Video Games Thread

Awesome post, Airbornewolf!
Thanks for sharing.

Yeah the Steam Deck looks awesome

But more for its software and high level of integration with Steam and all these features

The hardware itself is of course impressive, and cheap for what it is - but still rather expensive, probably not available in Russia except for a big premium, and most importantly; far too big.

Personally I don't have a use-case for it. At home I have my desktop PC if I want to game. And on the go, my best device is still the venerable Sony PSP; it's just so compact, rugged/durable, and with a good battery life. If I'm on public transport I can still whip it out and have a session like some 15-year old kid from 15 years ago. Can't beat its form factor (it's that one right at the top, while the Steam Deck is at the bottom )



If I'm going to a different city or country I can take my Android tablet with me instead (quite a lot of point & click games, DOS strategy games, some Android games ported from the PC officially like Neverwinter Nights, and so on). I also have my Android phone with a Bluetooth controller, which I can emulate even many PS2 games on.

And all this stuff costs just a tiny fraction of these latest portable PC handhelds like the Steam Deck.
Having said that.. can't deny its awesomeness anyway
For someone who wants one instead of a Laptop as his primary computer, or who has a Desktop but travels a lot - I can see it being invaluable.

Russian enthusiasts are developing a survival-horror game in the Soviet setting.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313380/Vicious_Red/

33K likes for that video on Youtube... pretty good.

There is no way this is accidental. It demonstrates that the clowns programming Steam and likely other software are malicious. They think
such shit is cute and makes them feel powerful.

You didn't watch that video to the end did you?

He mentions it is not Steam but the company that runs the servers, which appears to be a Japanese company.

He also proudly comments about how he fooled some Russian gamers to leave a game by telling them there was a green code that would give them boosters... he told them to type in "quit smoking" and of course it wont read smoking... it will just read quit and end their game and log them off the game server...

What a prick.

Akamai is not a Japanese company. It is a USA CDN. Similar to Cloudflare and the like.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akamai_Technologies

They basically sell services to web companies who need mirrors for caching files around the world or protection against DDoS attacks.

Valve is ultimately responsible for their Steam accounting system. Passing the buck to the subcontractor does not fly.

I find it impossible to filter videos for anti-Russian content. The whole west is brainwashed to hate Russia so the vast majority of
content creators are going to be Russophobic.

The point is that it really does not effect anyone... it is more like an easteregg than a problem.

I mean when was the last time you wanted to put a 20 odd letter word as part of your username for something?

It would be a pain in the arse for most uses... think how much screen space it would take up every where it is shown...

This guy is a whiny bitch who has found a problem that for 99.9% of users is meaningless.

The one guy that is the leader of the anti dis... I can't even be bothered to type it all out, might have a problem... so fucking what... make up an abbreviation and carry on.

It says if he uses that name it blocks him off from his account... but how much testing did he do... would it still block him if he spelt it wrong?

Is it a problem with that specific word or is the problem the length of the word and any word that long will have the same effect.

But he is on his soap box and doesn't give a shit about that... it is a chance for a whinging pom to have a moan.

(not suggesting all poms are whingers or that all whingers are poms...)

For those who are fans of the old-school RPGs (you know - Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Arcanum, Neverwinter Nights, etc..), here's a definitive list and reviews of the main releases in this category over the 2010s. Not absolutely all of them, but definitely all the higher-profile games.

Out of these, I've only played Pillars of Eternity, and I can 100% subscribe to what is said on the vid about it. It's a good game, maybe even a great one, but it's not in the same league as the classics.

Can't wait for Baldur's Gate III. Rather, can't wait until I buy a new graphics card as my old one has gone bust.

some more updates on Broken Arrow, the War In Conflict succesor.

I played the Demo, it actually already was.
dynamic radio chatter, intense combat and accurate portrayal of units/weapons.

They just want to go all the way, with FPS camera action of soldiers. heavy aircraft lifting, small aircraft and very large aircraft taking part in the battle. including Nukes.

The director of Steel balalaika, Mentioned in an interview they want to be an World in Conflict succesor .


--

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since we gave news about Broken Arrow, but rest assured, the team has been working hard.

You're probably wondering what the current development status is: the team is working on the version that will become the beta; this version of the game will also contain multiplayer, unlike the demo back in February. We want to provide a polished and refined experience from the get go, so currently we're doing a lot of internal testing, ironing out a few details and, obviously, putting together the server infrastructure to accomodate many thousands of players at the same time.

Communication wise, we decided to break silence by releasing this interview to Félix Habert, Creative Director at Steel Balalaika, who will talk of the design choices behind Broken Arrow. The interview is accompanied by new screenshots: they were previously released privately to Patreon members and those will be new to everyone else.

We're looking forward to a very heated autumn, there will be tons of Broken Arrow news coming, so stay tuned, and enjoy the interview.

___________________________________________________________________

Steel Balalaika as a new team is working on their first new game. Could you tell us  why you decided to make Broken Arrow? How was that decision taken and why?

