On the other end of that spectrum, I have been playing this game on and off for the last 12 years.

Vivaldi is closed source and based on Chromium (albeit modified), so it does not sound all that appealing. As long as uBlock origin, NoScript and Tampermonkey can unleash their full potential in Firefox, I'm likely to stick with it.

NGL, I'm really digging what they are showing in this marketing campaign.

I like takibo's HD2 videos. They are insightful and his gameplay is pleasant to watch, or skim over.

This might be an unpopular take but I think you were in the wrong there. If one guy jumps the gun when the rest of the team is doing objectives, that sure is kick material. However, If 3/4th of the team want to extract, you should follow along, not stay behind and do more stuff... Actual democracy happening right there.

That mod is the reason I played Elden Ring in the first place. The Souls games' reputation and gimped co-op had kept me from them. Seamless co-op turned Elden Ring into one of the best shared multiplayer adventures I have ever had.

NTA. Abandoning the team by jumping in the pelican alone is an asshole move. Worse it's an anti-democratic move.

Thanks for the feedback. I no longer use my steam controllers but it's good to know which are the viable options to keep them up and running.

Yes Alan Wake 2 is very good. It's very unique and oozes with style. I really like the track Remedy is on lately, first with Control and now with Alan Wake 2, whereas their earlier games did not grab me.

You could buy the game on Steam, get the source code archive and then refund I guess. Or keep it anyway to play, I understand it's quite good.

$200M ain't no pocket change. One would hope such high-profile failures as this or Avengers would curb execs enthusiasm for live service games, but I'm not holding my breath.

I have noticed that trying to return to gaming mode after a long period in desktop mode triggered a reboot more often than not. My impression was that Steam updates that occur in desktop mode would trigger a restart, when attempting to return to gaming mode. That made the SD feel janky, with long restart times.

Don't get me wrong, I found the SD to be a very versatile device, priced very competitively (compared to low-end gaming laptops for example). I will likely buy its successor if and when it comes out. As a portable gaming device, it's the best deal around. As a daily driver PC, it's okay but not great.

I'd say there is nothing too wild about my peripherals: 1080p60 display, USB mouse and keyboard and the occasional PS4 controller. Everything is indeed pretty much plug n play. However in my experience things go south after a while (sometimes days, sometimes weeks) and get fixed after a full restart cycle. Hard to say where it comes from exactly but the dock is a prime suspect.

Bought these to make the most out of those shipping costs. I do not tinker all that much, but having adequate tools like those certainly is a big help.

I also used them to replace the sticks of a Nintendo Switch joy cons with hall effects ones. I saw that similar components are available for the SD, but I currently have no drift problem, so ...

I am not aware of better options than the Huaying fan for an OG Steam Deck LCD. Did you have something specific in mind ?

It was OK but not great. I used the official dock and had frequent peripherals issues which could were only solved by rebooting both the SD and the dock. Turning it off and on again is more a Windows that a Linux thing usually, so that was disappointing.

On the software side, the "flatpak" way of applications delivery usually works well, except when the Discover "store" randomly chooses to offer downgrades instead of upgrades. I used software such as Firefox, GIMP, LibreOffice, OpenShot, OpenRGB, LosslessCut, LocalSend with no hassle.

As expected, gaming performance on a 1080p screen was not as smooth as the native SD screen resolution. I would not recommend it for games needing a bit of oomph unless you are fine with sub 30fps.

Not sure what you mean. I got this one: https://www.ifixit.com/products/steam-deck-original-model-fan?variant=39723201658983

Erm, that's quite the bare bones trailer we've got here, somewhat underwhelming. Not every trailer is going to be Long Live the Lich or War Eternal, but come on.

Sorry to hear that. The only stuff that broke for me was the elastic band on the strap on one of my controllers. It was easily replaced with an iFixit-bought spare (Valve customer support declined to send me replacement).

Hopefully the next thing is the "Deckard" we've been hearing those rumors about.

Shame about HDR and eye tracking. This would have been a very compelling proposition with these features. I'll stick with the Index until the next thing comes along then.