Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

[Kasey Chang]

Is that Oregon Trail?

[Skinypupy]

I just spent the past 40 minutes doing one of the climatic main story quests in Guild Wars 2 (end of the level 60 line). It's a brutal battle that I barely got through by the skin of my teeth a couple times, so I was feeling pretty good about myself.

After beating the big bad, I was literally walking over to the questgiver to finish the quest...and I get a "You've been disconnected from the server" message. I have to start the whole thing over from the beginning again.

[GreenGoo]

Is that Oregon Trail?

How much dysentery was involved? A lot, or more than a lot?

[hitbyambulance]

I just spent the past 40 minutes doing one of the climatic main story quests in Guild Wars 2 (end of the level 60 line). It's a brutal battle that I barely got through by the skin of my teeth a couple times, so I was feeling pretty good about myself.

After beating the big bad, I was literally walking over to the questgiver to finish the quest...and I get a "You've been disconnected from the server" message. I have to start the whole thing over from the beginning again.

the power of the cloud

[Isgrimnur]

Man, their writing is getting lazy.

[JetFred]

Achievement Spam - apparently, it's a thing.

Here's a pretty ridiculous abuser of achievement spam and selling essentially the same game multiple times.

Zonitron Productions

[Daehawk]

Im in the mood for a space sim. I dont know to play one I know and love like Freespace 1 & 2 or Tachyon Fringe or Starlancer.....orrrrr go for one I found ok but never ever finished like Freelancer.

[JetFred]

Achievement Spam - apparently, it's a thing.

Here's a pretty ridiculous abuser of achievement spam and selling essentially the same game multiple times.

Zonitron Productions

And Steam just killed them.

[Smoove_B]

And Steam just killed them.

More information here:

“We're trying to look more closely at extreme examples of products on Steam that don't seem to be providing actual value as playable games,” explained the representative from Valve. “We're not interested in supporting trading card farming or bot networks at the expense of being able to provide value and service for players.“

Say no to card farming!

[hitbyambulance]

i have at least one game from this developer (acquired in a bundle) called "Break Into Zatwor" - i tried it out a few months ago and it was so half-assed, low-effort terribad i finally created a 'Basura' category in Steam to put this title (and any future ones i find) into.

EDIT: ooh, found more: Absconding Zatwor and Fiends of Imprisonment (these are pretty much the same, with the same awful controls) and They Came From The Moon (a no-good Lemmings-type title). there's also the GooCubelets titles, but i have played the first one and it was a serviceable puzzle game.

check out all the developer name aliases, heh: http://www.mobygames.com/company/zonitron-productions

[killbot737]

You're not the boss of me!

[KDH]

...

Steve Jackson Games: Ogre .. has released on STEAM

Just a heads-up: .. there was a mention of it, here in this thread, a month ago

Spoiler:

[jztemple2]

...

Steve Jackson Games: Ogre .. has released on STEAM

Just a heads-up: .. there was a mention of it, here in this thread, a month ago

Spoiler:

That $25 price tag seems a bit expensive to me. Going to wait for a sale.

[KDH]

...

... Ubisoft to buy back 4m shares as it fends off Vivendi takeover

Spoiler:

Ubisoft will repurchase up to 4m of its own shares in order to delay a potential takeover from French media conglomerate Vivendi.

In an short statement to investors, the Assassin's Creed publisher said it had mandated an unnamed investment services provider to handle the share buyback program - something that was authorised at the firm's general meeting for shareholders last month.

The aforementioned meeting saw shareholders supporting Yves Guillemot and his current strategy, highlighting the backing the CEO has in his ongoing fight against Vivendi's impending takeover bid. Vivendi currently holds 27% of Ubisoft's capital share and will be required by French law to make an offer it it gains 30%.

The share repurchasing program should stall this somewhat. Ubisoft is aiming to buy back up to 4m shares, equating to 10% of the firm's capital. These repurchased shares will then be cancelled - in this way, the stock is retired and cannot be purchased later by Vivendi or any other interested party.

The buyback begins today and should be concluded by December 29th.

