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A lot of Stardew Valley as I've somehow never gotten round to playing it till the last few weeks.

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Over to you in the comments - what have you been playing lately?

This month on the Deck I've been playing Destroy All Humans and Unreal.

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Yeah every time I return to postal 4 and think about how I paid money for it, I'm certainly NOT saying "I regret nothing" because I regret buying that game lol

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Few more:

Just in case if somebody missed the article, Vampire Crawlers is bit simple deckbuilder reimplementation of Vampire Survivors. There's some fun to be had with combos, but it's bit too easy to form a routine.

Dungeons of Dusk had also recent article. This one is closer to dungeon crawler, but it's Dusk themed. Shooting is not as satisfying as in original Dusk and at least first floor is one big sewer level. Skill tree and consumables could maybe offer some variation, but of course first floor didn't show much what they actually have to offer.

[Everything is Grab](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4308510/Everything_is_Crab_The_Animal_Evolution_Roguelite_Demo/) is fun take on evolution as game mechanic in roguelite form. Evolution is shown as different set of random features what you can choose from and you have to eat to level up in order to evolve. What you choose visually affects your player character. The boss battles are bit of challenge, so I guess you have to choose wisely how you evolve. Though you might have to pick something to survive in more extreme biomes, so there's plenty of hard choices to be made.

[Far Far West](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3819240/Far_Far_West_Demo/) is multiplayer extraction shooter. What makes is fun is that gunplay is fun and there's different combos and spells. Also jokers you can collect offer either something funny or useful. Levels also have side quests and secrets. There were also some puzzles. Works as single player, but leaves feeling that it's more fun as multiplayer.

[Snacktorio](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902940/Snacktorio/). (there's also recent article) This one is basically side scrolling Factorio mixed with a puzzle game. After tutorial levels, there are few actual levels where you make a factory that makes a dish that you feed to a monster or two.

Bit rough around the edges. I constantly had items in the hand, which blocked using the hotbar. Also thrash could have a warning before it deletes the items. Problems is that you can't build some of the essential things yourself if you get full stack at the beginning of the level. Still, mostly fun, though I didn't get feeling that I would want to play more after I finished it.

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Quoting: ElectricPrismGreat news, it will be interesting to see how the community does creating 4k and higher resolution models for this classic.

I'm assuming the mods will go here? https://gamebanana.com/games/22970

Here you go. Click the SpaghettiKart icon under 'Downloads' to get the O2R file, put in in Mods directory, boom.
https://evilgames.eu/texture-packs/mk64-reloaded.htm

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyBut individually, they're trying to maximize profit, and there are two basic ways to do that--maximizing revenue, and minimizing expenses. Probably the biggest component of minimizing expenses is not paying workers more than you absolutely have to.

I can confirm this. You know those freelance consultants they bring in to help you make your business more "efficient"? The first thing these so-called "experts" tell you is that wages are the largest and most easily controlled expense of your business. (This is also pushed by books & websites as well.) I dislike the mentality because it treats your employees as if they are resources (like office supplies) instead of unique and valuable individuals contributing to the success of your business. The less you pay your employees, the more turnover you will see. There is a high cost to that as well.

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Quoting: benstor214

Quoting: JarmerI think I've played through GD ... 4 times? 5 times maybe? I think it's got to be one of my most-played games of all time at nearly 500 hrs. ITS SO GOOD.

I agree.

Quoting: Jarmer[…] to get to the highest difficulty you have to do the most boring thing ever of all time: slog through the game mindlessly once all the way to the end […].

That’s true if you play SSF (solo self-funded) characters. Otherwise, you can do it once only and then put 'merits' - which unlock the highest difficulty - in the stash for other characters to use. 🙂

oh didn't know that! I always play every single arpg ssf because I dislike multiplayer, but ..... now that you've enlightened me to these "merits" I may or may not have to look up if there's a way to hack or mod these into new chars without ever getting them to begin with!

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Quoting: BumadarIs bought my wife [this desktop](https://www.cirrus7.com/en/produkte/cirrus7-incus/) in october, if I configure it exactly the same as back then its about 37% more expensive, crazy. So yes they missed the boat and sadly valve probably has too with all the stuff they lined up a gew months ago.

I went back to my pcpartpicker listing for the exact computer I have now in my pc info on the left, and it's about the same, roughly 1/3 more expensive. Which for this machine means like $800 more. INSANITY. I think ram and ssd was most of that increase? Just absolutely even more crazy that the gpu isn't the problem (as far as cost) goes anymore ... like at all. That hasn't changed.

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Quoting: TheSHEEEP

Quoting: UltraAltesBrotAll fun and games until you see the racist stuff RWS CEO Vince Desi posts on twitter between reposts of fan art.

Is this from the "everything I don't agree with is racist" book?

No.

