atomicpoet

atomicpoet, 17 minutes ago (edited 8 minutes ago) to random

Today, 75 games were released on Steam. These are the ones I found most interesting:

Umbraclaw

• a 2D platformer about a dead housecat who awaken in the realm of the dead, and must return home to her owner
• gamepad supported
• demo download available
• price: C$33.99, but has a current discount of -20% selling for C$27.19

Creepy Tale: Some Other Place

• a point-and-click adventure about a man on a fishing trip who winds up in “some other place”
• gamepad supported
• price: C$12.99, but has a current discount of -10% selling for C$11.69

Madzik - Episode 1

• a 3D narrative-driven hack-and-slash set in a world where every creature undergoes formdiable transformations
• gamepad supported
• shared/split screen co-op
• price: C$12.99, but has a current discount of -30% selling for C$9.09

Baisu

• a psychological horror where you play a detective who has arrived at a secluded residence
• price: C$12.99

Fallen Force

• a 2D rogue-like arena shooter with bullet hell elements where you kill monsters by knocking them out of an arena
• demo download available
• price: C$1.49

Vendir: Plague of Lies

• a party-based RPG with a choice-driven narrative
• gamepad supported
• demo download available
• price: C$19.49, but has a current discount of -10% selling for C$17.54

Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip

• a game about a fellow who wants to launch himself into space using his new car, and will wreak havoc to do it
• gamepad supported
• soundtrack available as DLC
• Steam Deck verified
• price: C$23.49, but has a current discount of -20% selling for C$18.79

Astor: Blade of the Monolith

• an action RPG about a young warrior determined to find out about his creators’ unforeseen demise
• gamepad supported
• price: C$32.50, but has a current discount of -10% selling for C$29.25

FLATHEAD

• a simple game about gambling with your life
• price: C$2.59

Scholar’s Mate

• a first person horror about a young woman who wakes up in a gloomy psychiatric hospital
• gamepad supported
• price: C$16.99, but has a current discount of -25% selling for C$12.74

SKALD: Against the Black Priory

• a party-based RPG set in a grimdark fantasy world with Lovecraftian horror elements, featuring 8-bit style pixel art graphics
• price: C$19.49, but has a current discount of -10% selling for C$17.54

[ECHOSTASIS]

• a psychedelic cyberpunk FPS about a world created by algorithms
• demo download available
• price: C$25.99, but has a current discount of -10% selling for C$23.39

Overbowed

• a metroidvania about a kingdom overrun by evil magic, and you fight foes with a magical bow
• gamepad supported
• demo download available
• price: C$11.79

Epic Quest

• a JRPG where you explore a mysterious world, recruit mercenaries into your party, and fight monsters, featuring 8-bit pixel art graphics
• gamepad supported
• price: C$7.79

Basket Brawl DX

• a 2D platformer about a ninja goblin girl trying to save her city from a robot invasion, inspired by 8-bit pixel art graphics inspired by 90s handhelds
• gamepad supported
• price: C$13.99

atomicpoet, 51 minutes ago to random

Sometimes I have terrible ideas. Just now, for example, I was tempted to get a Palm device just to play its version of Serious Sam.

Thankfully, I have not bought an electronic device at all this year.

atomicpoet, 1 hour ago to random

I should create a grading service for WATA graded game cases.

atomicpoet, 2 hours ago to random

Today, I did not intend on playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

But here I am, sitting with a big Alienware desktop, with an RTX 3090, connected to my 60-inch 4K TV. And I’ve said to myself for ages that I want that console experience in my living room.

Though it came out in 2018, Shadow of the Tomb Raider fits the bill. It does 4K easily, offers Vsync for a steady 30fps (which is all my TV can do at 4K), and has ray tracing to boot. I’m glad I went through with this because, as much as I usually prefer gaming on my desktop monitor, there’s just something about being on the couch with a gamepad and taking it all in.

