Video Games General

[Jamesson Locke]

Aside from more reinforcement, it seems Sony is taking pity on their rival after MS disemboweled its own games division in the name of executive bonuses and trying to shove AI down our throats.

Click to shrink...

Sure, how's that remaster of a 4 year old game movie coming Sony? Or what about the TV series that people abandoned the moment the writer's shit idea hit the fan?

 

[Sigmundr]

Nice! I really need to get a few more VNs on my SD OLED. I love that screen and the device in general. Moonlight/Sunshine is also a great way to play VNs if you have a stable internet connection.

Click to shrink...

I wanted the OLED but they only had the LCD in stock and I didn't feel like waiting till summer was over. Having never used Linux before it was sorta touch and go at the start but a few YouTube videos let me get it figured out. Hmm, I'll have to check out Moonlight/Sunshine.

I've been a pc gamer since I was a kid, but it definitely became my main platform these past few years (in great part thanks to pc handhelds being so good). No need to pay Sony/Nintendo prices for a worse experience in general. I'll probably always have a few consoles for exclusives but third party is 100% PC now.

Click to shrink...

I still have a pc for major gaming but sometimes you just want to relax in bed or on the couch you know? Had a Switch but it wasn't really worth it when I have all my stuff on Steam. And, my laptop is on it's last legs. Can't keep it off the charger for long with how quick the battery runs out. So I'm very much enjoying the Steam Deck.

 

[Pure Unadulterated Ego]

I wanted the OLED but they only had the LCD in stock and I didn't feel like waiting till summer was over. Having never used Linux before it was sorta touch and go at the start but a few YouTube videos let me get it figured out. Hmm, I'll have to check out Moonlight/Sunshine.

Click to shrink...

That's fair, the LCD is still pretty incredible on its own. The update to the screen via software was a huge change.

Moonlight/Sunshine was a pretty big deal for me since it lets me leverage the power of the PC to play on the SD with a much better battery life and graphics. It's basically to play remotely but with more features and less latency. No noise too (which was more noticeable in the SD LCD).

For example, last night I wasn't home and I barely had 8ms of latency due to network and I think a few more ms to the screen. Let's say ~10ms overall. I was playing at pretty comfortable 90fps and max graphics. And since it's just streaming, battery life is also ridiculous. I tend to use it at home where latency is like 3 or 4ms because it's just my local network.

Lets me play Cyberpunk 2077 with path tracing and imperceptible latency with a controller when I'm already in bed... which is really nice.

I still have a pc for major gaming but sometimes you just want to relax in bed or on the couch you know? Had a Switch but it wasn't really worth it when I have all my stuff on Steam. And, my laptop is on it's last legs. Can't keep it off the charger for long with how quick the battery runs out. So I'm very much enjoying the Steam Deck.

Click to shrink...

Handheld gaming is just another vibe, especially if you work on a desk all day like I do. I haven't used my Switch for more than a few hours in the past few years. Not a big fan of Nintendo or their ecosystem.

 

[Drak4806]

I wish Steam had multiple wishlists so I could sort games between ones I really want and ones I'll maybe buy at a deep discount while drunk

 

[Neo3932156]

I wish Steam had multiple wishlists so I could sort games between ones I really want and ones I'll maybe buy at a deep discount while drunk

Click to shrink...

Is There any Deal? website have that option with their category and customizable rule.

 

[Velk]

Just about through the first route of Last Defense Academy, I had more trouble with the Penultimate Final Boss than the Final Boss. They gave me a rightfully deserved D ranking for the first fight and the last one got an S ranking because he was easy to bait into unlocking so many Fatal Finishers that I only needed four turns to kill him.

Turns out that a teleporting Mighty Glacier Boss is a cheap gimmick when they have summonable Elite Mooks.

Downloaded Cunny Simulator (Blue Archive), gonna see what the fuss is about.

 

[Dezron]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FutmQwQ-O2A

 

[Astral]

I just finish xenoblade chronicles x and I found it average at best for storywise and gameplaywise. I Just tried clair obscur (and the 15 first min were more interesting than the whole xcx) but my pc cannot run it.
Do you have any recommandations ? I am looking for something were the story is interesting.

 

[TheFabulousCustodes]

I've been a pc gamer since I was a kid, but it definitely became my main platform these past few years (in great part thanks to pc handhelds being so good). No need to pay Sony/Nintendo prices for a worse experience in general. I'll probably always have a few consoles for exclusives but third party is 100% PC now.

Click to shrink...

I've been a console gamer for a long time, but the Steam Deck OLED is giving me a serious case of temptation.

Which SD OLED model did you get, and how does it perform?

