I am surprised I’ve never heard of this.

It very much has that mid 90s attitude and unique to DOS too. From what I remember, consoles didn’t really have these sort of games.

The artwork is top notch and stands the test of time.

Very cool interview. Some interesting perspectives on the state of the market back then.

This looks really good! Thanks for the share!

Cool concept! Atmosphere looks very cozy!

A c/pcgaming and c/games UT2004 server would be a lot of fun!

You definitely need a little bit craziness and unpredictability to make a truly landmark game.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think truly good games (the ones that go down in history) need a certain amount of jank. Not jank for jank’s sake, but because something new, that makes you go “wow”, cannot have the same true and tried game design/gameplay approaches that have been done before.

Just look at the classics, they are considered milestones, but they have a lot of issues:

• F01 / F02 - It is very easy to mess up your build, but the flip side of this is you have a living world where you can play as a slaver, play as a character with development disabilities and discover a whole new approach. Even if you’ve played the game many times and are comfortable with older CRPGs, the early game can be a slog. I find I constantly have to kite and use cheese tactics in the first ~20% of the game.
• VTMB - Combat was generally subpar, especially if you went with weapons. Many abilities/skills were unbalanced. Late game was subpar.
• Deus Ex - Early to mid-game combat is a bit of a slog and considered unpolished by modern standards (but the flip side is that you feel the progression). Some of the stealth gameplay can feel a bit cheesy. I would argue weaponry is unbalanced. Arcanum - Picking the industrial direction resulted in much more tedious and difficult gameplay than going with magic. Both real-time and turn-based combat was shit.
• Morrowind - For some of the quests, I literally had to almost try a “point and click adventure” approach to figure out how to complete it. I was never a fan of the combat in Morrowind.

And yet I strongly prefer this approach (and modern versions such Space Wreck, Age of Decadence, Colony Ship, Consortium, New Vegas, UnderRail) to Obsidian’s recent output (let alone Bethesda with Starfield and Fallout 3).

I don’t know about that. If Valve made Left 4 Dead 3 with some minor iterative improvements (better graphics, same gameplay, maybe a new mode) and no trash monetisation (B2P like the first two games), I think it would be very successful.

Back 4 Live Service Game Failure

I see. Thank you for that.

FWIW, I do my best to promote non-ML alternatives.

This looks pretty cool! Thanks for the share.

Thank you!

That’s fine too.

Only occasional content from my perspective, just would be cool to have clarity whether we have the zip or the LW version as a main comm for cross-posting from [email protected].

I didn’t know you could embed images in the sidebar.

Haven’t bought an EA game since the SimCity 2013 reboot. They straight up lied about the nature of the game.

The funniest thing is that 13 years and $900 M later, they still don’t have a working economy or even a basic balance concept. They have 200+ ships (many in JPEG form for over a decade) in their cash shop they’ve thought about beyond flashes sales videos and 3D assets.

I’ve played the demo and it’s actually a lot of fun, interesting use of real time for the tactical element, but turn based the strategy view.

It was also rather challenging but in a good way.

AM from I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream

This is a very naive and ignorant take. In the major cities, quality of life is on part with EU for many.

Furthermore, even with demographic splits (e.g. russians aged 18-24, urban russians), all major demographic groups show at least strong majority support for chauvinism, authoritarianism and genocidal imperialism.

There are some variations of course. But it’s more along the lines of overwhelming/near absolute majority support (e.g 50+) or strong majority support (18-34). You also find interesting variantions where “middle age” segments tend to be less supportive (on a relative basis, the segment as whole still shows strong majority support) of genocidal imperialism than young adults/early middle age (18-34); likely because they have more to lose.

Russians have the capability to build a better future for themselves (without invasions), they just don’t want to because they haven’t gotten a taste of their own medicine (where they are treated like they treat others).

EU is massive in enabling this attitude. Consider the fact that Merkel, even from retirement, is promoting russian genocidal imperialism by claiming that Poland and the Baltic nation are responsible for the full scale invasion:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/06/angela-merkel-poland-baltics-blame-ukraine-war/

When it’s the russians and putin (a symptom, with the cause being russians) who are to blame for their own invasion.

April Ryan is hated by fans (as opposed to even mixed views)?