PC Games: Zombie Edition

My physical personal computer games, you know, those that usually came packaged in gigantic boxes, have not been properly stored in my Game Room for the past two places that I have lived in. All this time, they have been thoroughly displaced: at one time, they hid in an office closet amongst other non-gaming supplies for 2 years and at another, they were all boxed up for 3 long years. I knew that my latest Game Room Ver. 5.0 is smaller than the previous, but I surprised myself that I am actually capable of properly storing these PC games in here. It took some creativity in space management, and of course, some of the larger gaming items still cannot make it in here - they will eventually find a permanent place somewhere in the walk-in closet of my bedroom, but I am so happy that these forgotten games can finally exist again in my daily gaming life in prominent fashion.

All of my physical PC games (well, almost all) in one place and out in the open.

The Deck Is Not a Reason to Be a Dick

The Steam Deck is great. Let's get that out of the way. Personally, it's a cool portable Personal Computer that I can carry with me when I am going to be away from my home for a while. The fact that it is basically a small form PC outside of its gaming capabilities makes it such a useful tool for everyone. What the Deck shouldn't be, however, is a litmus test for every single game being released on Steam. The problem is, like all good things in life, there are plenty of people out there apparently who is now primarily gaming on the Steam Deck and thus, bringing some delusions and malcontent into the celebration. The Deck is not supposed to be the ultimate gaming rig. It can act as a gateway, especially for console owners or Switch fanatics, to dabble into PC gaming. It's certainly a point of envy for Sony who recently announced their PlayStation Portal streaming tablet - yucks - when you can already do that with Steam Remote Play on any old tablet and controller. Steam even has a certification process on the playability of a game on the Deck with a classification system. The fact that the device is indeed a PC, it still doesn't stop people from trying and experimenting on games that are not officially supported on the Deck, which is fine. It becomes a problem when the said individuals then take their frustrations onto the Steam store, writing horrible reviews for games just because they are not playable on the Deck, even though these games are not verified to be played on the system to begin with.

An example of a misguided review on a game that,
on this date of publication, is not Steam Deck verified.

Review: Bit.Trip Rerunner

 

Bit.Trip Rerunner (2023)

Developer: Choice Provisions, Gamecraft Studios
Platform: Personal Computer

Induction Date: 09/25/2023

Bit.Trip Rerunner is an odd remaster. It's sort of a revamped version of Bit.Trip. Runner with completely recreated levels plus the music from the entirety of the Bit.Trip universe presented with their own playable stages in the new visual style and presentation. You would think that it would make sense for the developer to just improve the entirety of the series into this new collection since they all come in a variety of play mechanics but seemingly, the developer only want us to experience the musical journey in the vein of the Runner gameplay style: that is, an auto runner where the correct actions that are needed to be taken to complete a level are synchronized to the rhythm of the musical track.

Take me to the finish line!

Just Like Life Itself, Gaming Feels Infinite

Playing video games has never been a cheap hobby. As with everything else these days, gaming is getting more expensive by the day and the majority of the community's compliance in accepting wholly unnecessary norms like light-speed console cycles, huge bump in price for a single game, and other money-hungry post-release content access schemes signaled to the game developers and publishers that they can get away with everything. Of course, those who approach this hobby with some degree of intelligence don't have to suffer with everyone else. I have written in the past that for me, personally, I consider $39.99 as the sweet spot for a price of a single game. I came to this conclusion in 2011: that was a lifetime ago. This means that a lot of indie games are easy for me to justify getting because they are usually way cheaper than that even to this day. Still, with the number of games I have in my library, I still tend to wait for some kind of discount, unless of course, I truly want to play a game that bad.

Infinite physical gaming means having infinite space. Is that even possible?

All the Lies: A PP Tale

Lies of P, the new action game from Neowiz, does have a really strange title. Well, the whole game is uh, crazy? It's the delirious retelling of the Pinocchio fairy tale? I guess we will see if it makes any sense at all when I finally get to play this game soon. What's more interesting though is the representation of P's face. It looks like recently, the developer has updated P to look more masculine. When I first heard about this game and looked at the close-up of P on the cover art, I really thought P was a lady. I didn't even know that P stood for Pinocchio at that time, I just thought those crazy non-native English speakers were just trying to find intriguing ways to title another one of their games. I know we are all used to the Final Fantasy series by now because it's so popular, but you know that title doesn't make any bit of sense in relation to any of those games.

Notice the difference? The original look on the right and the "reworked" face on the left.