A leaked slide from Sony’s internal presentation has revealed the Steam sales for all of its ports that have hit PC over the past couple of years. Do note, though, that this slide is from February 2023. As such, it does not have any sales numbers for The Last of Us Part I.
It’s a great platformer, don’t get me wrong. But you’re telling me that a PC version of Sackboy made more sense than Bloodborne? Come oooooon.
You can't believe that they're choosing the most marketable games if they're omitting Bloodborne. The rumor I heard long ago at this point is that From and Sony have a contract dispute, so one won't do more work until they're paid, and the other refuses to pay. In situations like this, it's not uncommon for one company, like Sony, to own the rights to the name and story while the other, From Soft, might own the code base. The rumor was that the Demon's Souls remake by Bluepoint got around the same problem by not using any of From's code and that they might do the same thing with Bloodborne, but no signs of that yet. It wouldn't be out of line with Sony's remaster/remake strategy though.
That didn't seem like a dispute so much as it was recognizing an opportunity to make more money by going multiplatform. Then after Dark Souls became a hit, Sony seemingly contracted them to do something just like it again, and then it appeared that something went wrong on that deal. This is just based off of how it looks from the outside world, combined with the above rumors. I didn't hear anything about soured relationships from the deal with Demon's Souls.
Streets of Rogue and Vagante are challenging roguelikes that scale effortlessly for co-op of various numbers of players. There's also Mercenary Kings, which I admit I enjoyed more than most, but it's like the cross section of Mega Man action with Monster Hunter structure. Much more recently, Baldur's Gate 3 probably hits its sweet spot at 3 human players, since you want to have an NPC slot around in your party of 4 for the story quests that are relevant to that NPC.
I've been playing Starfield, and I think I'm getting close to just wanting to wrap it up. I may or may not want to get a larger ship before that happens, because the starter ship has been a bottleneck in seeing through some of the other faction quest lines. At the same time though, better ships are expensive, and I'm not sure I want to grind missions with better money payouts to get there. This game should be better.
While traveling, I've been playing Pillars of Eternity on the Steam Deck. I've got 5 party members now, and I'm level 3. I think I'm about to get access to the stronghold that has its own button on the UI. Really enjoying this one so far. Thankfully, it exposes all of its dice rolls to help me learn the systems better.
Flawlessly. The default controller mappings aren't bad either, though I did tweak them a bit. It doesn't actually have controller support, so you're either using the right stick as a mouse or relying heavily on the trackpad, but you're going to want to use the buttons for a few things, like pause/unpause, for instance.
I don't think that they do. They still had the money. It's now been donated, and Jirard is distancing himself from the charity and not running them attached to IndieLand anymore; the trust is gone, so it would have been difficult to get people to donate anyway. The only smoking gun I could see they had against him was the money still in the account (at the time). The accusations about the golf tournaments had no numbers attached to them, only that "there must be more money there", and it felt very unfounded and as though Jobst just needed another video out for his baked in sponsor slot. From what I can see, Jirard did exactly what he should have to make amends, and now that a bunch of people have all been encouraged en masse to lodge complaints to the IRS, the rest of the truth will come out of that inevitable audit, because I sure didn't feel like I got it from Jobst's follow-up videos. His and OrdinaryGamers are two channels I'm certainly not interested in watching again. If you're going to do something resembling investigative journalism, then act like it; don't preamble your video telling me how I should feel about something before you've presented your facts.
I'm reading between the lines of what Jirard said in his recorded calls and his response video when I say this, but I got the sense he and his family wanted that dollar value to be significantly higher so that they could have more control over what it gets spent on. People are more willing to do what you want them to do when you give them $1M than if you give them $1000. Still not a great reason to hold on to it if so, but hardly fraud.
I'd like to live in the world where multiple devs are making D&D games in Larian's engine the way there were a handful of Infinity Engine games 20 years ago. Replaying BG3 is great, but it would be nice to have new areas, characters, and calls to action while still having the freedom to just "verb a noun" the way you can in BG3.
apparently this is in response to a few threads on Reddit flaming Starfield—in general, it’s been rather interesting to see Bethesda take what i can only describe as a “try to debate Starfield to popularity” approach with the game’s skeptics in the past month or two. not entirely sure it’s a winning strategy,...
You know, it's funny. My assumptions, which I think I've made clear are assumptions when I talk about them, are that Starfield is what it is largely because of technical limitations. I think, if I'm wrong, the remaining possible answers are far more disappointing. Are the side quests bad because that's what the engine allows them to feasibly build? That sucks; they should ditch their engine. Are the side quests bad because the designers don't know how to design good quests? That's worse. You can extend these kinds of assumptions to the way space travel works, the way their conversation system works, etc.
