I upgraded from my 15 year old PC to one of the new Mac Minis at Xmas last year, thinking that I would be fine for gaming with my Xbox / Game Pass, and I would “skip a generation” on PC hardware. I have a small Steam / Epic library, but everything that didn’t work on MacOS, I had a Game Pass version of....
Is there anything you’re currently missing out on with your Xbox?
Do you have any public libraries around you might borrow physical games from? (Assuming your Xbox has a disc drive)
Depending on what games you want to play, Game Pass might still be a relatively cheap option, especially if you can find it cheaper (Live Gold codes should still work conversion-wise, but who knows how much they go for these days).
A used Steam Deck or equivalent handheld PC might be a great option or addition to tour setup, obviously depending on what games you want to play.
All other things being equal (same game, settings and refresh rate / fps limit), the OLED and LCD models have comparable power draw.
If anything, the OLED max power draw at 15W TDP is lower, usually around 23W max versus 26/27W for the LCD iirc.
I find that I prefer playing games on my PS5 so that I’m not battling Windows updates, spending a bunch of time tweaking settings, etc. But the shooter genre is something I’m finding very difficult on a controller. I grew up playing Unreal Tournament, Quake, etc., and I find it extremely easy to jump into games like...
Have you tried using motion control?
My aim with controllers isn’t as accurate as m+kb, however I can get pretty close with the right motion control / gyro setup. It’s unfortunately not a given in every game on PS5, but most first-party titles and a good chunk of FPS should offer something.
To be clear, I’m talking about motion control for micro-adjustments in addition to fast movement with sticks, not as a sole replacement for stick based input.
I was just reflecting on games I’ve played in the last year, and wondering when Steam’s year-in-review thing would be happening (probably within the next week)....
There are two games I never would have considered if I hadn’t explored new / different genres from what I usually stick with, 1000xResist and Pentiment.
The latter might be my favourite by a slight margin, but either way I’m so glad I went out of my comfort zone and discovered games which aren’t my typical RPGs, action-adventure or shmups.
I’ll keep experimenting next year, I might even put together a list of genres or games I’d like to try.
ITAD allows for wishlist (and collection) imports from both Steam and GOG. You’ll end up with a unified wishlist, where you can set specific rules to get notified when there’s a sale, including which specific stores have a game on sale.
That’s what I use to track any game I wishlist, with specific rules to notify me when said game is on sale at GOG.
A Plague Tale: Requiem.
I wouldn’t say it changed my life, but I couldn’t get myself to play another game for some time after both Plague Tale games back-to-back.
Infinite Backlog gives you one place for your entire gaming collection and encourages you to play your games and get your backlogs under control. It provides a visual breakdown of your cross-platform collection, tracks gaming achievements and statistics and lets you connect with other gamers with the same games....
I can’t speak to this backlogging website specifically, it’s one among a fair number of somewhat similar offerings, but I’ve been using Backloggd for a couple years now.
What these apps/sites ultimately help with is getting your gaming library in check, if you also end up buying far too many games every time there’s a sale or if you want to keep track of your physical collection (although there are better sites for that).
Depending on the site’s focus, you might also get average completion times per game or user reviews.
I’ve actually found myself more interested in the “social” aspect of backloggd, eg user reviews (and making my own), ratings, user-made lists, because they’ve helped me discover games I wouldn’t have otherwise given a chance to or even heard about.
That’s a good point and, for lack of studies about it, it’s impossible to tell which is the most pervasive.
As a counterpoint, and this might be an "unpopular opinion"™: not all games are (should be) made for as broad an audience as possible and different attention (investment) levels should be expected depending on the game. That obviously won’t resonate with the business side of the gaming industry, but I think everyone needs to be aware of how much time they can dedicate to their hobbies and pick them accordingly.
I’m thankfully not in a position where I have to work 60hrs a week and I’m childless as well, but some weeks might leave me with less free time than others and I pick entertainment/media accordingly. That might not be what others do and I know my experience is likely purely anecdotal, but if I feel I don’t have enough time to properly enjoy a game or remember its premises as I play, I’ll simply do something else, even if gaming is my favourite hobby.
And to be clear, I fully agree that society needs to change dramatically either way. Everyone would benefit from better work-life balance.
Sure, and that makes financial sense, but that’s only one specific subset of games.
Smaller productions/games still have ways to turn a profit with smaller intended audiences and can in turn offer more complex storylines.
Interesting, thanks! That’s not quite how I approach fun, or difficulty, in a game.
