Coelacanth

@Coelacanth@feddit.nu

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some old games that are hard to revisit, because a more modern and superior version exists?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I haven’t gotten around to them myself yet (they’re on the docket this year) but I’ve heard this said about Yakuza 1&2 since the release of Kiwami 1&2.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Upscaling is actually good (as an option)⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve personally gotten a lot out of all the AI enhanced graphics technologies, and pretty much consider these applications the absolute perfect use case for the AI we have today. Yes, they shouldn’t be a substitute for optimisation, but overcorrecting the other way and attempting to claim that DLSS is garbage that ruins everything and looks like shit is also bad (and untrue).

  Even frame generation has its uses, as long as you don’t play something fast paced where there is a lot of camera movement and/or you’ll feel the added input lag too much.

  A special shout-out to the redheaded stepchild of the family too: DLDSR is a fantastic technology and once you’ve tried it you’ll never want to go back.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 24th⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  The F1 season kicked off, so I played around a bit with F1 Manager 2024 since it was free on Epic a few weeks ago. It’s much like the previous iterations of the series - great presentation but vapid and shallow underneath. It’s a real shame, because there are things about it that are compelling. Having all those real team radios and proper circuits and gorgeous cockpit views during races and all the official branding does make a difference. In-race management is also pretty damn fun.

  The problem is that it was designed by a team that don’t understand management games. Everything about it starts falling apart the more seasons you play, which is the complete antithesis of what management players are after. The great things like team radios disappear as you replace your drivers and staff members with youngsters or generated people who don’t have voice clips. Nobody has a personality, there are no off-track events that make you invested. The greatness of the perfectly replicated race calendar fades as tracks aren’t added or removed between seasons. There are no interesting regulation changes over time that change fundamental aspects of the car or the rules. The power ranking and properties of the engines never change.

  There is no soul or depth here to hook you for years upon years and make you want to build a dynasty. It basically only works if you pick a top or midfield team and try to manage a championship win during the first or second season, beyond that it loses its shine. Still, it’ll be a decent distraction this week as there is no race to watch.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Best game ever?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m taking this topic to be less of “what’s the most important video game” (which we already had a long discussion post about recently re: the BAFTA award thing) and more of “what’s the best game to just sit down and play right now”. In which case, probably Portal 2? I can’t think of a much better candidate in terms of being a perfect execution of what it sets out to do with an appeal that can be compelling for absolutely everyone regardless of taste.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨One-handed games?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Divinity: Original Sin 2 is basically just more BG3 (though with less production quality) so that should be right up your RPG-loving friend’s alley. Turn based combat and click-to-move lets you play the whole thing with just your mouse I’m pretty sure.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trending Communities for Friday 21st March 2025⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Some explosive growth in a couple of hitherto small communities, great to see!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Assassin's Creed Shadows Drops To 40 FPS At 720P On The Next-Gen Nvidia RTX 5070Ti⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m in the minority that says the newest games don’t need to get 60fps 4k ultra on the newest GPUs

  This is a great take tbh and I agree. Future proofing is a thing and we’ve seen old benchmark games hold up remarkably well thanks to it - hell, look at Crysis! I also think a lot of people underestimate just how demanding 4k is. We’re still not at the point where 4k is the new 1080p imo.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The System Shock 2 remaster comes out June 26th⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m kind of in the same boat. SS2 will always be there if I wanted to play it, and a remaster isn’t really making me more or less likely to. But a full remake would be very interesting especially since the studio was so successful with the SS1 remake and it turned out so well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Day 246 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Graphically it looks awesome too. At the native settings it would have had around 2012 it didn’t look to great, but after raising it to the max it looks really good. It can be crazy how future proofed older games are with graphic options.

