Oh, are we talking about butts? Guess I'll take this moment to reply to...

Those are the two tattooed on the arm of someone I know...

From the comments I've seen, I'm betting it's not really about where she falls on the pretty/ugly spectrum, it's that they want to be stepped on and smothered by their busty, ten-foot-tall, 'mommy.' She sits at the crossroads of a number of fetishes.

• She's female (duh)
  
• Monster girl
  
• Tig bitties and anything that implies
  
• Giant and anything that implies (crushing, smothering, etc.)
  
• Masochism
• Mother (and ain't that one just a Pandora's Box in the middle of a minefield)
  
• Probably checks some boxes related to wealth, high social standing, and the old fashioned garb, if that's even a thing, fetish-wise
  
• Aaaand she has a bunch of monster daughters, so there's that

Not my bag, but I guess it's true that there's just no accounting for taste degeneracy.

Closer to the core topic: Anyone play Noita? As suicide simulators go- Wait, why am I on fire again? That game makes me wish it had a dedicated volume/bass slider for explosions. If I turn it down enough the explosions don't rattle my teeth, I can't hear anything else.

I haven't played it much, but I may suck at Star Wars: Squadrons.

I- I really need to finish my lame FO4 mods and- oh hey, is that a video about the history of the fez and will it save me from the crushing and ever present ennui?

 

Ooof. Cutting Pinnacle station sucks. This is one of those situations where I'm not sure how the source code helps more than having the finished product.

That dlc is a godsend for getting powerful weapons and armor early, so removing it is unfortunate.

 

I still have no clue what this is about or what the plot will be but it looks amazing

 

Yeah, personally I don't really care. I mean, I enjoyed the Miranda butt-shots, but not being a teenager anymore, a nice butt is not the be-all, end-all of what makes a game good.

Now if they want to cut down on the "male gaze" stuff as I've heard some put it, I'd like them to do away with that abominable horror show that was Ashley's default ME3 appearance. Ashley was one of my favorite characters from ME1, largely because (pink default armor aside), every aspect of her character (personality, mannerisms, body language, and appearance) all felt somewhat realistically "military." She had a regulation hairstyle/length, used a regulation-approved amount of makeup, and when off duty she wore the same practical fatigues that all the other soldiers did. Iirc, she also never made any reference to her appearance, or expressed any insecurities about it. She just seemed comfortable in her own skin, with nothing to prove when it came to her looks, because that wasn't who she was or what she was about.

Cut to ME3 and they've got her dolled up in relatively slutty armor with freaking built-in high heels, a far beyond regulation hair length in a non-reg compliant style, with an almost clownish amount of makeup slathered on her face. It was so jarring, so drastically out of character that I just couldn't play with her in the party anymore. No joke, to this day I still have no idea how the MaleShep/Ashley romance arc progresses in ME3, because I couldn't stand to look at her long enough to play it through. It irritated me so much that every single playthrough after that first one, I made sure to only use saves where I'd let her die on Virmire in ME1.

I figured it was better to have her die with her dignity intact than have to see this character that I had liked and respected turned into a sex object for brain-dead twelve-year-olds to slobber over. So if Bioware is on an anti-sexism kick with this remaster, it would be nice to see them do away with that crap, or at least give us an alternate appearance option that is a little closer to her ME1/ME2 look.

 

Reject Humanity
Embrace Monke

Been cautiously interested in this game since the first trailer dropped.

 

Yeah, that game is the definition of unforgiving. You have a rapid-fire one-shot-everything weapon and are immune to melee, fire and explosives, you are descending carefully trough the Temple of Art and out of the dark beyond visible range there comes a spell that turns you into a helpless sheep. Game over.

And just straight forward beating the boss barely scratches the surface of the wider world you can explore. Maybe someday.

 

I didn't really have any expectations coming into this Nintendo Direct and I still felt disappointed.

 

So, has anyone else been trying to play Stellaris (or any other Paradox game) lately but the Paradox Launcher doesn't work? Judging by the dates attached to what comes up when I google "Stellaris launcher doesn't work", this is a long-term recurring issue, but none of the recommended fixes I've seen have worked at all.

 

Yes, it's been an issue for some time. But technically you don't need to use the launcher. All Paradox games should start fine if you just use the exe. You'll loose out on easy mod support however.

If you are looking for a more permanent fix I'd be glad to help. But like with most tech support, the more detailed the description of the problem and your attempts to fix it, the better. Depending on your internet the quickest way to try and fix it could be a tabula rasa.

