The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Josquius]

Not especially interested in the game itself, but noticed on the storefront... Atomic Heart.... £90.

And thats a digital game. Getting up to Street Fighter 2 cart territory.

[Tamas]

Do we know if it's going to be any good? It's coming to Game Pass tomorrow.

[Tamas]

I was watching a fresh stream of Blood Bowl 3 to see if the AI has improved over the absolute shite one in BB2.

It hasn't. Hard pass.

[garbon]

Not especially interested in the game itself, but noticed on the storefront... Atomic Heart.... £90.

And thats a digital game. Getting up to Street Fighter 2 cart territory.

The standard edition is £55.

[Tamas]

Oh: https://www.gamesradar.com/atomic-heart-developer-denies-claims-that-its-harvesting-data-for-russian-authorities/

Atomic Heart developer Mundfish has denied claims that it's collecting user data and providing it to Russian state authorities.

Earlier in the week, a fairly explosive report from AIN.Capital(opens in new tab) surfaced alleging Mundfish's Russian store website included a clause informing users that their data may be collected and sent to Russian state authorities including the tax office and the Federal Security Service (FSB), a Russian federal body with broad authority to implement government policy on national defense and counterterrorism.

AIN also claims Mundfish's website policy cited "Russian mobilization laws, under which soldiers are currently being recruited in Russia to continue the criminal war against Ukraine." Furthermore, AIN alleged Atomic Heart itself is being "sponsored by Russian investors" and that Mundfish listed its legal address as being in Moscow.

In a statement to GamesRadar+, Mundfish refuted claims of data harvesting on the grounds that the privacy statement cited in AIN's report is "outdated and wrong."

"Our game and website DO NOT collect any information or data," a spokesperson for Mundfish said. "The website's privacy statement is outdated and wrong, and should have been removed years ago. We have shut down the shop to assure our fans of the integrity of our studio and products. We apologize for any confusion on this matter."

Mundfish has not confirmed or denied claims that its website had once asked users to agree to data collecting, that its privacy policy made mention of Russian authorities, or that it has an office in Moscow.

Earlier this month, the Atomic Heart developer was criticized for its statement on Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The statement conspicuously doesn't mention the Russo-Ukrainian War specifically, but instead condemns "offensive, hateful, discriminatory, violent, or threatening language or content" and describes Mundfish as "a pro-peace organization against violence against people."

It's worth noting that Atomic Heart, which is Mundfish's debut title, stars a KGB agent in an alternate future in which the Soviet Union mastered robotics to defeat Nazi Germany and put an end to World War 2. Central to the recent controversy around Mundfish is whether or not the studio has accepted funds from Russian authorities in developing Atomic Heart. The studio's statement today makes no mention of that matter, but the topic is undoubtedly heavy on the minds of many who have been anticipating the game.

According to its website(opens in new tab), Mundfish is a Cyprus-based "international team" of developers from "countries including Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Georgia, Israel, Armenia, UAE, Serbia, and Cyprus."

Yeah I am not sure I am going to install it.

EDIT: funnily enough it is coming out on the day of Putin's big speech.

[Josquius]

Surely Steam have checks in place for that kind of shit?

[garbon]

Presumably one doesn't have to be a cultural warrior to say "Hey, I don't feel like giving money to companies that would engage in such antics."

[frunk]

Kerbal Space Program 2 early access on Friday, $50 price tag.  Gameplay videos just came out today, and it looks beautiful with way better interfaces if a bit rough around the edges.

The big problem is the minimum/recommended specs are pretty high.  Minimum is met by only a third of Steam users, recommended by 3%.  My 4yo computer is below the minimum, but I'm still tempted to buy it just to see if it can chug along.  I'll probably wait until some others test out the lower range though.

[Josquius]

Kerbal Space Program 2 early access on Friday, $50 price tag.  Gameplay videos just came out today, and it looks beautiful with way better interfaces if a bit rough around the edges.

The big problem is the minimum/recommended specs are pretty high.  Minimum is met by only a third of Steam users, recommended by 3%.  My 4yo computer is below the minimum, but I'm still tempted to buy it just to see if it can chug along.  I'll probably wait until some others test out the lower range though.

That's crazy, especially since the first was so light.

I never got far with the first. Too much onus on the skills of actual rocket scientists. Maybe I would have been into it as a kid but these days I just bounce off learning curves.

[frunk]

That's crazy, especially since the first was so light.

I never got far with the first. Too much onus on the skills of actual rocket scientists. Maybe I would have been into it as a kid but these days I just bounce off learning curves.

Early builds of KSP were pretty rough on performance.  Later on they got much better.  There's indications that some of the bad performance on KSP2 results from specific types of rocket builds, which should be possible to iron out.  The interface/transitions are all much snappier, since it isn't hammering a single core of the processor like KSP does.

[Razgovory]

Company of Heroes 3 is out.

[chipwich]

What's your opinion of it?

[frunk]

Kerbal Space Program 2 early access on Friday, $50 price tag.  Gameplay videos just came out today, and it looks beautiful with way better interfaces if a bit rough around the edges.

The big problem is the minimum/recommended specs are pretty high.  Minimum is met by only a third of Steam users, recommended by 3%.  My 4yo computer is below the minimum, but I'm still tempted to buy it just to see if it can chug along.  I'll probably wait until some others test out the lower range though.

So it looks like it should be able to run on my system (they lowered the specs and early tests show even under spec machines can still work).  The game looks great and I think they are headed in the right direction but there are enough bugs/issues that I'm going to wait until after the first patch at least.  Let's see how quickly they address problems.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Kerbal Space Program 2 early access on Friday, $50 price tag.  Gameplay videos just came out today, and it looks beautiful with way better interfaces if a bit rough around the edges.

The big problem is the minimum/recommended specs are pretty high.  Minimum is met by only a third of Steam users, recommended by 3%.  My 4yo computer is below the minimum, but I'm still tempted to buy it just to see if it can chug along.  I'll probably wait until some others test out the lower range though.

So it looks like it should be able to run on my system (they lowered the specs and early tests show even under spec machines can still work).  The game looks great and I think they are headed in the right direction but there are enough bugs/issues that I'm going to wait until after the first patch at least.  Let's see how quickly they address problems.

steam reviews have it a 50% right now.
there's a few places with between 10-15% reduction around

[frunk]

steam reviews have it a 50% right now.
there's a few places with between 10-15% reduction around

There's a lot of frothing on Steam.  My favorite one is this bit:

Because, not to put to fine a point on it, a fitting description for the current level of technical inadequacies on this project causes epistemological problems of sufficient magnitude as to lay a heavier burden upon the logical and semantic resources of the English language than they can reasonably be expected to bear!