I strongly disagree, I don’t think act 2’s reveal would hit nearly as hard without all the build up.

I really enjoyed Shipbreaker, I really hope they expand the game some more as it definitely left me wanting more. It’s a super satisfying game. A really fun hidden gem.

I 100%'d Expedition 33. Masterpiece of a game, NG++ has no appeal to me though, I preferred the french dub FWIW, I found American actors saying french words to be really offputting, but maybe that’s because I’m Canadian.

Now that’s done I’ve dusted off the PS5 for ** Death Stranding 2**. I just got to the place past the animal shelter to give a non-spoiler point in where I’m at. I really enjoyed the first game, mostly just the vibe, it’s a very cozy game for me. DS2 is mostly more of the same, which is pretty much what I want. They greatly expanded the combat, and made it a more important part of side quests. I’m not particularly excited or bothered by that, it is more fun, particularly stealth but I’m a bit disappointed they haven’t built up the trekking part of the game much, so far I don’t think I have unlocked any items that weren’t in the first game and isn’t combat focused but I’m hoping they mostly added to late game. I do really like that roads are not the pinnacle of development any more (I LIKE TRAINS!!). The UI is also a bit of a step down for me, but I can’t quite figure out why, it just feels a bit more awkward. I really like the added skill trees and the backpack modding, the new BTs are alright. The one thing I really really hated in the first game were the flashbacks to old wars, I despised these forced combat sequences and find them dull, thematically odd, and shows off the worst aspects of the game, I’m disappointed to see these are still in DS2 but with the better combat they are slightly more tolerable. Overall it’s a good sequel and I’m having a really fun time, but it is going in a direction that I think makes it less special. I find the themes are really interesting with the series as a whole, developing the wilderness is obviously a good thing, having lots of teamwork and cooperation is genuinely really good for the world of DS, but also the structures you make are ugly, contributing to something worse and somewhat annoying. It’s really interesting commentary imo and very nuanced which is a rare thing.

It’s very difficult at the hardest level but it ramps you up very smoothly. The main story is something most people (and children) can beat fairly easily, getting all the strawberries takes some time and some tighter skill but it quite forgiving and generally requires only one “advanced” move at a time. After that you get B sides and C sides which are when the real challenge starts and you have to start chaining multiple advanced moves together.IMO it’s an amazing game for transitioning from a casual platformer to a “hardcore” platformer if that is something you want to do, but you can also stop at a casual level and still get a full experience. There’s also an accessibility easy option if you really just want to get the story.

Here’s the actual source, I don’t think the article really adds anything

https://gist.github.com/Kaldaien/c66bf3dca62a5ac63785714f686e60ad

Enter Monthly Subscription Game Libraries and DRM-free → Exit Steam

I strongly disagree with this paragraph, as we saw with Netflix and video streaming monthly subscriptions are a trap which allows a massive increase tot he cost to the consumer and a noticeable drop in the quality of the content in a way steams model simply does not.

And they are good stories for the most part too, is can still remember some of my storylines from a decade ago.

or even worse when you have to wait for the voiced dialogue to finish before it lets you continue.

here’s the games:

• Unbox: Newbie’s Adventeure
• Utopia Must Fall
• Chroma Squad
• Shadow Gambit
• En Garde!
• Tinykin
• Our Adventurer Guild
• Timespinner
• Renowned Explorers
• The Brutale
• Wintermoor Tactics Club
• Unsighted
• Wayhaven Chronicles
• Demon Turf
• Roadwarden

I think if the vetting process to set these up is good enough then it will be hardly used, or maybe used by businesses to drum up business.

If the vetting process isn’t good then a pedo will set one up in an alley

I would be on board if they also hit unity or unreal but that is probably not really possible. As it is its really just feeding into monopolies.

I have a conspiracy theory that the game tracks your total playtime and rewards people who play a lot of support and tank with better dps queues. I mostly play support, but if I queue as both Support and DPS I will almost always get a DPS game, last night I got 8 games in a row as DPS.

Yeah I hated all the time warp boss fights especially. I gave up on the game on the last trip back to the beginning area. I LOVED the side quests and general gameplay loop but whenever the main quest came up I was bored out of my mind. I think I would have enjoyed the game more if it was just a sandbox.

What would your #1 Buff or Nerf be?

If they made a TF3 (haha valve can’t count), what sort of changes would you like to see, what things would need to stay the same?

With TF2 being open source now, what spin off games do you hope to see?

I mean i guess it worked, overwatch is pretty happy community right now (by online game standards), least in my experience. Although I think the bigger thing is toxic players are first to leave for other games, like rivals.

A good month for action RPGs

Seems like all the way on the other end of the spectrum of Kingdom Come deliverance 2. Might pick this up after I’m done with Kingdom Come.

the lack of stealth is a bit of a turn off for me personally, but the hand placed events and mobs seems like a big plus.

Does anyone know if the game is viable without any companions? The reviews I have seen seem to complain about them a lot and I already dislike AI teammates.

I find it way too frustrating to clean the strainer out, I personally just buy unbleached paper tea bags (i am 100% sure they don’t have plastic) and put my loose leaf into that.

Teabags in prepacked tea annoying the crap out of me, why can’t they be paper it is literally just as good.

I buy my tea loose and then spoon it into unbleached paper tea bags. I find this a good compromise between prepacked tea bags and use a reusable steeper (which i hate cleaning out and rarely remember to do so.

Not to be overly negative, but what are fans playing for these days? I only played the original 2 games and the (first?) North American one.

It seems people hate the modern stories, the gameplay is shallow at best and it’s parkour has been far surpassed by many other games by now. The games are very often used as examples of modern AAA studios having no creativity and just churning out the same game over and over. The games look beautiful and I’ve heard the educational versions are pretty useful, but what are the primary draw these days?

Again I don’t want to be a hater, that’s just what I’ve picked up from other people talking about it.

I know of this largely abandoned project: https://github.com/dmadisetti/steam-tui

I believe that while steam has public APIs for most stuff but there’s no way for a 3rd party client to provide DRM authentication, so the majority of games will not launch unless you also have the official steam client installed (note that steam does have a cli client)., rendering any 3rd party apps either simple wrappers for steam or severely limited.

there’s plenty of “ugly” games here’s some I’ve played recently that came out this year:

• UFO 50: A collection of new games in the style (mechanically and visually) of the 8bit games. 8 bit graphics
• Balatro: A GOTY nominee, it’s a roguelike that is extremely loosely based on poker. modern pixel art style static images
• Children of the sun: a puzzle game where you are a sniper that bends and deflects bullets to kill whole rooms of people with 1 bullet. Graphics are pretty imo but not advanced.
• Echo Point Nova: a movement focused shooter. games plays on a potato. There is technically a a ray tracing option, but I think it’s more of a future proofing thing/a personal interest of the dev.