I’m trying to be optimisitic, but the significant redesigns to be more in-line with other RTS games do worry me. Both because it adds a lot of new avenues to break or negatively change things, and because it removes of the lot the mechanics that help distinguish AoM from other games.

Heres a weirder one no one else has mentioned yet: I’ve heard art described as a way to express and emotion, and I really felt that with Hotline Miami. Its not done through the story or setting (in fact, the intentional ignorance there adds to it) but rather the contrest between the hyper-violent trance as you play through a level, and then the sudden cut of the music as you quietly walk past the mountains of bloodied corpses back to your car. I feel that shift, when you first notice it, really emphasises the pointless brutally of it far more so than many much more heavy-handed attempts in other games.

Stardew Valley is a good one, but I definately wouldn’t consider Terraria casual or low-stress.

I’d personally say its like a 7 or 8/10. Its probably the most mechanically varied and deep PvE focused survival game, but at the same time, it does really feel incomplete. Building lacks options, end-game content is often finicky or tideous, and performance issues can make the game near unplayable in enemy-dense regions.

Nah, LTT is almost certainly too small of a company to benifit from something like this. They want to help those really in need, like Bell and Rogers.

I know in previous posts, you’ve talked about leaderboards and comparing stats to friends. For those who might be embarrassed by their stats or who would be anxious comparing stats, is ir possible to hide these menus and/or play the game without them? In particular, is it possible to play with other social features still enabled?

IMO, Five is easier to learn and more straight-forward, while Six feels more convoluted, but Six gains some depth and variety from that if you put in the time to learn it.

Honestly, I think the original. I know its inferior to most of the other games in most ways, but I’ve found a lot of the modern Zelda games feel pretty shallow and formulaec. Not to say they’re bad, but none of them really feel like they stand out to me either - they’re just good games. The original on the other hand, feels very different from a lot of the games since then. The world is kept a lot more foreign and hostile both in terms of aggressive enemies and in terms of tutorialization. Its makes the exploration so much more rewarding, and when you do find a new item, that much more special.

I saw this posted a couple days ago which pretty succinctly summarizes the current state of the market.

That said, worth noting that these launchers and complex storefronts aren’t really needed either, which is part of why I don’t have an issue with Steam. If you have a good game, you can just sell it on your own website like Minecraft, League of Legends, or Tarkov. Steam’s biggest (or at least most universal) utility for developers is just that it provides very cheap, very effective marketing.

I agree overall, and that was exactly my point with, “history of this behavior towards Palistine”. Its also why I felt the need to specify that Israel is killing civilians outside of when Hamas hides behind them. Israel is not a “good guy” here, and their misdeeds are what spurred this on.

My point was on negotiating with terrorists, once they’ve already turned to violence. If it gets to the point of terrorism, its a lot harder to just let individuals involved walk free. Hamas will just keep trying to kill people, and keep hiding behind civilians, continuing to cost lives.

Again, I agree overall, but even if Israel withdraws from Palistine, walks back all their oppresive policies and agrees to start cracking down on mistreatment from individual Israelis, Hamas won’t just disolve overnight nor will radicalized individuals immediately put down their arms. Its a process that takes decades (likely longer given how long and how intensely Israel has been oppressing Palistine), which doesn’t help when you’re deciding whether or not to shoot the terrorist with a hostage.

I’m not sure what is reportable there. Im literally saying civilian deaths should be minimized. Is it because I’m acknowledging Israel has repeatedly targeted civilians?

Unfortunately, its not that simple. Hamas is a terrorist organization that activly targets civilians, often over military targets. Killing them sooner, as well as helping end the war, protects civilian lives. Its a terrible calculus, but when you’re fighting an organization that has no respect for law, nor human rights then thats what happens. You kill them, or you let them continue to kill civilians and millitary personal alike.

That said, saying that Israel is just doing this because Hamas is using civilians as a sheild is giving Israel way too much credit. They have repeatedly been caught shooting unarmed and fleeing civilians, targeting refugees, and they have a long history of this treatment towards Palistinians. Israel is almost as willing to kill civilians as Hamas, and actually have the weapons to do so.

I’ve intentionally held off on spoilers so far, but Im really hoping once finished, Sons of the Forest will be a nice step up from The Forest. The original was so great in so many ways, but also had so many massive incongruities - esspecially with the content so focused around violence and the enviroment that had absolutely nothing to do with the plot.

Its not quite a pirate game, but if you’re willing to expand your seach to include a nautical mystery game aboard a trading ship in 1807, than Return of the Obra Dinn is worth a look.

Personally, was not a fan. While the gameplay is similar to Mass Effect 1’s combat (already not a stand-out, even if not bad), it feels so much more tacked-together, like they hadn’t started figuring out the gameplay until the last minute. Abilities and anything beyond basic basic aiming is clunky, AI characters are outright suicidal and it all just feels samey to play. The setting was cool though, at least.

Chickadees are suprisingly friendly - or maybe just stupid. It takes almost nothing to get them acclimated enough to you to land on you. I used to feed them sunflower seeds out of my hand.

Or Pheonix Point, where Epic bought an kickstarter game that was funded under the promise of releasing on Steam, GOG and potentially other stores and promptly made it exclusive - and this was in the early days when their launcher/store was in a much worse state too.

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I think you’re misunderstanding how copyright works. Losing the copyright doesn’t mean they won’t be able to make new works, nor does it mean those new works won’t have copyright. Copyright is only lost on the original work, so while others can use Steamboat Willie, and that very specific version of Micky Mouse, Disney still owns modern updates to him. Either way, the end of that monopoly opens more avenues for newer authors to build on it, while again, doing nothing but reducing Disney’s passive income for work their founder did a century ago. Its a more physical example, but along the same line of logic, if I cure cancer, it might make sense to give me time to get a head start on profiting from it (so I am rewarded for my work) but it would be ridiculous to say no one is else is allowed to use my cure for cancer or build on it for the next century or longer. Theres absolutely no reason not to allow the ideas to spread once the author has had plenty of time to make a profit.

Well, why should the government protect their monopoly? The original creator is dead, so he doesn’t benifit from it. The cartoon is 95 years old, and I doubt Walt Disney factored in the profit his company would make 60+ after he died, when deciding to make the original animation. The only reason to let Disney maintain their monopoly on it is to allow a massive coorperation to get more money without doing any new work.