It is my firm belief that Bethesda’s games shouldn’t be tried in less than 3-4 months after their release, due to problems, unpatched bugs and the lack of mods that address some weird design choices. I can wait for that long, especially since I’m so tired these days that I forget what’s my name sometimes… 😉
Imagine if all/the majority/plenty enough of players would do that - the prices of the games would fall down, there would be less crap on the market and certainly, there would be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less occurrences like the release of Cyberpunk…
better alternatives. Asus Rog Ally, OneXPlayer, Aya Neo etc…
Don’t they all cost double or tripple of the SteamDeck? Call me oldschool, but spending $1000 on a handheld just sounds crazy to me. SteamDeck is already pretty much the max price I’d call acceptable.
The biggest problem for me with the SteamDeck, and why I haven’t bought one, is simply its 1280x800 resolution, that might be acceptable for gaming, but it’s really no good when you want to read a PDF or do other non-gaming things. Kind of limits it’s versatility and is just not a good look when you have the same resolution as a cheap China tablet from five years ago, or a Nintendo Switch for that matter, which itself already felt a little out of date at its launch.
The Steam Deck is sold specifically as a gaming handheld. If you’re buying it to read PDFs, you’re buying the wrong device. Besides, the resolution isn’t the issue for reading documents, it’s the size of the screen. If you want to do non-gaming things, you’ll be much better served if you plug in a monitor, in which case you can even use a 4K display if that’s what you want.
I think the SD does have its issues, but I feel like the display is not one of them. At that size, it’s a good resolution to get better performance in games. A higher resolution would kill the battery, reduce performance, and due to its size it would be hard to tell the difference in-game.
Amongst others I’m currently playing Baldur’s Gate 3 in coop mode.
I absolutely love it (I’m also a huge fan of Dragon Age Origins, so no surprise here).
I just wish cut scenes wouldn’t just start playing as soon as one of the players walks into them. Especially since the game is so dense with content (we are still relatively at the beginning though, maybe that changes later on).
I know with most dialogs everybody has the option to listen, but often you’re still going to miss the beginning of the conversation. A “wait for other players” button or something like that would be great.
Been having good fun with Baldur’s gate 3. Combat is taking me a bit of getting used to but it’s overall pretty nice. The plenty of character cutscenes really are nice. One suggestion for improvement is that I need all of the characters to have the Scottish accent, not just some.
I am replaying it with my partner. She doesn’t want to play, but she wants to see the visuals and the story. She makes all the decisions and I just control Jin. It has been interesting because her enjoyment is kind of divorced from the mechanics (other than choosing non-stealth whenever possible).
This is part of the reason why I haven’t thought of buying a console since the PS3. There are a lot of games that were made for the ps2/1 that I really loved and I can probably never play them again because PlayStations lack that feature. They have effectively been erased, which is really sad.
I sold my PS3 a long time ago, and I’ve been using Steam on my PC since then. Now I won’t have to worry about losing access to titles I bought just because they’re locked to certain hardware that will eventually not be made any more.
What I’ve liked best is that the settings menus makes it so that the game can scale with your hardware. So if you have the capable hardware you aren’t left waiting a decade for a remaster release and nextgen console release to play with some settings turned up.
Project Diablo 2 Season 7: If you’ve been meaning to check out the Diablo series, or you’re not impressed with Diablo IV, then this is the variant of the game you have to try. Of course, Diablo 2 is a classic and PD2 is a well received mod, but Season 7 adds some much welcome graphical QoL changes - 60FPS and HD text rendering that looks pretty good even on 4K monitors. Of course, the graphics still doesn’t compare to Resurrected or other modern games, but if you can look past that, you’re in for a helluva ride. This is hands down, the best ARPG, IMO.
