Well... I guess my XSX is going to have to wait a little longer before it gets turned on.
Luckily there were already more games than I had time to play them this fall.
So now one of the games I was going to put on the backburner for Starfield will get go be played during that period instead.
Getting Ray Narvaez Jr. vibes here, albeit for Xbox instead of Playstation.
I dunno what that means haha.
Ray is a moderately successful Lets Play...er...who owns a Playstation 5, but with the frequency of PS5 titles coming to PC, by his own admission he almost never plays PS5 games anymore and his audience is surprised when he does. He also owns an Xbox Series X, but because he's very closely associated with Achievement hunting (he's one of those +2 million Gamerscore people), he regularly plays on Steam to avoid getting an incomplete gamescore for a given Xbox title he doesn't think he'd play, while simultaneously playing games on console if he thinks he would (contrary to what you'd expect with someone with a gamerscore measured in the millions).
It reminds old people like me just how complicate Lets Playing has gotten.
Disappointed with the Starfield delay, but since I'll be playing on console---i.e., no quick access to fan-made bug fixes---it's probably for the best. Still. Been wanting to scratch that Skyrim itch for sooo long, and all the world gives me is Witcher. I don't want to play some grizzled white dude. I need my freedom-fighter lizardperson, my brain-addled catman, all the rainbow of customized weirdos. Nothing else serves up that Elder Scrolls freedom of roleplaying.
Justice on
0
Options
BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
Scuttlebutt was that Spencer recently had a face-to-face with Bethesda Game Studios re: Starfield and co. Ostensibly now that they sit under an entire Xbox umbrella they also have a larger financial safety net to which they have the means to more easily accommodate delays to their tentpole releases. Not that a publisher of their size couldn't do that before, but I imagine that choice is a lot easier under Microsoft, and especially in this modern era of gamedev.
My money is on these games still showing up during the 'E3 period' on Microsoft's conference/presentation thing though. It would be nice to get some definitive gameplay footage of Starfield so we can actually see what the game looks like with our own eyes as opposed to imagining the fucking thing in our heads by way of painted concept art or the same 30 seconds of in-engine footage.
Microsoft is historically pretty comfortable with delay--for good and for ill. They will draw a line in the sand, but so far that seems to have been after a lot of leeway.
As oppose to something like DragonscaleScalebound excuse me, where you apparently had reveal finally...that was of the "Okay, this really doesn't look salvageable to us," variety, and it was just terminated completely.
Got to the big turn in Tunic. I was worried based on some of the early feedback I read in these threads but... nah I think it's neat.
Dynamite + gun makes mincemeat out of any target in particular that might otherwise be scary. I cleared the gauntlet in the Cathedral to get the crown literally first try, it helps that I'd been Sword and Boarding pretty much exclusively up until that point, so I was loaded with MP fruits and dynamite and etc. Getting some of these booklet pages with the crown just makes me go "Aw, son of a bitch!" https://youtu.be/cNgxyL5zEAk
Still having a ton of fun, now I need to hunt down the Hero Graves to get all my shit back.
Ah see that part is definitely the "hardest" part of the game. Most of my complaints are about...
Losing your shit that you worked the entire game to get. That works fine in qetroid game because it usually starts out with you being powerful then you lose your stuff and you work the rest of the game getting things back.
But losing everything 80% into the game was frustrating. It would have been fine if it was just that one area.
Thematically it's fine. I understand why it happens and what happens. I just think it's pretty lame.
Honestly just a small scar in an otherwise incredible little game. Might have to watch some speedruns of the game to see if I can skip that part.
Elden Ring has yet to leave the top 2, CoD is 40% of the chart, Forza is evergreen, and Halo returns. Also, apparently people keep breaking and replacing their Elites. Sad.
The PS4 DualShock 4 Wireless Controller Black was April's best-selling accessory. The Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller remains the best-selling accessory of 2022 year-to-date.
Godfall on there? Isn't that the bargain bin game?
