197 posts tagged with pc.
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Second Sunrise over New Mombasa
February, 2003: Following the smashing, console-defining success of Halo: Combat Evolved, developer Bungie was facing a conundrum. Fan and media interest in the long-anticipated sequel was at an all-time high, thanks to the release of an epic cinematic teaser in September. But despite a veteran team of top-tier designers bursting with new ideas, the game was not in a remotely playable state... and a real-time demo was scheduled for the high-profile E3 expo in May. So they buckled down, pushed their hardware to the limit, and produced EARTHCITY -- an ambitious, semi-scripted playable demo set to a majestic orchestral score that re-introduced the Master Chief and a host of innovative features in less than ten minutes. Played live in a private theater throughout the last day of the expo, the E3 demo was a massive hit with the press and the fans -- despite barely holding together through a series of last-minute hacks and visual trickery. For all its popularity, the demo's jankiness left it unsuitable for public release and languishing in the Bungie archives... until now. Thanks to the dedicated work of the Digsite crew of fan archivists, the original Halo 2 E3 2003 demo has been lovingly restored for re-release on the Master Chief Collection omnibus on Steam, just in time for Halo 2's 20th anniversary. You can download the files here, bask in a crisp HD recording, or watch one of the Digsite modders play through this and other unearthed gems live. [more inside]
Adequate, sufficient, up-to-snuff
After five years in Steam Early Access (previously), the automation marvel that is Satisfactory receives a 1.0 release tomorrow. [more inside]
Yo Microsoft Raps
"Welcome! To the MS-DOS 5.0 upgrade training!" (5 minutes; warning: old software ad, white guy rap, severe cringe) [more inside]
For when "Crusader Kings" is a bit much
Sort the Court is a charmingly addictive "kingdombuilder" of sorts that's perfect for a lazy Saturday. Designed and written by Graeme Borland in just 72 hours for Ludum Dare 34, the game casts you as a new monarch who must judiciously grow your realm's wealth, population, and happiness with an eye toward joining the illustrious Council of Crowns... all by giving flat yes-or-no answers to an endless parade of requests from dozens of whimsical subjects. It's possible to lose, and the more common asks can get a bit repetitive, but with hundreds of scenarios and a number of longer-term storylines, the game can be won in an hour or two while remaining funny and fresh.
See the forum or the wiki for help, enjoy the original art of Amy "amymja" Gerardy and the soundtrack by Bogdan Rybak, or check out some other fantasy decisionmaking games in this vein: Borland's spiritual prequel A Crown of My Own - the somewhat darker card-based REIGNS - the more expansive and story-driven pixel drama Yes, Your Grace (reviews), which has a sequel due out this year
AI-detic Memory
Microsoft held a live event today showcasing their vision of the future of the home PC (or "Copilot+ PC"), boasting longer battery life, better-standardized ARM processors, and (predictably) a whole host of new AI features built on dedicated hardware, from real-time translation to in-system assistant prompts to custom-guided image creation. Perhaps most interesting is the new "Recall" feature that records all on-screen activity securely on-device, allowing natural-language recall of all articles read, text written, and videos seen. It's just the first foray into a new era of AI PCs -- and Apple is expected to join the push with an expected partnership with OpenAI debuting at WWDC next month. In a tech world that has lately been defined by the smartphone, can AI make the PC cool again?
baby toss now has a chance to crit
Stardew Valley has received a huge new update on PC to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the game (with Switch and other versions coming soon). 1.6 has been a long time in the making from creator Eric Barone (otherwise known as ConcernedApe). Want to know what's going on? Read the patch notes (contains spoilers!) or browse the wiki. Yes, it's time to fetch that hoe out of the shed and get those hands dirty!
THE PINNACLE OF ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT
If you're a gamer of a certain age you've probably played a fair amount of "boomer shooters". Your Dooms, Quakes, Dukes, Unreals....you get the picture. Pretty much any FPS pre-CoD and Halo. The unquestioned king of the boomer shooter is Civvie11. [more inside]
Happy 50th birthday, more or less, to Dungeons & Dragons!
Tom Van Winkle (01/10/2024), "Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons": "Fifty years ago this month, the first 1000 copies of the original Dungeons & Dragons were printed and then boxed up at Gary Gygax's house. It's supposed to have been late in January of 1974, but we don't have a specific date. January 1974 is good enough for me. And what counts as the specific origin date, anyway? The final draft? The actual printing? The availability for sale? We're close enough. I'm saying it's been fifty years right now." [more inside]
“Dude, it’s beyond cool. It’s ‘we’re out of here cool’ is what it is.”
