NuXCOM_90Percent
@NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
- Comment on Lords of the Fallen - Version 2.0 Trailer (Free Friend’s Pass, Shared Progression Co-Op) 16 hours ago:
So what bigotry did they add with this update?
- Comment on Skyblivion fan project lead reacts to Oblivion remake news with "all love and no hate" 20 hours ago:
It really really really doesn’t.
We can already see it with stuff like the Beamdog remasters. People insist that it is totally better to play BG2 with these five mods, that launcher hack, etc. And everyone except for the usual suspects just say “Buy the Beamdog release. It has almost everything you want and is zero effort”.
Also, the mere existence of a fan project (that will never release in a satisfactory manner…) shows that Bethesda is super mod friendly and blah blah blah.
- Comment on Baldur's Gate 3 - The Final Patch: New Subclasses, Photo Mode, and Cross-Play 1 day ago:
Been a minute but I only remember that being bad for the fight
spoiler
against the hive of bug (?) thingies and the evil gnome
. But I ran a wizard MC so I had CC and light nuking down by then.
- Comment on Baldur's Gate 3 - The Final Patch: New Subclasses, Photo Mode, and Cross-Play 2 days ago:
What? You aren’t a fan of a mandatory minigame that can cause instant failures at any moment and is all but guaranteed to during the lead up to the penultimate dungeon (note: Fail states on that can and should be disabled)? Or are you talking about said penultimate dungeon being nothing but translucent enemies with mind control who respawn unless you do the exact opposite of every other battle in the game and rush in to take out their spawners?
In all fairness, you can trivialize a lot of the hell in Kingmaker just by metagaming and preparing for the endgame early. If you don’t… yeah.
Whereas WOTR’s ridiculously plentiful enemy type(s) are much less obnoxious (and very clearly telegraphed the entire game) and they got rid of said endless failstates.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 days ago:
To add on to what others have said:
It is also part of the white supremacist manual* and we have seen it for decades. It used to be that people would “joke” about how their thoughts aren’t “politically correct” before they say something. But mostly it was the idea of accusing people who care about… anything of being a “social justice warrior” and so forth.
The idea being that you make people react with “Ugh, not again” rather than “Yup, that is fucked”. It equates both sides and encourages people to become “apolitical” because they are privileged enough to not have to actually care.
And that is more or less it now. The idea is that if any character has even a hint of melanin, all the usual chuds will lose their god damned minds and try to destroy it. And yeah, everyone hates asmongold et al. But they also hate the people who “take the bait”. And the studios rapidly learn that it will mostly hurt their sales to have anything but the whitest of white cis men as heroes and the whitest of white big titty girls as damsels.
Then EVERYONE is happy. The devs/film makers/whatever don’t have to worry about death threats (hmm. Do you think that best friend might be Jewish? Better play it safe and still threaten to hunt down and rape that guy’s daughter). The people who care about basic humanity don’t have to say anything. And the chuds get to live their fantasies.
*: couple decades back there was a pretty major “leak” of a neo nazi handbook for how to indoctrinate people. And it is terrifying how often the same tactics are used. It is probably on archive dot org somewhere?
- Comment on Baldur's Gate 3 - The Final Patch: New Subclasses, Photo Mode, and Cross-Play 2 days ago:
To clarify:
Rogue Trader is Owlcat, not Larian. They are also gods of CRPGs and tend to have really good dialogue and character writing. But Larian’s thing is more the environmental systems whereas Owlcat tends to prefer to go REALLY hard on the core rulesets as well as the way branching narratives work.
- Comment on Should we boycott games with loot boxes? 1 week ago:
It is important to question what you think a boycott will do.
Do you think you are going to make a giant movement that changes the world? If so… you should stop eating those lead paint chips. Consumers, historically, will only engage in a boycott if there are alternatives. Shop at Walmart instead of Target. VERY short term you might get someone to boycott Amazon for a few days but… just check “leftist” forums like resetera for everyone immediately losing their shit over how a few older activision games they will never play are on sale.
Video games, contrary to what people will say, don’t really have alternatives. We’ll joke that The Last Descendent was “waifu frame” but the people who love Warframe very much have reasons for not wanting to play TLD and vice versa. Let alone games like Call of Duty where there really is nothing close to an alternative.
So “boycott to fix the world” (and I am gonna expand on what THAT would be shortly…) ain’t a thing.
So… now it is up to why? Personally, I “boycott” Ubisoft and have for the better part of a decade at this point. I think the last game I bought “from them” was GR Breakpoint and I got that years after the game was basically dead and on a hefty discount (see: lack of alternatives). I am under no illusion that my wallet is going to lead to yves et al leaving their own company out of shame for their role in enabling a culture of sexual harassment (and allegedly more). But I do know that I feel a lot better when I look at myself in the mirror and most games I am interested in DO have alternatives.