Or maybe I'm thinking Babylon Fall or something...
Godfall was one of those cases of "Why were we hyped around this game again?" But I don't think it's outright bad.
And coincidentally, we're getting it on Xbox after some delay. It's The Medium without the unique setting.
0
Options
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
I had to look up godfall and I still can't remember hearing anything about it even then.
I bought Elden Ring the other day used but haven't played it yet because I'm waiting for the magic spell seemingly put in to be unleashed and all you people who played it turn to stone at night like this is that episode of Gargoyles.
I guess weird west is getting a huge update soon? I hope it makes combat not terrible
There were some UI improvements and clarity on the shooting mechanic, and you can aim tossables better... but it's still mostly the same general type of shooting?
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
I think I'm more amused by the fact that they had to go back and remove all photos of the tool's output because of knee-jerk responses about it and add a 300+ word clarification as to the purpose and intent of the tool, and mention it wasn't used in any active games... than I am that there was a tool written to assist in quantify diversity in character design.
Not linking the articles because they were kinda silly, but also yeah. This is why you don't really expose metric tools like this.
Screencaps taken from one of the pages that did an article on it:
But if you don't understand the tool and how it works maybe ask?
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Blizzard was revealed to have a tool in evaluating the diversity, er, value of potential characters in Overwatch in maybe the most comedically boneheaded "paying for racial equity and diversity workshops at your corporation is virtuous" manner possible and being widely derided from both the left and the right. "Revealed" in the sense that they decided to brag about the tool in a PR statement (hence, virtue).
It's relevant to Xbox in the sense that, well, Overwatch is on Xbox. And it's relevant in the sense that, at some point in the future, Microsoft will presumably acquire Activision-Blizzard and, by extension, the Overwatch IP. It's not as relevant in the sense that, up since its creation to today, and tomorrow for that matter, Microsoft (much less Xbox) has had zero input on how Blizzard's Overwatch team appraises the diversity worth of current and potential characters, whether with this tool or not.
I think Tastydonuts might've meant to post that in the relevant [Overwatch] thread.
God, that diversity decagon is so hilarious, been laughing at it for like 2 days now
Like, the whole idea that you can quantitatively determine diversity is so insane, and the scales are so fucked up. Men are 0, women are 5, but there's nothing in between? Despite being a short Swedish guy with 1 hand, Torbjorn scores less on body type than Zarya? Middle class is less diverse than rich and poor despite like every character in Overwatch being rich or poor? Who the fuck decided the race/culture ratings??? The whole thing is a combination of wrong, gross, and extremely funny.
God, that diversity decagon is so hilarious, been laughing at it for like 2 days now
Like, the whole idea that you can quantitatively determine diversity is so insane, and the scales are so fucked up. Men are 0, women are 5, but there's nothing in between? Despite being a short Swedish guy with 1 hand, Torbjorn scores less on body type than Zarya? Middle class is less diverse than rich and poor despite like every character in Overwatch being rich or poor? Who the fuck decided the race/culture ratings??? The whole thing is a combination of wrong, gross, and extremely funny.
You can't argue with the results. Overwatch's cast is as diverse as any popular modern shooter and highlights how much has changed with presentation in multiplayer games since, say, 2008's Team Fortress 2.
God, that diversity decagon is so hilarious, been laughing at it for like 2 days now
Like, the whole idea that you can quantitatively determine diversity is so insane, and the scales are so fucked up. Men are 0, women are 5, but there's nothing in between? Despite being a short Swedish guy with 1 hand, Torbjorn scores less on body type than Zarya? Middle class is less diverse than rich and poor despite like every character in Overwatch being rich or poor? Who the fuck decided the race/culture ratings??? The whole thing is a combination of wrong, gross, and extremely funny.
You can't argue with the results. Overwatch's cast is as diverse as any popular modern multiplayer's. The industry has come a long way from 2008's Team Fortress 2.
Overwatch didn't use this tool though, though for the purposes of demonstrating or messing around with it, its character demographics were run through it.
