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That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
Missed the sale. I had placed Witcher III in my cart but couldn't remember my PayPal password so decided to come back the next day. I guess it ended before the 20th. Oh well. Maybe next time.
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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
Alirght. I did it. I re-subbed my old Warcraft account for WoW Classic. I can't remember what year I started originally, but it was soon after the Burning Crusades expansion. My aunt had asked me to create a home page banner graphic for their guild and gave me the Battle Chest set that included the expansion + 30 days game time as payment. Her and her husband were pretty big into the game. Her two sons and daughter were too. So I had a pretty big helping hand from them getting started.

I played pretty consistent through the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and some into Cataclysm but dropped off pretty fast at that point. Family all bailed by then or moved to PVE servers for raiding focus. I never cared for that and preferred open-world PVP. Me and the ex played for a while during that time, but that faded out eventually too. So yeah. I've been out since maybe 2013. I subbed for the month and installed the re-release of Warcraft Classic last night.

After logging in I felt like an idiot. I've forgotten even the most basic game play. My primary character way back when was a rogue and I had all sorts of custom toolbars, macro scripts, and interface add-on plugins. Now I couldn't even figure out how to search for in-game friends. WOW! <---- get it? wow? World of Warcraft? cuz ..well... WoW!

I spent the better part of 15 minutes just standing in one place clicking around the keyboard to try to inspire SOME working memory of anything. The "O" key opens your friend list. I guess "O" is for open.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
I saw the other day that Ghost of Tsushima may now be released as a PS5 exclusive instead of the last rumor that it might release late August of this year. Sad day as I was hoping for this, Control and the Dark Crystal series from Netflix to all hit around the same time.

"According to a 'leaked internal email' from Sony (and posted to NeoGaf), the PS5 will be unveiled at a "PlayStation Meeting 2020" launch event on February 12, 2020. This meeting, according to the rumor, aims to showcase "the future of Sony PlayStation to the whole world".

The same 'leaked internal email' claims that Ghost of Tsushima will be a PS5 exclusive.

It's worth taking this rumor with a huge pinch of salt as it hasn't been verified that this is an official internal email.

In response to a request for comment, a Sony spokesperson stated: "We don’t comment on rumour and speculation"."
Techrader.com article 14 days ago (ads everywhere!)

well poop.



The People's Republic of Clogher
I bought Astral Chain, the Switch exclusive stylish actioner from Platinum. Not got very far with it yet but it's promising so far, although ultra Anime.

My Switch is now my main machine for non AAA stuff, and a huge turnaround from 6 months ago when it was gathering dust in the corner. Two of my biggest gripes were that I found it really uncomfortable to hold, since remedied with a protective case/grip, and that the Pro controller was the worst first party gamepad I'd seen in years, since remedied by a £25 8bitdo Bluetooth pad.

In other words, I'm loving the Switch in spite of itself.
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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan



there's a frog in my snake oil
Star Citizen: Supplementary


Welcome to your latest round of condensed SC drama


Recent 'underwater' bug, probably due to this old Cryengine clash

Let's start pragmatically. And then get increasingly surreal.....


All Change, Everything The Same:



CIG have just announced an exciting and promising new development shift: Staggered Development.

TLDR: It's not hugely unusual in dev terms, but a cynical person could see it as yet another narrative to excuse the ongoing roadmap slippages. The most amusing delay is the 3 month pushback for the 2020 SQ42 Beta. (Which everyone and their dog could see coming from the specific backlogs there anyway). Presumably the recent investors can see this too...

The broader backer base seems grumpy. The thinned-out, subscription-funded, video schedule has been receiving a downvote pasting at points, and the episode on The Staggering got a distinctly critical reception...


Trouble At Mill, But The Sales Spin On:




CIG recently charged $275 for a private event, open only to backers who've paid more than $1,000 into the game, to peddle a new [currently non-existent] ship which costs $675. Because of course they did. And of course it added yet more unique gameplay mechanics (mine laying) to the already very long list of unfulfilled, pre-sold promises...

Whales should be happy though, the recent in-game pricing rejig suggests epic grind will be required for the genuinely expensive ships. It's not pay to win. No no no. It's value preservation. Oh yes

There are some splitters amongst their ranks though, with the grey market fairly stuffed with people selling ships and credits at a loss, with 70% pricing seeming the current market norm.


Legalese & 'Severe Financial Distress':



Back in court, the Judge has ruled that a $500k bond from Crytek will suffice to keep the ball rolling. Hilariously, they used CIG's own florid language back at them, stating that if Crytek really are 'teetering on the brink of insolvency', as posited, then hitting them with the proposed (and dubiously justified) 2mil+ bond would be excessive

Crytek recently delivered a lovely cashier's cheque.

