Community MetaSteam | September 2024 - The emperor protects, BOY!

PC-tan

Low Tier Weeb
Jan 19, 2019
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California
If they are reading glasses for your phone, yeah it's fine to use. I mean it should be! :cold-sweat:
Just try and see if it gives you some eye strain, I know some people that can't really do that and just get closer to the screen, but then they have very severe vision issues...

Note that there are special glasses made for screen use, they're supposed to limit the amount of blue light you receive and help your eyes get less tired... it sounds like quackery to me and the studies are inconclusive, maybe it's placebo, maybe not.

I have a pair and I noticed that when I was walking the other day and looking at the ground that they were a slight green color. When I removed them, the ground looked more grey. This was around sunset.
 
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xinek

日本語が苦手
Apr 17, 2019
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So glasses wearing people here, I finally got to that age when I got prescribed reading glasses. They are meant to be used when reading or on the phone... BUT they kind of work when sitting on the computer also, I still see just fine without, but glasses make it just slightly more sharp, so wearing them when on the computer bad idea?
I can't think of any downside to wearing them, but I'm not an eye doctor. I can say that when my presbyopia started, I resisted glasses pretty hard. When I finally gave in and wore them whenever I slightly needed them, life became much less difficult. Who could have predicted it?
I am now trialing a pair of monovision contacts -- one eye is corrected for closeup vision, while the other is for distance vision. I never knew this existed!
 

Arulan

Lizardman
Dec 7, 2018
559
1,964
93
I'm playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic again.





I don't recall the last time I replayed it, maybe over a decade at this point.

It's not the most stable or bug-free game out there at this point (regardless of OS it seems). I had to use an older Proton version (8.0-5), but outside of some weird handling of resolution changes, it plays as expected.

BTW, what is everyone using now to upload screenshots to, now that abload.de is dead? Maybe Imgur is fine to quickly share something though.
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,808
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It took me until the end of the first world in astrobot to see some special stuff in the game. I can understand why this is the #2 goty behind Rebirth.
At least Astrobot doesn't have 100s of dull minigames and side quests where their only goal is to streach out your playtime.
 
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Cacher

MetaMember
Jun 3, 2020
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Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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Don't really care about length, I'm always complaining about pacing.

That's what matters, and what so many games fail at - both for those giant AAA that you've seen all of in two hours, to shorter indie RPGs that just run out of new mechanics and progression by the midway point (hi Spiders), while including the short term narrative experiences that spend two minutes between every scene for no reason.
 

PC-tan

Low Tier Weeb
Jan 19, 2019
3,763
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California


I was reading this one thing about anime/manga and how an anime site closed down and I'm just reminding about how piracy when it comes to media, helps give access to people that otherwise wouldn't. Also the original thing is about cartoons and well American cartoons are treated very differently then anime, since companies like Warner will just straight up get rid of their stuff as use them as tax write off, you had a whole animated movie that was completed but because they feared it wouldn't do well that they never released it and just used it as a tax write off.

Are video games companies able to use games that bombed as tax write off, like the movie industry is able to? I know that video game companies do abuse tax write offs, Rockstar abuses UK tax write offs that are meant for smaller videos game studios but since they still qualify for those tax write off they make use of them.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Are video games companies able to use games that bombed as tax write off, like the movie industry is able to? I know that video game companies do abuse tax write offs, Rockstar abuses UK tax write offs that are meant for smaller videos game studios but since they still qualify for those tax write off they make use of them.
while I'm sure they are millions of ways to reduce tax, a "write off" means you basically give up on a product, stop sell it and pretend it does not exist going forward. Game companies don't do that, so whatever tax minimisation strategy they use, it has to be a different one if they still want to offer the game on sale somewhere.
I think the Rockstar thing is about tax reductions that video game and other entertainment companies enjoy in certain countries/cities, usually a reduction in payroll tax, from what I understand, since the biggest expense for a game company is salary of its employees. Perhaps they also pay lower business tax too, but I kinda assume the actual revenue from games is funnelled to some tax havens anyway.
 
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ZKenir

Setting the Seas Ablaze
May 10, 2019
3,413
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This has probably been asked before but I don't really need to play BG 1 and 2 before BG3 yeh?
I tried but I guess I don't really jive anymore with old games with dated graphics.
 

Morten88

Junior Member
Aug 8, 2021
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This has probably been asked before but I don't really need to play BG 1 and 2 before BG3 yeh?
I tried but I guess I don't really jive anymore with old games with dated graphics.
Nope you don't need to play the first 2 to enjoy the third, i never played the first 2 and BG3 was my GOTY last year.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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This has probably been asked before but I don't really need to play BG 1 and 2 before BG3 yeh?
I tried but I guess I don't really jive anymore with old games with dated graphics.
As someone who has played BG1 and BG2, I don't think you miss out on much. There's some cameos from the old games that will hit a bit harder if you know the characters, but it's all very minor stuff. BG3 takes place basically a century later and everything in those old games is quite literally ancient history.
 
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ezodagrom

JELLYBEE
Nov 2, 2018
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Portugal
www.youtube.com
The Bleach game that was announced a few months ago, the teasers made it look like just a battle arena game, but today there's been a few raw unedited videos, I think it kinda looks more like a 3D fighter than a battle arena?

Depending on how much depth the battle system ends up having, it could be interesting?
Though if the battle system ends up being very simple, it'll be just a battle arena with restricted movement, I guess.

