So...this one is a bit left-of-field.

A friend of mine (Gardiner Bryant of YouTube - who reports on Linux and the Steam Deck) has started a Revolt server.

What is Revolt?

It's kinda like a FOSS alternative to Discord. You'll see the layout is almost a direct copy, and it's far less polished...but then again you haven't got the downsides of Discord's constant upselling either:

https://revolt.chat/

Why is this relevant?

...I can hear you ask? Well, so far its just a few developers and creators in there, but I thought of all spaces...maybe those very devs and creators whose work you use and watch...well it might be nice to join in there?

My personal friends who are in here so far are:

• imLinguin whose GitHub is here - but you may know most as a developer of Heroic Games Launcher

• Eben Bruyns whose GitHub is here - but you may know best as the dev of Junk-Store

• Gardiner himself, of course whose YouTube link is here,

• Jason Evangelho who is the senior contributor of gaming at Forbes - and hasn't read my message yet telling him to join the server so...I'm not even sure why I'm writing this, but regardless his link to his credentials is here

What is the damn link to the damn server, woman?

https://rvlt.gg/dqJT3rJH

I mean, you will have to make an account on Revolt, but it might be interesting to some here. You're all very welcome!

First Things' First:

Maybe you're used to all of this now, but my attempt is to share an older style of gaming news post. Something maybe a lil bit like the old gaming blogs / news sites that the internet used to have. Casual, opinion-based, image-heavy and maybe-filled-with-things-you-already-spotted.

This week's edition is far less themed (you'll notice the last few have been a bit Steam Deck-oriented) than those before. This one is purely interesting little things I've spotted. There is still Steam Deck content in here, but not as that's-it-folks as the last was.

I hope you might grab a coffee, settle in and enjoy these bits and pieces!!!

---

Physical Gameboy (DMG) bricks (literally)

Stumbled over an interesting idea: someone who made literal bricks look like original Gameboys. The website linked at the end is murder on the eyes - seriously, the font used is just straight from Hell itself. But there is a couple of interesting videos in there too, worth looking at.

Here's some photos I grabbed to attach here, where the font is far more sane for your eyes:

And the link to their page is right here!

---

The Sony PlayStation 3 has new system update – 4.92 – 19 years after release

The system software update 4.92 improves system performance, according to the patch notes, and also renews the Blu-ray player encryption key to allow for disc playback.

Updates of this sort are an annual occurrence, as the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) encryption key regularly expires - it's a copyright-protection technology that requires a key to be set on both the disc and the console in order to play new films. Will this affect the process to jailbreak a PS3 (good old HEN)? No, they're just going to take some time to make it right. Here's a photo for those who are into the jailbreaking scene, and want to read the news:

The link to an article on is here if you want to read more

---

Sega is Metacritic’s highest-rated publisher for 2024.

This will probably come as no surprise, on reflection. With games like Metaphor ReFanzio, Persona 3 Reload, Atlus: Unicorn Loverlord, SMTVV...their ‘stable’ of releases for the year was extremely strong.

Interesting to me is seeing how strong Sega is in the industry after pivoting away from hardware/consoles so, so many years ago. Especially considering the ‘talk’ about Xbox’s plans in the future (I know, all just talk, but they’re definitely one to keep an eye one)

Here’s a link to Metacritic if you want to see all the rankings, and more detail

---

KCD II coming to GOG

For those of us who prefer DRM-free gaming (and you should) - Kingdom Come Deliverance II is coming to GOG on March 28th! This is wonderfully quick, by memory the first took longer to get to GOG after release on Steam. KCD II has so much going to it, the optimization makes it run incredibly well on Steam Deck and is currently sitting at Very Positive on Steam, with 53,473 reviews on Steam.

I’ve already bought it on Steam, a rare buy there since I buy 99% of my games on GOG. And being the wuss I am, I’ve downloaded a few mods on it, too. I love what they’ve done, but some bits are a touch too sim-ish for me.

Regardless, this is just great news to see it coming to GOG!

---

Prime Gaming giveaways this month:

Available Now (March 6th)

• Saints Row: The Third Remastered [GOG Code]
• Mafia 2: Definitive Edition [GOG Code] 
• Crime Boss: Rockay City [Epic Games Store] 
• Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master [Amazon Games App]

March 13th

• Wall World [Amazon Games App]
• Syberia: The World Before [GOG Code] 
• Endling – Extinction is Forever [Amazon Games App] 
• Dark Deity: Complete Edition [GOG Code] 
• Beholder 3 [Amazon Games App] 

March 20th

• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood [Xbox and PC via Microsoft Store Code] Note: The Wolfenstein: The Old Blood offer is available only in Prime Gaming regions where the game is also offered via the Microsoft Store. Prime Gaming offers may sometimes vary by region. See primegaming.com for more details.
• Mutazione [GOG Code]
• Figment 2: Creed Valley [Amazon Games App] 
• Legacy of Kain: Defiance [GOG Code] 
• Mortal Shell [Epic Games Store]

March 27th

• The Forgotten City [Amazon Games App]
• Deus Ex: Invisible War [GOG Code] 
• Session: Skate Sim [Epic Games Store] 
• Let’s Build A Zoo [Epic Games Store] 
• Gamedec – Definitive Edition [GOG Code]
• The Wisbey Mystery [Legacy Games Code] 

---

Next week's free Epic Games title:

Will be Mortal Shell! Free from March 13th to March 20th. This (like a few others so far this year) have been repeats of games already given out over 2022. Nice for those who missed them!