Men are 0 because male characters are common, and thus not diverse. Women are 5 because they're not men, we can probably infer that on this particular scale there were only two values used and for that particular column those were the only factors that were considered. Who knows. Data science and analytic tools can and should be incorporated into improvement endeavors even if people unfamiliar with how the metrics are derived (I don't know what the ranks are either) don't understand them. It doesn't make the approach bad.
edit: it should be noted though that the ratings were derived by diversity, equity and inclusion experts. So... people that probably know more about that and handled data to quantify those things as y'know, their profession.
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
+1
Options
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Instead of a tool like this, they could have done a better job of putting a diverse crew into the creative and leadership posts within the company. But that would involve cleaning up the rest of what's going on in that company, so tech bro solution it is!
Blizzard was revealed to have a tool in evaluating the diversity, er, value of potential characters in Overwatch in maybe the most comedically boneheaded "paying for racial equity and diversity workshops at your corporation is virtuous" manner possible and being widely derided from both the left and the right. "Revealed" in the sense that they decided to brag about the tool in a PR statement (hence, virtue).
It's relevant to Xbox in the sense that, well, Overwatch is on Xbox. And it's relevant in the sense that, at some point in the future, Microsoft will presumably acquire Activision-Blizzard and, by extension, the Overwatch IP. It's not as relevant in the sense that, up since its creation to today, and tomorrow for that matter, Microsoft (much less Xbox) has had zero input on how Blizzard's Overwatch team appraises the diversity worth of current and potential characters, whether with this tool or not.
I think Tastydonuts might've meant to post that in the relevant [Overwatch] thread.
Okay. That's what I thought but I wasn't sure if I just kind of scrolled past a bunch of Tunic talk and missed anything.
This is the kind of shit that makes it hard to actually be in favour of more diversity/inclusiveness when at some point it becomes just more marketing.
Blizzard was revealed to have a tool in evaluating the diversity, er, value of potential characters in Overwatch in maybe the most comedically boneheaded "paying for racial equity and diversity workshops at your corporation is virtuous" manner possible and being widely derided from both the left and the right. "Revealed" in the sense that they decided to brag about the tool in a PR statement (hence, virtue).
It's relevant to Xbox in the sense that, well, Overwatch is on Xbox. And it's relevant in the sense that, at some point in the future, Microsoft will presumably acquire Activision-Blizzard and, by extension, the Overwatch IP. It's not as relevant in the sense that, up since its creation to today, and tomorrow for that matter, Microsoft (much less Xbox) has had zero input on how Blizzard's Overwatch team appraises the diversity worth of current and potential characters, whether with this tool or not.
I think Tastydonuts might've meant to post that in the relevant [Overwatch] thread.
Okay. That's what I thought but I wasn't sure if I just kind of scrolled past a bunch of Tunic talk and missed anything.
This is the kind of shit that makes it hard to actually be in favour of more diversity/inclusiveness when at some point it becomes just more marketing.
Realistically there was never really a point since 2016 (when they started working on this tool) for Activision to ever present it to the general public as a thing.
But, the tool itself isn't bad. The construction and application of diversity analytics to assist in these endeavours is good. "Just hire more minorities," isn't enough because people still have biases... does this include the experts on diversity, equity and inclusion too? Yes... But anyway, also yeah this is off-topic for this thread so stopping.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Without really planning it out, me and my bro managed to clear Remnant: From the Ashes the day before they take it off Gamepass. After the extremely unpleasant speed bump of the first boss, the rest of the game was actually surprisingly fun and engaging. Certain Souls elements + gunplay is pretty fun it turns out! Partially because of various Souls elements they chose NOT to port. There's a very clear map, no corpse running element, no concerns about making a bad character build, etc. Mostly they just retained hard bosses, high damage coming from enemies, limited potions that recharge at checkpoints, and a bit more limited character reactivity (there's a stamina bar, you get hit stunned a lot, etc.) Early on in the game, I was getting extreme Darksiders III vibes from it, which makes sense, as it's the same development team. Unfortunately for my preferences, this was much better than Darksiders III, but at least that meant this was a much more stable, solid experience. I'd love to play more co-op campaign shooters, not just free to play battle royales or whatever. I wonder if this one did well enough that a sequel might be done someday.
