Gaming

I'll start by saying I had a bit of trouble wording the title but I'll try to elaborate on it. I find it can be a bit daunting at times figuring out what a decent entry point is in a series of video games without searching online first. Sometimes there will be ten games released across three different generation of consoles with reboots, prequels, and remasters and you can feel a bit left out of the loop if you start with the most recent release.

I'm wondering where people would recommend starting in other popular series like Nier, Final Fantasy, Armored Core, Ace Combat, Assassins Creed, Metal Gear, Metroid, Resident Evil, and so on.

It might make for a fun bit of Friday discussion and encourage some people to try out some new games.

Here's my example:

With the Fallout series I'd say you could easily start with any game because you have a new protagonist each time and a lot of the lore is reintroduced. The exception being Fallout 2 because it feels a bit more like a direct sequel to the original.

I would probably recommend Fallout New Vegas as a starting point because it's the fan favorite, has a few quality of life upgrades over Fallout 3, Fallout 4 adds a lot of extra mechanics to the game so going backwards in the series if you wanted more Fallout could feel a tad awkward and take some readjusting if you are accustomed to them, and the classic Fallout games can be a bit of a challenge if you aren't used to old school RPGs.

Disclaimer: I don't think I'm the target audience for this game

Picked this game up (on sale) for my partner who is a low-key potter head. Been playing for the past couple of weeks together and it's been....interesting (still fun though).

First Impression: 1. The player controls and game mechanics make this game near unplayable. From the start to about midgame, the way a character moves or how you navigate menus/controls just drives you absolutely nuts. 2. The actual "Hogwarts" classes fucking suck, there's no comparison on how badly they failed at these. 3. The game is mercilessly plagued by bugs (some annoying, others game breaking).

This was all before actually looking into the game online. I heard when it was originally being developed, but kinda lost sight of it once it actually came out. I couldn't believe when I saw it was "Game of the Year" for so many outlets and awards. I will admit the depth of the spell system and work that went into it is pretty neat. If that was their main goal then they squashed it.

After spending so much time on it and seeing it through a fan's eyes and reading about it, I'm just confused on if this is a great game or something that fell short (and hopefully then improved upon for the sequel). Puzzles: I have a few that haven't been solved yet, sometimes I think a puzzle is extremely deep then I find something that gives you the answer with no thought (or the voice overs tell you what to do before you have a chance to look at it). I'm trying not to spoil any Easter eggs or hard puzzles but part of me is worried I'm looking at this deeper than I'm supposed to be and all of this just actually sucks. I did COD Zombie EE's and that shit gets deep, I'm holding out hope and continuing to try and do more on my own.

A huge caveat: I purchased this through the switch store, and it should have absolutely not had a switch release! Load times are extremely painful, graphics are completely shit, and I suspect all the bugs and crashes I've gotten are from trying to play it on a switch. PC play and mods probably make this a completely different game.

Everything else on it is pretty standard and/or substandard. Shitty "Open-world!!" that's a failed perspective (enemies basically in the backyards of the town, way too clustered), they litter the map with repeats or useless shit (who else tried the skipping stones or various "Interactive Items" for hours till giving up on all of them?). Gear and equipment is shit and the upgrade/trait system is pretty "primary school level" thought process. Capacity for everything is abysmal especially for a "magic" world and improving the limited capacity is pretty "fetch quest" level of enjoyment.

Context: Just basically in the late game now trying to 100% everything before doing the last two main quests since the interest in completing it after might not be there.

TL;DR, semi-decent buy on sale especially if you're into the potter lore. Subpar rpg/adventure game: If you're casual, wait for a sequel where it will probably have all the systems improved.

Call me lazy if you want but I don't think someone should need to look up a guide on how to buy a video game without feeling scammed. I feel like I've been seeing this more and more lately with abstractly named tiered bundles, complete editions that don't contain everything, and remasters of games that feel like they should have been updates.

I've listed a few examples below but can you think of any others?

Examples:

The photo I attached is a buying guide for Hitman 3. A game that still confuses me. For those that don't know Hitman 1 and 2 can be played in Hitman 3 but the game is sold in bundles. I believe part one contains missions from the first game but the standard edition, the next level up, does not contain all the levels for Hitman 2 but does have all the levels for Hitman 3. The deluxe edition has all of Hitman 2 and a good chunk of the small DLC like cosmetics and challenge missions but not all of them.

