emnii's recent activity

  1. Comment on Humble Choice - August 2024 in ~games

    emnii
    Link Parent
    Humble Games, the game publishing business, shut down. Humble Bundle, the game storefront, did not.

    Humble Games, the game publishing business, shut down. Humble Bundle, the game storefront, did not.

    10 votes

  2. Comment on Humble Choice - August 2024 in ~games

    emnii
    Link
    This was a skip month for me. I already own Gotham Knights and High on Life. Diluvian Ultra was on my wishlist but I dropped it during the last sale. Sifu looks cool but I think I'd play it...

    This was a skip month for me. I already own Gotham Knights and High on Life. Diluvian Ultra was on my wishlist but I dropped it during the last sale. Sifu looks cool but I think I'd play it exactly twice and never again. I don't know anything about the other games.

    The value probably still comes out in my benefit but I've started to get more picky. If there's nothing I want to play that I don't already own, it's a skip. I still recommend it for Gotham Knights though. That game is decent. Don't get discouraged by the early reliance on the batcycle for traversal; it gets better.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Humble Choice - July 2024 in ~games

    emnii
    Link
    Two more games for the 'cards' category, and one more for the 'early access'. Though Hyperviolent is on my wishlist. My biggest draw is Plague Tale: Requiem. I liked that first game. I've had...

    Two more games for the 'cards' category, and one more for the 'early access'. Though Hyperviolent is on my wishlist.

    My biggest draw is Plague Tale: Requiem. I liked that first game. I've had ample opportunity to check out Requiem, but maybe owning it on Steam will count for something.

    Ghostrunner 2 is something I'd probably like if it weren't a first-person splatformer. I really struggled with the first game. I bailed after learning it only saved between levels and it took me more than hour to get through the first level. I'm not about to lose that kind of progress because the dog needs to go out.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2024: Hidden gems in ~games

    emnii
    Link
    Underrated Great - Anachronox "Great" may be pushing it but this is one of the more successful early 2000's endeavors for a western developer to make a console-style RPG on PC. It's a little messy...

    Underrated Great - Anachronox

    "Great" may be pushing it but this is one of the more successful early 2000's endeavors for a western developer to make a console-style RPG on PC. It's a little messy but surprisingly playable in 2024.

    Cult Classic - Daikatana

    "Cult classic" might be the best way of describing this game. I am one of its defenders and I would never call it good. It's mid at best. But man, there's something here. It is deeply flawed but also a fascinating piece of gaming history.

    Both of these games are less than a dollar each. To me, that makes them worth checking out, even for a laugh in Daikatana's case. I've been revisiting the Ion Storm catalog, and the rest of their games don't qualify as hidden gems, but they're all pretty playable on Steam Deck without a whole lot of config tweaking. You can even get them updated with community patches and mods fairly easily using ProtonTricks and Luxtorpedia.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Games where the campaign serves as the tutorial? in ~games

    emnii
    Link Parent
    I really enjoyed it. It's nothing like Arkham but it is a fun take on a coop hero shooter. It's much more movement focused than ability focused. I've played Avengers and Gotham Knights, and...

    I really enjoyed it. It's nothing like Arkham but it is a fun take on a coop hero shooter. It's much more movement focused than ability focused. I've played Avengers and Gotham Knights, and Suicide Squad is easily the best of the three. That's not exactly a high bar to clear, but it clears it.

    Even if you're not interested in the seasonal grind, and that grind is light on compelling reasons to grind beyond "number go up" unless you're a big Joker fan, the story mode took me about 20 hours. It's got a lot of character in those 20 hours. I laughed out loud at some of the dialogue in the first hour and I was hooked.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Games where the campaign serves as the tutorial? in ~games

    emnii
    Link
    This is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The story mode is a setup for the seasonal grind.

    This is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The story mode is a setup for the seasonal grind.

  8. Comment on What are some of your favorite PlayStation 1 games? Any odd or unique ones worth playing? in ~games

    emnii
    Link
    I'm going to give you two; one fairly well known but unmentioned, and the other might just be me. I love Colony Wars. It's a space dogfighter along the lines of TIE Fighter or Wing Commander,...

    I'm going to give you two; one fairly well known but unmentioned, and the other might just be me.

