It’s not that bad. They have three difficulty settings: Normal, Black Mesa, and Hard. I played on Normal and I haven’t really struggled anywhere. I think I’ve only died once in my whole gameplay, and it was when I was fighting off waves of Marines flooding a single large space that I couldn’t leave. I’m assuming “Black Mesa” is their suggested difficulty level.

Thanks for your support! My posts originally started as just a random screenshot or two of the latest game I was playing. But I always hated how people just talked about specific video games like everyone on the thread was intimately familiar with them. Especially if it was a game that sounded interesting to me. I wanted to know more about it!

So I decided to use my screenshots as a way to introduce newcomers to each game; give them a little intro to the plot and gameplay so they’d be interested in trying it out for themselves. Or to remind previous players of a great game they hadn’t played in a while.

By the time I started writing long-form blog entries on video games, I already had a bit of a series going and I didn’t want to suddenly change the title of my numbered posts. So they are “random” screenshots of my games, but they’re also a spoiler-free in-depth exploration of each game.

One day, I plan to go back and re-do some of my earlier posts so I can actually have in-depth discussion on those games too.

I’ve also been archiving my posts on a personal blog, in case any of them get taken down or blocked here for any reason. If anyone’s interested in checking out my history of posts, it’s a bit easier to review the archive at that link.

They put a ton of effort into remaking Xen so that it blends better into the gameplay and story. I think I read somewhere that Half-Life took about an hour to slog through Xen, but Black Mesa, despite having around 4 hours of Xen gameplay, was actually really enjoyable.

Here’s a bonus screenshot for you. I really like this image, just because it’s sort of an ominous “quiet before the storm” shot. Seeing both scientists watch you with silent anticipation as you’re about to cause a world-altering event in that next room.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR CURRENT PLEX PASS HOLDERS:
For users who have an active Plex Pass subscription, remote playback will continue to be available to you without interruption from any Plex Media Server, after these changes go into effect. When running your own Plex Media Server as a subscriber, other users to whom you have granted access can also stream from the server (whether local or remote), without ANY additional charge—not even a mobile activation fee. More on that later in this update.

I was worrying about this change because my Plex server provides free streaming for several of my friends and family and I didn’t want them to have to start paying for it. The whole point was to get them away from Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc.

But this sounds like, since I’m already a Plex Pass subscriber, my remote viewers will still be able to access my stuff for free. Do I have that right? Because if so, this change is just business as usual for me.

A childhood friend of mine worked as a developer for Riot Games over a decade ago, when League of Legends first became popular. He tried to get me to play it with him, but the community was so toxic, it’s the first and only game I ever quit solely because of the community.

If you didn’t play specific characters with very specific builds, you were just wasting everyone’s time and any losses would be blamed on you. It was really bad.

I love the content and lore that comes from LoL (Arcane, K/DA, etc.), but I can’t stand the game itself.

I honestly got tired of the “Xbox vs. PlayStation” BS they were pushing well over a decade ago. I actually bought a Nintendo Wii during that generation’s console war, because Nintendo was the only company just doing their own thing and not trying to compete for best graphics, processing power, etc.

But Nintendo consoles were limited in themselves. Nintendo doesn’t like to share their properties, and they very rarely port classics to modern systems. So if my Wii ever broke, the only way I could play my games again was to find another Wii. Even if they stopped making them; is have to find a second-hand shop and buy a used console.

I almost gave up on the gaming world, until I found Steam. Any games I buy there stay in my library forever, even if they’re removed from the store. And they emulate the original supporting hardware, so even classic games are still playable on a modern Windows 11 PC.

Thanks to Steam, I have a renewed interest in gaming and have built up a library of nearly 4,000 games over the last decade and a half.

I don’t bother with console gaming anymore. If I miss that style of gaming, I have a Razer controller plugged into my computer that I can use instead of my keyboard and mouse. If a game is exclusive to console… Oh well, maybe I’ll catch it if/when it ports to PC. But until it does, that’s a lost sale for that developer/publisher. I’m not going to feed the exclusivity BS by buying games while they’re only available on one device.

