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So, I've been playing with the Steam Frame for a little over a week now and I've finished a few short games but I wanted to wait a bit longer until I finished a meatier game to also post impressions on the Frame itself. Superhot VR This was one of the first games I tried on the Steam Frame and it sold me on the whole VR thing pretty much instantly. This and Beat Saber were the two games that immediately made me go: Punching a dude, grabbing his handgun in mid-air and using it to shoot the other two dudes behind me was insanely fun in the original game but doing it all physically in VR for the first time was basically the coolest thing ever. It's kinda wild that this was originally conceived as a flat game because it's so perfect for VR. I really wish it wasn't so short because it's so insanely fun. I wanna keep playing it forever. Accounting+ I remember seeing a trailer for this years ago and really wanting to play it. It's not a game so much as an "experience", I guess? Whether you enjoy it will mostly depend on how much you enjoy Justin Roiland's voice acting and style of humor. And also whether you actually want to play anything that involved him. There isn't much to say about it without just spoiling the whole thing. It's a bunch of loosely-related comedy segments, most of which involve people telling you to go fuck yourself. It requires some fiddling with Steam Input to get it to work on the Frame, though. Moss: Book I This is the one game that felt like it could've been a flat game without losing much. Which, they did release a flat version although it sounds like that couldn't save the studio from shutting down, sadly. Obviously, playing it in VR and being able to stand up and look around the environment adds some charm but it's otherwise a fairly standard puzzle platformer. It's also cute as hell. I'll definitely play Book II at some point. Arizona Sunshine Remake This is a game that I've seen pop up on Steam often and I always dismissed it as yet another generic zombie shooter. But I got it from a Humble Bundle of VR games that I bought in anticipation of the Frame, so I figured I'd give it a shot and it's actually pretty fun! This is pretty much exactly what I expected a proper VR game to be. The remake improves the graphics but also backports a bunch of improvements from the sequel, including realistic reloading. The latter is optional but imho it was such a crucial aspect of what made the game special that I can't imagine playing without it. Having to manually eject the empty clip, grab a fresh one from your belt, insert it and manually chamber a round is just inherently satisfying to do. But then having to do it while facing a horde of zombies just turns the whole thing into such a stressful experience. Especially when you just picked up a new gun and realize in the middle of combat that you have no idea how this one works. The one issue I had with it was the checkpoints. They could've been more generous with them. Having to replay the same sections over and over because you can't get past a particular encounter can get frustrating after a while. Especially since the horde sections can feel kinda bullshit sometimes. I don't know if the game was balanced towards co-op or what but there were a few sections that I got really stuck on. Also, in contrast to Superhot, they're currently working on a flat version of the game and it's kinda baffling to me because that would basically remove everything that made the game interesting and actually turn it into yet another generic zombie shooter... As for the Steam Frame itself, so far my experience with it has been very good. I haven't tried running games locally on it but streaming from my desktop with the dongle works really well. I've had a couple times where a game disconnected or the connection wouldn't activate but unplugging and replugging the dongle usually fixes it. I can't compare it to other headsets but as my first VR headset I'm pretty happy with the purchase. It's particularly great if you're like me and already have an extensive Steam library. I already owned a bunch of games that had VR support and grabbing a few bundles of VR games over the summer in anticipation of the Frame meant I had a pretty sizeably library of stuff to play from day one. There's also VR mods for a bunch of games and even just playing games in flat mode via streaming from desktop. And apparently it's possible to run Quest exclusives on it, so I can eventually look into that too. The one major downside is the price and, yeah, it ended up being way pricier than I was hoping for. But that was expected considering the current state of things. And when the main alternative is the Quest, the Steam Frame is a no-brainer for me. It's more expensive but can you really put a price on not giving money to Zuckerberg?

