They seem to love writing cities and fantasy-tech too, going by some of the stuff in BG3.

Looks like Shadowrun’s licensing is a complicated mess though, with Microsoft at least involved, so I guess it’s unlikely :(

Oh man, imagine if they did a Shadowrun game. Take their fantasy credentials/writing and mix it with cyberpunk…

Awesome!

I wonder if things will organize around a “unofficial” modding API like Harmony for Rimworld, Forge for Minecraft, SMAPI for Stardew Valley, and so on? I guess it depends if some hero dev team does it and there’s enough “demand” to build a bunch of stuff on it. But a “final” patch (so future random patches don’t break the community API) and community enthusiasm from Larian are really good omens.

Skyrim and some other games stayed more fragmented, others like CP2077 just never hit critical mass I guess. And the format of the modded content just isn’t the same for mega RPGs like this.

How is the modding scene these days? Seems like there’s a lot in the patch addressing that, but are things still more aesthetic?

Hmm. My old HTC Android handsets had good, low noise analog output, my Razer Phone’s dongle was OK. My iPhone (bought because its the only thing discounted in the US anymore) has never been without the KA3, but I can’t hear any kind of noise floor or DAC “distortion” from it either.

But some of my old computers were menaces, and even my new mobo’s “premium” audio has a noticeable noise floor.

Also.

But USB power is also often dirty as all hell

One thing I’ve dreamed of is “Smartphones as DACs.” Like, you plug it in via USB, power the DAC off the battery, and on top of all that, use the huge SoC as a DSP for spatial audio or whatever. They’re generally much less noisy than a PC.

But manufacturers aren’t interested in that :(

An old PCI sound card can’t be stuck in a PCIe slot.

Heh, this is me. I have a great-sounding Asus Xonar ST that’s gathering dust.

Picked up a tiny USB Fiio KA3, works on my phone, my PC, everything. It just lives on my headphones.

Some people spend a lot of time, money in mobile games.

Occam’s Razor. I think it’s just the “default device” and placed in front of their eyes, so it’s what most people choose?

Yeah, you and @ampersandrew@lemmy.world have a point.

I am vastly oversimplifying a lot, but… Perhaps mobile gaming, on aggregate, is too shitty for its own good? It really looks that way whenever I sample the popular ones.

live service games make up a significant amount of what the average consumer wants, and those customers largely play on PC for all sorts of reasons

You are leaving out the elephant in the room: smartphones.

So, so, so many people game on smartphones. It’s technically the majority of the “gaming” market, especially live service games. A large segment of the population doesn’t even use PCs and does the majority of their computer stuff on smartphones or tablets, and that fraction seems to be getting bigger. Point being the future of the Windows PC market is no guarantee.

It’s a feature.

Standing up for the little guy. Huh. Is that why billionaires and CEO are throwing literal tens of millions at Trump? Why he staffed his cabinet with billionaires? Why the center of his policy is tax cuts for the giga wealthy, at the expense of everyone else and the national debt, at a time where wealth inequality is literally tearing the country apart?

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/15/trump-windfall-fundraising-500-million

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/09/trump-wealth-cabinet-politicians-billionaires

These are objective, public facts. Like, I’m way more conservative than Lemmy’s center and willing acknowledge any good Trump does, but what reality is this guy living in? Who is this statement for? Who the heck does he think is using Proton services? He just pissed off his employees and customers for… What?