In today's overkill digest, we take a first look at the AYANEO Pocket DMG, the game of the year awards, and more.
Hi, hello, welcome. Kevin speaking, welcome to overkill digest, your go-to newsletter for everything handheld gaming.
When I sat down today to write this newsletter, I had to do a double-take: it's nearly December. We just returned from gamescom?! Usually, Chris and I take a few days off over the holidays, so after today's issue, there are three more newsletters coming this year.
Additionally, tomorrow starts the last week of the State of Steam Deck User Survey. If you haven't filled it out yet, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could do so. Here is the link to the post:
Chris Brandrick
(By the way, we passed last year's participants, so thanks a ton for this!)
And with that, it is news time, baby!
What happened this week
- dbrand's new skin glow in the dark. Kid-Kevin would be so hyped about this. This new set comes in three "colors": the white Glow Circuit colorway, the red Short Circuit and the black Dark Circuit. This launch is a collab with LinusTechTips, which explains the orange-red color they went for.
- Razer also released new Steam Deck skins. Competition is good.
- The Steam Deck is now available in Australia. The device is available starting at $649 AUD. That will snag you the 256GB LCD base model. And the White Steam Deck, to my surprise, is still not sold out.
- Valve is working on a new Steam Controller. Big news, though not much else is known so far. And since it's coming from a leaker, take it with your usual grain of salt.
- Sony is in talks to buy Elden Ring publisher. Ok, to be fair, calling them an Elden Ring publisher is a disservice to Kadokawa. They own nearly 70% of FromSoftware, Spike Chunsoft (Danganronpa), Gotcha Gotcha Games (RPG Maker), Acquire (Octopath Traveler) and Vic Game Studios (Black Clover mobile games). Additionally, they own several manga companies, and anime production studios (Sword Art Online, Re:Zero, amongst other). By acquiring Kadokawa, Sony would own even more of the anime market after gobbling up Funimation and Crunchy Roll.
- Chris reviewed AYANEO's Pocket Micro handheld. I won't spoil his review too much, but Chris was impressed. You can also watch his review if you prefer videos. I'm currently testing the AYANEO Pocket DMG, but more on that below.
- The PC port of Majora's Mask is coming along. A new update was released to GitHub, enhancing the PC port of arguably one of the best Zelda games. It's mostly quality-of-life improvements. I need to look into this.
- The Binding of Isaac Multiplayer is now out. Called Repentance+, this free DLC brings online multiplayer to the best indie-game ever.
- Final Fantasy XIV is coming to mobile. The critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV with an expanded free trial, which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward + Stormblood expansions, is coming to a mobile device near you. It will start from A Realm Reborn and progress through storylines from later expansions, similar to what Blizzard did with WoW Classic.
- The PlayStation Portal can now stream games over the cloud. Honestly, this is a big change I didn't anticipate. If you are subscribed to PlayStation Plus Premium, you can stream 150 games currently available for PlayStation 5. It supports games like Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon's Souls, and more.
- The Steam Deck OLED won Best Gaming Hardware at the Golden Joystick Awards. Ultimate Game of the Year went to Black Myth: Wukong, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Helldivers 2 both took home four trophies each. (The Golden Joysticks are determinated by public vote, so the bigger the fan base, the higher are the chances for a game to win.)
- You can still vote for the Game Awards. On the topic of game awards, you can still vote for your favorite games in Geoff Keighley's
MarketingAward Show.
A first look at AYANEO's Pocket DMG
My first reaction when I unboxed the Pocket DMG was a resounding: WHAT?