A lot of that is microsoft meddling, since most of those games that force Win10 can run just fine on 7 if they didn't force it. Sometimes it is for Xbox ports requiring it too
I've actually played(and even reviewed at times) games that I only after playing realized had 'win 10 minimum' in their requirements, and they worked perfectly fine
Sometimes it is just that devs only tested with win10, and thus marked win10 as minimum. In that case I can still play it. But other times they do something like a version check and the game won't even start if you don't have win10
Microsoft has been shit for ages now, it all went downhill since XP. But Linux just isn't viable for most people. So we don't get a choice in OS and will have to 'upgrade' eventually. All we can really do is hope that by the time we're forced into it the pirates have removed most of the garbage and fixed most of the problems
There are even quite a few that just need a couple of lines of code replaced in the .exe to use win 7 dlls that were merged/tweaked specifically to force games developed for win10 not work for win 7 XD.
Also, fuckin A I've played like 4 hours of stranger of paradise and it's really low effort. No shops so it looks like you're stuck with dealing with RNG to get something decent, no worldbuilding; towns are just a menu without any real reason to bother with it instead of just going to the next mission. The performance is so horrid I had to download a program that would prevent specific textures and particle effects from being rendered ( mostly hair lol ) for it to run at a steady frame-rate even then the lighting engine's so fucked the characters often don't look like they fit in the environment. Team ninja seems to have gotten stuck in a mission-based gameplay structure and forgotten how to tell a story. Which is unfortunate because the combat is rather competently done and kinda fun when it doesn't wreck you for having equipment that's too low level...
Not like I had really high expectations of the title but coming off of the first installment of the FF7 remake which wasn't perfect ( and is being sold/developed piecemeal ugh ) but still had a well written story, intelligent structure and decent management without RNG hell, this is a pretty big drop in quality. Just glad that team ninja isn't going to have anything to do with the other installments of the FF7 remake.
A lot of that is microsoft meddling, since most of those games that force Win10 can run just fine on 7 if they didn't force it. Sometimes it is for Xbox ports requiring it too
I've actually played(and even reviewed at times) games that I only after playing realized had 'win 10 minimum' in their requirements, and they worked perfectly fine
Sometimes it is just that devs only tested with win10, and thus marked win10 as minimum. In that case I can still play it. But other times they do something like a version check and the game won't even start if you don't have win10
Microsoft has been shit for ages now, it all went downhill since XP. But Linux just isn't viable for most people. So we don't get a choice in OS and will have to 'upgrade' eventually. All we can really do is hope that by the time we're forced into it the pirates have removed most of the garbage and fixed most of the problems
I would argue that Linux is quite viable for most people (really, apart from games, most of which work fine through wine/proton with a little tweaking, what do you need that isn't covered by Linux unless you use your computer professionally?), it just doesn't quite offer the turnkey solution where you can install the OS, install the game and it just works. And of course, there is something of a learning curve for people who have been using Windows all of their lives.
It probably is viable, yes. But from a games related perspective it's still more effort than most people are willing to put in, which leads to a lot less support from devs
Which is sad, but what else can we expect from a market where a normal gaming PC is 'too complicated' for a large amount of people and the standard for many big companies is consoles?
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
It's actually pretty fun. But it's also basically still in early access. I have no idea what they've been doing for years of early access, but the only notable thing they added was one(1) new ship in the last two years.
I guess this is a case of the dev deciding they're done with the early access and just calling it a 1.0 finished product. At least with this one it's still something playable
Short version- Too expensive for what's in it. It is essentially the same thing as early access years ago. Purely because of the price I'm going to give it the thumbs down. If it drops below 20 euro or your local currency equivalent then it's a good buy
I'll detail what's wrong with it further down, but the gameplay loop itself is excellent and I think it is enjoyable and worth playing. Taking apart ships is good and it's a satisfying work cycle. It just doesn't have enough in it to justify the full price
Long version-
Hardspace: Shipbreaker's gameplay is simple, pleasant and satisfying as you disassemble ships and upgrade your tools along the way to be stronger and better. The only big complaint I have about that is that there aren't enough ships. There are only four ships to disassemble, and that gets repetitive after doing them a few times
While they do come in variants only 2 or 3 of these variants are different enough from the base ship class to matter. The rest are simple changes that won't change anything for you such as the cargo bay being filled with passenger seats as a passenger ship, there being an extra pair of external engines or a slightly different external engine hanging off the side.