The birth of id Software by John Romero [The Verge] In 1990, John Romero, John Carmack, and Tom Hall were working at Louisiana software maker Softdisk. There, they had an idea that would change PC games forever.
Waynely Farfield’s GEOMAQUARIUM
"SO, yesterday my sister and I were talking about this particular tone that a bunch of video games had in the early 90s, and something possessed me to make This" [more inside]
Build a Bear++
the only components he bought were the power supply and RAM
This PC Gamer Built Their Rig After Dumpster Diving For Months [Kotaku] “Dumpster divers find all kinds of things in the trash. From a full pallet of cold brew coffee to hundreds of metal tins for Yu-Gi-Oh cards, there’s no shortage of cool stuff buried in the heaps of garbage you’ll likely find in the bin. But while some of it may be useless, redditor Rydirp7 took the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” to heart and built a whole PC out of discarded computer parts.” [more inside]
“...being accused of being a gamer, solve the problem like a gamer,”
The union-oriented Twitter account Daily Union Elections asked the world in a recent tweet, “Union folks, what is the best grievance/[Unfair Labor Practice] that you’ve ever won?” And the world responded in kind.
““A member was accused of playing video games on his work computer,” union organizing director Erik Strobl said. “I got him cleared by proving conclusively that the employer-provided graphics card couldn’t handle the resource-hungry game his supervisor claimed to have seen.””The worker wasn’t even playing a game, but watching “a game review on his break (which is fine),” Strobl clarified, “but he was accused of installing unauthorized third-party software on a government computer (which he 100% didn’t do and, as I showed, couldn’t have done). Zero abuse of time or state property.” [via: Kotaku]
"Very grateful sentient tomatoes busily working on their third opera"
Halfway through the third book of the Hitchhiker's Guide series, there is a throwaway reference to a doomed starship, one whose incredible splendor was matched only by the cosmic absurdity of its maiden-day annihilation.
But the story didn't end there. Unbeknownst to many fans, this small piece of Adamsian lore was the inspiration for an ambitious and richly-detailed side-story: a 1998 computer adventure game called Starship Titanic.
Designed by Douglas Adams himself, the game set players loose in the infamous vessel, challenging them with a maddening mystery laced with the devilish wit of the novels.
The game was laden with extra content, including an in-depth strategy guide, a (mediocre) tie-in novel (and audiobook) by Terry Jones, a whimsical First Class In-Flight Magazine, and even a pair of 3D glasses for one of the more inventive puzzles.
Key to solving these puzzles was the game's groundbreaking communications system -- players interacted with the ship's robotic crew through a natural language parsing engine called SpookiTalk, whose 10,000+ lines of conversational dialogue spawned 16 hours of audio recorded by professional voice actors, including John Cleese, Terry Jones, and even Douglas Adams himself in several cameos (spoiler cameo). Want to experience the voyage for yourself? Then pick up a $6 modernized copy of the game on Steam or GOG, watch this narrated video playthrough... or peruse this spectacular MetaFilter comment from developer Yoz Grahame, which touches on not just behind-the-scenes trivia and unknown easter eggs, but the most remarkable story of accidental online community you're ever going to hear. [more inside]
Metafilter loves a list
No Fairytale Ending
Unexpected indie success stories grab people's attention, but more often than not, games are released without anyone noticing (Vice). Patrick Klepek talks to the devs of Ray’s the Dead (PS4/PC), a crowdfunded game that spent seven years in development and released to a lukewarm reception.
Pedal PC
We fucking did it bois, the fort’s ours!
Holdfast is a Napoleonic-era roleplaying shooter game with “enjoyably useless” weapons and a “wonderfully silly but vivid class system” that rewards players for standing in line, listening to nearby musicians, and generally following orders from officers. Thanks to a viral video by an excited Scottish lad, it’s exploded in popularity, although public servers can suffer from “catastrophic toxicity”.
Intergalactic Fishing
Intergalactic Fishing (PC) is "a fishing RPG that makes use of procedurally generated content and graphics. Travel to lakes all over the universe and catch unique fish, explore uncharted lakes and sell data, complete quests, upgrade your gear, compete in fishing tournaments, design your own lures, and more!" [more inside]
BIG GAME ENERGY.
