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Speaking of Dwarves. I'm gonna write some  about Deep Rock Galactic https://store.steampowered.com/app/548430/Deep_Rock_Galactic/ SA Deep Rock GalacticThread https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B4jxKmh2Pk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9P7T0W1I0c Deep Rock Galactic is a 4-player Co-Op Horde shooter that I would probably describe as a cross between Starship Troopers and the cave exploration and mining from Minecraft. You and up to three friends choose from one of four classes of dwarf; Driller, Gunner, Engineer, and Scout and are dropped into the procedurally generated caves of Hoxxes IV to accomplish a variety of missions for the Space Mining Corporation you work for and try not to die from the local bugs in the process. Anyone who has enjoyed games like Left 4 Dead and Vermintide should consider checking DRG out. Its really fun. The four classes are all pretty enjoyable IMO and have good variety. Each has a choice between two primary weapons, two secondary weapons, three grenades (and each class has a unique grenades) as well as each class being equipped with a utility item and specialized tool for traversing the caves. The Procedural generation for the caves are done, afaik, by combining pre-made shapes into large caverns, adding internal features (pillars, crystals, flora, etc), then connecting them with tunnels. The end result works surprisingly well and their nature as caves makes any rng weirdness seem less obvious. The fact the Dwarves are equipped with a variety of powerful traversal tools also helps prevent situations where you get screwed by cave RNG. The biomes have a good variety from the typical icy caverns and rock caves to hellzones covered in radioactive crystals and strange underground jungles. The update that just came out added two more biomes for a total of ten.    Those traversal tools are one of the things that really makes the game stand out. The scout gets a basic grappling hook, only useful to himself, but gives him excellent mobility for exploring the cave or maneuvering around enemies. The Gunner has possibly the most "boring" traversal tool, a zipline launcher that can be used to cross large (mostly horizontal) distances, good for traversing pits and chasms or making it easier to carry heavy loads uphill. The Engineer has a platform gun that can shoot out disk-shaped platforms that can be used in all sorts of creative ways, from simply making platforms/stairs to traverse the cave (a common combo is to platform high, out of reach minerals for the scout to grapple up to) or more creative uses like plugging holes or creatively applying the Bug-Repellent upgrade the platforms get to funnel enemies into firing lanes for your allies. Finally the Driller has his signature powerdrills, which let him burrow through granite like it was butter. As a "Driller Main" I feel you can get pretty creative with this, clearing obstacles and opening up sightlines for your allies, digging out buried treasure, or creating shortcuts, ramps, or otherwise modifying the terrain to make things easier for your team. The enemies are pretty good. With a nice assortment of bugs, big and small, with melee and ranged hazards alike. They're not the smartest opponents in the world, but even if what most of them do is just charge at you with intent to maim, it is a refreshing change from shooting zombies. The fact the bugs can crawl on walls and ceilings helps add add to this unpredictability. There are certainly some you will come to hate (in a mostly good way). Glyphid Web Spitters!    The weapons are pretty varied, ranging from standards like assault rifles and shotguns to heavy gear like flamethrowers and autocannons. Every piece of a dwarf's gear (except flares) has a selection of mods that let you tweak them how you like, and each weapons has what are called "Overclocks", basically an extra special tier of mods that can be either "Clean overclocks" which are simple minor buffs, "Balanced Overlocks" which are usually buffs with a downside, or "Unstable Overclocks" which can sometimes drastically change the weapon's performance. A good example of this is the Engineer's Grenade Launcher, which has a pair of Unstable Overclocks called "Fat Boy" and "Hyper-Propellant". Fat boy drastically reduces the ammo the grenade launcher gets, but it now shoots ultra-heavy micro-nuclear grenades that explode into massive craters and leave behind a radiation field that damages anything entering it for several seconds. The Hyper-Propellant meanwhile turns the GL into a railgun, drastically increasing the projectile velocity and causing massive amounts of kinetic damage, but has almost no AoE damage radius, good for killing the big bugs, but not so great against a horde.   Of course the most important type of customization you can do is not your gear, but your dwarf himself. Each dwarf can choose from a variety of armor skins, skintones, hats/hairstyles, and a wide variety of vastly important facial hair customization, with separate slots for eyebrows, sideburns, mustaches, and beards. You can make some fun combinations with this. Fashion is the real endgame afterall. Oh weapons also have paintjob and mesh customization.   