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

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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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Hm. I wouldn't say it like that. It's less that the bubble has burst - live service games still are massively popular and massive money makers. It's more that the current sub-markets within the larger live service market are saturated and trying to get into them is a humongous undertaking.
I think that pretty much is the definition of a bubble bursting. It doesn’t mean all the in the space go bust.

I also think that we’re only at the beginning of the burst, with more and more games getting discontinued throughout this year.

What happened was one or two companies made a fuckton in live services, they were followed in by trend chasers and the bubble burst.

It’s classic boom and bust. I also think it’s an issue facing a large swath of ‘services’ right now, not just live service games.
 

MomoVideo

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Apr 5, 2021
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A little late to the discussion, but I've got a short, but not a great experience with those. The first time I had Xbox Elite 2 controller in my hands, I broke that little nub on the back of the controller that lets you switch how much you can press the trigger. I literally moved it up and down and it broke.
My brother already went through 3 Xbox Elite Controllers (the first version) despite not playing that much. Every single one of them had a defect - from bumpers stopping to work mere months after the first use, to analog sticks registering opposite movement after letting it go ( this one was happening to all of them). For the price they are asking, the quality control is absolutely terrible.
 

Kal1m3r0

MetaMember
Jan 9, 2021
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Do you usually just use your controller to play anything or use KBM for certain games?
According to Steam I'm a 50/50 gamer

Any problems with the comfort? The grip curve is straighter than xbox/sony offerings and I was worried it would get uncomfortable for extended playing. How's your experience with that?

I found xbox series controller much more comfortable than dualsense for extended playing because of the straighter grip curve on dualsense.

It's $45 for the bluetooth ultimate version currently in my local store, might pick it up regardless.
Precisely what I mean, but I didn't find so bad to be a problem. It's just that the XBOX one is better from that perspective.
45$ for the Ultimate Bluetooth is crazy cheap, absolutely go for that
 
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FunnyJay

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I've been trying out the HITMAN WOA
Freelancer mode.

It really forces me to play a lot different than how I've usually played the HITMAN games. You have to be really slow and methodical, but at the same time willing to switch up your plan immediately on the fly if something goes wrong.
I failed my first campaign, since the first syndicate leader was holed out on the bottom level on the ICA facility in Chongquin. I'm fairly certain I figured out who it was, but I failed to mark the suspect properly, and she wandered off. As I was searching through the facility, I got spotted.
The leader made it out of the map, and I almost made it out myself, but was cornered on the final staircase and went down.

If I can complain about something, it's that your freelancer tools are removed when you fail a campaign, so you have to collect them all again.
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
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Most live service games just don't have the steady flow of new content or well thought out methods for long term engagement.

You need in depth inventory systems ala CSGO/DOta and/or you need big IP power + fanbases like FFXIV/Fortnite etc.

A lot of these service games nowadays don't really have the internal resources to make it big. They just want to strike gold in the streaming world and push trends but all that stuff is really hard. Its basically a gamble and most will get wiped by competition.
And I don't trust AAA(A) studios to stick with the game longer than 1-2 years without fucking up the monetization.
 

prudis

anime occult member
Sep 19, 2018
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The Kingdom of Beer and Porn
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Do you usually just use your controller to play anything or use KBM for certain games?
i would say i am 80% M/K. 20% gamed with the gamepad percentage rising heavily thx to having the deck

I have had quite some issues with gamepads overall thx to hand injury 10 years ago ... so for a long time gamepads were physically painfull for me. But its better now as i kept trying

Nowadays its mostly about the fact that i am too entrenched into mouselook that any game with "freelook" for the camera is issue for me on analog sticks ... i am just too used to look around whenever i need that i have hard time stop doing that while playing on gamepad .
I stopped hoarding in favor of buying only what I want to play in the close future and in completing the backlog. :grinning-face:
problem is when your game taste is so wide , that ebem the "i want to play in close future" and "backlog" category is dozens of titles large :face-with-tears-of-joy:
 

Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,712
8,930
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So I only discovered Wonder Boy Deluxe was a thing because it's part of the Final Burn Neo romset I got.

Does anyone know how it differs to vanilla?