It is magical.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider actually surprised me because I truly wasn’t prepared for this to be my favourite Tomb Raider game. I have a soft spot for Tomb Raider, the version released in 2013. And I also love Tomb Raider: Legend. As for the original trilogy, it’s all right for the time it was made, but it’s really rough around the edges as far as controls are concerned.

You know how bloody amazing it feels to have Tomb Raider focus on puzzles again? As much as I love the 2013 version of Tomb Raider, it felt at times like it was more Uncharted than Tomb Raider. And while there were aspects of combat every now and then, Lara Croft is doing what she does best: explore exotic environments, climb ledges, and solve mysteries.

Now I realize that certain “real fans” don’t like this game. Anything that isn’t exactly like the original trilogy is “wrong” to them. They complain about Lara Croft going “woke”.

But it’s not as though Lara Croft isn’t still the privileged Englishwoman that she is, and this game actually addresses this. In this game, Lara Croft summons the apocalypse. She knew the risks, but she still did what she did because she figured the bad guys would do worse.

Her sidekick, Jonah, even questions her actions. However, maybe the “real fans” don’t like it when people get uppity with Lara Croft. To me, though, this actually gives Lara something that wasn’t available in the original trilogy: depth.

Let’s be honest, the original Lara Croft was kind of a blank slate. She didn’t have much of a personality. The big appeal was that she was “hot” – ha! at least as hot as any low poly girl could be! – and that was enough for teenage boys to try Tomb Raider.

Well, with the entire Survivor Trilogy – which includes Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Lara Croft is now a fully fleshed out character. And Shadow of the Tomb Raider really makes her compelling.

I already spoke about the visuals, which are amazing even now, but the art work really stands out. The temptation with so many Western developers is to go “gritty” and “real”. But when you enter those environments, you really fall in love with each destination. When I’m in Mexico, I’m just riveted by the sights. And when I’m hanging around Croft Manor, it feels glorious.

How about the sound. After finally getting my surround sound system sorted out, this was excellent. It felt cinematic. The voice actors did a great job.

Tomb Raider has always been one of my favourite video game series. I originally played it on my Bondi blue iMac, back when I was 17-years-old. Walking through those corridors, jumping from ledge to ledge, shooting wild bears who are attacking me – that was incredible.

Then 10 years ago, as I was returning to PC gaming again, I played Tomb Raider (2013) on my old 1080p TV. My wife and I both tag-teamed through that game during a weekend, eventually beating it. That was a great moment.

Today, all those moments came back. This time, my daughter watched me. It was special.

Through the decades, I’ve grown as a person. So has Lara. In a sense, we’ve grown together.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider screenshot - downscaled (RTX 3080 Ti)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider screenshot - downscaled (RTX 3080 Ti)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider screenshot - downscaled (RTX 3080 Ti)

atomicpoet, 9 hours ago to random

Before you all get too excited about Donald Trump going to prison, here’s a sobering article.

It is more likely he’ll receive probation or be under house arrest.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-convicted-prison-sentence-new-york-criminal-trial/

atomicpoet, 7 hours ago to random

Four years ago, I bought an Alienware with an RTX 3090 and I’ve regretted it ever since.

First off, it’s loud. Even when I’m doing stuff that should not require much resources, it whines.

But also, for whatever reason, I have to turn the damn machine on after I turn on a TV or monitor—otherwise nothing displays.

It refuses to acknowledge my surround sound system—despite everything else detecting it fine.

And games that work fine on my desktop PC crash on my Alienware for no good reason.

What I have here is a lemon of a PC.

neirda, 2 days ago to random

Hi @atomicpoet , on a post i've found you said "While running it with 2GB was doable, ever since migrating my account from Firefish to Akkoma + Mangane, my server was struggling with the load." does that mean that akkoma is more consumming than firefish ?

atomicpoet, 10 hours ago to random

I’ll be honest. I didn’t expect Trump to be found guilty.