I haven't finished my first run through the game yet, but I do keep hearing about NG+. There are all of these factions to check out, some of which should be opposed to happening in the same playthrough as certain other factions, and they built a game around NG+, so why not have you commit to one faction in the course of a shorter game, and then build the opportunity to play through the other factions into NG+?
I'm not hating my time with Starfield so far, but hardly a few minutes go by while I'm playing before its obvious shortcomings annoy me. Most of them I think (and hope) I can easily attribute to their ancient tech that they probably ought to throw straight in the garbage.
If the top result when googling is accurate, BG3 has sold 22+ million copies.
I would not trust that number. Larian just put out an infographic only days ago saying that 1.3M people completed the game. Using achievement data, we can extrapolate that out to somewhere between 7M and 8M copies sold.
Achievement data is a percentage. Since there were no giveaways, PS+, or Game Pass offerings to skew the data, there's no reason to believe that the percentage would change across other platforms or across people playing the game offline. The achievement we're using is the one for beating the game, as is the finite number of 1.3M that Larian offered in their infographic. Yes, that number does include early access purchases. Why wouldn't it? Those are still copies sold, and they're still included in achievement data.
True, but in particular, I'm referring to the non-faction quests. It's been a while since I've played New Vegas, but I can't remember if that game even had the equivalent of Starfield's "activities". Those quests are often so bad that I wonder why they're in the game at all.
Oh, I missed this announcement. I heard about the ability to decline wi-fi matches, which is much more important, IMO, so this is good to hear. It also sounds like crossplay includes PC this time. It's pretty strange to see an American developer further behind on supporting PC than their competition, but here we are. Looks like it's time to check this game out again. Wi-fi players were unbearable.
Baldur's Gate 3 holds a special place in the realm of role-playing games, as it carries the torch of a legendary franchise while introducing modern gaming el...
This video is unwatchable AI-generated garbage, and it's foreshadowed from the grammar in the title. How are people upvoting this? "Larian released BALL DOORS....GATE 3."
Used to be our favorite single player games came with multiplayer modes attached to them. You didn't expect them to get years of content. You just enjoyed them for a little while with some friends and then moved on. Not only is that totally fine, I'd argue it's preferable.
Let's change that expectation. Baldur's Gate 3 won best multiplayer at the Game Awards, and it's not a live service. In a talk with some friends, I realized how antagonistic the relationship between players and developers always ended up as well when the developers make more money with more "engagement". Diablo IV will get fun builds nerfed into the ground; Baldur's Gate 3 will let them rock, but only in the pre-existing difficulty levels before they add in extra challenge modes for fun. That's the difference.
Meanwhile, Agent Under Fire multiplayer for the Gamecube is more fun than any live service FPS I've ever played. It certainly didn't require years of support to be that fun, and you only need one other person to play it with, but preferably 3. Very easily doable regardless of how many people are in matchmaking.
This game was originally going to release two years ago without Microsoft making sure it got more QA than Bethesda is known for. Microsoft or not, the game design and feature completeness likely wouldn't have moved an inch.
Hi-Fi Rush, for a counter example, was one of the best games of the year.
None of these solutions are lazy, and I promise you they have large server side components too. From what I can tell, shooters are just especially cursed when it comes to cheating, and there's no real way to stop it.
PC gaming has only had a slow, steady rise since Steam entered the scene. But perhaps one other catalyst might have been the Games For Windows initiative (not "Live") that standardized controller support, added some extra marketing oomph, and gave more incentive to make the same game on PC and console rather than making two entirely different games (sometimes with the same title, like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter).
It's weird that as I continue to want to play more of it, I'm annoyed by just about every design decision they made along the way. I want to get into the gun design thing even, but the perk tree system puts a roadblock in my way.
I don't even think it's that. Lots of RPGs have had "do X more to level up X", including old Bethesda games, but it's riddled with problems, which is why most games don't do it anymore. As for level scaling, at least they finally got rid of that, but the way they guide you through the galaxy in line with your level involves basically being equally far along in each faction quest line at the same time instead of having low level factions and high level factions.
PC. We played through all of the 3+ player ones around a year or two ago in chronological order and it was stupid fun, what we liked about it and are hoping to find elsewhere is it being a shooter with an emphasis on movement and it’s physics sandbox (AKA CHAOS) while still having at least 3 full campaigns to play through in a...
If you're looking for a shooter, co-op campaigns for those things dried up a while back, so you're mostly looking at older games. My friends and I are playing Quake and Quake II to scratch that itch, but those old shooters are also very maze-like. If you're open to suggestions beyond shooters, I'd recommend a couple of roguelikes, namely Streets of Rogue and Vagante. Both are very chaotic, sandbox-y, challenging, and scale really well for co-op.
