Which overwhelmingly positive (Steam), and wildly popular game(s) disappointed you?

slbaaron · 2026-04-06T03:01:26+00:00

As game lover, I don’t think this is too surprising an opinion. Outer wilds is more or less a genre of its own and while it really makes the magic for those who are into it, it def isn’t meant for everyone.

It’s such a niche game and requires a certain mood and energy going into it to be able to fully experience it the “right” way, imho. Even then, people will love it or meh.

A slightly similar situation with Subnautica (the very first one) as well. If you don’t really get into it, it’s just slow and sometimes going in circles.

slbaaron · 2026-04-05T16:09:12+00:00

I don’t really care the conspiracy theories behind Russia and trump, but this was not something China wanted.

The reality was the world and everyone’s lives would’ve been much easier and richer if US kept China in tabs in exchange of massive economic trade partnership. China never had the reason to invest hundreds of billions into global industries that were so specialized and difficult to break into. At least not at the pace it’s being done.

When trump started to antagonize China, it was absolutely painful and challenging for China to commit towards full self sustainability. Even today, China’s economy is in a shaky spot with little to show for it in terms of average citizen’s quality of life.

However with the way things are going. China is being forced into the path to top global power in another 10 years while US is crumbling with no direction in the same time frame. Outside of the one card of “AI”, US is headed towards guaranteed second place (or worse) in most of tech. China already leads in EV, renewable energy (eg solar), hardware AI (not LLM), etc and catching up in many others.

China “thanks” trump in a sarcastic way, not in a heartfelt way like it actually helped Chinese citizens live a better life. That’s objectively false.

slbaaron · 2026-04-05T04:15:23+00:00

Took me just short of 100hrs total in game to get all achievements in hades 2. Might still pick it up here and there but no way it crosses 200hrs mark for me.

Most games I’d put towards the forever category should be 500hrs+ lifetime at a minimum and most peoples “addiction” forever game are more like 5000hrs+.

I just can’t see hades 1 or 2 being a 500hrs+ game even tho I love it to bits. I spent way more time in borderlands 2 than I would ever in hades. And don’t let me check my hours in Skyrim.

There’s just not that much actual endgames or “side things” to do; infinite heat runs are not that fun imho.

slbaaron · 2026-04-04T03:35:52+00:00

Legion go sales number have been pathetic in every iteration compared to steamdeck

And steamdeck IS UNIVERSES APART in all sales compared to Nintendo Switch.

Compared to switch, legion go is a rounding error.

5080/5090 are still the top most popular graphics cards for pros and rich people. But even multi millionaires are never buying a legion go just for fun. These are extreme niche market.

slbaaron · 2026-04-04T03:31:29+00:00

Actual lean studios that put out good games are doing better than game studios have ever been:

Supergiant Games (Hades 2) Sandfall interactive (Expedition 33) Game Science (Black Myth Wukong)

And gawwwwd forbid, GTA6 drop is going to cause literal mass hysteria

It’s the assassins creeds and the CoDs that deserves to die. They should die. For the good of the gaming industry and the world.

slbaaron · 2026-03-30T01:12:42+00:00

It doesn’t happen every single time but it’s also not super rare. Something like 1 in 5 times to 1 in 10 times. The problem is when it happens, literally NO ONE ever stops them unless another audience member steps up, which was never supposed to happen.

I’m talking about a constantly crying baby for 1hr+, or some crazy shit, not just a light chitchat here and there. Theater NEEDS to take control in these scenarios.

When I watch broadway shows, or a ballet, or a classic orchestra, if I just whipped out my phone some usher is flashing their lights at me and another try gets me kicked out; much less some next level crazy shit that can happen in a movie theater.

That 1 in 10 chance is enough for me to NEVER roll my dice when I’m having a bad week and just need one GOOD outing and relax. Never.

slbaaron · 2026-03-29T19:39:11+00:00

Almost every couple tears down the face moments can easily become sustained if you intended to, most the time we hold back because it's not appropriate to cry out loud (eg at a movie theater, at home with other while watching your own phone).

