It always looked good, just played poorly.

I totally expect this will be the last title before it gets closed.

Thanks! …and bummer. I’m not a fan of this iteration. Liked the crazy, almost photoreal style of earlier ones. The minimalist to-the-point aesthetic of 2020 one feels too utilitarian to me.

I don’t get it. Is it a new graphics update for the original game or for 1/3 of the original trilogy? Is it a new timesheet for current trackmania? Is it a new title?

I loved the original dessert, it was easily my favorite of the first environments.

Feels to me like some folks just want to give due warning to help others from throwing money away. I don’t think most are being negative for negativity’s sake - but I may just be too optimistic about the state of the discourse.

Other people said a lot about the CPU and I concur. No reason to buy Intel. If you are planning to use GPU rendering (redshift, octane, etc), you want a card with lots of memory for textures. Not sure if 4070ti fits the bill, I always stick with xx80 or xx90 lines - even if it means starting on older gen.

For video you will want a lot of fast SSD space to edit and HDD to store.

Not gonna comment on the amounts of RAM - I assume you did the math and know that you need this much.

Personally I recommend browsing through Puget Systems. If not to buy from them - then to clone!

Good luck.

3D Grand Theft Auto games (GTA 3, 4, 5) Some video essay (I can’t recall which one) compared GTA’s attitude to that of the protagonist of “Catcher in the Rye”. Its comedy is very cynical, just pointing fingers at everything and saying “they are phony”, “they suck, don’t they” and “we are too cool to even admit we’re cool”. The tone always rubbed me the wrong way and felt like these white gangsta rappers - Vanilla Ice and the kind. Rampant fanboyism does not help, either. I dared critisize GTA6 trailer somewhere (by saying “this is not for me, I will pass”) to be downvoted to oblivion and I shit you not, receive threats in DMs.

No Man’s Sky When it came out, NMS was a broken, buggy mess of a game with inventory management as a central mechanic. Punch trees got replaced with laser plants, but it’s basically the same loop of gather, combine, refine, build better tools. After a decade, NMS is a game chock-full of various content, with inventory management as a central mechanic. Not for me.

Souls-likes and Metroidvanias I have plenty of rewarding challenges in my real live and consider myself lucky enough to have work that’s fulfilling and gratifying. I don’t seek validation in games - I seek relaxation and escapism. I play most games on easy and don’t feel like proving my skills in the game is the right use of my time. I can appreciate skilled players - often watching speedruns, 100% attempts or professional tournaments, but when it comes to playing - I rather pick fun, easy, light entertainment. (Death Stranding is one of my all-time favorites)

on a flip note, a game that everyone seems to hate and I quite enjoy is Forspoken Sure, the dialog is cringe and there’s way too much of the same barks repeating (I need to look through menus, I think they added some slider to adjust the rate if I recall), but the traversal is fun, I love the UI design (gold and purple), I think costumes are freaking fantastic and combat is easy enough (on easy) to happily zone out to and play an hour here or there.

Consider installing Chiaki or Chiaki4Deck on your SD. It allows you to stream PS4/5 games on your own network!

Three is a hard quality jump after Kiwami 2, but I still enjoy the story. Moved from main PC to Steam Deck for this one and it feels right at home.

Perhaps I need to get in control of my FOMO and enjoy older games first instead of… Chasing the dragon (badum-tsss)

Sounds like we are in precisely the same boat. I found 3 is a great match for Steam Deck, and feels right at home on that small screen (and runs great).

Oh is it time already? I’m not ready!!! After playing Like A Dragon as my first Yakuza game, I decided to play originals first, before Infinite. Finished 0, 1 and 2 and currently just started Yakuza 3…

I’ve seen somewhere that due to some storylines, it’s preferable to have played original Kiryu saga first, so as much as I want to jump in, it will have to wait

Took me forever to internalize the title and realize this indeed has nothing to do with Bioware.

This was a whole section in one of recent episodes of sir David Attenborough’s Planet Earth III. Literally looks like npr watched an episode and decided to turn it into a story.

Yakuza 2 on Steam Deck, after completing (not 100%) Y0 and Y1. Planning to keep playing them in order, until Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth comes out.

I’m new to the series, and loving it. Can’t wait to get back home (traveling now) and move from Deck to my PC, high resolution and maxed quality.

It’s not really funny though. Some group got their lulz, but that came at the cost of some actually deserving game not getting extra exposure it probably needed. It’s not a victimless crime.

It’s a classic Boaty McBoatface situation. I fully expect at least one hentai game to win next year. 2024 being the US election year, trolls will have 12 months to practice.

The progression of alphabets reminded me very much of the ones used in the game “Chants of Sennaar”. Wonder if there’s any connection.

I use Epic launcher for all my Unreal work, so I have it installed and open it daily. Still, I can’t be bothered to turn on the games store and redeem free games - while willingly paying for new ones on Steam. The UX is just that bad.

(I assume some people may find value in it, all I’m saying is: it is not for me)

“Building Stories” by Chris Ware. Not a book, but a deconstructed graphic novel that comes in a box full of different formats and sizes - from a newspaper to a tiny bubblegum sized strip. You read them in any order you please, learning stories of people who live in the same building, while also building your own path through the stories.

It’s one of my most prized pieces of literature.

THAT’s a long list? I have more unplayed titles INSTALLED than this whole spreadsheet. I once attempted to create a system to organize my backlog but just gave up due to volume. I think I may have a game hoarding problem.