DdCno1
@DdCno1@beehaw.org
- Comment on "You can’t just throw new people at that problem": Bethesda devs doubt future Elder Scrolls and Fallout games will have the same "quality level", after losing seasoned staff to Xbox cuts 1 week ago:
I played Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Starfield at or very shortly after launch. You are exaggerating to a ridiculous degree. None of them were even remotely unplayable - and there has also been a significant increase in quality with each title. Each of them was more stable and had fewer glitches and game-breaking bugs than the previous title at launch.
- Comment on "The internet we once loved is gone": SteamDB founders announce the community-run database has been acquired by Nexus Mods' owners 1 week ago:
This goes without saying, but yes. The ad blocker should also be uBlock Origin.
- Comment on "The internet we once loved is gone": SteamDB founders announce the community-run database has been acquired by Nexus Mods' owners 1 week ago:
Please don’t browse the web without ad blockers (which also block trackers and cookie banners). It’s unsafe and not good for you.
- Comment on Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates, extending to "the fundamental cosmological makeup of the universe" 2 weeks ago:
Such a fun game to read about. Perhaps I might play it one day.
- Comment on Rockstar finally break silence on "heartbreaking" GTA 6 leak, say it's "unfortunate that the intended game experience may now be impacted by some spoilers" 2 weeks ago:
They appear to have a build. In one of the videos, they are shooting at a wall, spelling out “LEEK”.
- Comment on Red Dead Redemption 2: Nuevo Paraiso, the latest Mexico expansion mod for Rockstar's western, releases next month 2 weeks ago:
Union busting, awful work conditions, crunch, the lot.
- Comment on Red Dead Redemption 2: Nuevo Paraiso, the latest Mexico expansion mod for Rockstar's western, releases next month 2 weeks ago:
Pirate the game, support modders. It’s not hard.
- Comment on Instagram Is Still Drowned in Creepy Smart Glasses Content 3 weeks ago:
They are available in Europe. There was an attempt to ban these in Germany, but it was determined that the recording LED was enough to not make this an illegal secret recording device.
Privacy and right to your own image laws still apply here. You can not legally upload secretly filmed content here, including from public places.
- Comment on ZOOM Platform announced You Are Empty: Absolute Edition - a revival of the retro Ukrainian FPS 3 weeks ago:
You Are Empty is objectively an awful game: It’s unfair, with extremely poor level design (1990s key and lever hunt - in 2006), laughable animations and sound effects, extremely derivative and awful enemy design (starting right off with the sexy horror nurse to immediately destroy any even moderate expectations), some of the weakest guns in FPS history, broken hit boxes, a terrible and confusingly narrated story, tons of glitches and a very short length, artificially padded by making the player limp along at a snail’s pace.
It does however just ooze Soviet atmosphere and decay. The game’s architecture (NOT the level design) is magnificent, ridiculously immersive at times, especially outside. This is genuinely amazing. There is clear ambition here and it’s the one aspect of this game that actually works. If you are interested in this aspect alone, then it can be worth picking up and at least experiencing for a few minutes, just to breathe in the stale Soviet air. Don’t expect to have any fun beyond that though. It is not even one of those “so terrible, it’s funny” types of games.
- Comment on Meta CTO says employees should use AI productivity gains to do more work — not take more time off 4 weeks ago:
Which in turn creates a job market that gives employers maximum power.
- Comment on Meta CTO says employees should use AI productivity gains to do more work — not take more time off 4 weeks ago:
They don’t actually care if it makes employees more productive. What matters is that they can pretend it does and use this as a pretext to demand more work from them.
- Comment on The three biggest RAM makers have already sold all their 2027 output, report says, potentially stretching price woes into 2028 4 weeks ago:
Are you this abrasive in the real world as well or just online?
- Comment on The three biggest RAM makers have already sold all their 2027 output, report says, potentially stretching price woes into 2028 5 weeks ago:
Boycotts are by definition non-violent. You can’t just use an outdated definition or make up your own if you want people to understand what you’re trying to communicate. Just say riot, uprising or revolt instead.
