January 2024 PCG Articles, Links and Discussions

[DXCHASE]

Sorry @ZedClampet , i just wanted to laugh and talk about this article from jan. 1st!

This year I'm finally going to tackle my gaming backlog—please take me seriously, I have a plan and everything

Stop laughing at me.

www.pcgamer.com

No, i will not stop laughing at you Mollie! Haha, but godspeed anyways! Your featured quote is so true too. I say i love video games as well but im terrible at finishing anything anymore and i probably have the time to do it on some titles too lol.

Has your backlog grown? Mine certainly has. The Humble Bundles always be giving me games id love to play through but fall to the side (latest being Elex 2). I do the "spreadsheet" thing (more like just a list of games in a word doc but you know) as well.

I probably wont be tackling old games personally, theres just too much good stuff comin out this year too (was pretty much the reason for never really touching my backlog last year).

 

[ZedClampet]

Sorry @ZedClampet , i just wanted to laugh and talk about this article from jan. 1st!

I'm perfectly fine with you making the thread. I was just waiting till today because I didn't think there were new articles over the weekend/New Year. But I just now got around to checking PCG for articles.

 

[Pifanjr]

Sorry @ZedClampet , i just wanted to laugh and talk about this article from jan. 1st!

This year I'm finally going to tackle my gaming backlog—please take me seriously, I have a plan and everything

Stop laughing at me.

www.pcgamer.com

No, i will not stop laughing at you Mollie! Haha, but godspeed anyways! Your featured quote is so true too. I say i love video games as well but im terrible at finishing anything anymore and i probably have the time to do it on some titles too lol.

Has your backlog grown? Mine certainly has. The Humble Bundles always be giving me games id love to play through but fall to the side (latest being Elex 2). I do the "spreadsheet" thing (more like just a list of games in a word doc but you know) as well.

I probably wont be tackling old games personally, theres just too much good stuff comin out this year too (was pretty much the reason for never really touching my backlog last year).

I've made some decent progress towards my backlog. Not that I finished many games, but rather I discovered that a bunch of games on my backlog weren't worth finishing or playing in general.

I also stopped playing some games that I might return to later, though Disco Elysium is the only one that comes to mind now. I've read some stuff indicating the story becomes a lot more interesting, so I do intend to play it again when I get in the mood to read.

 

[Pifanjr]

I am begging Discord to stop bombarding me with pointless new features

2023 has really strained my relationship with my favourite social platform.

www.pcgamer.com

I wonder if Discord will go the way of Skype or if it manages not to alienate its user base. I do think Discord is bigger than Skype used to be, so it'll be harder for any competitors to replace it.

 

[Zloth]

I do the "spreadsheet" thing (more like just a list of games in a word doc but you know) as well.

When Mollie mentioned using a spreadsheet, I remembered somebody in here did the same and started to wonder if perhaps she was sneaking in here and commenting using another name. I guess not.

 

[ZedClampet]

I am begging Discord to stop bombarding me with pointless new features

2023 has really strained my relationship with my favourite social platform.

www.pcgamer.com

I wonder if Discord will go the way of Skype or if it manages not to alienate its user base. I do think Discord is bigger than Skype used to be, so it'll be harder for any competitors to replace it.

I have no idea what features, new or old, that Discord has. All I do is open it and click on the server then go play my game. I think you can share a screen and watch streams with someone else, which is cool, but I've never tried it.

 

[ZedClampet]

Mickey Mouse has been in the public domain for under 48 hours and there's already a horror game and 2 horror movies on the way

The Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse has finally escaped copyright protection—so here come the horror adaptations.

www.pcgamer.com

Mickey Mouse is in the public domain. I'm actually feeling a little sorry for Megacorp...I mean, Disney.

Someone's already working on Mickey and Minnie porn, aren't they?

 

[Zloth]

Someone's already working on Mickey and Minnie porn, aren't they?

They'll need to be careful of the trademarks. (Well, at least with Mickey. Minnie won't be an issue for a while.)

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/01/1221606624/mickey-mouse-public-domain-disney

 

[Pifanjr]

Mickey Mouse has been in the public domain for under 48 hours and there's already a horror game and 2 horror movies on the way

The Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse has finally escaped copyright protection—so here come the horror adaptations.

www.pcgamer.com

Mickey Mouse is in the public domain. I'm actually feeling a little sorry for Megacorp...I mean, Disney.

Someone's already working on Mickey and Minnie porn, aren't they?

I'm pretty sure people have been working on Mickey and Minnie porn for years, regardless of copyright. The only difference is that they can now sell the porn they make of the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse.

