DdCno1

@DdCno1@beehaw.org

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stardew Valley enters the third dimension thanks to this in-development mod that even comes with VR functionality⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  No idea why, but I kind of want a DOOM mod about liberating Stardew Valley from a demon infestation now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  An attack via USB is much sneakier to pull off (no device surgery required) and more difficult to combat as an org. You essentially have to epoxy the ports shut or remove them physically and force your employees to charge their phones and tablets wirelessly. Not an usual thing to do - I first saw this decades ago with PCs and laptops - but still.

  Fun fact: With laptops commonly using USB ports for charging these days, higher-end business-oriented ones tend retain the old barrel plug so that they can still be used with USB ports being rendered inoperable.

  Slightly off-topic: One of my last employers used software (I think it was a built-in utility of HP business computers) to disable USB ports on laptops instead, primarily to stop people from using insecure USB drives (only people working on really sensitive stuff had the ports epoxied). There was an internal file sharing service that was meant to be used in place of tiny drives you can accidentally lose, but it worked exceptionally poorly. They forgot that you can still transfer files via Bluetooth to virtually any other Bluetooth device that has storage, which is what I resorted to. It’s slow, but reliable, works with anything (even old dumb phones) and is of course not as stupid as using a commercial cloud service, which is what some of my colleagues did.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox layoffs mean that Elder Scrolls Online's roadmap is "shifting" just two days before Season One's release... the plan put in place for the MMO after the last round of cuts⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Streaming has replaced the TV just running in the background in households where the TV was just running in the background in the past. Also, many people are using their phones while watching stuff, which is horrid.

  Sucks for people who still remember when streaming services had to differentiate themselves from normal TV with more sophisticated content, of course.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox layoffs mean that Elder Scrolls Online's roadmap is "shifting" just two days before Season One's release... the plan put in place for the MMO after the last round of cuts⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You are making a good case for it.

  One thing that bothers the Skooma out of me though is the monetization and the tiny inventory if you’re not a subscriber (I’m an unashamed loot goblin - I need a huge inventory!). Does one need to have ESO+ to have fun?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox layoffs mean that Elder Scrolls Online's roadmap is "shifting" just two days before Season One's release... the plan put in place for the MMO after the last round of cuts⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  story yelling

  That’s a typo for the ages! I’m gonna steal this one!

  As for the game, I played the alpha or beta (been a while, so I’m not sure) and wasn’t really all that impressed, but maybe because it felt like a downgrade in every way from the singleplayer games. Should I try it again? How good is it for players leaning towards solo play?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Expect RAM prices to stay high with Micron locking in deals for 5 years⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It doesn’t really matter. It’s an oligopol and they can set the prices however they want. There’s no alternative, since everyone - businesses and consumers alike - needs their product.

  China can’t and won’t be able to compete, since they are far too much behind in manufacturing, chasing a moving target.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Polestar doesn’t do cheap EVs. Their cars are far too powerful and sophisticated for this. You can’t exactly take out features that customers in this segment are expecting.

  Look into the upcoming Slate truck, which is set to be one of the cheapest EVs in the US. It doesn’t even come with an infotainment system by default - just a holder for your smartphone. If you want, you can access advanced vehicle functions via an app, but you don’t have to.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic Games CEO says it’s ‘really irresponsible’ of Steam to make studios disclose AI use | VGC⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This reminds me that Epic, unlike Steam, allows crypto games on their store. For a while, it was being absolutely flooded with crypto shovelware, drowning out more worthwhile titles. It was one of several reasons why I stopped using the store for anything but the weekly free games.

  In other words: Sweeney is wrong once again and it’s not doing him and his money pit of a store any favors.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm tired of GTA⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  GTA VI is much larger. It’s the kind of game that, just like its predecessors, will appear prominently in mainstream news and general discourse, because it’s such a hugely influential and well-known thing, well beyond the gaming world. Ask non-gamers about Cyberpunk 2077 and most will never have heard of it - but I can assure you, with GTA, it’s different.

  This isn’t unjustified in many ways. The series has never produced a dud, each 3D mainline game has been, on a technical and narrative level, as well as especially in terms of world building (no other studio in the AAA space comes even close here) far above most other contemporary titles, despite obviously not being perfect - and the enormous popularity combined with its player freedom, violent and (often) sexual content, as well as its usually quite biting satire of the current world is also a welcome target for grifters trying to stir up controversy by using moral outrage - or those at the receiving end of the satire being whiny about it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm tired of GTA⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Chinatown Wars was essentially this. Awesome little game - and easy to emulate using PPSSPP. The PSP version is the best in terms of visuals, the DS original has interesting touch controls for the minigames. The Android port on the other hand isn’t as refined.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm tired of GTA⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Custom servers are where it’s at, based on what I’ve heard, but I’ve never tried it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve will finally let you build your own Steam Machine with SteamOS for desktop⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Just don’t look at how they are benefiting from gambling too closely.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EA are making another round of layoffs as they seek "to better meet fans’ changing needs", according to reports⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  To be fair, without their sports games, they would have gone bankrupt over 30 years ago.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Firefox has an ambitious new roadmap, the browser is also losing millions of users a month⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem is that they take their sweet time incorporating security updates.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"We made a series of mistakes": GOG apologise for emailing Nazi symbols to people in newsletter about Slavic fantasy game⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Except that they sent it out to people in Germany if they had their language set to one other than German. Using this symbols this way is a crime, by the way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve make adjustments to Steam tags, and they settled the Vampire Survivor-like argument with Bullet Heaven⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This reminds me of the gaming press transitioning from calling action games with a 3D first person perspective “Doom clones” to “first person shooters” (although “corridor shooter” was also a thing for a while, for obvious reasons).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Subnautica 2's no-killing ethos "will be a continued point of resistance" among players, say Unknown Worlds, but they have no plans to change it⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Just like there aren’t enough games with stoic white male protagonists. Truly a persecuted minority.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Notice where they are allowed to do this and where they are not. It’s in cities where these companies have the most political and economic influence.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨LEGO 2K Drive is getting delisted soon and servers will shut down⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not the greatest arcade racer out there and without online, much of the content is permanently locked off.

