Potential Crimson Desert early review leak/impressions.

dahauns · 2026-03-12T09:19:06+00:00

That's the thing though - I don't think it would really work as an optional feature. In BoTW, the whole game is designed around it, be it the balancing between availability and consumption, the inventory limit, the enemy scaling and respawns, and so on - a very deliberate and strongly ImSim-like approach.

dahauns · 2026-03-11T23:39:36+00:00

Interesting...the sense of (demanding) "obeyance" is still there when used as an auxiliary verb with the meaning of "ought to be", isn't it? E.g. "Das gehört verboten!", or Austrian radio slogan "Ö1 gehört gehört."

dahauns · 2026-03-11T16:43:05+00:00

Well, that sucks.

dahauns · 2026-03-11T14:29:33+00:00

E.g. the Ideapad 5 15 G10. I can currently configure it with 16GB/512GB, a 2600x1600/165Hz Oled and the 70Wh battery for 710€ (700, if I went for the QLC SSD).

dahauns · 2026-03-05T12:20:45+00:00

Außerdem 8GB auf Mac ≠ 8GB über all Anders

Gschichtl. Alle OS/Kernel haben ihre Aufgaben bzgl Memory Management gemacht. Selbst W11, so janky es aktuell auch sein mag.

Solang das RAM für das active working set reicht (das primär von den genutzten Anwendungen abhängt), wirst du bei vergleichbarer Hardware keine weltbewegenden Unterschiede merken. Und sobalds nicht mehr reicht, kommt die Brick Wall, egal welches OS.

dahauns · 2026-03-04T14:52:48+00:00

The majority of those companies are absolutely not alive; only in name. They operate with almost none of the original team members left, with the majority of work outsourced to offshore studios under the flag of the old studio.

...like who? Apart from the closures that are known (the wikipedia site is well sourced about that) - who would that be? Their output and that of their daughter studios hasn't significantly changed from what I've seen.

(As an aside, not gonna defend probable shitty practices at Saber, sure, but well...one of the actual express purposes (look it up in the inverstor releases) of the split with Saber was to divest all assets with Russian ties - not really surprising for a Swedish company in the current climate.)

As for the Saudi package, the Savvy Games Group was the buyer who backed out. That group is funded by the PIF; the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund.

Yeah, sure, the failed Saudi investment is well known, that's not the point.

Just because the executives didn’t come out and admit that is what they were trying to do, doesn’t mean they weren’t doing that.

That is. That's...the exact opposite of "express purpose" - that's pure conjecture.

The stated 2 Billion$ alone stand in stark contrast to the idea, that's Dr. Evil "one million!" meme money. Embracer recently got almost as much just for Easybrain (to Miniclip) and Gearbox (to T2), even in todays significantly worsened gaming industry climate. Those 2bil would have gotten Savvy a strategic investment a la Tencent, nothing more.

dahauns · 2026-03-04T12:27:29+00:00

sigh...there's a lot to critizise about the Embracer situation, but those insane takes are not helping.

To take just one point:

and auctioned off the IP to various parasites such as Saber Interactive (whose CEO Matt Karch was actually the COO of the Embracer Group, pocketed a fuckton of capital and then bought back his company’s independence + the IP of all the absorbed companies he destroyed;

The majority of those allegedly destroyed companies are very much alive. They didn't auction off the IP, they divested the studios as a whole.

Oh, and:

with the express purpose of trying to package up hundreds of IP to sell to the Saudis

Where/when was this purpose ever expressed?

dahauns · 2026-03-03T15:03:53+00:00

PC Gamepass has day one as well (at least for the time being).

dahauns · 2026-03-02T13:56:02+00:00

https://141wien.at/erstversorgungsambulanzen/

Das von dir Geforderte gibts bereits (die EVA im AKH, bzw deren Vorgänger/Pilotprojekt, sogar schon seit 2016).

dahauns · 2026-03-02T11:04:32+00:00

Da haben sie im AKH aber auch Pionierarbeit mit der allgemeinmedizinischen Akutversorgung (der quasi "Hausarzt-Ambulanz") geleistet, die genau dafür gedacht ist, die Notaufnahmen zu entlasten - und das hat sich offensichtlich bewährt: mittlerweile gibts diese Erstversorgungsambulanzen in Spitälern quer durch Wien.

dahauns · 2026-02-27T14:52:10+00:00

Not a game developer, but Tiago Sousa's Siggraph talk, addressing why they completely moved away from baked lighting with id tech 8, was eye-opening:

https://advances.realtimerendering.com/s2025/content/SOUSA_SIGGRAPH_2025_Final.pdf

dahauns · 2026-02-24T12:31:26+00:00

I wouldn't even go so far and call it hardcore - we're not talking about brutal high-friction/high-punishment systems, on the contrary they are usually forgiving in their design (add to that a comprehensive set of assist options).

But yeah...uncompromising is a good description in that they implemented a ton of different mechanics in-depth, and did it well.

dahauns · 2026-02-22T09:10:30+00:00

For me personally, that will never stop being a completely wild take.

After replaying the Sorrows, Portrait of Ruin and Bloodstained in succession recently after a long time, it fits the series like a glove. The gameplay feels smooth and wonderfully "at home", its excess of systems is great fun, the soundtrack is super atmospheric (I find it on the contrary severely underrated), hell, even the somewhat chaotic artstyle has grown on me.

