Community MetaSteam | August 2021 - Openness Is Its Superpower

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ExistentialThought

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
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More like that isn't Ultima Online

Every MMO tried to copy the trash that is Everquest instead of the Gem that is UO
When did you try Everquest? Everquest started to take a bad turn around Shadows of Luclin.

I just miss the early levelling experience of Everquest since it was completely secondary to just experiencing Norrath. Most folks were not rushing to end level and end game progression was still not a consideration until around the release of Shadows of Luclin.

SOE started to create higher level content for expansions, which meant folks started to grind out to higher levels to be able to play the expansions and it completely started to change the dynamic of the game.
 

Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
4,925
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I think more people should play Olija


It's short around, took me around 5-6 hours to finish and I wanted more of the game. I'm lazy so I'm quoting the post I wrote for the Finished Games thread:

One of the surprises for 2021. My only knowledge about Olija was a trailer I've watched, thought it looked interesting and I decided to buy it and I can say I'm not regretful about that decision. I'll classify it as a cinematic platformer without the heavy movement that games like Another World has.

Olija's whole premise is pretty simple, you play as a shipwrecked captain that arrives in an unknown and hostile land. You travel through islands collecting the needed keys to open the portal that will take you back to home. The plot is nothing new and was already used in many games and other medias, though it works well here.

Besides the cleary Another World inspiration I feel Olija also drinks from Chinese and Japanese movies. The songs used also works well to set the mood. Highly recommended.

 

Routa

Non-Stop MMO Searcher
Dec 22, 2018
861
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One of my favorites of all time, I played it in 4th and 5th grade. Had to beg to use my allowance on the monthly sub. I sometimes wonder if my guildmates knew I was an elementary school kid, though never got too far into raiding. Nothing was instanced, so it meant camping for hours and sometimes competing for spawns. When Sony Online Entertainment took it over, it went sideways for me.

Going back to it a few years ago, they changed way too much of the interface and tried to follow in more modern MMO footsteps only to its detriment. I hear it is still really active though.
It's still decently active on some of the servers, usually whenever they release a progression server is when the population explodes for a bit. Planes of Power is when instancing started to become more apparent if I remember correctly, with raids like Plane of Time.

I've played semi-recently on private servers, P1999 is always popular and then there are some smaller ones. I most recently played on a private server that adjusted everything to be doable by 2-4 people. It was to fun to go through all my old hunting grounds. I stopped once I hit LDoN though, that's where I tapered off from the game.

:RangerBlob:
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
3,524
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Toronto
god fucking dammit. loved Gone Home and Tacoma, and was looking forward to Open Roads


This is going to make the old Idle Thumbs episodes with him hard to listen to. He was always really insightful on the dev side of things.
I'm glad it wasn't sexual harassment, but god dammit, no one deserves mistreatment and microaggressions anyway let alone their workplace.
Hopefully the remaining team are able to finish the game in spite of having him involved at arms length (writer) through the publisher
 
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toxicitizen

MetaMember
Oct 24, 2018
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Gonna start 7 one of these days and then play Celceta, 8, and 9.
You're in for a treat. If you play them in that order (and I recommend that you do since it's the release order), they'll just keep improving as you go with Ys VIII and IX being two of my favorite games of the last few years. At the very least definitely start with Seven because it's kinda rough due to both being the first party-based Ys and being originally developed for the PSP. It's still great but it's going to feel like a massive step down if you play it after the other 3.
 
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dex3108

MetaMember
Dec 20, 2018
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Embracer needs more AAA and higher quality AA titles. For how many studios and IPs they have their output really is mediocre.
 
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Wok

Wok
Oct 30, 2018
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god fucking dammit. loved Gone Home and Tacoma, and was looking forward to Open Roads
Propos to the publisher for trying to help.

The representative also noted that “Annapurna is aware of the situation at Fullbright and has been instrumental in helping the Open Roads team make changes to its structure.” A representative for Annapurna told Polygon it supports the Open Roads team.
In the development of Open Roads, Fullbright partnered with publisher Annapurna Interactive, which provided full funding and additional support staff.
Gaynor told her that publisher Annapurna came to him to ask about Fullbright’s attrition problem — particularly, that women were leaving the company on what seemed like a monthly basis.
At least two employees reached out to Annapurna directly. “My personal experience of having Steve as my manager was a toxic and unhealthy dynamic,” this former employee wrote in a correspondence to Annapurna that was reviewed by Polygon. “I can confidently say that I do not want my career to be associated with him.”

