April 2025 General Game Discussion

[ZedClampet]

The constant need for human feedback for the purpose of AI training will never not be hilarious to me. They try to disguise it as harmless questions, but really they are taking your response and using it to train their AI to be more humanlike.

You know, I didn't think about that. I thought they were just trying to raise their engagement numbers.

 

[BeardyHat]

I somehow lucked into one of these chairs about 8 years ago. I bought it from some person in a much wealthier neighborhood than mine for about $100 and it's held up very well, though I did have to replace the gas cylinder on it as mine was very wobbly after awhile. I put a heavy duty one in there, which was a mistake, because I need to basically jump on the chair while pulling the lever to get it to move down.

At least, I think it's a fancy chair, could be a knockoff, who knows.

I've fallen in to Two Point Hospital this week, which is funny, given I wrote it off as a knockoff several years ago. I love Theme Hospital and TPH just didn't hit that same mark for me, but something told me to check it out again this week and we'll, it's been fun.

I've been playing on my Deck, which isn't a perfect experience, but it's exactly what I want right now. Laying on the couch and playing a management game.

 

[Colif]

I expect this is how other people scam old people now.

1. Buy cheap watches on Ali express
2. Use AI to create a persona for a watch maker with images
3. Pay people on Fivr to make commercial for you
4. Mark up price of the $1 watches to about $40

Profit

They use drop shipping, so the website is just there to collect order info for them to use to deliver it from actual Chinese makers.

I don't see advertising online so I don't know how you get to even see products like this. I expect they are all over Facebook to cater to the people most likely to fall for things like this... elderly people around my mums age (puts that in for perspective sake, as he realises to some he is an old person too.)

They scam everyone else by using brand names that people associate with quality and then just sell them garbage that isn't worth anything near its price. Most of the Luxury brands do this, you just buying the name... to some being seen with name is enough... victims

I sort of fell for it last year by not realising the Brand of sunglasses I have worn the last 30 years has changed ownership and they not as good as they used to be. I only found that out after buying them.

That is everywhere, especially in audio gear where they sell you stuff you don't need at stupid prices, or over price some of the stuff you do. USB cables for several thousand dollars... when they no better than cheap ones.

Its hard to avoid it really. Lucky for me most of the things I buy are real. I generally look before I leap.

 

[Zloth]

I somehow lucked into one of these chairs about 8 years ago.

Holy... did you look at the rest of that website? Look at this one: https://laylagrayce.com/catalog/cabochon-chair_1418050/

No way am I paying $50 for that chair, and $50 wouldn't even cover the tax for the asking price! And I thought video cards were bad.

 

[Pifanjr]

My company gave us $1000 to spend on office supplies for when we're working at home and the largest expense was a decent office chair:

Euroseats Bureaustoelen - Curve Bureaustoel

It's a lot better than a dinner table chair or our desk chair that has one broken arm rest and a broken gas cylinder.

 

[BeardyHat]

I expect this is how other people scam old people now.

1. Buy cheap watches on Ali express
2. Use AI to create a persona for a watch maker with images
3. Pay people on Fivr to make commercial for you
4. Mark up price of the $1 watches to about $40

Profit

They use drop shipping, so the website is just there to collect order info for them to use to deliver it from actual Chinese makers.

I don't see advertising online so I don't know how you get to even see products like this. I expect they are all over Facebook to cater to the people most likely to fall for things like this... elderly people around my mums age (puts that in for perspective sake, as he realises to some he is an old person too.)

They scam everyone else by using brand names that people associate with quality and then just sell them garbage that isn't worth anything near its price. Most of the Luxury brands do this, you just buying the name... to some being seen with name is enough... victims

I sort of fell for it last year by not realising the Brand of sunglasses I have worn the last 30 years has changed ownership and they not as good as they used to be. I only found that out after buying them.

That is everywhere, especially in audio gear where they sell you stuff you don't need at stupid prices, or over price some of the stuff you do. USB cables for several thousand dollars... when they no better than cheap ones.

