Community MetaSteam | November 2024 - Cheeki Breeki Intensifies

Cacher

MetaMember
Jun 3, 2020
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LEGO Horizon is more expensive than Stalker 2 in my region. Good luck with that.

Another reason I can think of, is that the product does not align with the audience. People who buy Horizon game are the crowd who loves bombastic action and beautiful vistas. They are likely not interest in a children-friendly adventure.
 

Knurek

OG old coot
Oct 16, 2018
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LEGO Horizon is more expensive than Stalker 2 in my region. Good luck with that.

Another reason I can think of, is that the product does not align with the audience. People who buy Horizon game are the crowd who loves bombastic action and beautiful vistas. They are likely not interest in a children-friendly adventure.
I'd be interested in it if it was a LEGO (TT) game set in Horizon world. But it's not. It's just a reskinned Horizon Zero Dawn. I already have that, thank you.
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,289
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What the hell even happened in that thread about that on the other place? I swear whie reading it I felt like I entered a parallel dimension
At least moderation stepped in and will further action any threadwhining.
 
OP
lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
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Edit: Actually, looking at the forum comments it seems that it's not a legit release and that it's a private unofficial server, they don't own the GunZ IP so it will probably be taken down.
awwww dang, that sucks :negative-blob:
 

edin

Coffee, Controllers, etc
Sep 30, 2024
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LEGO Horizon is more expensive than Stalker 2 in my region. Good luck with that.

Another reason I can think of, is that the product does not align with the audience. People who buy Horizon game are the crowd who loves bombastic action and beautiful vistas. They are likely not interest in a children-friendly adventure.
Yea same in my region. I also think full price LEGO games are a harder sell unless the IP is very mainstream. Horizon sold a ton, but I think it would've benefited from a 40 $/Euro price point rather than 60/70 for its first spin-off release regardless of the game quality. I can easily find HZD PS5 + HFW complete PS5 for about the same as it would cost to buy LEGO Horizon right now lol.

Been replaying Phantom Brave through the excellent PS5 release + the PC update and I'm confused about one thing on Steam Deck OLED. It seems to run perfectly handheld and docked on my monitor at 90fps outside of the hub. That seems to not go above 86ish regardless of what resolution or settings I use. I feel like I'm missing something here. Any idea Durante ?
 

