Valve is still waiting for the next generational leap before announcing a new Steam Deck.
Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of the overkill digest newsletter, your go-to source for everything handheld gaming, and then some.
Today is an exciting day for Chris and me. After months of preparation (the work started back in August when we met for gamescom), we’re ready to unveil a new chapter for overkill with the launch of our membership program.
overkill premium is the way to get even more overkill. For seven bucks a month, or an annual price of $70, you’ll get:
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- And more to come.
It was very important to us when creating overkill premium, that we don’t take anything away which so far you've enjoyed for free. As such, this weekly newsletter will still continue in its current form, curating and commenting on the most important handheld news every Sunday.
But those signed up for overkill premium will find more, exclusive content at the end of every weekly email. Think members-only commentary and opinion pieces, behind-the-scenes news and more.
We’re also working hard to make the membership even more interesting. Over time, we’ll add more features and a bunch of extras to your subscription. We've got some great stuff cooking.
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Thanks to your support, we’ll be able to do even bigger things (and, as a little sneak peek, we’re planning to launch a whole new website to accompany overkill). So thank you.
I’ll be sending the first email of the new format next week.
And with that, let’s get to this week’s news.
What happened this week
- In an interview with Reviews.org Australia, Valve's Lawrence Yang told us to not expect a new Steam Deck every year. They only want to update their handheld PC whenever there is a big generational leap that won't sacrifice battery power. But I still hope the next Steam Deck is around the corner, as fewer and fewer newly released games run flawlessly on the Deck. Maybe with the Z2 Extreme, Valve has the chip they'd need, especially considering that AMD is focusing hard on battery life improvements.
- AYN started teasing their next handheld. The AYN Odin 2 Portal has a 7-inch OLED screen with a 120hz refresh rate, and what looks to be the Snapdragon 8gen2. This is the same chip also used in the Odin2 and the Odin2 Mini (which I've reviewed here).
- Remember how I predicted that the Junk Store wouldn't launch on Steam after all (read my prediction here). Well, I was right.
- The next Switch still supports NSP files. And this might be why Ryujinx and Yuzu had to die. NSP (NSP stands for Nintendo Submission Package) are files used by the Switch and emulators for game ROMs. If the Switch successor indeed still uses this format, it would mean that Ryujinx and Yuzu would support the next console's game format right out of the box. This would make things too easy for modders, which is why I think it is one of the reasons the emulators got nuked.
- The Steam Next Fest is still taking place till tomorrow.
- Talking of Nintendo and emulation: apparently, Nintendo is using PCs running emulators to run their SNES games in the Nintendo museum. Well, oops!
- GE-Proton adds mod support. The latest change to GE-Proton is the introduction of mod support for Bethesda games. A lot of mods require a mod executable (like SKSE for Skyrim) to run properly and thanks to the latest GE-Proton, this is now easily doable on a Linux-based OS, like SteamOS.
- Analogue will release a modern Nintendo 64. The Analogue 3D will support N64 cartridges, has a 4K-capable HDMI connection, and can even add CRT scanlines. From what I see, the 3D (unlike the Pocket) does not support OpenFPGA, so it doesn't look like it will support emulation. I still very much would like one despite owning exactly 0 cartridges. It'll cost $250.
- Bluesky is the new social media for gamers. With Twitter (I refuse to call it X) going down the dump, the gaming community has slowly started adopting Bluesky as their new social media of choice. In the last couple of days, the network grew exponentially. Chris wrote about why he thinks we should all adopt Bluesky and break up with Twitter. You can follow overkill, Chris or myself there, too.
- Assassin's Creed Mirage launched on Steam, so here is our settings guide for the Steam Deck we published last year.
- Manuel Moreale argues how modern Triple AAA games lack the constraints that made old games great.
- The DreamPunk 2.1 mod transforms Cyberpunk 2077 into a movie. Cyberpunk looks insanely good here. I'd understand why people could mistake this for a pre-rendered 3D movie, seeing how realistic it looks. It makes me want to grab a 5090, whenever they get released. And an air conditioner because this must melt the PC.
- NetEase and Bungie are collaborating on a Destiny mobile game. It will be a free-to-play mobile sci-fi RPG shooter with PvE and PvP modes. There's no release date yet, but pre-alpha tests start in November.
- Hades II got a huge update. This update adds a new region, new characters, new weapons, and much much much more. Check out the changelog, it's huge.
- Everything shown at the Xbox Partner Preview. A release date for the next Alan Wake II DLC (next week; also the base game is currently on sale), a teaser for Subnautica 2 Early Access, a new shooter by Remedy (Alan Wake, Control), and more. Honestly, this was a pretty good event.
- dbrand brought their Darkplates to the PS5 Slim. I use a Darkplate on my OG PS5 (yes, it's all black, in case you were wondering).
- Nintendo is ordering parts for a GameCube controller. This might mean GameCube games are coming to Nintendo Switch Online. Maybe this will be one of the features exclusive to the Switch 2.
- New Bazzite version brings better ROG Ally support. (I still haven't installed it, oops!)
- Spider-Man 2 is coming to PC on January 5th. The port is developed by Nixxes (yay!) and will require a PSN account (nay!). Insomniac also confirmed there won't be any content updates to Spider-Man 2 (meh!).
Ok, that's all for this week. As mentioned above, starting next Sunday, overkill digest will have a new members-only section. (So everything you've read today will continue to be free.)
If you sign up for overkill premium, you'll have our eternal gratitude.
And with that, see you next week.
Kevin
