You activated a special interest so you’re getting it: spore is kind of back. EA just gave it a skeleton development team to keep it maintained.

No content updates are on the horizon, but bug fixes and reactivating old promotional content is on the table, plus creature contests. Good time to tickle some Spore nostalgia if that fancies you.

The hype is overblown, CD key resellers are generally fine. G2A has decent customer protection. Easier to just pirate the games in most instances.

history repeats itself

the bat tiddies has been the most impotent Gamer outrage yet, because the bat titties have been a big fucking joke within the actual fandom since SA2. like it is among much of what was introduced in the adventure era that was bemoaned as being too edgy/anime. any normal and well adjusted person within the community agrees sonic doesn’t need bat titties.

i’d go as far as to say even the people gooning at the bat titties don’t want them in the main games. the series already reduced them in size and stopped them from fucking jiggling mid gameplay, so it’s not even the first time m-muh bat titties were ‘censored’

He’s got Goku pinned down! Get out of there, Goku!

Goku absolutely annihilating his opponent

OP’s experience is a bit of a microcosm of it. I have a lot of fun learning my way around Linux, but feel a lot of pressure when I need to do something specific that I’m having trouble with. So I’m having lots of fun running it on my server or my steam deck, stuff I consider a hobby, but a bit uncertain about moving to Linux for a daily driver, where I might have to get work done.

I am running Mint, which I’m understanding is a lot more user-friendly than OP’s distro. And to be honest, 90% of the user experience is the same as on Windows with Mint. I just feel like I need to understand more about Linux, it’s file system, and all of its very technical quirks before my main PC makes the switch.

I love full game leaks! I love things that place stress upon the understanding of digital scarcity and intellectual property rights! I love people being able to experience art for free and outside of the intended experience the publisher pushes!

As the player traverse the various planets, they are frequently transported into space to pilot the Krill defense fleet surrounding each planet. The ships are biological in nature and semiautonomous: they only require a pilot when they sense danger. In most battles, the player are required to shoot down a certain number of enemies to end the sequence.

This is a cool as fuck premise, ngl.

Another older RPG Pokemon fans might have missed out on is Fossil Fighters. Love that series. Not good exactly but right out of the period where creature collectors were big. Also the plot is zany fun.

waow (basedbasedbased)

I can’t do it comrade, at least not straight away. I’ve moved my server and my laptop over to Linux, but my main desktop PC is still running Windows because I still believe my brain is too smooth to daily drive Linux.

same brother same

because i’m usually playing games offline/cracked/modded, i take great joy in adding in that sort of promotional content to my save even if i have zero interest in the content to begin with. just out of spite

the whole concept just confuses the hell out of me. you’ve launched up your game. you’re about to play your game yourself. why would the game want to direct you away from the game to watch someone else play the game?

millions of dollars spent on PR companies cannot produce a more inspiring statement than this

Some of the elements of Subnautica 2 worry me a bit (live service model), but can’t deny the franchise had a big effect on me and I’m excited for this entry.

One of the coolest things they did is tease Subnautica 2 using the time capsule feature in Subnautica 1. Some of the earliest screenshots were to be found by exploring Subnautica 1.

in my restless dreams, I see that town. ceský krumlov

I’m surprised this hasn’t come up before already. I’m generally on the boat of ‘no loli posting’ outright. It’s a messy moralistic debate that I haven’t seen sufficiently settled yet, but most people don’t want to chance across sexualized underage girls/discussions of it and no one wants to get into a debate about it. One side is inevitably called pedophiles for engaging in it and the other side can justifiably become extremely heated.

Most well adjusted communities with cultures you want to spend time in outright ban the discussion. Avoid the mess all together. There’s not many ways to slice ‘sexualizing underage girls’ without pulling up a rotten slice.

power stance changes everything

My favorite highlights:

The gen 3 starters we dodged a bullet on

Original smol Zigzagoon

skibidi rotom

gen 3 dev map tools! if you’ve ever played around with making a romhack, this is particularly cool to see.

there’s also a creation myth and more lore around humans fucking pokemon which is really cool stuff

confidently wrong incarnate

Lmao same. Felt so lame seeing all of the backlash towards the game and it’s developers fade away because it visually looks good and isn’t a total disaster gameplay wise.

Like that’s good but I think the original core problem is still that these utterly tone deaf developers are handling a monumentally important piece of art and that problem doesn’t go away no matter how satisfying the shotgun is

Silent Hill 1/2/3 are probably the earliest examples of professionally produced games having genuine theming, properly written and conveyed subtext, as well as taking advantage of the medium and landing as a great psychological horror. Pyramid Head is neither meant to be a foreboding metaphor nor a heart-racing boss fight. He is James’ self-punishment made manifest, his belief that he deserves pain for what he has done. But like, not metaphorically. That’s literally what the monster is in the story, brought to life by a town that holds a unique but very defined spiritual power.

James killing the monster at the end is him killing the part of him that feels guilty for what he has done, which materially changes how James behaves. Depending on James/player behavior, this why the endings of the game can range from James killing himself or James making peace with his distorted memories of his wife and leaving town.

I’m sure that a game released in 2022 does all of this at least as well if not better, but SH2 was absolutely monumental for the industry and almost every psychological horror game today has some roots in what SH1/2/3 were doing. There’s a definite ‘Seinfeld effect’ with this. But I do reject the idea that you had to play it in its prime to properly ‘get it.’

I will say that its exploration of domestic abuse, sexual violence, terminal illness, did not come off as edgy in 2001. It came off as downright shocking that a game dared to explore it and demanded maturity from its audience. Back in 2001, this was unheard of in games.

One of the best jobs I’ve ever had was a trolley collector. It was a company contracted to work for the chain stores, so I didn’t work for the stores I collected carts for.

I’d show up, do about 45 minutes of exercise hauling the carts around, then I’d sit in my car and play on my phone or read a book. Or, hell, even just leave. I’d have 6 hour shifts but trust me when I say the trolleys don’t need 6 hours of supervision. I’d often get away with one collection in the morning, coming back for a collection in the afternoon, then peace out.

Anyway, best of luck with your new job comrade, I hope the freedom makes the lack of decent pay worthwhile. It definitely did for me.