While moving to the current generation, I did give Xbox Series X an honest consideration. But the games catalogue made me choose PS5 over it once again.

In hindsight, especially after owning a Steam Deck, I am glad I stuck with PlayStation.

Its almost as bad as playing on the wrong invert y setting.

Yikes! I never thought about controller layouts in this way.

I have never used Xbox controllers so I can’t speak for their ergonomics or ease of use.

But I definitely find the DualSense controller to be more aesthetically appealing, partly due to its symmetry, and I have to admit, as silly as it sounds, that it was the second most important factor when purchasing PS4 Pro around a decade ago.

The first most important factor being the games catalogue.

Every time I read any Xbox news, I immediately remember the email that Phil Spencer sent to Satya Nadella when PS5 was announced. The email gets funnier as the days go by, and as additional context gets added in the form of news like the OP.

Inserting below part of the email thread that I like the most:

Even as I type this I know I shouldn’t but I can’t help myself.

We’ve all lived with 7 years of starting off a generation with a price and performance (and messaging)disadvantage to PS4 with Xbox One. I have to admit this morning when I woke up knowing the PS5 reveal was today that the stress level was higher than normal. Now after almost 12 hours of soaking in their unveil, taking apart their specs and looking at the community responses I just wanted to say that I’m proud of our team.

We have a better product than Sony does, not just on hardware but equally important on the software platform and services on top of the hardware. We have the ingredients of a winning plan. I felt the feedback from the BoD discussion on being too confident and maybe this will just reinforce that perception, I get the need to be humbly confident but today was a good day for us.

We haven’t won anything. And I know we have hard discussion about pricing, P&L, investments etc. This mail isn’t trying to scoop any of that, those discussions really matter. But we can take confidence in our product truth hereand I do believe any conversation needs to start with believing in that. This was a good day for Xbox.

Thanks for indulging me.

Phil

approaching it as a game is more likely to hurt your experience of it than help it

That is well put. Thinking of it as a game with objectives to compete and making progress towards the end, is somewhat detrimental to the experience. Akin to watching a movie to complete it rather than experience it.

post about whatever I’m playing pretty much weekly both here on [email protected] and on [email protected] in the weekly threads

Noted. Thank you.

Disco Elysium is my favourite game from the last decade (maybe even beyond, but I have a soft spot for old games).

To me, it is a case study of how well games work as a storytelling medium if done with the right mindset and people. Everything including the art style, music, game mechanics worked for the story, and it was a joy to experience that.

It is a shame what took place behind the scenes, and I wish there is a better way to show my support to the original developers.

P.S. I could not find a way to save/follow your profile here. So, I did the next best thing, and tagged you and saved your comments.

I wasn’t aware about the similarities with Dark Souls, and about the designer’s previous interests.

I guess what I needed was a strong recommendation. Just purchased the game on Steam after checking for its compatibility on ProtonDB (it is platinum).

Thank you for the recommending the game, and for taking away the chore of deciding what to play this weekend.

Again, I am really glad we had this conversation.

Thanks again for the recommendations. Blue Prince looks refreshingly good and different. I did hear quite a bit about Clair Obscur, but turn based gameplay never appealed to me. I did not play Baldur’s Gate 3 for the same reasons, in spite of it being so well received.

I agree with your criticisms about Ghosts of Tsushima, and have made similar observations as well. However, Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-Man are my comfort games where I just soak in their music and atmosphere while I do something else like talk with someone.

I also have felt that in my older age I’m gravitating more towards medium-length games with a proper story that you can finish and put away, as opposed to the endless MMOs and grindy ARPGs I enjoyed in my youth.

You could not have captured it better.

I am glad we had this conversation. Please do recommend me some more games. if you do not mind.

I was on a long break from gaming (almost a year) due to life, and plan to resume weekend gaming soon. For the same reason, I have been scouting these communities and threads for recommendations.

As of now, I zeroed down on the Mass Effect trilogy on the Steam Deck but I am also considering a second play through of Ghosts of Tsushima. I would prefer a light(er) game which is easy to get into and allow me to take breaks as I don’t think I will be able to pull off hour long sessions initially.

I like when a game isn’t deliberately wasting your time.

Well said.

Also, PoE is a game that I have not visited in almost a decade. How is it now? When I played it last, it felt like Diablo 2 but with very little explicit story to experience (it had lore that one could discover). I gave up on the game after a few days since without a proper story, the grind got boring very quickly.

