Ye gods, that’s bloody hideous. Throw a CRT filter over that, at the very least!

“We found several tapes with lost Doctor Who episodes in an old Nintendo office!”

The lack of UHD drive is pretty funny.

The approach they took with the framing device really confused me. I very much enjoyed the Desmond arc, until it ended abruptly, never delivering on what it promised.

The following games seemed to be a scattered mess that I found difficult to follow.

I very much enjoyed being able to exit the Animus at any time, have a wander around, talk to friendly characters, and take a breather. I found the Animus concept worked well for me as a way to suspend disbelief. Why can’t I go over there? Because the person I’m playing as never did! Oh, I died? Well that didn’t happen, so let’s rewind that and get back into synch.

There’s some good stuff there, but it’s such a fragmented mess that it feels hard to retain and contextualise.

Why can’t we have some present day sections that advance the overall plot? Feel free to write the protagonists being defeated, or having to flee, or whatever if it’s needed to keep the saga going. Let them win sometimes and lose others.

In general the framing device makes me like the series a lot more than I otherwise might. It allows for all sorts of fun things (such as the reason for things like the cyclops to exist).

I used the touch pad as a trackpad mouse which worked very well for me. I also had various hotkeys mapped to the other touchpad and the rear buttons as modifiers (control and shift, if memory serves). I think I submitted my config but as my deck is in for repairs I can’t check right now (it’ll have my username attached).

Oops, forgot to reply to you!

With the custom input mapping I used (available on Steam) it played really well. Probably not as well as a keyboard and mouse but I was able to complete all the campaigns on hard without issue, if memory serves.

Multiplayer has never been my thing with RTS games so I can’t comment on that.

Hearty agreement here. I fired up Red Alert 3, hated the art style (and the co-commanders playing the game for me!) and bailed on the whole affair. Meanwhile I recently played through Red Alert 2 again on my Steam Deck and absolutely adored it.

No One Lives Forever and NOLF2 get my vote. I enjoyed them a great deal back in the day and would love to have another bash at them now, albeit with a lick of paint.

It’d legitimately be easier to fit an arcade cabinet in my house than space for proper VR play.

I still cannot fathom how anyone justifies paying so much for phones. My most recent one was a Pixel 4A, £100. I’ve not seen anything exciting in a smartphone in a decade or more.

I’ve long been skeptical about VR as a mainstream platform. I think the technology is quite cool, but much like those people who used to say “In ten years everyone will have a 3D printer!” and the like, no, I just don’t see it happening. The hassle factor is too great for it to be for everyone. Hell, most people seem to be fine with stereo sound, even though surround sound setups have been available for decades.

Whether it’s space, cost, or lack of software support, it all seems to combine to make it a bit of hobbyist kit at best. If your goal is to sell millions of copies then you need to target a broader market than hobbyists, and it looks like a lot of companies have ploughed enough cash into this that hobbyist sales aren’t going to be enough.

Not really, no. I think it’s the overall “vibe” that grates on me. Spending time somewhere dingey actively repels me.

Hard to say. Perhaps I don’t like having my back (literally) against the wall. I associate being outside with the space to approach a task on my own terms.

There’s perhaps also an element of growing up in places like Wales and Scotland where sunlight is at a bit of a premium!

In the real world I quite like caves…

How long are they planning to be hamstrung by the tech debt they’ve accrued? Sooner or later they’re going to have to do something about it, surely?

Their games all look the same, in that it’s always obvious that it’s a Bethesda-engine game (whatever they’re calling it this week). They’re always janky, usually at least a console generation behind their contemporaries, and they always feel held together with duct tape and prayers.

Playing their games is an exercise in sighing and trying to ignore the jank. Everything always feels like it’s wheezing along and trying to do anything beyond the obviously intended actions is likely to cause instability in the quest scripting.

I’m reminded of how Deus Ex players would try something only to find that the game was built to take that into account and allow for it. It’s the opposite of how it feels playing Bethesda’s games.

Is it sensible to discourage users from being different people in different communities?

Firefall walked so that Star Citizen could run.

Software development as a service?

Or two Steam Decks!

I’m sure that’ll help PS5 Pro sales.

Was Gotham Knights not part of that continuity? Huh.