    I love Colony Wars. It's a space dogfighter along the lines of TIE Fighter or Wing Commander, except made by Psygnosis. On the surface, it's your typical game within this genre. You've got a weapon to break down shields and a weapon to break down hull, all sorts of missiles, enemy fighters and capital ships, everything you'd expect. It also has a rather big branching storyline. Failing a mission is not game over. You just plug on and try to do better next time. It's not even a simple tree as success or failure in some missions can send you to an entirely different branch. It managed to make a space dogfighter replayable.

    The other one I love is BRAHMA Force: The Assault on Beltlogger 9. It is the pinnacle of Genki's PS1 FPS efforts, with Epidemic and Kileak: The DNA Imperative being lesser predecessors. These are all ostensibly first person mecha games, but they play like any fast action FPS. It's fully 3D but it tries to do something other than being a corridor shooter with moderate success. There's some draw-in and enemies respawn almost as soon as you walk away from them. But the action is fun and it's got a little System Shock influence. I don't necessarily recommend going back to Epidemic or Kileak, but BRAHMA Force is worth playing.

    Okay one more because I love the PSX. G-Police. It is dramatically hampered by draw-in but it's good helicopter style action in a futuristic setting. Controls take a bit of getting used to.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on I want to hear about your unknown favorites! in ~books

    emnii
    Link Parent
    Armor rules. Everyone reads Starship Troopers. A lot of people read The Forever War and Old Man's War. God help the people who read Orphanage. But not enough people read Armor.

    Armor rules. Everyone reads Starship Troopers. A lot of people read The Forever War and Old Man's War. God help the people who read Orphanage. But not enough people read Armor.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Notifications are ads in ~tech

    emnii
    Link
    Yeah basically. You miss nothing by turning them off. They only serve to get you to use their app when you otherwise wouldn't. Turn them all off. Use the app when you want to use it, not when...

    Yeah basically. You miss nothing by turning them off. They only serve to get you to use their app when you otherwise wouldn't. Turn them all off. Use the app when you want to use it, not when you're prompted to by the app.

    If there's something you absolutely must respond to immediately, like you're tied to your work chat, sure, leave that on. Seek ways to mute it when you're not obligated to make immediate responses. But think real hard about whether or not you actually need to be tied to your email. Don't you check it often enough on your own? If you don't respond before the next time you purposefully check your email, is anyone going to complain?

    I know this sounds idealistic, but I've found that a lot of my own obligations were self-imposed. No one expected me to constantly watch my phone for notifications so I can instantly respond. No one would notice if I held off on responding to an email for the next time I felt like responding to emails. Neither of these things were furthering my career either. I still find myself flipping over to my work email off-hours for no particular reason, and it's a bad habit that I'm trying to break, but I've unloaded a healthy amount of mental baggage just by letting that stuff wait until I need to look at it.

    I'm already walking around with a phone attached to me all the time. If something's really serious, they can call me and talk to me like a human being.

    10 votes

  11. Comment on Do you ever "self filter" before making a post or comment and what is it based on? in ~talk

    emnii
    Link
    Constantly. Usually it is because I talk too much. I don't need to see my own words when I can upvote or thumbs up something someone else has said that's either my thoughts or close enough to my...

    Constantly. Usually it is because I talk too much. I don't need to see my own words when I can upvote or thumbs up something someone else has said that's either my thoughts or close enough to my thoughts.

    But more often I delete my comments or posts because the internet is full of idiots and trolls and the two are indistinguishable from each other. I have neither the patience nor will to argue with people whose sole form of entertainment is arguing on the internet. They don't know anything about that which they argue and they will not be convinced to change their mind because they have no position besides being a contrarian. Even if you catch one in a contradictory position, it is a meaningless victory. They're just having fun. They can waste other peoples' time.

    6 votes

  12. Comment on Steam Winter Sale 2023: Hidden gems in ~games

    emnii
    Link Parent
    The Solitaire Conspiracy by Bithell Games is fantastic. On its surface, it's a really pretty solitaire, but it adds some special abilities and throws in a storyline. I'm not a huge fan of...

    The Solitaire Conspiracy by Bithell Games is fantastic. On its surface, it's a really pretty solitaire, but it adds some special abilities and throws in a storyline. I'm not a huge fan of solitaire, but I love Bithell Games and this was no exception.