Its hard to avoid it really. Lucky for me most of the things I buy are real. I generally look before I leap.

Interesting video and not at all surprising.

Watched it with my 7 year old and used to to hammer home something we're always trying to tell him: advertisements are all lies.

Funny, considering he has an Aunt who works in advertising. Doubly so that when she comes here, she actually can't work remotely because my PiHole blocks everything from her job 😆

Holy... did you look at the rest of that website? Look at this one: https://laylagrayce.com/catalog/cabochon-chair_1418050/

No way am I paying $50 for that chair, and $50 wouldn't even cover the tax for the asking price! And I thought video cards were bad.

My mother in law loves the ugliest, most expensive stuff, she would 100% shop there and buy that 80s-ass looking chair.

 

[Zloth]

Those advertisements strike me as flat out illegal. You can't say Henry is making the watches when he isn't. Also, having actors portray excited customers has been done for eons, but you've got to put some text up saying that is happening. Of course, they are probably coming from some nation that couldn't care less about regulating such things, but I wonder what website is actually delivering the advertisements. There could be a lawsuit possible.

 

[neogunhero]

I finally picked up Dying Light 2 after mulling it over for years. As a big fan of the first game, it was disappointing to hear about the state of the game when it first came out. However, this was quite similar to how DL1 released: it was an ambitious game with too many bugs for its own good. Over the years, DL1 was constantly updated, with some major content additions and massive overhauls. I remember one update where they completely redid the entire games audio from the mixing, mastering, reverb, surround sound, they retouched every single aspect of the audio and that just blew me away. With this in mind, I knew DL2 would just take some time to get better. I know it sucks that this is how games are these days, but it’s just the unfortunate truth.

Anyways, I have been following DL2 on Steam ever since it released in 2022. I have seen a lot of the updates it’s gotten over time, and it has been getting me excited. After each major update I keep wondering if this is the time to buy, but I kept holding off. I wanted this game to be a positive experience for me, because I loved DL1 and open world first person action games are one of my favorite genres of games. I know if I just waited it would be a lot better than if I bought it earlier.

I nearly bought it about two weeks ago. It was on sale, and it did the weird Steam “glitch” where it was apart of a bundle and I already owned the first game in the bundle, so DL2 was technically cheaper that way than if I bought it on it’s own. It was nearly $24 at that time. Well once again I held off, and I’m glad I did. Yesterday, I saw it on sale again for just under $20. I just got paid, so I said screw it, now is the time.

I actually only ended up playing about an hour before getting off, but so far so good. Of that hour, approximately 15 minutes were spent tinkering in the settings. I do this in nearly every game I play. The graphics presets are strange, because if you don’t select Ultra RT On, then the renderer is changed to DX11 and Async Compute is turned to off. Luckily, PCG always comes handy with graphics settings guides, so I followed that and improved my performance drastically.

My very basic first impressions are that the graphics look great even at medium (I meet recommend specs but the game seems poorly optimized), voice acting is good, set up for the new main character Aiden is a bit strange but I’m intrigued, and the movement and combat have a different feel already. Movement especially, it feels a bit weighty-er and slightly more realistic. However as with the first game, there is a large perk tree to unlock, so I will get more moves and faster movement eventually.

I can’t wait to dive more into the game. The general consensus seems to be it’s not as good as DL1, but I also see lots of people saying the parkour and combat is better. A major complaint about DL2 is the story, but even after over 100 hours of DL1 I couldn’t tell you how the story plays out, only the main beats, so that won’t bother me. As long as voice acting is good which so far it has been, then I can easily ignore a bad story.

 

[ZedClampet]

My company gave us $1000 to spend on office supplies for when we're working at home and the largest expense was a decent office chair:

Euroseats Bureaustoelen - Curve Bureaustoel

It's a lot better than a dinner table chair or our desk chair that has one broken arm rest and a broken gas cylinder.

Do you usually show up to work at home?

but even after over 100 hours of DL1 I couldn’t tell you how the story plays out, only the main beats, so that won’t bother me. As long as voice acting is good which so far it has been, then I can easily ignore a bad story.

