It's not like they can really avoid it. AI assisted tools will become a standard in the future ("productivity has to go up" after all) and there's a good chance Valve already received some feedback from AAA publishers on that matter, since they'll be the main players utilizing such tech.

The good thing here is the exsitance of a disclaimer on store pages, as it will allow people to decide for themselves, and the ability to report content straight from in-game overlay.

Full on ban was never a realistic option.

It actually does, funnily enough. You have to set an environment variable for it to work though.

Here's a Steam guide.

Now the question is: are they going to be complete assholes and change this check to prevent non Deck players from using it or not?

As much as I dislike Nintendo and wish Yuzu devs all the best I'd like to point out that Bowser wasn't some innocent guy who was caught by big bad company - Moonie has a video that goes into specifics about his involvement with a pirate enterprise worth a shitton of money.

Other than that yeah, I hope they can survive this situation. I wonder if Ryujinx devs are next.

As much as I agree with his sentiment, this title is bullshit - he never wrote "gamers don't want subscriptions" but that they shouldn't want that due to where it might lead.

"Gamers" aren't some hivemind entity that wants a specific thing. Many people don't worry whether an idea pushed by the publishers will have a long term negative effect on the industry, they just want to have fun with their hobby.

Look at microtransactions - there's a lot of negative discussion about them and yet they bring huge amounts of money, who's to say if the same won't happen with subscription services? We might not like it but majority doesn't necessarily care.

Sorry for being pedantic about a title but third-parties changing someone's words is a bit of a pet peeve of mine.

I don't expect anything will come out this but I really appreciate Ross trying to give it an honest shot. I can't help since I don't own the game but I can at least cheer from the sidelines an lend my power for a spirit bomb.

Go Ross Go!

Some things were already mentioned so here my other pet peeves:

• customizable difficulty - no default preset will be as good as one that can be modified to your liking. Sometimes the issue lies with difficulty making things more of a chore than a challenge, sometimes they tune things too much where you get stuck in a weird middle ground where one difficulty is way too easy and the other bashes your teeth in.
• character speed control on PC - we had this stuff figured out in 2002, when Splinter Cell came out! Why the hell are we still stuck with terribly slow walk and slightly too fast jogging? This isn't hard to implement either - there are already multiple speed states when playing with a gamepad, all that's required is an option to control it with a keybind.
• visible body in first person games - I always try to immerse myself as much as possible and having a physical body helps sell the idea that I'm a character in this world rather than just a floating camera.

I looked around and apparently it's not that bad - his term ends in 2025 (elections are to be held in May at the latest) so he'll be there for about half of new government's tenance.

Still not great but there's a chance for at least some time without sabotage from the other side. Here's hoping they make it count.

I've been using emulation pretty much since I started playing games. It's actually one of the main reasons gaming became my passion (and eventually major money drain).

My favorite thing? I don't have to shuffle different devices to play everything I want - it's even more importent now, since I have a Steam Deck and can have all of them on the go again.

Here's a short list of titles I love that don't show up too often in threads like this one:

• Tetris DX (GBC / mGBA)
• Fantasy Golf Pangya (PSP / PPSSPP)
• Persona 3 Portable (PSP / PPSSPP) - just started NG+ with female protagonist
• Puzzle Quest - Challenge of the Warlords (PSP / PPSSPP)
• Ridge Racer 2 (PSP / PPSSPP)
• Parasite EVE (PSX / DuckStation)
• Captain Toad Tresure Tracker (Switch / Yuzu)

I'm not going to dump my whole library here but these are fun and rare enough worth mention.

A lot of reviews and comments (in general, not here) went with a very surface level "critique" about the game without diving into what failed compared to previous titles.

For me personally, the new game missed a lot of what made the previous games special writing wise - characters are barely that, story is way more contrived and bland. Gameplay and activities are nowhere near what we had before as well. It's just a weaker game with a nicer coat of paint.

I know that might be a tough sell, but I feel like this video by Tehsnakerer gives a really good look into what went wrong while avoiding (and even calling out) some of the most common complaints. It's a good watch but it's also 2.5h long and not everyone has time or interest in that. If that's the case I might write a short summary when I have some time.

That said I already had some problems with SR3 and 4, doesn't mean I'm going to try and force people to hate them. If you had fun with the new one that's the important part.

Besides already mentioned methods there's also Lemmy Community-Browser.

It has a search bar and ability to toggle specific instances in case you want to avoid some of them. A bit simpler version of Lemmy Explorer mentioned by @DogMuffins.

Like many people I'm not particularly surprised by this news but it doesn't make it any less unfortunate.

Good luck to all the people losing their jobs and rip SR2 patch. I just hope we'll get another good game from one of their series some day.

The big part of the initial reactions had to do with the fact that Enemy Unknown wasn't announced at the time so people were worried series will move in a completely new direction (anybody remembers Close Combat: First to Fight?).

The other issue (post release) was how different it was from what we've seen initially - it was suppose to be set in 1950's, have first-person perspective, open-ended levels, info gathering, research and horror vibes (check this trailer and this gameplay).