The big video games of summer 2020 [Polygon] “The summer of 2020 is shaping up to be one of the most unusual seasons for video games. It’s an atypically busy summer, in part thanks to a series of delays that have pushed AAA video games like The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima to the summer months. Summer 2020 is also when video game fans will get to experience blockbuster movie properties as games: There are no major Marvel Studios movies this summer, but there is a pair of major Marvel games, one starring Iron Man and the other the full team of Avengers. And in the absences of the massively delayed Fast & Furious 9, we have an original Fast & Furious video game from the team behind Project CARS. It’s a summer full of big adventures, including a new Paper Mario game and the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077. (Nintendo Switch owners who don’t dig Paper Mario have plenty of ports to play to this summer: BioShock, Borderlands, and XCOM collections just dropped, as did the massive RPG Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.) And much more.” [more inside]
take pretty photos in a shitty future
Umurangi Generation [Game Trailer] “The pitch for Umurangi Generation is that it's a photography game. Much like Pokemon Snap, you're venturing around, trying to capture the best snapshot possible of your surroundings for cash. But Umurangi Generation isn't on-rails, and it isn't about cheerful monsters and surfing rodents. It's a first-person photography sim set in a "shitty future," where it sometimes feels like you're taking pictures in the ruins of the old world—or the origins of a new one. The city is in a crisis, and that means it's the best time to start exploring the streets and filling up a few rolls of film. [...] Players can either chase the bounties and objectives or, like me, wander aimlessly, trying to line up whatever shot strikes their fancy. Did I often fall off the building trying to get a picture of a seagull? Yes, but we all make sacrifices for the craft.” [via: US Gamer][Free Demo via Steam] [more inside]
50 cute and cozy indie games
Wholesome Games Direct 2020 [YouTube][37:09][Trailers & Showcase] “A digital games showcase called the Wholesome Games Direct aired yesterday, dedicated to cute and colorful games. It put the spotlight on over 50 upcoming indie games that run the gamut from train sims to augmented reality adventures. Games showcased will be playable on a variety of gaming platforms.”
hack. slash. loot. lather. rinse. repeat.
Minecraft Dungeons [YouTube][Launch Trailer] “Minecraft Dungeons, out May 26 on Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC (where I’ve been playing it), takes Minecraft’s characters and blocky aesthetic and maps it onto an isometric dungeon crawler where you mash cooldown abilities while running through mob-infested forests, swamps, and volcanic caves. The story sees you save a village from malevolent forces, but really the goal is to kill lots of stuff, get stronger loot, and then kill even more stuff.” [via: Kotaku] [more inside]
Meet Star Stable, a horse game for girls 8 to 17
According to a 2015 profile in Venture Beat, Star Stable Entertainment broke a lot of rules when it launched (in 2011, according to various sources other than Venture Beat). "It created an online horse game, Star Stable, for girls and young women. It charged a subscription fee and built its own game engine. And it stayed online rather than diving into mobile with a million other competitors." [more inside]
Ecco the Dolphin, but you do murders
Maneater [Game Trailer] [13 Minutes of Gameplay] “Maneater is an open-world-action-game with some RPG elements, starring an unnamed shark on a revenge mission. At the start of the game, you play as a big and powerful shark who is captured, then brutally killed and gutted by a shark hunter named Scaly Pete. During the gutting, he literally rips out a baby shark, but that pup bites Pete’s arm off and escapes. For the rest of the game, players take on the role of that baby shark and level up, growing bigger and stronger in the process. The end goal is to kill Scaly Pete and get revenge for what he did to your mother.” [via: Kotaku] [more inside]
Designing the world's first home computers
The story of how computers infiltrated our homes is not one of technology, but one of marketing and design, according to writer and journalist Alex Wiltshire, whose new book, "Home Computers: 100 Icons that Defined a Digital Generation," tells the industry's early history through its most influential models.
Press Ⓐ to bless.
