Community MetaSteam | April 2024 - Definitely there's no rest for the wicked.

[Line]

This whole Stellar Blade thing reminded me why I really don't like talk about diversity, inclusion and similar things these days. Major part in it is that everything is done by US standards and everything is rated by US standards. This is kinda most noticeable regarding black characters where entire US history of slavery is pushed worldwide issue for example.

Also my personal opinion is that most things in games done these days regarding diversity and inclusion is performative, done for earning points. For me if you really want to make things diverse that is not just dropping characters in games and entertainment media by modern standards in products regardless of theme, setting and period. Why don't we see games and other entertainment products set in some historic period of Africa? Example 13th century East Africa where we could explore history of Ethiopia where Ortodox Christians clashed with Otomans. Or rich history of India and Middle East. That is true diversity and inclusion in my opinion, showing entire different cultures and history.

Our world history is so rich and full amazing stories and events to draw inspiration from them, yet entertainment industry is sticking to same things over and over again.

I'm all for using the very underused parts of Earth's cultural history, but there's an angle that's both "it won't sell because are not familiar", that is also way too similar to the "no minorities, they should just make their own games and not dilute the racial purity of our games" argument from chuds.

And things are changing, we got just that this year in PoP: The lost crown and Tales of Kenzera: ZAU... and they were published by Ubisoft and EA, not exactly indies.

 

[thekeats1999]

Nothing in the sale for me, although I am sure there is stuff I want but will just go on the backlog. Although I am tempted with Sandland, still a big fan of Toriyama and it does look like the sort of game I would enjoy.

 

[dex3108]

I'm all for using the very underused parts of Earth's cultural history, but there's an angle that's both "it won't sell because are not familiar", that is also way too similar to the "no minorities, they should just make their own games and not dilute the racial purity of our games" argument from chuds.

And things are changing, we got just that this year in PoP: The lost crown and Tales of Kenzera: ZAU... and they were published by Ubisoft and EA, not exactly indies.

I would argue that many stories told in games could be translated to other regions and cultures because they are kinda universal. Story of revenge, MC going from 0 to hero... So things would be for the most part be the same we would just get something different that would shine light on underused cultures and regions. One of the audio books that i listened last year was Red Monk of Roha (Ethiopia) and at it's core story could be translated to for example Japanese one or hell European middle age setting. But all other things make that book interesting and get you more familiar with that region history and culture. So i truly believe that it could work but devs publishers just need to get courage and make it.

And while we are a the books i finished Metro 2034 and for the first time in a long time i can say that i love games more than books that are base for the games. Metro 2033 is somewhat ok, but 2034 is in my opinion kinda bad. I really didn't like it.

 

[thekeats1999]

And things are changing, we got just that this year in PoP: The lost crown and Tales of Kenzera: ZAU... and they were published by Ubisoft and EA, not exactly indies.

This is something I think Ubisoft in particular deserves credit for. Their Assassins Creeds games, I think, have always been good at letting these countries and cultures shine through, or at least more than most other games do.

 

[dex3108]

This is something I think Ubisoft in particular deserves credit for. Their Assassins Creeds games, I think, have always been good at letting these countries and cultures shine through, or at least more than most other games do.

Issue with Ubisoft is that their writing sucks for the most part.

 

[Spookyfriend]

Seems like someone managed to get access to humble bundle account and then made some purchase cause I linked my paypal.
Rip, I escalated to Paypal and Humble Support , hope they can refund me

 

[toxicitizen]

I didn't quite "purge" my wishlist but I think during the last chrismas sale I removed 200+ games from it.

Basically, if something was on sale for a substantial discount and I still wasn't interested, I thought about whether I would even play it any time soon (for a pretty big value of "soon", like "this decade") if I got it for free, and if the answer was "no" I removed it.

That said, 3 days ago while browsing the golden week event I added 10 games to the list, so I'm clearly not fully reformed.

I'm way overdue for something like that. Almost 550 games on there and so many of them that initially made me go "hey that looks neat" but that if I haven't bought them by now I never will. I'm sure a good chunk of them I'll have no memory of whatsoever lol.

