Meanwhile, when I was making that joke to friends in college

What, so I can be underpaid to do the most stressful and undersupported job ever, with the chance that the next political controversy may force me to go weeks or months without pay, and then feel the guilt of killing several hundred people if I screw up?

Right, but we look at examples like Chromium and we can see where there is still so much potential for things to go sideways. GabeN and his yacht could sink to the bottom of the sea and his estate sells control of Valve to someone less benevolent.

A commercial entity that has enough control over a project pushes the direction of that project in their favor. And sure you can fork a FOSS project at any time, but once the commercialized version has enough saturation, user inertia and lack of experienced developers to take that initiative often prevents alternatives from achieving success.

Just wish it was coming from a non-commercial entity. Puts a sour note on the status of Linux gaming that a for-profit entity is the only one out there making meaningful progress.

Basically. How to be the worst contractor and still get paid for it.

I forgot what the game was called until I looked it up again just now, and so this had me thinking that Low-Budget Repairs had finally released

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3167920/LowBudget_Repairs/

The worst thing that can come from this is that Disney gets bored with owning a video game company

If I had to guess, they actually want Epic because they use Unreal for their TV series and movies. I think they couldn’t care less about the video game business.

But all of the set backgrounds for e.g. The Mandalorian are rendered in Unreal on their fancy 360° production stage so that they can have real-time photography and lighting based on camera position.

To my knowledge, Gearbox has never managed to fully shake the allegations that they took Sega’s money for Alien: Colonial Marines and diverted most of it to Borderlands 2.

They also outsourced most of the development to another studio, and covered up that fact before release. After release, they happily pointed the blame away from themselves and onto the other studio, which promptly closed. The whole thing was basically set up to fail.

I’m not inclined to believe the accuracy of the survey, especially since it’s just voluntary data from randomly chosen people.

Sales data shows that the Steam Deck alone has numbers just shy of total 50 series GPUs. Not all of those GPUs are going to be used for gaming, but I’d hazard just about all of those Steam Decks are. So logically the Steam Deck’s integrated GPU should be the most popular option on paper.

Gaming and consumer “AI PCs” account for $16 billion of Nvidia’s revenue from last year, compared to $190 billion made on AI data centers.

Consumer GPUs are an afterthought for them at this point, not even 10% of their business.

Nvidia is killing it because they are the backbone of AI outside of gaming, too, which is where most of the interest is.

Their GPUs seem to be available and affordable to everyone but gamers these days. Fewer people are buying them to play games, and that audience has enough money to price out regular consumers with demand.

I know very well that LLMs are not going to replace me, and that most of it is just hype, ignorance and stupidity by people who don’t have a clue about what’s involved in software development.

The other end of that, though, is sure we know that AI is no replacement for a talented developer, but does management know that?

But you don’t start 20 lawsuits for the same thing at the same time against everybody. You start with one case against one company, and if it rules in your favor, that sets stronger precedent to go after the others.

As for why Valve, I’m guessing it’s easier to demonstrate more specific examples of harm when you have a larger pool of consumers to draw from, and easier to get an American entity in an American courtroom.

That’d be the argument if one was a computer application and the other was a brand of household cleaning products or something. But both of these Zooms are computer applications with a chance to be listed side-by-side in app stores and search results.

The Discord alternative formerly known as Revolt, now known as Stoat, had to change their name following a C&D from (purportedly) an online news outlet that was also called Revolt.

Feel like a C&D on their name is imminent with the video conferencing app Zoom.

What they’re describing isn’t just going to sleep, but putting a game on pause, doing whatever else you want (such as playing a different game) and then resuming exactly where you left off.

It’s basically just dumping the RAM to a file and loading it later, same as an emulator save state.

I think it’s “console enough” that it could still work. Current consoles are really just locked-down PCs anyways.

It’d be no different than the OtherOS functionality on first-run PS3 consoles that allowed them to boot into Linux. Perhaps simpler than that even, given that current consoles already use standard PC hardware and not the Cell architecture the PS3 ran on.

Independent emulation teams trying to keep older games alive are true heroes, but there is certainly something to be said for the quality of a competent team of first-party engineers who have access to all of the original code and architecture documentation. Truly some magic they were able to pull off.

Here’s hoping it still has that functionality, I don’t see a reason why it couldn’t.