Vivendi has spent the past few years gradually increasing its grasp on Ubisoft, seemingly in order to purchase the publisher. It has already taken over another Guillemot family business: mobile games giant Gameloft.

Oddly, Bloomberg reports that in a recent AGM, the company claims it has not decided whether to make a bid for Ubisoft or simply sell the stock it has accrued.

We spoke to Yves Guillemot earlier this year about Vivendi's aggressive tactics.

"We live in a dangerous world," he told us. "There are challenges, and the best will remain. We are under attack, we are trying to fight against it. We think we are ready to fight against those problems."

Some all embedded links left unlinked

[Zarathud]

That's stupid if the shares reduce the ownership pool. 27/90 would make Vivendi a 30% owner. They're forcing the issue.

[Daehawk]

I hope to hell Vivendi doesn't get their hands on them.

[coopasonic]

That's stupid if the shares reduce the ownership pool. 27/90 would make Vivendi a 30% owner. They're forcing the issue.

10% of their capital, not 10% of outstanding shares. It's only 3.5% of the 114m outstanding shares.

[KDH]

...

... What happens to your Steam account when you die? <--- lengthy article

What happens to your Steam account when you die? - Here's A Thing <--- eurogamer video (8:30m)

<obligatory worthless snippet>

despite this monetary value and any sentimental worth your Steam library may hold, when you die - as per the agreement you currently have with Valve Corporation - that account for all intent and purpose dies with you as well. As of right now, you can't simply leave your account to a close friend or a loved one.

.
.

So that's where we're at. Of course, in reality, you can give someone your login details and if you passed away, Valve's unlikely to know that it's in fact, not you playing from beyond the grave. But in the eyes of the law, that's not supposed to happen. Which is ridiculous. If you've spent hundreds or maybe thousands of pounds on your Steam library, it only feels right that you should be able to have a say in what happens to that library once you're gone.

We've asked Valve for comment on their current Subscriber Agreement.

[JetFred]

[Daehawk]

For years now Ive wanted to write Steve Barcia and thank him for Master of Orion. Ive never found a pic of him never mind a email address. I tried Twitter today and found a link to a YouTube interview but of course it was dead. Its like after Microprose killed Simtex he just disappeared. Ive seen a couple things he did but not much.

[Max Peck]

Piranha Bytes' ELEX is now unlocked on Steam (21.5GB download).

ELEX is a handcrafted action role-playing experience from the award-winning creators of the Gothic series, set in a brand new post-apocalyptic Science Fantasy universe that puts players into a huge seamless game world full of original characters, mutated creatures, deep moral choices and powerful action.



In ELEX, you join the war over a powerful resource that gives people great magic-like powers, but turns them into indifferent cold creatures. You decide if emotions and humaneness or cold synthetic logic will rule the world of Magalan.

[Daehawk]

Ive been watching streams and lets plays of Elex....looks good to me. I love the old Gothic games so much.

[KDH]

...

... Gran Turismo Sport collector’s edition ... comes with a real car

Only 1 copy at that tier and it's already been $OLD

Spoiler:

In the seemingly neverending escalation of exotic special editions, Gran Turismo Sport offered one that came with a real car.

As spied by NeoGAF and reported yesterday by the Taiwanese blog ck101.com, the bundle packaged Gran Turismo Sport with a PlayStation 4 Pro, PlayStation VR, 12 months of PlayStation Plus, a Sony Bravia 4K HDR television, the Thrustmaster T-GT driving wheel, the Apiga AP1 racing chair and, by the way, a 2018 Mazda MX-5 with PS4 branding on the grille (and a “soul-moving red” paint job with racing stripe).

The promotion was a publicity stunt by Taiwan Sony Interactive Entertainment and man, did it work. A collector already snapped it up. The price was about 1.4 million New Taiwan Dollars, which is $46,300 in U.S. currency.