Control Resonant This game was great, though I do think a little of the shine is wearing off the FBC. A big part of their appeal is all mysterious weirdness, and the more you're exposed to it the less effective that is. I think the FBC would be better used like in Alan Wake, as an organization that shows up on the periphery of other stories, rather than being the focus themselves. That said, game is still great. Grade: A Ace Combat 8 I don't have much to say about this game besides that it fuckin rocks. There was one boss fight that sucked, but other than that no notes. Grade: A+

PowerWash Simulator I'm not sure if I ever posted about this game when I finished the career mode. It would've been at some point in 2025, I think. Anyway, since then I've been working on and off on doing all the bonus content, both free and paid DLC, and I'm finally done. There's really not much to say about the game other than what you see is what you get. If it looks appealing to you, you'll probably enjoy it. There's just something inherently satisfying about cleaning all the grime on a level. It's the perfect game to zone out to with a podcast or youtube video playing in the background. The career mode actually has something of a story going on, too. It's nothing mind blowing but if you're paying attention to all the text messages popping up on the right side of the screen as you clean, there's a bit of a mystery slowly unfolding. I think the best thing I can say about the game is that, after spending over a hundred hours on it, I'm eager to jump right into PowerWash Simulator 2.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve GOTY, that's all. Loved the soundtrack, it has what you'd expect, when the skies speak Latin and all that, but it also has some cool rock and metal tracks. Played on PS5, the way it uses the adaptive triggers and the speaker is pretty neat, specially towards the end, That said [RAILGUN WARNING] is now a sound that will haunt my nightmares until the day oblivion claims me. The fight against was a bit annoying, but nothing that would detract from the overall experience for me. Story was great, the moment when Got a very loud HELL YEAH from me. \m/ \m/ Overall, yeah, this is my GOTY, easily. Grade: S

Tewy, queen larper, get a pass, despite her arrogance. Shadow 22, larper clown can eat a guided munition to his face though

Control Resonant I still have some side-content to clear in the post-game but I beat the main story today. Man, I have mixed feelings about this one. It was kind of a disappointment. On its own merits, it's a perfectly fine video game. A solid 8/10 that gets pushed to a 9 by virtue of being a Remedy game. The problem is that, well.. it's a Remedy game. I may have expected too much out of it. Let's start with what I liked: This was marketed as an open-world game but it's really not. The map is split up into discrete zones each with their own themes and with linear paths connecting them. The structure isn't all that different from the first game. It's just spread outside instead of all being in the Oldest House. The art direction is absolutely fantastic. The world is like a cross between the dream sequences in Inception and the trippiest parts of the first Doctor Strange movie. It's really great. The combat. It's not the deepest combat ever but it's fun enough and there's enough room for customization that I was never bored with it even though it can get a little repetitive. And while the combat itself is a bit simplistic, in the greater context of the game it can lead to some seriously cool moments. Especially once you get the gravity shift ability. One time I was fighting a bunch of enemies and some new ones appeared on a rooftop that just happened to be perpendicular to the one I was currently on. I jumped and shifted to the other rooftop and started fighting those new enemies but the way the camera tracked me without readjusting made it look like going from 3D combat to top-down combat and that was just such a cool little moment. That Remedy touch: I mentioned the art direction but it's more than just that. Even the level design feels unique to them. I can't really put my finger on what it is exactly but running around this version of New York reminded me of both Alan Wake 2 and the Max Payne games. Their games just have that specific vibe in every aspect that makes them special to me. Which unfortunately brings us to... Things that disappointed me: It feels like a Remedy game but it lacks what I've come to expect out of them. It never manages to reach the same highs as their last few games. There's nothing that comes remotely close to the Ashtray maze in this. There's really cool stuff spread out throughout the game but there's no singular set piece that really blew me away. There's one level out of the entire game that comes close but that's about it. The story: it's basically impossible to get into this without spoilers so all I'll say is this feels like a sequel to Control alone (and not a particularly satisfying one.) If that sounds like a weird criticism, well... So yeah, I have some thoughts on the game. I don't want to sound overly negative because I still think it's a pretty solid game. Basically all of my issues with it are because I'm a huge Remedy fan and I probably went into it with unrealistic expectations. They haven't announced anything yet but I kinda hope they have DLC plans that will address some of this stuff because after how great their last two games were, being disappointed with a Remedy game was the last thing I expected...

Superhot was so great in VR, it's so disappointing that Superhot 2 has no VR mode.