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Community MetaSteam | December 2021 - All I want for Christmas is a SteamDeck.
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Randomly found this and it seems pretty cool. Malay folklore diablo type game.
Probably due to not many having Alexa spyware (Amazons webextensions, etc.) installedAmazon Alexa
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Bought a couple friends gift copies of Inscryption since I had been talking about it with them. I got a copy of Deathloop and a copy of Legend of Mana HD.
I'll probably get Guardians of the Galaxy here in a bit too since I want to play that also. But a relatively light sale for me.
I'll probably get Guardians of the Galaxy here in a bit too since I want to play that also. But a relatively light sale for me.
Finalizing my Steam sale purchases based upon the top games on Open Critic that I have not heard much about:
Bustafellows
Overboard!
Death's Door
Chicory
Before Your Eyes
Inscryption
Young Souls
Bustafellows
Overboard!
Death's Door
Chicory
Before Your Eyes
Inscryption
Young Souls
anyone with experience in those deals where you basically pay a smaller sum of money every month for 2 years for a product (in which after those 2 years, you get to keep the product) instead of just buying the product directly for a bigger sum of money?
i'm thinking about doing that for a coffee machine and a laptop, but it does seem too good to be true
i'm thinking about doing that for a coffee machine and a laptop, but it does seem too good to be true
I'm doing that right now for my phone, but its through the carrier so zero interest. I have used similar servies in the past, as long as you pay on time it should be fine but you are essentially going into consumer debt and that is something I advice against.
As long as you don't need to pay interest and can pay out of schedule (faster, I mean), go for it.
That's how a lot of people buy their phones -I've never done it with a phone but I've done it a couple of times through paypal & eddie bauer for clothing because 100+ for a shirt is like "jesus christ" but I sort of do like 15 for a shirt and I still have stuff from them thats holding up years down the line
Yeah I don't understand how you guys are buying so many games!
Ordered my new PC parts yesterday! Since I'm not buying a GPU until a year from now at the very least, I went big on the CPU instead and got an i9-12900K. It's probably overkill but I wanted something killer to make the most of my 240hz monitor and to avoid the issue my last two builds had where the mid-range CPU became a huge bottleneck for the system.
Also, I went to look at the list of games that still have issues with Denuvo/Alder Lake and lmao. It's down to just two games now:
Fernbus Simulator (whatever the fuck that is) and
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
It's fucking hilarious to me that, after a whole 2 months, a massive publisher like Ubisoft still hasn't fixed the latest entry in their flagship franchise. Ubisoft sucks so fucking much lol.
Also, I went to look at the list of games that still have issues with Denuvo/Alder Lake and lmao. It's down to just two games now:
Fernbus Simulator (whatever the fuck that is) and
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
It's fucking hilarious to me that, after a whole 2 months, a massive publisher like Ubisoft still hasn't fixed the latest entry in their flagship franchise. Ubisoft sucks so fucking much lol.
I assume you've tried the usual settings within reshade (preprocessor definitions and d3d tab), some AA methods and dynamic resolution can block reshade from accessing the depth buffer and disabling those ingame might help. I like tinkering with reshade but don't have those two games so can't help any further.I hope that all winners will enjoy their games
Also small question for Durante I am trying to inject some AO into Psychonauts 2 but Reshade depth buffer is basically blank. I tried similar thing with Jedi Fallen Order with same result. Can something be done or is that UE4 thing?
That feel when you live in Venezuelai just found this, i dont know how or why Chile has such amazing speed vs ROW
i guess thats the reason my steam link works
. Well at least is better than Cuba LMAO.
Was so busy these few days (work, social commitments), I still haven't seen the major deals for Winter Sales
In a way, I feel... happy. Breaking away from the yearly cycle for once.
In a way, I feel... happy. Breaking away from the yearly cycle for once.
The way I see our backlogs and game collection, it’s for when we are old and retired, that’s when we game!
This is the first sale event after going into full work with a steady paycheck.My friend, it sounds like you have a spending problem
Also, I prefer buying games, rather than renting (game pass, ps now) as I like to take my time with games, not interested in stressing myself to finish games in time before they leave the service or my sub lapsing. I don't have a lot of spare time, so I prefer knowing that the game I play today is a game I can continue playing in 3 years.
