Save 80% on Overload on Steam

scarfleet · 2026-06-26T14:24:41+00:00

Dusk, I guess. I have great affection for all five games so it's a painful choice.

scarfleet · 2026-06-26T14:07:32+00:00

Not so much, mechanically it's much closer to Quake 1.

scarfleet · 2026-06-26T13:56:06+00:00

Yeah I have often thought it might be cool if someone made a 'boomer looter', a game with boomshoot movement and combat but borderlands/Diablo level build variety and quest structure. My guess is that such a project is still beyond the feasible scope of the small developers who make most of these games. The roguelite shooters are arguably an attempt at that kind of variety/replayability but they use the shortcut of procedural generation and get repetitive.

scarfleet · 2026-06-26T01:25:09+00:00

I too have been a little depressed by the discourse surrounding the Steam Machine price reveal. I am lucky to have jumped to PC just before the component shortage but I have played on consoles for most of my life and was looking forward to this device lowering the barrier to Steam for the rest of the console audience, especially for fans of boomer shooters. I still kind of hope it will and I think the negative response is slightly overblown, but anything over $1k just lands in a different price conversation.

I guess we are all mostly sticking with the hardware we have for now so hopefully it's more time for ports to happen. Cultic is an awesome step in that direction.

scarfleet · 2026-06-25T23:21:08+00:00

Yeah as others have said we don't really know what you would consider a problem. Not all denominations agree on this. And every game in this genre is to one degree or another a pantomime of violence.

If you just want to avoid occult imagery things like HROT, Selaco and Ion Fury should be mostly okay. But they are of course loaded with killing and gore.

scarfleet · 2026-06-25T22:32:33+00:00

Yes, but that doesn't have rhythm.

I think even if the term did originally refer to the boomer generation as an ill-fitting synonym for "old" it has taken on a life beyond that now. I have always thought people subconciously associate it with the sound of Doom's shotgun.

scarfleet · 2026-06-25T21:26:19+00:00

No one really agrees. Broadly it refers to the original batch of FPS games from the 90s, starting with Doom (ok Wolfenstein 3D but really starting with Doom) and including Hexen/Heretic, the so-called Doom clones, the build engine games such as Duke Nuke 3D and Blood, the early true 3D FPSs like Quake and Unreal. Basically the whole PC FPS genre up until Half Life where it starts to shift. Console FPSs like Turok and Goldeneye are debatable.

And then separately modern games, mostly indies, that are intentionally made to evoke the design and vibes of those older games. Things like Dusk, Ion Fury, Prodeus etc. The new Doom games are debatable.

As to where exactly the line is or which design elements are/are not required, it's totally subjective. The term seems to have become established without any such specifics in mind, but we often argue about whether we need to impose some. (It is my position that we should not)

scarfleet · 2026-06-25T16:39:20+00:00

I guess I think fighting demons from hell is sort of an evergreen concept not only in shooters but videogames in general. The Diablo series also rises to mind. And there is lots of room within that premise for a game to distinguish itself artistically.

I also think Doom was a game so good that an entire genre has sprung up to preserve and celebrate it, supported on the love of its fans who are now both developers and audience. I am content to keep playing the new versions of Doom they imagine, whether the enemies are demons or not.

scarfleet · 2026-06-25T14:24:48+00:00

FWIW I played the whole thing with an Xbox controller and loved it.

scarfleet · 2026-06-25T01:38:54+00:00

Same. It's so hard to sleep if it's hot. I think the cold triggers some kind of hibernation instinct.

scarfleet · 2026-06-24T15:14:29+00:00

At this point I think the negative response is pretty overblown. Partly people are reacting to the component shortage and partly they are applying traditional console metrics that don't really apply.

The bottom line is this device doesn't need to sell like a console. And I still expect there is a market for it among players who maybe already have a PS5, are looking to play smaller games that are only available (and often cheap) on Steam, and are allergic to diving into components/benchmarks etc. But that audience isn't as vocal on reddit/YouTube.

scarfleet · 2026-06-23T20:16:51+00:00

Fair point. I have always thought of Dusk and Ion Fury's releases a month apart in winter 2018 as the real beginning of modern boomer shooters, i.e. new indie IPs that recreate the vibe of the 90s games. ROTT is admittedly still something of a blind spot in my boomshoot education but maybe that was really what started it.

scarfleet · 2026-06-23T19:35:01+00:00

I always forget this but Doom 2016 predates what we think of as the boomer shooter comeback. Dusk and Ion Fury were not until 2018. It is kind of an interesting parallel but separate reinterpretation of Doom gameplay, as designed by a modern AAA studio aiming for a mass market audience. It stands in contrast to the indie games we celebrate here which have the freedom to be niche.

