I’m the unchosen undead.

I’m not interested in giving away cash to a company that doesn’t respect it’s competition, it’s customers or it’s employees.

Depends. For me soulslikes are mostly derivative of metroidvanias and I tend to enjoy these games more in an interconnected map with a somewhat spiral and branching structure. Telling a story through map design is also easier this way, and roaming constraints are usually a better method of guiding a player through environmental storytelling than letting them climb and swim in a straight line from point A to point B. Elden Ring’s map is pretty cool, but it’s also, to my taste, bloated for the sake of it’s size. This is usually what happens with open world maps, the false notion that bigger is always better and in the end it’s either mostly empty or sprinkled with whatever takes the least effort. Can’t say not having an open world map has stopped From Software from doing some of this in their previous games though. 😅 I also feel happier playing on open world maps when the game has systemic design aspects for immersion and emergent gameplay. It’s nice to run around aimlessly enjoying the view but it gets boring soon and you wish for an option to teleport from key locations unless there are linked systems in place that make this playground a sandbox and therefore worthwhile to run around, do something new and see what happens.

So, in short, if a future soulslike has mechanically more in common with RDR2, Prey, Hitman or Metal Gear Solid 3 I’ll be less sceptical of an open world map being one of it’s key selling points. In fact, I’ll be so hyped I’ll be in pain.

What OS do you use?

If by this you mean you want to only rely on your smartphone then the local storage you want is just that. Get a good SSD that you can connect to your phone and carry it around. Then share your phone’s screen to a TV over WiFi or copy the file to your phone’s internal storage and plug it with an USB to HDMI cable if that’s an option for you. A good app on Android for file browsing is MiXplorer.

I usually only think about running stuff like Jellyfin when I’m already using my PC, so turning it on or off is never an issue and I’ll never need an external server for this purpose.

Good question! I ended up enjoying K&M over gamepad for these games. But the experience is just as you mentioned. It often needs some kind of mod or plugin and a bit of tweaking to improve the experience. This was also because I had very bad luck with gamepad longevity until I purchased a Steam Controller (the one everyone hates and I love), but then again some of the SC’s best settings IMO mix features from gamepad and K&M setups and therefore require me to configure a game’s keybinds anyway.

Now the decision to play with a gamepad or K&M just depends on me wanting to sit ik front of a desktop or on a couch or bed, but since the SC lets me use it’s trackpads and motion controls I’m pretty comfortable anyway. More precise and durable than joysticks and easier to clean afterwards. Now I’m aiming for a mouse with a trackpad instead of a scroll wheel for the same reason.

I do get your point. Another thing to consider is that if those rankings included porn games most people on this thread would understand your point way better. 🤣

By those standards McDonald’s will always be rated higher than a proper restaurant.

For those that wonder, this doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to enjoy any of the games you love. It means giving game reviews and sales rankings too much credit doesn’t lead anywhere but rather stains the love for games. They come in all flavors and sizes, and the fact that some sell better or receive more attention than others says more about their players (and the aspects that hook them) than about their quality.

As for me, there are times when I have an itch for finely polished beautiful games with meaningful and inspiring stories and times when all I care for is starting a quick and brief coop match in some buggy game with friends and have some highly stupid fun together. 👍

Wow! I can’t say no to Injustice 2. That game’s been on my wishlist for a long time. If there’s something on your wishlist I’d love to give back at some point. 💛

This makes me think they intend to shield GOG from a possible more or less hostile acquisition of CD Projekt by one of it’s shareholders.

It’s a very personal decision. I won’t say someone’s braver or stupider for coming forward in support or confession of doing something that might be interpreted as illegal today or down the road. But that person, if chased by authorities, could either become a head on a flag or a head on a pike. They could become the reason everyone pushes back or the reason everyone runs and hides.
So I’d say, under doubt start with an alias. Own it publicly when you’re confident doing so will improve things for yourself and others.

Each EU country and state has a different set of laws. Think of it this way: if authoritarian jerks always had it their way it would be illegal to use an ad-blocker, send encrypted messages to your contacts, own a house, get a prescription for much needed medicine or even sit close to a person of a different skin color.
In uncertain times use pseudonyms, hide your tracks, keep things clean and tidy and leave your own party early.
But please if you’re sure the info you’re sharing could benefit most people break free from the abuse of, let’s say some Big Tech company, keep it up and count with my blessing. 💪💛

EGS a shop? The closest thing to “Tim & Co.” is an old man in a van parked near elementary schools promising children tons of candy if they go with him.

I also played Mabinogi Duel and felt pretty hurt about it’s demise. Worst thing about these games as usually happens with app store titles is they were games as a service, with frequent online checks and so on, so the only way of playing them today would be to find a cracked/modded .apk file (might need a download for the obb folder) that doesn’t require any online checks and pray it’s still compatible with your smartphone’s firmware version. For now, I found Steam user Gooby shared these assets when working on a mod for Tabletop Simulator.

I played the Cabals games too on PC and mobile. Sad thing to see them go without proper credits. Here’s the game’s profile on MobyGames. You can also search for Cabals: Card Blitz there.
I remember searching for both games’ videos on YT years ago but they’re either deleted or buried.

Whoops! Saw this too late. I already own Blasphemous, but every game mentioned is JUICY!
Thanks for this giveaway and even more for keeping such a good instance up and running. 💛
I’ll share this post around if you don’t mind. It might be the motivation some of my pals need to join the fediverse.

Wait for the next big Steam sale and go wild.

Saw this earlier today. Good stuff! 👌

Yep. Matrix, specifically using the web and desktop Element client. https://ems-docs.element.io/books/element-support/page/exporting-messages
You can also select and delete several messages at once, but the easiest method to nuke a chat is to kick/ban all other members from it, leave it yourself and let it sit for a week until servers delete the room and all it’s contents permanently by default.
It also has a built in sticker library. If your want to build your own, custom sticker packs on Matrix have different guides depending on the app your’re using. Here’s some stuff on that. https://matrix.squirrel.rocks/stickers/

Just use Peertube or Odysee. But blockchain has never been useful for anything other than keeping a verifiable and more or less tamper-proof common registry in a decentralized manner. In other words, transactions. Trying to use it for everything, everywhere, all at once (loved the movie) as they’re now trying with gen AI won’t lead anywhere. And if what you meant is you want a video platform that pays in crypto you’ll probably find something like DLive still lingers.