“However, Coco noted that Koenig also urged the Holy See to not make public what he was revealing because he feared for his own life and the lives of the resistance sources who had provided the intelligence.”
Koenig, for the 99% of people who don’t read past the headline, is the author of the letter in question.
During Gale's spell-teaching scene, you now have the option to picture a future with Gale that falls somewhere in between kissing him and kicking him in the head.
In response to complaints about overwatch 2 removing free cosmetics, we’ve decided to make them purchasable only with uplay coins, which are themselves only buyable via Microsoft Rewards Points. See you on Bing!
Present evidence that fake gambling causes real gambling. Not evidence that it actives dopamine receptors. Actual gambling.
Fantasy and fiction don’t cause maladaptive behavior. One day society will accept that this is still true for audiovisual media, just as it had to be slowly accepted for music, just as it had to be slowly accepted for books.
We also launched on Steam last week, and, although being review-bombed isn’t a fun experience, it’s been great to see lots of new players jump into Overwatch 2 for the first time. Our goal with Overwatch 2 has been to make the game more accessible than ever for more people than ever before....
A review bomb is a collective effort to lower the score of something, abusing systems meant to reflect an average opinion by gathering people who would not normally leave a review, often people who haven’t even played the game. It is intentionally creating sampling bias. “Review bomb” is a meaningful term being applied correctly here. I don’t like modern blizz, but Overwatch 2 is not the worst game on steam as its review average would indicate.
Larian has delayed the release of Baldur’s Gate 3, currently on pace to possibly be 2023’s Game of the Year, until they can figure out how to make split-screen work on Series S.
BG3 is one of my favorite games, but there is nothing technologically groundbreaking about it. As hardware improves, studios often prefer to use the new leeway to neglect optimization, which is a nightmare scenario for consumers who are forced to upgrade endlessly for no reason. It’s understandable that smaller studios may need to make that sacrifice, but there should be SOME penalty for it or it will get out of hand. The series S parity requirements provides some small penalization that I hope continues for generations to come.
For me it was the notoriously shitty Civilization (2002). I was around 11 years old. Any designer board game is incredible if it’s the first one you’ve ever played.
The PS1 also sold the N64 3:1, But FF7, the highest selling FF game, only sold about 9m to OoT’s 7m. Relative to console sales, oot thrashed final fantasy 7. Of course, it helps that they cranked these games out way faster than Zelda back then.
The current situation is similar, except the switch is wildly more prevalent than the PS5. There is almost 1 TotK sold for every 6 switch units, which is utterly insane when you consider how many ignored/lost/broken units are probably out there. By contrast, there is about 1 FF16 for every 10 PS5 units out there.
I think too many people have tricked themselves/each other into thinking long games are bad because they are long. No, it’s because 95% of the time (moreso today than in the past), a high hour-to-complete time signals a game with 10 hours or content stretched out to an absurd extreme, often in support of MTX/live service type features available ay launch.
An 80 hour game can be good if it has 80 hours of actual content. A 25 hour game can be bad if it’s still just 3-4 hours of real game stretched out to 25-30.
The game’s original hype stemmed from it being a technical showcase for the PS5. Not exactly a selling point for the already more-powerful PC world. They also didn’t bother porting the previous game to PC before porting the sequel.
Whitehead also dashed away one of the big points of speculation among Sonic fans: that Sonic Mania 2 falling through was the result of bad blood between Sega and members of Evening Star. "Contrary to any rumors, we maintain a friendly relationship with Sega and hope fans are pumped to play both games once they release," he says.
These responses do not leave me with the same impression as the article’s author. Both parties maintain professionalism, but they also both dodged the direct question of why Evening Star isn’t making a sonic game right now. I still think there is bad blood, and history makes me wonder if it was Iizuka wanting to seize more creative control than Whitehead’s team was willing to give.
Left 4 Dead is like Animal Crossing. The sort of game that tricks devs into thinking “oh yeah that’s so simple, i can do that easy,” without understanding all the effort put into the little details that made the original shine.
Would former l4d devs understand that better? Maybe. But I’ve thus far been unimpressed with game offerings from “the team behind [bigger game]” projects.
"What sense does it make to forbid selling to a 13-year-old boy a magazine with an image of a nude woman, while protecting a sale to that 13-year-old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds and gags the woman, then tortures and kills her?”
Justice Stephen Breyer*, somehow arguing the opposite of what you’d think this paragraph means.
An early win is a well-documented technique known among gambling researchers and clinicians as a catalyst for addictive play, because it creates an early dopamine hit that gamblers are then eager to recreate, even as their subsequent losses mount.
You meant to say “Because it tricks someone into believing the continuing experience has more value than it does.”
I agree with the premise of the article, but the overuse of “dopamine” to explain predatory commercial behavior is exhausting. Your brain does stuff when you experience stuff. Dopamine isn’t some evil drug that you GeT a hIT oF. 90% of the time I see the dopamine used to describe some phenomenon, it is literally just a worse, more pretentious and sciency-sounding way to explain it. Like trying to describe how microsoft excel works to someone by describing semiconductors.
I remember more than a decade ago when (because popular things are evil) online articles were preaching the dangers of World of Warcraft vanilla, a game with a fixed subscription cost and no way to monetize big spenders. “When you level up there’s a big gold explosion, that’s to help with the DOPAMINE release and keep you HOOKED on your MMO DRUG.” Jesus christ people, it’s just strong visual design that made people feel accomplished.
These games are different, of course. They are predatory. But you don’t get closer to understanding why these tactics are effective by pretending you’re a neuroscientist talking about some highly objective medical phenomenon.
And before I get accused of being uneducated or disrespecting science, I’m a published researcher in cognition and cognitive neuroscience. I don’t have a phd because I left the field sick of a lot of the same fakeness I’m complaining about now.
Kevin Connor, a spokesperson for Monterey Bay Aquarium, said Otter 841 is considered a danger to the public because it is ignoring its natural survival instincts, ABC reported.
"When we see this type of behavior exhibited by otters, it is a sign that they no longer have that healthy fear of human beings that allows them to stay safe in the wild away from us," Conner said.
I’m reading your words, Kevin, I am. But my heart is stronger than my brain. It wants that Otter to win.
I really like card games like this game, but most other alternatives I could find are pay to win. Are there any similar games like Marvel:Midnight Suns?
It’s a novel hybrid of two genres, so the recommendations are all going to be split between them. The best (western) turn based tactics game is likely XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. The best deckbuilder card game is likely Slay the Spire.
If you want a tactics game that retains the social/character aspects, you’re looking for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but that’s on the switch.
Game companies will literally invent superhuman artificial intelligence to filter rude remarks sooner than they will admit their ranking-treadmill game design breeds toxicity.
Letter shows Vatican knew about Nazi death camps despite long denial (www.smh.com.au)
Starfield Leaker Allegedly Arrested, Revealed as Master Thief - Insider Gaming (insider-gaming.com)
Baldur's Gate 3 - Patch #1 Now Live (baldursgate3.game)
Patch #1 is now live for Baldur's Gate 3, addressing over 1000 bugs, glitches, and blockers.
Atari 2600+ Announced (atari.com)
Microsoft is planning to sell the streaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft (www.gamescensor.com)
Microsoft is planning to sell the streaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. The tech giant is actually planning to sell off the stre
Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store (blog.trampolinetales.com)
Blizzard on Steam Overwatch 2 review bombing (news.blizzard.com)
We also launched on Steam last week, and, although being review-bombed isn’t a fun experience, it’s been great to see lots of new players jump into Overwatch 2 for the first time. Our goal with Overwatch 2 has been to make the game more accessible than ever for more people than ever before....
Microsoft’s Xbox Series S Parity Demands Are Now Handing Sony Free Wins (www.forbes.com)
Larian has delayed the release of Baldur’s Gate 3, currently on pace to possibly be 2023’s Game of the Year, until they can figure out how to make split-screen work on Series S.
When did board games 'click' for you?
Has it been a consistent hobby since childhood or was there a single game, a mechanism, theme or social situation which hooked you in?
Final Fantasy 16 sales did not meet high expectations, says Square Enix president (www.eurogamer.net)
Sales of Final Fantasy 16 did not meet Square Enix's high expectations, said president Takashi Kiryu. Last week the com…
Assassin's Creed Mirage will take 25-30 hours to complete – and that's if you're a completionist (www.eurogamer.net)
Assassin's Creed Mirage will take just 25 hours to complete – or less, if you're not looking to do a "completioni…
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart peaks at less than 9k concurrent players on Steam, third worst PC launch for PlayStation game | Game World Observer (gameworldobserver.com)
Why Didn't Sonic Mania 2 Happen? (www.gameinformer.com)
Left 4 Dead veterans are working on a new game that sounds like another Back 4 Blood | GamesRadar (www.gamesradar.com)
The ESRB wants to start using facial recognition to check people's ages (www.pcgamer.com)
The FTC is now seeking public feedback on the ESRB's proposal.
‘No way out’: how video games use tricks from gambling to attract big spenders | The Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
Any Analogue Pocket Enjoyers Out There?
I received mine a few months ago and haven’t been able to put it down since! Gorgeous device, abhorrent support and communication, lol....
An otter in California that keeps bullying people off of their surfboards has been too quick for wildlife officials to catch (www.insider.com)
If at first you don't succeed, git gud noob (lemmy.world)
Games like Marvel:Midnight Suns?
I really like card games like this game, but most other alternatives I could find are pay to win. Are there any similar games like Marvel:Midnight Suns?
StarCraft 3 Is Reportedly In Development - Insider Gaming (insider-gaming.com)
StarCraft 3 is reportedly in development, at least that's what one journalist seemed to claim in a Q&A on Twitter.
Unity Launches Safe Voice in Closed Beta - An Advanced Anti-Toxicity Solution to Foster Safer Gaming Communities | Business Wire (www.businesswire.com)