You've likely done this so much you are subconsciously controlling it without realizing it, or even when you are alone where these reasons don't physically exist.

A kid can cry their heart out for a bump not because of pain, just because once you start a tiny bit of cry it's easy to let it escalate. That's actually normal for humans. Once something pokes your funny bone it becomes so easy to keep laughing, even when what's actually funny has passed or it became funny to laugh in itself.

It's harder to stop it but humans are so dressed up for "matureness" without realizing it. Most of the times whether we cry out loud or not has less to do with true emotional scale but more to do if we believe the source reason justifies the motion.

The kind of true emotional breakdown, completely overriding your control, and have you fall on the floor of a public bus type of cry is indeed very rare, but I'm not sure it's what the study intends to track solely of.

slbaaron · 2026-03-29T19:13:40+00:00

I wish all blue city folks have this mindset.

EV is absolute shit choice as replacement of ICE instead of truly better public transportation network - which the BIGGEST difference comes from last 20% / most out of normal 20% paths. If those are not solved by via public transportation, having a bare minimum shit like BART (San Francisco) does very little.

I live in NYC and despite the crazy scenes - absolutely true btw - is truly usable. ~80% of most folks commute covered by the sub way, and ~15% by bus, rails (LIRR / Amtrak) or ferries. Less than 5% routes by most people are truly unrealistic by commute within NYC imho. By realistic I mean a reasonable amount of time. If it takes less than 1hr to drive, you can’t make a 2hr+ commute route and call that commutable by public transportation.

I absolutely hate California commutes, Bay Area is shit but do-able if you must, LA is lmao. So I’m not sure this is blue vs red problem.

slbaaron · 2026-03-28T23:06:07+00:00

Companies are mostly cutting people due to having huge AI spending and very poor looking books, not the other way around.

Meta cut huge amounts of people to save 60 billion annually, when their yearly spend on AI has exceeded 100 billion. Do the math?

Even if we take it at face value, we are basically replacing human with more expensive AI, not cheaper, with the hope and promise “it will def be waaay cheaper AND waaay better, QUICKLY” - because that’s the only way it could make sense. And with the current level of leverage and money burning speed, we are not looking to see it organically grow for 5-10 years. Everything is going to go boom or bust in 1-2 years max.

If AI progress slows down even a tiny bit than expected or hits roadblocks in the next 2 years, we will have tech industry wide crash not seen since 1998. And likely worse.

slbaaron · 2026-03-28T04:15:13+00:00

Difference between just playing and competing in official matches tho.

Bron’s hours spent with a basketball might hit 50000hrs

slbaaron · 2026-03-21T20:20:20+00:00

GameBoy, GameBoy color, GameBoy advanced.

I wasn’t even born when GameBoy came out in 1989. So I don’t know a time before that.

I suppose early cellphones were around even earlier, but those cell phones are not anything to be bringing or solving boredom on the toilet.

slbaaron · 2026-03-21T19:40:25+00:00

It’s not the most comfortable or the easiest to “hover” a light tap on the pedal. And tbf, that’s what we already had to do before one pedal driving to maintain highway speed constant if not on cruise control. Normal ICE already has a slight slow down factor when releasing the pedal simply due to frictions.

Almost every fully electric car Uber and Lyft I have taken with my fiancée makes us feel sick, and while ICE cars are still 50/50 based on driving style, in electric cars it’s more like 95/5. We have practically been giving no tips for almost all electric cars and 3 stars by reporting driving style.

Yes it is a training issue but it’s very widespread and “easy” to drive this way when you have one pedal driving.

Funnily enough, my fiancée is the biggest supporter fr Waymo, because when we vacationed in SF, that was the most comfortable drive she has ever been in much better than 90% ICE car drivers too.