That makes for 6 or 7 ships if I'm generous and count the variants that matter, and that's just not enough for the full asking price
Things have further gone wrong with the development as there have been many small annoyances introduced and bad decisions made through early access. Most of these aren't too important to the enjoyment of the game and you won't even notice most of them if you haven't played early access, so I won't nitpick or list the less important ones. It's a game about the salvaging and breaking up ships, and that part is still good even if they added some questionable parts. Not all things they introduced were bad either. A few decent ideas have been introduced, but then nothing has been done with those either
What I will mention however is the story- It is delivered poorly. It consists of your controls getting locked in between shifts to force you to listen to NPCs talking at you. You get no decisions, input or anything notable happening as a result of your actions. All the story does to you, as a player, is lock you in place while things are said around you. The story essentially does not interact with the gameplay in the slightest, existing only as a thing that just gets mentioned to you in between the times where you're having fun.
The story itself is at best mediocre and at worst preachy and boring. There really isn't anything else to say about and the way that it serves as unskippable interruptions between what you actually want to do doesn't do it any favours either.
While Hardspace: Shipbreaker is enjoyable, I have to wonder what happened in the years of early access and development. It is practically still the same as it was years ago with only very minor changes and barely any additions. It remains mostly a concept game, showing that there is a great concept and a gameplay loop with great potential, but then it fails to deliver on the potential it shows
But at the least they tried and it's still worth playing. Just be aware of what you're getting. A good gameplay loop with great potential that will sadly remain mostly unused, not a full completed game.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
It's actually pretty fun. But it's also basically still in early access. I have no idea what they've been doing for years of early access, but the only notable thing they added was one(1) new ship in the last two years.
I guess this is a case of the dev deciding they're done with the early access and just calling it a 1.0 finished product. At least with this one it's still something playable
Short version- Too expensive for what's in it. It is essentially the same thing as early access years ago. Purely because of the price I'm going to give it the thumbs down. If it drops below 20 euro or your local currency equivalent then it's a good buy
I'll detail what's wrong with it further down, but the gameplay loop itself is excellent and I think it is enjoyable and worth playing. Taking apart ships is good and it's a satisfying work cycle. It just doesn't have enough in it to justify the full price
Long version-
Hardspace: Shipbreaker's gameplay is simple, pleasant and satisfying as you disassemble ships and upgrade your tools along the way to be stronger and better. The only big complaint I have about that is that there aren't enough ships. There are only four ships to disassemble, and that gets repetitive after doing them a few times
While they do come in variants only 2 or 3 of these variants are different enough from the base ship class to matter. The rest are simple changes that won't change anything for you such as the cargo bay being filled with passenger seats as a passenger ship, there being an extra pair of external engines or a slightly different external engine hanging off the side.
That makes for 6 or 7 ships if I'm generous and count the variants that matter, and that's just not enough for the full asking price
Things have further gone wrong with the development as there have been many small annoyances introduced and bad decisions made through early access. Most of these aren't too important to the enjoyment of the game and you won't even notice most of them if you haven't played early access, so I won't nitpick or list the less important ones. It's a game about the salvaging and breaking up ships, and that part is still good even if they added some questionable parts. Not all things they introduced were bad either. A few decent ideas have been introduced, but then nothing has been done with those either
What I will mention however is the story- It is delivered poorly. It consists of your controls getting locked in between shifts to force you to listen to NPCs talking at you. You get no decisions, input or anything notable happening as a result of your actions. All the story does to you, as a player, is lock you in place while things are said around you. The story essentially does not interact with the gameplay in the slightest, existing only as a thing that just gets mentioned to you in between the times where you're having fun.
The story itself is at best mediocre and at worst preachy and boring. There really isn't anything else to say about and the way that it serves as unskippable interruptions between what you actually want to do doesn't do it any favours either.
While Hardspace: Shipbreaker is enjoyable, I have to wonder what happened in the years of early access and development. It is practically still the same as it was years ago with only very minor changes and barely any additions. It remains mostly a concept game, showing that there is a great concept and a gameplay loop with great potential, but then it fails to deliver on the potential it shows
But at the least they tried and it's still worth playing. Just be aware of what you're getting. A good gameplay loop with great potential that will sadly remain mostly unused, not a full completed game.