I’m happy playing on higher difficulties so long as the gameplay loop is interesting (to me), and that’s how I go about shmups for instance, gradually increasing difficulty as I start to “master” the game (as if), however if the “default” gameplay isn’t fun to me, lowering the difficulty is not going to help.
Right, I can see that. I tend to have less patience for (what I consider) annoying gameplay despite good stories, therefore I wouldn’t try lower difficulties if it’s a hassle to me.
I tend to move on / abandon games quicker than I would have done when I was younger, and I know what genres I tend to favour.
Artificially padded games are usually a pass for me too.
Good grief, I hope all affected people will be able to land on their feet quickly enough.
Microsoft is canceling its new Perfect Dark game that it announced in 2020, according to an internal memo from Xbox president of game content and studios Matt Booty. The company showed off gameplay during the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, but at the time, didn’t provide a release window for the game.
I’m sure there’ll be more cancellations announced soon enough…
Oh, Cattle Crisis seems to be right up my alley!
I bought Wednesday some time ago, but haven’t gotten to playing it yet - not in the right mental state either I guess.
And thanks for the Random Bundle Game mention, I hadn’t heard of it and usually have a hard time going through the bundles I own.
To be clear, I find this rhetoric pretty silly given that price has no influence over a game’s intrinsic qualities and vice versa.
I’m not arguing for games to be priced higher either, because a lot of that money likely wouldn’t end up going to the devs, but I think the price argument doesn’t stand either way.
That’s not what I’m saying.
What I find silly is to expect price to correlate with quality in the video game space, because you have Indies as well as AAA, with wildly different prices, ultimately offering similar qualities. Price shouldn’t come into the equation when talking about a game’s quality or “value” imo.
I think the equivalence doesn’t apply, because a car is a functional product and you should expect price to correlate with added features.
Indie games, as well as AAA, can offer similar quality levels at wildly different prices, so price doesn’t (shouldn’t) enter the equation imo.
Quality, possible enjoyment and my tastes are what I take into account when buying a game or not, not its price point, so that might be the difference.
Hiya, just newly thought about something: wouldn't be nice if there was a simple way of checking what games you have played over the years, a way to keep track of wether you liked the game or not, how much time you spent playing it etc.. Currently, personally i only check steam library for those kinda details. But it would be...
Backloggd works great for me because I want both game/library tracking and user reviews, including my own once I finish a game. If someone only cares about the former, backloggery.com is probably just as good.
Hey everyone! I have no power in here, have not checked if anyone has started one of these but I feel like being the change I want to see in the world....
I’m finding it hard to stick to one game in particular these past few days (weeks?).
I’ve been going back to my play through of Divinity: Original Sin 2 and I find the story is getting somewhat less interesting after reaching the second to last act/location (and fights are less challenging now, which isn’t as fun imo).
I’ve also been playing a bit of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and it’s more appealing than I anticipated - I’m just annoyed by recurring shader comp and loading stutters on PC…
I’m kind of in the mood for a shorter game, but my backlog is far too dense to pick anything easily.
I guess I love suffering and play games only because it’s not enough in real life (that’s why my favourite genres are souls-likes and fightings, but that’s another story). I’m currently playing Expedition 33, and this game marks some areas as “dangerous”, implying that the player is underleveled to defy local bosses...
Congrats! That’s absolutely what I found most exhilarating with Expedition 33 gameplay-wise, being able to defeat much tougher enemies with a mix of persistence and parrying/dodging - that was really rewarding imo.
I tried to mod Cyberpunk 2077 and it was not a smooth experience. I first tried using Vortex in Bottles but it wouldn't run. I then tried to use ProtonUp-QT but couldn't figure out exactly what to do. I discovered that there's a new NNM AppImage that's early in development that works with Cyberpunk.
I'll have to try again in the future and figure out how ProtonUp-QT, ProtonTricks, Steam Tinker Launcher, etc.
Ditto (but 2077 instead, haha). I’ve had no issues, except I wish it’d be possible to export the mod collection and reimport on a different device - eg going from desktop to Steam Deck and vice versa, which I’ve had to do manually.
I spent well over a month talking to investors to get the actual data behind what’s happening to the games industry. I was going to say “enjoy!” but it’s, uh, not great.
The only way I get to roundabout $200 now is if they are talking about 1983/84, but the NES hadn’t even released in NA back then, so that’s somewhat unlikely?
I can’t confirm for Steam, since I only have the game on EA app, but the game’s wiki page on PCGW shows the same DRM-free info (with correct launch steps).
As is now my tradition (this is my 10th of these posts! And it’s been 10 days since my last one of these posts, there’s gotta be some symmetry in that somewhere) you’ll know the drill....