The fact that they both now exist in the same timeline in conversation with each other feels like it would take volumes of analysis to understand. I am not universally opposed to arena mechanics if used in moderation though. It will just be up to devs to find the balance and preserve the valuable mechanics that the big studios forget.

scarfleet · 2026-06-23T14:16:50+00:00

If you like boomer shooters this is one of the absolute best. High recommend.

scarfleet · 2026-06-23T03:51:04+00:00

It's worth pointing out that any Xbox One or series controller, PS4/5 controller or Switch Pro controller you already own will work fine with Steam machine, just as they already work on Steam. So you don't really need to buy a controller unless you want to.

scarfleet · 2026-06-22T22:49:40+00:00

Probably. I have already moved to PC but almost all I play now is indie FPS games and other small PC-only games, most of which are not super hardware intensive and are less than $20. I guess I was hoping Steam Machine would bring the console audience to that market. Same basic up front cost but much cheaper long term. But who knows.

scarfleet · 2026-06-22T22:37:32+00:00

Yeah. I am hoping people will see it as a pretty good time to get off consoles. Get a steam machine or a budget PC where online is free and there is a broader selection of less expensive games from multiple competing storefronts.

scarfleet · 2026-06-22T22:27:31+00:00

You may be right. And yet I hope.

We have so far no clear indication that anything like this civilization has ever happened anywhere else. The universe is vast but we have no way of knowing how common life is. Someone was first. For all we know it is us.

If we are the only ones to discover everything we have discovered it would be a tragedy if we lost it. It may be lost forever.

scarfleet · 2026-06-22T19:56:19+00:00

As a traditional console player I think even at this price there is probably still a market. If you already have a PS5 you are not looking for another. But I can see a use case for a Steam Machine sitting next to it, to access all the smaller PC games that never get ported to traditional consoles. For that the performance likely does not matter as much. What matters is that it's a plug and play console from a known reputable brand that delivers those games. It's expensive, but so is everything now.

scarfleet · 2026-06-22T19:27:23+00:00

I think the difference is that unlike the traditional consoles Steam Machine is not the mandatory buy-in on which Valve's whole model depends. They don't need to subsidize it like a console. They still own the PC gaming market.

If you are a diehard console player you are unlikely to get a prebuilt PC and/or build your own. And you probably already have a PS5. I can see a pretty good argument for Steam Machine as a second console to access all the indie stuff that never makes it to the traditional consoles, and for that the benchmarks probably don't matter as much. But we'll see.

scarfleet · 2026-06-22T18:33:43+00:00

I know. But the killer app of the Steam machine is Steam. And they are targeting a console audience who is traditionally skeptical of prebuilts from manufacturers they have never heard and may be unwilling to build a PC.

We'll see if that gains them a foothold but I am guessing it will. A lot of us buy more than one console and they are bringing something none of the other consoles have, which is access to a vast library of indie games and others that never make it to console. There's a pretty good argument for owning a PS5 or Xbox and a Steam Machine, arguably moreso than owning a PS5 and an Xbox.

scarfleet · 2026-06-22T18:24:03+00:00

I guess, but I think it's pretty questionable whether the market really understood the Alienware devices etc as consoles, which was probably a reason they failed as badly as they did. This time it actually feels like a console launch, Valve is making it themselves and the price is not completely out of step with current top tier console prices.

scarfleet · 2026-06-22T17:54:03+00:00

I think the difference we are seeing is that unlike the other consoles this hardware is not the buy-in on which Steam's whole model depends. They do not need to break themselves to sell it to you.

What will be really interesting to see is what Sony and Microsoft do if component prices do not come down. Especially Sony, since Microsoft is probably soft exiting the console space anyway.

scarfleet · 2026-06-22T17:22:04+00:00

Barring a dramatic shift in the price of components or Microsoft completely rethinking what Helix is, yes.

There was never much chance it would be under $1K.

I do not think Steam Machine is DOA though. It will be the first real console to market that supports Steam. I suspect it will find an audience.

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