The Steam Deck isn’t really a 1:1 replacement for a home console though, it really depends on your use case. It’s great at what it does, but not everyone is looking for a handheld. And if you’re into more demanding games the Deck also struggles to keep up. I love my Deck but if I had to choose between it and my desktop gaming PC I’d choose the desktop every time. Although it admittedly also was quite a bit more expensive.
and if you play without trading the game is still designed to be somewhat doable. Really the only thing you miss out on is trading
I don’t agree with this at all. Even if you don’t want to trade (which only really requires a single premium stash tab anyway) you’ll struggle in the endgame if you don’t have at least a currency, fragment and map tab. I actually think you need even more tabs in SSF (solo self-found) than in trade league. Because you can’t just buy something if you need it you’ll probably want to keep way more items. And with the four default tabs you pretty quickly run out of space (in the endgame).
But yes, for the campaign it’s not really an issue and I would definitely consider that as perfectly playable for free. And by the time you’re done with it you’ll probably know whether you want to buy some tabs and keep playing or not.
Tip for people who do want to buy stash tabs: there’s a sale every three weeks where all tabs are around 20-25% off.
PoE2 early access is still months away, so I assume you’re talking about PoE1.
In my opinion it’s definitely worth playing if you’re into that type of game. The monetisation is still very fair in my opinion. It’s perfectly playable for free until you reach the endgame, where you’ll probably want to spend around 30-40€ on stash tabs. But you’ve probably played for at least 20 hours before you even get to that point. And it’s a one time purchase which costs about as much as Last Epoch. And less than Diablo 4.
Personally I’m not a huge fan of SSF (solo self-found), it does make the game somewhat harder since parts of the game are not designed around this mode. It’s supposed to be a limitation. If that’s how you want to play and you’re a more casual player then Last Epoch might be the better choice, they have a mode that caters specifically to people who want to play like that (Circle of Fortune). But lots of people play SSF so it’s not like it’s not a viable way to play the game or anything. Playing trade league but only trading for a few things you need (like build defining uniques) is also an option. And in the current league they also introduced an automated currency exchange market which makes trading certain items a lot easier.
I’ve only played the most recent Cycle in Last Epoch so I can’t tell you how the game “now” compares to previous states, but I’ve enjoyed it. The story is a bit convoluted and there’s certainly room for improvement, but I enjoyed the gameplay. Both building your character and the crafting system are way more approachable than in Path of Exile, but still interesting.
Overall I’d probably recommend Last Epoch to a casual player unless you’re drawn to PoE’s more complicated systems or abundance of content, especially in the endgame.
If I had a Rappen for every time I’ve heard this joke I’d actually be as rich as you all think Swiss people are.
I liked Metroid Dread a lot. I feel like it’s a good starting point for Metroidvanias too because the game does a good job nudging you in the right direction e.g. by closing off certain areas but still letting you explore and figure out where to go. I especially enjoyed the movement, it feels very fluid and satisfying.
The only major issue I had with the game was that performance is really bad in a few encounters. Most of the time it runs fine though. It’s also not super long. I prefer a game that doesn’t overstay its welcome, but if you’re looking for something that is good value for money in terms of playtime there might be better options.
One of my favourite games! I’ve got over 400 hours on Steam and some more on mobile. Did all achievements but I’m still struggling with A20 Heart kills so I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. My favourite class is probably the Silent. I also like the Watcher a lot, but she’s a bit too easy and her decks can feel a bit too similar. The Ironclad has grown on me since I’ve realised that the exhaust cards are good actually. And that he’s not really focused on attacks. Defect is my least favourite but I do play all four. My favourite way to win is with Snecko Eye! Getting an early Snecko Eye and then picking all the expensive cards is a lot of fun.
I’ve been meaning to play a few similar games like Monster Train or Wildfrost but so far I’ve always felt like I need to get back to StS to improve a bit more instead.
For people looking to improve I’d recommend jorbs and Baalorlord on Twitch and YouTube, they’re chill and very good at the game.
Yeah, it may not be as popular as Mario or Zelda, but I wouldn’t say it’s “unfairly forgotten”. People who have played the game tend to be pretty vocal about it. And justifiably so, I’ve never had a comparable experience in another game. I wish I could forget about it and play it again.
MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or Guild Wars 2 are a great way to play together. With 5 players you can exactly fill a party in both games.
RTS games like Starcraft 2 (which is free now) or Age of Empires could also be fun, but 5 players is a bit awkward because it’s too many for a single team and uneven so you can’t play like a 3v3. But at least in SC2 there’s a 2v2 and a 3v3 ladder so you could always split into two teams or play a free for all. There are also a bunch of cool custom games in the arcade like Ice Baneling Escape or Zealot Hockey you could try.
Very different, but Trackmania is also fun with friends. Not the right choice if you enjoy ramming your friends off the road, but there are probably other games for that too. To set up and play in a club/server you’d need club access which costs like $20 a year, but you can try the game for free first to see if you like it. You can compete for records on a map, play an RPG together (a map style where the focus is on finding the right way instead of just racing) or build tracks for each other.
You could try an ARPG, unfortunately most of them (Diablo, Grim Dawn, Last Epoch) seem to limit parties to 4 players, but Path of Exile allows up to six. And if you’re not serious about the end game you’ll never need to spend any money (if you are it’s like $40 for stash tabs one time and you’re set forever).
It sounds like you’re actually looking for turn-based tactics/strategy? In that case maybe check out Civilization VI and the Advance Wars 1+2 remake. They’re both supposed to have local multiplayer on the Switch, although I don’t know how good it is. I don’t think you can play the Advance Wars campaign co-op, but it sounds like you can at least play individual battles like that.
If you’re really looking for real-time strategy, Pikmin 3 seems to have a good co-op story mode. Pikmin 4 technically has one too but the second player isn’t able to do much, so it’s probably not very fun.
I definitely agree that you shouldn’t (just) measure a game’s value by playtime. I prefer a shorter game that’s an interesting and exciting experience all the way through over one that is longer, but feels drawn out.
That’s a good point, but I feel like there are reasonable solutions for that like a disclaimer when buying the game digitally. For the physical version they could either put a sticker on it or just delay the physical version only. I also think that people who are informed enough to know about specific features like that are more likely to hear about this discourse.
What I don’t understand is why they don’t just release both Xbox versions without split screen and then try to patch it in later. That way they’d satisfy the feature parity requirement (as I understand it) and people could at least play the game. I love that they’re still doing split screen despite it seemingly having fallen out of favour these days, but it’s hardly an essential feature.
Saying the Steam Deck is better value than a PlayStation isn’t really a meaningful statement without further qualification because they are two very different devices. That was kind of the point of my previous comment. If you don’t need any of the handheld features and just want to play on your TV then the PS5 is better value. If you want a handheld a PS5 is obviously completely useless and the Steam Deck is insanely good value.
Also, if you want to play current, demanding games, a €700 PS5 Pro surely is enough. Even a regular PS5 should do for now since the Pro isn’t even out yet. Personally I prefer a more powerful gaming PC, but if you just want to play some of the latest AAA games on your TV you don’t need to spend more than 700€ unless you have other specific requirements.