Another employee, in a letter to Annapurna, described it as “the worst professional experience [she’d] had in games.”
He currently has no day-to-day collaboration with the rest of the team. Instead, Annapurna Interactive is operating as a mediator between the studio developers and Gaynor, as development continues with a fraction of the company.
 

hersheyfan

South Sea Islander
Jul 17, 2021
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You're in for a treat. If you play them in that order (and I recommend that you do since it's the release order), they'll just keep improving as you go with Ys VIII and IX being two of my favorite games of the last few years. At the very least definitely start with Seven because it's kinda rough due to both being the first party-based Ys and being originally developed for the PSP. It's still great but it's going to feel like a massive step down if you play it after the other 3.
I've actually been mulling over finally sitting down and playing the later installments of Ys; I've dabbled a bit in Celceta on the PSV, and I've played through around a third of Ys VIII on PC.

Seeing your recommendation has me intrigued, and makes me want to cycle back to play Ys 7 first (I own them all on Steam as well). Should I go back to play 7 first or just go ahead and finish Ys VIII already? Is the difference that disorienting?
 

toxicitizen

MetaMember
Oct 24, 2018
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I've actually been mulling over finally sitting down and playing the later installments of Ys; I've dabbled a bit in Celceta on the PSV, and I've played through around a third of Ys VIII on PC.

Seeing your recommendation has me intrigued, and makes me want to cycle back to play Ys 7 first (I own them all on Steam as well). Should I go back to play 7 first or just go ahead and finish Ys VIII already? Is the difference that disorienting?
If you've already started Ys VIII then you might as well keep going. I only recommend that order because that way you follow the natural evolution of the gameplay and visuals. Ys Seven would definitely feel like a huge step down after Ys VIII but if that doesn't bother you then it doesn't really matter. They're all fantastic games, if you ask me.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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I've actually been mulling over finally sitting down and playing the later installments of Ys; I've dabbled a bit in Celceta on the PSV, and I've played through around a third of Ys VIII on PC.

Seeing your recommendation has me intrigued, and makes me want to cycle back to play Ys 7 first (I own them all on Steam as well). Should I go back to play 7 first or just go ahead and finish Ys VIII already? Is the difference that disorienting?
Hm. Ys VIII is a massive improvement over Seven and Celceta.
I've played Celceta after VIII (cause Celceta was released later on PC) and I definitely wished I'd played it earlier, but it was still good (my least favorite of the party games though).
But if you're already knee-deep in VIII might as well continue.

Also, Seven has a killer soundtrack
 
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beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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Speaking of Nihon Falcom, has anyone here played Xanadu Next and does it have something going for it that makes it worth playing in 2021? It seems kinda intriguing, but I keep talking myself out of buying it whenever it's been on sale. I get the vibe that's a little bit like Zelda in that it has a connected world and the occasional environmental puzzle but with more involved RPG mechanics and combat.
 
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Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Seeing your recommendation has me intrigued, and makes me want to cycle back to play Ys 7 first (I own them all on Steam as well). Should I go back to play 7 first or just go ahead and finish Ys VIII already? Is the difference that disorienting?
Ys Seven is a PSP game, so clearly visually a lot of simpler than VII. Going 7 > Celceta > VIII, you get the experience of each game improving visuals as well as the gameplay getting more refined as Falcom has time to hone the party-based Ys formula.

Not sure how it would feel to go back, honestly. At its heart, it's still a really good game, so after the first few hours, getting used to the simpler looks and mechanics, it's probably fine.
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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Speaking of Nihon Falcom, has anyone here played Xanadu Next and does it have something going for it that makes it worth playing in 2021? It seems kinda intriguing, but I keep talking myself out of buying it whenever it's been on sale. I get the vibe that's a little bit like Zelda but with more involved RPG mechanics and combat.
It was my GOTY 2016.

Has a killer soundtrack

A surprisingly interesting story, though it's not the main focus.
Very satisfying gameplay.
And Block puzzles
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Speaking of Nihon Falcom, has anyone here played Xanadu Next and does it have something going for it that makes it worth playing in 2021? It seems kinda intriguing, but I keep talking myself out of buying it whenever it's been on sale. I get the vibe that's a little bit like Zelda in that it has a connected world and the occasional environmental puzzle but with more involved RPG mechanics and combat.
It's a very traditional dungeon crawler, with a really simple yet clever combat system and the very typical Falcom level progression, where you quickly level up and become stronger, while usually initially a bit weaker when entering a new dungeon or area.
Great music and a very different feel than most other Falcom titles. Kind of a shame that I don't see Falcom, with their current sole focus on Ys and Trails, ever going back to this kind of Xanadu game. Even Tokyo Xandu, while a pretty good game on its own, is a very different beast.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,335
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It's a very traditional dungeon crawler, with a really simple yet clever combat system and the very typical Falcom level progression, where you quickly level up and become stronger, while usually initially a bit weaker when entering a new dungeon or area.
Great music and a very different feel than most other Falcom titles. Kind of a shame that I don't see Falcom, with their current sole focus on Ys and Trails, ever going back to this kind of Xanadu game. Even Tokyo Xandu, while a pretty good game on its own, is a very different beast.
Tokyo Xanadu, despite having "Xanadu" in the name feels more like "Zwei meets Cold Steel" tbh. I liked it a lot, but yeah it would be cool if they made some games again that aren't "Trails-ified" in some way.
 
