Well I had already bought the new Star Trek game so the trailer made no impact on my buying decision but was very fun.

I also appreciate articles like this one but seeing Annalynn MD filled me with dread. The only way I'm able to do things other than play Dr Mario is to use devices where it isn't easily accessible and this will drastically shorten the safe devices to use...

@Titntin I find myself both appreciative and annoyed as they tend to cost me a fair bit of money each month… This week it’s Odd Town.

I’ve enjoyed my time with this over the last year. Having all the tracks available for online has definitely helped in that regard. I normally play with a few friends in a private lobby and as long as someone has the DLC you can all play. Definitely makes it pretty likely I will be picking up the second season pass!

Only criticism is how the releases are staggered so you can’t play the new cups until all 3 of the DLC packs for it are out but that’s a minor annoyance.

@DominicTarason bet you are regretting not calling this site EGShype right now!

@DominicTarason thankfully not an argument down here in the comments about some of the things you’ve said in the article, I think if this was posted on Push Square or Nintendo Life some of those people would of come out of the woodwork to explain why games shouldn’t have women and minorities in them. Just thought I’d add a comment expressing support for speaking out in this sort of way, you’ve definitely got me to check this site a few times a day.

@Deadlyblack same, I managed to luck into getting a controller in the first wave then a second one when my Machine email came through. Still on the waiting list for a 3rd since I want a dedicated one for the Frame but that’s not urgent since I’m still waiting for a Frame email and it will work fine with the controllers it comes with until then.

PSA for anyone from Europe reading this the 512GB with Controller bundle for the Steam Machine is pretty much non existent. My brother cancelled his waitlist place for a 2TB one last week and signed up for 512GB with controller and had the email within 5 minutes. The subreddit has more detailed info.

I’m a bit surprised to hear this game runs at 30 on Steam Deck, I tried it on my Machine during the early access window and I had absolutely every setting on the floor rendering at ultra performance up to 1440p and none of the first person person story sections went above 40 except for a brief moment I was just looking at the sky. It was better in the cockpit but still not close to a locked 60 by any means.

It was unknown compatibility on Machine at the time but by the time I had quit out after a few hours Valve had updated it to unsupported. I didn’t even bother downloading it on Deck as a result.

Outside of that I had a lot of fun! This was my first Ace Combat, I got swept up in a combination of hype for it, how ridiculously over the top the trailers were and the preorder bonus for Zero. Just going to finish Control Resonant and Trails 2nd Chapter first.

Plan is to alternate between Trails in the Sky and Control Resonant and get those out of the way sooner rather than later.

I did start Ace Combat a few days ago to see what it was like since I’ve not played one before but got swept up in the hype and looking forward to getting back to it properly once the above 2 are out of the way.

But first things first is to grind out of Bozja in FF14. I never did this content when it was new and the most recent irregular tombstone event is heavy on the Bozja stuff and I need to be rank 10 for next weeks mission. Already rank 8 so shouldn’t be more than 2 or so hours of grinding.

I’ve been following this since 2022 and was an easy instant purchase especially with the launch discount. Not sure I’m going to get to play it soon with being knee deep in Control Resonant, Trails in the Sky and my download of Ace Combat just finishing but with indie stuff I try to buy as close to launch as possible even if I’m not going to play immediately to help out the developers of cool smaller games.

Friday night was all Control Resonant, I got through to the Evacuation Zone then felt too sleepy to continue so called it. Really enjoying it so far even if I prefer gun combat to melee. I hadn’t realised how much I missed the big white text in Remedy games when entering a new area.

Last night I ended up plying a bunch of Switch 2 things. I finally tried out the updated VRR on my TV. I have 2 docks connected to supposedly VRR displays and my PC already let me down since the capture card I have (Elgato 4K X) seems to just freeze and display a single frame and there is also something wrong with the TV setup since every 2-3 seconds it blanks the screen and changes mode like I’m turning HDR on and off. It works fine for my PS5 and Xbox so need to troubleshoot that at some point.

