June 2024 PC Gamer Article Discussion

[BeardyHat]

I'm concerned that I won't be able to read the screen. I have a hard enough time on laptops. I've heard it has a "zoom" feature, though, but I really wish I could try one out before buying.

Right now I'm trying to figure out if the Lenovo Legion Go also has a zoom feature, as I'd prefer it over the Deck.

Very few games I've encountered so far have had text so small that I have to take off my glasses and put my nose to the screen to read it; one of those being Napoleon: Total War. But I also have that same issue on my laptop, which is like 2150x1350 or something weird..

Not to say it can't be a problem, but for example, I had no idea Deck has a Zoom feature, so I'll have to look into that.

I haven't used the Go, but for me, the track pads on the deck are just so versatile that they've become essential. I've played 50 hours of Transport Fever 2 on my Deck, using the right pad as my mouse and the left as a scroll wheel. In other games, I'll use the right as a custom radial menu to access hot keys.

 

[Colif]

not sure how well it works in Games.

 

[Hveðrungr]

@BeardyHat @Colif

I think the thing that grates on me most is the implication that modern XCOM is in that “so many numbers and esoteric rules” segment, that that's what they're improving on the accessibility of. XCOM is already as accessible and cinematic as tactics games need to be! If anything it could stand to be a little meatier, that's why everyone agrees it's better with the expansions!

 

[BeardyHat]

@BeardyHat @Colif

I think the thing that grates on me most is the implication that modern XCOM is in that “so many numbers and esoteric rules” segment, that that's what they're improving on the accessibility of. XCOM is already as accessible and cinematic as tactics games need to be! If anything it could stand to be a little meatier, that's why everyone agrees it's better with the expansions!

I definitely don't think XCOM when I think esoteric. XCOM is right in the goldilox zone of simple, but meaty, because the game generally gets out of your way and let's you make the tactical decisions. Plus the strategic layer is pretty straightforward and let's you know what does what in uncomplicated terms.

When I think esoteric and stupidly complex, I think tabletop Warhammer.

 

[Colif]

I think games like Grim Dawn that don't have any tutorials and just leave you to work out what you doing. It doesn't help its fairly deep as well, still learning a month or so into playing.
Or Path of exiles and their many skills/skill trees. Games you take one look at all the possible builds and decide not to bother.

I don't play Xcom. Its a team management game and I generally stick to single character games. One character is bad enough.

 

[Brian Boru]

complexity doesn't equal depth

Succinctly put—this is the trap Civ 6 fell into, as you put it 'less satisfying to play, because there are so many numbers and esoteric rules to account for'.

everything is so expensive to create that it needs to appeal to the widest audience to be profitable

Indeed, that 'inconvenient truth' separates the wishes from the possible. That could be one of the major AI benefits for gaming, to drastically reduce the ridiculous expense of AAA dev so they don't need 5 million sales to break even.

Some things are meant to be challenges

And the best games enable you to create your own challenges, just like you can create your own stories—ideally both different for every playthru.

I won't be able to read the screen. I have a hard enough time on laptops

I'm with you there, BiB [Brother in Blindness].

zoom feature

Wouldn't that have the same effect as reducing the resolution? I've no yen to return to the glory days of 640x480.

I generally stick to single character games. One character is bad enough

Yep, I'm enjoying Far Cry more since I stopped using the Amigos and Guns for Hire.

 

[ZedClampet]

Wouldn't that have the same effect as reducing the resolution? I've no yen to return to the glory days of 640x480.

I just want to zoom in as needed to read something.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Steam Deck?

Steam Deck.

Youre right, I should have thought about it a long time ago. Might get one this year, I also hear the Ayaneo handhelds are pretty nice and I want to look into them more when I have time, theres a few options there.

The only thing that concerns me about Deck is the hardware aging out too quickly, but it would be great for Elden Ring and less demanding games for a long time to come I would think.

 

[BeardyHat]

Youre right, I should have thought about it a long time ago. Might get one this year, I also hear the Ayaneo handhelds are pretty nice and I want to look into them more when I have time, theres a few options there.

The only thing that concerns me about Deck is the hardware aging out too quickly, but it would be great for Elden Ring and less demanding games for a long time to come I would think.

There's definitely some things that won't run on it, but mine is 2 years old now and it'll play Cyberpunk, RDR2 & Elden Ring at a locked 30 no problem. Everything is on Low, pretty much, but I'll be damned if I could really, earnestly spot the differences between that and High/Ultra on my gaming PC.

But I tend to play way more indies and old stuff anyway, so it doesn't really need to be amazing for me either. Skald has been great to play on it and it's my preferred system for it.

Aside from what I already mentioned about the Deck and the touchpads, I'd trust Valve more than the other manufacturers. Ayaneo isn't bad, but they have similar issues to the other Chinese handheld companies in that their QA and customer support is middling, at best. Granted, I haven't read any recent reports about their stuff, but I'm "into the scene" for lack of a better term and a lot of the companies, Ayaneo, Anbernic, Miyoo, Powkiddy, etc, have issues with screens falling out or the adhesive letting go. My Miyoo has this issue and while I can just push it back in, I wouldn't want to spend more than the $50 I did on the thing.

Then you have Asus who is already releasing hardware upgrades, which I suppose isn't too far out from the Deck OLED, but it seems to me that Valve has a vested interest in keeping all their devices going and trying not to give people the "wants" for new devices, since they make their money on the store and not hardware revisions.

Not to sound like a Valve shill, I just haven't seen much else that I'd even consider replacing my Deck with. The only one I'd consider (if I could even afford it) might be the GPD Mini, because it has a keyboard and whatnot. In my recent travels I've found myself traveling with my Deck and my laptop, just because the laptop is easier to use when I want to relax and watch YouTube or surf the Internet (does anyone still say that?). Deck works well for pairing a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse too, but it just won't replace my laptop for convenience and versatility.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

There's definitely some things that won't run on it, but mine is 2 years old now and it'll play Cyberpunk, RDR2 & Elden Ring at a locked 30 no problem. Everything is on Low, pretty much, but I'll be damned if I could really, earnestly spot the differences between that and High/Ultra on my gaming PC.

But I tend to play way more indies and old stuff anyway, so it doesn't really need to be amazing for me either. Skald has been great to play on it and it's my preferred system for it.

Aside from what I already mentioned about the Deck and the touchpads, I'd trust Valve more than the other manufacturers. Ayaneo isn't bad, but they have similar issues to the other Chinese handheld companies in that their QA and customer support is middling, at best. Granted, I haven't read any recent reports about their stuff, but I'm "into the scene" for lack of a better term and a lot of the companies, Ayaneo, Anbernic, Miyoo, Powkiddy, etc, have issues with screens falling out or the adhesive letting go. My Miyoo has this issue and while I can just push it back in, I wouldn't want to spend more than the $50 I did on the thing.

Then you have Asus who is already releasing hardware upgrades, which I suppose isn't too far out from the Deck OLED, but it seems to me that Valve has a vested interest in keeping all their devices going and trying not to give people the "wants" for new devices, since they make their money on the store and not hardware revisions.

Not to sound like a Valve shill, I just haven't seen much else that I'd even consider replacing my Deck with. The only one I'd consider (if I could even afford it) might be the GPD Mini, because it has a keyboard and whatnot. In my recent travels I've found myself traveling with my Deck and my laptop, just because the laptop is easier to use when I want to relax and watch YouTube or surf the Internet (does anyone still say that?). Deck works well for pairing a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse too, but it just won't replace my laptop for convenience and versatility.

Appreciate the insight, thats really helpful. To be fair I doubt ill want to play anything first or third person with shooting on controller, so it would mostly be Indies and maybe Soulslikes or other character actiony type games which are probably fine at 30 once I get used to it. I wouldnt bother with a keyboard, it'd be a straight replacement for the Switch while travelling.

I ruled out the ROG Ally because Ive heard multiple people say the software is janky, and I know Asus has gone downhill in general in the last few years quality wise. Their software has generally always been awful.

The Ayaneo Kun had a decent review from PCG, uses a later AMD SoC that has a bit more grunt than Deck and apparently had better software than Asus and the others as well as good track pads. Its almost twice the price of an OLED deck though. They have multiple other models that might be alright that I was planning on researching a bit. Preliminarily reviews dont seem great for the Kun, on top of your advice now.

Ill probably end up with an OLED deck if I ever move on anything. Like you say I trust Valves CS and build quality way more than the other options.

 

[BeardyHat]

Appreciate the insight, thats really helpful. To be fair I doubt ill want to play anything first or third person with shooting on controller, so it would mostly be Indies and maybe Soulslikes or other character actiony type games which are probably fine at 30 once I get used to it. I wouldnt bother with a keyboard, it'd be a straight replacement for the Switch while travelling.

I ruled out the ROG Ally because Ive heard multiple people say the software is janky, and I know Asus has gone downhill in general in the last few years quality wise. Their software has generally always been awful.

The Ayaneo Kun had a decent review from PCG, uses a later AMD SoC that has a bit more grunt than Deck and apparently had better software than Asus and the others as well as good track pads. Its almost twice the price of an OLED deck though. They have multiple other models that might be alright that I was planning on researching a bit. Preliminarily reviews dont seem great for the Kun, on top of your advice now.

Ill probably end up with an OLED deck if I ever move on anything. Like you say I trust Valves CS and build quality way more than the other options.

Per shooting, it's definitely not terrible for games that were designed around controller. RDR2 and Cyberpunk both shoot great, again, being designed around it (and having autoaim), but trying to play a Boomer Shooter just makes me frustrated, because it feels so damn imprecise; I just stick to my laptop for those.

Mostly for the touchpads, it's really about the configurability. I've been able to play Vanilla WoW with them because I have the touchpad configured as a radial menu to access all the necessary hot keys, which works great for any primarily mouse driven game with lots of those.

It also might be worth checking out a used one via eBay; I saw quite a few 256/512 original models for less than $400 US and some closer to $300. That's usually how I roll when I want some tech, but I'm not sure if I'll like it or not; pick up something cheap on eBay and if I like it and want to upgrade down the line, pick up something newer from there.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Per shooting, it's definitely not terrible for games that were designed around controller. RDR2 and Cyberpunk both shoot great, again, being designed around it (and having autoaim), but trying to play a Boomer Shooter just makes me frustrated, because it feels so damn imprecise; I just stick to my laptop for those.

Mostly for the touchpads, it's really about the configurability. I've been able to play Vanilla WoW with them because I have the touchpad configured as a radial menu to access all the necessary hot keys, which works great for any primarily mouse driven game with lots of those.

It also might be worth checking out a used one via eBay; I saw quite a few 256/512 original models for less than $400 US and some closer to $300. That's usually how I roll when I want some tech, but I'm not sure if I'll like it or not; pick up something cheap on eBay and if I like it and want to upgrade down the line, pick up something newer from ther

Ill be thinking about it a while longer, 2nd hand is a good option, Valve even have refurbished ones that come with a warranty. OLED is very tempting though!

 

[ZedClampet]

Ill be thinking about it a while longer, 2nd hand is a good option, Valve even have refurbished ones that come with a warranty. OLED is very tempting though!

But you'd have to stop ridiculing laptops.

 

[ZedClampet]

The best sex games on PC that aren't garbage

Sex games that actually don't suck.

www.pcgamer.com

For those of us who enjoy sex, but can't seem to find anyone quite that desperate.

Note: whoever is working on this software on the back end is making it near impossible to have links unfurl.

 

[Colif]

So saw a Youtube video listed as: World record to having sex in Baldurs Gate 3 and it was in under two minutes of starting game.
That is sure a different record to waste time trying to achieve in a game.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

But you'd have to stop ridiculing laptops.

Laptops are fine, if you absolutely can't use a desktop instead.

 

[Hveðrungr]

Laptops are fine, if you absolutely can't use a desktop instead.

I'll bite: I think desktops are better than laptops for maintaining a healthy sense of distance from the virtual. Computer stuff is in the computer place, where it should be; once you step away from the desk, you aren't connected any more. But with a laptop—and even worse, with a tablet or smartphone—you are never away from the internet. It is always there, the abyss, tempting you to drown yourself in it.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'll bite: I think desktops are better than laptops for maintaining a healthy sense of distance from the virtual. Computer stuff is in the computer place, where it should be; once you step away from the desk, you aren't connected any more. But with a laptop—and even worse, with a tablet or smartphone—you are never away from the internet. It is always there, the abyss, tempting you to drown yourself in it.

I'm not bad with that. I come here and a sports forum once every hour or two, sometimes not that often. A couple of times a day I'll check PCG and usually I'll listen to music for awhile, but that's basically all I do on the Internet anymore, I don't even check my emails but maybe once a month. Now if you warned me I would drown in games, Blender, Unreal and Photoshop and a couple more art apps, I couldn't defend myself from that, but getting lost in the Internet doesn't do it for me anymore.

 

[Brian Boru]

@PCG Jody Please tell me this was deliberate:

"Sex games that actually don't suck"

 

[ZedClampet]

Dr Disrespect fired by the game studio he co-founded: 'It is our duty to act with dignity on behalf of all individuals involved'

Days after allegations that he was banned from Twitch for inappropriately texting a minor, Dr Disrespect says he's taking a 'vacation' from streaming.

www.pcgamer.com

Dr Disrespect is finished. Hope he made and saved a lot of money. Says the accusations that he texted and tried to set up a meeting with an underage girl were investigated and were nothing, but I'm guessing you're not going to find anyone who believes that.

I watched bits and pieces of a couple of his streams and actually really liked him.

There's no more info and won't be, I'm guessing. I wonder if he knew she was underage? Doesn't matter anymore. You don't come back from this, but it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't try to some day.

To survive something like this, you would have to have admitted it before it came out, and disputed something about it, like saying you didn't realize that she was underage, nothing happened, etc.

But having it just suddenly hit the news and not having any sort of qualifiers about the story...that's career ending.

 

[Hveðrungr]

Dr Disrespect is finished. Hope he made and saved a lot of money. Says the accusations that he texted and tried to set up a meeting with an underage girl were investigated and were nothing, but I'm guessing you're not going to find anyone who believes that.

I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he is innocent until proven guilty. They wouldn't have stayed silent and paid out his contract if it were verified. I think we are in a disastrous place as a society if all it takes to literally end someone's ability to provide for himself and his family is to make a false accusation of this kind against him. If he did it, of course he should receive whatever legal punishment is appropriate (though it seems like, in this case, even that would be minimal?). But no, I think it's extremely important not to fall into this witch-hunt mentality of cancelling people based merely on an unsupported accusation.

 

[BeardyHat]

not sure how well it works in Games.

Finally messed with this, this week and I inadvertently discovered that if you hold the Steam button for about 3 seconds, it'll show you a list of shortcuts you can use with it.

Dr Disrespect fired by the game studio he co-founded: 'It is our duty to act with dignity on behalf of all individuals involved'

Days after allegations that he was banned from Twitch for inappropriately texting a minor, Dr Disrespect says he's taking a 'vacation' from streaming.

www.pcgamer.com

Dr Disrespect is finished. Hope he made and saved a lot of money. Says the accusations that he texted and tried to set up a meeting with an underage girl were investigated and were nothing, but I'm guessing you're not going to find anyone who believes that.

I watched bits and pieces of a couple of his streams and actually really liked him.

There's no more info and won't be, I'm guessing. I wonder if he knew she was underage? Doesn't matter anymore. You don't come back from this, but it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't try to some day.

To survive something like this, you would have to have admitted it before it came out, and disputed something about it, like saying you didn't realize that she was underage, nothing happened, etc.

But having it just suddenly hit the news and not having any sort of qualifiers about the story...that's career ending.

No idea who this guy is, but given his name is still in the headlines after apparently being banned in 2020, I'm guessing he'll do ok and land on his feet.

No real opinion on the accusations, shitty if true, but who knows? I'd be surprised if it weren't, as I feel like this happens over and over again with these Internet "Personalities"; I literally just read about a guy the other day named ProJared, doing something similar.

 

[Colif]

influenzers... I mean, influencers... some abuse, some sell NFT to their followers, some get caught

Sharks

But others just get the role from being entertaining.

I saw something on that guy but I don't know enough about situation to know. I don't watch twitch.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I literally just read about a guy the other day named ProJared, doing something similar.

Respectfully, from my understanding of the situation as it stands, this is unfair—in both directions! As far as I can tell, ProJared comprehensively disproved the underage nudes allegations altogether. And again as far as I can tell, there's no suggestion that Dr Disrespect sent nudes to the individual in question or did anything criminal, which were the disproven allegations against ProJared.

We also don't know the age involved: a small number of US states have an abnormally high age of consent set at 18, but nearly everywhere else sensibly sets it at around 16. Yet 17-year-olds are sometimes referred to as “minors” as a general principle even though that's not the case nearly everywhere in the world, and even in a large majority of the US.

 

[Zloth]

@PCG Jody Please tell me this was deliberate:

"Sex games that actually don't suck"

The same Jody that just started an article with:

Critical Role's campaigns are like children: they seem nice, but I couldn't eat a whole one.

He's on a roll!