Community MetaSteam | February 2023 - A 90's dystopian adventure in the digiworld.

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Aaron D.

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Jul 10, 2019
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I had a rare 3 day weekend to myself and fell in with a few new purchases that impressed across the board.



Automation genre is one of my favorites these days and Atrio's subversive presentation on top looked like a slam-dunk. Yet I backed off thinking it had punitive timer mechanics, an anathema that's an instant disqualifier for my gameplay style. Well it turns out that it does and doesn't have timers, or put another way the timers do not reset progress or pressure the player at all.

Atrio fuses resource & production line management with creative world building and legitimately hilarious story and writing. It's a wild amalgamation that you just don't see often in the overarching Strategy genre (maybe the irreverence of Tropico comes close?). On top of that it's got a sweet OddWorld presentation that just screams Oingo Boingo to my Gen X sensibilities.




SpaceBourne 2 is basically Mount & Blade in space made by one guy. It's got Unity asset development written all over it (it's actually Unreal eng). Yet in the context of a solo dev the scope is staggering and folk-art jank charming. I just keep staring in wonder at all the systems in play. Mining, trading, piracy, crafting, exploration, guilds, factions, diplomacy, economy, crew management, ship augmentation, seamless space to planet traversal...just everything.

Oh it's also put together by duct tape and hanging by a thread. The warts are warty as hell. But damn I can't believe one guy created it all. On any given day if I can just start my morning by stepping into my underwear without losing my balance I consider it a victory. And here's this guy just taking on a massive project doing it all by themselves. It's freaking nuts.

SB2 won't win any awards. It won't get any attention on your favorite forum. But the rough edges contrasted with the scope create this charm that you just don't see big-budget mainstream game development. And that makes it a true gem.



Stacks:Space is Stacklands...in space.

You'll be hard pressed to find a more blatant idea ripoff, but S.Space pulls it off with a fully imaginative universe. Awesome card art. Diverse locations to visit. The game feels like a copy but it has enough talent and TLC behind it to make it feel like a worthy contender and absolutely worth your time if you enjoy what Stacklands brings to the table.

Something about the clean, minimalist presentation in these card games has really been hooking me as late. And it again as always circles me back around to a topic from a couple days ago:

For me it just comes down to the fact that there is little to nothing that gets released on console that I am even interested in.
 

NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
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This is me.

The enhancements sound great, and mouse aiming figures to be a huge help when things get hectic... but thats a whole lotta money Sony is asking for a game I already own (and is also on PS+).
I think that money would be better spent on Octopath 2
 
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「Echo」

竜の魔女。
Nov 1, 2018
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Mt. Whatever
Probably for the best right now. Currently Returnal is crashing A LOT since the latest patch.
User fixes are a total crap shoot. But there does seem to be some common strings among the crashes, namely the type and amount of enemies on screen. Also the Pylon gun lol.


Example here.

Both of these were true when Hubby and I crashed in our latest co-op session at the exact same time. We both had Electropylon, and we were in a room with those exact enemies.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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Probably for the best right now. Currently Returnal is crashing A LOT since the latest patch.
User fixes are a total crap shoot. But there does seem to be some common strings among the crashes, namely the type and amount of enemies on screen. Also the Pylon gun lol.
Interestingly, my friend hat 3 crashes during our latest co-op session, and I had 0. We even have pretty similar PCs, just different GPUs (both NV though).
 
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lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
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What's up, long time no see lol. God the last 3 years have flown by. Having a toddler does that i suppose.
yup, it's been a while, haha :D but i'm glad you're back, what would we do without our very own Russian Bear™? :p
KainXVIII alone can only carry this torch so far :p haha
 
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LEANIJA

MetaMember
May 5, 2019
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Austria
Trine 5 rumored to be in development


article based on this



would be welcome! I love the Trine games. 3 was a missed opportunity that couldve been amazing with a less restrictive camera (as I say every time when I speak/talk about that game ;) )
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Trine 5 rumored to be in development


article based on this



would be welcome! I love the Trine games. 3 was a missed opportunity that couldve been amazing with a less restrictive camera (as I say every time when I speak/talk about that game ;) )
I guess since every odd-numbered Trine game has to be bad (or mediocre), I shouldn't hold out too much for this one. Looking forward to Trine 6, though.
 
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kio

MetaMember
Apr 19, 2019
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I guess since every odd-numbered Trine game has to be bad (or mediocre), I shouldn't hold out too much for this one. Looking forward to Trine 6, though.
Other than being incomplete and half a game, what's there in Trine 3 is good. Maybe not as good as the others but definitely worth playing.
 
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actual_norwegian_guy

Rebranded...
Apr 15, 2021
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Uhm, yikes.

Uninstalling this shit asap.