Then I went back to something comforting to console myself over future AV amp troubleshooting and played a bunch of Wind Waker on GameCube Classics. Got up to the big tower dungeon which is where I also got up to on the Wii U version (I did complete the GameCube original back in the day), I then capped the night off with the first level of Homefront which I have had a weird urge to play in recent days despite never playing it prior and knowing it isn’t very good. I can now confirm that yeah it’s an incredibly mid shooter from 2011.

Tonight I think I will be going back to Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter as I haven’t played since Thursday and that’s too long. My copy of Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave did just arrive though so that will be tempting. Will this be the game to break my Fire Emblem curse of playing it for 10 hours before being distracted by something else? Only time will tell.

Barrelling through Trails 2nd Chapter and got Sunday evening Big Walk scheduled with the team. We got the ending a few weeks ago today and this is our first session for puzzle mop up and assorted secret finding.

@Ganon821 I’ve been using a Retroid Pocket 6 as a mini steam deck. It’s a lot smaller more in line with a PSP and GameNative has come a long way in just the last year to the point where 70-80% of the stuff I try just works. Still if it doesn’t work then it’s a lot of tinkering, far more than just changing proton version on Deck but if you aren’t adverse to that would highly recommend!

Neat! I hope now we have MGS 1-4 on PC in easily accessible form we get some cool mods out of them.

@DominicTarason I know by calling yourself peasants you are firmly establishing a stance against PC master race stuff and please, please keep that up. I’ve been gaming on PC for over 30 years and talk about that and console peasants is awful and just heightens any divides. I’ve loved the tone of the site so far so please don’t change!

I’m on the reservation list for the 1TB and my brother is signing up on my behalf since he isn’t interested in VR. I’ve been really lucky with Valve hardware this year and got a controller at launch then only waited 5 weeks for my Machine despite being waitlisted and I’m half expecting to run out of luck with the Frame despite it being the release I was most interested in.

Glad we are out of stealth mode and there will be more than 1-2 of us commenting on the articles. Excited to see how this site goes on over the years!

I really like the colour one but it needing to be plugged in does lower my enthusiasm. I get why but still. My Steam Machines semi permanent home (it’s my designated I need to play a game more demanding than the Deck can play in a weird location device) is in a TV cabinet that it isn’t really visible in so would be a waste of money.

@DominicTarason 2 more that you could add later when some of the stuff are released on consoles are Selaco and Schedule One.

Selaco being on GZDoom and needing to publish their source code as a part of the license agreement probably won’t make it to any console.

With Schedule One I think they are working towards a console release, their latest patch added controller support to the game.

@DominicTarason Seance at Blake Manor was announced for consoles a few days ago. Maybe when the time comes replace it with Root Trees are dead, Incident at Galley House or Desktop Explorer?

This must of taken ages to put together! Nice cross section of stuff as well, is it going to be updated as time marches forward?

@antdickens just noticed the logo is that new? I swear it wasn’t there a few weeks ago. Either way I really like it!

This was easily the highlight of the showcase. Always love a demo with save game transfer and Square have been great at putting these out over the past few years. Normally hasn’t changed my mind on anything since I’m a big JRPG fan but nice to get started early. I got 29 hours out of the Trails SC demo the other week so wonder how long this one is…

@beltmenot there’s been a few of us commenting on these articles while they are in stealth mode. Welcome to the team!

I went into this list steeling myself to ignore the recommendations then immediately disregarded that with Gunmetal Gothic but it's only a demo! I don't need to put money down!

Already picked up MGS this week and will get Blood of Dawnwalker next week so trying to avoid any additional spur of the moment purchases for a few months until the jampacked September/October period is over.

I’m loving the coincidence that we get Resonance A Plague Tale this month Control Resonant next month and Final Fantssh Resonance in October.

Based on how the last Rollercoaster Tycoon was received and this launching into early access I was convinced this was also going to be bad but it’s apparently being developed by Springloaded of Let’s Build a Zoo fame so maybe it will be decent?

@DominicTarason good list! Will always be happy to see CrossCode on this type of article.

