I have a Samsung Tab 6 with a very nice 8" oled screen. I want to use it in combo with my Bluetooth controller for my Steam Games (for a little more reading room). I've tried Steam Link and it works, but the lag of my wifi make it quite unplayable so, since i already have a dock and an hdmi cable, i was thinking of buying a second dock ( as the one in the photo). Anyone has done anything similar? Can you suggest any free android app to do the mirroring from the deck to my tablet??

In case you missed it, recent reports suggest that Microsoft/Xbox has likely cancelled future Forza Motorsport titles (effectively ending the series), following massive layoffs that affected around half of Turn 10’s staff.

Its not a series I played, like most I think I opted for the Horizon series, but its still more sad news in a line of layoffs recently.

So, I decided I might just make a tiny list of a few games which haven't sold massive amounts, aren't AAA, and have few reviews.

Fair warning though, as ever I love to include a ton of pictures and GIFs in my posts. This one is no exception. One issue is if you're using the Boost for Lemmy app. My posts tend to slow scrolling to a glitchy mess, so if you're interested enough...maybe opt for your browser to read through instead? Or another app, I guess.

I know it's not what I typically post here, but...it's an easy write up...even if its a niche problem (finding car games to play!). If you know of any, or have enjoyed some and want to recommend, please comment them!

Anyway, let's start with the first one:

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Art of Rally:

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To start with I’ll have to mention Art of Rally. I’ve ranted about this for so long now, you’ll no doubt have already read through me trying to convince you to play. But, let’s do it all over again. It’s so good.

Set in the ‘golden era’ of racing: from the 60’s to the 80’s in a kind of alternate universe – if the infamous and incredibly dangerous ‘Group B’ never ceased.

Group B itself was a class in the World Rally Championship (WRC) that existed from 1982 to 1986, and was infamous for being both the most spectacular and the most dangerous era in rally history. They’d find literal fingers, hair, blood splatters in their vent grates and stuck in their cars when the races were finished...because no rules were in place for the spectators. None.

Group B allowed the car manufacturers to use just stupid barely tested technology and push performance limits with minimal regulation. The cars just had the most lightweight materials, turbochargers, superchargers, and four-wheel drive, producing up to 600 horsepower (more than many modern supercars). Their own rules required only 200 road-going models, making it easy for manufacturers to develop near-prototype race cars.

In the end they were extremely fast, but safety measures couldn't keep up. Tracks were narrow and lined with crowds of unprotected spectators, and co-drivers had to rely on pace notes at breakneck speeds. Crashes were frequent and often fatal.

This YouTube video is amazing and really should be watched, just so you get a snapshot of how dangerous and unsupervised this all was.

Anyway, that’s the history behind the setting. Now to the game.

Race in the golden era of rally. Drive iconic cars from the 60s to Group B on challenging stages through stylized environments inspired by real worldwide locations. Will you master the art of rally?

It’s a minimalist game. Super stylized environments and landscapes, the art design is bright simple and colorful, with over fifty ‘iconic’ rally cars (their own takes on them though, not at all licensed), rally driving tricks (Scandinavian flick, counter steering, left foot braking, handbrake turns) and maps like Germany, Japan, Norway, Australia, Indonesia (some are DLC).

I love how its open for simple beginners all the way up to incredibly detailed technical expert racing. I love how has a top-down perspective, not the typical racing style.

The music is beautiful, and its such a complete independent game. If you regularly claim the Epic Games free PC games each week then you’ll have the base game in your library already. But it is on regular sales too, with -40% off on Steam currently!.

It’s a game that very much reacts to your touch and movement. Much like a real rally car, you’re going to be feeling that sensation of needing to react quickly, or trying your best to wrestle that steering to either direction, or quickly having to tap the break. And that handbrake is where you’ll be dialing in those hairpins and perfecting that Scandinavian ‘flick’.

To me its the atmosphere. The setting, the colors, the foliage and hills, sky and how cheerful it all is makes this game such a beautiful one. I’ve played so much of it, and if you’re looking for a racing/rally/automotive game you might have missed alongside the typical AAA offerings, then choose this one!

• The ProtonDB page for Art of Rally – where you can check Linux/Steam Deck performance ratings from community members

• Their website

• The link to the game on GOG

The developers also have another automotive-based game coming:

Explore the world in the golden age of offroading. Drive iconic vehicles from the 60s to 80s by yourself or with friends through challenging trails and beautiful scenery.

Here’s the link to that one, called ‘Over The Hill’

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Drive Rally:

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Drive Rally released their 1.0 after being in Early Access not so long ago. This was one of those games you’d be forgiven for actually buying in E.A. though, since it was so damned complete (much like Hades 2, or Selaco feel for example).

One Caveat, there’s a hashtag before ‘Drive’ in the game’s title...but that is used for formatting on Lemmy so I’m just leaving it off for this little one.

