Voroxpete
@Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 2 days ago:
Do not cite the deep magics to me, I was there when they were written. I grew up on System Shock and Deus Ex, and that’s exactly why I found Dishonoured so hard to get into. Those other games gave the player a complete free choice in how to approach them, but Dishonoured doesn’t do that. It presents an apparently wide open field, but the moment you pick a particular path and set off down it, the game wags its finger and says “Oh no, not like that. That’s not how you’re supposed to play.”
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 2 days ago:
There’s also a lot of stuff throughout the game about how the city gets more corrupted, more rats everywhere, that sort of thing. Some of this makes some stuff harder, some of it is just vibes. But all of it is the designers very noticeably wagging their finger under your nose for engaging with the mechanics they made and actively encouraged you to engage with.
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 2 days ago:
I’d be happy with either option. If you’re going to punish the player for not doing perfect (eg, no kill) stealth, don’t tease them with a bunch of really exciting combat mechanics. If you’re going to include all the exciting combat mechanics, don’t punish people for using them.
- Comment on Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic 3 days ago:
I bailed on Dishonoured for one very specific reason; the morality system.
Dishonoured is, in my opinion a spectacular example of game design, and an equally spectacular example of how to break your game design by not understanding the way players interact with the tools you give them.
Dishonoured is a stealth game. It’s also a game with a superb combat system, and a really fun and exciting set of powers for the player to enjoy using. These things can, sort of co-exist, if somewhat uneasily. But then you add the morality system.
The morality system, in effect, punishes you for playing the game in a non-stealthy way. Or, more specifically, for playing with the wrong kind of stealth. The morality system wants you to ghost the whole game, slipping past every opponent without the slightest evidence you were ever there. But doing that means not engaging with most of the powers and any of the combat.
Having the option to follow a ghost playstyle is great. But when the game sets up a bunch of really fun mechanics, then punishes you for engaging with those mechanics in exactly the way they were designed to be engaged with, that just sucks.
- Comment on We could have lived in a world where Hideo Kojima made a Matrix game, if only someone had told him he was offered to make one 2 weeks ago:
Usually. Enter The Matrix was one of the rare exceptions. That game genuinely slapped. The gameplay was crazy fun; it took all the slow-mo coolness of Max Payne and added wall-running, super jumps and martial arts. The combat was lots of fun, and the story was all written by the Wachowski’s to tie in with the second and third movie, including actual scenes that they filmed as part of the process. They took it really seriously, to them it was an essential part of the story.
Obviously the whole Matrix 2 & 3 saga has some problems, it’s not the Wachowski’s best work (how could it have been, they had a plot for one movie that they were told to expand into two), but the game is still a really fun entry in their ouvre.
BTW, another excellent licensed game was Chronicles of Riddick Escape From Butcher Bay, a genuinely fantastic game tying in with a genuinely terrible movie.
- Comment on How does he do it??? 4 weeks ago:
My brain went to exactly the same place.
- Comment on Steam Next Fest is back for October 2025. What good demos have you found? 5 weeks ago:
Yeah, parrying needs serious work. I don’t think I’ve been able to make it happen even once.
- Comment on Steam Next Fest is back for October 2025. What good demos have you found? 5 weeks ago:
Everwind is fantastic. Fixes just about every complaint I have about Minecraft, and I say that as someone who bought Minecraft back in alpha. There are things that could be improved, but even where I think there’s room for improvement the baseline always seems to be “It’s already better than Minecraft”. For example I really feel like the combat could do with a dodge mechanic and harsher stamina management, but that’s based on comparing it to stuff like Dark Souls. Even in its current state it absolutely clowns on Minecraft’s combat.
The artstyle is lovely, the building and crafting feels really good, the range of furniture and decorations you can build is massive, and you get to build and fly an airship. And that’s not an afterthought, it’s a core part of the game and feels really, really good.
