I personally think smaller scale 2000s collect-a-thon games like Ty the Tasmanian Tiger hold up pretty well. Never knew that specific series existed until maybe a year or two ago and I gotta say, it’s pretty good and runs real smooth on Dolphin on my Steam Deck ( and coincidentally better than the legitimate PS2 copy I have ).

I personally also think the PS2 Star Wars Battlefront games still hold up well enough. Love the lack of monetization and lack of online play because I hate competitive play as a more casual player.

Those games are definitely pass my recommendation checklist due to the amount/quality of content, and/or replayability level.

Another couple games that pass that checklist would be Final Fantasy X ( I never finished it, but had been enjoying it all the way ) and Sly Cooper 1 ( due to the time trials for each non-boss level adding a good amount of challenge and length ). Both on PS2.

Probably. Though it also doesn’t help with how old it is considering I can do fine enough on city skylines.

I absolutely suck at it, but I started a save on SimCity 3000. I have a lot of learning to do because my city is 100% dying, so I should probably run through the tutorial…

I have also been doing very minor chip damage on completing Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows. I’m far enough along it takes a long time for me to beat any levels. And probably even longer when I finally am able to beat the 200+ wave level.

I also discovered that Portal is now 7.63GB in size currently, after buying The Orange Box for $3.99 and wanting to check out a mod I found for Portal that I didn’t realize wasn’t released yet. Don’t know how big the game originally was on launch, but now it’s nearing the 11.88 GB size of Portal 2, which I find insane.

I also kept failing at Zuma Deluxe due to bad luck and skill issues on my end.

I got to start a furry visual novel I found on itch(dot)io called Promises to Keep. It’s not complete yet, but so far I’m loving it. The character art is nice and the backgrounds are pretty good and I’m really liking the music.

I am absolutely glad I randomly found it on itch.

Just the other day I figured out the Plants vs Zombie fangame has not only a community server ( discord, sadly ), but they also have a demo out! I had an old build using an old engine that has more levels, but I downloaded and played the new demo and it’s amazing so far. Officially called 植物大的僵尸: Universe ( Plants vs Zombies: Universe in English ).

Totally looking forward to the games completion ( assuming neither EA or Talkweb don’t destroy it ) because it’s a very ambitious project trying to take content from, if I remember correctly, pvz1 international, China’s exclusive pvz1 journey to the west edition, 2 international, pvz2 Chinese edition, Online, and the card game ( not 100% sure if I’m right on that one being added ) and rolling it into a single game.

Demo currently gives you Emperor’s Mausoleum from Online and Ancient Egypt (the pvz Online version), with just base levels for now. Minigame side levels, which are present in the old build I have, aren’t currently available in the latest demo they have linked in their discord. As a big enough fan of the non spin-off titles, this makes me very gitty.

Otherwise, more dungeon clawler and that’s about all for non-mobile games. I did try modding Sonic Lost Worlds on PC, but I can’t with my setup.

The X and Y games set in the Kalos ( France ) region. Also the same generation they released Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire ( remakes of Ruby and Sapphire ( based on some part of Japan ) ).

Way too much Dungeon Clawler on my Steam Deck. I think that and a little bit of Baba Is You are mostly the only non-mobile games I’ve really been playing over the past week.

Depends on the game. I’m still a very long ways away from completing it, so please no spoilers, but Sonic Frontiers? They added enough to the open world that it’s fun to run around and do side stuff in. Pokemon Violet? The charm wore out quick enough, making the region feel way too empty compared to most other gens, so no. No clue on the DLC, but I imagine they’re similarly as empty and devoid of NPCs as well. Games like VoxeLibre on Luanti? Wouldn’t want it any other way!

Just got a legit copy of Dungeon Clawler and installed it on my deck and it’s definitely harder than the old version on my laptop. Also, I save scummed the heck out of Dokopon Kingdom on Dolphin over the weekend, until the point the CPU turned evil and finally caught up to me and caused my first death.

I have also been enjoying Sonic Lost Worlds on 3DS (first playthrough), while also having tried a couple levels on PC and I don’t know whether it’s my PC or what, but it’s pretty much the only game I could recommend the console version over the PC version despite absolutely HATING the special stages because of how trash the motion controls and movements are in my opinion.

Specifically on Deck, I think I’ve been relegated to just Pokemon Rejuvenation, Baba Is You, and Gemcraft Frostborn Wrath.

I tried getting gyro controls working for Dolphin to play the 2 Sonic book based games, but I can’t figure it out with my stupidity and cannot find a used compatible USB or bluetooth IFR sensor online for the wii remote I can connect to my deck.

Yeah, looks like one of those gacha games, so I really don’t think OLED Deck or desktop Linux users are missing literally anything whatsoever.

For AI bots, yeah maybe, but that sure as hell ain’t gonna work on a real person who is using deepfake tools to fake their appearance for a live video call.

Absolutely wild stuff, but definitely not unexpected. Scammers gonna scam, just now they have some of the greatest tools to scam people.

Tried getting the gyro on my Steam Deck to work with Dolphin, but no such luck. So I’m back to playing Pokemon Rejuvenation. I think the only other games I have played recently are Plants vs Zombies: Reflourished, Backpack Hero, and Fire Emblem Heroes.

Steam Deck’s touchpad so “too awkward”…

The Steam Deck touchpads are literally the ONLY modern touchpads I like. Every other mother touchpad is absolutely atrocious because they don’t give you anything like a vibration to tell you your mouse is moving and you actually get some level of confirmation you clicked. It feels like every other touchpad out there now, I swear, requires you to attempt to click on the left/right mouse button (completely integrated into the touchpad) about a billion times before it registers that you clicked once.

Also, if the joycons for switch 2 are anywhere near as uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of time like they are for me with regular switch, I guarantee my hand would start hurting after a couple minutes of the, probably gonna be as responsive as a dead man to a cannonball to the face, mouse mode. The premise of turning what could be one of the worst controller designs I’ve ever seen into a mouse makes my hands bleed in pain without having to ever hold one.

Way too much Pokemon Rejuvenation. Basically the overwhelming majority of what I’ve been playing that isn’t PVZ Reflourished and fire emblem heroes on my phone on the bus too and from college.

Just saw a video on Blue Prince earlier. Would totally love to play it but I saw someone play through the demo enough to where I feel spoiled enough to not wanna play it because I know I’d probably just cheat. Probably a game I’d pick up in a few years, after I’ve forgotten it, similar to Baba Is You, which I’ve been stumped on certain levels of recently.

Otherwise I’ve mostly been absolutely addicted to Pokemon Rejuvenation because of debug mode making the game a lot more fun. Absolutely would not recommend it if you don’t like long pokemon games or edgier stories in your pokemon.

Same thing with Feudal Tactics on my phone/laptop. Very simple game. You have a map made up of coloured tiles. Six different colours. Two or more of the same make a city/kingdom(?). Get resources by having/taking over more connected tiles, buy/upgrade people, conquer land, defeat everyone else.

…resin buttons with real bugs inside…

You completely lost me there. Don’t come looking or I will torch the place with a lighter.

As an avid bug hater (creepy crawlies are not for me, ever), I would never use something like that. The metal and stone buttons? Yeah, maybe, depending on price, but definitely not the bug resin buttons.

Saw a video on this earlier and it really makes me think we’re absolutely nowhere near an AI being able to generate a full-on or even a partially playable video game in real time any time soon, much to the dismay of the tech/AI bros.

Also, they talk about making old games portable as though you can’t just boot up a game like Ty the Tasmanian Tiger on an emulator like PCSX2 or Dolphin on a device like a Steam Deck anything similar, all without needing powerful enough systems to run a whole extremely in depth simulation of our universe.

Be prepared to grab your pitchforks and torches! We storm against Goliath as dawn!

All jokes aside, would absolutely love it if a bunch of Sintendo “fans” all stormed the courtroom in support of them to give them to hopefully lower their brand reputation. Not just this potential case, but literally every single time they go to court anywhere.