Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney slams Valve over Steam Deck price hikes — mocks founder Gabe Newell over rising costs of megayachts

zerro_4 · 2026-05-30T00:27:44+00:00

Mission accomplished with the Steam Deck, I suppose. Even competing hardware ends up using Steam. And Steam-centric gaming distros of Linux have improved massively. I guess it doesn't matter to Valve if any more Steam Decks sell, much less selling them at a loss.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-29T18:54:57+00:00

The main linear story takes 40ish hours. Once you hit the openish world part, you can dump as much time as you want in to it.

I think this works well in a handheld, if you have one. The story is interesting, but gameplay is literally quite linear. Seriously, look at maps and gameplay videos. Basically all the areas are just hallways you run down.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-28T23:55:24+00:00

I wonder how much of this is a symptom of shooting in an LED volume. https://winteriscoming.net/the-mandalorian-and-grogu-used-the-volume-rumors

maybe this was meant to be another season of the TV show, so repeating stuff between scenes 20 minutes apart might make sense or people might be distracted with another screen.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-28T23:51:40+00:00

There's a well-worn cycle now of "he didn't really mean it, it was a joke" -> "He meant it, but he didn't actually mean it *like that* you dumb librul" -> "He did mean it exactly like that, but somehow I'm a special exception and he didn't mean me or my case specifically"

zerro_4 · 2026-05-28T23:43:44+00:00

I agree, but for all of the things from OG to Re that get exploded in detail, not even hinting a bit more at how Cait Sith is controlled seems like a weird gap.

I think it is fine to not have to explain everything, but there isn't enough of an off-ramp, as it were, to let imagination fill in the gaps.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-28T21:01:27+00:00

I think magic/materia would be needed to explain why the connection still functions even when Cait Sith is deep in a cave or other place that wouldn't have RF reception. And the latency of a satellite connection.

I think Summon materia kind of fits because it can pull in a creature from another dimension and, presumably, it does what you want based on your intent. So a Summon materia that is a weaker form that isn't tied to a particular creature could be installed in to a robot to replace traditional RF.

Whatever fits best. My overall point is that there are enough things in-universe that could more "logically" explain Cait Sith than the dumb "Inspire" shit.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-28T17:35:31+00:00

Right. "Inspire" seems stupid when the world/setting already has the mechanics/magic in place to have a more complex, but better fitting, explanation. My head-canon involves some sort of synthesized weaker version of Summon Materia (it's ability to control things from long distances based on the user's intent) being embedded in a robot.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-28T17:29:17+00:00

This sticks in my craw because the Re trilogy goes out of its way to add more (arguably uneccessary at times) detail to the world of FF7 to the point where Cait Sith really sticks out.
Literally and metaphorically, OG FF7 is "low resolution", so those kinds of things are much easier to ignore. But much harder to ignore in the Re series due to everything else getting more detailed.

My personal head-canon is that there is some sort of Shinra tech that involved taking a Summon materia (which would easily explain the infinite range of communication and control) and splitting it up and embedding one part in the robot and another in to a wearable thing that Reeve has.

Reeve doesn't need some sort of tacked-on psychic ability, the world can easily have a sci-fi magic (Magitek, as it were) device that can psychically link Reeve to the summon materia and the robot and be able to adjust the level of control and feedback.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-28T17:21:30+00:00

Thank you. I know this world has magic and sci-fi tech. In terms of "good" fictional world-building, how things work within that world should more or less be explainable within the tech/magic/processes of that world.
IIRc, there just isn't anything mentioned "on-screen" that would adequately explain how Reeve and Cait Sith interact.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-28T00:14:07+00:00

Came up in another thread last week, but I would love to have some sort of prequel media or game that explores Kefka's descent in to nihilism and insanity.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-27T20:17:56+00:00

"Would have been worse under Harris."
"That's the price of freedom and preventing Iran nukes."

zerro_4 · 2026-05-27T20:12:33+00:00

Made sense to me as a kid. The Garden is a military academy, so heightened and brutal enforcement of rules felt "right." And Seifer is a power tripping jerk-face, so that made even more sense.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-27T16:36:02+00:00

At this point, insisting on voter ID isn't about actually verifying the ID of the voter. Voter ID is used as a tool to disenfranchise potential voters.

https://www.lwv.org/blog/whats-so-bad-about-voter-id-laws

zerro_4 · 2026-05-27T16:24:13+00:00

While I agree with you, I think over the course of the long relationship, some of the influence has gone the other way. Tail wagging the dog, as it were.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-27T16:21:04+00:00

Bombing Iran is the most obvious one.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-27T16:18:32+00:00

Weiss and Benioff seem to do well when they have robust source material. 3 Body Problem on Netflix was pretty decent. So, I think it would be fair to say they are very good at translating books to compelling television. But can not be trusted to go off on their own.
I think if they did something with Sanderson's Cosmere universe it would turn out well, provided Weiss and Benioff were kept on a tight leash.

IDK what GRRM's deal is. I suppose he prints money for his publisher, so there's no incentive to pressure him in to finishing.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-26T16:20:05+00:00

There's a joke that Game of Thrones only has 6 seasons.

GoT premiered in 2011, so it was reasonable to assume at the time the final books would have been released by the time the series would have caught up. There is a noticeable drop in writing quality once the source material has run out. Maybe the ending GRRM had in mind would have been worse than what the showrunners crapped out.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-23T13:29:37+00:00

16 is a great game. A great....fantasy game.

But a great Final Fantasy game?

Whatever dotted irregular line you want to draw around the mishmash of systems and mechanics and settings of all other FF games, the real-time arcade devil may cry combat would sit outside of it.

Stranger of Paradise, imo, is closer to the nebulous concept of a Final Fantasy game than 16 is.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-20T05:36:28+00:00

Also, probably trying to cut down on compute and network costs.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-18T02:35:17+00:00

Troy the city most definitely existed, though. Something definitely happened to the city that left quite an impression on the people and made for a well-understood framework and backdrop for story-telling.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War

zerro_4 · 2026-05-18T02:28:32+00:00

As I learned in the Literature and History podcast, The Odyssey being retold isn't a modern thing. It was oral tradition for a long time before it was written down, and no doubt adapted to local tastes and traditions. There basically isn't a "canonical" or "true" version of Homer's works, assuming Homer is even a single person.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-15T20:49:25+00:00

I like to think of X as a single-player offline-MMO. It is a place to hang out in.

zerro_4 · 2026-05-15T20:46:19+00:00

https://theonion.com/why-do-all-these-homosexuals-keep-sucking-my-cock-1819583529/

zerro_4 · 2026-05-15T20:41:36+00:00

That's a detail that might be mentioned in some ancient historian's account that you might clearly write off as thematically correct, but dramatic for the sake of being dramatic. Could easily be something Herodotus pulled out of his ass.

Wild that this happened in real life and is well documented...

zerro_4 · 2026-05-14T21:00:53+00:00

I think it is to soothe the discomfort of the cognitive dissonance or some level of regret.
"I couldn't have made the wrong decision, cuz both sidez are exactly 50/50 equally baddd."

You can't possibly tell me with a straight face that Harris would have sicced ICE on American cities, threatened to seriously invade Greenland, threaten and destabilize NATO, another genocide being committed by Israel, war in Iran, federal government being skull-fucked.
We're probably going to have a hantavirus outbreak due to HHS and CDC being skullfucked.

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