In this edition of the overkill digest newsletter, we start planning gamescom 2024, talk about Fallout: London, and take a look at iFixit's new toolkit.
Good morning!
I played 12 hours of Magic: The Gathering (Commander) yesterday, backing in the heat. My brain might have melted at 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), which for a landlocked country not suited for temperatures like that (it's not custom to have AC here) was extremely hot. Also, we were sitting outside!
It was still very enjoyable, but I'm happy that I can just sit in the dark today. Regardless, since I'm still not trying to turn this newsletter into an MTG-themed one, let's get to this week's gaming news.
Big This Week
In exactly one month, we'll be at gamescom in Cologne, Germany! So this week, Chris and I have started planning our coverage to report live from the show floor.
During four days, starting on August 20 with the Opening Night Live, and continuing until Friday, the 23rd, we'll talk to game devs, publishers and hardware manufacturers.
So to bring you the best possible reporting, we will launch a "pop-up" newsletter that will go live during that week, and end afterwards. You can expect one email each evening with everything we deem worth sharing like exclusive info, hands-on experiences, and maybe one or two other surprises.
To sign up for the newsletter, all you have to do is click the big button below, fill out your email address and you're good to go.
We will only use this newsletter for these live events, so (as always) no spam and no other shenanigans, and we'll respect your data and privacy.
I'm super excited for this year's gamescom. It will be the sixth time I'm on the show floor, and the second one under the overkill banner. I can't wait to send these pop-up newsletters, so I hope you'll sign up.
In other news
- Chris reviewed a charming indie game called SCHiM that you have to check out.
- Yes, I'm still playing Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, so it was only a matter of time until we published our Steam Deck settings guide. Expect 3.5 hours of battery life at 30 FPS on a Steam Deck OLED (there are some explanations if you prefer targeting 40 FPS).
- If you're subbed to both Microsoft Game Pass and Nvidia GeForce Now (which I am, great services), you can now directly open games on GeForce Now (GFN) through the Xbox.com website. Or at least, that's what is supposed to happen. When I tested this, all that happened was Xbox.com redirecting me to the GFN website. If that is how the integration was planned, it might just be easier to navigate directly to the GeForce Now website.
- iFixit has released a new toolkit for the Steam Deck. It'll include a precision driver with four screw bits, a spudger, tweezers, opening picks, and cleaning utensils. At $13, it's a no-brainer if you ever plan to upgrade or fix your Steam Deck.
- Nintendo on Thursday announced a new charging stand for Joy-Cons, available on October 17th. That in itself might not be very exciting, but it's the timing that's interesting here. Everyone expects Nintendo to share more information about the Switch successor around that October-November timeframe. So releasing a product for the OG Switch a few weeks (or days?) before that seems weird. But Chris Scullion from VGC has an interesting theory: there are reports that the Switch 2 uses magnets to connect the next-gen Joy-Cons, so maybe this accessory lets users charge and use OG Joy-Cons with the New Switch.
- Here is a question: have you watched the Halo TV show on Paramount+? I'm guessing the answer might be no, since Paramount decided to cancel the show after two seasons. The showrunners and 343 Industries are still trying to make a third season happen, hoping another outlet might pick it up. I watched exactly zero episodes of the Halo TV show despite being a big fan of the games.
- I'm eagerly awaiting the Fallout: London mod based on Fallout 4. While we still have no release date, we recently learned that the mod will only be compatible with Fallout 4 versions brought through GOG and Steam, but not Epic Games. That is because the next-gen update Bethesda released earlier this year broke the mod, so the Fallout: London team needs to roll back that update to bring back compatibility, which does not work on the Epic Games Store.
- Talking of Fallout: London: not only will the cast include Neil Newbon – the voice of Baldur's Gate 3 Asterion –, as well as the sixth and the seventh Doctors from Doctor Who; but we've also learned that the cast now also includes political figure John Bercow, the former Speaker of the House of Commons in the UK, famous for his "Order!" meme.
- Even though No Man's Sky is approaching its eighth(!) anniversary, Hello Games isn't done with the game just yet. The studio is releasing yet another free update for the game, which updates the underlying tech of the game, basically turning this into something like a next-gen update. Also, this already massive update is only part 1 out of 3. I really want to pick this game up again, so I tasked Timo with finding the best settings for Steam Deck. Expect that guide to be released next week.
Ok, that's it.
On Monday, ASUS will officially release the ROG Ally X. My review loaner will also arrive on that day, so I'll be working on the review next week. If you have any questions, send them my way.
And with that, bye!
Kevin