I mean, let them try? I, for one, basically stopped buying new games (with the occasional exception for an indie dev). By the time the worst bugs are fixed, it’ll be on sale for 50% off anyway.
Yeah, I don’t see any reason to buy (or pre buy!) any game at all. At launch you’re paying double for a beta version basically. Like you said, wait for the actual game to be released a few months later at a good price.
I’ve loved every Besthesda game and preordered Fallout 76…learned from that mistake and never again. I’ll put games on my steam list and wait for a sale.
Good call mentioning pre-orders as well. I never did it back in the age of physical media, but there was at least a reason for it then. Now the only reason to do it is to get some bonus skins or other garbage with your buggy game.
I just picked up Fallout 2 at GOG for $2.49. There are so many games you can get for less than the price of a coffee. The best way to fight against these prices is to simply not buy.
SE releases have been all over the place recently. Sometimes it’s PS exclusives, sometimes Nintendo exclusives, sometimes console exclusives, sometimes they release on PS and Nintendo but not Xbox…
I was an XOne user a few years back and it was exhausting. PC side it’s a bit better, except that their flagship series is locked on PS for who knows how long, and then locked on Epic Store for one more year.
As a potential customer, I didn’t feel exactly welcomed. I was interested in FFXVI, but didn’t have a PS5 (I still don’t). Now I don’t have the time to play long-ass games anymore, which means that by the time it will finally be released on PC, I won’t probably buy it.
I was someone who was willing to give them money, and they refused it time and time again. I’m sorry for their difficult situation, as Square has created some great games from my childhood that I will forever cherish (both as Square Soft and Square Enix), but let’s be honest, this is their fault.
I hope they follow through with this decision, though. I doubt I’ll be a customer, but maybe they’ll make some kids as happy as I was when I was their age and playing those old FF titles. People deserve to play those games without being told to buy two different consoles and/or wait an eternity and a half for exclusive deals to expire.
This is very true. And it’s interesting in that generally Ubisoft has been fine across all platforms. And yet Japanese companies seem to CRAVE exclusivity. Have they not seen franchises like Assasins creed and Far cry and thought. Yeah I want that money too?
“After” profits tumble? We haven’t even had a chance to buy FF16 or Rebirth yet, and if they’re like Remake there’ll still be a year to wait for it to get off Epic and onto Steam. Just sell us the damn game if you want money.
Imagine Japanese board execs as you do republicans. They can only understand what they can physically see or physically happens to them. Aka. Everything outside of Japan is inconceivable.
MSFT has a $3T market cap and $60B of free cash flow each year, so I doubt they’re hurting for money. This is how “growth at all costs” incentivizes myopic decision-making and doesn’t really help foster an environment where studios are willing to take creative risks. Even when they succeed (a la Hi-Fi Rush) they’re on the perpetual chopping block.
"The executives and Board are short on caviar and fois* gois. We can't have that when some of those... people still have homes or cars, and can do without more actual meals."
*Flies groi is strictly for us commoners.
Also, I typed it correct twice and twice autocorrect hard failed as I hit send or between send and posting. So AI that consumes too many resources also stinks.
Brings me back to when EA was buying up companies just to milk them until there’s nothing left to give and then close the studios. It’s okay though. It’s not like these companies had employees with bills to pay, livelihoods, families, bills again, etc. it’s not like there are actually people behind the games we play that are struggling just as much as we are. That would be madness!
it’s not like there were awesome game series which came to exist as a passion projects that are being discontinued because people don’t like the latest titles because they were lazy cash crabs…
Microsoft is a scourge on all things video game related. They ruined minecraft when they bought it, and they’re now doing it to everything else they absorbed.
It sounds like things are going well for this guy and that is great and all, but how much would we honestly expect to hear if it wasn’t going well?
This story is circulating all the media outlets and feels more like PR than a legit example of how this procedure is actually going to work for most people.
It sounds like things are going well for this guy and that is great and all, but how much would we honestly expect to hear if it wasn't going well?
Given how eager people are to pounce on negative news about anything Elon Musk-related, I expect we would be hearing way, way more about this if it wasn't going well. "Elon Musk's Neuralink Damages a Man's Brain!" and "Elon Musk's Neuralink Fails!" Headlines and such from every rooftop.
