soulsource @ soulsource @discuss.tchncs.de

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2 yr. ago

Yep. The Series S gives games even less RAM than the One X did.

direct3d Direct3D 11 and Direct3D12, to be precise. Direct3D9 was working fine before - and there even was native driver support for it in Mesa, that could be used together with a patched WINE.

Book of Hours

In my case: Instead of Baldur's Gate 3. I can't find time for Baldur's Gate any more since I started Book of Hours. It's just too good. It's one of those games where I just don't want to stop playing. Just one more book. Light LEAKS through the CRACKS. My mind is BRIGHTER than it EVER was. THE HIGHER I RISE THE MORE I SEE.

Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1356/

Cultist Simulator. However, finding out how stuff works is half the game...

(The devs also posted a manual meanwhile, that explains the most obsucre mechanics.)

To be fair, when starting a new game you were told to check the wiki. Which has a very long and detailed tutorial.

Also, the tutorial has suffered bitrot quite a lot. The game has seen many significant changes since release, but the tuturial was only partially updated to reflect them.

Hmm, that's a good question. I don't own a DualSense gamepad, so I never thought about that question.

I do have both of them here, at work though, and comparing them side by side, I must say, that I don't have a clear favourite. The DS4 grips feels a bit more ergonomic, but the triggers and the D-pad on the DualSense feel a bit "better" to me (don't ask why - it's a matter of taste).

(Also, I have no idea how well DualSense works on Steam Deck.)

I tried both, a Microsoft Xbox Series X Wireless Controller, and a DualShock 4. I'm not happy with either, but if I had to choose, I'd go with the DualShock.

The Xbox gamepad does not have a gyro sensor, and also does not have a touchpad. Furthermore, the build quality is really bad. I also have an Xbox 360 gamepad (which doesn't have Bluetooth, so it can't be connected to the Deck without an expensive USB receiver), and putting the Xbox 360 and Xbox Series X gamepads side by side shows just how horrible the new gamepads are.... Another issue with the Xbox Series X gamepad is that you probably need to update the firmware before you can pair it properly with the Steam Deck, what requires access to a Windows PC or an Xbox console (I couldn't get the firmware update to work from within a VM, even though the USB forwarding worked). The main advantage of the Xbox Series X gamepad is, that it uses regular AA accumulators, so you don't need to worry about the battery dying.

The PS4 gamepad on the other hand has a touchpad, a gyro sensor, and the build quality is pretty good. It does have other drawbacks though: Unlike the Xbox gamepad it does not use normal AA batteries, but has a built-in battery that isn't as straightforward to replace. Also, its Bluetooth tends to severely interfere with the Steam Deck's WLAN, up to the point that the WLAN connection just dies when using the PS4 gamepad. (I solved that by buying a wired Ethernet adapter and connecting that over USB, but that's not always an option...)

At least Slack has a usable user interface... Teams is, well, I'd rather sit on a cactus. Let me phrase it like this: We have Office at work. We also have a Slack subscription, because Teams is just so much worse in comparison..

I have to second the mentions of OpenTTD, Battle for Wesnoth, Ur-Quan Masters and Nethack.

I'd also like to add:

• Widelands: A Settlers 2 clone.
• Chromium B.S.U.: A top-down scrolling shooter. Don't let any enemies pass. Perfect if you need 5 minutes of adrenaline.
• Scorched 3D: It's Scorched Earth, but 3D.
• Frozen Bubble: Hard to describe. It's a bit like Dr. Mario.
• GL-117: 3D air combat. The graphics are "a bit" dated, but the game is a lot of fun still.
• Kobo Deluxe: A 2D action-puzzler. It doesn't have the most stunning graphics, but it sure is fun to play.

Then there are also some open-source re-implementations of commercial games (that need the original game files) that haven't been mentioned yet:

• CorsixTH: Theme Hospital.
• OpenMW: Morrowind
• OpenRA: Red Alert (and others)
• ScummVM: Various point&click adventure games (Monkey Island, Legend of Kyrandia, Loom,....)
• Return to the Roots: Settlers 2
• VCMI: Heroes of Might and Magic 3

Yep, that's probably the most helpful thing for devs. This sadly often conflicts with publishers' announcement schedules. There are, however, companies that do NDA-protected play-tests, where you get the same kind of information, without publicly announcing the game.

Some games, like the Pathfinder games by Owlcat, use that initial input to determine if you are playing with mouse/keyboard or a gamepad. Depending on that, you get presented with a different UI in the main menu.

Another reason for such a screen could also be Xbox support. Nowadays it's no longer necessary, because user-handling has been vastly improved with the GDK, but before the GDK was released a splash screen was the most user-friendly way to do user-handling in a single-player or online-multiplayer game on Xbox.

As a gamedev: Early Access was useful for devs, back when it was real Early Access. Think: Kerbal Space Program (the first, not the second).

Nowadays it's mostly a marketing tool, that allows to generate the hype for launch twice... Publishers and players expect "Early Access" games to be feature complete and polished before the "Early Access" launch...

I'd also suggest a Steam Deck, but for a different reason. My experiences with switchable graphics (both, nVidia and AMD) have been extremely disappointing. It's quite frustrating to spend €1500 on a gaming laptop, and then constantly facing driver issues, tearing,...

If I were to buy a laptop, I'd therefore also go with an AMD integrated graphics unit, and no switchable graphics. Performance would be comparably bad, but at least an integrated (non-switchable) card works... And now we are at the point of having a dedicated gaming device like the Deck, which lets you have both: A performant enough gaming device, and a laptop that isn't burdened by the price and issues of switchable graphics.

Cool! It even has an unintentionally belly-operated off-button!

(Sorry, but this design looks like a UX nightmare. The Sticks feel barely reachable, the buttons on the bottom will be touched unintentionally, the shoulder pads aren't clearly separated, the ABXY buttons are way too small, the speaker seems to be mono,... The list of shortcomings could go on forever...)

I've been playing it quite a bit on the Deck, and it's running fine. I left the settings on default, except for upscaling, where I enabled XeSS, which makes some things much more beautiful, for instance fur.

With XeSS enabled, I had to set display refresh rate to 40 Hz though.

With the release of Book of Hours just around the corner, I dug out Cultist Simulator again. It runs well enough on the Steam Deck, but it needs mouse input (-> touchpads), and sometimes it flickers (this seems to be related to autosaves).

Overall it works well enough on the Deck so that it's fun to play. The flickering is annoying though.

Fourth? The last real Settlers was Settlers 2.

I wouldn't buy any accessories other than an SD card and a "dock". The stock cooling of the Deck is fine unless you plan to game in scorching heat: https://twitter.com/OnDeck/status/1549467955754217473

In my experience the back side gets a bit hot, but it's not where you touch the device, and as long as the APU is cool enough, I wouldn't see this as a problem.

About the "dock": Any USB hub with Power Delivery (min 45W) and an HDMI port is fine. I'm using a D-Link one and am very happy with it.