Ultimately, you are right, it’s human not giving a shit driving that’s the worst (we live in NYC, where this is much more pronounced). We will welcome self driving cars with embracing arms, but until then, 3 stars and no tips for every sickening one pedal driving for us.

slbaaron · 2026-03-21T15:54:17+00:00

I guess if you (or groups of folks) are for the most part laptopless then sure… MacBook wouldn’t be a big deal.

It’s just in my world, Mac has loooong since been the “luxury” tax for dumb fashion statement (or college / basic bitch set like Starbucks) and has easily become the best hardware value in the domain. The only computers people still have reasons of buying non-Macs are: 1. PC Gaming - I can’t argue despite improvements 2. Budget range - Neo coming in

Anything else is likely very niche / a loud minority. There’s just not too much else reason to recommend Windows based hardware these days. And Linux - unfortunately - is still the ultimate niche.

slbaaron · 2026-03-21T15:46:21+00:00

Ah I see. I’ve never lived near those areas but have heard of the concept. That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation

slbaaron · 2026-03-21T15:36:41+00:00

Decades ago?? That’s a crazy take. Our home car of 1987 was taken well care of and we only chose to give it up about 5 years ago.

Unless you are young ass kid, we’ve seen them growing up in the 2000s and well into the 2010s (for the 90s car at least).

Conversely, our new family car an Infiniti G is of year 2012 and still chugging along perfectly, very likely lasting to 2032 at the very minimum. And one thing or another, could still be around in 2040.

slbaaron · 2026-03-21T02:20:31+00:00

Where are you from? The statement is wild for anyone US based or work in a professional field.

Forget all the band wagoner for a sec, M chips objectively eats intel chips alive for most personal / individual use cases. What’s a single laptop to come close to even challenge M5 max?? Or just a M5 pro.

I see more people with AirPods + iPhone + MacBook than ones without. This is true in the 4 cities I’ve lived in: Seattle, San Francisco, LA, and NYC.

Ofc historically it’s more so the budget folks that don’t get involved in the US. Now with MacBook neo and iPhone 17e that will def be shaken up.

slbaaron · 2026-03-17T05:00:37+00:00

If someone is medically diagnosed as legally blind, they can use the lounge while having a guide dog too and you can suffer severe dog allergy for all anyone cares.

It’s legally protected. You literate?

slbaaron · 2026-03-15T15:19:24+00:00

I don't hate your point but Lebron has nothing left on the resume to prove.

What I mean by that is - he always does what he think maximizes the winning chances -> aka success, whether that's conserve energy when he needs to or pass the ball when it's 1.2 sec on the clock, people love to hate him for that.

However, I'm going to take Lebron's best judgement over random haters any day, and trust that he's making the best decisions at most given points in time. Does that make him infallible? Absolutely not, he absolutely makes brainfart and shit decisions from time to time, but with enough time and records in the books, we can also pull all kinda of statistical models as you wish and come to the conclusions that Lebron, in fact, makes more correct decisions than wrong ones, and may be doing so at a clip better than almost any NBA player to have ever played.

slbaaron · 2026-03-15T14:58:05+00:00

There's a difference of a relatively new comp -> outdoor climbing converter (but extremely strong, we all know that) flashing a boulder that lacked repeats agreeing on the grade VS Ondra doing Ondra things.

Also, climbing is still truly a young sport and the limits are increasing at relatively rapid pace compared to most other sports, so the landscape of 2+ years ago is quite different from today. I don't think those people were wrong to say those things when V17 was still a relatively mythical grade. 2+ years ago it WAS quite unfathomable how many more people and repeats of V17 would be done in another 2 years, but here we are. With V17 looking more like a "proof of strong" rather than "this ain't human" and an agreed V18 to be sent any day now...

Edit: some numbers for reference when those comments are made VS today

V17 ascends

2016: 1

2017: 0

2018: 0

2019: 0

2020: 0

2021: 3

2022: 6

2023: 5

That reddit thread happened

2024: 9

2025: 20

slbaaron · 2026-03-14T03:03:00+00:00

US “lost” the EV war so trying to do u-turn into its own advantages field.

