overview for Essence_of

GOG and game publishers launch FreedomToBuy.games to raise awareness on censorship in gaming – GOG Pressroom in c/games@lemmy.world

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 10 points 13 hours ago

Oh absolutely, that's as much (if not more) of a reason for them keeping quiet. No big company will willingly jump into the pit against payment processors, there's way too much to lose.

[Discussion] What are you playing on your Deck? - August 2025 in c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Just to get it running? Not really, I think setting WINE version to WINE-GE-8-26 was the only requirement.

Personally I also:

Installed widescreen patch.
Adjusted Steam Input settings to:
- Gamepad with joystick.
- Changed D-pad to keyboard arrows and Start to Escape.
Changed steering to controller in game.

With this setup everything works perfectly fine for me.

I did browse the themed sale a bit actually and tried the previously mentioned RR3 (demo). Unfortunately for me it doesn't play well with multiple monitors and that's a no-go for when I play on desktop. I want to try Richard Burns Rally some day, especially after seeing the huge RSF mod adding tons of tracks and cars to the game. Need to clean up my hard drive for that though as I'm a bit swamped in games at the moment.

I'll probably won't be jumping into anything else new for now as I have DIRT Rally sitting in the backlog pile, waiting for its turn in the spotlight. Thanks for the recommendations though, I'll keep them in mind!

[Discussion] What are you playing on your Deck? - August 2025 in c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I haven't played most of the games on your list (either at all or in a while), doubly so on the Deck, so my perspective is a bit limited. Sorry.

CMR04 is on the simcade side of things. Definitely more realistic than Old School Rally, should be relatively close to Rush Rally 3 or Richard Burns Rally (maybe slightly less realistic than those). I think Codemasters found a nice middle ground in terms of driving model with this game. It's definitely one of the best rally games from that era at least.

In terms of battery life, I'm able to squeeze between 5 and 6 hours on full charge with this one.

GOG and game publishers launch FreedomToBuy.games to raise awareness on censorship in gaming – GOG Pressroom in c/games@lemmy.world

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 22 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I mean, Valve's silence isn't really surprising to be honest. They generally tend to keep quiet and let things go away on their own whenever possible. I'd be more surprised if the came out in force on this issue.

They did respond to the recent claim by Mastercard about them not being responsible for this recent mess - that's something, I guess? Here is a Kotaku article (don't kill me, that's the source I have for this) and here is the relevant part:

“Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks. Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution. Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand.”

There's a bit more in the linked article but that's pretty much the gist of it.

GOG and game publishers launch FreedomToBuy.games to raise awareness on censorship in gaming – GOG Pressroom in c/games@lemmy.world

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 55 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (5 children)

Man, I really appreciate GOG. They're not perfect and, as with all corporations, one shouldn't take them completely at face value but their approach to game preservation, DRM and stuff like this are the reasons why I keep them as my primary choice for purchases whenever possible.

Is it a relatively cheap PR stunt? Maybe. Probably. It's still more than any other store did or said in regards to the recent events. Might as well grab some free publicity.

What Are You Playing? General VN Discussion Thread (August 2025) in c/visualnovels@ani.social

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I've got some small, but decent, news to share today.

On the community level: I updated our VN Patch List with links to two new releases for Rewrite+ and Rewrite Harvest festa!. They seem to bring a bunch of solid improvements to both games so they might be of interest to anyone curious about them.

On the personal level: I finally found some time to start reading VNs again, with The Villainess Just Wants to Eat!! being my first pick. I actually thought this would be just a demo, like in case of Save the Villainess but nope - it's a full game, available for free.

I haven't finished reading yet so I'll save my full thoughts for a separate post (whenever that happens). What I can say now is that the game is adorable (both in terms of writing and art) and has been a really enjoyable experience so far. Characters are loveable, MC obsession with food isn't used as some weird quirk to make her stand out and the whole thing feels really wholesome and warm.
There's one thing that caught me off guard initially and that was how fast the time progression feels (there's no real indication of a time skip then you find out it has been a few days since the last scene). I don't know if this is the case through the whole thing but even if that's the case it shouldn't be a big deal in the long run. It can just feel a bit sudden at times.

Still, it's a free indie game, making the most of the runtime it has is to be expected.

5

What Are You Playing? General VN Discussion Thread (August 2025) (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world to c/visualnovels@ani.social

1 comments fedilink

Welcome to the General VN Discussion thread!

If you have something you'd like to talk about but don't think it's worth posting as a separate thread this is the place for you.

Did you start playing something new?
Are there any games you're looking forward to?
Are you looking for suggestions on what to play?
Do you have some feedback or questions about our community?

These and any other topics are welcome here - as long as they are VN or community related.