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Time sinks like AC Valhalla are ruining games, not microtransactions
I spent 633 hours playing Cookie Clicker on Steam this year. Well, I probably spent single-digit hours actually 'playing' the game. The rest of the time, it ran in the background of my PC, and my mind, bringing me back for regular check-ins to see what new upgrades were available and what fresh horr
www.pcgamesn.com
Only 10 days left! Make your vote count! Image how sad you will be when your favorite game doesn't win GOTY and you didn't vote?
MetaCouncil's Games of the Year Awards 2021
MetaCouncil's Games of the Year Awards 2021
Stuff i bought in this Steam sale:
Stuff i bought outside the Steam sale:
I think that is enough for this year.
Stuff i bought outside the Steam sale:
I think that is enough for this year.
I feel like this article is like 5 years too late in some aspects. The author talks about Ubisoft games as if they were these lush open world masterpieces that are transforming into content landscapes designed to make you spent hours in the game and soften you up for microtransactions.Time sinks like AC Valhalla are ruining games, not microtransactions
I spent 633 hours playing Cookie Clicker on Steam this year. Well, I probably spent single-digit hours actually 'playing' the game. The rest of the time, it ran in the background of my PC, and my mind, bringing me back for regular check-ins to see what new upgrades were available and what fresh horr
That happened nearly a decade ago. Ubisoft’s output has been garbage for a long, long time. Many games are bloated box-ticking exercises solely for the reason of extracting wealth from vulnerable people.
It’s good that more and more people in the press are waking up to and realising this, especially if it eventually leads to regulation and clamping down on this stuff, but communities have been discussing this dogshit for literally years.
That was my first gamepad, actually. Remember how nice it felt going from that to the DS4.I'm trying to ressurrect my Logitech F310 hopefully everything works without any issues
Kathy Rain is great, recently replayed it when the DC version hit.
Great list otherwise too.
What's funny about this to me is how the recent AC games took inspiration from WItcher 3 (from what I gather, I haven't played them) and the thing that impressed me most with WItcher 3 was how much it respected my time. You could so quickly find an interesting quest, and experience some unique story bits, with essentially no filler. Sure, the overall actions that Geralt does are similar, but that's just his job of being a Witcher. The game always tries to make each quest unique and subvert expectations.Time sinks like AC Valhalla are ruining games, not microtransactions
I spent 633 hours playing Cookie Clicker on Steam this year. Well, I probably spent single-digit hours actually 'playing' the game. The rest of the time, it ran in the background of my PC, and my mind, bringing me back for regular check-ins to see what new upgrades were available and what fresh horr
I worry about the backlash against timesink games because for me the games medium is the best in open games that are pretty much never ending. If I want a story I'll watch a movie I come to games to explore a different world. Thats why I can't play linear games.
I often say that Minecraft is pretty much a first step for gamings potential and I expect to see great things when the kids that grew up on Minecraft become old and start creating their own games, that when I hope to see great things in how gaming evolves.
I often say that Minecraft is pretty much a first step for gamings potential and I expect to see great things when the kids that grew up on Minecraft become old and start creating their own games, that when I hope to see great things in how gaming evolves.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but why limit games to just that?
There’s room for lots of different kinds of games.
And the main issue with long games is that they don’t value the time they ask you to spend.
I think the example Mivey gave with The Witcher 3 is a good one. I love a game that’s long and absorbing - I’ve completed Persona 3, 4 and 5 numerous times and they’re 80-100 hour games apiece. Those games value the player’s time whereas a lot of long games are just farmed cheap and generic content littered on a map to make engagement numbers go up. At their worst, it is barely compelling enough to keep the player hooked until they spend money to speed the process up.
Oh course I'm not saying there is something wrong with variety, I will always applaud that! I was mostly talking about the backlash against long games. People say that long games shouldn't be that long, as if short games didn't exist.
I am more than happy to say a long game could be shorter if it is wasting my time.