Cacher

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Jun 3, 2020
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OP
lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
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Left 4 Dead 2 is celebrating its 15-year anniversary today, November 17, 2024. Below, we look at how its cast and their interactions set it apart from its contemporaries and modern imitators alike.
Left 4 Dead 2 has been rightfully receiving its flowers for the past 15 years. The modding community has come up with everything from visual enhancements like improved blood textures to completely user-made campaigns. The last two DLCs for the game, Cold Stream and The Last Stand, were made by community members and officially endorsed by Valve. At the time of writing, there are over 45,000 players in-game on PC, and (if you somehow still don't own it) you can play it for free during this anniversary weekend. As such, the Steam discussions are filled with dozens of threads about the Good Guy Nick Achievement, which can only be obtained when the game is on a free weekend, something that occurs every couple of years.
But there's a special legacy Left 4 Dead has left behind: Valve's shooter has been a catalyst for a new subgenre altogether. Games like Back 4 Blood and The Anacrusis follow the formula closely, which isn't surprising considering the development teams include people who worked on Left 4 Dead. Others, such as Warhammer: Vermintide, Deep Rock Galactic, and Aliens: Fireteam Elite iterate on the concept of a co-op shooter by leaning closer to its own worlds, taking inspiration from existing franchises or coming up with brand-new mechanics to stand out from the rest. Yet, as more developers are taking the genre in interesting new directions, there's one crucial element that is often overlooked in these iterations.
The passage of time has not diminished Left 4 Dead 2's strengths. The clever "AI Director" dictating and reacting to the pace and behavior of your group to the B-movie flair embedded in every corner are standouts. But if there's one thing that entices me to return to the game, and a crucial aspect that none of the Left 4 Dead-likes have managed to achieve to a similar degree, is the cast of characters and the personality each of them oozes.
This was a strong suit even in the first Left 4 Dead with Zoey, Francis, Louis, and Bill. From the moment you set foot on the first rooftop on your way to Mercy Hospital, the frequent character interactions are put front and center. The quips can be further extended (on PC) by using a conversation wheel to express yourself drawing from a pool of hundreds of lines for laughing, cursing, and thanking others. While neither game was ever story-driven, you get to learn more about the characters' personalities thanks to these conversations, and how they interact with each other throughout the campaigns. As a result, I cared more for their survival within the world itself, and not just from a sole gameplay standpoint of reviving a friend during a horde rush. As time passed, I found Bill's incidental role as a parental figure to be endearing, and Francis' constant complaints became a running joke rather than making him an annoying character.
Left 4 Dead 2 took this foundation further with Nick, Coach, Rochelle, and Ellis: Some smaller details include voice command shouts being louder or quieter when calling other characters' names depending on the distance from each other, or the iconic Easter egg in the Dark Carnival campaign where the cast sings song excerpts if you interact with the microphone on stage during the final fight. But there's a greater focus on highlighting the characters--unlike the first Left 4 Dead campaign, No Mercy, the group begins the sequel not knowing each other's names in Dead Center. They're eventually introduced to one another and establish a bond over the later episodes. The DLCs, as well as the integration of Left 4 Dead into Left 4 Dead 2, are proof of Valve extending the philosophy to the original cast as well, with The Passing uniting both groups in the same campaign, and The Sacrifice adding another sentimental layer as an overarching narrative involving Bill.
Looking back at all the late nights I've had playing with friends during the past 15 years, I believe the characters are responsible for tying the whole experience together. They remain singular in nature, resulting in a sense of personality that is yet to be matched. Some jokes and banter lines, such as Nick remarking on Ellis' excitement over the carnival Kiddie Land by saying, "He's like a five-year-old, with guns and a comprehensive grasp of every swear word in the English language," and the multiple variants for friendly fire reactions like Ellis' "I am not a zombie, shoot the zombies!" never get tiresome.
As it stands, the future of Left 4 Dead is uncertain. In 2023, people found a mention of "Left4Dead3" in Counter-Strike 2's files, albeit with the downside that, according to the files, the project's priority is "none" for Valve. This follows a series of similar I Want to Believe mentions throughout the years in other titles like Half-Life: Alyx and Portal VR, including more concrete details in The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx documentary, where it was revealed that Left 4 Dead 3 was supposed to be an open-world game set in Morocco, only to be canceled due to game engine Source 2's unfinished status at the time.
It's hard to know if a third entry could capture the charm and chemistry of the existing characters with a new group once more. Despite having replayed the campaigns dozens of times over the years, however, I'm still discovering interactions by the cast. And even when I'm not, joining a lobby feels like revisiting old friends at this point. Picking a character in Left 4 Dead 2 doesn't give you any different perks--each one of them can use all weapons, and their survival depends on your skills and cooperation with others alone. The game's most noteworthy achievement, then, is giving importance to that decision regardless of its importance--choosing the eyes from which to see the apocalypse through is as memorable as your efforts to make it out alive with that character.
 

Arc

MetaMember
Sep 19, 2020
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Maybe I should just wait until the RTX 5000 series is out for Stalker 2, gonna build a new PC then.
I would have waited for the 5000 series but I'm paranoid about tariffs so I just went ahead before my ~$2100 PC suddenly costs $3000.

I do hate PC gaming sometimes, fiddling with settings and shit I just wanna play ffs.
I still prefer console gaming for AAAslop but there are a lot of games that I enjoy which are PC only or have console releases way after their PC release. I'll be playing Stalker 2 on PC for sure.
 