DRIVE Rally is an arcade-inspired rally-driving experience set in the golden racing era of the ‘90s. Grab your co-driver and burn some rubber on iconic race-winning cars across a variety of terrains in some of the most iconic rallying locations in the world!

Far less sim, or precision-based, and far more forgiving, this one’s just fun - and feels the most ‘arcadey’ of the ones I’ll cover here. It’s more of a retro-inspired look to it, kinda reminding you of the PS1/PS2 days but without that heavy pixel-ish look to everything.

You can dial down the ‘wackiness’ on the voices of your co-driver/navigator (I recommend you do this), if you’d prefer it to be a little more serious. By default they have a humor to them, and a distinct voice style. Or you can keep it all the way up, totally up to you!

I like how this game makes me feel like I’m not fighting my car, that I am in control and it’s not punishing me for mistakes. Some people don’t like this, but I just like to think of it as a fun arcade racer – keep my serious racers for other times.

The usual suspects are here: car customization, fun locales which have their own unique feeling, there’s a heap of fun easter eggs from the genre and the history of racing games.

There’s constant updates, and you can see the devs care about keeping their game feeling fresh. I do know from an early point they really did listen to the community in Early Access, and changed the game according to some issues raised. So that’s always nice to see.

It’s on sale as a part of both the GOG and Steam Summer Sales right now, too, with -30% off right now:

• Link to the GOG store page here

• Link to the Steam store page here

• Their official website for the game

• Trailer for the 1.0 release from 2 months back on YouTube

If you just want a fun, arcade rally game that rewards you for races (unlockables), and doesn't make you stress on every turn and decision, this one is a perfect buy. I really recommend it!

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Old School Rally & Rush Rally 3:

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Both of these games are very similar, if not in the gameplay, in execution. They’re attempting to take you back to the PS1/arcade game era of rally racers, but with modern controls (and sensibilities, too). One is extra-heavily pixelated to make you think of the Colin McRae series of games.

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Old School Rally:

“Carefully crafted retro style visuals, reminiscent of the late '90s rally games full of nostalgia and charm”

“With a variety of rally tracks from around the globe, race across different surfaces such as dirt, tarmac and snow and challenge your driving skills.”

“Choose from a diverse lineup of rally cars inspired by the legends of the past, each with unique characteristics and features.”

“Challenge other drivers from around the world and climb to the top of the leaderboards. Ready for more? Try to get all the achievements over the course of the game.”

To me this one’s a great Steam Deck game. There’s a fun balance between pure arcade gameplay, but with more to it if you want to invest your time in it. I’ve noticed the reviews tend to mention the excellent music...and they're very right on that one.

If you've nostalgia for the PS1 era racing games, obviously the McRae series, then this is a must have for you.

• Old School Rally official website

• Official trailer on YouTube

• Platinum Rating on ProtonDB with one review stating: “90 FPS, 7.5-8 W TDP with 7+ hours of gameplay easily with a full charge.”

• Steam Listing here with a ‘Very Positive’ rating from 1,186 reviews.

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Rush Rally 3:

Less pixelated and intentionally PS1-ish than Old School Rally is, this one still is in the same vein. Created by a single dev, it’s amazing how deep the game feels. To me the ‘rougher’ areas, are the tracks and lanscapes, but the vehicles seem to be far more polished for the player – even giving you a pretty comprehensive set of options to customize the cars to your liking:

There are online features (leaderboads and multiplayer), unique weekly live events, a dev who cares deeply about suggestions and is constantly making adjustments and changes to how things run and look based off player feedback. I love how dedicated the dev seems to this game, you can tell they love racing and rally.

“60 FPS racing (120+fps on supported devices) at night or day in the rain or snow! Over 100 new and unique stages each with different surface types including snow, gravel, tarmac and dirt! Race with one of the best car dynamics models to date, including real time vehicle deformation and damage, built from over 15 years of experience.”

“Race with your favourite controller, all fully configurable including full force feedback wheel support!”

• Again, platinum rating on ProtonDB, though this time there’s only one review left for it

• The dev mentioned on Steam that they’re done extensive Steam Deck testing to make sure it runs as well as can possibly be expected

• The Steam page for the game, with a -70% off price currently

• No official trailer is on YouTube, but a ton of great review videos are there, with everyone stunned by how great the game is

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Japanese Drift Master (JDM):

You might have seen this one, while it’s still kinda under the radar compared to most games (with only 2,457 total reviews on Steam), it turned some heads before release because of the setting and presentation.

Drifting in Japan. Story told through the pages of manga. Clearly very inspired by recognizable, real life locations. Licensed cars. Euro-beat. DRM-free?

It ticked so many boxes that racing fans have, but the main one is being set in Japan. Horizon fans have been clamoring for the game to be set in that country for many iterations now, so this kinda felt like...the next best thing?