A good long game will justify its length. Ubisoft long games have dozens of hours of “content” that is thinly-veiled garbage designed only to make an engagement metric at HQ go up.
Call me old fashioned, but I lean on the side of the artistry of a game. I think the backlash against long games is lamenting the loss of creativity and quality craftsmanship in a game to endless generic content and pointless paid unlockables.
There's nothing wrong with time sinks in and of itself, I feel. Like, vanilla Minecraft is perfectly wholesome. I think what the article points to is that time sinks are used to get people to put in extra money into games, sometimes via endless content but other times via timers and time-limited events. Instead of having an exp multiplier for example, they're selling you an exp booster. If you spend 50-100 hours playing a game, maybe that mythic armor skin or whatever doesn't seem so unappealing anymore, but why can't you earn it in the game? Why does an event and associated cool gear need to be only available for a week? And so forth.
There's something to be said for this type of monetization and design enabling studios to work on a game for a long time post-release. I don't really see why this would be an argument we, on the player's end, should have to be making however. I think it'd generally be healthier if a game respects your time and is lean. Elsewhere, I also see the point raised that this allows players to get more value out of their game, but we have unprecedented affordable access to games now, so it's hard to justify it from that end in my eyes -- especially when it is increasingly likely that, by design, you start spending money on ostensibly meaningless in-game trinkets instead of a new game. I keep a very limited budget for games, and even then I will never run out of things to play.
There is the rare unicorn like TW3, which generally respects your time even though it does get repetetive due to limited quest and game design vocabulary. That's a game I was genuinely a little sad to see end, but I don't think it would've benefited from having its content watered down so that I could've played it for 2 or 3 more years.
I think an interesting example of where the business side of this kind of design starts obstructing the fun side is Monster Hunter. In World, the game had regular updates and new content added to it. Also time-limited quests, which I'm less a fan of, but by nature of the co-op design of the game, it at the very least had the effect of coalescing the player base for a while. You could get a lot of cool cosmetics and new gear in both permanent and timed events, and the timed events would be looped regularly, so even if you missed out it wasn't a huge deal. Meanwhile, there were like two paid armor sets being sold? Fast forward to Rise, and, as I understand it, a non-negligible part of the cosmetics and gear are now behind MTX purchases. I think Capcom realized here that if people spend enough time in game, why give them something for free when they're invested enough to be willing to pay for it? It's perhaps a bit early to draw this kind of conclusion, but at the surface it doesn't look great to me.
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I love Paradox Grand Strategy, Battletech, Minecraft, Aurora 4X, Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress, X3AP LU, Factorio, and so on. I have hundreds to thousands of hours in those.
And I am not even remembering the last game under 10 hours that I started.
BUT! There must be a reason to spend time in games other than being a time-sink. And ubisoft games are just that, time-sinks and check-lists.
In defence of Ubi games, just being in their worlds is almost unmatched, they are massive and they are gorgeous. If there was more genuine things to do and not designed with MTXs in mind.
Ubisoft worlds were great long time ago. Now they are disconnected mess. Have you noticed that you are doing same 5-6 activities i those worlds? Have you noticed that they create huge ass world where there is no interaction between settlements/cities (all NPC interactions are contained in settlement/city)? Have you noticed that due to size of those worlds they literally copy and paste outposts (including objectives, layout, number and type of enemies)? Origins is their most natural world out of the recent trilogy, but their previous games actually had more life and were more natural than new trilogy.
Ubisoft has amazing artists that can create amazing assets. Combining those assets is where issues pop up. Playing something like RDR2 truly makes you realize how static and unnatural Ubisoft worlds are these days. They are nice to look at and they have some moments but overall they are far from what they could be if Ubisoft decided to chase quality over quantity.
Played through Suicide of Rachel Foster last night. Wasn't bad but wasn't great. Not a bad use of 3 hours
Don't think there is a way to measure time-played in Minecraft, but its my most played game of 2021 by far and certainly also number one in fun-times playing. The same as every year since I bought the Beta.
I quite often move along and don't buy a story-driven game if I know its over and done pretty fast. Still like a lot of fast arcade style high-score games though.