That takes an immense amount of fuel. We orbit the sun at 30 km/s, of which you have to cancel about 24 km/s to actually hit it. This is after escaping Earth’s atmosphere (another 11 km/s of delta V) and effective sphere of influence which takes even more fuel. We could use some gravity assists off the moon and inner planets to get there, but even then it’s not really economical. Our best bet would be to send him out super far using ~9 km/s of dV, and then use a very small amount to cancel out any remaining angular momentum and let him slowly fall into the sun. Unfortunately, as with all efficient space maneuvers, you pay for them in time, and this maneuver would take you 3 years. We’d have to somehow support the little bastard all that time but it might just be doable.
You can get caught in the sun's pull by just leaving Earth's sphere of influence, but remember that all of the planets are already caught in the sun's pull and have remained distinctly outside of the actual sun for essentially forever
That’s why I suggested shooting him directly towards it, wouldn’t he just keep going unless he somehow manages to hit something on the way there? Surely he’d end up hitting the sun?
He'd still have the 30 km per second (67,000 mph) of sideways velocity that Earth has when it's orbiting the sun, and that speed is enough to prevent Earth from ever hitting the sun.
Orbits aren't very intuitive; if you want something you launch from Earth to fall straight into the sun, you actually need to fire it directly opposite to the direction that Earth orbits in. So if you imagine Earth orbiting clockwise, you want to shoot the thing counterclockwise. If you do that at the right speed, you counteract all the orbital speed and the thing just falls into the sun.
If you can speed something up a completely unlimited amount then sure you could aim straight at the sun and just fire it so fast that it hits the sun anyway. It'll be off-centre a bit but the sun is pretty big. Consider how much of the sky isn't sun though. If the sun is directly overhead and you shoot straight at the sun, the thing you fired is already going 30 km/s sideways before you even started. We could do the trig to figure out how fast you need to shoot it to still hit the sun anyway but I think the more important part here is getting a feel for the motion involved.
How about if you leave the earth’s atmosphere first, come to a stop, then fire him/accelerate directly at the sun? Or I guess just leave him there so he falls into it slowly? I’m not trying to be difficult or anything I’m just interested.
Depends on what you mean by the "come to a stop" bit. Stop relative to Earth? You're still going Earth speeds relative to the sun, which is what you're trying to hit. It's like throwing a ball at something while driving past it. If you mean stop relative to the sun then sure, you don't even need to shoot him towards the sun, he'll fall right in. The trouble is that stopping relative to the sun is specifically the bit that takes a lot of energy.
lol seriously. dude is acting like people cover up bad news about musk. I hate the fucker but if he rolled his eyes at a waitress it would be front page news.
Yeah, exactly. People love to amplify any negatives they can find about Musk, it plays to the rage mobs and that translates into clicks and endorphins.
Sure, they should be reported on. The problem is in the focus and bias present in the reporting overall. If all you ever report on are the bad things that could conceivably be linked to a particular person who is popular to hate, the overall result can be an unrealistic portrayal of the world even if each individual story and each individual fact within them is true. History is rife with distortions like that.
It kinda seems like you’re saying it’s a bad thing to report on things he does that are bad simply because there’s an audience that’s interested. But, that’d be kind of a weird take
I'm saying that reporting disproportionately negative news about someone is not going to lead to a realistic view of the world.
For example, consider Fox News pouncing on every possible headline that could paint Joe Biden in a bad light because Fox viewers already hate Biden and such reports draw engagement as a result. Nor a good thing if your goal is a realistic view of the world, right? Same idea here.
It let him control a mouse with his brain, which is actually great since he’s a quadriplegic. Getting it if you aren’t fully paralyzed would be stupid.
Doctor organizations did bash the news release for being PR. Especially when there’s desperate people who are watching this tech and all they got was a tweet saying “installed it, lmao”.
I’m picturing that there’s going to be an actually disturbing most evil ending, and then there’s going to be an ending that’s technically more villainous but which revolves so much around that cow that it’s actually just really funny.
Larian is somehow an independent enough to tell Hasbro to go fuck themselves but not independent enough that Hasbro told them to layoff people, and they said ‘okay’.
Larian worked with Hasbro to make BG3. Hasbro lays off people who helped them (from Hasbro). Larian doesn’t have much say about it other than “it sucks dude”.
Nobody at Larion got laid off. Larion worked closely with some people at Wizards of the Coast to make Baldurs Gate 3, and those people got laid off.