Mazda USA’s site lists the grand touring model of the MX-5 as starting at $30,065. Thrustmaster’s rig goes for $799.99. The TV is the 65-inch model, that goes for $3,999.99. The chair is $389. PS Plus is $59.99, the Pro’s MSRP is $399 and PlayStation VR is $449. Actual retail price of this showcase showdown is $36,218.99 so the collector paid about a $10,000 premium for that PS4-branded sled, unless it has all the options like rich Corinthian leather.

We’ve seen some re-donk-ulous special editions lately, including, most recently, an $800 Assassin’s Creed Origins, and 2015’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which came packed with a mini-fridge. And while we admire the chutzpah behind a five-figure vanity edition like this, it’s nowhere near the most expensive one offered. That was the $387,000 “My Apocalypse Edition” of Dying Light, (on sale in the U.K. only) which came with a goddamn zombie-proof bunker.

For the rest of us plebes, Gran Tursmo Sport launches today on PlayStation 4 and its MSRP is a very affordable $59.99.

....
.... Not a hundred percent sure that is the actual car

[KDH]

....

... DSO-Gaming informs us that Elder-Scrolls - Daggerfall is being ported to the Unity Engine

Getting Daggerfall

You will need a complete install of free Daggerfall to play with these builds. You can download Daggerfall from the following locations.

DaggerfallSetup (recommended) - Fully compatible with Daggerfall Unity in default setup. Note: Installing optional mods may break compatibility.

Bethesda - The official Daggerfall download. Note: You will need to copy all *.VID files into your Arena2 folder when using this copy.

GOG.com - Daggerfall is free with any Elder Scrolls purchase. This version is also compatible with Daggerfall Unity.

DaggerfallGameFiles.zip - Universal zip of game files for all platforms. Unzip and point Daggerfall Unity to the Daggerfall folder. Note: External Google Drive link.

so we can fall through the floor in a new engine?

[KDH]

...

... The Original _ _ is available now .. Only on GOG

$14.99

Welcome back to the family.

Mafia is now available DRM-free and only on GOG.com.

The action/adventure classic that you really shouldn't refuse, finally returns. Embark on a celebrated open-world thriller and follow Tommy Angelo's rise (or fall, depending on your perspective) to a perilous life of high-stakes crime in 1930s America. The city of Lost Heaven is your playground, as long as you don't let the police catch you in the act, wise guy.


NOTE: This rerelease of Mafia has an edited soundtrack and does not include any licensed music.

I finished that game, but every time I return to it I get my ass handed to me walking the girlfriend home .. and then she won't return my calls


Direct Link

Spoiler:

There was a good deal of demand for this, as over 10,000 now-happy users included it on the GOG community wishlist. Word is: "Originally released in 2002, Mafia is a love letter to an era of big band and zoot suits. Its attention to minute detail brings a world to life in ways all but unmatched since, and that's enough of a reason to revisit this absolute classic – now fully compatible with modern computers, only on GOG.com."

[Paingod]

I love it when you get back into a game you've had for a while and are loving it, and then you come back the next day to fire up Steam and play - only to discover that you're downloading a 7.7GB patch and it'll be done installing somewhere just after your play window.

It's like the developers saw I was enjoying myself and game-blocked me for the night out of spite.

so we can fall through the floor in a new engine?

Man, I remember those times. That was, what, like 15 minutes into the game? The first dungeon you explore? Every time, without fail, I'd fall through the floor.

[Zarathud]

X-Com? Yea, I felt that pain.

[Paingod]

Yup. It ended up being a night for Monster Slayers. Not a bad night, but not the night I planned on.

[Daehawk]

Is there a Steam service that will show me what games I own but have never played?

[jztemple2]

Is there a Steam service that will show me what games I own but have never played?

I use https://steamdb.info/calculator/ which isn't a Steam service but will list all your games in a sortable matrix, one of the fields being time played.

[Blackhawk]

For that, I'd try This. You can sort by time played, and there are vast numbers of other filters you can apply to find the right game.

[Daehawk]

Thanks both of you. Ill give them both a go. Should be just what I need. I buy stuff on sale dirt cheap and just forget about it. But I need something new to play.

[JetFred]

With only 500 games, you could just arrow down your list of titles in the game details layout and see the play time under the title.