While reading it a thought struck me that you have covered most types of RPGs but not use MMORPGs is a list on these on the horizon? Might be worth doing an online games thing similar to this RPG service and then have a sub list for them.

They had me at path tracing and then I saw everything else. This is really going to mess with my complete all my currently half finished JRPGs by the time Final Fantasy Resonance is out….

Only got DQ1&2, DQ7, Metaphor, FF7 Rebirth Hard Mode, Raidou Remastered, FF Tactics and Bloomtown left to go…

For anyone who wants yet another option I’d highly recommend Uplink from Introversion Software. It’s their first game and one I have a physical copy I bought off their website in the early 00s before proper digital distribution. It was the first game that actually made me feel like a hacker, only issue with it these days is it’s very mouse and keyboard dependent and I’m 95% controller based now due to RSI.

I’d also recommend Defcon from the same company, at college someone brought in a switch and we’d connect as many laptops as people had brought in to play multiplayer games of that in between rounds UT99.

I was here before the launch! Also these lists are getting longer as we go on. Are you planning on having as many going forward or does it depend on what’s released?

I love Steins:Gate but I already own the original and Elite on Steam (plus the original on Vita and Elite on Switch before I fully committed to my anything not an exclusive on PC policy), I can’t justify buying it yet again at full price. Maybe if it was like the Danganronpa 2+2 thing that’s would be more tempting.

It is the kick in the behind I need to get back to my playthrough of Robotics:Note though!

@DominicTarason personally I keep Chocolate and UZDoom on my pc at all time as sometimes you are feeling like a slightly different experience but I get what you mean. I also keep the official version installed as the Nightdive port is pretty awesome too. Then again I also keep like 4+ versions of Tetris installed depending on my mood so I’m a bit of a weirdo.

Straftat is one of my friend groups favourite multiple games, near launch a friend and I spent hours exploring the weirdly huge map attached to the shooting range trying to boundary break and stuff, we ended up trying to throw movable objects to each other so we could get higher and higher. The 1v1 is top notch too.

And a contender for the list you missed out on Beyond Sunset, it’s a few years older now, built on GZDoom and adds some RPG elements like Strife did back in the day. Well worth checking out.

@DominicTarason I was aware of the Doom/Wolfenstein ports (just googled to see if Orcs and Elves is available to and the answer is maybe?) but I like actually owning these things. If it was available in widescreen on Steam so I could play it across all my devices with achievements and so on I'd be a very happy camper.

I find with the fanmade PC ports I normally get very excited by them wehn they are announced download them and set them all up then let them fester in whatever folder I put them in as they aren't right in front of my eyeballs.

The Dusk game is news to me though and of course it is by the Dusk developers! Well done on (when it comes out) costing me more money!

I've said this on other Hookshot media sites but I was hoping for Quake 3 or one of the unremasterd Wolfensteins (3D, Return or 09) rather than just new levels but this does look cool.

Also means once we run through all of the games not on modern platforms (I really want Doom RPG available to buy again) they can just cycle through each remaster and add new content to it.

@Penguinpengy well in a few years when this site is properly announced and everything we will be able to say we were thre before it officially launched!

New comment to say I just got my email this morning! The initial randomisation was on the 26th so just less than 6 weeks to clear the 2TB with controller list in the U.K.

Edited to add I know this site is still in stealth mode but it’s a bit surreal being the only commenter here. Anyone else lurking or staff members checking comments?

Already bought 2 copies (one for a friend) and now just need to coordinate (at least) 4 peoples schedules so we can all play.

Well this article has cost me £13 for the Command & Conquer with automation elements. I like these round ups of under the radar games. PC Gamer and RPS do similar articles and I’m glad to add this to the rotation.

I’m on the waitlist for one and I’m fine with this timeframe it was the not knowing how long the reservation queue period was expecting to last for that was doing my head in.

I hope my lack of luck getting on the reservation list for this means I have better luck with the Frame whenever that drops. Waiting till next year for that would be way worse when I was planning on using the machine as a secondary PC beneath my TV.