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STEAM Announcements & Updates 2014 - To Next-Gen and Beyond!

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Hasney

Member
Since SteamOS now has official dual-boot support and streaming beta is out, it might be time to dip my toes in on my laptop. See if streaming is any better with a (hopefully) lower overhead on an underpowered laptop.
 

Acccent

Member
So, I just finished The Swapper.

the-swapper-cover.png


It's amazing. Exceedingly clever, the mechanic perfectly blends with the theme and the story, the visuals and the audio work together to create an atmosphere that's absolutely incredible and evokes concepts of physicality and organicity, in keeping with the narrative.

Specifically, the mechanic, while at first sight not really mind-blowing (I believe I have seen this cloning idea elsewhere before, on several occasions), turns out to be masterfully executed and explored, and a multiple points during the game you come across a puzzle that forces you to think outside the box and use the same tools that have been at your disposal since the start of the game in entirely new ways - actually this feeling might be the game's signature, the sudden jaw drop when you realize that, wait, I can use this device in that way too! I sincerely can't recall any game ever reinventing a single main mechanic in so many intelligent ways. Baffling.

With regards to the story, it's super clever as well, and it's told in a way that requires thought and participation - you have to piece things together, it's not all easily laid out in chronological order for you to gulp blindly. It works brilliantly because you are drawn to reflect on the themes and questions raised, and the answers are not obvious at all - you are led to ponder about the nature of your own mind and identity, in a way. The ending is phenomenal too. One slight frustration:
I didn't actually understand it all - I mean, I did get the story, but I was confused by the events happening on two or three instances... mostly because the same actor voices all the 'antagonists'. I know it's on purpose, but still, I didn't always know if I was following orders or rebelling against them...

So, yeah. All in all, probably one of the most clever games I've ever played, if not the most clever. I encourage you all to play it if you don't mind putting your brain to work.
 

Dr Dogg

Member
Since SteamOS now has official dual-boot support and streaming beta is out, it might be time to dip my toes in on my laptop. See if streaming is any better with a (hopefully) lower overhead on an underpowered laptop.

Using an 8 year old laptop on its last legs, although when running Windows 7, it was almost flawless. Also considering the native res is only 1280x800 and the host was displaying 1920x1080 you end up gets a super crisp Supersampled image when you unlock the bandwidth.

Running Dark Souls with DSFix set to 3200x1800 and then put down to 1280x710 when it streamed there was not even a trace of aliasing.

Linux was a different story on the same hardware but I think Ubuntu is a bit heavier than what that laptop can handle but OS X on a 2006 poly iMac was fine.
 

Hasney

Member
Using an 8 year old laptop on its last legs, although when running Windows 7, it was almost flawless. Also considering the native res is only 1280x800 and the host was displaying 1920x1080 you end up gets a super crisp Supersampled image when you unlock the bandwidth.

Running Dark Souls with DSFix set to 3200x1800 and then put down to 1280x710 when it streamed there was not even a trace of aliasing.

Linux was a different story on the same hardware but I think Ubuntu is a bit heavier than what that laptop can handle but OS X on a 2006 poly iMac was fine.

Nice! I'm streaming to a 720p TV, I have no idea why I didn't think of supersampling from 1080p to the streams 720p on the games that can handle it from my rig. Thanks for the tip!.

It's an 8gb RAM AMD A4-5000, so it's new, just cheap. As long as I can find drivers for everything, I'll report back with how well it works in SteamOS compared to Windows 8.1.
 

Ban Puncher

Member
I just bought the Legacy of Kain pack on Amazon, redeemed the keys on Steam and then suddenly thought "Wait, I'm never going to ever play these fucking games." then let out a long sigh.
 

NaM

Does not have twelve inches...
I just bought the Legacy of Kain pack on Amazon, redeemed the keys on Steam and then suddenly thought "Wait, I'm never going to ever play these fucking games." then let out a long sigh.

Sucks for you because those are great games.
 

yuraya

Member
I just bought the Legacy of Kain pack on Amazon, redeemed the keys on Steam and then suddenly thought "Wait, I'm never going to ever play these fucking games." then let out a long sigh.

You never know when that boring rainy day might come and you decide to start up the game because you had nothing else to do.
:p
 

Ban Puncher

Member
I remember when all I had was a NES and three games and nothing else. There was no such concept as a backlog back then.

And those games got played.
 

neoemonk

Member
wireless or ethernet? Ethernet seems to fix most connection related problems

I've tried both and the performance was the same. When I display statistics I'm specifically seeing high display latency, usually greater than 200 ms.

Granted this is a pretty low budget laptop, but I am a little disappointed because I thought that was kind of the point.
 

Hawkie

Member
PC Steam - Bioshock Infinite+Clash in the Clouds+Columbia's Finest DLC for £4.99 at GameKeysNow (require phone text verification on 1st order)
 

Khaz

Member
Can you stream anything? Or just specific games, like those that have overlay enabled or only proper Steam games (ie not non-steam games with a Steam shortcut)?
 

neoemonk

Member
I just bought the Legacy of Kain pack on Amazon, redeemed the keys on Steam and then suddenly thought "Wait, I'm never going to ever play these fucking games." then let out a long sigh.

I loved Soul Reaver back in the day. I never played any of the others but maybe I should now...
 

Acccent

Member
hm, I just took a glance at the Swapper achievements, surprised that I hadn't unlocked a single one during the game. wtf? i don't care about not having them, but those descriptions sure aren't helping should one try to get them all :D

edit: ah, just googled them and they're all for
hidden rooms
, terrible.
 

neoemonk

Member
Can you stream anything? Or just specific games, like those that have overlay enabled or only proper Steam games (ie not non-steam games with a Steam shortcut)?

I believe they added support for non-Steam games as well but to actually test it I'd have to dig out a disc and install it and frankly that's absurd. We're not Neanderthals after all.
 

Deques

Member
hm, I just took a glance at the Swapper achievements, surprised that I hadn't unlocked a single one during the game. wtf? i don't care about not having them, but those descriptions sure aren't helping should one try to get them all :D

How is it possible that this
7cc0d568199293b4c9372900c3974245596976cb.jpg

achievement has been unlocked by more players than this
d0b174692fa60a433c3929df2086262c91cf27d9.jpg
 

PriitV

Member
Can you stream anything? Or just specific games, like those that have overlay enabled or only proper Steam games (ie not non-steam games with a Steam shortcut)?

You can stream anything that you can add overlay to, don't have to be bought from steam.
 
Can you stream anything? Or just specific games, like those that have overlay enabled or only proper Steam games (ie not non-steam games with a Steam shortcut)?

I tested it with Final Fantasy X via PCSX2 last night and it worked well, aside from my terrible WiFi connection.
 

Dr Dogg

Member
Can you stream anything? Or just specific games, like those that have overlay enabled or only proper Steam games (ie not non-steam games with a Steam shortcut)?

The folks in the group are keeping a running list up together.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/homestream/discussions/0/630802978907558546/

Everything I've tried has worked so far. jediyoshi got Origin working through shortcuts but Hasney couldn't get dolphin to register Xinput or Wii Remote controls whilst streaming.

Pop on in the thread as there quite a bit more activity in there now and ashecitism is doing a great job of keeping the OP updated with pertinent information.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=751832
 

Copons

Member
hm, I just took a glance at the Swapper achievements, surprised that I hadn't unlocked a single one during the game. wtf? i don't care about not having them, but those descriptions sure aren't helping should one try to get them all :D

edit: ah, just googled them and they're all for
hidden rooms
, terrible.

Yup. It's one thing I totally hated, mainly because
they're not JUST hidden... they're literally impossible to find without at least a guide pointing you to the right places. - also, for sure now someone will come saying that there are LOTS of visual hints, but don't believe them, they just want to scramble your mind!! :D
 

Duriii

Member
Does The Showdown Effect have local multiplayer? Like 4 people using 4 controllers on the same computer?

Unfortunately, no it doesn`t have that. I`m not even sure if it has controller support, I think that controls for this game were made with KB+M support in mind.

Having said that, it's still a pretty cool multiplayer game, perfect for 1 or 2 quick, 5 minute rounds at a time. I really enjoyed those 12 hours I spend with it, and I still sometimes play it...
 

Hasney

Member
The folks in the group are keeping a running list up together.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/homestream/discussions/0/630802978907558546/

Everything I've tried has worked so far. jediyoshi got Origin working through shortcuts but Hasney couldn't get dolphin to register Xinput or Wii Remote controls whilst streaming.

Pop on in the thread as there quite a bit more activity in there now and ashecitism is doing a great job of keeping the OP updated with pertinent information.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=751832

Someone in the Steam group claimed to get controls working in Dolphin after the last client update. Going to try again tonight, but the poster in question failed to answer if his controls were hooked up to the host or client computer.

Might have a roadblock on my tryout of SteamOS, people have trouble getting some Chinese knockoff wireless 360 controller adaptors like mine to work. Still, I'm curious enough to try it anyway.
 

Dr Dogg

Member
Someone in the Steam group claimed to get controls working in Dolphin after the last client update. Going to try again tonight, but the poster in question failed to answer if his controls were hooked up to the host or client computer.

Might have a roadblock on my tryout of SteamOS, people have trouble getting some Chinese knockoff wireless 360 controller adaptors like mine to work. Still, I'm curious enough to try it anyway.

When you mentioned Dolphin last night the first thing that came into my mind was Metroid Prime Trilogy. Then I realised I don't have a spare 8gb memory card or hard drive to dump the disc onto :(

Going to pick one up on the way home. Hope my Wii still works.
 

Divius

Member
uw6P3FJ.jpg

Finished Shelter which was pretty great. Took me about 2 hours, but that included me going afk for a bit and some idling for cards. It is serene and peaceful, but at other times there is a real sense of danger and the urge to survive kicks in. I loved the visuals and music as well. Can't say all my
little badgers made it to the end
, but c'est la vie. The ending was surprisingly
sad
as well.
 

JakeD

Member
i have a few GFWL games i've never even installed, should i go through and install and "activate" all of them? will it even matter in terms of long term playability?
 
So, I just finished The Swapper.

the-swapper-cover.png


It's amazing. Exceedingly clever, the mechanic perfectly blends with the theme and the story, the visuals and the audio work together to create an atmosphere that's absolutely incredible and evokes concepts of physicality and organicity, in keeping with the narrative.

Specifically, the mechanic, while at first sight not really mind-blowing (I believe I have seen this cloning idea elsewhere before, on several occasions), turns out to be masterfully executed and explored, and a multiple points during the game you come across a puzzle that forces you to think outside the box and use the same tools that have been at your disposal since the start of the game in entirely new ways - actually this feeling might be the game's signature, the sudden jaw drop when you realize that, wait, I can use this device in that way too! I sincerely can't recall any game ever reinventing a single main mechanic in so many intelligent ways. Baffling.

With regards to the story, it's super clever as well, and it's told in a way that requires thought and participation - you have to piece things together, it's not all easily laid out in chronological order for you to gulp blindly. It works brilliantly because you are drawn to reflect on the themes and questions raised, and the answers are not obvious at all - you are led to ponder about the nature of your own mind and identity, in a way. The ending is phenomenal too. One slight frustration:
I didn't actually understand it all - I mean, I did get the story, but I was confused by the events happening on two or three instances... mostly because the same actor voices all the 'antagonists'. I know it's on purpose, but still, I didn't always know if I was following orders or rebelling against them...

So, yeah. All in all, probably one of the most clever games I've ever played, if not the most clever. I encourage you all to play it if you don't mind putting your brain to work.



You're right, the game is absolutely fantastic, this was one of those "headphones, lights off" games for me. I managed to get really caught up in the story. Looking past the story and gameplay that you described, I thought the graphics were really unique and interesting, it almost felt like a claymation, with random real-world objects scattered throughout the foreground. The voice acting was really fitting, and I always felt compelled to listen to every conversation, which isn't really common for me in most video games.


Edit: btw, if you liked this game, check out the movie "Europa Report", it gave me a lot of the same sort of feelings as The Swapper with regards to atmosphere.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
After ~200 hours, I've finally finished Black Flag (save for the DLC)!


But of course, it wouldn't be an Ubi game without a hilarious bug. After I skipped the end credits, the game spawned me at the very top of the game world:


I was free-falling for a good 20 or so seconds before I saw solid ground:


And I continued to fall for a further ~20 seconds before I hit it:

 

Caerith

Member
After ~200 hours, I've finally finished Black Flag (save for the DLC)!



But of course, it wouldn't be an Ubi game without a hilarious bug. After I skipped the end credits, the game spawned me at the very top of the game world:



I was free-falling for a good 20 or so seconds before I saw solid ground:



And I continued to fall for a further ~20 seconds before I hit it:
Congrats! How many save files did it take you?
 

Dr Dogg

Member
After ~200 hours, I've finally finished Black Flag (save for the DLC)!



But of course, it wouldn't be an Ubi game without a hilarious bug. After I skipped the end credits, the game spawned me at the very top of the game world:



I was free-falling for a good 20 or so seconds before I saw solid ground:



And I continued to fall for a further ~20 seconds before I hit it:

My god I know I shouldn't be but that has me in stitches. I've got R Kelly stuck in my head and it's just poor old dead Edward with the words Desynchronized above him that's giving me the giggles.
 
After ~200 hours, I've finally finished Black Flag (save for the DLC)!



But of course, it wouldn't be an Ubi game without a hilarious bug. After I skipped the end credits, the game spawned me at the very top of the game world:



I was free-falling for a good 20 or so seconds before I saw solid ground:



And I continued to fall for a further ~20 seconds before I hit it:

The game actually looks pretty nice from that zoomed out, top down perspective.

Also, it would have been better if Kenway was impaled on the mast of his ship.
 
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