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@CreepinDeth the dream basher!

somehow I figured as much, really just hoping for different!

maybe I'll age out by the time this stuff goes completely digital, although no real sign of growing up yet, and that should have happened 20 years ago!

Bashing dreams is what I do best, lol. 

As a collector, I'm saddened by the inevitable digital marketplace as I love collecting physical copies and consoles. But also, knowing that there will be an actual end to physical collecting is kind of cathartic. I don't know if I'll have the money and the time to acquire physical copies of all the games I want to have in my collection, especially any new games. Emulation has also been more of a way I play retro games these days. It's easier to buy a large hard drive to fill with games than shelf space. As I've gotten older, I just want to play rather than admire the box.

I'm personally loving this machine every day. A while ago I set it up to stream Xbox Game Pass games. It's not the main way I play games but when I'm in the living room and my wife wants to watch something and I want to play an Xbox game, then I just fire the streaming app up. The router is in the living room so the image quality looks great. Just a tiny bit of input lag that I can detect but not much.

I also installed PPSSPP and can play emulated PSP games. It's the perfect handheld for this and wish I tried this earlier. I was mainly just wanting to keep my system fairly vanilla with only some minor tweaks but it was so easy to setup that this might be my preferred way to play games now.

Email received. 

[Steam page: Vampire Survivors]

New game that I fell in love with and is great on Steam Deck. Vampire Survivors!

It's less than $5 right now on sale and I've already put in nearly 20 hours. It hooked me right away. If it wasn't for A Plague Tale: Requiem, this would've been my game of the year.

Steam page: Vampire Survivors


Another game that I've been hooked on is OlliOlli. It's a side-scrolling skating game that is very easy to play but difficult to master. Beating the challenges for each level is really satisfying.

Steam page: OlliOlli

I want xbox, Sony, Nintendo etc. to stay physical.

Unfortunately, that's a losing battle. Already saw reports on how digital sales made up 72% of the sales this year across all platforms. I'll see if I can find the article.  Here's an aricle - Over 70% of all game sales in 2022 were digital downloads

When it comes specifically to console gaming, around 72% of all game sales were digital downloads, with only the remained 28% accounting for physical releases. This continues a trend we have witnessed for many years now, with each consecutive year seeing more and more customers opting for digital game purchases over boxed copies. Again, this figure does not include Nintendo Switch software, which represents perhaps the last real bastion of high-street retail gaming purchases.

Either way, Nintendo is already going more digital. The fact that they sell physical boxes with no carts in them is telling. Microsoft is the most to go digital with how they handle backwards compatibility, Game Pass Ultimate and with the Series S having no disc drive. Sony making a revised, single SKU PS5 that is digital only unless you buy the Blu-ray drive attachment and pushing their own PS+ subscriptions to compete with Game Pass Ultimate means the writing is on the wall for them as well.

Buy all the physical copies that you can because it's not going to last.

Oh and the Series S is not a failure at all. It has sold a lot because it's a cheap entry point to the Xbox ecosystem and when you couple that with Game Pass Ultimate, there's no need for a drive. Microsoft has made it very easy to forget about discs. Both the S and X are fairly easy to find these days but the S being cheaper means it's in more households. It also makes having another Xbox in another room trivial. I plan on getting one for that reason myself. The X in my living room and the S in my office.

Did they make the games compatible via disc as well so you could just pop in your old game and play it on your new console?

Yes! You can pop in a disc that is backwards compatible and it will automatically download the digital version. You can only play with the disc inserted.

Almost any game from the X360/PS3 era. They usually run great and generally have good controller support since they're the first to have xinput implemented, which just works with the Steam Deck. Some you do have to tweak a bit (like with Bioshock 1 you have to use mouse controls to set up controller support in the menu.)

They tend to run at 60FPS with every setting maxed out.

Xbox One/PS4 era titles are good too but you generally have to drop some settings and might want to lock them at 30FPS to get good battery life.

Additional functions  that will be there, you will now be able to insert images directly in posts. 

Spoiler: ShowHide

The one thing that Switch OLED does not have on the Steam Deck is the ability to lock in different refresh rates. If I had to choose between the two screens, that's what I would pick.

OR are you saying... don't play it because there will be lament in regard to the Steam Deck screen?

@BLUEVOODU - This is what I'm saying.

That Fender Stratocaster one is really cool. The fact that even the amp has a driver inside was a great touch.

The NES TMNT Arcade game was really good for how much it was downgraded to work on the NES.

I still throw this on every now and then.

A couple of Netflix shows that I sort of binge watched was Kim's Convenience and Working Moms. Both are pretty funny. I've finished Kim's Convenience but still going through Working Moms.

Oh, another one is I Think You Should Leave. This show is not for everyone though. I found the randomness very funny. It's definitely one of those WTF just happened? shows. Each episode is only 15 minutes.

