Heroic Game Launcher adds Epic DLC, SkateBIRD calls it done, NVIDIA learns to play nice with AMD chipsets, Entropy : Zero 2 gets a Linux build, and gaming on RISC-V with Box64.
Special thanks to:
Kyjorei (new patron)
Listen:
Subscribe Google Podcasts | Spotify | Apple | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:41 Steam beta scrolling update
01:56 Steam Deck survey time!
02:55 Pedro didn’t write anything
NEW GAMES
04:24 Pawperty Damage
06:32 Erra: Exordium
09:04 Poly Bridge 3
12:36 Elteria Adventures
15:30 Thunderday
GAME UPDATES
17:02 Entropy Zero 2 goes native
18:54 State Bird is done
NEWS
27:24 NVIDIA beta drivers vs AMD chipsets
31:32 Heroic Games Launcher adds Epic DLC
34:12 X86 gaming on RISC-V with BOX86
39:06 Stone Kingdoms 0.5 update
REVIEW
41:44 Them’s Fightin’ Herds
HATE MAIL
58:32 Save game backups
Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro
Steam: New Games
- A game custom tailored for disgruntled collegiate mascots.
- I get some PS2 Rampage vibes from this and I’m here for it
- Doesn’t have online multiplayer though
- Furzilla?
- Dieselpunk Dex
- The 2D art style is cool and apparently it works great on deck
- That looks very good!
- I shall play it when it’s done with the Early Access run.
- If there’s one thing the LGC crew is a sucker for, it’s physics puzzles
- Needs more portals
- Some of the ones it shows in the trailer look proper fucky!
- Another exciting installmanet of wiggle bridge, fuck, nooo!
- 100+ new levels and something involving jumps?
- Fortnite meets minecraft?
- This one has tinier blocks to allow for finer detail. Hopefully this game is multithreaded to hell and back
- If you ever wondered about what anachronism looks like in practice, it’s those character models on those voxels.
- This looks like OG Unreal models imported into Minecraft.
- Gameplay looks a bit like Rust.
- Collect resources, build things, murderate.
- Big thanks to RobotCat Games for shooting us keys on Curator Connect.
- It’s a Nuclear Throne style of twin stick shooter.
- Those tend to be popular with that particular crowd.
Steam: Game Updates
- Half life 2: Are we the baddies edition gets steam deck/steam input support
- It’s a free mod that adds some squad management stuff to HL2
- HL2 plays ok with a controller
- One last big ass-level and that’s it. Stick a fork in it, chicken is done
- Everyone loved the little trailer with the skateboarding birb
- Not everyone liked the vidjagame.
- I did, but I was by far the most positive of us.
- Selfie stick mode.
- WHAR fisheye camera mode?
- The sim-like controls turned me off from the start.
News:
- It’s not a big fan of gamescope.
- Improved the performance of Minecraft Java Edition on RTX 3000 series GPUs.
- Like, how do you notice performance issues in Minecraft on a 30 series?
- Added support for suspend and resume when using GSP firmware.
- Better support for wayland on PRIME systems that have an AMD IGPU, which i think is going to be a pretty common configuration as time goes on
- Quite a bit more progress on allowing other games to be launched via Heroic, not just GOG and Epic ones.
- Now you can add browser based ones which it seems to be playing natively.
- No netflix though.
- I guess they’re not distributing widevine yet
- If you look at the languages Heroic is built on, it’s effectively a browser of its own right.
- Epic Store DLC can now be installed individually through the UI
- GOG downloads now display their actual size
- Linux Native GOG games show up in the launcher now.
- x86_64 programs can now run on RISC-V with reasonable speed.
- Openarena (as a test) is running at 63% of native.
- The VisionFive board is running a dual core 1.5ghz processor, but it goes from 2-8gb of memory and the blog post doesn’t say which one
- The onboard media processor is apparently capable of UHD 60 h264 and h265 decode and 1080p 30 h265 encode
- It’s very faithful to the original Stronghold.
- The UI gives me all the nostalgia for that game and how much I genuinely hated it.
- It’s a very chonky release
- A bunch of new building types, bug fixes and a campaign mode
- Apparently previously it was just free play, which they still support
CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope
– Not sure if want
– Check it out
– Shutupandtakemymonies
Game: Them’s Fightin’ Herds
Webzone: https://store.steampowered.com/app/574980/Thems_Fightin_Herds/
Devel: Mane 6, Inc.
Engine: Z-Engine (Skullgirls)
Price: £15.49 / $19.99 / $22.79
Wazzat: Them’s Fightin’ Herds is a 2D fighting game featuring a cast of adorable animals designed by acclaimed cartoon producer Lauren Faust. Beneath the cute and cuddly surface, a serious fighter awaits!