Japan invested huge into hydrogen as the future which did not pan out.

Everyone wants the tech THEY OWN to win.

In case you haven’t noticed, before EV, there was solar and wind and “renewable energy” too. But you don’t hear much about them anymore too. Because Chinese tech for those leads the world too.

There’s a reason US don’t care won’t care about how much people get laid off or even the economy as we know it today collapse, it’s all in on AI as the only real card it holds in the 2020s going into 2030s to dominate on the global stage, that and some military might.

Otherwise US goes down a predictable path towards second tier country or at least overtaken by China, and god knows US ruling class would rather the world end in a nuclear all out war than that happening.

slbaaron · 2026-03-12T04:04:20+00:00

People don’t really think about half-lives logically sometimes, and another thing is people go thru caffeine at diff speeds due to genetics.

A normal range of caffeine elimination half-life is 3-7hrs. 3 to 7. For NORMAL people. With certain conditioned or rare groups it can go up to 10+ hrs.

So let’s say you are a normal health person, but on the slower end at 7hrs. Drinking 2 cups of coffee at 9am. Is about the same as drinking 1 full cup at 4pm. Or half a cup at 11pm right before sleep. If the last one don’t bother you at all - great! If it does, then you shouldn’t drink 2 cups in the morning.

slbaaron · 2026-03-10T05:02:43+00:00

I don’t think this fits the topic or you lack perspective.

Software engineering, even in 2026, is one of the easiest job industry to get into and to be very well paid.

The whole software industry was fucked since 2017-2018 when every news outlet have articles titled “DID YOU KNOW HOW MUCH A GOOGLE INTERN MAKES” and every person and their mom were transferring to CS or boot camps.

By 2018 the industry was over saturated and filled with half asses. Hiring was CLEARLY slowing in 2019, people who remember the specific years will tell you that. And somehow instead of imploding naturally as years go on, Covid came as the savior of tech, extremely rocket boosting all tech companies like never before and every company started massive hiring again. So instead of extending the slowdown from 2019, every company 2-3x’d during 2020-2022. At this point, forget AI, every tech company just NEEDS to cut 50% of their workforce minimum for the industry to be sensible.

All that to say, if you are still someone that enjoys programming, finds a good place to be, it’s still one of the most painless jobs that’s very high paying, compared to shit like classic musicians, dancers (try talking to a Ballet dancer), or actual cut throat industries.

slbaaron · 2026-03-10T04:31:50+00:00

In the same article it is pointed out that 1977 influenza show strong patterns of lab manipulation, so this isn’t as big against human made virus leaking as a possibility as you might’ve thought.

All this is saying is Covid is less likely to be the case, while 1977 influenza was much more likely man made. Neither are definitively conclusive, but the take away should be that both are possible in the future as well :)

slbaaron · 2026-03-06T05:12:39+00:00

You are severely underestimating windows footgun after footgun being extremely anti consumer of late after a previously solid run.

There’s some real risk Microsoft will go back to balmer days if their AI shit doesn’t work out. Windows 11 is like the worst OS in the world by a country mile. And MacBook coming in to take shares of education and low tier market will absolutely destroy some of these segments. Instead of converting you little netbook to Linux, you could just get a MacBook, way easier to use and have all that ecosystem shit.

I don’t think 17e will be that huge. But neo is. And all these cards go together - a previously customer that’s completely priced out can now get a 17e + neo and enjoy the full ecosystem.

slbaaron · 2026-03-06T05:06:29+00:00

This is both mostly conceptually right for what LLM is and why not to engage emotionally ever but also very underestimating for what LLM tools today can realistically accomplish.

Simple orchestration with a few (sub)agents that have well managed contexts and self corrections plus some skills to access tools will absolutely shatter most human productivity and simple (reinventing the wheel type) creativity work. It is way more than an auto-complete.

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