Ubisoft style games, although I can immediatley see the cut n paste style gameplay once again, always start great then after a maybe 60-80 hours playing they just irritate and I want them over.
I quite often move along and don't buy a story-driven game if I know its over and done pretty fast. Still like a lot of fast arcade style high-score games though.
Ubisoft style games, although I can immediatley see the cut n paste style gameplay once again, always start great then after a maybe 60-80 hours playing they just irritate and I want them over.
A world has to be more than beautiful.
I think the example that is emblematic of Ubisoft is Immortal: Fenyx Rising vs the game it’s a facsimile of: Breath of the Wild.
The Ubisoft game is pretty, but it is soulless. Breath of the Wild, meanwhile, is a goddamned masterpiece and one of the best open world games ever made.
In other news, I tried to get into Halo Infinite today. Not for me. 343i have never made a good Halo game and while this one is the closest to greatness, it is still missing something.
This one definitely feels like a Halo game in its gameplay, but I’m afraid at this point I am not invested in the world and that for me makes the story lacking.
On top of that, I’m not a fan of the encounter design, which feels like it is missing the meticulous 60 seconds of combat crafting that Bungie were so good at.
Artistically, however, it is beautiful. Far surpasses Bungie’s visuals. And they have nailed the weapons.
I just wasn’t hooked.
I think the example that is emblematic of Ubisoft is Immortal: Fenyx Rising vs the game it’s a facsimile of: Breath of the Wild.
The Ubisoft game is pretty, but it is soulless. Breath of the Wild, meanwhile, is a goddamned masterpiece and one of the best open world games ever made.
In other news, I tried to get into Halo Infinite today. Not for me. 343i have never made a good Halo game and while this one is the closest to greatness, it is still missing something.
This one definitely feels like a Halo game in its gameplay, but I’m afraid at this point I am not invested in the world and that for me makes the story lacking.
On top of that, I’m not a fan of the encounter design, which feels like it is missing the meticulous 60 seconds of combat crafting that Bungie were so good at.
Artistically, however, it is beautiful. Far surpasses Bungie’s visuals. And they have nailed the weapons.
I just wasn’t hooked.
Looks like I was wrong. I was going to buy the bundle myself, but the price went up to 26 euro in the cartIn speaking of Control
There is this bundle, Control Ultimate Edition and Disco Elysium
Save 46% on Disco Elysium - The Final Cut + Control Ultimate Edition Bundle on Steam
Get Disco Elysium – The Final Cut + Control Ultimate Edition Bundle only on Steam!store.steampowered.com
What seems nice is that if you got Control standard edition from Humble Choice, then it still count as you own the game. So you will get the real Ultimate Edition with the dlcs plus Disco Elysium for 16 euro
I haven't tried it myself, so I don't know if you really get the real Ultimate Edition.
Here is another nice deal
Tekken 7 Definitive Edition - 75% off. It should contain everything. Bamco released this edition last month, but with an insane price
So my ISP recently added 1 Gbit / 50 Mbit connection, and initial impressions aren't very good. (previously 250 Mbit / 20 Mbit was max offered)
Or maybe 1 Gbit isn't optimal for single user?
Netflix Speedtest
Before:
After:
For actual real world usage though, comparing gaming services:
(all were tested to low end NVME SSD, Kingston A2000 1TB)
Steam
Steam at least manages to get around 400~600 Mbits (with peak ~ 840 Mbits).
Highly compressed games seem to do worse.
Uplay
Reports around 60-80 MB/s (480 Mbits - 640 Mbits).
I suspect it's not reporting correctly, NIC reports speeds that are ~80% of what uplay says.
Based on which real speed is -> 400 Mbit ~ 530 Mbit, so similar to Steam.
Origin
Origin reporting around 55-60 MB/s. (which puts it's to similar range to Steam)
It's hard to tell if it's accurate:
Origin reports speeds that are way more consistent than other clients. NIC reports wildy varying speeds like with other clients.
However it might be just averaging from much longer period )to give impressions of being more consistent?).
Which you could claim is technically accurate, even if it's not actual download speed.
It's been widely speculated that speeds origin reports are based on actual install size, so it would include compression.
