playing games on a PC, misc. chatter, Steam names, etc...

used to be a huge gamer but only game i've loved and gotten really into the past few years has been overwatch. (to me it's basically a perfect team shooter.) but overall having some game ennui. it's like with all the capability and choice modern systems can deliver something is just missing for me.

that said, stuff i've (mostly) liked:
- red dead 2- relxaing, pretty. not much of a 'game' at times
- cities skylines- best city sim i've ever played
- witcher 3- very cool, but the depth and detail almost takes the imagination out of an RPG experience
- skyrim- liked when i played it originally, found it fairly flat and dull upon revisiting
- hypnospace outlaw- funny, great concept
- frostpunk- well-done city/strategy game
- superhot- almost an ideal game to me, stresses a unique concept over graphics or lore or scope

medieval total war and age of empires ii were basically my life at one point... AoEII is still probably my favorite game of all time (can't play new remaster because I don't have Windows 10 sadly). a lot of recent strategy games left me really cold (tropico series- way too easy, anno 1800- too much granular logistical detail to the gameplay without the ability to view data or rationale behind it)

i dunno, i guess i gravitate towards 'easy to learn, hard to master' with a distinct aesthetic and good multiplayer. and i think i get bogged down on steam with too many options. i'm also very aware that this is all likely to my getting older and more jaded and not having the time to truly immerse myself. but i've taken so much to overwatch i know there must be something out there that can pique my interest. i love wasting an entire afternoon gaming, i kind of miss it

not to derail, this is a general PC gaming thread so I think my question fits here. i also have a PS4 and thinking about death stranding because from what i can tell at least it's unique if nothing else

im in a similar place w/r/t games, i used to play a lot and now i play like one or two games a year, lots of modern games leave me cold bc the open world/unlimited possibilities of so many games leaves me cold, probably just a function of getting older and not having huge blocks of time to get lost in the immersive world of a game.

that being said i just played the demo of superhot online and it was pretty damn fun, think i might take the plunge on it!

it's awesome; the VR version is a wonderful time

i've swapped back to playing single player games almost exclusively since online service-games just seem like a soul-sucking mess now. i was binge-gaming the past couple years but i've slowed my roll now and trying to enjoy fewer things more.

maybe its just the crowd i hang out with but definitely the general feeling that something 'flipped' circa 2017 and we're back to the late 90s/early 00s where most of the warmly received prestige-y games are coming from japan

i also hate the deluge of DLCs that come out for everything, makes things even more inaccessible. i guess that's just another route for monetization

xp to the controller thing. Just a tip, and something i discovered the other day, if you're switching from xbox to ps4 controller on steam make sure to enable the ps4 controller in the steam controller settings. (and I guess it works the other way too). I was banging my head against the wall when none of my games appeared to recognise the controller.

Shadow Tactics is really neat to begin with. I haven’t played a Commandos-type isometric stealth game in like 15 years

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/07/07/frog-fractions-will-become-the-game-of-the-decade-this-august/

Sadly doesn't look like there will be a Mac port, but maybe I'll get it. I don't think I got even close to the end.

And it's up
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1194840/Frog_Fractions_Game_of_the_Decade_Edition/

going to sell my ps4, which means I'll have no controller on the pc. So my question is to fellow pc gamers, what controller do yall use. Anyone recommend a cheap one that won't break within a week and doens't have dodgy analogue sticks?

Not really eager to fork out 60 quid on an official xbox one unless I have to.

haha, i use a PS4 controller, and i was going to recommend an xbox one otherwise :)

do you have to sell your controller with the PS4? i guess you do, unless you want to ruin some kid's christmas

yeah the ps4 and xbox one controllers are the best pc controllers too right now

don't know of anything significantly cheaper than the ps4 one thats not dodgy

okay i'm trying ps3 controller instead, after having installed the driver from third party. so far so good.

(but only tried 1 game, when i finish with work i'll give it a thoroough test with gta5 or something)
(of course if it doesn't work with farming sim then all bets are offf)

I use an Xbox one controller. Previously I used a Logitech F710 controller but Logitech stopped supporting it when Windows 10 came out.

xbox 360 controllers can be had for very cheap now and work great with a pc so long as you don't use the d-pad too much

Sable, with Moebius style artwork, out later this year. Probably just going to be short exploration type thing, but I'm in.

Steamboy is finally here

Introducing Steam Deck: powerful, portable PC gaming starting at $399. Designed by Valve, powered by Steam. Shipping December 2021.

