Is it accurate enough to use it as a tool to teach you how to do maintenance on a car? If it is then it may be worth checking out for some virtual “hands-on” experience.
Zloth
Community Contributor
Valve could still go under. But it would likely take years and, as part of that, it would at some point sell itself off to some other big company. You might end up finding all your games on EPIC or the XBox store, but they'll be somewhere.
A bigger worry for me is what happens if Valve goes evil. Say they (steel yourselves, folks) decide to charge $1/yr for every game you keep in your library? Something that makes you want to leave them instead of Valve suddenly falling over dead.
I really wouldn't be all that worried (assuming I could get my account cancelled). I would lose a few games that I would like to go back and play again, but only a few, and most of those can be bought for cheap elsewhere.
That's hard to say. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it just as a tutorial for car repair. It will tell you where parts in a car are located, and it will tell you what symptoms may occur if those parts go bad. But it's not going to tell you things like the procedure for taking parts off and putting them back on again, or teach you what a defective part actually looks like. That process is fairly simplified in the game. Of course, most things you can just look at and tell how to remove them. It might be better if you own a car that's actually in the game, but it's unlikely that you have one of those. You can look through the DLC to check. Maybe they have something close. All of the base game vehicles are based on real vehicles, too, but most of them are very old models.
All that said, the one time I had car problems after playing the game, I knew exactly what was wrong. I didn't actually attempt to repair it myself, but being able to tell the mechanic what is wrong with your car is a huge advantage, and I think it keeps them from trying to rip you off.
You're paranoid. Steam may not have any real competition, but there are plenty of people who would love to take all their business if they did something outrageous like you suggest.
The real question is what will happen when Newell dies, and he's getting neither younger nor skinnier, but I assume he has some sort of succession plan.
Yes and No...
I had my van at a mechanic a couple of years ago to do the brake master cylinder. During their diagnosis, they heard this loud banging noise my van was making that I had been chasing down for a year; in the process, I'd rebuilt the entire front suspension with new struts, sway bar bushings, new control arms (with bushings), new inner and outer tie rods; I know the work was done and done properly because I did it all myself with the Factory Shop Manual (thanks Google).
But the shop came back to me and says, "Oh, you're gonna need all new suspension in the front because it's making this noise." I told them to go back and reassess because I had literally done all that work in the past year. The guy on the phone was like, "Uh, I'll call you back."
The funny part of all this is, the reason I couldn't find the source of the issue is because I'm too tall (6'2"). My wife came out to hang out with me and looked under the hood and her being so short (5'4"), she was able to see under the windshield wiper assembly and noticed that one side wasn't like the other and asked me about it. Lo and behold, when I crouched down, I could see the issue and later resolved it.
At any rate, I do want to give that shop some credit. I don't think they were necessarily trying to screw me over, but instead were following my own thought processes on what the issue was and how to solve it; it just so happens that I'm an amateur mechanic and do most of the work on my vehicles, so I was able to tell them that what they were thinking had already been tried.
Also, the cause of the issue seems to have been knock-off parts from Amazon or something fucky. I got a warranty on the part I replaced and then bought two new ones (one for each side) at the part store like I should have done in the beginning and then got to do the same work I'd just done again.
In a filing for a new company GabeN has started, it actually looks like he's been working on losing weight...
But I share the concerns about Steam. All good things end and enshittification comes for everything, so eventually something will happen to drive us away from Steam, but I just hope it's not for a good long time. My account is already 20 years old and I hope I get at least double that before push really comes to shove.
i should know better but 4 seconds might take a while to beat
Can I be paranoid as well?
What if rather than a per game basis they did it on a per account basis? 1$ per month might seem ok to some people. Or even worse on a value basis though this is fraught with difficulty.I haven't been following the finances of the streamers but I remember seeing something about GOG having or had problems. Something about those who give games away stopping doing so. It's all a bit blurry. Suggestions of problems maybe.
