December 2023 General Discussion Thread

[Zed Clampet]

Ah yes, the patient gamer lifestyle. Get suckers like me to buy it day one so it can fund the next three years of development so they can fix the game🤣


That’s about all the convincing I need to replay FC5. Loved it the first time, but couldn’t make it too far in NG+ because that is perhaps the most annoying storytelling mechanic in a game I’ve ever seen…

and @Brian Boru If I remember right, we killed the kidnappers on multiple occasions, but they kept coming back until they got us. It didn't really bother me much because I enjoyed the story snippets that came with it.

 

[neogunhero]

and @Brian Boru If I remember right, we killed the kidnappers on multiple occasions, but they kept coming back until they got us. It didn't really bother me much because I enjoyed the story snippets that came with it.

It’s not bad the first time around, a bit jarring, but yeah the cutscenes and missions that happen afterwards are cool. However to me, having to do them over again after beating the game was really bad. I hated having to fully stop whatever it is I’m doing just because I gained too much XP at that moment. I remember just walking down the road, killing two enemies, then I was froze in my tracks so an enemy truck could roll up on me to kidnap me. I’ve taken out thousands of enemies but a single truck with 3 guys is enough to kidnap me? That’s why I need to use the Resistance mod lol

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I'm getting a little confused by the conversation. Yes, Cyberpunk was tremendously profitable, much more than Witcher 3.

GoG TLDR: GoG isn't listed separately in the quarterly reports so it's impossible to tell if they are still losing money.

I just researched GoG, and looking at the latest quarterly report from CDPR, it's impossible to tell if GoG is losing money still because it isn't listed out separately, so I think there's a lot of confusion out there in articles.

It appears to be listed as "Goods for resale and materials" and has a revenue of 51,693 and a cost of 38757. Per the report:

"Cost of goods for resale and materials sold represents mainly the cost of goods for resale and materials sold via the GOG.COM
platform"

However, an undisclosed portion of the "Selling Expenses" of 66,000 is attributed to GoG.

"The second largest category of the Selling expenses comprised costs recognized in the GOG.COM segment in respect of marketing
activities relating to the GOG.COM platform and the work on the development and processing of sales executed through that
platform."

So if more than 13000 of that 66,000 in Selling Expenses is attributed to GoG then it lost money in the last quarter.

Either way, it appears to be in better shape than it used to be.

GOG 2023 update #2: facts and numbers of 2022

GOG 2023 update #2: facts and numbers of 2022

www.gog.com

Last year they made a relatively small profit it seems. Might be worse this year for obvious reasons, but either way doesnt look like its the kind of money thats going to prop up the company on its own, or that was going to keep them above water for 3 more years while they worked on CP2077.

Its independence day here so everyone has a day off. Times like this when the kids around I quite often I just see something curious and fire off an observation in between playing snakes and ladders or being a climbing frame. I just noticed that the numbers in the chart looked off from the headline and questioned it, then got distracted.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Brian Boru

Remember we were talking about saving money with the two game bundles when you already have one of the games?

Well, I wanted the game Farmer's Life, which was 30 percent off, but I found it in a bundle with Airplane Mechanic, which was 90 percent off. Put those two discounts together plus the extra 15 percent for the bundle and I actually got both games for less than just Farmer's Life would have been at the sale price.

 

[neogunhero]

I totally forgot the new Avatar game came out today. If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for mediocre Ubisoft games and this seems to be a nice fit for me. PCG’s review-in-progress headlines say “A good Far Cry with big problems”, “Possibly Ubisoft’s best Far Cry game”, so I’m thinking as long as the bugs are patched out, I can bare bad dialogue and a strange progression system. Might give it a few weeks then reactivate my Ubisoft+ subscription to try it out. I have a sinking feeling that this game will not do good commercially though, I have barely seen any marketing for it at all besides when they showed off gameplay at one of the game showcases this past summer.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I totally forgot the new Avatar game came out today. If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for mediocre Ubisoft games and this seems to be a nice fit for me. PCG’s review-in-progress headlines say “A good Far Cry with big problems”, “Possibly Ubisoft’s best Far Cry game”, so I’m thinking as long as the bugs are patched out, I can bare bad dialogue and a strange progression system. Might give it a few weeks then reactivate my Ubisoft+ subscription to try it out. I have a sinking feeling that this game will not do good commercially though, I have barely seen any marketing for it at all besides when they showed off gameplay at one of the game showcases this past summer.

