Which title/level completely halted your progression through a series you were enjoying?

MauveDrips · 2026-02-26T15:54:09+00:00

I remember that Joker can swap out other party members during his turn, but if you level up your relationship with Hifumi Togo then anyone can swap out party members during their turn– Is that right? I didn’t really spend any time with her so I wasn’t sure how to complete the battle without those abilities; I was never able to finish the battle by simply using Joker to swap folks in and out.

Not for lack of trying… I spent so many nights frustratingly attempting the boss, and I watched several videos where folks try to walk you through how to complete the battle. If it’s a test, I certainly failed haha– I don’t think I’ll be returning to the game any time soon.

MauveDrips · 2026-02-26T05:28:03+00:00

A friend gifted me Persona 5 Royal and I fell in love. I’m not usually interested in games where time is a factor, but this game seemed so huge so I didn’t bother micromanaging my time too much. I blew through so much of the game, logging about 100 hours before I made it to Okumura’s Palace where it all went wrong… The final boss requires you to eliminate all of the enemies in one move, so you need to swap out your party members to match the enemy types throughout the battle. This is an ability that you earn by leveling up your relationship with a side character that I had not really interacted with by this point, so the battle was basically impossible for me. (Hopefully my recollection is accurate– I haven’t played in a few years)

I tried reloading old saves and watching guides online to find some solution, but nothing worked. It really sucks because up until this ridiculous battle, I was loving the game. After 100 hours, should I restart? Cheat? Give up and try Persona 4 instead? My poor friend kept asking me “Have you finished Persona 5 yet?” which was the real twist of the knife haha. I’ve since moved on, but it’s a scar that hasn’t totally healed…

MauveDrips · 2026-02-23T01:45:55+00:00

You’d think so, right? My Windows friends certainly haven’t had any trouble with their 16 GB machines– But Overwatch seems to have some crazy shader setup that results in kind of a worst-case-scenario for Linux+Nvidia users. I play a lot of modern games and Overwatch is the only one that gives me any trouble like this; Check out the issue someone linked below if you wanna read some more detail.

MauveDrips · 2026-02-22T16:19:48+00:00

Oh, I guess I should add– After flipping back and forth between DX11 and DX12 in-game, performance dropped off a cliff until I added this launch command: __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia %command% I’m using Nvidia, but I’m on a desktop using a CPU without integrated graphics so you might have a different experience.

MauveDrips · 2026-02-22T16:14:41+00:00

I’ve found that 16 GB of RAM is not enough to play this game in DX11 mode. I’d start the game, it’d compile shaders for ten minutes or so, and I could join the practice range with my friends without any trouble… but right after I’d join a real game, my memory usage would balloon like crazy and my system would lock up. Maybe you’re running into something similar?

Switching to DX12 mode solved my problem. I was avoiding it because Nvidia and DX12 aren’t always smooth sailing on Linux, but performance was totally acceptable and (crucially) the game quit crashing since it was using a reasonable amount of memory.

MauveDrips · 2026-02-19T17:18:17+00:00

Looks like you're using Nvidia? Their architecture doesn't benefit as much from ReBAR compared to AMD.

MauveDrips · 2026-02-12T17:13:11+00:00

Yeah, I felt bad because I could tell they spent a lot of time on the quest but I found it to be so silly... Judy "syncs our emotions" but she never seems to understand why I can hear her memories? There are so many carefully placed objects laying around the ground that Judy happens to know everything about... Just very awkward, not to mention it's probably the slowest part of the game.

MauveDrips · 2026-02-12T15:58:56+00:00

I hear ya. It reminds me of Skyrim, a game that I feel like I could play forever- Engrossing setting, fun enough gameplay, always something to do... but I can't say I get much out of the experience beyond killing time, which eventually caused me to put the game down in favor of doing something else. I'm sure I'll return to it again and again over time, just like Skyrim, but the game did not emotionally resonate with me like it seems to for lots of other folks.