Another thing that impresses me with the game is the players themselves. This is possibly the least toxic co-op game I've every played with pubbies. I give the game itself a lot of credit for this, it does a lot of little things to help instill a sense of camaraderie in its players. The biggest being the Salute button, with a quick tap of the V key your dwarf lets out a loud cheer and nearby players will almost always respond in kind. Players LOVE hitting that button. Kill a big enemy? ROCK AND STONE! Find a chunk of compressed Gold buried in the stone? ROCK SOLID! Dashing in to rescue a downed miner? LEAVE NO DWARF BEHIND!! And the motto IS Leave No Dwarf Behind, the game itself reminds players of the need for teamwork and to a remarkable degree they largely listen. Heck the most recent update even add the option to rescue one of the AI companions previously abandoned during the end-of-mission-evacuation in one of the missions types specifically because players demanded the ability to. There is no reward for doing it, but since they added it, I haven't seen a single team willing to leave Dotty behind, even if it opens up the team to a decent amount of additional risk. Add in other minor touches like your grouchy command/control officer giving players a common "foe" to rally against (evac drop pod lands in a bad spot? Command's fault, clearly), the ability to buy beers for the team before missions (and dance after slamming the jukebox on) and its just good silly fun.   Let me say it again, I actually enjoy playing with pubbies. (though I usually do stick to the middle-difficulty levels with them, its just more chill). Anyways, I'm really starting to ramble at this point, lol. The final thing I'll gush about is the soundtrack, which I love. Its got a great synthwave vibe that reminds me of various 80s action/thriller movies like The Thing, Alien(s), and such. Nice tense ambient themes and good frantic action pieces during swarm events. Good stuff IMO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGS4QcfB9EE I want YOU to join us on Hoxxes IV! For Rock and Stone!  Come join us on the Co-Op Goons discord, there is almost always people playing DRG lately during most evenings (US Time) and I suspect with the new update that just launched there will be more goons returning to check out the changes Galaga Galaxian fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Feb 6, 2021 |
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Feb 5, 2021 20:24
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Orv posted:Oh hey, been curious about Outward for ages but unsure if I'd like it all so that's good. Outward has a mod to pretty much take out anything you find annoying on Nexus. I have mine modded to poo poo and now it's one of my favorite walk around and explore while beating mans with hammers games. There is also one DLC not included in that bundle that's pretty good.
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Feb 5, 2021 20:25
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I'll grab that if anything crops up that really bugs me, thanks!
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Feb 5, 2021 20:42
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Galaga Galaxian posted:Finally the Driller has his signature powerdrills, which let him burrow through granite like it was butter. As a "Driller Main" you can get pretty creative with this, clearing obstacles and opening up sightlines for your allies, digging out buried treasure, or creating shortcuts, ramps, or otherwise modifying the terrain to make things easier for your team. You forgot "Being able to ignore the level design during escapes by just pointing towards the escape pod waypoint and drilling" 
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Feb 5, 2021 20:45
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I was looking forward to playing Nioh 2 on my lunch break today but there's no way I'm getting out of the character creator. Definitely one of the coolest ones I've ever seen -- you can customize bangs separately from the rest of the hairstyle, add highlights, etc etc, it's nuts
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Feb 5, 2021 20:53
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I'm not feeling The Final Station as much as I'd hoped. I get that it's a miserable 'survive in a dying world'-em-up, and you're supposed to feel powerless, but what's frustrating is that the enemies are the 'sprint up to you in groups, flail their arms, you die' type of obstacle, which is annoying when combined with one-way level design, scarce ammo, and how your guy moves slower backwards than he does forwards, making 'strategic retreats' pointless. I've just gotten a shotgun and a 'don't go in the subway!  ' message so I thought, finally, a little RIP AND TEAR catharsis maybe? Nope, a few shots and it's done. Feels like I'm just powering through as best as possible from checkpoint to checkpoint, rather than enjoying the tense, ruined-world atmosphere I'd hoped for.
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Feb 5, 2021 20:55
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so I could say that I finally figured out what this god damned cube is doing. Get well Lowtax.
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seconding that Deep Rock Galactic is really good. just started playing again last night one mission type has you building !oil pipelines that you can grind THPS-style on, and it freaking rules also the game has the best-sounding and feeling grenade launcher in the known game-o-verse, once you get the Fat Boy mod
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Feb 5, 2021 21:20
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It feels nice to play new(ish) Trine after all these years (I skipped 3). Just simple puzzle-platform gameplay and lovely fairy tale graphics and music. Good to see that they've upgraded the character designs, so it's not so obviously two comedic reliefs + sexy girl anymore.