Quoting: TheSHEEEPEither way, while I am looking forward to the game in theory, I am very hesitant due to the really bad state Postal 4 launched in.
It is playable now at least (but still very buggy), and a BIG overhaul patch is in public beta... but if this is the state years after Postal 4 release, what state will Flesh & Wire be in on launch?

So much this! The reviews on Steam really speak for themselves.

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I love this game. I bought the base for £5 on steam over a xmas and I couldn't step away. I bought the expansions and everything they've released to support them. The community made leagues have been fantastic too.

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I initially resisted the deck, didn't think too much of it. I bought the LCD on sale when the OLED came out. I'm glad to have been wrong. I love this device and it made me love my games again. I am tempted to buy the OLED, but it's a lot of money for a small upgrade. Plus, I'd have less to put towards the new devices 😁

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Quoting: buonoValve need to start manufacturing their own ram, ssd and cpus 🤔

That would be ideal and in the long-term, would save them money... But the initial costs upfront would be enormous (which is exactly why even the likes of Apple doesn't do this)!

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Quoting: UltraAltesBrotAll fun and games until you see the racist stuff RWS CEO Vince Desi posts on twitter between reposts of fan art.

Is this from the "everything I don't agree with is racist" book?
Couldn't read it to the end, personally. Got boring really quick.

Either way, while I am looking forward to the game in theory, I am very hesitant due to the really bad state Postal 4 launched in.
It is playable now at least (but still very buggy), and a BIG overhaul patch is in public beta... but if this is the state years after Postal 4 release, what state will Flesh & Wire be in on launch?

So I'll be following this for sure, but there won't be a purchase until a whole bunch of gameplay reports and reviews are in.

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not touched this one for about 9? years myself , seemed pretty good at the time but i didn't have a comfortable setup to pc game with at the time as a tv/desktop bedside player , i've thought about going back to it a few times over the years so maybe this'll be a reason to finally get it off my backlog

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I confess I like firearms and have accumulated more than a few of them over time. However, I can say with 100% certainty that loot boxes played no role in my appreciation for firearms.

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Quoting: eggroleI DO blame over consumption. Those people that get ultra wealthy (on top of the corruption, which should be public enemy #1) got there because millions of "little people" gave them their hard earned money. Maybe you could argue that people will only buy what they think will improve their lives, but I think that comes back to a branch of corruption. The media portrays a lifestyle of luxury that will make you happy. They sell their wares with beautiful people and promises of fulfillment, but it is all hollow. Not long after you purchase something, the newness wears off and you are back to longing for the next thing. If you're interested check out Propganda by Bernays for a really easy read and a good look at how this works.

There's a few things about that. The fundamental thing about capitalists is that their job is to invest capital, so that they can produce something (goods, services . . . what Marx called "commodities") to sell, and to do it in such a way as to earn a profit which they can then reinvest. The name of the game is to maximize profit.

OK, so to make a profit that way, people need to buy the stuff. Capitalists long ago realized that they need to create demand if there isn't enough. They do that in various ways--advertising and PR to make people think they need whatever stuff, planned obsolescence so people have to buy the same stuff again, credit so people can buy the stuff even if they don't have the money. So, consumerism is an inevitable facet of capitalism; it's a way of increasing demand so more stuff can be sold and more profits made.

Another thing is the weird collective action problem capitalists run into. Collectively, they depend on the workers having effective demand--being able to buy products. But individually, they're trying to maximize profit, and there are two basic ways to do that--maximizing revenue, and minimizing expenses. Probably the biggest component of minimizing expenses is not paying workers more than you absolutely have to. Doesn't matter if it's by producing with less labour or paying the labour less, each capitalist is trying to reduce the amount of money going to workers. But if they ain't got no money, they're not buying much of what the capitalists are collectively producing. Again, one big solution to this is credit, but that has limits--the credit is not interest free, which means in the medium term payments on all the debt end up reducing what people can afford to buy. These are reasons why despite claims of being all about growth, places that reduce the bargaining power of labour by crushing unions, creating gig economies and so on, actually show lower growth.

Currently, most of the biggest capitalists don't seem to care about any of this; they seem fine with shrinking the pie as long as they own and control more of it. And the economy has gotten sufficiently deregulated that it is often more lucrative to make profit through fraud than by creating actual commodities, let alone valuable ones that increase society's wealth. I think this is an inevitable trajectory. As capitalists gain wealth making real things, they look for ways to increase profits, and they notice that changing the rules is a very profitable way. As they get involved in politics to change the rules, they gain more power to change the rules more. As the rules change, the playing field shifts and rewards different behaviours, less connected to doing useful things. In the end you have an economy controlled largely by grifters.

This stage leads to instability, which may give you fascism or, if you're lucky, some kind of leftward pendulum swing, maybe to social democracy or "new deal" capitalism with much more regulation and less concentration of wealth and power. But that is just starting the process again if the capitalists are still in place with the same objectives.

