Community MetaSteam | April 2023 - We destroy chaos from a galaxy far far away

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Amzin

No one beats me 17 times in a row!
Dec 5, 2018
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Mixed reviews, but it's 80% off, and all the negatives seem to be "it's not Civ"
The negatives are definitely not "it's not civ", the problem is they took away what made their previous 4X games interesting (Endless Legend / Space) and made it too much like Civ - except they still have a complicated facade over it.

It's fundamentally flawed, because it's a 4X where every choice is meaningless. I sort of had fun my first time or two playing but then you start to see how shallow it is, and I was basically over the game because there just wasn't anything dynamic about it, nothing left to experiment with, and it's more difficult to engage with than their other games (or Civ). And that's just a high-level view, there are pages and pages of detailed community feedback on their forums that they acknowledge but then ignore. They have, at least, patched out a lot of the game breaking / run ending bugs.

Obviously some people still enjoy it but I just don't see why I would ever recommend it as a 4X game when basically every one in the genre I've played is more interesting and more fun.

If you do enjoy it, more power to you, BUT: do not buy the "Together We Rule" DLC. It is one of the worst DLC I have ever seen in ANY game. It literally just adds tedium: More menus where you have to click something (but there's no choice), more notifications and alerts because of stealth stuff (which ultimately have minimal impact but you have to deal with it), and a complicated-ass global diplomacy system that you have to participate in but you have little control over and also has little impact. If they gave it to me for free I would disable it if I felt like playing the game again in the first place.
 
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dex3108

MetaMember
Dec 20, 2018
3,441
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So apparently mainlining Jedi Survivor takes 25h. That will be meaty game for those who want to complete everything.
 
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MonthOLDpickle

我會打敗你!!
Oct 31, 2018
1,710
2,076
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Taiwan
I found the side quests and most of the main quests forgettable in Witcher.....

I got to 75 hours in TW3 before dropping it.
 
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Paul

MetaMember
Jan 26, 2019
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Random question; How likely is it that you will continue playing an open world or RPG game after you have finished the main story?
Extremely unlikely. I want ending of a game to be an actual ending. So I always do all I can (assuming I actually enjoy the game to that degree) before going to finish the main quest.

Do not give a single flying fuck about achievements.

I can't remember the last time a game had worthwhile side quests
Cyberpunk 2077, Kingdom Come Deliverance, Enderal: Forgotten Stories, Wasteland 3

And right now I am playing Ghostwire Tokyo and some of its sidequests are great too, just finished doing one in haunted school that took me around 90 very enjoyable minutes

I am huge Arkane fan, love their games, looking forward to Redfall, but this footage looks fucking horrendous. Disgusting looking overbearing UI, weak graphics, zero atmosphere.

I still hope that when played solo and with modified HUD I will find that old Arkane magic somewhere in there, but man...I am glad I have gamepass.
 
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Madventure

The Angel of Deaf
Nov 17, 2018
1,667
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the thing i find funny with devs etc with wishlists on steam is I don't use it as a "Im totally going to buy this!" I just use it like with amazon, I use it as a i want to be reminded it exists because there's like 100,000+ things on this platform and i'll never remember what the fuck it is of it it exists by tomorrow otherwise

That's why I want multiple wishlists LIKE amazon but im sure steam/devs would riot at the thought
 

yuraya

MetaMember
May 4, 2019
2,723
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I am huge Arkane fan, love their games, looking forward to Redfall, but this footage looks fucking horrendous. Disgusting looking overbearing UI, weak graphics, zero atmosphere.

I still hope that when played solo and with modified HUD I will find that old Arkane magic somewhere in there, but man...I am glad I have gamepass.
Yea it looks painfully generic. There does seem to be some Arkane charm here n there but It is what it is at this point. They made their own Borderlands/FarCry game. Its one of those games you turn off your brain and shoot away health bars.

Now that they are done with this Phil needs push them away from these type of games. Make sure they are making stuff like Dishonored/Prey/Deathloop going forward. They are the perfect type of dev to have when you have gamepass. They don't need to be some risk averse studio making these boring streamlined games.
 
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KingKrouch

Junior Member
Dec 14, 2021
112
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I've gotten six different people so far that have pinged me of this port's existence today, and based on some old tweets from one of the Ghostlight community managers, I'm not shocked that this was indeed the game they were porting. That said, I'm extremely skeptical after the second game's PC release, and Ghostlight's consistently mediocre track record with PC releases (Setting aside the 10 minute minigame that can be completely avoided, and sadly was the only point of contention that Steam forum users had).

From my time looking at the game screenshots, and comparing them between the PS4 and Switch versions, It's safe to assume that the Switch version is being used as a base for the PC version, which is unfortunate, and especially baffling as this game actually had a western PS4 release, unlike the second game. I would have viewed the second game's port more favorably if it wasn't the Switch version with more game breaking bugs and a busted framelimiter that runs the game faster than intended. I'd actually more closely compare that game's PC release with the treatment Resident Evil 4 got on PC back in 2005 (being ported from the worse PS2 release of the game rather than the GameCube original).

For context, all of Compile Heart's PS4 and PC versions were using Orochi 4 with the Mizuchi rendering engine (Which essentially gives the engine a deferred rendering + PBR pipeline to work with). However, all of their Switch ports use Orochi 4 without the rendering engine, and can look drastically different as a result. Here's an example from Mary Skelter 2 that should highlight the visual difference perfectly:


While I'm glad that IFI is handling the beta testing and publishing themselves this time around, I have my doubts that they can make the game's lighting on par with the PS4 version again in time for an August release (Based on the three month period between the end of beta testing and the game release of their past few games). I was able to improve one of their ports by a bit (through an unofficial mod) in the span of 2-3 weeks, but that was compromised of stuff that wasn't low level, and as I personally have never worked with the actual engine tools or seen actual engine source code for the engine used (Although I have investigated things using a disassembler and a debugger), I probably couldn't tell you how feasible of a task it would be, as I'm also unsure about the setup process of using it, or what modifications Ghostlight has made to certain things (I can already say that they handled resolutions and pillarboxing in a pretty jank way with the second game, and they've used a similar cursor system to the first game's port). While I think I am totally powerless to do anything about it, I can at least bring awareness to this.

Since JuxtaposeJS (Which would simplify the comparison process) doesn't seem to want to work for me, here's some comparison shots between the PC screenshots on Steam and PS4 gameplay footage (PC on the left, PS4 on the right):



As a note for those who have already played the game: The Salvation Tower is a notable example of the Switch version completely lacking SSAO, as it makes the white nooses on the wall almost invisible in most cases.

EDIT: As someone pointed out to me elsewhere, the Switch and PC versions of Mary Skelter 2 and Finale also have a problem with 2D Background elements being rendered with the incorrect gamma. I also wanted to clarify (to complement this point) that from my time investigating and datamining both 2 and Finale's PS4 and Switch ports, that the texture data looks identical, so it's likely a rendering problem with those elements.
 
Reason: Added a point about incorrect gamma for 2D Background elements
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,870
15,903
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The fuck was this leaked steam puzzle sale reward page ? Is there a meta puzzle to this sale I didn't see ?

-

Possibility of SMTV PC announcement ?
 
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yuraya

MetaMember
May 4, 2019
2,723
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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
3,992
11,886
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I’ve been reading more about what Nintendo did to Gary Bowser.

It’s not a good look, to put it gently.

I feel grubby having bought the 2x game vouchers for £84 to get Tears of the Kingdom. I’m not even sure if I’ll play the game - it might feel like a tainted experience for me.

One thing is clear, though. I think that’s it for me buying Nintendo stuff.

Companies are shitty and there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism and all that, but for me personally, supporting Nintendo going forward just feels icky.

Like, this isn’t some abstract exploitation or some sort of side effect. Nintendo, and people working for Nintendo, have specifically gone out of their way to give one man a life sentence of poverty.

It’s incredibly mean-spirited and feels like a cruel and unusual punishment.
 

ezodagrom

JELLYBEE
Nov 2, 2018
1,872
4,895
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Portugal
www.youtube.com
First major expansion for PSO2 NGS coming in June 7th, PSO2 NGS ver.2:


The trailer is primarily focused on the creative spaces feature, an instanced area where players can build houses, create mini games and such.
The trailer also includes the portable holograms feature, being able to temporarily put down objects or sprays anywhere in the game world, character cel shading graphics filter, and a tease about a new type of enemies.

Not included in the trailer is the continuation of the story, lvl 75 cap, and probably more, but those will likely be announced in the next PSO2 NGS stream in the end May.
 

manchego obfuscator

MetaMember
Jan 23, 2020
934
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kinda thought this might be cancelled after recent Funko layoffs, and it feels like something that should have been released a good 4-5 years ago, but I guess it does have The Thing content going for it at least

 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,870
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So this is basically a Lego game rip-off ? I mean, why not, it's inoffensive. I'm at a loss as to how Funko can make this game, copyright-wise, though. This is IP wonderland.
 
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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
3,992
11,886
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My bet is 799 for Z1 and 999 for Z1 extreme
I’m gonna say 749 for the Z1 and 999 for the Z1 Extreme.

I think they need to be within the ballpark of the 512gb Deck. A $100 gap feels like a good price to spec progression.
 
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Arc

MetaMember
Sep 19, 2020
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This game is doing big numbers on Steam. It has peaked at over 31k concurrent and is currently 17th on the global charts. The premise is you are a single father raising your daughter. Not my thing, but still cool to see it be successful.
 

KingKrouch

Junior Member
Dec 14, 2021
112
346
63
The Nintendo is evil talk reminds me I really should to get round to selling my modded Switch that I haven't used for a couple of years. Either sell it or put it away, its just using up shelf space.
I just keep my Nintendo Switch as a ROM dumping machine for when third-party exclusive games drop. I do admit that I haven’t bought any games for it in a while, and I was contemplating buying SMTV, until I heard about the rumors of a PC version.
 

Vantr

Junior Member
Feb 15, 2021
246
910
93
The fuck was this leaked steam puzzle sale reward page ? Is there a meta puzzle to this sale I didn't see ?
It's a quick and easy puzzle that was in this video.


The Ally is totally going to be $999.99
This is good news for a mate of mine who hasn't bought a Steam Deck since there are no official retailers in Australia. I did warn him to wait for reviews though since I'm expecting the battery life and the whole UI experience to be weaker than the Steam Deck.
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,282
11,713
113
the thing i find funny with devs etc with wishlists on steam is I don't use it as a "Im totally going to buy this!" I just use it like with amazon, I use it as a i want to be reminded it exists because there's like 100,000+ things on this platform and i'll never remember what the fuck it is of it it exists by tomorrow otherwise

That's why I want multiple wishlists LIKE amazon but im sure steam/devs would riot at the thought
I don't know if valve provides this metric to devs, but they should:
"how many wishlisted games a user has in his account"
so that the dev can look at the statistic and see:
10% of the users wishlisting you games have more than 1.000 games wishlisted,
40% of the users wishlisting you games have more than 500 games wishlisted
70% of the users wishlisting you games have more than 100 games wishlisted
90% of the users wishlisting you games have more than 10 games wishlisted

just with that metric you can kinda extrapolate how likely it is that the user will buy your game

or another metric:
this usergroup is buying wishlisted games on release with a 5% certainty.
 
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