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Feb 5, 2021 22:07
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Galaga Galaxian posted:Speaking of Dwarves. I'm gonna write some Just wanted to show some love for an in depth review. Good job
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Feb 5, 2021 22:07
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I really wish Deep Rock Galactic wasn't so purely multiplayer, because it always sounds so good.
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Feb 5, 2021 22:10
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really enjoyed the beacon pines demo
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Feb 5, 2021 22:13
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Cardiovorax posted:I really wish Deep Rock Galactic wasn't so purely multiplayer, because it always sounds so good. Deep Rock Galactic is a good game with good pubblies, so I'd say it is still fun playing with randoms.
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Feb 5, 2021 22:16
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ZearothK posted:Deep Rock Galactic is a good game with good pubblies, so I'd say it is still fun playing with randoms.
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Feb 5, 2021 22:18
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Cardiovorax posted:I really wish Deep Rock Galactic wasn't so purely multiplayer, because it always sounds so good. It's not ideal but you can go in alone and you get a robot that you can point at things to go mine for you and shoot stuff. I wouldn't say go out and buy the game if you only plan on playing it this way but I enjoyed putting on a video on my other monitor and going in on easy to collect some minerals by sending BOSCO all over the place  .
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Feb 5, 2021 22:19
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So somebody found an exploit that gets you free games via steam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SteIpicvLA Its probably a good way to get banned, so I suggest you don't actually use it. IShallRiseAgain fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Feb 5, 2021 |
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Feb 5, 2021 22:20
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That's the same dumbshit that thought you could get infinite points with Starbound's soda "trick".
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Feb 5, 2021 22:28
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WTF, sorry, probably wrong place to ask, but my display drivers just crashed and now there is a document map every time I open Firefox!? WTF? Is anyone else experiencing this?
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Feb 5, 2021 22:29
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Cardiovorax posted:WTF, sorry, probably wrong place to ask, but my display drivers just crashed and now there is a document map every time I open Firefox!? WTF? Is anyone else experiencing this? Haunted.
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Feb 5, 2021 22:30
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Aaaaand now it's gone. I don't even know what is up.
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Feb 5, 2021 22:35
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I'd like to add that of all of DRG's overclocks, there are some real standouts -- the one for driller that cuts your ammo in half but makes sticky flames absolutely devastating, the one for gunner that boosts your damage but locks you in place while firing, but none half so much as the "special powder" for the scout's sawn-off. It adds kickback when you're airborne, so kind of like TF2's Force-a-Nature, but with about the force of a rocketjump. And yes, you can chain both shots to multiply your velocity. It turns the scout from "quite mobile" into an absolute GOD of mobility -- so long as you remember to keep the thing loaded. Flubbed a grapple? No more fall damage! That ledge you're desperately trying to get to just out of reach? Shoot yourself towards it, then grapple! Need to get to the other end of a massive cavern, vertically, horizontally, or both? Get there in TWO SECONDS FLAT. Need a quick escape from a horde of grunts? Make a short hop and fire into the group to both deal damage and make your getaway! I do miss the overclocks that make it just do a preposterous amount of extra damage, but I don't think I can ever go back at this point. MonkeyforaHead fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Feb 5, 2021 |
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Feb 5, 2021 23:15
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Givin posted:walk around and explore while beating mans with hammers games. Hmmmmmmm. Definitely gonna have to look into it after playing another 100 goddamn hours of Kassandra's Neverending Odyssey.
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Feb 5, 2021 23:17
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IShallRiseAgain posted:So somebody found an exploit that gets you free games via steam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SteIpicvLA
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Feb 5, 2021 23:20
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ZearothK posted:Deep Rock Galactic is a good game with good pubblies, so I'd say it is still fun playing with randoms. DRG looks great but that would mean overcoming my crippling online social anxiety.
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Feb 6, 2021 00:28
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IShallRiseAgain posted:So somebody found an exploit that gets you free games via steam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SteIpicvLA It's totally possible that these keys are somehow linked with an expiry date connected to your EA subscription - since the subscription is still active for like a month, the keys seem like they are permanent, but the games will disappear next month. Of course, it's EA, so probably not.
