The game was fun. It was a nice throwback to the days of Ghouls n Ghosts. Although it was one of the most horribly optimized indie games I've played so far. It is nice that they updated it, I just wish they would address the poor performance on low end machines. It is a 2D game and it deserves to be played on more machines than it is capable.

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Quoting: DuncI know what you mean. When I got my Steam controller, I thought I would finally be able to ditch my XBox 360 controller with the dodgy cable, but I quickly realised that on Grid Autosport (and, later, other driving games), I just wasn't getting the times. Even once I thought I was used to it, I was still slower. I think it's a combination of the triggers having a slightly shorter throw and weaker springs. Maybe also the “experimental” rumble emulation not working, too. Whatever, it's fine with every other game, but driving... forget it.

While this isn't a game with Linux support, I could still see the issue coming up in Linux games (or maybe one I haven't played yet)... but in Grand Theft Auto 5 there is a section of the game where you have your character do yoga stretches. The activity is done using both analog sticks together in symmetrical movements (move both sticks inward or both sticks outward at same pace). You have to move them together and with proper timing. It is impossible to move the Steam controller's left stick and the right touchpad together like that. It is especially worse after you've adjusted the touchpad's sensitivity for a better mouselook feel in the game.

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This is awesome. While I am enjoying my Steam controller in most situations, there are some games that just play better with two analog sticks versus the touchpad thing. I really do like the Steam controller, but I still think my favorite controller is the DS3. (Have not had a chance to try a DS4 yet, so I don't know if they improved it or not with the latest iteration).

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Quoting: michaI don't want to sound too critic but having the screen being frozen for over 20s (5-29s) looks really bad for any type of showcase.
I have basically no knowledge about Godot but that kinda implies asynchronous loading is either not implemented yet or too complicated - actually a game engine should not even provide a synchronous / blocking asset loading functionality IMHO but this is getting off topic.

Anyway, I really like the progress Godot is making. Esp. with such a small core team compared to the 800+ engineers working on Unity3D. :-)

It has been implemented. This is just typical of Godot demos so far to only focus on particular features they want to showcase for each demo. The other demos are plain and simple. I'm surprised they even put a menu in this one.

They have tons of great demos for the 2D side of the engine, but only a few for 3D. This is great news, and I'm looking forward to playing around with this one.

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Quoting: ExidanI dont even think it is immoral, they are just cosmetics. Actually it is the "most moral" type of monetization for a free to play game I've seen so far.

Even though they are just cosmetics, there is still a touch of the 'buy many random loot boxes to get the one you want' type of unfairness... pure gambling.

For example: this one character skin I want for Abaddon, as he's riding a moose and looks super awesome, is only available in these past treasure box loot cases. This one here: http://www.dota2.com/store/itemdetails/11455?appid=570&r=1f4 [External Link]

My only choice, if I want to own that skin, is to buy that treasure. Although I'm not guaranteed to get the skin I want upon purchase - there are random rewards within the treasure. I won't receive duplicate rewards until I've collected all of them, yet the gambling system is still present. I potentially have to buy up to 9 copies of this treasure loot box until I get the skin I want. Some of these treasures have even more additional prizes.

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Quoting: scaine

Quoting: monkygamesPlease do not promote games with Illegal Loot Box Gambling such as Dota 2.

Is it illegal? Or just immoral?

Just immoral, really. Yet it isn't even near as immoral as other loot box selling games. The loot box items have no stats or impact on the game other than making you look cool.

There are only two other things in the game for sale that might possibly give you extra experience, and I would say they really don't.

1) Battle Cup - Saturday bracketed tournament for $.99
This is truly only good practice if you already have a solid team of players that you work well with. I've jumped into a few of these battle cups with random players and it is just a crapshoot as far as the experience goes. Last battle cup, I was invited from the chat channel into a team that no one else spoke English. I advertised my availability in English, and still got invited in. (may have been slightly my fault, I was a little late and joined the party invitation channel near the last minute). The team got frustrated and tried to end the game by spamming 'gg' in the chat channel after the first five minutes.