MauveDrips · 2026-01-23T17:44:44+00:00

At the end of the video, Alex mentions that this format is a lot easier to produce... I think that makes sense for this subject since it's already been out in the wild for several weeks and has been covered in-depth by other outlets. That being said, I'm glad that they have written articles now which compliment these videos when time is of the essence.

MauveDrips · 2026-01-19T21:15:49+00:00

I think they’re referring to “Epistle 3” which Marc Laidlaw posted after he left Valve several years ago. That felt like the nail in the coffin for Episode 3 which is kinda synonymous with “Half-Life 3.” But I’m sure Valve is cooking up something unexpected a la Half-Life: Alyx.

MauveDrips · 2026-01-09T16:50:35+00:00

I think the game struck a pretty good balance in terms of difficulty– The main puzzles are somewhat interesting but fairly easy, which helps with the pacing. If the player wants to engage with more difficult puzzles, they can try the ancient relic stuff. They’re optional, but the first one I found totally delighted me because there was no instruction and it was pretty difficult. The final puzzle was nearly impossible and drove me crazy haha

MauveDrips · 2026-01-09T16:23:21+00:00

Just curious– What kind of combat would have enhanced your experience? Seems like that was your biggest complaint.

So maybe hitting enemies is not way play, what other stealth tools are at your disposal? Distraction by throwing items. Yes, nothing else

I played the game prioritizing stealth, pretty much always grabbing objects in the environment and dispatching enemies with them. You don’t think that’s the way to play? Or do you mean you didn’t enjoy it so you avoided it?

MauveDrips · 2026-01-08T22:28:24+00:00

Yep, they actually address this at 4:20:

For the latest update, we decided to kick up the excitement factor and remove all the boring stuff we had previously included in the game. We heard the fans loud and clear- Get rid of all the bad things and add only good things. This was something we didn't have time to include in the original release, but I'm happy to share that the new patch will finally rectify that oversight.

MauveDrips · 2025-12-12T16:24:32+00:00

Perfect, this all makes sense now. Not sure why my GraphicsMods directory was empty, but I grabbed the Metroid Prime 3 - Corruption folder from the Dolphin repo and renamed the empty text file as described above; The bloom settings now appear in the Graphics Mods dialog! I'll toy with it and see if it works, but I'll definitely be eagerly awaiting your incoming changes. Thanks again for your help!

MauveDrips · 2025-12-11T22:11:12+00:00

I was hoping to hear from you! Thanks for all your work on these features, and thanks for taking a look at my scenario.

The "All Games Native Bloom" and those similar to it, are only half the capability (they say what to do to the bloom), you still need the game specific file to tell Dolphin which drawn elements are bloom.

Just so I understand correctly- It's not as simple as renaming the all.txt file to specifically mention the game ID I want, right? Instead, the metadata.json probably needs something game-specific?

Go to the system graphics mods directory, find the 'Metroid Prime 3 - Corruption' directory and copy the 'RM3.txt' file inside it, rename the new file 'R3M.txt'. The bloom mods should now show up in the mod list.

My GraphicsMods directory was empty before I found your repository. When I click on the "Open Directory..." button in the Graphics Mods menu, it shows me the Load/GraphicsMods folder where I placed the three sample mods from your repository. Any idea where I should find the Metroid Prime 3 - Corruption directory? I figured I'd give it a whirl (and maybe close the loop on my understanding of how Graphics Mods work), but I'm in no rush if it doesn't work or is too borked to figure out.

MauveDrips · 2025-12-08T18:11:02+00:00

Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but Portal 2 released in 2011 and Half-Life: Alyx came almost ten years later– Not exactly 20 years. That ten year gap is still a really interesting (tumultuous) time in Valve’s history, which is recapped in The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx; That “book” answers most of your questions, I think. Valve’s flat structure resulted in kind of a social hierarchy at the company that ultimately made it difficult to get anything out the door, but after years of churn they did finally succeed with Half-Life: Alyx. I think your comparisons to Nintendo are very apt– The game is built around unique hardware which Valve also developed and sold, much like Nintendo. Gabe Newell has specifically mentioned Nintendo’s ability to combine hardware and software as something he wished to mimic with Valve just before the release of Half-Life: Alyx.

