Recent reviews by CalcProgrammer1

Love CS:GO and love the looks of CS:2 so far, but I can't recommend it at the moment. The performance is absolutely abysmal compared to CS:GO and this is a game that demands performance. I had well over 200 FPS on CS:GO with Very High settings on my 144Hz 4K monitor with Arc A770 on Linux. Now I'm getting around 100 FPS with the same setup at medium settings. Aliasing is more noticeable and anti-aliasing causes FPS to drop pretty heavily.

This game is very poorly optimized for Linux players and for that I cannot recommend at the moment. I really hope Valve (the company who also produces their own SteamOS Linux distro and sells a Linux-powered handheld) puts some effort into optimizing the Linux build, because the fact that they only had public betas for the Windows version was a kick to the face to all us Linux gamers who love what Valve is doing there.

Finally, EAC support on Steam Deck and Linux! I love Halo, but it's been a huge disappointment to be unable to play matchmaking in Linux and on the Steam Deck. Now we finally have working multiplayer. It only took them over a year to turn on the EAC switch. Better late than never I guess.

This game is awesome, but the Sunbreak update broke the game on the Steam Deck! This was the perfect Deck game as it played flawlessly. Now it crashes at the title screen. I cannot recommend this game in its current, broken state.

Do you like non-video arcade games like whack-a-mole, skee ball, and shooting galleries? Do you have a VR headset? Do you wish you had infinite tries at the claw machine? If so, this game is for you!

I picked it up during the Steam Sale a month or so after I bought my Vive, and this is one of my favorite VR experiences in my collection. All the games are very well done with realistic physics, interactive buttons and coin slots, flashing lights and sounds, score boards, etc. Other than having a Vive wand in your hand, it really does feel like you're standing at the machine and playing the games with your own hands. Objects respond just as you expect them to. My favorite games in this collection are Rocket Ball, Arctic Shuffle, the shooting galleries, and the claw machines, though all the games are enjoyable.

Rocket Ball is just re-branded Skee Ball, and having played real Skee Ball at an arcade recently I have to say it is a very good simulation of the real thing. It helps that the Vive controller has similar weight to it as a real Skee Ball ball does, and the ball responds to your motion realistically. It's just as difficult in this game as in real life, but you don't feel like the simulation is getting in your way either.

Arctic Shuffle is a game I've never seen in a real arcade, but it's a fun concept and plays well. The goal is to slide a puck down the ice and get it to stop on the highest scoring point zone without it falling off. The physics again work very naturally and changing the velocity and direction of your movement responds accurately in game. It's tricky, but when you get one on the 10,000 point zone it's super satisfying. Puck collision works as expected too.

The claw machines are also a lot of fun. I've never been one to waste away quarters in real claw machines, but having infinite quarters to free a virtual stuffed bear from his virtual captivity has occupied more of my time than I care to admit. The physics respond well, though you only get two motions on this claw machine - forward and right. You have to time your button presses correctly to line up the claw rather than a joystick like many real world machines have. The toys fall out of the claw just as you'd expect, too.

The games I feel are the least realistic are the basketball, bowling, and whack-a-mole games, mainly because the controller weight and size just don't feel right. Bowling reminds me a lot of Wii Bowling given the controller size and weight. It's fun but not necessarily realistic. Basketball just feels awkward when you're using one hand to throw the ball. Dino Whack also feels too fast-paced without the heft of a big foam mallet and the feel of whacking dinos IRL. Still fun, and done as best as they really can given the limitations of VR.

I'd like to see more games added, even if they were sold as DLC. There's a lot of potential here. It would also be nice to see public online lobbies similar to how Rec Room operates to make the arcade feel more lively. If you're just solo playing it feels like you're wandering around a dead, abandoned arcade even though the background sound effects indicate a lively, busy arcade with machines making noise, people talking, etc.

Another thing would be to have a way to teleport game objects back to the machine they came from if you accidentally fling them across the room. I've lost the little boucy balls for the cannonball toss game many times, same with the scarab toss and basketball games. They respawn in the machine if you put a new quarter in, but then you lose your points.

I also noticed a glitch with the claw machines - if you put a new quarter in while the claw is retreating back to its home position, you can push the buttons to move it. However, letting go of the buttons it will keep moving back to home. It gets annoying. It shouldn't let you move the claw until it resets to its home position, even if you put in a coin while it's moving back.

This game is fantastic! I got to demo the HTC Vive at a local gaming event where someone brought one to show off, and when I got a turn he fired up this game and handed me the controllers. It was an absolute blast to play for the 5 minutes or so that I had to play it. I was so impressed with the experience that two weeks later I have my own Vive and this was my first purchase for it. I play it every day at least a few games. It's a decent workout for a video game...especially if you go dual weapons and no shields and try to dodge all the lasers (which is incredibly fun to do). Runs smoothly on both my desktop and laptop at 1x sampling with everything off (desktop is an R9 290X and laptop is a GTX 1060), but turning them up starts to cause stuttering.

The weapon selection is great, and even playing entirely with unconventional weapons like the grenade launcher can be a fun challenge. It's not a super deep gameplay experience, it's just your good old arcade wave shooter, but in VR, and really that's all I want from it. It's fun to beat your high scores and change up your play style.

Great tool for testing your PC's VR-Readiness! I ran this on both my desktop and laptop and both passed with ease. Ordered a Vive today so I'm glad my PC's can do it (I had no doubt they could but hey, confirmation).

Desktop:
AMD Ryzen 1800X 4GHz
32GB DDR4 2933 (G.Skill Trident Z RGB)
2x AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB
Custom water loop

Laptop:
MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro 4K
Intel Core i7 6700hq
16GB DDR4 2400
nVidia GeForce GTX1060 6GB

Both hit well over 110FPS throughout the entire test, so I'm confident my VR experience will be amazing.

Bonus points, if you cross your eyes and focus on the center between the two images, you can get your brain to converge the two images into one 3D image and view 3D right off your 2D screen! The depth proportions are really exaggerated when I do it but then again these images are meant for an actual VR headset with its lenses, not cross-eyed 3D viewing.

This is a game about a goat. He does all sorts of goat things like cause explosions, fly thousands of feet into the air, ride roller coasters with his tongue, lick batteries, headbutt fuel tanks, perform Satanic rituals, go to space, plan heists, reach level 101, perform magic tricks, and so much more! This is the most accurate simulation of being a goat that has ever been created. You can't go wrong with this! It's hard to even call this a game, because its accuracy as a professional simulation of goat existence is too perfect!