Further, for those keeping count:

Epic Games free for one day previously, and have not not been repeated yet → waiting for their weekly giveaway.

2021 - Shenmue 3, Neon Abyss, Vampyr, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Salt of Sanctuary.

2022 - Sable, Them's Fightin' Herds (now free), Lego Builder's Journey, Encased, Mortal Shell (coming free).

2023 - Melvor Idle, Art of Rally, Human Resource Machine, Cursed to Golf, Cat Quest, Saints Row (2022), 20 Minutes Til Dawn.

2024 - Vampire Survivors, Astrea: Six Sided Oracles, TerraTech, Wizard of Legend, Dark and Darker - Legendary Status, Dredge, Ghostrunner 2, Hot Wheels Unleashed, Kill Knight, [REDACTED], Sifu.

---

Dark and Darker pulled from Epic Games Store

Dark and Darker has been taken down from Epic Games Store amid ongoing legal dispute.

Developers of Dark & Darker used to work at Nexon, under Nexon they were making a game called Project Q I think, can't really remember the name, either way, that project got cancelled so the development team decided to just up and leave and continue making the game and eventually it would become Dark & Darker.

Tldr:

The legal issues come from the developers using the information they had from their time working at Nexon, any work they had done under Nexon was deemed Nexon's property, so when the developers left they started using the same assets for common items, they would recreate systems they made essentially copying their own work, but their own work wasn't legally theirs. So when Dark & Darker was on the uprising, Nexon sued the devs for Copyright Infringement. That failed but they were on the hook for Corporate Espionage since they took trade secrets and used it in their own product.

Link to an article hosted on pcgamesn.com

---

Legacy of Kain

Sadly the Legacy of Kain writer, Jim Curry has passed away. Along with Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Curry wrote Akuji: The Heartless and handled marketing for the Gex games.

I’m unsure whether he kept up with the industry or news surrounding Kain, but if he did, it would have been nice for him to see the recent remaster of Legacy of Kain.

This is obituary for him, worth a visit if you’ve the interest

---

Oldest active MMO

Tibia - the oldest active MMO is adding a new 'vocation' to the game, 28 years after release in 1997. Known more in Brazil, Mexico and Poland as a bit of a cultural phenomenon, it's had a dedicated and steady player base for all these years. Previously the vocations were:

• Knights
• Druids
• Paladins
• Sorcerers

But now a new one is coming to the mix: 'monk'. Interesting news for a VERY niche passion for some!

---

FSR4:

AMD have collaborated with Sony to create 'FSR4'.

For anyone who thinks this may benefit the likes of current gen base PS5, then it is very unlikely as they are using the 2-generation old RDNA 2 architecture which doesn't even have the required AI Hardware cores to run PSSR let alone the heavier FSR 4.

This collaboration, project amethyst is likely going to benefit console gamers likely for the next generation with PlayStation 6.

Link here (Yahoo) for anyone who wants to read the announcement in full

---

RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business

One of the most surprising 'AA' games we saw recently in 2023 was RoboCop. The dev is known for their take on '80's cinema / games of that subject (having done the same for Terminator), and Rogue City took a lot of gamers by surprise.

It played extremely well on the Steam Deck, was nicely optimized, and felt extremely polished for a (admittedly 'on rails') game of their budget.

A trailer for the follow-up has been released, and looks just as fantastic, you can click this link to view it on YouTube if you'd like!

---

Nintendo DS

This is just...lovely. An artist shared their work ('ParkingFee6960') which they made in Art Academy on their Nintendo DS. I just thought it was beautiful, and wanted to share it!

---

Path of Exile Update:

Path of Exile 2 update featured Steam Deck specific patch. Interesting for Steam Deck fans, this one fixed Steam Deck and other Linux Wine-based clients being incorrectly warned for modifying the client.

Here is a link to the note showing the update!

---

Steam Deck + gboperator

User Bitz`Primus has "...designed a bracket to use my gboperator on my steam deck. Finally gameboy games on the go"

A link to their makerworld page on it, with more photos is here, if you want to check it out more!

---

Ballistic Moon closes

Until Dawn Remake Developer Ballistic Moon “Effectively Closed”

Article here, because this is the end of my post and I've lost the energy to write my own thoughts

---

And...I suppose that's it!

As ever, I hope these might be interesting to some. They're just some fun things I've spotted, and I do so enjoy putting these together. Was it a full week since my last one of these, where I promised I would thereon-in make them weekly? No. No it is not.

Is that just an excuse to link you to my last one of these news posts (click here!)?

