LE has an offline only mode.

No need to apologize friend. I just always want to inform everyone that the Steam Deck is capable of being used as a PC on the go if you have some peripherals. I have some third party launchers, and emulation stuff on my desktop side. I also have KeePass and a Google Drive for my passwords. I personally don’t use it for any other desktop activities because I have my laptop and my desktop for that, but it could handle those tasks (word processing and office tasks, general web browsing, etc) just like my other computers do. I even bought a nice little keyboard and have a wireless mouse for my Steam Deck, as well as a portable screen.

As far as homelab and server applications like Pihole, yeah I would probably not run those on the Steam Deck either, but I also wouldn’t put them on a laptop or my desktop. I put those on my homelab server running Proxmox because I turn my desktop off when it’s not in use.

This one is simple! You see, they stop selling games to their customers. Instead, you can get monthly access to their catalogue of games. Then you don’t have to worry about owning them. Sometimes less (for you) is more (for them).

Not to mention that it is literally a PC. It even has a full desktop environment mode running KDE.

Scarlet and Violet did build on Arceus quite a bit as far as the open world and catching elements went, but they did not adopt a lot of the turn based combat changes.

S and V were somewhat hamstrung by poor optimization and performance at launch, and I believe this is the reason much of the landscape looks so sparse. I would love to see a breakdown on why Zelda’s two most recent entries can look so grand at such a large scale and still get solid frame rates on the Switch while S and V cannot. Is it because of the game engines being used or some other rendering process that is less optimal?

I am a huge Pokémon fan, and I’ll be the first to admit that TPC needs to get their crap together. They need to hire the best software engineers and developers they can get that are cohesive with their team, embrace new gameplay ideas, rework their combat system in a way that is innovative and fresh (turn based is nice for younger kids who are playing games for the first time, but there are many other turn based approaches that could offer a larger variety in tactics), and overall step up the grand scale and quality of their games. I would love to see a compelling story with voice acting that can be disabled, game systems that are easy to use but offer masterful depth, improved multiplayer experiences, and difficulty scaling in some fashion so I don’t feel like the game gets to a medium difficulty 5 times in the entire playthrough.

Making games that can be enjoyed by all ages is very tough at times, but TPC has the resources to revitalize Pokémon and see insane record sales. I love what they have done to transition to an open world game that can be played alongside a friend, but it’s time they take the quality of the game up to 11 and stop peddling us low quality, under-baked attempts at something that could be so grand. You can have the soap box back now. 😅

What does that have to do with seeing if the gameplay looks fun? I mean, I suppose they could recommend some YouTube “let’s play” videos instead, but either way, watching someone play the game in a contiguous timeline is probably the best way to see if it looks fun.

Not really, but that record number was set at the height of its release. I was told the number is really high because it took off in China, but it has me wondering why other games haven’t done the same. Does Steam no longer include or receive player counts from China? Are other games just not as big of hits there? I am specifically curious if Palworld has a large number of players in China.

It’s funny you mention this because I actually love early access games because I like seeing the game change and evolve over time.

No, at this time it is mostly a PvE experience. It is a lot more comparable to Ark thank Pokémon.

I saw someone say they intentionally made a take for take remake of the NMS trailer.

What about Veloren?!

With a $400 drone.

Love some Frank Klepacki.

You know, I really do too. I actually had a lot of fun with CP2077 when it came out, but had to quit on the last 1/3 of the game because of a permanent sound glitch. I am very excited to jump back in.

To be honest, I think if I were to go back and try Skyrim now, I’d probably feel pretty similarly about it as to how I do about Starfield. I still enjoy gaming, but it doesn’t enthrall me quite the same as it used to. Part of adulthood I suppose.

Are we watching a “changing of the guard” where the studios that used to bring out the hits are dying, shedding their talent and new indie projects are blooming in the fallout? I remember Bioward being a fantastic studio during the Mass Effect (and prior) years. They’re a shell of their former selves now. I see this happening with Bethesda now too, although Starfield is not that bad. It’s just nowhere near as epic and fun as Skyrim was. Then you have studios like CDPR that seemed poised to take the crown with CP2077, and although it’s a great game, they certainly fumbled hard at launch. It’s an interesting time in the game industry.

I like what they’re doing with Steam as a platform, the Steam Deck is fantastic, and their contributions and support of Proton is huge.

Seems just a tad bit too soon, but I don’t know what their stock is looking like. I also expect to hear about a new VR kit from them before we get a new SD, but we will see.