- Comment on Once again, looking for PS2 game suggestions! 1 month ago:
This is an obscure one, and not high on most people’s lists, but my personal favourite PS2 game is Steel Lancer International, a game where you build mechs and take them into arena battles in a post-apocalyptic future.
- Comment on Once again, looking for PS2 game suggestions! 1 month ago:
+1 for Burnout 3. That’s a series that desparately needs a new entry.
- Comment on Once again, looking for PS2 game suggestions! 1 month ago:
Zone of the Enders was phenomenal.
- Comment on Once again, looking for PS2 game suggestions! 1 month ago:
Ah yes, single player open world Helldivers.
Absolutely amazing game. Just Cause kind of captured some of the same energy, but never quite there. There’s nothing quite like being able to deploy cluster bomb strikes at will.
- Comment on EA CEO says company values will 'remain unchanged' under the new ownership of Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushner's investment firm 1 month ago:
“I mean, they can’t get any worse, right?”
Spoiler alert: They can.
Don’t buy anything from EA, ever again.
- Comment on Embracer is leveraging AI "in ethical and sustainable ways", says new CEO, insisting "human authorship is final" 1 month ago:
Embracer have never done anything ethical in their entire existence. I really don’t think they’re going to start now.
- Comment on it's just science, i guess 1 month ago:
Yeah, they could just as easily pivot to “Well, sure, autism was around before that, but it didn’t happen nearly as often.” Kind of like cancer and modern carcinogens. It’s just a foolish line of argument that makes us look stupid.
And it’s completely unnecessary. The evidence that autism is genetic is overwhelming. Anyone who is going to listen to facts already has the facts right there, and anyone else isn’t worth trying to convince.
- Comment on it's just science, i guess 1 month ago:
Also, milk just tastes different depending on the cows, and how they’re raised and fed. Most likely what you’re noticing there is the difference between grass-fed and corn-fed. Cows aren’t naturally adapted to eat corn; they grow better and healthier on grass, which is how they’re raised in the UK. Corn-feeding is a primarily North American practice because corn can be sold at below the cost of production in the US thanks to government subsidies in place since the Great Depression.
- Comment on it's just science, i guess 1 month ago:
Tylenol is a brand name for paracetomol (AKA acetominophen). It was first created in either 1878 or 1852 depending on which claims you believe about its discovery.
The claim that autism was differentiated from schizophrenia in 1911 is unsourced, and seems suspect given that Leo Kanner first described autism in 1943, but even if we accept it as true, it still puts the discovery of autism after the discovery of paracetomol.
RFK Jr is full of crap, and it doesn’t matter when autism was discovered, because it’s genetic and has probably been around as long as humans have, but trying to pull a gotcha like this is just going to make you look stupid.
- Comment on it's just science, i guess 1 month ago:
Copy and pasting from my other reply to this claim:
Please don’t continue to share this “fact.” I know it sounds like a really good gotcha, but it’s not. Tylenol is just a brand name producer of the drug acetominophen, known in most of the rest of the world as paracetomol. It’s been around since at least 1878, and possibly earlier (there are claims it was produced in 1852). Autism was first described by Leo Kanner in 1943. Obviously, anyone sane knows that it’s been around a lot longer than that, probably as long as humans have been humans, but the people you’re trying to reach with this claim are obviously going to assert that it first appeared around the same time that it was first identified, or, at the very least, that it’s appearance likely aligns with the invention of paracetomol.
- Comment on it's just science, i guess 1 month ago:
Please don’t continue to share this “fact.” I know it sounds like a really good gotcha, but it’s not. Tylenol is just a brand name producer of the drug acetominophen, known in most of the rest of the world as paracetomol. It’s been around since at least 1878, and possibly earlier (there are claims it was produced in 1852). Autism was first described by Leo Kanner in 1943. Obviously, anyone sane knows that it’s been around a lot longer than that, probably as long as humans have been humans, but the people you’re trying to reach with this claim are obviously going to assert that it first appeared around the same time that it was first identified, or, at the very least, that it’s appearance likely aligns with the invention of paracetomol.
