arch_8ngel

Any of the classic-era RPG manuals that had "adventurer's guides" I loved as a kid.

I'll give it an 8/10 for how influential it ended up being - though the original game is pretty basic.

I got my copy from the Nintendo Power promotion, and I wore out the folds on the pack-in materials and the maps for Dragon Warrior 2.

DW2 is probably my childhood favorite RPG -- with the added party members and the ship  (I found the general world exploration of DW2 to be more fun, generally, than FF1 -- but that is another one that I read the strategy guide for until the pages fell out!)

My dad and I played DW1 and DW2 together quite a bit, back then.  And the DS releases became his go-to Father's Day gift for a number of years.

Currently having a lot of fun playing DQXI with my kids, after having replayed DQ1 and DQ2 on the Switch earlier in the year.

8 hours ago, fcgamer said:

And don't get me started on the vaccine snobbery going on. Or about the wealthy Taiwanense doing vaccine tourism to the States, whilst average American citizens living abroad in Taiwan aren't really in a position to leave to get vaccinated and then come back. 

What do you mean by that?  I'm genuinely curious.

Not sure I would view it as "snobbery" to seek out the most effective versions of the vaccine, if that's the "vaccine tourism" you're referring to.

15 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Surging, among those who don't get the shot.  Have to keep it in context so the media can't win more ratings by scaring the crap out of everyone with a blanket statement.

They made the choice, now they can suffer their consequences.

It isn't really that simple.

The virus only mutates with hosts. The longer it sticks around, the more breakthrough cases can happen, which in turn can allow the virus to mutate in individuals who are already vaccinated.

Unvaccinated people having a surge in cases in bad for EVERYONE.

22 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

I thought about that because I went for top tier. I might go for bottom tier as well (if I can) then Keep one and sell the other. 

Yeah -- I was on the fence.  But being a cheapskate about it, as well, favored the mid tier model (totally adequate for my needs from a space perspective -- and if I am bothered by it later I can just upgrade the disk drive then)

1 minute ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I think Cybill Shepherd coming to visit him is all in his mind.

sure.  doesnt mean he isnt explicitly killing bad guys, though...

Just now, Reed Rothchild said:

I prefer the interpretation where he's so completely lost his shit that he just thinks he's a beloved hero 

Which guy? Travis?

I mean, at best, he's definitely an anti-hero, because he isn't just a vigilante, but full-blown crazy to where his lines for who he thinks are bad guys could get pretty blurry pretty quick.

Basically -- he is like a more-realistic version of The Punisher, but with potentially poorer target discernment and serious mental health problems.

21 hours ago, peg said:

Nintendo converted a lot of people away when they released that shitshow n64.

In fairness to Nintendo, at least among my friend group it was a matter of Sony winning converts with the stronger RPG offerings of the PS1 (after SNES had made such a strong showing on that front in the previous generation only for N64 to completely drop the ball) along with other new titles of that era like MGS and Resident Evil.

4 minutes ago, Ferris Bueller said:

The Pitch

It's like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy together, but with the Joker!

It's like "reverse Taxi Driver".

Travis in Taxi Driver has a similar psychotic break, but he's a vigilante "hero" rather than a villain...

Went ahead and made the pre-order for the mid-tier system (the top-end system isn't a bad deal -- just would rather have the option of getting it in Q2 vs Q3)

1 minute ago, phart010 said:

So of those 120M active Steam users, I wonder how many of them are middle to upper class salaried people living in Western countries that could actually afford this? And of those people, how many are casual gamers (non power-setup users). I actually have no clue, but I can’t help it to wonder whether the PC gamer segment alone probably would actually buy the quantity of units needed for this to be considered hugely successful.

But we do know how big the market is for console gaming. There’s potential for 50M-100M console sales over the lifetime of a successful $300+ gaming console.

If you could get those console gamers to buy this as a second or third system, that would make it successful. While there are console gamers that also do Steam, I think the typical console gamer is looking for something plug and play, which pc gaming is not (and yes even if it is, it’s not perceived that way).

So this is why I was saying they should market it as a console. I agree with you on customer service, reliability and price point though.

How many of these do you think they need to sell for it to be considered "successful"?

I would put that number WAY lower than a traditional console cycle sales figure -- since "success" here doesn't carry all of the baggage of getting game developers along for the ride (because they are already there, designing PC games that are available on Steam).

I do suspect that the expectation here would be "most" buyers picking this up as a 2nd system, with the same use case I have in mind (i.e. convenient PC gaming on business travel).

