Significant — you’d need to either get the old Linux build working (not an easy task today) or you can install it on Windows, copy the files over, and run it via Proton (but you’d need to manually add the registry key with your CD key to the Proton prefix’s registry).

Three thoughts:

• Valve doesn’t use physical media, so there isn’t a need to enforce DRM at the hardware level
• the Deck itself is sold at a small profit regardless of the configuration, so there’s no benefit to pushing users to higher-price configurations
• Valve enforces its DRM in software via the OS

The biggest reasons to lock down hardware aren’t really there on the Deck. On top of that, it benefits Valve to have other devices running their storefront, so using off-the-shelf parts when possible makes it easier for others to use the Deck as a template.

August-November of that year was headlined by a slew of all-time greats: Half-Life 2, San Andreas, MGS3, Halo 2, The Sims 2…

If you were into video games in any way in that time period, you had something great to play, regardless of platform.

Rainbow Six Siege is up there — there’s six dimensions of assholery in the game by my count.

• Tom Clancy games tend to attract right-wing assholes because they’re Tom Clancy
• competitive FPS
• one-shot one-kill gameplay
• friendly fire on by default
• character picks
• you need to play to a specific meta

Universal Paperclips! It’s an idle game that relies on you making smart planning decisions to optimize things, so there’s a degree of strategy that most of them lack.

I have a JBL Link Portable, which seems to be out of stock, but should fill most of your requirements if you can get your hands on one:

• supports Chromecast Audio, AirPlay, and BT
• sounds good
• has good battery (I get 7-8h of playtime against 8h quotes battery life)
• charges over USB-C (both via an included charging dock and a direct cable connection

The only downside is that it has Google’s voice assistant built in, but you can turn it off.

I’d be happy if those games were even available. The franchise is stuck in legal limbo.

Dance Yrself Clean by LCD Soundsystem would be my choice.

More that the article being a few years old means it’s missed out on a number of notable releases in the interim.

Note the date of the article: October 2021.

That’s my thought as well – the licensed sports game market is probably more reliable (and generates more revenue vs. development cost) than originals, and they can “streamline” their business by splitting the originals business off for a sale. Not including sports probably makes the originals side more attractive to platform holders, as most sports games probably include provisions that require multiplatform releases (see also: the MLB signing a publishing deal for Sony’s “The Show” on non-Sony platforms).

I have AA (via their bundle, it’s not really worth it on its own), and within a few weeks I wasn’t able to find online matches. It also didn’t feel great to play (both on touchscreen and controller), and they never released anything beyond 3-on-3 hockey. I would not recommend.

They had their moment in the early 00s, but they went away largely because people stopped buying them. Even though Hitz and Blitz showed some of the more-cringeworthy aspects of their sports, the sales were good enough for the licensors to not really care.

If Tape-to-Tape ends up selling well, you’ll see the NHL pushing for their own officially-licensed version (because nobody in that league has any original ideas). The same goes for other arcadey sports games.

MLB tried to bring back arcadey games with RBI Baseball (through their Advanced Media arm) – without it, the only annual baseball game would be Sony’s “The Show”. They wound that down when MLBAM signed a deal to publish The Show on non-Sony platforms. I’d think that, if the sales justified it, they’d be happy to continue selling both sim and arcade games.