Why did they feel the need to replace analog controls with these weird, inconsistently responsive, difficult to map touch controls when every other console platform had already demonstrated why that’s a bad idea?

I have no idea what you’re talking about. The DS4 had a trackpad that was clearly positioned and intended for menu navigation. Nobody used trackpads as a primary game control input before the SC. That’s not because sticks are some god-given pinnacle of technology but because potentiometer-based sticks are cheap and people are used to them. Analog sticks were always, and still are, a crappy way to control a camera. Building a 1:1 thumb based input source into a controller absolutely was innovative and, like it or hate it, I don’t see how you can contest that. The Steam Deck’s pads are actually pretty great to use.

Playstation and Nintendo and XBox had already demonstrated why you don’t build controllers this way ten years earlier.

Again, what are you talking about? The SC was released in 2015.

It’s funny—just a little over five years ago, gamers hated it. Not because they ever used one, but because it was a failure. And as we all know about gamers, there’s nothing they hate more than a failure.

Nice try, but that’s not why I hated it.

This smug revisionism triggers me hard. As a hard core steam fan I loved the idea of the SC, I bought it and really tried to use it, but the reality was just too clunky for primary use. It has no dpad, a single crappy convex analog stick, terribly placed ABXY buttons, horrible shoulder buttons, and just a bit too much input lag on the trackpads. On top all that was (actually, still is) a remapping system that’s way too convoluted to use regularly. There’s also the sad fact that alarmingly many games don’t allow simultaneous gamepad and mouse inputs, and simulating the mouse through right stick inputs feels like shit. I really didn’t find any use case where it’s ergonomically superior to a regular gamepad beside the always cited Civ on the Couch, and I’ve tried with sooo many games.

The deck’s control layout fixes most of the issues – the placement is better (except maybe the Salvador Dali inspired B button but I digress), there is a great d pad, two pretty good analog sticks and the input is snappier. Surprise surprise, the deck is a success.

Was the SC innovative, bold and ahead of its time in many ways? Sure. Was it a good controller to play games with? Hell no.

Be sure to grab it (DR 2.0, that is) before it’s inevitably delisted, it happens with all heavily licensed games. Even the original Dirt Rally is still fantastic if you have an older rig IMO, and it was going for two bucks years ago.

I have both. EA WRC looks, feels and runs WAY worse compared to Dirt Rally 2.0, and that’s on my fairly beefy 5800x3d / 7800 xt desktop machine. Dr2.0 also runs perfectly on my steam deck, while I haven’t even bothered to try running EA WRC on it (it would run like shit if it ran at all, plus the install size is like a gajillion GB).

On the upside, the tracks are way bigger / longer in EA WRC, some of them are a bit more interesting, and there’s a cool pseudo-roguelite mechanic in the campaign mode where every week you choose what to do (main race or side race to appease the sponsor, recruitment of team members, resting, etc.). That said, I couldn’t bring myself to finish a single season due to how pathetically janky the driving is.

I wish somebody would do a postmortem on the shitshow that is EA WRC, despite having the most beloved rally game dev team and the biggest license in rallying.

My home (gaming) pc is going back to linux for sure., on the very day they drop support for 10.

You can already play it comfortably in 60 fps, but not on Nintendo hardware.

I love all three, but they are quite different in their gameplay. In DRG you choose a class upfront so your role is more defined by this choice, the challenge is mainly about getting your bearings and traversing the terrain, and the mission objectives are (IMO) more involved. In HD2, the challenge is more about surviving against hordes of enemies without killing each other. In DRG, if you shoot somebody you hear a funny voice line, but I don’t think I’ve ever killed a teammate by shooting them. In HD2, this happens all the time.

I don’t understand why I would play it over Deep Rock Galactic, especially when the original Helldivers actually has splitscreen co-op.

I don’t see the logical connection here, but you do you. Perhaps worth pointing out, the original Helldivers doesn’t have splitscreen but rather shared screen coop – meaning you can’t get separated from your teammates, which is both a feature and a pretty big limitation.

Thanks so much my man. I’ll give it a try!

As another 7000 series victim, please share any pointers on how to mitigate the crashes.

I think the idea was to differentiate it from tabletop back when they were a lot more like tabletop RPGs than most of today’s RPGs – they were either turn based or pausable, party based, and involved, you know, playing a role. This was way back before basically every third person hack and slash was called an action RPG and the acronym lost all meaning. I realize that it makes me sound like a bitter old man, and I loved Nier Automata, but it ain’t an RPG.

Emil sounds defensive but he’s right – as someone outside the gaming industry, I cannot fathom how so much effort can result in such a shallow, tepid stew of shit. But because of how much time, staff and money were thrown at it, it’s not a big stretch to assume that incompetence was involved – unless it was leprechauns that stole the game’s vision, plot, dialogue, sense of scale and exploration and replaced it with loading screens.

I’ve upgraded my PC and discovered that I kind of love GR Breakpoint now. They added a metric shitton of improvements and I began to vibe with its sterile ikea futurism. Too bad the other island DLC isn’t happening, but there’s loads to do on the existing one still.

I’m intrigued, how the hell do you explore in this game? I thought the only way to get from system to system and planet to planet is to click through menus. The only choice seems to be whether I’ll go back to the ship and click through menus or stay where I am and click through menus.

It doesn’t include the game assets, you can’t just compile it and start playing.