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Nabs

Hyper˗Toxic Pro˗Consumer
Oct 23, 2018
3,860
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I noticed that Onion Games put their games on sale for the next two weeks, until August 19 👀 Maybe it doesn't mean anything, but I'd like to see Moon RPG hit PC at some point.



Speaking of Nihon Falcom, has anyone here played Xanadu Next and does it have something going for it that makes it worth playing in 2021? It seems kinda intriguing, but I keep talking myself out of buying it whenever it's been on sale. I get the vibe that's a little bit like Zelda in that it has a connected world and the occasional environmental puzzle but with more involved RPG mechanics and combat.
It's wonderful. It's a connected world with shortcuts, an interesting combat and leveling system. I just found it a lot of fun.
 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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Thanks for the responses about Xanadu Next! Think I'll take the plunge when It's on sale again. It also seems delightfully old school in a way I can get behind.
 

LEANIJA

MetaMember
May 5, 2019
3,233
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Embracer just bought 3D Realms and a bunch of other devs.


:blobyikes:
my reaction to this was saying out loud "fucking hell, why"

~

the Dorfromantik Creative Mode is cool btw, but its still lacking. You can set sliders to only give you one type of tile, say, water tiles, but they will still be random, so you will discard a lot of tiles until you get the ones you want. They could really do it better/less annoying to let you truely build what you want. But its a start and you can finally build cohesive and nice looking areas.
 

Joe Spangle

Playing....
Apr 17, 2019
2,462
8,348
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I've been playing Chernobylite for the purposes of a review and I like it a lot. I expected a survival game but it's basically XCOM x Bioshock x S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Its individual parts are not of the same quality as those games of course but the sum of them really works for me.
Please share your review or thoughts you might have once you are done with it. I have a friend interested in the game but not at that price and I personally have a mild interest if there's little Horror on it. I can't stand Horror for my mental sanity :(
Yeah im enjoying it. Has a pretty good game loop and i like the style, looks very nice.

Its not that horror based yet but im fairly early into it, i think it might have a few more scary moments later. For now its more creepy from the atmosphere the game has as you sneak round guards.

The basic game loop seams to be that you pick a mission from a home base, like collect a resource drop or a story mission and then load out into that part of the world to complete it. Once you do you can zap back home for base building stuff which is alright.

Russian voices are miles better than the English so im playing with sublitles. Overall its got a fair amount of polish, very nice looking in places, runs well (though i do have a beefy PC).
 

Arc

MetaMember
Sep 19, 2020
2,986
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I just noticed the Adults Only flag for Idol Manager was finally removed since it showed up on my homepage and I filter NSFW content on Steam. It's just a shame it happened over a week after launch when most of its sales have probably already occurred.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,871
15,903
113
Death Door
Grime
Dreamscaper

Don't mind me :cryblob:



Edit -


I didn't buy them, you BULLY ! You ENABLER !
Love you :photoblobheart:
...
Haven Park is out too.
...
Lord, give me strength ! :sweaty-blob:
 
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Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,054
19,551
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I just noticed the Adults Only flag for Idol Manager was finally removed since it showed up on my homepage and I filter NSFW content on Steam. It's just a shame it happened over a week after launch when most of its sales have probably already occurred.
Better late than never. I think that type of inhibitor to discoverability on the store is more relevant for the long tail than it is for immediate sales.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,871
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Just do it. That is only 80 €. Kidding, don't. That is 19% of a Steam Deck.
No, that's 30 something on Humble for the first two and a to be disclosed 'significant' (my ass) discount for the third.
But your point totally still stands ! :photoblobheart:
But it's hard :confounded-face:
 
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Wok

Wok
Oct 30, 2018
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There was an update for Microsoft Solitaire Collection, which was already installed in the Xbox App for some reason.

I think the "premium" version is already available for Game Pass subscribers, even though it was supposed to go live on August 17.
 
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Cacher

MetaMember
Jun 3, 2020
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When it comes to game purchase, I am honestly set for the remaining of the year with the things on my plate. After Dreamscaper, I will be switching into backlog mode for at least a few months to concentrate on playing games. Finger-crossed that I can stay strong and resist upcoming shiny new games and sales discounts.
 
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