The story of DL1: There's a bad guy and you have to kill him.
The story of DL2: There's a bad guy and you have to kill him.

Personally, I thought 2 was better than 1, but some of the parkour becomes ridiculous eventually. Nothing like falling 40 stories and having to start over--8 times in a row.

Also, the grappling hook is garbage and should be removed from the game.

*****

Yuck and why? Yesterday I was playing the tutorial for that survival game, and this dude said he needed to teach me how to hunt and cook food. Then he told me there were rats in the windmill, and I should go kill them and cook the meat.

First of all, that's not teaching me anything. That's giving me a to do list.

Second of all, I passed half-a-dozen chickens on the way to the rats. Can't I just eat the chickens?

 

[Pifanjr]

Do you usually show up to work at home?

Usually.

Yuck and why? Yesterday I was playing the tutorial for that survival game, and this dude said he needed to teach me how to hunt and cook food. Then he told me there were rats in the windmill, and I should go kill them and cook the meat.

First of all, that's not teaching me anything. That's giving me a to do list.

Second of all, I passed half-a-dozen chickens on the way to the rats. Can't I just eat the chickens?

Did you try to eat the chickens?

How did you have to hunt the rats? I feel like rats are easier to catch by setting a trap than it is to hunt them with a bow/gun.

 

[ZedClampet]

Review of Liquor and Wine Shop Simulator​

This is just embarrassing. Of the dozen or so early access retail games I've played in the last year, this is easily the worst. It's not that the gameplay is bad. I'm sure it's the same as all the rest of them. What sets this game apart is that things like mouse movement and just walking around is terrible. You slide all over the place. The world shakes like there's an earthquake, and the mouse cursor moves at 3000 mph (although there is a sensitivity slider in the options). Just the basic stuff of a video game is terrible.

As a side note: "F" is basically the key to press for everything. Want to use the computer? Clicking on it doesn't work. You have to press F. Want to pick up a box? Press F. Put items on a shelf? Press F. Use the register, scan an item, pick up the customer's bank card. throw a box? F. Does the developer realize there are buttons on a mouse just for things like this? At the beginning of the game, instead of telling you to hit any key to start, it tells you to press F. Compared to not being able to walk properly and the world shaking and the mouse being out of control, this is nothing, but when you can't do all those things and people bum rush your store before you even opened it, then you start complaining about the letter F because you are mad at the world.

As terrible a state as the game is in, it's been two weeks since launch and there have been no patches. Hell if I'm keeping this thing. If the guy carrying a mug that says, "World's Greatest Developer" shows up and starts fixing this trash. I'll consider buying the game again. But as far as I can tell, he's taken his windfall of $200 from game sales and is vacationing at the homeless shelter in the ghetto and spending that $200 on Jack Daniels. Actually that's a great idea because this game drives you to drink.

But at least it isn't a card game, so I'm giving this a 92/100--one better than Balatro.

 

[ZedClampet]

Usually.




Did you try to eat the chickens?

How did you have to hunt the rats? I feel like rats are easier to catch by setting a trap than it is to hunt them with a bow/gun.

I didn't hunt them at all. I was approaching the windmill when they charged down the hill and attacked me. Also, they were the size of beavers. Not that kind of beaver, Mr. Urban Dictionary. The animal.

 

[Colif]

Watched it with my 7 year old and used to to hammer home something we're always trying to tell him: advertisements are all lies.

I see more fake ads than real ones, but that could be from watching this channel

I am always curious about what fakes are out there, not because I want one, but more out of knowing what to watch out for.

I wonder how soon before this is out of date

Info - Beware of 16tb External SSD or 8tb USB Flash drives.

You currently cannot buy a real 16tb or larger external SSD or USB drives larger than 1tb, at all. They don't exist. But if you look on almost any retailer now they show you drives that are labelled 16tb, or 30tb or bigger still. These are fake. Same applies for any USB flash drive bigger than...

forums.pcgamer.com

 

[ZedClampet]

I see more fake ads than real ones, but that could be from watching this channel

I am always curious about what fakes are out there, not because I want one, but more out of knowing what to watch out for.

