable sooner or later...

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I really liked MGS2

 

Always thought it got a bad rap.  Gameplay was great.  Story was good up until the mind bending twist of primordial ooze Patriots or whatever there at the end.  Thought Raiden was fine.  Big Shell was a great setting.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

2 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I really liked MGS2

 

 

1 hour ago, Rhom said:

Always thought it got a bad rap.  Gameplay was great.  Story was good up until the mind bending twist of primordial ooze Patriots or whatever there at the end.  Thought Raiden was fine.  Big Shell was a great setting.

 

I just got MGS Legacy Collection (I think it's called. It has Metal Gears 1 and 2, MGS 1, 2, 3, and 4 all for 30 bucks). I think I might give 2 a go. 

If you read the book, you realize Kojima wanted 2 to get a bad rep for many reasons. Primarily, he hated the Wests' interpretation of his game in online forums! He kind of made a list of things fans loved and took those away, and then he found some "suitable" reasons why he did this to cover himself. The Snake reveal (that he wasn't who you played as through most of the game) he tied to the trick that Terminator 2 pulled in its advertising. He claimed that in Sherlock Holmes, you never read the books through Holmes' perspective, but Watson's, adding to the legendary characterization of Holmes. Of course, these were covers he presented so people wouldn't think he was a dick, I guess? Also, he proposed really crazy shit to Konami, and they made him "compromise" which turned out to be what he wanted, so when the backlash came, he could say it's because he was forced to compromise his vision. This, he believed, would allow him complete control going forward.

And I guess the whole game was a VR sim (until he made MGS 4 and retconned that). The book goes into an interview with EGM where he said, Yeah, MGS2 is a VR simulation. None of it really happened."

I really want to go back to these games now.

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, Mr. Fancy Pants said:

I just got MGS Legacy Collection (I think it's called. It has Metal Gears 1 and 2, MGS 1, 2, 3, and 4 all for 30 bucks). I think I might give 2 a go. 

Peace Walker, the PSP game that was later ported to Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 was really good and links up story wise a bit with Ground Zeros. 

[Red Tiger]

So far Bloodstained is not for me. Maybe the Metroidvania genre is just not my cup of tea. Wolfenstein will be a nice appetizer for Catherine Full Body.

[The Anti-Targ]

6 hours ago, TrueMetis said:

Jim Sterling talks a bit about streaming services for games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecpkOvx4FVY

Makes some good points I think. Couple I hadn't even though of. Couple I did into better words than I could have.

I still say online pass was a reasonable thing, and the backlash that killed it off helped motivate publishers to dream up other ways to monetise every player, whether or not they bought their game used.

[Werthead]

Running around in FF7 grinding enemy attacks to steal their spells with the Enemy Skill materia. Then remembered I'd better get on with the main quest.

This game still rocks quite hard, although it's amusing to see the "open world" map where you can generally only go in direction and there's about 4 optional side-locations in the entire game.

[TrueMetis]

1 hour ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I still say online pass was a reasonable thing, and the backlash that killed it off helped motivate publishers to dream up other ways to monetise every player, whether or not they bought their game used.

Suppose that works if you believe that they wouldn't do all this shit anyway. Personally I think if the backlash hadn't killed it off we'd be dealing with all the current shit and the online pass.

[Werthead]

More Fallen Order gameplay. Looking more promising, definitely a Jedi Knight/Outcast/Academy vibe going on here.

[Werthead]

I forgot that FF7 doesn't autosave. Ever. So ended up losing all my progress in Cosmo Canyon because I'm an idiot. Not too bad, about an hour lost tops, but still very annoying.

Working up the patience to go back and redo that, but in the meantime decided to finish off Dawn of War III. Still a weak game, but kind of fun, especially as I got it free in an offer a few months ago.

Steam sale is a bit underwhelming, but I picked up Yakuza 0, Final Fantasy X (and X-II as a bonus) and Watch_Dogs 2.

[Caligula_K3]

I've been playing a lot of Imperator Rome, Paradox's new grand strategy game set in the Hellenistic Period. I love their games and the setting is my favourite possible. This one's gotten a lot of bad press. I don't think it's as bad as some people say, but it does seem to be a game with a lot of fundamental problems - aside from waging war, there's really not much to do, each civilization feels too similar, and it mixes the systems of CK2 and EU4 without doing either anywhere near as well. The recent Pompey patch was promising, though, and there's going to be an even bigger overhaul in September. I'm sure, like all Paradox games, that in the long haul this will turn into a great game.

For those with a Switch, Super Mario Maker 2 is coming out and has got great reviews. I just ordered a copy and am very excited- this is a game that'll scratch my creative itch while also basically giving me infinite 2D Mario levels to play. The first one always looked like one of the coolest games on the Wii U and I'm glad I'll finally get a chance to check it out.

The more I read about Gods and Monsters, Ubisoft's new Greek mythology crossover between Assassin's Creed and Breath of the Wild, the more excited I am. I've enjoyed the two recent Assassin's Creed games, but the gameplay loop isn't my favourite. This seems like more my speed: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gods-and-monsters-looks-like-assassins-creed-as-to/1100-6467627/?utm_source=reddit.com

Another Jason Schreier article about crunch, this time focusing on the QA contractors working on the last Call of Duty. I've had friends who've worked in QA and they can testify how shitty the conditions are; even by those standards, this sounds particularly bad:  https://kotaku.com/the-human-cost-of-call-of-duty-black-ops-4-1835859016

 

[A True Kaniggit]

16 hours ago, Werthead said:

I forgot that FF7 doesn't autosave. Ever. So ended up losing all my progress in Cosmo Canyon because I'm an idiot. Not too bad, about an hour lost tops, but still very annoying.

Yuck. What got you? An unlucky bout with a spider or the Gi boss?

 

 

[Fez]

17 hours ago, Werthead said:

Steam sale is a bit underwhelming

This became the case for me several years ago. I've picked up almost all the back catalog games I want, which means it's now just a question each sale of whether there are any games from the past year that I: 1) Want to play, 2) Haven't bought already, and 3) Are on sale. Usually there are very few games that fit the bill.

So far all I've bought is Katana Zero, which has some crazy style going for it that I really like so far, and Gris.

But between Total War: Three Kingdoms and finally giving a full go to Pathfinder Kingmaker, I don't really need any more games for a while (At 50 hours in, going relatively fast I think, I'm only midway through Act III of VII in PK; the game is massive).

[aceluby]

1 hour ago, Caligula_K3 said:

Another Jason Schreier article about crunch, this time focusing on the QA contractors working on the last Call of Duty. I've had friends who've worked in QA and they can testify how shitty the conditions are; even by those standards, this sounds particularly bad:  https://kotaku.com/the-human-cost-of-call-of-duty-black-ops-4-1835859016

Sounds like absolute hell.  I was in QA for a while and testers do get shit on pretty much everywhere (and blamed for every bug), but this story takes it to another level

[Werthead]

 

Quote

 

Yuck. What got you? An unlucky bout with a spider or the Gi boss?

 

It was past Cosmo (the boss there can be one-shotted for force-feeding him an X-potion), it was when I got to Nibelheim and got taken out by the Safe Boss when I was on my way to rescue Vincent. Argh.

3 hours ago, aceluby said:

Sounds like absolute hell.  I was in QA for a while and testers do get shit on pretty much everywhere (and blamed for every bug), but this story takes it to another level

The day staff "forgetting" to keep the aircon on at night is ridiculous. I'm assuming it's one of those things where the controls are in a locked security room and the QA staff couldn't get in there to turn it back on.

Literally, a sweatshop.