Welcome to Gaming junky's: Your Go-To Spot for Unbiased Opinions on Games, Gadgets, and More!
Introduction:
Hey there, fellow gamers! Welcome to my blog spot for all things gaming. Whether you’re a console warrior, a PC master race aficionado, or a home arcade enthusiast, you’ve found your tribe. I’m Maniac-UK, and I’ve been deep in the gaming trenches for longer than I’d like to admit—modifying arcade machines, streaming the latest console games, and everything in between.
going to launch the site and it will grow in time as i get more content up here.
Unbiased Opinions on Games and Hardware
One thing you’ll quickly learn about me is that I don’t pull any punches. If a game sucks, I’ll tell you straight up. If a gadget is a must-have, you’ll be the first to know. My years in the gaming industry have armed me with the insights and experience to give you honest, no-nonsense reviews on the latest games, hardware, and gadgets. No corporate fluff, just the real deal.
Why You Should Hang Out Here
This blog isn’t just a one-way street. It’s a place for like-minded gamers to hang out, share opinions, and have a blast. Got a question about modding your home arcade machine? I’ve got you covered. Need tips on the best console games to play this year? Look no further. Consider this your gaming sanctuary, where geeks like us can unite and have some fun.
Join the Conversation
So, what are you waiting for? Dive into the posts, leave your comments, and let’s geek out together. Whether you’re a seasoned gamer or a newbie looking to get started, there’s something here for everyone. Welcome to the club, and let’s make some gaming magic happen!
Latest posts and updates:
This week: budget shopping for steam keys
shopping for cheep deals on the steam key sites and steam store.
as a gaming junky i don’t always want to have to spend a fortune on AAA titles.
so your choses are finding discounted keys on eneba.com fanatical or a few other sources out there and set you self some limits i start ad 0.00 and make a top cost in filter usually around the 5 pound mark then search through the 46 odd pages filling up my shopping cart.
So what did i buy cheap this week..
BioShock: The Collection Steam Key GLOBAL £4.98 eneba.com
BioShock is a shooter unlike any other, loaded with unique weapons and tactics. Complete with an arsenal of revolvers, shotguns, and grenade launchers, players will be forced to genetically modify their DNA to become an even deadlier weapon.
Why Bioshock? I never played it before, so now that I have some free time, I’m going to enjoy the full collection with all three games and the remasters. I’ll be playing and reviewing them over the next few weeks during Christmas.
The Lamplighters League (PC) Steam Key GLOBAL £0.86 eneba.com
Recruit a team of misfits with unique abilities and unforgettable personalities, and chase the Banished Court to the ends of the earth in a mix of real-time infiltration, turn-based tactical combat, and a character-driven story of adventure and intrigue.
I checked out the demo a while ago but never really got into it, so I’ll be giving this a proper review soon. You can’t go wrong with this for just 89p!
Steam Key GLOBAL £3.29 eneba.com
In a vibrant undersea kingdom on the verge of collapse, a hermit crab embarks on a treasure hunt to buy back his repossessed shell. The second game from AGGRO CRAB.
I saw this game a few weeks ago for much more money, liked the vibe, so I just had to grab one for a bargain!
Beat Cop Steam Key GLOBAL £0.67 eneba.com
A retro, pixel art style adventure in New York, inspired by ’80s cop shows. You are Jack Kelly and you’ve been framed for murder. Now as a regular beat cop you have to find out, who did that. Expect thick crime story, a lot of black humour and all the other things you can find on the streets of Brooklyn.
know nothing about this game looks nice and indy and for 69p i cannot go wrong. will be reviewing this soon.
then i blew my 5 pound budget on one game..
Planet Coaster 2 (PC) Steam Key GLOBAL £25.31 eneba.com
I know this goes against budget shopping, but it was £49.99 on Steam, and I’ve been after this one for a while. My son is loving playing the first one with me, so who am I to argue? £25 later, and yes, I will be playing it.
Just when i thought my buying was over had a email pop up in my inbox from fanatical another great place t get games and give to charity
Then fanatical dropped a new bundle and decided to add a few more games again this will all be reviewed soon going to to start recording my gaming sessions and editing the best bits now i have my laptop back from repairs
build-your-own-killer-bundle from fanatical £1.15 per game when you chose 5 games plus So who was i to argue.
