#Steam Deck Case review

[crazydiscostu]

Jsaux Steam Deck Modcase Powerbank Kit

Unlimited POWWEEEERRRRRRRR! (comes with limitations)

The folks over at JSAUX have cemented themselves as a go-to supplier for innovative tech, specifically in the realm of Steam Deck accessories. Today we’re taking a look at their Steam Deck Modcase Powerbank Kit. C’mon…. Product supplied for review purposes The JSAUX Steam Deck Modcase Powerbank Kit is a comprehensive gaming accessory that offers everything you need to protect and elevate your…

[fridge-reviews]

The Exit 8 - Blast Review

Developer: Kotake Create Steam Deck Compatibility?: Playable Rrp: £3.39

Now this is a genre I’ve not come across before, anomaly hunting. It feels like it’s an offshoot from walking simulators since strictly speaking the only thing you do is walk. The thing is, that’s a bit of an unfair statement. You see, in this game genre, you may interact with the game world by walking around but the game itself requires you to be observant and detail oriented.

In The Exit 8 you are stuck in an endlessly repeating passageway for what seems like a train station. If you see an anomaly you’re supposed to walk back the way you came, otherwise continue on. Each time you do this you’ll pass a large yellow exit sign, if you were right about there being an anomaly or not the number on that sign goes up, but if you’re wrong it reduces down to zero. The aim of the game is to get that sign to eight and finally exit the passageway.

The anomalies vary wildly, sometimes they’re very obvious but often they’re some kind of hidden detail such as a missing doorknob or a strange stain on the ceiling.

I absolutely loved this game, I’ve always enjoyed playing ‘spot the difference’ as a kid and this game gives the same sense of satisfaction that those did. It’s just in this case there’s also a sense of liminal horror as well, but don’t worry there aren’t any jumpscares.

---- If you’d like to support me I have a Ko-fi, the reviews will continue to be posted donation or not.

[floatingcatacombs]

Tech So Bad It Sounds Like The Reviewers Are Just Plain Depressed

12 Days of Aniblogging 2024, Day 8

I really do try to stay away from armchair cultural criticism, especially when it's this far removed from my weaboo wheelhouse, but this one’s been eating away at me for the entire year. What are we doing here?

2024 has been full of downright bad consumer tech! The Apple Vision Pro, the Rabbit and Humane AI pins, the PS5 Pro… those are just the big ones, and that’s not even getting started on vaporware like Horizon Worlds and Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC initiative. Sure, there are Juiceros every year, but this recent batch of flops feels indicative of a larger trend, which is shipping products that are both overengineered and conceptually half-baked. Of course, there’s plenty of decent tech coming out too – Apple’s recent laptops and desktops have been strong and competitively priced, at least the base models. The Steam Deck created a whole new product category that seems to be thriving. And electric cars… exist, which is better than nothing. But it’s been much more fun to read about of the bad stuff, of course. These days it feels like most of the tech reviews I read these days have the journalists asking “what’s the point?” halfway through, or asserting in advance that it will fail, like this useless product with a bad value proposition is prompting an existential crisis for them. Maybe it is!

yeah yeah journalists don't write their own headlines. I can assure you that the article content carries the same tone for these though.

What did a negative tech review look like before the 2020s? Maybe there wasn’t one, really. The 2000s and the 2010s were drenched in techno-optimism. Even if skepticism towards social media emerged over time, hardware itself was generally received well, mixed at worst, because journalists were happy to extrapolate out what a product and its platform could do. Nowadays, everyone takes everything at face value! As they should –the things we buy rarely get meaningfully better over time, and the support window for flops is getting shorter and shorter with each passing year. On the games side of things, look how quickly Concord ended! With that out of the way, I’m going to start zeroing in on the hardware I saw a “why does this exist” type review for this year.

The Apple Vision Pro

People have been burnt time and time again by nearly every VR headset ecosystem to release (other than mayyybe Oculus, but Facebook’s tendrils sinking in don’t feel great either). The PSVR was a mild success at best and the PSVR2 was an expensive and unmitigated disaster that lost support in a matter of months. Meanwhile, the Valve Index couldn’t cut it with its price, and Microsoft actively blew up their own HoloLens infrastructure earlier this year. It’s at this point it's clear that VR is a niche, and one that’s expensive to develop for and profit off of.  Surely Apple will save us!

completely isolate yourself from your family for the low, low price of multiple paychecks

With most of the competition focusing on gaming, Apple attempted a blue ocean strategy with the Vision Pro by instead making their target audience… nobody! It’s hard to tell what anyone was ever supposed to do with these things, and reading long-form reviews, it became very clear that the reviewers were trying to come up with viable use-cases and largely failing, because it’s just not very practical tech. There’s no physical input devices, so you’re instead using mix of hand-tracking, eye-tracking, and voice commands to control the thing. That’s pretty cool, but it means that the one niche that VR has been proven in, gaming, is effectively impossible. Things like office software can also be hard to use without a keyboard and mouse, and even when there’s tailor-made headset applications for existing software, it’s still usually not better than just doing it on your desktop!

The tech is real, and that’s the saddest part. Looking at teardowns, I fully believe that the hardware had to cost multiple thousands of dollars to break even, and as someone who suffers from VR motion sickness, I’d be really curious to see if all the stabilization tech from their extra onboard chips helps with that as much as the press releases claim. It’s like a more drastic version of the iPad problem, where the hardware is amazing on paper, but interfacing limits with the form factor itself combined with a subpar operating system mean that you can’t actually do as much as you’d hope to with all that power.

Of course, the Vision Pro is also full of prototype hacks and hard design problems – that battery pack is a nightmare! If it’s a productivity device, how are you supposed to share content with other people when the headset has to be custom-fit every time and there’s only one profile? Apple still has no good answer. That leaves the only available niche for this device as white-collar productivity done in isolation, and most people fundamentally do not live in that world. It feels lonely and dystopic, even.

If I had to guess what happened, the VR division at Apple was working on this for the better part of a decade, and facing headwinds, Apple decided to cut their losses and force them to deliver a project, doomed as it may be. There’s a potent business fantasy of a bad version 1.0 leading to a successful 2.0 and beyond, but Apple has not pulled of that kind of situation in the twenty-first century. It’s either a success or it is a proven failure, and this is so, so, obviously the latter. I do hope that the stabilization tech makes it into other headsets eventually though, so that I can play Blade and Sorcery at my friend’s house without throwing up. Everyone else, please copy Apple’s homework or steal their patents, preferably to the tune of under $3500.

Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pins

The current AI paradigm has been around for two years now, and since we've all heard way too many arguments already, I will try to keep my own takes brief. The LLM results we have right now are real (even if everyone is trying to dress them up as superintelligent snake oil when they’re just cool computer synthesis), but from everything I read, it seems like the era of drastic improvement is over. It would take exponentially more text and images and video than we already have to get more linear improvements, and a good chunk of the world has already been scraped, and the lawsuits are already pouring in, further slowing down data ingestion. The tech is slowing down, and the industry won’t be able to grow its way out of the hard social problems it’s invoked. If there are gains to be made, it's in more fine-tuned and curated LLMs, and that's far harder work than most of these companies want to get up to right now.

With that out of the way, are you interested in wearing an LLM on your shirt?

The video that notoriously tanked a company. Of course, now I'm also supposed to make fun of this guy for using b-roll of himself speeding in a school zone . Nobody wins.

Not one, but two separate startups pushed this idea to market this year. Humane’s AI pin launched for seven hundred dollars plus a twenty-five dollars per month subscription, all for the privilege of getting to ask a little square on your chest questions and getting GPT answers spoken back to you. But what about like… ChatGPT’s own phone app? Or hell, even Siri! Apple and Android’s voice assistants are both are over a decade old– do you really have that many ungoogleable queries? And specifically, ones that voice responses make the most sense for, and not text? To make things worse, this thing has serious overheating issues and a battery that can’t even last a day. The Rabbit R1 at least has a cute design, and actually has a screen, and is much cheaper, but it requires a data tether to your phone, so like…why not just use your phone. Reverse-engineering has confirmed that its app can just run on a normal Android phone, so there’s really nothing special other than the little orange square that it’s hosted in.

Why would you even try to roll out a product as doomed as these, instead of just going bankrupt and pocketing a year or two of salary like most startups? The AI boom, of course! After the NFT hype cycle, everyone really did convince themselves that you can just fail upwards with no real limit. Unfortunately, people have higher standards for hardware than PNG transaction platforms, as they get far more upset when they’re left physically holding the bag. I’ve been watching Deep Space 9 recently and have to ask, are these companies trying to capture the fantasy of Star Trek comms badges? Because if so, they should honestly lean more into it. It wouldn't be any more functional of a product, but if there’s one thing nerds always love, it’s themed garbage.

welp

The PS5 Pro

This one just launched a bit ago for the holiday season. It makes some sense on paper – most PS5 games offer a choice between a performance and a fidelity mode, so why not just make a version strong enough that it can get the benefits of both? Great! That’ll be seven hundred dollars.