 

Cacher

MetaMember
Jun 3, 2020
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I have finally done a hardware upgrade since I got into PC gaming in 2017. I upgraded from a 1080p 60hz IPS screen to a 1440p 180hz VA monitor (AOC Q27G3XMN)! Originally I was going for a OLED, but being someone who loves scanlines, burn-in is a legit concern so I went for apparently the best budget, non-OLED monitor in the market.

The first thing I did after plugging in was launching Octopath Traveler with blur/AA/redundant stuff off. Boy oh boy this looks fantastic.:blobeyes: I did research and changed some settings afterwards, then, I launched a few games and emulators to test.

Man...... This is not a OLED, but the black looks black enough, color is vibrant and the games are so sharp. Thank you life, this is amazing.
 
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Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
1,680
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Since it's a future Steam game ( :steam_cleanseal:) , played two worlds of Astro Bot.

Yeah... it's okay? I mean, it's fast and fluid but Astro has no weight, a lot of mechanics are inspired by Mario Sunshine, and there's nothing wrong with that but... it relies entirely on the equivalent of nozzles to do anything.
The huge, huge issue for a 3D platformer is that its base toolkit doesn't exist. It has jump, the floating clutch that's everywhere now (and it shoots a laser down, killing 98% of all basic mobs at no risk), punch and... punch longer but swirling around like Galaxy. It has none of the potential of a Mario game, or even A Hat in Time, it's very, very flat and gimmicky.

The bosses in particular are really bland (main area bosses, not the minibosses that you literally defeat in 50sec)?Still wondering why people said you needed to reach the first one to see the real Astro and... yeah it kinda blows, and the second isn't really better. It also looks surprisingly dodgy more often than not, the levels are small and the visual fidelity low, but the first boss in particular? Don't look at the skin and especially not at the fur! When the game doesn't use physics for say, fluids, flower petals, or little gold nuggets (and all of that is fluff and not used in gameplay), it's colourful yes, but the lack of identity the game suffers from make it very, very meh.

In the end it makes me think of Super Lucky's Tale... perfectly fine, but nothing special. And trying to add a lot of variety doesn't really help when the base doesn't have much going... as for collecting random references and getting coins to gacha more.... don't see the point. It's Smash Bros trophies levels of use (worse arguably, since they're stuck in the hub that you don't really go to). I would have preferred more outfits, the selection is quite limited after Mario Odyssey.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Yet another example of why i only use steam.
Apparently Itch allows developers to revoke purchases without refunding.
itch is basically a web hosting service for devs. You are not doing business with itch, itch is selling a service to devs and in this case Netflix does not want you to be able to download their game anymore. Not sure what the motivation here is. Does itch charge Netflix a small amount to keep the files available? If not, then it's just a case of Netflix being evil for no reason
 
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Derrick01

MetaMember
Oct 6, 2018
1,200
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Man, internet really sucks so hard, now Outlaws vs Space Marine 2 has become a cultural war match.

That said, Outlaws if pretty good! Don't listen to the haters.
Worst game I played this year by a wiiiide margin

But if that means I have to take the side of space marine in some culture war I'd rather vote third party. Who's the dipshit RFK Jr in this race? Concord? :LOL:
 
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Le Pertti

0.01% Game dev
Oct 10, 2018
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lepertti.com
Worst game I played this year by a wiiiide margin

But if that means I have to take the side of space marine in some culture war I'd rather vote third party. Who's the dipshit RFK Jr in this race? Concord? :LOL:
I mean its not perfect, at enjoyment is fully subjective, but I am having far better time with than I did for example with Dragons Dogma 2, other than that I haven't fully played a lot of games this year that I disliked.
 

Alexandros

MetaMember
Nov 4, 2018
2,792
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I mean its not perfect, at enjoyment is fully subjective, but I am having far better time with than I did for example with Dragons Dogma 2, other than that I haven't fully played a lot of games this year that I disliked.
Games are just mostly good across the board these days and I think some people, especially of younger age, don't really appreciate it as much as they should. Yes, I know that this sounds like an old man argument but back in the 80s and 90s the odds of you buying a truly bad game were quite high. God help you if you got two games each year, one for Christmas and one for your birthday, and you squandered those choices on some unplayable turd.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
4,169
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shouldn't space marine 2 be out already? Or is it the usual 10am Seattle time (7pm Central European) launch time?

EDIT:
unlocked now, was about 10 minutes late it seems
 
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yuraya

MetaMember
May 4, 2019
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143k concurrent for Space Marine 2 is very impressive. Honestly its hard to tell what is a great number and what is a good one.

10 years ago 143k would be incredible for a steam launch but the platform has grown so much since that 143k might be on the low end of success these days. Still tho for a Warhammer game its great.

The only game you can really compare this to is Gears 5 and that was only 9k peak back in 2019 lol but it was a Gamepass game so wtvr. I wonder how well E-Day does. The Coalition has to deliver something good this time.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
4,169
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shouldn't space marine 2 be out already? Or is it the usual 10am Seattle time (7pm Central European) launch time?

EDIT:
unlocked now, was about 10 minutes late it seems
Finished the prologue and began the first mission.
Amazing work from Saber here. Combat feels great, and I'm just floored at the details in every level. Runs like a dream too, but since it doesn't use RT, it's not a surprise.