Anthem however doesn't compress and has basically the same DL/Install size.
Windows Store
Around 25 MB/s- 50MB/s (200 Mbit - 400 Mbit)
Special award for never being able to go above 50 MB/s (400 Mbit).
I had to check if there was download cap in settings, but it wasn't enabled.
---
On positive side: at least it's cheaper for first 2 months, than what I would've had to pay for 250/20 starting today.
Sadly offset by fee for speed change introduced recently. Guess I wasn't the only one downgrading and instantly upgrading speed every 2 months to keep introductory price.
Maybe I can try 600 / 30 after 2 months for new introductory price period. In theory it should be enough, and regular price is only the same I was (sometimes) paying for the old 250 / 20 connection. Maybe ISP's QoS makes it worse though.
Or maybe 1 Gbit isn't optimal for single user?
Netflix Speedtest
Before:
After:
For actual real world usage though, comparing gaming services:
(all were tested to low end NVME SSD, Kingston A2000 1TB)
Steam
Steam at least manages to get around 400~600 Mbits (with peak ~ 840 Mbits).
Highly compressed games seem to do worse.
Uplay
Reports around 60-80 MB/s (480 Mbits - 640 Mbits).
I suspect it's not reporting correctly, NIC reports speeds that are ~80% of what uplay says.
Based on which real speed is -> 400 Mbit ~ 530 Mbit, so similar to Steam.
Origin
Origin reporting around 55-60 MB/s. (which puts it's to similar range to Steam)
It's hard to tell if it's accurate:
Origin reports speeds that are way more consistent than other clients. NIC reports wildy varying speeds like with other clients.
However it might be just averaging from much longer period )to give impressions of being more consistent?).
Which you could claim is technically accurate, even if it's not actual download speed.
It's been widely speculated that speeds origin reports are based on actual install size, so it would include compression.
Anthem however doesn't compress and has basically the same DL/Install size.
Windows Store
Around 25 MB/s- 50MB/s (200 Mbit - 400 Mbit)
Special award for never being able to go above 50 MB/s (400 Mbit).
I had to check if there was download cap in settings, but it wasn't enabled.
---
On positive side: at least it's cheaper for first 2 months, than what I would've had to pay for 250/20 starting today.
Sadly offset by fee for speed change introduced recently. Guess I wasn't the only one downgrading and instantly upgrading speed every 2 months to keep introductory price.
Maybe I can try 600 / 30 after 2 months for new introductory price period. In theory it should be enough, and regular price is only the same I was (sometimes) paying for the old 250 / 20 connection. Maybe ISP's QoS makes it worse though.
So after saying I wasn't going to grab anything in the sale I ended up with some steam vouchers as a present. So rather than being sensible and leaving the cash till there was something I really wanted I immediately rushed to the sale.
They are my games for while I queue to get into Endwalker (on the final stretch of quests there).
They are my games for while I queue to get into Endwalker (on the final stretch of quests there).
I thought Origins was such a good step in the right direction. Severely lacking in side quest stories and variety, but with a world that actually felt very “real” and connected (illusion or not). And then they went back to literal isolated islands on Odyssey, and while I still enjoyed it, it was despite the world design.
Then Valhalla came. All the problems amplified, none of the charm. Probably the most bored I have ever been in an AC game. And having revisited both Odyssey and it recently with the crossover updates… yeah, it still is terrible.
--
As for the whole time sink thing…. I like games of all lengths, but as others have said, it’s a matter of respecting my time. 90% of the AAA games out there these days simply don’t have the mechanics to sustain the time they want you to play it. But since it’s all about player retention now, they have to pad everything to try to trap you.
My biggest problem with all of it, besides all the games wanting all my time is that more often than not it really limits the experience. Almost always I know an open world is going to suffer drastic changes because of my actions, because you have to keep everything “open”. And even the plot tries to navigate so you aren’t locked out of anything for long. I mean, how many times can we have “you defeated the big bad… now go back and deal with the same outposts than before”. I get it, I often don’t want something I liked to end also…. but that is way better than overstaying its welcome.
