kfwyre's recent activity
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion in ~games
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentApe Escape sits somewhere near the top of my nebulous list of Games That Most Deserve a Remaster/Remake. Don't get me wrong, the original game itself is still something special and I'll recommend...Ape Escape sits somewhere near the top of my nebulous list of Games That Most Deserve a Remaster/Remake.
Don't get me wrong, the original game itself is still something special and I'll recommend it to anyone wanting to visit (or revisit) PSOne classics.
But like, its draw distance, which was noticeable even for the time, is really rough by modern standards. Also, IIRC, you can't save mid-level (correct me on this if my memory is wrong though). In the later levels, which get quite large, this is particularly burdensome (though avoidable if using save states).
I think it was one of the rare games to capture a "Nintendo feel" on a non-Nintendo system. I think a large part of that is because it went so hard in the direction of toying with the new hardware features of the Dual Analog controller, and Nintendo is known for its quirky utilizations of novel hardware features.
Like, there's a parallel universe out there somewhere in which Nintendo released a 64 controller with two sticks and this as the flagship game for it, because it genuinely feels like it fits in better with the N64 library than it does the PSX one.
Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying it, but of course take whatever screen breaks you need. Health always comes first, and I hope you're able to find relief from your symptoms.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentI have two slots left on my CARD OVERLOAD METER -- a count that I added completely arbitrarily and stopped at 9 because going in todouble digits would have been less aesthetically pleasing. This...I have two slots left on my CARD OVERLOAD METER -- a count that I added completely arbitrarily and stopped at 9 because going in todouble digits would have been less aesthetically pleasing.
This is also the final day of the Backlog Burner, so I used DeckFilter to find games in my Steam library that were beatable in less than an hour.
Weirdly enough, I found two completely unrelated games with similar titles that I decided to play as companion games: It Takes a War and It Comes in Waves
It Takes a War (played via Steam)
This is an old-school team-based FPS in the vein of the original Counter-Strike.
Extremely Minor Spoiler
Except it isn't.
It Comes in Waves (played via Steam)
You are on a hostile desert planet carrying around a specimen. You must grow the specimen while also surviving the unbearable heat. You constantly use up water and need to replenish it by finding supplies or killing the bandits roaming around who also want your water.
It is a deliberately antagonistic game towards the player: if you die you have to start all over; your run speed is quite slow and the world is quite large. Rather than being action-packed, as the shooting and existence of bandits might imply, this is a game that has an almost glacial pace, inviting reflection and meditation as you traverse the dry, often featureless sands.
I chose to play these as companion games simply based on the similarity of their titles, so I was surprised to see that I basically have the same thoughts about both of them.
Both of them hearken back to an older era of gaming. Both of them attempt to do something novel and interesting. Both of them are genuinely compelling to play (though in completely different ways). Both are didactic.
And I, sadly, consider both of them to be a bit flawed in their executions. Neither one left me fully satisfied.
It's not that either game is bad. It's that, much like many of the other games I've played this Backlog Burner, there's a clear trajectory towards something great that I can easily see within each game, but they both fall a touch short before getting there.
I suppose this is a game-half-empty look at things, because I think I'm coming across more negative about them than I intend to be. I think both of them do FAR more right than they do wrong, and that's certainly no easy feat and something to be celebrated. That's a double-edged sword though, because the presence of so much of those good design decisions creates the expectation of a fantastic payoff in the first place.
Neither one totally hit for me, but I'd still say these are both worth a look, especially because each was made with such a clear and unique vision. Consider It Takes a War if you want an opinionated FPS, and consider It Comes in Waves if you want an opinionated survival game. You might not love the opinions yourself, as was the case for me, but you have to admire the earnest conviction with which they're held.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre (edited )Link24 hour notice! The end of May and therefore the end of the Backlog Burner is soon upon us (or possibly already here for some of you). I’ll posting the Recap topic approximately 24 hours from the...24 hour notice!
The end of May and therefore the end of the Backlog Burner is soon upon us (or possibly already here for some of you).
