Various video game stuff not deserving its own thread

[rusty_shackleford]

ScummVM supports Sanitarium and Nightlong now
https://www.mobygames.com/game/2564/nig ... onspiracy/
https://www.mobygames.com/game/572/sanitarium/

[Manny V]

Makes me think everyone should get Raft and play Raft with me

Do you have it is it fun how much does it cost

Raft isn't bad btw but janky as hell and makes no ******* sense.

I didn't pay for it but I'd play it with Oyster if he can figure out how to make that work.

seen stuff of it and it seems kinda fun, but you're forced to play as mystery meat brownoids, so eh

[Vergil]

I pirated sunkenland I'll let you know

Its feces from a posterior

[Statesman]

*fire 80% of your developers after making one of the gayest, most poorly performing games ever made*
*1 year later announce an actually good game*

https://www.harebrained-schemes.com/ (screenshots on page)

weird how companies seem to be able to fire 80% of their employees and actually improve, almost like most people actively make everything worse

"What if we made Shadowrun good?" Throw in mod support and I'm in.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

*fire 80% of your developers after making one of the gayest, most poorly performing games ever made*
*1 year later announce an actually good game*

https://www.harebrained-schemes.com/ (screenshots on page)

weird how companies seem to be able to fire 80% of their employees and actually improve, almost like most people actively make everything worse

"What if we made Shadowrun good?" Throw in mod support and I'm in.

But Shadowrun is good.

[Acrux]

Star Trucker is out. I think @rusty_shackleford said this was a nice simulation of space trucking and you can live in/explore the truck.

[Statesman]

"What if we made Shadowrun good?" Throw in mod support and I'm in.

But Shadowrun is good.

I mean, the whole Trilogy was decent, but to me it was such a letdown that I wouldn't call it good.

Returns felt like a tutorial, Dragonfall had a decent story and HK dropped the ball. The combat was good enough on paper, but the predictable AI+underutilized mechanics led to the whole game's difficulty being trivialized (even solo) outside of some unexpected ambushes (and then that only applied on a first playthrough). Honestly, I had more fun with the SNES and Genesis games, HBS' gave us a sanitized setting when coming from the 90s vibe I expected a proper Shadowrun game to have. I did play all of them at release, so in retrospect they could be considered "good" compared to what is being churned out these days.

[Finarfin]

Came across this game, looks really good and the demo felt very polished. The Cthulhu stuff is also not the same **** you see in al other games.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

"What if we made Shadowrun good?" Throw in mod support and I'm in.

But Shadowrun is good.

I mean, the whole Trilogy was decent, but to me it was such a letdown that I wouldn't call it good.

Returns felt like a tutorial, Dragonfall had a decent story and HK dropped the ball. The combat was good enough on paper, but the predictable AI+underutilized mechanics led to the whole game's difficulty being trivialized (even solo) outside of some unexpected ambushes (and then that only applied on a first playthrough). Honestly, I had more fun with the SNES and Genesis games, HBS' gave us a sanitized setting when coming from the 90s vibe I expected a proper Shadowrun game to have. I did play all of them at release, so in retrospect they could be considered "good" compared to what is being churned out these days.

Fair enough. Played an hour of Returns but it was more on rails then a train track so I dropped it. Dragonfall was great and HK was my favourite of the trilogy since I have a soft spot for games that’s focus on personal stories .Although the dialogue is way to wordy for its own good.


Haven’t played the rest of there games catalog but I heard it’s mixed.

[SpellSword]

I'm getting the feeling this one may be running into some legal trouble with the rightsholder for Alone in the Dark.



Oddly the game's name is spelled differently on Steam and GOG.
The Mansion of The Marcabre (Steam)
The Mansion of the Macabre (GOG)


Post from the Steam forum:

Not a clone. The same game. Either the devs ripped this free version and replaced the main characters or they are the same developers now cashing in after the unofficial remaster was taken down (due to copyright troubles?).

https://web.archive.org/web/20240814201 ... remastered

Alone in The Dark Remastered by Team Tatou


The Mansion of the Macabre by Spacefarer Team France

Q. What is this?

A. This is Tatou Team's official answer to a remaster never being developed for the original 1992 classic, 'ALONE IN THE DARK'. A modern remake was released this year but it's not the remake or remaster that fans including ourselves wanted, just another typical over the shoulder shooter with none of the original designs of the original game, mansion, sound effects and pretty much nothing that made Alone in The Dark the masterpiece it really was.

This is a faithful, nearly 1:1 remake of the original game, with remastered soundtrack, completely new graphics and redesign but keeping as faithful as possible to the original game. A walkthrough for the original game will pretty much be able to get you through the game from start to finish in the same way as before.

Q. Why?

A. Because we could and we wanted to. Simple answer!

Q. What's the differences between this and the original?

A. This is a near 1:1 remake in terms of game loop, but graphics and some game mechanics have been completely revamped. It plays in pretty much the same way as the original.

Q. What is Tatou?

A. Tatou is the French name for Armadillo, which was Infogrames' original logo back in the day (add a rat tail!) before the terrible Atari takeover. We adopted Tatou as our dev team's logo and name, and also the original Alone in The Dark's executable in DOS was Tatou.com.

Q. What's the legal status of this?

A. We don't charge anything for downloading and playing this, aside from a remastered soundtrack and sound files (which we are sure are samples from somewhere originally), we haven't used any other original assets of the game. We've remade everything from the ground up. This is a passion project giving fans what they always wanted, gratis and without warranty. Your use of this download and playing the game is down to your own enjoyment and love for the game. We don't benefit in any way from this, other than the fact that we can say we did it first before anyone else. We are hoping this gets the IP owner of AITD's attention or even Bruno Bonnell or Frédérick Raynal himself and release this as a bundle with the new game.

Q. How much did it cost?

A. We had to purchase the new game, the original (in fact we have the original floppies), a Unity Pro license, and assets. It cost us some money for sure.

Q. Was any AI used to produce this?

A. Yes, we used Meshy to recreate the Infogrames logo in 3D, an Oil Can and AI to upscale the Game Over screen and Book Background images. That's it. Everything else was done the good old fashion way. With lots of time and by hand.

Q. How do I download and play it?

A. Simply select download through the web browser and choose your language and OS version. It's even easier through the itch.io app.

Q. The game is running slow? What gives?

A. Try dropping the resolution down to 640x480 to really give your computer breathing space.

Q. Will Tatou remaster the rest of the original trilogy?

A. No, we do not plan to remaster Alone in The Dark 2 or 3.

[DagothGeas5]

Just found this game while looking for GOG counterparts to another. Does anyone know if it's a good one? Looks nice to me.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/star_wars_rebellion

[Acrux]

Just found this game while looking for GOG counterparts to another. Does anyone know if it's a good one? Looks nice to me.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/star_wars_rebellion

It's one of my absolute favorite Star Wars games, but you'd better like working with spreadsheets because Star Wars: Excel is probably a better name for it.

There's a 25th anniversary fan patch to get it running smoothly on modern OS (without it, you can get weird artifacts like the game running upside down), but do not use the new upscaled AI images. They are terrible.

There's also some edits you can make to stop the protocol droid's (long) introduction at the start of every game. You'll probably want to listen to it for your first game, though.

[rusty_shackleford]

Star Wars & Star Trek weirdly had a lot of good games, especially earlier ones. I suspect it has to do with the franchises being very 'nerdy'

[DagothGeas5]

Just found this game while looking for GOG counterparts to another. Does anyone know if it's a good one? Looks nice to me.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/star_wars_rebellion

It's one of my absolute favorite Star Wars games, but you'd better like working with spreadsheets because Star Wars: Excel is probably a better name for it.

There's a 25th anniversary fan patch to get it running smoothly on modern OS (without it, you can get weird artifacts like the game running upside down), but do not use the new upscaled AI images. They are terrible.

There's also some edits you can make to stop the protocol droid's (long) introduction at the start of every game. You'll probably want to listen to it for your first game, though.

I love this game already, thank you for all the info!

[rusty_shackleford]

Star Trucker is out. I think @rusty_shackleford said this was a nice simulation of space trucking and you can live in/explore the truck.

It's a very strange game, it's an in-depth simulation of something that does not(and will not) ever exist. I played the demo and found it interesting because there's nothing else really like that.


You'd think it was a comedy game or something, but it's taken very seriously. There's so few games that take themselves seriously anymore, let alone games that are absurd at face value but take themselves completely seriously.

[edit]
As an example of how it's absurd but taken seriously, you have these batteries that look like giant AA batteries which power a bunch of things in your truckship. You have to go manually replace these for when various systems are running out of power, including things like the gravity or the air scrubbers. And yes, you can die if you don't have enough oxygen in your truckship.


Hitting things will cause holes in your truckship you have to go out and patch, your suit has its own power/O2, etc., Without gravity, objects will go flying, you can get hit in the head with something like a tank and die, or they take damage and are worth less.

[WhiteShark]

[gerey]

Astrobot is the first succesful game Sony has had in a long time.

Here's the picture of the development team:



It's that thing about race and ethnicity I keep talking about all the time.

[KnightoftheWind]

I honestly think it's in their best interests if Astro Bot does 'just' well enough to be profitable, but not well enough for Sony to start noticing and risk ruining the only good thing they have going. If Team Asobi can remain small and creatively charged, they'll be all the better for it.

[Finarfin]

Astrobot is the first succesful game Sony has had in a long time.

Here's the picture of the development team:



It's that thing about race and ethnicity I keep talking about all the time.

Good for them. Astrobot looked quite nice and should be a fun platformer. Hope it doesn't sell all too well though, sony would negrofy it and hire some deranged ****** that refers to itself as "Professor"

[Tweed]

I'm getting the feeling this one may be running into some legal trouble with the rightsholder for Alone in the Dark.



Oddly the game's name is spelled differently on Steam and GOG.
The Mansion of The Marcabre (Steam)
The Mansion of the Macabre (GOG)


Post from the Steam forum:

Not a clone. The same game. Either the devs ripped this free version and replaced the main characters or they are the same developers now cashing in after the unofficial remaster was taken down (due to copyright troubles?).

https://web.archive.org/web/20240814201 ... remastered

Alone in The Dark Remastered by Team Tatou


The Mansion of the Macabre by Spacefarer Team France

Q. What is this?

A. This is Tatou Team's official answer to a remaster never being developed for the original 1992 classic, 'ALONE IN THE DARK'. A modern remake was released this year but it's not the remake or remaster that fans including ourselves wanted, just another typical over the shoulder shooter with none of the original designs of the original game, mansion, sound effects and pretty much nothing that made Alone in The Dark the masterpiece it really was.

This is a faithful, nearly 1:1 remake of the original game, with remastered soundtrack, completely new graphics and redesign but keeping as faithful as possible to the original game. A walkthrough for the original game will pretty much be able to get you through the game from start to finish in the same way as before.

Q. Why?

A. Because we could and we wanted to. Simple answer!

Q. What's the differences between this and the original?

A. This is a near 1:1 remake in terms of game loop, but graphics and some game mechanics have been completely revamped. It plays in pretty much the same way as the original.

Q. What is Tatou?

A. Tatou is the French name for Armadillo, which was Infogrames' original logo back in the day (add a rat tail!) before the terrible Atari takeover. We adopted Tatou as our dev team's logo and name, and also the original Alone in The Dark's executable in DOS was Tatou.com.

Q. What's the legal status of this?

A. We don't charge anything for downloading and playing this, aside from a remastered soundtrack and sound files (which we are sure are samples from somewhere originally), we haven't used any other original assets of the game. We've remade everything from the ground up. This is a passion project giving fans what they always wanted, gratis and without warranty. Your use of this download and playing the game is down to your own enjoyment and love for the game. We don't benefit in any way from this, other than the fact that we can say we did it first before anyone else. We are hoping this gets the IP owner of AITD's attention or even Bruno Bonnell or Frédérick Raynal himself and release this as a bundle with the new game.

Q. How much did it cost?

A. We had to purchase the new game, the original (in fact we have the original floppies), a Unity Pro license, and assets. It cost us some money for sure.

Q. Was any AI used to produce this?

A. Yes, we used Meshy to recreate the Infogrames logo in 3D, an Oil Can and AI to upscale the Game Over screen and Book Background images. That's it. Everything else was done the good old fashion way. With lots of time and by hand.

Q. How do I download and play it?

A. Simply select download through the web browser and choose your language and OS version. It's even easier through the itch.io app.

Q. The game is running slow? What gives?

A. Try dropping the resolution down to 640x480 to really give your computer breathing space.

Q. Will Tatou remaster the rest of the original trilogy?

A. No, we do not plan to remaster Alone in The Dark 2 or 3.

I'm interested except that all the scenes look way too ******* big.

[SpellSword]

Looks like the original Alan Wake is losing part of its soundtrack. The update is set to go live September 10th so there is still time to archive the current version if you wish.

► Screenshot of the post

Alan Wake (2010) will receive an update on September 10th at 11am UTC. The update will be to all PC versions (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG).

This update removes the song Space Oddity from the game due to changes in licensing, and replaces it with a new original song by Petri Alanko, Strange Moons.

Alan Wake Remastered (2021) will not be affected by the update.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

Astrobot is the first succesful game Sony has had in a long time.

Here's the picture of the development team:



It's that thing about race and ethnicity I keep talking about all the time.

Good for them. Astrobot looked quite nice and should be a fun platformer. Hope it doesn't sell all too well though, sony would negrofy it and hire some deranged ****** that refers to itself as "Professor"

Game looks like a fun platformer. I will probably get it on sale sine there no way I’m paying $79.99 for a game.

[Rand]

Astrobot is the first succesful game Sony has had in a long time.

Here's the picture of the development team:

It's that thing about race and ethnicity I keep talking about all the time.

[Rand]

[Finarfin]

German version of that game is mega woke. It used :innen and ****, even the voice actors say it

[rusty_shackleford]

glad they put the really important person front and center, nobody knows who the other people are

[Manny V]

glad they put the really important person front and center, nobody knows who the other people are

yeah like who's that fuckin nerd with the glasses, what a dork, go back to the library

[Finarfin]

A streamer that is anti-woke

[Rand]

German version of that game is mega woke. It used :innen and ****, even the voice actors say it

I don't understand. Is that some sort of Deutsche colloquialism?

[Rand]

Oh. A woke assault on grammar. I see.