General Game Discussion for March 2026

[Pifanjr]

I unlocked an entirely new area in Dave the Diver that seems to be about as big as the first one. That explains why there were so many upgrades left when it seemed like I had explored everything already.

@Colif according to CoPilot, they are slowly adding to the things it can do to your system. Right now, for instance, it can open up various things for you, like different settings pages. They are being very careful with allowing it to actually change things on your system. The plan is to add things that it is allowed to do slowly throughout the next couple of years, after they've verified that it won't mess up your system.

One thing that it is very good at now is, "In Windows 11, is it possible to...." As it turns out, but about everything is possible, and it will tell you how to get Windows to do it. It also knows what error messages mean and how to fix them.

Overall, as someone who plays a lot (probably more than 100 a year) of complex and completely undocumented games and who also uses outrageously complex and, yet, poorly documented, AI programs, I can assure you that CoPilot has been invaluable for me.

Imagine opening up a program and there are 50 settings and none of them mean anything to you, and when you google them, no one can agree exactly what they do. CoPilot knows. It doesn't know these things because it scraped it off the web. It's been fed technical documents.

Maybe CoPilot can tell me why my Windows Update is failing, nothing I've tried or looked up myself has worked so far.

 

[Colif]

Right now, for instance, it can open up various things for you, like different settings pages. They are being very careful with allowing it to actually change things on your system. The plan is to add things that it is allowed to do slowly throughout the next couple of years, after they've verified that it won't mess up your system.

sets reminder for 20 years time, when it might be useful, or more likely with Windows, have been replaced with the next big trend.

Microsoft generally leave big changes for the new versions... Ie, Windows 12. I mean, you have to offer something new apart from change the desktop around... oh wait.
So its likely by about Windows 15 it might be useful. So in about 15 years or so... Every version has a 5 year use life before they release the next one.
They make smaller changes in version updates, so once a year. But nothing radical.

 

[Zed Clampet]

sets reminder for 20 years time, when it might be useful, or more likely with Windows, have been replaced with the next big trend.

Microsoft generally leave big changes for the new versions... Ie, Windows 12. I mean, you have to offer something new apart from change the desktop around... oh wait.
So its likely by about Windows 15 it might be useful. So in about 15 years or so... Every version has a 5 year use life before they release the next one.
They make smaller changes in version updates, so once a year. But nothing radical.

Well, I agree that the philosophy behind changes is as you describe, but I don't think it applies to CoPilot because they are in an all-out race with Google Gemini and ChatGPT, and they have a huge advantage that they can't squander, which is that most office workers are already happily using it because it's bundled with other products.

But, if I had to guess, all that really matters to them is the iphone/android market. That seems to be the only consumer market tech companies are concerned with.

 

[Colif]

But, if I had to guess, all that really matters to them is the iphone/android market. That seems to be the only consumer market tech companies are concerned with.

its what most young people know now. They have been using the phones all their lives, and its unlikely to change so its a growing market. Old people assumed the young would pick up PC at some stage but they never did. So Microsoft have a captive audience of most of their older users but have been scrambling to get attention of young people for years now.

Youtube are the same in a different way, they trying to get users to use Shorts because Tiktok got in the way of their growth, so they try to become the same thing. Sux if you don't want to see shorts.

 

[Zed Clampet]

its what most young people know now. They have been using the phones all their lives, and its unlikely to change so its a growing market. Old people assumed the young would pick up PC at some stage but they never did. So Microsoft have a captive audience of most of their older users but have been scrambling to get attention of young people for years now.

Youtube are the same in a different way, they trying to get users to use Shorts because Tiktok got in the way of their growth, so they try to become the same thing. Sux if you don't want to see shorts.

The number of pc gamers is growing rapidly in all age groups, but overall pc use probably maxed out years ago, except maybe they can convince people in a certain very large country to actually pay for Windows, that could be a boost. I'm not saying the country....

 

[dxchase]

Havent posted lately!!

Arc Raiders has become more annoying but i still play it faithfully. I have gotten back THREE loadouts in the last week-week 1/2 from getting killed by cheaters. Embark nerfed a bunch of the guns so now its become more of a nuisance to down someone in 1 clip even though the shotgun can down you from 300 yards away.

Im talking about unloading a fully kitted level 4 basic smg-like into someone close up and still have them standing while 2 shotgun blasts from mid-range to your feet put you down. With the amount of kits ive got returned vs that, idk if its really even the guns, lag, skill (which in some cases it definitively is lol) or cheating anymore.

I still get a good rush out of playing. Every match is still unique, teams can be fun, solo vs squads has been VERY lucrative for me, im just unhappy with the amount of cheating still prevalent and nerfing guns. How about buffing shields? How about buffing every gun except the shotgun? This isnt even covering all the little glitches you can do in the game still.




Diablo 4 is still there but i havent started the new season yet which i should because im missing out on the excellent Doom collab.




Killing Floor 3 got a massive update a couple days ago. Honestly, THIS is where the game couldve fully released with little backlash from its community about the lack of content there. It shouldve sat in EA from its July '25 release until now. I think it might be a little too late though for numbers considering it sat at ~250 on steam and now sits at around 1k while KF2 still has a healthy lead over it.

