I don’t see the point of doing a remaster of a remaster. This game needs a proper remake. As a big fan of the original game who played the heck out of its original X360 release, without an update to its outdated AI it’s frustrating to the point of unplayability.

I used to think the same way, but one day MS was having server issues on their end, and my XOne refused to play my rightfully owned game despite the disc being in the console. I was also unable to log into my account, which made me unable to save my progress, which made playing the game (if it suddenly decided to work) impossible.

Consoles were great until the X360/PS3 era. I could buy a disc, insert the disc into the console, and start playing, and the game would probably work fine without much hassle. I played my X360 offline for years and it worked just fine. Nowadays I go to the store, buy the disc, go back home, insert the disc, wait for it to install, and then I discover that the game was not optimized for my console of choice and it runs awfully to the point of unplayability. And if I have no internet connection, tough luck, my console turns into an expensive brick.

I now just buy on GoG. Much easier that way. Console exclusives are ported to PC anyway, so you’re not missing anything. You also get nice perks like playing online for free if you’re into multiplayer games, or playing older games on emulators (and current ones, because fuck Nintendo).

“We’re excited for the launch of Black Myth Wukong on Xbox Series X|S and are working with Game Science to bring the game to our platforms. We can’t comment on the deals made by our partners with other platform holders, but we remain focused on making Xbox the best platform for gamers, and great games are at the center of that.”

It’s a generic copy-pasted non-response.

EULA are probably unfair due to the imbalance of rights and obligations between the parties.

This is the most important amongst the bullet points for me. Companies should not be allowed to hide shady stuff in the wall of text that you are required to accept to play the game that you have already bought.

I bought a bunch of indie games that looked cool: Alwa’s Legacy (I’m playing it right now, it’s pretty fun), Night in the woods and Phoenotopia: Awakening. I also bought Dishonored (which I played back in the days, but I’m eager to replay one of these days, alongside its DLCs).

Risky purchase of the week: King of Dragon Pass. Never heard of it, but the reviews were positive and the screens look interesting, so I decided, why not.

I also really, really wanted to buy I was a teenage exocolonist, because it’s one of my favourite games from 2022, but the GoG version still hasn’t been updated to the recent patch, and seems like it never will. Shame.

I guess you two have something in common, then.

Were you too busy with your other garbage to click the link and read the proper full review?

Like, I know that shitting on Kotaku is a gamer’s favourite pastime, but I genuinely don’t understand what you are complaining about here. All their reviews are “unscored”, they don’t give scores anymore. It’s not like they criticized the DLC either, their review is super positive.

I’ll be honest, the playtest was handled so badly and most of the changes were so lazy, that I lost all the interest in getting the new rulebooks. Not that I had any to begin with, after the OGL shitstorm.

I created revised options for the base 5e classes to play with my friends, and I’m having a lot of fun that way. I’ll pirate legally obtain these new books down the line if it becomes necessary, but me and my friends are accustomed to homebrew everything, so I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

IMO the fact that the developer is selling the game five cents cheaper on another storefront doesn’t prove that it’s bullshit. As I said, it could just be that Steam doesn’t care enough to go after them for a five cents difference, or they allowed it on that specific case after the developer sued them in 2021, or maybe who knows, it’s an entirely different reason. Calling it “bullshit” without even knowing the context is way too rushed.

I’m not making shit up though, I’m literally citing the source of the article that this entire comment section is writing about.

Maybe Humble Bundle has a deal with Steam. Maybe Steam doesn’t care about going after a developer for selling a game five cents cheaper on another storefront. I don’t know, and I’m not going around accusing people of wrongdoing on the basis of some kind of conspiracy theory (“something stinks”).

If the lawsuit turns out to be fake, that’s good, and users are safe. If it turns out to be true, then great, they’ll make Steam to change their practices, just like they forced them to allow users to refund their games under certain circumstances.

I’m sure as hell not jumping into a comment section spending my time defending a multi-million dollars corporations that already overpays lawyers to do that.

(Btw I saw the game on Steam as 19,50 and forgot to check the currency; it’s actually euros on my screen and I was comparing it to the 19,95 dollars from Bundle, so yeah, my bad.)

The source makes a claim that selling off platform at a lower price than Steam would get them delisted. You linked the Steam page ($19,50) and the Wolfire.com page ($19,99), so what’s your point? Reread the post.

[…] they [Steam] replied that they would remove Overgrowth from Steam if I allowed it to be sold at a lower price anywhere, even from my own website without Steam keys and without Steam’s DRM.

So why is the game still on steam then if that “cited” information was accurate?

Because Steam is the largest storefront with the biggest userbase and forfeiting those sales is a death sentence for developers.

When new video game stores were opening that charged much lower commissions than Valve, I decided that I would provide my game “Overgrowth” at a lower price to take advantage of the lower commission rates. I intended to write a blog post about the results. But when I asked Valve about this plan, they replied that they would remove Overgrowth from Steam if I allowed it to be sold at a lower price anywhere, even from my own website without Steam keys and without Steam’s DRM.

From the source cited by the article.

That would be lovely!

I’m loving your recaps. Please keep them coming!

I don’t have much time for gaming and trying every single demo out there is too difficult for me, but I also like discovering new indie titles.

The lawsuit doesn’t imply that Steam forces their piece to always be cheaper than the competition. Sales can happen on different stores at different times, thus a game can be $50 on Steam and $40 on Epic today.

But Steam forces sellers to offer “the same offer to Steam customers within a reasonable amount of time” - source (sorry, Shitter link) from this article, which is about a similar lawsuit from 2021.

And the language used means that, while this only applies to devs who make use of Steam keys, it doesn’t apply to the Steam keys themselves - if you want to use Steam keys, you also can’t offer discounts on competing storefronts. From the source:

Rosen said he ran into that issue when he decided to release Overgrowth at a lower price on other storefronts in order to take advantage of their lower commission rates. “When I asked Valve about this plan, they replied that they would remove Overgrowth from Steam if I allowed it to be sold at a lower price anywhere, even from my own website without Steam keys and without Steam’s DRM,” Rosen wrote.

Damn, I had Glyde in my wishlist for what seems like an eternity but I wasn’t actively following the development. I’m glad it’s still alive, although the comparison to Eternal Night is kind of off-putting (I appreciate the Legend of Spyro trilogy for what it is, but I’m not looking forward to relieving any more of its gameplay lol).

I suppose I’ll give it a chance though. I’m just that desperate to play as a little dragon again.

Thanks for sharing this recap. I wasn’t paying much attention during E3 season this time around and missed a few announcements.

Eriksholm seems cool, isometric stealth is not a combination you see everyday.

TTRPGs are group games and everyone involved should have fun (both the players and the DM).

Instead of doing a sales pitch, talk sincerely with your players about what you want to do, and try to be receptive of what they expect from next campaign. If you want to run a dungeon crawl that badly, tell them so!

“Since this is a short campaign during the summer hiatus, it’s a great time to try something new instead of the usual open world sandbox. I’ve been itching for a long time to play an old school dungeon crawl and have prepped a short campaign about etc etc…”.

If they really don’t care about that kind of play, then don’t push it. If they are willing to try, then go for it.

The Bethesda of old is long dead.

The Bethesda of old who invented MTX with their $5-dollar horse armour?

Or the Bethesda of old who made millions by re-releasing the same game for 10+ years but refused to spend a dime to fix its bugs or give the players a functioning UI?