Flamekebab

I feel like this console generation has dragged on and on with so few exciting new games. I’ve been waiting to buy either a PS5 or a Series X and when I look down the exclusive lists I sigh with boredom. What happened? Was it games as a service that happened?

The previous generation wasn’t anything super exciting, but it feels like we’re just trending downwards. On consoles I want big, flashy experiences, not indy games. Nothing against indies, of course, but I can play those on my Steam Deck.

Optimistically priced, as I like to think of it.

I can get a second hand one from CEX today for £350!

Is there a version of this that wasn’t awkwardly resized?

Is it going to be the size of a small fridge like the base model?

The race to the bottom continues.

If we reword the question as “Is Elder Scrolls 6 doomed to be a mediocre experience?” then my money would be on “yes”. Bethesda generally seem to aim to make games just as good as they need to be to make money. Capitalism over creative expression.

If the game is good enough to get people to buy it and consider buying the next one, that’s all the effort it’s worth putting in (as far as publishers are concerned). It’s not a new approach, they’ve just had a lot more practice at it than game developers/publishers had in the '90s.

Temper your expectations as unless you’re willing to buy a few million copies yourself, they can’t justify the cost of caring what you think.

…and no, I do not approve of this system one jot. It’s gross and antithetical to creativity. I’m glad we have a lot more independent developers who aren’t as beholden to neoliberal capitalism these days.

I’ve been enjoying Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. It’s got just the right level of compulsivity to keep me playing without destroying my life. Pretty relaxing, to be honest, although I don’t think “easy” mode is actually easy!

I think we’re going to need a bit more context than that.

I found it very relaxing and enjoyable. Excellent escapism. I don’t particularly care for the RPG mechanics but I put up with them for the rest of the experience.

I’d not heard of this game but it looks to be pretty good ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/1469610/Last_Train_Home/ ) and if Russia disapproves that’s generally a good sign.

Oh yeah, they made a third one, didn’t they?

They lost me when they moved to algorithmically-driven rather than chronological. The notion that a feature like this has to be added is mad.

I wonder if GTA VI will actually be a finished game? It felt very weird playing through GTA V and encountering mechanics that went nowhere. I’ve zero interest in multi-player GTA.

Interesting. That makes sense. Thanks for explaining. It doesn’t appeal to me but I can certainly relate to the frustration of changes breaking established workflow.

I’ve got an Xbox One X and there’s just not been anything on current gen platforms that excites me. Lots of live service games that are of zero interest to me, coupled with subscriptions that end up imposing FoMo.

I’m curious about this as well - without the background stuff it feels kinda abstract and lifeless to me.

Who says that?! I’ll kill them with my power!

That’s what I’m getting at. It’s not that I have no interest, I do, but if it’s too inconvenient it’s a bad fit for me. Much like I don’t make my own shoes, I suppose. If I had infinite time then, sure, but realistically the opportunity cost is too high.

Vulnerabilities found in packages? The maintainers aren’t omniscient.

I think you might be interpreting my comment a little too literally. Perhaps I could instead word it as “I don’t know what the appeal is - to me it doesn’t seem anything other than an oddly archaic OS”. What’s its USP, so to speak?

I had something similar when I tried running SUSE in about 2005. Shortly after I discovered Ubuntu and found that it made package management and maintenance easy and from there I was able to start using the system to get things done. Whilst I don’t currently use Linux on my personal machine, I do use it on my work machine inside WSL2, on servers at work and at home.

I’ve never even entertained the notion that Slackware would be something I might use - because it seems clunky for the sake of clunk. Am I missing something here? Or is the clunk the appeal, like how lots of people like really awful B-movies?