 

[DXCHASE]

After 34 years, a 13 year-old prodigy has become the first person to 'beat' Tetris by reaching the holy grail of high-level play: a 'true killscreen'

Willis Gibson, A.K.A blue scuti, made history last month.

www.pcgamer.com

So this was mentioned somewheres yesterday. First of all, i didnt even know there was a technique called "drumming" or rolling when playing tetris though i dont follow the Tetris "scene" . This article had a link to another article that had videos on it and i started going down the rabbit hole lol. Its amazing how fast these players can move their pieces now.

Good job buddy!

 

[ZedClampet]

UK police begin first-ever investigation into sexual assault in the metaverse

A teenage girl was allegedly assaulted in VR by multiple other users.

www.pcgamer.com

I think "assault" is going to be very difficult. I'd have to see/hear what actually happened, but sexual harassment doesn't seem out of the question, and maybe other laws that protect minors online. But assault? No unless the courts have ruled that assault can be purely mental.

 

[Brian Boru]

I think "assault" is going to be very difficult

I agree, the laws are usually a decade to a generation behind. Now if she was at a VR party and prevented from disconnecting…

The case may be more intended to raise awareness than get a conviction.

 

[ZedClampet]

Star Citizen truly outdoes itself with a $48,000 bundle for its most loyal whales

We live in a society where virtual spaceship DLC can cost more than most peoples' annual salary.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[DXCHASE]

Star Citizen truly outdoes itself with a $48,000 bundle for its most loyal whales

We live in a society where virtual spaceship DLC can cost more than most peoples' annual salary.

www.pcgamer.com

Makes sense though for this game, most Star Citizen players have already been lied to about the game time and time again with most of them sinking hundreds of dollars into an essential perpetuating alpha test.

 

[Zloth]

If it were to release, how many people who bought the game even remember it? How many won't have access to the email address they used? How many even care about video games anymore?

The list of babies born while the project went on is going to be huge. A "pets that died" memorial will fill up a city!

 

[DXCHASE]

The $999 RTX 4080 Super feels like a tacit admission it over-reached on the original Ada pricing

The $1,200 price tag of the RTX 4080 always seemed too high, and with the Super version's $200 haircut, it feels like Nvidia's copped to it.

www.pcgamer.com

Im excited (i guess in todays pricing) to see that the 4080S is going to be cheaper than its predecessor. This will inevitably bring down the prices of the 4080, 4070ti and 4070 im just hoping its a good drop in pricing. I am going to try and grab a 4080S founders edition because i love that its all matte black. Ive never bought a founders because i know the AIBs usually produce more, but i specifically like this design, so heres to hoping!

Now for the benchmarks to not be terrible!

And i just love comments on fb of 4080/4070ti owners try to explain why these versions are bad or "not worth it" like bro just because you spent a lot more already doesnt mean these cards are gonna be worse, in fact they should at the very least be better, which is already great because of the pricing.

 

[neogunhero]

AM4 really is AMD's gift that keeps on giving, with four more CPUs launched for the seven year old platform

Surely there can't be any more chips left now?

www.pcgamer.com

Seriously a tough decision for every AM4 platform owner: Do I spend more money to make the jump to AM5, or spend less money to hold onto AM4?

For most gamers, I believe that the AM4 platform is still powerful enough. I’m still running a Ryzen 1600X from 2018 and I’m able to play most games though at reduced graphics 1080p, and for me thats absolutely fine. If I can play my games at a good framerate, I’m not too worried about visuals. I’d wager that a lot of gamers are the same, where framerate is more important over visuals. If that’s how you feel anout your games, sticking with AM4 for a few more years make sense. I play Cyberpunk on medium graphics and get pretty consistent 45-60fps constantly.

If you’re the kind of person to upgrade very rarely like I am, sticking with the AM4 platform and just upgrading your CPU may be the way to go. The 5700X3D is looking very appetizing at $250, when the 5700X has been hovering around $200 for the past year.

 

[ZedClampet]

Fan-made Team Fortress 2 remake using the Source 2 engine shuts down for good after receiving a DMCA notice from Valve

Work on Team Fortress: Source 2 had already been put on hold, but now it appears the project is done for good.

www.pcgamer.com

Gamers have no business sense at all. Of course Valve wasn't going to let them steal TF2 for themselves. TF2 is still hugely successful and making a ton of money. Why would Valve just hand it over to someone else? This is the equivalent of someone making a new Warzone or Fortnite and expecting Activision and Epic to just be okay with it.

If you can't see the difference between this and Black Mesa or the recent Portal 2 mod, then there's just no hope for you.