 

[Melmar]

Here's a kinda neat one. An old school Touhou roguelike dungeon crawler based off an old ass game called, fittingly, Linley's Dungeon Crawl or simply Crawl. Or possibly its successor Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, I'm not actually sure which.

You can play as either a few canon characters who have some unique abilities or create a character who's either human or one of the various kinds of yokai. It's pretty fun even though it does keep kicking my ass and it's free just like the other Crawl games.

Touhou Crawl on Steam

"Touhou Crawl" is a Touhou derivative roguelike game. Conquer the dungeon-ified Gensokyo using items, faith, and tactics!

store.steampowered.com

 

[Pure Unadulterated Ego]

I've been a console gamer for a long time, but the Steam Deck OLED is giving me a serious case of temptation.

Which SD OLED model did you get, and how does it perform?

Click to shrink...

I'd say it depends on expectations; it's around the same performance as the Switch 2 in handheld mode but it has a lot more features and ways to customize your experience. It won't give you ps5 level graphics on its own. I have both Steam Decks (LCD and OLED 512GB), but I only use the OLED version nowadays. On the matter of performance they are about the same in some tests I ran, just a few fps at best of difference due to RAM speed (I think).

OLED is for sure the one I'd recommend. The 512GB version has a glossy screen which should give you better blacks and more reflections as a tradeoff. It feels like a much more polished experience overall -- better battery life, an incredible screen, quieter fans, and even small stuff like the analog sticks are better. It does help that I think OLED is peak when it comes to image quality. It's hard to go back to LCD for movies or games.

IMO the SD excels with older AAA games or indies. I've put a lot of hours into Hades 2 recently at rock solid 90fps. Games like Balatro, bullet heaven games, JRPGs and so on. And Steam is a treasure trove of indie games that are nowhere else and they are quite cheap.

On the other hand, I've had games I stopped playing on the Deck because it just didn't look that good and I knew I'd enjoy it with a better graphical fidelity. Expedition 33 was a little grainy with the config I tried, so I waited until I could play it on my PC or remotely from the Deck. I've played things like Armored Core at 40fps and I beat the Elden Ring DLC's final boss on my Deck.

Where the SD kinda kicks it up a notch for me is that it's the perfect companion device for a gaming PC. I can play games on the go and then go back to enjoy it on the big screen at max graphics at home, or just play remotely from my PC with 90fps and latency that I can't perceive (just a few ms). Given that it's super ergonomic and with a great screen, it's pretty great at streaming your games that way. I think you can do the same with a ps5 with an app called chiaki but I can't say how well it works.

Instead of docking improving the image quality 10%, you jump a few generations in graphical power.

Other stuff I wanted to mention:
- Do you like old games? Emulate as much as you want. Play older PC games.
- Games are not arbitrarily capped to a certain graphical quality. In the future, once you have a better SD or a PC, you'll be able to play at higher fps or settings without waiting for a patch that you might have to pay for (in consoles).
- It's still very much a PC. You can connect a keyboard and a monitor to do work
- It's not as good of a docked experience as the Switch. Not as seamless and worse performance than the Switch 2
- It might require you to tinker from time to time if you want something specific. Like playing a super old game or install emulators. A lot of this is polished because the SteamOS is so popular, so community resources are plenty.
- You don't need to pay for online or the backup of your saves
- Games are cheaper. Regional pricing is better. You can buy easier on a third party store with codes for Steam. Or you can buy in a place like GOG where you can download and own the games forever.
- Some games might not be compatible due to SteamOS and anti-cheats. Not that those games are what I would want to play on a handheld, but it's good to take into account

Overall I 100% recommend it as a companion device, but there are more conditions to a recommendation as your main device.

 

[TheFabulousCustodes]

OLED is for sure the one I'd recommend. The 512GB version has a glossy screen which should give you better blacks and more reflections as a tradeoff.

Click to shrink...

Alot of the reviews about the 512gb/1tb versions talked about the image quality differences between the glossy or etched screens. I'm leaning towards the 512gb, and putting any more demanding titles on the main SSD, and older stuff on a SD card. I can always upgrade the SSD in the future, if I want, it seems pretty easy.

Have you put a screen protector on your Steam Deck?

IMO the SD excels with older AAA games or indies. I've put a lot of hours into Hades 2 recently at rock solid 90fps. Games like Balatro, bullet heaven games, JRPGs and so on. And Steam is a treasure trove of indie games that are nowhere else and they are quite cheap.

Click to shrink...

The indie games, and older titles are tempting me like freshly made donuts. PlayStation wants to force me to subscribe to their game pass service to play alot of older titles, like Fallout 3 for example.

Overall I 100% recommend it as a companion device, but there are more conditions to a recommendation as your main device.

Click to shrink...

