I'm ~3/4s through my second playthrough and appreciating it more and more. Haven't picked up the expansion yet either.
I found it hits much harder with a female character. The Johnny Silverhand situation especially felt much more... metaphorically resonant? And Jackie feels more rogue-with-a-heart-of-gold when his best buddy is a woman.
Quickhacks are OP but felt correctly haxx0r, mantis blades are super fun. I enjoyed the combat well enough. Cars are meh, but it's cyberpunk so if you're not riding a futuristic bike ala Akira you're doing it wrong. And wiping out on a bike is great.
The characterisation and world building are what really shine. I was reluctant to play the corpo background but it really makes the story sing.
::: spoiler spoiler
The first time you're in a car with Judy she has a prominent tattoo that says "underwater where thoughts can breathe". Then next mission or a while later her apartment has jellyfish looking paint splotches and an aquarium. It's expanded on more explicitly later, but I really enjoy the way they pull together their characters.
The scene with Takemura on the roof talking about Bakeneko is another moment that I enjoyed first playthrough and came to really appreciate a lot the second time. His food snobbery becomes quite endearing after he accidentally texts you his attempts to search for restaurants.
:::
It’s also my opinion the female voice actor did an incredible job where as the male voice actor did a great job. Even in the most basic of side quests, it feels like she is giving it her all to be V in that situation whereas on the other hand some lines it feels like he’s just phoning it in.
Admittedly I haven’t played the new expansion as male v yet, and that may change my opinion. Especially considering I think Keanu gave 110% percent on phantom liberty where I feel like there are certain lines in the original game that were just read from a sheet without context and marked as done
Oh yeah, that's a great point. I admit I stalled out of my male playthrough like 1/4 through, but for sure the voice acting felt lacking compared to female V, who really does a fantastic and job and sells every situation flawlessly. Now that you've mentioned it, it seems so obvious that that's a huge part of the why female V is better.
I’m on a male playthrough a just recently started, and I think the trick is to realize that he’s playing the lines as a more aloof v, which is fine, and actually interesting psychologically as a v that “keeps his cards close to his chest and is cautious about who he opens up to” but you have to accept that version of v in your playthrough, whereas I got used to the “always emotionally invested v” of the female playthrough. Like I said, I still think he did a great job, but that mindset helps me to align the character with the experience. Either way, nice convo, choom
That reading of the character makes sense and jives with how I connect with games I play. I'll keep it in mind when I go back for a male playthrough - gonna have to romance panam eventually. Agreed choom!
It’s also my opinion the female voice actor did an incredible job where as the male voice actor did a great job. Even in the most basic of side quests, it feels like she is giving it her all to be V in that situation whereas on the other hand some lines it feels like he’s just phoning it in.
100% agree. Male V just sounds like "generic video game man who is tough, but not too tough", where as the female V sounds like a hardened, cold bitch that you don't want to fuck with. Cherami Leigh's got range.
Yeah like I said in my other comment, I’m having fun playing through a male v playthrough with the thinking that male v just doesn’t open up often, and is trying his best to keep his cards close. It’s a fun experiment, and plays homage to how male v’s voice actor plays the character, and how a hardened veteran nomad v or abused street kid v might interact with folks, but Cherami’s amazing work is canonical V to me.
It’s really, really good! Tougher than the first game, but that’s a welcome change. After about ~10 hours of gameplay, I already feel like it’s the best sequel I’ve played.
That’s pretty much what God Mode is. The option that gives you a small permanent defense % boost after every single death. I’m too old to git gud so I’ve used it to boost my progression in Hades. The feature seems to still be present in Hades 2.
Having been predominantly a PC gamer for 30 years… PCs more hassle to update and maintain. When I finish work I want to sit on my sofa and play with as little inconvenience as possible.
Consoles fit nicely in a living room and are better for local multiplayer. This generation they were also cheaper than buying the equivalent PC hardware at launch.
And I meant that the majority of “PC maintenance” originates from Windows. Tasks like dust removal from cooling vents isn’t a daily thing (and applies to consoles just the same).
True, but if I’m spending thousands on a machine, I tend to want to be able to do other things on it so unfortunately Windows usually enters the equation.
Will consider a dedicated SteamOS box when I next refresh.
True, but if I’m spending thousands on a machine, I tend to want to be able to do other things on it so unfortunately Windows usually enters the equation.
Then it’s still Windows maintenance, not PC maintenance. For Intel and AMD GPUs, any regular convenience Linux distribution (like Fedora) works with negligible maintenance. It’s only those NVidia users or people who feel the urge to tweak everything steer themselves into maintenance hell.
