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I can‘t speak about software updates just yet because I have only seen them being applied via Steam but the controller works out of the box. I‘m assuming you can update it by downloading a file too, though. That would put it far above some competitors because guess what? A lot of them let you install some shitty software for that. At least Steam is already installed on my machine. I run Linux after all and ironically Steam is already helping me setting up controllers from other manufacturers.
You know, I don‘t think negative reception with the press means there is a smear campaign going on by default. Maybe they simply chose that headline because drama sells.
But it is interesting if you compare it to their headlines about the Switch 2 a year ago. A lot of sugar coating like „feature packed“ with a vague „but…“ at the end to address Nintendo‘s widely unpopular price policy. That‘s the narrative many tech journalists chose to go with prior to the launch at the time.
For one reason or another a lot of them seem biased to me.
Right? Just compare it to the glued mess that is the $90 Switch 2 controller or to a $200 DualSense pro (or whatever name Sony’s premium controller goes by).
Say what you will but Valve built the Steam Controller to last. I expect the first weeks to be a little bumpy on the software side (as is always the case with controllers) but it will quickly become very future rich. Likely more so than any other controller. And Valve is doing all that with a focus on Linux.
I am not one to easily praise US tech companies and Valve is far from perfect but the Steam Deck has a very good track record and this controller seems like it meets those standards as well.
It‘s a very good deal if repairability, full Linux support and feature richness are what you‘re looking for.
It‘s sad really, because we always praise their efforts in our game group when another update drops. Like, we can barely fathom the devs still improving it and for that price!
It‘s baffling to hear other players have taken this gift from the devs as a free pass to criticize them endlessly. I guess they‘ve been spoiled too much? Seeing as the game is still sitting at a very good rating on Steam I guess it must be a tiny screaming minority.
Anyway, imagine how these players would react if the devs dropped a banger DLC for 5 bucks. You would never hear the end of it.
I‘m always amazed by Peak‘s updates because they literally don‘t have to do it. Nobody is asking them to… except I now learn that some ungrateful players do, apparently. Like, I know it‘s not perfect and many of those QoL updates are deeply appreciated but for the price it was already a very good game. People need to learn to appreciate things. Seriously.
I think of Eurojank as a genre of an era that is long gone. Odd simulation games and janky indie hits come from all over the world these days while European games are critically acclaimed and steamroll award shows.
Eurojank is a nostalgic label. An afterthought. Like how the term Gothic architecture was slapped onto cathedrals later on. When I think of Eurojank I think of the late 90s to early 2010s.
And yes for every Eurojank game like Gothic you can probably find a US equivalent like Morrowind that is just as unpolished and raw. So this nostalgic cliché likely isn‘t even all that accurate. The dev has a point here. At least I think so.
Pocket Pal and Nintendo had to make some concessions because of it already. The Pokemon brand was probably hurt more than Palworld at this point so I doubt big N will pursue this any further. Especially since they blatantly copied Palworld mechanics for Pokopia with a Pokemon open world game that will likely copy even more on the way. They can‘t win this.
I mean they aren‘t totally wrong but farming games are the most low hanging fruit for high demand and low supply for traditional video games. They will only expand into genres with lesser potential after that.
I‘ll wait until the release update of Palworld to make a final judgement, but right now I think they shouldn‘t diversify their game catalog too much and focus on their core game. They won‘t be able to catch lighting in the bottle twice.
There‘s also the concept of swarm intelligence in that a lot of people can beat for example a chess grandmaster by democratically voting for each move. This isn‘t super consistent but it happens. Of course tech CEOs claim AI is exactly that but it isn‘t. It doesn‘t make choices like a thousand people in a chess match do. It just rolls a dice and then does some math.
What I‘m trying to say is if 99% of potential costumers says it‘s crap, then it‘s a really really tough sell. To put it mildly. And the backlash from DLSS5 has been huge across the internet.
For me the silver lining is that only devs who are absolute hacks and produce overpriced crap would use this. I don‘t buy their games now and I won‘t buy their slop tomorrow. Personally I don‘t think it will be hard to dodge this for a very, very long time. The hardware to run this is unaffordable and development cycles are huge. This tech could be retro before I have to actually start maneuvering around it.
You will probably be able to play TES6 and the official remake of Morrowind in VR before this is completed.