Hi, hello, and welcome to a new edition of the overkill digest newsletter.
I changed my mind. This week is not the last newsletter of the year, so I'll be sending one more next week after all. I originally planned to publish a review of the AYN Thor, but work-work has been too busy, and I didn't even get around to writing it. I'll hope I can get it down.
I'm also travelling next week, and I thought it might be interesting to share all the stuff I bring with me.
I received a review unit of the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 for a few months. The first thing I did was install Bazzite-DX and set it up so I could use it as a replacement for my MacBook Pro. Most things work, but it's not without issues. For example, I cannot get the fingerprint sensor to work at all.
I'm still a bit torn on the laptop/tablet hybrid form factor and whether I just miss a real keyboard. So, for now I'm still researching laptops for after the review period. (My current favorite is the Intel-based Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen 6.)
But it's crazy how powerful it is for gaming and content creation, all thanks to Strix Halo. I'm installing a few more games for the trip next week and to test the hardware some more, and I might just get around to going through that backlog.
Also, I'm way too deep into this Linux rabbit hole at this point. I don't know how many hours of YouTube videos I've watched the past couple of weeks. I'm so deep down, I want to build my own Arch install, btw.
And with that said, let's get to this week's news:
🚀 Big Moves
The Game Awards 2025: The biggest reveals, trailers, and announcements. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won everything: Best Art Direction, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Performance, Best Score and Music, Best Independent Game, Best RPG, Best Debut Game, and obviously Game of the Year. To thank the players, the developers released a free expansion with new enemies, bosses, and a new location.
The Game Awards this year also had a ton of exciting trailers. The link above has all of them, but my highlight is clearly the Control Resonant announcement.
I love the Alan Wake/Control universe, so this has me hyped AF!
The Pocket Play is AYANEO's first phone. And it looks like an Xperia Play or a PSP Go. We don't know detailed specs just yet and only got a few images and the above video.
What we know is that the Pocket Play will exist in black or white, have dual rear cameras and a flash, stereo speakers, and that's about it.
Still too early, I guess. However, I am not the biggest fan of what this looks like.
🎮 Platform Updates
Pop!OS 24.04 LTS with the COSMIC Desktop Environment is out now. The Cosmic Desktop looks interesting enough to maybe be worth a try further down the line. It's still very early, but it's a polished first version. I'll keep an eye on this one.
💻 Hardware & Software
RAM is ruining everything. And we have to blame AI companies buying up all the inventory.
I've seen some first signs of this. While going through different laptop configurations over the past couple of weeks, I've seen prices increase over time, even though I've been recreating the same configs. RAM is the culprit as prices are slowly increasing.
I can't wait for this bubble to deflate (I don't think it'll burst).
🎲 Playthings
Fortnite is back in Google’s Android app store. It's been five years.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Has Been Rated By PEGI. The Black Flag Remake has been leaked so often at this point, I'm surprised the game is still not out yet.
Black Flag is one of the best entries in the franchise, and I'm eager to play it again. Maybe it'll release in 2026 for real, this time.
Dig the format? Hate it? Hit those feedback buttons below and let me know what's working.
Ok, that's all. Thanks for reading!
See you,
Kevin