It looks the same to me. Ignore this if it's a random hack though, but usually those are marked as such and this one isn't and google isn't helping.
 
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fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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Been playing Vampire Survivors at the side while playing Pathfinder (should finish that one today).

After 25 hours with Vampire Survivors and 72/159 cheevos I think I've had my fill. A really fun and addictive game, but get's quite monotonous after a while when I found a pretty great build that almost made me invincible, so I mainly just used that build.
 

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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I think that pretty much is the definition of a bubble bursting. It doesn’t mean all the in the space go bust.

I also think that we’re only at the beginning of the burst, with more and more games getting discontinued throughout this year.

What happened was one or two companies made a fuckton in live services, they were followed in by trend chasers and the bubble burst.

It’s classic boom and bust. I also think it’s an issue facing a large swath of ‘services’ right now, not just live service games.
In that case yeah, I think we're in agreement.
It's gonna get bloody if you aren't already among the big players.
 
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toxicitizen

MetaMember
Oct 24, 2018
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Noooo. Delays generally don't bother me but it's so close to REmake 4 now. Guess TLoU is just gonna have to wait until I'm done with it. It kinda sucks cause I'm honestly more hyped for TLoU at this point. I haven't touched it since my one playthrough of the PS3 version like 10 years ago and I've been itching to replay it for a few years now. And the HBO show being incredible has only increased my hype lol.

On the bright side, I was never going to finish Returnal in the two weeks between it and TLoU so I'll have more time to focus on it now.
 

LEANIJA

MetaMember
May 5, 2019
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Austria
Noooo. Delays generally don't bother me but it's so close to REmake 4 now. Guess TLoU is just gonna have to wait until I'm done with it. It kinda sucks cause I'm honestly more hyped for TLoU at this point. I haven't touched it since my one playthrough of the PS3 version like 10 years ago and I've been itching to replay it for a few years now. And the HBO show being incredible has only increased my hype lol.

On the bright side, I was never going to finish Returnal in the two weeks between it and TLoU so I'll have more time to focus on it now.
Ah, thats a shame!

Yeah the HBO show also hyped me to replay the game, I even played it a bit via PSPlus streaming but that experience just isnt the same. Apart from the streaming quality never being amazing, I really want to play it with mouse and keyboard;
 

spindoctor

MetaMember
Jun 9, 2019
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All these GaaS games shutting down is nothing more than cost cutting from companies who are doing everything they can to deal with the global recession. These games were failures anyway. It absolutely does not signify any sort of shift away from the GaaS model and all these companies are most certainly still trying to find the next big hit for themselves in that category.

Now that I think about it... what is the most recent (new) GaaS hit game? There was that game (I forget it's name) that became super popular a few weeks ago because some KPop star streamed it. It sort of meme'd it's way into success but that still counts. Then there was Lost Ark early last year but that was an already established game getting localized. There are obviously games you expect to do well (Overwatch 2, Call of Duty and things like that) but I can't really think of anything recent that came out of nowhere and just decided to succeed.
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
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Okay, had my fill with Vampire Survivors. Played it a lot today, 30.8 hours with 92/159 cheevos. It got pretty easy and monotonous when I found a build that sorta made me invincible.

Might go back in the future, but I've had my fill for now.
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
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Thought I'd check Hi-Fi Rush out on my aging PC after the DF video on it. I seem able to get 1440p with TAA over 60fps (so lock to that for consistency) but it does randomly hitch here and there so maybe the related stuttering is only completely gone for more capable PCs. I'd probably try FSR2 if it was in.

I have to say that the cut scenes have many more elements that look off because they update at a higher fps than the character animation than this video implies, I notice them all over the place myself. Camera movement, scrolling signs, smoke effects, even some in focus objects at times.

Also Idk why some surfaces have a bad shimmery look when viewed at an angle. It almost looks like lack of AF (but there's no setting for that) but most textures are fine. There are also very few interactive elements (with high gpu physics if that matters), I thought you'd be able to break benches, trash cans and what not but it's pretty much just boxes, barrels and some small elements like the cones (yet in some spots there are cones that aren't interactive either).

Also the shadow loding is very visible after all, not just the nicely animated stuff shown in the video. Also some things don't even cast any shadows.