Yes, yes it is.

Any errors, they're all mine. Any weird formatting - yup blame me. But...I hope you enjoyed this regardless? LMK! And, as ever, if you wanna lurk my Mastodon, it's here:

Games can have different assets downloads for desktop vs Deck, you don't need 4k textures and videos for Deck games.

For FF7 Rebirth, the desktop download is 144GB but the Deck download is a significantly reduced 88GB.

One of the things I find really lacking about the Steam Deck is there isn't an easy way to display a visual aid to a particular control scheme, which I think any good control scheme worth actually investing time into needs.

Have any of you found a template you like for showing Steam Deck control schemes? It would be nice to have a common one you could use for many different control schemes, or at least it would be nice to have a clean template to start from.

I am thinking like an inkscape .svg, or idk.

Long story short I started watching the Handmaid's Tale, just finished episode 3 and it's terribly depressing and too real for me. I'll keep watching but I need to counter all this negativity.

Hence why I'm looking for some "aftercare" games that will help me cope. Something easy, where I don't have to think and just follow along good vibes.

I have played the following games, which kind of fit what I'm looking for:

• a short hike
• carto
• frog detective (all 3)
• islanders
• helltaker
• spec ops the line (just kidding)
• mini metro / motorways
• dave the diver

Thank you !

I'm really excited about this one, so hearing that it will run well on deck is fantastic news.

GitHub link to Nintendo's claim - all the details you need are here

The emulator forks which are being taken down are as follows:

Despite this, the one fork that continues, and will continue without takedown is Ryubing - by Greemdev. This is created by an original member of the Ryujinx team. It's safe, the code is beyond reproach (and violates zero laws or Nintendo code) and actually brings helpful updates.

Still...shitty news. And more indication that the Switch 2's architecture will be damn similar to that of this current Switch. Them taking emulators down means the upcoming games have a solid chance of being emulatable on release. But...that's my own (and others') conjecture, so we'll see when the time comes.

For those who keep up with which games coming up will ship with DRM, it's come to light that the new Elden Ring title will use GuardIT

Link to SteamDB info here with this link

Link to the Steam page here

Hi everyone,

I'm a Playstation gamer and a Linux user for my administrative tasks.

Since my computers (Microsoft Surface Go 1 and upgraded MacBook Pro 2012, both running Fedora Workstation) aren't powerful enough to run some 7-8 years old games unavalaible on Playstation 5, I'll probably get a (maybe used) Steam Deck by the end of 2025. It could be another handheld, but the Steam Deck is my favorite for now as reparability and Linux compatibility are high on my list.

I'd be using the Deck to run some games, but also to work when docked to my Philips 273B through USB-C, also using a USB mouse and keyboard. I'd be keeping the Playstation 5 to run demanding games and do sim racing as I don't even think a Steam Deck 2 would be powerful enough.

Here are a few questions: -I love Gnome, but I'd be willing to give KDE a shot. If I don't like it, how difficult would it be to have Gnome while keeping the normal Steam OS? -I know that I could wipe Steam OS and get Bazzite with Gnome. Except getting Gnome, what are the advantages of getting Bazzite over Steam OS? What are the inconvenients? -I think that KDE is now in version 6.3 or 6.4. What is the version that you now have on Steam OS? For an obscure reason, I coudn't find the info on the web. -What can you easily upgrade on a used Steam Deck (probably not Oled)?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

First Things' First:

Maybe you're used to all of this now, but my attempt is to share an older style of gaming news post. Something maybe a lil bit like the old gaming blogs / news sites that the internet used to have. Casual, opinion-based, image-heavy and maybe-filled-with-things-you-already-spotted.

My last post (News #2) is here via this link, if you wanted to read over it before I share some more things I have spotted :)

This might lean towards a more Steam Deck-oriented post, but of course I'll inevitably deviate and ramble on and most likely cover everything but the Steam Deck. So let's begin!

Emulation:

NxEmu

Another Nintendo Switch emulator - NxEmu, which saw some focus and activity some time ago before seemingly disappearing into abandonment - has come back with a post sharing the dev will be refocusing on the project.

Personally, I recommend everyone focuses on the more reputable Switch emulator called Ryubing / Ryujinx. It is made with one of the original devs of Ryujinx itself, and the updates actually have substance - and you can see by the GitHub: work is consistent and constant on this one.

But back to the point of this, the NxEmu dev states: "the plan is to be able to run pre-decrypted games, so if people want to run a game it will have to be decrypted first with some other tool."

• You can find the site/blog/announcement here with this link

• You can find the GitHub link with this link

RCPS3 on Android

If you don't recognize the emulator name, it's an emulator for the PS3. This was announced, build and released (the alpha test build, at least) in less than a week. This is not perfect, and at the moment I'm going to look at it as more of a proof of concept than something you should really install, but it's still incredibly interesting news.

The original devs of RPCS3 stated around December that they wouldn't be entering the Android emulation scene because the fandom is toxic as heck, demanding as heck, and rather unpleasant. However, just a few months after that we see DH (a member) take the lead and release this for Android gamers.

• If you want to visit the bare-bones GitHub page, you can with this link

Following though, is an image showing Dragon Ball Burst Limit demo booting in emulation:

Games News

Abuse

Do you remember the 1996 run-and-gun DOS game called Abuse? I sure don't, since I wasn't alive, but if you did and do, and want to re-play the game, a developer has cleverly removed the notorious 15 FPS lock on the game, and released it as an AppImage, DEB , RPM and tar.gz

• The link to the GitHub page is here, if you're interested

• [If you want to see what the heck this all means, then this link to the YouTube video might be more suited to you, showing the 15 FPS locked version (original) and the unlocked FPS version (this mod)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTwDu3ZNE68]

Heroic Games Launcher update

Heroic, "...a Free and Open Source Epic, GOG and Amazon Prime Games launcher for Linux, Windows and macOS. Also available on the SteamDeck!" has just released an update.

This is one of their biggest releases so far, and a lot of work has gone into this, especially considering the dev team's busy life and commitments outside of Heroic.

Some changes include:

• Env Variables in Known Fixes: Customize game fixes with environment variables for better compatibility.
• Launch Arguments via URLs: Pass game arguments directly through protocol URLs for streamlined launching.
• Steam Shortcuts for Uninstalled Games: Add Steam shortcuts for games you haven’t installed yet.
• Anti-Cheat Logging: Anti-cheat details now appear in logs for easier troubleshooting.
• Gamescope "Force Grab Cursor" Toggle: Prevent cursor escapes in full-screen games.
• GOG game setup improvements.
• DXVK-NVAPI Enabled by default for NVIDIA GPU users on Linux.
• Various UI improvements and other smaller updates.

The full list and detailed explanation of all their changes is here on GitHub, via this link if you want to read all they have done!

Xbox Game Pass games leaving:

I personally both own a Series X console, and use the XBPlay program to play my Xbox games, and the Xbox Game Pass library. I use XBPlay on my Steam Deck. Their site can give you an idea of what they do, but the benefit to me (buying on Steam for a once-off $5 USD payment) is that it allows higher resolution upscaling that is possible just by streaming the games directly from a browser.

• The site is here
• The Steam page is also here if you want to see some reviews

Anyway, back on topic, some big games are leaving the Game Pass library this month:

• Yakuza 5

• Yakuza 6

• Lies of P

• No More Heroes 3

• Evil West

• Solar Ash

• Spongebob Squarepants Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated

• MLB The Show 24

DREDGE MOBILE

DREGDE is my favorite game of a couple years back. Maybe in the top 3 of all time for me. It's the perfect combination of cozy and creepy - beautifully stylized graphics and art style, story and Lovecraftian horror.

The dev team (Black Salt Games, based in New Zealand) released their Android and iOS port of the game a couple of days ago. It's not a simple straight forward port process, they've gone to a lot of custom work on making the game perfect for the 'small screen'.

Here's a lovely review on Forbes, if you want to read more about their game on mobile, and the process it took to get it there!

One Gamer Plays Epic's Free Games Each Week:

I've discovered one user on the Epic Games (unofficial) sub-reddit who came up with a plan to help them clear their backlog of games, and stop them buying more games.

Simply, they're going to play and review one of the games Epic gives away for free, each and every week. This was their New Years' Resolution:

"I need to branch out my video game taste, and I'm going to have quite a lot of free time next semester. However, there's a big problem. I'm a broke college student.

So I've resolved that for the first four months of 2025, I will play every free weekly Epic game to completion before the next one launches. That should be 17 games in 17 weeks. I'll make a post on this subreddit after finishing every game detailing my thoughts. I don't expect very many people to read, but this is mostly to keep myself accountable."

I find this amazing. And it's been fascinating (and helpful) to read someone's review of the games so far, meaning if they're terrible...I won't bother.

The link to their initial post (on Reddit) is here, and you can find their weekly posts by clicking on their profile, and filtering by posts

Quick Fire Interesting - Dot Points:

• 10 years ago, Steam announced the release of the Source 2 engine - free to use for all developers
• The Nintendo Switch was released 8 years ago now. Sure, they show their age, but they really did so much for the modern handheld gaming market (and I have a V2 on its way from Japan right now, for me to micro-solder a mod chip in for CFW when it arrives!)
• Both IndieGala and Fanatical have Robocop: Rogue City on heavy discount right now - at 90% off. The general consensus is though to hold off at least a day, so that the chance of it being included on Humble will be proven, or disproven
• Steam passed 40m CCU (concurrent users) for the first time. It's crazy to think their previous highest number a few short years ago (March 2020) was only 20m!

FUN!

Steam Deck Power Button:

This one is a specific and super amazing little one I found. An acquaintance on Mastodon shared with me this little creation they made for the Steam Deck's power button:

The user is @rusozoll@layer8.space on Mastodon.

• Tinkercad link here
• Printables link here!

(thanks for being able to share this!

Steam Giving a User $4,000 of Free Games:

A user named "Sonix" discovered a bug in Steam’s refund system that mistakenly refunded his money but let him keep the games. He reported the issue to Valve, and instead of punishing him, they thanked him for his honesty!

• Sonix now owns 37,474 games, making his collection one of the largest on Steam.

• now owns 20,898 DLCs.

• and 22,490 games on his wishlist.

• Despite having thousands of games, he primarily plays Dota 2 (76% of the time).

• His Steam account is Level 299, with 105 badges

• The estimated total value of his library is around $372,543.

His profile on Steam can be seen here

Sonic Unleashed:

I wrote a guide (which you can find here, with this link!) for running (installing) and playing the new recompiled PC port of Sonic Unleashed. If you're interested, take a look!

finally?

I hope you enjoy this. My plan is to just...post these when I get the urge to, with no fixed schedule (I know they've been far too regularly rapid lately. If you can think of any improvements you want me to make on them, or want to tell me off for formatting or some error in the post...do feel free!

And, you can reach me elsewhere:

(Matrix)

(Mastodon)

Probably the biggest change is it's now using the UMU project as a default. This project is meant to make sure that games will run without the user having to individually troubleshoot or manually install components.

Right now, there are many windows games that run perfectly if launched from steam, but if you try running the same game from epic/gog it won't work without further work. The UMU project is building a game database of what specific games need to work, and it will automatically resolve those issues. This will only get better over time as more games get added to their database.

There are a lot of other changes as well, I recommend checking out the article for some other highlights or checking out the full patch notes here

What is it?

Unleashed Recompiled is an unofficial PC port of the Xbox 360 version of Sonic Unleashed created through the process of static recompilation. This means you get to play Sonic Unleashed on your PC with the following benefits:

• Unlocked frame-rates
• Ultra-wide support
• Built-in achievements
• Controller icons (Xbox, PS)
• Rebuilt natively for PC

You can watch the trailer here, if you want to see it in action (alongside a side-by-side comparison of Unleashed next to the original

Step One

Download the Xbox 360 ROM of the game. You can find it in a number of places. I can't share the link to where here (because of the obvious reasons), but it's everywhere - you need this before you can do anything else!

You will also need the game's DLC and Updates. I found both on archive.org, with minimal searching. Here is a picture of the two folders which you need as well as the Sonic game:

From here, open the DLC folder. You'll have six files to extract (select all of them and then right-click and select extract auto detect sub folder). Once extracted, each of those will have a file you'll need. It's much quicker to do this now before we begin, so go into each folder and grab the file at the end. Like this:

Step Two

Head on over to this GitHub link, and download the UnleashedRecomp-Flatpak.zip file. We're choosing this because (obv) we're on a Steam Deck, and Linux is what we're running. So...Flatpak!

Click here for the GitHub link

Once this is downloaded, open your downloads folder, extract it (right-click, extract auto-detect sub folder) and run the extracted flatpak

It will then open up in the Discover Store - ready to go! Just click on 'install' in the top-right corner:

Once this is done, the top-right hand corner will change from 'install', to 'launch' - so select that this time. It will open up for us:

Step Three:

This next part is really self-explanatory. Follow the installer, it will ask you to select your game's ISO file, then it will ask you to select the update, then finally it will ask you to select the DLC files (there will be six of these, which we took from those folders earlier!):

This will take you through it, there's only one way to do this, just make sure you have your:

• Game's ISO
• Games Update
• Game's DLC (six individual files)

All handy, in a folder or two ready to select.

Step Four

That's it! The hard part is over now! It will open the game once it is all done, but exit to the desktop, because we want to add it to gaming mode too!

Once you've exited, open all applications, and scroll down to 'U' - you'll find Unleashed there. Right-click on it, and select 'add to Steam':

Once this is done, we'll change from desktop mode to Gaming Mode!

Once you're in Gaming Mode, you can find the game in your library / non-Steam

If you're fancy (like me!) you can change the title to Sonic Unleashed and use Decky Loader + the SteamgridDB plugin to choose some game art for the title: I changed the title due to, as of writing this, there is no art uploaded yet specific to the title name of Unleashed - so I opted to have some there with the original title

Finally:

We'll open the game and play! Don't forget for settings, you can pick and choose what you want for your Steam Deck!

From the main menu:

• Press Start
• Choose Options
• Press RB to choose VIDEO in Options
• Change FPS to 90 (for OLED) or 60 (LCD)

...and choose whatever you want, to run it how you want!

I'm not sure if I made any errors, maybe I did while typing this up, so if you spot something, tell me and I'll edit this!

Is it worth it? - yes! It's fantastic, and even better it gives us a glimpse at what is possible in the future with recomps of 360 games on PC and Steam Deck!

Have fun! <3

This is an interesting take, especially coming from a non-gaming focused tech website like Ars Technica. I feel like it's been too long since people were truly hyped about half life 3 though, and this wouldn't be enough, even if Valve did go through with it.

People are increasingly unhappy with windows though, and the EoL of windows 10 may push people to Linux anyways.