From my viewpoint what happens if Steam or GOG go belly-up - what happens to the games they hold on our behalf. Do we lose them?
I tried some Orcs Must Die 3 on Game Pass last night. I played the first two many years ago and liked them a lot, but never played 3 until now. So far it’s pretty good, a few minor annoyances but overall a solid third person shooter + defense game. If you’ve played the other two, the only differences I can notice so far is that there is more focus on the “Hero” you choose since they have unique weapons and abilities, and there is a massive selection of traps and defenses you can unlock. I don’t remember how many the other two games have compared to this, but there is enough unlocks in OMD3 to keep you busy for many hours.
These games have always been fairly simple and this is no exception. That’s not a bad thing at all, but most of the difficulty lies in increasing amounts of enemies per wave and how you manage to defend against them. I played the first 10 levels yesterday with a random teammate who was very good. They were very good at using barricades to control the enemy traffic then we would force them into small areas to kill them easily.
Among those levels was something called a “War Scenario”. These serve as backstory missions, taking place 150 years prior to the events of the game. I’m not fully caught up in the lore but the guys you play as I assume were very powerful wizards. The main differences is the characters have different weapons and abilities, and the waves of enemies are a lot larger than the “normal” missions. You are stronger and have traps unique to War Scenarios only so it’s still fair, only a bit tougher than the normal levels. It was very interesting and I liked how it breaks up the pacing a little by throwing in some slight variation.
The only complaints I have is that when the level ends your character does a TikTok dance and there’s a trap remix song playing… it’s so jarring and out of place it made me laugh so hard the first time I saw it. After 10 levels, with probably a hundred more to go, it gets super annoying. Another is the character quips and dialogue. You guys probably know that I get irritated by Marvel-esque writing. “Oh yeah, time to kick some goblin butt!!!” I mean it’s innocent and harmless, but I have no idea who this game is marketed towards. Things like what I mentioned above are targeted towards young kids, but the challenge of this game makes me wonder if a 13 year old would really be into it. Not to say it’s too hard for young gamers but it doesn’t seem like something your typical teenager would play.
Anyways, the game is fun and great to decompress with after a long day. I mistakenly started on controller thinking it would be a good fit, but I ended up doing a lot better when switching to mouse and keyboard.
These games have always been fairly simple and this is no exception. That’s not a bad thing at all, but most of the difficulty lies in increasing amounts of enemies per wave and how you manage to defend against them. I played the first 10 levels yesterday with a random teammate who was very good. They were very good at using barricades to control the enemy traffic then we would force them into small areas to kill them easily.
Among those levels was something called a “War Scenario”. These serve as backstory missions, taking place 150 years prior to the events of the game. I’m not fully caught up in the lore but the guys you play as I assume were very powerful wizards. The main differences is the characters have different weapons and abilities, and the waves of enemies are a lot larger than the “normal” missions. You are stronger and have traps unique to War Scenarios only so it’s still fair, only a bit tougher than the normal levels. It was very interesting and I liked how it breaks up the pacing a little by throwing in some slight variation.
The only complaints I have is that when the level ends your character does a TikTok dance and there’s a trap remix song playing… it’s so jarring and out of place it made me laugh so hard the first time I saw it. After 10 levels, with probably a hundred more to go, it gets super annoying. Another is the character quips and dialogue. You guys probably know that I get irritated by Marvel-esque writing. “Oh yeah, time to kick some goblin butt!!!” I mean it’s innocent and harmless, but I have no idea who this game is marketed towards. Things like what I mentioned above are targeted towards young kids, but the challenge of this game makes me wonder if a 13 year old would really be into it. Not to say it’s too hard for young gamers but it doesn’t seem like something your typical teenager would play.
Anyways, the game is fun and great to decompress with after a long day. I mistakenly started on controller thinking it would be a good fit, but I ended up doing a lot better when switching to mouse and keyboard.
