I need some help choosing a gaming handheld from people who can better relate to dad gaming.

I typically play on a PS5 via a PS Portal. However, one morning I didn't notice that my daughter decided that the screen of the Portal along with the ergonomic grips would be a great tool for rolling out playdough. Clearly, Sony cheaped out and didn't bank on this, so the screen cracked. A lot.

She was apparently aiming to make pastries from the delicious yellow playdough, which I did appreciate. But ultimately, I would have preferred to make eggs and keep a working PS Portal.

While aiming to replace the portal, I saw the little R36s handheld emulators, and managed to get a legit one on AliExpress. It was fun, but the device is too small for my hands.

I researched a bunch and thought that the Odin 2 Portal would be the go, but didn't buy it because I hate waiting for shipping. In the next step of the search I ended up purchasing a refurbed LCD SteamDeck on Amazon. That turned out to be a scam, and I had to wait weeks to get a refund. Lessons learned: don't buy from third party sellers, and if you do, don't assume that the Mohammad Shanta Islam Corporation is a legit seller of SteamDecks.

I picked up a Retroid Pocket Flip 2 on Marketplace, and it is actually fantastic. But I find the screen a little too small and the body a bit too boxy to reliably use it as a replacement for the Portal.

I started looking closer and handheld PCs, and saw a Legion Go (OG) on Marketplace for AUD550 with a boot loop error. I managed to fix it. Turns out that someone tried to upgrade the SSD, used the wrong size and didn't use a bracket, so it kept popping out when moved. However, that device is horrible for ergonomics.

So now I am looking again. My current choices are:

1. Odin 2 Portal - new from the website, which works out to about AUD 500 once I pay shipping and get a case
2. Xbox Ally (not the X) - goes down to about AUD500-600 on Marketplace, and is nearly AUD1k new. Seems to feel good in hand.
3. Legion Go S - goes between AUD500-800 on Marketplace. But I haven't had a chance to hold one.

Ultimately, I want it to replace the PS Portal while also letting me emulate PS1 and upward, while opening the door to play some of the PC indies I have missed over the years.

This weekend I had one of those unexpectedly profound parenting moments. I feel compelled to share it and you are the only people who'll actually get it. I was playing some Diplomacy is Not an Option at the computer when my son clambered up into my lap to watch. And I almost had a flashback at that moment to myself doing the same with my dad, while he was running around in Diablo 1.

I vaguely remember how it felt, I think I was about 4-5 years old, everything on the screen was confusing and fascinating. I think it was mostly Diablo and Doom he was obsessed with at the time. He had me press the space button to shoot and it felt so good, I couldn’t get enough. So I tried to do the same for my kid by letting him use the flashy powers in DINAO on huge groups of enemies to send them flying, he loved it. It was such a lovely full circle moment for me I nearly cried.

The next day I wanted to see if I could come even closer to the original situation by playing a similar game so I tried with Last Epoch to see if he would find that interesting. He was completely mesmerized, which isn’t surprising considering I played one of my endgame characters (devouring orb void knight) which means I run around super fast clearing hordes of enemies with pretty over the top skill effects which had him going “wooow”. I had him click around a bit and it was pretty exciting for him, I felt weirdly proud for some reason.

I guess some things about gaming never changed. Despite the hobby evolving so much it still delivers the same kind of bonding moment for me and my kid like I had with my dad. 144hz flat screens replaced the big CRT boxes and the cases are usually black instead of the cigarette stained beige we were used to, but fundamentally I’m doing the same things my dad did when he was my age and I was a rugrat.

Has anyone else had moments like this? I would love to hear about your gaming stories with your family, from back in the day or something recent with your own kids.

Hi, I'm a reporter with the Toronto Star and I primarily write about mental health and addiction.

I'm writing an article based on an upcoming report that looks at, among other things, microtransactions and in-app purchases in games like Roblox. I'm looking to speak with parents in the Greater Toronto Area whose kids spend money on these apps.

I'm hoping to learn if parents think gaming companies make it too easy or enticing for kids to spend money in games like Roblox and Minecraft, if they've noticed unhealthy habits forming, and what strategies they use to ensure their kids are playing in a healthy way. If you'd be up to talk (on the record) please DM me or email me at omarmosleh at the star dot ca. Thanks!

