Video Games

Aperture Desk Job
Nearly two weeks after it arrived, I finally actually played something on my Steam Machine. And I started the same way as on my Deck: with Aperture Desk Job. Despite all Valve's talk of the Steam Controller having input parity with the Deck, this shows it's not true: it shows the wrong command for taking a screenshot (it timed out and auto-completed before I could remember the button combination); there's a bit that requires a microphone (the Controller doesn't have one and, again, it autocompletes in silence); there's a bit where you have to sign your name that I guess used the touchscreen on Deck but says to use the mouse with the Controller, only the trackpads don't work like they should (I'm not even sure how I managed to force my way past that bit in the end); and the gyro only works if you enable a user-created control scheme, not the official one from Valve themselves.

Bright Memory
I picked this because it's also short, listed as being an hour or less. Took me an hour-and-a-half. It's really my first experience of more modern-style combat in games, which involves dodging and using multipe types of attack with timed refresh, rather than just running around and shooting. I tried the latter a lot at first, and died a lot. Once I got the hang of dodging all the time I didn't die again to combat, only struggling with some awkward platforming sections (I maintain that first-person platforming is dumb), but I was still mostly button-mashing rather than really using my attacks in a planned way. Still, only my first hour-or-so with this style, so maybe I'll get used to it. I mean, I guess I'll have to, as I think a lot of more recent games are more like that, which is why some people complain about the older-style combat in games like Skyrim. I quite enjoyed it in the end, though its story is nonsensical (I'd say nonexistent, but I think it thinks it has one), and it kind of just stops and tells you you need to play the sequel. I do already have that, so I guess I'll try it at some point.