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Great read @Gorth! Very interesting that you are also a wargammer. Have you looked at any of the video game wargames currently being made based on those old AH/VG/GDW boardgames? There is a studio called Strategy Game Studio (SGS) that has been making several of these games, and their publisher is Avalon Digital. If you check out the Steam forum for their games, the main guy who works for SGS seems very passionate about bringing those old TT wargames to video gaming. He might even be interested in adding another programmer to SGS. I have the following wargames in my Steam wishlist, and as always, looking for feedback from anyone who's played them: SGS NATO's Nightmare SGS Afrika Korps: Tunisia Strategic Command: World War I Napoleon's Eagles: Game of the Napoleonic Wars

Well we already had a lot of rumours about deaths of some high russian officials and their “health” issues. About Lukashenko as well. I was just simply curious, what we will “know” for sure in the next few days . Shoigu being at the parade just bursted the bubble of anticipation I had . As much as I would like to see him at the next Tea Party, It is just interesting to watch how the wishful thinking spreads fast in the west as well

New "Iontronic Memristor" Could Revolutionize Brain-Like Computing Using Only Salt and Water - The Debrief

I don't see Shoigu being in any particular danger, either -- or at least in any more danger than anyone else under Putin. (Which also means that he's completely subject to Putin's whims, whatever they may be, of course.) But when @Mamoulian War writes that "Looks like there might be a lot of rumours emerging in the next few weeks" (see above), the statement itself is rather irrelevant: one thing we certainly haven't had ever since the beginning of the war is a lack of rumours. Btw, when it comes to rumours, interpretations, theories and all the rest of it, just about the only interesting thing outside real news was the time when S. Lavrov appeared in that conference (in Bali, was it?) wearing a Basquiat T-shirt. That almost made me think that the guy was trying to send a message there, given the obvious discrepancy between Russia's stated line and Basquiat. But even if he was, I don't think the message had either a point or any discernible content.

At the parade, gave an interview to TASS and was sitting at Putin's right hand during a interview/ statement thingy at the Kremlin. Bit of overkill in terms of proof of life, political or otherwise, really. The people at the table of the interview wotsit other than Putin did rather look like they were worried the ghost of Beria was about to leap out from behind the curtains with Makarov in hand if they so much as twitched though. (Only 'interesting' thing was him being described as "acting" Minister of Defence by TASS which would be a bit odd for someone in the job 10+ years. Then again TASS' translations to english are not always perfect)

Well he was at the parade. Who knows what these rumours are, anyway. Probably from that gold standard of Sushko.

Shoigu is also 68, and the Russian male life expectancy is, shockingly, 69.36. I know that Shoigu lives in luxury, which increases life expectancy, but in Russia, luxury can also be associated with open windows and someone just casually offering you a cup of tea.

I've been thinking about this in purely mathematical terms. For instance, if the amount of combat in P:K and WotR was cut by half, I'm certain the game would be twice as good. If the amount of combat was dropped to 25% of what it is now, I think the game might well be four times as good as it is now (assuming they really thought about what to leave in). But if the combat was cut by 90%, I don't think the game would be ten times as good as it is now.

Shoigu is a survivor, he'll get through whatever is going on.

Health advisory: Stay away from open windows?

Looks like there might be a lot of rumours emerging in the next few weeks. After jailing Shoigu’s thieving right hand, Shoigu was not seen at Putin’s “inauguration”. Let’s see, if he will be around the Red Square during today’s parade

Yes thats all true It doesnt explain much but its not suppose to because they only had 30 seconds. Its not about the policies of the DA Its just another example of a sensationalized political advert but the point is really the overreaction to this advert from ANC which is also a political response Its been in the news the last 2-3 days and some people are literally " outraged " because they think its treasonous and racist Like I mentioned with the ANC grandstanding about taking legal steps because of the flag burning But a flag wasnt burned. Its just a political advert

Honestly? All I see is a political ad so typical it could almost be invisible because there is nothing distinguishing it from any other the last 50000 political ads. It's all about what they don't want, not a single word about what they can do, that would benefit the people of SA? I.e. the only change offered it's us instead of them? Disclaimer, I know nothing about the party, their ideology or otherwise, just going by the ad

Did they ever stop?