    BallisticNG is my perpetual anti-grav racing hidden gem. If you've played Wipeout, this is Wipeout right down to being given a choice of Wipeout physics models in the options. It's still getting free updates 5 years on, it's got Workshop support, and it rules.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Reddit CEO pledges to not force subreddits to reopen. Admin team then immediately threatens moderators who closed their subreddits with removal. in ~tech

    emnii
    (edited )
    Link
    Having read a majority of what spez and other admins have said since this whole debacle started, I don't understand why any moderator would continue volunteering their time to the benefit of...

    Having read a majority of what spez and other admins have said since this whole debacle started, I don't understand why any moderator would continue volunteering their time to the benefit of reddit. reddit hasn't been remotely truthful or honest in any of their communication. When I read their comments, I don't get the feeling reddit is coming to the community, hat in hand, asking for a little help with the hosting bills. What I read is that they have contempt for these damned moderators who built bots and third party apps to overcome the inadequacy of the moderation tools, mobile apps, and accessibility reddit provides. I get this feeling because reddit disingenuously lumps in moderation bots and third party apps (things people like) with big corps training LLM and "AI" chat bots (things people don't understand or don't like).

    The constant refrain from reddit of "we'll fix your bots if they break" falls on deaf ears given the actions of reddit's past. reddit has promised better mod tools over and over. reddit is constantly years behind moderator developed tools and they're not going to catch up in a month. Also, reddit has a well known problem in timely communication with moderators who bring them problems in good faith. They give the copy/paste "thanks for contacting us" and that's all, until an issue reaches a boiling point. If the bot you built to help moderate a subreddit with millions of members breaks, why should you have any faith that reddit will help you fix it, much less with the urgency you would give it if you broke it yourself?

    No, reddit is going to break the stuff you spent hours of your free time making to overcome the pains of moderating huge communities on reddit without their help, or pains you experienced using their mobile app, or pains you experienced because reddit is not as accessible as it should be. This downtime they will burden you with is something they expect you to overcome, consuming more of your time fixing the things they broke. This doesn't read as appreciation for the countless free time moderators and developers put into building things they love for the communities they serve on reddit. Based on this attitude, you are an annoyance to them and you can suck it up and accept that you owe them more work, or you can get replaced by the next mod team who don't know what they're getting into and will go through the same pains once again.

    11 votes

  14. Comment on Dungeons & Dragons’ new license tightens its grip on competition in ~games.tabletop

  15. Comment on Dungeons & Dragons’ new license tightens its grip on competition in ~games.tabletop

  17. Comment on What’s something about you that people don’t often believe is true? in ~talk

    emnii
    Link Parent
    I'm allergic to taco flavored Doritos. I was enlisted in the US Army. You cannot imagine how many times the question "any allergies?" comes up when you're enlisted. Every time I gave the answer...

    I'm allergic to taco flavored Doritos. I was enlisted in the US Army. You cannot imagine how many times the question "any allergies?" comes up when you're enlisted. Every time I gave the answer "taco flavored Doritos", I'd get confusion, curiosity, disbelief, and everything in between.

    8 votes

  19. Comment on Hulu offering Disney Plus addon for $2.99 in ~tv

    emnii
    Link
    This pricing is very aggressive. If you're already a Hulu subscriber, this makes Disney+ cheaper than even the pre-launch three year deal, which totaled out to $4.30 monthly. I subscribe to a lot...

    This pricing is very aggressive. If you're already a Hulu subscriber, this makes Disney+ cheaper than even the pre-launch three year deal, which totaled out to $4.30 monthly. I subscribe to a lot of streaming services, usually opting for annual plans over monthly because annual is cheaper, and this is cheaper than every annual plan except for one. As far as big competitors, it's several dollars cheaper than Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount+, and HBO Max. Even my niche services can't compete with $3 monthly.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on itch.io Bundle for Ukraine in ~games

    emnii
    Link Parent
    thank you for this! Sometimes rooting through the pile of games/stuff is fun, but sometimes I'm just trying to get to something specific. this site is super helpful.

    thank you for this! Sometimes rooting through the pile of games/stuff is fun, but sometimes I'm just trying to get to something specific. this site is super helpful.

    5 votes