Community MetaSteam | September 2020 - An Offer You Definitively Can't Refuse

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NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
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Imagine buying a new GPU or CPU or any other PC component and not having your save work.

Big props to MS for letting people use the save from their Xbox One consoles on Series X/S. I mean, it should be obvious to work, but for Sony it apparently isn't.
I mean they believe in generations, so fuck everyone and play it again.
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,461
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Can someone suggest games for my sis' laptop, it's real shitty. I tried some games I thought would run and was surprised to find so many are unoptimized messes. For example it runs the C&C remasters great (I tried AoE II too but it is too much, would 1 work?) as well as Ys Origins and Oath (so I guess the Trails in the Sky games will too), as well as Cave Story+, Spelunky and La-Mulana (but not 2) and Shovel Knight and Sonic CD, Wonder Boy: the Dragon's Trap runs okay with some stutters here and there, Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth runs even better.

So after feeling confident from the above I found the Bloodstained 2d retro games (yes the 8bit style stuff) run like shit, as does River City Ransom Underground and Volgarr The Viking and Capcom's Beat em Up Bundle and Sonic Mania! Hollow Knight doesn't run well but that one is understandable with all the nice high res art and effects. I won't even try Ori. Resident Evil 4 almost ran acceptably so I figured REmake might work but that ran far, far worse, lol.

So, are there any other PS1/2ish and lower end games that may run and are awesome? Preferably action based, not wordy like Trails, they're mostly for her husband and his English isn't great so those won't be fun. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis stuff work alright for the most part when using the simple launcher, not the 3D room.

Also Steam's library page is sloooooow and borks on that system, if I go to another page then I try to uninstall a game I never can, it won't load right to show the pop up dialogue, I have to exit Steam and load the library so it works then uninstall what I need before anything else (I did enable the low spec and low bandwidth settings).

Edit: oh, Super Hydorah ran well too but not maldita castilla. Doom 64 was surprisingly awful too. Any better classic ports to try? Duke anniversary maybe? It can't do Half-Life or RTCW for sure. Probably confined to 2D for the most part (but again those Ys games were great).

Anyway suggest the cream of the crop classics to get him started with.
 
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FeedMeAStrayCat

When you see me again, it won't be me.
Sep 19, 2018
389
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Pennsylvania
Oh wow, I completely forgot that was the Monthly Challenge! I got that achievement on Sep 19th :minos_love:

Also, I'm like 4 achievements shy of getting all of them. One is bugged, though.. well technically two of them, but one can be fixed with SAM. The other can't :(
This is the achievement with the little cat statues. There's one that appears in a cardboard box on a little cliff near the Nail. When I first went there, I recall the box shaking around a bit (possibly from me levitating there), but no cat appears. Nothing happens. :( I've gone back about half a dozen more times and yeah, it's not appearing. So I could still use SAM for the cheevo itself, but this unlocks the cat ears for bae... which SAM wouldn't help with. :( :shlooter::shlooter::shlooter:
 
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PC-tan

Low Tier Weeb
Jan 19, 2019
3,499
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California
online nes carts! 2020 is wild

I think it was LGR but he once did a video with a wifi add on for something like an Apple 2 or something else from that time era, or maybe it was a Comador 64?

This is an interesting article about DMM and what they think about Steam


So it seem that back in 2016 (by that point in time Steam had already become well known word wide and even in Japan it most likely had a decent user base of something between 500k to 1 million? I thought that it was at something like 3 million now in 2020) DMM said they would try to beat Steam. They likely meant that they would take the place of Steam in Japan and that is what users in Japan would choose and what devs/pubs would use.

That was not the case and it seems that users in Japan still prefer steam over DMM. One criticism is that DMM is buying the localization rights for indie games, so they will release on Steam but without Japanese (this is something that I have mentioned in multiple post before here on MC). This is both good and bad, good because games that otherwise would not get Japanese support may potentially get it, the bad is that even though you purchased the game on Steam it will not get that update.

So in theory if they really wanted to DMM could swoop in and tell the Among US devs that they could localize the game in Japan and also help with servers. This is a very tempting offer especially because of how lucrative the mobile market is in Japan and with it having official servers and cross play with PC, it would not be that hard to find a game.