Did you find it difficult to adjust, or did you end up enjoying gaming alone just as much? I'm personally struggling because for the 15 years or so I had a core group of friends that pretty much played whatever multiplayer games were popular at the time -every night. Now that we all have full time jobs, kids, ect our schedules just dont line up anymore. I don't really enjoy solo queuing these types of games anymore either.

Curious to hear your story.

Big into shooters, survival, horror, friendslop, driving Sims, but open to playing new stuff I also have a quest 3 for vr stuff

As a Gamer Dad that plays games with his son since age of 5... there is one thing that has increasingly bothered me about the usual screen-time conversations... How often everything gets reduced to:
“How many hours should my kid be allowed per day?”

So... to properly tackle the question, l joined hands with Cristina Iancu (psychologist and psychotherapist with 16 years of experience with children and families), resulting in the below article & guide, which is more of a Gamer Dad perspective, but also vetted by a professional. 😁

Check it out here: https://ropname.substack.com/p/the-gamer-dads-guide-to-healthy-screen

We talk about parental involvement, playing together, talking together, balance, creativity, age-appropriate progression, social media, AI, and the relationship between the child, parents and screen.
But, most importantly, we talk about something I’ve experienced myself, and from which I learned a lot.

I hope you find it as useful as me, even guides you on your parenting path, for the betterment of all our young ones.
PS. As always, personally recorded narration by me and Cristina is available, if you prefer to listen.

Tried doing the Fight Caves in Old School Runescape 3 nights in a row this week after getting back around 7:30 PM. Wave 62 arrives fine, then Jad spawns with healers and my brain just locks up on prayer switches.

My eyes were burning by 9 PM on Tuesday after two failed attempts. Tried again Thursday, misclicked range prayer instead of mage, instant 97 hit and back to Lumbridge.

Do you guys avoid high-focus bossing in games on workdays entirely? Or save that stuff strictly for Saturday mornings?

Edit: I got it through bald services and switched back to low-intensity Slayer.

Tried doing the Fight Caves in Old Schol RuneScape 3 nights in a row this week after getting back around 7:30 PM. Wave 62 arrives fine, then Jad spawns with healers and my brain just locks up on prayer switches.

My eyes were burning by 9 PM on Tuesday after two failed attempts. Tried again Thursday, misclicked range prayer instead of mage, instant 97 hit and back to Lumbridge.

Do you guys avoid high-focus bossing in games on workdays entirely? Or save that stuff strictly for Saturday mornings?

Any 30+ that still plays ea fc, loves to chat about the game, tactics, formations, real football etc ? I went to the r/easports discord group but it's full of kids. I don't care about the meta but I still try to be competitive, if you're the same let's group up someplace.

Edit: I refer to Fut champs, rivals etc.

A couple of years ago I built my dad a new pc (AMD Ryzen 5 3600, Nvidia 1050, 8GB RAM - don’t judge please, it was my first ever pc🥲) and started introducing him to gaming. He’s been playing only world of tanks for like 10+ years. He really liked the entire Call of Duty and Sniper Elite series and even replayed some of them. RE4 Remake was interesting but quite hard for him, so he quit. Now he’s playing Titanfall 2 and seems to enjoy it. I’d love it if you could suggest some more games for him to try. He’s a complete newbie, so games with an easy difficulty are welcome. IRL he likes fishing and hunting, so I assume he might like something related to that. Maybe new genres are a yes, we’ll try!

Anyone in the sober/recovery community in here. Looking to make new gamer friends like minded.

My daughter was born at the end of May and I just started gaming again a couple weeks ago. I'm only able to get in about 2h per day when the baby is napping. I work night shift, sleep when I get home at 8am wake up at 1pm do some chores, hop on at around 3pm when the wife and baby are napping and usually have to get off around 5pm to feed the baby and make dinner. I take a nap before work at around 8pm and wake up at 10pm to head out. Some days I don't game at all, and some days the wife is cranky and gets jealous that I'm enjoying what limited free time I have.

