I tired out "Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop" earlier this year. It has a unique world, fun graphics and a solid gameplay loop. That being said, it seems the "repair sim" subgenre is not for me.
I think you overestimate how many people in russia do not stand against putin because they are afraid of the consequences. It's definitely true that it happens, but it's not really relevant in the bigger scale of things.
Unfortunately, a strong majority (at the very least) do support putin specifically, his authoritarianism and genocidal imperialism. And this is not limited to specific demographic segments. They may not openly act as rabid chauvinists (although there are tens of millions who do), but they are fundamentally aligned with the putin, his regime, his goals and his methods. For them it's a fair price for their own comfort (both material and existential).
And what further muddies the waters is that among those who oppose putin, many actually support his imperialist agenda (e.g. Navalniy and his team who supported the annexation of Crimea until 2022 when they forced to change their position since they were kicked out of the country).
The whole framing of tens of millions of russians being stuck between a rock and a hard place is incorrect. Even those who claim they are for peace are really looking to consolidate their current occupational gains (with continued atrocities and eradication of Ukrainian identity).
but claiming someone in Russia who doesn’t stand against Putin is “complicit” in the war is rough.
An alternative viewpoint from someone who has lived in North America and russia for a decade (and speaks both russian and English).
Most Westerners have a pretty primitive and naive understanding of russian culture; you will note how even seemingly reputable analysts that consult senior US diplomatic figures speak in broken russian.
Westerners greatly underestimate the extent to which genocidal imperialism is supported within russian society. Not every single person of course. We are talking strong majority to overwhelming majority support that goes across multiple demographic segments (even ones you wouldn't think would have majority support like younger cohorts or highly educated cohorts).
Consider the annexation of Crimea, which if you live in Ukraine, was the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. 80-85% support depending on methodology (just a few percentage point delta when using list experiments vs. direct questions).
And don't be naive in thinking that russian society does not recognize the genocidal intent. They most definitely know that Ukrainian is banned, Ukrainian churches are banned, you cannot do anything without getting a russian passport. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have the courage to openly oppose this regime are sent to torture dungeons where electrocution torture, cutting off genitals, cutting off fingers, rape, is all a standard procedure.
And russians society knows this, yet they continue to strongly support the invasion and occupation of Ukraine, Georgia (how many russians protested the 2008 invasion?) and Moldova.
Now one might say I am de-humanizing russians. To that I will answer that I am actually treating them as adults that make their own choices and should take responsibility for their actions. There is nothing inherent (in a biological or some sort of cultural essentialism sense) to russian culture that enables imperialism to makes propaganda "uniquely" effective. It's a conscious choice made unfortunately by at least a strong majority of russian society.
This is not directly aimed at you, more of a general comment regarding naive and honestly uneducated takes on the nature of russian society.
I am engine developer, but even to this day you can clearly see Cryengine 3.x issue in star citizen.
They simulate zero-g areas as a Cryengine underwater map. You routinely see stuff floating as if in water even on planets with gravity.
You can also witness strange bugs that confirm the size issue (that they made everything extremely small in a Frankenstein version of a Cryengine map); one example would be your footmarks suddenly becoming massive.
The completely fucked up physics in sc (e.g. tanks bouncing like beachballs) is also a legacy of Cryengine 3.0.
X3 is a fun game, with a very developed universe (you'll see factions conduct invasion in real-time as you do your own thing) with a wide variety of gameplay. The universe of X3 honestly makes Star Citizen seems like a theme park for children.
That being said it is extremely difficult to get into them both because there are so many gameplay options and the UI/UX is subpar (prepare to be constantly fiddling with menu and looking up how to execute a given course of action).
Whatever the topic, it's best to avoid the opinions of videogame streamers/youtubers on matters outside of videogames.
I somehow doubt Hoyt has ever lived in Israel/Palestine, speaks Hebrew or Arabic or has ever read the Talmud, Bible or Quaran (even partially, but in a serious manner; one that provides some context on the "styling" of Abrahamic religious texts).
I haven't seen much of Hoyt's content, but the few clips I've seen seemed very low effort. If you can't even be bothered to make good content around videogames, you should definitely avoid narcissistic outbursts on serious matters.
The difference being that some Steam games are DRM free, so de facto you do have full ownership of what you buy (just like with GOG), as long you have a copy for the files.
They are not paying directly. As per the article you can get additional PTO days in the future, albeit only after Squadron 42 is released (whenever that's going to happen) and if you are still with the company.
It's a solid RPG/adventure game. The setting is pretty compelling. I can recommend if you're into the genre.
Thanks for the in-depth review.