 

[Pifanjr]

Fan-made Team Fortress 2 remake using the Source 2 engine shuts down for good after receiving a DMCA notice from Valve

Work on Team Fortress: Source 2 had already been put on hold, but now it appears the project is done for good.

www.pcgamer.com

Gamers have no business sense at all. Of course Valve wasn't going to let them steal TF2 for themselves. TF2 is still hugely successful and making a ton of money. Why would Valve just hand it over to someone else? This is the equivalent of someone making a new Warzone or Fortnite and expecting Activision and Epic to just be okay with it.

If you can't see the difference between this and Black Mesa or the recent Portal 2 mod, then there's just no hope for you.

From the way the developers talk about it, I kind of doubt they seriously expected to ever have a full release. It sounds more like a hobby project that got a bit out of hand.

 

[Pifanjr]

Have live service games gone off the deep end with insultingly expensive cosmetics?

We're exhausted by triple-digit bundles and $20 skins, but does it even matter?

www.pcgamer.com

I can't imagine spending that much money on a cosmetic, let alone buying multiple cosmetics when you can only wear one at a time. Then again, like the example of sneakerheads mentioned in the article, people have been spending ludicrous amounts of money on collecting stuff that has no practical purpose for ages.

 

[ZedClampet]

Have live service games gone off the deep end with insultingly expensive cosmetics?

We're exhausted by triple-digit bundles and $20 skins, but does it even matter?

www.pcgamer.com

I can't imagine spending that much money on a cosmetic, let alone buying multiple cosmetics when you can only wear one at a time. Then again, like the example of sneakerheads mentioned in the article, people have been spending ludicrous amounts of money on collecting stuff that has no practical purpose for ages.

I stopped playing Warframe partly because of the microtransactions. I bought things for awhile, but decided I didn't want to spend any more money on them, but also didn't want to play without them. These weren't cosmetics, although I did buy some of those. These were things like money and XP boosts.

 

[neogunhero]

Fan-made Team Fortress 2 remake using the Source 2 engine shuts down for good after receiving a DMCA notice from Valve

Work on Team Fortress: Source 2 had already been put on hold, but now it appears the project is done for good.

www.pcgamer.com

Gamers have no business sense at all. Of course Valve wasn't going to let them steal TF2 for themselves. TF2 is still hugely successful and making a ton of money. Why would Valve just hand it over to someone else? This is the equivalent of someone making a new Warzone or Fortnite and expecting Activision and Epic to just be okay with it.

If you can't see the difference between this and Black Mesa or the recent Portal 2 mod, then there's just no hope for you.

View: https://youtu.be/l7d_w4plSiw


I recommend checking out this video on the topic. It has a different viewpoint than what you’ve said, but I see it both ways.

In the video, he says it’s almost the same as Valve removing a custom gamemode made for Garry’s Mod. I see where he is coming from, but I think it’s a bit of a stretch.

TF2 Source 2 is a custom gamemode for the GMod successor S&Box that runs on Source 2. Of course it’s kind of a direct rip of TF2 to Source 2, but regardless it is still made with original custom code, just using Valve owned assets and materials, but this is barely a new thing in the world of GMod custom content.

My thinking is that Valve is being a lot less open with community using Source 2 than they were with the original Source engine. This could very well be the case since they have full legal ownership, they can determine who uses their newest engine and what they do with it. Just because they were very open about anyone making almost anything within the first Source engine, using resources from their older games included, they could have very well changed their mind when it comes to Source 2. We’ve seen S2 used in plenty of their games now, but it’s not exactly open for public use the same way S1 was. For example, Valve has entirely abandoned support for Hammer and other mod tools they’ve developed. Because of this, it makes the community have to go through some loops to be able to tinker with S2, which is exactly what’s happening in this instance. Community modders are using the license given to Facepunch to make S&Box to create their own separate thing.

What this says about the future of S&Box and Valve could be quite devastating. Perhaps it’s because S&Box is not fully released to the public yet, and that is causing Valve to not allow other community projects under that license. Maybe Valve is just done with community made projects using their assets and engine altogether. If that is the case, S&Box may never see full release since one of its main features along with GMod’s is community made custom content.

It’s all really hard to say what is going on behind the scenes legally at Valve. In one hand, it makes sense that they don’t want other people using the license given to one company when they don’t have strict permission to. On the other hand, it seems like Valve is starting to pull back from their ethos and support around community projects using their resources and materials.

 

[DXCHASE]

Have live service games gone off the deep end with insultingly expensive cosmetics?

We're exhausted by triple-digit bundles and $20 skins, but does it even matter?

www.pcgamer.com

Developers are going to be as greedy as possible until its not profitable. When cash shops and overpriced skins stop making the company money, thats when it..might..stop. I have absolutely no faith in the developers of live service games either lowering the prices of their shop cosmetics drastically or rotating them from paid at first, to free in game drops either.