2) Dota Plus - $3.99 Monthly Subscription Service that includes free access to battle cup
I personally now see this service as a pay-to-lose feature. It was kind of funny to me that people argued about it destroying the game and making it play-to-win. The skins you unlock with it are cool, but you are paying for them just like any other character skin (and most of them you can purchase without dota plus anyways). The extra damage reports and item popularity reports are negligible in the amount they actually improve your game. All the character levels and unlocks are rather distracting. The worst disadvantage this service gives you however, is that it replaces the draft phase Team Composition bar graph with personal character picks (and it gives you terrible advice - every single time). With the loss of the Team Composition graph, I would say that is enough to put Dota Plus players at a severe disadvantage versus free-to-play players.

This game is a free-to-play game done right. You don't have to spend a single dollar to enjoy it in full capacity.

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Quoting: MakiI deleted my account there when the news broke.

Same

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Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: gustavoyaraujoSo, I thought with the subscription service I have signed in(Dota plus), I would have access to all battle pass stuff, but hey, you have to pay every month and also buy it. Isn't it nice?....

... Subscription canceled.

It was never mentioned that Battle Pass would be included. Especially since Dota Plus is cheaper, it would end up causing people to sub for a month to get it cheaper and then cancel it.

There has been quite an uproar on the Dota 2 steam discussion boards about this. It is a simple misunderstanding, but it seems to be getting some players upset about it. Dota Plus includes free access to the similarly named weekly 'battle cup' - a weekend ranked tournament bracket.

Also, Liam... I'm not sure whether to love you or hate you right now. I decided to take another look at Dota 2 after you wrote the article on Dota Plus. Previously, I had played Dota 2 a few years ago for one game and decided I didn't like it and had no interest in the genre of MOBAs. I was curious, however, about the subscription service and the arguments of whether it was pay-to-win or not. So I decided to reinstall the game and investigate. I found that it is in fact not pay-to-win. There are plenty of community websites that will give you the same kind of advice that the subscription service does. It simply makes the information easier to get to by including it in the game's user interface. I also found that I don't actually dislike this game. I actually love it now and am almost completely addicted to it. So thank you, Liam, for introducing me to my new favorite multiplayer game. (It is so nice to only have to wait 5-10 minutes for a multiplayer game at 4am on a Tuesday morning). And damn you, for significantly increasing the difficulty of me having a productive day. (I'm kidding, of course :P)

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I wish I could get excited about this. I loved this game after I bought it, for about a week. I really did.

Although I really, really wanted to play multiplayer. The cool thing about Stellaris is that in multiplayer, if the game host owns some DLC - everyone in the game gets to play with that particular DLC.

The sad thing about Stellaris is that there is barely anyone hosting public multiplayer games. You can literally wait for more than an hour for a game to just start, at times which are popular for gaming for any other game. I've managed to get into several multiplayer games with enough patience. However, I've never been able to finish a single one. Either one person will quit, a few hours into the game, and everyone else in the server follows... Or the game desyncs several hours into gameplay and the host never returns.

If you want play multiplayer in this game, you absolutely need to have friends who own it and want to play multiplayer. Unfortunately, I don't.

I may pick this DLC up after it has gone on sale several times and has been almost completely devalued... because the game itself became almost completely devalued (for me personally) when I discovered the impossibility of public multiplayer.

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I believe I read somewhere that their "no sales" policy was specifically for the duration of early access. They didn't want to pump up sales of the game before it was finished.

I don't expect them to start discounts soon though. They have been doing incredibly well, by player count, without them. So I would agree that now is a good time to purchase the game if you've been waiting for release. If you really want to have the release day experience, just leave the game in your library for a couple more months.

I have considered Factorio a complete game experience and also to be a stable game experience for over a year now. I highly recommend this game to people who enjoy building sims and/or puzzle games.

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