I’m still skeptical, though, that he’ll see prison.

atomicpoet, 10 hours ago (edited 10 hours ago) to random

On the surface, Snuggle Truck seems like a simple game. You drive your truck through obstacles with the goal of keeping your cargo in your trunk.

But that cargo happens to be a bunch of cute plushies. Believe it or not, I feel terrible when one of my plushies falls out of my truck. I feel like I let them down.

It doesn’t help that when my final plushie falls out, it screams “Noooo!” – and then the camera zooms in on its sad face. Actually, it’s heart-breaking! The next time I drive this truck, it motivates me to keep them intact.

What makes this all work is the physics. Your truck will be bumping around, which tosses the plushies about. If you’re a good driver, though, you can keep your truck bed just so to rescue them as they toss about. It’s not easy, but it’s doable.

Oh, and by the way, you’re on a timer. Don’t be slow. You got to hussle.

So-called “real gamers” aren’t a fan of this kind of game because it doesn’t have felt-macing 3D polygons with ample textures and ray-tracing. I’ve always felt that those folks aren’t so much into gaming as they are into getting a something – anything – that justifies their hardware expense. I’m not bashing good hardware because I pay for good hardware but I’m not going to let good hardware keep me from enjoying a “simple” 2D game.

This game is pretty accessible. It runs on any mainstream operating system, and only requires a single core 1Ghz CPU and 512MB of RAM. If your PC is a potato, you can run this.

Now while this game is meant to be accessible, most versions of Snuggle Truck have disappeared forever. You can no longer get Snuggle Truck for iPhone or Android – at least legally. And since Blackberry and Windows Phone are dead platforms, good luck getting Snuggle Truck to work on there too.

This pretty much leaves the PC version intact. Mostly. I doubt the Mac version works on modern Macs. However, you can run it on Windows and Android.

I talk a lot about which games are worth remembering, and my standpoint is anything is worth remembering if someone out there wants to remember it. It’s not up to you, Mr. Gatekeeper, to decide.

At the time of release, Snuggle Truck was well-loved. It won many awards, and was well-reviewed. Hell, it has an 89% positive rating on Steam.

But this game had a lot of controversy. Originally, it was called Smuggle Truck, and it was about smuggling immigrants across the US border. For good reason, Apple rejected the game.

When I bought this game back in 2016, I didn’t know all this – perhaps I wouldn’t have bought it had I known. In fact, I didn’t even realize this game’s back story until today when I researched it.

Does this change how I view Snuggle Truck? Of course. I hate that I probably paid money to a bunch of racists for a game that was originally racist in its intent.

The other side of the coin, though, is that software doesn’t know who makes it. And once scrubbed of the racism, at the end of the day, this game is about plushies. I like plushies.

And driving a car full of plushies is fun.

I don’t recommend buying this game. Yet, to me, this game is worth remembering.

atomicpoet, 14 hours ago to random

Me to my smartwatch: “I just spent five minutes walking, and now you’re going to nag me to walk now that I just sat down?”

atomicpoet, 12 hours ago to random

Is the PC port of The King of Fighters 2002 any good?

To me, King of Fighters is one of the best fighting games of all time. In the 90s and early ‘00s, SNK was known for being one of the best at the genre. They had many good series, but along with Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters was one of their best.

The PC port is mostly accurate. The graphics look good, and the sound is great. And so long as you have a gamepad, you’ll probably be happy with it.

Yet where this port disappoints is in the keyboard controls. The big flaw here is in the button mapping. Arrow keys are for movement. Q, W, X, and C are for action buttons.

Now take a look at your keyboard. Q and W are far away from X and C. It’s bloody easy to hit another key that does nothing.

This flaw could have been alleviated if there was an option to re-map the keyboard controls. Alas, there is not. And this makes no sense considering that button re-mapping has been a thing for decades.

Mortal Kombat, the original DOS port – which came out in 1993 – has button re-mapping. Because of that option, what would otherwise be a completely unplayable game has become pretty damn playable today. I am a god at Mortal Kombat and it is simply because the game allows me to map my own buttons.

