Community MetaSteam | February 2026 - Romeo and Rogue: Dead Citadel Requiem

Talking about alternatives to discord seems somewhat pointless to me because the scale has been tipped. It's not a matter of preference for discord, it's that we reached the tipping point where enough territories are legislating it now. Whatever comes next will be subject to the same laws. The whole internet will soon enough, wheresoever people will gather and checked against whatever your local government deems mature/adult. And some governments will no doubt also wield it against whatever they deem """"problematic."""

Seems a bit too late to me. We've entered the Netwatch age but without any of the other cool cyberpunk goodies to make it feel less shitty.
The adult stuff is just the pretext, the goal is end of anonymity.
 
The adult stuff is just the pretext, the goal is end of anonymity.

In the current hellscape of the zombie bot internet
having a database with the real identities of people that are not bots, is a gold mine.
Advertising, scams, fraud, targeted marketing, and even research is so much more efficient if you can be reasonably sure that the database you have includes a majority of real data of real people.
 
I feel like these things tend to have counterweights to them.

Governments go too far and ones more hostile to this kind of thing eventually get elected.

It’s just that sometimes things happen so slowly we get into a doom spiral about it.

It sucks, sure. Shout about it. Also, participate in or create some infrastructure to bypass it.
 
Last edited:
My ROG Xbox Ally X has just arrived. It beats the Deck on ergonomics, hands down. So, so comfortable to use.

Just doing some firmware updates via Windows and testing the hardware to make sure nothing is broke. Then it’s time to install a 4tb SSD and stick SteamOS or Bazzite on it.
 
My ROG Xbox Ally X has just arrived. It beats the Deck on ergonomics, hands down. So, so comfortable to use.

Just doing some firmware updates via Windows and testing the hardware to make sure nothing is broke. Then it’s time to install a 4tb SSD and stick SteamOS or Bazzite on it.
counterpoint: ASUS
 
counterpoint: ASUS
I’d have preferred the Lenovo Legion Go 2, but I dithered too long with the £1100 1TB Z2 Extreme version in my cart and it went out of stock.

Now it’s £200 more expensive on Lenovo’s site. So I’ve just opted for the cheaper Ally X and I’m putting 4TB of storage in it instead of 2TB.

I think any handheld is a good handheld so long as it isn’t running Windows.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: lashman
not when it randomly catches on fire and ASUS support tells you it's your fault :P
Yeah that wouldn’t fly in the UK, but point taken.

I do try to avoid ASUS when I can. But I have a ROG Ally Z1 Extreme as my “too much for Deck” machine and had a good time using it. There hasn’t been any big issues with the Xbox Ally X, so I think it’ll be OK.

Just looking for something with better battery life and more power than the Deck, and this device was the second best (but only available) option for me.

I wanted to consolidate my Deck, Ally 1 and PS Portal into one device running Linux, and this one is what I’ve had to settle for.

If hardware prices go sane again, I may grab a Legion Go 3/4, or wait for the Deck 2. We’ll see.
 


Always Sunny Wildcard GIF by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
 
So even with the all the work Microsoft did to spruce up Windows for the ROG Xbox Ally devices, it’s still shit.

Ads everywhere, weird UI decisions based on the fact that the app is still a desktop app but can be used with a controller.

This whole thing is a low effort shambles. Can’t wait to switch to Linux.
 
I wonder how long after release it will take for the equivalent announcement for Lords of the Fallen 2.
seeing how Tim is actually publishing that one (and going by AW2), and also how the ceo is crawling up Tim's ass any chance he gets on twitter - probably not any time soon :P
 
My ROG Xbox Ally X has just arrived. It beats the Deck on ergonomics, hands down. So, so comfortable to use.

Just doing some firmware updates via Windows and testing the hardware to make sure nothing is broke. Then it’s time to install a 4tb SSD and stick SteamOS or Bazzite on it.
Yeah I do not liek the shape of the deck tbh
 
  • Sad
Reactions: lashman
Never played MK1 , but they’re generally pretty fun with high production values. So I picked up the MK1 complete your collection bundle, after seeing how crazy cheap it was. For less than $10 I got the complete MK1, as well as any DLC I was missing from MKX and MK11.

Then it hit me like an uppercut. A 200GB install file!! You’ve got to be joking. Even if this was highly regarded as the best MK ever I’d be hesitant, but this was largely considered to be a big disappointment.

Thank God for Steam refunds.
 
Never played MK1 , but they’re generally pretty fun with high production values. So I picked up the MK1 complete your collection bundle, after seeing how crazy cheap it was. For less than $10 I got the complete MK1, as well as any DLC I was missing from MKX and MK11.

Then it hit me like an uppercut. A 200GB install file!! You’ve got to be joking. Even if this was highly regarded as the best MK ever I’d be hesitant, but this was largely considered to be a big disappointment.

Thank God for Steam refunds.
MK1 isnt very good, certainly not worth 200gb
 
  • Like
Reactions: DrShrapnel


Several good games here:


The trailer for the new Diablo 2 Resurrected DLC showed Steam logo, but they didn't mention anything about Steam while talking.

