Tag: steam deck

Max Payne

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

I played and finished Max Payne on the Steam Deck. I played the PS2 version (emulated) because I thought it would better map to the controls of the Deck, though actually I found the controls pretty horrible so I might have been better with the PC version after all.

The gameplay is very dated, though it did feel modern in the sense that you shoot people and they die, rather than absorbing 50 bullets first. The storytelling is quite unique in how it uses Max’s eloquent narration and then shows comic book esque drawn panels instead of cutscenes. I suspect they went this route because the graphics and animation are a bit hideous and in-engine cutscenes wouldn’t have allowed them to express what they wanted. It’s a bit weird but it adds a certain charm. The in-world details are nice too. There are parallel stories that run via the TVs in the game. It’s clearly a game that was overseen by someone who really cared about it.

The story is set up three years before the game, when police officer Max returns home to find his wife and newborn child murdered by crazed drug addicts. It’s never really explored whether or not Max is a reliable narrator but I like the alternative interpretation that he’s the drug addict in a semi delusional state and he killed his own family. The dream/nightmare sequences look into his subconscious and hint that he killed his wife though I think it’s probably more just that he feels responsible. But at one point he is given an overdose of the drug, intended to kill him, and he shrugs it off after a nightmare… Because he already has a very high tolerance to it? Hmmm.

Anyway I enjoyed it overall and I think it still stands up today because of the story and its presentation, but the gameplay really is very dated!

I also have to note that although I’m praising the storytelling, a certain amount of the story is progressed by Max breaking into mafiosos’ offices and reading the letters their bosses have sent to them, helpfully putting in writing their criminal activities and plans. I think I can hear Tony Soprano having a panic attack…

I’ve started Max Payne 2 now and it’s a lot less dated.

Over Christmas my sister gifted me Cyberpunk 2077. You can supposedly run this on the Steam Deck but it’s quite a demanding game so I’m not sure it’s the best way to play it. I ended up signing up to Geforce Now, which is a cloud gaming service. So far I’ve been quite impressed at how well it works. My internet connection is an unremarkable fibre to the cabinet. I get about 55mpbs downstream. I think that’s fairly average for the UK, though on a global scale it’s definitely below average (blame the government, I guess). But it’s enough for GFN running at Steam Deck resolution. Network latency is around 10ms and that’s not noticable at all.

It kind of makes me want to build a beefy gaming PC and do it myself (i.e stream the PC to the Steam Deck over the local network), but the cost of Geforce Now is actually quite favourable. It’s £10 a month, and an equivalent gaming PC would be, well, I don’t know, I’m guessing nearing £1000 with GPU prices as they are.

Coach

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

It’s interesting how the verbs ‘coach’ and ‘train’ in the context of sports both mean something similar, and, as nouns, they are both public transport vehicles. I wonder what’s going on there.

Anyway, the more interesting thing is that I now have a running coach! I thought I was making progress with my balance but then I had a series of very unbalanced runs and my knee starting feeling a bit funny again, so I was going to go to the physio… and then it occurred to me that what I really need is someone who’s going to watch me regularly and give me feedback on how I’m moving, which you don’t get in a physio’s office. Conveniently there happens to be a parkrun regular who’s a professional coach and I know someone who’s been to her group sessions who says she’s very hot on running form. I sent her an email explaining it all and asked if she’d be interested, and she is!

So I’m with her for three months, and I get a weekly one to one session, a weekly group running session and a weekly group strength/mobility class. I did the first group running session last week. It involved a lot of agility work which I’ve never really done before and then a few intervals. On Monday I had the first one to one, which consisted of her filming me at increasing paces so she can analyse it and see how I’m moving. Last night was the first strength session, which included a lot of running drills. On Friday she’s going to assess my strength and mobility in her gym and then she’ll come up with a plan…

In other news, I took advantage of the recent sale on Steam to load up my Steam Deck with games! Even though I’m going to have even less time to play them for the next three months…

I also got a bunch from Humble Bundle choice for £8.99. I now have a big backlog to work through. I’ve played a few minutes of Fallout 4 and had to laugh when I tried to explore the town instead of going to the fallout shelter (vault) and was prompted evaporated by a nuclear explosion. But, to my surprise, Middle-Earth Shadow Of Mordor has really grabbed me. It’s an action adventure thingy that’s really well made and works well on controllers, and I’m enjoying sword fighting orcs. I think the Steam Deck might be my favourite purchase of the last decade. Other games I nabbed were Lego Star Wars, Star Wars Squadrons, The Outer Worlds (big RPG, but mixed reviews), Factory Town (low expectations but might be fun) and Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate, which is possibly the stupidest concept I’ve seen for a game (in a good way).

Also in very unrelated news, this Huw Edwards thing is terrible! The Sun ran a story accusing an unnamed person of soliciting child pornography citing the victim’s mother, but included enough information that it was quickly discerned to be Huw Edwards. Then the “victim’s” lawyer released a statement saying it was nonsense, and now the police have said that there’s no evidence a crime was committed and won’t be taking it any further. Now Huw Edwards is in hospital because of the effect to his mental health. I hope that he sues the Sun out of existence, but it’s a poor reflection on the country in general that people actually exchange money for these newspapers.

Decking

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I am enjoying my Steam Deck, actually a lot more than I expected. I suppose I expected to think it was neat but not really know what to do with it. And that was so for a while, but then I installed Fallout New Vegas on it and it just clicked. It’s fun. I installed lots of mods to make it a more varied experience than when I last played it (10+ years ago) and I’m enjoying it, but it’s very hard now.