What is good is that some developers that otherwise may have not been able to release in Japanese before might be able to now and because DMM is also publishing games on consoles as well, this means that a dev could potentially release not only on PC in Japan but also on consoles and not have to go through multiple sources.


Also as a reminder of where we have come from


I mean they were not wrong about Eroge even Steam is selling that now

I forget what else I was going to say but dang South Korea has the fastest download speeds on Steam on average, places like the US and Japan are half the speed that people are getting there.
 
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MegaApple

Just another Video Game Enthusiast
Sep 20, 2018
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Anyway suggest the cream of the crop classics to get him started with.
Ok damn, that's a pretty weak laptop.
Can you post specs?

Most new games use more GPU processing.
For retro games, it's best to download emulators like ZSNES. SNES library is full of interesting games; look up SNESDrunk on YouTube.

For individual PC games, I can't help. If Volgarr is not working, but RE4 somehow did, then I don't know you PC.
Try Prince of Persia trilogy of games, Gunpoint (stealth), maybe Hexcells, all Valve games, Umihara Kawase games, maybe download the pre-Most Wanted NFS games, Diablo II, Doom with source ports, Quake with source ports, older Star Wars FPS, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Caesar III, Sim City 3000 or 4,
also see :
Not touching Steam store until these dates.
 
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Routa

Non-Stop MMO Searcher
Dec 22, 2018
861
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Phasmophobia is a bit rough around the edges in terms of production, but so far, for my friends and I - this is a nerdy ghost hunting dream come true. Played for nine hours the other night until 4am.

You too can roleplay Ghost Adventures and be as goofy as Zack Baggins. :face-with-tears-of-joy:
 
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FunnyJay

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Apr 6, 2019
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I'm still waiting for the return of that flawed gem that is Boiling Point. :love:

I was a big fan of 90's/00's Eastern games.
They were frequently chock-full of great ideas and originality, but frequently lacked the budgets and polish to match their ambition.
The "sequel" is available on Steam.

 

eonden

MetaMember
Dec 20, 2018
275
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Some of the more curious stuff I found this last week of Discovery Queue, I will start with some of the RPGs.

Tropicalia


An EA RPG that seems like a love letter to both the SNES times and to the pre-1492 times in Brazil.

Doom and Destiny Worlds


Doom & Destiny Worlds is an open world turn-based RPG with crafting, building, farming, and 4 players local co-op option. Craft your way through crazy cosplaying goblins, farting stone giants and cursed genies across more than 60 hand-made islands. Gather resources, customize your party, and unravel the mystery that shrouds the three worlds of Doom & Destiny Worlds.


Time Break Chronicles


Time Break Chronicles is a fusion of classic JRPGs and modern Roguelites, with a planned cast of 100 playable classes to find and unlock. Build your team, customize their abilities, and venture into a procedurally generated adventure through space-time and beyond!

Sword of Shushan


"Sword of Shushan" is a strategic war chess game with the background of Shushan holy land and ancient demon wars. The player will play the role of Han Yunchuan, a disciple of Shushan, who will call on the friars of Wufeng and the elite of Taihao royal family to fight against the ancient demons.
 

Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
4,261
8,615
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20XX
www.seikens.com
I did a few more runs in Hades yesterday. I was able to beat Meg twice, but every time I beat her I am half dead. Making the next level a bit harder to survive. The game has way too many hazardous areas. I have to avoid these areas whenever I dash, but it's not easy to also dodge from enemy attacks at the same time
 

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The "sequel" is available on Steam.

I know (and own it). ;)

As is another game by developer Deep Shadows:



I used to follow the work of this Ukranian developers very closely.
They had such talent/creativity (but never the budgets to deliver something truly polished).

For those unfamiliar with the team, before S.T.A.L.K.E.R., GSC Game World made an ambitious FPS called Codename: Outbreak.
The team that made that game kind of split into two. One, including many of the leads, left GSC and created Deep Shadows. The rest remained at GSC and started working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (and many later left, to form 4A Games, the team behind the Metro series).

