Wiper

I mean, I use my unofficial dock to play my Dreamcast/PS2 games on the TV when I fancy couch gaming rather than gaming in bed/on the go; I imagine if I had an official one the same would be true. (I've also now used it for two D&D sessions over Skype, which is definitely the Deck's primary purpose)

Given the card that Lorf recommended is an A1 card — i.e. the best fit for a UHS-I interface — I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that you're arguing at cross-purposes here. Speed does matter, very much so; up to but not beyond the A1 spec, which is where the Samsung Evo and Sandisk Ultras tend to sit. Now, an A2 card would be wasted on the Deck, as it can't take advantage of its speed, but you would get noticeably worse performance as you drop below the A1 standard. (I get around this issue by using my sd card for emulation only, so don't really need to care too much; even at lower standards the read speed is dramatically faster than the average optical drive from the late 90s)

To be fair, if you're happy to romp through the game you could definitely just leave the difficulty on normal.

Yeah, I got to Heroic 2 while my characters were still level 6 (which is the point where I'd just unlocked Power Word number 2), and while it was doable, it made every battle a slog (and promptly gave my my first 1-star victories), so I plonked it back down to Heroic 1. I like the idea of the constantly shifting difficulties, but it does slightly feel like Firaxis are absconding from their duties of building in a balanced difficulty curve!

I think the Nikka is a great choice. Aside from the fact that From the Barrel is one of my favourites, I'd choose it for a gift based on the fact that it's the whisky that, when I've offered it around friends, always leads to people asking for seconds; it's just very likeable. Very smooth, quite sweet, and you'd never believe it was a > 50% whisky to taste it. Plus, as you note, it's interesting looking, which goes a long way in a gift!

Yeah, this is great fun — a very enjoyable blend of tactics, card game and life sim. It's got all the clunkiness in presentation you'd expect of a Firaxis game, but I've been surprised at the overall quality of the storytelling: the writing in terms of pure prose is rarely better than decent, but the actual broad strokes characterisation, story, pacing, and tying it together with the gameplay are A+. You could make an interesting comparison between this and Squeenix's Avengers game, as on paper they share a lot of similarities — even down to the structure of story/non-story missions, unlockable cosmetics (including monetised ones), and presence of slightly knock-off-feeling superheroes — albeit Squeenix's game is far more polished and obviously high budget in every way, and also infinitely less engaging.

Unfortunately, I've spoiled things for myself by having arranged to meet up with a group of people I love and care for in order to play board games and generally have a nice time tonight, so I won't get to play this until tomorrow. Evening ruined!

Fair, Double-Dash always felt more like a 0/10

Fully deserved 9 for Pentiment, there. Also, with Frontiers getting a 3 and CoD getting a 6, it is evident: Edge 3 is the new Edge 6 (and Edge 6 is now just... 6) In seriousness, I'm interested to read the reviews — I'm curious to see what sent Frontiers quite so far down the rankings!

I loved my move deck, until we got into Season 3 and I uniformly failed to pick up any of the related cards (no Torch, no whatever the one who boosts herself based on opposition is etc.). It's been sad spiralling down from the upper-60s into the low 50s as I fail to pull together synergies. (see also: my discard deck missing Hera and That One Wot Discards Your Lowest Value card; my constraint deck missing Green Goblin and That One Wot Moves Your Energy 1/2 cards; my spawning deck missing Lockjaw; my On Reveal deck missing Wong...) Had a fun location pairing just now: filled my hand with junk turn 1, played Ultron from said junk turn 2. I retreated, strangely enough

I'd been a little ambivalent about this since its announcement. On the one side, you had the fact that it's from Firaxis (and specifically Jake Solomon's team), whose output has ranged from good to incredible; the fact it's a small-scale tactics game with a high-level strategy aspect, a format I love; and the fact this is a move away from their traditional cover-oriented tactics — very promising. On the other, the fact that this is based around Marvel superheroes (which I'm apathetic towards at best, moving towards antipathetic as they achieve greater media saturation) and the fact that it uses a card-game system as part of its gameplay (a mechanic I'm very hit and miss on) gave me reason to be wary. The reviews, while mixed, have completely allayed my fears; more, they've drawn my attention to the ridiculous sounding social aspects of managing your team, and I've gone from being rooted to the fence, to having ordered it to play this weekend.* I can hardly wait! (also, I loved Christian Donlan's review posted above; just a very enjoyable piece of writing. Top marks, would read again) *on PC; I'd been tempted to pick it up for Xbox using £25 of credit, but then realised that even after taking that chunk off it barely came to less than just buying it from Green Man Gaming for PC, so I've opted for the option that will hopefully allow for both decent trackball control and, somewhere down the line, Steam Deck play.

The number at the top-right is your balance, the number in the "lozenge' is the cost. I'm guessing in your case both are 3000? (for me the option was Ghost Rider, who cost 1000 vs my balance of 3000)

There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more satisfying than taking apart a gribbly deck on the last turn with a clutch Enchantress. Particularly when it in turn leads to Typhoid Mary eating the middle lane whole (as suddenly the collection of 6-point cards that were there all find themselves at the same power level as the 2-pointer that had been screening them).

Can't relate: (that said, the limited surface area of the Steam Deck and the fact it runs hotter than the surface of the sun does mean I don't foresee stickering it up any time soon)

What's the game:skinner-box ratio like on this one? I enjoy a gradual, permanent unlock structure in a game, and I like top-down-shooter-esque mob management, but Vampire Survivors left me cold thanks to having virtually nothing to its gameplay bar the unlocks. Also, thirty-minute levels where the last twenty minutes can be played while unconscious made things feel a bit like the pacing was off. This having a degree of aiming(!) and active dodging(!!) sounds like it could be significantly more engaging, but it all depends on how integral those aspects are!