Not to mention keeping a XP box connected to the internet in 2026 is a disaster waiting to happen. I wish there were a lightweight client that could still run the necessary DRM checks (or you know, just remove the DRM) on XP, but then again, this is very much a novelty use case.
My adventure of trying to get OG 2011 Skyrim running on a Windows XP box in 2026 did eventually work, but for the first time ever, Steam DRM made the experience so unpleasant that it was not worth keeping it. Just getting a version of steam to run long enough to authenticate was a Herculean task.
To be fair, he was handed Don Mattrick’s mess with the Xbox One launch, so he did do something. He did offer hope to the Xbox brand as a whole after that, but it’s just that everything he promised either never lived up to expectations or monkey pawed (Game Pass making people just not buy games).
Aki had me play Pikmin 2 and 3 this past weekend and I’m slowly coming to the realization that Pikmin is a peak series, and I now kind of understand the hype for Pikmin 4 before its release. It definitely scratches the RTS itch despite not looking like a traditional RTS.
Without wishing to spoil, I was ready to have the game wrap up by chapter 9 or so, but then it kept going for a few more boss fights and classic Kojima plot twists, but I did find the overall story compelling. It’s just a bit jarring that it happens all in such a short amount of time at the end.
I think what I liked about the game is the fact that the game had enough faith in the player to merely give them an assortment of tools and a destination and then lets them figure out how to get from A to B. The mini-stories accompanying each destination also give weight to what you’re doing.
So I finished the original Death Stranding yesterday, and I can say that I definitely enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have put 140 hours into it otherwise, but it does feel like I played two completely different games, since my porter skills from the first half weren’t really applicable in the second half.
Remember when they used to put CG women on the graphics cards to convince you how show off what the card could ostensibly do?
Honestly, not that bad of a setup! Guess I should be thankful that Dell still has all the drivers for a 2008 Dell Dimension still up on their web site. Now I just need a time-appropriate discrete GPU that doesn’t require 6-pin power and we should be good to go for some retro XP gaming.
39 whole minutes for this. And then the inevitable driver hell.
There’s something nostalgic about this blue screen, even if it’s harkening back to a time when setting up a new computer was an actual pain in the ass.
I’m also reminded that, even if it is an Athlon Dual Core, this is still going to take a hell of a long time to install compared to modern OSes.
My attachment to Nintendo (grew up without consoles):
🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 Earthbound
🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑Metroid
🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑 Star Fox
🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 Mario
🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑 Rhythm Heaven
🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑 WarioWare
🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑 Donkey Kong
🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑 Kirby
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 Pokémon
🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑 F-Zero
🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑 Zelda
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 Fire Emblem
🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑 Pikmin
🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑 Animal Crossing
🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑 Splatoon
🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 Xenoblade
Shoutouts to @otakureborn.bsky.social @capncococharms.bsky.social and @wiituber.bsky.social ! You guys were great and I had a lot of fun testing and getting a feel for how things will go.
Thank you again @yukigoomba.bsky.social & @jatta.zone for helping set this whole project up! <3
Thought I could get away with using my old 2016 PC to run 4-player local multiplayer streams, and it’s having a hell of a time trying to render four talking gifs, take in four mic interfaces, and capture up to 5 HDMI sources. RIP Lil’ Boss. Into storage you go.
Odd, I recently swapped a DVD drive from a non-functioning Xbox into one with a busted DVD drive, and they were obviously different model drives, but it booted up fine and played discs properly for me. Maybe if it were any arbitrary DVD drive as opposed to one from an Xbox it would have complained?
Funnily enough, this is the only mystery dungeon game I’ve played and completed.
This baffling decision is partly to blame for why RD reviewed and potentially sold so poorly. People were unwittingly playing it on Hard mode their first time by selecting Normal.
Also, if you plan on doing the save transfer, IIRC, the new “Easy” mode they added in PoR will not transfer properly.
Then you’ll be fine. Word of warning though. At least in NA, both PoR and RD didn’t label difficulties consistently.
In JP, they’re labeled Normal, Hard, and Maniac. In NA, PoR drops Maniac and replaces it with an Easy mode, while RD labels Normal as Easy, Hard as Normal, and Maniac as Hard.
If you’re starting out in the series, I think Path of Radiance on the Gamecube is a better starting point, and you get the added benefit of context when going into Radiant Dawn, which is a direct sequel. PoR even has a unique carryover feature into RD where a completed save in PoR can affect RD.
I still consider Radiant Dawn to be the series’ magnum opus for its sheer scale and scope of international conflict and its tackling of some relatively serious topics.
As for the character, Micaiah tops my list, unsurprisingly. The amount of shit she has to deal with in her game is unparalleled.
I always knew MGS2 was weirdly prescient about the state of the world, but having just finished it for the first time, it’s scary how much it called correctly in the modern day back in the PS2 era about information control. All in a game where your twink ninja gets pissed on and slips on bird shit.
So I started playing Death Stranding a couple days ago, and UPS delivery man simulator is weirdly engaging to me. I think the base concept of connecting people is motivating on its own. That and I look forward to whenever Mads Mikkelsen shows up and figuring out who he actually is.
Finally pulled the trigger on a new laser printer. My old one was an inkjet, and I don’t print enough for the ink to not go bad between every time I actually want to print something. Hopefully toner doesn’t have this problem.
So I finished Clair Obscur yesterday, and, without wishing to spoil, knowing the story in its entirety, it is especially ironic they were using AI for art. It’s a damn shame because I do think the game is worth playing through, but I also understand why people won’t due to AI poisoning the vision.
Like, do the Gestrals look like that because somebody on the dev team designed it that way or because an AI generated that and they just ran with it? Does the underwater dungeon exist because somebody had a vision for a dungeon like this or because AI hallucinated concept art with fish in the sky?
I’d make a point of the graphics, but with the AI wrinkle in everything, I can’t honestly give it anything more than “it looks fine.” I think the insidious thing about AI is that now I can’t trust that anything I’m seeing on screen is somebody’s vision for what this game should look like.
Having played a few hours in Clair Obscur now (just past the Gestral village) and the gameplay is pretty satisfying even for somebody that generally doesn’t like parry-centric gameplay. I like that most of the things you find by exploring are actually useful upgrade material or new pictos.
Now that I’m done with work until the new year, it’s time to become French for the next two weeks and play Clair Obscur. After seeing people rave about this game on here earlier this year and the TGA sweep, I have high expectations.
Valve finally made the Gamecube 2.
Unfortunate downside of Linux is driver support for more esoteric hardware, by which I mean 4K60 capture cards. I had a Live Gamer 4K card and the best I could find was a driver for a similar card on GitHub, but that requires you to compile it yourself and of course it doesn’t compile.