PC-tan

Low Tier Weeb
Jan 19, 2019
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California

edin

Coffee, Controllers, etc
Sep 30, 2024
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After a bit of time with the ROG Ally, I definitely miss the Deck's trackpads the most (aside from a non dogshit OS). Also still unbelievable how playable HOI IV and Stellaris are with community layouts that have radial menus for the trackpads. I am glad that I can play DB Sparking Zero on the ally at 60fps though since Deck requires the INI edit to prevent slowdown which also means online wont work. Deck can't do 60fps even at the absolute lowest settings in this one.
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,709
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Quake II is more fun than Unreal. Idk why it was called Quake killer back then, the fun factor gap is, er, gaping. I like how it looks nowadays more too (even if a bit prettified with the remaster), though I get why Unreal turned heads with some of its effects and wide open spaces. Yeah, I'm 25 years late :p

Now how to get that crt shader they made for it to use in other retro 3D games?
 
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Stallion Free

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Quake II is more fun than Unreal. Idk why it was called Quake killer back then, the fun factor gap is, er, gaping. I like how it looks nowadays more too (even if a bit prettified with the remaster), though I get why Unreal turned heads with some of its effects and wide open spaces. Yeah, I'm 25 years late :p

Now how to get that crt shader they made for it to use in other retro 3D games?
Agree with this 100%. Unreal 1 is no where near as good as Quake 1 or 2.
 

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
2,770
7,739
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Mt. Whatever
People still complain about settings in <<Current Year>>?

Just pick a dev's pre-set then? If you want a customized experience you should expect to spend some time customizing. The time allotment for doing so has historically been overblown by a lot, so I find it hard to sympathize with these views.
 

Dandy

Bad at Games.
Apr 17, 2019
1,660
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Avowed being $90CAD is crazy. I guess it could be worse though - at the current exchange rate it should be $100.

I want to support Obsidian, but more first-person action RPGs aren't even what I want from them.
 

spindoctor

MetaMember
Jun 9, 2019
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Watching the HL2 documentary brought back so many memories from that time. If you're on the younger side, you might enjoy some of the following musings from back then. If you're closer to death, maybe you can confirm what I'm saying and add your perspective.

I was in college when the game released. My college was in a small town without much commercial activity. On release day I skipped classes and dragged my roommate along for a bus trip to the big city that was 35KM away to go and buy the game. When I got back I couldn't even create a Steam account for the game because of how shit the service was and, to some extent, my college internet firewall. My Steam account was created on December 4, 2004, almost 3 weeks after release when I got home for the winter holiday. Some of you might not know just how angry everyone was at Valve at the time for forcing Steam on everyone. I even wrote an angry email to Gabe and I know he read it because he forwarded it to someone in customer support who got back to me with a generic list of basic things to do to get it to work and of course, it didn't work. Or who knows, maybe Gabe himself sent that copy pasted message to me because god knows if Valve even had a customer support department at that time.

The community anger towards Valve didn't just appear because of Steam. It was a year long thing that happened after the leak. The leak had showed that Valve had been lying to everyone about the game being released in 2003 when it was so obviously clear that it would not be ready by then. Looking back now, I'm not sure why a game getting delayed and a company lying about it was considered such an egregious slight against the gaming community. It seems ridiculous now (and was back then too), but that truly was the prevailing sentiment towards Valve at the time.

The documentary was 2 hours long but I wouldn't have minded if it was 6 hours long if they could have gone into more detail about the lawsuit, the leak, the episodes and the design philosophies that went into making the game. Even so, it was really interesting to finally, and maybe for the first time, actually hear about how the leak happened, why the third episode was canned and so on. I think the most important thing the documentary illustrates is why the Half Life games are so important in gaming. If someone were to play the games today they would likely not be super impressed by what they saw. The games are dated and have been surpassed many times over in terms of technology and game design but what new players won't realize is that the Half Life games did it first. The improvements that the Half Life games made to game design were revelations at the time because they had never been seen before. For example, the documentary goes into how the designers went and found 30 year old research about facial expressions and spent almost a year working on how NPC eyes should behave when looking at you or talking. Seamless, cutscene free storytelling. The way the designers did everything possible to immerse you in the game world you were in with purpose is the true legacy of Half Life.

