Gaming

Just saw @silverspookgames@wandering.shop talking about their game on Masto, which is currently on sale, and it sorta seemed like it would have a bunch of cross-appeal over here. Right? "an anti-capitalist indigenous-made cyberpunk game"? C'mon.

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Neofeud is a Dystopic Cyberpunk adventure game in the vein of Blade Runner, but with an overlay of Game of Thrones-like political intrigue, and 1366x768, hand-painted, stylized visuals. The art, writing, programming, music, and audio are made by one person, Christian Miller, also known as Silver Spook, with the exception of 50% of the voice acting.

Synopsis:

2033 - We create AI. Sentient robots arrive, but not as our Terminator overlords or our Singularity saviors -- conscious machines are humanity's unwanted bastard children. A few are geniuses who design flying cars, beat cancer, invent teleportation, but millions of defective prototypes roll out of factories -- mentally challenged, motivationally-challenged, criminally-inclined. Legally conscious, but unhirable, these "Defectives" are shuffled through public housing and welfare assistance, straining the already overburdened back of the meager social safety net. The robots who don't end up in prison are dumped, as a last resort, into a massive landfill known as "The Pile".

Humans engage in perfection of their species -- or at least the powerful and well-connected -- genetically engineering children with human and animal DNA. The failed eugenics experiment "Frankenpeople" are discarded into "The Pile" as well. The new dynasties, 'Neofeudal Lords', live in towering neon glass castles, shuttle around in pristine nanotech-enabled pods, minds and bodies full of cyberware, spending most of their time taking selfies and "optimizing their monetization schemes". A race of supermen concerned only with their own status, their prestige, their success. Where machines have become all too flawed and human, people have become flawless, perfect, cold machines.

Karl Carbon is an ex-cop, dishonorably discharged from Coastlandia PD for disobeying an order to shoot an unarmed sentient humanoid. Karl is exiled to "The Pile" as a lowly social worker. There he counsels gangbanging foster-kid robots and confiscates chimera-children from deadbeat half-wolf parents. Till one day a case goes horribly sideways and Karl is drawn into a sordid conspiracy that could threaten the strained fabric of Human-Robot-Hybrid civilization -- or save it.

FEATURES

-15+ hours of gameplay.

-An original dystopic sci-fi world and story that will (hopefully) make you question some of your core beliefs. Or at least my sanity

-Tricky yet satisfying, point-n-click detective work, interspersed with tense action shootouts.

-Handpainted, uber-gritty, noir futureland. Makes Mad Max and Rick Deckard crap their pants.

-Endless bombardment of witty one-liners from hardboiled cyberpunk.

Neva recently triggered this post, for those who don't know Neva is by the same studios that made Gris, a sort of 2d walking simulator/puzzle platformer through gorgeous art. While the balance between gameplay and aesthetics is a subjective choice, it just shows the range where interactive media and games can appeal to different people and how it doesn't appeal to me particularly.

Neva - I'm just at the early stages of the game and they are slow in introducing gameplay mechanics, even though there's an airdash involved, early enemies have throw or dash patterns but by the first hour of Hollow Knight you've already experienced much more. I don't fault them, the studio is known for beautiful environmental art and non verbal story telling, you do have to hug a dog a lot.

Dynasty Warriors - If it ain't broke don't fix it, DW series did evolve beyond the early days of button mashing from 1-4, adding dating sims, stamina bar and just a lot of content, but the combat did not really update itself to modern times until DW:Origins, the new base line of skills tied to shoulder button, parry/dodge and controllable armies really amp up the fun factor thematically, it would be a great "Kingdom" game if that happens, but I wished there was a dating sim. It is certain that their next 4 games will follow this formula until it gets stale again.

Last of Us 2 released in 2020, a year after Death Stranding, I think it added Prone as a gameplay mechanic. Kojima pretty much created the most mechanically full sandbox in MGSV and took some of the ideas to Death Stranding, if the marketing had called it a hiking-sim rather than walking-sim it would have sold better, the async online coop similar to Dark Souls also added a layer of thematic layering to the game. LoU 2 on the other hand focused heavily on the story but mechanically it was still stuck with the same tools it had in 1, which was strange because Uncharted forced itself to iterate each sequel, with the free swinging grappling hook being a big draw in the final game.

Modern Assassin's Creed - I never played the modern AC, starting from Origins, but from what I can tell, there is loot grind and levels aimed at microtransactions rather than improving the experience. Mirage launched with less features than Black Flag. Right now early comparisons between Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima shows how much baggage Ubisoft has, they cannot extricate themselves from map based chores, no way of reimagining each Era according to the themes when you have to constantly pay and maintain hundreds of employees to prepare for the next launch. The last time people praised Ubisoft for innovation was AC1, ability to climb anywhere! social stealth instead of crouching! multiple ways to achieve your goals!

With the success of massive RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 that actually offer player choice again, Peterson is excited to release his game to an audience that does want more again. After a rough period of RPGs where player choice and ingenuity were watered down, there’s now a hunger for more branching paths and player freedom.

