I’d hardly count something like a simple Solitaire clone app that could be otherwise played for free as a full game release… In terms of actual games, I’d much rather support mobile ports that can be bought for a one time price tag than those that are locked behind a subscription in perpetuity.

The worst culprits though are the EAs and Paradoxes of the world that sell dozens of DLCs for games that cumulatively cost far more than the base game itself.

Admittedly I did need a guide at times for Quern too; I think the best compromise is what Cyan did for Firmament and just include an optional hint system in the game itself. By avoiding the need to consult walkthroughs, not only would excessive spoilers be avoided, but the experience would remain self-contained, something especially important for a VR game.

Something they didn’t fix for the Myst remake that the Myst-like Quern is much better at is not making puzzles so obscure as to essentially require a guide to complete the game. Was anything done about that problem for the Riven remake?

Good on the EU for supporting consumer rights over corporate profits.

Valve could still operate as it currently does, including having sufficient profits to account for R&D and long-term costs, at a lower cut of platform sales (as another commenter mentioned, Gabe Newell’s billion dollar yacht collection is demonstrative of the platform’s profitability, especially when one considers how much it costs to maintain ships). Products such as the Steam Deck make money for Valve too, as Steam Deck users (myself included) statistically buy more games on Steam as a result. I don’t support profiteering efforts by game publishers either, such as the Factorio price increase attributed to inflation, $70 game releases attributed to inflation when digital releases have reduced their costs, and micro transactions in general. In any case, however, given that cost increases are always the consumer’s responsibility, cost decreases should not simply be a means for companies to bolster their profit margins.

Just because there’s an outdated industry standard doesn’t mean it should be perpetuated, let alone supported, for eternity. Valve’s server hosting costs on a per-installation basis have fallen substantially since they first launched Steam, so there’s no reason why the 30% cut is still necessary; even 20% would leave them a sizable profit margin. I’m not a fan of the Epic Game Store for bribing companies to not release their games on Steam for a set amount of time, and choose not to use it as a result, but it’s time that the 30% industry standard be dropped. In purchasing a game I want to support continued development of that franchise, and $15 of a $50 purchase going to the storefront is not only excessive and inflationary, but harms developers as well.

Doesn’t this essentially integrate similar functionality to what one of the Decky plugins had been used for? Great that it’s an official feature now, in any case.

To be fair, some of the mobile ports are improved with controller support added to them. It’s just frustrating that some of them aren’t subsequently ported to PC as well.

Given that compatibility improvements can essentially only be expected from Ryujinx now though, does Ryujinx run as well as Yuzu on the Deck? Ideally I’d like to switch to it entirely unless a viable Yuzu successor emerges, but I’ve heard that it’s not as resource efficient in comparison.

Valve distinguishes between the Steam Deck and other Linux systems in their monthly Steam usage statistics.

No worries, Minesweeper’s definitely a classic!

While Minesweeper’s a great example, since random levels are a feature of nearly every Minesweeper iteration in existence, I mentioned in my post that I was excluding such games from the list. For those looking for such a game though, Globesweeper and Tilesweeper are great options.

While it seems that the new startup movie is exclusive to the 1TB OLED model, is that model’s exclusive keyboard theme the same as the prior 512GB Steam Deck (DEX-85) or a new one?

A remake of Riven in the same vein as the latest Myst remake is among the next projects that Cyan Worlds is working on, so it might be worth waiting until it releases to play Riven.

I’ve been meaning to do a puzzle game recommendation overview on kbin after forgetting to back up an old post on the subject before purging my Reddit account, but I’ll share a few recommendations for the time being. Given that lots of Steam games are a much better deal if you wait for the Winter or Summer sales, I’ll list the regular and expected sale prices as such: (Regular/Sale). Since you’ve played the Portal Games and TSP, other three-dimensional exploration puzzle games in that vein include The Witness ($40/$10), The Talos Principle ($30/$4.50), Quern: Undying Thoughts ($25/$10), and Lightmatter ($20/$7). Among those, I think Quern is the best due to its resemblance to Myst without the solutions to most puzzles being overly obscure. Other three-dimensional puzzle games that focus less on exploration and more on puzzles include The Room Collection ($25/$7) and The House of Da Vinci Complete Bundle ($54/$27), with both series sold as individual games as well.

In terms of longevity, some 2D puzzle games have—in addition to their regular puzzle sets—daily puzzle sets or custom puzzle generation, adding to replay value at the cost of a degree of repetitiveness. These include LYNE ($3/$1.50) and LOOP: A Tranquil Puzzle Game ($5/$2.50), among others.

Steam games are though, which generates far more revenue than Steam Deck sales alone.

A shame that Valve after all this time has yet to leave the Russian market given how many other companies took their losses and left, albeit most of them only doing so to avoid negative reputational impact.

Edit: I’m not against the wellbeing of peaceful Russian citizens who don’t have a say in the crimes that their government and military commit, but as every product sold in Russia directly supports its government via sales tax revenue, each company that continues to operate there makes it easier for the Russian government to find a surplus in its budget for military spending.