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-killer-bundle
Afterplace
Made by one person, an open world adventure game filled with silly characters and terrible secrets. Explore the woods, find hidden paths, hack and slash through strange monsters, and try very, very hard not to break reality. Or don’t. You do you
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
Bulwark blends casual and creative building elements with touches of strategy and exploration. It’s an experimental mix of genres that can be enjoyed casually or as an epic conquest featuring naval units, air units, and fortresses.
Deliver Us The Moon
The Moon has gone dark, cutting off Earth’s last source of energy. As a lone astronaut, you’ll explore abandoned lunar bases, solve intricate puzzles, and navigate stunning zero-gravity environments. Operate advanced vehicles, uncover hidde
Gori: Cuddly Carnage
Humanity has been destroyed – and it’s up to Gori, along with his deadly but wise-cracking sentient hoverboard, F.R.A.N.K, and morose AI companion, CH1-P, to shred and slay the evil Adorable Army!
Murky Divers
Solo or up to 8 players. Get rid of your employer’s failed experiments in abandoned underwater labs. Navigate your submarine, avoid abyssal terrors, and remove all corpses.
Operation: Polygon Storm
A fast paced, military tug-of-war game with minimal micromanagement. Choose and deploy from a mix of specialized military units to overwhelm the enemy. Experiment with a huge variety of unit compositions, synergies, abilities, and upgrades to lead your army to victory!
POSTAL 4: No Regerts
OSTAL 4: No Regerts is a satirical and outrageous comedic open world first person shooter and the long-awaited true sequel to what’s been fondly dubbed as “The Worst Game Ever™”, POSTAL 2!
Servonauts
Get ready for a wacky gas station party game with your pals! Team up to run a servo (that’s Aussie for “gas station”) while quirky space travellers can’t wait for their turn. Tackle those wonky pipes, whip up refineries, and mix the perfect fuels to build the ultimate space gas stations like pros.
Talisman: Digital 5th Edition
Hey there! Talisman, that awesome fantasy board game we all love, is back with a twist as Talisman: Digital 5th Edition. It’s not just a pretty makeover—Talisman: Digital 5th Edition brings tons of cool upgrades to make your adventure the ultimate digital version of Talisman.
You’ll fight strong enemies, gain valuable treasure, cast awesome spells, and encounter mysterious strangers on your journey. You’ll need a good mixture of luck and strategy, and to balance risk and reward if you want to emerge the victor!
Weekly Gaming Purchases Summary
So for around 60 pounds i have got a nice selection of 14 games to keep me entertained and playing over Christmas so keep on watching the site its going to grow and after xmas will be putting a video out on this very post.
thanks for reading.
Swapping my mini form pc from windows to a Linux gaming centre
So after a few members on the retrocera discord server have mentioned this i finally decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. as my pre installed windows 11 had corrupted it self some how i thought its time for a change.
so with a fresh 2tb m.2 ssd install and 32gb usb key i flashed with BAZZITE so ready to install.
This process was a simple to do and with in 15 mins i was greeted with steam login.
so now to add some games to it and see how it performs well normally this would be a painless procedure but i am working from my Welsh home that has 33meg line. this will hang all other systems in the house if i download and stream at the same time so having to add games over night.
so far every thing i have thrown at the Minisforum UM790 Pro which does not have anything more than onboard The AMD Radeon™ 780M that is giving me a good over all performance.
will triple AAA games run well:
lets test some AAA titles under steam to see how well this performs with games that struggle on pc builds of system.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Works out of the box no issues running at 1080P on a plasma tv in my holiday home have put a few hrs on this during the evenings. with out issue graphics are great there is some slight glitching as when Indiana is in a boat going of water lily’s they show in the boat. but 100% payable, after 13hrs i have completed the game.
Star Wars Jedi Survivor
this game is known as a pc killer as very intensive lets see how this plays on the system. no issues what so ever in 1080P smooth and you like bit of fun render colours in the opening seen but apart from that have been playing the last hour with out glitching or any faults.
cyberpunk 2077
Again known for not running right on everything lets give this a go again looking for playability plays flawlessly no issues with the system have added a good hour of play on the system with out a issue
under steam front end everything runs that should run well under steam some games that should not run run using proton experimental. loving the fact that all syncs to the cloud and then can continue gaming on my steam deck on the move.
