Konraddo

You could get GamePass and play Expedition 33 at a cheaper price.

Also, three examples you quoted are both first person based, while BG3 is not.

Same, no complaint for Navi and Symfonium.

Don't make any connection to your home server, period.

I mean, the kids don't need to log in YouTube to view Shorts. What's the purpose of setting up anything account related? I missed anything.

Don't think you need a Google account to view Shorts, though?

Honestly, I do not plan to buy it after Below Zero. Now that they did all the evil stuff I guess my decision is well justified.

I feel like I'm doing something illegal by calling my home a lab. Might be thinking too much ;) Jokes aside, I'm not really testing or inventing anything so I genuinely don't understand where the lab part comes from.

I see. So it's like "Ask a friend" of anything. It's a useful application though, if the responses come quick, with more users joining of course. Say, I got two outfits to wear and I want opinions. If users disclose their nationality, occupation, age group and gender, I'd want to know the responses come from say, all male, then I know people of my gender that have such and such jobs wear similarly so I'll be more confident in choosing the outfit. I still don't think it's a game. You can make it fun to help out others by including daily quest, points system etc. Otherwise, I don't know why I would want to spend my free time on others.

Genuine question. Why is this a game? Don't the players just answer questions?

They just didnt manage to make it fast.

You are absolutely right. The vision for sequel can be good but the execution has to be equally sound too. In the ideal situation, I guess CS2 needs to be a rebuild of CS1 with a new engine, so it can fully replace CS1 right from the start, if not do something extra. They did a few things praiseworthy though, like baking in road lane customisation, which was done by mods in CS1.

But then, we are not too fair. Simulation games are different from RPG. Story has an ending and we want to see how it continues to develop. For simulation games, I don't think players want anything to be removed on a sequel, unless they are absolutely bad design. Even so, players expect QoL here and there to make their lives easier, which alone can be the single reason to buy the sequel.

A great product does not necessarily mean there is a winning formula though. We have a trash sequel when the new game does not do something that the existing game does. Even worse, the existing features are locked behind additional payment, so why would players not continue to play the existing game?

KSP 2 - Let's forget the technical disaster. A lot of features are missing at the start. You could argue that it's in early access, but why would I pay for a product that does less? Then we add in the many bugs and performance issues, and you know it's game over.

Cities Skylines 2 - Again, you can't do everything you already can in CS1. Plus, the first game is supported by a huge number of mods. There's really no reason to play the new title. Again, it does not perform any better.

This is a weird take but I think remake or remastered these days are more like sequels than sequels, just because they keep the story and mechanics.

I find that game developers or many businesses try to reinvent the wheel when there's no reason to. Say the Subnautica sequel, why waste money on voice over, add a land mass, cut the beloved submarine, shorten the story and overall map size, all that. I will never understand and sincerely hope the next Subnautica title does not reinvent the wheel.

Without technical know-how or experience in general using NAS, Synology is a good first-time option. All apps are ready for immediate use. And don't forget the majority of computer users don't even know what a NAS is and they simply want to store files for remote access.