So do you think you are going to change the world? Cue Nelson Muntz. Do you just not want to contribute to the culture of loot boxes personally? Go for it. And it doesn’t matter what people on not-reddit tell you.
As for what you think will happen: I think we can all agree that Nintendo upping the… Err, let me rephrase that. I think we can all agree that any company other than Nintendo upping the base price of a game to 80 USD (pre-tariffs…) is REALLY bad for the industry. But… inflation IS a thing and while game sales have skyrocketed… game dev has too. Money has to come from somewhere. And RMTs (lootboxes, cosmetics, etc) and constant flows of DLC have actually been great for the industry. It, for two decades or so, stopped the endless “ramp up, ramp down” model where people would be hired to work on a game, fired when it went gold, and then hired again 6 months down the line if it got green lit for an expansion. Get rid of RMTs and we go back to that for all but the largest studios because you don’t need artists when you are fixing a bug in Batman’s cape and so forth.
So, personally? I buy and play games that I like. And a lot of that does have to do with the monetization model. Something like Warframe is RMT based and has some sketchy purchases but also is (mostly) playable as a free game and is built around “free” content. Whereas something like Genshin Impact is marketed as “you never have to spend a dime” but… yeah. So the games that “do it wrong”? I am… kind of already “boycotting” them because I am just not interested in them.
- Comment on Nintendo president responds to Switch 2 price increase fears amid Trump tariff fallout 1 week ago:
I and many people with a Cool PS2 can attest that AMD hardware has no problems running Switch games.
- Comment on Nintendo president responds to Switch 2 price increase fears amid Trump tariff fallout 1 week ago:
nVidia genuinely does not care about gaming. It is just a way to have a few extra bins to increase effective yields for their datacenter/AI chips. If Nintendo wants to buy in bulk they’ll sell in bulk. And if Nintendo doesn’t like nVidia’s prices they can talk to AMD… like the other consoles did.
Most speculation was around 400 USD for the switch itself for the given specs, tooling, etc. The Steam Deck is a different process but their LCD model is pretty indicative. 450 was a bump that would account for economic uncertainty and give them room to drop back down for regular discounts and the like.
Then trump trumped the bed and the previously expected buffer zone just isn’t enough. Which is why we are seeing the massive price hike.
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con may have the same stick drift problem as original Switch 1 week ago:
Been more than a minute since I touched my PSP but I remember the stick on that (and the Vita?) being pretty dogshit. Less of an tilting analog stick and more of a weird slidey one. It is Nintendo so whatever they do is amazing and perfect but they probably wanted to use the same parts on both the pro controller and the joycons.
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con may have the same stick drift problem as original Switch 1 week ago:
Unless they change away from using cheap potentiometers, it will.
For those not aware: A potentiometer (“pot” from here on out) is effectively a resistor where you move a contact back and forth. When it is at one end, the resistance is very low because electricity barely moves through the resistive material (often graphite). When it is at the other end, the electricity needs to move throughout the entire stretch of graphite. With very basic math you can figure out what percentage X and Y you are at which translated to analog movement.
Designed well? The contact moves across the resistive material in a way where there is no damage (scraping). Given infinite time it will eventually become a problem but that is well beyond the lifecycle of the console.
So why do analog sticks wear out so fast? Because they aren’t enclosed systems. Dirt and dust WILL get into the chamber and then it gets caught between the contact and the material and scrapes up said material. This leads to drift in the sense that dirt causes the contact to stick and loss of precision as material is scraped off. That is why electric contact cleaner was a great stopgap but couldn’t actually repair any damage.
So why is the switch in particular so shit at this? Because an xbox or playstation controller has a big rigid plastic cover that more or less seals the pot off from the environment. It isn’t perfect but you are getting very little dirt and dust into the controller and up that dome.
The switch? It is a rubber flap over the joycon that you can lift up with your finger. Great for cleaning, horrible for keeping clean.
I haven’t looked too close at the new joycons but I would be shocked if they changed that design. So they will almost definitely still suffer from excessive drift REAL fast.
- Comment on FromSoftware's focus hasn't shifted to multiplayer, Miyazaki says, despite Elden Ring: Nightreign and The Duskbloods 1 week ago:
If anything, Duskbloods further confirms this is a B game. They took a mode of Elden Ring/Dark/Demon Souls that people have historically loved (jolly coop) and built a game around that. It is no different than building a game around dodging (Bloodborne), blocking/parrying and traversal (Sekiro), or even just one off arena fights (… MANY of the Armored Core expandalones).
They built it for Nightreign. They did a much scaled down version for Duskbloods as a way to get a sack of cash from Nintendo and to pressure Sony into letting them go back to an IP they like (Bloodborne).