JDM: Japanese Drift Master combines realistic, carefully-tuned physics in a simcade experience that’s as smooth on a controller as it is with sim racing hardware. Tackle hundreds of kilometers of open-world roads and uncover story-driven events and quests along the way. Hone your drifting skills, perfect grip races, take on challenges, and feel the thrill of authentic Japanese street racing.

This game is far more…‘sim’ than the others I’ve covered so far. While of course it’s still accessible to those who don’t want to take it super duper seriously, you can see this one’s aimed more at those who want to play the game as a drifting simulator.

Experience the automotive culture of Japan and discover the roads where drifting was born.

It’s very, very pretty. The detail in the environments and the cars is really impressive. The music is incredibly moreish and I did keep going back to this game. What gives me pause in the end is that I don’t feel much like their market. I’m less into sim-racing and more into fun arcade racing. Performance is not the best, more suited to higher end systems (which is why I played on desktop, rather than any of my handhelds, though it did perform and look nice on my Legion Go), with the usual Unreal Engine 5 hiccups.

The devs keep updating the game regularly, the map/roads are amazing, really I’d put it up there with any Gran Turismo title.

If you’ve any interest in a serious racer, with a less-serious story, beautiful locations and want to try something a little different, then this game is an easy recommendation.

• Here is the launch trailer, which is on YouTube

• Their official website, which has a lot of nice info on the game

• On sale on Steam right now, this is the link to the page. -25% off, but it does end soon!

• Also on sale on GOG, with the same -25% discount, but this sale will probably end by the time you read this, idk. This is the link to the GOG page!

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Emulation:

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Of course, if you just emulate, then you’re going to get the best of the best from every preceding era to play through.

• The old Colin McRae games (if you use something like DuckStation then you can even upscale to a crazy degree, add shaders and then use RetroAchievements to make it feel amazingly modern!)

• Gran Turismo games

• In particular you can add the Gran Turismo Spec II mod to GT4 and have a massively upgraded experience, [this YouTube video will explain what it is and what it does (sounds, tracks, cars, camera views, menus, UI, it’s massive)

• All the WipEout titles, including WipEout HD/Fury for PS3 (works beautifully on the Steam Deck!)

...the list is obviously so extensive, over so many consoles and systems that I won’t go into super detailed details. I will say however, that I use my friends’ creation: RetroDECK to play them on my Steam Deck, and it works beautifully for this. The YouTube channel, Retro Game Corps covers RetroDECK in-depth, showing what it can do, the features and step-by-step how to install and configure it. The link to that particular video on YouTube is here if you want to check it out.

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This post is just a small one, and a bit of fun. I love racing games, and maybe you'll find something interesting in here if you do also!

And again, if you've got suggestions for similar games, please leave them below!

I mostly use the deck in desktop mode recently as my laptop died and I have it hooked up to a dock with monitor and keyboard.

I'm having a bunch of networking issues lately. Basically the network becomes incredibly unstable after some time and a reboot fixes it. Restarting networking through systemd does not fix the issue. Same with disable / enable networking in the dropdown.

Ping is going as high as 10,000ms where after a reboot it's 14ms and I'm getting 5-15% packet loss.

The router is about 7 metres away (22 feet or so).

I do suspend quite a bit. System is fully up to date. Just rebooted and now it's fine.

With the latest updates to the popular Palworld, Valve have now bumped it up to Steam Deck Verified and SteamOS Compatible.

The rating has been a bit up and down with it going Unsupported in January, and then back to Playable a day later.

NonSteamLaunchers is a tool you can use on Linux / SteamOS to automatically set up various third-party stores. A new release brings new tricks.

The app works with Epic Games, GOG, EA, Amazon, Battle.net and lots of others. It uses GE-Proton to install the Windows version of all the apps you pick and then adds it to Steam for you to easily launch (useful for SteamOS / Steam Deck).

Suddenly today after restarting, my Deck stopped charging or showing the power light, while plugged in. After doing several combinations of holding the ... and volume + button, it blinked, turned orange, and then white. I believe it was holding Power, ... , and + through shutdown for a total of 20 seconds that did the trick. It is charging normally now, but when I unplug and then plug it in, the light goes back to orange. Then repeat, and it goes back to white and charges normally.

Does this mean the deck needs servicing? Should I reboot normally again, or do a system reset, or maybe just let it discharge completely?

Update: I checked it again, and the light was solid green at 95% which i thought was odd. I unplugged and the light began flashing green, and the battery said it was charging, but it was losing charge. It dropped down to 93, i did the 20 second combo again, powered on, unplugged another dozen times, flipped the plug around, and voila it turned solid white. And now it just seems to be completely normal once again.

So I guess the moral of the story is if your deck's battery goes insane, keep smacking it until it fully recalibrates.

I was doing a case swap and when following eXtremeRate’s instructions, the video wasn’t really great at demonstrating how weak this part was and I popped it off the board. To be fair the plug was really jammed in there.

It appears after some investigation this might be the piece:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/0781710002/2424924

As soon as I find my calipers I will update with the pitch.

~~There’s no part number on the plastic and I was wondering if anybody knew where to order some~~

In the better picture is looks as if there is a “A” and“1C”

Edit: removed fingers, added better picture

I recently started to play a crafting mmorpg (bitcraft) and while it runs great on the steam deck, the controls are not great. I have been playing with an old dell usb keyboard and Bluetooth trackball. I would like to find a great Bluetooth keyboard. So many of the wireless keyboards I have looked at require a dongle, which limits my ability to charge unless I use a dock.

I would rather a larger keyboard than a smaller one.

I’ve had the charge limit on 80% since it became available as I leave my deck docked for long periods of time, but it doesn’t seem to be working since every time I get it away from the dock it shows 100% charge. Also the charge indicator gets stuck now until I reboot the deck, but that’s a separate issue…

I'm playing a game I press a button and suddenly there's a series of random inputs that move my character.

It's every game I play so must be a default somewhere but I can't find it.

I plugged my Steamdeck into my usb-c dock and set the primary display to the secondary monitor and switched the built in screen off. When it finished, the launcher bar disappeared and so did the ability to set it as the primary display. Unplugging, has the same issue but with the built in display. I recently re-imaged the deck because I have been distro hopping on it. This is the first time I've been in the desktop mode since re-imaging. It's been working fine in gaming mode for the last few weeks.

These controllers were all working on SteamOS before as far as I know, so I'm interested to see what this changes. My understanding is that previously their controllers just show up as generic xbox controllers, and now they will be properly recognized. We'll see if this has any other benefits like custom bindings for back buttons and things like that.

Source

Edit:

According to @[email protected]

got the 8bitdo Ultimate 2 wireless controller with the latest firmware update, and can confirm dinput mode lets me map the back buttons and extra bumpers to different inputs through Steam Input. Analog triggers and gyro work too.

Flying is a blast on the Steam Deck!

The game is Operation Harsh Doorstop which has a mod called OHD Vehicle Overhaul which has four helicopters in it with very simple controls but actually pretty nice flight models. blackhawk, apache, mi8 and ka-52.

Other games that are really fun to fly in on the steam deck are the ww2 fighters in Easy Red 2, Overload a modern take on Descent and the quadcopter simulator Liftoff!. It is interesting to me how often I run into mouse and keyboard players that categorically refuse to consider using a cheap xbox controller or gamepad for vehicle control in games like this. It is like pc gamers are fixated on mouse and keyboard and the only valid competitor are super excessive simulator control inputs like driving wheels or complex flight joysticks and setups.... and yet with the onboard controls of the steam deck I am able to fly circles around mouse and keyboard players even when they have an absolutely hilarious framerate and graphics fidelity advantage on me.

https://lostpod.space/w/id9wMqsEmHSD9xQCTchQ9r

Some more acrobatic/smooth flying for fun in mi8 with nearby blackhawk, notice how easy it is to be smooth with gamepad joysticks! I believe the blackhawk crashed because I got it to try and do too intense of a flip/manuever to follow me passing underneath, either way you can see how I keep out manuevering the blackhawk even though the blackhawk in a lot of ways can outfly the mi8 I am in (though in some ways the mi8 can out power it in OHD).

https://lostpod.space/w/fYo9DBAxwWSace7X7X486t

aborted rooftop drop after ambush

My only real complaint with my Deck has been the frustration of trying to use the On-Screen keyboard in desktop mode. Often when I open it using the Steam Button + X hotkey, it launches Big Picture Mode instead of giving me a keyboard.

Is there a way to disable BPM from opening at all? I know on PC and Linux you can do so, but I can't find the option on my deck.

As ever and always, I’m back with a week’s worth of gaming news I’ve spotted and thought I should share with you all!

Being in the middle of the various gaming sales ‘season’, you’re probably too busy either buying games and never playing them (yep, that old joke again) or enjoying your cheaply bought games on your PC or handheld!

Hopefully this week’s news is a nice little distraction from spending your money.

So what are these posts?

My aim for these News Posts in general is to make them a more clearly not a professional, but someone who cares about gaming manner than most gaming sites do now. I see so many sites, even the independent ones, bombarding with ads, banners and reminders to support them. I get it, I really do, but it’s an unpleasant experience to me.

My ever-lasting inspo is the old, old video game sites, blogs and magazines that I never had the privilege of being alive for:

• Image/gif/link heavy (though once again this week I have few GIFs, so this dot-point’s a bit needless)

• Personal voice (I can’t help rambling, send help – this won’t be even slightly professionally written)

• Mostly news or articles or points which you won’t find on normal gaming sites. These are the smaller, lesser things that I’m drawn to. I know you’ll have spotted the big news articles, so I’m hoping some of these smaller ones might have been missed by you.

A mixed bag of what I’ve considered news this week, so there really is a bit of everything ahead.

So grab a coffee? Or a tea? Or a fresh juice? And enjoy <3

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General Gaming News:

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Humble Choice Price Hike:

I get asked so very often why I’m not a member of these game bundle programs: Humble and Fanatical. I’ve not done it once, and...honestly I can’t tell you why. Maybe the biggest factor is that I’m a GOG supporter first-and-foremost. Maybe because I know I’ll end up with games I never have the intention of playing? I do mean to, eventually, but maybe I’ve waited too long.

Humble Choice started back in 2019 giving you games to keep each month, typically they’re Steam keys, though that’s not always true.

There’s been criticisms lately however, ones I see most often are

• A decline in quality game offerings (though to me that is subjective)
• Things few want like EA Origin keys
• IGN Coupons (WTF even is that?)
• Some customer support issues in the past

Anyway, adding to that is a price hike for some. There’s been a price increase in some parts of the world starting in May 2025, but it seems to now be crawling across the board:

Pricing:

Currency / Current / New

• USD / $129 / $154.99
• CAD / $159 / $194.99
• EUR / €109 / €134.99
• GBP / £98 / £‎119.99

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The Alters & Fashion:

ZA/UM claim to be the developer of Disco Elysium. That claim isn’t sitting well with the developers themselves who made the damn game.

Members of the original Disco Elysium team:

• lead designer Robert Kurvitz
• writer Helen Hindpere, and
• art director Aleksander Rostov

...were forced out of ZA/UM in late 2021, and never received proper compensation for a game they made. In fact, after they got kicked out, Rostov publicly encouraged players to pirate Disco Elysium, stating they made no money from current sales and viewed the official version as no longer representing their work.

Anyway...I’m just saying while ZA/UM claim to be the dev...that claim comes with a lot of baggage these days.

ZA/UM have a branch, which is...weirdly a fashion house. ZA/UM Atelier have a new collaboration with 11 Bit Studios (whose game The Alters has just released) which is releasing clothing inspired by The Alters.

“This collaboration with ZA/UM Atelier felt like a natural extension of that philosophy — an embodiment of identity through design. We can’t wait to see how our community responds to this fusion.” - Tomasz Kisilewicz, The Alters game director at 11 bit studios

Weird, right?

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GOG on Prime and CAPTCHA:

If you’ve been redeeming GOG games from Amazon Prime’s Prime Gaming each week, you’ll have by now seen the CAPTCHA challenges which pop up. You can be trying your best to select which squares feature a bit of a motorcycle for a long time.

I’ve seen a lot of complaints thinking things are broken, and asking why it even exists.

WHY:

It’s just crowd control. The number of people who claim a game to keep forever can be really high – esp for games which are popular (like just over a week ago we had Tomb Raider I-III Remastered given away), when this happens GOG’s servers can be hammered pretty hard, so this is just a method of slowing the people down.

It can be annoying, and take my advice, if it is too annoying, just wait a day or two to claim. The number of people drops low, then you’re not going to be limited.

IS IT BROKEN:

No, for the reasons explained above.

SHOULD YOU EVEN BOTHER WRITING THIS HERE?

Not really, but I have seen an awful lot of people who are worried that something in the service has gone wrong. And if there is even one person who reads this and now knows all is okay...then that’s fine by me!

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Gabe and Half-Life:

You’ve probably seen this by now, but even if you have...it’s too good to not share again. 3Dguy2 has made this stylized 3D model of Gabe in the obvious attire.

There was the usual tiring claims that this is A.I. generated and low-effort, and the artist shared their artstation page which you can find here with this link, if you wanna see more of their art! to quell those claims. They’re also emailing it to Gabe (who has a history of replying to regular users’ emails quite often!), so I hope they get a nice reply :)

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Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Enhanced:

If you’re tired of recent games being re-released (looking at you TloU and GTA V) for another cash-grab, then prepare to be disappointed. Hellblade II (2024) is getting the same treatment:

• Comes to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Game Pass, Steam, and, for the first time, PlayStation 5 on August 12.
• This updated version includes graphical and gameplay additions, as well as an enhanced Photo Mode and developer commentary.
• August 12 will also see the game become Steam Deck Verified.

Performance Mode:

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is a cinematic experience of immersion where we push real-time visuals to deliver rich, believable environments and characters to sink you deep into Senua’s story. Now, with Performance Mode, we’re excited to give you the option to experience gameplay at 60 FPS (not available on Xbox Series S). The result is smoother gameplay, especially noticeable during combat and fast-moving moments of the game. On PC, where you’ve had more flexibility with performance based on your personal hardware, we’re now offering a ‘Very High’ preset to push that fidelity even further. The team has also been hard at work optimizing the game for Steam Deck, so when this update lands, the game will be Steam Deck Verified for the first time. Wherever you choose to play, we’ve made sure the experience is optimized for your chosen hardware.

The Dark Rot Returns:

The Dark Rot from Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice has returned and offers an additional challenge for Senua on her quest to Iceland in this optional game mode. The Dark Rot will grow each time you fail, and if it reaches Senua’s head, her quest is over and all progress will be lost. Do you think you’re up to the challenge?

Enhanced Photo Mode: We have an incredible community of Virtual Photographers who have captured stunning moments from the world of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. We’re really excited, then, to enhance the toolset within Photo Mode with improvements across a multitude of settings, as well as an all-new ‘Motion’ tab for custom cinematic video capture. We can’t wait to see what you create with these new tools at your disposal.

Developer Commentary Let us take you behind the scenes of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II with over 4 hours of insightful commentary, exploring the craft and creative decisions that went into making the game. Hear from the ensemble cast, key collaborators in depicting Senua’s experience of psychosis, and members of the development team who poured their heart and soul into Senua’s story.

Here is a link to the YouTube video announcement for this, it will be arriving August 12th this year

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Runescape 3 & Microtransaction:

There’s a few headlines and videos being shared about which state that Runescape 3 is removing microtransactions. And this is not the whole truth.

Jagex are running a series of one to two week long experiments to gather data to re-evaluate their monetization practices.

We will turn off Treasure Hunter, instead offering bundles of Stars and Knowledge Bombs for direct purchase (capped at 1 bundle per day)

We will offer a large selection of past cosmetic overrides - including some previously only available via TH - for direct purchase all at once

They are temporarily disabling gambling through Treasure Hunter, while offering a capped direct daily purchase of experience and direct purchases of cosmetics. It seems they are trying out the daily FOMO method to condition players into purchasing the daily bundle so they don't miss out.

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FBC: Firebreak Reaches 1m players:

Maybe not the best numbers for a developer as beloved as Remedy is. Will it have the staying power for the long-run? I’d say...maybe not. They’re already making changes however, so I guess we’ve got to keep an eye on it. For now, here’s their own statement pic:

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Steam Deck Work/Play Case:

If you’ve followed along with me on Mastodon long enough then you’ll well and truly know I love sharing 3D printed gaming things. This one looks wonderful, too. Makes me think of a very William Gibson-ish Cyberdeck look. A Steam Deck user shared their print and thoughts on it:

I'm joining the ranks of users that will do anything but hold the deck. It's a nice print, but I had to use the split file version because it's too big for my printer to do in one piece.

Ergonomics are ok, there is some room for improvement. It's kinda nice to treat your steamdeck as a laptop.

The cults3d link has a list of compatible keyboards. I used a logitech K380. The K380s also works since it's the same dimensions. You can use the logitech pebble mouse. I got this mouse from aliexpress

Here’s a couple pics from the maker themselves, just for some color:

The creator of the file also has a video showcasing their design, and it’s well and truly worth a look – YouTube link here!

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Sales Season:

Everyone will be aware of the Steam Summer Sale on right now, but I’d love to remind people that its not the only front who is cutting prices for the season:

• Steam Summer Sale runs from 26th June to 10th July

• GOG’s Summer Sale runs from 18th of June to 9th of July

• Epic Games Summer Sale begins on 17th July

...have you picked up any games? What have you bought, recommend some deals for everyone here, because it might shock you but we do all love deals here!

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Warhammer: 40,000 Master Crafted – Refunds, Discounts & Patches:

Seems like no one was happy about the ‘Master Crafted Edition’ coming out recently: buggy, overpriced, no discount for anyone who owns the original, barely any reviews (and those that are there on the Steam page are negative) – they’ve clearly realized they’re in strife and had to correct it.

As it stands they have only ninety four user reviews on Steam, and those equate to being ‘Mostly Negative’.

The official statement is here, on Steam, if you’d like to read it in its entirety.

But to summarize,

• Refunds Extended: Full refunds available regardless of playtime if requested via Steam Support before July 10, 2025 (6pm BST / 10pm PST). This feels underhanded to me, sticking to a limited window for people being able to get their money back if they didn’t see this statement? Not right!

• Owners of the Anniversary Edition get 50% off the Master Crafted Edition from June 26 to July 10 (but If you already bought at full price and are eligible, you’ll need to request a refund, then rebuy at the discounted rate which is...suspect to say the least)

• Patch Improvements are also in the works, covering UI/UX, gameplay fixes, platform and controller support, networking, tech fixes and so on (read the above link to check their full notes on what they’re working on)

...I suppose to be fair, at least they’re trying to fix their mistakes, if only because it fell flat for them. More than some companies end up doing!

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Fallout 4 Themed RetroPie:

This is...amazing. Made by ‘CheezyJesus’, this build is about as nice as you can find for a RetroPie arcade machine.