Halloween was pretty uneventful for me. No trick-or-treaters on my street. Basically just had dinner and watched Halloween Ends. Which I surprisingly ended up liking somewhat despite not being good in general.

Did have a small get together with friends on the weekend since one of my best friends has a birthday in late October. Played lots of Rock Band, lol.

@CreepinDeth - I still haven't opened mine... I've almost had it 1 year now.  VERY Close to 1 year.

Wow, you definitely don't have an urge to play it, lol. I would've already opened it even if I had no desire. Should make it easier to sell, if that's what you end up deciding to do though. It's probably good that you haven't now that you have the Steam Deck. It might make you feel differently about the screen, lol.

Thought the last few episodes were great and much better than how it started. I was worried that the 4th wall stuff would just be the generic "talk to the camera" type but it became much more and I absolutely enjoyed that. Having the show be self aware of what it is and what some of the past criticisms of female superheroes/leading actresses was a nice touch. It was also great to see that it's self aware about the formulaic plot lines that most Marvel films tend to follow.

I'm also really glad that they highlighted all of the nasty vitriol that many women face these days. I think they could've been a little more harsh on that toxic incel mentality since it deserves to be but it was good enough.

Can't wait to see..

Spoiler: ShowHide

Skaar in a proper movie/TV show. Planet Hulk please!

I also really enjoyed the call back to the Lou Ferigno Hulk TV Series. That was soooo good!

Big news today for Steam Deck!

You no longer need to reserve a spot to order in the future. You can now outright purchase one.

The Dock is also now available for purchase.

Oh man, I'm waaaaaaaayy behind. Sorry @Grindspine . I hope you had an awesome birthday!.

I really liked episode 7. Thought it was one of the best ones so far. I'm still digging the show. Still wondering who the lab people at the end of episode 6 are.

I know many of you have probably experienced joy-con thumbstick drift. It's pretty notorious on the Switch. My wife's thumbsticks started drifting a while back and eventually they just went haywire. Causing double input as well as just drifting.

I successfully transplanted some new thumbsticks and the joy-cons are like new again! It's actually not too difficult. It definitely beats paying $70-$80 for another pair. I highly recommend this. 


Here are the guides I followed on their site plus a link to the thumbstick replacements.

Nintendo Switch Joy-Con/Switch Lite Joystick - You can either get the full kit that comes with all of the tools you need or just the thumbsticks. I already had the tools so I just got the parts.

Left Joy-Con Joystick Replacement Guide

Right Joy-Con Joystick Replacement Guide - Since the Right Joy-Con contains an antenna plus some other parts, the procedure is actually a little different.

@BLUEVOODU  - I present to you ProtonDB! This game is rated as Platinum so should run nicely on the deck (with the exception of some cutscenes.) You might have to edit some things as well to get it to run at first.

Starship Troopers: Terran Command ProtonDB Rating

As for controls, you'll definitely be using the trackpads and triggers for mouse inputs but since it's Steam, you can always alter it to your preference.

In regards to the cutscenes, looks like if you install Proton-GE then you should have everything working. I've never installed it myself but a lot of people have. It sucks that Valve can't ship their SteamOS with proprietary codecs for a lot of these videos but I get it. They're abiding by the GNU licenses.

Never heard of this game before. I'm not really an RTS type of player but this looks intriguing. I have placed it on my wishlist and when it goes down in price I might pick it up. Starship Troopers is one of my favorite movies.

Last week I updated my gaming PC and daily driver PC with NVME SSDs and the speed increase from standard SSDs was so good! I was not expecting much of a difference to be honest but a ton of programs now open up almost instantly and installations happen so quickly that I sometimes miss when they complete if I turn around to grab a drink of water or something quick like that.

Loading times on games also improve. I haven't done any official speed tests since I forgot to get times before the upgrade but it's enough to be noticed. Not sure if I can ever go back to 2.5" drives except for maybe cold storage. I still have spinning hard drives for storage for their large capacities.

My gaming PC uses PCIE 4.0 and my daily driver PC uses 3.0. Even the 3.0 SSDs feel much snappier than traditional 2.5" SSDs. I highly recommend them if you have a motherboard that supports this tech.

These are the drives I got in case anyone was interested:

• WD Black SN850 w/o Heatsink 1 TB PCIE 4.0
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB PCIE 3.0

Finally saw this movie and thought it was actually pretty great. I think overall the themes make sense. The movie made it pretty clear that he's still lost and isn't fully happy with himself. Defeating Thanos is not just some miracle event that fulfills you. Thor is definitely in the "what now?" stage of his life.