 

[prudis]

some special delivery for Jawmuncher


Dino Crisis 2 Classic Rebirth Remaster Mod Available for Download

 

[Li Kao]

I nuked, checks note... 162 games from my wishlist. Only 54 left.
Need to sleep on it to gauge how I feel about this. OCD is obviously into overdrive, but it's not like the games disappeared from the face of the earth.

Pretty cool, though.

 

[Durante]

I'm way overdue for something like that. Almost 550 games on there and so many of them that initially made me go "hey that looks neat" but that if I haven't bought them by now I never will. I'm sure a good chunk of them I'll have no memory of whatsoever lol.

Yeah, it was the same situation for me. Some I didn't remember at all, and for many I still thought "hey that looks neat but I'm never realistically going to play it".

 

[「Echo」]

Alright Fallout friends, here we go.

A mod that automates the process of downgrading to the previous version.

Fallout 4 Downgrader

Restore your game's mod compatibility with Fallout 4 Downgrader. Quickly revert Fallout 4 to its pre-next-gen version to continue using mods that uses F4SE and Buffout. Simple and automated. Now witho

www.nexusmods.com

A mod that tricks steam into thinking you're on the latest patch.

STEAM - Skip Next-Gen update

Use this acf file to trick steam into thinking your game is updated, so you can use your mods with peace of mind

www.nexusmods.com

Gonna give these a test later.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

New game from Kaizen Game Works (Paradise Killer devs)

 

[dex3108]

I don't even put that many games on my wishlist. Actually I rarely do it. I mean there is kinda no point anymore, I won't buy or play most of them.

 

[Eila]

I want to play NMH 2 and 3 but I ain't biting at that price. Waiting for them to turn up on a bundle, hopefully.

 

[「Echo」]

Alright Fallout friends, here we go.

A mod that automates the process of downgrading to the previous version.

Fallout 4 Downgrader

Restore your game's mod compatibility with Fallout 4 Downgrader. Quickly revert Fallout 4 to its pre-next-gen version to continue using mods that uses F4SE and Buffout. Simple and automated. Now witho

www.nexusmods.com

A mod that tricks steam into thinking you're on the latest patch.

STEAM - Skip Next-Gen update

Use this acf file to trick steam into thinking your game is updated, so you can use your mods with peace of mind

www.nexusmods.com

Gonna give these a test later.

Can confirm this is working with Script Extender. I did the manual method since I wasn't sure about handing over my Steam login credentials. But it's an open-source mod, so someone with more time can verify it's safety. The manual methods posted on the modpages do work just fine.

 

[Chairmanchuck]

Half of my WL are games that arent out yet.

This Persona x Pool was supposed to be out last year already:

 

[xinek]

Alright Fallout friends, here we go.

A mod that automates the process of downgrading to the previous version.

Fallout 4 Downgrader

Restore your game's mod compatibility with Fallout 4 Downgrader. Quickly revert Fallout 4 to its pre-next-gen version to continue using mods that uses F4SE and Buffout. Simple and automated. Now witho

www.nexusmods.com

A mod that tricks steam into thinking you're on the latest patch.

STEAM - Skip Next-Gen update

Use this acf file to trick steam into thinking your game is updated, so you can use your mods with peace of mind

www.nexusmods.com

Gonna give these a test later.

God I love modders.

 

[Dandy]

https://kotaku.com/lost-records-bloom-rage-new-life-is-strange-dont-nod-1851439413

“When we started to work on the very first Life Is Strange a long time ago, we had no publishers,” Koch said. “We didn’t know exactly where we would sell the game or…if we would even sell it. [...] At this time, we were in need of publishing, and Square was interested in buying the games; they bought the rights for it, and they bought the franchise. [...] But since they bought the franchise, our hands were tied. We couldn’t really work as we wanted on what paths the character should go, what kind of game we could make, and how we would like to make the franchise evolve.”

“We’re trying to create another core story, universe, and world-building that we will discover first in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage that we can extend on later,” Koch said. “So it’s definitely slightly different. We’re also wanting to—maybe not completely at first in this first game—but also explore some slight different genres or mechanics that might slightly bend away from what exactly a narrative adventure game like Life Is Strange, Tell Me Why, Twin Mirror or even the Telltale Games would be.”

I can't wait!

 

[Cacher]

Mass Effect is on sale.