Before Hitman 3 was rebranded as World of Assassination I believe you could avoid repaying for the games you already own (at least on Steam) but I don't think that's the case any more.

So as someone who owns the original Hitman I believe I essentially need to rebuy it as part of the deluxe edition if I want to play Hitman 1 and 2.

Intravenous for example was released in July 2021 and from my understanding is being remastered with features from the sequel, Intravenous 2 (released August 2024), as a DLC for the sequel under the name Intravenous IV2.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/21074916

I love this game so much. It has such an immense atmosphere, the mechanics are great and it's very fun to explore the world map!

I beat the game at level 11. Here's my setup for the final boss:

spoiler

Dylan: electrical (yellow) tower shield and holy potions

Orlok: poison (green) trident and a mist orb (this stuff helps reaching the boss without unnecessary fights)

Thyme: electrical lance (was too lazy to grind materials for a trident) and poison tower shield

Blocking with tower shields is soo efficient, I was losing under 100 health from the tentacles.

The ending is

spoiler

very mysterious of course, I really like too!

https://youtu.be/itpcsQQvgAQ

If you live in Eu, you can also sign this one. Every signature is important!

The folk tale that inspired Dreams on a Pillow tells of a mother who rushes into her home to retrieve her baby before fleeing, only to realise that she has escaped with a pillow instead. In the game, she spends her days trying to make her way to Lebanon after the massacre at Tantura, and the nights dreaming of the Palestine she knew as a child. Putting the pillow down lets her move through the game’s scenarios more freely, but invites nightmares and hallucinations. Abueideh estimates that it will take two years to complete; heartbreakingly, the crowdfunding page contains an assurance that “a clear plan for the completion of the game has been put in place to ensure continuity in the case of Rasheed’s disappearance, injury or demise at the hand of the continuously expanding Israeli aggression in the West Bank”.

In the city of Nablus in the West Bank, Rasheed Abueideh owns a nut roastery, where he works to provide for his family. He is also an award-winning game developer. A decade ago, as the 2014 Gaza war raged, he created a harrowing video game called Lilya and the Shadows of War, about a man trying to find safety for his daughter and himself – but as missiles fall around them, it quickly becomes clear that there is no safety. When the game was released in 2016, it was initially rejected by Apple on the grounds of inappropriate content, a decision reversed after a week of outcry.

Despite the acclaim and attention that Lilya received, however, Abueideh has not been able to raise funding for his next game through conventional means. The game he envisions, Dreams on a Pillow, is about the 1948 Nakba, told through a folk tale about a mother in the Arab-Israeli war, in which more than half the Palestinian population was displaced. He tells me that his game has been rejected almost 300 times, by publishers and providers of cultural grants, for being too controversial, too much of a risk. “Talking about the Palestinian story was always forbidden,” he says.

“Crowdfunding was our only option, but even that would not work for me because all the major crowdfunding platforms do not recognise Palestine,” says Abueideh. The team turned to LaunchGood, a Muslim-focused platform, where it met its funding goal on 7 January.

With Lenovo's announcement at CES 2025 of the Lenovo Legion Go S, we are pleased to share that their "Powered by SteamOS" model is the first handheld officially licensed to ship with Valve's SteamOS. We built this operating system to provide a seamless user experience optimized for gaming, while retaining access to the power and flexibility of a PC. SteamOS is the same operating system we run on Steam Deck, and the team is making updates to ensure it fully supports the Lenovo Legion Go S and provides the same seamless experience customers expect.

In addition, the same work that we are doing to support the Lenovo Legion Go S will improve compatibility with other handhelds. Ahead of Legion Go S shipping, we will be shipping a beta of SteamOS which should improve the experience on other handhelds, and users can download and test this themselves. And of course we'll continue adding support and improving the experience with future releases.

I wanted to get myself a BigScreen VR for Christmas. In order to get one, you need to do a 3d depth face scan using an IOS device that has privacy settings and content blockers set to as permissive as possible. Except even after doing that it doesn’t work. The solution literally listed on the customer support site was to either try someone else’s IOS device, or to fucking drive to an Apple Store and hope they let u plug ur email into their germy, who knows what software’s running on it, demo iPhones and hope it successfully runs their shitty WebKit app.

Couldn’t get the face scan working, definitely not gonna plug my email into a demo iPhone, and I’m pretty sure I don’t live near an Apple Store anyways.

BigScreen can get fucked, stick with Steam Index VR