OfficialThunderbolt

joined 1 year ago
[–] OfficialThunderbolt 1 points 11 months ago

And if you're on PC platforms other than Windows, it's more like "never."

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 10 points 1 year ago

I'm shocked that RE4 got a GotY nomination. I thought there were rules against remakes or remasters getting Game Awards nominations; am I wrong, or did that change at some point?

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 2 points 1 year ago

Star Ocean: The Second Story R.

The PS1 original was good, but it had some noticeable flaws. The book writing skill was more or less useless, side quests were often too well hidden from view (which was especially bad when most of them were time-limited), the accessories that gave you items were a bit in-your-face, there was no in-game mini-map, the invisible random encounters and lack of fast travel didn't age well, and the voice acting… What were they thinking when they released this…

The remake fixes most of what went wrong in the original game, including re-casting the English voice actors, and even adds some new content (like fishing) that wasn't in the original. I'm enjoying it a lot.

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If you're talking about the VESA mount, there was a lot of tech that went into that that explains the price, including sensors that auto-rotate the display when the display is rotated. It wasn't just price gouging.

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 1 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure why people are surprised by this. In a lot of ways, Apple was a pandemic darling that didn't take as big a fall as the other pandemic darlings did when the pandemic ended. When the pandemic started, there was a big splurge in tech spending that benefitted Apple + the other pandemic darlings (Zoom, Fiverr) as the whole world was going remote.

But then the pandemic ended, and so tech sales went way down as everyone started to step outdoors again.

They released the first ARM Macs with the M1 chip during the pandemic, which were a big step up in performance and power efficiency over the Intel Macs they replaced. That further raised their sales as people upgraded their old laptops.

But the M2 and M3 had the majority of their work go into improving the GPU for apps used by hardcore gamers and creative pros; the non-graphics processing increases are not as substantial. The majority of their customers are not gamers or creative pros; they just use their computers for email, social media, and word processing or sometimes spreadsheet use.

So this is not surprising at all. Not when the pandemic ended, and the M1 was good enough for most of their users. I suspect their Mac sales will go up again in a few years when the M1 is obsoleted.

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They are good enough for the vast majority of their customers. You have to remember that the vast majority of laptop users only use their laptops for email, social media, and occasionally word processing; they aren't using Baldur's Gate III or Final Cut Pro or some other app that needs the extra RAM. You don't need more than 8GB of RAM for that.

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe. Have you tried using Whisky?

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, the volume controls on the USB-C EarPods work with Android.

The playback controls work as well, but they're a little different on Android than they are on iOS. Holding in the middle button summons Google Assistant, for instance, instead of fast forwarding. But the all-important pause/resume control works the same way.

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, because none of the above have multiplayer.

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 4 points 1 year ago

Looks like the new M3 chips are a significant upgrade from the M1 chips, a very significant upgrade from the Intel/Radeon chips, and a super significant upgrade from the Intel Macs with no discrete GPU. Except for 3D content creation, gaming with games that actually support Metal ray tracing, and video production, it's not that significant an upgrade from the M2 chips.

And I see people on social media bashing it for the default configuration only having 8GB of RAM. It's like they don't realize Apple intentionally keeps a low end, compromised, and cheap configuration around for the large amount of MacBook users that just want a cheap-but-not-uselessly-so laptop for email, social media, and the occasional word processed document. The people bashing it on social media are free to buy a less compromised model; Apple does sell them.

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Here are some more good puzzle games that are not Portal/Portal 2:

  • Colossal Cave
  • The Entropy Centre
  • Hourglass
  • Myst
  • Obduction
  • Pneuma: Breath of Life
  • Quantum Conundrum (one of the original Portal developers was attached to this project)
  • Quern: Undying Thoughts
  • Riven (this is the sequel to Myst, but unlike Myst, it has never been remade since it first came out back in 1997, so you'll have to excuse the old graphics and gameplay)
  • The Talos Principle (the sequel is coming out soon)
  • The Turing Test
  • The Witness

If you can only play one of the above, then as the other commentors have said, make it The Witness. The recent remake of Myst is also very good.

[–] OfficialThunderbolt 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The problem is, we must care if the game is to have any sequels, follow-ups, or lasting legacy. If the game is awesome, but doesn't sell well, then it probably won't get sequels, and will be forgotten to everyone except Wikipedia & Moby Games over enough time.

 

I'll start with a few:

  • Cyberpunk 2077 (PS5). Only 53.8% of players earned the "Lovers" trophy, awarded for clearing the prologue at the No-Tell Motel, and only 77.3% of players earned the "Fool" trophy for clearing the preceding lifepath part of the prologue. Which means that ~20% of the people that played the game never made it out of the character creator, and another ~20% of the people that played the game went out into the open world, faffed around for a while, and then decided they were sufficiently entertained & then went back to playing FIFA.
  • Bonds of the Sky (PS4/Vita). You might have heard of Cyberpunk, but I doubt you've heard of this game, which is a low-budget Dragon Quest clone. It's not one of those "pay us 3 dollars/euros/pounds games and we'll give you an easy platinum" shovelware games that the PS4 had in abundance at one point in time, and yet, the platinum trophy has an insane 59% acquisition rate. (By contrast, Horizon Zero Dawn, a much more popular game with a trivial platinum trophy, has only a 5.4% acquisition rate for its platinum.) The few people that played this game must've really loved it.
  • Bloodborne (PS4). Only 44.6% of players beat the first boss, Father Gascoigne, but 25.9% of players beat the boss that triggers the endgame to start. So FromSoftware lost half their players in the game's first area (or the character creator again), but of the roughly half that made it out, roughly half of that half went on to finish the game. Talk about polarizing opinions.
  • Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning (PS4). How common is it for players to rage-quit in the character creator in any given game, I wonder? Because only 69.1% of the people that played the game collected the "Reborn" trophy for clearing the prologue. I don't get it; a 90% rate would make more sense, but even that would imply that 10% of their players started the game once, decided "oh hell no," and then went back to playing FIFA.

What are others' observations? All platforms with achievements/trophies are valid.

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