Yep we really do love them. Hopefully persons keep up the engagement on your posts. And also, hoping we’ll get some more to help create content in this exciting sphere. Thanks for what you do and glad you get a kick out of this! I’ll explore how I can try to help create some content too that inspires me. Something I can nerd out about as well!

Thank you so much for putting this together. I really do look forward to reading these! Must take so much work prepping and finding this, but man it’s just great.

Sorry it didn’t work out for you like Linux Mint works for me (I switched full time to LM in December 2024).

If you haven’t already, switch to Windows 10 LTSC in the interim. I have a feeling Linux will only improve over time with greater compatibility with Proton. Since Win 10 LTSC is supported until 2029, that’s plenty of time for for more kinks to be worked out and you can potentially try Linux again.

“My body is ready… to spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!” - Iwata-san, channeling inner Reggie Fils-A-Mech.

It will NEVER happen, but I’m still gonna try!

100% agree. I grew up on Super NES and owned every console gen from Nintendo up through Switch. Got into PC gaming 7 years ago, and then picked up a PS5 on a ridiculous deal to try to enter into their market and play some games. Astro Bot is a charming and incredibly fun video game. So much love was poured into this game.

It’s an incredible game and it deserves all of the awards it earned. I still love all the main Mario games I’ve played, and Mario Odyssey was a wonderful and charming game, too. Astro Bot is certainly not a “we already have Mario at home” game - I hold it up there with one of my favorite platformers I’ve ever played.

It’d be great if it could get ported to PC, but they would have to significantly adjust the game controls to get around the purposefully tight integration with the PS5 controller. Playing that game with the PS5 controller was so much fun.

Edit: fixed some mobile typos

X and Y introduced Mega Evolution, arguably one of the greatest iterative improvements in Pokémon.

With the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A in 2025, I’m thinking about replaying X and Y.

Scarlet and Violet were so disappointing that I too am hesitant about future Pokémon games. But I’ll keep my eyes and ears peeled to see how their upcoming games are. I no longer am a day one buyer of Pokémon games, after being burned badly on the rushed Scarlet/Violet games.

Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

Well that’s nice to see!

I just switched to Linux Mint a few weeks ago, so hopefully I’m not banned! I’ll check later tonight and edit here if I am banned. Never played Rivals on Steam Deck so hoping they didn’t exclude other Linux users.

Edit: I checked and I’m not banned thankfully.

Sea of Stars, Marvel Rivals, and Superhot VR were the three games my spouse and I played that day.

Indeed. I’ve been radicalised by Ubisoft.

In 2012 I bought Splinter Cell Blacklist for Wii U. Loved it so much I paid for all the DLC, just like I did with Assassin’s Creed III also on Wii U. Not too long ago, Ubisoft announced they were terminating legacy activation servers, and multiplayer modes would no longer function. But this also meant that without those activation servers, I would lose access to the DLC I paid for (as Ubisoft disclosed) because the game phones their activation servers and authenticates if I own the DLC. With enough public gamer outrage and pushback, Ubisoft walked back this decision… for now.

I thought I was safe buying physical games like I always have. I thought I was safe if the DLC was downloaded to the console. If this legacy server decommissioning went through, I would never be able to legally play the stuff I paid for and should own. Lesson learned, and every last ounce of ever wanting to play a modern Ubisoft game died in about ~2020 when they announced this. I don’t trust them, and I’m glad to see their company is beginning to tank because they stopped innovating and making good games like they used to decades ago.

When I wanted to replay Blacklist recently, I pirated it. The pirated copy ran better than the copy I own on Steam and Uplay - no crashes every 30 minutes (seriously, look it up), no bugs, etc. I didn’t want to play the Wii U copy because it’s a very slow console and the loading times for levels is insane (10+ minutes to load in due to the archaic Wii U architecture, back when I first played it in 2012).

I’m receiving a better service from the pirates rather than Ubisoft. Not that I want to play any modern Ubisoft games, but this whole “ownership” thing has made me question every digital purchase I’ve made. Now, I rip all my Blu Rays to PC and archive them. I buy on GOG, and only buy on Steam if I can’t get it on GOG.

Sorry for long story, Ubisoft just really pisses me off and they destroyed the last thread of good will I had for them. I’ll just stick to playing Beyond Good and Evil on my GameCube if I get nostalgic for the games they made that had heart and innovation.

