Anders

At least for first party Nintendo games the short answer is; because they can be. People will buy Zelda and Mario regardless if they cost $60 or $40, so as long as they continue to sell, they will sell them for as much as they can.

After wanting one for years, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a Steam Deck OLED last week. I'm still in the "testing out" phase, so I've been hopping between quite a few games. The only one that I've put any significant time into so far is Mad Max (2015), and I'm having a blast. I originally played it shortly after it came out, probably some time in 2016, and I'm having a really good time revisiting it. I really like the world of Mad Max, and the driving and combat in this game feels great. It runs great on the Steam Deck, it's giving me a rock solid 60fps on max settings. I also set up PS2 emulation on my Steam Deck via Emudeck, and it's simply amazing. So far I've played a little bit of The Simpsons: Hit & Run, one of my favorite games of all time, and quite a bit of Ratchet & Clank 2. They both look fantastic on the Deck, running at 2x resolution at a solid 60fps.

To borrow a phrase from someone over at r/steamdeck on reddit, the designers over at Acer got 'lost in the sauce'. In my opinion, this product is so over the top focused on performance that all practicality got thrown out the window. To me, the whole point of a handheld is that you can chill on the couch with it, but also throw it in your bag and bring it anywhere. This is simply not practical to bring anywhere, and it looks like it will be too heavy to casually play on the couch. Also, it has a 4k screen with a 55wh battery, so I would imagine you could expect about 30 minutes of battery life in a demanding AAA game.

I usually hang on to things either until they stop working, or until they are outdated to the point where an upgrade would make my life easier. I haven't replaced anything in my desk setup recently, but the last thing I got was a wireless mechanical keyboard. Before I upgraded I had one wired tenkeyless mechanical keyboard for my main PC, and one wireless keyboard with a numpad for working from home. I decided to upgrade in order to get a wireless mechanical one with a numpad that was able to connect to multiple devices at the same time. Now I only need to use one keyboard, and I can switch between my main PC and my work PC at the push of a button.

According to my playtime on Xbox, it took me almost exactly 20 hours to beat it, and I did most of the side quests as well. To me, that's more or less the perfect length for a story based game like this.

I think I can mentally navigate through the whole town of Springfield from The Simpsons: Hit & Run. I absolutely love that game, I played it so much growing up.

I honestly hadn't though about it, but I absolutely agree. Basically all other Sony mascots have had either remakes or brand new games over the last decade, except for Jak & Daxter. I remember when my older brother moved out, he took his PS2 with him, so I saved up and got my own PS2 slim with a copy of Jak 3. Playing that game on my own PS2 alone in my room for the first time is a great memory.

It really depends in my opinion. Some indie games definitely appeal to a niche audience, but then you have games like Minecraft. Developed by one person, but enden up being one of the biggest games of all time. Games like Stardew Valley and Undertale are also enormously popular, though they are also only developed by one person.

I absolutely love the 16-bit era aesthetic, like the SNES and MegaDrive. Games like Sea of Stars look absolutely gorgeous in my opinion.

I beat Indiana Jones and the Great Circle last night. I had a really good time playing it, I definitely recommend checking it out, especially if you have gamepass.

My absolute favorite soundtracks are from Stardew Valley, Paradise Killer and Undertale. I would go as far as to say that Megalovania from the Undertale soundtrack is the most iconic video game track of the last decade, maybe even longer. It's crazy to think about that the whole game AND the soundtrack was made by just one person, Toby Fox.

I've played a lot of Call of Duty recently, so definitely war crimes, possibly genocide.

I haven't played more than about an hour or two of Red Dead Redemption. I loved the second one, so I should probably go back and play it, but I've never gotten around to it.

I've probably seen Mean Girls at least 10 times. It's one of my favorite movies of all time, and I would honestly say it's close to being a perfect comedy. I've also most likely seen the Back to The Future trilogy 10 times. It's one of my absolute favorite franchises.

I want to believe that Elder Scrolls VI will come out in 2025, but I really, really doubt it. My guess is that we might see it in 2026 at the earliest.