As enjoyable as ever to read!
I think you might have missed the link to Nightdive Studios’ future endeavours? Or Voyager is not showing it at least.
I almost didn’t mention my game of the moment - I’ve been diving deep into Hollow Knight on the Deck, I just wish it supported HDR but otherwise it’s an experience like no other.
I finished Pentiment yesterday, what an absolute masterpiece. It’s certainly not for everyone - and I initially hesitantly added it to my backlog for this year as a very different game from what I’m used to - but it resonated so much with me.
I also started Castlevania: SOTN, which I quite enjoy so far - metroidvanias are usually hit or miss for me so I’m going in with tempered expectations.
And I’m attempting a fresh playthrough of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, which I shelved a couple years ago.
What have y’all been playing? I’ve been continuing my Avowed grind. I’m starting to be ready for it to be over. But it is still very enjoyable. I just have other games I want to play lol
What mods did you end up with?
I shelved RDR2 a while ago (year and a half ago?) but would like to get back to it at some point, likely with some QoL enhancements
I started at 7 and looked forwards to every iteration of the series since then, 8 was more of the same with a weird story, 9 was cute and a good throwback, then I went back to 6 which was a masterpiece, 10 was emotional and beautiful, 12 wasn’t great but had cool worldbuilding, being a FFT fan....
Realistically, as you mentioned with FF XIV ARR now being a classic but also being a pain to get into is true for any other older FF, many people simply have rose tinted glasses to keep them from seeing all the flaws present in those prior entries.
I also started with FF VII, but 25 years after its release, and let me tell you that it did not age well (at all) imo.
Had I not picked up FF XVI, I probably wouldn’t have given the series another chance.
I now played both FF VII remakes to date and absolutely loved them, especially Rebirth, and am going through FF VI, which I also think is a masterpiece tbh.
FF IV didn’t work out for me, but that’s fine.
All that to say, video game series evolve, ARPGs have been quite popular for a while and FF went that route - for now. That doesn’t make for bad games, and the series will keep evolving.
I started 1000xRESIST over the weekend and just can’t put it down, I should finish it in a few hours.
After that, I’ll likely pick up either Divinity: Original Sin 2 (I’m a couple of hours in) or the DLCs for Alan Wake 2 (since I finished the main game a few days ago), we’ll see.
In an ideal world, every game should be fully cross-buy IMO, but that tends to never be the case.
PlayStation used to have PS3/PS4/PSVita cross-buy games for a while, but they didn’t keep it going for their recent PC porting efforts (that clearly wouldn’t help their bottom line).
Xbox has Play Anywhere, and that’s likely the closest to a functional cross-buy (and cross-play) we have today - that’s the main draw for me if (when) I ever buy games digitally on Xbox.
Three day weekend … Messed up my schedule. Oh well, what have you been playing? I’ve been checking out a ton of cool playdate stuff, as well as more binding of Isaac. I also picked up a game called the roottrees are dead that I’m excited to check out! It seems like a game similar to case of the golden idol which is one of...
Burnout, what a game! I know 3 still is regarded as one of the best arcade racers to this day, although tbh - controversial opinion, I know - Paradise is likely my favourite in the series.
Tekken 8 is slowly consuming me whole… and I don’t mind. I love the game so far! When I’m not playing, I’m looking up combos, pro replays, various advanced tutorials… I’m fully committed at this point, haha.
That being said, my library has let me know that a copy of Sonic X Shadow Generations is available for borrowing, so I’ll switch it up a bit this week!
I’m still playing Persona 3 Reload and I believe it finally clicked for me.
I still don’t particularly like Tartarus that much, but I’ve been able to complete each section relatively quickly so far (and without grinding) so it’s certainly not too bad. The rest of the game has definitely opened up though (thankfully, I’m about 30-35 hrs in, haha).
Slowly making my way through Jeanne d’Arc on the side - gameplay wise it’s up my alley (minus grinding…), however the story is pretty subpar imo.
How Are You Guys Handling This?
I upgraded from my 15 year old PC to one of the new Mac Minis at Xmas last year, thinking that I would be fine for gaming with my Xbox / Game Pass, and I would “skip a generation” on PC hardware. I have a small Steam / Epic library, but everything that didn’t work on MacOS, I had a Game Pass version of....
The LCD Steam Deck is no longer being manufactured (www.theverge.com)
Is there a trick to controllers that I'm missing?
I find that I prefer playing games on my PS5 so that I’m not battling Windows updates, spending a bunch of time tweaking settings, etc. But the shooter genre is something I’m finding very difficult on a controller. I grew up playing Unreal Tournament, Quake, etc., and I find it extremely easy to jump into games like...
