I’m sick of all this “AAA games are all bad now” discourse. I agree with it, but I’m sick of talking about it. It’s been going on for years and people still act like it’s a new and surprising development.

Brand loyalty, franchise continuity, and newness are almost never factors for me. I just find out organically about the games that sound fun to me, and then I play those. Old or new, AAA or indie, it doesn’t matter. If it seems appealing and the reviews are decent, I’ll try it.

Gaming is way more fun when you’re not perpetually upset about the latest BS that EA or Activision is trying to pull. If you keep getting burned, then take your hand off the flame.

I bought a Steam Deck because I like playing games, and the Deck makes that more accessible. Simple as that.

Selling my LCD Deck and buying an OLED wouldn’t actually change anything for me. I would still use it in the same places, at the same times, to play the same games. Even the battery isn’t a big concern for me because, between wall outlets and an external battery pack, I never actually drain mine.

You got an OLED and are blown away by the improvements? That’s great, good for you. But it feels a little insulting to be told the LCD model is old hat when it totally isn’t.

Plus I’ve already sunk some money into to my Deck and would rather keep my upgrades intact.

Ah, IGN. I’d say they have bad takes, but that would imply some amount of consistency.

I don’t like screen protectors even for things where I should definitely have them. Not even my phone has one.

With the Deck in particular, I just can’t see it ever coming in handy. It is literally always either in my hands, sitting in a secure location charging, or in its case. Even on the off chance that I drop it, the odds are low that it will fall in such a way that it damages the screen.

If it ever does break, I’ll just replace the screen. It’ll take more effort and be more expensive, but I prefer that risk over dealing with screen protectors.

JRPGs. I don’t usually like turn based combat, and I also don’t like when games spend LOADS of time on story sequences. A friend of mine recently convinced me to try Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and it drove me up the wall that the first 10-15 minutes of the game only contained like 2 minutes of gameplay.

I’ll make exceptions on occasion, but the story and combat both have to be absolutely phenomenal for me to give it a fair shake.