Haha, started playing this just game just after you'd posted. It's more fun than it should be, honestly. The O2 nonsense does get annoying until you've gotten a tank that lasts the entire shift and fuck the wires that are attached to the hull every 5ft though.
I've worked a few salvage jobs and the story rings pretty true to life as far as the personalities of the characters are concerned. Was a little surprised at how quick you can chew through the debt, even on the starter ships you can average enough profit to be in the black after 500 shifts which is damned quick for a game meant to be dystopian. I bet if I wasn't dead-set on hitting all the reward goals I could chew through it even faster by getting all the big-ticket items out in one go and just taking a new ship each shift.
Would really like a laser cutter that can 1: go through tier 3 connectors and 2: bore a circular hole to get the barge items out faster/easier, I always end up moving the inner hull inadvertently so that I don't have a hole facing the barge.
The reward goals are for getting upgrade tokens rather than money, you can get like 80% of the ship's value out with less than half the ship salvaged, but you need to keep salvaging the rest if you want the upgrade to your gear
But yeah, they made progression and income a lot easier than it was in early access. Which only further highlights how little ships there are and the lack of content
It's still nice to just open and disassemble a ship every now and then
In late game now and there are some weird conflicts with the progression of the methodology of how the ships are constructed leading me to think they had problems with some base component of the game they couldn't overcome, could explain why they seem to have given up.
You've probably seen what I'm talking about, things that shouldn't be connected yet are, inner hulls that you can't move and are a bitch to get the game to recognize that you've cut into pieces, pressurized sections of the ship that have no access short of explosive decompressing it.
In late game now and there are some weird conflicts with the progression of the methodology of how the ships are constructed leading me to think they had problems with some base component of the game they couldn't overcome, could explain why they seem to have given up.
You've probably seen what I'm talking about, things that shouldn't be connected yet are, inner hulls that you can't move and are a bitch to get the game to recognize that you've cut into pieces, pressurized sections of the ship that have no access short of explosive decompressing it.
This is because, as they explained a few times, they never made tools for making the ships and/or content to put into the game. So they had to make every single positioned hull piece or beam etc one at a time. The base component they couldn't overcome is that they just never made the tools that they would have needed to actually finish the game
A lot of things like that, such as the pressured sections, were considered bugs at first but then made 'features' as they couldn't solve it and decided that it just means it's 'more challenging' that way
They had a great idea, but they didn't have the skill to make it work
Wrote another review. Not my greatest, since I didn't have anything witty to say or any real criticism. But I guess that kind of means that there's just no problem with it
As uninspired as the review was, I felt like I should point out that it's just a really good game for anyone who didn't hear of it yet
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I've greatly enjoyed my time with Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga. It was an enjoyable experience throughout the entire game, without any noticeable flaws to dampen the experience
To summarise it is a tactical game with varied situations where you have as many choices for your tactics as you can think of. Everything you can do is viable within reason, and so it allows you great freedom in deciding how you want to play or develop your units
Your units develop throughout the game with experience and you can decide what you want them to b, so that they will always be able to fit into your battleplan
The thing I noticed the most in the early game is that I felt like I could trust the game to not try to screw me over with a 'gotcha' moment, or by sending enemies against me that would be more of a puzzle that you can't win without the 'correct' unit composition. And that kept true for the whole game. One of the greatest strengths in my opinion is that you can play it your way. Some strategies may have a slightly harder or easier time with some things, but you will never have painted yourself into a corner so much that you need to reload an earlier save
The gameplay itself is great. Simple enough to allow you to do only what you want to do but with enough variation and optional complexity to let you customise your units to a great degree to optimise or just theme your squads. The battles themselves are on interesting terrain and have interesting objectives to them
While somewhat simple the story is still very good. From start to finish I've found every part of the story to be interesting and perfectly integrated with the gameplay to provide motivations for the characters, interesting battlefields and a great overarching storyline to keep things moving. Even if it isn't a surprise what happens next at any step of the story
A notable mention to the music, graphics, character interaction and consistent worldbuilding all working together with the other factors to create a great game, all parts of the game show a lot of well thought out choices in design
To summarise, it's just good. A good experience to play, good value for the price, good memories of the game once you finish it. I very strongly recommend Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga and look forward to seeing what the developers plan to make next
Originally I had a mini-rant in there about how it was great to have a story that isn't some upper middle class writer trying to be 'deep' by writing about current day politics or his own mental illnesses while huffing his own farts, but I removed that as it wasn't really relevant. The story is pretty good, but I can't help but wonder if maybe my standards for story have dropped on account of seeing many incredibly poor performances in storytelling. Especially Hardspace Shipbreaker. Where Hardspace did everything it possibly can do wrong wrong, Symphony of War does everything either right or at least very well.