Pope Simulator [YouTube][Game Trailer] “The game begins on Conclave day, when the College of Cardinals elects a new Pope—that's you. You'll begin your reign by choosing a coat of arms, which will apparently impact the course of your papacy, and from there you'll set out to influence the course of the world through the application of "soft power": Organizing pilgrimages, advocating for world peace, moderating conflicts, and otherwise strategically wielding the influence of the Vatican.” [via: PC Gamer]
Of rats and children
A Plague Tale: Innocence [YouTube][Game Trailer] “A Plague Tale: Innocence opens on a scene of idyllic playfulness: a teenage girl, Amicia, walking her dog through an autumnal forest in 12th-century France, bumping apples from tall trees using pebbles hurled from a homemade slingshot. If this is the “innocence” of the game’s title, it plays but a fleeting cameo role in the drama. Before the day is out, Amicia’s dog is dead – ripped apart by a thrashing mass of rabid vermin – along with her former life of privilege as a French noble, ripped apart by soldiers of the inquisition, thugs acting on behalf of an equally corrupt church. Amicia and her younger brother Hugo, a boy who suffers from a blood disease and has spent his days in jaundiced confinement, escape the family estate and begin to pick their way through a countryside turned hostile. This is, then, a story of innocence versus experience, of children versus the ruined world of adults, with all its plagues, both physical and ideological.” [via: The Guardian] [more inside]
ingenuity that comes from necessity
One gamer's quest to achieve the lowest graphics settings [YouTube]
“Though he lives in Barcelona now, The LowSpecGamer (as he likes to be called) was born in Venezuela and grew up unable to afford the newest hardware. For him, learning to push games below their minimum settings was the only way to play them. “There’s always this narrative about PC gaming being about trying to get the best out of the game, trying to get the best graphics and so on,” he says. “That’s the main narrative in gaming culture. That didn’t really fit with what I was doing or how I felt and I thought I was the only one.” [...] “I remember one guy commenting, ‘I don’t see the point of this, you can get a good computer for X amount of dollars at your local store and put it together so I don’t see the point of your channel.’ I was about to answer him when one person responded, ‘The world doesn’t end at your doorstep.’””LowSpecGamer is a channel dedicated to budget gaming and low graphics, from pushing entry-level and old hardware to its limits to forcing the lowest graphics on modern games by all means possible. [via: PC Gamer] [more inside]
60, single, and sexy
Later Daters is a dating sim full of sexy seniors [YouTube][Game Trailer] [Theme Lyric Music Video]“Dating sims are usually full of young, hot singles in your area, but a new take on dating sims from Canadian indie studio Bloom Digital Media is taking a different approach. Later Daters, which is due for a release on Steam and Nintendo Switch on April 16, stars a protagonist who has recently joined a retirement home. The retirement community is full of residents, and players can flirt with — and date a lucky candidate — from eight different characters. The story is looking to buck the stereotypes about older people falling in love, but there are still some retirement-friendly activities for players to choose from and meet potential lovers at, including morning yoga and playing cards.” [via: Polygon]
Gaming Roundup for All Your Gaming Needs
Which is the best gaming console for you? How to get into playing video games. How to get started with online multiplayer games when you're bored at home. The best PS4 kids and family games. The best family games you may have missed. Apple Arcade is perfect for families. The best gaming books: novels, retro compendiums and other page-turners. 25 great games you can play on laptops and budget PCs. The 10 best, least expensive ways to play great video games. 8 steps to making your gaming backlog a thing of the past. 9 long video games to lose yourself in. The best NBA players to watch on Twitch. 15 co-op games to play with your partner. Host a virtual game night with these multiplayer apps. The best games for hanging out with your friends online.
“The heart of Doom is very much still there.”
How lost classic Doom 64 was revived for modern platforms [The Verge] “As if there weren’t enough doom in the world right now, this week sees the release of not one but two new Doom games. Doom Eternal [Previously] is the flashy AAA sequel with incredible graphics and accurately modeled viscera, of course, but you shouldn’t sleep on the other: the first rerelease of Doom 64, an underappreciated entry in the series’s history. Doom 64, as the name suggests, was originally designed for the Nintendo 64. It came out in 1997 and, unlike id Software’s previous two Doom titles, it was developed by Midway Games. It was the first Doom game to offer any sort of significant graphical upgrade on the original, had all-new levels, and — depending on your perspective — could easily have been considered a “Doom 3” had id not released its own game with that name in 2004.” [YouTube][Game Trailer] [more inside]
🦉 Masterful Metroidvania
Ori and the Will of the Wisps: A beautiful game gets a smart sequel [Game Trailer][YouTube] “Ori and the Will of the Wisps invites you to dance inside a beautiful world. There is combat, sure, and there are threats, but the dance, and the beauty of your surroundings, are always the focus. Moon Studios’ first game, Ori and the Blind Forest, was notable for the same reason. Here was a striking 2D platformer that staked out the visual middle ground between a Pixar short and an oversaturated photograph of a fantastical forest. Will of the Wisps is even more sumptuous and varied in its aesthetic, filled with delightful details that make so many frames look more like paintings than a video game. Screenshots and trailers don’t do it justice. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a vibrant platformer.” [via: Polygon] [more inside]
💩 Poop your way to victory! 👶🏾
Pooplers [YouTube] [Gameplay Trailer] “Pooplers is a party game. Up to 4 players. As a toddler you have diarrhea. Try to mark your territory over the family house by spreading your poop over a bigger surface of the floor than the other toddlers. Avoid the parent which wants to put you back in your craddle. Chamber pots are safe spots on which the parent will leave you alone. After the timer ends the poopler which covered the biggest part of the floor is declared winner. At the end of the timer the toddler which covered the biggest percentage of the house with his poop is declared winner.” [via: Nintendo Life]
Rip & Tear! To the Depths of Bell!