Need to replay the whole series soon.

 

[QFNS]

Mass Effect is on sale.


Need to replay the whole series soon.

Play..... Games? Do we do that on this board?

 

[didamangi]

Dino Crisis 2 Classic Rebirth Remaster Mod Available for Download

The ultimate re/dc classic version on PC is complete then.

Also:

 

[moemoneyb1]

All this talk on Stellar Booba and I was out attending a friend's wedding in Ohio.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

Is NFT games still banned on Steam?

Because Stone Blade Entertainment announced that they are adding Web3 features to Solforge Fusion in June:

Collectible Deck-Builder SolForge Fusion Sets Web3 Launch, with Funding from Animoca Brands, Solana Foundation, and MatrixPort

LAS VEGAS, April 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading strategy game publisher and developer Stone Blade Entertainment is breaking new ground with its flagship game, SolForge Fusion, with a launch into Web3. SolForge Fusion was created by legendary designers Richard Garfield (Magic: The...

www.abc4.com

LAS VEGAS, April 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading strategy game publisher and developer Stone Blade Entertainment is breaking new ground with its flagship game, SolForge Fusion, with a launch into Web3. SolForge Fusion was created by legendary designers Richard Garfield (Magic: The Gathering) and Justin Gary (Ascension Deckbuilding Game). This latest addition to SolForge Fusion, recently released into Steam Early Access, will allow players to mint their algorithmically generated decks into tradeable digital assets and earn more through rare unlocks, accessible via SolForgeFusion.com.

Stone Blade Entertainment is working with leaders in Web3 to launch this brand. Investors and advisors include Animoca Brands, Solana Foundation, and MatrixPort. These companies fully support the vision of transforming SolForge Fusion into a truly community-owned gaming experience.

 

[Ge0force]

Started the lastest Jedi game on EA Play:

• at least 2 minutes of shader compilation EVERY time I start the game
• startup movies stuttering at 12fps
• 3 crashes to desktop in 60 minutes
• resolution suddenly changed back to 1080p
• framerate goes up and down between 21 and 88fps. Ended up locking it to 60fps with RTSS.

What the hell respawn?

 

[Kvik]

All this talk on Stellar Booba and I was out attending a friend's wedding in Ohio.

It's not too late to sign the petition! Together, we can make a difference!

 

[dex3108]

NFTs will save them any moment now.

 

[Kyougar]

We are kneecapping ourselves with our release strategy, we actively shun our fans and don't care about growing our audience.

Why are we in trouble? Sony give us more money!!!!111

 

[STHX]

Farming

Farming sale on Steam. And as usual there are some free items in the point shop: https://store.steampowered.com/points/shop/event/sale_farming

 

[thekeats1999]

Simple solution. Stop relying on Sony to bail you out. As you get more and more desperate the deals will get worse and worse.

stop releasing stuff on only one system. Especially your flagship brand. Release them everywhere. Even if you have to do it streaming on the switch. Even something like the Xbox will make you money and opens the possibility of Gamepass money as well.

man’s for the love of all that is dear to you, advertise your stuff on the systems you are releasing them on. I remember the games we had over when Nier Automata was due to release on PC. I remember the shadow drops for things like FF7R. Don’t pretend your games only exist on one system.

now where do I send my consultancy fee?

 

[Blu]

Out now

 

[STHX]