I’m not entering, but thank you so much for doing this for random people online - you certainly will make their day! Hope you have a great holiday ahead!

Ah, so that’s why Pay Day 3 has mixed reviews on Steam.

Oof I never read that. Well that’s disappointing.

It’s good to see clips from Loops as the Fediverse is trying to get their competitor to TikTok and whatever the other competitors from Facebook and YouTube are called. Loops can be a good thing but it’s still very nascent, so I appreciate OP making posts for Loops content to try to inform others and spread awareness. But I’d rather see an occasional cat video or something, as on Lemmy I prefer reading over watching stuff. I’m not the target audience for short form videos.

The short clip summarises the About page of GOG. https://www.gog.com/about_gog

Cool to spread awareness for people that are on those platforms and enjoy swiping through short videos. But here? Nah we’re okay. Plus I speculate the majority on Lemmy knows the value of GOG compared to more public places like Reddit.

Love Tales of Berseria. Velvet’s English voice actress excellently communicated such complex emotions ranging from anger, compassion, grief, and peace. Probably time for another replay!

Hi! I like technology! They’re comfy and easy to wear!

The song in this TV spot is a variation of a released song and was made exclusively for the purpose of this TV spot. This version was never released.

The original song is “Still With Me” by Tritonal feat. Cristina Soto.

So the camera is third person, but you of course experience the game through the eyes of Senua! You feel her courage, her fear, and her strength and grit as she pushes forward to solve her problem (no spoilers here).

While you play as Senua, you also get to hear Senua’s voices. Lots of voices, and it is an eerie and tough experience to get through. They will uplift you, praise you, beat you down, scare you, make you feel rotten. And it’s absolutely best to play this game with headphones - trust me.

I can’t praise this game enough. For me, it was about an 8.5/10. I only had a few nitpicks with gameplay, but the story beats, heartrending story, wonderful voice and motion-capture acting, musical score, art direction, etc is such an experience.

One of my favorite gaming experiences. For anyone reading this, it’s a must play. It’s not the greatest game of all time, but the audio experience combined with the heartrending story make an emotional package.

Get the original on GOG without DRM or forced PSN.

I’ve had no excitement for this game since Ubisoft is such a disappointment of mediocrity. I grew bitter to them back when they announced the controversial shutting down of their legacy activation servers: this would prevent gamers from passing the online checks to play their games. Suddenly, despite me possessing a physical disc of Splinter Cell Blacklist on Wii U, I learned I would lose access to the DLC I paid for and “owned”. Certain missions would also become unplayable since you need online co-op. Ubisoft backpedaled after significant backlash from gamers, but since then I hesitate whenever I see them attached to any project.

I miss old Ubisoft. I’m playing Beyond Good & Evil 2003 on my GameCube for the first time, and this game is spectacular! Wish Ubisoft didn’t become evil, but it was inevitable.

Gracias homie. My spouse and I had to play Jedi Fallen Order on two separate PCs. It’d be great if we could couch co-op the campaign but it’s all good. We played several of the Halo games, I think primarily 1, 2, and 3, so Titanfall I’m hoping will be something that my spouse will want to try out. Thank you!

Edit: Heh. I’m the ideal customer because I have to buy two copies of a game sometimes. “Publishers love me for this ONE simple trick.”

Cool, thank you! I’ve been hearing so much about this game and would definitely try out the multiplayer.

Does anyone know if the campaign is multiplayer? I’d love to pick up two copies of the game so my spouse and I can give it a go and play together.

I have zero knowledge about Titan Fall apart from the fact you’re in mechs and apparently movement is cool. So no spoilers please!

I see you’re channeling the powers of middle management.

Only needs a sticker that says “You’re a rock star!”

I think you’d be fine just repasting whatever card you go with. My spouse has an EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3, and I have an MSI RTX 3080 Gaming Z Trio. Both cards have been fantastic for us. If I stick with Nvidia, I might try a different brand but so far I’ve been very happy with MSI.

I have no experience with AMD cards, but I’ve heard that Sapphire is highly regarded, probably great like EVGA.

Intel I don’t trust yet, so I’ll wait before I consider their Arc cards.

Cool

Fair enough, megacorps certainly are amoral in their decisions, which generally leads to evil outcomes.