- Comment on First-party Switch 2 games—including re-releases—all run either $70 or $80 2 weeks ago:
The reason the switch 1 was emulated so fast was a hardware vulnerability on nvidia’s part. Presumably we won’t see that again.
Also: While switch games DO run better on a steam deck, they don’t run great. And I think estimates put the switch 2 at closer to a PS4 than PS3 in terms of power? But even PS3/360 games don’t run gerat on a Steam Deck.
Not to mention nintendo’s lawyers putting the fear of mario into the emulation community.
So in a few years? I could see MAYBE some proof of concepts. But I doubt we’ll actually be able to properly emulate switch 2 games until at least 2030.
- Comment on The Switch 2 Rollout Was So Convoluted It Made Us Want A Steam Deck. 2 weeks ago:
Its almost like those “politics” are related to why the pricing is weird?
- Comment on Switch 2 mouse mode (such potential) 2 weeks ago:
You DO realize that a port is not just as simple as picking the dropdown in your editor to compile for switch versus xbox versus PC, right?
There is a substantial amount of effort to do any kind of port. And for one where the default experience is a 1080p handheld display? The kinds of games that only have M+KB support (because people are also forgetting the “KB” part…) are not the ones that run the best on tiny screens.
Don’t get me wrong. There are definitely corner cases. But we literally went through this with the Steam Controller a decade or so ago (15 years?). Consoles are a giant part of the market and targeting xinput gets you an interface that works on all of those AND improves the experience for a lot of users on PC. Versus finding a way to downscale your input to just a mouse and 8-10 buttons?
The number of third parties that meaningfully benefit from the switch-mouse are going to be very small. And most, if not all, of them will also have gamepad support for people who don’t want to have to sit at at a table with a surface that is compatible with said switch mouse.
- Comment on Switch 2 mouse mode (such potential) 2 weeks ago:
Eh?
Conceptually I like the idea.
But even if it isn’t uncomfortable to use? It is going to have the same problem the OG steam controller or even the PS5 adaptive triggers have. If only one platform is going to use an input type then it is not going to be used by any third parties.
Yes, in this case it is two platforms: Switch and PC. But the number of developers who will say “I can make a switch port and only a switch port of my game” are few and far between. They’ll once again focus on how to make gamepad work because that gives them ALL the consoles, the Steam Deck, and even helps us olds with RSI.
- Comment on The Switch 2 Nintendo Direct Will Be 60 Minutes Long, Nintendo Confirms 2 weeks ago:
… The entire hour long show IS an ad.
- Comment on WW2 shooter Squad 44 from Offworld updates Easy Anti-Cheat enabling Linux support 2 weeks ago:
ER2 is also MUCH less oriented towards the sweaties.
The Expanded Squad Universe games are just a deranged phenomenon. No actual progression outside of a match but it is basically always half people roleplaying (generally in the most racist way imaginable) and half the most insanely sweaty people on the planet. Like… pro FGC players care less about the moment to moment than those Squad players.
But yeah. Easy Red 2 is REAL good. And it looks like the new DLC dropped today.
- Comment on Nintendo Direct Confirmed For Tomorrow, 27th March 2025 3 weeks ago:
I think Switch 2 is more likely.
I obviously don’t know their financials, but I am going to assume a month or two isn’t going to change things all that much.
So they can either launch for Switch 1 (and everything else) and be “just another game”. Or they can launch for Switch 2 (and everything else) and be the ONLY game. Plenty of “nindie” games did exactly that during the, quite frankly disastrous, first year or so of the Switch 1 and it was amazing for their studios.
Launching as part of the XBOX Boy or whatever MS calls their handheld is also an option. But MS is almost definitely going to take advantage of the albatross that was the Series S to have significant cross compatibility.
- Comment on Upscaling is actually good (as an option) 3 weeks ago:
Yeah, taht is more or less where I come down. “AI” upscaling is spectacular. Frame gen is much more hit or miss
The main problem is that, as with most things, people are stupid. They don’t understand that an outlet like Digital Foundry or even Gamers Nexus are going to be harsh on upscaling/frame gen because it actively makes it hard for them to give you guidance on what performance you can expect. So “This is horrible for benchmarking” becomes “This is horrible”
- Comment on Painkiller - Announcement Trailer 3 weeks ago:
Painkiller. A franchise where I like every game considerably less than the previous one.
Still, OG Painkiller and its (first) expansion was REAL good. I also loved that you were just some nebulous dude who was murdering the generals of Hell to be reunited with his wife in Heaven rather than a rogue demon/angel or a CIA wet works agent or whatever we are up to now.
- Comment on The System Shock 2 remaster comes out June 26th 4 weeks ago:
That comes up every time there is a re-release or a remaster.
If you are content with your setup, cool.