Okay, $700 doesn’t sound as insane in the context of that Humane pin I was just talking about. But it’s $200 more than the PS5 at launch, and it doesn’t even come with a disc drive unless you want to fork over another $80. The past few generations of gaming have been defined by heavily subsidized console prices with the goal of roping gamers into more lucrative ecosystems, but Sony here seems to be testing the waters for an unsubsidized era.

I've heard the external disc drive install process is surprisingly user-friendly, but at this price point they should have included a little automaton who does it for you

If you can stomach PC gaming, at that price you’re halfway there to buying something that could trounce a PS5 Pro, plus a monitor close enough to your face that you might actually notice the 4K improvements. There are also only a couple of games per year being produced at high enough fidelity for there to be any noticeable quality improvements. The returns are diminishing and the AAA landscape is narrowing, and console upgrades like these only hasten the industry’s spiraling. Is all this sustainable from a development perspective? I don’t know. If Nintendo announced a Mario Odyssey sequel for the Switch 2, I’d buy it at launch regardless of the graphics, and my PS3 can play Demon's Souls and my anime blu-rays just fine. So I’m well aware that I’m not the target audience for stuff like the PS5 Pro, but I think it's going to become harder and harder to compel that audience going forward.

_

The end of the low interest rates in US has drastically changed the underpinnings of its tech industry, and I think every one of these bad product launches can be traced back here one way or another. The era of running flashy ventures at a loss for years in order to corner the market is profoundly over, unless you’ve got Thiel blood money or a GPT transformer, and even then. This, combined with the end of quarantine-era user habits, has left many companies to repeatedly go all in on hype cycles like blockchain and the metaverse and AI, pretending like the last one never happened every time. This trend-chasing means, that depending on each company’s circumstances, they need to either spin something up quick, reroute an existing prototype, or risk delivering laughably late. You need a product and you need it fast. And rushed tech is always going to have load-bearing and stupid problems, no matter how long the initial development time was. Everyone loses, especially the saps who actually believe in the sales pitches enough to buy these things. And those poor, poor tech journalists who have to review it all are being consumed with eldritch madness watching this all unfold. Hey, at least they’re not trying to simp for Microsoft Copilot!

Hopefully, this particular era of tech ends sooner rather than later, so that I don’t feel compelled to do another essay of this type. If I were more of an idealist or a doofus I’d be dreaming of a serious anticonsumerist movement and/or Xi Jinping liberating us all, but unfortunately I’m of the belief that we’re doomed to dumbass gizmos destined for the landfill until the end of the silicon era.

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Steamdeck OLED review/impressions

Thought I'd leave some points to my experience as I have been fiddling with it a couple of days now.

This is also, in some ways, a review of the Steam Deck as a system.

Screen

The Steamdeck has a screen which is pretty small by tablet standards today, but about the same size as the screen on the Nintendo Switch.

The OLED screen is nice and colourful. I no longer have my LCD to compare it to, but the extra few centimeters helps a lot.

I wouldn't recommend you upgrade just for the screen, however, as it is not that different from the LCD in terms of quality.

I have noticed no issues with my screen, I have seen lots of people report problems but I have identified no dead pixels or glare issues.

I am using a glossy screen with a glossy protector. I tried a matte screen protector, which helped significantly with glare, but it gave a glittery and grainy effect on the screen, so it had to be removed. The glossy protector did not affect image in any way. It was fiddly to apply all the protectors, but I got there in the end.

The good news is that the screen can go very bright, and if it is on high brightness then glare is never going to be an issue. So don't worry about which screen type you buy.

Battery

The Steamdeck has a pretty weak battery if you are running most PC games.

The LCD only lasted me an hour if I was playing Monster Hunter World or Balder's Gate 3, and if I played it to depletion, it would bug out on me. More on that shortly.

The OLED seems to have a much better battery. I have been doing a lot of low performance stuff, but I played L4D2 for over an hour earlier, and it only ate maybe 20% of the battery. I played some World today and it only ate another 20% in half an hour with a high performance game, so I think that this unit will do more comparably to the original Nintendo Switch. In all cases I had brightness maxed out.

On emulated games, if you're running gamecube or PS2, it is negligible, however if you run Wii U games it will eat a lot more power (understandably). The fastest drain for me so far was Xenoblade Chronicles X. The other Xenoblade Chronicles games can drain my Switch in an hour, so this isn't a surprise.

This was the main reason I upgraded. I don't mind having the original Switch with its poorer battery performance, but with the Steamdeck LCD it was so bad that the console was barely usable. This change may seem small, but it will make the Steamdeck much more usable for me. Especially as sometimes I am taking 6 hour flights on low voltage planes that struggle to charge my deck.

Performance

The Steamdeck can do most older games very well, but if you're aiming at something released in the past couple of years, it is going to struggle. It plays Monster Hunter Rise like a dream, and I swear that it runs Monster Hunter World better than it used to (the game was updated for deck), but Baldur's Gate 3 will look very ugly texture-wise. Then again, that game looks horrible on any computer that came out before 2021.

You will be playing most demanding games on the low to mid settings.

The irony is, while it looked horrendous, Baldur's Gate 3 performed better on deck than on my PC, and I believe this is because the game has high Memory costs. While my PC's processor and graphics card are superior, it only has 8gb of memory to the Steamdeck's 16gb.

I never played a game where the 8gb was an issue until Baldur's Gate 3. It only affected me if I was connected to lots of streams on Discord. I will compare again when I have my new mid range 32gb memory PC next week.

On the OLED, a game with low performance costs like Left 4 Dead 2 will happily push towards the 90 frames per second limit. Of course, you're going to struggle to get Monster Hunter World over 30fp unless the graphics are very low.

So the Steamdeck is about the equivalent of an entry level or mid range 2018 Gaming PC. It is outdated but it plays most of the classics well.

Controls

The steamdeck's control sticks are quite large, so they're not the best option for people with small hands like myself. However I reckon this makes the unit popular with its primary audience (adult men who struggle with the small controls of the Switch, which are perfect for me).

The haptic mouse pad is okay, but it is obviously no replacement for an actual mouse. It's slightly worse than a laptop trackpad, I think, but at least it continues to move a bit if you swipe it like a ballpoint mouse would, rather than only being "on" or "off". I report no issues with this item, it does everything you will need it to when controlling from desktop mode or with a pointer-based game.

The buttons are okay, I think the right hand buttons are too small and close to the joystick for comfort, and I think the back paddles are too large and the L5/R5 buttons are too low down. It's not exactly easy to click L5 with your baby finger if you have tiny hands like me. The xbox controller is a better option than the steamdeck base controls. It is unfortunate the console doesn't come with a stand like the Switch does, and you have to buy third party options.

What impresses me most is the gyroscopic controls built into the device. I thought playing a shooter like Left 4 Dead 2 would be impossible, but because of the gyroscope, my aiming is as good as any keyboard and mouse player! Just like when playing Breath of the Wild or Ocarina of Time 3D. Even though I can't control the joysticks very well. I don't need them for those fine little movements anymore.

I must add that the Gyro only works on its default settings if you are touching the centre of the right joystick, or the trackpad. I did not like this at all because I needed to move my thumb to press different buttons. Fortunately there was a community layout which enabled gyro at all times. I was able to change the sensitivity on the game's steam options. You may also be able to enable it or disable it permanently by messing around with your own settings.

Compatibility

The biggest obstacle to Steamdeck is the Linux operating system, which upon the console's release, had very little compatibility with most normal tools. Wii USB Helper, the Wii U emulation tool, was completely incompatible. And the reason most games need to be optimised for Deck isn't because of their actual performance costs, it's because they don't run well on Linux.

Originally when playing Devil May Cry 5, the game would crash for no reason, and playing Monster Hunter World, the textures would crash and you would be left surrounded by a glitched out void if the monster you were fighting did a move that the system didn't like.

I think that over the past year, with the popularity of Steamdeck, a lot of developers have taken to making their games run better on Linux. As for the above Wii USB helper tool, there is something called WiiUDownloader which does the same thing and is Linux compatible. So I have had a much better time.

Emulation

It was a huge pain in the ass setting everything up and troubleshooting, especially because of the closed-off technical lingo used in emulation circles. But Emudeck has been a great help in getting everything set up. It is all you need for Gamecube.

I have issues with emulation tools not searching the SD card where Emudeck is installed. They keep searching the "Home" directory for things like their BIOS. Either I need to manually write in the correct path, or it's impossible and I need to copy the bios onto the main Deck. I am not sure if this is an issue with steamdeck or the emulation tools themselves, but it was a pain.

The good news is when you finally have these games running, they play very well. I think some of them perform better on a dedicated gaming unit like the Steamdeck than they do on a Windows computer which has dozens of processes running at the same time.

Lots of work has been done with emulation tools since 2021 to give them maximum compatibility with Linux and Steamdeck, as they know this is the main portable platform for those tools now.

I have had plenty of success with PS2 games, Gamecube games, and Wii U games, once everything was set up to Steam ROM Manager and saved to Steam. You can use community controller layouts on Steam that make things way easier to set up than they would be on a Windows PC.

I haven't had any success with Yuzu, the Switch emulator. This isn't necessary for me but it just seems like it isn't finding the keys that Emudeck set up.

Docked mode

I have mostly experimented with this on my LCD prior to the latest update, but I have fiddled with it on the 3.5 update this Sunday.

I have a Toshiba LED Flatscreen TV from ten years ago. It has no issues with any consoles of any kind, though I've never tested it with a PC before.

It is 50/50 as to whether the Dock works. At first it wasn't reacting at all. Now it seems to be compatible on Gaming mode, this could be because I forced lower resolution for screen compatibility.

However, on Desktop mode, when I used the automatic settings, the screen was flickering black and turning off altogether. I searched online for a solution, but unfortunately nothing I saw was helping.

I saw that it was trying to run at 24hz 1080p. I couldn't change the framerate, but I lowered the resolution to 720p and it became locked at 60hz.

This seemed to fix the issue, but now the resolution is too small and there doesn't seem to be a way to force it to change without also lowering the framerate to unusable levels. Odd as I am pretty sure you can force Windows to a massive resolution and the text will just look very tiny on your screen.

I will attribute this to my TV being too old for a modern computer, and maybe it's just a 720p tv, as I have had no issues with the two LCD tvs that my dad owns. I'm not eager on the idea of replacing my TV just for the steamdeck, but if it has no issues in Gaming Mode, it's not going to be a priority anyway.

As for the controller connection, well, it was initially pain in the ass trying to get my xbox series x controller connected. For some reason the bluetooth wasn't doing the job. But after a firmware update on my controller, it went a lot smoother.

What I did not like was you couldn't wake Steamdeck from sleep with the controller.

I have heard this isn't a problem on the OLED, but I am sure a firmware update on the original Steamdeck could have solved the problem. And if not - Why? We have been using bluetooth controllers to wake consoles since 2006! I saw someone claim you can't wake a PC from sleep with a bluetooth controller, so I immediately tested it and... woke my PC from sleep. Why does the Steamdeck LCD have worse wireless functionality than the Nintendo Wii?

Overall

People ask on this sub if the console will replace their gaming PCs. In my case, no, as it has to be a very old gaming PC for the steamdeck to be more powerful.

Generally it hasn't replaced my Switch, either, as the Steamdeck's battery life is too limited for long sessions (or cafe gaming as I like to do), and it is a worse Multiplayer console than the Switch. Especially as I had to get the dock separately. The console's portability is limited by its great size, too. I have bought a special case that is smaller than the stock one, but it can only do so much.

However i have found the steamdeck to be useful when I am travelling with access to power outlets and want a gaming PC on the go when I am staying with my partner, or when I simply want to sit in a different room of the house and play Monster Hunter.

The OLED also has a nice screen that makes me choose to play some games on there instead of on my PC screen.

The gimmick of playing demanding Pc games on such a tiny console is fun, and the gyro functionality has opened a lot of options for me that I hadn't previously considered. Maybe it is time to return to DOOM.

I love my steamdeck. After I was happy with my OLED setup, I said goodbye to it and traded it in at CEX. I will transfer that love over to my OLED and even though it isn't immediately that useful, I will find a lot of use for it over the next year with my travelling.

[everygame]

Cobalt Core  Developed/Published by: Rocket Rat Games / Brace Yourself Games Released: 08/11/2023 Completed: 17/01/2024 Completion: I’ve beaten it six times including once without using the starting three characters.

Slay The Spire is great, isn’t it? I mean you could basically play it forever. Except… I stopped because I felt like–at least for me–I had to play it focusing on defense, and after beating it a few times it just started to feel samey. With well over a year since I last touched it I’m wondering if I was being a bit unfair on it–I mean I played it for so long it’s like those Steam review that are like “140 hours, I got bored, 1 star”. But let’s imagine there was a roguelike-like deckbuilder where you could dodge instead of just putting it all into block.

Hang on!!! We don’t have to imagine! Because here’s Cobalt Core!

Cobalt Core takes Slay The Spire’s metagame–by which I mean the entire thing where you do three branching levels experiencing events, fighting normal enemies and bosses and collecting or removing cards from your deck and getting passive powers via artifacts and that–exactly and throws it onto an actually rather more complex card game set up. Instead of selecting one character, you now select three (each with their own selection of cards) and a space ship (which provides its own playstyle quirks) and then in each battle you’ve got more to think about than just playing your cards. You also have to think about your ship’s positioning, because you can move it to either avoid damage or make sure that you’re hitting your opponent. Actually I suppose you still do that by playing cards.

This is a really fun change, and it also makes things even more complex than they already were. Not only do you now need to think about how much damage you’re putting out on a turn and how much defense (in this case, shields), you now need to think about how much movement your are gaining, or spending, and where that means your ship will be or needs to be. And in turn you do this with a deck that’s made up of cards from three characters whose abilities can be wildly different making adding new cards to your deck a minefield of potential combos and non-bos.

To start with, it’s totally overwhelming, with every screen packed with information. Then it suddenly clicks (probably quicker, much quicker, if you’re an old hand with Slay The Spire) and it becomes super fun. You feel powerful, in control and it starts to feel a bit… easy?

Then you pick a new character and it’s frustrating and confusing again. Then it’s fun! And… a bit easy?

Basically, you’ll continue this loop as long as you like, and something nice about the game is that it’s not particularly bothered about you playing it on progressively harder difficulties or anything (unless you really want an achievement or whatever) so you actually can choose a level where it’s not as easy, or you can just not bother.

Where it falls down a bit for me is that it’s got a really cute narrative with excellently written characters, and I liked it a lot, but to unlock the “true” ending you have to beat the game 18 times. It’s simply… too many times! Being able to do it on the easiest difficulty helps, I guess, but then that just ends up being a grind, and if you’re like me and played the game multiple times over with one character failing every time till you got a handle on them/got the right drops, that means a lot of time spent playing this. And the more I played it the more I felt like I hit the same issue I had with Slay The Spire. The game makes healing so rare that even though you can move to avoid getting hit, it’s still so hard to avoid getting hit you still need to put a lot of focus on defense. To the point that the character with defense is probably the best one in the game (and the one with movement is a close second.) So I guess the change here wasn’t enough, and just like Slay The Spire I started to find this too samey.

But just like Slay The Spire you’ll play this for so long until you find it samey that it positively feels churlish to say so. If you can get through the initial complexity you’ll have a great time. Just don’t feel you need to see the true ending, I guess.

Will I ever play it again? Well, after I wrote most of this I actually decided I fancied seeing if I could beat this on the hardest difficulty, and after a couple of runs I did and I had fun as well! So there’s something still oddly moreish about this, even though I’m intent to put it down for good.

Final Thought: Something I must say is that it may simply be in the nature of these kinds of roguelike-likes that you will always have to concentrate on defense somewhat because a single death is, well, the end of the game. It’s like how if you chose to play Doom or whatever with a single life suddenly the way you play it changes completely. In basically everything else I love to play glass cannons–games where you die and reload–and it may simply be a case of horses for courses. Every time I have to choose a boring-ass card with shields on it rather than the one that’s like “do loads of damage” I slightly die inside, but maybe that’s not you. Maybe you’re boring!!! I mean… maybe my complaint doesn’t hold water with you because you accept that bit of the design. Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up a digital copy of exp. 2600, a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[zydrateacademy]

Starfield Addendum: Ryujin and Stealth Design

I posted my review on Steam and here on Tumblr before completing the Ryujin questline. There's things to like about it but the penultimate mission was an awful experience.

Disclaimer: There are spoilers. I don't get into specifics on the who's and what's and I don't name names so even reading this post you can still mostly experience the story on your own. I just kind of spoil the general expectations and layouts of certain missions.

Side thought: I've already been told that there's a 'cheesy' way to blitz through the questline. Ryujin doesn't want you to ever murder anyone but they actually don't ever really care if you're marked as 'caught'. So there's a strategy of literally sprinting through the missions, hitting the objectives, eating food and medpaks and just escaping the area. In theory you'll still get the bonus rewards.

Just in case someone wants to "um actually" parts of this post. I just don't feel that that's the intended style of gameplay here. So let me start with the stealth.

Playing the game normally, still doing my first run clocking at about 24 hours. Some main quest, some side stuff, some spacefaring, some contraband. All of it trying to stealth through most encounters.

Just kind of experiencing the game as a first timer. At first stealth was a chore, nigh impossible beyond the first hit. I got an early lucky drop when an enemy bandit gave me a suppressed pistol (my review talks about how stupidly obtuse crafting is, ~24 hours and I still can't really kit all my own stuff out yet, just wearing what was dropped or rewarded) that luckily had a scope on it and stealth finally became a viable option even when I was only one or two perks into the stealth skill. So stealth is sadly not something you can just dive into, at least not in the same way as Skyrim.

I haven't tested stealth melee but judging from the low damage numbers I can't imagine it being very good. The stealth perk only gives bonuses to suppressed weapons, not melee attacks. So very quickly, melee could potentially fall behind. There's a blurb somewhere on TVtropes on Starfield that mentions that melee is almost completely useless as 98% of enemies will be shooting at you. I only see a melee enemy once in a while, meanwhile Starfield follows the same formulae of "dungeon bosses" that they did in Skyrim. The area's boss can be about 8-15 levels above you and they can hit incredibly hard with the scaling so it's a bad time to try and rush them while they're dumping bullets on full automatic.

So there's no sneaky stabby here, the game's main stealth conceit is making sure you're a suppressed sniper. And I haven't even acquired a proper sniper rifle yet but I have a silenced pistol and single shot rifle that do just fine.

Now, shooting a spacer in the head will still put your stealth meter in the orange and force enemies to patrol. I think over a decade of Skyrim (and even some in Fallout 4) have made the open world RPG gamer community a bit complacent, as everyone seems to miss the days where you could silently pick enemies off without their mates knowing. But if a spacer sees their heavily armored mate hit the deck with a crack in their helmet and blood on the ground, they will of course start doing some patrolling. They'll give up the search eventually.

However, enemy sight lines are both incredibly wide and far reaching to the point where there's a mod with 170,000 downloads trying to nerf them. I might have to get it.

So let's veer into the game's stealth faction, Ryujin Industries. Supposedly this game's version of the Thieves Guild, with Neon City serving as a cyberpunk version of Riften. Their introduction was neat, giving me a fair bit of Arasaka-but-worse, with their black/red motif and Japanese ownership. I liked their vibe, especially since I am effectively playing the same character I do on 2077.

I briefly had a few warning signs before being given one very good mission, then it went downhill.

First, Ryujin has a fairly strict no-murder policy. Now I have no idea if they actually kick you out or not because I tried to play by their rules for the experience but I do know you get chastised if you do actually kill anyone. This actually proves to be a huge detriment as you can't eliminate patrollers without angering your employers. I think they took Skyrim's TG as a lesson about how you could murderhobo your way through that questline without much of an issue but they forgot to split the difference. Starfield could have benefitted from Oblivion's style where if you kill someone in the same interior as where your job is supposed to be, you get kicked out of the guild. In Skyrim, Fallout, and otherwise I think Beth doesn't want people to lose out on content so they try to make everything accessible. They should be appealing to logic. If you fucked up, reload a last save you filthy animal.

The first five or so missions are like a baby's introduction to basic espionage. Go hack someone's computer, go slip this item in someone's storage, go talk to a guard to get their keycard (though I think I could have actually just pickpocketed them for that one). There's no danger or any real threat as long as you're not playing a braindead murderhobo.

To contrast, Skyrim's thieves guild sets you loose pretty quickly. You have the two radiant questgivers, all give 7 or so different "types" of missions to pick from. (This comes as a post-questline reward for Ryujin). So you can pick up two (more with mods) of those and go to the island estate to sneak around a bandit-controlled base. Now it still encourages stealth because those mercenaries have absolutely ungodly amounts of hitpoints, like five times the amount their counterparts in the open world do. They only hit as hard as their level demands (and wielding iron weapons) but if you're a fledgling thief they can be a real bastard to deal with in open combat.

That's what Ryujin should have done. Beef up the security, let us kill them if we have to but you can still figure out how to punish us for entering open combat beyond some chastising in dialog. As it stands I save-scummed through some missions (the penultimate mission, which we'll get to, I think I near broke my F9 key) but ultimately got through a majority of the questline with nary a bad word to my name. I think on any NG+ I might go get a bit head-shotty and see if I get kicked out completely. If I do, then that means Beth weren't fucking cowards and my previous commentary is null and void.

So after baby mode I am given a mission where I'm like oh hell yeah, the actual questline is starting. It's the mission called "Background Checks". Without spoiling any specifics about it, you're actually infiltrating your own employer's base (everyone but a security team is given some fake story about maintenance) to hack into an employee's computer to find some potential espionage. All well and good. The layout should already be partially familiar to you, the vent system is unlocked for your benefit... After that you're just ducking and weaving through some hallways in order to get to the computer. There was a moment where I had to savescum through a couple of encounters because the stealth... just isn't quite there.

So the perk system isn't as robust as Skyrim's was. There's literally only one stealth perk that eventually, all it does is make you 100% harder to detect while also giving the final benefit of opening doors not alerting enemies. Helpful, right. I also made sure to unequip my space suit which you are still technically wearing even if you clicked the option to "hide in settlements", but you're still wearing it and benefit from the stats. Well that's more weight, and it makes you "louder". And let me tell you, it only helps slightly. So with the perks, the weight knowledge, and even eventually an outfit that adds another 25% more detection reduction, I keep running into situations where I peak into a hallway or slightly out a doorway and my alert meter goes from "Hidden" to 90% into the orange "caution" notation in a single second. A half second more and it's red and put in "danger", where enemies will open fire and sound alarms. I still can't grasp why this is, except that they're still working on outdated Fallout 4 coding where some similar problems persist even then.

Beth caught some flack because Starfield is still running on a decade old engine. That wouldn't have bothered me because some of these problems didn't exist with Skyrim. I've had my stealth fuckups on Skyrim but they still didn't cascade in an entire base or cavern assaulting me. Usually just the immediate area. That went away in Fallout 4 with ballistic coding, where a single missed bullet, suppressed or not, will send legions of enemies to investigate you.

So after the quite excellent "Background Checks" mission you're given two other missions and they're... fine, but basic. You can infiltate some criminal base with a couple different options but the option I took I was literally able to just walk in, not make a fuss, talk to the person, then leave. So it was more of a persuasion minigame than a stealth mission. Same with the mission after that. With one or two persuasions you can literally just talk to two guys and pick up a briefcase that doesn't even have the stolen tag on it. Despite you stealing it, it's still something of a scripted event where a guy won't leave his desk. (Maybe he does and I didn't give him enough time). Either way, both missions are thematically fine for the story its telling. I just didn't sneak through them.

And now we approach the problem with Ryujin. We're forced to not defend ourselves properly, at least not in a preventative capacity. There is a damage type where you can nuke robots faster and stun human enemies but that's already a post-fuckup option. During this questline we still can't just snipe guards from afar to make the pathing easier. I did everything Starfield wanted me to do within my power and abilities. Rank 4 in the stealth perk. That one piece of clothing. Took off my space suit. I used detection based chems. Yet even still if you're in the vaguest periphery of the enemy, your hidden meter hits the orange instantly. This is the problem I had with the penultimate mission, "Sabotage".

This is essentially the finale. In theory this should be the "test" of all the things you've learned before, in a normal game. It's not. You're given one skill of "Manipulation" which allows you to temporarily mind control people. You can make them run off, open doors, use objects, etc. Typically in the fashion of getting them out of your way. Half the time it doesn't work and just puts me in their sightlines which was a huge problem in this mission.

It's tutorialized once, where it took me several attempts to even get the guy to move before finally getting it done. I barely learned how the mechanic actually functions, and then I'm shoved off to do this multilayered, multi-objective espionage assault on a rival company. There's elevators, you activate some gas leak to get all the civilians to leave, it's like a whole fucking thing.

It's fucking awful.

Maybe my second attempt will be better. Maybe I should have picked some more pockets. But the mission didn't give me room to learn and breathe.

I wasn't clear on the order of operations. You're able to get into one floor freely, and I tried breaking into other places that way but there were too many guards everywhere. I later then realize; I probably should have just done the gas-evacuation. Several alerts and reloads later I just full on reload an actual save, not just a quicksave, back at the beginning of the tower and I go hit the gas leak. So now most people are gone and the tower is replaced with specific patrolling-type enemies.

They were fucking awful.

I don't know if it was coding, behavior, or all stealth concepts just glitched out on me fully. All the problems I listed before came to me on this mission full force, a wrecking ball to my patience. Between quickloads, enemies would sometimes stop patrolling and just stare down the hallway I needed to go. At one point, dozens of quickloads and attempts, I was once stuck in this room with some guy who just wouldn't stop looking at the doorway I was in. I'd peak out the door and get hit with full caution or danger/alarms instantly.

I only fixed this by letting it go full orange which put him in a semi-alert status and only then would he actually move a bit. He and his buddy came to the door, gave up, and I could sneak behind them as they were walking away. Ten minutes of this shit and it wasn't even where I needed to be at all.

Also during that, my objective kind of glitched on me. The only marker was on the elevator which didn't work. I don't know if it's because the building was on lockdown or what. Where I ACTUALLY needed to be was back in the Marketting area (the place you can get legit access to) and find some vents and shafts and make your way deeper into the level.

And let me tell you, the actual level design... was fine. You can sneak on the vents and actually hop on the lights at catwalks and sneak above people. The same option was a thing back in the superior mission "Background Checks". So in theory we'd be familiar with the lessons. The design of the place itself was fine, but everything else was dogshit.

I was fucking around this mission for something to the tune of an hour and a half. I eventually gave the fuck up completely and someone on a discord server told me about the "tdetect" cheat which turns off enemies ability to see you. And EVEN THEN it still took me 10-15 minutes or so to find my way back down to the place where I was to steal a prototype. I literally couldn't figure out where to go even without worrying about enemies. Not because the level design was broke, but because the game itself kind of broke on me. Stealth wasn't working. The elevator didn't work. My objective marker didn't work. Players can whine about objective markers if they want but I did play Morrowind and was able to read the journal because NPC's gave you exact directions. There was no direction here, was the problem. Just "go do these five things," which is why losing the objective marker was such a problem at one point.

That last mission pissed me off that I just wrote 2550 words (that's about a chapter in a fucking novel) to rant about it.

Crazy thing is, the storyline wrapped up really well. The final-final mission is this unique thing where you go lobby a bunch of board members, and you can choose the level of ethics to employ on two different issues at once. It was really cool with a lot of dialog options and that characterization from the leadership I so craved from before.

To contrast, in Skyrim's Thieves Guild, you work with the leadership often. They give you those radiant quests, you're sent to speak with them to get tips on the mission. In the first mission, talking to one of them will give you some characterization about infiltration; and she points out an extra entry point that avoids guards. Ryujin needed more of that here. They really should have brought the lessons they learned with the Dark Brotherhood as well. In Oblivion and Skyrim's DB questlines, you're encouraged to speak with every guildmate and they'll often offer some kind of insight to the mission. Sometimes it's just a quip, but other times they'll actually give you an idea of positioning or something.

All of that soul is lost here. They hit the vibe. The story is actually really neat and fairly underplayed compared to a lot of other things. Nothing particularly world-shattering (except the issue of the whole mind control device, which you can address at the end), just a bit of Corpo on Corpo violence. There was a lot to like and it just came up a bit short for me.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[gamesception]

So here's the new toy that's been distracting me the last couple days. My decade+ old oversized ASUS gaming laptop finally pooped out several months ago, leaving me daily driving my Steam Deck of all things as my main home computer. And don't get me wrong, the Deck has performed remarkably well in that regard, but I've been meaning to get something a bit fancier for a while. Something that could handle 1440p gameplay at a decent framerate while streaming or recording, can manage image and video editing well, and in particular can run some VR games. I've been interested in VR gaming ever since Lobac posted about some of that a while back, especially with the Meta Quest 2 being a solid headset at a really aggressive cost. With the Zuck giving up on the metaverse, the Quest is likely never going to be cheaper than it is now.

I'd waffled for a while about building a PC, but in the end I psyched myself out and decided to go with a pre-built instead. Yes, that means willfully overpaying for the end product by a few hundred bucks to pay someone else to do the assembly and initial set up for me, but in exchange I only had to research one product instead of half a dozen separate components, plus there's a single warranty where if anything doesn't work it's somebody else's problem to fix it, and I'd only have to deal with a delay.

After watching and reading a bunch of reviews, Skytech seemed to be a decent choice for system integrator, with solid to positive reviews for various prebuilt models they offer, including Gamer's Nexus who tend to be pretty harsh on pre-builts. But it was this review from JustIN Tech that sold me on this Azure 2 model. "Performance equivalent to last gens best, but at half the price" is the exact tag line I was looking for, and after a recent price discount it was just within my $2k range.

In retrospect though, I should have done some more research on the specific components. I'm quite happy with the intel 13600 cpu, and while the included cooling setup is overkill for that chip, that just means I've got some free thermal space to overclock or upgrade in the future. Plus, it's pretty, and I'm shallow. On the other hand it turns out the nvidia 4070ti is not well thought of - generally considered badly overpriced, plus has the extra negetive association of being just a rebranding of the failed '4080 12gb' that was so roundly panned that its release had to be canned altogether. And the PNY model that came bundled in my unit isn't even as nice as the Gigabyte one in the JustIN Tech review. One of the reasons why Gamer's Nexus is the better channel for these sorts of reviews is that they do secret shopper and get the same stuff regular folks get, where as brands know what they're sending to channels like JustIN Tech and can take pains to make the best possible impression by including better components and taking extra care in assembly and packaging.

So what should I have purchased instead? I don't know. Maybe the 'blue' model of the same Azure 2 line, which is three hundred dollars cheaper to swap out the 4070ti for an intel Arc a770, which would probably have been more than enough for my intended use cases. Heck, with 4 extra gb of vram it might have even been better than the 4070ti for me in the long term, and if not then I could use the money saved towards swapping out to a better AMD card next gen. But the blue model comes in a blue version of the case, which wouldn't have made the swirly rainbow rbgs pop as much.

Anyway, while I might have made a different choice if I had done more research, that doesn't mean I'm at all unhappy with what I got! The Azure 2 arrived promptly. The build quality of the system is very nice. No damage, no loose or cross-threaded screws. Everything worked right out of the box when plugged in - including all the various external ports. Skytech certainly did a good job putting it all together. While the 4070ti might not be the most reasonably priced card for its performance level, now that it's here and paid for regardless, it seems like it should be able to do everything I want it to, at least for now. And if I end up replacing the gpu sooner then I would have liked, eh, we live and learn.

And while it doesn't matter at all compared to cost and performance, the swirly rainbow rgb lighting makes me feel like a Real Gamer (tm).

Desk is getting a bit cluttered tho.

As for performance, It's quiet and runs cool while playing my current games at top settings - though my particular game selection (mostly just Elden Ring on max settings with Ray Tracing), and my 1080p, 75hz monitor aren't exactly putting it through its paces yet. A new monitor is one of several upgrades & accessories I plan to get to go with this thing in coming months. New monitor, VR headset, an extra ssd on which to install linux - I figure I'll keep the windows install on the side, on the off chance there are games or utilities I can't get running in Linux down the line.

But anyway yeah, that's what I've been so busy with lately, delaying liveblog posts.

[elsa16744]

Top Strategies for Successful Deal Sourcing in Private Equity 

Correct deal sourcing ensures long-term success. Remember, without a steady flow of quality investment opportunities, even the leading private equity (PE) firms can quickly fall behind their competitors. Therefore, deal sourcing is not merely about finding companies to invest in. Rather, it is about capturing the promising opportunities without being left out. This post will explore the top strategies enabling private equity firms to optimize deal sourcing. 

What is Deal Sourcing? 

Deal sourcing or deal origination involves multiple practices aimed at discovering the investment opportunities and business merger possibilities that yield the best above-the-market returns. It also prioritizes risk assessments that conform to investor profiles or company leadership’s expectations. Comparing multiple investment opportunities is vital to avoid investing in a less competitive corporation. Besides, several relationship management and pitch deck creation methods can affect how what deal sourcing in private equity entails, resulting in variations across PE firms. 

What Are the Top Deal Sourcing Strategies in the Private Equity Space? 

1. Building Strong Relationships 

A tried and tested strategy to source deals lets stakeholders thrive using private equity. It might involve developing and nurturing strong relationships. Connecting with business owners, industry experts, and intermediaries will also open more doors to exclusive opportunities. Most private equity companies create these relationships over the years, but sometimes, doing so takes decades. 

Attending industry conferences, taking part in networking events, and constantly engaging with stakeholders develop credibility and trust. Credibility and trust facilitate early insights into companies looking for investors or acquisition opportunities. 

Maintaining relationships with intermediaries means networking with investment bankers, brokers, and lawyers. This practice is important because they are often the first to know when a business is ready to explore new capital. They also understand when to sell an asset based on market conditions. By being a reliable and proactive partner, firms offering private equity services can get early access to promising deals. 

2. Upgrading Technology and Data Analytics 

Most industries have refined their workflows to prepare for data-driven environments. Financial sectors are no exceptions to this trend. Accordingly, successful deal sourcing relies on technology and advanced data analytics. Private equity firms are now using proprietary databases. They also seek relevant artificial intelligence tools or machine learning modeling methods. 

Once selected, new tech often helps PE firms sort and explore extensive data volumes. As a result, they can swiftly identify potential investments with better yields. Related tools also allow firms to evaluate industries and analyze market trends for under-the-radar opportunities. 

For example, automated data scraping and sentiment analysis will successfully point out companies picking up steam or receiving good reviews. Their attractiveness as assets in their respective markets will be governed by many metrics. 

However, technology upgrades enable private equity professionals to track and analyze them. Consider historical performance variations, financial health, and growth potential of thousands of companies. Automating their examination allows for quicker, more informed decisions to be made. At the same time, processing data faster than the competition can give firms a huge edge. 

3. Proactive Sector Specialization 

Another popular and effective strategy for successful deal sourcing is sector specialization. In this case, many private equity advisory teams will focus on specific industries where they possess deep knowledge. For instance, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, or consumer goods. By narrowing their focus, firms can develop a nuanced understanding of sector dynamics. They can also surpass generalist PE firms when it comes to grasping competitive landscapes’ threats and potential growth opportunities. 

Sector specialization allows firms to recognize trends and anticipate market shifts before other financial guidance providers do so. It ultimately helps PE professionals build credibility within a given industry. Furthermore, business owners are often more comfortable partnering with them to get investors who have an informed understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities of their sector. This expertise will undoubtedly lead to more inbound deal opportunities. 

Additionally, by focusing on a specific sector, it becomes easier for firms to identify standalone investment opportunities along with potential synergistic acquisitions. In turn, ambitious portfolio improvement goals become feasible. This strategic approach creates a snowball effect where one successful investment triggers further opportunities. 

4. Proprietary Deal Flow Development 

Sometimes, relying solely on intermediated deal sourcing can lead to intense competition. The unwanted outcomes of similar circumstances often include inflated valuations. How can PE firms mitigate this? They must develop proprietary deal flow channels. In other words, they will identify and engage potential targets directly rather than waiting for an intermediary. 

Firms achieve this by conducting market research on attractive companies. Later, they interact with company owners and executives to build trust-driven relationships. While cold outreach is daunting, successful outreach assures great rewards. To this end, stakeholders must execute these efforts thoughtfully. 

A firm that takes the time to understand a company’s business, goals, and needs before making contact is far more likely to create meaningful conversations. On the other hand, a lack of proprietary deal flow development can hinder communications. 

It is truly labor-intensive but helps PE firms gain access to deals that their competitors likely have no clue about. This exclusive access, therefore, leads to better pricing, more favorable terms, and less competition. 

5. The Use of Buy-Side Advisors 

Buy-side advisors often provide private equity professionals with the expertise they need to improve their deal sourcing. These advisors specialize in identifying and evaluating potential investments based on the firm’s criteria. They use their intelligence networks, market insights, and industry expertise to identify opportunities that a firm would not have considered on its own. 

These advisors also excel at conducting due diligence. Their approach includes checking enterprise track records to ensure that the investments will meet the client firm’s standards and expectations. That is why PE stakeholders can optimize efficiency and divert their in-house resources to higher-value activities. Outsourcing a few activities in deal sourcing to experienced professionals will also help distribute data-related risks. 

6. Strengthening the Brand and Reputation 

Reputation is everything in private equity. Consequently, PE firms that have integrity, expertise, and an ability to add value to their portfolio companies will be far more likely to receive inbound deal flow. Remember, business owners want to partner with PE professionals they trust. It is no wonder that a strong brand assists in attracting and securing high-quality investment opportunities. 

Developing a reputed brand requires consistent efforts in thought leadership, public relations (PR), and proven track records. Accordingly, publishing industry reports, speaking at conferences, and sharing case studies of successful investments can help PE firms position themselves as leaders in their fields. When business owners think of potential investors, firms with a visible and positive reputation are more likely to come to mind. 

Conclusion 

Successful deal sourcing in private equity requires relationship-building strategies powered by technological innovation and sector expertise. Proactive outreach is also integral to increasing awareness about what the PE firms do. Meanwhile, a strong brand reputation augments networking efforts as more business owners and investors habitually think of the firm. 

By using these strategies, private equity firms can ensure a steady pipeline of high-quality opportunities across deal sourcing. They can position themselves for long-term success and competitive resilience while creating lasting values for their investors and portfolio companies. 

[excellencejanitorialservices2]

Do Your Bakersfield Property need Professional Pressure Washing?

Bakersfield's sunny climate, while delightful for enjoying the outdoors, during different seasons there is build-up of dirt, dust, and grime on your property's exterior. Over time, these elements dull the shine and curb appeal of your home. But fear not! Pressure washing services can be the key to restoring your property's lost lustre.

Benefits of Pressure Washing for Your Bakersfield Home

Pressure washing is a powerful cleaning technique that consist of a high-pressure water or steam to remove dirt, grime, mildew, and other stubborn stains from various exterior surfaces. Here's how this service can significantly enhance your Bakersfield home:

Enhanced Beauty and Curb Appeal: Imagine a driveway free of tire marks, siding sparkling clean, and walkways devoid of dirt. Pressure Washing Service in Bakersfield can dramatically improve the visual appeal of your property, making it look fresh and inviting.

Increased Property Value: A well-maintained property with a clean exterior is likely to hold its value better. If you're considering selling your home, pressure washing can be a worthwhile investment to attract potential buyers and potentially increase its market value.

Improved Safety: Pressure washing removes slippery substances like algae and mildew, making walkways, patios, and other exterior surfaces safer for you, your family, and guests.

Protects Building Materials: Grime and dust erode the elegance of siding and other exterior surfaces over time. Regular pressure washing helps remove these contaminants, extending the lifespan of your property's exterior paint or surfaces saving you money on restoration.

What Surfaces Can Be Pressure Washed?

Professional pressure washing services can revitalize a variety of exterior surfaces on your Bakersfield property, including:

Driveways and walkways

Siding (various materials)

Patios and decks

Fences and retaining walls

Rooftops (low-pressure cleaning is recommended for roofs)

Selection Process of the Right Pressure Washing Service in Bakersfield

For optimal results, consider hiring a professional Pressure Washing Service in Bakersfield. Below are some significant measures to while making your choice:

Experience and Reputation: Go for a company with a positive track record of delivering professional pressure washing service in the area. Positive customer reviews are a good indicator of a company's quality and reliability.

Insurance and Licensing: Ensure the company is properly insured and licensed to operate in Bakersfield. This protects you in case of any unforeseen accidents during the cleaning process.

Services Offered: Select a provider that offers services that fulfils your specific requirements. Whether you require cleaning for your driveway, siding, or entire exterior, select the company with the expertise and equipment to handle the job.

Equipment and Techniques: Inquire about the type of equipment and cleaning techniques used by the company. Professional companies will use safe and appropriate pressure levels for different surfaces to avoid any damage.

Revitalize Your Home Today!

By utilizing a professional Pressure Washing Service in Bakersfield, you can restore the beauty, functionality, and value of your Bakersfield property's exterior surfaces. This investment will not only enhance the visual appeal of your home but also improve safety and extend the exterior before painting.

[govindhtech]

New SSD Stick: The Potential of the SK Hynix Tube T31

M.2 on SSD Stick SK hynix Tube T31 Review

Sk hynix’s Tube T31 blurs the barrier between flash drives and external SSDs more than before. The South Korean storage giant calls its drive “a portable and high-speed USB SSD,” yet it features a “thumb-drive” form factor and a 10 Gbps USB-A connection that will be known to flash drive owners from the last 20 year.

Perhaps most crucially, the Tube T31 outperformed all other flash drives, including Kingston’s Data Traveler Max, in most tests. Despite not reaching 20 Gbps like other external SSDs, it’s the quickest USB-A flash drive they’ve tested and a solid contender on the Best Flash Drives list.

Only the Tube T31’s bulkiness and lack of a 2TB model bother me. If the 1TB model they tried cost $5-10 less, it would be easier to recommend. As of this writing, the SK hynix drive was selling for $85 on Newegg, $4 cheaper than the 1TB Kingston Data Traveler Max and $6 less than Transcends 1TB ESD 310C, two of the prior fast flash drive recommendations.

Tube T31 Specs

Product512GB1TBPricing$69.99$84.99Interface / ProtocolUSB-A 3.2 Gen2USB-A 3.2 Gen2Sequential ReadUp to 1,000 MB/sUp to 1,000 MB/sSequential WriteUp to 1,000 MB/sUp to 1,000 MB/sDimensions3.64 x 1.20x 0.55 inches (92.5mm x 30.5mm x 14mm)3.64 x 1.20x 0.55 inches (92.5mm x 30.5mm x 14mm)Weight35 grams35 gramsWarranty3 years3 years

Exterior Design

Tube T31 package describes it as a vacuum tube-light bulb hybrid. The drive’s rounded edges and solid plastic case feel more like a beautiful lighter or a USB Wi-Fi dongle in the hand.

The drive’s matte-black plastic shell is basic except for the SK hynix logo and regulatory text on the rear. It appreciate that it’s comfy, familiar, and subtly quirky. It fits easily in most pockets because to its 0.55-inch thickness and rounded edges.

A metal shell would be great, but years of using other drives have taught me that plastic holds up better to minor bumps and scrapes. The manufacturer claims the drive can withstand two-meter falls.

Inside Tube T31

A metal spudger along the Tube T31’s exterior seams made entry easier. Remove the cover to reveal a 42mm M.2 SSD. That’s between the best Steam Deck SSDs’ 30mm size and the usual 80mm size for desktops and laptops. It’s an HFM001TD3HX015N EA PCIe 3.0 drive with a JMicron JMS583 USB bridge controller on the other side of the PCB.

SK Hynix placed metal plates on each side of the drive and controller, bridged with a small thermal pad, for cooling and structural rigidity. Even though an x2 controller and 10 Gbps USB-A interface slow the PCIe x4 disc, this solution performs well, as we’ll see in the next section.

Comparing Products

The 1TB SK hynix Tube T31 is pricey on Amazon at $99 (and $79 for the 512GB variant). Newegg’s 1TB T31 costs $84.99, undercutting the Kingston DatanTraveler Max and Transcend’s 1TB ESD 310C. The prior high-speed favourites, those two competing drives, will be intriguing to compare against the T31.

Since the Buffalo SSD-PUT is only 600 MBps, I expect the T31 to perform better. Since the Buffalo drive is typically on sale for $60–$65 for 1TB and less than $100 for 2TB, it’s a favourite for most people. Currently, the 1TB Buffalo drive costs $89.

A novel storage device, the SK Hynix Tube T31 combines the lightning-fast capabilities of an M.2 SSD with the portability of a USB flash drive.

Here is a brief summary of its main attributes:

Extreme Quickness:

Has an integrated M.2 NVMe SSD with read/write rates of over 1,000 MB/s, which is much quicker than conventional flash drives.

Superior in speed even compared to external SSD.

Style:

Has a plastic casing that resembles a big USB flash drive with a protective cap over the USB-A socket.

It’s heavier than a normal flash drive because of the inbuilt SSD, and it may block nearby USB ports on your device.

Lacks a lanyard loop, which may make it difficult for some users to carry about.

Additional Points to Consider

512GB and 1TB capacity options are available.

Generally solidly constructed and feels durable.

There is no mention of data security encryption or associated software.

On some devices, USB-A connectivity may limit its speed in comparison to more recent USB standards.

All things considered, the SK Hynix Tube T31 is a fantastic choice for consumers who value mobility and quickness while doing things like moving big files or playing games from an external drive.

But other people might find its larger form size and absence of USB-C to be disadvantages.

Conclusion

SK Hynix’s choice of a PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD, x2 controller, and 10 Gbps USB-A port is strange. Internal drives and USB-C ports can be speedier. Faster speeds may have required more complex or robust cooling. It’s true that 10 Gbps USB-A ports are more frequent than 20 Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen2 2×2) ports (which are backward compatible). Perhaps the firm prioritized compatibility and convenience over performance.

Luckily tested no faster USB-A “flash drive” or “SSD stick” than the Tube T31. It’s easy to recommend for a portable drive without 20 Gbps speeds or a capacity beyond 1TB. Its size may impede nearby ports. On a PC, you probably have a few empty USB-A ports.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

[crazydiscostu]

Jsaux Steam Deck Shoulder Bag

The Jsaux Steam Deck Shoulder Bag has been designed for gamers on the go and has caught the attention of Steam Deck enthusiasts and handheld gaming aficionados alike. Its assertive promise of protecting the users valuable gaming consoles and accessories is certainly intriguing, but does it live up to the hype? Lets find out! Product supplied for review purposes Jsaux Shoulder Bag For Steam Deck…

[fridge-reviews]

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Blast Review

Developer: Relic Entertainment Steam Deck Compatibility?: Playable Rrp: £27.99 (Gog.com) - Base Version £31.99 (Steam) and £39.99 (Humble) - Anniversary Edition

Please note that the version of the game I played was not the Anniversary Edition and did not come with multiplayer or the DLC’s relating to that. However, the version I have does come with all the other extra bonuses that Anniversary Edition includes such as the soundtrack etc.

Since the sequel has recently come out I thought I’d check out the previous one and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed at all. Being that this game is quite a bit older (having come out in 2011) it doesn’t have the more crisp looking graphics of its sequel and brown is definitely the more predominantly used colour for most of the game. That being said, the level and overall architectural design really do wonders to capture the feel of the universe in which this game is set. 

What’s quite interesting about this game is that initially it looks like it's supposed to play like something like Gears of War, where you’re going from cover to cover trying to shoot the enemy and that melee combat is to be avoided for the most part. That isn’t the case here, sure your guns are powerful but this game wants you to be in the thick of melee, there are no chest high walls for you to cower behind. The ranged weapons you have are mostly there to thin the herd, not eliminate them entirely. This is reinforced by the fact that the only way you can regain health is by stunning enemies and executing them in melee, similar to the glory kill system in Doom 2016.

I had a real blast playing this game and I highly recommend giving it a go. Also what’s quite interesting is the fact that this game is actually a prequel to Boltgun and is set on the same planet. 

---- If you’d like to support me I have a Ko-fi, the reviews will continue to be posted donation or not.

[jcmarchi]

The Steam Deck OLED Review

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-steam-deck-oled-review/

The Steam Deck OLED Review

The Steam Deck OLED releases today, providing a new avenue for game players (especially those with big Steam libraries) to take their gaming experience on the go. The new OLED models (one at 512 GB and another at 1TB storage) effectively replace the original release as the new Steam Deck flagship hardware. The older 64 GB and 512 GB LCD models are being phased out, while the 256 GB LCD will remain available at a reduced price.

Steam Deck OLED is not a fundamentally new platform. In many ways that matter, our review of the original still stands, and snagging one of the older LCD screen models is now an even more substantial value at the lower price. However, several of the concerns that surfaced in that review have been remedied by the new model – enough that a new evaluation is warranted.

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While I had few complaints about the original screen, there’s no doubt that the new OLED is a step up. It’s also slightly larger, by about half an inch, which is a pleasant bonus. The brightness of graphics on the screen is particularly noticeable, as are color gradations. A play session with the recent indie darling, Jusant, revealed breathtaking landscapes and a rich color palette that look just as good as they would on a great gaming monitor. Black levels were also impressive; a trip down the highway of Darkest Dungeon II was foreboding and pleasantly bleak. The detailed landscapes of Baldur’s Gate 3 popped off the screen, and character portraits looked lifelike. The HDR capability also impresses in games like Ori and the Will of the Wisps, making tiny shifts in shadow depth in dim environments appear realistic and beautiful.

One of my chief concerns with the original model was battery life. A portable gaming system is all well and good, but the fun evaporates quickly if you can only get a few hours of play. The original Steam Deck wasn’t terrible in that regard, but it wasn’t a high point. Thankfully, the new Steam Deck OLED makes major strides in this department. It’s hard to quantify, given that different use cases result in vastly different battery life. But, in general, I found game sessions lasting a good couple of hours longer before a charge became necessary, compared to my tests of the original model. Valve’s claims of 30% to 50% better battery life are, at worst, conservative estimates.

The form factor hasn’t changed substantially. Like with the original model, I don’t love the high placement of the thumbsticks, but the haptic feedback on the touchpads is quite cool. The curved grips comfortably fit adult hands and fingers. It’s a smidge lighter; I’ll admit that I barely noticed the difference, but given that one of my criticisms of the original was its size and weight, it’s worth a call-out. Overall, the OLED model still feels a little bulky in hand, but nothing that should scare away an enthusiast.

I also noted that the new OLED model doesn’t run as hot as the original; that was never a dealbreaker for me, but it’s a pleasant change. And while not every home Wi-Fi system will be able to leverage the advantage, it’s nice to see support for Wi-Fi 6E; when available, that adds up to faster downloads.

In the interim since our original review of the Steam Deck, Valve has also continued to expand its library of games that are “Verified” for Steam Deck. While not technically a part of our hardware evaluation, it’s notable here as you consider a possible purchase; players now have a vast library of verified games running well on Steam Deck. In practical terms, whether you play on the new OLED model or one of the older LCDs, a much more extensive library of enjoyable games makes it worth your time and money.

Over the months since the original Steam Deck’s launch, other companies have continued to push into this portable PC gaming space; we’re very enthusiastic about the ROG Ally, for instance. But Valve makes a potent argument for the value of its new Steam Deck OLED for those players who’ve still been waiting to snag a portable gaming PC. It looks and plays great, features better battery life than the original, and makes minor changes to an array of onboard systems, such as increased bass response in the audio or faster battery charging, that add up to a better overall experience. It’s an easy recommendation for those who have been waiting to take the leap.

The OLED model is a tougher sell for early adopters who purchased a Steam Deck in 2022. Undoubtedly, it’s a step up in ways that matter, but it’s a considerable expense for only incremental change. If you’re looking for the definitive portable Steam game player, it’s undoubtedly the way to go, but be prepared for only minor changes to the overall experience.

