I’ve been a fan of thatgamecompany since playing the free Flash version of Flow online and reading Jenova Chen’s thesis on how to implement the flow state into gaming.

http://jenovachen.com/flowingames/Flow_in_games_final.pdf

It’s pretty awesome and he’s a very unique individual. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Because it’s a souls-like

The original Metroid on NES was so freaking good back in the day. I’m in my late 40s at this point and I still hear songs or themes that make me go “that reminds me of Metroid”. The music was iconic.

And it’s gotta be said, the original reveal that the hero of the game was a (gasp) girl! I am sure it had an effect on my young impressionable mind. And the good kind of effect, the kind that makes you realize girls can be bad ass too. So awesome!

I am completely enamored with Inkbound right now. Its a turn-based tactical roguelite by the guys who made Monster Train. It has a similar feel to the combat from Marvels Midnight Suns, which I loved also. It just came out of earl access recently.

Oh and they took out all the microtransactions in the game during EA. People complained and they listened! So there are some mechanics that look like, for example, a season pass, but it’s free and automatic now. I think that’s pretty awesome.

Anyways, game is fun. Devs are moral. Works in linux. A++

You know with Android, you can just sideload any app you want. Still not sure why anyone buys Apple products, but hey at least you get different colored chat bubbles!

Yeah I get it. It turns out subscription services are everywhere and have been for quite some time so there’s no need to really inform people about the pros and cons at this point.

Sure I don’t own the games. But then again, I don’t tend to replay old games ever. There are SO MANY new games coming out all the time, I’ve never understood the urge to go back and replay an old game. Chances are there’s a new game out there that’s the same idea but better.

My only point here is that GamePass Ultimate is basically paying more to have access on Windows AND Xbox and I don’t use the Windows version anymore. It will save me money when it’s time to renew. Hooray linux!

It’s one of my only regrets from switching to linux full time last summer: the PC side of my GamePass Ultimate subscription is now useless because it requires Windows. I get it, but it still bums me out.

On the plus side, I prepaid using some crazy scam/exploit/deal/whatever from SlickDeals so it cost me like less than $100 for three years. And since I still use it on my Xbox regularly, I feel like it was still a… <glasses>… slick deal.

I remember being so insanely jazzed and proud that I got into the closed beta for SWTOR like VERY early. Wasn’t so fun when the game launched and I was already burnt out on it. lol

To be fair, they didn’t address a lot of the main criticisms from beta so the game predictably sunk into “Free to play” hell not too long after. Shame, it had a lot of potential.

Point is, I specifically did not sign up for this beta for the same reason as you. I think this one is worth waiting for.

TIL… Only been using Steam since a friend bought me the Orange Box a few decades ago…

Just checked, sixteen years. That doesn’t make me feel old at all…

Steam seems to be down right now. Wonder if Hades is so popular that it crashed Steam. :-D

EDIT - Back up already of course. lol

The DLC’s add a ton to the game. New storylines, new sectors (more space), new ships and buildings, new mechanics (in some), etc.

Do I think you need them all at the start? Probably not? I don’t know how much things cost at this point since I’ve gotten all the DLC’s when they came out since I got the game so it’s hard for me to say whether it’s “worth it” price wise. But just from a content and fun standpoint? They add a LOT to the game and are worth having for sure.

IMHO, the Split ships are the ones I prefer flying generally, so I would recommend that DLC if nothing else. But every faction has one or two ships that are best in class, it’s balanced nicely that way. I just know that if I had to start the game from scratch without Split ships, I would be sad. :-D

This game scratches an itch for me that very few games do. Starting from nothing but a single scout ship and building and empire with fleets of capital ships and miners and traders… and not just owning stations, but building them module by module. There are so many different ways to play this game, from pirate lord to corporate shill to business mogul. You can follow one of the many story lines or strike out on your own from day one. sigh I really enjoy this game.

And I thought they were done updating it two updates and one DLC ago. Yet here we are with more improvements. How lucky are we?!!

It’s a janky game for sure, but in a charming way. I love it. You get used to all the oddities and they fade into the background. And there is a pretty solid modding community too… lots of mods to help with things you might not like about the game.

Not quite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer

I’ve always been partial to “wintermute”. Not many people will get that reference these days.

There’s “not caring about” them and there’s “making it so people who could play before now can’t”. You’re purposely shrinking your active user base while simultaneously shutting out a growing segment of the market. In the name of a feature that’s arguably not even effective at its goal.

I have an idea to help more people play our games! Let’s put a kernel-level anti-cheat on them so nobody who uses linux can play them anymore! Oh wait…

I don’t know if you noticed this but some really big companies with high stock valuations are only existing because investors poured tons of capital into them to subsidize the service.

Exactly, they PAID MONEY to make it work. No they don’t make the money back and depend on outside capital, but they are still paying their employees (not enough) and suppliers, etc.

IMHO, Xbox is a better console than PS this gen. I was a PS guy all the way but I got both XSX and PS5 when they came out and I barely touch my PS5 compared to the Xbox.

To be fair, most of the reasons I prefer the Xbox are just user experience things. The biggest one is that I think the PS5 controller is horrible. The ergonomics are all weird for me (yeah I realize that everyone’s hands are different) and the fancy trigger buttons are real cool in the one or two games that make use of them but they’re squishy and vague feeling in the other 99% of games. The Xbox controller has better ergonomics, and better feel in the hand with its materials and button feel. Yes, ergonomics and feel preference will vary from person to person but it’s worth mentioning since I never had an issue with PS controllers until the PS5.

The other reasons I prefer the Xbox are things like how much better it is for things on your TV that aren’t gaming (streaming shows, watching movies, etc.), I think Gamepass is WAY better than the Sony version, it has more exclusives I am interested in, etc.

Anyhow, you do you, but you might look into the Xbox a little before blindly just going with the PS5 on the strength of the older consoles. I was surprised by how much I didn’t want to use the PS5. And a little bummed if I’m honest. It was a lot of effort to get one at launch and a lot of money and it mostly just gathers dust.

And to answer your specific question, if you do decide to go with a PS5, just get whatever is available when you are ready to get one. When it comes to tech, there’s always something better coming so you can wait forever because they will never say “okay, all done!”.

It doesn’t matter what business we’re talking about. If you can’t afford to pay the costs associated with running it, it’s not a viable business. It’s pretty fucking simple math.

And no, we’re not talking about “to big to fail” business (that SHOULD be allowed to fail, IMHO) we’re talking about AI, that thing they keep trying to shove down our throats and that we keep saying we don’t want or need.