Larion could make a game entirely on their own with no involvement with Hasbro or WotC (and they have), but they can’t make anything related to Dungeons and Dragons or the Forgotten Realms without Hasbro and WotC’s cooperation.
Cancellation like this aren’t always bad. Especially given BG3 as a whole, sometimes it’s good to just ship a complete product, and move onto newer things. They earned a break
They didn’t add all that many units, two per race. But they did have a great impact on the game (mostly).
Also, new campaigns for each race was awesome. The level editor not only brought many fun custom maps (I still think about that weird 300 map I played when I was 16), but ensured longevity of the game until this day by enabling new maps to be played in regular games.
I miss getting all this stuff with a game or expansion too.
Yeah I don’t think so – Sequels are the thing you’re supposed to have I think. Everyone drooling over having subscriptions since MMOs sucks and it really looks like the whole culture of the industry is pretty shitty in a lot of ways
E: I guess expansions can be good so you don’t have to be an EA sports franchise if you’re not changing the engine a bunch. Other than EUIV though, whose expansions are a money grab way to make the game cost 150 bucks, I haven’t ever played DLC I can think of.
Just a few dlc/expansion packs that were totally worth their money
All Rimworld expansions.
Diablo 3 reaper of souls/ D2 lord of destruction
The witcher blood and wine (?)
Ballad of gay tony
Star craft ones
Red alert yuris revenge
Horizon zero dawn frozen wilds
Etc… There are good expansions that are totally worth their money and add to the overall game.
That being said, I’m not a huge dlc fan and rarely spend money on them if they don’t really add to the game. More partial to spend on dlc for smaller studio games rather than large ones.
I didn’t even buy the Rimworld DLCs and I have 500+ hours! I did look at them but didn’t buy. Now that DF is graphical I mostly just play that now tbh.
DF is a great example – 15+ years updates no DLCs unless you count the steam release.
In what world is paying 40usd for a game and 3x 30usd for 500h of entertainment not a good deal? (not particularly aimed at you, but at dlc haters in general)
I am glad when they release a dlc. I get more great content. They get some more financial support.
I am 100% against cheap cash grabs. I am 100% pro multiple well made extentions for a game that allow me to support the studio.
Unless the sequel is using way better tech and requires a new engine or massive engine tweaks, a sequel that comes shortly after the original release could be done better, faster and cheaper as an expansion pack.
Other than EUIV though, whose expansions are a money grab way to make the game cost 150 bucks, I haven’t ever played DLC I can think of.
Well there ya go. Paradox DLC is just bullshit. Most of them just add like 1-2 units or characters or factions which mostly boil down to an aesthetic change. Most big games get real additions via DLC that can add up to 50% more game.
The non cosmetic Paradox DLCs fundamentally change the games so if you want to actually play the latest version of the game with all the mechanics you have to get them all. You can get them on steam sale usually for like 50 bucks a couple times a year.
I’m not defending it – It is what colors me most against DLCs.
I still just don’t like the idea of it – Why not do a DLC for movies and paintings and books? It feels wrong to fork a work of art or say “Oh sorry I didn’t actually make it all here’s the other 20%”
Come to think of it – Movie sequels are kind of like that these days where it’s just one story broken up instead of multiple separate stories. I wish we just did 4 hour movies with intermission but I’m sure I’m alone there.
Being limited by the DnD system makes sense. DOS2 had a lot of cool mechanics not present in BG3. I do hope we see another DnD game from them eventually.
Yeah the DnD mevhanics are weird for me coming from DOS2..
I really miss elements mixing and having to focus on elements in general. And those weird 'Long Rest' things.. kinda annoying for me.
The implementation of long rest was very poor. Short rest I like because it’s a precious resource that you really should be conserving. But the punishment for abusing long rests was basically nonexistent outside of a few specific cases, so for 95% of the game you can just use it with impunity and not worry about basically anything. Short rests were just a convenient way to keep playing without spending the time of doing a long rest.
Bu the food limit is trivial. We get enough food in the first couple hours of the game that you basically don’t need to think about it again until probably deep in act 2. I can’t think of a single moment in both playthroughs where I even had to remotely consider short or long rests as a resource in any sense of the word. The only issue I ever had was starting a quest and needing to take a long rest, but knowing that it would advance it to a failure state. That is more of an irritation than a mechanic to create urgency. Especially since they’re so infrequent and often telegraphed well in advance. Not to mention the game floods you with enough money and free potions laying around that a lot of times you can just heal up and keep moving without using rests of any kind.
