I haven't really looked at Steam reviews in…some time. At this point (and for several years back) if I'm interested in a game but not convinced I just go look it up on YouTube; 5-10 minutes spent watching someone actually play it usually tells me a lot more about whether I, personally, would enjoy playing it than spending that same amount of time reading reviews. That's not to say reviews have no value (especially if it's not a newly-released game, a review can encapsulate thoughts about the game from start to finish), I just don't find myself scrolling that far down the page very often anymore. Still, this is a welcome improvement on Valve's part.

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Quoting: KlaasWhat I don't like is that they apparently prevent deeper discounts on other stores.

While it's proving difficult to research and I don't have time to really dig into it at the moment, from various statements I've read from developers the situation is more that developers shouldn't sell Steam keys for their games at significantly lower prices elsewhere on a permanent basis…which all makes sense, because Valve takes no commission on Steam keys, so everyone would just sell keys for their games elsewhere at 30% off, pocket 100% of the proceeds (making the same amount they would selling on Steam), and Valve would be stuck honoring those keys and supporting the distribution and hosting of said games without getting any money.

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Immediately wishlisted. I'm not usually interested in action RPGs, but CrossCode is the rare exception that had me emotionally invested for all 120 hours from beginning to end. (I haven't 100%-ed it in terms of achievements, but I completed every single quest in the game.) I found the puzzles fun and quite challenging, and while I beat them all on the default difficulty I love that the team included multiple different difficulty scaling options for both puzzles and combat – a real good move for accessibility. I can see the CrossCode DNA in the writing and expressive character portraits in the trailer (a trait which this video [External Link] I watched recently argues is part of what makes Lea such a great silent protagonist), and if they've iterated on the already solid engine I can't wait to see what Radical Fish Games have cooked up this time. :smile:

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My CPU hit 10 years old back in July and I'm thinking of switching to AMD for the next one so this sounds interesting. Though I'm in no hurry, so maybe I'll wait for an X3D version to see how it compares.

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Jupiter Hell Classic is the demake of a remake of a roguelike unmake of a famous 1993 FPS shooter.

Ok, now we're [collectively as gamers/game developers] just being ridiculous. :tongue:

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyThe thing is, that can be entirely enough for a sizable category of use cases. Sure, look just a bit under the surface and it's different . . . but many users don't do that, so for them it is not different.

Yeah – I was thinking about what I wrote later in the day after posting, that I didn't mean to imply "we should only introduce people to Linux with a less-familiar DE". I think what I said was mostly about a certain class of Windows power users who would have to learn/unlearn/relearn the most when switching because their prior Windows knowledge no longer applies (like, I dunno, editing the registry). For lots of people who don't need or want to go deeper, the surface familiarity of various Linux DEs is a great asset.

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Quoting: TheRiddickCompared to the recent SW games, is this one actually decent?

I played a little bit of the early portion of it (poorly) on a friend's Game Cube in the early 00s. I remember finding it pretty interesting as a kid (you get to be a cool bounty hunter, and a jetpack, and a flamethrower, and poison darts, and…). I don't know if anyone would call it one of the great Star Wars games, but it seemed fairly solid in design and competently executed, though who knows what I'd think of it now. Reviews on Steam are currently sitting at "very positive", for what that's worth. Maybe I'll pick it up and give it a try now that it has proper mouse and keyboard support.

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Quoting: PenglingPrecisely. :smile: And it's important to point out that the Linux option isn't Windows, and that things aren't going to act the same, and that the software you'll use won't be the same. I know that sounds like common-sense, but for some reason, though people are fine with adjusting to the differences that MacOS has from Windows, they don't seem to approach Linux like that for some strange reason. :huh:

I think part of it is that some Linux DEs mimic the desktop paradigm of older Windows versions much closer than MacOS does, which masks the differences. With MacOS you've got the task bar at the top, which changes based on the program that has focus, the dock at the bottom, the whole file explorer looks completely different, it clearly doesn't work exactly like Windows does. Whereas someone using Linux with (say) the Cinnamon DE, it's a pretty similar experience superficially: familiar task bar at the bottom with some shortcuts, a list of open programs, a "start menu" in the lower left, the file explorer looks and behaves pretty similarly, etc.…

From personal experience, we got a Windows computer when I was 10, then I first tried Linux in my early twenties at college. It looked similar enough to hide the differences, which kept me from immediately realizing how much work it actually takes to learn a new operating system (since as a kid you just soak up information like a sponge and don't remember the work it took). When I ran into difficulties like learning how to navigate the terminal it kinda put me off Linux for a few years until I started using it in a new job; after a year of getting familiar with it there, I was finally comfortable enough to switch at home.

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"Dear Valve, I'd like to pitch a concept for an upcoming event: the Steam Soccer and Aluminum Fest. Unorthodox mixture I know, but hear me out…"

:tongue:

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Quoting: Talon1024Sort of. Maybe I'm just fearmongering, but don't forget that other game industry companies have been making lots of shitty, greedy decisions lately.

Games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora have microtransactions and lots of bugs, thanks to Ubisoft.
Some of the studios eaten (bought) by Microsoft were shut down in May.
Good independent game studios like Mimimi are going to shut down in the near future.
As for other indie games.. There's quite a few of them, and many of them are good, but the reason the game industry crashed in the 80s is because the market was oversaturated with half-baked games. With so much competition in the market, it's already very difficult for an indie developer to find a significant audience and earn enough money to live.

Also, I haven't heard of any other indie studios hiring the recent layoffs. I do remember some former Ubisoft employees forming their own studio and developing the game Stray.

It's just basic supply and demand. If the market for PC games ever becomes too saturated (and keep in mind, it's not like the population of consumers is fixed – it continues to grow year over year), then some studios will be unable to stay solvent and leave the market…leaving a larger portion of the revenue for the remaining studios, and space for new developers to join. It's not like all studios are going to simultaneously go bankrupt, and even if they somehow magically did, new ones would pop up overnight to fill the void. PC gaming's not going anywhere even if a few studios are shutting down. :smile:

It's just like any ecosystem, where individual actors are simultaneously dying and being born. It's easy to focus on a few trees in a forest felled by a passing storm and proclaim "Oh no! The whole forest is dying!" and miss the dozens of saplings growing up in the space they cleared over the coming years (plus all the mature trees doing just fine). Or notice the dead whale, and not the hundreds of small creatures its flesh nourishes. Or the dramatic supernova whose shockwave sets off a new round of star formation. It's always easier to see studios closing down (because they're established, and get reported on) than seeing new ones form (because no one knows about them yet).

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