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Quoting: eggrolebut (at least here) we don't have anything close to what Smith or Ricardo described in their seminole works.

One thing to keep in mind about the old school guys, Adam Smith et al., is that when they said "free market" they meant something very different from what modern free marketeers mean when they say "free market". In some ways the two concepts are directly opposed.

So when modern free market guys talk about "free" markets, they mean completely unregulated markets, in which capital gets to make money however it wants--constraints are bad because markets are magic and inherently efficient as long as you don't interfere. And, just to be clear, this is not true. The theory of efficient markets is rubbish if you look at it for more than ten seconds, and the practice makes clear that unregulated markets are fraudulent markets.

But that is most definitely not what Smith was talking about. When the classical economists talked about "free" markets, they meant free of economic rent. That is, they meant markets where there were no monopolies, no barriers to entry, in general no way for capitalists to extract windfall profits. Markets, in short, where capitalists were forced to do things like compete on price, thus allowing Smith's "invisible hand" to operate. Getting markets to be remotely like this requires strong regulation. And Smith knew it, and was well aware that tradesmen and captains of industry were constantly scheming to get around such issues the better to extract money from the public.

The modern "free market" is a market that actively promotes rentiers. Smith would have hated it.

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Quoting: UltraAltesBrotAll fun and games until you see the racist stuff RWS CEO Vince Desi posts on twitter between reposts of fan art.

Yeah, that combined with the childish crash-out Mike J had on Discord a few months back about the Bullet Paradise situation makes me hesitant to support RWS in the future.

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Quoting: WorMzyI hardly think Valve's lootboxes are to blame for the US' unhealthy obsession with guns[...]

No, no, no, it's definitely the games! But they only work on US citizens, outside of the US they are just leisure activities.

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Never fails. Wait about a week and you will see a hotfix patch come out.

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Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: eggroleI DO blame over consumption.

Sure. Why blame the system when you can blame the ones with no power. You're blaming the addicts, not the pushers. You're blaming the players, not the ones writing and enforcing the rules.

Another way to look at it is that Industrialism needs Consumerism in order to move all the products the factories are manufacturing. Capitalism is just the economic means being used to do this. Are there other ways to distribute Industrialism's production? Certainly, but Capitalism suits the Western elite.

Most of us have been conditioned from early childhood to do our part in keeping this flawed economic system functioning. We are trained to be good, replaceable factory cogs and kept in a perpetual state of childhood through poor education. The goal is to keep us consuming, so that the system keeps functioning and the wealth continues to trickle upwards. It's gotten so bad that we are now actively encouraged to go deeply in debt just to keep this Consumerism ball rolling.

Advertising and propaganda are the primary evils in this system. Thanks to a nephew of Freud, Freud's therapeutic techniques are being employed to manipulate us into being good consumers (and obedient citizens). It encourages this almost child-like tendency @eggrole described of "not long after you purchase something, the newness wears off and you are back to longing for the next thing." The key to breaking out of this system is to avoid the advertising(*). This is why advertising has become so pernicious and can be found almost everywhere. The system that benefits the elite needs the rest of us to consume or it cannot survive. The flipside is that we common folk do not actually need the system to survive or thrive. With a change in mindset, we can manage quite well without it. The propaganda is just designed to manipulate us into believing that Consumerism is the only alternative.

(*) Getting out of debt also helps.

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Pass. The TV series was just a long, badly written commercial targeted at children. I have no desire to relive it.

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I do like the design

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Rather sadly, I had never heard of this site :-(

UPDATE: I have now 'preserved' around 3Gb! Not a lot, but it's a start 😄

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Valve need to start manufacturing their own ram, ssd and cpus 🤔

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Is bought my wife [this desktop](https://www.cirrus7.com/en/produkte/cirrus7-incus/) in october, if I configure it exactly the same as back then its about 37% more expensive, crazy. So yes they missed the boat and sadly valve probably has too with all the stuff they lined up a gew months ago.

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Quoting: anokasionThese are great news, but I wonder why the sudden change

I'm curious about that too. I've not been able to find an answer yet.

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It looks really promising, I just wished they had gone with a bit less chunky pixels. Perhaps we will get some options for that.

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Quoting: matiaslavik... In a year or two, we'll only be playing software rendered pseudo-3D games, because nobody can afford modern hardware.

A while ago, when I decided to make a game on a custom engine that uses raycasting for rendering, I never expected it'd be relevant today. :D

However, it still uses OpenGL to present the rendered scene and draw the HUD/UI, though it might still run at a decent performance with Mesa's llvmpipe software renderer.

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Given their trying to replace MANY people with these AI systems. I dunno if a full burst will happen and whenever that happens I think a lot less people are going to have throw away money for things like this.

Ultimately their customer base is going to be vastly reduced in best case scenario at this point!
This goes for VR/XR/SteamMachine stuff etc...

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