This game is def. one of the outliers where you cant really base its numbers on steam numbers alone. Almost every match im in im filled with console players and if i turn off cross-play, it takes way longer to find a match.



Crimson Desert is about to enter the arena this weekend. This will be the first full game i buy in 2026.




I also get my new corsair keyboard in the mail, the Gallon 100. Its their new stream deck/keyboard combo. More info and pics when i test it!

 

[neogunhero]

Weening off of Starfield. Had fun for the 25 hours or so I put into this save, but hitting a wall. The game is the most fun when you play it like No Man's Sky, flying from planet to planet, completing the planetary surveys where you must scan all animals, plants and geological formations. Collecting resources, building bases, upgrading your ship, clearing out enemy POIs... that's about all that I could do before getting bored.

I'm not interested in the main or side stories, which is a shame because those are usually the best parts of Bethesda games. They aren't bad, they are well written, just plays it too safe. There are some religious factions in the game, but the depth of them doesn't go further than "we worship the great giant space serpent!" or "every time I gravjump, I see god!!!". It's all very surface level and doesn't take any narrative risks. Fun game to waste some time in, but now that Crimson Desert comes out in a few days, I'm ready to get off the spaceship.

 

[BeardyHat]

@Colif according to CoPilot, they are slowly adding to the things it can do to your system. Right now, for instance, it can open up various things for you, like different settings pages. They are being very careful with allowing it to actually change things on your system. The plan is to add things that it is allowed to do slowly throughout the next couple of years, after they've verified that it won't mess up your system.

One thing that it is very good at now is, "In Windows 11, is it possible to...." As it turns out, but about everything is possible, and it will tell you how to get Windows to do it. It also knows what error messages mean and how to fix them.

Overall, as someone who plays a lot (probably more than 100 a year) of complex and completely undocumented games and who also uses outrageously complex and, yet, poorly documented, AI programs, I can assure you that CoPilot has been invaluable for me.

Imagine opening up a program and there are 50 settings and none of them mean anything to you, and when you google them, no one can agree exactly what they do. CoPilot knows. It doesn't know these things because it scraped it off the web. It's been fed technical documents.

Copilot has actually been essential for troubleshooting Linux issues. It's made Linux actually usable as an OS, because you don't have to wade through forums with out of date, inaccurate and wrong information or forums where people just insult the user asking a question, rather than actually answering the question. Copilot has helped me troubleshoot all kinds of little issues in the past.

Been playing a good amount of Battle Brothers as time allows, lately. Though I'm at an early stage now where I've built my company up a bit and now I'm not sure what to do other than take random contracts; I'm trying to follow the path it's laid out for me, but I'm not sure if that'll change anything about my playthrough. I'm also trying to build up cash to upgrade all my weapons and armor, but I don't know if that's what I'm supposed to be doing or not. Still having fun with it, but there often comes a point in strategy games where I begin to feel a little overwhelmed and stop playing, so I need to force myself through that.

 

[Pifanjr]

Tomorrow I'm probably going to try out Archipelago for the first time with a friend. If we can get it to work, we can set up a larger session with a bunch of people later. I'm excited.

Maybe CoPilot can tell me why my Windows Update is failing, nothing I've tried or looked up myself has worked so far.

CoPilot definitely had a bunch more things I could try and most of the commands it gave even worked, though it did suggest randomly deleting drivers at some point which I decided not to try. Sadly, while all of its suggestions seemed promising, my PC still refused to update. I basically wasted most of the day yesterday on this issue and today I'll have to see if an in-place upgrade fixes it.

I'm getting ever closer to throwing Windows out entirely and switching to Linux. I'm currently still using Windows 10 with the extended updates on my old PC, but there's a real good chance I'll switch to Linux instead of Windows 11 once the support for Windows 10 ends.

 

[neogunhero]

I've been thinking about doing a sort of Garry's Mod photography series. There are so many maps made by players that have been lost to time. Places like GameBanana serve as sort of a time capsule, where you can find Gmod maps uploaded as far back as 2006 still available to download. Other sites like GarrysMod(dot)org, which at one point was the definitive place to download Gmod addons, have since been shut down. There is an archival project in the works for that site called Gmods(dot)org, which does a good job of preserving a lot of the lost files when the official site shut down, but is still incomplete.

Using GmodsOrg, I downloaded many maps that have been uploaded between 2009-2011. I spent a while during the weekend booting up these maps, running around and exploring. The Source engine "aesthetic" is unlike any other game engine in my opinion. It could be my deep-rooted nostalgia for any and all games made with the engine, being the main thing that kicked off my PC gaming passion, so with that I decided to take some photos. I'll have more to share later, but for now I'll leave this one photo:

Spoiler: GMod Photo

The fullbright lighting, flat textures, old PC model, view out the window of a very blocky looking city street, standard Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source props. It encapsulates everything about map making for the Source engine in the late 2000s/early 2010s.