I’ve been saying, I’d really like to play Alan Wake II, but as long as it’s an Epic Games exclusive, I can’t buy it. If they want my money, they’ll have to allow it on Steam too. And since it’s owned by Epic Games, not just published by them, it’s gonna stay exclusive. So I guess I’ll never get to play that game. I don’t agree with Epic Games’ predatory practices, so I will never give them a penny of my money.

This seems to be basically Vampire Survivors, except aquatic themed. If it’s anything like that game, it should be fun!

Epic just recently announced that they’re never releasing it outside of their store. They’re the exclusive publisher, so they have distribution rights, and their CEO Tim Sweeney is determined to snub his nose at Steam, even though Alan Wake 2 still hasn’t earned back its production costs. It’s a complete flop, but they won’t extend to the Steam market to help sales.

Unlike other games, where publishers sign exclusivity contracts with Epic Games for a certain time period, Alan Wake 2 was actually published by Epic Games, meaning that Epic Games gets to decide what systems the game releases on. So it’s not coming to Steam. Which means I’ll never get to play it, because I’m never giving a penny to that awful store of theirs.

The plots of Portal 2 singleplayer, co-op, and PTI are very “distant” from anything happening with Half-Life.

From what I understand (it’s been a while since I read up on the lore), Portal 1 and 2 take place after the Combine invasion of Earth, shortly after the first Half-Life game. That’s why Aperture Science is almost completely devoid of life, minus the personality cores that are attempting to continue running things. It’s because of the resonance cascade incident at Black Mesa that Aperture Science is now mostly defunct, and Chell is trapped as a lab rat at GLaDOS’ mercy.

So the Portal series is pretty reliant on Half-Life’s story to justify their plot, even if it’s never directly addressed in the game itself.

This is actually my second Steam Deck. I bought the original LCD-screen one back when they were first announced, but they had a nasty habit of the bumper buttons (L1 and R1) breaking. Sure enough my L1 button broke and I just never sent it back to get it fixed. I’ve just been re-mapping that button to the L2 (trigger) button instead.

Recently, my wife expressed interest in having a Steam Deck (she almost bought her own when they first came out), and she claimed she was perfectly content taking my old one, since she doesn’t game as much as me anyway. So I bought a fancy new HDR OLED-screen Steam Deck. It’s much more responsive than my first one. And the bumper buttons work! I forgot how nice it is to just play a game without re-mapping buttons first.

I’m just an enthusiastic gamer, raving about some of the games I’ve enjoyed. But I’m sure the developers of this game will be glad to hear that you’re interested.

When you’re required to use their “store” to play the games too, then it’s a platform. And an isolated one, at that. Imagine you could only buy a game AND PLAY IT at Walmart.

Platform exclusivity is part of Epic Games’ problem. Not the sole issue, but a big one.

[…] the devs got a bigger cut than they’d get on steam

Inconsequential, considering the game is still not profitable, even after a year. The devs lost money on this game. If it came to Steam, they’d be swimming in cash right now. The cut they get from the store doesn’t matter if the game releases on a single store that most people refuse to use.

If Epic Games would be an actual competitor to Steam instead of trying to lock their content behind a paywall and force users to use them over the competition, then people might consider using their service. But as long as they continue to use shitty practices, most people are going to avoid them and use their competition’s service.

By using their service and giving them money, you’re validating their shitty practices and propagating this garbage across multiple platforms when other companies see it’s profitable.

If you want gaming to get better, stop giving bad companies your money and attention.

I have not; although I have been warned that it’s not at all what it appears to be and that I should go into it blind for the best experience. So I’m assuming it’s going to be something like MiSide. It’s definitely on my list of games to play!

Can we just hurry up and get WWIII started so Europe can liberate us from the current regime? I’m getting tired of everyone in important positions sitting on their hands and just letting this stuff happen.

Oh wow, this was actually a thing.

I think it was paid… But it’s been years so I couldn’t tell you.

It’s currently $3.99 in the Play Store for me, with a crossed-out list price of $6.49. Not a bad deal.

Why are there so many articles that drop the second Y from his name? It’s Zelenskyy. I haven’t seen an article on Lemmy in the past couple weeks that spelled his name right.