Good points of the game: Satisfying character progression, weapons feel very good to shoot, the controls are pretty good once you get past the learning curve of how everything works, very nice boss variety, every boss is not just the same kind of fight.
Bad points: Sometimes they tipped the balance of making something hard to where they just made it obnoxious, certain elements are glitched and they never fixed the problem, procedurally generated levels means sometimes they're just flat out boring, the plot is kind of nothing after seeming interesting initially, sometimes it is very unclear what to do (there's no quest log or general "walk in this direction" type compass) and the general objective is far too vague to tip you off, the main story and point of the game is in optional lore terminals at the home base which means if you don't read them, the whole thing comes off as even more pointless as it would otherwise.
Demo disks from when I was in the my twenties. God that makes me feel old
I was 16, so I feel better.
When I was 16, demo disks were still 3.5" floppies.
"Demo disks" were downloads off of local bulletin boards. I got commander keen, wolfenstein, jazz jackrabbit, doom and so many other shareware games through good old fashioned BBSs.
I sent a money order to iD so that I could get the full version of doom.
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
In this thread we discuss Xbox, Microsoft, and other related news. Such as the universe is absurd and random. Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you.
Posts
Ray is a moderately successful Lets Play...er...who owns a Playstation 5, but with the frequency of PS5 titles coming to PC, by his own admission he almost never plays PS5 games anymore and his audience is surprised when he does. He also owns an Xbox Series X, but because he's very closely associated with Achievement hunting (he's one of those +2 million Gamerscore people), he regularly plays on Steam to avoid getting an incomplete gamescore for a given Xbox title he doesn't think he'd play, while simultaneously playing games on console if he thinks he would (contrary to what you'd expect with someone with a gamerscore measured in the millions).
It reminds old people like me just how complicate Lets Playing has gotten.
My money is on these games still showing up during the 'E3 period' on Microsoft's conference/presentation thing though. It would be nice to get some definitive gameplay footage of Starfield so we can actually see what the game looks like with our own eyes as opposed to imagining the fucking thing in our heads by way of painted concept art or the same 30 seconds of in-engine footage.
As oppose to something like Dragonscale Scalebound excuse me, where you apparently had reveal finally...that was of the "Okay, this really doesn't look salvageable to us," variety, and it was just terminated completely.
Still having a ton of fun, now I need to hunt down the Hero Graves to get all my shit back.
But losing everything 80% into the game was frustrating. It would have been fine if it was just that one area.
Thematically it's fine. I understand why it happens and what happens. I just think it's pretty lame.
Honestly just a small scar in an otherwise incredible little game. Might have to watch some speedruns of the game to see if I can skip that part.
Elden Ring has yet to leave the top 2, CoD is 40% of the chart, Forza is evergreen, and Halo returns. Also, apparently people keep breaking and replacing their Elites. Sad.
Or maybe I'm thinking Babylon Fall or something...
Babylon's Fall actively gives people scabies. (Or so I've heard)
Godfall was one of those cases of "Why were we hyped around this game again?" But I don't think it's outright bad.
And coincidentally, we're getting it on Xbox after some delay. It's The Medium without the unique setting.
I bought Elden Ring the other day used but haven't played it yet because I'm waiting for the magic spell seemingly put in to be unleashed and all you people who played it turn to stone at night like this is that episode of Gargoyles.
How the almighty has fallen.
There were some UI improvements and clarity on the shooting mechanic, and you can aim tossables better... but it's still mostly the same general type of shooting?
This is cool. Anyone else get in? ^^;;
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Not linking the articles because they were kinda silly, but also yeah. This is why you don't really expose metric tools like this.