And I realized that I still sometimes think of Hardspace now, months after. Not any of the good parts. But as a reminder of just how wrong things can go.
The sheer amount of bad design and incompetence that went into that game makes it feel especially like a bait and switch
But that's why I removed that rant, because the review isn't about Hardspace. It's about a game that I actually liked and enjoyed with great attention to detail in it
This is because, as they explained a few times, they never made tools for making the ships and/or content to put into the game. So they had to make every single positioned hull piece or beam etc one at a time. The base component they couldn't overcome is that they just never made the tools that they would have needed to actually finish the game
A lot of things like that, such as the pressured sections, were considered bugs at first but then made 'features' as they couldn't solve it and decided that it just means it's 'more challenging' that way
They had a great idea, but they didn't have the skill to make it work
What the actual fuck? So they don't have the tools to make even the core functions of the game to work? The unavoidable explosive decompressions happen on I think the 3rd type of ship, so it's not like they only realised that towards the end of development.
Yes
They just never had the tools they needed to make more ships, so they didn't have anything to release to people eagerly hoping to mod in their own ships either. They did imply that they had third party tools that they could not legally release to modders due to licensing issues, but I'd say the amount of ships they finished is enough to say that those tools were probably either not good or they just had no idea how to use the tools
The physics problems were never solved either, and every new ship they added included new and more physics bugs that they then declared a feature instead. Like how one of the ships just straight up kills you if you try to dismantle it the 'correct' way because the physics will fling the part of the ship you're in away at high speeds, smashing you against the wall of the compartment and killing you or seriously injuring you. This happens somewhat consistently with that ship part
This was considered not to be a problem for them and acceptable to release, no doubt because they had no idea how to fix it and lacked the tools to solve it anyway. So they called it a 'quirk' of the ship design instead. Many other physics bugs exist but just never got fixed
I'm certain that I'll continue to remember Hardspace Shipbreaker as an example of complete and total incompetence for many years to come
Yes
They just never had the tools they needed to make more ships, so they didn't have anything to release to people eagerly hoping to mod in their own ships either. They did imply that they had third party tools that they could not legally release to modders due to licensing issues, but I'd say the amount of ships they finished is enough to say that those tools were probably either not good or they just had no idea how to use the tools
The physics problems were never solved either, and every new ship they added included new and more physics bugs that they then declared a feature instead. Like how one of the ships just straight up kills you if you try to dismantle it the 'correct' way because the physics will fling the part of the ship you're in away at high speeds, smashing you against the wall of the compartment and killing you or seriously injuring you. This happens somewhat consistently with that ship part
This was considered not to be a problem for them and acceptable to release, no doubt because they had no idea how to fix it and lacked the tools to solve it anyway. So they called it a 'quirk' of the ship design instead. Many other physics bugs exist but just never got fixed
I'm certain that I'll continue to remember Hardspace Shipbreaker as an example of complete and total incompetence for many years to come
Oh yes the Atlas thrusters bug. I actually didn't encounter the bug until my 4th Atlas ship. After that it would still happen on occassions even if I followed the "suggested" steps on the forums, like dismantling the thrusters before anything else. It's real annoying when most of the satisfaction of the game comes from dismantling a ship perfectly.