I’ll posting the Recap topic approximately 24 hours from the time of this comment, so please make sure you have shared all of the games you have played by then so that they can be counted.
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Comment on Tildes Survey #6: Vote for the next four surveys we do! (Results) in ~talk
kfwyre Link ParentI vote for whatever you think is best, given that you'll be running the survey and know how long it takes to do all the fancy footwork to prepare the data and visualizations.I vote for whatever you think is best, given that you'll be running the survey and know how long it takes to do all the fancy footwork to prepare the data and visualizations.
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Comment on Tildes Survey #6: Vote for the next four surveys we do! (Results) in ~talk
kfwyre Link ParentI should certainly hope it's inclusive of everything. Games are games!I should certainly hope it's inclusive of everything. Games are games!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentPixel Wheels (played via Flathub on Steam Deck) Pixel Wheels marks the third open source racing game that I've played for this event behind SuperTuxKart and Sanicball. I didn't set out to do that,...Pixel Wheels (played via Flathub on Steam Deck)
Pixel Wheels marks the third open source racing game that I've played for this event behind SuperTuxKart and Sanicball. I didn't set out to do that, but it just sort of happened.
This is an old-school top-down 2D arcade racing game with powerups. As someone who cut my teeth on R.C. Pro-Am as a kid, I'm an ideal audience for this one.
The game ran fine on the Deck, but I couldn't get it to recognize my controller inputs initially. I ended up switching Steam to the "Keyboard and Mouse" setting which changes your d-pad to WASD, and that worked. This did make the steering feel a little stiff, and I'm not sure if that's because I didn't have analog control or if it's just the way the game is. (Note: there is an open issue about the Steam Deck controls on the game's tracker, so hopefully it'll get resolved one day.)
I played through the game's three championships on the easiest difficulty. I had a good time. The game is well-made and enjoyable. I don't know that I'll keep coming back to it or trying to go for harder difficulties though.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentInteractivity: The Interactive Experience (played via itch.io) I haven't played any itch.io games for this Backlog Burner yet, despite the fact that it is by far the largest pool of games that I...Interactivity: The Interactive Experience (played via itch.io)
I haven't played any itch.io games for this Backlog Burner yet, despite the fact that it is by far the largest pool of games that I have thanks to those megabundles that happen every so often.
I think part of this is that it's the least Deck- and Linux-friendly of the options. I keep hoping that, either the itch.io Linux app will let you run Windows games through Proton, or Heroic will add itch.io support so I can play them that way.
For this one, I simply streamed the game from my Windows PC to my Linux one, rather than trying to get it up and running separately.
Earlier I praised Forgotten 23 as a smart way of reusing assets by looping you through the same setting multiple times. This game does the same, though admittedly it is less upfront about it and I almost stopped playing after completing my first runthrough, thinking that I had fully finished the game.
It's one of those meta games that knows it's a game, plays with tropes, and breaks the fourth wall directly and repeatedly. It's got some light humor here and there, but tonally it's a little more serious than some of the others in the genre.
It's hard to talk about without spoiling anything, but I'll say that, while I enjoyed my playthrough(s) well enough, I don't particularly recommend it. The game has some neat ideas, but it feels like it never gets fully fleshed out. It doesn't take any really big swings, instead sort of minorly incrementing some things that make each playthrough fairly similar to the last. I wanted it to go all out and really surprise me or play with my expectations.
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Comment on Tildes Survey #6: Vote for the next four surveys we do! (Results) in ~talk
kfwyre LinkFor the video game question, I'm thinking we might get more interesting data if we ask for, maybe, people's top 5 or something like that? I feel like then we'd see a lot more overlaps and end up...For the video game question, I'm thinking we might get more interesting data if we ask for, maybe, people's top 5 or something like that? I feel like then we'd see a lot more overlaps and end up with more consensus choices, rather than a disparate list of lots of different games because people were limited to giving only 1 title.
That might make visualizing the data a lot harder though. Thoughts?
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentI loved Tinykin. It was a delight, and the only thing I didn't like about it was that I pushed myself to complete it 100% out of stubbornness, which meant that tracking down those last few things...I loved Tinykin. It was a delight, and the only thing I didn't like about it was that I pushed myself to complete it 100% out of stubbornness, which meant that tracking down those last few things I missed in the game's VAST levels was a pain.
Everything else was a joy for me though.
There's so many collectibles to pick up that I found it hard to stay focused on a single goal.
This is the absolute truth. Because you can see clear across the levels, it's easy to set a destination in mind but then get derailed by ten different things along the way, such that you completely forget what your original intention was.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentIt's me. I'm the anonymous voting benefactor. Not only do I agree with that interpretation of zombies, but I also vote on everything in every Backlog Burner topic because every comment in them is...I'm always happy to corrupt help! Me and my anonymous voting benefactor.
It's me. I'm the anonymous voting benefactor.
Not only do I agree with that interpretation of zombies, but I also vote on everything in every Backlog Burner topic because every comment in them is always worth reading.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentNexuiz -- now there's a name I haven't heard in a while! I'm loving all these deep cuts you're playing. I never played the BETA or STUPID Mode versions, but I did play both versions of regular...Nexuiz -- now there's a name I haven't heard in a while! I'm loving all these deep cuts you're playing.
I never played the BETA or STUPID Mode versions, but I did play both versions of regular Nexuiz back in the day: the open source project that it started out as and the completely separate commercial release that for some reason used that name despite being a completely different new game.
The commercial version tried really hard, as many games have, to resurrect the Quake- and Unreal-style arena FPS genre that was huge in the late 90s and early 00s. It didn't succeed. Steam says I played it for 7 hours back in the day and I recall having a good time with it. That said, if I'm remembering things correctly, I believe it suffered from what probably killed the genre as a whole: skilled players can simply crush everyone else, which is only fun for the skilled player.
I've long thought that someone needs to make an arena FPS that has built-in "rubber banding" mechanics that help offset pure skill such that everybody can have a bit more fun. Like, no one enjoys getting blue-shelled in Mario Kart, but it's a mechanic that helps keep the racing pack tighter and keeps group enjoyment up. Same goes for the more powerful items you get when in the back of the pack. I'm sure devs could come up with clever ways to nerf the currently top player and boost the bottom ones while maintaining fun and without stomping out skill completely.
The terribly named Morphie's Law had possibly the best implementation of this that I know of, having the frontrunner players get bigger (and thus more easily targetable) while the ones in the rear got smaller (and harder to hit). That said, it, like many others, also failed to resurrect the genre, so maybe arena FPS games just aren't going to hit it big anymore.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentToday I present to you: The Duality of Sonic Fangames. Sonic GT (played via direct install on Steam Deck) This was utterly spendid. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this feels like an actual,...Today I present to you: The Duality of Sonic Fangames.
Sonic GT (played via direct install on Steam Deck)
This was utterly spendid.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that this feels like an actual, full-fat 3D Sonic game. In fact, given the uh, rather low quality of some of those, maybe calling it that is a bit of a disservice, because this thing is PREMIUM.
It's got large, sprawling levels with tons of different areas and pathways. It's got movement tech, a scoring system, boss fights, etc. Hell, it's got FULL VOICE ACTING. It's got all the Sonic-y graphical motifs and flare that you'd expect. If I found out this was made by Sega devs who secretly released their build after their official project got canned, I'd believe it.
The game is, admittedly, quite short, and can be beat in an hour. It's definitely the kind of game that is meant to be played far more than that, however. The levels themselves are very skillfully designed and reward multiple playthroughs because the game has so many different throughlines for different areas that you could play the same level 3 or 4 or 5 times and go down different paths/rails/ramps each time.
I've always thought that Sonic games had a bit of an identity crisis, because Sonic's "go fast" identity was always at odds with the game's rich level complexity, which requires you to stop a lot.
That happens in this game too, but if you were to play this over and over again and really learn the levels, you could eventually find and learn the racing lines all throughout that let you skillfully speed through them without having to stop.
Movement initially feels a touch slippery, which is noticeable at slower speeds, but it's clear the game really wants you to keep going fast as much as you can. Also, the levels are so large and complex that I legitimately got lost several times during my playthrough.
I think it's easy to see that as a problem through modern eyes, but then I think back to my Dreamcast days and how I played Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 over and over and over again. This game still lives in that world -- where you didn't have hundreds of other games vying for your attention and you just replayed your favorites for the fun of it until you knew all of their ins-and-outs.
I think 3D Sonic fans can find a lot to love in this impressively made and executed fangame. I myself probably won't be playing it again, as I've aged out of that style of gameplay, but I think it's definitely worth a look to anyone out there who remembers when Sonic Adventure was the absolute coolest game around.
Sanicball (played via direct install on Steam Deck)
If Sonic GT feels like it was meticulously made by actual Sega devs, Sanicball feels like it was made by a hobby-level dev who got really stoned one weekend while browsing the Sonic wiki.
It's a shitpost of a game, starring your favorite characters like Sanic and Knackles as literal balls that race each other on familiarly themed 3D courses. The keybindings tell you how the left joystick makes you "go fast" while the right one lets you "look fast" and A makes you "jump fast" while Y makes you "respawn fast." Your ingame speed is measured in "fasts/h".
It's deliberately irreverent and doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest. Big the Cat is in the game, and his ball is bigger than all of the others. He also goes considerably slower to the point that he's completely nonviable to play. Everything about the game is committed to being meme-y.
Gameplay-wise, it's pretty barebones. No rings, no rails, no complex level design. Instead, you've just got large looped open-world levels and checkpoints that you have to hit.
Now, what's truly interesting about the game is that is features actual networked multiplayer.
See, when I said that this game was a shitpost, what I left out is that it is, quite surprisingly, a high-effort shitpost. Like I said, it's got fully featured multiplayer! It's got AI racers with adjustable difficulty. The actual racing itself feels weirdly... good? When I played the desert level, I got flashes of Star Wars Episode I: Racer back on the Dreamcast (this is a compliment).
I don't think there's enough in the game to call it fully good and give it a recommendation -- it does feel like an early access game that stalled out and never finished development. But I will say that I expected to play this for five minutes as a joke and then move on, but I was surprisingly taken in by it and played it for much longer (I even came back to it! Multiple times!).
It's not that exciting playing against AI companions, but there's actually a surprising, somewhat meditative quality to playing the game solo. Because you go fast, it means that the levels are larger and the turns are more gradual than in other racing games. You soar through the air a lot. This means that, once you've got the controls down and know how things to, it feels (and I genuinely cannot believe I am saying this about a game called Sanicball) almost graceful.
It's almost as if the dev was SO blazed that you can get contact high just by playing the game. Despite all the game's adherence to FAST trappings, I felt relaxed when playing it.
I felt...
...mellow.
Now, it might just be genre preference on my part, but I feel more compelled to come back to this game for than I do to return to Sonic GT, even though that is by far the better game by every conceivable metric you could possibly come up with. This is going to stay installed on my Steam Deck, as I feel like I could do a race or two between other games in the same way that I have been doing with SuperTuxKart.
(Did I mention that *Sanicball is also open source?)
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentSpaceWar is an example game for devs that shows how to use Steam API integrations. I don't know enough about the technical background to know why, but some mods use the SpaceWar depot itself, as...SpaceWar is an example game for devs that shows how to use Steam API integrations.
I don't know enough about the technical background to know why, but some mods use the SpaceWar depot itself, as well as a large number of pirated games.
Also that was a beautiful writeup of a clearly deeply affecting game. Thanks for typing that up.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentIt turns out Phoenix Wright was unavailable, so the court has now appointed Jayjay Falcon to represent you. However, you might not need him, as “playing it for the crabs” is a genuinely...It turns out Phoenix Wright was unavailable, so the court has now appointed Jayjay Falcon to represent you.
However, you might not need him, as “playing it for the crabs” is a genuinely bulletproof defense. No jury would ever convict on such grounds!