Discovery (the rummage through relevant internal code, finances & communications) is now on the way...


A Very Minor Side-Note:

They finally moved away from their old Flash-based UI system. Here is their very youthful UI lead talking about it. The new internal tool is called 'Building Blocks'. That, at 7 or so years into development, is slightly amusing. (Scaleform, the software they were using, came bundled with the original Crytek license. It is not used by the Lumberyard version of Cryengine that they switched to. This also may prove to be amusing... )


Christory:



Taking a look back at the past exploits of Christoper Roberts is always illuminating. Here's some stuff I've been nudged towards recently:


It's a Head Turner:



The infamous TheAgent has hello posted on SA again. As always, pile high with a 1000 dollar's worth of salt. But enjoy too. It's piquant...

Originally Posted by TheAgent
hello
  • after many, many assurances that the crytek lawsuit would not proceed, chris & co are scrambling (no elaboration)
  • emails, contracts, recorded conversations and biz licences are being sent for review (legal review?)
  • Erin "extremely nervous" about outcome, although showing a "carefree attitude" around the office
  • "I know for a fact he doesn't want another Gizmondo on his hands. Once was enough."
  • aegis backer event: "Our goal was to be totally positive. We nailed it."
  • production on certain parts of the game are stopped completely until legal avenues are resolved
  • mostly that means engine and server improvements
  • this halt is scheduled to begin 9/3, but employees have known about it for some time
  • engine switch most likely in the cards, deep discussions about stadia/UE4 ongoing
  • "Anything made or built with CryEngine would be discarded and re-coded." including animations, models, maps, client and server side code, etc
  • "We'd have to redo a lot of work. It'd be worth it, because it's the only way forward."
A build pause would be unsurprising if discovery was gearing up. The complete engine switch, if in any way true, would be pretty calamitous at this juncture though (I'd imagine).

PS the Gizmondo reference is about Erin Roberts' tangental proximity to that infamous failed-console mafia-money-laundering debacle. The current CIG CFO was also CFO of one arm of the broader company, and utterly failed to spot it happening. No guilt implied. But, um, yeah. Not an ideal background...


Unbelievably Delicious Gossip:

This is clearly far too juicy to be true...

I was at the dinner actually, what was truly sad was just how much CR was trying to push things on us. Not the ship sales, but these supplements he was taking. He kept telling everyone who came up to him to talk to him about the game about these natural vitamins that were making him feel so much better, he said he's writing code 12 hours a day, 7 days a week to complete a physics refactor or something, that he then runs 4 hours, eats, and then goes to sleep. I kept trying to move the conversation towards progress towards milestones, community interaction, the roadmap, gameplay, etc, but every time he would rudely interrupt me to tell me that I should get these supplements, that they would transform my life and make me feel like I'm 18 again (i'm not that old in the first place), the stupid thing was that after 30m of trying to talk to him, I gave in and asked him what these supplements were called and he said he forgot and left the bottle at home. Everyone else had the same interaction with him, when we asked the other devs they were just shaking their head and saying that's what they have to live with.
But FWIW, a few things in its favour:


^^ Screenie from their latest ship release, the 890 Jump luxury yacht... ^^


Conclusion:

Star Citizen Good
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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here



The People's Republic of Clogher


Deadly Premonition sequel announced! Swery Tweeted it out but I've got no idea how big his involvement is ...... although this has just shown up on the Switch.



The most instabuy of instabuys.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
FF VIII Remastered kinda looks like FF VIII but maybe without the video compression. Anything stand out from this release?



The People's Republic of Clogher
FF VIII Remastered kinda looks like FF VIII but maybe without the video compression. Anything stand out from this release?
It's got a few handy features, such as a 3x speed button to lessen the grind of exploration and an option to disable random encounters entirely (which I think would completely much up levelling, but I've not tried it).



If anyone owns an Xbox One, and has Halo 5, and would like to try some custom maps....

I made 30 of them under the gamertag "kajukenbo man"

Some of them have special game tapes to go with them that are unique and fun.

Some of them are just meant to be for a Slayer or versus match but they're unique in the way that they are not like typical 343 or 343 wannabe maps.

They focus on things like weapon balance, sightlines, flowing movement paths but the environments feel unrealistic.

My map same to also be balanced but focus more on looking and feeling like the places they represent, but a different Dynamic to the game Flow.

For example most of the maps that come with the game have some pretty evenly open spaces. I have a neighborhood map where when you're Outdoors you can see down the row of houses and it's a big wide area but when you go inside the house has it's very very close quarters. Just like a small neighborhood would be. So you tend to use rifles outside and submachine guns and shotguns on the insides.

Be sure to quote so if I get any responses to this I can find them through my notifications.