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Feb 6, 2021 00:28
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drat Dirty Ape posted:DRG looks great but that would mean overcoming my crippling online social anxiety. FYI, I’ve put around 150 hours into DRG and they’ve been 100% solo so far. The game is clearly designed as a primarily multiplayer experience, but there’s plenty of fun to be had without other people.
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Feb 6, 2021 00:37
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"His youngest son is seven and, even though the game is rated for older players, Jason makes sure that his littlest commander always plays with supervision. On Jan. 29, that supervisor was his 10-year-old sister." Father of the year right here.
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Feb 6, 2021 01:27
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I've been playing a lot of DRG through the Xbox gamepass, and I'm afraid that it'll get dropped and I'll have to buy it. If that happens I think I'll move to Steam for the larger player base even though that would reset my progress.
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Feb 6, 2021 01:27
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Alright, here's another dump of impressions from the Steam demos being highlighted right now. Elmarion the Lost Temple: I had hopes for this one since I really enjoy party-based dungeon crawlers. Unfortunately this is an untuned mess. There didn’t appear to be any way to use abilities or potions, the stage had about 20 times more enemies than it should have which led to pretty funny situation where fifty spiders were following my stupid band of adventurers while I plinked away at them. Not much here, but I recommend downloading the demo just to experience the mess. Copy Editor: A puzzle game involving making grammatical corrections by using find and replace, with a limit on the number of rules you can apply and some programming tricks to combine rules. There’s a Zachronics quality to optimizing your solution but I found that it got too difficult for me around 6 passages in. Timberborn: Beaver-based RTS with no combat, just your tribe verses the environment .You can stack building on top of one another and there’s a mechanic to manage power via a water wheel and shafts, which dovetails into a dry season where the rivers dry up. I lost some of my work force due to starvation before I figured out farming and the population grows so slowly I never felt like I recovered. There wasn’t much more for me to do at that point, either. A small pond kept my farm irrigated during the drought and I had enough resources for my decimated tribe to survive under extreme circumstances for a month. I’ll keep an eye on it to see how it is expanded. Genesis Noir: This one soft locked on me so I may be a little unfair to it, but it was kind of a nothing game until that point. A walking sim with confusing camera angles and was to interact with the world, I did nothing except travel until it crashed and I had so little fun doing it that I couldn’t be bothered to try again. It’s mostly black and white with yellow accents, very noir styled with a jazz theme accompanying a creation myth, I guess. Not really my bag but I’m sad I didn’t get to noodle on a sax. Aeon Drive Prologue: It was kind of refreshing to get back into an action platformer after a more eclectic mix this morning but this was a little underwhelming. It’s a speed-based game, where you have 30 seconds to finish each short stage and can add time by grabbing collectables in each stage. The main mechanic appears to be a knife you can throw and then teleport to, but there were a few rough edges that kept me from getting real excited about this one. Rise Eterna: A TRPG is the vein of Fire Emblem but without any of the tactical depth or interesting mechanics. The sprite work is lovely but the story is poor and the one battle I suffered through was boring with nothing of note. During attacks the screen cuts to a side-on view like Fire Emblem and if a party member was close to you they would appear on this screen as well, but there was no way to engage them. It needs something to set it apart from the crowd. The Last Spell: A survival sim of sorts, where you control three randomized heroes in turn based combat to fend off waves of zombies attacking a city. After each wave you can repair and upgrade the city, and there are meta progression items teased at that aren’t included in the demo. I liked how it gave each character a pool of action resources to draw from in whatever order they liked, so I could move, attack, move, attack as long as my resources held out. There’s also a nice power disparity between the player and the zombies. It’s easy to take out a half-dozen enemies with one character’s turn, which is good when you are facing 100+ enemies over a wave. This one could use some more tuning but it’s one I’m wishlisting now. Niinamigota: This was a joke entry for myself. It clearly uses RPG Maker default sprites and I was curious to see what someone was throwing in the mix, but since the .exe couldn’t find the RPG Maker 2003 RTP I couldn’t launch it. A bunch of stinkers, unfortunately. Timberborn was okay if pretty basic for the beaver trappings. The Last Spell was the only real standout and it's pre-alpha, but at least it's clear with what it's trying to do and it's *fun*. Hopefully the next batch will be a little better.
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Feb 6, 2021 01:30
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Humble Choice just sent me an email:quote:Look out for your games on the first Tuesday of each month!