Custom designed and 3D printed, it’s so good, it should be official. I’ll let them do the talking by just copying their words, and sharing the images but...no one can deny this effort. Fallout 4, by the way, is my fav of the series. Perhaps because I didn’t grow up on the games, and by the mere fact it is the most recently made – I just love it!

Anyway, in the users own words from hereon out:

This is the most ambitious project I had the absolute pleasure of doing so far.

A 3D printed Fallout 4 themed, RetroPie arcade machine, based on one of the computer terminals in the game. I wanted it to feel as vintage as possible. so I used a CRT from one of those early 2000's B/W portable TVs as a screen. And it looks great!

The hardest part was definitely sanding and painting. This was my first time sanding and painting a 3D print. It was challenging, especially with the size of the build.

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Brazil warns Nintendo:

Okay, a tiny bit of sensationalism in my little headline there, but its still 100% true.

Nintendo is facing at least some legal scrutiny in Brazil over the much criticized Switch 2 policy where they can ‘permanently disable consoles for unauthorized use’ without clear justification. This, along with a mandatory arbitration clause that prevents users from suing Nintendo in Brazilian courts, even in class actions directly violates Brazil’s Consumer Code, according to consumer agency Procon-SP.

Nintendo has 20 days to respond.

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Switch 2 Manual:

I’ve shown this users booklets/manuals off before. They make such high quality inserts for game cases (since as you know, modern gaming has well and truly done away with anything inside the game case), and they look better than you’d expect from the companies themselves.

I can’t help but share a lot of photos of this, since it’s so beautiful. Apologies in advance!

This time around RowanFN1 has made them for Mario Kart World. I’d say for $80 USD something like this wouldn’t be too much to ask, but alas...modern gaming is all about the money and stripping back the features. Anyway, as always, in their own words:

The Manual is a bit more traditional on all the info bits and controls etc. and has checklists for Grand Prix, knockout Tour, character outfits while viewing their stats. Meanwhile the Booklet is all about free roam and called the Explorapedia, listing all the P-Switch Missions, Peach Medallions, ? Switches and more for you to check off and complete in free roam.

I tried to combine them but that would've been about 90 odd pages, which is insane. So a 40 page Manual and a 52 page Booklet was the choice as I did really wanna cover all the areas.

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Playnite Theme for Handhelds:

If you’ve not heard of Playnite, its a free, open-source game launcher and library manager that unifies all your PC games—across platforms like Steam, GOG, Epic, and emulators—into a single customizable interface. Currently it’s only available for Windows, but the devs have promised an eventual Linux release also.

You can check out the Playnite link here if you’d like to read more on what it is, via their site.

A user by the name of AsciiMorseCode shared a theme they’ve made for handhelds which do run Windows, tailored to make it feel like a more handheld-friendly environment.

Toggle is my take on making Playnite feel natural on smaller screens while keeping performance smooth. I wanted something inspired by the Switch 2.

The whole design is built around thumb-friendly navigation. All the important buttons and controls are positioned where you can actually reach them comfortably when holding a handheld.

Performance was a huge priority - Toggle is intentionally lightweight so it runs smoothly even on lower-powered devices. Clean and fast was the goal.

If you’re running Playnite with a ROG Ally, or a Legion Go, or even a Steam Deck running Windows, the link to the GitHub release is here!

...one thing to note, though:

Works best with ExtraMetadataLoader for game logos and Now Playing for the session management features. I've included some recommended Playnite settings in the screenshots on GitHub, but note that wider screens will need to have more columns shown.

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AudioPin - (stop Windows devices changing)

Someone created a tool called AudioPin for Windows – which lets you create prioritized lists of audio devices for input and output, with the option to separately pin devices for communications.

Ever been annoyed by Windows audio defaults changing when you plug or unplug devices?

This utility allows a user to "pin" a selection of audio devices in windows with a prioritised list. On any change to audio devices AudioPin should very quickly re-assert your pinned devices setting the highest prioritised available device as default.

Not applicable to me, but I’m sure there’s at least some users here who might have missed this, and have the need for it. I’m sure I’ve done a terrible job of summarizing what it is and what it does, so the link to the GitHub page is right here for you to check it out!

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Death Stranding 2:

Norman Reedus (Sam Porter himself) posted this on his socials, just a nice reminder that Kojima can still deliver an amazing experience:

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Crystal Dynamics Cosplay:

The Community Director at Crystal Dynamics, Meagan Marie shared her cosplay dressing up as Lara Croft from Rise of the Tomb Raider from the peak of Mount Rainier/Tahoma.

The reason it looks so accurate? She’s had decades of cosplay:

Over the years cosplay has afforded me incredible opportunities, including being featured on CNN, in Time Magazine, Marie Claire UK, and even modeling for original Wonder Woman art for Justice League: A League of One by the phenomenal Chris Moeller.

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Quick Dot-Points of Interest:

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• Stalker 2 has released official modding tools. Some are angry that it requires 700GB of space, but that’s just the typical rage-bait headline. The reason for the size is that the devs are giving modders the uncompressed resources – which is rare and quite amazing of them

• Ready or Not will have new, more strict censoring on the game due to console ratings required for release. *"If a content change was just a texture swap, we were able to apply it to console only while keeping the PC version the same as before. However, if the change involved transforming an entire asset this was less feasible." *](https://steamcommunity.com/games/1144200/announcements/detail/526472884483260568)

• A man in California has stolen over $10K USD worth of Nintendo Switch games from libraries and is now finding himself being held accountable. Stealing from libraries? Hope he gets all the books thrown at him

• Callina Liang has been officially cast as Chun-Li in Legendary’s upcoming live-action Street Fighter movie. It is now in pre-production. No matter how great it might be though, it won’t have my girl Kylie Minogue’s Cammy in it, so it can never reach that level of amazing to me!

• Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson has also been cast for the live-action Street Fighter. He will be playing Balrog

• Xbox 360 has seen an update, fixing the game title cards looking ‘stretched’ (they now fit nicely) and adding an advert for the Series X. Interesting that MS remembered the 360 existed, here’s a picture of the new look if you’re curious.

• Donkey Kong Land is now officially 30 years old!

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Sable / Free:

If you haven’t already claimed it, Sable was a free title from Epic Games this last week until July 3rd. It’s a lot of things, but the best part of Sable to me is the art design. Beautiful colors and minimal animations. That and the music being provided by the band Japanese Breakfast!

While it does run into some performance issues in certain sections, I tested it on my Steam Deck and plays great! I’ve mostly been playing it on my desktop PC though, this time on Heroic with EOC enabled to collect achievements (something I never used to enjoy, but lately have been embracing a lot!)

It’s such a beautiful world, and well worth playing through.

The game has no combat, just pure exploration, some (very mild, and I’m risking it by calling it so) platforming sections, zero combat.

If you’ve claimed it, or perhaps you’ve bought it elsewhere and haven’t got to it yet...please give it a try. It’s such a nice little game.

Another little ‘box’ Sable ticks for me is the collecting. I know some people hate searching for little things scattered about gaming landscapes, but Sable does it so nicely. Ugh it’s so pretty.

The launch trailer is here, if you’d like to see some of the gameplay

And finally, I found something created by a fan – the LEGO hoverbike is a fan creation, and I thought it was kind nice, so here it is:

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NEC PC Engine LT:

Only because I thought this was super interesting, and haven’t ever seen it before! A user by the name of Retroaffaire shared their photos and words on this one:

Released in Japan in Dec 1991 for a hefty ¥99,800, has a great (for the time) built-in flip-up 4″ TFT screen. It’s essentially a fully-featured PC Engine with internal speakers, an AC-only power system, and a traditional controller port, and even a TV tuner. You could hook up the CD-ROM² unit too. Extremely limited production run, estimated between 1,000–5,000 units.

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The Future of my posts:

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If you’re just here for the news, that’s it for this week!

However for anyone who might be more invested in these week-by-week, I’m just going to be upfront about what’s next. You probably know I’ve had a few health hiccups these last few weeks. I’ve been type 1 diabetic since I was very small, and also have a rather more rare affliction called Addison’s Disease (J.F.K. had this, and it’s why he frequently carried a flask of chicken soup with him!)

Such a long time with the former has left me with newly diagnosed ‘proximal neuropathy’ – which means a small part of my hip feels either numb-to-touch, or like it’s being split with a hot knife. I don’t know, things are just piling on and I’m feeling quite sick each day. Stress makes my Addison’s worse, which in turn makes me physically worse off.

So! While it takes me a few minutes to write up a small post on my Mastodon acc, here it takes a little longer and even little things are taxing for me lately.

I’m just going to warn you all that I’m maybe pausing these for now. Maybe a week will go by and I’ll feel 100% and this will all seem pointless to have written, but then again, perhaps not. My next appointment is on the 17th with my specialist, so I’m realistically thinking I might be taking a break at least until then.

I do want to say though that I LOVE writing these. I love that Lemmy is a small, condensed and personalized gaming community and I recognize now after a few months so so many of the regular usernames who chime in and comment here. I’m so grateful you’ve all shared that you enjoy these with me. And so lucky that I’ve been encouraged to keep on writing them.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me that things improve, okay?

~ P.D.

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Previous Posts:

If you’d like to read my previous Gaming News posts (they’re mounting up in number now!), then you can find them here:

• Steam Deck / Gaming News #2
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #3
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #4
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #5
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #6
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #7
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #9
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #11
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #12
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #13
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #14
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #15
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #16
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #17
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #18
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #19
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #20
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #21

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Mastodon:

I do tend to post there each and every day, 99.99% gaming nonsense. If you want more of this, then come drop by!