By the way maybe it's time to start this thread over. 800 pages!?



there's a frog in my snake oil
Soz no Xbox anymore. Also the thread still works so it's all good

---

In other news...

This is unbelievable..



In all the wrong ways



Welcome to the human race...
Since I last posted in this thread, I have managed to start and finish Red Dead Redemption II (the main plot, anyway).

It was a tough sell at first - the revamped control scheme is messy and inconsistent, plus the various side-activities like hunting and crafting and all that really did feel like too much of a chore to seriously bother with (I barely used any upgrades from Pearson or the trapper, for example). It's also easy to be skeptical of a game that boasts a lot of gameplay hours when it limits your fast-travel options the way that it does. And that's without getting into the question of whether or not it does that good a job at deconstructing the Western as part of its narrative...

...but in the end, I'd say I liked it more than I didn't.
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I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
CONTROL
Where can I begin with this head trip of a game!


Something strange is afoot at the Circle K.

I picked this up Friday afternoon and have only put a few hours into it but so far it has my attention. PoV is over-the-shoulder similar to Deadspace, but unlike Deadspace your character moves MUCH faster and not all environments are dark and spooky. I'm on PS4 so take my controller references in that context. You use the left stick to walk. Push it forward a bit more and your walk becomes a quicker trot. Pressing L3 starts a run. There is no exhaustion meter that I’ve noticed so move about as fast as you like. As to the darkness comparison, you move from well-lit office spaces to rooms where lights are out completely, save for the glow of a few old computer monitors or phone dials. So far, every open corner feels as though someone is waiting on the other side, but I think that's my paranoia. This game will exacerbate your paranoia.

Lighting really helps define objectives. While exploring open office spaces you eventually come upon a random doorway or corridor that has that red glow highlighted in the game’s marketing material. So far that light has led to a major encounter. The contrast of lighting from room to room really helps build tension and I feel like I'm moving through a variety of environments even though so far it's only empty office spaces. Some rooms are so dark I cannot see what to navigate around. The good thing is that if there is anything worth exploring in the room it will be marked with a lootable icon. Else, there’s no need to go too deep into some rooms.


Room to room lighting can be a bit intimidating, but gorgeous. Shadows and reflections offer great detail for realism.

Lootable objects are marked by a nice white circular icon that "blips" once when you face it. This is nice as I'm not forced to waste time checking each and EVERY single drawer and cabinet as in Fallout. The icon is subtle too so you could easily overlook it depending on room contrast and how fast you're moving. Nice compromise, I think. Items that I've picked up so far include mostly redacted office memos, a video tutorial very reminiscent of the reel-to-feels found by John Locke in TV's Lost, and some type of data currency that I assume is used for weapon mods later in game. There are few upgrade slots to your handgun and health if you find items to use in them. Slots appear to be limited (3), but I only have access to one at the moment. I imagine it will get frustrating later in game with more options to choose from but only so many slots to apply them.


Simple loadout screen for your weapon and health mods. This does get more complicated as you progress.

Controls feel good. The speed of everything feels snappy and to the point. Aim-down-sight feels natural and though I do not feel any aim assist "snaps" I have no trouble tracking targets. I did notice a setting for magnet bullets under gameplay options but I'm not sure how sensitive that is.

Your handgun is interesting. It seems organic and alive. Evidently, it also works as a psychic medium to erratically communicate with whatever “good” guys there are that exist on the other side of our plane of existence/consciousness. So there’s that. You have 14 rounds and the weapon is semi-automatic. The gun starts to reproduce its own ammunition after a beat of firing, so if you pay attention and time your shots in short bursts then it feels like an endless amount without the need for reloads. If you panic and unload completely then there is a punishing delay before the weapon can recharge similarly to an overheat effect in other games. You pick up additional skills as you play such as various telekinetic powers.


Over-the-shoulder gameplay lets you position your view over left or right of character while the aim-down-sight motion is quick and snappy. Ammunition count is presented as a subtle arc beneath your center reticle with color change warnings as you get low.

As to the game itself, it feels schizophrenic. You open the game entering a federal building (The Oldest House) that can only be found if it wants to be found. As you wander through the seemingly empty building you get a bit of exposition hinting at who you are through noir-like narration by your character’s voice. Information is cryptic and I’m never quite certain if the character is talking to me the player, to herself as inner monologue, or to someone else as if in an interview. At first this was jarring, but the more I play the more I think this is intentional.