Why do I even bring this point up when a gamepad would simply alleviate this problem? Because many PC gamers don’t even own gamepads. Keyboards are their only option.

And the other thing is, PC gamers have become used to a certain degree of comfort when it comes to keyboard controls. Most people, myself included, would prefer WASD for movement with the action keys on the right side of the keyboard. If you’re left-handed, perhaps you’d have different preferences – but that’s the beauty of button mapping, isn’t it? You can change the controls according to your preferences.

A have a few further quibbles but they’re minor. Since this is clearly an emulated game, it would have been nice to have different filters for scanlines or CRT effects. It would have also been nice to have save states.

But at the end of the day, this is still The King of Fighters 2002. Again, so long as you have a gamepad, this is a good enough port for PC. Everything you love about The King of Fighters 2002 on Neo Geo will be available on PC.

It’s just too bad about the keyboard mapping.

atomicpoet, 1 day ago to random

Today, 48 games were released on Steam. These are the games I found interesting:

Above

• a 3D climbing game set in a mysterious worrld, featurring cell-shaded graphics
• gamepad supported
• price: FREE!

Quest Of Peril

• a rogue-like dungeon crawler with exploration elements set in the dark world of Dying Earth
• price: FREE!

Legends Of The Eternal Flame

• a 2D action platformer staring a flame on a quest to save the world from eternal darkness
• gamepad supported
• price: C$6.49 but currently has a -15% discount, selling at C$5.51

Lesson Learned

• a 2D tower defense where you gather resources, build towers, and manage your minions
• gamepad supported
• shared/split screen co-op
• price: C$11.49 but currently has a -25% discount, selling at C$8.61

Romanticized Dreams of a Post-Apocalyptic Cowpoke

• a top-down shooter with randomly generated loot, levels, and enemies
• Mac and Linux ports available
• price: C$8.99 but currently has a -20% discount, selling at C$7.19

Capes

• a superhero-themed game, similar to XCOM, where you recruit, train, an deplay your team to fight villains
• gamepad supported
• price: C$52.99 but currently has a -10% discount, selling at C$47.69

Wind Rider

• a simple, relaxing gliding game with an endless map and randomly generated obstacles
• gamepad supported
• price: FREE!

Thriving City: Song

• a city builder set in 960 A.D., during the Song Dynasty
• gamepad supported
• Mac port available
• soundtrack available as DLC
• Demo download available
• price: C$24.79 but currently has a -25% discount, selling at C$18.59

返杀 Back Fire

• a Chinese-made FMV gunfight action adventure with choose-your-own-adventure characteristics
• price: C$15.49 but currently has a -20% discount, selling at C$12.39

atomicpoet, 1 day ago to random

Here I am playing Lawn Mowing Simulator. I used to make fun of the notion of such a video game existing. Yet here I am playing one.

Originally, I bought this game because I thought it was funny. But after spending quite a bit of time mowing virtual lawns, I’m not laughing anymore.

This isn’t even the first lawn mowing game to exist. The infamous Gizmondo, the handheld console connected to the Swedish mafia, had Momma Can I Mow The Lawn?. It was never released but you can still find footage on YouTube.

What’s hilarious here is that both Lawn Mowing Simulator and Momma Can I Mow The Lawn were both made by British developers. Surely, this is a coincidence.

I’ll say this for Lawn Mower Simulator. It takes lawn mowing very seriously. They went out of their way to get real-world licensed lawn mowers from “prestigious” manufacturers such as Toro, SCAG, and STIGA.

Personally, I’ve never heard of these brands. Here in Canada, the main lawn mowers in use are frorm John Deere, Ryobi, and Club Cadet.

(Amusingly, lawn mower manufacturer Husqvarna has the video game Doom available on one of their lawn mowers.)

Either way, this game is definitely a lawn mowing simulator. It felt like mowing a lawn. With the time it takes you to mow a lawn in this game, you could probably spend the same time mowing a real lawn.

And you know what? Playing this game made me remember how much I hate mowing the lawn. My mom always made me do this at least weekly. It was always tedious and slow – just like this game.

I’m not saying this is a bad game. It’s just exactly what it claims to be. So if you’re the type of person to think, “I wish I could mow the lawn but I don’t have a lawn nor a lawn mower” then this is the game for you.

Nevertheless, if you’re a lawn enthusiast, there’s certain aspects of Lawn Mowing Simulator that are a bit of a turn off. For example, there’s way too much bloom. As well, the draw distance can use some work. But the biggest flaw is that it’s sometimes hard to judge the size of the grass you’re supposed to mow. Perhaps grass physics isn’t advanced enough yet?

To me, the biggest source of frustration is that sound. I don’t like the sound of lawn mowers. To hear this for an hour straight is too much. And there’s no music to drown out that god damn lawn mower noise.

Skyhook Games created Lawn Mowing Simulator. Previous to this game, they were a contractor for other developers. This is their first original game ever.

Someone recently told me that PC gaming is about fulfilling niches. There’s a game for literally everyone. I suspect that person is right.

I have no doubt that lawn mowing enthusiasts walk among us, and they’re thrilled to play Lawn Mowing Simulator.

atomicpoet, 1 day ago to random

Why is the 9th generation of video game consoles so terrible?

Here’s a good deep dive that lays the blame at three main causes:

1. No games
2. Generic experience
3. Difficulty in use

Few exclusive games are made for modern consoles. Turning the machines on has become bland. And just launching a game is difficult.

The bigger question: why not get a PC where there’s a bigger game library, a better experience, and it’s easier to use?

That’s a question many traditional console players have been asking themselves recently. It’s a question I also asked myself 10 years ago when I finally decided that PC would become my primary platform for gaming.

I don’t regret moving to PC from consoles. It’s been a richer experience, exposed me to more diverse forms of gaming, and has given me tremendous flexibility.

That said, I don’t think moving to PC means having to give up the console experience. You can have that console experience with a Steam Deck. Hell, a Steam Deck is a lot like owning a Nintendo Switch but with a bigger gaming library and more input options.

If you want the best modern console experience, the Steam Deck is the way to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJxaIP8F3K8

atomicpoet, 1 day ago to random

The aim of all media companies—social media included—is to build a Ticketmaster-like monopoly on media and information.

This now extends to identity itself, which is now media.

You are a brand, and media companies want to own your life. This is why I run atomicpoet.org, my own personal Fediverse server.

atomicpoet, 1 day ago to random

My wife asked why I want to hook my Steam Deck to my CRT. I told her that it’s the cheapest way to do a de-make.

She thinks I’m silly.

atomicpoet, 1 day ago to random

Nothing like a good samosa.

atomicpoet, 1 day ago to random

There’s a rumour that the next Xbox is going to be 3DO 2.0.

That is, it’s going to be a reference system for other manufacturers like Asus or Samsung to manufacture their own Xbox consoles.

This has been tried before. The most infamous example was with the 3DO, which was not a success.

But since Microsoft has a long track record in the PC business, and the PC business follows this model, maybe they’ll be successful.

atomicpoet, 1 day ago to random

I don’t see physical games dying for the same reason I don’t see vinyl, cassettes, CDs, VHS, DVDs, or Blu-Ray dying.

People don’t just buy to consume, they buy to collect.

Physical media isn’t just about function, it’s about form. And form is tied to identity.

atomicpoet, 1 day ago to random

A good example of why physical games will never go away is the Blaze Evercade.

I’ll be blunt, I don’t like this machine. It’s underpowered, and both the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck blow it out of the water as far as specs and game library are concerned.

But the Evercade does have cartridges, and they are collectible. For that reason, the Evercade has built a pretty enthusiastic fanbase around it.

https://a.co/d/ckE68rf