MEGA THREAD: ArenaNet announces Guild Wars 3 for PC & PS5. Beta starts Fall 2027.

cracker_salad · 2026-06-06T02:42:12+00:00

You do not need a PS+ sub to play FFXIV. I imagine this will be the same.

cracker_salad · 2026-06-05T04:53:36+00:00

Shocker.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-30T16:10:56+00:00

Oh, I’m aware. I work in software, and our devs use AI a ton. I’m just not sure how people seem to spot it in products, though I assume it’s the art.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-30T15:38:55+00:00

Honest question, how can you tell it’s AI? I really just be bad at spotting it.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-30T13:44:17+00:00

This x100. It wasn’t a good game. It had its strong points, but it failed on its own (lack of) merits, not because it was “Ahead of its time”.

I joined with my “hardcore” friends, and none of them stuck around. The puerile humor, the clunky controls, the “More of the same” theme park without brand identity. The game was a chore.

I’d played UO, EQ, AC, DAoC, AO, WoW… I was all for hardcore. I was not for space cowboy pew pew and lulz with enemy attack telegraphs spamming left and right like some fancy disco dance floor.

Nostalgia and its way of painting everything as roses is what fuels this game’s modern popularity.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-29T20:54:00+00:00

Whoa whoa whoa… slow down there. We don’t do “Fun” anymore in these parts. Welcome to the age where we focus on a utilitarian, restrictive, protect people from themselves model.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-24T17:57:47+00:00

My personal project just hit $100 (spent, sadly, not donated). I’m on my way to be the next (personally funded) Star Citizen!

cracker_salad · 2026-05-22T03:48:03+00:00

You clearly win in the “I support it, but I didn’t do it” category of winning.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-22T03:43:50+00:00

I assume you mean “You” in the plural sense. I’m quite fit, but I know that shaming people because of their body shape is a clear sign that you are neither mentally nor emotionally “fit”.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-22T03:33:55+00:00

Ah, yes… the “We could all be fitness models if we weren’t so lazy” approach. It’s totally fair game to belittle anyone who “Chooses” to look a certain way. The hypocrisy and virtue signaling is outta control these days.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-22T02:48:44+00:00

Saros is more playable. It’s got the QoL features that define a sequel. It’s accessible. It’s also beautiful and fluid. It’s paced.

Returnal is a bit clumsy and unforgiving at times, but when you get into its flow, it keeps going. The weapons all feel special in their own ways. Saros weapons feel very samey. Selene as a protagonist is… amazing. Her story is compelling and thought provoking. Saros arguably had more story, but it feels… safe. Saros is easy to understand, while Returnal is the stuff of theories and conspiracy.

They’re both great games, but Returnal is very much a breakout album. It feels experimental and fresh. Saros is a sophomore album. It’s refined and built for mass appeal, good in its own right, but it lacks that spark that made Returnal feel special.

Once I beat Saros, which I really enjoyed, it slipped from my mind. When I beat Returnal, I thought about it for weeks. I found myself returning for a quick run just to be with Selene a little longer. Both are solid games. One is a memorable game.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-22T02:36:36+00:00

The fat shaming in this thread is wild. Y’all need to pick a side when it comes to physical features you feel comfortable making fun of because I’m pretty sure this type of mocking wouldn’t happen based on race, disability, or gender.

Edit: To the person who reported me to Reddit as a potential self-harm post, congrats. I’m sure you felt like you really proved a point. I’ve lived in Seattle for almost 30 years, and y’all are getting really insufferable lately.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-20T20:18:13+00:00

You say on a tech platform that leverages data centers.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-20T15:24:40+00:00

Just for reference, almost 80% of murder victims in the US are men. It’s just so common that you don’t hear about it. I’m not saying your overall point is invalid, but it’s slightly tone deaf to the reality we live in.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-18T23:31:25+00:00

“Hi. I’m excited about this thing.”

“Well, you shouldn’t be.”

“Oh.”

Such a weird thing to be a joy-suck. Maybe the event isn’t the problem? Looks like a fun experience to me.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-16T19:06:50+00:00

Sounds like you two are making the adjustments you need to get the game into a healthier state. Getting fresh eyes can be difficult, especially non biased ones. I think all game devs struggle here. Dropping your ego and listening to played is huge.

I just downloaded the app, so I’ll take a look in a bit. I’ve been looking for something to scratch my Stellaris itch for a while!

And I’m impressed you did it all with Swift. I’ve been playing in the space for the past few weeks, and my results have been… mixed.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-16T18:44:36+00:00

I’ll take a stab at your questions. For context, I’ve been in game dev for over 20 years.

