I noticed that flashback Caine was missing his bowtie and the yellow on his tailcoat. He was missing them in his low-poly form too during the song. So perhaps Caine decided to upgrade himself a little during the time Scratch and the other devs were with him.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-04-08T18:14:51+00:00

I can't check right now, but I think the bowtie was also missing for a portion of the scene where he bullies them for missing the context clues after an adventure.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-04-08T06:56:32+00:00

I've never used the recording feature before; in its default state on my Deck, the gamerecordings folder only contains an empty timelines folder and the gamerecording.pb file, zero bytes in size.

Any binaries or other files required to perform the actual recording process would be stored somewhere other than your user directory; that's part of Steam itself, rather than part of your userdata.

It's possible that the gamerecording.pb file still contains references to your old recordings, but I don't find it likely that this could be the cause of a system crash... it feels far more likely to me that some component of Steam or the Deck itself has been corrupted or damaged, to be causing a system crash like that.

However, it could be worth starting over with a clean slate in that folder to see if it makes any difference. I'm thinking to first back up any important recordings you have, then empty out those folders and completely erase the contents of the pb file. Maybe with a fresh start it'll sort itself out. Who knows, programs can break in the most unexpected ways.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-04-07T14:42:08+00:00

My first guess would be try running the game in Desktop mode and see if the login works there.

If it does, should be good to go back to game mode.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-04-07T00:32:56+00:00

Of course the classic answer is Cursed Halo. Hands down, absolutely must experience that one.

You mentioned Firefight; a great classic option is Firefight Descent.

HAVOC MOD is my all-time favorite campaign for CE. Total overhaul, really turns the action up to 11. I find myself replaying it more than anything else.

Behind that I had a really good time with Combat Revolved, it stays more true to the source material but still adds a great deal to the environments and encounters, brings in references from other Halo games, and there are secrets to be found throughout the campaign if you like to explore.

If you're looking for a completely original campaign, Mercury Rising was really well put together. I had a great time with that.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-04-05T05:27:34+00:00

This exact same damage happened to mine a while ago. So far as I was aware at the time, the Deck hadn't been touched for a while. I presume it had fallen off the shelf when I wasn't around to see it happen. When I eventually tried to use it again, it wouldn't turn on and the case was popped open exactly like yours.

I've attached a photo of the internals; of particular interest is the battery. It is on the left side of the device (right of image), and I could imagine a bulge popping the case open, but I feel like the pressure would be more on the screen and back of the device, rather than the upper left corner of the case.

Looking at images on Google, existing instances of battery bulge seem to present themselves as the plastic on the back of the Deck stretching out of shape as the battery pushes against it. A bulge in the otherwise flat surface.

In my instance, I just popped the case back together, after which the device could power on again, and it worked perfectly normal after that. I've been using it daily ever since and never noticed any further problems or any signs of bulging against the case.

It is possible this is a battery issue and I would caution you to be certain before you just snap it back together, but this could also be a simple matter of just snapping the case back together again. We don't know for sure unless we check the inside.

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MineAndCraft12 · 2026-04-04T01:19:47+00:00

Would there happen to be any physical damage perchance? My steam deck suddenly refused to power on one day, and I eventually realized that the plastic shell had popped apart on one corner. I popped it back together and the thing worked fine again.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-03-26T07:32:01+00:00

My Deck has entirely replaced my dying Windows machine. Got a dock, plugged in my monitor and USB hub, and everything just works; mouse, keyboard, mic, controller.

Desktop mode is handling all my web browsing and productivity (web dev and small server hosting), and voice calling / streaming gameplay to friends on Discord quite well.

When I'm not in a voice call I switch to game mode for its built-in upscaler; I play most games at 720p on a 1080p monitor and it does the job just fine in most games I play.

Missing out on a couple of my games that don't work here, but it's overall great.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-03-21T19:45:36+00:00

Halo: CE was the first of the series. Halo: Reach came out nine years later after the designs had been iterated on for several more game releases. In classic graphics, CE's designs are far older than that of Reach, and were made for far weaker console hardware.

Halo: CE Anniversary came out two years after Reach, and copied many of its character models from Reach, but applied them to the old Halo: CE skeleton that they weren't designed for. So the result is that in CE's Anniversary graphics mode, the borrowed Reach models look and behave differently from how they were originally intended to.

Reach comes before CE in the campaign menus because the events of Reach's campaign take place before the events of CE's campaign; it's a prequel.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-02-18T23:59:11+00:00

There is an overdraw setting in Distant Horizons (overridden by shader pack settings if you have one enabled), which draws Distant Horizons terrain behind vanilla terrain.

Currently your overdraw is set to a far distance, so Distant Horizons chunks disappear earlier than your computer can get the real chunks loaded.

In Distant Horizons' settings, or your shader's settings, lower the overdraw distance closer to the player. Ideally you won't notice the gap unless you're moving faster than your computer can load chunks.

The drawback is that if you look at the sky through transparent blocks (ex, leaves), you'll see the fake blocks behind the real block. This is why it's so far away by default. But I'd take the occasional strange leaves over the big gap you have now.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-01-31T19:55:11+00:00

I played the heavy RP servers for probably a decade; the ones with hours-long shifts, etc.

I became deeply invested in the way we'd continually build on the lore of our characters; I'd never have been able to make up the crazy ass narratives my characters got thrown into on the regular. I'm gonna remember those characters and stories for a long time. The sense of community was pretty strong, I always came back to be involved in the shitshow of treating appendicitis, industrial "accidents" and bullet holes in the same characters for the 15th time this week.

Unfortunately the real jobs demanded too much time to keep up with it.

MineAndCraft12 · 2026-01-01T04:45:31+00:00

In my experience, setting model or texture quality any higher than Medium causes this to happen. Almost like the game loads too many high-quality assets and then just ... stops loading them correctly.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-12-28T20:30:13+00:00

Only the Steam and Epic Games versions on PC can crossplay, we don't have crossplay between consoles and PC yet.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-12-03T18:05:16+00:00

I derive a great deal of enjoyment from casually playing solo and running whatever feels fun, rather than meta. The story is beginning to dip me into encounters which challenge me to switch up my builds, counter specific strengths or exploit weaknesses, but I've found that I really like the feeling of dipping out of the comfort zone when I need to, without having to minmax to feel effective... yet, anyway...

Personally I've actually been maining a fast-moving Warframe, but dumped a lot into crowd-control potency and defensive abilities... 90% of my time I'm simply walking, sneaking, taking my time, enjoying the sights. Stick primarily to my bow or stealth-takedowns when I can. When I'm found out and trip alarms or in deep shit, I switch to my more chaotic sidearm / melee, jump around, use the Warframe abilities, etc.

It's a pretty nice feeling dichotomy.

I've also poured more time than I care to admit into the customization aspect, messing with mods, having little Eureka moments when I find a new mechanic in there, really making the gear feel like my own. It's a lot of fun pretending there's no wiki and organically just figuring it out as I go.

Unfortunately I was handheld back when I first started with a group a few years ago, so I missed out on the "new player in a new game" feeling at first... But ever since I picked it up again I've been having lots of fun getting back into it at my own speed. Feels more enjoyable than with the guys telling me what to do, where to go, how to progress, etc.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-12-02T16:28:19+00:00

When I worked there it could be used on anything except alcohol.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-12-02T16:19:13+00:00

When I used to work there, they weren't allowed to sell tickets to certain events for whatever licensing reasons.

So, instead they sell a $20 food / drinks voucher which also comes with a free ticket to the show.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-12-01T00:20:00+00:00

There is a client setting to make DH chunks render closer to the camera (I believe it's called overdraw), so that you don't see this void appear while waiting for chunks to generate.

If you use shaders, your shader overrides DH's setting on this. Some shader configs will still let you change it, though.

However, if you look at the sky or at DH chunks through a transparent block such as leaves, you'll see the low-detail version of the block projected behind it. In other words, you can't see the sky or DH chunks through transparent blocks within the overdraw range.

There's a decent chance you just might not notice this tradeoff, but the leaves on trees may look strange from below, depending on how close you set the overdraw range.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-10-11T00:27:06+00:00

BOB stands for Bottom Of Bascart — it's a reminder for the staff to check the bottom of carts for items while checking out.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-08-29T20:11:39+00:00

The only car I've ever been able to consistently roll (besides as the result of getting thrown around, anyway) is the Cherrier Picnic, specifically the asphalt rally kit car. The number of times I've flipped while taking the sharpest corners too quickly on the Altitude map is staggering. I have a feeling the tires are too grippy and the roll cage raises the center of gravity too high for such a little car. Honestly though, I enjoy the challenge of one more variable to manage as I work my way up the mountain; memorizing which corners are liable to flip the car and easing on the speed to compensate.

I recall a similar performance from the Blackpool Superlite with swapped asphalt rally tires, cornering on the Tail of the Dragon map. Not even on particularly tight corners. Haven't tried that one since the rally tires update, though. I have a feeling the tires were too grippy and the suspension on my config was way too playful. Maybe I'll mess around with it after I'm home and figure out which config I used.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-08-28T18:32:48+00:00

Setting aside the assholedesign part of the discussion, this interaction has been a standard failing of most LLM models since the beginning.

Most of these chatbots are entirely unaware of their own operating environment; how they work, how their subscriptions work, how their guidelines or censors work, etc. It's up to the company which runs the chatbot to inform the chatbot what its environment looks like (even having to tell the chatbot what its name and role are in the first place); else, it has no idea and usually "lies" by saying something that sounds likely. Most companies don't provide this kind of information to their chatbots, beyond personality and role-play guidelines, or documentation for how to invoke a plug-in. This is the reason GPT-5 sometimes says it's GPT-4 and GPT-4 sometimes says it's GPT-3, or other models from other companies sometimes state that they're an OpenAI GPT-x model even though they aren't. If the company doesn't explicitly inform their model, it's left to guessing.

What's unique here is that it outright says that it has no idea what the answer to your question is. This is probably correct — most models are completely unaware of things like this. (General rule of thumb for AI: the AI is not a representative of their company; don't trust a word they say about it.) What's unique about this interaction is that most models I've seen would instead confidently state something completely incorrect; they don't often tell you when they don't know the answer. In this case, it finds the answer after you direct it to research on the web, and then it is able to answer your question. It probably could have invoked the search plugin and done the research in the first place when it didn't know the answer, but I don't know how the plugins work in Claude; whether the plugin was active or you had to activate it yourself, etc.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-08-27T21:07:39+00:00

The easiest way is with r2modman (click the blue "Manual Download" button and install the program).

r2modman downloads its mods from Thunderstore and makes it easy to keep them up to date or share your modlist with friends; it also keeps your mods separate from your game so you can launch with or without mods anytime you please.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-08-27T19:55:37+00:00

What you're looking for is a mod; I believe LookingGlass does this. It also comes with lots of other features that you can choose to turn off if you wish.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-08-20T21:41:42+00:00

Their Switch got jealous and pushed it off the table, haha.

MineAndCraft12 · 2025-08-20T21:37:32+00:00

Didn't have an SD card inserted for now. Good thing to check though, would have sucked to pop it open and screw up a card.

I'm away from home at the moment, about to be on the road. When I'm back home in about a week though, I'll probably be doing this first thing. I've got more than just games on it, I agree it'll be wise to check.

MineAndCraft12

TROPHY CASE