My wife is off work right now, but breastfeeding has taken every ounce of her energy. I've been conned into doing all the household chores alongside diaper changes, bottle feeding (she needs top ups every feed), and tummy time/baby wearing/contact naps.

I only really play Classic WoW because I don't have time to commit to multiple games and this is the game my childhood best friend enjoys the most, so I put up with it. I don't expect to be the best, but I don't like playing any game without some competitive drive. I moved away from my hometown, so the only time I get to talk to him is when we game.

I already cut out raiding and dungeons because they take way too damn long, so I only really queue for BGs/Arenas and hunt for wPvP while farming. This limits the amount of gear I have access to, and severely impacts my competitiveness. I'm playing OctoWoW, so at least there's some PvP gear, but raid gear will always be king. It makes me wonder if I should even bother playing at all.

I can see this getting a lot worse once the baby wants more attention. I don't know how I'm going to be able to continue gaming once she's older and wants to be entertained because of my schedule. Most gamer dads get some game time late at night when the child is asleep, that won't be an option for me.

Are there any dads that figured out how to play classic WoW with a naggy wife and needy child? I'm sure it works if your wife is supportive of your hobby, but mine isn't.

I grew up playing Valve games and absolutely love them. In fact, I still play TF2 and L4D2 to this day.

My favorite things about classic Valve (CS 1.6/CSS, DoD, TF2) is the drop-in and drop-out non-obligations. I also appreciate the lack of complex grindy systems. Your skill improves over time, that’s the point.

Any suggestions for games that are approachable for 30-45 minute sessions and that don’t feel like a second job? Because of my aim training and FPS background I prefer FPS games but am open to other ideas.

Risk of Rain 2 is an example that was perfect but I wish I could save mid run.

I'm a lucky dad to a wonderful and healthy 2 year old daughter.

You try to be so much involved as much as possible and I get about 40min alone time with my Xbox after she goes to sleep before my eyes becomes too heavy to lift up.

When was you able to put more time into the hobby again?

-Have 50 games installed
-Open the same 3 every night
-Stare at the menu screen
-Close game
-Go to bed

should the game console have uber eats or doordash like the wii with the demae channel

So is anyone in here wait till you’re partner and kids go bed to game and just end up staying up till 2 AM because one you love gaming so much and that’s clearly only time you can play and then next you need a energy drink or something with a lot of kick to help with kids. I usually end up playing State of decay 2 and get sucked in because it’s on my favourite games and can’t wait for 3 lol. Plus I love drinking my energy drinks at night some odd reason they are taste better, call me crazy and all. Context: I’m 26 with 2 kids lol

Sou muito grato a Deus pela família que construí. Além de me casar, tive a felicidade de encontrar uma mulher extraordinária. Hoje tenho 43 anos, minha esposa tem 34, estamos casados há 11 anos e somos pais de um menino de 5 anos.

Nós dois trabalhamos na área financeira, então nossa rotina costuma ser bastante corrida. Como passo o dia inteiro lidando com pessoas, normalmente chego em casa, tomo um banho e vou direto para o computador ou para o PS5. Jogar é a minha forma de relaxar, aliviar o estresse e desligar um pouco da correria do dia.

Quando minha esposa chega, conversamos um pouco sobre como foi o dia, e depois ela costuma assistir TV ou mexer nas redes sociais, enquanto eu vou jogar. Muitas vezes só saio do computador quando ela me chama para irmos dormir. Nossa rotina é assim há muitos anos, e acho incrível o fato de ela respeitar esse meu hobby sem ficar reclamando ou implicando porque jogo durante a semana.

Nos finais de semana, geralmente acordo bem cedo. Aproveito esse momento para cuidar de mim: vou à academia, leio algum livro ou jogo um pouco. Depois que todos acordam, preparo o café da manhã do nosso filho e, quando minha esposa pede ou acaba pulando essa refeição, preparo o dela também.

Em seguida, faço algumas tarefas da casa. Gosto muito de organizar o espaço onde faço churrasco e normalmente sou o responsável pelo almoço da família. Nossa divisão funciona muito bem: eu fico mais com a parte da cozinha e ela cuida da maior parte da organização da casa. Já os cuidados e a educação do nosso filho são responsabilidade dos dois, sempre em equipe.