Their first game, Boiling Point, known in some places as Boiling Point: Road to Hell, was an ambitious, but flawed, open world game.
Instead of having the backing of a decent publisher, they sadly were signed by "ATARI" (who, by then had very little to do with the classic ATARI). Instead of giving the game a decent round of testing and q.a., or even a decent marketing budget, ATARI basically spent their money licensing the likeness of The Mummy's bad guy Arnold Vosloo). Although I'm sure if the team had a few more months, they would spend it not polishing the game, but adding even more crazy and original ideas. :)

I wish the game would be re-released on digital platforms.
It's a game that needs to be discovered by those who missed it at the time.
It was a game full of crazy, ambitious ideas. For example: everything had weight, so you could throw characters down/kill them by hitting them on the head with a grenade (I don't mean killed by the explosion; I mean, killed by being hit in the head by the object). Everything and everyone had routines, schedules, cycles. For example, I needed something from a bank. You had a multitude of ways to get the work done: you could bribe the cashier to give you access, you could take her on a date (and then bribe her, steal the key from her, kill her and take the key, ...), you could wait until everyone was out for the day, and rob the place (by picking the lock, or forcing a window), or you could, I don't know, explode with the wall of the place, and get your thing, while alerting everyone. :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:
Drink a lot of alcohol? You could become an alcoholic. Use a lot of painkillers to "heal" yourself? You could become an addict. Really, the game was full of insane details, and a scope that was truly something.
Have I mentioned you could kill anyone, including "quest-givers"?

The game was Deus Ex, mixed with GTA, in a tropical setting, with much more freedom and truly free-form ways to solve your goals, while lacking the polish of a big western release (the unpatched game had some crazy bugs, but fortunately patches made it a more stable game).

I'm not a big fan of Eurogamer, but they had a fun review of the game, over multiple pages, that described multiple points of view: a very positive review, from the point of view of someone enamoured by the creativity and ideas of the game, while tolerating the bugs/lack of polish; and a very negative review, from the point of view of someone unwilling to look past the lack of polish/bugs.

Do check it out, it's worth it:


And here's an early trailer, to give you an idea of the scope and look of the game:



Sadly, both of their games available on Steam were released in mostly incomplete state, since the team was having problems, and after that, I never heard anything more from them (although they did a couple more small games, depressingly hidden object games), so I'm sure they sadly disbanded.
 
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BlueOdin

Dec 3, 2018
995
2,665
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I did a few more runs in Hades yesterday. I was able to beat Meg twice, but every time I beat her I am half dead. Making the next level a bit harder to survive. The game has way too many hazardous areas. I have to avoid these areas whenever I dash, but it's not easy to also dodge from enemy attacks at the same time
Felt the same way when I was at this point but you will get there eventually. Just keep playing
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,704
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For approximately 1 minutes I was under the illusion that I was (very unexpectedly) in the top 10% gamerscore and was gonna win a series X.
It was evidently a dumb contest.

Sad, because for as superfluous as a X thing is when you have a decent PC, it's a good piece of kit and I wouldn't have said no. Just the fact that GP on console is often better would have make it coolio.
 

Tizoc

Retired, but still Enabling
Oct 11, 2018
7,622
18,766
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37
Oman
ko-fi.com
Ok damn, that's a pretty weak laptop.
Can you post specs?

Most new games use more GPU processing.
For retro games, it's best to download emulators like ZSNES. SNES library is full of interesting games; look up SNESDrunk on YouTube.

For individual PC games, I can't help. If Volgarr is not working, but RE4 somehow did, then I don't know you PC.
Try Prince of Persia trilogy of games, Gunpoint (stealth), maybe Hexcells, all Valve games, Umihara Kawase games, maybe download the pre-Most Wanted NFS games, Diablo II, Doom with source ports, Quake with source ports, older Star Wars FPS, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Caesar III, Sim City 3000 or 4,
also see :

Not touching Steam store until these dates.
Same
But i will possibly bite for historical lows
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,630
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Not many hours more till GOTY arrives.

Im super happy that Spelunky 2 didn't go EGSxclusive as it would be the game that would have made me use money on EGS.
 