That's with the relevant settings maxed though I did try different settings to see if I can get rid of those hitches (couldn't).

No shadow on them cones:


Weird surface look at an angle:
Forgot to take screenshot of some long rail shadow being all jagged like some line of teeth up to a point then all straight closer and that difference in quality moving along as I move forward. It works as expected, nothing extraordinary, I'd put it as a good port like Monster Hunter Rise. It does almost seem like this could be a multiplatform Switch game like that, just at ~720p or less and with more lod stuff on it. I thought it'd be more impressive by the video/hype.

I'm on an 11 year old CPU and 7 year old GPU (granted I didn't get them at launch) with 16GB ram and HDD for games. And only a couple games I tried yet don't really care to play anyway bring it to its knees (Callisto Protocol and Dead Space remake). Well, VR too sadly, need to upgrade for that.

SSD for games would probably help with a lot too, but I don't want to get one now, it will have to wait for the next build since I'll go for nvme or whatever, on this one it'd have to be sata which I have (SSD just for OS drive). Better wait on that front regardless.

Anyway, other than the technical stuff, the game seems alright though I don't enjoy the rhythm aspect much. I find myself trying to start attacks on the beat even though attacks are meant to always land on the beat regardless of when you press the button, but if you start on the beat I guess it feels more consistent in the timing required like a character action game without that gimmick. You already need rhythm and timing without it so Idk why they wanted it in, I'd more expect a musical game in this genre to adapt its music to you than you adapting your play to it. Like De Blob but action.

Also I thought I'd go with Japanese voices and text for everything else but it seemed to at times have text outside the subtitles to read even in the cut scenes and I didn't have time for both (even though I'm used to subtitles this one instance just wasn't meant for it) so I switched to English. It's good and fitting though.

Sad to hear in the vid that most of the levels have that same industrial look to them with few being more creative but oh well, I wasn't expecting AAA.

Edit: played up to the hideout. The game is solid but I'm sorry to say people are crazy to claim it tops genre greats. I mean it's no Marlow Briggs but it needs to up its game 10fold and soon and keep doing it if it wants to reach even the beginning of games like Bayo 1-3 (never mind AAA stuff like DMCV). I hope you get a lot of cool traversal stuff cos that's the most drab thing so far, just running in corridors/on flat surfaces and jump/double jump/dashing up places/past gaps. I did get the magnetic arm grapple thing shown just now in the next level, hopefully you get some cool tricks to use freely and not just in preset spots like this. Anyway, the price is right, it's a fun, well made budget game, just don't fall for the hyperbole that's more about insulting other greats than elevating this one.
 
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Derrick01

MetaMember
Oct 6, 2018
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Before anyone touts the failing company narrative it's still like their 2nd or 3rd best year ever financially and that's impressive when you consider they didn't really have anything big all of last year. No big FF or DQ game, no FFXIV expansion. In fact that's a good reason why they performed worse, the year prior had endwalker release in december.
 

YourFriendMaynard

The flame is it's own reflection
Dec 21, 2018
622
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I want the people to know who might've been laughing at my gullibility at hardwar being a 90's game

I don't remember much about 90's game I WAS JUST A CHILD okay

There are indie developer willing to go that much further in a e s t h e t i c s

but i had no idea it was 90's game okay omg I had no idea
 

FunnyJay

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I want the people to know who might've been laughing at my gullibility at hardwar being a 90's game

I don't remember much about 90's game I WAS JUST A CHILD okay

There are indie developer willing to go that much further in a e s t h e t i c s

but i had no idea it was 90's game okay omg I had no idea
Doesn't help that the release date is written as 2023...
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,258
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Finland
If I can complain about something, it's that your freelancer tools are removed when you fail a campaign, so you have to collect them all again.
It's really rough but I'd guess they made it that way to encourage the player to use them. Especially all the consumables.
 

FunnyJay

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It's really rough but I'd guess they made it that way to encourage the player to use them. Especially all the consumables.
Still, with the really limited gear slots in the beginning, you can't really utilize much of your tools and your arsenal.

One simple gun is like half the allowed gear in the beginning.
 
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