The Videogames Tab

Heh, that's class.

Best I've done was sitting in the back of a Jeep in a solo run and waiting for someone to get into the drivers seat - It's surprising how many people don't bother looking if the vehicle is occupied.

Braaap!

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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

Star Citizen: The Legal Summary No-one Deserves (Or Wants!)
I'm so far down the rabbit hole I'm constantly late.....

Why Are Crytek Suing Star Citizen?

This is stupidly involved. Here's the stupidly simple version:

The Biggest Claims:

That Star Citizen have tried to sell the 'Squadron 42' campaign mode as a separate game, and moved to other game engines, breaching their Crytek license.

(More detail in this half-decent supporter summary).

Some Backdrop:

Crytek accepted upfront payments in 2012 rather than future royalties. (They only expected a boost to their brand and tech improvements as further payback, as I understand it). They must be pissed at not getting any cut of the 175m+ SC has gone on to raise, and at watching SC move to derivative versions of the Cryengine without tipping the hat in any way. (They're also pissed at a load of their staff decamping to SC both before and after the agreement, possibly weighting the license in SC's favour in the process). This is likely about both cash & personality clashes...

The Moral Maze:

Crytek are amoral bastards these days who've mistreated their staff as part of their slow-motion collapse. Star Citizen is a satellite array of shell companies, that at a minimum plays dirty with its unloyal backers (by hiding behind shell companies to refuse them refunds...). And probably has stiffed the weakened Crytek here, although possibly in legal grey-area ways.

Bottom Line:

I'd like to see Star Citizen as a working game (etc etc). I'd also like them to reach the Disclosure stage in a legal trial though, just to see if they've been knowingly deceptive along the way . And I wouldn't mind them disintegrating if they'd been so excessively...

I can't help but think they've been scurrilous somewhere. Whether it be in their reported earnings being boosted to maintain backer morale & investment, or in their claims to have moved game engines [which sceptical devs claim they did suspiciously quickly], or just in the traditional sense of repeatedly, eternally promising the moon [step forward Chris 'We can build a planet every two days' Roberts... ]

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I Rest My Case:

In the meantime it's just all kinda funny . From the alpha testers who've been permanently turned into eyeballs, or left headless for weeks, or whose ship spawned on fire. 5 years+ down the line, this game is amazing

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

Any interest in a MoFo Sea of Thieves dastardly pirate crew?

Huge caveat - The game needs to review well.



The only people that this will exclude are PS4-only peeps and weirdo tinfoil hat people who've not upgraded Windows 7 and 8. It's cross-buy, so anyone buying it digitally will get both the Xbox and PC versions.

It's also cross-play so everyone can play together regardless of platform.

Since buying Rare Replay, I've been super intrigued at what this grand old studio will do with Sea of Thieves. We'll know for sure pretty soon.

Looks super fun. As you say, we need to see reviews, but if they sound even pretty good, I'd be down for a MoFo crew at some point.

Yeah, I've been keeping tabs on Sea of Thieves from afar for ages and my biggest question has always been "What do you actually do in it?"

It looks like all the good aspects of Assassin's Creed IV without the Assassin's Creed part. Result!

After five years of silence, the official Cyberpunk 2077 twitter account had something to say...



And it caused quite a frenzy. I had to take a few moments to type this out.

Rumor has it there might be an announcement soon. Tomorrow even.


breathe


be cool

Y'know that massively widespread CPU security hole that's gonna wreck our gaming PC performance once it's patched?

The drop is barely noticeable. Phew.

Cue middle aged guys saying numbers:

I know there is no chance of an '18 release...but, if this and the new RD game come out this year.

<----- Happiest Camper

As long as they give Doug Cockle a voice acting gig, I'll be happy.

I wish I was called Doug Cockle.

Quite possibly the least Nintendo game ever, even least-er than Bayonetta.



In other news, I bought one of these. Just because.

Why am I playing Rocket League again? I have no idea. I guess after Heat Signature and taking leave from Fallout 4 (for a few, mostly technical, reasons), I needed something I can play in tiny bursts without a lot of high-level thinking.

I dunno if any of you guys still play/would want to play together now and then. I'm mid-Gold. I suck at aerials and therefore avoid them (gonna crash course them soon, maybe, but that's at odds with the reason I'm playing it at all again!), but I'm pretty good at the other stuff.

I've been wavering on buying Heat Signature for a while but as the only person in history (and beyond) who wasn't keen on Gunpoint, the pull isn't that strong. Sell me on it!

And.....

Take that Nintendo!



I stopped buying games on physical media early last year but ..... damn.

How I would sell it would depend on what you disliked about Gunpoint, but the primary complaint I heard from people about it (even from those who liked it, like me) was that the setup seems to open itself up to lots of interesting, emergent solutions, but you don't actually get to end up feeling particularly creative in solving them.

If that was the issue, then the best thing I can say about Heat Signature is that it more or less delivers on that same promise in a way Gunpoint didn't: there are more tools, and they have more variations, and there are enough variables in each situation that you'll probably find yourself in some genuinely ridiculous situations that you occasionally worm your way out of in surprising, thrilling fashion.

It's also got a really nice, tight feedback loop even when you're doing grindy things, because a lot of extraneous stuff has been stripped away, and there are lots of nice quality of life touches, like being able to fast-forward space travel to and from stations.



That, and it's pretty cheap. And Tom Francis is at the point where I'd probably throw $10-15 even at a so-so game to help him keep trying stuff like this.

If you do decide to play it, though, force yourself to take on tougher missions and use tools you haven't before. I resisted that at first and thought I might be done with it, but once I forced myself to take on the bigger challenges, that in turn forced me to use more tools (and use them more creatively), and the game got a second wind that I really enjoyed.

Oh, sweet baby carrots, if it came out this year.



I also doubt it, but I'm expecting something at E3 at least.

Cheers. That makes sense.

I think the main reason I was never that hot on Gunpoint was that it came out around the time I was super into FTL and its merciless RNG gameplay. Gunpoint seemed a little wrote in comparison.

Of course, FTL throws as much BS at the player as it does epic moments, but it was my jam.

Must give Gunpoint another spin.

Yeah, good call. If you play it again and think "this is a little too linear for me" or "this is kind of fun/neat, but I wish it'd go a little further," that'll be a good sign you might like Heat Signature.

A hot new game arrived in the post a few minutes ago:



I haven't held The Great Escape's case in my hands since 1986, when I lent it to my mate Adrian (for him to copy ). He gave it back to me months later minus the case and I harboured a slight grudge against him for 30 years.

I shall show him this next time I see the little bugger.

Talking of nostalgia...



John Wayne returns!

This arrived today!



Who needs mechanical switches, RGB lighting etc? 48k, that's what the kids want!

Woo, the Star Citizen 3.0 Megathread is pinned again. Schadenfreude is bad, but perma-alpha so good