To start with:

After my previous post 24 hours ago (the link to which is here), I asked you all if the way I share mostly Steam Deck news here is okay, and if you'd enjoy more of these.

I hope you'll endure one more such post in this short time. Consider this maybe...idk, news you may already know, but that which I'm sharing while I practice formatting these posts in a better way..?

Here we go!

GOG THINGS

GOG-CHAN

Perhaps my favorite GOG decision was back in 2018, when GOG got their JRPG-obsessed graphic designer (KosmicznaPluskwa) to create a mascot for their Japanese Games Sale of the time. GOG-Chan was created, and the internet being as internet-y as it is, she's never been allowed to be forgotten. She's also adorable!

(if you want a link to explore KosmicznaPluskwa's pintrest page - this will give you a good look at the graphic designer's inspirations and looks!)

Purple is my favorite color (along with my friend, 'AA' - the developer of Decky Loader! Hi, 'A!), and GOG's essence is purple. I'm guilty of trying to dye my hair the same shade as this once, but I did a terrible job and tried hiding my pony-tail until I could fix it...

GOG FORUMS

Being my fav platform for the Steam Deck (honestly, the amount of Steam games I have VS how many GOG games...mine is literally a GOG Deck), I'm sometimes surprised by not only how few people know about it, but how few explore it more than just a platform to buy games.

The GOG forums are a great space to post. It's not only GOG's games, there's plenty of general interest spaces to chat about everything. My fav however, is the totally niche, interesting things like the 'Unofficial DVD Covers for GOG.COM Games' thread.

You've guessed it, it's a space for people to create physical covers for their digital games. It's very niche - for people who miss physical games collections, and who are great at designing their own covers. I'm going to leave the link to the most recent page of the forum thread here, if you wanna take a closer look, but I'll share just one or two images of one cover for those who don't:

GOG UPDATES

There's been quite a lot of games updates over the last week (or two?). I keep up with these, because I get a lil OCD with making sure my library (at least my installed library...which can be hard to admit is extensive) is the best it can be. This might be a bit boring, but I'll rapid-fire some of the more notable (subjective, I know) titles which have had recent updates:

• Darkest Dungeon II (this updates SO often!) - 5 days ago
• Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition (wins for the longest running updates/mods for any game, at least in my experience!) - 7 days ago
• Art of Rally (my FAV racer, I LOVE it!) - 11 days ago
• Core Keeper - 11 days ago
• Myst - 11 days ago
• Planet Crafter - 11 days ago
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector - 12 days ago
• Drova - Forsaken Kin - 12 days ago
• No Man's Sky - 12 days ago
• Resident Evil 2 - 12 days ago

...okay I could keep on going. There's something inherently, and weirdly, therapeutic about ticking off a list I made. Yeah. Odd, I know.

MORE ON WHAT I USE TO PLAY GAMES ON MY DECK

I had a few comments/messages yesterday asking more about what I use. Why I choose Heroic Games Launcher, RetroDECK and Junk-Store. I thought maybe if you cared, I'd share a few links for you to follow here. It might be a bit more specific-to-those-curious, so feel free to skip past this if its not for you!

Heroic

Heroic is for more than the just the Steam Deck. Being open-source, it is also made for MacOS, Windows, and...well obv for Linux distros. I love the little things in Heroic's design:

The UI (by default, but choosable by the user!) stays monochrome for each game's cover...until you install it. Then it's in beautiful color for that title.

I adore Comet integration, meaning achievements and playtime are logged with GOG, so when I'm done playing, I can log in to GOG on my computer and see all my progress has been noted.

• You can find their website here with this link
• You can find their GitHub page here with this link
• I've forgotten if I shared this last post, but you can find a great video by fediverse-adorer Gardiner Bryant, here in this YouTube link. He compares Heroic with Junk-Store, and is also a lovely person too (Hi, Gardiner!)
• Heroic's community and 'help desk' is on Discord, which you can find with this last link here
• You can find more on their work, through Liam's (GamingOnLinux) site, or Noah's (SteamDeckHQ), if you wanna read up more on Heroic!

Junk-Store

Junk-Store is built specifically for the Steam Deck. And that is its benefit in my eyes, the program (plug-in*) was built from the ground up for the Deck. Eben, the dev, started the project as a way to add his own games to the Deck for he and a handful of friends.

What started off that way became something he released. Like I said in my last post, the design of Junk-Store is different, it works (for now, though in the future this will be changing to be possible in another way) as a plugin via Decky Loader. It will open up as a library of your games, Epic will show up in a tab and you'll see all your redeemed or purchased Epic titles in there.

Eben tells me I'll be raked over the hot coals if I share what he has planned for Junk-Store next. But there is more than just what JS has right now. At the moment it supports Epic and GOG, but there is more to come.

• You can find a link to the site here, for Junk-Store, where you can find out more about it, and follow a guide to installing
• You can find the github page for it here, too
• This is the link to their Discord. In the Discord server you'll find users who share all kinds of settings and findings of (often obscure) games they own, and how to run them best! Also...everything else.

RetroDECK

This is less about links (I'll share though), and more about a rapid-fire for the features I adore most about it. I was a user of EmuDeck when I first got my first Steam Deck, but the record of things that break is there for all to see. My installation ran three emulators, and the storage it took on my SSD (in a trillion-and-one different places, not organized) was over 33GB. Again, this is my personal opinion of which software I favor. No hate for those on EmuDeck, it does the job. For me I adore RetroDECK because:

• It runs everything from one SD card. You run the emulators, the ROMs, the bios, the file trees, mods, texture packs. It sits neatly organized on the SD card and leaves the SSD free for PC games. I find this helps me a lot. There is no performance drop or any issue running it from a nice SD card. Nor is it locked to only run from a card. You can choose to install it wherever you want!
• RetroDECK only updates periodically. There is no emulator updates individually. Some users find this inconvenient, but I find it a nice relief to know the team waits to see that each update is stable for the user. There's been countless issues over time where a update to one can ruin an experience, I much prefer stable to flying too close to the sun!
• 'The radial wheel' ...honestly I've forgotten if that's what it is called, but Retro has the left trackpad on the Steam Deck default (via their custom controller configuration) to being a lovely radial dial. From there you can fast-forward a game (if it is old enough to support the feature, no, you're not fast-forwarding a PS3 game -_-), save quickly, open a quick setting to quickly upscale the resolution. It's extensive and fun. I love that damn dial.

There is more, but I tend to ramble (I already shudder to think at the length of this. Again, watch Russ from Retro Game Corps' recent video on RetroDECK, he takes you through it step-by-step and is lovely with the details!

Or alternatively, if you want to read more on my thoughts in my guide with plenty of pictures! ...you can find it here with this link. I take you through setting it up, and even some specific things like replacing textures with HD texture packs on PS2, etc

• Find the RetroDECK website here

IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR, I ACTUALLY HAVE TWO GAME CODES, FEEL FREE TO REDEEM

^TXV6-HP3TV-DC262-7DYXJ-C4FVZ is Wolfenstein: Youngblood for PC (Windows' Microsoft Store) - it's objectively a terrible game, but hey...someone may want this! The '^' is actually the number after 6

^FHXQ-4T2RP-JC4J2-CTXGW-626QZ is Wolfenstein: Youngblood for Xbox - it's just as terrible on Xbox, sadly no improvement on the game depending on the platform! The '^' is the number after 2.

EPIC GAMES

Epic has a sordid reputation. Personally, I have no qualms with them, if there is a game cheaper there (as was the case when they ran their coupons - long since abandoned) then I'm all for it. Their free weekly games on their site are a absolute gift for gamers who can't afford much, or any, modern gaming.

One of my fav things on their site is the blogs they run, or blog posts. Occasionally they will have some truly amazing personalities in the game dev world there to, ostensibly promote a game, but then go into detail of their own lives. Some of my favs on this theme are (click the link to go to the page!):

• The interview Creative Director (of Sonic X Shadow Generations) Takashi Lizuka gave with them. He himself is the man who created the Shadow character in the first place
• An interview with Alan Wake 2: The Lake House's Director and lead writer

There's countless others. The hard thing is knowing what is filler, and which are interesting from a creative and development standpoint. Regardless, I love things like this, as these days with stupid attention-grabbing conflict headlines and A.I. articles, it's harder to find this kind of content.

A NEW GAME FROM MercurySteam

This was the crew responsible for developing Castlevania: Lord of Shadows and Metroid Dread. They have a new game coming called Blades of Fire - and it will be exclusive (on PC) to Epic Games, but available to Series X and PS5 as well.

*EPIC GAMES' 2024 YEAR IN REVIEW:

• if you wanna see the image in full resolution, this is a link to it on imgur here

QUICKLY, THIS IS INTERESTING:

If you missed it, and you're interested in the PC gaming landscape - particularly in regards to how Steam is the clear favorite above others like GOG + Epic Games and Amazon's own Prime Gaming then this LinkedIn post by the former VP of Prime Gaming at Amazon is a fascinating read. He details why he thinks the attempt at winning gamers over with their platform failed.

• It did the rounds a few days ago, but I know a lot missed it, it's a fascinating read on a company trying to enter an established landscape of gaming, and...clearly this is the link

Really, worth a read for all!

Ironically, the weekly Prime Gaming giveaways are my fav part of gaming lately

JUST A COUPLE' GAMES I RECOMMEND!

We're winding down here, I think I have a terrible habit of using 750237634563456 words, when I could say the same thing with 15. But if you're still interested, I might just take the opportunity to recommend (quickly!) two games I've enjoyed on my Steam Deck, kinda cozy, but also not quite so. But, here we go:

Tunic

My cozy gaming recommendation today, which does actually have some souls like elements to it (sounds strange, I know!) is this adorable fox.

If you love the old (or remake) Nintendo Zelda games (Link's Awakening) then you'll LOVE this game:

"Explore a land filled with lost legends, ancient powers, and ferocious monsters in TUNIC, an isometric action game about a small fox on a big adventure."

