Any gamers around here?

[Nobody]

But are the possibilities truly "endless"?

[drunkenshoe]

Somebody got to pay Pax Romana demo. It looks pretty good. Can't wait! :D It's out in November. It's pretty expensive in the local currency. :/ But I LOVE Anno Series, no regret. 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Is that Gojira sleeping in Hadrian's Amphitheatre?

[Hydra009]

This is why I'm a big fan of the NCR.  They can really kick ass and take names!

Also why I try to get the Brotherhood of Steel to make peace with them.  Because together (along with the Boomers), they can take on anything.  They compliment each other nicely - the NCR has the manpower but not much metal and the Brotherhood has the metal but not much manpower.

[Blackleaf]

Mario Kart fans: "Can we get an option to race three laps in VS?"

Nintendo: "Nah."

"Oh, well. At least selecting random has us do three laps instead of the intermissions."

Nintendo:

Yeah, Nintendo replaced the three laps with intermission races on random. Nintendo hates its fans so much. Makes me glad I didn't waste money on the Switch 2.

[Hydra009]

JFC.  If Ubisoft pulls the plug, you have to physically destroy your games?!  And yes, it's real.

This isn't some sort of unrealistic scenario.  I still regularly play games where the plug has been pulled (like City of Heroes) and thankfully, a fan effort resurrected it without a cease-and-desist (aka decease-we-insist).  I'd wager that most gamers have played online video games that are no longer available in any form - and not just MMOs that have stuttered, but also shooters, RPGs, etc.  Just a cursory look reveals 50+ in 2023 alone.  Granted, a lot of them were bad, but almost everybody has played a game they really enjoyed that is no longer available in any form.

Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I announce that the Stop Killing Games EU petition has gotten over 1 million votes, theoretically prompting a government response, hopefully soon.

The industry has already responded, essentially saying that's too unrealistic and burdensome (line-go-up thinking).  And while they kinda sorta have a point that policing a hypothetical end-of-life private server might be a problem, if people are swearing and posting all sorts of crazy stuff on something with their IP, that would reflect very poorly on....oh that's right, that already happens right now on live games.  What a weak argument.

[Hydra009]

Source

Let's go!

And really, this position is actually far more reasonable than I thought.  Earlier, I explained it as a mandate to preserve and protect a game from unplayability.  But really, it's about ownership.

Once sold, the customer owns the game.  When you buy let's say a racing game advertised as a racing game, you expect to own a racing game and race whenever you want because that's what's advertised to you.  The expectation is not to instead "own" limited access to a maybe functional server and the whole thing goes belly-up in 6 months with no refunds.

The payment is for a material good, not a limited, one-off experience.  It's like being advertised a music CD and instead getting a ticket to a Fyrefest concert.  There's a hell of a difference between definite ownership and mere access.  Some basic consumer protection is definitely needed.

[Blackleaf]

I've been a fan of The Elder Scrolls ever since I first tried Morrowind at my older cousin's house. I've spent 495.7 hours in Skyrim on Steam alone, plus 257.8 in the Special Edition. That's not counting my original time on XBOX 360 or the obscene number of hours I spent just setting up mods. But Morrowind is the third entry in the series. What about the previous two?



I've tried Daggerfall once before on DOSBox. The game was from the early days of computer gaming, before WASD became standard. The controls take a lot of getting used to, but I figured it out eventually and started to get into it. But when it kept crashing on me when I'd try to sell my loot, I called it quits.

However, in recent years, fans ported Daggerfall over to Unity engine, giving it better stability, better (modernized) controls, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand MOD SUPPORT!!!

So, yeah. I've been playing Daggerfall Unity a lot lately. It's been really fun. Daggerfall Unity is also available for Android phones, but I haven't tried that yet. Might do a vanilla run there.

If you still need convincing to give it a try, it's free. I mean, legally free. It requires Daggerfall on Steam, but that game costs $0 on Steam. Also, it has boobies. Lots of them. If you're not into that, Unity has a toggle to turn the boobies off, but come on. You want the boobies.

[Blackleaf]

It really is a good year to be an Elder Scrolls fan. I didn't even know that Open Morrowind was a thing. Modders have been working to expand Morrowind's scope across all of Tamriel. Between this, Daggerfall Unity, and Oblivion Remastered, Elder Scrolls fans have plenty to distract them from the fact that the Elder Scrolls VI teaser trailer was released closer to Skyrim's release than to present day.

[Hydra009]

I've been replaying some Heroes of Might and Magic 3.  It really is amazing how simple yet complex it is.

You start out with a basic gameplan - your favorite hero, how you're going to build them, etc - but there's just so much randomness (here's a random skill, a random artifact, this or that monster wants to join you, etc) that you're always going to deviate from that.  Lots of happy little accidents to create all sorts of varied but interesting heroes. 

That said, the exploration can get somewhat monotonous - oh look, another shipwreck - and I'm not a huge fan of having heroes dedicated just to hitting up windmills or recruiting troops from dwellings purely to transport them to town.

Also, the game quickly tends to either become a cakewalk or basically impossible.

But every now and then, there's a truly epic battle where it could go either way and that is so much fun!

[Hydra009]

https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/gog-is-giving-away-a-selection-of-adult-games-to-protest-censorship-215048233.html

[the_antithesis]

Maybe we should start the banning of the bible over all that violent and sexual content in there.

[Blackleaf]

Maybe we should start the banning of the bible over all that violent and sexual content in there.

Not necessary. Nobody reads it anyway. Christians don't even know about the verse comparing one's "emissions" to those of a donkey.

[the_antithesis]

Not necessary. Nobody reads it anyway. Christians don't even know about the verse comparing one's "emissions" to those of a donkey.

I know that. But they'll still be pissed we trick them into signing a petition to ban the bible base on all the objectionable content found within. Eating shrimp is just as bad as gay sex!

[Nobody]

Not necessary. Nobody reads it anyway. Christians don't even know about the verse comparing one's "emissions" to those of a donkey.

You're right, Nobody reads it, but I haven't read it in a long time.