0 A.D. just released a new version today with some interesting changes.

The features they mention on the news page:

• Vulkan Renderer
• Multiplayer Savegames
• Tips & Tricks Page
• Naval Overhaul
• Observer Flares
• New random maps: Foothills, Migration, Coast Range; New skirmish map: Isthmus of Corinth; and updated skirmish maps: Watering Holes, Sporades Islands
• New and updated art

It's not mentioned in the features list, but I'm interested in the changes they've made to some of the civilizations. The Spartans, Romans, Athenians, and Macedonians all have had changes to make them more unique, which should make the gameplay a little more interesting. The new maps will be nice to try as well to give a bit more variety.

If you enjoy RTS games like Age of Empires and similar, it might be worth a try!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/21410303

This game is so fucking good! It's a simple formula but so effective and addictive.

Anyways, I finished the game with every character. I found all of them fun except Ayumi, I'm just not a fan of her traps. Even Yamada is manageable once you get used to his playstyle.

The strongest one is definitely Raizo. He requires some skill from you yet it's really worth it! My current best time was gotten with him:

I guess now I need to consider getting a cherry.....

Until now I used OpenTrack with my DIY IR tracker or the Neuralnet tracker. I knew that my XR glasses feature IMU data though and the xr_driver of the Breezy Desktop project allows to access the data via IPC on Linux PC. So I did what Linux user do: I wrote a script to access the IMU data and forwarded it via UDP to OpenTrack:

Pick your poison to watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njuumLUvqrM / https://makertube.net/w/2bNyxJhdyydTeFq17onikv

This reminded me that I also wrote a proof of concept to implement the FaceTrackNoIR (or OpenTrack) protocol into FreeSpace 2 Open on Linux PC ( https://makertube.net/w/7VtfAjW7EiAUS5aiPwG7if ) so I gave it a spin to test the data bridge. That was smooth sailing!

The mod is Diaspora: Shattered Armistice, still awesome today: http://diaspora.hard-light.net/ (Warning: This may fuel a desire to re-watch the BSG series again 😀).

The bridge code can be found at https://github.com/bekopharm/xr_to_opentrack (pending changes).

It works with the Breezy GNOME xr_driver: https://github.com/wheaney/breezy-desktop (but the Vulkan one works probably too but that’s untested). It should also be compatible with other glasses that have IMU for Breezy available.

What are some games you like that most people hate, view negatively and/or were panned by critics?

What are your thoughts on this? Are you happy? Sad?

I'm extremely curious. If you asked me this as a kid, I would have been celebrating. I always thought games should be accessible to everyone. But now I'm questioning if Microsoft plans to keep the Xbox ecosystem alive.

Exclusive titles are/were the incentive to keep people on certain consoles. Currently, I think only gamepass and digital libraries would be the only reason to stay with Microsoft if they continue to make systems in the future.

Additionally, I'm curious as to how this could destabilize the market. With no direct competition for high end hardware (other than pc/the steam deck), Sony can kinda do whatever they please.

This info is for true gamers only. Cease reading immediately and go about your business if you are not 100% a true gamer.

Notice of Challenge follows (true gamers only):

Beginning February 3, WILL, current champion and holder of the Extreme Boss Killer Belt, whose reign of glory began on 11th December, 2024, WILL BE TAKING ON ALL CHALLENGERS in ALL-OUT VIDEO GAME COMBAT across six of the MOST BRUTAL GAMES OF ALL TIME.

That’s right.

Announcing: Reign of Will: Will Defends the Extreme Boss Killer Belt Against All Challengers, Loser! Land Defense Benefit Brawl.

The Extreme Boss Killer Belt is on the line, and can only be won by gamers willing to do battle beyond the limits of human ethics and below the limits of modern hardware. Do you think you’re a real video gaming champion, punk? Prove it.

Take on fellow competitors in these six ETHICALLY PARADOXICAL titles:

• Moonwalker (Genesis) (https://retroachievements.org/game/263)
• Avenging Spirit (GameBoy) (https://retroachievements.org/game/4069)
• Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSX) (https://retroachievements.org/game/11325)
• Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters (NES) (https://retroachievements.org/game/1713)
• Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade) (https://retroachievements.org/game/11763)
• Donkey Kong (GameBoy) (https://retroachievements.org/game/692)

Earn as many achievements and game completions as you can in these titles during the contest period (February 3rd to March 16th). We’ll cap things off with the Turok Mega Showdown Experience, after which a champion will be crowned.

There is an (optional) entrance fee, which participants should directly donate to 7 Directions of Service, an indigenous environmental activist group (recommended amount: an hour of your wages).

Prize

The victor of this competition will be declared the Extreme Boss Killer Champion and receive a glorious belt as testament to their achievement. The glory and personal fulfillment the champion will experience is guaranteed to remain unrivaled in the individual’s natural lifetime. The victor may realize the profound burden of power that comes with rising to the level of Extreme Boss Killer Champion, and forsake their previous life to become a wandering hero. There is no “second place,” nor runners up.

Interested gamers should sign up for RetroAchievements at https://retroachievements.org/ and complete the fields on this Sign-up sheet. More detailed contest parameters can be found here. [^1]

[^1]: Disclaimer: The ESRB is hiring Pinkerton hit men to try and stop Reign of Will: Will Defends the Extreme Boss Killer Belt Against All Challengers, Loser! Land Defense Benefit Brawl. Multiple churches have united to denounce Reign of Will: Will Defends the Extreme Boss Killer Belt Against All Challengers, Loser! Land Defense Benefit Brawl. Your mom doesn’t think you are good enough at video games to win Reign of Will: Will Defends the Extreme Boss Killer Belt Against All Challengers, Loser! Land Defense Benefit Brawl. Many of you will spend the rest of your lives wondering if you were ever good enough to compete in Reign of Will: Will Defends the Extreme Boss Killer Belt Against All Challengers, Loser! Land Defense Benefit Brawl, even when you were seventeen. The only way to win your unrequited love’s heart is to win Reign of Will: Will Defends the Extreme Boss Killer Belt Against All Challengers, Loser! Land Defense Benefit Brawl. Nothing will bring your dreams back except, perhaps, Reign of Will: Will Defends the Extreme Boss Killer Belt Against All Challengers, Loser! Land Defense Benefit Brawl.

I'm seeing games (CK3/The Sims/Cities skylines) release DLC done by popular content creators or modders, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. On the one hand I'm glad they are being recognized for their work and getting paid, on the other hand, it kinda feels like it's turning the already unstable game dev career into an gig economy? Obviously, there are reasons why these studios can't have every creative and talented person working for them all the time, but if they keep going like this, what's to stop them from making larger and larger core mechanic DLCs more like gig work? Maybe that works for these modders/creators, but I worry about the industry in the long run. I'm sure most of the deals are under NDA, so how do they know what they're getting paid is more/less than what someone else did (and yes that matters imho, just because someone undervalued their work doesn't make it ok to pay them less - hence why salary transparency is important and the law in a lot of places)? I also feel like it encourages people to do free work (legit love modders, so no hate here) for the potential chance at getting a larger gig, which is common in the dev space, but I'd like to see that go away completely. I'm conflicted, and I keep hearing people say that it "supports modders" but it feels like in the long run, a stable core team of devs with job security helps everyone more. Like sure, donate to the wildfire victims, but what if the money ends up passing through a bunch of for profit companies who are actively hurting the environment? Just kinda feels off to me. Would love some other perspectives.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/21272066

I was searching through the compilation for games to play with my gf and noticed that Seaside Drive has a coop option, so we decided to give it a try.

After an hour of playing we cherried it. And I must say, it was a lot of fun!

The way coop works here is that one player controls the car's movement while another player takes care of shooting. It might sound lame if you never played the game but trust me, it works really well in this one.

As in any shmup, in Seaside Drive movement and attack are deeply intertwined. Yet, the game goes a step further and adds another relation between the two with the addition of brakes that influence the power of your projectiles.

The game itself is fairly unique. Visuals and music are great, controls are simple, and levels feel diverse yet balanced. What's more, threats you'll be facing feel weirdly fluid, with movements that make sense!

Overall, we had a good time and I'll definitely try to finish the game solo which must be much harder.

You either love or hate them; RPG Maker games. To me the oldschool Rm2k is history like a videogame console. Nowadays I play those on the Free and Open Source EasyRPG Player. This post has some game suggestions and sources compatible with EasyRPG.

1. Where to get Games
   1. rpgmaker .net
2. Game Suggestions
3. Enough is enough

Whatcha been playing?

I've been playing a ton of "The Roottree's are dead."

It's a very cool detective game akin to obra dinn and golden idol. Highly recommend if you're a fan of the genre. Besides that I've also been checking out a bunch of playdate stuff :3

So this problem started back in 2023 as in still occurring. Dead Space Remake, Jedi Survivor and Silent Hill 2 are some of the offenders. All these games were highly rated on gameplay and graphics

Basically, even if you have a 4090, the stutters and poor fps still exist due to the way the game is designed.

Its exceptionally frustrating because open world devs do optimise for performance while corridor type REMAKES like Dead Space and Silent Hill forget the work their predecessors did on worse hardware years ago

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/21185473

Among all the starting classes in Lunacid vampires are by far the most unique option. Here's a quick list of unique mechanics from my fresh melee vampire playthrough.

Helpful quirks:

• Attacking most enemies in melee starts very slow health regen that's interrupted by taking any damage. The same effect is also caused by having "water" status in the Sanguine Sea or when interacting with blood fountains in the Castle Le Fanu.
• Blood Wine restores both health and mana. The item is fairly rare though, I only got 3 during the entire game.
• Most doors in the Castle Le Fanu will be open without vampiric symbols.

Problematic quirks:

• Recovery from bleeding and blood magic is really, REALLY slow. It basically makes blood magic very annoying to use.
• Having "water" status in other locations deal constant damage, making the rat area in the sewers really dangerous.
• Holy water deals a lot of damage when used. It still removes statuses though!

Honestly, I didn't really like how vampires are played - they felt like a challenge class actually. Their advantages are questionable while their disadvantages are disastrous. Also, their heal on melee attacks doesn't stack with the blade of Ophelia which is a shame because I was relying on it for the second half of the game.