Castle Magus

Full headline, which didn't fit up there because of the usual reason: "Too many games released busted, broken, and basically in early access this year—it's time for it to stop"

I kind of agree with this, in a sort of "better late than never" sort of way, but I agree way more with all the comments under the article saying that the actual time for this to stop was many, many years ago, back when the trend was first getting started.

Reason number, like, a hundred billion or something in the list of reasons why I don't play online multiplayer games. Not that I ever want to play competitive multiplayer games at all, even if I did otherwise play online multiplayer games, which I don't.

Also, it's something that wasn't touched on in the clip above, but an extension of that is why I don't ever want to play online-only-even-for-singleplayer games, either. If a """""server"""""" is telling me I didn't do a thing in a game that I clearly saw myself do in that game on my own computer, or vice versa, then that game is fucked up and I don't want to play it. (But, really, it's more the "no, you can't play your singleplayer game right now because the servers are down and you can't login and we stupidly don't allow you to play this singleplayer game offline" type of issues that make me never want to play online-only-even-for-singleplayer" games.)

(EDIT) It reminds me, again, of that stuff I talked about with Interstate '76, though that was a direct result of a shitty multiplayer system that calculated things client side rather than server side and allowed egregious "hacking" simply via modifying some non-encrypted text-readable config files, but it's still the same sort of issue. (/EDIT)

So, an art directer for Obsidian's upcoming video game Avowed apparently clowned on Elon Musk and offered Black artists some help, and now the usual chuds are screeching once again about "go woke go broke" and "down with DEI" and whatever other typically asinine horseshit that they like to shriek about.

Since I don't have either Twitter-I-mean-卐-I-mean-X or Bluesky, this rancid piece of shit was the first and closest thing to a "source" that I could find on Google that, apparently, even sort of showed what the guy actually said, rather than just being a link full of chuds on Reddit or Youtube or whatever bawwing about it, and that "source" is also laughably framing it as bad that he said such things. If I could have found a non-shitty, non-obviously-Gamergate-related source in the two or three minutes I spent searching Google, I absolutely would have, but apparently no source with an ounce of actual credibility has yet to bother touching this "story" with a ten foot pole.

Speaking as a white guy, I love this shit. More power to that Matt Hansen dude, and to hell with the chuds. Clown harder on Elon Musk and the knuckledraggers who stan him, Matt Hansen. It's great. Keep it up. And hey, Obsidian, don't fire the guy over this, because the only purpose that would serve would be to try (and fail) to placate chuds, who are notoriously impossible to placate (and, moreover, don't deserve to be placated to begin with).

I was vaguely interest in Avowed before, and I'm still only vaguely interested in Avowed now, but this makes me the slightest bit more interested in it. I'll still be waiting for a sale at some point, though, as usual, if I end up getting it at all.

(EDIT) Related: There is apparently a Gamergate 2 now? *weary sigh + eye roll + facepalm + smdh* (/EDIT)

*weary sigh + eye roll*

As if I didn't already have enough reasons to be antipathetic about D&D, here comes Phony Stark to possibly buy up and ruin yet another company. Because as bad as Hasbro may be now, it sure as shit wouldn't be getting any better with Sissy Space卐 in charge.

Kenshi is a game that I have put 100 hours into, so far (101.6 according to Steam), after I bought it several weeks ago. Here is a PC Gamer article about it that I read several months ago, which put the idea of the game into my head and which is why I finally bought it when I saw it on sale more recently. Oh, and here's the Wikipedia and TV Tropes pages for the game, for what that's worth. Oh, and I guess the official page.

I have attempted three playthroughs between then and now. The first ended after something like four hours, when I simply decided I wanted to restart with what I'd figured out from playing it a "little bit." The second one ended after around 60 hours, when I ran into a game breaking bug (after running into other potentially game breaking bugs that I was able to bypass via save scumming, cheesing, and just plain random luck). The third one, i.e. this most recent one, has just ended after another 40 hours or so, when I ran into a different game breaking bug. I have just deleted all my saves and uninstalled the game. I'm not sure I'll be attempting a fourth, at least not any time soon. (Then again, I felt the same way after the previous time I deleted all my saves and uninstalled the game, only to reinstall and restart the damn thing after just a couple of days.)

Kenshi would be a super great game into which I would have and could have probably poured thousands upon thousands of hours (rivaling the X series), if it weren't such an extremely janky, buggy, broken piece of frustrating shit. (And this was with fan-patches installed via Steam Workshop.)

So, while I'd like to recommend Kenshi, I just can't, not in good conscience. It's very disappointing to have to say that.

With that said, I guess I'll actually talk about the game a little.

( Read more... )

Oh, and there's apparently a Kenshi 2 coming at some point relatively soonish. Maybe since the sequel has more people than just the one guy who made the first game working on it, it will be more polished and less of a roach motel? Who knows. *shrug* I'd rather that they had fixed the first game before starting on a sequel though. (EDIT) Apparently, after "asking the fans" what to do, they decided to make a sequel rather than further work on the first game. Only after the second game is out are they apparently considering going back and full on porting the first game to a more modern engine and (hopefully) fixing bugs. That kind of sucks, honestly, but whatever works for them and their "fans" I guess. *shrug* Maybe I'll even come back to it after all that (assuming I don't just reinstall and try again tomorrow or something). (/EDIT)

Full headline because shit sucks: "Former Blizzard boss says 'the only thing bigger' than Sony buying FromSoftware would be if it bought Valve or Nintendo"

As decades of precedent has shown us, it would be utter dogshit for those companies and for fans of games made by those companies if Sony (or any other big company) bought any one of them. As for me, personally, I don't give that much of a shit about FromSoftware or even Nintendo anymore, but Sony/Microsoft/anyone else better keep their fetid fingers away from Valve. And that's not because I'm all that huge a fan of Valve's games (I mean, sure, Half-Life 2 was good two decades ago or whatever), but because I don't want them fucking up Steam (at least not any worse than Valve itself has already fucked it up, anyway).

One thing I care about the least, though, is a "former Blizzard boss" saying pretty much anything at all, at this point.

Pick your poison as far as articles about it.

PC Gamer: "Sega is delisting a huge number of its greatest classic games on Steam, probably so it can sell you a new collection"

Gamesradar+: "Out of nowhere after 14 years, Sega's killing off one of the only sources of legal ROMs on the entire internet as it delists 60 classic games"

TheVerge: "A whole bunch of Sega classics are being delisted"

Probably a lot of other places in addition to the above where one could read about this, but those are the three I immediately saw via Google News App today.

As for me, I fall into the category of already having most of them and not caring that much about the ones I don't, but I still think it sucks, just on general principle, that Sega is doing this. Oh well, it's not like the games are forever lost, in most cases, thanks to unofficial/unsanctioned emulation. *shrug*

Full headline, due to insufficient Dreamwidth subject field length/excessive Gamesradar headline length: "Publishers are absolutely terrified 'preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes,' so the US copyright office has struck down a major effort for game preservation"

"'This fails the needs of citizens in favor of a weak sauce argument from the industry, and it's really disappointing'"

...

...

*weary motherfucking sigh*

Aside from those weirdo collectors who lock their videos games away inside plastic containers like they're fucking rare baseball cards to ensure that they'll never be played again, and aside from the stuffed suit assholes who own and run huge video game publishing companies, and aside from morons in the US Copyright Office, and aside from dumbshits/reputation management drones down in the comments under that article, who really thinks that preserved (especially digitally) videos games shouldn't be used for "recreational purposes"?

(By the way, that's a big reason why all these marginally improved remakes/remasters are being done now. It's just a way for the big-money publishers to reset the timer on copyright bullshit.)

The best parts of this video were the parts where they weren't talking about Sparking Zero or Dragon Ball, which were significant portions of that 47 minute runtime.