I have to wonder what is going to happen when Microsoft gets off their asses and releases a controller-friendly version of Windows, basically something like SteamOS or even just BigPictureMode with quick access to all of the little toggles you normally need via a quick button combo. Suddenly ROG Ally will be much more competitive when you no longer have to dip back to the desktop and play with Control Panel to get things working.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: LoftyThis game is so easy to run, it would be good if they added some experimental Raytracing / pathtracing support. Even if it was just through a bruteforce method. Not only that they could add Ai upscale textures to modernize it. there are modder's creating some incredibly good upscaled Retro texture packs for older consoles, using tools like ESRGAN, Waifucaffe, & GIMP (or photoshop), It's not like the olden days where valve would of have to redraw the whole lot. they could even hire one of these modders to do it for them for pennies.

Still i suppose this is a good start. maybe they will add more of that stuff later on down the line.

Have you checked out https://github.com/sultim-t/xash-rt/releases [External Link]
Come to think of it, this might be outdated with this latest big patch to HL, but the OG version prior to this release is now in the Beta tab in Steam, so it remains installable. Digital Foundry even did a video on it: https://youtu.be/BrRmQhaxtF4?si=P0Zag9Ns0U-xeOag [External Link]

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I did not expect to enjoy Night in the Woods as much as I did. It's a genuinely memorable game, I really enjoyed the characters and their dialogues and interactions, dialogue felt real the way that Stardew Valley, or Life Is Strange, or Oxenfree does, written in a down to earth fashion. The game also does an effective job of making you feel for the setting and the plight of the people living in it's dinky little town. Also great soundtrack.
I would put it up there with the most memorable games I've played in the last five years, alongside Outer Wilds, Elden Ring, Eastward, and Far: Lone Sails. Definitely recommend.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: preludelinuxI'm very surprised not refreshing the cpu/gpu so this is more of a basic refresh. they might be holding off to all the new apu's get released though and get bugs and thermals sorted before a major upgrade though.

I also wonder why it takes them longer than to AMD in laptops to refresh the APU. AMD are already shipping Zen 4 / RDNA 3 laptop APUs.

The "best" handheld PCs right now use the Ryzen 7840U which is at best 20% better performance at 30W. Deck targets 15W, and Valve worked closely with AMD to dial in a spec for their RDNA2 chipset used in the Deck. It's part of the secret sauce behind the Deck's continued performance.
The other reason is there simply isn't anything to upgrade to right now. AMD probably has something coming down the pipe, but Valve have gone on record saying they want devs to know the hardware spec to aim for for several years in advance. Hence we won't see SD 2.0 until 2026, at my guess.
I'm not a writer, and I'm not in the know as much as Liam and the wider tech community, but we really need someone to write an article explaining to people why Valve "doesn't just ship a real upgrade". There's myriad reasons.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Greatly looking forward to your YouTube review!! Super happy you got a review unit.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: sonic2kkMaybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I'll stick with Torchlight II for my ARPG fix. Grim Dawn, while not native, also sates the urge for something a bit meatier in terms of story.

I love Torchlight 2! It has the feel of Diablo 2, and the music composer helped with that a lot. Love the Steam Workshop support too.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: 14I've gotten tired of the news, so I'm glad it's over. Do I like that it happened? No. Did I like what Activision Blizzard was before the takeover? No. So, even though I think it's bad news... kinda meh for me.

This is how I feel too. I don't like the industry consolidation, I don't like Microsoft throwing its billions around, I don't care about the "but Sony" argument, but most of all I'm tired of thinking about it and especially reading about it. News media falling over themselves to write on it, the endless for-and-agaonst arguments...
Very disappointed the purchase completed, but glad to move on from this anyway.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

This show will live and die on its set design.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I really love this series! Some like reading about repairing old muscle cars; I like reading about repairing period accurate 90s Linux desktops. Keep up the good work please, I need more!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I bought A Hat In Time for my wife, who loved it so we bought the DLCs which were also good. Then I bought the physical cart for Switch so I could share the game with her family. Then I bought the game+DLC+OST package on Steam for myself since I enjoyed it so much. It's a really great game, and the Steam Workshop mods are fun to use (Half-Life crowbar!) And at least on Steam Deck, you can install new mods from the workshop while playing the game! Amazing!

View this comment - View article - View full comments