Rise of the Tomb Raider is headed to Linux! MSI releases a new Steam Machine, System Shock throws in the towel and Shroud of the Avatar exits Early Access. Then Tangledeep faces the CHAIRQUISITION!
Special thanks to:
Ryniker (latest Patreon)
Items from our Wishzone
Michael G (NightHawk router of business)
Orn (Data noodle)
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Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro
Steam News:
Upon a star
https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1672394834683262658
- I like the ability to filter out pre-release/early access games.
- Now you can wishlist something in Early Access and then only when/if it comes out, it’ll show up on the wishlist.
- The other handy dandy feature introduced is alerts when things go on sale for a specific percentage. Which is good if you’re a cheap motherfucker like me
Welcome to the machine
https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/msi/vortex-g25/633201/
- And here we see the main problem with the steam machine as presented
- Great specs and a good form factor, but the price, much like the rent, is too damn high
- Also the fucker is running windows
- Didn’t Valve say systems had to be running SteamOS to be called Steam Machines?
- Honey, I don’t think valve gives a flying fuck about what anyone is calling that thing
- Didn’t Valve say systems had to be running SteamOS to be called Steam Machines?
Good review
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/7x5p94/insel_games_ceo_threatened_employees_to_force/
https://steamcommunity.com/games/681860/announcements/detail/1680276769864923201
- Sketchy shovelware devs gonna sketch
- Mayhaps you should resort to more legitimate alternative methods for promotion before doing shit that’ll get you blacklisted
Chorded Press Activator
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/1662261735523902150
- “Added the ability to unique-ify configurations across Xbox and generic controllers. While the actual hardware cannot be differentiated, we treat them as unique controllers based on connection order. So if they elect to use unique configurations, configurations will be applied based on first, second, third, etc. identical controller.”
- Wow! That took awhile!
- You can also use your dualshock 4 to stream non-steam shortcuts without having to set it as a Steam Input controller (which changes the button prompts to Xbox/Steam Controller)
No 3
https://gamerant.com/left-4-dead-3-valve-facebook-rumor-fake/
- Nows a great time to invest in straws, cuz people be grasping for them
- The moral of the story is never believe anything on the internet. Especially us!
- Remember the “leaked” L4B3 screenshots from like, two years ago?
Armello Back roll (from TheSyldat)
http://steamcommunity.com/games/290340/announcements/detail/2912011357799318816
- Apparently the last patch roll out was a little borky
- People weren’t able to log in, so they’ve done a roll back
- Having had to do a few in prod myself, I’m happy that they disclosed what happened. Never a fun time when shit goes dark for no reason
Besiege The Bugs
http://steamcommunity.com/games/346010/announcements/detail/1669017134952062998
- The experimental branch has some new quality of updates including multi block rotation and copypasta
- The new beta is out as well with some bugfixes
Momodora
http://steamcommunity.com/app/428550/discussions/0/412448792359039170/?ctp=11
http://store.steampowered.com/app/428550
- I like the Castlevania look.
- Hopefully the gameplay matches up.
Street Fighter V(alve time)
http://steamcommunity.com/games/310950/announcements/detail/857177755595160250
- I’m not holding my breath. We’ve got nothing but radio silence until now, and this barely qualifies as an update.
Neverwinter Access
http://steamcommunity.com/games/704450/announcements/detail/2910885457892066292
- People who got the BETA keys get to keep them.
- No! Bad! No preordering!
Tomb
http://www.feralinteractive.com/en/games/riseofthetombraider/
- Another Vulkan title.
- Another wicked-late title.
- Spring starts Tuesday, March 20
- For the love of Fk and ALL don’t “no tux no bux” on the Reddit and forget that we are friends on Steam… you already own the game.
Wobbly spacesuit simulator 2018
http://store.steampowered.com/app/510490/The_Fall_Part_2_Unbound/
- Hopefully they will have fixed the control issues and learned how to lock the mouse to the game window when not paused.
- I remember really liking the atmosphere of the first one.
At Sundown demo
http://store.steampowered.com/app/419700/AT_SUNDOWN/
- So it plays a little like a top down screen cheat
- You can only see people when they attack or dash
- Free demo is free
- What if Invisigun expanded the focus from just the mechanic to different gimmicky characters?
Drop the soap
http://store.steampowered.com/app/461990/The_Prison_Game/
- 36 minutes deathmatch in a prison city
- There are periodic events that give either more ai controlled enemies or traps/supply drops
- Someone also gets a bounty which gives a big score boost to whoever kills them, or that individual if they survive
- If game theory has taught us anything, the latter will almost never happen as everyone will just gun for the bounty.
- Good try devs
Oh hells no
http://store.steampowered.com/app/781480/Tech_Support_Error_Unknown
- Yes, cuz I had to hack stuff to do my old support job.
- Well, hack as in make bullshit, not exploit and breach
- Does the game also come with a coupon for hair plugs?
- Does it have that person who says the printer isn’t working when they’re actually connected to the Guest network rather than the actual internal one?
- Or the one who says they can’t scan because instead of going to the folder where the scanned files lands, they created a new folder on the desktop and expected them to show up there by magic?
News:
Publisher buys publisher
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/14/thq-nordic-buy-up-saints-row-and-metro/
- Does that mean we get proper Saints Row ports, now? Please?
- I thought the same thing, but it’s a pipe dream to expect them to re-port the games
- Hopefully though this’ll see them being less reliant on VP
- Also maybe new metro on Linux?