My pipe dream hope is that since MS bought Blizzard, that maybe series like Diablo and Call of Duty will have their cosmetics drop in price, but i highly doubt that and thats from a company that can absolutely afford to do that. I wouldnt even be mad as a paying customer of a cosmetic here and there if they made it free later on in the series life.

Other than the live service games i played becoming terrible as a core game, the prices of skins and all that never really bothered me because i can ignore it, even if it was a set i liked.

The only game considered Live Service that i have a hand in its cosmetics is Counter Strike. All the money i use to buy skins is money i had made off selling other skins. Its helped me purchase games off steam, gift games etc. so, for me, keep the cosmetic prices the same in Counter Strike lol.

 

[ZedClampet]

View: https://youtu.be/l7d_w4plSiw


I recommend checking out this video on the topic. It has a different viewpoint than what you’ve said, but I see it both ways.

In the video, he says it’s almost the same as Valve removing a custom gamemode made for Garry’s Mod. I see where he is coming from, but I think it’s a bit of a stretch.

TF2 Source 2 is a custom gamemode for the GMod successor S&Box that runs on Source 2. Of course it’s kind of a direct rip of TF2 to Source 2, but regardless it is still made with original custom code, just using Valve owned assets and materials, but this is barely a new thing in the world of GMod custom content.

My thinking is that Valve is being a lot less open with community using Source 2 than they were with the original Source engine. This could very well be the case since they have full legal ownership, they can determine who uses their newest engine and what they do with it. Just because they were very open about anyone making almost anything within the first Source engine, using resources from their older games included, they could have very well changed their mind when it comes to Source 2. We’ve seen S2 used in plenty of their games now, but it’s not exactly open for public use the same way S1 was. For example, Valve has entirely abandoned support for Hammer and other mod tools they’ve developed. Because of this, it makes the community have to go through some loops to be able to tinker with S2, which is exactly what’s happening in this instance. Community modders are using the license given to Facepunch to make S&Box to create their own separate thing.

What this says about the future of S&Box and Valve could be quite devastating. Perhaps it’s because S&Box is not fully released to the public yet, and that is causing Valve to not allow other community projects under that license. Maybe Valve is just done with community made projects using their assets and engine altogether. If that is the case, S&Box may never see full release since one of its main features along with GMod’s is community made custom content.

It’s all really hard to say what is going on behind the scenes legally at Valve. In one hand, it makes sense that they don’t want other people using the license given to one company when they don’t have strict permission to. On the other hand, it seems like Valve is starting to pull back from their ethos and support around community projects using their resources and materials.

I don't need to watch the video. As for the video title, Valve has never greenlit a developer to remake a currently successful game, so Valve hasn't changed at all based only on this TF2 incident.

All of this misses the point, which is that Valve likely makes over $100 million a year off of TF2, and they aren't going to let someone else remake the game and cost them vast sums of money. It's that simple. Anyone who thinks it isn't just has a complete lack of business sense or is incomprehensively naive.

I'm not aware of anyone, in the history of video games, who has ever greenlit a developer who wasn't under a publishing contract to remake a currently successful game.

If anyone wants to rebut this, I want you to first give me a list of companies that gave away hundreds of millions of dollars to random people who wanted to steal their IP. If you don't do that, I'm not reading your response because you don't understand what's going on here.

 

[neogunhero]

I'm not aware of anyone, in the history of video games, who has ever greenlit a developer who wasn't under a publishing contract to remake a currently successful game.

So he’s retracted a lot of his statements in the video and admitted it was a bit reactionary. The reason why this got so many people’s panties in a bunch is that is quite uncharacteristic of Valve to do. But like you’ve said, this is essentially a direct port of TF2 to a different engine. Something along those lines hasn’t ever really happened before for Valve games, a direct rip off of one of their games. I admit myself that I was more shocked to hear about Valves actions than really understand the whole situation first.

Garry Newman also went on to clear the air, saying Valve has only given him a license to use Source 2 but none of their assets. It’s not like GMod where is a direct mod of HL2 and eventually was able to use all of Valves assets and resources. S&Box is a total standalone original game using original assets, so that added another layer to the legal issue of ripping Valves existing game without permission.

I feel like if someone did this in GMod, Valve perhaps wouldn’t be so quick to do a DMCA, but the nature around S&Box is entirely different than GMod so it makes sense. And again, it was a direct ripoff. To my knowledge this has never happened before on this same scale where someone just stole Valves game and put it elsewhere.