  One of the best things I’ve found for cleaning up older games is DLDSR. Hell, I try to use it on any game I can get away with, but on older games especially it’s great because you have so much excess FPS to play with that it’s basically free. The anti-aliasing effect of it is especially nice on older games and typically much better than the native AA solution.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ARK DLC Trailer Slammed For Being Made Entirely Through Gen AI⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Intent is critical for my enjoyment of art. What makes art wonderful is that it lets you connect with another human being, get a glimpse into their mind, see their perspective, feel their feelings.

  Gen AI as it exists today has no intent, so I have no interest in it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Patch 1.3 has arrived!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a good PC but not top-of-the-line and I was getting playable frames at launch already. The only way 40 FPS on a top PC makes sense to me is something like playing in 4k and with DLSS turned off.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your all-time favorite game? Let's discuss the best options!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know how far you got, but you might have gotten unlucky with who you spoke to in game. Lena, Anette, Tommy, Mañana and Roy are all immediately accessible for example and are all rather lovely people, providing some soft contrast to other more abrasive characters.

  Can’t say anything about the delivery of the content though. It’s certainly extremely info dumpy and text heavy - part of why I was saying to start with that it’s less than a game and more of a novel.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your all-time favorite game? Let's discuss the best options!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I honestly wish Larian had just left the IP alone and done a standalone D&D game. There is absolutely no narrative reason for any of the tie-ins and callbacks, it was literally just a case of wanting the brand recognition for better marketing and then shoehorning in some old fan favourites and calling it a day. Seeing Sarevok and Viconia as they were in BG3 just makes me sad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your all-time favorite game? Let's discuss the best options!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I think that’s another thing as well, a lot of people go in with the idea that you can to some extent “play as yourself” like you do in many RPGs. And they get frustrated when they’re only given stupid or horrible dialogue options like “why would I ever say any of these things?!”. Because the game is actually rather restrictive in terms of roleplay: yes you can choose your flavour and variety of crazy but at the end of the day you’re always Harry, you’re always insane and damaged and you can’t change that.

  For me personally, I’m also an utter failure and I hate myself deeply, so maybe that’s why I easily resonated with the protagonist. And in the end, much of the actual story is about dealing with failure, about finding hope amidst despair and about overcoming and letting go of the past.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your all-time favorite game? Let's discuss the best options!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I agree that the original is tighter, but I love the free-form adventure of 2.

  While that is also true, what I hear most about is the tone. Fallout 1 is really rather dark, grim and gritty. It leans more into the heavy side of a post-apocalyptic setting and some people really liked that, and we’re disappointed when FO2 came out and leaned noticeably more into the wacky side of things.

  Played it? I voiced a talking dog in it!

  Wait, really? That’s so cool! Do you know the current status of the project? The last update was over two years ago…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your all-time favorite game? Let's discuss the best options!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Fallout 2 is absolutely stellar. I get the arguments some old-heads levy against in when they prefer Fallout 1, but I think I just played FO2 at the perfect time. The wackiness and pop culture references and humour hit with me when I first played it. It is sprawly, but it is also amazing for how big it is and how much there is to do in it.

  Did you ever play it modded? The Restoration Project, Updated has two amazing addons that add more talking heads and more voice acting and they’re both of phenomenal, basically seamless quality. It’s really like putting on a fresh coat of paint on the old thing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your all-time favorite game? Let's discuss the best options!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Like I said, the game itself on its store page claims to be a “detective game RPG” while in reality I would argue it’s barely any of those things. So a lot of people probably come into it with the wrong expectations. It’s more like a novel about love and loss, about addiction, depression and the past looming over the present like a grey ghost. It’s a story about finding hope in the midst of overwhelming nihilism. As someone who has struggled with all those things it hit incredibly close to home, and was the most meaningful experience I’ve ever had playing a video game.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trending Communities for Tuesday 18th March 2025⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  !nicole@feddit.org, Nicoled, 107 => 257, 79 posts (65 this week)

  Don’t know if this is funny or a bad case of feeding the trolls. Then again I’m subscribed to that sub myself so who am I to talk.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your all-time favorite game? Let's discuss the best options!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a difficult question to answer. I personally barely consider Disco Elysium to be a game, more like an interactive story that uses certain game mechanics as grammar elements and punctuation in its storytelling. It’s a novel masquerading as a game. It’s three novels in a trenchcoat. But if we do count it then it is my pick, by a landslide.