I loved the how they nailed the Love and Thunder theme as well. And Christian Bale was a great villain. I think he helped the movie along and his acting was top notch. He was hamming it up and it looked like he was having fun with it.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Oh and Natalie Portman as Thor was awesome. I thought she made a great Thor and was hoping it would continue. It probably will as the 1st end credit scene leaves it kind of open.

The only thing I thought was too much was...

Spoiler: ShowHide

The screaming goats. They had some great moments like when they landed on the shadow realm planet. I think if they had not had them screaming every time it would've hit harder. It still made me laugh 90% of the time though.

As someone who lost family members to aggressive cancer during the pandemic, I think this movie hit a little close, and under the cheesy and campy dialogue there was a good message about life in general. Overall, it was a solid movie that I wished I saw in the theaters. I'm definitely picking this up on blu-ray and adding it to the collection.

Call me crazy, but I don't see Goldeneye aging well.

It's a novelty at this point. Which is why I think it's a good thing they're not selling it individually.

I think they missed an opportunity not making the Xbox version online. Unless there is going to be some sort of update later. Really it would be ideal for an online game in this present gaming generation. Why go to the trouble of such an update and not include the multiplayer online?

There's a lot of speculation as to why. One of the more plausible reasons is that Nintendo's version gets online play automatically through their Online system. It's not actually programmed in the game. It's somewhat of a hack that Nintendo does for their other retro multiplayer games and this just came along for the ride.

Is there anything stopping Rare/Microsoft from programming in online? I don't think so. But it's also possible since it's a Nintendo 64 title, MS and Nintendo worked out some deal where both versions are different from each other. The Switch version is just an emulated version whereas the Xbox is actually remastered.

That's right! Goldeneye is finally being re-released. 2 versions will be available. The Xbox version is a remastered version with updated controls, improved graphics and frame rate. The Nintendo Switch version will be the original N64 version but with online multiplayer added.

The Xbox version does not have online multiplayer for some reason. 

Nintendo 64's GoldenEye 007 Confirmed for Switch Online and Xbox Game Pass

Nintendo 64's GoldenEye 007 Confirmed for Switch Online and Xbox Game Pass
Coming soon.
Ryan Dinsdale
By Ryan Dinsdale
Updated: Sep 13, 2022 9:09 am
Posted: Sep 13, 2022 7:29 am

Update - 09/13/2022, 9am: The Xbox remaster of GoldenEye 007 will not include online multiplayer, which will instead be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version of the game.

As revealed by 007.com, the two versions of GoldenEye, despite being announced at the same time, will not include the same features. The Nintendo version appears to be staying relatively similar to the original, but with the addition of online multiplayer, and will be added as a standard N64 game to the Switch Online library.

The Xbox version, on the other hand, will be a remastered version of the 1997 original with updated controls (meaning modern, dual analogue stick support) and improved graphics and frame rate.

Update - 09/13/2022, 8am: Rare has confirmed that GoldenEye 007 is also coming to Xbox alongside Nintendo Switch following months of rumours.

Confirmed in a tweet (below), the Xbox game isn't confirmed to be the same version as that on Nintendo Switch but will feature achievements, 4K resolution, and a smoother framerate.

GoldenEye 007 has been all but confirmed on Xbox for a long time as fan website True Achievements and even Xbox's own website listed the game's achievements.

Original Story: Nintendo has announced that its beloved GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64 is coming to Nintendo Switch Online "soon" with official online functionality for the first time ever.

Announced during September's Nintendo Direct, Nintendo revealed a ton of new titles coming to its online subscription package including Pokémon Stadium and Mario Party, before confirming that GoldenEye would also be arriving.

It's unclear exactly when GoldenEye will be released, however, as the handful of new Nintendo 64 games confirmed for the platform are arriving as late as 2023.

Nintendo has been slowly but surely adding titles to its Nintendo Switch Online service for the last few months, releasing various N64 games roughly once a month or so. Its remaining games confirmed for 2022 during the Direct are Pilotwings 64, Mario Party, and Mario Party 2.

As for 2023, Mario Party 3, Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Stadium 2, 1080° Snowboarding, and Excitebike 64 were all announced.

See our full list of Nintendo Direct announcements for more news about upcoming Switch games.

4 Episodes in and I can definitively say it's another strong MCU showing. I'll be honest, I do find it a tad bland at times but not to the point where it keeps me from enjoying it. The CGI can be a little inconsistent as well. I certainly hope they can keep the quality up to the end.

The line-up has been released!

@BLUEVOODU I did not make it. Too many things going on right now. Will probably just wait for D+ now. Which sucks because I really wanted to watch it in the theater but I think it's too late now.

I apparently own Fight N Rage on Steam.  Must've been through some humble bundle and didn't realize what I got.

It's definitely not the one in this thread with the SoR2 levels. However, a lot of the reviews are saying it's better than Streets of Rage 4, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I might have to try this out.