I know the scale is different but I’m surprised more AAA companies don’t take note. You don’t need to have to most polished game out the door but the fundamentals DO need to be there and you can iterate and make money.
If I didn't have a Steam Deck already I would still get one.
It's one of few devices with Linux preinstalled.
The battery life is better.
It's much cheaper. Especially if you get the discounted 64 GB version and buy a larger SSD.
The touchpads, gyro, additional back buttons and Steam Input integration make it much better suited for playing general PC games that would never work on a gamepad.
I stopped playing games that try to monopolize my time with battle passes and dailies, as well as games that take 60+ hours to complete. For me that included not playing Animal Crossing.
Since I started working from home I’ve had a hard time motivating myself to play Steam games on my PC. I bought a Steam deck and a dock for it and it really changed my approach. I install 2-3 games from my backlog at a time, play them for about 2 hours before deciding if I’ll finish them or move on and uninstall to make room for a new one.
I’ve been meaning to stream and review games but kept putting it off because I didn’t have time and energy, and this meant there’s a bunch of games I’ve stopped myself from playing because I wanted to make vids for them. But I’ve realized that nothing forces me to record gameplay to talk about games. Zero Punctuation gets his impressions across in 5 minute videos with no footage whatsoever. So playing tons of short games in succession kind of renewed my motivation.
Also, putting stuff out there is success in and of itself. Don’t let your motivation be driven by views or income, or you won’t be doing it for the right reasons and you’ll burn yourself out.
Skyrim. It’s a beautiful game, even now when I play it I take a moment to just look at how gorgeous the scenery is. I love the quests and that you can own a horse/house/child/ get married. I love the potions and crafting and customisation.
I don’t think there are many games quite like Skyrim
The hardware on the ally is better but the software is weaker in some key areas (while being stronger in others!). Ally has a much more powerful chip (yes 10w exists, these devices all have 2 hour batter lives in games that need power anyways), it has quiter fans, a better screen, and is available potentially at your local best buy.
For software, anti cheat is still a massive hurdle for Linux so if you play any games that have issues on Linux, tough luck. General game compatibility can also still be a problem with Linux, coming from someone who’s been using Linux on their main system for 5 years now. Proton updates can break some games, some games work better with certain versions, need extra fixes, or some won’t work at all. New games will also tend to have extra issues, as can game launchers other then steam.
The deck makes up for that by being streamlined in plenty of other ways, so if you want the most console like experience then the steam deck is your option. It has resume on wake, it has a very streamlined ui, gamescope and mangohud built in, etc. If you want the best hardware and want all your games to work even if the interface is worse, then just get an ally.
And yes you can install Linux on the ally or Windows on the deck, I wouldn’t bother with that though. Just get the device that best suites your needs.
This is probably obvious, but I just try to avoid buying games unless I will play it immediately. I KNOW I will play FF16 after I finish up Zelda, but I still haven’t bought it.
I also don’t look at steam sales unless I’m looking for a new game to play. I know too many people who buy games cause it’s on sale but never plays them
I have always been a fan of stealth games. Dishonored (especially the first) scratched the itch perfectly! It’s atmospheric. It’s not open world, but each level has its own area to explore that is filled to the brim with stories, sometimes a small side quest etc. I also love how you get to influence the ending.
Give me OOT with the systems created with BotW /TotK. There is so much potential here for freedom here the way you could complete dungeons in different orders, while still adhering to a classic dungeon-with-items Zelda formula. Lighting fires with bombs vs arrows vs thrown torches. Reflecting light with mirrors or a mirror shield. Even using enemies’ attacks or weapons to do so. If this was part of the core design of the game, it could be treated like how sequence breaking is now sanctioned in Metroid games and part of its design.
I think a 3rd party might be able to do this while Nintendo charges forth with their new vision, and this would probably be my favorite style of Zelda game.
What exactly from OoT are you missing in those two games, though? I’m honestly curious, because there’s very little that is objectively ‘missing’ compared to OoT
The evolution and items system layered on top add a ton of replayability. I agree that it needs to come to steam, I’ve played a bunch on my steam deck and it feels like a hit if they can get a bigger audience to see it
Lots of contenders for me: Resident Evil 2, A Link to the Past, Ocarina of time, Goldeneye, Half-Life, Diablo II, Skyrim, Alien: Isolation, Borderlands 2, Mario 64
I know how ubiquitous it is, but I still replay it on a regular basis. Its perfectly designed, balanced, simple… Im not saying its superior to modern games or something stupid, I just think its pretty flawless. That is all.
Have you ever looked into any randomizers for ALTTP? They’ll give you a whole new experience in playing the game.
With Archipelago, you can even play with other people playing other randomized games. A Hollow Knight player might need you to find their mantis claw so they can get to the boss that has your hookshot and so on.
For me it’s Songs of Conquest - spiritual successor of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. It looks great, the gameplay is awesome, they took all of the best parts of HoMM and got rid of the more frustrating ones (for example there is a unit cap for a single slot, so you can’t have 2000 skeletons in a single unit). There are also some cool new mechanics, like every unit gives some kind of essence, which is used as a resource for using spells, so depending on your team composition you get access to different spells. Overall definitely worth checking out for every HoMM fan!
FM has needed an upgrade for a while now, the last few versions have felt like database updates with few useful upgrades or features. Unity has a lot of exciting possibilities.
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