1. uninstall Stellaris
   
2. delete the Stellaris folder from your steamapps
   
3. delete your config folder (back up your saves if you want to keep them)
   
4. uninstall the Paradox Launcher v2
   
5. delete all the Paradox related %APPDATA% folders
   C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2
   C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcherpath (should be gone)
   C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2 (should only contain logs)
6. reinstall Stellaris (do not launch it)
7. manually download the current launcher
8. unzip it and install it as admin
9. try and start Stellaris through steam as normal

If it's still not starting you should check you AV, if you have the redistributables installed (C++, DirectX, ect.) and update your windows. Unsubscribing from all mods in the workshop might also help.

 

Thanks @lopeck , I'll give that a shot. Full-blown scorched earth is about the only thing I haven't tried yet. My internet connection seriously sucks and it'll take ages to finish the download, but I don't think I have much choice at this point. For some reason using the .exe doesn't work, so I'm just SOL if a total reinstall doesn't do it.

 

If just the plain stellaris.exe doesn't work it points to something else going wrong, not necessarily (just) the launcher. If your internet is slow you might want to check the other things off your list first. Install the files under Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist, restart, and try to start the exe as admin.
You could also try to verify the game files if you haven't already. Should be lot less to download if you just got a corrupt file somewhere.

 

A quick note, you'll probably have to download your mods again if you repair your install. But if you can't play at all it's a small price to pay.

 

*Sigh* Didn't work. Same shit keeps happening no matter what I try. The Launcher seems to work, I hit 'Play', the Stellaris logo appears and it looks like it's about to start, then it immediately freezes up and stops responding. I think I'm just going to have to deal with Paradox Tech Support more directly to figure it out.

 

That very much sounds like a problem with your hardware/drivers. Did you install the redistributables? Try and update you graphics drivers? Made sure you AV isn't blacking anything?

But yeah, support is probably your best bet.

 

Well I feel both very confused and very stupid. Following advice posted yesterday on Devtrackers, I switched the game's display mode to Borderless Fullscreen and now Stellaris works again. It took literally less than 30 seconds to fix it after 3 days of frustration. I have no fucking clue why it works, but it does, so I'm not going to question it...

 

*cough* and on that note:

This on their discord followed by the official announcement that they've given Hardsuit Labs the boot. Straight up removed the entire team from the project, and no longer taking pre-orders as there is no known release date.

RIP.

 

I'm assuming most people here are PC gamers, so this may not be of interest but Sony released a bunch of news in an interview with GQ UK as well as on their blog. These are some of the highlights:

• Sony's next gen headset is set to come out next year with dev kits to be sent out imminently. It has a 'very easy single-cord setup,' while enhancing everything from 'resolution to field-of-view to tracking and input.' They said they'll be updating the VR controller too to be more ergonomic while having some of the features the dual sense has (not stated, but I imagine the advanced haptics are one of those features).
• GT7 was pushed to 2022 and man, you gotta be pissed if you're a racing fan on PS. Polyphony has to be the slowest dev in the industry, and they don't even have the excuse of having the 'hands-down best sim racer' on the market anymore.
• Returnal, Ratchet and Horizon 2 confirmed for release this year. Notably (and annoyingly on the questioner's part) GoW2 wasn't mentioned, though that was clearly the most obvious candidate of push back in the history of game announcements.
• A new State of Play will be airing this week where they said there'll be deep dives on upcoming games. Likely games are, as mentioned, Ratchet (coming in June) and Returnal (in April I think?). I hope to see Kena: Bridge of Spirits too (a timed PS exclusive), which is supposed to come out next month after it was pushed back, but maybe it got pushed back again and I missed it?
• They'll start releasing a lot more games on PC (it's bizarre to me that they don't have their own store so they can get PC gamers on PS+ or just take 100% of the sales of their games on their own platform). Days Gone is supposed to be coming later this year.

 

So, Bioware is cutting all resources and development on Anthem so they can focus on the next ME and Dragon Age titles.

Mass Effect Andromeda died so that Anthem could be stillborn

https://www.ign.com/articles/anthem-development-ceases-bioware-to-focus-on-dragon-age-mass-effect

 

Not at all surprised to hear that, and anyways, I‘ve gotten used to this since GT5. GT Sport is a fairly well-rounded game now with great online modes, so that and a couple of others (F1 2020, ACC) are currently keeping me busy.

 

Man, remember the good ol' days when someone said "Bioware's coming out with a new game!" and we immediately knew it was going to be great? I've been waiting for a Jade Empire sequel for well over a decade, but now all I can do is hope that some other studio buys the rights to make it, because these days we know Bioware would just screw it up.

We'll see what they pull off with their new projects, but having recently played through Mass Effect Andromeda for the first time, I don't have a lot of hope. That game was just chock full of bafflingly bad design, mechanics and story choices. It's like making something thoroughly inferior to Mass Effect 3 in almost every way was their actual goal.

I've never played Anthem, but I've also never heard anything good about it, so I probably never will. What happened? Did Bioware/EA just fire everyone who knew how to make a good game back in 2012 or 2013?