This building is chaos pretending to be sound. Rooms move around, depending on if you’ve “cleaned” a zone from the psychic antagonist collective referred to in-game as the Hiss, which you can hear constantly in the background as a constant mumble of voices as if Star Trek’s Borg were trying to communicate with you. This does not really ever stop and at times you can start to understand what’s being said. So far it seems as coherent as the hidden track, Disgustipated, from Tool’s debut album, Undertow. It’s great! From time to time you find a working radio that you can activate that helps drown out the Hiss. I’m not sure if that’s the point, but at least it feels like a fun nod to Portal.

Gameplay is similar to Deadspace (but faster and not as jump-from-the-shadows scary) and the controls feel straight out of Bioshock, but more refined. Lower level areas are limited for when you have higher security access cards. There is a certain vibe here that I’ve not felt since Metroid II, running back and forth from zone to zone to discover new pathways through the maze of the game. So take that as you will. Voice interruptions from The Director, the Hiss, or random voices singing from the walls come in and out randomly and can be spooky as hell. Sometimes they offer odd clues to your goal, other times it’s just to mess with your head (or your character’s head). I am reminded some of my first playthrough of F.E.A.R. when my comms started to pop and crackle, then some otherworldly voice came over the headset. Fun!


In-game visions of the Director trying to communicate with you can be disorientating. Along with the Hiss' constant mumblings and possessed staffers trying to shoot you.

There is no dark humor in your missions the way Bioshock presented some of its challenges, but there seems to be an endless source of research material and media to find and read through that are sometimes just as quirky as any Splicer quote you might remember. In addition to the Lost-like informational videos mentioned earlier, you will find interoffice memos complaining of travel expense budgets or that the restrooms have vanished, and no one can find them. There are letters to the agency from civilians writing in complaint of psychic encounters such as one man that bought a novelty singing fish for his wife but now that fish is possessed by the devil, flying around his house cursing everyone. There are other really weird video segments from a series titled, “Threshold Kids,” that follow two marionette style characters through bizarre events. If you like to read backstory and side story content, there seems to be plenty of it.


Along with a plethora of redacted dead mail, you will find random video clips of the Threshold Kids for your viewing pleasure.

After your initial “job interview,” you start the game proper exploring the nearby offices for clues. You are somewhat guided by voices and visual hallucinations (for lack of a better word) through the complex, looking for the first red zone needing to be cleansed. Contaminated bodies float everywhere and, like Agents in the Matrix, any innocuous body can be turned into Hiss-possessed gunmen. So do watch your six, even in previously cleared areas.


Bodies on the infected office staff litter the ...air?... throughout The Oldest House. Each motionless and silent. Right up until the Hiss possesses them.

Powers can be unlocked by collecting several Objects of Power scattered throughout the game. Clearing the area and taking possession of one of these Objects of Power will grant you powers such as levitation of the objects around you than can be used as projectile weapons, shielding, or whatever else you can manage. With each new Object of Power you will be pulled into a different astral plane demo area where you must follow the instructions of “The Board” (those good guys I mentioned earlier) to understand and control this new power. But nothing is ever clear for you as their attempt to speak is riddled with synonymous mistranslations to English. You get just enough to decipher. It all ties together very well, considering how random I’m sure this reads.


Another astral plane into which you are pulled to learn your new telekinetic powers. You do get pulled around a lot---fair warning.

So far, I’m loving this game and it keeps my heart racing. In my opinion, Remedy Entertainment has done an excellent job of creating a weird conceptual game here all the while nodding to several classics without blatant reproduction or diluting what Control so far seems to be. If ANY of the titles that I’ve noted are favorites of yours, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t enjoy this one.

I will keep my follow-ups shorter


Oh! And a LOT of Half Life!



The People's Republic of Clogher
Everyone I know who's played it seems head over heels about Control.

I'll get round to it once I've finally finished Judgement, I think. Finally started Judgement yesterday, then saw how late it was and stopped.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
I really need to get a grip on how to operate the video capture feature on ps4. I thought I had it down, but watching my clips I apparently stop them when I think I've started so I have series of broken videos cutting out all the fun stuff lol. Maybe I'll have better luck tonight.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Since I last posted in this thread, I have managed to start and finish Red Dead Redemption II (the main plot, anyway).

It was a tough sell at first - the revamped control scheme is messy and inconsistent, plus the various side-activities like hunting and crafting and all that really did feel like too much of a chore to seriously bother with (I barely used any upgrades from Pearson or the trapper, for example). It's also easy to be skeptical of a game that boasts a lot of gameplay hours when it limits your fast-travel options the way that it does. And that's without getting into the question of whether or not it does that good a job at deconstructing the Western as part of its narrative...

...but in the end, I'd say I liked it more than I didn't.

The side-quest stuff in these games has always struck me like, "Why bother?" It's cool if you have the time to salt away (I've got some platinum trophies ) , but it never seems to hinder or improve the gameplay enough to warrant the time spent.