By release that game turned into a third-person shooter with simpler, more linear levels, no research of alien technology and other streamlining measures. That doesn't mean the final product is bad (I enjoyed it quite a bit and the "twist" near the end was a pretty neat addition), it just didn't live up to the expectations and slowly fell into relative obscurity.

All in all I agree, play The Bureau if you want a different take on the XCOM universe. It's a decent game.

I'm not a mod, just an active user so my opinion on the first two doesn't really matter (even though I do think these would be good additions). I agree with the need for wikis as well.

That said, personally I could not care less about whether someone is online or how many people are reading specific thread - what I care about is actual interaction with other users, i.e. discussion. I treat kbin/lemmy like a forum rather than a constantly moving social-media site like Twitter so take this as you like. It's not like it would affect my use of the platform in any meaningful way.

It does a good job at pointing out flaws with Steam UI and how they could be fixed (something Valve is apparently unable to do themselves).

While the design in this video isn't perfect, it's way better than the current shitshow and I don't see why people (especially those who know what they're doing) shouldn't remind a multibillion company they should do better.

My point is that however you feel about microtransactions they are successful and that's why they're so common.

With subscription services you and me can think "I want to own it and play whenever" but a lot (not only casual) players see it as "I pay a few $ and get access to a huge library of games I can try out for the next month".

As I wrote initially, just because more dedicated audience doesn't like the direction industry is moving in doesn't mean majority will care enough to stop it.

There are also these two sites:

• Lemmy Community-Browser
• Lemmy Explorer

Why do we need lemmy and kbin? Why do we need various linux distros? Why do we need different office suites?

Having a choice is always a positive, more so if those alternatives are compatible like various activity pub projects.

I don't have an up to date feature comparison between Mastodon and Misskey but some of the things that differentiated the latter were:

• better threading
• improved markdown support (animated, also could render LaTeX formatting if I'm recall correctly)
• calendar
• drive
• emoji reactions (this replaces "likes" for example)
• trends
• tips for newcomers

Keep in mind, these are from few years ago so some things may have been changed or added to Mastodon (I'm not too familiar with Twitter like projects in general).

There's also already mentioned focus on Japanese audience - some of it comes down to features (I feel like western social media aren't as... animated? as Asian or at least Japanese ones), as well as culture (I think this picture of one of the tips is a good start.

I'm sure someone more familiar with both can come up with a better comparison but I think that the main point of just having an option is the most valid one.

Boy that's a lot of text. I had quite a fun time with the game so I'm definitely reading this when I have a moment.

Congrats on putting it all together!

I guess it depends on your motivation for said project.

Do you enjoy the process of working on the project? Do you use it to learn new things and improve the skills required for it? Or all you care about is the end project?

If it's the last one I can see why you could get discouraged but if it's the other two then not really.

If I work on something specific I do it because I want to create this thing using my skills, experience and ideas. I also try to do as much of it as I can on my own, without using other's people assets etc. For me, the work I put in is an important of the process and each step towards completion makes me a little proud and happy that I can create something.

At the same time I'm a weirdo who tends to use less efficient methods if they aren't as fun to use when working on personal projects. I don't really care about using AI in the first place so that might skew my view a bit.

There's also the fact that AI isn't omnipotent. It makes mistakes just like us and I'd rather fix my own mistakes since this way I know what I did, how I did it and where to look when things go wrong.

Sorry for the word salad. Your post gave me a reason to spew some unfiltered thoughts about an issue I never really thought about.

Oh, totally. I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

Personally I'd love to see a new take on Daggerfall using AI for features you mentioned (though it would have to be an "all in" affair as Bethesda's approach to randomly generated content these days is... not particularly impressive).

This controversy was actually how I found out about the classic XCOM (I may have heard about it before but never really looked into the series before that).

Truth be told, the whole thing could've been avoided if not for 2K's lack of foresight - not only they decided to call the game XCOM but also Enemy Unknown was already in production when they revealed the FPS version. All they had to do was let people know it wasn't the only project in the pipeline (though lack of such announcement may have been caused by the development issues with EU at the time).

I'd agree about P3R if not for the fact that despite remaking the game Atlus still couldn't be bothered to make a definitive edition of P3.

Besides that, you could also argue P3P doesn't really belong here due to being available on Steam but the question was about our favorite games played on an emulator and PSP version is what I'm playing right as I'm typing this :P

Parasite Eve is great, isn't it? I wish we got more RPGs like this set in modern times.

How big of a group are you looking for?

mikeburnfire is pretty fun.

Most of the videos consists of two friends, Mike and Zack, playing modded Bethesda games. Their main gimmick is that they are playing games like Fallout NV in "multiplayer" but they also play other stuff (Mass Effect, Inscription, Stray to name a few).

Lot's of military stories, some great gun rants from Zack and a general feeling of just two friends having adventures together.

Over six years of content and still going strong.

That's pretty much me with most (open world) games.

I always treated games as a different worlds to get immersed in and that's how I approach them to this day.
I'm also a weirdo who likes to makes games more difficult and realistic/tedious for myself which means stuff like limiting the amount of carried items, not using fast travel, acting like an actual part of the world, turning off the UI if possible and choosing fashion over min maxing.