I hadn’t realised this but the Deck has a gyroscopic sensor in it, and you can configure it to act as a mouse movement. What that means is you can be in first person view, hold down the left button to activate it, then spin around and it rotates the camera as if your character is also spinning around. It’s a bit gimmicky but it impressed me. You can also use it for fine aiming. Aiming in general is done with the right touchpad, which you control with your thumb. I found it very hard to use initially but after some practice it feels a bit more natural. It’s nowhere near as easy as using a mouse though, which is one reason the game is so hard.

In totally unrelated news I need to fill out a tax return this year. I made a small amount of extra income last tax year and should legally declare it. …All I can say is I wonder how much tax intake HMRC loses to people who should be declaring side income but don’t want to deal with the hassle of it and the silly test of “we know what these numbers are, but we want to make sure you’re going to put them in right”. There should just be a field saying “I made a bit of extra money on top of all the stuff you already know about, let me just put the number in here and adjust my tax code for next year thanks”. It’s not like they are opposed to fiddling about with my tax code, they do it an average of twice per year for the last few years. I know because I’ve just gone through all the paperwork!

Decks and Sopranos

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I got my Steam Deck last Thursday, exactly a week after I paid for it. I’ve tinkered a bit. It’s a little complicated. I think that if you stay within the Steam ecosystem it’s quite easy to use, but I also have for example Factorio on GOG and Civilization VI on Epic (and GTA V, which I got free and never played), which I’d quite like to try on the Deck. Going outside of Steam gets you into ‘desktop mode’ which is actually a desktop Linux installation. I’m happy with this as I’ve used Linux a lot in the past (and, dare I say it… Linux is fun!), but it’s not exactly easy to use for non technical people. You only really need to do this to configure things though, I think after you’ve got everything set up then normal everyday usage will stay within Steam.

I will post more when I get around to using it for its intended purpose rather than just fiddling…

In other news, I started watching The Sopranos. I don’t really know what to think about this program. It’s well written and well made and I want to keep watching to find out what happens, but am I actually enjoying it? Ehhhh I’m not sure. The problem is that they are horrible people. Really bad people! Even the priest is slimy! But I still look forward to seeing the next episode, so it must be doing something right. 🤷‍♂️

Excitement!

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I’m very excited because my Steam Deck has shipped. I got the email to say it was ready on Thursday evening, paid a few hours later and then Monday got the email with a tracking code. At the moment it is still in the Netherlands, or at least that’s what the tracking says. It probably isn’t really. I probably won’t get another update until it’s through customs. Hopefully it will come by the weekend.

I don’t know what I’ll play on it though. 🤔

Dream from last night: I was at Parkrun having a terrible run because there was a very congested start and I got stuck to another runner. Literally stuck, like with glue. It took us a few minutes to peel ourselves off each other. Later on (still during Parkrun), the car I was in (????) got turned upside down so I had to get out of it. Then there was a queue going into the finish funnel so I was waiting a few minute before I officially finished. My finish time was around 25 minutes, which sounds pretty good considering everything that had happened, but I was so annoyed I squirted the marshal responsible for the queue in the face with a bottle of ketchup that I must have been carrying with me, which I regretted immediately (even though he deserved it). I woke up stressed that I was going to get banned from Parkrun.

Games and whatnot

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Long roundabout post warning…

A while back I started playing old games on my phone via emulation. It’s good because they tend to be things you can just pick up and put down whenever is convenient. Currently I am playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories on a Playstation Portable emulator (PPSSPP). And it’s fun. Ridiculous too but very well made and enjoyable.

Anyway, somewhere along the way, I put down a reservation on a Steam Deck. I like the idea of just being able to pick up something, play a game, then put it down. This fits into my life much better now. I used to keep eyeing up the Nintendo Switch but I always decided that it’s a lot of money for what it is especially when you consider how expensive the games are. The Steam Deck is more money (£459 for the middle model) but it’s also a lot more – you can plug it into a dock with keyboard, mouse and monitor and it’s a fully functional PC. I probably won’t do that, but that’s what it is. It’s not just a proprietary gaming console like the Switch. So it makes sense to me. Currently, a website which tries to track order statuses of the Steam Deck thinks I’m about 75% of the way through the queue. Or in other words, a few more weeks…

I used to play a lot of Counter-Strike on Steam. For reasons best known to those who do so, some people will pay lots of money onthe Steam marketplace to make their guns in Counter-Strike look different. I’ve been selling off my old inventory and my Steam Wallet balance is now at almost £200. I had one, to me, completely unremarkable item sell for £55 (could maybe understand if it was an AK-47 but it was an MP9… huh?). So I am going to get a £200 discount off the Steam Deck? That’s pretty good!

Since getting into GTA:Vice City Stories I decided to watch Scarface, since apparently GTA is highly inspired by it. I was a bit surprised by how two dimensional Scarface is, given that it’s a highly regarded cult movie. It’s a functional story but if you look too closely you notice that a lot of details don’t really make sense. The ending sequence is very silly and not really in keeping with the style of the rest of the film. My favourite thing is that the serious assassin who turns up at the end decides to attack at night while wearing sunglasses.

Then I watched Carlito’s Way, which is sort of regarded as a spiritual successor. Carlito’s Way, in my opinion, is the opposite and really very good. It’s grim and depressing, but it’s a well written and well told story with believable characters and I am pleased I watched it. You know what’s going to happen at the end of the film because it’s shown at the very start and then done in a “how did we get here?” long flashback, but it’s still a surprise when it finally happens (again). I hadn’t realised until now how great of an actor Al Pacino is. If I didn’t know, I’m not sure I’d have realised it was the same actor in both films. And if you throw in The Godfather, you have him playing another gangster in another gangster film, and he’s completely unrecognisable between all three of them.

So in conclusion… I’m quite excited about the Steam Deck and hopefully I only have a few more weeks to wait.