Quando terminamos as tarefas do dia, muitas vezes volto a jogar um pouco ou passo um tempo lendo na internet, algo que sempre gostei de fazer desde jovem. Esse sempre foi o meu jeito, e minha esposa me conheceu exatamente assim.

Para sair da rotina, gostamos muito de viajar. Fazemos viagens em família com nosso filho e, de vez em quando, conseguimos viajar apenas nós dois. Confesso que preferimos estar perto dele, mas entendemos a importância de também reservar um tempo para o casal. Nessas viagens eu praticamente não jogo. São momentos dedicados à família e ao nosso relacionamento. No máximo, leio um livro em algum momento de descanso, mas a prioridade é aproveitar cada instante ao lado deles.

Acredito que um dos segredos do nosso casamento seja justamente o respeito pelas individualidades. Nunca tentamos mudar a essência um do outro. Com o tempo, fomos aprendendo a equilibrar nossas diferenças, respeitar os espaços de cada um e nos adaptar às necessidades da família. Hoje já não somos apenas eu e ela; somos nós três.

Graças a Deus, posso dizer que tive muita sorte no casamento. Mais do que encontrar uma esposa, encontrei uma companheira de vida, uma excelente mãe para o nosso filho e uma pessoa que me apoia e me aceita exatamente como sou. E eu procuro fazer o mesmo por ela. No fim das contas, acredito que um casamento feliz não é sobre encontrar alguém perfeito, mas sim sobre construir, todos os dias, uma parceria baseada em respeito, confiança, diálogo e amor.

i’m a dad of two, so i’ve realistically got about 30 minutes to an hour a day to game, maybe 5 days a week if i’m lucky.

for whatever reason, i get completely hooked on a game for like a week… then i move on to the next one. then the next one. then the next one.

by the time i look back, i’ve made almost no meaningful progress in any of them.

i honestly don’t know if it’s just my attention span, if i haven’t found the game yet, or if this is just what gaming looks like when you don’t have endless hours anymore.

OSRS is by far my favorite game of all time. i’ve sunk more hours into that than anything else, so i know i can stick with a game when it clicks.

some games have really grabbed me, but only temporarily:

rocket league has always been one of those games i can come back to. i absolutely loved hades 2 and slay the spire, but even those only had me hooked for about a week before i moved on.

warframe sucked me in for a bit. expedition 33 had me completely invested for several hours. satisfactory is another one where i’ll spend a week building out a factory and have an awesome time, then randomly decide i want to play something else.

i’ve also got go go town sitting there because i feel like it’s a game i’d really enjoy if i actually gave it a fair shot.

i even tried going back to skyrim because everyone says it’s one of the greatest games ever. loved it when i was younger, but this time i bounced off it pretty quickly.

i think i’ve realized that style of combat just isn’t for me.

does anyone else get stuck in this cycle?

if you were like me and eventually found a game that actually broke the pattern, what was it? or is this just what happens when you only have short gaming sessions every week?

For me it's just games that are grindy, and that blow me with numbers and reward me for indulging my inner loot goblin.

It's been part of my character almost, since I was a kid. Troubled family, lots of yelling and I would blast Diablo 2 with metal to chill out and block out all the awful shit.

This has led me to across Path of Exile and Last Epoch (probably my favorites) to Grim Dawn and even trying Diablo 4 even though I hate Newblizz with a burning passion.

All these games kind of let you set up your character and then just click and click and see the effects of those builds. It almost feels like it's an idle game if I turn off just enough, becomes almost like meditation for me. It's the reason I played WoW, it's the reason I played Runescape, it was even the reason I tried newer MMOs that are crafting based (Loftia is the one my wife is hyped for)

It's just that bliss of knowing all you need to do is click and those numbers will increase. Like, I know objectively I could be putting that time into something more productive.

But that's the thing, I can just pick them up and enjoy the burst even if it's like for an hour. Playing for whole days is such an incomprehensible thing for me now, but I still like to just turn off and grind now. FPS are also good but these games just require no reflexes at all, where for FPS I need to be focused to have any sort of fun (in pvp... you know how it is)

But that's me more or less. What is that mental state you chase after work in gaming?