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: If you’re a Star Wars and an Age of Empires fan, you have to check this out. On the surface, it’s just a reskinned AoE 2, but calling it just that wouldn’t do it justice. You can have fleets of X-Wings and Tie Fighters, little R2 units as your villagers, destroyer droids, Jedi Knights as priests, bounty hunters, and of course, stormtroopers. All your classic Star Wars character types, all the familiar SW locales like Tatooine, campaigns based on movie plots, all of it accompanied by original soundtracks by John Williams from the movie - and you’ve got a winner. Unfortunately, this game never received the official HD treatment like AoE did, but thankfully, the Expanding Fronts mod exists - it adds much needed QoL fixes, plus new civilisations, units, maps and music from the movies. You may want to pair it with the cnc-ddraw patch for better graphics btw. I’ve been playing this game almost every single day with my friends using ZeroTier and it’s been sooo much fun.
0 A.D.: This is another RTS that every AoE/RTS fan should check out. It’s a cross-platform open-source game that’s been under development for a long time, and whilst still technically an “alpha”, it’s reached a state where you can genuinely enjoy campaigns and multiplayer games without any major issues. A couple of things that stand out for me is a) the music, which is really, really well done, matching the civilisation you’re playing b) the details on the buildings - you can zoom in super close and appreciate all the details, in fact, it’s not just the buildings but the attention to detail in general stands out in so many ways, for instance, even your farms look different with different civilisations c) the AI is really well done - even on “easy” mode it can pose a bit of a challenge and isn’t a complete pushover (unlike AoE’s easy AI), and you can also customize their behavior as well (per civilization) when starting your game (you can choose between defensive, aggressive, balanced etc) - which greatly adds to the replay value and d) you can have effectively unlimited population and very large battalions with lots of different formations, for some epic battles (provided your system can handle it of course). The only thing I miss are the keyboard shortcuts from AoE, but it’s not a big deal since you aren’t playing any ranked games or playing with randoms. Overall, the quality of this game, especially for an open-source game, is amazing, and makes it must-try for every RTS fan.
Oh the sudden wave of nostalgia, I had no idea Galactic Battlegrounds received that many mods or fan patches! I’ll have to check those out, cheers for that :)
Muscle memory, having the cursor / aim be an upredictable variable depending on the speed of the movement feels very wrong to me.
Floaty feeling, one of the things I try to do first with every Bethseda game is to try and force raw mouse input, otherwise it feels like I’m trying to control a mouse cursor that is sliding on ice.
I have not tried the RawAccel druver you’ve linked so can’t comment on that.
I don’t play games at release so my lists are often varied anyway. Only one of these truly blew my mind, but I think the others stood out well enough:
Paradise Killer: The detective and investigation genre has been well fed these past years. When Obra Dinn came out I felt sated. It was everything I ever wanted from a mystery game. The recent release of The Case of the Golden Idol struck a similar vein, even if far shorter and (IMO) easier. There’s a thing about those however, as well as most games of the genre: They’re often tied down to vignettes, select scenes laid down by the developers with clues that are obligatory to find or stand out blatantly. Games like Ace Attorney or DanganRonpa straight up won’t let you progress until you’ve found everything that you need to beat your case. And while that is not exactly stale, it feels somewhat constrained.
Paradise Killer flips that metaphorical table and throws you into a wild, vibrant world with little to no aid. I’ll spare the plot details, as its somewhat complicated to talk about them, but you are an investigator sent to crack the “Crime to end all crimes”, a bloodbath that is going to send this - supposedly - paradise into a chaotic fate unless its stopped. And after a brief explanation of what happened, you’re sent on your merry way, expected to meet and interrogate every NPC, as well as comb through the scenario.