Playing Hellblade before HB2 comes out in a few weeks' time. I got it a few years ago, but only played a few hrs, prolly due to lack of time. It's fantastic
View: https://imgur.com/a/DjmkvD7
View: https://imgur.com/a/DjmkvD7
With asssassins creed odyssey pretty much done and dusted i've decided to catch up with some of my backlog and indie games. So first up something i bought recently: AmidEvil black labyrinth. Some jolly action as i punch my way to victory. The most outstanding moments being punching switches so hard you smash them into walls or floors to progress and going super saiyan with my fists and pummeling all the baddies.
Zloth
Community Contributor
There's a cheesy way to capture ships in X4. When you board ships, you can specify how many defenses (e.g. turrets) are still active when your marines jump out to fly over and how strong the hull is when they start trying to cut in. You can set both of those so the target hasn't lost any defenses and has hull at full strength - but cutting through that hull is going to take a long time. Because of that, you can actually board ships that aren't even enemies.
I tried that against the biggest ship in the game, an Asgard, that was beating up on some Xenon near one of my defense stations. I flew my biggest ship right by it, hit pause, dumped out something like 150 marines, and got out of there before the thing blew my ship away. Then.... well, long story short, I did finally get the thing, but it took multiple re-loads before I figured out why it wasn't working.
And now I've got this big ship via a cheesy tactic. I gave it a nice paint job, used it in one quick attack, and now I've got to figure out what to do with it. I was expecting to just try out this cheesy tactic and re-load to just before I attacked, but I ended up working pretty hard for that thing! Now I'm trapped in a moral dilemma, like some BioWare game.
I tried that against the biggest ship in the game, an Asgard, that was beating up on some Xenon near one of my defense stations. I flew my biggest ship right by it, hit pause, dumped out something like 150 marines, and got out of there before the thing blew my ship away. Then.... well, long story short, I did finally get the thing, but it took multiple re-loads before I figured out why it wasn't working.
And now I've got this big ship via a cheesy tactic. I gave it a nice paint job, used it in one quick attack, and now I've got to figure out what to do with it. I was expecting to just try out this cheesy tactic and re-load to just before I attacked, but I ended up working pretty hard for that thing! Now I'm trapped in a moral dilemma, like some BioWare game.
Now wait a minute, you ain't done yet! You've got to go watch the movie 300 again.
Had no idea they released a DLC. I haven't really even touched the original yet, but maybe that's because I was never huge into Hexen, so I end up playing other stuff instead.
I've been playing a good amount of Call to Arms: Ostfront. They have a neat dynamic campaign system which I've been really enjoying playing as the Soviet army. You start with very limited resources, but can research and buy new infantry, tanks and the like, but one of the best things about this series (being the Men of War series) is the fact that after you knock something out, you can repair and recrew it, so I've now captured an MG34, as well as several armored cars, a 221 and 2 Panzer 3s. They still cost me to deploy, but it's nice that I have some upgraded units that I didn't have to research or buy into.
Also, I've been in the mode for several months now where I'm obsessing on what to bring with me on my trip to the UK in a few weeks time. Not like, important stuff, but what handheld I'll bring with me for the plane; currently, I'm thinking about a Gameboy because it has simple games which will be easy to play. But for some stupid reason I want to have the proper cartridges and not use my multicart, but the games I want are stupid expensive. So that's dumb.
Make sure you know about the power differences. You'll need adapters for appliance plugs, and the voltage there is 240v.
Oh, and… they speak English there, not American!
My parents in law probably destroyed their hair dryer when they tried to plug it in using a universal adapter. Probably the adapter as well, we haven't tried to use either since.
I'm guessing they didn't flick the switch to 220/240v—or it didn't have such a switch?
I'm assuming a regular power adapter/switcher off Amazon ought to work? I am, at the very least, going to be bringing my phone, laptop and possibly one more device at the most.