Doom and Animal Crossing are here to save the day. [Kotaku] Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are dropping this week to help everyone take a break. It makes sense though, Isabelle and Doomguy are the best of friends. We can look forward to an evil demon who wields immense power and delights in the suffering of his denizens, as well as playing Doom Eternal. [more inside]
welcome, to the bird museum
The Bird Museum: [itch.io] a place to serenely enjoy over 1000 birds by artists on twitter, every time a different visit, i hope you enjoy, these birds! [Game Trailer] “Last September, Louie Zong (@everydaylouie) put out a Twitter call to action. Using his modest social media clout in possibly the only way one should, he convinced thousands of followers to email him rough pictures of birds for The Bird Museum – an “ever-changing selection of bad, crowdsourced bird art”. Prospective pieces didn’t have to be good – in fact, Zong felt it better they weren’t. Zong promptly found himself buried in an avalanche of chicken sketches, crow doodles, swan sculptures and otherwise. The final gallery is a fascinating clash of skill levels and mediums –” [via: Rock Paper Shotgun]
“Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System.”
Black Mesa [YouTube][Game Trailer] [Digital Foundry Comparison/Review]“Black Mesa was once a humble video game mod — but as of today, it’s a full-fledged remake of Half-Life, newly released out of Steam Early Access. Developer Crowbar Collective finally launched a 1.0 version of Black Mesa, which updates the 1998 first-person shooter with smarter enemies, levels built from scratch, and a level of detail that wasn’t possible two decades ago. Black Mesa has been sort of playable for some time. It launched as a mod for Half-Life 2 in 2012, earning overwhelmingly positive reviews. Then, Valve granted permission to make a standalone commercial game, and an incomplete version appeared on Early Access in 2015. Late last year, Crowbar Collective released the ending — a dramatic reworking of the infamous Xen levels, one of Half-Life’s weakest areas. Now, in 2020, the whole game has been polished into an official non-beta release.” [via: The Verge] [more inside]
“It's the textures above all, and nothing is going to stop them.”
PC Game Install Sizes Are Ballooning And I'm Scared [Kotaku] “Earlier today, I was reading over the PC hardware specifications for the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and, when I reached the hard drive space requirement, did a double-take. 175 GB. For one game. My hard drive currently has less than half that space free for all games. And Modern Warfare is far from alone in its Galactus-like hunger for hard drive space. The PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2, for example, will not stop until it has callously conquered 150 GB of your PC’s storage. This continues an upward trend seen in other recent heavyweight kingpins like the PC versions of Gears of War 4, Gears 5, Halo 5, and Final Fantasy XV, all of which clock in at over 100 GB when you add high-res texture packs (the latter even without improved textures). PC gaming has always been characterized by a little extra pain in the name of optimal pleasure, but this is reaching preposterously bonkers proportions.” [more inside]
it’s the grinding electronic dirge
Click, whir, ping: the lost sounds of loading video games [The Guardian] From the Apple II to the ZX Spectrum, the aural experience of loading a game from a cassette, disc or cartridge was all part of the fun.