Square, like other companies did, needs to accept that their "brand" is not as worth as they think and you can't simply release a game an rack up money simply because you put your name on it. The last months of 2022 still feel surreal to me: Diofield Chronicles (22 September - 60€), Triangle Strategy Steam (13 October - 60€), Neo TWEWY Steam (19 October - 60€), Star Ocean 6 (27 October - 60€), Harvestella (4 November - 60€), Valkyrie Elysium (11 November - 60€), Crisis Core Reunion (13 December - 50€)
Reunion was the only one who costed less than 60€, and most of those releases were very obviously strapped for budget despite still trying to have a full base price, and it's not like the metacritic was anything special either. Yet these were all released in a single season
Square, like Koei, also thinks you can play with the big boys without actually providing the same service as the other big boys. Among the games I listed above, the only ones with an italian translation are Triangle (Nintendo published in europe = Nintendo paid for it), Neo Twewy, Valkyrie (low amount of text) and Crisis Core (had a previous translation). Italians weren't worth enough for the others, just like most of their 2024 releases like Vision of Mana and Emerald Beyond (but the same could be said fo many other languages too). Capcom realized this (almost all of their new releases support 10+ languages and are often dubbed too with the exception of Ace Attorney), Atlus realized this (Every one of their games now supports at least 10 languages including some who never supported languages other than english on their first release, with a few exceptions like Etrian which have "only" 9), Sega realized this (Like a Dragon now supports 10+ languages, Sonic is translated and dubbed, the only exception in the last years is PSO2), Bandai Namco realized this (Gundam is getting an english dub after 10+ years, every one of their releases this years and before support 10+ languages exceptions being Slime), and obviously western publishers realized this 5 generations ago, and all of these examples include games with lots of text
By not offering services equivalent to the bigger publishers Square puts themselves on the level of smaller companies like Idea Factory, NISA and Xseed, and some times even them support more languages than Square (Ys Origins is EFIGS, more than SaGa deserves apparently)! If a company isn't willing to put the effort into their releases why should customers reward them?

 

[ezodagrom]

 

[STHX]

Front Mission 2 Remake is out on Steam


And there is a complete your collection bundle with the first one

 

[Li Kao]

Lol, I get some ghost desire to buy a PS5 from last month, check Stellar Blades : 80 euros. Oh. Ronin : 70 euros. Oh.
Don't fucking dare to wonder why your sales are flat, console makers. This is crazy town.

 

[Derrick01]

Report comes out about cancelled games, many that were probably AA since they said they were going to cut back on smaller games that didn't sell well. Almost all of these came to multiple platforms.

PC gamers- That'll show you for skipping PC

 

[Durante]

Actually, people pointed out all the ways in which S-E management is dumb as rocks, including trying to sell 7 of those AA (or smaller) games over a period of a few months at full AAA prices.

Their multi-platform strategy (or, more precisely, lack thereof) is just one aspect of their overall lack of direction and poor decision making.

 

[Alexandros]

Report comes out about cancelled games, many that were probably AA since they said they were going to cut back on smaller games that didn't sell well. Almost all of these came to multiple platforms.

PC gamers- That'll show you for skipping PC

I would like to offer an alternate portrayal of the discussion around Square Enix.

1) Square makes a boneheaded business decision.

PC gamers - Guys, Square is bad at this "business" thing

Fans in denial - No shut up, they know what they are doing

2) Square's big exclusive X barely meets the lower end of expectations

PC gamers - Guys, Square is bad at this "business" thing

Fans in denial - No shut up, it still technically met expectations

3) Square big exclusive Y seemingly flops

PC gamers - Guys, Square is bad at this "business" thing

Fans in denial - No shut up, it didn't flop and if it did they still probably made a profit from the moneyhat

4) Square releases twenty $60 smaller games in the span of six months, most of them flop so they take a massive loss canceling a lot of games

PC gamers - Guys, Square is bad at this "business" thing

Fans in denial - No shut up those were AA and smaller games and it's your fault that you didn't buy them all.

I wonder how many of these we'll have to go through before rabid fans of the company reach the acceptance stage.

 

[STHX]

I wonder how many of these we'll have to go through before rabid fans of the company reach the acceptance stage.

Well, looking at the average console warrior I'll say never

 

[Parsnip]

Hey Durante , since you played through LotF I'm wondering what's your take on the overall performance? I don't mean it in "is it good or bad" sense, but rather how even is it across the whole game. Does that make sense?
Like are there locations that are particularly heavy later in the game, or am I good to go through the whole thing if I'm getting good performance early on. Only just beat the first boss and talked to the guy next to the fire shortly after, so really just out of the tutorial zone I think.

So far I'm kind of pleased for what I'm getting, I suppose I was expecting a worst case scenario with my first UE5 game but performance hasn't been an issue so far.

 

[Le Pertti]

Maybe I should buy a game from that struggling indie company SquareEnix, they seem to need all the help they can get.

Joking aside, they do have some games I genuinely want to get, just waiting on sale being just a little bit better or my backlog being smaller.