You're an adorable fox with puzzles and combat, and it is SO good on the Deck!

Graveyard Keeper!

Think...Stardew Valley, but if you like the idea of management a sim with a gothic twist, this one’s worth checking out.

You’ll bury bodies, craft, and maybe even question your life choices as you balance morality and efficiency. Plus, there’s a talking skull. What more could you want?

It's adorable. I think by now I'm well and truly addicted. And it's on sale on GOG so often

Srsly, kinda dark! 💀💀💀

Racing games I love on the Steam Deck:

This is (yet again) weirdly niche, but I've been rather obsessed with rally racing in general the last few months. Specifically Group B...which, if you're interested was just the most terrifying time of motor racing, where people's hair, skin and even fingers would be found after the races were over; stuck in the grills of the cars because the crowd were so close to the sidelines.

A great mini 10 min doco on YouTube called The Absolute INSANITY of Group B Rally is here, if you wanna see it for yourself

• Art of Rally is a beautiful alternate history game, where Group B rally racing never stopped being a thing. I love their quote: "To do something dangerous with style is art...". Racing is isometric, the colors are beautiful, the atmosphere is so pretty, and the driving can be casual or require great skill. I love this game on my Steam Deck! It is also -50% off on GOG right now, if you want to check it out!

• DRIVE: Rally: "DRIVE Rally lets you relive the 90s in the most exciting era in motorsport history, where dust, mud, and snow are badges of honor. Unleash the raw power of legendary rally beasts, admire every second of the stunning landscapes, and remember: the faster you go, the better! DRIVE Rally not only nails the spirit of the 90s. It reignites it for a new generation of drivers. Whether you're a veteran of dirt roads or a rookie just looking to get their tires wet, this game will let you redefine speed over and over again." - I love this game because it is just pure fun. Arcade-y as heck, the art style is very distinct, and it feels like what you imagine a Playstation 1 game made today would be like. [https://www.gog.com/en/game/drive_rally](The store page on GOG is here, if you want to see the trailer and GIFs embedded in the page to get a good look at it

FINALLY?

Maybe that should be it for now. Please let me know how the formatting looks this time 'round. I hope I figured this out a little better, I know the last one was rough, but with each subsequent post I hope it gets prettier.

Some of you may remember me on reddit, I went by flwwhtrbt there. There was a time where I was 'interviewing' not only developers of everything Steam Deck had running on it (Lutris, Heroic, Decky, Junk-Store, EmuDeck, and others!), but I was also interviewing the big names in gaming piracy last year also: befriending FitGirl, Dodi, even chatting to Empress, KaOs and more.

If I can find my files (I think I purged everything, but may have back-ups!), then I might share them here, if anyone is interested.

Please share your thoughts, if there's something I can do better here, let me know! If there's a better way to format this, then by all means I need to know.

If you wanna reach out elsewhere, I am on Matrix and Mastodon:

Unlike current FSR, FSR4 will only work on new AMD chips using the RDNA4 architecture. AMD is claiming pretty major improvements over the current FSR3 results, but it being hardware specific means that it won't directly benefit the current steam deck. However it could be one of significant hardware improvements that we would see in a steam deck 2.

I got the hell outta the US a couple of months ago, and had to ditch my main PC and home server due to shipping costs (kept all my drives, of course). This left me with just a laptop and the Deck -- but, after the laptop's screen kaput, I was left with just a USB-C dock and the deck to get me by! I was worried I'd be walled in a bit by the deck's read-only system, plus my unfamiliarity with Arch (I'm a bit new to the linux game, and have been mostly main-ing Debian distros so far)... but I've been pleasantly surprised at how much is doable, given the constraints! In fact, besides DaVinci Resolve, I don't think there's anything I haven't been able to get running!

It's been a lot of fun configuring the deck's desktop environment to serve as my main machine! Between video editing in Kdenlive, working on documents and code projects for school, and (of course) playing just about every game I'd normally play... this thing is an absolute beast!! For fun and function, I use this thing just about all day, every day, without it skipping a beat (except that one time I broke fstab 😅).

Today I had the realization that I could get a local LLM instance installed for the hell of it... and I had to just sit for a moment in awe of how incredible this machine is. I felt compelled to share my love for this machine with a community that shares the sentiment, and so here I am! I'm taken back to the early NVIDIA shield tablet days, when HL2 was ported to android... man, I struggled trying to get a cracked APK working on whatever android tablet I had at the time, wishing I had the money to get that shield to play HL2 on the go... Now, here I am playing Master Chief Collection, Helldivers 2, even Factorio and FTL, all on the toilet or in bed... and all on the same machine I can install a Deepseek instance on. Absolutely amazing.

What are some niche applications / use cases you've gotten working on your deck?

P.S. - I apologize for the state of my setup -- it's the best I can do at the moment! A new desk has not quite been on our priority list for the last couple of months 😅 we're getting ourselves to an IKEA this weekend to get one, but until then I've been standing at this wobbly-ass bookshelf, making due!! 🙂