The Steam Deck IS a PC though. You can install SteamOS on your computer if you wanted to.
For the purpose of the argument the other user was making, it is functionally similar enough to consoles that it doesn’t feel like a PC, unless you want it to. So really, it suits everyone.
You are correct by the technical definition, I apologise for suggesting the Steam Deck is not a PC lol.
What sort of things do you run on yours? I’d have thought it being a handheld it wouldn’t be that useful for anything I’d want to run on it as it wouldn’t be always on or connected.
My preference is a dedicated desktop box I can upgrade and potentially run some services like DNS, PiHole and some automated scripts on. I’d rather spend the money on that and keep using the Switch or cloud gaming when I’m on the go.
No need to apologize friend. I just always want to inform everyone that the Steam Deck is capable of being used as a PC on the go if you have some peripherals. I have some third party launchers, and emulation stuff on my desktop side. I also have KeePass and a Google Drive for my passwords. I personally don’t use it for any other desktop activities because I have my laptop and my desktop for that, but it could handle those tasks (word processing and office tasks, general web browsing, etc) just like my other computers do. I even bought a nice little keyboard and have a wireless mouse for my Steam Deck, as well as a portable screen.
As far as homelab and server applications like Pihole, yeah I would probably not run those on the Steam Deck either, but I also wouldn’t put them on a laptop or my desktop. I put those on my homelab server running Proxmox because I turn my desktop off when it’s not in use.
Yes hence why I corrected to desktop. Sorry, just always used to using PC and desktop as interchangeable terms but see why you’d want to differentiate these days.
My point is I don’t want a handheld that I have to plug in. If I’m going the PC route I’d prefer a desktop box I can upgrade so although the Deck is great, it doesn’t suit literally all use cases.
Ok but most of my games use Quick Resume so I am playing in under 15 seconds. To be honest the Switch has taken the crown for picking up where you left off since 2017.
I’ve used Moonlight but prefer not to stream really. Would be interested in how the latency is these days.
In the past I’d have said PC all the way but these days I’m glad both options exist. Biggest draw to the PC for me is mods. Would be tempted to make a dedicated SteamOS box next gen.
I would be a thousand times happier in a world without consoles. Games are published everywhere, and “consoles” are just prepackaged PCs from Microsoft or Sony for people who do not want to build a PC themselves
What do you think current PS and Xbox consoles are? They are all just PC hardware with each a custom OS as differentiating feature. A world in which everything has to run Windows is definitively much worse than the current state.
That’s a odd stance to take. How would you be a thousand times happier if consoles didn’t exist?
Consoles still have their place in gaming and to think otherwise is somewhere ignorant. Just live the best of both worlds like the rest of us and don’t get so wound up!
I mean duh, I can make up any strawman I want and say “there’s a difference”.
No one said that you wanted to commit console genocide, just that your neighbors Xbox is none of your business and you really ought to take a chill pill and game how you please.
You decide where to (or not to) buy and play the games you want. Like I said there is no requirement to stick to 1 platform and you honestly sound so wound up by this opinion I’m astounded.
That is the most ridiculous straw man argument I’ve never heard
You live in a country you are invested in a country which is why leaving it is so difficult. You’re talking about just not buying a console, it’s the difference between altering a way of life that is being fine up until now versus not getting engaged in one in the first place.
I’d say that’s because PCs have become more console-like. I’m personally gaming a lot on a deck now, although I still have zero desire to hunker down behind a desk and fiddle around with a mouse and keyboard, tinkering with settings and whatnot. Deck is a nice middle ground, and having access to a lot of older PC classics is fantastic.
I’d rather see consoles open up to being general purpose PCs, than not see consoles at all.
Valve got it right with the Steam Deck. I enjoy accessing my game library from SteamOS and using the Desktop Mode when I need to be productive.
If the Xbox had an option to boot into Windows, they’d be selling the Xbox like hot cakes. It would keep users invested in Windows as a platform rather than them moving to Linux or macOS. It’s such a waste of potential.
As always, it’s a trade-off between convenience and ability to tweak.
When it comes to gaming, the convenience slightly edges it for me at the mo. Enjoying Game Pass, play anywhere, Quick Resume and have made all the money back I spent on the Series X through Microsoft Rewards twice over.
Seven years feels about right for a length between consoles. I am curious to see what they do with it. It's hard to see Nintendo not sticking with the handheld console approach with the Switch 2, but just building a more powerful Switch doesn't feel very Nintendo, if that makes sense. Like there has to be some feature or gimmick to set it apart from the Switch.