South Africa is having its national election on 29 May and we in full season of populist and utterly unrealistic campaign promises from numerous political parties that are ubiquitous with the " silly season " reality in any Democracy with different political parties The party I vote for, the DA, released this campaign video of the " South African flag burning " and it received the expected immediate criticism around "racism, treason " and " abhorrent and unpatriotic " comments from the ANC and other political parties The ANC even going as far to say " Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Zizi Kodwa, is considering taking further steps against the Democratic Alliance over the party's ad depicting the South African flag burning" https://www.enca.com/top-stories/mi...action-against-da-after-flag-burning-campaign Here is the actual advert and its clear most people who are " outraged " haven't watched it or havent bothered to understand its political message In summary the advert doesnt show an actual physical flag being burnt, its a digital AI piece of paper and the " flag" gets restored its a political metaphor about the state of the country under a coalition of the ANC and other parties like the EFF But watch this video and tell me if you think its "treasonous " and legal action needs to be taken against the DA

Russia is slowly resuming strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Seems a little sub-optimal to do this only after the winter.

This is a bit simplified. They only really "split" by the time Dishonored 2 and Prey were being developed in tandem. But even then, people switched places (I mean, Colantonio is from France himself). Also, even Redfall lists almost two dozen people from Lyon in the credits. Or, to let Raf Colantonio do the talking (note his huge follow-up post to this also). But in general, what happened in Austin is a good example of destroying studio culture. Arkane have been a very specialized company since their very inception. This naturally included what people they at all hired. And now they were tasked to do a multiplayer, open world CoOp shooter kind of game. It's akin to Hollywood encouraging Sofia Coppola to do the next Furious movie. Why? Becuz popular. In fairness, this started under ZeniMax. I personally didn't get much Arkane vibes upons Redfall's release. And had looked up the game's credits before it became public what happened. By watching the credits as well as checking people on Linkedln, it was apparent that a lot of people were brought in from all over the open world gaming action industry. This included Anthem's OW lead designer, and numerous other people who prior worked on Mafia, Destiny, Saint's Row et all. Some of those joined as late as a year prior to Redfall's release. So Arkane lost people that were hired specifically for the type of games they were specializing in, those people quit and left. To hire new ones just for Redfall. However, if it weren't for people working on a Marvel IP in Lyon, they may be in trouble now as well. Not sure if posted already. But 'd love if Arkane had gotten a chance at that announced Indiana Jones game rather than MachineGames. For a start, perfect fit for their type. See Thief's grave robbery missions, with fantastic in-universe maps for all your archeological needs. Secondly, Indy is still strong enough an IP, even if the last movie disappointed. Is it really the CORE of their very type of game that's not blockbuster worthy? Or is it rather their package? Until Baldur's Gate 3 came around, party-based tactical RPGs were seen as a niche as well. Turn-based ones even moreso. The notion was: No matter the rest of the game or what you're aiming for as an OVERALL EXPERIENCE: If you include THIS feature, you're going to go niche.

I mentioned elsewhere, Grounded being Obsidians most successful game to date... Not sure why, but I seem to remember it started out as a "small thing" with a limited team and then sort of exploded in scope with growing popularity. If not already, I hope some day we get a post mortem on the game with its history These are Steam numbers only, not including GamePass/XBox https://vginsights.com/game/962130 4,381 active players (42 min ago) 7,841 active players (24h peak) 88.9% positive reviews $55.8m gross revenue 2.2m units sold 49 hours avg play time 22.5 hours median play time While they (Obsidian) usually know how to make crpgs, survival games and base building is not what they're known for. Edit: Scratch that part about XBox... no idea if Steam also sells XBox games Edit2: Adding GamePass players, it had 10 million players in 2022 https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/02/10/grounded-reaches-10-million-players/

Hello Grounded，这个游戏非常有趣，但不幸的是它以后不会更新太多。你能开一个像Project Zomboid这样的创意工作室吗？谢谢。

Very similar situation there to Arkane I would have thought, they made games that review well, generally, but didn't sell well. Hi Fi Rush had great word of mouth, but it still took 5 years to develop and didn't sell (or 'sell', for gamepass) as well as its reviews or word of mouth implied. The main difference seems to be that Tango got chopped off earlier in the process, before making a Redfall but after the founder left.

Split off from previous thread...

Random interruption of gaming news... continued here

I am not surprised. This is Arkane Austin - they have done Prey and its DLC and Redfall. Prey is an acclaimed, if not particularly profitable, and Redfall is a flop, that allegiedly drove away about 70% of staff that made Prey. So it's not even the case of "abandon Refall and work on something else", as the folks who made Prey are mostly gone and you have a live service oriented studio, that clearly didn't come together very well (not aiming on judging individual devs of course - **** happens). Tango is what surprised me. Sure, it probably didn't break the bank, but they made THE game that delivered some positive buzz for XBOX. Even if it somehow a perfectly sensible move (like keeping the talented devs and putting them to work elsewere, but shutting down the studio now when the founder is gone) it is still a terrible look.

New York Times: RFK Jr. says "[parasitic worm] ate part of his brain".

Let's be honest, Arkane's last commercially successfully was the first Dishonored. Everything they've made for more than the last decade has flopped. Not sure why everyone's surprised.