 

[Line]

I sometimes feel like Square Enix is like Sega in 2000, "you're lying, people love our games and they will sell, we don't need marketing, post release support, or a big platform, we are Square Enix!".

I do wonder if the leadership over there really missed that players don't care about them and their franchises?
At least they should be aware that Final Fantasy is a complete nobody now...

 

[Parsnip]

New game from Kaizen Game Works (Paradise Killer devs)

Wishlisted!

I always worry about games that are a bit weirder. It always feels like they are probably walking on a line that's easy to cross from just being weird into "look, look how zany we are".
I imagine Swery has had that problem after Deadly Premonition.

 

[FunnyJay]

Only thing I could think of:

 

[Durante]

Hey Durante , since you played through LotF I'm wondering what's your take on the overall performance? I don't mean it in "is it good or bad" sense, but rather how even is it across the whole game. Does that make sense?
Like are there locations that are particularly heavy later in the game, or am I good to go through the whole thing if I'm getting good performance early on. Only just beat the first boss and talked to the guy next to the fire shortly after, so really just out of the tutorial zone I think.

So far I'm kind of pleased for what I'm getting, I suppose I was expecting a worst case scenario with my first UE5 game but performance hasn't been an issue so far.

As far as I can recall, neither I nor the friend I played it with in coop had any notable performance issues at any point in the game.
To be fair, we both have pretty fast PCs -- but it was relatively consistent.

 

[Chairmanchuck]

Actually, people pointed out all the ways in which S-E management is dumb as rocks, including trying to sell 7 of those AA (or smaller) games over a period of a few months at full AAA prices.

Their multi-platform strategy (or, more precisely, lack thereof) is just one aspect of their overall lack of direction and poor decision making.

End of 2022, 13 games, 4 months:

Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden
Various Daylife
The Diofield Chronicles
Valkyrie Elysium
Triangle Strategy
Star Ocean 6
Neo: TWEWY
Harvestella
Tactics Ogre Reborn
Dragon Quest Treasures
Crisis Core
Romancing Saga
Dragon Quest 10 (Japan)

 

[Alexandros]

End of 2022, 13 games, 4 months:

Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden
Various Daylife
The Diofield Chronicles
Valkyrie Elysium
Triangle Strategy
Star Ocean 6
Neo: TWEWY
Harvestella
Tactics Ogre Reborn
Dragon Quest Treasures
Crisis Core
Romancing Saga
Dragon Quest 10 (Japan)

Yeah, this is just utter madness. Square keeps shooting its own feet for no reason.

 

[Deku]

Lol, I thought that the Front Mission games were published by Square Enix. It's probably why they have reasonable prices

 

[PC-tan]

SE is just crazy. As far as what we can tell it looks like SEGA has figured it out and so has Capcom. That being said they are still not perfect and have their issues. Capcom games have issues and also the whole MTX thing is not that well liked. SEGA also has this issues of releasing multiple versions of a game at a very high price. I'm also not happy how SEGA doesn't release CEs on PC. So I have to but their games twice. At least SE made a PC CE for Nier Replicant. You have have the thing with ATLUS and Persona 3 Remake DLC. I'm surprised that there was not a bigger push from ATLUS to get Vanillaware to release a PC version of Unicorn Overlord, but at the same time it did sound like they did approach and ask and you can't force them to make a port. But it still did seem like a weird outcome. Maybe now that it's out ATLUS can talk to them about trying to release it on PC. I already have my copy for PS5 and I think that's where I'm just going to end up playing it. Oh well

 

[Ascheroth]

I mean, this is Square Enix acknowledging that they've made bad business decisions and them starting to course correct.
Kiryu said he was gonna restructure things, and this is one result of that.
It will probably take a couple years until we see the "new" Square Enix though.

 

[Li Kao]

I mean, this is Square Enix acknowledging that they've made bad business decisions and them starting to course correct.
Kiryu said he was gonna restructure things, and this is one result of that.
It will probably take a couple years until we see the "new" Square Enix though.

We all agree that they made bad business decisions, but apparently Square, in typical Square fashion, took it to mean AA games don't sell, when plenty of people think AA games priced like AAA games don't sell.
I'm really unconvinced that for Square, a company that obviously struggles with the rising cost of AAA, the answer is to take their AA offering to a farm upstate.