Learn more at https://t.co/ZOTx3KUCVK and reserve yours tomorrow. #SteamDeck pic.twitter.com/jcgbaKfT9c

— Steam (@Steam) July 15, 2021

haha, L4, L5, R4, and R5

looks like the kind of button i would accidentally press one trillion times

https://i.imgur.com/jiLPDj6.png

it also seems like something that would be really useful for games like guitar hero. which is sad, because i can imagine some little kid absolutely mastering guitar hero on the steam controller, doing these crazy metal riffs down all five of the Ls and all five of the Rs like a lil van halen. but then picking up a guitar and being like "scrrkrkoonk. fllooom."

oh they do have SD card slots, makes the cheapest one more usable
looks like it's running on Steam's Linux OS, how is Linux game support these days?
they way the dpad and ABXY buttons seem to be trying to escape off the edge is pretty lol

i was starting to get myself psyched up to buy this, because most of my gaming is done on steam these days anyway, and i'd love to be able to play PC games as well as mac. but the $399 price point is for the lowest storage model (64 GB), which isn't even large enough to cover a lot of AAA games, let alone multiple.

Three storage options
There is no in-game difference in frame rates or graphics quality between the three models.

$399 64GB
64GB eMMC internal storage
Carrying case

$529 256GB
256GB NVMe SSD internal storage
Faster storage
Carrying case
Exclusive Steam Community profile bundle

$649 512GB
512GB NVMe SSD internal storage
Fastest storage
Premium anti-glare etched glass
Exclusive carrying case
Exclusive Steam Community profile bundle
Exclusive virtual keyboard theme

oops xp

oh they do have SD card slots, makes the cheapest one more usable

nice! ok, thinking about getting re-psyched for this

major "cups too close to the edge of the table" vibes from those buttons

wait apparently you can wipe the Steam OS and install windows on this?
my dream of a portable PS2/GC emulation beast may be closer than I thought

(which I will spend hours and hours dicking around to make the perfect library of games run perfectly, then put it aside to gather dust lol)

heh, yes.

oh interesting. i thought Windows games were relying on the Proton layer. hmm...
i think the $399 version is a tough sell with only 64GB. yes you can put in SD cards, but I imagine the performance would be much worse vs. the SSD.
if i got one i'd get the top tier... though at that point it might be tempted to get a laptop instead? not sure
(not to mention Switch OLED pre-orders opened today...)

this... seems good? as long as it's not just streaming from your real computer. if it's really a powerful gaming pc, i'm interested.

there's a patent troll suing any controller maker that puts buttons on the back. wonder if they paid that company off.

something doesn't sit right for me, same feeling i got about the steam controller (which i bought anyway, and yeah big fat dud)

64gig seems small, could probably get about 3 of my AAA steam games on that (not RDR or GTA at all though).

People seem excited for it though, what am I missing? What's the big deal, doesn't seem great at all to me.

its a handheld that plays the zillions of games you already have on your steam account. don't think playing AAAs is the main appeal here so much as having access to every indie and mid-budget and retro game under the sun

for me the biggest appeal is being able to play some PC-only games that i've been wanting to try for a long time.

there's a zillion adventure games and VNs that aren't on switch and its always a bummer having to play stuff like that at your pc when its such a natural fit for handhelds. i'm not gonna get one of these but that'd be the reason for it if i did

sounds like the opening of reservations has been the usual Valve clusterfuck, to no one's surprise

Surviving Mars currently free on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/464920/Surviving_Mars/

Thanks for the heads up, will check it out

thanks!

nioh 1 currently free on epic game store

Surviving Mars currently free on Steam

Is it region-specific? I see that it's 75% off.

it was only free for a very short period

What's with the daily dozens of Steam updates lately, been happening for a couple of weeks now where every morning loads of games require tiny updates?

maybe developers prepping games for Deck compatibility?

Here's a name-your-price pumpkin-carving sim from the dev of A Short Hike

https://adamgryu.itch.io/pumpkin-carver

What's the latest word on the Deck? Is it still buggy and hit-or-miss with what games it'll be able to play

I've heard that it has a noisy fan and it's as buggy as a normal PC. I think most games work on it. I just reserved one.

pretty great Capcom PC bundle, $20 for Monster Hunter World, all the DMCs including 5, SF4 & 5, Dragon's Dogma etc
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/capcom-summer-2022-bundle

I got a Deck the other day so messing around with that, it's buggy but fun

curious about your impressions of it, once you settle in with it for a bit