- Comment on 1 month ago:
Dread is legitimately one of the best horror RPGs ever created.
For those who don’t know, it’s a game of “Final girl” / “Cabin in the woods” style horror where terrible things happen to a group of people. The only mechanic the game has is a Jenga tower. Every time you want to do a risky action, you pull a brick. If the tower falls, something really bad happens. No other game has ever quite created such a perfect feeling of steadily mounting tension and… well… dread.
- Comment on 1 month ago:
But what constitutes “RPG elements?” Because most of the time that seems to mean “crunchy stats”, which has absolutely nothing to do with “Roleplaying.” I’ve seen Call of Duty described as having “RPG elements” because you unlock perks.
Your average visual novel is more of a roleplay experience than half the CRPGs I’ve played. If reviewers mean “There’s very little player choice or input and you don’t really get to feel like you’re embodying a character” then yeah, that’s a valid criticism. If their complaint is that they didn’t get to put enough dots next to things, I’m not really sure how that’s a problem.
- Comment on Let's hear it, little lemmings. 2 months ago:
He was an outspoken civil rights advocate, even back in the 1940s. Seems like a pretty rad dude to me.
- Comment on New article says #StarCitizen will release in 2027-2028, we contacted the author to ask for clarification on the source and he quoted Chris Roberts himself as saying "1 or 2 Y probably after S42" 2 months ago:
I mean, vaporware would require it to fail to manifest. There is a game. You can play it right now. Has it delivered on everything they promised? Absolutely not. But that was never the definition of vaporware. And, paradoxically, what’s there, despite being far reduced from the theoretical scope, is also one the most technically impressive games ever made. Entire planets in a complete solar system that you can traverse without a single loading screen. Not even a disguised one. It’s also, y’know, a buggy janky mess that still lacks many core gameplay features.
Like, there’s so much that you could legitimately criticise about Star Citizen that resorting to the both meaningless and innacurate claim of vaporware just shows an extreme lack of imagination. If you want to be critical go for it, but surely you can come up with something more coherent than that?
- Comment on Everwind – Official Gameplay Trailer 2 months ago:
The airship is what sold me. I’ve wanted ships in Minecraft for as long as I’ve been playing Minecraft, both because it’s cool, and because I think survival games would really benefit from the idea of a mobile base. Being able to take your home with you is such a huge deal and really bridges the gap between the “cosy” and “adventure” aspects of these games.
- Comment on Let's hear it, little lemmings. 2 months ago:
Even putting aside the science, Einstein just seems like he was a really good dude. I feel like he’d be a chill person to hang with.
- Comment on Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Pre-Order Trailer 2 months ago:
This game looks awesome. People who’ve gotten their hands on it are saying great things.
But in absolutely no way should you pre-order it.
- Comment on Anon thinks there is a bicurious double standard 2 months ago:
Some absolute gem of a human being decided to express their opinion that people shouldn’t be out in public if they’re “planning to have a mental breakdown” because it’s so embarrassing for everyone around them to be seen having to comfort a friend who is going through a hard time.
- Comment on Anon thinks there is a bicurious double standard 2 months ago:
I think my favourite part was “planning to have a mental breakdown” as if that’s something the people plan.
Like, yeah, let me just check my calendar for the day. Yeah, I’ve got lunch with Josh at 12:30, sales meeting at 2:00, mental breakdown at 3:00, panic attack at 6:00. Man, my day is packed!
- Comment on Anon thinks there is a bicurious double standard 2 months ago:
Grow up.
Wild thing to say after expressing one of the most childish opinions I’ve ever seen.
- Comment on Ottawa intervenes in Air Canada-union dispute, sending them to binding arbitration 2 months ago:
All that government intervention in strikes does is ensure more strikes down the line. Empower labour to actually win decent working conditions for themselves, and you’ll see far fewer labour disputes. No one actually likes being on strike (and strikes become far more likely when the government constantly intervenes because the companies have less incentive try to avoid a strike in the first place).