I'm picturing the SD being used as a supplement to my PS5, which I'll play the big AAA titles on, until I either build/buy a gaming rig, or Valve finally releases the Steam Box, which rumors have leaked out about.

Thanks for the detailed response!

 

[Pure Unadulterated Ego]

Alot of the reviews about the 512gb/1tb versions talked about the image quality differences between the glossy or etched screens. I'm leaning towards the 512gb, and putting any more demanding titles on the main SSD, and older stuff on a SD card. I can always upgrade the SSD in the future, if I want, it seems pretty easy.

Have you put a screen protector on your Steam Deck?

Click to shrink...

How do you expect to play your SD? If it's at night, they should be about the same. When there's some light in your ambient, the glossy screen gets much better screen quality as long as you can avoid reflections. The etched screen should have worse blacks but make it more playable closer to big windows and such.

I didn't see the need for a screen protector. I've had it for a year and the case that comes with it is very tough, no scratches at all and I've dropped it a time or two.

The SD card works pretty well for most games too. Probably not if you want to play the latest Assassin's Creed, but other than that it's fine.

The indie games, and older titles are tempting me like freshly made donuts. PlayStation wants to force me to subscribe to their game pass service to play alot of older titles, like Fallout 3 for example.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I stopped my sub of Plus because they just keep increasing prices and giving us shittier games.

There are very easy ways to emulate games on the Deck that setup all your emulators too (Emudeck and Retrodeck). So if you want to play older titles or just games from other generations, it's 100% worth it. Fallout 3 is verified for the deck too. I like being to run these games anywhere I want. It feels like you have more ownership of the games you buy.

It helps that Steam has the best refund policy in the industry afaik.

I'm picturing the SD being used as a supplement to my PS5, which I'll play the big AAA titles on, until I either build/buy a gaming rig, or Valve finally releases the Steam Box, which rumors have leaked out about.

Thanks for the detailed response!

Click to shrink...

You might want to check out chiaki if you get it. It actually has less latency and better stream quality than the PS Portal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT0OPMNeXJs

Given that you want to play easier to run games and use it as a complement to your PS5, I'd definitely recommend it.

And no worries, glad to have helped!

 

[Delta/Soul]

What are websites that are similar to Steam? Is there a list?

 

[riotous living]

What are websites that are similar to Steam? Is there a list?

Click to shrink...

Go to isthereanydeal and look at the websites listed for a game. If you mean non steam stuff, I'm only aware of gog, epic, and itch

 

[Bob Bob]

I want to tell you a story about myself finding traces of Lovecraftian horror in an old forgotten book. No, seriously.

A long time ago, when the sky was higher, the grass was greener, and everyone was playing video games on the Sega Mega Drive, there were books with cheat codes and secrets for video games. You know, "1000 BEST GAMES FOR SEGA, secrets, codes, passwords, walkthroughs". I had read several such books, and I knew most of the games only through these books. Therefore, when at the end of one of these books I came across a description of a game about the adventures of two little necromancers in a cemetery with cheat codes for instant summoning Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath, I did not think much about it. Little necromancers, so what? In comparison with an earthworm in a spacesuit, a blue bipedal sprinter hedgehog and a superhero killing enemies with snots, farts and burps, little necromancers did not look strange at all.

Much later I got to know Lovecraft and his works, but then nothing rang in my head either. But one day I decided to remember my childhood, install an emulator and play old games, including those that had previously been impossible to get. That's when I remembered this game and thought, "holy shit, I definitely should play this". One problem: there was no such game in the lists of games for emulators. And it wasn't on the lists of Sega Mega Drive games on various websites. And the search engines didn't know anything about this game either. I thought that my memory was failing me, but then I managed to find that book.

The book is called "Encyclopedia of the best games 1700 best games for Sega Mega Drive (Genesis), Symba's 168". The book was published in St. Petersburg in 2003. And on pages 349-350 there is this text:

Spoiler: Pages

"Zone of carrion bones" and two sequels. An action/RPG that supports two players. "Funny adventures of two little necromancers in abandoned cemeteries. The game has minimal RPG elements, as well as a very extensive black magic system." With codes for instant summoning of Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath. And then there is "Zone of carrion bones light" with the description "Little necromancers have grown up and face more serious tasks". It looks like another sequel.

I don't understand, what is this game? Is this some kind of local product that was released in small numbers and never entered the international market? Is this a pirate hack with changed sprites, like "Chip and Dale 3" or "Darkwing Duck 2"? Did the authors of the book made up a non-existent game for the round number on the cover? Or is it deed of Outer Gods that want to enter our world and have materialized a means for their summoning?

Has anyone else heard of the "Zone of carrion bones"?