GRcade

Fired up Alien Isolation last night while the wife was at her Christmas party. Got up to the start of the third mission and really enjoyed it. The vibe is perfect, seems like a slightly more cerebral Dead Space thus far. One gripe is: when you have a station filled with unopenable boxes and doors, don't have a vent to the next area hidden away in a dark area with a texture that gives no obvious clue as to it being an access panel. I get not all games should hold your hand, but I wasted about half an hour of my limited gaming time looking for a bloody door and ended up looking it up anyway. I expect it from the 90s Tomb Raider games but this is twenty years on...

Had my son's baby monitor on my desk while I was playing it in the dark. Hearing unexpected radio crackles and whimpering/moaning along with the other ambient sounds was utterly terrifying

darksideby182 wrote:

$ilva $hadow wrote:

EberKneesUp wrote:The Bureau: XCom Declassified is currently free on the Humble store

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/the- ... ium=banner

I downloaded BFBC2 last night after seeing this post.

A battlefield game on steam and NOT beholden to that shitty EA service full of lootboxes and terrible grind. I down with that.

Does BFBC2 still play well?

I'm not sure yet, I only set it to download overnight yesterday when I saw his post. It's not finished downloading yet but I won't be trying it out till monday. I do remember Bad Company 2 online being very very fun and satisfying and wondering what the hell happened to the Battlefield customers?

$ilva $hadow wrote:

darksideby182 wrote:

$ilva $hadow wrote:

EberKneesUp wrote:The Bureau: XCom Declassified is currently free on the Humble store

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/the- ... ium=banner

I downloaded BFBC2 last night after seeing this post.

A battlefield game on steam and NOT beholden to that shitty EA service full of lootboxes and terrible grind. I down with that.

Does BFBC2 still play well?

I'm not sure yet, I only set it to download overnight yesterday when I saw his post. It's not finished downloading yet but I won't be trying it out till monday. I do remember Bad Company 2 online being very very fun and satisfying and wondering what the hell happened to the Battlefield customers?

Will be nice to know if it still holds up well (should do) , still have the disc so may give it a bash over xmas.

strawberry floating windows updates. Thanks for the heads up.

Something kept feeling "off" about my screen after the update and I've just released they've changed how 4k screen scaling works. Things seem... Thicker, almost. I don't like it, but programs that had problems before don't now, so that's nice.

EDIT: Never mind, I'm an idiot. It changed my resolution to less than 1080p. Changed it back and things are sharp again.

Tragic Magic wrote:Half way through the tutorial for Twilight Struggle and I can already tell I'm going to lose so many hours to this game.

I don't think the Cold War theme would appeal to any of my board gaming friends though so I probably won't pick up a physical copy.

As the USSR always coup Iran turn 1 or do the Comecon trap

As USA always keep hold of Iran.



In my current game, the middle east is the last great bastion of democracy in the world - Just gotta hold it out until the late war, where I will mop up.

There are a few of us that have the game both on PC and mobile if you fancy it.

For more tips go here: https://twilightstrategy.com/

*fyi the board game is a thing of beauty

Thanks Kezzer, I'll check that link out as I suspected I was missing some vital strategies. I've only had two game so far though. I think it'd actually be easier to learn the game in board game form, not that it's that difficult, just the PC game is very fast, especially with the dice rolls. Sometimes the AI will play a card and everything happens so quickly that I've no idea what they just did. I'm really loving it though.

Tragic Magic wrote:Half way through the tutorial for Twilight Struggle and I can already tell I'm going to lose so many hours to this game.

I don't think the Cold War theme would appeal to any of my board gaming friends though so I probably won't pick up a physical copy.

Hell yes. It's my favourite board game.

Anyone fancy a game of Twilight Struggle on Saturday night? I'm not very good but I'm really enjoying it and wouldn't mind some friendly competition. I've just been playing as the US against the AI as USSR. I'm doing better than my first game at least. It's so good though. I really want to get the board game but not sure if I'd be able to get my wife into it.

Tragic Magic wrote:Anyone fancy a game of Twilight Struggle on Saturday night? I'm not very good but I'm really enjoying it and wouldn't mind some friendly competition. I've just been playing as the US against the AI as USSR. I'm doing better than my first game at least. It's so good though. I really want to get the board game but not sure if I'd be able to get my wife into it.

My girlfriend will humour me and play it with me sometimes, but I can tell she's just being nice.

If I am around I will play.

Quick question for everyone: how does this article hold up for you?

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/av4a ... -we-end-it

It's a piece written by Mike Diver back in 2014 in the midst of GamerGate. Mike is one of the founders of Waypoint and a guy whose writing I've enjoyed for a while but I find this essay troubling in the context of today's post Alt-Right world-order. Is it just me or is this verging on apologism?

A shitty Vice article?

Well I never.

Not shitty no. Playing devil's advocate he's trying to show that the stereotyping of people on both sides only elongated the hostility and led to more people being hurt. At the time this may have been an acceptable viewpoint but in retrospect we know just how low GG dove and how much the movement was based on hateful opinions and viewpoints.

I was thinking about this due to a discussion on Waypoint Radio, the podcast of Vice's gaming arm (which everyone should listen to at least once, it fantastic). They were talking about the lukewarm reaction of many gaming journalists to GG as it was happening, including criticising how they themselves reacted. They even go so far as to link GG to the growth of the Alt-Right, and that the ability for people to get away with harassment during GG emboldened them to become a politically invested movement. Mike Diver is not, from everything I've read, a GGer but his article reads poorly given all we now know of how depraved GG got.

It's a product of its time but that, to me, does not excuse its centrist "very fine people" esque narrative of GG. But like I say, I'm interested to know what other people think.

EDIT: I actually tweeted Mike Diver to see whether he thinks it stands up, but haven't gotten a response. I know he doesn't post here that much but I'd would love to hear rudderless' opinion too, as someone who was an active games journo at the time.

I still don't know (or care) what "Gamergate" was.

Yulehide wrote:I still don't know (or care) what "Gamergate" was.

You should.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy

The ability to not care about this stuff is pretty much the definition of white/male privilege. Just because it doesn't affect you does not mean you shouldn't care. In fact it means the opposite.

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Advent7 wrote:Jimcareywhoareyoutalkingto.gif

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Gently-Hung Holly Wreath wrote:

I can't see that at work but I imagine it's something implying I'm some sort of sissy.

EDIT: Meh, half right.