What are your gaming highlights of 2025?
I was just reflecting on games I’ve played in the last year, and wondering when Steam’s year-in-review thing would be happening (probably within the next week)....
Building GameSieve for GOG: A Chat With the Developer
If you buy PC games at all (especially over the last 12 months given how positive the news around them has been) then you’ve probably heard of GOG....
Games designed to be one thing, but are commonly played other than intended?
Not sure how to title this better 😅...
What game changed your life?
Team Cherry - Hollow Knight: Silksong will be $20 USD (bsky.app)
Bluesky post text is as follows:...
Infinite Backlog | A Video Game Collection Tracker (infinitebacklog.net)
Infinite Backlog gives you one place for your entire gaming collection and encourages you to play your games and get your backlogs under control. It provides a visual breakdown of your cross-platform collection, tracks gaming achievements and statistics and lets you connect with other gamers with the same games....
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 24th
Late thread sorry y’all....
We can't keep making videogame stories for players who aren't paying attention to them (www.pcgamer.com)
I’ve noticed a trend—particularly in some recent RPGs—of, well, let’s call it ‘Netflixiness’....
Any Xbox 360 can now be hacked in less than one minute (youtu.be)
Would you rather stop playing a game than lower the difficulty? The First Berserker: Khazan devs reckon you would | Eurogamer (www.eurogamer.net)
Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport developer hit hard by Xbox cuts (www.theverge.com)
Highlighting Some 2025 Games on itch.io
Introduction...
As The Outer Worlds 2 hits $80, director says "we don't set the prices for our games" and wishes "everybody could play" Obsidian's new RPG (www.gamesradar.com)
How do you keep track of what games you have played over the years?
Hiya, just newly thought about something: wouldn't be nice if there was a simple way of checking what games you have played over the years, a way to keep track of wether you liked the game or not, how much time you spent playing it etc.. Currently, personally i only check steam library for those kinda details. But it would be...
The first weekly What Are You Playing? thread!
Hey everyone! I have no power in here, have not checked if anyone has started one of these but I feel like being the change I want to see in the world....
My highest achievement in Expedition 33 (yet) (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
I guess I love suffering and play games only because it’s not enough in real life (that’s why my favourite genres are souls-likes and fightings, but that’s another story). I’m currently playing Expedition 33, and this game marks some areas as “dangerous”, implying that the player is underleveled to defy local bosses...
Giving away 1 month Game Pass Ultimate code
Would anyone care for a code for 1 month Game Pass Ultimate?...
Over a hundred thousand Dune Awakening players got swallowed by the sandworm | Massively Overpowered (massivelyop.com)
Developer interview: my Q&A with the creator of Lutris
A while ago I had the good fortune of organizing a fair-sized interview with one member of the team behind Lutris....
The games industry is screwed. [26:11] (youtu.be)
I spent well over a month talking to investors to get the actual data behind what’s happening to the games industry. I was going to say “enjoy!” but it’s, uh, not great.
8BitDo no longer shipping to US from China due to Trump tariffs (www.polygon.com)
Ubisoft patch Splinter Cell Blacklist after 12 years to add achievements (www.pcgamer.com)
Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
As is now my tradition (this is my 10th of these posts! And it’s been 10 days since my last one of these posts, there’s gotta be some symmetry in that somewhere) you’ll know the drill....
Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
My week’s news!...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 24th
What have y’all been playing?...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 16th
What have you all been playing?...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 9th
What have y’all been playing? I’ve been continuing my Avowed grind. I’m starting to be ready for it to be over. But it is still very enjoyable. I just have other games I want to play lol
Are modern Final Fantasy games bad?
I started at 7 and looked forwards to every iteration of the series since then, 8 was more of the same with a weird story, 9 was cute and a good throwback, then I went back to 6 which was a masterpiece, 10 was emotional and beautiful, 12 wasn’t great but had cool worldbuilding, being a FFT fan....
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 9th
What have y’all been playing? I’ve been trying to wrap up Indiana Jones, then I think I’m going to do a replay of the machine games Wolfenstein games
Resident Evil 2 remake has sold fewer than 10,000 copies on iOS, estimates suggest (www.videogameschronicle.com)
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 20th
Three day weekend … Messed up my schedule. Oh well, what have you been playing? I’ve been checking out a ton of cool playdate stuff, as well as more binding of Isaac. I also picked up a game called the roottrees are dead that I’m excited to check out! It seems like a game similar to case of the golden idol which is one of...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 7th
Whatcha playing?...