It’s a “block party”! </dadjoke>

I’ll show myself out.

Spending every lunch hour on the library computer with three friends in 1994 playing this is probably why I didn’t have a girlfriend.

After setting up emulators for both the PS2 and PS1, I’m amazed at how little I actually turn on my xbox one S anymore.

Games from that generation just hit differently for me. Especially my favourites like Final Fantasy X and XII. It took me a while to get why I felt that way, but it’s the combat systems in modern games have become to frenetic and button-mashy. How am I supposed to strategize what my team mates are doing at the speed that the combat now wants to take place at.

And that’s not just with the Final Fantasy series. God of War both went down that “let’s make combat as fast and frenetic as possible” route after the PS2 generation.

I’m also going to give an honourable mention on PS2 to the last Stalwart alternative to the EA NHL series; that being NHL 2K10. I really enjoyed the things that it did differently to EA Sports, like the ability to set two of your team-mates to hassle an opposing player. I wish 2K had kept it up. But it seems they gave up the NHL and EA gave up the NBA. Fair trade I guess.

I don’t know about that, to be honest.

I don’t have any hard data to back me up, but anecdotally I find that most FOSS software I use is headquartered in Europe. Quite often Germany. There are many maintainers from all over the world, but I feel like (again…in my experience) Europe has always been bigger into starting such projects.

Exactly my thinking as well. Super Mario Brothers was the game that made “couch gaming” popular for more than just kids. Adults were getting into it as well. I still have fond memories of my dad trying his best at it and thinking sticking his tongue out in the right direction would somehow help his jumping ability.

Without the NES, the couch-gaming scene as we know it wouldn’t exist. And Super Mario Brothers was the game that brought it to the masses.

I agree with you.

However…there’s an argument to be made that the post itself is a form of criticism and falls under the free speech rules where it regards political figures. In many ways, it’s not any different than the drawings of Musk holding Trump’s puppet strings, or Putin and Trump riding a horse together. One is drawn and the other is animated, but they’re the same basic concept.

I understand however that that sets a disturbing precedent for what can and cannot be acceptable. But I don’t know where to draw that line. I just know that it has to be drawn somewhere.

I think…and this is my opinion…political figures are fair game for this, while there should be protections in place for private citizens, since political figures by their very ambition put themselves in the public sphere whereas private individuals do not.

I’m currently replaying all of them via emulator the last few weeks, and I have to say I respectfully disagree.

IX’s combat system just feels simplified compared to the depth that VIII had.

Could you absolutely cheese the draw system…of course. But if you avoided the temptation, the almost limitless mechanics of stat pairing was fun to play around with when taking on different enemies.

I don’t expect it. I just hope for it because it would be the most big-dick-energy move Zelensky can pull on Trusk.

I desperately desperately desperately want to read a headline that says “Ukraine signs rare mineral agreement with the European Union. Ukraine becomes a member of the EU and the EU gets large resources of rare minerals to supercharge their own homegrown tech industry and divest it from the United States of Trump”

It makes me feel old to admit it’s retro, but Gran Turismo on Playstation.

Everything from wife-killers, toenail-eaters, to geniuses

Stop spying on me please.

If you think your Apple phone isn’t listening to you, I have some seaside real estate I’d like to sell you in Montana.

I can’t help but think that there’s a Broadway musical first act closing song somewhere in there…

Depends on how you’re defining “obscure” and “retro”.

If by “retro” you mean SNES, Genesis, NES etc… the game I was super into for a time was Xevious. A pretty simple top-down space shooter/bomber that for some reason I remember getting absolutely obsessed with completing. It wasn’t even a particularly good game. It was repetitive, and when you DID reach the end it just started all over again. But for some reason I played the absolute shit out of it.

If you move “retro” up to the PS1 era, my favourite seemingly forgotten games of all time are the Colony Wars series (Colony Wars, Colony Wars: Vengeance, Colony Wars: Red Sun) Great story lines and a super fun conceit where in the second game, you’re playing as the now-defeated enemy of the first game, rebuilding after their loss.