[Daehawk]

Yup worked great. Something seems off though as some I cant remember at all are listed with huge hours in them and others I know I played a lot have little hours.

[Kraken]

With only 500 games, you could just arrow down your list of titles in the game details layout and see the play time under the title.

"Only 500 games." I have, like, a dozen, and I'd like to remove two or three of them from the list if I knew how.

[KDH]

.... I have, like, a dozen, and I'd like to remove two or three of them from the list if I knew how.

Select the game in the Steam App
Right Click, choose Set categories
There is an option there to "hide this game in my library" .. I do NOT know where it goes or how to get it back

or you could just make an Outfile category and keep that category 'collapsed'

[KDH]

...

.... The Escapist announces all paid staff are gone except Yahtzee. Word is a band of volunteer moderators are doing their best to keep the lights on as long as possible…

Spoiler:

An Open Letter to The Escapist Community
JoJo | 20 October 2017 10:00 am

To The Escapist Community,

As many of you may have noticed by now, there hasn't been much staff interaction over the last few months. It is with regret that, to our knowledge, that all paid staff have been relieved of their duties, with the apparent exception of Yahtzee, The Escapist's streaming staff, and Encaen for a few contracted hours a month. We won't beat around the bush, it is a serious situation. We can't promise that The Escapist will last forever; it may have years left in it, or it may disappear tomorrow. What we can say is we will do our upmost to keep this site running in an orderly fashion, for as long as it stays online. That said, nearly everything that it does is through volunteer efforts.

With this sad news, though, comes an opportunity. The moderation team has been granted a number of powers to keep the site running. The new community-run Escapist will be looking for your input on how the site operates, and for volunteers in creating content. We may even look into adjusting the Code of Conduct, if that is possible with the tools we've been given. Together we can breathe some life back into this site, one article at a time.

A quick note: the old appeals system cannot be accessed for technical reasons, but new appeals can be directed towards EscapistAppeals@gmail.com, where they will be dealt with by an independent moderator who did not give out the original infraction. This moderator will contact the appealing party to ask for their argument as to why they feel it does not breach a rule, as well as liaising with the moderator responsible for the infraction to ask them to explain their reasons before reaching a final decision on the appeal. Any infractions given out on or after the 1st of September 2017 are eligible to appeal under the new system.

Anyhow, we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have, and we hope you will stay with us for the next step in The Escapist's journey.

Your Loyal Moderators and Staff,

[Max Peck]

.... I have, like, a dozen, and I'd like to remove two or three of them from the list if I knew how.

Select the game in the Steam App
Right Click, choose Set categories
There is an option there to "hide this game in my library" .. I do NOT know where it goes or how to get it back

or you could just make an Outfile category and keep that category 'collapsed'

From what I can tell "Hidden" is just a predefined category and the main "Games" category has an implicit "not hidden" filter. Hidden games can be accessed by selecting the "Hidden" category from the Library menu.

If you want to unhide something, you just go into the hidden library, select "Set Categories" for the game and deselect the "Hide" option.

[KDH]

... From what I can tell "Hidden" is just a predefined category and the main "Games" category has an implicit "not hidden" filter. Hidden games can be accessed by selecting the "Hidden" category from the Library menu.

If you want to unhide something, you just go into the hidden library, select "Set Categories" for the game and deselect the "Hide" option.

Thanks, that's good to know

[KDH]

...

.. Activision’s patented method to drive microtransactions with matchmaking

Activision just granted a Patent describing algorithms designed to match a lower ranking player with an elite player for the purpose of driving loot-box purchases (currently unused)

Patent #9789406, for a "System and method for driving microtransactions in multiplayer video games," describes a number of matchmaking algorithms that a game could use to encourage players to purchase additional in-game items. "For instance, the system may match a more expert/marquee player with a junior player to encourage the junior player to make game-related purchases of items possessed/used by the marquee player," the patent reads. "A junior player may wish to emulate the marquee player by obtaining weapons or other items used by the marquee player."

Here's a Rhykker Video discussing the matter

Spoiler: