From the maker of Demon's Souls.  Meaning Satan who is the Devil.

Google announced a new streaming games platform, Google Stadia, Tuesday.



I watched it, and have seen mixed reactions.  I am concerned about this as well. On the positive side, there is an appeal to it -- you can play games at very high graphical detail, without spending anything on hardware.    A lot of tech companies think streaming is the future of games, and it's easy to see why, if they can solve the biggest immediate problem streaming has, input lag -- it takes time for that data to get from your device to the data center where the processors are, and any game where quick reaction times are important will be very hard to get running as well streaming as they do on a local box, if it is indeed possible.  A lot of people may not care about that and streaming may well take off in a big way eventually, but you do need good internet in a way a lot of places still don't have, no data caps (unlike a lot of ISPs today), but those are big issues Google will be dealing with for at least the near future that probably will limit Stadia adaptation.  Maybe in ten years internet speeds, routers, and such will have made major strides forward, to the point where more kinds of games will run great remotely... though again there are limitations they will probably have a problem with -- games which require frame-perfect timing, are they ever popular remotely given the limits of the speed of light?  A lot of kinds of games should work and zero hardware costs is a nice thing for Google to mention because it does save people money and increase access... if people don't mind a probably laggier experience that will make some kinds of games worse.  Oh, and Youtube integration, since Google owns Youtube, is also something which should make it easy for them to push Stadia pretty hard.

Of course, there are other reasons to be worried about Stadia that aren't about the technology and hardware itself.  First, it's that this is being made by Google, one of the largest tech companies and one definitely not exactly known for caring about people or rights or anything of the sort.  For example, as I've seen mentioned repeatedly, Google's controller for the Stadia connects to your wi-fi itself, and then from there directly to Google's servers.  This controller has a microphone in it, which Google is sure to be listening to in order to sell you advertising and such at minimum.  The presentation claims that Stadia will also be usable with other controllers, but will voice be required or something?  We'll have to see.  Regardless, Google is definitely not a trustworthy company with private or personal data, and 100% of your data in Stadia is stored in Google servers.  I don't know that I'd want that...

And beyond that, as someone who loves classic gaming as well as modern, there are very obvious major issues with an all-streaming future -- in this future, there are no used games.  There is no classic game market beyond what companies allow you to play.  Once a game is removed from sale, it vanishes, permanently, unless someone on the developer side saved a copy themselves and leaks it... which would probably be unlikely for legal reasons.  So you want to play a great sports game from five years ago?  Sorry, the licensed expired, it's gone forever now.  Company went bankrupt?  All their games no one else wants to pick up go away forever!  This is the corporate-first, people-last future we are heading towards, and it is a very bad thing.

So yeah, I guess I think that this might be cool for some kinds of games, but I do not trust Google and am sad for a future of games where companies can choose what games remain in existence, and not game players.  A whole lot of the older games I like would not be able to be played, at all, ever, in the streaming future and that is horrible.

We'll see, though.  Fortunately for now physical media and local copies of games on a box you have yourself still exist.  I'm not opposed to streaming at all, but the rights and future-playablility issues are huge for me, and companies most definitely do NOT want them to be solved -- they don't make much money from people playing their old games, after all, only their newer ones!

Anyone own it and is it worth $5?

Somehow, I had missed this game.  It is literally called that.  The nerve!

Yes I know, it's a very timely time to make levels for Mario Maker 1 for Wii U... yeah...

Anyway, I made this level a while ago (2017 or so?  I bought the 3DS version right when it came out.) for the 3DS version of the game, and finished it but of course you can't upload from that version.  After buying a Wii U I played that version some, but mostly just other peoples' levels; I didn't go into the creator until recently, after the Mario Maker 2 announcement inspired me to finally try to upload my level.  I had to unlock all the parts in the game first, which isn't too hard when you look up how to do it quickly, then recreate the level carefully by making it from scratch on Wii U while looking at it on 3DS, because I don't think there is a way to transfer levels between versions, only from one 3DS to another.  That's pretty unfortunate, but I got it exactly the same, then tried to upload it... but it's moderately challenging, so I didn't get it at first.  I tried again today, finally, and finished it!  So yeah, the level is uploaded.  It's a moderate challenge but not one of those insane stages.
 
64C7-0000-03DC-1903

(It's not uploaded under my Mii named for me because I didn't remember to switch back from this one, but oh well, that's fine.)

I am working on getting them integrated but the way it was saved in the old software is making it difficult create a direct importer.
In the meantime those people looking for the files can download attachments from the site in zip format.

here

Need to fix the theme to make it a bit more responsive but there there again.
  


 
             
                    


 

ROFL