I can't speak for Gamescom, but PAX East has been shrinking, too. Exhibitors don't want to show up. They've been doing that thing you did in high school to pad your essays by increasing the margins on the side to make it look you wrote more than you did. Except instead of an essay, it's a show floor.
I played DMC3 years ago and never really understood the genre. It was fun, but every other game like it felt exactly the same to me. Then Hi-Fi Rush came out this year, and it clicked, so before this year's releases started really kicking off in summer, I played through DMC1-3 and half of 4. I'll get back to it soon enough, but I really liked what I played of 4; it was the best one so far, honestly. Were your problems with Nero limited to how he plays in 5, or did that criticism also apply to 4?
I've been trying to finish up Backpack Hero, now that, after some meandering, I finally figured out how to progress the story mode. In a game all about UI, it's kind of impressive how much the UI either isn't very good or just breaks on a functional level, but the game is very fun. After I finish it, I'll be heading back to Starfield and Wargroove 2.
Guilty Gear Strive also got a really great new patch, adding Elphelt and addressing some pretty glaring problems with the new mechanics they added. It feels like it's in the best spot it's ever been in.
Outer Wilds. I played this game through PS Plus, and it is the best game I have ever played in my life. The gameplay, the puzzles, the music (!!!), the characters, the story, the ending. Just a masterpiece. I’m not even sure if it was this year or last year that I finished it, but the soundtrack was number 4 in my Spotify...
Tenet. I know, most people would be quick to dismiss this as a movie and a mediocre one at that. I myself saw it on release and gave it a 7/10. But this isn’t actually a movie, it’s a puzzle game that you’re meant to play at home hammering the pause button while frantically trying to understand what is happening. This also increases your time with it by at least a factor of 2. 9/10
I love Nolan movies, and one of the reasons why is that all of his sci fi movies work this way. Even the ones where the world is more straight forward like The Dark Knight are fun to go back and catch all the ways the motifs are used throughout, like "a dog off his leash" and "everything burns" and a handful of others.
They did this over and over again with a lot of their teams, didn't find a breakout hit like they wanted, and then looked for a buyer, which seemingly was nearly Sony and ended up being Microsoft. Chasing the live service thing is why we got Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Fallout 76, as well as Redfall. Hopefully they're done with that nonsense now.
People quite liked Prey. There was an article that came out about Redfall's development where they had something like 70% of the studio leaving because they were put to work on a live service game, but the kind of person who applies to Arkane is interested in the type of game that Arkane is known for, not what they were tasked with building. This led to them filling out the studio with inexperienced developers as they replaced more experienced talent that moved on to other companies.
It's more and more often that I try an open world game and think to myself how much better it would have been if I could just select a mission from a menu.
Rather than tinkering, I often just omit the games that don't work well and buy AMD rather than Nvidia. I've got a Windows partition, but the last times I've booted into it were to update firmware on a fighting game controller and to play Dragon Ball FighterZ, which is basically the only game I have left in my library that I'll play with friends and won't work on Proton (online, anyway). Tinkering isn't even a thing I'm thinking about one way or another, but the nagging and removal of control that Microsoft annoys me with is something I actively seek to avoid. Different stokes, I suppose.
Prior to Proton, it was a popular recommendation to use GPU passthrough to a virtual machine running Windows, with Linux as the host OS, but I never did it myself. Which games are your holdouts? Live service stuff with anti-cheat?
The controller lag might just be a symptom of the same problem, but it's strange regardless. Bummer. In my neck of the woods, Proton has been so good that I often find myself not even checking compatibility ratings before buying a game. I'm actually struggling to remember the last time that Proton failed me, since the things it struggles with these days, like certain kinds of anti-cheat or DRM, are the exact reasons I wouldn't buy a game even if I was on Windows. Kubuntu/AMD, if you were curious.
Sea of Stars took that one. I'm pretty sure the winners are voted on by the same panel that submitted the nominees, but I could be wrong. I guess they could have also changed their minds after the nominees were announced and the backlash happened.
They're going for different things, so it's not even apples to apples, but if any game had a right to beat <the one you think you should have won>, it's probably the one that revolves around its sound design.
Nah, I'd rather not give them my time or my money. If I'm playing Tears of the Kingdom, even pirated, it means that's time I'm not spending on games from companies that have more respect for their customers. If I pirated it, it also means I'd have thoughts on the game that I'd share with friends or forum users, and that would encourage more people to also buy the game. So no, they don't even get my illicit download.