  Otherwise it’s probably Baldur’s Gate 2. It’s the story game I’ve replayed the most over the years and it was absolutely fundamental in my journey as a gamer, the definition of a formative experience. Even though parts of it are dated now (some clunk is to be expected from a 25-year-old game) I still prefer it to BG3. It’s got a great story, great companions and an all-time great villain. David Warner put in an incredible performance and even all these years later there aren’t many video game villains who have surpassed Irenicus in sheer aura.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trending Communities for Monday 17th March 2025⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  !formuladank@lemmy.world, Formuladank – ¡¡¡ʞǝǝʍ ǝɔɐɹ ɹǝpun uʍop s,ʇI, 99 => 560, 823 posts (31 this week)

  Was counting on a surge like this happening what with the season starting but damn good to see nonetheless.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 16th⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Reading this makes me feel slightly better about my obsessive and paranoid habit of keeping unnecessarily extensive backup save slots at milestones through any game I play, despite basically never using them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What’s a movie nobody can convince you is good?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I also think Nolan is overrated but The Prestige is a good movie.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your single favourite movie soundtrack?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Paris, Texas. Pure desolate vastness, pain and longing and loneliness. The whole soundtrack is out of this world. Absolute pitch-perfect genius by Ry Cooder setting the tone for what is also a phenomenal film in its own right.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spectre Divide to end service within 30 days, developer Mountaintop to close⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Every time a live service game flops, an angel gets her wings.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨More Disco Elysium alumni join former staff at Longdue working on spiritual successor⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Everyone is a little in the wrong, I think. But Argo is one of the good guys, and for me one of the biggest takeaways I was left with after deep diving onto this whole mess is a deep sadness over the friendship between Kurvitz and Argo falling apart.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨More Disco Elysium alumni join former staff at Longdue working on spiritual successor⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Damn Martin Luiga is involved with Longdue now? I’ve only heard negative things about that studio before and I also thought he was already a part of Red Info with Kurvitz and Rostov. The Disco Elysium drama vortex just keeps on churning it seems.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 9th⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Finished Skald: Against the Black Priory, and it was a lovely experience overall. It’s one of those games that knows exactly what it attempts to do, and is very good at limiting its scope and not biting off more than it can chew. I might have liked a bit more agency and player choice - it is very linear for an RPG - but I can see how that would have been a challenge for a small studio and could well have ended up hurting the quality of the experience. As is it’s a very enjoyable ride, full of retro charm, nostalgic music and pretty pixel art but without retro clunk like memory limitations or poor controls and UX. I liked the story and found the writing solid, with a great gloomy atmosphere and some nice cosmic horror touches. The combat and character customization could have been a touch more elaborate, but at around 20 hours the game isn’t long enough that it really becomes a problem.

  I’d give it somewhere around an 8 to 8.5/10 and definitely recommend it, especially to anyone who enjoys retro RPGs. It’s quite cheap too, even at full price.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Split Fiction's Josef Fares says they'll never offer microtransactions: "Just make games. Period."⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  How have I gone this long without knowing Josef Fares was directing these games?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The most influential video game of all time - BAFTA⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve said before that I genuinely think FarmVille is in with a shout. The trends it started in terms of monetisation, user retention mechanics and analytics driven intrusive big data player behaviour analysis and behaviour prediction was extremely far-reaching, not just in the context of gaming. Not to mention how it got a whole new demographic into video games and showed corporations that games are not necessarily only for gamers. It is very much possible to reach your grandma’s wallet too. It heralded things like Candy Crush.

  Here is a good article about it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 show that the future of RPGs is in games way more ambitious, weird and unexpected than anything Bethesda and Bioware have to offer⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s a classic negotiation technique abusing the psychological anchoring effect.