And unfortunately, I only speak 'Murican, so hopefully I'll be understood, but I'm expecting to stick out like a sore thumb, for a multitude of reasons.
I'm not sure if it does.
Which one will you use to test whether the adapter works?
Ah, thats the beauty of it. Why would i need to watch 300 when i played the battle in the game? Plus i get to ask leonidas (aka grandfather) to command the human forces to bring elyisium to ruins. So there's that.
Seriously, starting Hellblade I was expecting maybe top10 of the last 10 years, not top5 of my all time games. How amazing is this.....
View: https://imgur.com/a/f8lxtlB
View: https://imgur.com/a/f8lxtlB
Zloth
Community Contributor
Start cramming the Doctor Who and Monty Python! Oh, and Young Ones, of course.
Anyone played Songs of syx? I remember playing the alpha and didn't get far with it as there was no tutorial and didn't have time to play it afterwards. Apparently its pretty good:
store.steampowered.com
its still in EA, but what interests me is this: The demo is just the full game's previous build. So effectively you have the full game to play there. Who knows? maybe a few months down the line it might be worth getting or better yet, its complete enough to play.
of course, perhaps i'm being lulled in by Ssethtzeentach:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oucHl9NM97g&t=1105s
lastly, if you're in the UK and want to help stopkillinggames.com, the parliament petition is now up and running!
petition.parliament.uk
So far we have over 10,000 signatures. so if you can, consider signing the petition.
Save 20% on Songs of Syx on Steam
Songs of Syx is a fantasy city-builder where you start off as an insignificant colony and build, scheme, and fight your way towards a metropolis and empire. The mechanics are complex and true to life, where small events can spiral into the collapse of kingdoms. Try the unlimited demo first!
its still in EA, but what interests me is this: The demo is just the full game's previous build. So effectively you have the full game to play there. Who knows? maybe a few months down the line it might be worth getting or better yet, its complete enough to play.
of course, perhaps i'm being lulled in by Ssethtzeentach:
lastly, if you're in the UK and want to help stopkillinggames.com, the parliament petition is now up and running!
Petition: Require videogame publishers to keep games they have sold in a working state
Require publishers to leave videogames (and related game assets / features) they have sold to customers in a reasonably working state when support ends, so that no further intervention whatsoever is necessary for the game to function, as a statutory consumer right.
petition.parliament.uk
So far we have over 10,000 signatures. so if you can, consider signing the petition.
Kaamos_Llama
Moderator
Max Payne is a lot of fun. Theres rough edges, the dream/hallucination levels are awkward but I appreciate they were going for something a bit different. Generally speaking the slow motion shooting is simple but feels good and theres a decent variety of weapons, although once I found the Colt AR I didnt really want to use anything else. Coming to the end of it, might go straight into 2 and then 3 lets see.
Slay the Spire got IronClad and Silent to Ascension 5, Defect is now at 3. A run a day is easy to fit into the routine so its nice.
Slay the Spire got IronClad and Silent to Ascension 5, Defect is now at 3. A run a day is easy to fit into the routine so its nice.
yeah max payne was a great, if short game. The tech was what made it, but visually the game did have some limitations like using the same 4 goons and often no more then 4 enemies in each engagement (some had 4+ but those were rare)
Kaamos_Llama
Moderator
Good points, I didnt think about the enemy variety as I was playing, just part of the fact its so old. To be fair if there had been more than 4 enemies in an encounter with the speed you lose health then it would have been really hard. Even on the standard difficulty it was no joke. I read a forum comment somewhere that said it was bugged on newer systems so that the lower difficulties were much harder than they were supposed to be, but maybe thats just what I want to believe to make me feel better
.Last time I played it was on PS2 23 years ago or whatever, so I dont really remember how it felt back then other than being really impressed.
Microsoft thinks my country is part of the UK but so far the UK Government hasn't tried to reinvade Australia so I better not vote
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