quantum ungulations
The mysteries of space can be tragically unreachable for all but a select few. While you may not meet the requirements to be counted among their number, that's no reason to fret: if you have a compatible computer, an Xbox, or the ability to wait for the game to appear on other platforms, you can just play Outer Wilds instead. Originally discussed here in 2015, several critics agree that you should probably play the game before learning too much about it, so consider whether you'd like to watch the trailer or try it yourself before clicking through. [more inside]
ⓆⓌⒺⓇⓉⓎ ⌨️
Are mechanical keyboards really good for gaming? [Eurogamer] “When it comes to PC gaming peripherals, stats and specs drive purchases. Gaming monitors became popular because they offered lower latency or higher refresh rates, while gaming mice boasted higher sensitivities and improved tracking accuracy. Yet this quantitative trend doesn't seem to apply to one peripheral in particular: mechanical keyboards. No single stat separates mechs from their non-mechanical counterparts, yet mechanical keyboards are routinely recommended over alternatives that cost a fraction of the price. Why is this the case? Are there genuine gaming advantages? The answers lie in how mechanical keyboards went from niche accessories known only to retro enthusiasts to a key part of the multi-million dollar esports industry in only a few years.” [more inside]
PREDICTION: Everything will be ported to the Switch
What to expect from E3 2019 [The Verge] “For fans looking to hear about the future of games, E3 has always been an exciting week. This year, though, there’s a big cloud hanging over the show. Two of the biggest names in the industry aren’t holding their usual press conferences; mega publisher Electronic Arts will instead be live streaming news and announcements over the course of a weekend; and Sony isn’t just forgoing a keynote, it’s skipping E3 altogether. [...] It has left some to ponder — and not for the first time — whether E3 is even relevant any more. Should you still be excited?” [more inside]
Overwatch Workshop
Blizzard recently announced a new feature in Overwatch - the Workshop. This allows anyone on PC or console (currently only on the Public Test Region) to create new game modes using the existing maps and art, which can be debugged and then shared using a short code. [more inside]
🍝🖥️
“I made a PC out of pasta and it WORKED!” [YouTube] “Steve Jobs, Dennis Ritchie, Bill Gates—all are visionaries that have shaped modern computing technology. With that in mind, YouTuber Laplanet Arts decided to take computing somewhere that it’s never been before—inside of a lasagna. Micah Laplante, whose YouTube channel Laplanet Arts has 315 subscribers, mostly uploads product reviews and image-retouching tutorials. But after his wife made an off-handed joke about a PC made of pasta, he decided that he could actually make that ridiculous idea a reality.” [via: Motherboard]
0db PC
SAVE? ● YES ○ NO
Saved, But Not Forgotten: The evolution of saving in video games, from the password to the cloud, and nearly every obscure memory card format in-between. [Tedium] “Earlier this year, a Twitter user named Paul Hubans shared a screenshot from his 87-year-old grandmother’s long-running Animal Crossing session; after four years of daily play, she had logged 3,580 hours—nearly 150 days—of total playtime. Being able to save progress in a game and return to it later has enabled some amazingly deep experiences. It wasn’t always like this, so how did we get here? Let’s find out by taking a look back at the history of saved games.” [more inside]
"Today, we embark on a crusade to stamp out runaway decency in the West"
"So I've been seeing a lot of the 'Blazing Saddles could never be made today because of the PC police' Discourse today.
Okay, fine. Let’s go ahead and dignify this with a ~ * ~ thread ~ * ~
Could BLAZING SADDLES or something similar be made today? NO. Here's why." [Twitter thread via @thelindsayellis]
Okay, fine. Let’s go ahead and dignify this with a ~ * ~ thread ~ * ~
Could BLAZING SADDLES or something similar be made today? NO. Here's why." [Twitter thread via @thelindsayellis]
—for years, Steam has been the only digital games store for many players
Epic Games takes on Steam with its own fairer game store [The Verge] “Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite and the widely used game-making software Unreal Engine, is about to start selling other companies’ games, too. Epic is launching a new online store like Valve’s Steam that will similarly feature third-party games, marking yet another substantial threat to Steam’s dominant position as the lead distributor of PC titles. Epic’s store, which is set to launch soon, will start with a select number of PC and Mac games, and it will open up to more developers next year.” [more inside]
This Coaster Has a Rating of 327.67
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. The highest intensity rating possible. "The average speed is almost a hundred times higher than the maximum speed, which shouldn't really be possible."
Ontari-ari-ari-o
Voters in Canada's largest province go to the polls on Thursday. Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne followed her sorry-not sorry campaign with the surprising-not surprising admission that she won't win. PC leader Doug Ford has been light on official policy statements, but it hasn't been difficult to figure out where he stands. Andrea Horwath's left-wing NDP rose dramatically in the polls during the first part of May, but the better spread of votes across ridings for the PCs means that the NDP has only a slim chance of winning. Voters are asking how best to vote strategically. Ontari-ari-ari-o. [more inside]