Caveat: I am not a programmer, just an enthusiast. Windows programs typically package all of the dependency libraries up with each individual program in the form of DLLs (dynamic link library). If two programs both require the same dependency they just both have a local copy in their directory.

I can (anecdotally) confirm the overclocking sensitivity. Although it seems to be more that this game just REALLY pushes hardware if you let it which is naturally gonna draw out overclocking instabilities.

i can’t find the article for the life of me but i read an interview with a dev who basically said that the UE5 engine is fine unless you try to crank all of the visual bells and whistles on at the same time. Now imagine being a dev team trying to convince marketing not to use all of the features they paid for? Can we blame Epic and Nvidia?

This was my first thought too lmao. “How considerate of them to recreate the experience of not being able to play it smoothly until half a decade after it comes out”

I think the silent protagonist choice is valid in more of “sandbox” story like BG3. Speaking for myself, voiced protagonists tend to “lock” me into a specific role. I absolutely love the voice acting for Geralt of Rivia but when I play a witcher game I’m not inserting myself into the game, I’m becoming Geralt and making choices based on how I believe Geralt would make them.

“The bypass uses a CXH (cloud experience host) URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) string during the OOBE to invoke the hidden local account setup screen.” this had to be data mined or something yeah.

the one with the biiig built in “leather” wrist rest? loved that thing!

oh okay, interesting. well, you could always use the web browser on your phone/ipad i guess. not a great experience but i know for a fact that plex works on ios in chrome at the very least.

Plex has pretty bad DV “support” as an example. AFAIK it will only play back dolby vision profiles that have the HDR10 compatibility mode or whatever. Any time I get an older DV file I have to play it through some Android TV app.

Ease of setup was how I just got one techie friend and two non-techie gamer friends to set up Plex servers and we had libraries shared to each other within 15-30 minutes. I don’t want to think about explaining VPNs and SSL to them for the alternatives.

Plex still offers that option, it’s just buried in the settings.

i’m not sure why it would do this, i’ve never had any issues with watching plex while the internet is down (in fact that was one of my original uses for it, to have movies and tv in a building without internet). I don’t have it turned on but I do know you can go into server settings -> network and set a list of IPs/subnets that can access without any authorization at all. That lets you use plex without even having a plex account afaik.

As a techie I hate this answer but it’s hard to beat a Roku with Plex from an ease of use standpoint. My 70+ year old parents have no problem navigating it.

I’m pretty sure that’s corporate speak for “we need to drive plex pass subscriptions more so we need to lock more feature behind it.”

I agree that cybersecurity features should be included. In fact I think they should be included for free. The problem is that Microsoft wanted to charge the Department of Defense and it sounds like they used politics to make sure they could, and if true then they (and maybe also the DoD?) may have violated some federal laws around government procurement and “gifts” from contractors to the government.

It seems to me that the real reason people are upset is that they don’t want to accept that the devs of games they like willingly accepted the money. As if Epic forced them.

I can’t think of any time in history that the public has had that ability for anything. Imagine being upset because a Ford dealership won’t sell you a Toyota, or that Kohl’s won’t sell you some designer brand.

It’s DRM free. Pirate it and add an external game to Steam if the other options are unappealing to you.

I think it would be easier for me to empathize with the “exclusivity” argument if it weren’t for the fact that PCs as a general rule are inherently open. I don’t have to buy a new computer to install a new games launcher as I would with a console exclusives war. Hell most of the time you don’t even have to install the official launcher as so many of them are just web wrappers/electron apps. I’ve been using the Heroic Games Launcher to claim my free Epic games for nearly a year and the only “downside”, if you can even call it that, is that I don’t get the weekly popup’s letting me know what’s free/on sale. Just building a huge library of free games, some of which I already own on Steam. Somebody please show me the actual downside of more competition on a single platform.

It wasn’t pulled from Steam. A development company consisting of three people that put out a popular mobile game 15+ years ago got an opportunity they wouldn’t otherwise have had to create a sequel and took it. They published on (shockedpikachuface) their publishers platform, as well as Nintendo consoles and their own website for people who don’t like Epic. I doubt Allan, Kyle and Kyle would have had the funds or skill to do this on their own.