The Verdict

The Steam Deck OLED improves on almost all the features that were problems in the original model’s release and makes a strong case for being the portable gaming PC to beat – though the competition is steeper now than it was at the original model’s launch. A beautiful screen and excellent battery life are the chief attention-getters amid a slew of minor updates that add up to a big difference.

Release

November 16

Price

$549 (512GB), $649 (1TB)

More Information

store.steampowered.com/steamdeck

[gertlushgaming]

Aces And Adventures Review (Steam)

 For our Aces And Adventures Review, we play a deckbuilding RPG with poker-powered combat. Craft your deck, combining poker hands with powerful ability cards. Journey through 13 fully-voiced campaigns to save the Life Tree, or tackle procedurally-generated runs in this strategic deck builder unlike any other.

Aces And Adventures Review Pros:

- Decent graphics. - 1.9GB download size. - Steam achievements. - Graphics settings - resolution, v-sync, fullscreen, resolution scale, quality preset, particle/foliage quality, motion blur, depth of field, ambient occlusion, bloom, and volumetric lighting. - Game settings - language, main hand scale, tutorial messages, 3D tooltips, map tooltips, sync the narrative, hover for tooltips, show potential damage, auto select target, and quick mana vial animations. - Can rebind controls for the mouse. - The help section in the menu shows valid hands. - Card battler gameplay. - Four character cards to unlock - Rogue, Mage, Hunter, and Enchantress. - Fully voiced from character interactions to card descriptions. - Attack by selecting valid poker hands from your cards dealt. - Damage is calculated by how many cards you played and not the card's value. - Defending attacks can be done by matching the number of cards used to damage. - Upon a successful defense, the attacker takes the damage. - Easy to control with just the mouse. - A card's health is represented by a dice underneath. - Your story is told via cards and is determined by the story chosen. - Level up to get new abilities, rewards, and cards. - Opening tutorial with I going pop-ups. - Helpful text pop-ups, won't let you do any card hands or play without an attack counter. - Get shield dice that absorb hits before your health dice. - You can fast-forward the dialogue. - Cool card art. - Traits change how a card works. - Guard is a trait that means that character must be attacked first no matter what. - Uses a standard deck of cards with special ability cards mixed in. - Cards can trigger pop-out animations. - Pick up and inspect any visible card. - Multiple choice encounters, especially choosing the route ahead. - Mama is earned at the end of a run and unlocks ability packs. - Sacrifice ability cards to buy new cards in the shop during a run. - If a damage and defense card value match then no one takes damage. - Fast animations. - It's a very chilled game with simple controls amd laid-back combat. - Very well presented. - Full deck creator for each character. - 13 campaigns to unlock and play. - As you fill up a mana container, you can then use that to grow new leaves on the tree. - Handy save and exit option. Aces And Adventures Review Cons: - The game just jumps straight in and starts a run with story cards etc. - No easy to access cheat sheet menu for legal card hands, instead, it's a case of pressing a button and going to a menu. - Cards have a habit of repeating themselves a lot. - Doesn't explain itself very well. - It feels like luck is the main thing, not skill. - Takes a bit of time to unlock a new character. - A lot of cards will shine and shimmer but it's not always the ideal time to play them. - The defending part of the game takes the most time to learn. - No way to customize the play space. - It really is the first half a dozen runs or so that are the worst as you just play the same story over and over until you get unlocks. Related Post: Bazzle Review (Nintendo Switch OLED) Aces And Adventures: Official website. Developer: Triple.B.Titles Publisher: Yogscast Games Store Links -  Steam Read the full article

[4colorrebellion]

4cr Plays - Freshly Frosted (PS4)

Hi. Anybody still out there? It's been a minute, eh? Life happens, and suddenly it has been quite some time since the last post.

However, sometimes, just when the world is getting to be too much, a metaphorical hand descends from the clouds with a wonderfully wholesome, addictive puzzle game for you to get lost in for a few days. In this case, that game is Freshly Frosted - a sugar and pastel-filled puzzle game about topping and delivering donuts.

I've been sucked into the game recently, and you get to hear all about it.

The core idea at the heart of Freshly Frosted is that your bakery has machines that produce plain donuts and counters where the donuts are served. In between are stations that dispense toppings - frosting, whipped cream, sprinkles, and so on. Your task is to lay conveyer belts in the right configuration to deliver donuts with the correct toppings to the counters.

Take a look at this level here. The machine with green arrows is releasing the plain donuts. Your conveyer belt takes the donut past the frosting machine (in pink), then sprinkles (blue), then whipped cream (white), then cherries (red). Finally, the finished donuts speed towards the exit (the machine with blue arrows at the end).

Now, you can't just lay any conveyer belt in this level. The order of the toppings matters. Additional mechanics are also steadily added that increase the complexity. You might have multiple dispensers, and multiple exits - each demanding a different topping configuration. Later levels get even more complex, adding in pushers, cloners, teleporters, and other complications.

The entire experience has a meditative quality. Mechanics are added slowly and steadily, so while there is a shift in difficulty, you have time to get used to new mechanics before others are introduced. Each puzzle is narrated with a calming voiceover - focused on positive encouragement - and the gentle, catchy soundtrack sucks you in. The art direction itself is also really colorful and pleasing. The end result is this tremendous hit of serotonin that will cure pretty much anything bothering you.

Freshly Frosted has a total of 144 puzzles to solve, split over a series of 12 themed "boxes". Each box has its own theme and new puzzle twists, including the seasons - imagine pumpkin shaped donuts and deep orange and red color selections for the autumn - nights under the moon, and so on.

I've really enjoyed my time with Freshly Frosted. The puzzles are quite satisfying to solve, and the difficulty does ramp up nicely. Still, even the later puzzles are absolutely solvable without a Ph.D., and won't leave you stressed out. There is also a nice hint system if you do get stuck - it gives you a starting point for placing your conveyer belts that you can build off of. If you do get stuck, you can also skip individual puzzles and return to them later.

It's a game that you should absolutely not binge, but play for a puzzle or two at a time to chill out after a long day. I'd guess that a total playthrough would take about 10 hours, maybe less.

If you're looking for a wholesome and addictive puzzle game to get lost in, then I heartily recommend Freshly Frosted. I played on PS4, but would actually say that this game would be best on either Switch or the Steam Deck - something you can take to bed with you to ease your way to sleep. In any case, this is definitely a puzzler worth checking out.

A copy of Freshly Frosted was provided for this review.

[linuxgamenews]

Step into the Mindcop: A Detective Adventure like No Other

Mindcop launches the non-linear whodunnit detective game on Steam Deck and Linux via Windows PC. Developer Andre Gareis brings his creative talents to life. Which you can play now on Steam with its 96% Very Positive reviews. So, after six years of hard work and passion, solo developer Andre Gareis and Dear Villagers have officially launched Mindcop. And yes, it’s Steam Deck verified and playable on Linux via Proton. This isn’t your typical detective title. It’s a unique, non-linear adventure packed with fresh mechanics, clever puzzles, and just enough time pressure to keep you on the edge of your seat. In Mindcop, you step into the shoes of a detective: you’re not just solving crimes — you’re diving into people’s minds. Since this murder mystery is all about making tough choices, uncovering secrets, and cracking lies as you race to catch the killer. With support for multiple languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Which is due to invite players from around the globe to put their sleuthing skills to the test.

Mindcop - Launch trailer

Here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect in this non-linear whodunnit detective game:

WHODUNNIT DONE RIGHT

Forget linear storylines. Gameplay is all about uncovering secrets and piecing together clues your way. Your ultimate goal? Identify the real suspect behind this town’s chilling murder.

MINDSURF MECHANICS

Ever wanted to peek inside someone’s head? In Mindcop, you can. Mindsurfing is a mini-game where you navigate a suspect’s "Sea of Thoughts." This real-time puzzle has you matching items in a fast-paced match-3 title. Win, and you’ll unlock different doors—Lie, Uncertainty, or Truth—that reveal vital details about your suspect’s psyche.

MANAGE YOUR TIME WISELY

You’ve got just five days to solve the case, and every move costs precious time. Investigate smartly, decide what’s worth pursuing, and avoid dead ends. Your decisions lead to one of two possible endings, so choose carefully.

Mindcop is a Labor of Love

For Andre Gareis, this has been more than a game — it’s been a journey. Over six years of development, Gareis poured his love for detective stories and his creative spark into making a title he’s truly proud of. From innovative mechanics to heartfelt narrative writing, this is a rare gem that stands out in the genre. “I wanted to create something special, something uncompromised,” Gareis shares. “As a longtime fan of mystery stories, Mindcop let me explore the genre from a whole new angle. It’s been challenging but so rewarding. And I hope players enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.” So, if you’re ready to put your detective skills to the test, this non-linear whodunnit title is out on Steam. Dive into this thrilling mystery and show the world you’ve got what it takes to solve the case. Out now on Linux and Steam Deck via Windows PC. Priced at $13.49 USD / £11.69 / 13,49€ with the 10% discount.