ampersandrew @ ampersandrew @lemmy.world

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105

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2,419

Joined

1 yr. ago

Did you know that Steam's monthly active user base dwarfs any single console out there? At this point, it's almost as large as PlayStation and Xbox combined; definitely bigger than the combined install base for each of their current gen consoles. Steam is more mainstream than PlayStation at this point. (However, the caveat is that the Steam Deck can't be purchased at Walmart.)

It might be, but the point of the Microsoft handheld is to grant access to Game Pass and games with lousy anti-cheat on a UI that doesn't suck like desktop Windows does.

Your mileage may vary, but there's a bug on the PC version that causes a boss to regenerate health tied to the frame rate. It happened to a friend and me, and we watched it happen to two other friends. Higher frame rates cause it to regen faster. There's a way you can cheese the fight to get around this, but maybe the method would be a spoiler.

(Also, I thought this game was bad and not in an interesting way like its successor is, but once again, your mileage may vary.)

Some of the best co-op I ever played was in Rainbow Six 3, but I played with 7 players, and I don't remember if it will let you mix and match humans with bots on your squad. You'll need a gaming VPN to play co-op, also, since the servers are gone.

Halo is always a good time, as is Gears of War, and it kind of sucks that outside of Borderlands, these are the most recent recommendations I can come up with, but this genre has been left to rot in live service hell.

That SteamOS compatible icon came to my Bazzite mini PC just before I brought it along with me for Combo Breaker. I suppose that leads into what I've been playing.

I competed in Guilty Gear Strive (0-2, sadly), Street Fighter 6 (2-2, which is better than I should have done given how little I practiced), and Skullgirls (a hard fought 3-2). Unless Street Fighter 6 gets a killer patch in the next few days with Elena's release, I think this is where I depart the Street Fighter train.

I also played some Devil May Cry 4 on the plane, and I'll likely do so again on the way back. I would have continued my save of Tales from the Borderlands, but I found out just before leaving that it doesn't have cloud saves. I'll continue with that and Kingdom Come: Deliverance back at my desktop at home.

We went through this song and dance with Indiana Jones and Avowed, too. If this was a strategy that lost them money, they'd stop doing it. It turns out they're just fine with having tens of millions of subscribers that like the idea of getting access to games like these for, in plenty of cases, cheaper.

But you'll see similar rates of players finishing the game that have far shorter runtimes. 100 hours is about how long it takes to finish the game, after all, and that percentage lines up quite well with the achievements for finishing the game. Engagement is a horrible metric for a game like Elden Ring that isn't trying to keep you hooked with anything except a game you like playing; no battle pass, no dailies, no events, etc. I'll bet A Dance With Dragons has far better engagement metrics than The Return of the King, but it's a stupid metric regardless, because they're books.

Categorizing this as engagement rather than just the number of people who finished the game seems incredibly stupid.

Definitely go Steam Deck then. No question. You'll have far more to choose from, and the Deck's suspend and resume is shockingly good considering you'd never expect that feature to work on a Windows PC mid-game.

1/3 sounds high. Just because it isn't verified doesn't mean it won't work, and most of the non-anti-cheat-related compatibility problems are solved by installing Proton GE.

We have to be able to learn from the garbage and why it was garbage.

Sorry, but it is a possibility.

The other way to read this is that they cancelled the marketing so that they're not throwing good money after bad, like with Concord.

It shouldn't require a server that I can't control for multiplayer either.

Yes, we want to tear it down. This is a company that was taking a revenue share of any purchase made on their device, whether or not they incurred a cost in facilitating it. It's universally bad for consumers. It's why game prices on consoles don't have competition like they do on PC, and it's responsible for consumers feeling lock-in to an ecosystem, feeling as though they can't respond to a bad product by moving to the competitor.

Yes, I know, Fortnite bad, but this is a big deal. The way we got here is often embarrassing, but this is a major step toward tearing down walled garden ecosystems.

Happens all the time. Netflix is moneyhatting, promises someone who knows how to do the job a great salary to do it for them instead.

Marketing cycles have gotten a lot shorter for these reasons. We used to have 2 year long marketing campaigns that are now often as short as 3 months. You do need people to know about your game, and you need them to be ready to buy it as soon as it comes out before the spotlight can be taken by something else. And in order to have reviews drop at the same time, review outlets need lead time ahead of release. Shadow dropping probably isn't the best answer for most games.

Or perhaps even find it to be worth the price.

Which could just as easily be interpreted as steering into the skid, like a strategy someone might use when they're relentlessly bullied. But you're clearly more interested in Tim Buckley's life than I am.