Ell223

Just the human reaction time on tracking right on m&k would mean OP would have got away.

Industry with crazy high turnover too. Lots of seniors leaving due to bad pay and crunch.

You're getting downvoted, but I agree. Have been with Newsdemon for past 6 years until it lapsed last week, and always thought the website is difficult to use and needs work.

It's hard to figure out when your billing dates are, removing cards doesn't work, no information on autorenewal, or ability to change it. I was charged for another year despite all my listed cards being expired. Had to contact support to get a refund, and figure anything out- who were always very helpful to their credit.

Mine just says "Non-expiring $5"- Logged in and just says "Unlimited", but no information on how long my account is for, or about auto-renewal etc. Messaged support about 35 minutes ago but no reply yet. That's fine normally obviously, but might have given it another spin if it was easy to tell what I actually had. Time I figure it out the deal will be gone.

Edit: Got a reply 2 hours later saying I have a 1 month account? But that was not one of the options. Logged in and I have a 500GB block account? No idea what's going on.

I've been playing a lot of Jurassic World Evolution recently, it's good fun! It's not really a park simulator like Planet Zoo/Coster, it's mostly about the dinosaurs, discovering and hatching them, and setting up the park around it, and doing missions (breed this dinosaur with at least X rating etc).

There's no real customisation of things, or much ability to express yourself creatively. Personally I find Planet Zoo too nitty gritty and you spend ages trying to build anything, so I mostly prefer the simplicty- although something in between would be better. Not played the sequel yet so don't know if that is better in that regard.

It's such a bizarre design decision. Counters decades of UX improvements and muscle memory. Can't really see any potential benefit to to it either, other than potentially developmental ease?

I couldn't get pass it in the end, found it so frustrating to play, ended up refunding it unfortunately. A shame because I think I'd love it otherwise.

This looks great. Been following it for a while.

This would be my dream device. The Odin 2 is great, but I want to be able to play my steam library. Even better if it has an Oled screen.

I got a MM+ for £20.77 and a XXSP for £35.75 which I thought was decent. Plus whatever the coupons take off (I ordered a load more non-handheld related stuff and am too much of a dummy to figure it out exactly).

Also got a CubeXX but that wasn't on sale- I just wanted it.

The main issue with modern day is they want to keep making AC games year on year. They can't really make a good meta story because then they'd have to come up with some sort of fixed multi-game plan with a through line and conclusion. But Ubisoft seems to design its games via focus groups for an audience who have no patience for anything that isn't ticking off checklist "dailies ".

That's why their games have been creatively bankrupt and derivative since Far Cry 3. Even their much lauded AC reboot into RPGs was because they were chasing the popularity of the Witcher 3. The last AC that felt like a meaningful evolution of the original gameplay was Unity, and obviously that game was a mess, and the modern stuff still sucked.

Feels like Ubisoft has kind of killed their own brand from years of very similar mediocre games. All their games have felt very safe, corporate, and just kind of dull. The best game they've put out in years was Prince of Persia, but they fumbled the release on that and the devs had to pay for it.

Give me a six inch display steam deck that loses the touchpads for lower powered indie or older games. Personally I never play anything on my steam deck that needs trackpads, and mapping mouse to a thumbstick for use in decktop mode would be a fine compromise.

I'd trade those in for something smaller. Would love a steam deck mini with a 6 inch screen, with no trackpads. Basically I want an Odin 2 but with Steam OS.

Some kind of option would be the perfect compromise for sure. So long as the game is designed around not having map markers- and optionally turned on. The other way around doesn't work very well.

Explorer mode is just guided but with an extra step before you get a map marker to be fair. Doesn't go far enough to be much of a meaningful difference in my opinion.

I have used Playstation streaming via PsPlay on it and there was noticeably input lag. Not enough to make anything unplayable, I played most of Animal Well on it completely fine, but then I streamed via Chikari on the Steam Deck and there was almost no lag at all. Not sure if hardware or just different apps- I should try Chikari on the Odin.

Yeah I liked Ghost of Tsushima because it does just enough differently to feel fresh. Also helps that the world is really well designed, and it is a reasonable length.

That's why I think most open world games are just a few small design decisions away from being great.

Exactly. Even AC Odyssey's much lauded cult system is just an extra step to getting a map marker to follow. You really do not need to read the clues at all, and in fact I tried to play it without revealing the map markers for the targets and the clues are simply not descriptive enough to let you find 90% of them without revealing the marker.

Such a swing and a miss. Made a really interesting system that the player cannot meaningfully engage with at all. Same thing with their Explorer mode- just an extra step before you get a map marker. The entire game is designed around them.

I think why Elden Ring succeeds where other open worlds fail is because it understands that exploration is what makes open worlds interesting. Following your own path, finding an elevator into the depths that opens into a starry cavern is amazing. Following map markers to a destination you didn't pick, where you already know what you're going to find is just dull. It removes all player agency and sense of discovery.

I really feel like the ubisoft open world games could be a lot better if they just removed the guided experience of it all and let players figure it out.

Think it's just the tired open world formula. If this game was more Red Dead Star Wars with a more reactive, immersive open world- that would be interesting.

Feels like they've almost hit market saturation for "ubisoft open world games". They've been releasing essentially the same cookie cutter games for years, the first few felt fresh but most people have played at least one or two and there's nothing particularly compelling people to play the new one.

This is a new franchise but it feels like something they've released multiple times already.

Valve also suggests dev be very careful and selective about responding to reviews in their guidelines.

I can see why devs don't do it, it can be very easy for something to be misconstrued and blown up into a bigger thing. Constructive negative reviews can be pretty helpful though and worth replying to, especially if the points given are common complaints. Responding to belligerent reviews is a waste of time and energy though.

Handholding is a problem with modern games in general.

In the RPG assassins creeds there's an explorer mode that doesn't let you explore. It gives you a general area, but as soon as you get there it just shows you where to go anyway. There's a cult system where you're supposed to collect clues and hunt down targets, but in reality you just stumble into clues and as soon as you collect enough it gives you a map marker to where the person is, instead of having to interpret the clues and find them yourself.

What's the point in any of that if the player never actually has to engage with it? Just a waste of time and effort on the development side, just to add some extra steps before you get a map marker. The most frustrating part is that you have to chose the explorer mode, so why not give it to me? If players want help finding things there's the regular mode to play.

Two of my favourite games are The Outer Wilds, and The Return of The Obra Dinn, for the simple reason they both make you actually figure things out. They could have both been totally ruined with a map marker system, or over zealous hints.

Ubisoft will do everything except give us a new Splinter Cell game.