I wonder how soon before this is out of date

Info - Beware of 16tb External SSD or 8tb USB Flash drives.

You currently cannot buy a real 16tb or larger external SSD or USB drives larger than 1tb, at all. They don't exist. But if you look on almost any retailer now they show you drives that are labelled 16tb, or 30tb or bigger still. These are fake. Same applies for any USB flash drive bigger than...

forums.pcgamer.com

Let's see. Based on my experience, an actual 16 TB external SSD would cost around $2000. Don't have to worry about me falling for that. Unless...it's on Alibaba and you can get 100 of them for $29.99. Then I'm all in. I mean, what if they are real? Then I'd have 1600 TB of storage! This is the same philosophy with which I bought the original Switch on Amazon for 10 cents. Still haven't got it, though.

 

[neogunhero]

Personally, I thought 2 was better than 1, but some of the parkour becomes ridiculous eventually. Nothing like falling 40 stories and having to start over--8 times in a row.

Also, the grappling hook is garbage and should be removed from the game.

I haven't reached the city yet but I'm excited to check it out. I hope my frames don't tank as soon as I step inside the city though. From the videos I've seen, the animations look amazing but the actual parkour gameplay seems a bit janky here and there. Did you know the "inventor" of parkour plays a major character in this game, Hakon?

 

[Colif]

Let's see. Based on my experience, an actual 16 TB external SSD would cost around $2000. Don't have to worry about me falling for that. Unless...it's on Alibaba and you can get 100 of them for $29.99. Then I'm all in. I mean, what if they are real? Then I'd have 1600 TB of storage! This is the same philosophy with which I bought the original Switch on Amazon for 10 cents. Still haven't got it, though.

What if just one of the 100 has a virus on it? its been done before. So its not just a risk of losing the data you put on the drives.

1. Most of the time the USB drives are 500mb or smaller so you not going to get what you wish for.
2. They also relabelled USB 2.0 drives so even if they were the right size, the write speed is so slow you wouldn't want to use them.
3. They use controller chips that lie to operating systems about what they actually have, so they say they are 16tb (for example) as just testing the drive is real via the tools that write data to the drives, will still take several days if you try to use entire "space" of the drive, just to find 99% of the data was being constantly overwritten when drive runs out of actual space and starts from beginning again. And you got very few actual working files at the end, depending on how big drive actually is, and file sizes used.

The only reason I bought 3 USB 3.1 Flash drives is I was sick of the speed of all my USB 2.0 drives. My 256gb USB flash drives max speed is about as fast as a Sata SSD is. That was worth the price. I never really found a use for the other two but I think one is a Windows 11 installer now.

 

[ZedClampet]

What if just one of the 100 has a virus on it? its been done before. So its not just a risk of losing the data you put on the drives.

1. Most of the time the USB drives are 500mb or smaller so you not going to get what you wish for.
2. They also relabelled USB 2.0 drives so even if they were the right size, the write speed is so slow you wouldn't want to use them.
3. They use controller chips that lie to operating systems about what they actually have, so they say they are 16tb (for example) as just testing the drive is real via the tools that write data to the drives, will still take several days if you try to use entire "space" of the drive, just to find 99% of the data was being constantly overwritten when drive runs out of actual space and starts from beginning again. And you got very few actual working files at the end, depending on how big drive actually is, and file sizes used.

The only reason I bought 3 USB 3.1 Flash drives is I was sick of the speed of all my USB 2.0 drives. My 256gb USB flash drives max speed is about as fast as a Sata SSD is. That was worth the price. I never really found a use for the other two but I think one is a Windows 11 installer now.

I was just kidding. But that brings me to the guy who made that infinite power video. I enjoyed the video except for one thing. He actually tries to buy the thing by putting two forms of payment into that website. That's the actual scam. They want to get your credit card/bank card information. There is no book. If they told you your sale went through and you never got the book, you might report them to someone. But as long as you don't think you were charged, you just shrug it off and move on...after giving them your payment information.