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Feb 6, 2021 01:52
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I finally decided to tap out of Humble Choice this month, I think the offered games have been getting a little iffy as other subscription services started popping up and nabbing studios. It was great while it lasted though, maybe now I'll actually finish some of these games.
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Feb 6, 2021 01:55
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I like to pause for a month from time to time, it's a great option.
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Feb 6, 2021 02:04
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AngryBooch posted:I finally decided to tap out of Humble Choice this month, I think the offered games have been getting a little iffy as other subscription services started popping up and nabbing studios. It was great while it lasted though, maybe now I'll actually finish some of these games. Which subscription services are you referring to? As in, are you talking about renting games or buying them? If there are more "sub for x games monthly" type deals I probably want in.
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Feb 6, 2021 02:05
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MarcusSA posted:Anyone have any thoughts on Star Control Origins? *cracks knuckles* SO, Starcontrol was made and published by known mustache-twirlers Stardock, who, during development, tried to pull a swifty with some IP and went full-steam ahead to publish, knowing they where going to get caught, and hoping they could use the 'forgiveness rather than permission' defense. Judge laughed at them and they had to settle (presumable expensively) out of court. But it just kinda shows the poor-faith that they where operating in, reinforcing their reputation. But what if you don't care about that and just want to play video games? I've personally avoided the title, but everything I've heard is that it's not actively terrible, but just rather meh. For everyone else reading, Ur-Quan masters is still free if you haven't played it yet.
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Feb 6, 2021 02:07
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I think I've redeemed two Humble Choices since they switched to the new system and have paused every other month. I'd cancel but there's the dumb part of me that wants to cling on to my Classic plan (even though I only ever want like 3 games in a bundle at best).
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Feb 6, 2021 02:14
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Veotax posted:Lol, the Steam forums for the Mass Effect remaster are in a hilarious meltdown because it's missing the worst DLC in the series (Pinnacle Station for ME1, nothing but a series of combat maps with no story for a game with terrible combat. Apparently the studio that made it (not Bioware) let the source code get corrupted) and the "censorship" of Bioware re-framing the camera in a few conversations in ME2 to not focus on Miranda's rear end. It’s mostly about Miranda because that is the kind of “issue” that attracts the kind of person who hasn’t noticed the internet losing its horny mind over a tall-but-fully-dressed woman the last few weeks and no one caring because they only exist in their increasing small bubbles screaming about “the SJWs” like it’s 2011.
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Feb 6, 2021 02:18
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StrixNebulosa posted:Which subscription services are you referring to? As in, are you talking about renting games or buying them? If there are more "sub for x games monthly" type deals I probably want in. I'm wondering if Gamepass and the knock-on effect of Sony competing with it have created somewhat of a bidding war that's pricing Humble out a bit. EA and Ubisoft are trying to get there own sub services going too so the slice of games that could possibly show up in Humble monthly seems to be getting smaller and smaller. The only sub services where you actually keep the games forever to my knowledge are Humble, XBox Games with Gold, and Sony PS+ but those last two are obviously console only. The one I would consider subbing to at the moment is Gamepass for PC but you only have access to the games as long as you're a sub so I don't think that's what you're looking for exactly.
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Feb 6, 2021 02:20
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AngryBooch posted:I'm wondering if Gamepass and the knock-on effect of Sony competing with it have created somewhat of a bidding war that's pricing Humble out a bit. EA and Ubisoft are trying to get there own sub services going too so the slice of games that could possibly show up in Humble monthly seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. We'll see how long humble lasts. Personally I am not happy to see rentals coming back in such a big way, but  as long as it means people are playing and enjoying games I'm not going to rant about it.
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Feb 6, 2021 02:32
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AngryBooch posted:The only sub services where you actually keep the games forever to my knowledge are Humble, XBox Games with Gold, and Sony PS+ but those last two are obviously console only. Technically Twitch Prime too, but it has been rare for it to have anything big since its launch months and is mostly incidental for people who have Amazon Prime.
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Feb 6, 2021 02:35
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I’d much rather have humble than gamepass, if only because it gives steam keys and even steams dogshit-level UI and download manager is miles ahead of gamepass’s “whatever is leaking from a terminal Ebola patient” level setup.
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Feb 6, 2021 02:48
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Galaga Galaxian posted:The Gunner has possibly the most "boring" traversal tool Surely the driller is the one with the boring tool 
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Feb 6, 2021 02:51
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