Ubisoft seems to be hit or miss on marketing their games. I'm not sure what the deal is, but they've released a number of games in the last few years that I'd barely heard anything about at the time of release.

I like Far Cry games and I have Ubi+, so I'm downloading it now. I think it has co-op, so I might wait a day or two until my son is on Christmas break before I really get into it, but usually you have to play Ubisoft games for a little while in order to unlock multiplayer.

I never saw the movie, so hopefully I won't be completely lost story-wise. Maybe I should read a synopsis. All I know is I can't be an air bender 🙂

 

[Zloth]

Ah yes, the patient gamer lifestyle. Get suckers like me to buy it day one so it can fund the next three years of development so they can fix the game🤣

Oh no, he's on to us! Quick, find a great game trailer to get him into a new game!

I totally forgot the new Avatar game came out today.

Oh good, mischief managed.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Colif we had talked about Copilot before you took a brief break due to PC problems. I've used it a ton since then, and I am willing to state that I couldn't tell you if it is right more than it is wrong. In fact, my impression is that it is wrong about most things. I ask it questions that have factual answers throughout the day, and it is just miserable. The only reason I persist is curiosity. There are going to be a lot of students, journalists, etc. getting terrible information from this thing.

 

[Brian Boru]

that is perhaps the most annoying storytelling mechanic in a game I’ve ever seen

You've heard of rage quit, which is what I did after the ~3rd forced capture. But have you heard of rage email? That was the one and only time I've emailed a CEO about their crappy game choice 😀

we killed the kidnappers on multiple occasions

I did that once, but same as you, they were back quickly with more Bliss arrows. Another time, I jumped off a cliff and wingsuited away—but again, caught very soon after. They just don't give up—some posts reported being grabbed out of choppers in mid flight!.

being a climbing frame

GF's sister phoned earlier, claiming she wants to become a hermit. She has a point… hmm, that would be a sort-of Independence Day, wouldn't it? Enjoy 🙂

I actually got both games for less than just Farmer's Life would have been at the sale price

Cheapskate!

“A good Far Cry with big problems”, “Possibly Ubisoft’s best Far Cry game”

To everyone's amazement, my ears just perked up. Oops no, they actually detached and are now stuck in the ceiling—looks up and wonders… 🤔

S'okay, no one I want to listen to right now anyway. I will temper my enthusiasm however, given Redfall's unfulfilled promise as another FC-like.

There are going to be a lot of students, journalists, etc. getting terrible information from this thing.

They should learn quickly to use it like Wiki for now, as a pointer to sources. As I said before, GIGO—it can only be as good as the info out there already, and a lot of bad actors are very skilled at getting their crap highly ranked.

AI will probably ultimately split the way the web, media, social media etc have split. Pick your flavor of choice, fed only your preferences and beliefs.

 

[Brian Boru]

Been playing along filler game Wordle 2, it's more difficult than Wordle [not the browser game]. Otherwise it's same as first, which I reviewed earlier.

Can you solve that? 😈

 

[Zed Clampet]

As I said before, GIGO—it can only be as good as the info out there already, and a lot of bad actors are very skilled at getting their crap highly ranked.

No, no, no. I'm not getting my point across. My bad. If you give it the best info, 100 percent accurate, it will still get it wrong because it doesn't properly connect things. For instance, if a weather site said it was 90 degrees in Miami and 70 degrees in New York, Bing would just as likely switch those and tell you it is 70 degrees in Miami and 90 degrees in New York. It frequently jumbles up its information. It might get something as simple as the temperature correct, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The worst part is that it is an absolutely fantastic liar. It tells me the wrong information about games all the time, but in very detailed and believable ways (see my post about the French Connection mission in Weed Shop 3--everything it told me was completely fabricated. There wasn't even a mission, much less one called "French Connection", but the character I was trying to unlock was named French. Bing just concocted the whole thing and used the title French Connection because it sounded convincing due to the character's name).