Félix Habert: Broken Arrow is born from our love of strategy games and Steel Balalaika from the dream to make our own game and make it our job instead of being simple consumers.

This is a dream of freedom: creative freedom, economic freedom, freedom to work when we want and not like assembly-line workers.

Of course, with freedom come responsibilities and “when we want” rapidly becomes “all the time” but we believe that our efforts will not be in vain and that they will be rewarded in the end. That’s why our motivation never failed and is even reinforced by the very positive feedback we have received after the Steam Next Fest's demo.



What are the goals you aim to accomplish with Broken Arrow?

Félix Habert: Our first goal is to make sure at 100% that we deliver the game in the end. It sounds unambitious but this is our first game as a team, which means we cannot afford a failure.

Our second goal is more ambitious: create a new reference.

World in Conflict released 16 years ago in 2007 is a big inspiration in terms of atmosphere for us. We have the feeling that no game since WiC has managed to reach that level of immersion without sacrificing the scale of the battle.

But World in Conflict's gameplay was too simplistic in our view with its limited number of units and clear counters. We wanted something different that would feel more like a wargame with a huge number of units with statistics inspired by their real-life characteristics and the gameplay adapted around this constraint and not the other way around.

Another downside of World in Conflict was that the size of the battlefield that was too small to make planes controllable. The size of our battlefield was dictated by the fact we wanted controllable aircrafts.

In summary Broken Arrow is this: a mix between World in Conflict and a wargame.




What has been the hardest obstacle while developing Broken Arrow so far?

Félix Habert: This is the first game of the studio so we started from nothing, everything has to be made so it’s not the kind of obstacle like a cliff that you can blow up with dynamite or avoid, it is rather a very long and smooth slope that you must continue to climb every day for multiple years.

Was there a specific feature you definitely wanted in Broken Arrow?

Félix Habert: There are definitely 3 main things we wanted:

1) We want to include all the most impressive military equipment and techniques in existance or that are being developed. The logic we follow is “if it’s cool, we want it!”.

So you name it: airdrop, helicopter heavy lift, swarms of cruise and ballistic missiles, heavy bombers, all types of bombs and missiles including nuclear, AC-130 gunships, A-10 making gun runs…

2) Customization of the equipment. We wanted players to select which missiles and bombs they want for their planes, then we extended the principle to all units. Vehicles have armor upgrades, different weapon packages, infantry weapons can be swapped.

3) Give tools to the players to create and share content. Since we had to create everything from scratch including our own tools to create missions, we have decided to hit two birds with one stone and develop these tools as part of the game instead of a separate software. That way players will be able to create their own scenarios with dialogues, music, cinematics etc.




Once the game is released, do you envision expanding the game with new factions, maps and campaigns?

Félix Habert: Yes, of course! We have started with USA and Russia because they are the most documented armies providing obvious opponents for the game but we intend to add more factions to the game.

We also intend to add new maps with new biomes and new solo campaigns.

We also intend to develop new game mechanics and provide more tools for the players like the ability to create their own campaigns.

New screenshots of in-game units.

GarryB wrote:The point is that it really does not effect anyone... it is more like an easteregg than a problem.

I mean when was the last time you wanted to put a 20 odd letter word as part of your username for something?

It would be a pain in the arse for most uses... think how much screen space it would take up every where it is shown...

This guy is a whiny bitch who has found a problem that for 99.9% of users is meaningless.

The one guy that is the leader of the anti dis... I can't even be bothered to type it all out, might have a problem... so fucking what... make up an abbreviation and carry on.

It says if he uses that name it blocks him off from his account... but how much testing did he do... would it still block him if he spelt it wrong?

Is it a problem with that specific word or is the problem the length of the word and any word that long will have the same effect.

But he is on his soap box and doesn't give a shit about that... it is a chance for a whinging pom to have a moan.

(not suggesting all poms are whingers or that all whingers are poms...)

I believe the point is that it shows how far gone the pindos are that they go out of their way to try and ban civilization and religion, even stooping to banning words on the internet. If anything they are proving that they are a cancer that should be removed from existence before it can propagate any further.

MicroCrap is indeed a POS corporation. I remember in the 1990s John Carmack of id Software leading the charge against the initial variants
of DirectX that were total excrement to program with and pushed OpenGL as a substitute. Eventually MicroShit "fixed" up DirectCrap to be
more usable but it never changed the rotten corporate culture that makes its products such garbage.

A Russian company is busy developing a space program simulator.
The demo version is available for download in VK-play:
https://vkplay.ru/play/game/kosmosfuture/
telegram channel about the project:
https://t.me/kosmosfuture/82

Can you engage ramming speed with your orbiter into the moon in this sim too?

If it allows you to set orbital parameters and control thruster output it sure can.

The real question is does it use Google/Yandex Maps and can you crash it into the Pentagon?

progressive socialism strikes again, wasn't EA this time.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2742840/Saturn/

First view on Broken Arrow

Got mine from the nexus and holy shit it actually fucking works. Literally doubled my FPS.

How do you test the FPS rate of Solitaire?