Can you tell me how it compares to Subnautica if you’ve played it? I’ve been looking for something that scratches that very particular itch that Subnautica hit so well, and so far I just don’t like the aimlessness of the other survival/crafting games I’ve played. Subnautica’s purposeful progression really hit the sweet spot.
I keep trying No Man’s Sky, but after 2 years I finally figured out why it never clicks for more than a few hours at a time: it’s essentially a live service game, which for some reason I never recognized. It throws all its updates at you immediately, which destroys any real sense of earned progression in some ways, and its economy is designed for frequent and persistent play and multiplayer, so if you’re just playing casually, progress is sloggy as hell in other ways. And there’s just a thousand discovered things to do at all times, it’s overwhelming. It’s my fault for misunderstanding, but I’ve been trying to play it like I played Subnautica, and that’s just not what this is.
The closest I’ve come so far to recreating the Subnautica magic was Dysmantled, which is a totally different game in a lot of ways but really terrific in its own right. Looking forward to their next game, Dysplaced, next year.
Anyway, I’ve had my eye on The Forest lately. Waiting for a sale, wondering if it will fit the bill.
The Forest should be on sale (just checked, it’s $5 on Steam until Nov 28), and it’s somewhat Subnautica-like. There’s a definite horror element to it, though, so in that way, it’s a different experience, but you still do the “find food, find water, build a base, craft tools” thing.
I don’t think it’s as good as Subnautica, but for $5, it’s still a fun experience, and there is an ongoing story/quest to give you something to focus on. I sank 8 hours into it in the first two days, and there’s still a ton to uncover, so I think it’s worth a play.
Thanksgiving and family visiting kinda threw me for a loop as far as gaming goes, but for Diablo 4: Season 2 I managed to move into the Champion chapter at the beginning of the week before anyone showed up. I'm finally in World Tier 4, so I'll be working on that when I have more time.
I got one of those new Steam Deck OLEDs today and am thinking about getting some casual games for that (even though I got a ton of stuff in my backlog).
Dave the Diver is currently the forerunner, and maybe Mega Man Battle Network. I might just wait until the Steam Winter Sale though, since the prices won’t be worse, and maybe even a tiny bit better.
– If you see a game on sale, it will be on sale again. Don’t get baited into buying something you won’t actually play for years.
– Please oh please learn to use the Deck’s quick menu performance options. When people complain about the Deck’s battery life, what they forget is that unlike a Nintendo Switch, it’ll just treat everything like it’s “docked” unless you tell it otherwise. It’ll munch through that battery as quick as you let it, so extending it is your responsibility. The easiest way to do that is to just set a power limit (even the max of 15 watts will help) if a game is running fine. A lot of basic 2d games get by just fine on 3 or 5. Half-rate shading is the other major option. Basically it’ll render some things at half of their normal resolution, sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it isn’t noticable on the Deck’s screen. With 3D stuff, get the performance overlay up and start dropping the the wattage if the framerate is high enough, or the game’s video settings if it’s not. Ideally just drop both, that’s how you’ll really save the battery. I just drop a lot of games right to “low” settings unless it looks really awful and go from there.
– In a similar vein, framerate limits!! Console games are nearly always locked to 30 or 60 frames per second for all sorts of reasons. In the Deck’s case you’re again thinking about battery life. While you can sometimes argue for framerates higher than a screen’s refresh rate, on the Deck it’s not really justifiable, there’s no good reason to pass 60. Some games play just fine at 30 so lock it to 30 if you can tolerate it. Or, the Deck’s secret weapon… 40fps. Normally you’d never do that, because it doesn’t line up with the screen and things get weird, but the Deck’s screen can actually just drop to 40hz to compensate. Due to some odd math 40fps is actually much closer to 60 than 30 in practice while still saving a lot of battery life.
BUT… BUT BUT BUT, the Deck’s system-wide framerate limiter has problems. Input lag problems. Hopefully you don’t notice and don’t give a shit but if you do, oh god, so much input lag. Thankfully the vast majority of games have their own 60fps locks that don’t have this problem (to the same extent) but for the 40hz thing you need to just deal with it.
This is very helpful!! I’m feeling a lot of FOMO pressure what with the Steam Autumn sale going on right now. There are so many games I have always wanted to play but never had a chance to…and now I can play them all at my fingertips! (For example: Halo: MCC, the Fallout series, and Persona 5). I’m tempted to snag MCC and Fallout 76, or New Vegas, because those prices are awesome.
Can you expand more on the Deck’s quick menu performance options? I’ve already learned about “the Golden 40”, and have locked most if not all of my games to 40fps…but what other “quick menu performance” options should I be sure to optimize?
Taking a look at my wishlist, and seems like I’ve got enough in my wallet to snag a couple of heavy sale games purely from all the cards I’ve sold on the marketplace.
May not get anything, though. Got tons of other shit to play and I’m not aching for anything in particular, although Charrua Soccer and Kopanito All-Star Soccer might be options because I want some good old fashioned arcade football and they seem fun enough.
Oh, and Shadow Gambit and Desperados 3, mainly because getting them now is one of the last opportunities to actually have the money go directly to Mimimi (the developers), who are shutting down end of year (which at least was their own choice and not because some publisher/holding company fired them).
Edit: Oh, I might get one of Frogware’s Sherlock games. Don’t know what the consensus is on the newer ones.
bin.pol.social
Ważne