"And in recent news, players of the newly-released video game "Atomic Heart" are uninstalling the game en masse in a brave form of protest against a racist caricature which was included within the game."
"This situation has come as a shock to most players, as they were not expecting this form of aggressive artwork in a country as acceptive and friendly as modern Russia."
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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"This situation has come as a shock to most players, as they were not expecting this form of aggressive artwork in a country as acceptive and friendly as modern Russia."
That's pretty racist as it low key condemns every artist and individual in the country when we know times are pretty hard there for political dissenters. Should we also not want to help people in Turkey who suffered from the earthquake (and Erdogan's policies) because of its leader and like minded officials and such?
 
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NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
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"And in recent news, players of the newly-released video game "Atomic Heart" are uninstalling the game en masse in a brave form of protest against a racist caricature which was included within the game."
"This situation has come as a shock to most players, as they were not expecting this form of aggressive artwork in a country as acceptive and friendly as modern Russia."
What a fucking idiot lmao. Who's protesting anything? I just don't wanna play something with something as blatant racism on it.

And yeah, as we all know all Russians are racist innit.
 
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NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
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That's a 0.5 second stil from THE Soviet cartoon of commie era, which the game includes all 22 episodes of as bonus.
Totally not taken out of context, no siree.
I think that's fair.
Yes, it's barely nothing in the game. But also yes, it's a self own. I think if you're releasing a game in 2023 you should be triple checking for this stuff.
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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It's so annoying how 2 of the coolest games so far this year (HP game and Atomic Heart) has so much shit behind them.

Gahhhh. Im also so close to purchasing AH on Fanatical.
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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I think that's fair.
Yes, it's barely nothing in the game. But also yes, it's a self own. I think if you're releasing a game in 2023 you should be triple checking for this stuff.
Knowing the context it is unfair tho, Disney gets away with it with having a note nobody reads before "classics" like Peter Pan or whatever nobody condemns:shrugblob:

I guess they could/should add such a warning too (and probably weren't even aware of this still to do so over it) but otherwise I don't see a problem with it now.

Also, to be fair, why not condemn all the platforms that allow the sale of this thing for the same exact reason? Because that wouldn't be so very easy to do ey..?
 
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Derrick01

MetaMember
Oct 6, 2018
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There are so many amazing games nowadays being released daily, how do ya'll keep up with them. There is not enough time in the world :anguished-face:
It helps when you don't find most indie games interesting since they're the ones that flood the market with the largest amount of stuff overall.

Granted it can often be crazy in the other areas too. This month has 5 games I was interested in checking out, not including psvr 2 stuff which will be down the road if I even get one. I may remove atomic heart from that list of 5 though the game really doesn't seem like it's worth trying even a little bit on gamepass and I don't even mean any of the controversial stuff. The game itself just seems kinda shit lol.
 
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actual_norwegian_guy

Rebranded...
Apr 15, 2021
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What a fucking idiot lmao. Who's protesting anything? I just don't wanna play something with something as blatant racism on it.

And yeah, as we all know all Russians are racist innit.
well the joke doesnt sound funny if i wrote "in breaking news, one singular person on the internet is uninstalling the game"
 

Amzin

No one beats me 17 times in a row!
Dec 5, 2018
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I know it's a hot take, but I really like Returnal. Haven't had a game call me back for more when I put it down like this in ages. I played 8 hours over the 3 day weekend and just want another weekend for more. Fortunate to not have any crashes so far. I have been playing with settings to try and stop frame drops, it definitely could use more optimization.

But yea the setting, action, mechanics, and feel are just great. I keep learning new things I can do and getting a better grasp of the combat system but I made it through act 1 I think pretty good pace.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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I know it's a hot take, but I really like Returnal. Haven't had a game call me back for more when I put it down like this in ages. I played 8 hours over the 3 day weekend and just want another weekend for more. Fortunate to not have any crashes so far. I have been playing with settings to try and stop frame drops, it definitely could use more optimization.

But yea the setting, action, mechanics, and feel are just great. I keep learning new things I can do and getting a better grasp of the combat system but I made it through act 1 I think pretty good pace.
Yeah, I haven't had a chance to play too much yet but the moment-to-moment gameplay is great.
 

rybrad

Junior Member
Apr 22, 2019
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I know it's a hot take, but I really like Returnal. Haven't had a game call me back for more when I put it down like this in ages. I played 8 hours over the 3 day weekend and just want another weekend for more. Fortunate to not have any crashes so far. I have been playing with settings to try and stop frame drops, it definitely could use more optimization.

But yea the setting, action, mechanics, and feel are just great. I keep learning new things I can do and getting a better grasp of the combat system but I made it through act 1 I think pretty good pace.
I finished up the secret ending this weekend and I agree that it feels fantastic to play. They really did a great job with all of the traversal mechanics and how much traits can really influence how a weapon feels. I'm not sure if I can think of a game off the top of my head that feels better to play from a strictly mechanical perspective.
 

Hektor

Autobahnraser
Nov 1, 2018
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