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Prodigy

Sleeper must awaken
Dec 9, 2018
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I used to follow the work of this Ukranian developers very closely.
Are you me :face-with-tears-of-joy: I remember reading every bit of information on boiling point before it released (would do it in school classes), still remember the articles saying if you throw honey on people then bees would attack them etc... every bit of information sounded incredible, the pictures also looked beyond anything I had seen before. Funny enough when it came out my PC couldn't run it so ended up selling it to a friend.

Following that though, just like you, I bought every game they released - precursors was probably my best. It was super ambitious with the landing on planets doing rpg like missions, flying into space and landing on stations etc... they always bite off more than they can chew and I love them for that.
 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
3,982
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Belgium
[UWSL]Im super happy that Spelunky 2 didn't go EGSxclusive as it would be the game that would have made me use money on EGS.[/UWSL]
What would have kept you from sailing the high seas and buying the game on Steam next year to support the devs? When buying moneyhatted games on EGS, your money goes to Epic, not to the developers (unless sales are higher than expected, but how often does that happen on EGS)
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,630
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What would have kept you from sailing the high seas and buying the game on Steam next year to support the devs? When buying moneyhatted games on EGS, your money goes to Epic, not to the developers (unless sales are higher than expected, but how often does that happen on EGS)
Because Spelunky is special to me. I just can't pirate it, good thing I don't need to think about doing it now.
 
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Deleted member 113

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Following that though, just like you, I bought every game they released - precursors was probably my best. It was super ambitious with the landing on planets doing rpg like missions, flying into space and landing on stations etc... they always bite off more than they can chew and I love them for that.
I'm glad to hear about a fellow fan of ambitious, flawed games.
Personally, as long as it's not outright broken, I take ambitious but unpolished games, over polished, but "sedated" games, like most western AAA games, incapable of surprising you in any way.

Sadly, both Xenus 2, and especially Precursors, were pretty much "dumped" by the publisher, incomplete.
Somewhere along the development, the team had serious money problems, and while Xenus 2 may have reached a status that somewhat resembles a final game, Precursors was not released as intended.
It's telling that Boiling Point took years to make, Xenus 2 as well (and that was partially built on content made for the first game), and Precursors came out soon after Xenus 2.

I wish someone would throw some decent budgets at some of these Eastern Europe teams.

In the 90's/early 00's, in particular, I was always on the lookout for cool games from the region.
They would frequently have a ridiculous scope and freedom, mixture of genres/gameplay, and some really vibrant ideas. But, since these were small teams, they would lack the polish of Western Europe/NA games, and would sometimes be just a step above broken, gameplay wise.

There are a few Eastern European games available on Steam that are good examples of this, both old and new, and that are worth a look, especially if you can tolerate some "jank", and in some cases dated graphics.
Naturally, most people already know of bigger games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., King's Bounty, METRO, and even Pathologic.

But the following are good examples of what I speak above:












among others.
 
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Deleted member 113

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Meanwhile, Western devs who actually have money to do something spectacular and innovative continue to release yearly popamole copy-paste games instead. It's not fair.
Sadly, that's the problem with rising budgets, and that continuous "quest" of always wanting more and better graphics, and a lot of spectacle, at the expense of gameplay.
It makes teams risk-averse.

Even Japanese developers, who frequently had some "quirky" games, and outlandish concepts, have mostly become heavily sedated.
With teams increasing in size, and budgets rising, companies are much less likely to try out new ideas and concepts, and go for proven formulas.

This isn't exclusive to the videogames industry (see, for example, the film industry; it's incredible how we have a lot less diversity in genres than we used to have a few decades ago).
 

Tomasety

MetaEyesMember
Jun 8, 2020
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For every purchase of the Sails of Union charity item made outside of the United States of America between September 28th 2020 and November 6th 2020, Microsoft will donate 75% of the purchase price made via steam.com and 100% of the purchase price made via the Microsoft Store to Cancer Research UK in support of the Stand Up To Cancer campaign. Donations from purchases made within the United States of America will be made to Stand Up to Cancer, a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. For more information visit www.standuptocancer.org.uk (UK) and www.standuptocancer.org (USA) respectively.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails series sales top five million
 
Reason: added Trails data link

FunnyJay

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I remember trying Boiling Point back when it was released and it was buggy as hell, and ran kinda bad on my then computer, so I never played it very long. But it was definitely ambitious.