Leaked slide reveals Sony's PC games sales figures (www.dsogaming.com)
A leaked slide from Sony’s internal presentation has revealed the Steam sales for all of its ports that have hit PC over the past couple of years. Do note, though, that this slide is from February 2023. As such, it does not have any sales numbers for The Last of Us Part I.
Why Hideo Kojima is so popular? (gearsrealm.com)
Hideo always has his 10 minutes on Game Awards, why? Why other game devs don't get that much recognition or screen time?
All of Insomniac's upcoming titles have leaked (www.resetera.com)
I believe Insomniac were hacked / ransomwared last week or something. Apparently here’s the leak of all their upcoming titles....
Dev Behind Highly Regarded PC Game Explains Why He Raised The Price: "Go Pirate It, I Don't Care" (www.gamespot.com)
David Szymanski is hoping publicity from the upcoming film makes up for lower sales volumes right now.
Good multiplayer games for 3 people
What are some excellent games that remain excellent for a group of three?...
Leaked concept art/screenshots from cancelled Timesplitters sequel (2021) developed by Free Radical (www.resetera.com)
additional art further down in the thread
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 17th
What have you all been playing!...
Updates regarding the IndieLand / The Completionist charity fraud allegations
Prior discussion...
‘Almost nobody left’ of D&D team that helped get Baldur’s Gate 3 off the ground, says Larian CEO (www.polygon.com)
Starfield design lead says players are "disconnected" from how games are actually made: "Don't fool yourself into thinking you know why it is the way it is" (www.gamesradar.com)
apparently this is in response to a few threads on Reddit flaming Starfield—in general, it’s been rather interesting to see Bethesda take what i can only describe as a “try to debate Starfield to popularity” approach with the game’s skeptics in the past month or two. not entirely sure it’s a winning strategy,...
Mortal Kombat 1 finally reveals crossplay launch, and it’s coming soon (www.pcgamesn.com)
NetherRealm Studios reveals that Mortal Kombat 1 crossplay is finally underway, and it'll be here early next year in February 2024.
How Baldur's Gate 3 Becomes Game of the Year? (youtu.be)
Baldur's Gate 3 holds a special place in the realm of role-playing games, as it carries the torch of a legendary franchise while introducing modern gaming el...
The Last of Us multiplayer project officially cancelled by Naughty Dog (www.eurogamer.net)
Say what you will, but last of us 1 factions was one of my all time favorite mp games. Really sad to see this cancelled
An Update on The Last of Us Online || Naughty Dog (www.naughtydog.com)
It's cancelled....
Starfield will be getting a bunch of fresh features including "new ways of traveling" next year (www.vg247.com)
Bethesda has confirmed that it plans to add a number of new features to Starfield in 2024.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney was asked by Verge why there is no support for the Steam Deck for Fortnite (lemmy.ml)
How many stinkers did you play this year?
How many and which bad games did you play this year?
What are the best multiplayer games to try if me and my friends are looking for a similar experience to a Bungie Halo campaign marathon on Heroic+ difficulty?
PC. We played through all of the 3+ player ones around a year or two ago in chronological order and it was stupid fun, what we liked about it and are hoping to find elsewhere is it being a shooter with an emphasis on movement and it’s physics sandbox (AKA CHAOS) while still having at least 3 full campaigns to play through in a...
E3 is officially dead (www.eurogamer.net)
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 10th
What have you all been playing!...
Dauntless, I have manged to get the game to run and join a server but after a few minutes the game crashes anyone with more luck? (kbin.social)
Dauntless, I have manged to get the game to run and join a server but after a few minutes the game crashes anyone with more luck?
Knokelmaat's Top 10 Patient Games of the Year 2023
Outer Wilds. I played this game through PS Plus, and it is the best game I have ever played in my life. The gameplay, the puzzles, the music (!!!), the characters, the story, the ending. Just a masterpiece. I’m not even sure if it was this year or last year that I finished it, but the soundtrack was number 4 in my Spotify...
Marvel’s Blade | Announcement Trailer | The Game Awards 2023 (youtu.be)
LAST SENTINEL Official Announce Trailer (youtu.be)
5 reasons Linux is better than Windows for gaming handhelds (www.xda-developers.com)
Steam’s Most-Hyped Zombie Game Is Out, And It’s A Dumpster Fire (kotaku.com)
The Game Awards 2023 Discussion Thread
Hey y’all. Figured I’d make a thread for this. Discuss anything about the game awards and it’s announcements here!...
‘Hi-Fi Rush’ Anniversary Interview: Director John Johanas on His Career, the Importance of Hi-Fi Rush’s Song Choices, the Possibility of a Sequel, and More (toucharcade.com)
Smash Ultimate reveals 5th anniversary event & confirms new content in 2024 (www.dexerto.com)