Apparently, because of an exploit, currently you get a 30-day License or something, when you buy a game, and after the refund period is over (14 days), this gets replaced by a permanent license.
People have said this is because of jailbroken Playstations, where you could buy a game, extract the license or whatever else, refund the game, but you still have the files you need.
Some comments made it seem like it might just be a temporary fix, until Sony works out something more permanent, but I have no idea.
I was thinking more along the line of PaysafeCard or things like that, although that might have similar currency restrictions. Or of course you can just buy foreign prepaid cards from third-party resellers. You'll pay more than the card is actually worth, but if you would then be able to buy games for half price or even less, it would be worth it.
Directly in Steam it's not that easy, you need a billing address and Steam checks the payment method to verify the country (although I don't know if certain prepaid cards work for this as well).
You still have Steam keys, that can be sold anywhere though, and not everyone will care that this cheap key, intended for the Polish market is bought by someone in Germany.
I think the law doesn't say that prices have to be the same, it's just that you can't block people from other countries from buying stuff at the cheaper price.
With physical goods you either have to actually go to the country or get it shipped to you, which can make this not as easy or "profitable". However, with digital goods you just go to a website and there's not really anything to ship, except maybe an email, so those same hurdles don't exist, which is why those lower income countries usually get the short end of the stick with prices for games and stuff.
I think it's actually illegal to restrict this stuff in the EU.
In the past Steam had separate keys for lower income countries in Europe, that could only be activated there. However, either because laws changed or they started to actually be enforced, Steam had to change it.
You can still make the games cheaper to buy in those countries, but you also have to allow people from Germany, France, wherever to buy them (as long as it's in the EU), which very few publishers want to do.
Resist, so it's not much different from a good run, except for the different/extra dialogue and maybe that first time getting the Urge (which I knew about and saved Alfira).
Last playthrough I had everyone with me, and this time I was back to the default party size. However, I missed the extra banter and stuff, so I enabled the Party Size mod again, along with the Sit This One Out mod, so in fights it's still just four people.
Old Blizzard games at least don't need the internet to install and play, stuff like Diablo 2 and even Starcraft shouldn't. For offline play even the serial doesn't matter, because it's not checking against some online database or something (as long as the key you put in is possible/"real"). Only once you go online your key gets checked if it's actually real and if someone else has already used it, and if possible will be tied to an account.
Once you get to later installments of these series you get entries that either need a constant internet connection or an occasional check, like Diablo 3, the Diablo 2 Remaster and maybe Starcraft 2 as well.
It's weird that your Starcraft version needs an internet connection for the installation. I don't have that tied to my Battle.net Account, but I do have Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2. So I just downloaded those and did a quick test without internet, and they installed without issues. Yes, it's not the same as directly from the CDs, but it would be weird if the "modern" download was more convenient than the old stuff. I downloaded a downloader, that then downloaded the actual game. I remember stuff like that in the past as well, but maybe only for patches (and definitely World of Warcraft).
I might have some old CDs of these games as well, but they are buried in some boxes, stuck behind other stuff, so I can't quickly check if those are the same.
So true! Remember the good old days with games like Expedition 33, Baldur's Gate 3, Resident Evil 9? Those were the best. It's a pity games like that don't get made anymore.
Made it to Act 2 in my current Baldur's Gate 3 run. Since this is my first time going Dark Urge, I'm not playing on Honor Mode (although same difficulty settings, except not single save), and I'm definitely save scumming more, even if you ignore the times I'm just trying new stuff (did the exploit to kill Raphael in Act 1 for the first time for his loot).
I'm also using (sub)classes that I've never or rarely used this time. Swashbuckler is pretty neat and Druid Owlbear form is just dumb (in a good way). Frost Sorcerer seems neat, but I don't really care about getting enemies wet first for double damage, so I might just switch that build down the line. Wildheart Barbarian can really chunk, although it's mostly just hitting people with your stick. I then made Karlach to a dual crossbow Arcane Trickster, mainly for a token ranged build (I'm really melee heavy otherwise), but I'm not really feeling it, so I might change that up as well later.
I'm definitely starting to get burned out on BG3, since I played like 200h in the last two months or something. Although it's not like I'm fiending to play anything else right now (although I have a huge backlog), so it's still fine.
I think for most of your examples it's your rose-colored glasses speaking.
also a ton more Toxic and Mean
You're just forgetting all the console war stuff from the past. Or the "CoD lobby" type shit.
E3 or even Gamescom from the 2010s im like "Holy Shit look at all these Cool Games" but obviously nowadays its just "meh" really
Again, I think you're just not thinking about all these mediocre games that have existed since the very beginning. All the shitty movie tie-ins or whatever, that got pumped out all the time.
Gaming has been toxic and mean for a loooong time. Shitty games have been made since basically the very beginning.
It's the only policy that really makes sense right now.
With the disclosure policy they had before, basically nobody said they used some AI coding agent or whatever, because probably nobody would ever see the code.
Generated assets are still at the point where we can often identify them, so it's easy to call people out. Though once they're indistinguishable from human-made stuff, I doubt anyone is ever going to admit to using AI.
Sure, but there are so many Steam users every month, that even if only 1% or 0.1% of people get the survey, that's still a ton of people (over 40M concurrent, estimated 130M+ users every month)
Also, have the Linux users increased by over 50% month-to-month? The jump from ~3% at the start of the year to over 5% is huge.
It's possible there was something wrong with the data before and the 3% wasn't accurate or there's something wrong now and the 5% is not correct. That's all I'm saying.
The drop last month was because Chinese users increased by 30% (which were removed or whatever this month).
So even if you're going to be pedantic and ignore the whole of February and just go from the January stats to March directly, 3.5% to 5.3% is a massive jump that doesn't make sense. Why suddenly this month? Why not last year when W10 support ended?
One possible explanation is that maybe the old 3% Linux base was wrong and now something has been accounted for or has been corrected, so in reality it has been around 5% for a while, which is now shown correctly. That's why I'm saying I'm gonna wait a bit to take these stats at face value.
That 3% jump seems almost too big for me to believe. With the seemingly annual increase of Chinese users in February, which is then corrected in March (which we can see this time), I'd probably wait another month or two if more stats get adjusted or if Linux stays at over 5%.
I finished my latest Baldur's Gate 3 run, where I used mods to increase the party size and level cap (among others), but it wasn't pretty. For some reason, after getting to Act 3 and rescuing Minsc, the game just didn't want to exist anymore. It would constantly drop frames, until it got down to 2, which is obviously unplayable.
Apparently one of the latest hotfixes, which released in February messed something up and caused some major problems in Act 3 for some people. For me, this happened mainly when I had more than X party members, but only while running around. As I said, this started after getting Minsc, so for a while the game was fine with a party of 11 people, then the frame drops started. For a bit it worked with 8 people, but the more I played in Act 3, the more people I had to leave behind. At the end, even the default 4 almost were too much.
Weirdly enough, in combat everything was fine, no matter how many people there were, so I'd just get to some boss, go back to camp right before, get everyone, and start the fight. Still, some parts were absolute torture. I could play five minutes at most, maybe loot a single small room or talk with one or two people, then I'd have to restart my game. I was thinking about pausing the run and waiting for a patch, but since I was close to the end, and didn't know when and if a patch would release, I just powered through and finished the game. Of course, when I made it to the epilogue and the game crashed one final time, Steam downloaded the hotfix that had been released a couple of minutes earlier.
Anyway, I'm starting another run, this time relatively normal, and going Dark Urge for the first time.
I'm early in Act 2 in my latest Baldur's Gate 3 run.
Rolling around with the increased party limit is nice, because I get to hear a bunch of banter, that I'd never hear otherwise. I've basically never used Minthara, Jaheira or Minsc, and Halsin only once (he wouldn't stop flirting with Shadowheart in that playthrough). Since I'm trying to fuck everyone as well (except maybe Squid Man), there are also a ton of camp events. Act 1 had so many, that I had to long rest five or six times back-to-back at the end, in hopes of not missing one. Act 2 looks to be a bit more quiet right now, but Act 3 should get a ton again, with all the dates or conclusions to the companion quests.
As far as I've read, this is not true.
Apparently, because of an exploit, currently you get a 30-day License or something, when you buy a game, and after the refund period is over (14 days), this gets replaced by a permanent license.
People have said this is because of jailbroken Playstations, where you could buy a game, extract the license or whatever else, refund the game, but you still have the files you need.
Some comments made it seem like it might just be a temporary fix, until Sony works out something more permanent, but I have no idea.