- Also who the fuck wrote this article? Pedro?
System Stop
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/2115044
- Welp, I ran this through our De-Bullsh*t-O-Tron 9000 and it spit out the following.
- “We’ve been shopping around for publishers and nobody picked u$ up.”
- “Also, we burned through the Kickstarter money so yeah, we’re tapping the brakes.”
- Just more proof you shouldn’t be giving videogames money on kickstarter.
- Please accept my personal assurance that we will be back and stronger than ever.
- Famous last words
- Ah scope creep, my old nemesis!
- How about we take this as a reminder that when operating on a limited budget, it’s important to set realistic and manageable goals.
- Just because your Kickstarter went gangbusters doesn’t mean you can just start churning out your ideal project. Accomplish what you set out to do and then work on improving it.
Chicken & chainsaw
https://twitter.com/ShamsJorjani/status/963175186953588736
- #Linux users need to buy more games!
- Hmm, release more Linux titles?
- Not until Linux users buy more games!
- #TideGoesIn #TideGoesOut
Porting the house
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-05-the-life-of-a-porting-house
- It’s a very mac focused article, but there are some insights to be gleaned
- For example, they only have 12 devs on staff
- Also looks like our favorite wrappers are running a support only operation. Maybe the THQ Nordic news is a light at the end of the VP tunnel
Early shroud
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/15/shroud-of-the-avatar-leaves-early-access-march-27th/
- Shroud was always a super ambitious project so the development time didn’t surprise me at all
- I’m concerned about the content of the game though. Is there enough to support an active player base?
- That’s not an issue if the player base is in the lower 3 digit area.
- This game is not baked.
- Even though it’s been in development for ages, it still feels baren and most of the quests translate to busy work and grind.
- The only way I found to get a decent set of armor and weapon, without having to indulge in that completely back-asswards crafting system, was to grind the highest level area I could handle and buy it from other players’ little shop NPCs.
- It’s also impossible to solo most of the dungeons or skirmish areas.
- And since no one is playing the game, it makes it impossible to do anything that isn’t grinding the same places over and over.
- I put 92 hours into this game… If I could refund time of life, I would.
CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope
– Not sure if want
– Check it out
– Shutupandtakemymonies
Game: Tangledeep
Webzone: Tangledeep
Devel: Impact Gameworks
Engine: Unity
Price: £10.99 / US$14.99 / CA$16.99
Wazzat: Enter the magical world of Tangledeep, a beautifully polished dungeon crawler inspired by classic 16-bit RPGs! Colorful characters, a unique job system, tons of skills, items, and diverse environments with deep, turn-based roguelike gameplay. A different adventure every time you play!
Mandatory Disclosure: Devs sent us keys
Makes with the working
Venn-
- Unity scream of NOPE in 2018 =’s automatic -2 Chairs.
Jordan-
- Yeah, that launcher is jank.
- Doesn’t even remember your resolution settings
Pedro-
- The launcher remembered the settings I changed.
- But it’s completely useless.
- There’s no reason these couldn’t be in-game settings.
Total-
Shiny / Sounds
Venn-
- It’s not poorly done but it’s amatue hour pixilated meh.
Jordan-
- Final fantasy was released in 1987. Computer graphics have moved on since then
- Playing this on a 28 inch uhd monitor is not doing this game any favours
- The sound design is pretty meh. It’s some uematsu-esque piano noodling
Pedro-
- It lets you disable vsync but allows you to keep the FerPS capped at 60, if you want.
- Which I appreciate since the 1080 has quite a bit of coil whine.
- The graphics are kinda meh and the music borrows heavily on other dungeon crawler/roguelike games.
- But it works.
- I can at least use Tangledeep as an example of a game with charm.
Total-
Control
Venn-
- Controls like poo.
- Even /w the keyboard / gerbil combo.
- Steam controlla is FKN hopeless.
Jordan-
- Doesn’t work with the paired dualshock controller
- I’m also not a fan of the mapping of qezc. They should do diagonal movement. I shouldn’t have to switch to the numpad to move diagonally reliably
Pedro-
- It’s a roguelike, you play it one handed.
- I even set up a profile on my mouse that rebinds most of the keyboard keys it uses.
- Didn’t bother with the movement since clicking works fine.
Total-
FUN
Venn-
- Oh look, turn based nope.
- Nothing will make me enjoy this.
Jordan-
- You know what, this isn’t too bad a game
- You learn to plan ahead. And then shit appears from offscreen. It’s fun
- This game takes a lot of inspiration from nethack and final fantasy, and it’s not a bad combination
- I will say though, in this day and age the menu looks a bit crappy
- The classes are all interesting and play fairly differently, despite the limitations of nethack
- Still, it’s a game I’ve played dozens of times, and the additions this game brings are merely adequate
Pedro-
- I haven’t had this much fun with a game we’ve reviewed since Hand of Fate 2.
- I love roguelikes!
- This is another one which isn’t actually terrible and it may even take the place of Dungeons of Dredmor for a while, on my rotation.
- This one takes some elements from other RPGs like taming monsters and turning them into pets, item dungeons to improve an item, and class “switching” (it changes your sprite but you get to keep your previously unlocked skills).
- It’s hard and will kill you given half a chance but it also has a bank system to store items for other future characters.
- I genuinely enjoyed my time with it even with the hipster pixel graphics and rather samey environments.
Total-
Final –
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