I am flying the shit out of attack and transport helis in Operation Harsh Doorstop on my steam deck which is truly a joy to fly with. The helis are fairly realistic which means flying them like a maniac is addictive as hell .

I have also been playing a lot more pvp Beyond All Reason as I continue to get more comfortable with playing using onboard joysticks and gyro controls. The biggest problem I have is RTS players can’t wrap their head around me not using a mouse (they aren’t very imaginative I guess, I don’t understand). This means that in situations my control scheme is less efficient than a mouse, players have ZERO patience with me but in the situations where joysticks + gyro is more efficient than mouse (certain types of micro, also placing buildings accurately but quickly) people either think I am a much higher level player trolling or that I am drunk or something because my cursor movements just don’t look like a mouse is doing them.

sigh just gotta wait longer until stuffy pc gamers who think a mouse is the only way actually shut up and listen, not holding my breath…

Thinking of firing it up and trying Kirby air ride with my wife. My daughter is way to Needy for me to play anything real.

Three games I played recently:

Among Ashes - Somewhat short, but ended up being quite good. It does a good job at building tension and generally doesn’t rely on cheap jump scares.

10 Dead Doves - One of the few games I that made me want to play through a second time. Interesting story, some funny moments, emotional moments, good voice acting. I highly recommend this one.

In Sound Mind - This was sitting in my backlog for a while and I wasn’t really expecting much, but I ended up really enjoying this one too. The ending even had me feeling emotional, which is very rare, but

I’ve been replaying horizon zero dawn, however I’ve been struggling to keep going. I keep coming back to Celeste instead. I also just started sonic adventure 2.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Hollow Knight; I’m playing it for the first time and I’ve progressed enough to get the true ending, but I’m going to do some of the side content before I do. Probably not 100%ing, I’ve already struggled to get this far, but I’ll try to get every charm and finish the Troupe before finishing off my playthrough. It’s a great game, and I’m definitely excited to play Silksong, if that manages to release within my lifetime.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 and I’m overwhelmed by the dexterity required in combat. KC:D has a really dirty combat system: Even if you’re doing everything right and unless the fight is decided very quickly, you’re gonna get some serious hits.

My coworkers keep telling me to do The Witcher. I’m interested in doing civ7 but also c/patientgamers lol.

I have been liking Halo Wars, MCC, Hollow Knight and Hades on the deck.

Nothing currently. Tbh I’m a bit worried by how my deck has been collecting dust recently. I can’t really figure out what I want from the device.

A bit of Balatro and Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip when i want a short session.

Have also installed Borderlands 2 to try out Stick Flicking. Aiming is going great, still trying to learn to turn around in hectic situations. But at least the steam controller configurations are great.

Prince of Persia: the Lost Crown

Cassette Beasts. I tried Brotato its okay but I’m not as much of a fan.

Defenders quest 2 just released after 10 years of development! I’ve been having a very enjoyable time with that, the initial launch was rough on the deck but the first patch worked out the interface issues it was having.

Infinitode 2 (I guess I have a thing for tower defense games)

And some ‘tiny rogue’

Also tried ‘cat goes fishing’, but a couple things are irking me about it, it’s enjoyable enough and was cheap enough that I’m not upset.

Fired up ‘prodeus’ for the first time since activating it from a humble bundle (I think?) it has all the good feelings of the original doom, it’s just a bit too stressful for me, especially at midnight when I tried playing it.

‘boxes’ is a kinda meh puzzle game, it’s a bit high on its own farts, if it wants to be as deep and philosophical as I think it does, it needs to have much better puzzles, but if I ignore the story and don’t think too much about the ‘why not just break the glass’ it’s an enjoyable enough game.

I’ve mostly been emulating lately. I’ve been playing Quest for Hat, which is an Earthbound rom hack, and Donkey Kong Country 2 since those have RetroAchievement’s achievement of the week and achievement of the month respectively.

Playing Baldur’s Gate 3 again, after a several month hiatus from it. But this time I’m doing Honour Mode for the first time, currently working through Act I.

It’s tough! Especially early game. I decided for some hard-to-kill character builds, to try to avoid team wipes.

Playing as Gale, target build is Drac Sorc (Cold) 1, Abj Wiz 11, specced on INT. Idea is to get utility cantrips, scales, and Armor of Ag from sorcerer, everything else goes into making Gale an Arcane Ward tank. He sprints into melee combat, the enemies kill themselves on the Armor of Ag retaliation when they hit him, rinse and repeat as much as needed.

Also having Karlach be the BarBearian, taking half damage from everything as she rages, and healing with that heal mace you pick up in Act 1 every time she clocks someone with it. It’s working well so far, hopefully it stays viable as the game goes on.