 

[Colif]

I expect he has thought of the credit card thing already, its not the first time he has bought a scam product or tried to. He would have a way to protect himself.

I don't think he ever got a copy of the book that way, but he did eventually.
Part 2:

its fairly easy to make a new email address for specific purposes. I have a spare I only use on One website.

 

[ZedClampet]

I expect he has thought of the credit card thing already, its not the first time he has bought a scam product or tried to. He would have a way to protect himself.

I don't think he ever got a copy of the book that way, but he did eventually.
Part 2:

its fairly easy to make a new email address for specific purposes. I have a spare I only use on One website.

First of all, the real scam is getting your payment info. I guarantee that. These people are criminals. You think they'd just let your payment info go? They can sell that stuff for a fortune.

Second of all, if he's not using his real email and payment information, for instance he could be using a Visa gift card, then he's doing a terrible job at educating people about scams if he doesn't say that he didn't use his real information.. This guy is an educator, right. That's why people watch his videos? And he just leaves the impression that he was using his real information on that site?

The fact that he didn't mention not using his real information says, to me, that he did use his real information because he's talking about scams. That's the whole point. He seems to not even consider that they are collecting payment information. What if someone from his viewership decides they want to try to buy the book?

Nope. He used his real info.

 

[Johnway]

I finally picked up Dying Light 2 after mulling it over for years. As a big fan of the first game, it was disappointing to hear about the state of the game when it first came out. However, this was quite similar to how DL1 released: it was an ambitious game with too many bugs for its own good. Over the years, DL1 was constantly updated, with some major content additions and massive overhauls. I remember one update where they completely redid the entire games audio from the mixing, mastering, reverb, surround sound, they retouched every single aspect of the audio and that just blew me away. With this in mind, I knew DL2 would just take some time to get better. I know it sucks that this is how games are these days, but it’s just the unfortunate truth.

Anyways, I have been following DL2 on Steam ever since it released in 2022. I have seen a lot of the updates it’s gotten over time, and it has been getting me excited. After each major update I keep wondering if this is the time to buy, but I kept holding off. I wanted this game to be a positive experience for me, because I loved DL1 and open world first person action games are one of my favorite genres of games. I know if I just waited it would be a lot better than if I bought it earlier.

I nearly bought it about two weeks ago. It was on sale, and it did the weird Steam “glitch” where it was apart of a bundle and I already owned the first game in the bundle, so DL2 was technically cheaper that way than if I bought it on it’s own. It was nearly $24 at that time. Well once again I held off, and I’m glad I did. Yesterday, I saw it on sale again for just under $20. I just got paid, so I said screw it, now is the time.

I actually only ended up playing about an hour before getting off, but so far so good. Of that hour, approximately 15 minutes were spent tinkering in the settings. I do this in nearly every game I play. The graphics presets are strange, because if you don’t select Ultra RT On, then the renderer is changed to DX11 and Async Compute is turned to off. Luckily, PCG always comes handy with graphics settings guides, so I followed that and improved my performance drastically.

My very basic first impressions are that the graphics look great even at medium (I meet recommend specs but the game seems poorly optimized), voice acting is good, set up for the new main character Aiden is a bit strange but I’m intrigued, and the movement and combat have a different feel already. Movement especially, it feels a bit weighty-er and slightly more realistic. However as with the first game, there is a large perk tree to unlock, so I will get more moves and faster movement eventually.

I can’t wait to dive more into the game. The general consensus seems to be it’s not as good as DL1, but I also see lots of people saying the parkour and combat is better. A major complaint about DL2 is the story, but even after over 100 hours of DL1 I couldn’t tell you how the story plays out, only the main beats, so that won’t bother me. As long as voice acting is good which so far it has been, then I can easily ignore a bad story.

I've been sitting on the fence for DL2, i liked the first one enough, however i hear that there is a 3rd expansion and i sense that the game will eventually have a GOTY with all those expansions. That said, DL has had a load of DLC after the GOTY was released, so maybe now would be time to get it now.