I agree with all of your points about Blasphemous, good and bad. I knew the games (both Blasphemous 1 and 2) received mediocre reviews, but I still purchased both together during a sale because I really liked its art and setting.

However, when I played Blasphemous early last year, I had just got back into the platformers genre after around a long break. I had just finished Hollow Knight (just the first ending or two, I didn’t have the time or the patience to finish the other endings).

The wonderful art and interesting story did not alleviate the pains of the gameplay. Its contrast with Hollow Knight only made it worse. It was clunky, and the game seemed to (unintentionally) work against the player.

I did complete the first ending, as well as the first ending for the sequel. The mechanics of the sequel are a bit more forgiving, thankfully.

I still would not recommend the games, unless one really likes the art and setting of the games.

Also, thank you for introducing me to Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree. I have bookmarked it, and hope to play it soon.

I get a login page as well.

I had to read more than once to realise it is not a game about WinRAR.

Having said that, all the best with the development, and may the game find love and success. :-)

Most recently, Marvel’s Spider-Man. I just loved immersing myself in that world: the environment, swinging, combat mechanics, and lighting. It is a cozy place to be, whether winding down after a stressful day, chatting with someone, or listening to music. I also got back to gaming after more than a decade, and this was the game that got hooked me again.

But my all-time favourite would be Age of Empires from back in the day – LAN games with friends and new coworkers, as well as the campaigns. A perfect way to unwind after work. I played it almost religiously for a couple of years in the late 90s.

An honorary mention goes to Hollow Knight, as the game finally clicked for me late last year. But when I checked the playtime, it was still lower than Marvel’s Spider-Man. Moreover, I don’t associate it with that same “feel-good” vibe as the other titles, but it was definitely a great experience. It also gave me a reason to keep using my Steam Deck.

Thank you. I shall try it out as a secondary general keyboard.

Thank you. I did come across it, back when I was looking at alternatives. Though I don’t remember why I didn’t try it out.

How is your experience with the keyboard? How does it compare with the alternatives?

It is the only decent AOSP-like keyboard I could find.

I am just not comfortable using a proprietary keyboard when I know that I have other options. On iOS, I do not have an option, at all!

Having said that, I do miss the better swipe gestures and autocorrect ability of the proprietary ones from time to time.

I use Android as my secondary phone, my primary is an iPhone. Though for the past six months, my use of Android has surpassed iOS as the latter is now only for calls, messages and reading emails. For replying to emails, I use a computer.

I have removed as many Google apps as I could using Canta, as long as the phone is able to boot and function.

The apps, in no particular order (read: the order in which I can recollect):

Last I heard about this game was at the Game Awards a few years back. Nice to see the game development chugging along.

The gameplay in the boss fight video looks too cluttered, IMO. But there is enough time for the devs to tweak it or add options to reduce some of the on-screen elements.

“Hello my friend. Stay a while and listen.”

At the point, I would consider the author’s scepticism being true a best case scenario, with every new piece of information I learn about Shadows.

It is baffling that it required so many years and attempts for Ubisoft to realise that their modern day storyline sucks. I would argue that it was a glorified side quest even during Desmond’s arc though it went downhill soon after that arc “closed”.

There is absolutely nothing that Ubisoft can say or do to win back my trust. This game is going to be as shallow as any of their recent entries, if not more.

I completed a marathon of all AC games last year, from the very first title, all the way up to Valhalla.

The games serves as a good reflection of Ubisoft over the years. The issues in the series and Ubisoft’s approach are amplified when one plays the games back to back.

The first title from 2007, albeit with clunky movements, had a promising story which was only elevated by its sequels.

The titles post-Revelations experimented a lot but the series settled at Origins, which was the last playable game, all aspects considered.

Valhalla is the worst of the series. It offers nothing new in terms of gameplay or story. It is just more of the same. Mundane and boring. It kept painfully reminding me that I am playing a video game.

Yet, I firmly believe that Shadows will be a lot worse with its live service mechanics.

It isn’t.

It is working now. :-)

Yikes. I am yet to play the game but I knew Joel dies in the second one, as it almost felt like a setup for his death was built-in.

However, I wasn’t aware of Sony going to such lengths to misdirect the game’s players.

Thanks a lot for sharing the context.

P.S. you might want to fix the formatting for the spoilers as it is currently not hidden.

I am unaware of this one. Can you share what is this about, or share the relevant search keywords?

This one?

https://lemmy.world/post/465785