I then bought a digital copy of Precursors from Gamersgate after reading about it on RPS. Sadly, that copy refused to even boot.

Do you know if the Steam versions of Xenus 2 and Precursors are easier to get to work? I can tolerate some jank if the game is ambitious, and euro-jank is forever dear to my heart! 😀
 

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I've been trying to pick up 7.62 so many times, even bought it on Steam a while ago (I had a retail copy), but the jank (and bugs) is killing me. I'm in a desperate need of another Jagged Alliance clone with a mercenary theme.
I did mention you need some "jank" tolerance for some of these games... :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:

But seriously, the Steam version includes a separate library entry called "7,62 Hard Life" (that even has its own store page), that includes numerous fan fixes and big content additions.
Check the store page for details (for some reason, linking to it isn't working well).
Maybe this updated version may be more to your liking. At least, it's less buggy. :)

Do you know if the Steam versions of Xenus 2 and Precursors are easier to get to work? I can tolerate some jank if the game is ambitious, and euro-jank is forever dear to my heart! 😀
They are basically the same as the Gamersgate versions, but with the fan patches (that you had to download and apply to the Gamersgate versions, in order to fix some bugs and add back some of the voice acting) already applied.
Meaning, they might work for you without further modifications, but if you had problems running the games with the patches already applied, you may experience similar problems.

And sadly, like I mentioned both games (especially Precursors) weren't properly finished, so they are a lot more buggier and "janky" than Boiling Point, which would be the ideal starting point for their games.
Don't get me wrong, I love them. But, as a result of the production problems that plagued them, there are places were things are not only "janky", but approach a broken status. :)

But, the games are usually 75% off or so during the big sales, and at those prices the "risk" would be much smaller to you.
 

Readher

Resident Cynic
Jun 23, 2020
430
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I did mention you need some "jank" tolerance for some of these games... :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:

But seriously, the Steam version includes a separate library entry called "7,62 Hard Life" (that even has its own store page), that includes numerous fan fixes and big content additions.
Check the store page for details (for some reason, linking to it isn't working well).
Maybe this updated version may be more to your liking. At least, it's less buggy. :)
My last few attempts were with Hard Life version actually. I do have jank tolerance, being from Eastern European country myself and having played a lot of janky games from the region in the past, but the nature of this game (quite complex systems, etc.) makes it much more harder to tolerate than your usual problems in janky FPP/TPP games. While Hard Life might be less buggy, it's still quite buggy - so buggy in fact, that my latest attempt (was a week or two ago I think) ended right at the start in the rebel camp you start in, since dialogue bugged completely. Honestly, I wish someone would take the game, fix it and add some QOL features to it, because I really want to play it.
 

FunnyJay

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Well I actually have a new system since I tried it the last time, so maybe the game will work this time.

Do the Steam versions have that horrible DRM that the Gamersgate versions had?
 

Eferis

MetaMember
Nov 12, 2018
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Just a heads up. Don't listen to Reddit fanboys that seem to be in love with this brand and never waste your money on NZXT cases (or any product really). They're the definition of style before usability and their customer service is terrible, had to use it twice: one time I was treated like a second-class customer, the other they tried to deny me a repair/replacement of a faulty product bought a week earlier.
 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
3,982
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Belgium
I'm in the mood to replay Valkyria Chronicles. To get optimal graphics, do I need GeDoSaTo for downsampling? Or can I just use Nvidia CP?
 
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lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
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Just a heads up. Don't listen to Reddit fanboys that seem to be in love with this brand and never waste your money on NZXT cases (or any product really). They're the definition of style before usability and their customer service is terrible, had to use it twice: one time I was treated like a second-class customer, the other they tried to deny me a repair/replacement of a faulty product bought a week earlier.
dang ... that sucks :( big time
 
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Cacher

Romantic Storm
Jun 3, 2020
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Yeah, it would be awesome if a company like Nightdive Studios would work on re-releasing some of these games, since they would add a level of polish and quality of life modifications to make these games a lot more stable. :)
Someone need to send our forgotten games thread to nightdive.

"Here you are, we have done the market research for you. No need to thank us."
 
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