Asscreed, i'm just plodding around england where down to just 2 or 3 more areas before england is fully conquered. Still need to go back to Norway but for now, i've made a quick detour to the DLC, namely the siege of paris. I suspect that its going to be fairly quick affair, but there are a few bits and pieces that prolong it, namely resistance missions.

 

[neogunhero]

I've been sitting on the fence for DL2, i liked the first one enough, however i hear that there is a 3rd expansion and i sense that the game will eventually have a GOTY with all those expansions. That said, DL has had a load of DLC after the GOTY was released, so maybe now would be time to get it now.

Very true, but most of both games DLC are just cosmetics with a weapon or two thrown in. On Steam the basic version of DL2 you can buy includes the first major expansion, but I read the reviews and apparently it's not amazing. Still though, excited to play more.

 

[Johnway]

Very true, but most of both games DLC are just cosmetics with a weapon or two thrown in. On Steam the basic version of DL2 you can buy includes the first major expansion, but I read the reviews and apparently it's not amazing. Still though, excited to play more.

i think it depends what the new DLC is like. its highly probably its a Standalone story/content (its set between DL1 and DL2) so it might not be worth it. Unlike the original Dl expansion with buggies and also a conclusion for the story. The rest of the DLC i couldn't care less as its multiplayer or extraction based.

 

[BeardyHat]

With all the car work this week, I've been too tired to really play anything in the evenings, but I'm hoping I have some more energy today for games. I'm still putting in time here and there with Two Point Hospital on my Deck.

I also picked up Twilight Rising after seeing the PCG review calling it a modern iteration on Command & Conquer. I only played one mission so far, but I'm not entirely sure I agree and I'm not totally sure I like it yet. The thing about C&C is that the graphics are bright, colorful and you can immediately tell what units are by their sprite and animations.

TR does not have that, going instead for a more realistic art style, which ends up making things look dark and muddy. It also gives units abilities, which is fine, but not really for me, as I hate having to manage individual abilities and you also lose access to them once you drag a box and highlight a bunch of dudes to move, which is annoying.

So I'm not sure I like it yet, but I need to spend more time with it yet and get a better feel for things.

 

[Colif]

Technically a speedrun... but not in the normal sense. It takes 3 days and 8 hours... but... it is SM64 without using the A key.

There is one stage that takes 78 hours to complete.

There is a area on one stage that is only reachable by exploiting a bug in the Wii processor where it can't transfer a value correctly between memory locations, and it moves a platform up slowly... and I do mean slowly. Normally it takes 8 DAYS to get to the right height but guy in video used a trick to reduce its time in half.

Um... speedrunners sure are creative in making categories to keep playing dead games. Who would have thought to even contemplate finishing SM64 without jumping

 

[Johnway]

With easter weekend i've had some time on my hands for art and gaming. I've started the DLC of Asscreed valhalla; the siege of paris. Whilst not essential, there are some nice ideas and weapons. namely in scythe weapons. One particular one i like is every light/heavy finisher (so pretty much every 3rd strike) it sets the weapon on fire and i can do fire damage.

The first assassination mission was more interesting affair as well, its a multi part mission with various optional actions and solutions to infiltrating and finishing the boss. unfortunately, since i got the dbl execution attack, i finished the boss fight by throwing an axe to his face. No drawn out boss fight. There are some other side content like resistance missions but how much of that is relevant or useful i don't know. its nice to get some gear and rare runes but besides that, i fail to see any reason to play it.


Ramp 2024 and i've finished 2 stations in record time. Previously we were in the Techbase park for all my E1M1 techbase vibes. The only stand out map of the bunch was Raining Blood, a well made map with plenty of teleporting shenanigans and had a decent narrative. We then quickly moved onto UAC underground which is more E1M1 stuff, the stand out map was UAC hellbase Gamma. not the hardest of maps, but its very polished with custom assets weapons and the map looked great. Something i want to aspire to.