I don't think I ever did any kind of "gimmick" challenges. Probably because it kind of contradicts with my usual way of play.
It is however always interesting to read up on them - it amazes me what some people come up with to spice up their playthrough.

That's not what I mean though. Back in Splinter Cell you could use mouse wheel to increase or decrease your character walking speed - similar to how you can do it with an analog stick. It's about giving player more gradual control on how fast/slow you move.

That said, customizable game time scale (not game speed) is also another thing I'd like to see in games.

Yes, it is insane. That case is also a great showcase of how trying to make example out of a single guy doesn't really work since, as you mentioned, rest of the team is still doing their thing.

I'd like to think (well, hope anyway) that no one looks at Bowser's story and thinks "yeah, that's a reasonable conclusion".

Good job, should've link it myself... (; -_-)

There's also demo on Steam.

Looks like mouse controls to me, there's also no mention of VR on Kickstarter or Steam page.

Edit: I checked out the demo. It is in fact a mouse controlled game.

Got back to Minecraft - probably not for long as it was mostly something to fill the time rather than a real need to play it again. It's a good game for that anyway.

Besides that, I got a craving for some good old PSP fun and jumped on two games there - Pangya: Fantasy Golf & Ridge Racer 2.
Despite the fact I don't really care about golf (neither real nor in video game form), Pangya is pretty fun. Nice graphics, simple but enjoyable gameplay. Just started so I'm curious how difficult it'll get later on.

As for Ridge Racer 2... played A LOT of it when I was younger, never finished it though. Still as good as remember. I'm also surprised how much of the game stuck with me - guess I had way more fun with it then I thought.

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery demo is finally here!

Not sure if there are any Girls' Frontline fans here but RC is a turn based strategy (well, tactics) game set in the same universe.
Haven't played much yet but it's pretty fun so far - graphically looks like a mix of improved GFL and XCOM, gameplay is easy to grasp and looks like it might be a bit of a challenge when aiming for all bonus objectives on higher difficulties.
Also works perfectly with proton!

Now to test it with Deck...

Update on Deck:
Game runs pretty great, with two caveats:

• UI during combat sections (mostly dialog) is a bit small
• videos in tutorial prompts don't show up at all
• game defaulted to KB+M controls scheme, had to change to gamepad

No other issues so far, plays great with normal gamepad preset. Battery life is also rather nice (~4 hours in my case).

I see you've included gacha titles as well. There's a small Girls' Frontline community - it's mostly me posting posting news at the moment so it could definitely use a spotlight.

Steam page (demo available).

If you're looking for something relaxing there's Afrika - a photography game with a (light?) sim focus.

If you're fine with kind of mediocre gameplay, rough performance and interesting writing: Drakengard 3. The occasional humor may or may not be your cup of tea but the overall story is worth it - it does require replaying stages and some grinding if you want to reach the true ending however.

Still playing Ridge Racer 2 and Pangya.

The former seems to be quite a bit easier than I remember it being, but not to a point where it would affect my fun (I'm also realitively early into the game).
Pangya is really growing on me as well. Just finished episode 1 with the first character and got about half-way with char #2. I really like it and I'm surprised I didn't know about this game for so long.

Lastly, I replaced Minecraft with The Sims 2. I was planning to install it just to see how it works through WINE and suddenly realized I've been building for like 6 hours. Boy those games are scary...

No problem, hope you have fun with it!

That wasn't meant as a negative, I love long form content!

It was a fun read and I'm glad I could learn a bit more about the game. Shame about their over ambition but at least they gave it a shot - having all the processes figured out can cause a bit of blandness these days, more so with high-budget titles.

Fun fact, I actually managed to score with the basketball on my first try when I played the game last year. Didn't try again, decided to take my win while I could.

I feel like Trespasser would be an interesting project to try and recreate for VR - the basic gameplay is already there after all.

Also, RIP Neverhood. Don't think I ever finished it but it was a fun one.

Completely understandable, thanks for doing this!

I also completely forgot to mention another duo - Chip & Ironicus.

This one is a little different as they record their commentary over premade footage. They can also be a bit more... low energy (?) compared to many bigger channels but if there's one thing they (or more specifically Chip) really shine in, is the huge amount of effort put into each and every playthrough.

Pretty much every episode is released in two versions, cut and uncut commentary, to let you choose whether you want the option to focus during cutscenes etc. They are also filled with cool trivia, secrets and just good skill level in general.
They have a pretty legendary MGSV LP where Chip prepared 3 seperate playthroughs, each with a different approach (stealth, combat and goofy).

Besides that, they also have stream recordings with live commentary, a podcast and regular charity streams.

Chip worked at recently closed Volition so he could definitely use more views.

Just Windows, Mac and Linux. There's no Android build (that's what would be needed for such tablet).

I think these are new - there's a comment on the project page asking about "playing the classic Red Alert maps" and one of the devs replied they would require some modifications to work.

Besides, original missions can be played with OpenRA so I don't think they would port them here without at least adding support for the new factions (which in turn would require changes in story?).

That's just my guess based on some research though, I'm not a specialist when it comes to these projects.