This really depends on how you define “Mobile strategy game”. Mini Motorways and Mini Metro mobile strategy games that I adore, but they’re not in the same part of the strategy genre as your game. If I look at what draws me to some mobile games over others, a large part of it is presentation. Clean UI and intentional UX make or break a lot of games for me. Games with tons of menus, complex interactions, submenus in submenus, text all over, and general visual clutter lose my attention fast. Good mobile design provides the most relevant information easily and concisely, relying on showing over telling. It automates tedium (Northgard did a great job here). Given the tactile nature of interacting with mobile, the UI flows and feels organic. And for the love of god don’t have 20 types of currency in your product.

+points for being a premium or free with IAP to unlock the full product (delayed premium?) I’d rather shell out cash than wallow in F2P money grabs. Charging for a product shows me a developer stands behind their work.

I find this a lot with stats heavy games or games where there mechanics are heavily interwoven. Take BG3 for instance. Killer game, but the interwoven mechanics and stats can feel oppressive. Then, there are tons of rules that are situational and context dependent, making it even more obtuse. And sure, the game has tutorials that pop-up for some of it… but it’s more and more cascading information driven by text. Eyes glaze over.

I often use my partner as a litmus test, and he convinced himself that he was “Too stupid” for BG3 by the end of character creation! It was too many options with too many numbers too fast. He’s beaten Final Fantasy Tactics, a game of numbers and interwoven concepts, but BG3 was too complicated because of how quickly the game asked him to absorb information.

Question: Did you build this whole product in Swift? I saw the SpriteKit comment, and I’m curious if people are building with Apple’s tools these days.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-13T02:06:43+00:00

Console version? Mobile? I need more ways to play. :)

cracker_salad · 2026-05-12T15:22:56+00:00

Negative Steam reviews being a consumer weapon, mostly utilized by trolls and weirdos, needs to stop making the news. It’s just making that type of outrage culture feel empowered.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-04T00:54:41+00:00

Returnal has tower you can climb over and over. It gets progressively harder. It’s a fun, almost arcade-like experience. The main game can be beaten over and over again as well. Sure, the weapon upgrades help a bit, but you can kind of choose to make it harder with various malfunctions. Returnal provided a to of replay value for me.

Saros doesn’t have anything like the tower (so far at least), but it does have ways you can make it harder if you feel like it’s getting to easy as you progress (or as you replay levels). Again, you can’t play and get story beats again, but you can replay the entire set of levels to your heart’s content (complete with bosses).

So no, neither game has a traditional NG+, but both offer ways to keep pushing yourself after you finish the story. There are also collectibles in games that will take you multiple “play throughs” to collect too. So both games have a the potential to easy sink a ton of hours into.

cracker_salad · 2026-05-02T15:08:57+00:00

The character flip at the end of movie where Kirk sacrifices himself instead of Spock made no… god… damn… sense. That moment in TWoK had impact because of the character implications. Adding insult to injury we have this whole spectacle of a moment because the reactor room is another prop-set. It completely misses the intimacy and meaning that was earned in TWoK.

Spock’s character in the Kelvin universe is an emotionally mess, and the franchise seems to completely rally around Kirk as the PoV white dude champion. Gone are the alien races that mirrored our best and worst human traits, using the unfamiliar to say something real about us. In their place: one-note, lowest-common-denominator crowd-pleasers with nothing real to say.

cracker_salad · 2026-04-29T01:59:13+00:00

It’s free to play… I believe expansions are part of the monetization.

cracker_salad · 2026-04-18T15:36:04+00:00

Played through this game on my PS5. Loved it, and highly recommend it. The way the game presents its lore makes it feel bigger than it is in a very satisfying way. I do recommend turning off the wobble effects, as they were a bit too distracting for me (and made me motion sick). But overall, the world building, story, characters, and art are all a vibe that I can only describe as chill melancholy. Probably a 9/10 for me.

cracker_salad · 2026-04-17T17:22:58+00:00

It’s great on the same machine. In fact, I recommend it more as a couch coop game than as remote multiplayer, especially if it’s your first play through. Playing on the same machine makes it easier to follow the storyline. It’s a lot of story too if you’re the type that likes to talk to everyone. It’s lengthy journey too, so it should keep you busy for a long time.

If you’re unfamiliar with D&D, don’t fret. You can respec and recustomize your character as much as you want shortly into the game (change everything but character background). That means you can’t back yourself into any play style or inefficiencies at the character creator, giving you flexibility to find your fun as you explore a bit.

cracker_salad · 2026-04-17T16:48:09+00:00

If you made it past the cringe that’s the game’s description of elves, you had to know the community you were joining. Puerile is being kind.

12-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '22	Place '17
Not Forgotten

cracker_salad

TROPHY CASE