And another significant segment of buyers are looking at this as a dedicated micro-PC (which may end up being my use case, as well, if the device is as flexible as is being discussed).

Then again -- marketed correctly as a "console" -- you probably could chew into the non-Nintendo market a bit, since XBox and Playstation don't have portable equivalents, and there is a lot of library cross-over.

All that said -- I really do wish something like OpenPandora had managed to be a more viable concept for a pocket-able PC-type device.  At the end of the day THAT is the form factor I really want (something that evokes the old-school HP Palmtop).

On 7/17/2021 at 3:50 AM, Strange said:

I guess I’m just jaded but I feel like we’ve seen this shiny new toy song and dance come and go in various iterations with various companies. We’ll see but I’m not holding my breath just yet

If you follow sites like Liliputing then you'd know there is a lot of pent up demand for a major company providing a device like this at a good price point.  (and look back for when Dell debuted a test device - a handheld XPS machine - with a hypothetical $1k price point, and how much excitement that had)

There are a number of Chinese-mainland companies that have been iterating similar devices, as well as mini-laptops with built-in game controls for a few years now.  Nothing comes close to this price point.  And nothing comes close to the level of hardware and customer-service support you would hope for and expect from a major western company like Valve.

On 7/17/2021 at 12:06 AM, phart010 said:

I think their success with this device will 100% depend on them successfully marketing it as a new console as opposed a powerful handheld pc.

There are so many gamers that are turned off by pc gaming, I’m one of them, but I know plenty of others.
 

This is kind of like trying to position the  Samsung Galaxy or the Google Pixel against the iPhone. It’s a difficult thing to pull off because there are so many other Android phones that cause a lot of noise and confusion in the Android environment. Some people just want a simple and seamless solution so they pick iPhone.

Conversely - I think their success will 100% depend on them marketing this as a handheld PC provided by a western company with western-expectations of customer service, support, and device security -- and providing that at a near-console price point.

There are about 5 years worth of dubious Chinese-origin devices from 3 or 4 manufacturers that FUNCTIONALLY do the task of the Steam Deck -- but:

1) you're dealing with the total black hole of customer service directly with a Chinese-mainland company

2) you're dealing with the total unknown of device "security" expectations of direct-manufacture Chinese electronics

3) you're paying full-blown laptop prices (devices tend toward the $800-$1200 price point)

Having the steam deck come from a major western company (and all that this implies) at a console-like price-point is a HUGE DEAL to PC gamers looking for a lighter-weight travel device (or even a non-TV couch-device, for when you want to play a PC game but not sit at a desk or use the main TV with Steam on an HTPC.

2 minutes ago, fox said:

@arch_8ngel

I usually add eshop stuff to my wishlist and wait for a sale.  Not as good as the bundle deals, where for every good game you get 10 other games tacked on as filler.  
 

When I think PC exclusive I think like RTS or other mouse/keyboard games that just wouldn’t translate well to a handheld.  Glad to hear the Steam controller is a pretty solid alternative though.

Lots of CRPGs modern and remastered are hitting the Switch.  You dig into any of those?

You don't need bundle deals from Steam to hit dirt-cheap sales a couple times per year.

Classic-style CRPGs (both dungeon crawlers and iso-style) have essentially zero footprint on consoles of any generation. (with the exception of that one series of dungeon crawlers on DS -- though those were ultimately quite a bit grindier than they needed to be)

Also, classic 4X games are generally the territory of PCs.  (and Master of Magic has a new release coming out)

Oh, and the other pretty-much-PC-exclusive are true-Roguelikes (ADOM, DoomRL/Jupiter Hell, etc).  Though those are quite a bit trickier to configure for controller-based play given the keystroke command complexity.

Most of the indie games that have made it to consoles, though, I generally prefer in their PC incarnation, as the platform that is a lot more straightforward for the devs to keep updated.

But beyond all of that -- for pretty much anything cross-platform, i would usually rather own it on the PC to know that I'll definitely be able to play it far in the future, versus the perennial uncertainty of any digital releases on console platforms.

I get a console like the Switch for the console exclusives, not anything cross platform

8 minutes ago, fox said:

I’m not invested in the Steam brand, so that name only means nothing to me.  Nintendo and Sony are known for their killer exclusives.  PS5 is going play third party games best.  Switch is my go to for indies and portable gaming.  Feels like I got all bases covered, what can the Steamdeck do that they can’t?

The games themselves (for any of the 1:1 indie releases) are going to be consistently cheaper on Steam given the much greater propensity for deep-discount sales on the platform (or for those of us with massive Steam/PC back-catalogs).

