Hawke64

Also this, as mentioned in another thread: https://internet.exchangepoint.tech/the-dog-that-caught-the-car-britains-world-leading-internet/ Not sure how realistic was the ChatGPT subscription (sounds too ridiculous, but so does everything coming from the current government and the 3 previous ones I have witnessed), but the combination with the Environment Agency’s comments was interesting. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-drought-group-meets-to-address-nationally-significant-water-shortfall https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/sam-altman-and-uk-government-minister-reportedly-discussed-giving-chatgpt-plus-to-all-brits-for-free

Meanwhile in the UK. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/palestine-action-terrorism-charges-b2825342.html "Would anyone think of the planes?" It is ironic that the supposedly left-leaning party is as bad as the far-right one in going after the refugees, the disabled people, and the trans community. While I was unsatisfied with the latest GE (voted for the Green party), I did have a small hope that they might have been slightly better than the Tories, though many of the former Labour voters now share this sentiment. The new Green leader sounds good, so there is something positive.

I have finished The Shadow over Cyberspace. It is a visual novel in an alternative history "modempunk horror" setting. The protagonist is an amateur hacker afflicted by the Yellow Sign, slowly destroying their body and mind. The way to salvation lies through the Artificial Minds, virtual entities of immense power. Most of the gameplay consists of visual novel-style dialogues, with several dialogue options, opening different paths and providing information. Depending on what has been discovered and in what order the AMs are approached, the dialogues change. There are several endings and the main cast are quite likeable and relatable, aside from the main antagonist. The writing is clear, understandable, and consistent, with each NPC having their own distinct speech style. While a lot of the vocabulary used did not exist in the US in the 90's, this is covered by the alternative history setting and this is what localisation does - finds the closest actively used terminology to convey the meaning. My only complaint would be that the extent of animal abuse in "research", including the space one, was significantly understated. The full list of content warnings is available on the developers' website. Another gameplay system is closer to point&click adventure games, though it is quite light. Finally, there is the Minesweeper mini-game to represent hacking (the mines' positions persist between reloads). The visual style feels closer to the 00's, though fits the game well. The sound design is well done. Most of the dialogues take place in text format in-universe, so they are not voiced, but the ones that are supposed to be spoken are. There is built-in self-voicing function. The installation size is very reasonable (<600MB). As the game uses the Ren'Py engine, it is possible to save at any point in multiple save slots (~60). Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience and I have purchased the donation DLC to support the developers. The game itself is fully available for free. --- I have also finished Leap of Love. I'd like to preface that I received it for free, as a part of the Freedom to Buy campaign and the default price is $15/€12.50/£11.40. Leap of Love is a mix of a visual novel and a stat-raising sim. The protagonist is a frog-turned-human who is trying to marry a princess to remain a human. There are several storylines to follow and characters to engage in sexual activity with (GOG blocks posting with the 4-letter word). The only positive aspects are the reasonable length of the game (I would have dropped it if it were longer), the ability to save at any point, and I have not noticed any bugs. I suppose, an anti-semitic caricature for the first NPC should have tipped me off, but, to my deep regret, I proceeded. The art, be it sprites or CGs, is uninspired, unskilled, does not match the text descriptions, and generally unpleasant to look at. The writing is painful to read and the text is filled with typos. The ability to acquire story-relevant items seems to be almost random. The game was not worth my time, let alone the asking price. --- I find it somewhat ironic that the free (as far as I know, Patreon-funded) game was excellent, while the paid one was a waste of time. I have also finished Return of the Obra-Dinn. It is a quite good first-person adventure game. The lack of rebindable controls is unwelcome, but there are no action sequences. I also was almost guessing the last few corpses (there were few names left and I was just matching the uniforms with photos).

I have tried Leap of Love and it was horrible, including the art, with the noses floating across faces and limbs being disproportionate and different on every image. The Shadow over Cyberspace, on the other hand, was a wonder to behold in all aspects.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/valve-appear-to-be-blocking-mature-themed-games-from-steam-early-access-release https://dreadxp.com/vile-is-banned/ The game is free to download (I have not played it yet, so cannot comment on the quality) and there is a donation link at the bottom of the page (50% goes to a charity which I have not looked into).

I have installed Hollow Knight. Then I have attempted to mod it (twice), failed, and uninstalled. The lack of the HP bars on bosses annoys me immensely and I somewhat dislike the visual style. On a positive note, now I remember how to rollback games on Steam, so I can get the less-bad ending in Signalis (one of the updates disabled the command that allowed to select it). Alas, I do not like the game enough to replay it as a third-person shooter with camera mods (the ending's requirements include a high body count). Still, the final boss battle is fairly enjoyable with the SMG if not particularly challenging. Granted, it also was the 4th or the 5th time I was replaying it. I have tried Daemon x Machina (EGS) and got through the character creation in 15 minutes. Not sure about the rest of the game, but paintable giant robots and rebindable controls are appealing.

Finished Signalis. A very pretty game with a lot of irritating design choices. The game successfully replicates everything I dislike about older console games - the unrebindable controls, the limited inventory, the severely restricted saving, and obscure ending requirements. Additionally, the most labyrinthine section misses the map. The combat system, with the combination of reviving foes (because zombies), limited ammunition, and the damage dealt depending on the time spent aiming (i.e. the longer you aim at a particular opponent, the higher the damage), is unpleasant, but this is expected and the least irritating of the design choices. If one can tolerate it and does not care about the outcome, it might be an interesting survival horror in a sci-fi setting, with a strong critique of communism in general and the Soviets/PRC in particular. The puzzles and bosses are easy enough (on the default difficulty) to keep the pacing consistent. Arguably, for the right-handed players with the QWERTY keyboard layout, the control scheme should be comfortable enough. The system requirements are adequate, the art and sound design are gorgeous (excluding the foes' screams upon noticing the protagonist, which get old fast), and 5-button mice are supported (the 4th and the 5th buttons are used for reloading and using the equipped item). Finally, the game is mostly VA-free (there are some spoken lines in German, but they are in the background).

