Hell yeah. Snagged a few oddball games that I’ve had my eye on for a long time. Dread delusion, pseudo Regalia, Lunacid. They are all supposedly steam deck compatible to a lesser or greater degree, fingers crossed that actually holds true.
Lots of hype around Death Stranding 2 at the mo, but I bounced off the first one pretty hard. I appreciate Kojima and also the games he makes, but wobbly balance weight-on-back tightrope tension, for the whole game, unfortunately didn’t do it for me. Is the new one any different?
The PC will always be at the top of that list. It wasn’t always, but has been for a long while now, and will continue that way for the foreseeable future IMO. It has the most compatible control methods, the easiest upgrade paths, the best storefront/platform of any machine, and the largest overall player-base.
That said, there are things that come with all that. OS choice and maintenance, hardware choices, associated costs with all that, etc. But, that’s also a good thing (choice). Luckily at least in the case of fighting games, you don’t generally need to have the absolute latest hardware to enjoy them.
Flight and space games generally DO push hardware a bit more, but even then, you can play most of them on medium level hardware with plenty of graphical fidelity.
Also, with the PC you have lots of methods to play retro games via emulation, ports, etc. so you could also play older fighting games from other systems, play Wing Commander under DOSBox, etc. should you want to explore the classics.
Others may disagree with my assessment.
None of what I said is absolutely set in stone either. You can play a lot of these things on Macs for example, Android systems, handheld devices, hacked consoles, and other slightly out of the ordinary means.
There is also nothing wrong with getting a PS5 for example, popping in a disc, and just enjoying a game without all of the peripheral work that goes with computers.
I can’t personally recommend the Switch 2 or XBox route currently for various reasons I don’t want to get into here, (there are plenty of those discussions elsewhere). My compressed blurb though: I’m an absolute Nintendo nut too, they’ve just pushed me a bit too far on several issues lately, and as much as I’d love a Switch 2, I’m holding out in silent(ish) protest for now. Probably in vein, but doing it anyway. As far as XBox, they’re all over the place lately, and I don’t see the situation solidifying any time soon.
I think I’ll finally get the director’s cut of Death Stranding when it goes on sale. I’m kind of in a lull between games right now and not really hooked by anything I haven’t already finished.
Finished my Metroid series playthroughs. Catching up on Gameboy games I missed out on. (Mole Mania and The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls).
Hearing a lot of fun stuff about Death Stranding 2 and I’ve been a Kojima fan most of my gaming life. I was unfortunately introduced to the first game in a way less than ideal setting at a child’s birthday party. At the same party the host dad was playing THE most bootleg download of the second Spiderverse movie I imagine possible, with theatre audience walking in front of the camera and a Hindi narration over the audio.
Fun time.
Really enjoyed the first many hours of DS Director’s Cut. I didn’t finish it just because I had other things coming up and during a lull in the plot of the game. It is very much worth experiencing just for the insanity of some of the gameplay.
I will eventually get around to finishing it / checking out DS2, but I’m dogpiled with games and other things to do this summer.
fair assessment and can see how many others might feel the same. Personally I was surprised just how much I loved the whole wobbly backpack deliveroo thing - to the extent it’s one of my all time favourite games ever. Intrigued to see if the sequel will top it.
I also got the director’s cut cheap and was gonna play it next on PC after an abortive PS5 attempt years ago, but then I got distracted by AC Shadows
The immediate thing you notice about Death Stranding is it cinematic presentation. It’s phenomenal. It’s almost that classic way I used to feel about PlayStation games back in the day - cut scene software, with token gameplay in between. Kojima clearly has film making in his soul, and some of those early scenes of Death Stranding are just so striking and original - as is the general conceptual mood of the game. I really wouldn’t mind giving it another shot just to see out the filmic side of it.
If I had to pinpoint my favorite part of Death Stranding without giving any spoilers, it’s the way the story gets framed in such a melodramatic way. There are plenty of games with over-the-top character flourishes, melodramatic beats, etc, but the way Kojima did it in Death Stranding is so stripped down that it feels intentionally “dumb” in a smart way. Some of the weirder character names / designs remind me of how certain stage play formats like kabuki will telegraph plot points simply by the makeup, costumes or masks that the actors are wearing. It took me a minute to understand that the game wasn’t just being cheesy in most of these cases, it actually comes back around to being cool and subversive again.
I am the same. Not good with Magic and Dragons, would never play Skyrim. But I would strongly recommend Elden Ring. It´s great.
Death Stranding 2 I will have have a look when it´s cheaper. I played a good chunk of the first one and liked it somehow but the Gameplay was boring after a while. I hope it´s better now.
Switch 2: Metroid 4 and Hollow Knight Silk Song will be a blast this year.
Right now playing Black Myth Wukong and having a blast. I also tried out the new Doom Dark Ages and South of Midnight but did not really enjoy these games very well. Have a free XBox PC game pass that came with my new gaming laptop. The cool thing about Wukong is how well the Chinese mythology stories and characters are woven together into the gameplay and story.
So many great memories on my NEC PC Engine GT…
Super Raiden
PC Kid Punkic Cyborgs
If you haven’t played Psychonauts 2, you should!
Also, I did the music for the epic making-of documentary. There is quite a bit of Model:Cycles in the original score
Got that Robocop game selling with a 90% discount on Steam right now. Turns out, it’s exactly what I wanted.
It’s ridiculously cheesy and infuriatingly slow. It only works in 1280x720 on my computer (which is kinda normal for a 2023 game) but somehow looks stunning in that resolution on a 34" 4K monitor, as if it added an extra layer of cheese.
Is it a masterpiece to be remembered in ages? No.
Is it fun and relaxing? Yes.
Do you need to be a Robocop fan to enjoy it? Absolutely not.
Should you buy it for $2.5? Hell yeah.
We are a Psychonauts household! All of my kids have beat it multiple times. I came pretty close to an all item perfect run many years ago. The kids have all played the second one a ton. I haven’t myself yet, but it’s sitting in Steam ready to go as soon as I have time
Whoa!!! Nice work!
oh nice! What are the specs? I love my new Lenovo Legion 7i laptop with SSD, 32 GB RAM, Intel Ultra 9 cpu and beefy 24GB VRAM with nVidia 5090 gpu. Can run ultra/cinematic full graphics with full ray tracing. Games run smooth now and look super amazing on my large 80 inch HDTV. Gaming today is like playing a motion picture
I adore Death Stranding 1 and am playing 2 now. If you got bored because it’s not as combat-focused as most big narrative-driven games, it’s not much different with this one. I think early main missions put a bit more emphasis on enemy encounters than the first game, but the gameplay is largely the same, just with a bit more variety in everything. So there isn’t really more of a focus on combat this time, but there’s more variety to enemies and weapons/tools. But you’re still doing the same stuff as the first game.
I do think the boss fights are substantially better though.
After reading more and watching Vinesauce playing it looks like Death Stranding is not something for me after all.
But Monster Hunter Wilds is on sale!