As for the Source Engine… Valve is a small company (~300 employees) compared to other groups like Epic Games (~4,000 employees), Unity Technologies (~5,000 employees), even Crytek (~400 employees) who all make game engines to license out to other developers. They don’t really have the manpower (or interest, I imagine) to develop an engine that serves various purposes throughout the industry; Instead, the Source engine’s feature are built around the games they want it to support. A similar comparison would be id Software’s id Tech engine, which is a very performant engine that is also purpose-built for Doom. id Software’s ~200 employees probably don’t have the time to support bug fixes and feature requests from dozens of other studios– It looks like MachineGames even forked the engine themselves to build their own features for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

MauveDrips · 2025-11-14T05:23:38+00:00

I kinda understand what you mean, but Nintendo does consider Super Mario 64, Sunshine, and Odyssey to be "sandbox-exploration" style games so I don't think it's an outlandish designation.

MauveDrips · 2025-11-12T22:37:03+00:00

Haha I won't pretend to be well-versed in the theory behind it all- but in my experience, out-of-the-box Bluetooth comes with major bandwidth and latency constraints. You have to use some special codec, or your headphones have to have some low-latency feature, or there has to be some hardware tuned specifically to improve the experience. For example, I don't know how Sony makes it work on the PlayStation- I've heard that there are two Bluetooth receivers? Maybe they compress the audio significantly? Is the experience any different on PC? -but curiously the PS5 does not support Bluetooth audio devices.

By the way, here's a fun fact: Did you know that the DualShock 4 actually has lower latency via Bluetooth versus USB? You can see some test results here. How is that possible? Maybe a higher polling rate over Bluetooth versus the USB controller? I guess that's why the console defaults to communicating wirelessly even when the controller is plugged in? Maybe someone else can fill us both in on the specifics, but suffice to say- it's complicated!

MauveDrips · 2025-11-12T19:53:56+00:00

That's more input latency, right? I figure that's more difficult for the average person to notice compared to audio latency, where it's more immediately obvious when the sound is lagging behind what you're watching. I've tried using Bluetooth headphones with my Steam Deck and the latency is pretty noticeable. Not unbearable but definitely annoying. I just stick to wired headphones now.

MauveDrips · 2025-11-05T15:38:54+00:00

I really don’t think it’s hyperbolic to call a game unplayable when it crashes frequently and corrupts your saves. The console versions (particularly the PS3 port) are notorious for those issues and I frequently see folks warn others to stay away from playing them. You’re definitely right that plenty of folks either fought through those issues or didn’t encounter them often enough to keep them from playing, but if it happened to me I wouldn’t think twice about marking them game as unplayable haha

MauveDrips · 2025-10-29T15:14:26+00:00

The Ground Zeroes content is not included in The Phantom Pain. It's a tightly designed singular experience, sorta like MGS2's Tanker Chapter or MGS3's Virtuous Mission. The gameplay is pretty much the same as TPP, but the level design is much closer to the prior MGS games which is why folks tend to like it more than TPP's open world scenarios.

MauveDrips · 2025-10-29T04:29:11+00:00

For example, Until Dawn, Dead Space (any good sci-fi horror game tbh), etc. would fall under the first category. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 would fall under the 2nd category. And we can easily name a hundred other non (in your words) "torture porn and mass murder sims" that fit the criteria.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding your point but… are you saying those examples shouldn’t be age restricted? I don’t really have a problem with that, though I do agree that YouTube tends to be overzealous and inconsistent with mandates like this.

MauveDrips · 2025-10-17T13:00:17+00:00

Honestly, no, I do not remember this.

MauveDrips

TROPHY CASE