But this is Nightdive. They cook. It is already confirmed to have a subset of the community patch as well as improved visuals and hands and controls. So in terms of “worth it”… it probably is for the vast majority of people even slightly interested in SS2.
- Comment on The System Shock 2 remaster comes out June 26th 4 weeks ago:
System shock 2 is still a spectacular game
- Comment on Japan's prime minister is mad about Assassin's Creed Shadows where players can destroy the contents of religious sites 4 weeks ago:
Considering what a shitshow tourists are in Japan? I completely get why they would comment on this rather than just say “It is a video game, who cares? Next question”.
Last time I was in Kyoto I swear a local priest/monk was about to throw some 'bows when a German tourist an his family just walked straight across a zen garden.
Still, the endless chud culture war is always incredibly tiring. And here I am playing Rise of the Ronin instead (the PC port is ass but it is functional ass!). Chuds hate it because women exist. They SHOULD hate it because you can totally gay seckz Sakamoto Ryoma. Sort of like how Nioh “got away with” acknowledging the existence of Yasuke because all the chuds tuckered themselves out before finding out he was in that.
- Comment on ARK DLC Trailer Slammed For Being Made Entirely Through Gen AI 4 weeks ago:
Generative AI “art” is incredibly useful for small creators to prototype works. Whether that is storyboarding/previs or making a presentation to show investors.
Once that work is ready to be shown to the public? All work must have an actual creator. Whether that is an asset pack you purchased because it is “close enough” or an artist that you contracted/hired.
But also? Studio Wildcard (the company behind Ark) is very established and have been making games for over a decade at this point. They should have artists on staff who are already familiar with the style and design bibles of the Ark universe.
- Comment on Video Game Workers Launch Industry-Wide Union with Communications Workers of America 4 weeks ago:
The problem is that they can’t.
Crunch is a product of poor project management and underfunded projects. Neither of which are things a union can really fight against.
So what triggers crunch? Oversimplifying, but the investor/publisher says “Yeah, we are cutting you off. Go gold in 2 months”.
Depending on the ubiquity of the union at a given company, the only thing they can really do is say “Yeah. We aren’t working more than 40 hours in a given week”.
That… isn’t going to make the publisher or investors provide more money. It will just mean that what goes gold is even more broken and even less complete. And that just means the studio will get shut down even faster and it will be even harder for union outlets to get funding in the future.
Game dev is so fundamentally broken and the funding market is so dire that I very much consider it to already be in “it can’t get much worse…”.
But stuff like this and the countless sex pest “revelations” are very much a case where People need to learn what unions can and can’t do.
I would strongly encourage listening to the Remap Radio podcast when they talk about this. They are very much leftists and actually have firsthand experience (at Vice) of what unions can and can’t do for their members. And that often is more about making the good times better and trying to make the bad times less bad. And game dev is very much in the bad times and has been for years.
- Comment on 6 years and 1 prolonged delay later, Xbox is still calling "incredible" Hollow Knight: Silksong one of its "upcoming games" 4 weeks ago:
I mean… basically every platform is calling it an “upcoming game”. I want to say even fricking Nintendo have put it in a few sizzle reels?
Yes, it is a scientific fact that acknowledging Silksong adds at least another week until it releases. But it is also THE biggest indie game out there.
- Comment on Chrono Trigger Is Timeless 4 weeks ago:
Yeah. I also assumed it was closer to 40 but figured I would check howlongtobeat.
And yeah, if you know what you are doing you are going to be closer to the golden ending than not on any given run. But if someone is doing a genuinely blind run (rather than following gamefaqs) they have good odds of missing out on the truly optional character, missing a lot of good loot, possibly missing out on the semi-optional character, etc.
- Comment on Chrono Trigger Is Timeless 4 weeks ago:
CT is one of the all time great JRPGs… if you put the effort in.
But it is very much a product of its time between missable party members and even mechanics that penalize you for opening treasure chests too soon.
Conceptually it is cool as hell that there is something like five or six main endings and then a bunch of variants and special/joke endings. But… this is a 20-30 hour JRPG and ain’t nobody got that much time. Although, different re-releases have helped speed those up.
All in all? The big set piece moments are some of the greatest in gaming. The moment to moment are… from the early 90s. I would probably recommend grabbing a totally legit dump of your SNES cartridge, playing until you get bored/annoyed, and then watching a lore video.
- Comment on Valve "followed" 1.7 million Steam users for over a year, and now reports those gamers spent $20 million on microtransactions and another $73 million on games and DLC 4 weeks ago:
Would that even count as a “whale”?
Less than 20 dollars per user on “microtransactions” which the article goes on to define as “in-game transactions”. And 73 dollars on direct steam purchases of games/DLC which very well could just be a single newly released game.
So… one “battle pass” or two or three cosmetics for a live game and a new game or a season pass or two of DLC for an older one?