- Comment on The three biggest RAM makers have already sold all their 2027 output, report says, potentially stretching price woes into 2028 5 weeks ago:
Why would RAM manufacturers or large tech companies that have both stopped caring about consumers as customers be bothered by a boycott done by said consumers? Are you not seeing the problem here?
- Comment on The three biggest RAM makers have already sold all their 2027 output, report says, potentially stretching price woes into 2028 5 weeks ago:
Consumers do not have the leverage they once had anymore. Last year, 70% of RAM went to AI. This year, it’s likely even more and who knows how few crumbs they are leaving for us to lick up from the kitchen floor in 2027.
- Comment on Mistfall Hunter is a new extraction ARPG that works on SteamOS / Linux 5 weeks ago:
It’s an acquired taste.
I played a mod that turned Escape from Tarkov into a singleplayer game a few years ago (never played it online myself); a PvE mode has since been officially released, but I haven’t looked into it. The tension and intensity of it, the risk/reward to every move you make combined with the pretty high realism do make for an interesting package. Incursion Red River really impressed me for pretty much the same reasons, even in the relatively early state that it was in when I last tried it out. I lost any interest in online gaming a long time ago, so I only care about PvE.
My favorite has to be Witchfire though, thanks to its fantasy steampunk setting and immensely satisfying combat that reminds me of the original Painkiller (which makes sense - both are from Poland), but it’s way more polished in every way (no pun intended). It is admittedly much easier than the above two and needs more content, but what’s there is already very impressive and - in my eyes at least - a neat introduction to the genre, especially if you don’t care for modern military stuff. Witchfire is also one of the best-looking games out there right now, both in terms of tech and art style.
- Comment on Open source project fools AI scrapers with poisoned font 1 month ago:
It’s explained in the article, with examples. Which specific aspect(s) of this explanation do you need help with?
- Comment on It looks like iFixit won't be getting any more Steam Deck LCD spare parts 1 month ago:
Yup. Bought one of the first Steam Decks. Been having a great time with it so far, but I already had to repair it once (SSD overheated - thankfully a part that’s not proprietary). It will not last forever and the battery is likely going to be the next part that breaks. I am not looking forward to playing battery lottery on Aliexpress.
What do we learn from this? Valve isn’t our friend either. I never thought they were, I’m simply already caught in their ecosystem and bought the best PC handheld there was when it came out (and it still is, in my opinion, even though there are faster alternatives), but the company does enjoy a lot of leeway to the point of worship by some due to other firms in the gaming space being considerably worse.
It might very well be that the reasons for this are out of their hands, similarly to the AI-bubble-fueled price hikes for RAM, but especially since they so gleefully advertised the repairiability of this device when it came out, silently ending the supply of spare parts is most certainly not a good look. It would have certainly softened the blow had they announced it and provided a reasonable explanation - and it would also cast a much smaller, if still considerable, shadow on the already troubled Steam Machine.
It’s quite a baffling mistake, to be honest, for two reasons:
First of all, did they not take into account that people would notice, which immediately turns it into a much bigger story due to the attempted secrecy? You get ahead of bad news as a company, always, instead of letting it happen. Secondly, the LCD Deck was sold worldwide until at least the end of the year and is still available from Steam in some regions. Did they seriously not stock enough parts, did they plan so poorly, were their contracts so terribly drafted that the supply of spares has already stopped? I get that they are a tiny player in the hardware space, which means they do not have the negotiating power of someone like Sony, but still, this is not a good look.
- Comment on Stardew Valley enters the third dimension thanks to this in-development mod that even comes with VR functionality 1 month ago:
No idea why, but I kind of want a DOOM mod about liberating Stardew Valley from a demon infestation now.
- Comment on 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 months 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 months 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 months 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 months 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 months 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 months 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 months ago:
Just don’t look at how they are benefiting from gambling too closely.