Computerchairgeneral

Curious what industry standard Senator Warner is judging Valve against because a social media site, which Warner is comparing Valve to, being filled with Nazis and the far right feels like the standard, even if some sites at better at quarantining them than others. Also, “intense scrutiny” from Congress is kind of an empty threat at the best of times, but especially when Congress is about to be run by the sort of people who aren’t going to see this as a problem.

Good. Still not completely sure about moving from one corporate site to another, but good to see more and more people are moving away from Twitter.

This actually isn’t a terrible use of an LLM. It’s actually kind of refreshing to see a news story about a beneficial use of it in a very specific context.

Clicked for a game announcement. Got a political manifesto about art and culture. Not disappointed. Definitely interested to see how this develops.

Ridiculous, but depressingly unsurprising.

It looks cool and I like some of the little callbacks to the original PlayStation, but I imagine the price for this is going to be ridiculous and that’s before the scalpers inevitably get their hands on them.

Been bouncing between Wizordum and Void Stranger over the last few days. Wizordum is a fun “boomer shooter” that takes a lot of inspiration from games like Hexen and I’ve been enjoying mowing down monsters with fireballs and a magical shotgun. Void Stranger I’m still not sure how I feel about. Heard it mentioned a few times as a very meta game with a lot of layers. In theory I like games like that. Figuring out the core puzzle gameplay of moving blocks around has been fun, even if I don’t consider myself that great at puzzles, but the meta stuff is riding that fine line between being just cryptic enough to be intriguing to being so cryptic that I’m not sure how I’m supposed to figure this out without a guide.

Glad to see the campaign still going strong. Almost being past the minimum threshold requirement for seven countries is impressive. Hopefully it can reach one million signatures, even if I’m a little skeptical about the EU taking this seriously and passing a decent law. Still, anything that keeps the topic on peoples minds is a good thing.

Well, my expectations for this game were already on the floor. Guess it’s time to put them in the basement. I mean I want a good sequel to Bloodlines, but that’s looking less and less likely.

I’ve been working my way through the Baldur’s Gate series after putting about ninety hours in BG3. BG1 was fun even if the story was a bit predictable and generic, although it did feel like playing through a DnD campaign. Really enjoyed Shadows of Amn, but Throne of Bhaal just turned into a slog at the end. I think the most interesting part of playing through the trilogy was watching Bioware’s style develop over the course of the three games. As someone who was introduced to Bioware through Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire I’ve always thought Bioware’s character writing stood out, especially in the old days, so it was a bit jarring to play through BG1 where the companions feel more like hirelings you pick up for their class rather than full-fledged characters. BG2 felt more like a classic Bioware game with banter, romance, and companion quests, although the Real Time advancement system kept glitching out on me. I was hoping to move on to Planescape: Torment after TOB, but I’m feeling burnt out on Infinity Engine games. So right now I’m trying to find something in the Summer Sale to serve as a palate cleanser.

Yeah, really hoping this is just a misstep from the marketing team. It’s such a whiplash inducing shift in tone from all the previous marketing and trailers that they’ve released. If not then they certainly picked an interesting game to fully shift the tone from dark fantasy to…whatever Veilguard is aiming for.

Fable having this realistic art style still feels weird to me, but at least it seems like they’re matching the tone of the other games.

Yeah, the art style definitely feels like a holdover from the live-service days. I could see them having to work with whatever assets were left after that version of the game was scrapped and just having to make it work.

Not sure how I feel about the art style. Varric and Harding look decent, but it felt like the longer the trailer went on the more the characters turned into something out of a stylized hero shooter. Honestly, the whole trailer felt more suited to a hero shooter than a single player RPG. Hopefully the gameplay looks better, but this was a very odd way to formally reintroduce your game after ten years of scattered trailers and announcements.

Accidents happen. Your finger slips and suddenly your game is full of Nazi symbols. Happens all the time. Also, I get the gist of Garriss’s response, but mentioning that he had men and women at his house and his mother was always present just makes things sound weirder than a simple denial. Sounds like a horrible situation all around.

No? Xbox might not be in the greatest place right now, but it’s a far cry from where Sega was when they discontinued the Dreamcast. Yeah, Microsoft stepped on a lot of rakes with the Xbox One, but it wasn’t a Saturn-style disaster and Microsoft is still doing well enough to buy out a major game publisher.

I’m impressed at how well thought out this battle plan is. I’m usually pessimistic when it comes to governments taking pro-consumer stances, but then again all it takes is one government siding against game companies to set a precedent. Hopefully this picks up steam and gets to a wider audience. It feels like one of the few things gamers can agree on these days is how much they hate business practices like this.

It’s an impressive battle plan. I’m always a little pessimistic when it comes to these things, but at least this effort is casting a wide net. If even one of them succeeds that could impact the entire industry. Hopefully some government body, somewhere chooses to take this seriously.

Hopefully this showcase is successful enough to become a tradition. It would be nice to have an indie-focused showcase that doesn’t have to juggle their time between the games, advertisements, and sponsors.

No ads? No awkward celebrity cameos? No sponsors? Just video games? At a video game event? Ridiculous.

More seriously, there are a lot of good studios on that list and I’m excited to see what they have to announce.