Screencaps taken from one of the pages that did an article on it:
But if you don't understand the tool and how it works maybe ask?
Blizzard was revealed to have a tool in evaluating the diversity, er, value of potential characters in Overwatch in maybe the most comedically boneheaded "paying for racial equity and diversity workshops at your corporation is virtuous" manner possible and being widely derided from both the left and the right. "Revealed" in the sense that they decided to brag about the tool in a PR statement (hence, virtue).
It's relevant to Xbox in the sense that, well, Overwatch is on Xbox. And it's relevant in the sense that, at some point in the future, Microsoft will presumably acquire Activision-Blizzard and, by extension, the Overwatch IP. It's not as relevant in the sense that, up since its creation to today, and tomorrow for that matter, Microsoft (much less Xbox) has had zero input on how Blizzard's Overwatch team appraises the diversity worth of current and potential characters, whether with this tool or not.
I think Tastydonuts might've meant to post that in the relevant [Overwatch] thread.
Like, the whole idea that you can quantitatively determine diversity is so insane, and the scales are so fucked up. Men are 0, women are 5, but there's nothing in between? Despite being a short Swedish guy with 1 hand, Torbjorn scores less on body type than Zarya? Middle class is less diverse than rich and poor despite like every character in Overwatch being rich or poor? Who the fuck decided the race/culture ratings??? The whole thing is a combination of wrong, gross, and extremely funny.
You can't argue with the results. Overwatch's cast is as diverse as any popular modern shooter and highlights how much has changed with presentation in multiplayer games since, say, 2008's Team Fortress 2.
Overwatch didn't use this tool though, though for the purposes of demonstrating or messing around with it, its character demographics were run through it.
Men are 0 because male characters are common, and thus not diverse. Women are 5 because they're not men, we can probably infer that on this particular scale there were only two values used and for that particular column those were the only factors that were considered. Who knows. Data science and analytic tools can and should be incorporated into improvement endeavors even if people unfamiliar with how the metrics are derived (I don't know what the ranks are either) don't understand them. It doesn't make the approach bad.
edit: it should be noted though that the ratings were derived by diversity, equity and inclusion experts. So... people that probably know more about that and handled data to quantify those things as y'know, their profession.
Okay. That's what I thought but I wasn't sure if I just kind of scrolled past a bunch of Tunic talk and missed anything.
This is the kind of shit that makes it hard to actually be in favour of more diversity/inclusiveness when at some point it becomes just more marketing.
Realistically there was never really a point since 2016 (when they started working on this tool) for Activision to ever present it to the general public as a thing.
But, the tool itself isn't bad. The construction and application of diversity analytics to assist in these endeavours is good. "Just hire more minorities," isn't enough because people still have biases... does this include the experts on diversity, equity and inclusion too? Yes... But anyway, also yeah this is off-topic for this thread so stopping.
This + sharing would be way more than I ever expected.
Good points of the game: Satisfying character progression, weapons feel very good to shoot, the controls are pretty good once you get past the learning curve of how everything works, very nice boss variety, every boss is not just the same kind of fight.
Bad points: Sometimes they tipped the balance of making something hard to where they just made it obnoxious, certain elements are glitched and they never fixed the problem, procedurally generated levels means sometimes they're just flat out boring, the plot is kind of nothing after seeming interesting initially, sometimes it is very unclear what to do (there's no quest log or general "walk in this direction" type compass) and the general objective is far too vague to tip you off, the main story and point of the game is in optional lore terminals at the home base which means if you don't read them, the whole thing comes off as even more pointless as it would otherwise.
Demo Disks from just over two decades ago, older than some of the people in this thread!
I was 16, so I feel better.
When I was 16, demo disks were still 3.5" floppies.
Steam | XBL
Well, now I feel even better!
"Demo disks" were downloads off of local bulletin boards. I got commander keen, wolfenstein, jazz jackrabbit, doom and so many other shareware games through good old fashioned BBSs.
I sent a money order to iD so that I could get the full version of doom.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Eat at Arby's.