Other Services and systems:
lets start with the essentials as this is going to be a all in one HTPC it will be mainly used in the living room i would love to have all my games and media outlets in 1 place. so over to the flat pack bazzar and time to see whats there
Vacuume Tube
This is a flat pack version of you tube added with a few clicks to desk top then by opening steam in desk top mode i can add non steam game and customise graphics for the steam front end using steamgriddb.com by selection on each area to customise it all. works very well.
PLEX HTPC
this is plex specially designed for home theatre setups same process click to install login on to plex then add non steam game to the system followed by custom artwork. works great.
Xbox Cloud service
work flawlessly no issues at all but this isn’t a surprise as already had it running through chrome not as an app thought just anther enjoyable experience playing Xbox games over the net.
PlayStation remote
Have set it all up just need to link it to my playstation 5 but will work with out fult as have already done this via my steam deck.
What else to add
Retrodeck or Emudeck:
After doing some research i am going to go with emudeck as a lot more support for systems so lets add it.now its as simple as going in to desktop mode popping open a terminal and typing ujust install-emudeck will check as there was a report of the portal not working but will look in to this
you will then need to copy over bios files and roms then using rom manager to add them to steam library or run them though emulator station de.
Dave The Diver: Indie game that i cannot put down
Oh Dear., I’ve gone down the blue hole with this one as some who like the occasional indie game never thought i would keep going back to this one especially with the A List titles that i need to find time to play.
So your Dave the Diver sunning your self on a beach lounger when Carl your friend offers you a job diving for him so you agree and end up diving by day. Sushi worker by night. being giving tasks by people you meet out in the bay and by customers of the Susi bar. watch out for the sharks they can be tricky to defeat.
So i have put around 30hrs in to this game and some of the locations can be hard to find but when you do it is very gratifying. you can upgrade your diving equipment and research new recipes and enhance your dishes to make more money in the bar.
this is my nightly wind down before bed currently playing on my steam deck with Rokid Max AR glasses.
UPDATE: After playing for around 35.6 hrs i have completed the main game will be moving on to the DLC soon.
Available on ps5, Xbox, Steam Switch and more.
I am mostly playing on my steam as this is a great time killer.
As we Approach the the steam summer sale approaching defiantly worth checking out as usually discounted.
Traveling Light: How I Game on the Go Without My Laptop
Introduction: Gaming on a Business Trip
As a gaming junky, leaving my laptop behind for a two-week business trip to the East Coast of America seemed daunting at first. However, with a bit of planning and the right gear, I found a way to enjoy my gaming sessions while traveling light. Here’s how I manage to have a gaming good time on the go.
The Essentials: What’s in My Bag
For this trip, I am relying on a few key pieces of equipment. My modified Steam Deck, loaded with 3TB of retro and AAA games. This device is a powerhouse and a must-have for any gaming junky. I also have a USB-C splitter for video output to my Rokid Max AR glasses and a high-capacity battery pack capable of providing 9 hours of charge without needing an outlet. This setup ensures I can game for hours uninterrupted.
Maximizing Gaming Time: The Flight to New York
The flight from my location to New York is approximately nine hours, and luckily, I am flying economy plus, which means I’ll have access to power outlets during the flight. This is a huge advantage, allowing me to keep my devices charged and ready for use. I plan to use this time to dive deep into my game library, making the most of the long flight.
The reality of this was being bugged by my 7 year old for most of the nine hours on the flight and also being told i look simple with my ar glasses on by my wife.
As traveling with my wife and son this has been an life saving bit of kit as sharing room means i can play games after my boy was sleeping so have had a full on gaming with out disturbing him on the plane was great as well. loved it on the train had a 3:40 train journey from Washington DC. love experience makes the steam my Ideal travel companion with a full games collection and all my retro go too games there is never a dull moment.
Final Thoughts: Enjoying Gaming on the Go
By carefully selecting and packing the right gear, I can still enjoy my favourite hobby no matter where I am. Whether it’s a retro game or a modern AAA title, my setup ensures I have a gaming good time on the go. If you’re a fellow gaming junky facing a similar situation, consider these tips and enjoy your travels without missing out on your gaming sessions.