DdCno1

You Are Empty is objectively an awful game: It’s unfair, with extremely poor level design (1990s key and lever hunt - in 2006), laughable animations and sound effects, extremely derivative and awful enemy design (starting right off with the sexy horror nurse to immediately destroy any even moderate expectations), some of the weakest guns in FPS history, broken hit boxes, a terrible and confusingly narrated story, tons of glitches and a very short length, artificially padded by making the player limp along at a snail’s pace.

It does however just ooze Soviet atmosphere and decay. The game’s architecture (NOT the level design) is magnificent, ridiculously immersive at times, especially outside. This is genuinely amazing. There is clear ambition here and it’s the one aspect of this game that actually works. If you are interested in this aspect alone, then it can be worth picking up and at least experiencing for a few minutes, just to breathe in the stale Soviet air. Don’t expect to have any fun beyond that though. It is not even one of those “so terrible, it’s funny” types of games.

It’s an acquired taste.

I played a mod that turned Escape from Tarkov into a singleplayer game a few years ago (never played it online myself); a PvE mode has since been officially released, but I haven’t looked into it. The tension and intensity of it, the risk/reward to every move you make combined with the pretty high realism do make for an interesting package. Incursion Red River really impressed me for pretty much the same reasons, even in the relatively early state that it was in when I last tried it out. I lost any interest in online gaming a long time ago, so I only care about PvE.

My favorite has to be Witchfire though, thanks to its fantasy steampunk setting and immensely satisfying combat that reminds me of the original Painkiller (which makes sense - both are from Poland), but it’s way more polished in every way (no pun intended). It is admittedly much easier than the above two and needs more content, but what’s there is already very impressive and - in my eyes at least - a neat introduction to the genre, especially if you don’t care for modern military stuff. Witchfire is also one of the best-looking games out there right now, both in terms of tech and art style.

Yup. Bought one of the first Steam Decks. Been having a great time with it so far, but I already had to repair it once (SSD overheated - thankfully a part that’s not proprietary). It will not last forever and the battery is likely going to be the next part that breaks. I am not looking forward to playing battery lottery on Aliexpress.

What do we learn from this? Valve isn’t our friend either. I never thought they were, I’m simply already caught in their ecosystem and bought the best PC handheld there was when it came out (and it still is, in my opinion, even though there are faster alternatives), but the company does enjoy a lot of leeway to the point of worship by some due to other firms in the gaming space being considerably worse.

It might very well be that the reasons for this are out of their hands, similar to the AI-bubble-fueled price hikes for RAM, but especially since they so gleefully advertised the repairiability of this device when it came out, silently ending the supply of spare parts is most certainly not a good look. It would have certainly softened the blow had they announced it and provided a reasonable explanation - and it would also cast a much smaller, if still considerable, shadow on the already troubled Steam Machine.

It’s quite a baffling mistake, to be honest, for two reasons:

First of all, did they not take into account that people would notice, which immediately turns it into a much bigger story due to the attempted secrecy? You get ahead of bad news as a company, always, instead of letting it happen. Secondly, the LCD Deck was sold worldwide until at least the end of the year and is still available from Steam in some regions. Did they seriously not stock enough parts, did they plan so poorly, were their contracts so terribly drafted that the supply of spares has already stopped? I get that they are a tiny player in the hardware space, which means they do not have the negotiating power of someone like Sony, but still, this is not a good look.

Streaming has replaced the TV just running in the background in households where the TV was just running in the background in the past. Also, many people are using their phones while watching stuff, which is horrid.

Sucks for people who still remember when streaming services had to differentiate themselves from normal TV with more sophisticated content, of course.

You are making a good case for it.

One thing that bothers the Skooma out of me though is the monetization and the tiny inventory if you’re not a subscriber (I’m an unashamed loot goblin - I need a huge inventory!). Does one need to have ESO+ to have fun?

story yelling

That’s a typo for the ages! I’m gonna steal this one!

As for the game, I played the alpha or beta (been a while, so I’m not sure) and wasn’t really all that impressed, but maybe because it felt like a downgrade in every way from the singleplayer games. Should I try it again? How good is it for players leaning towards solo play?

It doesn’t really matter. It’s an oligopol and they can set the prices however they want. There’s no alternative, since everyone - businesses and consumers alike - needs their product.

China can’t and won’t be able to compete, since they are far too much behind in manufacturing, chasing a moving target.

This reminds me that Epic, unlike Steam, allows crypto games on their store. For a while, it was being absolutely flooded with crypto shovelware, drowning out more worthwhile titles. It was one of several reasons why I stopped using the store for anything but the weekly free games.

In other words: Sweeney is wrong once again and it’s not doing him and his money pit of a store any favors.

Except that they sent it out to people in Germany if they had their language set to one other than German. Using this symbols this way is a crime, by the way.

I’m not the same user, but I’m still interested in your list.