Just started Beyond Good and Evil on GameCube.
I never played many console games in 2003, so I don’t have much point of reference, but I’m impressed so far. I think the stylized graphics aged well. Environments look organic and detailed without losing readability, and characters look like they belong. The voice acting is solid, and I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Porco-Rosso’s banter is good. I don’t expect much from the plot, but the characters and world seem well-realized.
I don’t recommend the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go 2. The Go 2 is around $1300, and only offers some 20% performance increase over the previous gen (with the Z1E CPU) which is currently $750. The ROG Xbox Ally X pricing is yet to be revealed.
The elephant in the room is the Steam Deck OLED, which you can find refurbished/certified for $440. It’s not as powerful, but power is never going to be a handheld’s strong suit anyway. They’re everywhere and tons of indie games are made with it in mind.
If you’re willing to get a bit nerdy, game streaming is getting pretty good these days, and is really easy on battery life. Moonlight lets you stream games from your desktop PC, while Xbox Remote Play can stream from your Xbox. If cloud gaming is your jam, Nvidia Geforce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming are available. For any of these, the Steam Deck would be perfectly adequate, but if you want something smaller and lighter, you could also go with an AYN Odin 2 Portal, which is an Android-based handheld with WiFi 7 and a nice 120Hz OLED screen for around $330.
Not an expert, but here are some good ones:
Earthbound (SNES) - Kids-on-bikes fight aliens and meet cryptids in a quest to stop a cosmic horror in a JRPG set in suburban America. It’s weird, wonderful, musical, and sometimes startlingly heartfelt. Not too grindy as JRPGs go, but keep the 2x fast,forward button handy anyway.
Chrono Trigger (SNES) - Another must-play. It’s a time-travelling fantasy JRPG with one of the best OSTs ever made. While playing it, I had an existential crisis realizing I’d never run a D&D campaign this cool.
Metroid Fusion (GBA) - A metroidvania (duh) set in an infested space station, where an injured Samus races to arm herself against an unknown enemy. It manages to feel desperate, claustrophobic, and fast-paced, which – hot take – I feel is rare for the genre.
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA) - A self-indulgent pick for me, as I imprinted on this short-but-sweet game at an early age. It’s the last isometric Zelda and a swansong to the genre. The central gimmick, shrinking Link to the size of a mouse, gives the pixel artists the rare chance to show environments in lush, up-close detail that makes the world spring to life. Also: Ezlo sounds like Danny Devito. That is all.
Google’s ongoing Android lockdown feels like the end of an era, with the understanding that eras don’t end overnight. They fade away slowly.
Running Steam games on Mint, I don’t think I’ve ever run into a game that flat-out didn’t run. Usually they work out of the box. The most I’ve ever had to do was select “Force the use of a specific compatibility tool” and try out a different version of Proton from the dropdown list.
It’s been remarkably unproblematic.
Yeah, the video really isn’t making the point its title suggests. I think we’re all just primed to expect gatekeeping in video games at this point.
If you’re using Retroarch, I’ve found this overview useful. https://thingsiplay.game.blog/2024/10/19/showcase-for-retroarch-shaders-2024/
I strongly disagree with the premise that there’s a “wrong” way to play retro games. Don’t gatekeep. Imagine if people told you not to listen to Pink Floyd unless it’s on vinyl. It would be lost media.
That said, CRTs present images fundamentally differently than LCD displays, and a lot of developers took advantage of those idiosyncrasies. There are scanlines everywhere. CRT phosphors aren’t square, and appear smaller when darker. Bright pixels can “bleed” into nearby pixels, particularly when using composite signals.
Before LCDs, many (not all) pixel artists used this to their advantage, basically harnessing the imperfections of analog TV to provide equivalents to anti-aliasing, bloom, extra color depth, and even transparency. Some particularly famous examples came from Sega Genesis games. This video goes into good depth on the whys and hows, and there are some solid examples of the outcomes here.
I’ve attached examples below (hopefully they upload). If you like the raw pixel art, then no harm done. Enjoy! But if you like the way CRTs interpreted and filtered those signals, you owe it to yourself to look up some shaders for your favorite emulator.
(Zero Tolerance, 1994, on the Genesis/Mega Drive)
(Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 1992, on the Genesis/Mega Drive)
I’ve started playing through some classic SNES and GBA games.
Chrono Trigger – Oh man, this one’s good. The soundtrack is on fire, and the game does a good job at making you feel like your actions make a difference.
Metroid Fusion – If you told me this was made in 2024, I’d probably believe you. It has a sense of pacing and suspense that I wasn’t expecting for a metroidvania.
I haven’t gotten very far in either, but so far it’s looking like they’ve aged like wine.
I’d argue your SO might not be displaying neurotypical behavior.
Between 50-85% of autistic spectrum people (plus a significant portion of people with PTSD or depression) experience Alexithymia, or significant difficulty in recognizing and analyzing their emotional state.
When I’m feeling bad, my SO frequently assumes I’m withholding the reason from him in some sort of passive-aggressive mindgame, and I have to remind him that I barely know what my mood is, let alone what’s causing it.
I’m getting better at it, but it’s a lot of work and I still regularly mistake stomachaches for anxiety.
When a smaller nation aligns itself with a larger empire or coalition, it will gravitate towards that collective’s philosophy. Sometime’s it’s imposed through political or military pressure, or “encouraged” through subversion, but it can just as easily happen through the natural influence of a larger and more prolific culture.
Historically, there have been more socialist and/or communist states associated with the USSR than not. Especially when measured by population.
If you’re willing to hit up Ebay for “new in box” options, you can get some pretty good stuff under $180. For wireless:
Fairbuds XL: Made by the Fairphone folks, who have a very good reputation for repairability and longevity.
Sonos Ace: Stainless steel pivots, replaceable earpads, huge battery, no glitchy touch controls. Mine have treated me well so far. Absurd you can find them this cheap, considering the original MSRP.