The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Razgovory]

Red Alert 3.

[Syt]

Yes.

[Syt]

Btw, GMT's Fort Sumter boardgame is available on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1041940/Fort_Sumter_The_Secession_Crisis/

[Berkut]

Yeah, but it kind of sucks.

[Syt]

How so?

[Tamas]

How so?

i have found the game way too abstract for my taste.

[Berkut]

How so?

It has some sorta interesting mechanics that have no connection whatsoever to the subject matter it is portraying.

The first time I played, I won, and I wasn't sure if that meant that I started the war, stopped the war, avoided the war, or what.

It's just some mechanics loosely based on Twilight Struggle mechanics, but without any actual connection to anything it is supposedly portraying. I would probably like the game better if it wasn't making any pretense to any theme at all.

Further, even if you get beyond the theme, the various pieces don't even make any sense in relation to each other.

[Habbaku]

Yeah, but it kind of sucks.

Yeah. I finished the tutorial, but only barely avoided falling asleep.

[The Minsky Moment]

It was kind of fun to play around with a few times, but Berkut is right, the theme is totally incidental.  Why is "Montgomery" significant and why should I put tokens there other than because it has a bell on it?  What is the role of Northern State Houses and why can they be used to block whatever Montgomery is doing?  It's not clear who or what you are playing and how they are exercising control over (e.g.) "Newspapers" or "Abolitionists" or "Texas" You could just name all the Boxes A through L and superimpose them on a map of Mongolia, it would play the same way and mostly feel the same way..

[Syt]

Shenmue 3, neverending story.

Years ago, the dude behind Shenmue 1 & 2 said he would try to crowdfund a 3rd entry in the series. There's apparently fans of the series (I never played it), so to Kickstarter he went. Sony, seeing how popular the campaign was, also invested money. Ys Net, the developers went to work.

People got to choose their rewards, whether they wanted a physical version, or a Steam key, the usual stuff.

Then DeepSilver offered to publish the game. And signed a one year exclusivity deal with Epic. So a lot of backers said, "But I don't want to use Epic, I want the Steam key that I was promised."

"Sorry," said Deepsilver/Ys Net, "Also: no refunds."

Tim Sweeney, the head of Epic said that it's Valve being unreasonable, because Valve won't let developers generate Steam keys for games not being sold on the platform. He accuses Steam of "trapping" Kickstarter games. (Steam allows devs to create as many keys as they want that they can sell elsewhere, e.g. their own website, or key shops like HumbleBundle, as long as the game is also available for purchase on Steam.)

So, things got a bit heated, and Deepsilver/Ys now offer refunds, or - alternatively - a Steam key in a year after release (I think together with an Epic key now?).

They also clarified what the physical copies would entail. Keep in mind, last year, someone brought that up:



However, the Kickstarter page now states this:

The PC Physical version will be delivered on disk. However, the disk will contain the Epic Games Store installer and not the actual game data.

Now, I don't have a particular horse in this race, as I don't follow these games or intend to play them. However, this is a prime example of how to destroy goodwill for Kickstarter funding campaigns. Granted, Kickstarters are always dicey for the people funding them (and I've been lucky with the few projects I paid for), but this is currently creating an image of first asking fans to fund the game, then getting money from Sony, and Deepsilver, and now Epic paying to Deepsilver, with the ones who actually supported the project early and helping it get the attention it did now falling of the train.

[The Brain]

*shrug* If Darth Vader can do it then why not other people.

[Josquius]

Steam is trapping games?
But Epic signed the exclusivity....
Which is lame. Hope I can find a physical copy that doesn't just demand a epic install

[FunkMonk]

Stardew Valley might be the greatest game ever made.

[crazy canuck]

Stardew Valley might be the greatest game ever made.

What do you like about it?

[FunkMonk]

Stardew Valley might be the greatest game ever made.

What do you like about it?

It's as intense or as relaxing as you want it to be. Whatever mood I'm in, if I want to minmax my income or if I just want a relaxing time fishing, the game accommodates. I can futz around town and get married or ignore everyone and act like a crazy hermit who lives on the outskirts of town. Plus, I can play it while watching TV or listening to a podcast and not miss anything.