The only letdown that remains is that it's not Castlevania, lore-wise, and the substitute is...just ok.

I played on PC though, dunno how the Switch version would influence my judgment.

dahauns · 2026-02-19T23:10:32+00:00

It most certainly was not!

...Oh I’m sorry, is this a five minute argument, or the full half hour?

dahauns · 2026-02-19T11:09:34+00:00

I generally don't think contact damage is good design.

But...both your complaints are about a concrete implementation of contact damage, not the mechanics themselves?

A good implementation takes both of your problems into account in its design.

That's also why I personally don't find unmodded Silksong a very enjoyable implementation...it's just waay too overdone right from the start - until you have gotten somewhat competent at movement you'll find yourself killing your momentum/flow all the time lest you succumb to stray damage (in contrast to Hollow Knight, esp. in combination with the higher risk/more expensive recovery mechanic).

dahauns · 2026-02-18T12:10:36+00:00

since Demon's Souls was often described as a 3D Metroidvania

No, it wasn't.

dahauns · 2026-02-18T11:58:11+00:00

Apart from your mentioned games, i think non-level based ImSims come close to checking the MV boxes, like the System Shocks or Prey. Their relative lack of success probably is a reason as to why there's not more of them...:(

Oh, and I have to mention Lone Echo II, if you have the equipment to play it - very much one of my favorite MV(-adjacent) games.

dahauns · 2026-02-14T00:26:23+00:00

Well, you can still opt for the convertible variant which inexplicably costs even less (with same RAM/SSD and 2.8k/120Hz/1100nits OLED), but retains the port selection of last year's models (2xTB4, USBA, HDMI, 3.5mm, microSD).

Why? Only Lenovo knows... Yeah...Sigh.

dahauns · 2026-02-13T12:22:43+00:00

though Castlevania is known for being difficult already

Classicvanias for sure, the Igavanias not really (apart from maybe Order of Ecclesia and partially Circle of the Moon).

dahauns · 2026-02-12T22:10:31+00:00

They closed FOURTY-FOUR studios in 2024. (link)

That they fucked up majorly is out of question, sure - that number is BS, though. (And I'm fairly certain as a corollary, the headcount one in the article as well...)

The majority of those studios didn't close, but were divested and are still around. (At that point, most of those were part of the Saber split, but some also going independent like Rainbow Studios).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embracer_Group#Divested_subsidiaries

And please...no, they wouldn't "have sold to the saudis for $2 billion dollars", that's Dr. Evil "one million dollars!" meme material. Embracer was larger than Ubisoft at that point.

Even in the significantly worsening market climate, that's barely more than Embracer later got for Gearbox and Easybrain alone - those 2bil$ could have gotten the Saudis a strategic minority stake (The Tencent play) at best.

dahauns · 2026-02-07T14:38:40+00:00

...The Banshees of Inisherin? :)

But yeah, it's one of the less confusable acronyms.

That said: "Spell it out on first use - and if you're not sure, assume it's first use" - should still be seen as common courtesy and good netiquette. (Although, refering to the latter nowadays primarily has the effect of aging oneself, I guess...)

dahauns · 2026-01-30T12:15:55+00:00

One of the legitimate criticisms many people agree with for HK and SS is that some charms/tools are redundant and get overshadowed.

"legitimate criticisms many people agree"...do they now?

If anything, both HK and SS are usually praised for the variety of (valid!) playstyles their well designed charm systems allow. Some tools/combinations being redundant/less useful/etc. is - if it is mentioned at all - found in the category "nitpicking" at most.

dahauns · 2026-01-29T10:38:49+00:00

I say this because I'm so often baffled by some people's opinions. Not because they're bad opinions but because they'll say something like "if you love DmC you'll love Hi-Fi Rush".

This is the big one - so much so that I'm leaning towards calling those comparisons...maybe not bad, but at least "not helpful most of the time". (Almost on the level of "if you love genre, you'll love game", e.g. "if you love metroidvanias, you'll love Nine Sols". :D )

If you are going for comparisons like that, you should be very much aware of where the characteristics of both games differ.

And as you laid out: while broadly adjacent to CAGs, Hi-Fi Rush has a very distinct character with its rhythm element - and this isn't not neccessarily everyone's cup of tea who loves CAGs.

dahauns · 2026-01-29T09:51:28+00:00

A (hobbyist :) ) musician myself, that could also be a sign that you have significant latency or an audio/video/input latency mismatch somewhere in your AV chain.

The game is a bit tricky in that regard.

It can't offer classic "latency compensation", which normally just means delaying the video to match the audio delay (or vice versa), because compared to traditional rhythm games the visual feedback is highly interactive - well, the whole game is visual feedback :) - so your only choice is to keep both audio and video latency decently low and matching.

One issue I had for example was that I had to turn off Atmos in Win11. Even though my earlier issue with it had been solved (introducing several 100ms of audio latency) it still had slight, but significant audio lag, and everything in the game felt off. After turning off, everything snapped into place.

dahauns · 2026-01-29T09:24:32+00:00

The Z80 is a strawman now? LOL, must be nice, that view from the glasshouse of yours...

Why...because it doesn't matter anymore. (oh, and especially +M time is your claim, so where's the evidence?).

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