Valve’s Steam Deck announcement has come with surprisingly few caveats. All FAQs seem to be answered with “If Steam can do it then so can Steam Deck”. Excitingly, this means that mods can run on the device. Everyone knows that Skyrim has been ported to every mobile platform you can grab, but you’ll only be able to add mods like Enhanced Blood Textures or SkyUI on Steam Deck. The same goes for all those amazing Stardew Valley mods, too. Yes. Please.
So, how about that Steam Deck, huh? Last night, Valve announced their foray into the world of portable gaming with a new handheld device that will let you play your PC games. It looks brilliant, honestly, but if you're someone who's been paying attention to the dramas with new graphics card and console releases over the last year, you may have some worries about scalpers.
Fortunately, Valve seem to have anticipated this, and are putting a number of measures in place to stop pesky resellers from buying up all the new Steam Decks when reservations open later today. Importantly, fresh Steam accounts won't be allowed to reserve one until 48 hours after pre-orders go live.
AMD have declared that their performance boosting upscale tech, FidelityFX Super Resolution (or FSR for short) is here for everyone. They've released it on GPUOpen, and declared: “You can get access to the AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution source code for free under the open source MIT License!”
In addition, FSR is now available to developers in a beta version of Unity Engine, and via a number of patches that will soon be integrated into the stock Unreal Engine. It's everywhere.
My first racing love wasn't Screamer, but Moto Racer. It was so long ago, I can barely remember the case it came in. Instead of a cardboard sleeve, I think it was one of those slim plastic cases that closed with more of a snap than those chunky ones. What I do remember, though, is that I played the heck out of it.
AMD's Ryzen 5000 desktop processors remain some of the best around when it comes to gaming and non-gaming performance, and prices are finally starting to come down after months of availability issues and price gouging. Today marked two new low prices for the Ryzen 5 5600X, the cheapest Ryzen 5000 processor, in both the US and UK.
In the UK, the 5600X dropped to £240 when you buy it from Currys with the code FNDDGAMING, while in America you can pick up the 5600X for $280 from Antonline on Ebay.
GOG is running a French Sale at the moment, offering up to 90% off games made or published by French studios. Among the highlights are the Dishonored and Prey series from Arkane, Absolver from Sloclap and The Surge from French publisher Focus Home Interactive, amongst others. And as usual, all of the games are provided DRM free, and often with a plentiful offering of extra content like wallpapers, soundtracks, manuals and so on - delightful. Locate your nearest croissant and coffee, and join me on a tour of these Frankish fancies.
Earlier today, Valve announced the Steam Deck. It's a handheld gaming device that runs Steam via SteamOS. It's also a fully-functioning PC, meaning you can get Windows on there and install whatever you want, including other game stores.
Tim Sweeney has praised the device on Twitter, calling it an "amazing move by Valve". But why would I ever buy a PC game anywhere other than Steam ever again?
Tetris Effect has been available on PC via the Epic Games Store for the past year, which means it's time for it to leap free and land on Steam. August 18th is the date, and it'll come with the free multiplayer update Tetris Effect: Connected.
Hey - this also means that Tetris Effect is going to come to the newly announced Steam Deck, the first time it's appeared on a handheld machine.
Let me tell you, 2021 doesn't currently look like a fantastic year for major game releases. Warhammer 40k: Darktide isn't helping by today announcing that its co-op cult-smashing had been delayed into spring 2022.
I haven't played Baldur's Gate 3 yet, because I'd rather wait until it finished its early access journey before diving into a vast narrative RPG.
Today, the game received its fifth major patch - simultaneously tempting me to start playing, and vindicating my decision to wait. It adds a new active roll system, background goals for characters to help steer your roleplaying, a toggle for non-lethal attacks and much more.