Jesus everyone yes, hp sucks. A lot. But this is still good news. Steam and Linux are being legitimized as real platforms. The more companies who jump in the better.
“We at HP believe that our products are just that: our products. Not yours. Let us maintain our products for you with features such as: mandatory subscriptions, and firmware updates that remove features and user freedom – simplifying and streamlining your experience.”
Worse, they would make the hardware in such a way that you need special screwdrivers to open it, and even if you get access to it, the internal design is so hostile that it makes replacing parts a 4 hour experience.
“Please submit all fears and worst-case scenarios to the HP Product Design & Improvement Team using our online portal. We strive to implement the most popular ideas into our products.”
“The HPGamerMate includes a patented AI-powered blockchain-secured cloud-enabled software-encrypted physical lock on the back of the unit to prevent unauthorized access to the inside of the device. Any attempts to circumvent the hardware lock are considered to be circumvention of the software encryption and will be prosecuted under the Digital Millinnium Copyright Act of 1998 or your region’s specific laws.
HP takes the security of its products seriously and will never burden users with being able to service our devices.”
Fuck HP. I could see these assholes charging you a fee to download anything or use their device in any meaningful way. They are leaders in the enshittification race.
A point made by HP’s SVP and Division President of Gaming Solutions Josephine Tan when talking to XDA Developers, Tan mentioned “If you look at Windows, I struggle with the experience myself. If I don’t like it, I don’t know how to do a product for it.”. Tan continued “If I’m buying a handheld, I want a very simple setup. The minute I turn on my handheld, it will remember the last game I played. In the Windows environment, it doesn’t”.
Okay, I’m not saying that HP shouldn’t do a SteamOS handheld, but…this seems like such a bad rationale. Surely, surely it is possible to write a relatively-trivial piece of software for Windows that simply remembers the last game played? Especially if we’re just talking stuff running out of Steam?
It costs more money to hire software devs to make a custom piece of software that needs to be maintained and fully supported with customer service than it sticking SteamOS on it and providing support and having customer service. Valve did all of that hard work and rnd and paid for it all, hp just needs to pay for an oem license —probably a very good deal for them
You’re probably right that they can put the os on their hardware for free, but I would think they do pay something for the rights to have the “powered by SteamOS” mark. I would bet that valve has some sort of hardware partner criteria to maintain valves image if you use their mark, like their old steam machine program.
This is the second article I’ve seen from this site recently where the author doesn’t mention what platforms the game is coming for. C’mon, guys. Have a little respect for your readers.
If anyone is curious, I did a few seconds of research so you don’t have to.
How does it compare to the first? I don’t know why, but the first one didn’t really click with me. I think the CO being on the field made it feel too fire emblem rather than advance wars.
And it didn’t piggyback into a new title. I suppose there’s still time for that, but not really. It was just a half-assed re-release, with the Nintendo price tag. They’re not even the best AW games.
Plus the move away from pixel graphics really hurt the asthetic, but I think they knew without doing something graphically that people wouldn’t fork over $60.
Oh man. When I was in the Navy, I had the game boy advance. Advance wars had this sick turn based mode, where you could get your moves in, and then stick it in your pocket and wait to hand it off. We’d have four players playing games that might take all day, sometimes days. Just make your moves, stick it in your pocket, and whenever you find your shipmate, pass it along.
We did that at our lunch hour in high school. We had a super strategic friend that took the entire lunch hour. That pass-around mode was peak early 2000’s multiplayer.
How did the battery last that much? AFAIK the GBA didn’t have any sleep mechanics… Or was one pack of batteries able to hold 12-24 hrs running the game non stop?
I’m trying to recall. I know we always had a solid supply of rechargeables underway. I also distinctly remember that there is a kind of blanked out hand off screen between players because of fog if war. I don’t recall it having any kind of sleep function. But I know it could run for several hours no issue. I don’t recall having to mind the batteries in particular.
On top of that, I was always really impressed by the GBA’s battery life but maybe I’m just old.
Same, I just don’t remember ever bothering about the battery life (unless it turned red) but with that long gaming sessions it would be a concern for kid me probably.
I’ll be honest, it doesn’t just “look like Advance Wars”. It looks like a rip-off. I love AW but I wish they went with a more original art style, like Wargroove did.
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