Especially when the chipset, Tegra X1, is going to turn 10 years old next year and has roughly the same performance as the iPhone 6. Kinda impressive longevity when you think about it.
I like how their example of “moral nuance and gray areas” is just a binary choice lmao. Baldur’s Gate 3 has really ruined how I view this whole genre. I don’t know if it’s sadder for me, or companies that clearly weren’t/aren’t willing or prepared to swing at that level of nuance.
Its a huge mod that basically ads a whole new entire game worth of content, on top of the base games content, that is seamlessly integrated into the base game.
New maps? I found that I always gravitated towards one map as I disliked all the rest. Mostly just wanted a big open space to go crazy, not obstacles that I had to design around.
it has a a couple new starter farm options, which are very nice imho. it also includes a big open space to the east of pelican town that you can use as a big honking farm area. last time i played I made it my tree farm. had a couple hundred of each tree type there.
It adds taxes and market prices, thus bringing an element of complexity into the game that makes you think how to optimize your early growth and how to get the most out of your energy and money, turning the relaxing indie game about returning to nature into an optimization grindset nightmare that everyone but me hates.
I’m aware of how the game works yes. Once I bought the golden clock, there was basically nothing to do on my farm except for planting on the first day of each season. Aside from that it’s fully automated. It just got boring, and it felt like the game was over, and I just can’t shake that feeling.
I know… They added it all afterwards, when I already felt like the game was over, and despite there being lots to do now, I just can’t will myself back into the game.
Oh boy! The game we should have had at launch? I can’t wait to get in my space ship, take off from a planet, fly to a new one, and land without being forced to fast travel.
From what I've seen of the Steam Deck there's not far that it can go to improve as of the moment but in the next 10 years there's going to be needing another one as newer games like GTA 6 and stuff come around and eventually be on PC the tech is going to really show it's age.
Valve’s hardware strategy up to this point has been to push into new markets via hardware innovation. So I’m very skeptical that the hypothetical successor to the deck is a more powerful version of the deck. They’ll let other hardware manufacturers push those limits and reap the benefits via software sales. The deck was exceptionally successful in that regard, it’s literally opened an entire market segment.
Whatever the “Deck 2” comes to be, I expect it will be poised to capture a different market segment, possibly AR/VR or even modular handheld hardware (totally unfounded speculation), but I sincerely doubt they have much interest in releasing a more powerful version of the same thing every few years.
Who knows, though. Valve’s gonna valve and the only thing they do with any consistency is change things up.
Why does it matter if they have a better translation now? The steamdeck 2 is a long way away. By the time steamdeck 2 releases I imagine their translation layer will be better than apples is today but probably not better than apples will be when steamdeck 2 releases.
If it's not, then it'll never work, which is why Apple's endeavor is doomed too. There's such a massive back catalogue of games that we can't, won't, and shouldn't abandon that unless you've got x64 translation as good as Proton is for Windows translation, or better, switching to ARM will never work for the latest greatest games. I think that switch to ARM is nearly inevitable, but that translation needs to be excellent first.
Why spend all those years and all that capital/manpower on R&D for a handheld that is widely touted as a success only to never use any of those lessons ever again? I can't imagine they're just going to one-and-done the Steamdeck. Seems like a massive waste to me.
I disagree. I feel more like Steam has been focusing on being able to decouple from Windows. The hardware it has developed was paired with other initiatives to move beyond the Windows desktop. They are now at a point where they’ve basically created their own Switch that can run without Windows.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Steam finally makes consumer Linux on the desktop a thing.
I don’t care how fast it sells - I’m not an investor. I care about whether it’s going to blow my balls off with how awesome it is. How many copies it sells on day one is more a function of marketing than quality.
The problem is, we must care if the game is to have any sequels, follow-ups, or lasting legacy. If the game is awesome, but doesn’t sell well, then it probably won’t get sequels, and will be forgotten to everyone except Wikipedia & Moby Games over enough time.
We don’t have to care though, paying attention to the sales numbers doesn’t affect them. The game sells or it doesn’t, and you are only going to affect that number by one.
Hey if a company making lots of money excites you, more power to you. But, of all the things one could get excited for about a game, this seems like pure spin. Is it fun? Revolutionary? Iteratively better than it’s precessor?
Diablo 4 sold like hotcakes and it is certainly not any of the above, so I’m pretty skeptical about the usefulness of this particular data point. But again, if this is what excites you about the game then have at it.
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