Could be that they add that functionality into Windows. There’s nothing special about newer games that run on Xbox, they’re all x86 applications. Microsoft could just release the Xbox middleware as its own app and allow Xbox games to work on whatever PC it’s installed on, which is basically all that an Xbox is right now.

For older games (360 and OG Xbox), just do the same thing with the emulator that they currently run through.

You know, I’m okay with this. If it makes PC gaming more accessible, and if it offers meaningful competition for the Steam Machine, it’s good to have options. Sure it’s Windows, but if it’s just a PC running an Xbox UX, I’m sure you could change the OS to whatever else if you want.

If anything, it does make the PS6 a less appealing choice, because why pick a dedicated console when you can get an (assuming) comparably strong, comparably priced gaming PC?

It is admittedly more secure.

A stolen card can be used for tap to pay, with not all transactions requiring a PIN with a card. A stolen phone cannot if they don’t have your phone’s PIN or biometrics.

And most phone tap-to-pay apps will also randomize your card data in the transaction to prevent your information from being tracked or compromised in the event of a large-scale data breach, like what happened with Target in 2013 and hundreds of retailers since.

They already took their millions in Tencent money and ran with it.

https://www.polygon.com/highguard-funding-tencent/

When is it a bad thing to encourage best practices on the Internet to verify sources and recognize signs of LLM slop? They took the time to explain why it’s better to get a direct source and avoid middlemen. That’s not “defensive”.

Your argument is that they simply could have searched for additional sources, but I think you’ve proven the point that simply searching without verifying is likely to yield garbage.

There’s no disparaging OP here unless they are the author of the article. But I believe that the article is being properly criticized for the things it does wrong.

Maybe. Though it might still be difficult with the number of button combos (basically a different function for each pair of face buttons you press at the same time).

Gameplay-wise it feels more like a fighting game than something like Dark Souls, it’s built around combos. I’m sure it’ll be fun for many, and like I said things could even be different than when I tried it a year ago, but for now I’m gonna wait and see what reviews say after launch, maybe wait for a sale if I’m still on the fence.

I had a chance to play it at an event last year. Maybe things have improved in the interim, but I’ve never played a game with a more obtuse control scheme in my life.

Who puts jump on square??

Might still be worth checking your WiFi access point to see if there’s anything weird going on. The Switches still connect to one another locally using the same WiFi chipset they’d use to connect to your router. Seems odd that one would struggle while the other works without issue in that case.

To continue the sandwich analogy, it’s also, like…

You eat the sandwich made by your loved one, and not only is it everything you asked for, but they also threw in some good salami and a dash of balsamic vinegar that you never thought to even ask for in the first place, because they know your tastes and thought you’d like it. You now have a new favorite sandwich.

Versus the gas station sandwich, which is fine, but only just meets the bare minimum qualifications to be a sandwich. They used to load it up with cheap cuts of meat, which at least made it good value for the price, but lately they put in maybe a single slice of ham or two, a single sad piece of rubbery cheese, and condiments are all sold extra. And the price of the sandwich itself, smaller and cheaper than ever, has only gone up.

Sure, but do we not consider the installments of a trilogy to be complete products in their own right?

Like, I don’t think it would be fair to say a similar product like Dune is a waste of time because they set up for a part 3 that has not yet come out, when the original Dune movie was just a single film instead of 3.

Yeah, I’d describe the Persona games as a nice change of pace, but they’re not particularly deep. Persona divides it’s bandwidth between the JRPG and VN elements but doesn’t go too far in either as to make it overwhelming.

The core Shin Megami Tensei series is probably the better representative for that type of JRPG, but fewer people give a damn about those games because they aren’t cute Japanese high school simulator.

I played Remake, then played the original FF7, and then played Rebirth. They’re not very comparable games, but I think I enjoy Remake/Rebirth more than the original.

But I acknowledge that I don’t have the nostalgic attachment to FF7 like others do. To me, I feel like the original game did not age well. I’ve played every other mainline Final Fantasy game (except for 11) and I honestly think 7 is the worst of the PS1 trilogy.

I also wouldn’t treat Remake/Rebirth as separate chapters of an incomplete game. They’re all full-size games. I beat the original FF7 in about 2/3 the time it took me to beat Rebirth.

Doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. There aren’t really any barriers to entry on Lemmy and astroturfing is easy.

But then this quickly spiralled into studios forcing devs to release 1/2 baked games in a horribly broken state.

And the other side of the coin, with the advent of DLC, being able to take a complete game and carve pieces off of it to sell separately for more profit.

The other unfortunate part is that this game was in development long before Amazon obtained the rights to James Bond, which was only a year minus 1 week ago.

Amazon had no part in the development of this game until exactly that point. They’re still nothing more than an IP holder (not publisher), but as a licensed property that they now own, they will get a cut all the same.

Like others have said, it’s Returnal 2 in all but name. Made by the same developers, and it’s a direct followup to Returnal (in gameplay at least, if not plot). I think it’s safe to call it a sequel, even if there’s no direct continuity, though I don’t think that possibility has been ruled out yet.

If you really want mods, there’s one called Glorious Merchant. It makes the merchant at the beginning of the game (Kalé) sell every obtainable item for free, including runes that you can use to level up.

Helpful if you’re looking to test out a specific build/gear set from the beginning, but if you’re just using it to get as overpowered as possible, it’ll trivialize the game. If you use it, I recommend doing so in moderation.

Before you try mods, I’d recommend learning a bit more about the core of the game and deciding for yourself. A lot of people make the game harder for themselves than they need to because they refuse to make use of spirit ash summons that the game gives you very early on.

My recommendation, if you’re looking for an easy start that does well and doesn’t require much thought: go all in on strength. Find the biggest sword you can get, then find a second big sword and hold it in your other hand. When you have two of the same kind of weapon equipped (2 greatswords/2 colossal swords/etc) you can press LB to attack with both at the same time. Level up your endurance enough to stay in medium load, then throw the rest of your levels into vigor for HP and strength for damage. Other stats don’t really matter. Use spirit ashes (and NPC summons if available) in any fight you feel like. Don’t worry about shields, just practice dodge rolling to avoid damage.

My first playthrough, I used one colossal sword I got from beating the boss of Castle Morne down south in the Weeping Peninsula (Grafted Blade Greatsword), and then I used another colossal sword I picked up in the overworld in Caelid (Greatsword. Just “Greatsword”. Ironically it’s classified as a colossal sword and not a greatsword). I used those for the rest of the game and all through the DLC, and they can be obtained very early.

I should also add that I did this as someone who also had not played any Souls games prior, was worried about how hard Elden Ring would be, but stuck with it for a bit and ended up finding it very fun and manageable after a while.

Edit: forgot where one weapon came from.

I think it’s a mistake to ride the coattails of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Don’t get me wrong, I think more Forgotten Realms stories could make for good TV. The Honor Among Thieves movie from a few years ago was fantastic, and there was supposed to be a live action TV series in the works after that.

But I just don’t see why they’d give up on making one D&D TV series, only to start a brand new one with more baggage. Instead of telling an original story, they’re tied down to a story continuity that is inevitably going to leave a lot of fans disappointed regardless of the direction they take.

The Wii U had a very short (relative for a console) lifespan, though. It released at the end of 2012, and the Switch came in early 2017. Really just 4 years and some change. It didn’t sell well and Nintendo wanted to move on from it as quickly as possible.

The Switch, by comparison, lasted about twice as long (longer if you factor in how many more game releases it’s still likely to see), and I’d anticipate the Switch 2 having a comparable lifespan if it continues to sell well. We’re not getting a Switch 3 in 2030, at least.

I think if they did a ground-up remake/reimagining of Arena or Daggerfall, it could still be compelling. Not a simple remaster, though.

That being said, there is apparently a Unity port of Daggerfall that appears quite decent, and goes a long way towards modernizing an otherwise ancient game.

I thought True Colors was decent enough, but by all accounts Double Exposure was nothing special.

I really liked the anthology thing the series was going with, where every game was telling a different story with a different cast. Maybe eventually getting to the core of answering why these random kids have strange abilities.

But the last thing I wanted was them to try to continue from (what I thought was) a perfect ending. Just seems like they’ve lost the point.

The updated Forerunner architecture designs seem directly lifted out of Tron. I can’t imagine it’s a coincidence that Halo 4 released just 2 years after Tron Legacy.