< Previous thread

[Discussion] What are you playing on your Deck? - August 2025 in c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Colin McRae Rally 04 - I finally set it up on my deck 2 or so weeks ago and that has been my main game on the device since then. It required a little bit of control tweaking but other than that it runs and plays great.
Awesome battery life too though that's to be expected with such an old game.

itch.io reindexing free NSFW games, which includes some visual novels in c/visualnovels@ani.social

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Good to see they're keeping their word on this. Hopefully their search for more NSFW friendly payment processors goes well and this whole mess can be... I'm not going to say reversed as that's not going to happen but at least mitigated to the best of their abilities.

I'd like itch to keep existing.

Roadmap Roundup - July 30, 2025 in c/starcitizen@lemmy.world

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Not much to write about today, mostly cosmetic changes to the roadmap. Removal of PvE co-op zones and replacing them with generic sandbox activity is disappointing but not surprising - CIG showed time and time again they unable to imagine the game without the risk of PvP lurking in the background. Maybe one day.

2

Roadmap Roundup - July 30, 2025 (robertsspaceindustries.com)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world to c/starcitizen@lemmy.world

1 comments fedilink

Changes to 4.3 view:

New Hairstyles (x3) - changed card's image.
Dynamic Snow - changed card's image.
Wikelo Special Ships - changed card's image.
ASD Light Combat Stealth Suit - changed card's image.
Wikelo Light Combat Stealth Suit - changed card's image.
Onyx Facilities - card renamed, no longer Co-Op zones but sandbox activity instead.
Cooperative Zones - card removed (supposedly still planned but won't be ready for 4.3.0).

Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week? in c/patientgamers@sh.itjust.works

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's not perfect but it is pretty great great - definitely better than what I'd expect from an indie Ace Combat clone made three people. Just watch out for the ridiculous amount of enemies in some missions.

I really want to get into Armored Core someday, starting with the PS1 original. I've heard gameplay changes pretty significantly every few games and I'd like to test which type will be the most fun for me. Are you familiar with the series in general or just like AC6?

Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week? in c/patientgamers@sh.itjust.works

[–] Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (3 children)

TL;DR:

Colin McRae Rally 04
Project Wingman

Lots of rambling

Still playing Colin McRae Rally 04, mostly on Steam Deck this week.

I think I'm finally used to playing this game with a stick - not that this was particularly difficult but after years of doing so exclusively with keyboard it did happen easier than expected.
I didn't migrate any of my progress from the desktop so I'm just slowly getting into the groove with 2WD Championship. It's one of those games where I don't really mind having to unlock everything again (maybe I'm just unconsciously worried there won't be enough content otherwise).

Besides that I finally started playing Project Wingman. I got it during GOG's summer sale but outside of testing it for performance as well as Linux and HOTAS compatibility I didn't really touch it otherwise.

I'm 40-60% into the game, I think, so things might change but I like it a bit more than either of the Ace Combat titles I played so far (not by much but still). Game feels great to play, looks awesome and I really appreciate how they're able to use the fantastic soundtrack to make even the early missions into extremely hype affairs.
I enjoy it way more than I expected to, to the point it became my favourite game in a long while.

I also decided to try playing it in VR. First reaction: it's freaking playable on my machine?! Awesome! Second reaction: this is really cool. Feels less intense than anticipated but really cool nonetheless.
Bonus points for finally getting a chance to SEE the designs of enemy aircraft - I was never able to get a good look at them when playing in pancake mode (I'm talking about large support planes you can't buy for yourself).

Unfortunately for me, this will most likely stay as a fun experiment rather than something I'll continue with. While the game runs well enough, I can already tell the performance during later missions will take a dive to unplayable levels and there's no point in dealing with that. I'll most likely try a few more missions and just wait for a proper VR playthrough until after I upgrade my ancient hardware. One day...

While there aren't any game breaking issues so far I do have a few small nitpicks about the game:

Excessive missile spam in some missions - it's not even difficult, just tedious.
I keep getting tripped over my key binds as they differ slightly from what I'm used to in Star Citizen (my main HOTAS game at the moment).
I wish there were more key binds for enemy targeting - I miss the ability to select the target I'm aiming at instead of having to cycle in whatever order the game decides to go with.
Had an issue with enemy helis bugging out and not moving in one of the mission. They just hanged in place with their noses aimed at the sky.
Navigating menus in VR is seriously borked. Mouse cursor doesn't show up and when it does its visual position is completely unrelated to where it physically is. Aiming with my had is a complete guesswork as that too has no reticule to use as a reference point. Last but not least, keyboard works for the most part but can't be used (or just doesn't work for me) with certain elements of the settings menu (like trying to go through key binds to a specific position). Setting things up was a HUGE pain.
Dunno if it's just numbers magic or an actual mechanical difference but combat distances seem to differ between VR and desktop modes. I'm pretty sure distances during the latter are at like a third of what I've seen during my VR playthrough. I need to do some more testing.
I miss the afterburner from AC, it was fun to use.

Finally, I have a question for those more familiar with the game: does the number of enemies change with difficulty? I'm playing on hard and the amount hostiles can be pretty ridiculous at times. It's (mostly) fun and it's properly challenging but it can look pretty stupid sometimes.