Though most PC "exclusives" tend to favor a mouse and keyboard.  The Steam controller navigates some of that surprisingly well -- so if that functionality makes it to the "Steamdeck", that will be nice to be able to play more portably.

It's going to come down to how flexible the software is, out of the box -- since there is a pretty big difference between the level of gaming flexibility you get from a traditional Windows configuration, and whatever Steam supports via their Linux options.

That may still provide decent DosBox access to play GOG releases -- but will need to wait and see what gets done with it, and what "more traditional" PC games can be played (i.e. thinking of classic CRPGs, for instance, many of which have nothing close on any console from any generation).

Kind of silly to frame this whole discussion as some kind of console-war, though.

People that play any variety of PC games can be interested in having genuine attention given to portable gaming hardware without it taking anything away from console gaming.

This thing wouldn't replace the specific games I want to play on the Switch, for instance -- but it would give me some selection of my PC games to take on flights or trips without needing to lug along a second laptop (or own a 2nd Switch).

16 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

You will be able to buy NFT pictures of other people sealed games! Thats the next big speculation market

It sounds silly, I know -- but I fully expect them to jump on that bandwagon and point those QR-codes (or whatever they use) directly to NFTs in some way.

12 hours ago, Frost271 said:

I’m frankly surprised those PSA or CGC folks didn't try to buy VGA out for the database. Hitting the market as a new company WITH that pop report available would easily kill WATA and anyone else in the market. Redo your slab cases to CGC and you win the market with database (population reports) and branding alone.   Its crazy seeing WATA continuing to win this game. 

I would be willing to bet that the security-tags on the WATA cases act as a big distinguishing factor, and may have implications related to a spin-off NFT marketplace.

The interesting thing about this purchase, to me, is wondering about how the math is going to work out for Wata, given that their backlog on grading is all pre-paid activity to where "the work" of doing the grading and the explicit cost of return shipping are all going to be liabilities on their books.  (and where that backlog of work really offers no clear projection on unpaid "new work")

Definitely tempted.

I've watched the various Chinese micro-gaming-laptops for the last few years -- but aside from the demo unit Dell posted a couple years ago, this is the first one that looks like it has any chance of having meaningful customer support.

Also the price is nuts.  Stupidly cheap for a small gaming PC.

46 minutes ago, ExplodedHamster said:

 

Tbh, outside of time with family, the thing I’m most excited about is adding some arcade stuff to my basement and building a game room with pins and stuff set up so I can get to games I never thought I’d be able to.

Feel free to be legitimately excited about shaving 10-20 years off of your "financial accumulation" phase of life.

42 minutes ago, RH said:

 

"Eh" not "Aye" -- he isn't Scottish  

11 minutes ago, RH said:

I hate to ride the middle-of-the-road on this, but I hate "bonus" stages where you can lose health/die but I still consider them bonus stages.  Forget the whole semantic debate on what "bonus" means, the idea is that some how those stages provide something above and extra above the typical game play.  Stages that I love to see are like the bonus-stages in Galaga.  Bugs fly by and you could sit still and do nothing.  No harm in that!  However, if you attack all bugs, you not only get a bonus score but a bonus, BONUS score!  Awesome!

But yes, it feels like your getting stuck by the dev team when they tell you a bonus stage is coming up on your first experience, but then you go into it an lose health and/or die.  That's not cool.  Regardless, if they provide a way for you to more easily get upgrades, score points are doubled, or something like that, then they are technically offering you a "bonus".

To spite you, I'm going to design a game where you ONLY die on "Bonus Stages" 

Just now, fcgamer said:

Century eggs can be nice in the right way. A local noodle shop mixes them, cucumber, and white tofu together, it tastes great, definitely a situation where the whole tastes better than the individual parts.

I mean, i don't want to delve into your particular palate on this front, too deep -- but if you like the taste of urine / ammonia, I'm sure century eggs "can be nice in the right way"...

But that isn't really my fetish, so i can't say that I care for them, or could really imagine any way of meaningfully improving their taste.

1 minute ago, fcgamer said:

According to @TDIRunner, this stage was in the arcade version too...

In that case -- for this game / stage -- it is obviously just mislabeled in some way.

But to the larger argument -- "true" bonus stages just mean an extra stage in the game (i.e. you get access to more game "for free" which is your bonus).  More game is always good, so even if you can die in-game, it is still a genuine "bonus" in the literal sense.

2 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Century eggs are okay though? 

Century eggs are pretty awful by themselves -- I can't imagine that they are improved by adding them to a pizza.