Have you considered what happens to indie game devs, which aren’t megacorps? They list games on Gamepass to increase exposure. Microsoft takes a cut of the monthly fee and the rest is dispersed to the publishers and then all the way down to the game devs getting a small slice of the monthly fee.

When OP issues a charge back, the game devs aren’t getting paid. Is that fair to indie game devs? They don’t get paid if Microsoft and the various publishers don’t get paid.

Granted, I’m not justifying subscriptions. I personally dislike Games-as-a-Service as I prefer to own my games. But using a paid service, and then charging back against the company? Especially when it’s smaller game devs on that platform, too, hoping to make it big one day.

I don’t think indie devs should eat your ass, or the original commenter’s ass. Frankly, they need money to eat and pay their bills just like us plebs.

Regardless of how you feel about Game Pass, shouldn’t Microsoft (and the game’s publisher and dev) get paid for a game rental service you fully used and benefited from?

With my morals, that’s not something I could do. Definitely doesn’t sit right with me.

Agreed. I guess it’s that value proposition: if you have the time to play, and you play their whole catalog and have a blast, that’s $16.99 well spent.

As for me I love owning my games (where possible due to licensing and DRM), so the value isn’t there. But my spouse and I certainly took advantage of the heavy discounts they offered like the $1 month. I planned it so that I could try as many games as I could during that period and ended up buying them on GOG or Steam if I really loved them.

If their whole catalog is refreshed and they have another heavily discounted offer for 1 month, I’ll pick up a month just to try those games. But I definitely would never be a long term customer, I’d be a parasite loss-leader lol.

They were one of my favorites over 20 years ago. I played many of their games: Splinter Cell, Beyond Good & Evil, Child of Light, Assassin’s Creed. I never played Far Cry, Prince of Persia, or got heavily into Rayman, but they certainly did make many gems.

Then somewhere around 10-15 years ago, they enshittified.

Now they’re an evil and anti-consumer corporation. I don’t buy their games anymore, which is a shame because I’d love the Beyond Good & Evil remaster and the upcoming sequel. I’d love to play Immortals Fenyx Rising. But their track record shows they will only release games that are: “safe” copy-and-paste games, not innovative, unoriginal, loaded with micro transactions and predatory telemetry, and equipped with DRM and kill switches.

Why purchase and play Immortals Fenyx Rising when in 10 years they’ll just take it away from me? Such a shame. I won’t participate in Ubisoft games anymore unless they course correct (read: They will never course correct).

Some games have already been posted, so I’ll share two games that really stuck with me:

• Life is Strange
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

I could mention Persona 5 Royal, but it’s such a hugely popular game so there’s no need to elaborate.

Life is Strange took me on a mystery journey, and I felt such nostalgia for my early days as a teenager. It’s an old game, but I won’t spoil it here. I’ll give a small plot. You’re Max Caufield, and you’ve returned to Arcadia Bay and see your old best friend, Chloe Price, whom you haven’t spoken to in years. She gets into some crazy stuff and Chloe is about to be shot by another student, but Max intervenes and discovers she has the power to rewind time, allowing her to save Chloe’s life. There’s an underlying mystery in Arcadia Bay where another young girl mysteriously disappeared, and Max and Chloe team up to try to find her.

Hellblade allowed me to experience what psychosis is like, through the lens of the main character, Senua. This game is unforgettable. Senua needs to save her lover, without letting the rot that’s festering inside her to consume her. That’s all I’ll say about this gem.

“Crazy Taxi now leverages the power of AI. This transformative machine learning will transform the way gamers interact in our game, as our AI powered engine will robustly streamline the way gamers connect and socialize. Embark on a new journey, where AI will AI. Now, take the next AI step with AI!”

That’s great to hear. I collect game soundtracks. That’s like when I play a new Life is Strange, it’s an instant soundtrack buy.

Celeste for $1.99? Hell yes! Insta buy for me, been wanting to play this game so bad.

It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero

It’s me, hi! I’m the problem, it’s me!

I walked into this game not knowing much, and the simple premise hooked me. Played it and loved the time I spent with it. Absolute gem of a game. Story was good overall, the voice acting was fantastic, and the gameplay loop was short enough to allow me time to play it in short bursts when I had time.