I'm affraid I have fallen into a pretty deep rabbit hole with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. I'm not really a big COD fan, and I haven't played one since Advanced Warfare came out 10 years ago, but I decided to download BO6 since it was on game pass and I had heard good things about the campaign. One thing led to another, and suddely I haven't played anything other than BO6 multiplayer for the past two months. I'm honestly starting to feel like it's a problem, because there are other games I want to play, but whenever I have any free time I just play COD. I'm planning on finishing up the battle pass and unlocking the diamond camo on a few SMGs, I'm almost done with both, and then giving it a break.

I wouldn't say I have a huge problem with having to connect to the internet in and of itself, since I have a solid internet connection at home 99,9% of the time, but what I do have a problem with is that some games that are connected won't let you pause, even though you are playing solo. A great example is Elden Ring. I wouldn't say I have played a ton of Elden Ring, but I did put quite a few hours into it, and I guess because of the fact that you could potentially be joined by other players, it's not possible to ever pause the game.

One other game that I absolutely loved that I feel like I never see anyone talk about is Paradise Killer. The game is set in literal Paradise, and there has been a murder, hence the title of the game. It's up to your character, Lady Love Dies to solve the murder by exploring a gorgeous, vaporwave aesthetic island to collect clues, and by interrogating the island's inhabitants, a colourful cast of characters with names like Dr. Doom Jazz, Witness To The End and Crimson Acid. Also the game has one of the best soundtracks of any game I have ever played.

I absolutely agree, I love Spec Ops: The Line. At first glance it just looks like any other miltary shooter, but it goes a lot deeper the more you get into it. I remember the loading screen messages that made you feel guilty for playing the game, like "Do you feel like a hero yet?"

Last weekend I watched a Norwegian documentary named Ibelin, and I loved it. I think it's quite an important film for gamers to watch, as it focuses on virtual friendships and relationships that I bet a lot of people here can relate to. Mats Steen was a young man who grew up in Norway with a muscular condition called Duchennes, that bound him to a wheelchair for most of his life. As he got older he lost more and more of his motor functions, and he sadly passed away at only 25 years old. Because of his condition, Mats spent most of life sitting in front of his computer playing video games, primaraly World of Warcraft. His parents we worried for him that he spent all his time inside his apparment and didn't have a social life at all, but after he passed away they learned that was not the case at all. I don't want to give too much away, but I highly, highly recommend watching it.

I haven't seen anyone mention The Ascent yet, I had a pretty good time playing back when it came out. It's an isometric twin stick shooter with a focus on looting and gear, set in a cyberpunk city. Great game if you like Diablo-likes

I wouldn't say I've used it a lot, but I have occasionally streamed from my Xbox to my laptop, with pretty solid results. I have a pretty fast internet connection, and a mesh network that gives me pretty good wifi coverage everywhere in my house, and at times I would say the experience was almost just as good as playing on the console itself. I probably wouldn't play anything that relies on split second reaction times, but for a game like Baldur's Gate 3, which is what I have mostly used it for, it works amazingly well.

I finally beat Baldur's Gate 3 last week! I put about 94 hours into it, and I loved every moment. It's truly one of the best games I have ever played. I was very satisfied with the ending I got, but it still felt kind of bittersweet knowing the adventure was over. I can definitely see myself replaying this game in a few years and going down a different path.

The first thing that comes to mind is a device called the Juicero, which got pretty famous around 2016 or so for being so incredibly stupid. It was markeded as a smart juice machine that would connect to your phone. What it actually was was a machine that you had to buy proprietary juice bags for, which you would then put into the machine, push a button in the app, and the machine would squeeze the juice out of the bag into your glass. That's literally all it did, you could 100% just squeeze the bag yourself and get the exact same result. Here's the kicker; the thing cost $400. To the shock of absolutely no one, the company went out of business less than a year and half later.

I bought Persona 5, really not knowing if it was my type of game. Neither the turn based combat or the visual novel style storytelling really appealed to me, but I really loved the art style, so I decided to give it a shot. Turned out I absolutely loved it. The combat is actually very good, and I really fell in love with the characters.