Mandatory Disclosure: Venn bought us keys
Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control
- Slams right into the left monitor.
- Gamescope to the rescue.
- Fighting game so as you might expect 4K 60 all day with the 3060.
- Gamepad has phantom inputs using the native build.
- More than once my character tore off to the left or right without prompt.
- Tapped that Proton button and things cleared up.
- Multiplayer works cross Proton / native.
Fun?
- Released in 2020 and fresh off the April 5.0 update I figured it’s about time to give this one a review.
- That, and it was on wicked sale over the weekend.
- I grew up playing 1v1 fighting games in arcades and later on home consoles.
- Then some asshat invented combo systems and I noped right the hell out.
- I still enjoy watching competitive fighting and keep threatening to buy an arcade stick to see if my old arse can git gud.
- Hell, combos are not my major gripe with modern fighting games, nay. It’s the story modes.
- I will never understand the desire to put a story mode in fighting games.
- It’s like plot in a porno.
- Somebody must like it because it keeps showing up.
- Anyway, this one has some overwold BS that you can skip and get into the fighting proper.
- It has the standard fare, training mode and the like.
- Easy to access moves list.
- Remember last week (or week before last) when I mentioned some games maintain a core group of online players?
- There exists a group of 20 or so players on one EU server and that’s what they do.
- They play Fighting Herds.
- If you plan on playing on forever alone mode it will be against the AI and it can be a wee on the cheaty side.
- Especially on lvl 2 difficulty.
- This is extra jarring since lvl 1 difficulty lets you get away with semi-educated button mashing.
- Yeah, plenty of characters to choose from, reasonable move list, combos a little on the fast side for me.
- 4-button fighting mechanic.
- Keeping track of the magic meter for attacks is manageable.
- The “my little brony” thing has passed so you have to judge Them’s Fightin’ Herds on merit.
- Hey, it has it. Solid little fighting game that’s easy to pick up and of course, ZOMG ponies.
- Keep in mind, you will want to bring a friend for multiplayer.
Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control
- It really likes that leftmost monitor
- Runs like a gem cuz Cybik did a good job
- You can de-fullscreen and movie it over, but if you start the game up again you’ll end up back where you were
- Ooh boy that movement is sensitive. And they make you do platforming with it in the story mode
- I get the sense that this is really meant to be played with a fight stick though.
- Multiplayer is nicely integrated in steam
Fun?
- Fan works filing the serial numbers off and selling the new thing has an interesting track record of success. See 50 Shades of Gray
- I bring this up because this is pretty much my little pony skullgirls, as previously mentioned. To a fault
- Did you like the ultra precise comboing guilty gear style anime fighter that was skullgirls? You’ll probably get a kick out of this
- Conversely, if you’re a brony or pegasis who wants to sink their teeth into a fighting game relevant to your interests, it might be up your alley
- I however, am neither of these types of people so my ability to comment on the quality of the game is minimal
- The characters are all well designed and their movesets are pretty expressive of their general gimmicks and personalities. I tried the fancy deer, the dragon and the manic alpaca. You also use the american cow in the story mode
- The story mode is going to make you master the movement of this game because as mentioned, you need to platform your way to success. Which is about where I tapped out on that.
Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control
- Random bits of trivia before we start:
- The original name of the game was My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic and it featured the characters of the show
- Lab-0 gave the engine to Mane 6 specifically for Them’s Fightin’ Herds because they liked what they saw.
- With that out of the way, it runs out of the box.
- Thanks Cybik!
- It works on the Deck but I ended up playing it on the Desktop with the USB Saturn controller.
- For the simple reason that the game kept detecting extra directional inputs when I released a diagonal press.
- It’s a little too sensitive, but we’ll get to that.
- It sounds amazing and the graphics are pretty good.
- If those land mammals look familiar it’s because they were drawn by Lauren Faust, the MLP person.
Fun?
- Did you like Skullgirls?
- Are you ok with the idea of Flufferpundle beating the shit out of Lady Moorinicus the III?
- If you answered yes to either of those questions, you’ll probably like the idea of Them’s Fightin’ Herds.
- I say “the idea of” because, much like Skellington Gals, Easy is too easy and Medium is like hitting the proverbial brick wall on the difficulty curve.
- I have no doubt I could probably git gud, I did beat the single player story campaign in Cranium Damsels on Nightmare difficulty with every character.
- And I only hated myself, the game, and literally everything else when it took me several dozen tries to beat Fukua with Filia.
- My one complaint is how sensitive the input detection is.
- If I let go of a diagonal the game registers another input in one of the two related directions, which is just enough of a window for the AI to skullfuck me with its hooves.
- I genuinely had quite a lot of trouble getting past the second opponent on Normal.
- If I had a bit more time, this would very much be a game I could get into.
- But I don’t…
Verdict:
Hate Mail: