buffaloseven

I describe it to people I know as:

• Fallout 4 is, far and away, the best “game” of the modern ones. It feels much better to play in almost every way than the other ones. Especially the combat. There’s some interesting stuff in it, but it’s largely the mechanics that keep you coming back, not the RPG or world.
• Fallout 3 has perhaps the better realized world out of them all; the way it all fits together is great and there’s a lot of rewarding exploration in it.
• Fallout: New Vegas is, far and away, the best Fallout game…it harkens back to the roots way more and is the best RPG – by a long shot – of the 3.

Obviously YMMV and others will feel differently, but that’s how I’ve parsed out this series so far.

I’ve been using Forgejo for about 6 months now and I’m really impressed with it. Covers all my needs!

I recently picked up a Steam Deck and I can also vouch for it; the device is far more than the sum of its parts and is clearly something Valve was only able to pull off after a decade plus of various software/hardware integration experiments.

SteamOS is the star of the show, and it is both fluid and easy to use while also putting more customization and flexibility at your fingertips than any other game interface I’ve seen. The integration of custom operating system, custom game wrapper tech, and their standardized hardware has produced a device that offers the power and flexibility of PC gaming with a user experience that is getting closer and closer to the “never think about it” ease of use that consoles provide.

It’s not the most powerful; it’s really a 720/800P gaming machine, but games look great at that resolution and you can run a lot of games at comfortably playable frame rates.

I had some doubts after I bought mine when I saw the ROG Ally come out alongside hundreds of “OMG THE STEAM DECK KILLER HAS ARRIVED” videos; but it didn’t take long until I saw a lot of those same content creators return their Ally and come back to the steam deck because although the hardware is slightly more powerful, the user experience end is so much worse than it just wasn’t worth it. Not to mention some serious QC issues with it.

I’ve been a PC gamer for a long time; I think I’ve been active on Steam for 18 years now. The Steam Deck is the best PC Gaming experience I’ve ever had. The hardware is great, the controls (and mapping ability of those controls) are great, the interface is great…everything is just top notch about it. Do I wish it was more powerful? Well that’d be great, and one day it will be. But everything about the experience is so good, I don’t mind some of the drawbacks. It’s encouraged me to get into my backlog of games and genuinely enjoy exploring them again. The Steam Deck just makes it so seamless and easy to play your games.

In fact, I’m getting close to time to build a new PC, and the Steam Deck has really changed my thoughts on it. Seeing how far Proton and SteamOS have come…I just really want Valve to take another shot at the Steam Box. A lot of its shortcomings aren’t issues now, and add in some good Steam Deck integration and have it target 1440P/4K Upscaling, you could create an affordable box that taps into a successful and growing ecosystem. I’d buy one in an instant and just not bother with a new PC build in the years ahead.

That’s how much I genuinely believe that the Steam Deck/SteamOS experience is that good these days!

If you want an older alternative that runs well and could arguably be considered better than Diablo 4, check out Grim Dawn.

Fallout 76 always seemed to me to be an engine modernization project that the needed a game attached to fund it. It’s in an okay spot now, and it was properly derided when it was released, but I don’t think most people understand the amount of work it’s taken to update the low-level internals of how their engine works. It’ll be very interesting to see how Starfield plays.