The dialogues are typical from what you expect, some friendly back and forth, some very unfriendly back and forth, characters with deep dark secrets that aren’t always related to the current case but might turn up unexpected surprises. The real standout of the game, however, is the freedom and expectations you have for this world. You’re not chained to the murder scene (which you can’t even access for most of the game) or a few select areas. Instead you’re supposed to walk and climb and jump and look into every named area, learn about this world, dig up secrets, compare and pick apart testimonies, comb up random pieces of evidency as well as solve a few minor puzzles along the way. Its a mystery game with a single case - in a way - that runs far, far deeper than any other detective adventure I’ve ever played. Its a story that starts deep and dark, then plunges far further with every single new information you learn about this deranged place and its citizens. I don’t think I’ll ever be as sated as when I finally sat down and put everything together, getting ready for the final trial (which you can start at any point, the sword of Damocles of having enough evidence always hanging over your head) and proceeded to build and tear down every remark I’ve heard along the way. But then again, I thought I’d never find a games as satisfying as Obra Dinn as well.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin: A mix of farming sim and character action game filled with so much heart it overflows. Sakuna takes several elements from games I’m used to play - the asshole main character who finds herself taking care of an unwanted group, crop growing mechanics, 2D stylish combat - and breaths fresh air in all of those.
The characterization and growth that these people go through is nothing short of stellar. I’ve gotten somewhat tired of redemption arcs or bonding that happens through a traumatic event or crushing defeat, or simply is forced by the narrative. In Sakuna there’s no sudden moment where the characters start to band together. Instead, slowly, they start relying on each other’s talents, realizing what they can do for each other - and for themselves. Its about learning their value, honing their abilities, and sharing the kindness they get with others. It something that’s hard to put in words - how to properly describe people growing fond of each other? - but the narrative is genuinely heartwarming, and most of all it feels organic.
The Rice growing also stands out, in a more grueling light. This isn’t a farming game where you tile a field, randomly throw seeds, water them and call it a day. Every action that you take is exhausting, from preparing the soil, to planting - every individual seedling, one by one - to measuring the proper flow of water, considering the fertilizer ingredients, thinking about the proper temperature, and that’s not to mention the harvesting. You’ll separate the rice stalk by stalk, and manually hull the rice until its fully white (or leave it brown, if you’re okay with a lesser quality). Its a repetitive, arduous job, but it makes complete sense both mechanically and narratively. First, Sakuna is a harvest goddess, meaning her levelling up happens entirely through a proper harvest. This is her literally growing as a goddess. Secondly, that backbreaking labour gets slowly easier, both by her learning new planting skills and by being helped by her soon-to-be friends. Its how she grows as a person. Little by little those tasks get easier, faster, as she gets stronger and starts valuing other’s labour more, as well as her own. Its a slow process, but briliantly laid out by the developers.
Dragon Quest Builders 2: This one is simple. This game is basically a drug. The DQB series follow the formula of block crafting games, but with a fantasy setting and a storyline. Rather than having a sandbox to do as you wish, you’ll be guided through a world in need of saving, not by a hero but by a Builder. And not only does DQB stand out on its presentation and satisfying mechanics, but it simply oozes charm and is a ridiculously sweet adventure, almost to the point of being saccharine.
And it has so many puns you’ll want to walk into the sea.
I will always, always, always go to bat for Parade Killer. I think half my comments on Lemmy have been shilling for it. I desperately want more mystery games like it. Not just for the reasons you described, but because it so, so, SO completely nails the relationship between its aesthetic and its plot question about what it means to have institutional power in a institution that’s downright malicious. The player character is explicitly a tool of the evil Syndicate. Is she even interested in effecting change? Could she if she was? Is Paradise worth saving?
I just want to know more about the world and backstory in Paradise Killer. I bought it on a whim a couple years ago, mainly because of it’s aesthetic, vaporwave and all. I like mystery games too, like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa (playing v3 right now). But I didn’t know much about the game beyond what I saw.
But I was instantly captivated by the lore. Like tell me more about these alien gods that humanity has imprisoned. Tell me more about the past island sequences. Tell me about the next island sequence and the characters at the bar. I want to know more about the lives of the citizens. Even LD’s story; why did she come under the influence of a demon? Though maybe that was explained and I just forgot. The game teases these via the story, but it never explains everything. Not a story has to explain everything, but it definitely kept me engaged and intrigued. And wanting another game in this universe.
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