 

[Colif]

@Colif we had talked about Copilot before you took a brief break due to PC problems. I've used it a ton since then, and I am willing to state that I couldn't tell you if it is right more than it is wrong. In fact, my impression is that it is wrong about most things. I ask it questions that have factual answers throughout the day, and it is just miserable. The only reason I persist is curiosity. There are going to be a lot of students, journalists, etc. getting terrible information from this thing.

Wonder what it thinks about flat earth. It could at least tell some people truths they don't believe...

I only see it useful if once it can take data and make a presentation out of it. Right now its just automated search. Ask it about a function and it finds it for you. None of the ones we play with know anything, they just predict the next word. There are smarter AI out there... just need money to access them.

For example:

 

[neogunhero]

So I actually ended up playing some Fallout 76 yesterday. They came out with a new update, and one of the new features is that you can start a brand new character at level 20, and they have pre-made loadout you can choose for your brand new character that equips you with a weapon, ammo and a bunch of aid items like Stimpaks and Rad-Away. So I started a brand new guy, named him Karl, and picked the shotgunner loadout. The loadout also unlocks perk cards for you pertaining to the class, so mine had a lot of shotgun boosts and similar cards. It’s a great way to start a new character if you’re a returning player, but I would even probably recommend it to brand new players also. It’s a great way to get started in the game, because once you choose a loadout you’re free to go do whatever you want. I explored the revamped introductory area which is full of NPCs that weren’t there before. I picked up a daily quest which was a very simple delivery mission, and it was a good way to test my graphics and control settings. From there I continued on with the main story for a bit before logging off. I think if anyone is interested in playing it, get it on sale, it usually goes down to $10. I think now is the best time ever to get into this game if you were ever interested in it. I’ve played it a ton over the years, and it feels a lot like FO4 but different in many significant ways as well. You have to know what you’re getting into, because you could disappoint yourself if you’re expecting it to be almost exactly like FO4.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Hey guys. Thought I'd pop back in and see how everyone is doing. It's been a little while since I've been around.

Earlier this last spring, I was able to build a PC and get back into PC gaming. I gave my Xbox to my oldest son. During the time I was playing on the Xbox, there was a lot I missed about PC gaming. So this was a great move for me. I was able to throw together a build with an i7-13700k, an RTX 4080, and 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM. I'm really happy with it.

I have my PC dedicated to my living room TV, and much more recently, for my early Christmas gift, I was able to finally get an OLED TV that supports Variable Refresh Rate and 120Hz. And wow! That makes a huge difference, especially for gaming. I've never been able to use Gsync before or go above 60fps, and it's great.

I've been playing mostly Starfield lately. I started it later than most people because I was waiting for the DLSS patch. I ended up not waiting for it to come out, but it did make a huge difference when they finally did work it in. The official DLSS 3 support works a ton better than the DLSS 2 mod that was out. I have my fps cap set at 117 because of my TV's 120Hz limitation, and the game is staying right there most of the time. There are a few locations where I was getting like 50fps, and now I get over 100. But I'm really enjoying the game.

Hope everyone is doing well here.

 

[Colif]

Hope you good yourself

Just happen to be buying a 55inch Oled for mum. Looks like it can do 120 itself, but its unlikely to ever be used for gaming.

 

[neogunhero]

View: https://youtu.be/1WMUJ_YMPlY


So I guess I’m buying an Among Us DLC for Vampire Survivors pretty soon. The animation in the trailer is fantastic, I hope they decide to make a VS animated series. Also in the video they posted right before this, there is a 2 second clip at the very end of live action footage of the ground with someone’s boots walking past. People suspect it’s Poe, aka Garlic Grandpa, due to the color of the robe you can see in the clip. Could there be a live action VS series as well?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

WB @WoodenSaucer Pretty tasty rig you put together there, congrats. I'm most jealous of the OLED, I wont be there for a couple years at least.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

WB @WoodenSaucer Pretty tasty rig you put together there, congrats. I'm most jealous of the OLED, I wont be there for a couple years at least.

I expected the OLED to make a difference, and it made a bigger difference than I imagined. I got a Sony Bravia because I was sold on their built-in sound system. It has front facing subs on the bottom, but it has vibrators behind the screen that actually turn the screen into a big panoramic speaker. I have no idea how they worked it out, and you can't even visually tell. When people are talking on the screen, the sound of their voice comes from right where their mouth is. It's crazy.

I hope you can pick one up before too long.

 

[BeardyHat]

I expected the OLED to make a difference, and it made a bigger difference than I imagined. I got a Sony Bravia because I was sold on their built-in sound system. It has front facing subs on the bottom, but it has vibrators behind the screen that actually turn the screen into a big panoramic speaker. I have no idea how they worked it out, and you can't even visually tell. When people are talking on the screen, the sound of their voice comes from right where their mouth is. It's crazy.

I hope you can pick one up before too long.

I don't think I've ever actually seen an OLED panel, but they seem pretty neat

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I expected the OLED to make a difference, and it made a bigger difference than I imagined. I got a Sony Bravia because I was sold on their built-in sound system. It has front facing subs on the bottom, but it has vibrators behind the screen that actually turn the screen into a big panoramic speaker. I have no idea how they worked it out, and you can't even visually tell. When people are talking on the screen, the sound of their voice comes from right where their mouth is. It's crazy.

I hope you can pick one up before too long.

Nice! Had no idea that was even a thing.

Whenever fun money allows it, my screen is still pretty good so itll be a bit. At the moment the horsepower needed for 4K is a bit much for the performance I'd want at my budget. In a couple few years itll come round, probably.

 

[Zloth]

I sat on that Humble subscription service and got lucky. Elex 2 is part of this month's free games, which I planned to buy anyway. Expeditions: Rome is, too. I really didn't like Expeditions: Viking at all, but this one might be worth trying - especially for free.

Gotta remember to cancel after this, though - most months have nothing I'm interested in getting.

Hope everyone is doing well here.

Doing good, though @mainer hasn't been seen in a while.

 

[Zloth]

Alan Wake 2 over BG3 for best narrative in the Game Awards?? Is it really that good??

 

[Zed Clampet]

Alan Wake 2 over BG3 for best narrative in the Game Awards?? Is it really that good??

It's probably hard to figure out how good it is because it probably makes no sense like the first one. In my 7 hours of BG3, I didn't see anything special about that story, either. I'd like someone to tell me a story from BG3 that I will find fascinating. The writing style was pedestrian, but I didn't get far enough for the interesting stories, apparently.

*******

I have obtained the highest rank in Lethal Company: Boss.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Meanwhile in real games, Lethal Company is destroying Phasmophobia. Has 120k concurrents right now compared to Phasmo's 10k. Of course, Phasmo's dev has made the game progressively worse with every update, but Lethal Company is just flat out better game. Of course, the games aren't really similar except to both be co-op horror games.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Alan Wake 2 over BG3 for best narrative in the Game Awards?? Is it really that good??

Narrative wise Baldurs Gate 3 has good interesting characters that feel like actual people you get to know as the game goes on. Because of that the major story decisions you have to make that affect them feel important and some are hard to make, like a fantasy soap opera. The overall plot and quests are great, but most are within the boundaries of standard fantasy fare and gets a bit silly in places towards the end. I love it, its like a Bioware style of story telling +++ advanced with way more choice than ever before.

From what I've played so far Alan Wake 2 is trying to be more high concept in the way its telling the story. If you like psychedelic stuff and cosmic horror you might find it more interesting. It doesnt take itself too seriously, but at the same time its trying to do something different. Not an original thought at all but Alan Wake 1 was Twin Peaks and Stephen King on top of a nice functional linear shooter. Now theyre throwing in the SCP stuff from Control behind it, and including Max Payne Alex Casey as a character in a fun way as well, but the more survival horror type gameplay suits the tone of it better and lets you soak in the scenery which itself is helping tell the story. It also won art direction, if that explains something.

FWIW