imthesoldier

Valve continuing to take care of business when it comes to the openness, and overall transparency of the Steam Deck. It can run Windows, Linux, and of course Crysis, and CyberPunk. For lulz more than anything else, the last echelon would be to turn it into a handheld Hackintosh. Then we can say the Steam Deck can run everything.

I am going on vacation later this spring, so it'd be cool if I got it just before I left. That said, I can always bring my switch along instead as I'm in no shortage of games to play.

So according to that, one says April 18th, and the other says June 6th (My bday. w00t). So their whole model is really, "Oh, you said Q2? Yeah, it'll arrive sometime in Q2."

Resetera logic I guess. My guess is they're trying to outdo neogaf in terms of wild ass speculation.

I looked again, and for the Date Issued, it says, "Jul 16, 2021 @ 11:02am PDT" So yeah, 62 min after the reservations opened. Q2 is poised to be a busy quarter for Valve getting Deck's manufactured, and sent out to customers.

That's interesting because I got on the reservation 62min after everything opened, and I'm still on Q2.

I'm close to finishing Eternal on Switch, and I have to say, it controls a lot better than most would give credit for (The game itself is also quite good). Provided you're ok with using a controller, aiming acceleration, plus motion aiming, it feels great, even at 30fps. That said, I would LOVE it if both 2016, and Eternal were patched to allow keyboard and mouse support. Quake on Switch natively supports it (and controls like a regular PC Game as you'd expect), and the Switch itself already natively supports it, so it shouldn't be too difficult to implement for any game on the Switch. Supposedly, OG Doom, and Doom 2 also support it, but I've only been able to get the keyboard inputs to work, and not the mouse as well. Weird. I do own Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, and Doom 3 (both OG, and BFG) on PC via GOG as well, so I wouldn't mind getting Doom 64, Doom 2016, and Doom Eternal on PC as well, but I'll wait until there's a good sale to make it worth it. And 120Hz? What's that? (Speaking as someone with only a plebian 60hz display)

Right? Besides, Steam Deck very possibly will be a relative success, and a revision probably won't come out for at least 2 years. I don't even see the Valve Index to get an upgrade until 2023 at the earliest. What I could see is a Deck 2 being the hardware to power the Index for on-the-go VR Gaming, although technically speaking (looking at the requirements) the current Deck could run the Valve Index even. Wonder if anyone has tried the Index with the Steam Deck.

I've been holding off on MK8D for awhile now, but given the upcoming DLC, I think it's time I get it. EDIT: I also think given how the waves of track DLC will be releasing through 2023, that should give all of us some clue as to when we could expect the next-gen Switch. March 2024, baby!

Doom 3 was $2.49US on the eShop, so I had to snatch it up in order to complete my Rip and Tear Collection for the Switch. What a time to be alive when you can buy every official Doom game on a Nintendo console.

Just checked, and I'm still Q2. I'll keep my fingers crossed! EDIT: Btw, I have the 512GB Version on reservation. What does everyone else have on reservation?

I played the demo of this a week or so ago, and it's so ridiculous, so over the top, so 90s retro, and also very 80s synthwave as well, I loved every second of it. I can't wait for the full game to launch.

I had fun playing the demo. The art style is rather appropriate for the Kirby games, the music is perfect, and you can definitely tell it's using the Mario Odyssey engine, but with some tweaks. Technical details wise, 30fps is overall fine given the controls feel pretty responsive. Sure, some stutters here and there, but I'm not bothered by it, and most won't either I think. Given it's already been shown via those user agreements with Switch Sports utilizing AMD FSR, I wonder if the full game would have it? But for the demo at least, there's no AA applied, which has been typical for Nintendo even for their full releases. Difficulty wise, I started with the easy mode, but quickly went with the other mode, and still did not feel challenging. Although, you can expect for completionists, the game's difficulty will get harder as the game progresses. One thing I did notice, and quite enjoy was loading times were extremely quick, so this could definitely be a nice companion game for those quick 15-30min gaming sessions. I can see myself getting it, but I might hold off given my current back log of games. It's not a Day 1 purchase for me, but maybe a 6 month purchase.

Interesting. At that rate, it's probably more to do with it being owned by Sony than who the original founders were if I'm honest.

Q2 will put us between April 1st, and June 30th, so it's honestly not THAT far away, and we all have games to keep us occupied. I rechecked my initial reservation email from July 16th, and my confirmation was one hour after they had opened them up for Steam users (Date Issued was 11:02am), and managed the Q2 slot. I suspect based on this, I'll be towards the latter half of Q2, which makes it closer to my Birthday, so would make a nice gift to myself.

GPU prices are slowly starting to come down, but at this rate, Steam Deck scalping prices will make a 3090 look like buying an RX 6500XT.

I know next to nothing of Panda, so how does this compare EVO? And what reasons would Nintendo have for going this route, and partnering with Panda in this case?

I succumbed when I got selected for a Newegg Shuffle for a 3060 + a Z590 mobo, but I am not for the Deck. I'm going to actually wait for my queue this time around.

I misspoke when I said that. I meant to say that Nintendo helped bring back gaming to the masses after the Crash in 1983. Swappable cartridges existed for years prior to the Famicom, and NES, but since it was a tried and true technology, it made sense for Nintendo to use it. Over time, as games went to 16-bits, 32-bits, and above, optical media started to garner more support and interest, but at the expense of read-write speeds compared to cartridges (one of the reasons why Nintendo stuck with it for the N64). And yet, it was far cheaper to manufacture, and had far more storage, so it won out. At that point, loading screens would become more commonplace (loading screens I know existed long before CDs were a thing), and it sort of peaked during the PS3/360 era. Nowadays, we're reverting back to solid-state storage, and with the PS5/XSeries, loading screens are starting to shrink again. And regarding HFW, it looks better for sure, but it's not the generational leap we typically see from years past. This isn't the old days where different versions of the same game had not only reduced graphical fidelity, but also altered levels, sometimes using entirely different game engines, different sound samples, let alone different kinds of media for storage. It feels more in line with turning down the settings on a PC game from lets say High/Ultra settings to Low/Med settings. That's what I see with comparisons of Base PS4 to PS5. But I'm also the kind of masochist who is not only able to play Doom Eternal on Switch, but enjoy the fuck out of it, even in handheld mode. So my opinions are going to differ on expectations.

IMO, the biggest difference between PS4 and PS5 Horizon Forbidden West isn't even the graphics side of things (let's be real, base PS4 looks freaking good for such old hardware), but like you're mentioning, the SSD. Not saying there isn't a difference between PS4 and PS5 from a graphics perspective, but it's not what I would consider a "generational leap," although given it's a cross-gen title, I don't believe that was the intention. There's also diminishing returns, but that's another story. It's as though we are going back to the days when loading up a game on a Super NES, or Sega Saturn literally took a snap of your finger. That is the generational leap I'm expecting again. It's kind of funny in a way. The modern gaming era that Nintendo pioneered in 1983 used Cartridges, then in the 90s, we went with optical media that while added a huge amount of storage potential for cheap, read/write speeds were much slower, and was compounded during the PS3/360 eras, and into the PS4/X1 age continuing to use optical media, plus spinning harddrives. Nowadays, games are becoming more digital again (for better, or worse), SSDs are finally making their mark in the console space, and are kind of going full circle. It's also because as I get older, my time for gaming becomes more limited, so the less time I spend in loading screens, the better.

It's still a USB-C hub, but simply one that is designed for the Steam Deck. It looks fine, and will serve its purpose I think. I look forward to plugging this into my TV for couch gaming.

One thing I liked what The Phawx said was under similar battery life comparisons between the Switch, and the Deck, the Deck still looked better, which shouldn't be too surprising given the Deck has a larger battery. Would also be cool to see what happens if you limit the APU TDP to its lowest setting at 4 watts, and see how that compared to the Switch at the same 3-4 watts. Linus & Co. summed it up nicely with, "Keep your preorders, everyone because you're gonna love this thing." That's haigh praise given that while on the OS side of things feels a little incomplete, it's definitely a step in the right direction, and according to them, Valve agrees with their assessment, and will improve as time goes on. And finally, Phawx showing off PS3 emulation was a surprise, and it runs better than I would've anticipated. I could see the emulator itself getting Deck specific tweaks to better utilize the hardware, and same with other emulators. And who would've thunk it? Running Switch games on native hardware is better than emulation on the Deck. Who knew?

I won't lie, I got super stoked when I saw GoT was listed, and then gutted when it was the co-op version. Oh well. I'm in no rush to play it, as I have other shit to play. I did acquire SW Squadrons through PS+ when that was available during that one month, and got bored after the first mission. Just let me play the fucking game instead of forcing me through a goddamn tutorial. This is where I miss the old Rogue Squadron games. They give you a training level outside of the main game. I realized at that point how much I hate tutorial missions baked into the main game. Deus Ex knew how to do that shit over twenty years ago.

And nothing of value was lost. Speaking of which, why the fuck does Bethesda require an account to play Doom Eternal? That said, it's easy to bypass if I put my Switch on Airplane mode, but still. Why even have it in the first place?