In the end, it limits what kind things I can expect of big productions even more, in an industry that already has a big problem with originality. And that’s not even getting into the dirty tactics used for retention, a lot of of which should be illegal when dealing with kids.
Ubisoft artists carry those shitty games on their backs. I wouldn't have made through half of the AC games if they weren't so visually appealing.
I can kind of see what people mean and it is a concern for the future but I actually enjoy long games like AC, Elder Scrolls, Yakuza. I like it when there's a main story thread i can follow or ignore at my whim and a big open world i can go and explore. Just wandering around finding nice views, hidden dungeons, villages or events and picking up loot before deciding to advance the story when i want to is great for me. They usually offer a large scope for modding and personalization on later runs which is good.
I like shorter games too of course but far too often i find they feel like i'm being rushed through a museum exhibit because the staff want to close up. I'm trying to walk around and look at things but the staff have their hand on my back propelling me along at a running pace. It gets tiring after a while.
Are there issues with long games? Sure. Are there issues with modern game design for profitabvility? Again, yup but a game being long and not to your taste is not some great inherent evil like some people on other places seem to make out.
I like shorter games too of course but far too often i find they feel like i'm being rushed through a museum exhibit because the staff want to close up. I'm trying to walk around and look at things but the staff have their hand on my back propelling me along at a running pace. It gets tiring after a while.
Are there issues with long games? Sure. Are there issues with modern game design for profitabvility? Again, yup but a game being long and not to your taste is not some great inherent evil like some people on other places seem to make out.
Playing through Valhalla felt like a dayjob. Witcher 3, Persona 5 did not, I played Witcher 3 3 times. Im ready to do a 2nd playthrough of Persona 5 if Royal arrives on Steam. Im never going back to Valhalla to do stuff, maybe for the expansion.
Also, if you see my list of recent purchases, all of them are rather short games compared to Valhalla and hopefully cares about the player's time.
Also, if you see my list of recent purchases, all of them are rather short games compared to Valhalla and hopefully cares about the player's time.
One of my guilty pleasures was Star Ocean 4. The story is corny, the characters annoying, but the battle system and crafting was just so good.
The type of battle system also sometimes determines if you find the game overstaying its welcome or if you could play it for hundreds of hours.
I find that "action" type battle systems tire you of the game faster than turn-based or tactic-based battle systems.
Sure the awesome flashy action sequences are cool to look at and you feel like a badass... for the first 5 to 10 hours, then it gets boring.
While you could either speed through turn-based battle systems after several hours (Persona) or they hold your attention even after 50 hours like Star ocean 4 or Agarest (another guilty pleasure)
I don't think there's any reason to worry about a backlash against long games. They make economic sense, because gaming platform friend lists turn players into billboards. "Oh, Avern's booting up Slay the Spire again? Guess there must be something to that game. Maybe I'll buy it this sale." Huge open-world games, systems-heavy strategy and sandbox games, and endlessly replayable roguelike games are all going to be sticking around because of this.
But Ubisoft's approach to making long games should be called out. Their current design ethos is to make a long-lasting skinner box by Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V-ing assets, then railroad you into that repetitive content until you're frustrated into spending a few bucks on MTX. It's exploitative and gross. There are plenty of open world games that make bank without relying on this shit, so there's no reason to think Ubi needs to do it (but it clearly works). Fuck that and fuck them.
But Ubisoft's approach to making long games should be called out. Their current design ethos is to make a long-lasting skinner box by Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V-ing assets, then railroad you into that repetitive content until you're frustrated into spending a few bucks on MTX. It's exploitative and gross. There are plenty of open world games that make bank without relying on this shit, so there's no reason to think Ubi needs to do it (but it clearly works). Fuck that and fuck them.
Yeah, and that is why the social aspect about Steam is so important. Seeing what your friends play, how often they play, what achievements they get and so on is a big part of a games discovery. Or even when a new patch comes out or a DLC drops, suddenly several people in your friends list are playing an old game again and you ask yourself why and check it out.
Free @ GOG:
www.gog.com
X-Morph: Defense Complete Edition
X-Morph: Defense Complete Edition includes the the following DLC's: - X-Morph: Defense
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