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Comment on Audible mandating authors transition to new royalty system or lose payments in ~books
kfwyre Link ParentHow is this the first time I’m hearing about the QLL?! What an awesome resource! Thanks for the pointer, moocow. They just got a new signup.How is this the first time I’m hearing about the QLL?! What an awesome resource!
Thanks for the pointer, moocow. They just got a new signup.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentI Am Legion: Stand Survivors (played via Steam) Well, now that we know that u/aphoenix has been secretly playing games this whole time, I feel like I should come clean and admit that I've been...I Am Legion: Stand Survivors (played via Steam)
Well, now that we know that u/aphoenix has been secretly playing games this whole time, I feel like I should come clean and admit that I've been playing this Steam game the whole time, despite my promise to focus on non-Steam games.
Did I do it as a brilliant pre-planned ruse like aphoenix did?
Of course not. I lack the guile.
Instead, it happened for a far more pragmatic reason: every day I walk on my treadmill, and I need a game with simple inputs and an engaging loop to play while I do it. The simple inputs mean I don't ever lose my balance (I've tried playing a platformer while walking and it did not go well), and the engaging loop takes my mind off the fact that I'm exercising and makes an hour of sweaty intensity feel far shorter.
So, this game is what I've been playing all month while exercising, and it's only now that I feel comfortable adding it to the Backlog Burner given that I really did fill my whole card with non-Steam games like I said I would.
The game is a bullet heaven, which I can now say officially because that finally got a Steam tag. In the multitudinous pantheon of Vampire Survivors followers, this one is genuinely pretty good (and it's made in Godot, which I always love). The premise is that you have your own player character, but you can also recruit up to 8 others to join your legion. The game calls these "stands" (hence the name).
The stands themselves follow a 2048-style upgrade path where you can combine copies into one to make them more powerful, then combine copies of those copies to move them up another tier. This is neat, but there are also chains where you combine different ones to produce all new and far more impressive stands, similar to the weapon evolutions in VS.
Game-wise, this one's a slower burn than some of the other bullet heavens I played. You get a tiny amount of progression after each run. Rather than being able to come back in and spend your metacredits on a ton of upgrades, you might get one or two total. It makes for a very gradual start, requiring a decent amount of time put in before you start to really get to the most interesting part of the game (unlocking the stands that require more complex combinations).
If I weren't playing it on the treadmill I probably wouldn't have stuck with it, but the slow in-game progression matches my slow actual IRL fitness progression, as I inch my way towards being healthier and, hopefully, more fit. In this way, I like its vibe. Its very... dare I say it... mellow.
I'd recommend it if you're in the market for a solid bullet heaven and have already played through the mainstays of the genre. It's not a must play, but it holds its own.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentI’M SCREAMING YOU UTTERLY MAGNIFICENT FIREBIRDI’M SCREAMING YOU UTTERLY MAGNIFICENT FIREBIRD
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentThree games played, two bingos, giving repeated best efforts in a soulslike (a notoriously difficult genre), finally killing the duchess... Seems pretty motivated to me. And yes, your trial will...Wait, when did I get moved to Team Motivated? I was on Team Mellow!
Three games played, two bingos, giving repeated best efforts in a soulslike (a notoriously difficult genre), finally killing the duchess...
Seems pretty motivated to me.
And yes, your trial will follow u/Wes's. I suggest you consult with your legal counsel, Phoenix Wright, to prepare a defense.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
kfwyre LinkMy doppleganger and altogether excellent human being u/aphoenix saw my peril and put together the game list for last week for me. Thank you aphoenix! You have won an ✨⭐️ HONORARY BINGO ⭐️✨My doppleganger and altogether excellent human being u/aphoenix saw my peril and put together the game list for last week for me.
Thank you aphoenix! You have won an ✨⭐️ HONORARY BINGO ⭐️✨
I went to install Squirrel With a Gun as my first post-Backlog Burner title to play because you re-sold me on it (and, honestly, it's been pretty high on my list ever since you first played it).
In doing so, I learned that there's a free Pride Month DLC, which makes this the absolute perfect game to start out on June 1st.
I'm so excited to be gay and do squirrel crimes.