Combine this with camp casting and the ability to change out party members nearly at-will and it makes the entire rest system basically moot.
If you didn’t need to rest to advance some of the stories, then people would basically never consider when they take long rests because they’re abundant. This leads to the next issue: If you blow a few spell slots being sloppy, you just take a long rest. Problem solved. You have very little reason to conserve abilities. For 80%+ of the game you can blow all your abilities in a fight or two, long rest, keep going.
DOS2 fights felt much more like a slog than BG3. Especially in higher difficulties, every battlefield ended up a nightmarish soup of elemental surfaces, which got old after awhile. I also found whittling down enemy toughness bars un-fun.
Personally, I liked both the BG3 and DOS1 systems better than DOS2.
Well yeah, but the surfaces were DOS2 “thing”. They are present in BG3 too, just not as important to the overall gameplay. It doesn’t reflect badly on any future Divinity games, since they have proven they can use surfaces and have it not be overwhelming.
Yeah I felt like DOS2 had really improved on the already good formula that was DOS, and BG3 using the DnD system felt like a big step back. It’s still a great game, but I feel like it is in spite of the DND systems (not the setting), not because of it. DND doesn’t feel suited for the computer, it really fits better on the tabletop.
As someone who’s played their fair share of assorted DnD systems, 5E has a number of issues that really hold it back. For instance, you’re not really supposed to long rest between every fight, but how do you tell players that without a proper DM? It’s a very weak mechanic that’s apparently too iconic to have just axed.
Don’t get me wrong, 5E works better at what it’s supposed to - easily accessible and relatively low math tabletop roleplay. But a computer can do so much more.
Lots of RPGs allow rest cheesing. Even if you don’t let players rest in random locations like BG3 does, the players can always hoof it back to town to rest. Attempts to prevent this kind of cheesing often end up feeling unduly punishing and un-fun. It’s not a tabletop vs computer issue.
D&D 5e is kind of bad system. It’s “good” in that it’s hard to make a bad character, and it’s popular, but that’s most of what it has going for it. It’s missing a lot of rules you’d want for a general purpose RPG. Centering it on rests only works in rather specific kinds of games. The magic system is very bespoke and thus clunky. The dice math if 1d20+stuff gives you a flat probability, which is often unsatisfying.
Pathfinder 2e is widely considered better than 5e in every way, unless you actually specifically want the simple+shallowness of 5e. Which is a fine thing to want, but that is a pretty big trade off. If you were just playing with friends, you’d probably be better off with Fate or maybe a PbtA game if you want simple narrative stuff, or Gloomhaven if you just want a board game.
I find Pathfinder 2e (and D&D 3e before it) way clunkier. Maintaining a level-appropriate power level requires stacking buffs like the Overlord meme, and if you decline to do so, you’re just crippling your character. It’s bad enough that auto-buffing mods are considered mandatory for the Pathfinder CRPGs.
I don’t like of the dices but BG3 sucked my way more in than DOS2 so I how they really manage to combine the best of both in their next game. Let’s hope the expectations don’t get too high.
I think making something on par with BG3 will be incredibly tough. Wouldn’t mind seeing them branch out and try something new again. Larian has done a bunch of different stuff before. A modern take on Ego Draconis would be really cool.
I won’t fight you over that, I think they were good too. I’d love a modern third-person ARPG in the Divinity universe. The “build your own ghoul” mechanic was really fun, and obviously turning into a fucking dragon was epic too.
I actually want them to step away from 5e/DnD in general. I loved DOS2, but I agree with another commenter that the vast swaths of elements made things challenging in a frustrating way at times. Not that that shouldn’t be a tactic to be used, but it definitely was egregious in DOS2.
5E is just… A fuckin mess when it comes to balancing the game - said as a long time DM and player. There are so many things that just irritate the heck out of me with the system that can’t necessarily be balanced with a video game slapped overtop of it. (Not to say Larian didn’t do a good job with what they were given, but still)
That being said, I am a total fanboy of Pathfinder 2e and the way things are balanced there, and I would love love love to see a CRPG under those rules. Especially if it was Larian-levels.
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