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/valve-now-require-uk-steam-users-to-verify-their-ages-using-a-credit-card The petition to repeal the OSA: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903

Elephantasy turned out to not support the Steam Overlay and I noticed it too late, so there are very few screenshots for such an artistic game.

Intel i7 8750H (the Turbo Mode is disabled due to overheating), Nvidia RTX 2070, Win 10 with DirectX 12.1. The Avowed minimum system requirements are: OS: Windows 10/11 with updates Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 / Intel i5-8400 Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: AMD RX 5700 / Nvidia GTX 1070 / Intel Arc A580 DirectX: Version 12 Storage: 75 GB available space Which means it may or may not run, as the CPU and the OS version can easily be unsupported. While the 75GB download size means that I will not try any time soon. For the last part, my point of comparison is Steelrising - there were 26GB of the game and 40GB of junk that are unusable textures. It was kind of the developer to at least put them in one file, so I could easily remove them, yet I should not have to download them in the first place. --- https://itch.io/b/3171/game-devs-of-color-support-bundle There are at least a few game sthere from my wishlist (which I probably repurchase on Steam/GOG if I end up liking them enough).

I thank you for your input and I am happy to know that Avowed was working on your hardware. Nonetheless, I would like to point out that at release the Steam Deck performance was reported as poor with the FPS dropping below 30 at the lowest settings (the handheld is a decent indicator of whether it would run on my main system, excluding some OS version-related fluff which is a no-go), while the system requirements still show both the minimum and the recommended storage space as 75GB, meaning that the unusable for me textures are baked in and I would be forced to download them regardless. The Outer Worlds 1 was an excellent example of handing it - the players who could afford to spend more on their hardware and energy could access the more energy-consuming graphical features for a modest fee, while the others still could play the game comfortably without missing out on anything. Still, I am happy to wait for my hardware to be able to meet the recommended system requirements which is also likely to coincide with the price being equal to the consideration the developers gave to the optimisation. It is applicable for both The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed. I do hope that PoE3 will have "less graphics" and full save file import, should it ever happen. Arguably, PoEII is ~50GB, but it was worth it.

I have "finished" Elephantasy: Flipside as in "reached an ending" (there are 4). The game is significantly more hardcore (challenging and janky), than Tunic. It is also possible to teleport right outside the final boss room by editing the save file, if one knows the room’s coordinates. The final boss battle lasts about 8 minutes, providing that you do not die to the RNG and bugs. While I found the experience to be more frustrating than rewarding, due to the visibility (only one room is visible at a time) and platforming, if one seeks an old-school adventure with exploration and puzzles, this is it. It is also not possible to take screenshots via Steam Overlay.

The companions look quite good and the last line sounds very encouraging and appealing. Though, Microsoft still owns Obsidian. Well, that and the expectedly poor optimisation of TOW2 - I will not purchase something I cannot run, while the 4K textures would be a waste of storage space and energy. The developers not moving them into a separate free DLC show the lack of consideration for both the players and the environment. VTMB2 getting released is interesting. While I do not expect it to be a faithful successor or a deep immersive sim, it still might be an engaging action in the VTM setting. Granted, the voice-in-the-head will be silenced quite quickly.

I have finished Blasphemous 2. In terms of the moment-to-moment gameplay, it feels like an improvement, though narratively, the story wrapped up in the previous game, while the ridiculous number of various collectibles and the changes to the character’s builds somehow spoil the enjoyment. The game is still breathtakingly beautiful and the bosses are varied and challenging. I purchased the game with the DLC, so while I might not have noticed all differences, the clearly DLC-specific areas consisted mostly of the arenas, i.e. I could not proceed without murdering several waves of recoloured foes. The platforming challenges were mostly doable and the new weapon (1) functional. The bosses, however, were irritating, though the (probably) new spells helped greatly in dealing with them. I have also finished Planescape: Torment - Enhanced Edition. It runs well and there is a wide range of accessibility options, such as item highlight and font size. The unlimited number of manual hard saves and the ability to pause at any time were present in the original version as well and it is good to see them. Some cut-scenes were missing subtitles, however. Admittedly, without seeing why dialogue options are available or locked and because of the very limited class selection and character customisation in general, it is not the most engaging RPG-labeled game I have played, while the ending(s) is unsatisfying. Nonetheless, it is an important part of our history and it is welcome to see it to be available and accessible. I have started Elephantasy: Flipside which I’ve got from the Queer Games Bundle 2025. So far, it feels like Tunic, but with more hardcore platforming. The game looks lovely, the controls are customisable, and the map feels quite large. Partially, due to large chunks of it being inaccessible at the moment, as they require various traversal items I have not found yet. To be precise, I think I have found the main questline and the said pile of items, but I can hold only one at the moment, with the limit increasing as I progress with the game. There is some form of fast travel available from the start. The in-game map, unfortunately, is not quite helpful - it is monochromous and I cannot leave markers on it. It is 3D, though. I might proceed with it a bit longer or try another game from the bundle.

Thank you very much for the detailed response. Leap of Faith and Sapphire Safari sound fine - I liked Long Live the Queen (including the untimely demise near the ending because I did not get the magic crystal), so will try after completing the games I am currently playing (Planescape: Torment and Blasphemous 2). Regarding the match-3 games, I recently finished Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 and it was an amazing experience (the story was about game development). Though, might not be the most suitable title to zone out to.