Diablo 2 Resurrection on Steamdb:

 
Last edited:
This game was truly Concord 2, but not because it died quickly, or because it killed the team, and also not because of the gameplay and artstyle. Highguard simply made the same mistake Concord did: it launched suddenly without having a proper and long beta/test period with the public at large, causing the game to simply ship with unpopular features (3v3, the rock mining phase, too "sweaty"). Sorry but going "but Apex shadowdropped" doesn't work because Apex came out in 2019 and in a completely different market. A lot of the launch problems would have been eliminated if the game had a open beta playtest in summer 2025, just as how Concord being announced with the burger trailer and the launched so soon after that State of Play caused most of it's problems. "Popular" streamers are not enough, Geoff or other game journalists are not enough, big ad slots and lots of eyes on your trailer are not enough, being polished is not enough, you need the public at large to try and give suggestion to the game because it's that public that will spend the money in the end, you need the public to care for your heroes in a hero shooter before the game releases, you need the gameplay to "work" for the majority of your potential players
Look at Deadlock, compare how the game is now to how it was 2 years ago, search for old videos for it and you'll see the game is basically completely different. Deadlock changed into what it is now because of feedback, because feedback is important for gaas games. Even popular single player gachas had multiple beta tests to gather a much feedback as possible, it's not a multiplayer only thing
Let's hope other developers learned this lesson this time to avoid having a Concord 3
 
Honestly, I've used matrix in a professional capacity for about a year now and it's actually very good as far as these things go.

The only other alternative I've tried (that is an actual alternative, i.e. you can self-host it) is Rocket Chat, and it's way worse on pretty much every level.
We used Rocket Chat at work years ago and it reminded me of Geocities HTML chat
 
Talking about alternatives to discord seems somewhat pointless to me because the scale has been tipped. It's not a matter of preference for discord, it's that we reached the tipping point where enough territories are legislating it now. Whatever comes next will be subject to the same laws. The whole internet will soon enough, wheresoever people will gather and checked against whatever your local government deems mature/adult. And some governments will no doubt also wield it against whatever they deem """"problematic."""

Seems a bit too late to me. We've entered the Netwatch age but without any of the other cool cyberpunk goodies to make it feel less shitty.
Discord making the move is what convinced me now that this won't just all blow over before I'm personally affected.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lashman
Calamity Angels is fun.

The combat is turn-based, party members can refuse orders or changing attack skill depending on their mood. There's an equivalent of Mechty as well.

The exploration is essentially sugoroku, with roulette wheel replacing dice rolls.

There is an inventory tetris.

The characters are "difficult" and colourful. :flare_lmao:

Sadly, the PC features is barebones, but that's probably expected from Idea Factory.

I might pick it up.
 
Highguard simply made the same mistake Concord did: it launched suddenly without having a proper and long beta/test period with the public at large, causing the game to simply ship with unpopular features (3v3, the rock mining phase, too "sweaty").

I agree with this completely, but I would extend it even further and say they should have extensive beta tests in the middle part of development as well. Having public beta tests in the last few months of development is fine but it doesn't really allow for much course correction when the core ideas of the game are more or less set in stone. It's kind of crazy how both Concord and Highguard reached the final stages of development without anyone telling them that the games were completely unappealing.

In the aftermath of Concord people often assigned blame to various factors for it's failure; saturation of hero shooters, paid product, new IP, mediocre gameplay, horrible characters, GAAS fatigue and what not... and yet, there were games that came out around that time that had all those 'handicaps' and did just fine. The one thing people missed was that Concord had an open beta as well and nobody showed up to play it. There was just no interest in what they had made and what they had shown. This means Concord failed long before it ever released or was even revealed to the public. They fucked up by either not getting feedback that the game sucked during development, or ignoring it.

I think the same thing happened to Highguard as well. People have somehow locked on to the idea that revealing the game in the final slot at the game awards hurt it. That kind of thought process can only land in the minds of insane people who somehow believe that the final slot is some sort of hallowed ground that must be reserved for the 'Naughty Gods' or some shit like that. And then they projected their disappointment on that not happening on the unfortunate game that did show up in it's place. But even if they had shadow dropped the game on that night, it's fate would not have been substantially different. We know that hundreds of thousands of people tried the game and the fact that it bled it's population so quickly that it's curtains just two weeks after release means that the game had no chance. They made something that people just didn't want to play. Large scale testing a year ago might have told them this and given them room to change direction.

Valve is so lucky that they can do what they're doing with Deadlock, but it's important to realize that they learned this lesson after the failure of Artifact and Underlords. Riot also has enough resources to match what Valve is doing but they fucked up their fighting game completely anyway.

Software development is really, really hard. Finding the 'fun' in a video game during development makes it exponentially harder.
 
Last edited:
I'm gonna play Mewgenics instead of the D2 DLC, but I'm sure the eternal siren song of D2 will get me to buy it at some future time.
 
  • Bonk
Reactions: lashman