  I can highly recommend Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed instead. Bit of a mouthful, but the game is fantastic. Very beginner-friendly, yet with enormous depth (easy to learn, hard to master and all that), fantastic driving physics and track design, excellent progression, tons to discover and unlock. Both single- and multiplayer are among the best in the genre. It’s also cheap (Steam keys are currently on sale at 2game for less than five bucks) and runs on a toaster, despite its excellent presentation (the blurry screenshots on the store page do not do it justice).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apple announced the iPhone 17e with an Israelli chip⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Pick virtually any advanced technology or scientific field and there’s at least one lab or company right at the cutting edge in Israel. This country has very little natural resources, a small population, has been sanctioned and blockaded in one way or another since day one, so it was an obvious choice to heavily invest into education, research and high-tech manufacturing. That’s why the gap in capabilities and standard of living between Israel and its neighbors has been ever widening.

  It’s very much comparable to Taiwan in this regard and the end result is similar: You’re likely owning a whole lot of devices with tech from both countries (at the very least tech based on patents from there) or have been unknowingly using it in some other fashion.

  All of this took smart minds many decades to build up. Unfortunately, Netanyahu is squandering his nation’s potential with his selfish and criminal recklessness.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What game had you like this?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Legacy of the Dragonborn? Can’t think of a reason for it not to work in VR.

  I finally have a room that is large enough for this game in VR. We are both giving the worst ideas ideas to each other.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What game had you like this?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m assuming you’re talking about this mod:

  https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/11802

  Never heard of it, but I stopped playing the game for the most part (except for the amazing total conversion Enderal) years before it came out, so it makes sense. It definitely looks interesting though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A former Rockstar dev is making a Satisfactory-style survival game about doomed expeditions on a strange planet⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  former Rockstar QA tester, Build A Rocket Boy scripter (in various capacities), and Splash Damage senior technical designer

  Really stretching the definition of “former Rockstar dev” here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hogwarts Legacy Reportedly Getting New Content & A Sequel⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Just pirate the game. She won’t get a penny and you can play one of the better recent open world games. I’ve never particularly liked Harry Potter, even before the author showed her true colors, but I still enjoyed this game.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Grand Theft Auto 6 is still hitting consoles in autumn, says Take-Two boss, promise⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  This is perhaps the one game in development right now that could release at any time this year, next year or the year after that and it would still perform incredibly well. It’s pretty dead-set on being the largest entertainment launch in history. In other words: They can give it all the time it needs. The only worry from Rockstar’s and Take 2’s perspective is that they need to coordinate it with the behemoth of a marketing campaign that will be accompanying its release. There won’t be a last-minute delay, but if it needs more time, they need to realize this months ahead. So far, it seems to be on track or else the CEO wouldn’t release statements like these.

  Since there is no PC release at launch and since it’s only targeting four different hardware configurations for the time being (both variants of the current-gen PS and Xbox), they don’t need to worry about making it run reliably on a wide variety of systems. Just like every other AAA developer, they are probably cursing Microsoft for releasing the cut-down Xbox Series S, but given what they have achieved in the past with hardware far less powerful, I doubt that Rockstar’s tech wizards will have too much trouble with getting GTA VI to run on this affordable console.

  You are right about crunch though. Rockstar is notorious for this, always has been. I hope they’ve learned their lesson by now, realized that all crunch does is make people burn themselves out for worse results, but who knows, given how secretive the firm is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Grand Theft Auto 6 is still hitting consoles in autumn, says Take-Two boss, promise⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  GTA V and RDR2 weren’t broken upon release, so why assume the worst with this game?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Sims and The Sims 2 officially return with a Legacy Collection for each⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Denuvo on decades-old games, for reasons.

  It is worth mentioning that EA themselves gave Sims 2 with all expansions away for free a few years ago. This version is neither difficult to find nor to run. Sims 1 is a bit more temperamental, so there might be some value to this re-release, but I’d wait until they inevitably remove Denuvo in a few months to a year, unless you absolutely have to revisit it right now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨PlayStation Network requirement on PC will now be optional with in-game rewards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Can’t wait for the inevitable mods that unlock the cosmetics without this requirement.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cyberpunk 2077 Has Finally Hit Overwhelmingly Positive On Steam⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not the same user, but I’m still interested in your list.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hermen Hulst: Sony Will Continue To Make Live Service Titles, As They Are “Learning” From Helldivers 2⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  They are just the current-day equivalent to the aristocracy.