I’ve had an idea of making a visual novel with gen AI, but I’d want to attach “Placeholder: AI Artwork” in a visible location for each sprite. And I only even consider that because I’m not exactly a known game dev and don’t have ready access to artists.

Larian should likely expect if they’re taking shortcuts in their position, they’d get backlash. I can at least recognize that they’re trying to be moderate about it.

Not just the Deck. Having these games work there also means I have an easier time transitioning my desktop to Linux.

Ah yes, the Galbrush problem; in which designing something and then swapping a character’s gender suddenly makes it a gender commentary.

I won’t really fight anyone suggesting “Yarr-harr” approaches, but if you’re just looking for something to watch and legality becomes a hurdle as you describe: Libraries offer a huge backlog of stuff (watched some old Disney stuff I’d targeted, without sending the mouse money) as well as some digital services. It should be pretty easy to rip the DVDs they have on offer too.

This concern exists regardless of what device is running on the TV.

If you have a wireless keyboard that’s comfortable on the couch, use that. Otherwise, just use a controller and launch in Steam Big Picture mode (now basically looks like Steam Deck’s main screen).

Good launchers (not all of them) also take controller input.

EDIT: But I think to reinterpret your question, yes, the device on the TV generally should have the input connected directly. That can be done with Android TV and I think Apple TVs.

May I introduce you to Sunshine and Moonlight.

No, I’m not asking you to open your curtains. Long as you have a good connection between your PC and TV, and some small TV device, you can play a lot that way.

Emulation seems neat to me, but I know behind every comment on it there’s a whispered implication: Piracy. Very few people are imaging their own game discs. That unfortunately makes it less appealing to me, especially as trustworthiness shifts at many of those sites.

Yeah, I admit I uninstalled it from my Deck after previous attempt. Maybe I’ll retry it.

If HL3 was ever to get news, I don’t really think Valve would do it on someone else’s awards show. They tend to own their own announcements.

Something I tried to do earlier to help with it, in this very channel, was a “Downvote any game you’ve heard of before” thread. It was a nice exercise to help people post odd games no one had heard of.

I’m a sucker for Zenless Zone Zero. I recognize it’s often catering to male gaze, but I appreciate there’s some uniqueness and interesting themes to the designs.

Basic example, “Corin” being on first blush just a cute maid cut, but also following a Frankenstein design theme with the bolts/chainsaw and hair color.

They’ve also had a “bunny-girl”, Alice, who much like real bunnies is skittish and easily frightened (and is thankfully not nearly as sexualized as the theme often carries)

If you haven’t played games in a while, a subscription service like game pass or PS+ can be a good idea.

It’ll let you try out a lot of games that you might not try otherwise, and also try/discard some games that seemed cool but turn out to be unlikable.

Silly Poly Beast - 3 GB Another Crab’s Treasure - 7.7 GB

Rabbit and Steel - 376 MB, coop PVE game, plays a lot like FFXIV raids

The worst part is, I consider myself a bit of a gooner; I like alluring, attractive characters. But that was meant to be a story-based game, and yet it designed so many jokes around attractive women dressing in rags, being clueless, easily offended, and seemed to design the story around an intense contact between a shonen hero and a large-breasted woman.

At least in something like Stellar Blade, they evade the subject because they know there’s nothing constructive to say.

dives to 50 feet, removes tube from mouth to shout to Gabe, and fucking drowns

I wonder how they plan to cover the events. Normally, you’d bring gaming journalists, but Saudis are terrified of journalists.

I’d very much like to see the Accountable Capitalism act hit these companies. Force them to rethink their employee-hating positions when they need their votes to win over the board.

I know for myself, I have a bit of a mental barrier of separation between what I find kinky in fictional media, and what I would ever expect of real people. I fear for people that break that barrier, failing to understand the ways fiction goes outside of reality.

Of course, there’s rare cases where people somehow match porn - it’s probably best to let those be a surprise, not something you seek.

Apollo is out there in Kuh’rain, wondering if Ace Attorney will ever pick up on an old story so his boss can tell him something important and he can say back “Yeah, Mr. Wright, I figured that out because I’m not an idiot.”

It’s definitely been warped and beaten, but I at least appreciate that it’s a far more open system than cable, and thus there are ways to escape the worst of it for those who try. I let my Netflix sub expire, and instead have turned to library apps and PBS - there’s still far more content than I’d ever finish.