I think with all 3 Half Life games Valve has made it abundantly clear that they're not interested in returning to the franchise unless they can actually find a way to move gaming forward. Gabe more or less says as much when giving the reason for not shipping episode 3. I would be somewhat against this whole philosophy because I obviously would love to have more Half Life but I can live with it because the trade-off has been that Valve has created other games which are also some of the greatest of all time (Portal 2, Dota etc.)

Stepping back a bit, I think we are incredibly lucky that Valve ended up being the custodians of PC gaming, so to speak. People love or hate Steam but one of it's greatest achievements has been to ensure that Valve managed to remain financially independent. I've said this before but this allowed Valve to remain a PC gaming company when every single other company in the industry turned towards consoles and, to some extent, away from PC gaming. 20 years of Steam has meant that Valve has spent 20 years trying to make PC gaming better. I know "PC gaming is dying" is a big joke and has been for a long time. Today the PC gaming market is massive in terms of revenue, players and also artistic diversity and innovation but there was a time when anxiety for the future of PC gaming was justified. Before 2004, consoles and PCs co-existed but both had their own, mostly separate ecosystems. Some of the highest budget, highest profile games were made exclusively or specifically for PC gaming. But then something happened in 2005 along side the release of the Xbox 360. Somehow the industry decided collectively that actually, PC gaming was just a haven of piracy and it is not a market worth catering to anymore. How this happened at the drop of a hat, en masse is a total mystery to me, but it did. Companies stopped making PC versions of their big titles or decided to release the lowest quality PC ports imaginable. It wasn't until 2009 or 2010 when the Steam store took off that these same companies started looking at the PC gaming market properly.

I'm also glad that Valve is rich enough and cared enough to get this documentary made. I read on Twitter that they had to travel to 5 different countries to get all the interviews and footage for it. They managed to get people who had left the company years ago to come back and talk about the game. And that Valve cared enough to preserve this part of their and the game industry's history, because we all know just how little this kind of preservation matters to seemingly everyone else in this business.

And because this wall of text isn't long enough already, I also wanted to point out that Vampire Bloodlines released 2 days after Hl2. That game is also celebrating it's 20th anniversary. One of the all time great RPGs, full of ambition and broken as fuck at release. This is all rumour and speculation, but from what I remember, Bloodlines was one of the only games to license the Source engine before it actually came out. The game was scheduled to release in 2003 right after Half Life 2 was scheduled to come out. Of course, HL2 got delayed by a year and apparently their contract said that they were not allowed to release a Source engine game before Valve released HL2. And so the game was completed roughly a year before it actually came out on November 16, 2004. And the story at the time was that while the game was clearly not polished and ready for release, Activision refused to keep funding Troika games to work on it to fix it up. So the game went untouched for the last few months of it's development because no one was getting paid to work on it. When it finally did release, it flopped because, at least in part, of it being unfinished. And Troika was never able to recover from that blow and shut down a few months later. Imagine having one of the all time great RPGs in your hands and getting an extra year to work on it but you can't because the publisher won't fund further development. Again, not sure how much of this is true. A documentary about this story would be interesting as well but of course there's no one to fund it. I wonder if Tim Cain might talk about it on his Youtube channel at some point.
 
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STHX

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2021
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Italy
Wukong (81 on Metacritic) and Shadow of the Erdtree (a fucking DLC) got nominated for GOTY (the other 4 are Astrobot, Balatro, Rebirth and Metaphor)

But hey, at least the best content creator award is a lock
 
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Dec 5, 2018
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Shadow of the Erdtree (a fucking DLC)
The moment they said DLCs were allowed it was obvious that that would be the case.
Wukong (81 on Metacritic)
I mean, it's not really an award show it's a giant ad that uses the award as an excuse to seem something it's not, so why would you not have one of the best selling games of the year
:upside-down-face: