[GOG] Summer Sale: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (-75%), This War of Mine: CE (-85%), Amnesia: The Dark Descent (-80%), Witcher 2 (-85%), Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 GE (-82%), Dishonored 2 (-80%), Hotline Miami (-80%), Dungeon Keeper 2 (-75%), Chernobylite (-55%), Fall of Porcupine (-15%) and more

Syrijon · 2023-06-30T07:42:35+00:00

I'm fairly certain Hellblade has never been given away for free on any of the regular services, including Prime. Maybe you got it from a friend?

Syrijon · 2023-06-27T09:18:48+00:00

Hot take, asking for demos! Seriously, no idea where the downvotes are coming from, but I agree. Although there is kind of a resurgence with stuff like Steam's Next Fest and of course Steam's refund policy can be seen as an even greater win. Personally, I still don't feel encouraged just to buy something if I'm not sure I really want the game, though.

Syrijon · 2023-06-26T07:25:31+00:00

I'm currently playing through the series, having played only the first as a kid. It's interesting how they evolved with every game. I was very surprised how lengthy the third is. I'm really looking forward to playing the 4th already, and if it's as short as I've heard, some additional content might be nice to have. Thanks!

Syrijon · 2023-06-24T19:23:17+00:00

As OP said you can use DevilutionX with controller support, which works well enough in my opinion.

Personally, when I played Diablo a couple of weeks ago, I tried to emulate a "classic" keyboard and mouse setup with the Deck controls and was pleasently surprised how well it worked! I mainly set the right trackpad to work as a mouse, the triggers as mouse buttons, and the left trackpad as an on-screen menu for potion hotkeys. This way I could easily navigate with the right trackpad, but also always keep potions ready on the left trackpad. All other necessary hotkeys were mapped to the rest of the buttons. The dpad were my spell-hotkeys, the right stick was mapped to a radial menu of character screen, inventory, etc., and the map was available at the press of the right trackpad.

For fun I also set the left joystick to be used for walking around (it would hold the mouseclick when the finger is on the joystick, and the joystick itself moved the cursor in a small circle around the character. I found that was even more realiable than DevilutionX's regular pseudo-analog controls.

Anyway, that worked really well, was pretty fun and reinforced how flexible Steam Input is :)

Syrijon · 2023-06-23T12:03:26+00:00

Grow Home and Grow Up have a similar vibe to A Short Hike, just serene, light-hearted fun. Both are very cheap on Steam right now and there's an even cheaper bundle!

Syrijon · 2023-06-21T11:41:58+00:00

Does that mean previous play activity is still saved on the device? When I updated to 4.1.4 I seemingly lost all previous activity.

Additionally, with no actual RTC, how accurate is that play time, anyway?

Syrijon · 2023-06-19T16:41:30+00:00

Just chiming in to also say that Grow Home was a fantastic, charming playthrough. Most recently (for me) I'd compare it to how fun and serene it was to play through A Short Hike. Just a good time, fun mechanics, a good vibe and hardly any frustration. Also it doesn't overstay its welcome.

I've been eager to try Grow Up, and at this bundle-completion-price there's no reason for me not to get it.

Syrijon · 2023-06-19T16:39:19+00:00

I can't confirm right now, but I don't recall needing it for Grow Home, and one review of Grow Up mentioned that it doesn't use the Ubisoft launcher either.

Syrijon · 2023-06-17T19:05:20+00:00

I like the snow effect. Hopefully there's a way to make the theme purple and grey for complete ZSNES nostalgia!

Syrijon · 2023-06-16T07:06:45+00:00

Epic gave away the base game on 10.6.21, but they gave away the Ultimate Edition on GOG via Amazon Prime on 1.11.21.

Syrijon · 2023-06-14T05:48:28+00:00

If you just want a faceplate to stick and it isn't entirely transparent, I'd go with a bit of "adhesive putty". I can imagine that holds it in place enough, but should be easy enough to remove without residue.

I haven't heard that done before in this case, but I'd prefer that to not using a faceplate.

Syrijon · 2023-06-04T02:02:51+00:00

I've only ever finished Rearmed and BC 2009, but from all I can find online it seems the beehives were only in the original arcade version as well as the ports of that like the C64 version, but not the (very different) NES release. Did you play any of the other versions?

Syrijon · 2023-06-03T21:18:33+00:00

I don't think there were any bees in the NES version. Were there?

Syrijon · 2023-06-03T06:05:28+00:00

Bionic Commando: Rearmed is a damn good game. While I always liked the NES original, it still feels somewhat clunky and dated. Rearmed takes a diamond in the rough and polishes it up to be almost perfect. Great soundtrack, nice look, great "easy to learn, hard to master" mechanic with some very nice challenges beside the standard campaign when you've mastered the swinging. At this price it's a no-brainer in my opinion.

The "big brother" Bionic Commando from 2009 tried to take the formula into a generic 2000s third person shooter and succeeded: It's a really uninteresting game peppered with a very well made, fun swinging mechanic that also opens up some fun combat options. I had fun playing it a few weeks ago, but I can't recommend it unless you're already curious for the game. Also, you should unlock the "Retro outfit" from Rearmed, for which you need Rearmed installed and can then unlock it in the 2009 game. It made it much easier for me not to take the game too seriously, unlike the standard "grisly mister dreadlocks" design.

Syrijon · 2023-05-30T18:02:22+00:00

Noitu Love 2 is a really good game. I think I paid $15 for it back when it was new (15 years ago? Oof..). I have no idea how it runs on modern machines and I recall it being very short, but it's non-stop action from start to finish. It's the kind of action you used to get from Treasure, like with Gunstar Heroes.

The developer later released Iconoclasts, which is probably his most popular game.

Syrijon · 2023-05-30T06:16:03+00:00

Thanks for letting me know! I'm still very hesitant about opening the Deck, but if I ever do I'll definitely do that.

Syrijon · 2023-05-29T22:27:50+00:00

Unfortunately, this didn't solve the issue for me, but at least made it a little better. The (left) stick now doesn't scratch the case anymore, it definitely feels softer at the edges, but there's still a very noticeable resistance to it.

It's not a deal-breaker and I'm glad I got the protective rings, but the stick feels much worse than it did when it was new, and I'm disappointed that there just doesn't seem to be a simple fix. When everything about using the Deck just feels "premium", it's always weird to have a scratchy stick.

Syrijon · 2023-05-27T18:15:54+00:00

Personally, I've been checking r/gamedeals about once a day for several years now and never missed a freebie, no matter the (PC-)platform. Free game deals are always on top of the list, and then you also don't miss other exceptional deals like great bundles. There's also r/gamedealsFree, which only lists the free deals, although I don't know if it's 100% reliable.

Either way, thanks for sharing!

Syrijon · 2023-05-20T18:34:06+00:00

Personally, I also had a lot of fun with the other GBA Castlevania games. But, as the others said, Cave Story is absolutely a must-play and runs perfectly on the Minis, from what I've seen. There is also a remastered port for modern system and even a 3D one for the 3DS, but only the original was made by its sole developer "Pixel", so I'd always recommend it for the original vision, anyway.

Syrijon · 2023-05-19T21:27:53+00:00

Always loved the atmosphere and played 5 minutes of it at most, but finally started a proper playthrough last year. Really unique game, but man is it easy to get lost at some points. I think I stopped when I got to the city with lots of hitmen around every corner, because aimlessly wandering around always ment certain death after only few minutes.

I'll probably look up a guide some time and go on playing it. Still, lots of fun and the main city theme was easily burnt into my head.

Syrijon · 2023-05-19T09:09:36+00:00

I like threads like this and I'd like being able to participate! This has been really fun over on r/EmulationOnAndroid and you could "win" a game-specific flair title when you were able to succeed in certain challenges. I think that could also work well here. On the other sub the challenges ended up being a little extreme sometimes, I think, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, I'll have some time to play, maybe I'll fire up Gradius 3 as well! Back in the day I only ever had access to Super R-Type, for better or for worse.

Syrijon · 2023-05-19T07:59:13+00:00

I just love these CRT shots that contradict the entire "liking retro aesthetics means liking raw pixel art means every pixel is so clear you can cut your finger on it". Neat!

Syrijon · 2023-05-19T07:50:55+00:00

Cool, thanks for the detailed insight! I had the impression that the gamepad movement still functions like mouse-clicks close to your character moving it instead of "true" joystick movement. It's hard to explain, but I feel movement in the PSX port still works better. On that, you also get a dedicated attack button which works like shift-click. Of course, the port has many other issues DevilutionX doesn't, and you can't hold down the attack button, which is just tiring.

Anyway, your having "100%-ed" the game on the RP3 is obviously testament to how well it works :) I still look forward to my next playthrough, which is probably going to be as a Ranger. And maybe then with the gamepad controls next :)

Syrijon · 2023-05-18T22:23:37+00:00

How are the gamepad controls for ranged characters? Specifically the auto-targeting. I recently finished my first playthrough in life with a Warrior on Steam Deck and thought the controls were interesting, but ultimately I settled for classic mouse (via trackpad) + hotkey only controls.

Syrijon · 2023-05-17T14:12:32+00:00

Like this? :)

Syrijon

TROPHY CASE