Yeah, of course. I buy one towards the end of every November. It’s a Thanksgiving tradition.

So what you’re saying is, I need to go ahead and take some vacation from work and real life and go ahead and dive head first into this game. Gotcha.

You’re such an enabler. I love it! Stop enabling me.

I know I’m not necessarily representative of the average gamer, but Hades is and was one of my favorite modern games. I feel like it’s almost pointless to not buy this game as soon as I can, even if I don’t have time to play it right this moment. Have you played it already at this point, and if so, what are your impressions?

Solid point. But I want it now. I guess I’m still holding out hope that I might have some time to play while I’m traveling in the next month or so.

Does the early access stuff sometimes stop being available? Like if I don’t buy it soon, is it something that might go away until they’re ready to do a full release?

I’m usually a patient gamer type. I think I got Hades in 2022 or 2023 on discount. I’ve also never purchased an early access game. But I’m seriously considering this one.

Main thing holding me back is that I just don’t get to play games very much this time of year, and I probably won’t have much time again until Fall.

Fun fact since you may not be aware, but not all owls are nocturnal. And even those that are considered nocturnal are often active at dusk (after sun set but before the sky has gone dark). So, it could still work.

In a manner of speaking, yes and that’s a factor. Really it’s just that general life slows down a bit for me for a few months around the end and beginning of the year, and then goes full throttle from spring right on up to the holidays.

Plus, when it’s warmer and days are longer, I prefer to be outside doing something/anything when I have spare time, rather than just sitting and staring at a screen like I do all day at my official job.

I haven’t read the article yet, but easy mode is actually for me.

I like gaming, but almost all my gaming time is compressed into a few months of the year. Even then, it’s not uncommon to have to have a week or longer hiatus between sessions. And when I do sit down to play, I’m lucky if I get the time to have a 1 - 2 hour session. With my situation, games that are long or difficult or that have overly complicated control/button schemes are not a good fit for me.

One game that really stood out for me in terms of being really well designed in this respect was Hades. I thought it did an excellent job of making itself accessible to more casual audiences, while still providing lots of options for dialing up the punishment if that’s your cup of tea. I definitely wish more development teams would put as much effort into making other genres and franchises friendly to more casual players, and I think it’s definitely an achievable goal to do without compromising the experience for more dedicated/advanced players – at least for certain types of games.

The battery life difference between the OLED Steam Deck versus the Asus and Lenovo competitors was a major factor in my decision to choose the Deck. As others have pointed out, it’s hard to imagine that MSI (of all companies) can deliver on battery life given these other specs, let alone other considerations like weight & size. Good for them if they manage to excel at all of these things, but I’m going to have to see it to believe it. And as of right now, I haven’t seen anything at all.

I think what you’re describing is how I felt with Hollow Knight. When I set it down for the last time (so far), I did so knowing I would probably never return to finish it.

I don’t get a lot of time to game, and the time I get is punctuated by months of hiatus each year. Any game that’s too long, too difficult, or too complicated to pick back up quickly after I’ve been gone awhile is not a good fit for me.

I was too far along in the game to even consider starting over, not to mention that a lot of the magic would be lost. But I was also far enough along that I know I don’t want to put the effort into relearning the mechanics, figuring out what I’m supposed to be doing, and having to re-explore everything.

Granted, by the time I stopped playing, it had already grown tedious and I wasn’t enjoying it much anyway. It stopped being rewarding was just mostly just punishing at a certain point.

After I set Hollow Knight aside, I found other games that I liked better and were more accommodating to my circumstances (ex: Hades). And now, even if I did want some more time with Hollow Knight, I’d honestly just wait for the upcoming sequel / prequel / whatever it’s going to be (Silksong).

I just started playing Vampire Survivors, how do you force a build in the game? I didn’t even realize it was an option.