Quoting: CatKiller

Quoting: PhiladelphusOut of curiosity, would they actually show up? And not just appear as part of "Windows 11"?

Yes. They all have APUs. "AMD Custom GPU 0405," the APU used in the Deck (although, according to a Discord comment, potentially not the Deck OLED) is used by 0.78% of hardware survey respondents; I've not seen any of the chips used by any of the other handhelds in the list. 0.15% is the share that gets you out of the Other bucket.

Interesting, thanks! I hadn't thought of that. :smile:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

"Claw"? Is that what your hands will feel like after using one for an extended period of time? :tongue: Who comes up with these names?

Quoting: CatKillerNone of these other devices have enough users to show up in the Steam Hardware Survey, but the Deck does.

Out of curiosity, would they actually show up? And not just appear as part of "Windows 11"?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I used to think it was an issue, because there's an increasing number of (for lack of a better word) — junk. However, the low barrier to entry, and lack of direct curation by Valve, allows some truly unique stuff to appear and at times do really well.

I don't remember the name of the book right now, but I read one a few years ago that touched on something like this. Basically, if you want to make great things, make lots of things. They will come out on a spectrum of bad-to-goodness depending on your skill and a bit of luck, but the important point is not to get caught up in either the failures or the major successes, just keep producing more of whatever it is you're making. That doesn't mean "churn out shovelware" – this is advice for people sincerely trying their best to make things of quality (whatever they may be) – just don't let yourself become perfectionist and take too long on any one thing. The more you make, the more experience you accrue, and the more natural 20s you'll roll (statistically speaking).

Now, I'm aware the analogy is not perfect, as the book was discussing individual creators, rather than an aggregate of game development studios, but I think there's a nugget of wisdom to be found. Yes, the ratio of junk-to-gems is quite high. But it's hard to say how many of today's hits, or even just modestly successful games that each of us has enjoyed, would have been published on Steam (or at all) under a more restrictive model. I think it comes down to a discoverability question: are people finding the games they'd like and enjoy? I have no strong opinions on how well Steam does this – it could probably be better – but isn't the perpetual cry of the PC gamer that our backlogs are too big, and ever-growing? :happy: As long as I've got more games than time to play them, who cares if there are a hundred shoddy asset-flips in the store for each game in my library I genuinely enjoy?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

At first glance I thought that second picture was of a row of eight Ethernet ports, and thought "Well, that's a new direction to go for a handheld." 🤣

Valve did say with the Deck that they were trying to spark a new wave of handheld PCs, and they sure seem to have succeeded!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I was interested to see that Marvel's Midnight Suns showed up in the Silver section for "most played games this past year on Deck" in the article last week. Apparently it was something of a commercial flop for Firaxis and quickly disappeared from the general gaming conversation, but just this morning I saw an article about how it seems to be having a renaissance on the Deck.

(I downloaded it some months ago when it had a free-to-play weekend since I enjoyed XCOM 1 & 2, but couldn't get it to start, so I haven't bothered since.)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Purple Library GuyTraitor mode. On a submarine. I can see some . . . basic . . . drawbacks to treason in that situation.

That's pretty par for the course for games with traitors, since the win condition for them is usually something like "stop the mission" or "kill all/enough good players". And since killing all good players will stop the mission, and a good way to kill all good players is to do something that kills all players, and there usually isn't a stipulation that the traitors have to be alive, well… :smile:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I can't recommend PlateUp! [External Link] enough for co-op. (Though it can also be played singleplayer.) It's a bit like Overcooked, except you get to design and layout your restaurant over time instead of going to pre-made levels. Oh, and it's a roguelike; fail to serve even a single customer and your restaurant gets shut down. :grin:

That barely begins to describe it, though. It allows up to four players, and the premise is simple: you start with a single type of food to serve (there are something like 12 different starting "main" choices, from simple like burgers and salad to complex like dumplings and roast turkey), and have to survive 15 days, with more and more customers coming each day. Every three days you also get a choice between two different cards: one will be an additional food type (sides, a soup course, dessert, or even another "main" in some cases), the other will introduce some difficult customer behavior (like being able to order twice, eating slower, or you having to move slower when around customers to "not upset them"). At the end of each day you also get a selection of appliances, which you can spend the money you've made on. These can range from simple things like extra countertops or tables, to more complex like dishwashers and microwave ovens, to (what is to me) the game's most fun feature: automation-enabling devices like conveyor belts, mixers, combiners, portioners, and even teleporters. The automation uses a simplified system with just a few pieces that have a wide range of uses, allowing almost every single food in the game (and there are a lot!) to be automated. (I'm not 100% if espresso is automatable as I haven't played recently, it used to be but an update early this year broke it, but it might be fixed again as some updates have specifically changed foods to be automatable…)

You can actually keep going after 15 days for as long as you can keep up with the increasing customer numbers, and efficient automation is crucial for doing so. I've personally built restaurants where all the food was automatically produced and all I had to do was take people's orders, and optimizing the space to get everything working was a real joy. (I like logistics, but struggle with logistics games like Factorio or Satisfactory because they quickly become too big for my brain. PlateUp! is the perfect size for me, since everything fits on one screen, and is comprehensible at a glance.)

The game's been out for about a year and a half now, and the lone developer (in the UK) has been putting out updates basically every month, so there's a lot more now than when it released (things like seasonal updates for Halloween, Christmas, Chinese New Year, etc., plus various new features, appliances, and other improvements). It's not Linux native, sadly, but it runs perfectly in Proton; I've never had a crash, even when playing with several mods (did I mention it has Steam Workshop support?) from the budding modding scene. I've only ever played it online, but I believe it also has shared-screen multiplayer (since everyone is on the same screen anyway).

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I've been working my way through the two final DLCs for Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew [External Link] (20% off right now). Both new characters offer some new mechanics to play with (Yuki being the first character to be able to leave traps, and Zagan having ranged abilities that can go through walls, and some that interact with his health), and the missions have a few new features as well. I just need to finish Yuki's final mission at this point.

That, and RimWorld, which I've finally found irresistible with the addition of about 500 mods. :grin:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Oo, a Bevy game! Glad to start seeing games made with it maturing to the point of wider release.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Yeah, that'd be useful. I recently went on a trip and thought about playing RimWorld on my Deck since I've been playing it a lot lately, but didn't feel like installing the 450+ mods I use on my desktop even if didn't have them activated.

View this comment - View article - View full comments