Got another review. This time of a free game
I actually greatly enjoy this one and hope to see it succeed. The character design and gameplay stand out, but it is kind of low in active players right now
For understandable reasons. It's a good game but it isn't very friendly to new players, especially if they don't come with friends ready to play with them and teach them how to play
Omega Strikers
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Omega Strikers is a free, high-skill pvp game vaguely resembling air hockey if it was raised by a moba and only took the good parts of its upbringing. Fast paced, great characters and simple gameplay that allows for a lot of skill in almost every aspect. It's great in many ways, but also held back by a few issues
As it is free, I will start by addressing the issues many people have with free games, and then give a few tips on how to actually enjoy it
So first- Monetization. Everyone thinks of it when they see a free game. And I'm happy to report that it is good. There is a battlepass and some cosmetics, but everything related to game mechanics is available through a very reasonable price of ingame currency gained through playing. It is probably one of the best ways I've seen it done
Second, trolls and cheaters. I've actually not seen any cheaters, and only two people trolling in about 72 hours of play. Worries about this are accurate however, as the report function is somewhat poor and difficult to use. But also because anyone can hide their name. The name which you need to report them. So far I haven't seen anyone abuse this yet, but if they did, there would be no way to report them
Third, is it dying?
I sure hope not! But if it is, there are three things I would point out as being the probably cause of it losing players, or players just not staying with it after they try. So you can avoid these problems or at least mitigate the worst parts
First problem, moba controls as default. Your default control scheme (with mouse+keyboard) makes it impossible to play comfortably. Moba controls has you use your mouse to move your character, and you need your mouse to aim your abilities or shots. This means your mouse needs to be in two different places at once as you need to do things while you move. I'm not opposed to extra available control schemes. But as default? That is just madness. Giving first time players what amounts to a nonfunctional control scheme isn't going to encourage them to stay with the game and just puts more stress on them as they may not realize it is the control scheme that is working against them
Second, a lack of training mode and minimal tutorial. The tutorial only provides you the most basic lessons, and there is no training mode to try things out. Unlocked a new striker? Only way to try them and their abilities is in a game with other players. Have an idea for a new training loadout? Only way to try is by going into a game with other people who are unaware that you're experimenting. A single player testing zone, or a training thing against basic AI would help a lot. Throwing people in the deep end and telling them to just learn on the go doesn't work for everyone
And third, skill differences. As it is a game with a lot of skill involved and different sorts of skill matchmaking will be difficult. Often a match will be skewed in someone's favour, or you get matched with teammates who are worse than you by a large margin (Or better than you by a lot). This can lead to frustration when things are imbalanced too often and you get destroyed or teamed up with someone who isn't carrying their own weight. Or when you run into someone better on the other team who has a tactic that you don't know how to defend against
Either way I have not had very long queues even when playing at 10 in the morning on a workday. So for now the population still seems to be good enough for the game to function both on ranked and unranked
Omega Strikers is a great game with a lot of potential in it. Great characters and a simple set of base rules that leads to a much more complex game than it at first appears. The short matches allow you time to take breaks in between and allows you time to change what you're doing. It is tempting to go just one more match every time without growing tired of it. The great amount of options it offers keeps things mostly fresh and varied, and so I recommend that you give it a try
Got another review. This time of a free game
I actually greatly enjoy this one and hope to see it succeed. The character design and gameplay stand out, but it is kind of low in active players right now
For understandable reasons. It's a good game but it isn't very friendly to new players, especially if they don't come with friends ready to play with them and teach them how to play
Well this aged poorly. A few days after I posted this the devs announced they're cancelling the updates and bringing the game down in Januari. They're going to put all the updates together with some new features for a re-launch in Februari as a second attempt
Game is good once you get over the awful new player experience, but with that news the population collapsed down to basically no longer existing levels. From ~1000 players on at average to ~350
I hope they make it work, but that's going to be next year at the earliest
Well this aged poorly. A few days after I posted this the devs announced they're cancelling the updates and bringing the game down in Januari. They're going to put all the updates together with some new features for a re-launch in Februari as a second attempt
Game is good once you get over the awful new player experience, but with that news the population collapsed down to basically no longer existing levels. From ~1000 players on at average to ~350
I hope they make it work, but that's going to be next year at the earliest
I'm a bit confused at what you caught, but I appreciate any comments on the stuff I post either way
And unrelated- Steam sale!
Anyone have good suggestions for stuff on sale? I can't really find anything. All the stuff I'm after is either very early access or not out until next year
I'm a bit confused at what you caught, but I appreciate any comments on the stuff I post either way
And unrelated- Steam sale!
Anyone have good suggestions for stuff on sale? I can't really find anything. All the stuff I'm after is either very early access or not out until next year
