I assume you’re referring to stuff like Tarkov or Star Citizen?

These games basically work the same as live service games, except they pretend to be “in development”.

But I’d hardly call it a boom. There’s only a couple truly big money makers, the rest are grifts that don’t really go anywhere, but might have small vocal cult-like fanbases.

Then there are games that really do use the “Early Access” model to fund getting the game made. It’s not really like kickstarter, or preordering, because you do get something in exchange for your money, immediately. And you can look up reviews and videos and see exactly what you are getting. People don’t buy early access games just to wait a couple years to play them. They buy them to play them right now.

And it hss brought us games like Satisfactory, DRG, Hades, Subnautica, Everspace…

Even Baldurs Gate 3 was an Early Access title. You could buy and play it for YEARS before “1.0” dropped and became the explosive success it is today.

Those games got made because they were able to sell copies to fund their development throughout the process. And instead of trying to please clueless investors, they had to please the players.

I don’t really see why you’d be salty about this part of the trend. Obviously some stuff is not worth buying, but that’s true whether a game is finished or not.

None.

I’ve shared this tip before, but if you want to catch up with your unread emails, there’s a much faster way to do it.

Instead of going one by one, use search to filter by sender. There’s probaby a TON of mails from senders who you can instantly be sure you’ve never received anything important from, and hence delete ALL THEIR MAILS in one go.

It both wont ever happen, and has already happened.

ET only had the impact it had because the industry was small. Relatively speaking.

Today, production (both indie and AAA tbh) is diverse enough, that no one game could ever taint the whole industry to that extent again.

What we are seeing, instead, is more and more people who resolve “I’m never giving ubisoft/blizzard/EA/a gacha/a mobile game my money again” but still buy and play games. They just start getting more and more invested in what kinds of industry practices they want to discourage/encourage.

As an example, pre-ordering, while still something people do, is now pretty much universally understood to be a bad idea. No Mans Sky and Fallout 76 were such massive phenomenon, merely mentioning one or the other is a complete comeback to anyone trying to tell you pre-ordering something is a good idea.

Sure, NMS became a good game, eventually, but that didn’t retroactively make pre-ordering it a good move when it only became worth buying 12 months after launch.

Another great example, is Suicide Squad. People were interested, right up until it was revealed it was a live service game. Hype fell off a cliff, and nothing WB did could have brough it back. It wasn’t what fans of the Arkham games wanted. People passed it by before it even launched.

…

Concord.

That’s the removal of the uterus, for those not immediately aware.

No more menstruation cycle, and the “downtime” that comes with that.

Insanely fucked up. Worker first, person second.

When a mod threatens to ban you from a community you want no part in

No.

The lower hood is so you can SEE THEM, AND NOT HIT THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE.

The kinetic energy juxtaposed with implements that would instalty break if impacted is hilarious.

I keep smiling lookin at this.

Moominpappa is a great influence.

In the first game, whenever super earth was lost, humanity would just colonize a new planet, rename it super earth, and then the galactic war would start up again.

replace fuck the blue one

My brooding half-elf edgelord can’t be this cute

When you need every sip to be a full chug

I like the worried expression.

OMG I didn’t even think of that. At this point in her career she was basically making ends meet for the first time ever.

With a duo, if the second player is walking around the ship/not aboard, Buddy will man the guns. If the second player is manning the guns, it will reload the guns (even crafting the required supplies when doing so). It does not seem like it will put out fires, or do repairs.

In solo, he will use the sensors, he will man the guns, perform repairs, empty the materia collectors, accompany you on space walks, carry items back to the ship for you… Basically a ton of stuff.

What I was really impressed with is that Buddy still helps out in a duo. We would have been in trouble otherwise. Keeping the ship together during a big fight is a full-time task, so when a fire starts up, mines grab onto the hull, or repairs become necessary, the second player can hop off the guns and Buddy will take over while you put out fires, fight off boarders, etc. It’s great.

And reloading the guns just means a duo can keep fighting as long as nothing is going wrong with the ship.

Essentially, you get to do the fun and chaotic parts, while Buddy picks up any slack when too many things need doing at the same time.

Played this too on the weekend, aside from clearly unfinished stuff, I was thoroughly impressed.

They even thought of solo/two player cases, with a robot crewmember that helps out with more stuff the fewer human players are on-board.

A whoo boy, the sound design is delicious. The first person guns, the ship weapons and engines both when flying/using them, and hearing them when running around the ship. The jumpdrive. The MUSIC.

The team is clearly pouring their souls into the game and it shows. The vibes are excellent.

It is.

Both me and a friend I played with did so on linux. No extra fixes, just install and play.

Oh yes.

Oh wow. Ononokis personality is like 1:1 with Kanna.

PPF Episode 3 dropped a few days ago.