PC Gaming Discussion

[Julius]

Oh I'm really digging the look of this: Steam have added some official startup videos to the Steam Points Shop! Getting the Ranni Elden Ring one for sure, guess it's time to charge it up for the first time in a minute 

 

[drahkon]

Ohhhh nice

I got the "gyro" one, but the new ones are pretty cool, too.

Thanks to the Steam Deck purchase I have a lot of points left. I might just buy a few and set the start up to pick a random video

[drahkon]

Currently on my first run.

Absolutely incredible. It just plays and feels so well.

And it seems to have all the nice little rogue-lite elements I love. Haven't encountered permanent upgrades, yet, but maybe I'll get to that once I die

[Hero-of-Time]

6 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Currently on my first run.

Absolutely incredible. It just plays and feels so well.

And it seems to have all the nice little rogue-lite elements I love. Haven't encountered permanent upgrades, yet, but maybe I'll get to that once I die

Ive been reading good things about this. Seems to have come out of nowhere.

[drahkon]

Just now, Hero-of-Time said:

Ive been reading good things about this. Seems to have come out of nowhere.

Yeah, if my first impression is indicative of the whole game, this should be the next big roguelite. No idea why there isn't much of a fanfare around it.

It seems very polished and thought-out so far and plays like a charm. Lovely stuff.

*goes back to bed to play this*

[drahkon]

11 hours ago, drahkon said:

After 3 hours I "won" my first run.
Pretty sure I was one hit away from death at the end. The boss made me panic quite a bit

11 hours ago, drahkon said:

Haven't encountered permanent upgrades, yet

They do exist And they are pretty cool.
As H-o-T said, this game came out of nowhere and I'm happy I became aware of it. So far it's a 10/10.

[Hero-of-Time]

8 hours ago, drahkon said:

They do exist And they are pretty cool.

Sounds like my kinda rogue type game.

[drahkon]

30 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Sounds like my kinda rogue type game.

Most of the upgrades are your standard "more HP", "more Mana", "more Aura slots" (Auras are passives you can equip) type stuff, but you can also unlock new skills that may appear during a run.

Gonna be interesting to see whether the stats upgrades become necessary to advance. Got my first "win" with almost no upgrades. I assume there will eventually be difficulty modifiers that make permanent upgrades necessary.

Edited November 18, 2023 by drahkon

[drahkon]

Created a new Savefile on my Steam Deck for Slay the Spire.
It's no secret that I love this game, and I've mentioned how awesome the Downfall expansion is. It always surprises me that I can get sucked into a run.

This time I'm going to do runs with the "normal" characters for a while before going with the boss characters (they only work in their respective game mode, so any unlocks made with boss characters won't transfer over to the normal ones and vice-versa).

The "normal" mode has been enhanced by a couple of new events and relics. The latter are really good. My fav:

Always great when you can use a 2-cost card for one less

Very interesting that my fastest victory almost crosses the "beat a run in under 20 minutes" mark for the achievement. Didn't even go for it. DAMN!

Can't say it enough: for me, Slay the Spire is one of the best, maybe even the best game ever made. It certainly is on the #1 spot on my Top 10 list.

I wish Downfall was available on Android

[drahkon]

Shit, there is a Steam sale...
Gonna have to limit myself to a certain amount of money

Think I'm just gonna go with Cassette Beasts. I need a game on my Steam Deck that is not a roguelike

Edited November 21, 2023 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, drahkon said:

Shit, there is a Steam sale...
Gonna have to limit myself to a certain amount of money

Think I'm just gonna go with Cassette Beats. I need a game on my Steam Deck that is not a roguelike

I've read good things about that. Apparently the Switch version is rough but the PC version runs fine. 

[drahkon]

24 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I've read good things about that. Apparently the Switch version is rough but the PC version runs fine. 

Who gives a damn about the stupid Switch version

But yeah, I always check if a game runs well and properly on the Steam Deck and Cassette Beats apparently does

[drahkon]

Cassette Beasts

Played it for an hour and...so far, so good. Battle system is interesting but I've only scratched its surface, of course.
A little confused as to why there hasn't been a tutorial or a cheat sheet for types and how they interact, yet.

A certain mechanic has just been revealed to me and I did not know about it before. Definitely came as a surprise. And a good one at that

Love how "catching" new monsters works:

You can attack as much as you like, the monsters won't disappear while being recorded. That's awesome!
My only problem: I ran out of empty tapes and currently have no means to acquire more. BUT I WANT TO RECORD THEM ALL.

Anyways, here's my favourite monster so far:

Love that little guy!

 

I should go to sleep, but I won't. Gotta keep playing

Edited November 21, 2023 by drahkon

[drahkon]

What I will say about Cassette Beasts: It drains the Steam Deck's battery like crazy...

At 99% charge games like Astral Ascent have a projected battery life of around 5.4h while Cassette Beasts only reaches 3.2h. Had to tweak some settings in-game and via the Steam Deck and increased it by one hour.
Still, I wish the game was optimized a little better. There are some occasional frame drops. Granted, they aren't a huge deal in a game like this but still annoying.

[drahkon]

12 hours ago, drahkon said:

Cassette Beasts

For some reason, I still don't fully understand the game
Probably because I need to get used to types and their interactions.

Haven't progressed the story much as there are quite a few quests in this - some of them are fetch quests, some of them are more "involved".

Think I'll just farm some exp for a while to level up

The way it works in this is: Only the human characters have levels (I assume up to 100) and whenever you level up your stats increase.
The monsters only have 5 (?) "levels" (stars) and once they are maxed you can evolve remaster them which increases their stats.

Human stats + monster stats = total stats. I think.

Only remastered my starter so far. It's pretty cool.

turns into

I had a choice when I remastered it, though. I assume there's one more path to take with that mon. Which means there must be ways to get more of this starter and probably even the others

3 hours in and I'm enjoying my time with it a lot

[drahkon]

Think I'm gonna send in my Deck for repairs.

The right bumper has started to feel a little...weird? I have to push down on it quite a bit before it registers a button press. It technically works, but it's not ideal and might turn into a bigger problem in the long run.

Got an RMA approved and will get further instructions (sounds ominous, but that's how they word it ) soon. It should take about 2 weeks, so if I send it out on Monday I may get the device back once I'm back from vacation

[Dcubed]

Actually perfect for VR!

[drahkon]

On 24/11/2023 at 8:49 AM, drahkon said:

should take about 2 weeks, so if I send it out on Monday I may get the device back once I'm back from vacation

Well, didn't have the time to send it out.

I may have to spend Christmas without the Deck.

Urgh, do I really have to have a conversation with my mom and sister on Christmas Eve?

 

[drahkon]

On 11/30/2023 at 11:57 AM, drahkon said:

Well, didn't have the time to send it out.

This entire RMA process is a mess...

Got a shipping label for UPS, used the provided website to set a pick-up date (didn't know this was a thing), expected to see a confirmation but as soon as I clicked on a date the website/tab closed and now when I try to visit it again it says "your order has been booked" with no further information.

Cool? So now what...do I not get a confirmation email? Do I have to stay at home the entire day and wait for someone to show up?

URGH

Edited December 4, 2023 by drahkon

[drahkon]

11 hours ago, drahkon said:

This entire RMA process is a mess...

Got a shipping label for UPS, used the provided website to set a pick-up date (didn't know this was a thing), expected to see a confirmation but as soon as I clicked on a date the website/tab closed and now when I try to visit it again it says "your order has been booked" with no further information.

Cool? So now what...do I not get a confirmation email? Do I have to stay at home the entire day and wait for someone to show up?

URGH

I gotta eat crow. UPS guy just picked up the package.

But I stand by it: some kind of confirmation would've been nice

[drahkon]

I need the full game now...

[drahkon]

On 11/22/2023 at 8:51 AM, drahkon said:

Cassette Beasts

Managed to progress the story a little bit, spent some time grinding exp and "evolved" some more of my mon.
I gotta say, though, it feels weird to play games on my PC I might just wait for my Steam Deck to be returned to me

In other news: Playing Slay the Spire: Downfall on PC is not weird, it's awesome!

Reached Ascension 7 with all 5 standard characters. Haven't even started with the boss characters.

Pretty happy that I still have more victories than deaths. I'd say half of the latter could've been avoided if I didn't play like a shmuck at times
I may actually have to start doing maths again to keep the ratio up. Eventually it will flip, though.

 

[drahkon]

My Steam Deck is now in Prague for repairs according to the email I just got from Valve.

I might get it back in time for Christmas

Edited December 9, 2023 by drahkon

[drahkon]

My Steam Deck has been repaired (hopefully) and is ready to be dispatched. Hope it'll arrive before I leave on Thursday

I miss it

[Dcubed]

Well this came out of nowhere and looks really cool!