Why? Do you have treasure there? You have treasure, don’t you? Why you hoarding all the treasure, bro‽

I’m less cynical about SCOTUS, but only because they aren’t a rubber stamp like the 5th Circuit. They are absolutely beholden to FedSoc and Conservative interests, but I doubt corporations want to be bound by clauses like this from some supplier they do business with, either.

To summarize differently, their argument goes that if you signed up for a trial of Disney+ (or some other such service), you agreed to an arbitration clause as part of the terms of service.

They are arguing that the arbitration clause therefore applies to everything Disney-related, even if it’s a service unrelated to Disney+.

I doubt this will stand a court’s scrutiny and will likely get tossed as unenforceable for being an unconscionable contract. Still, Disney sucks for even attempting such a maneuver, and it equally sucks that the US legal system is in such a state that they think this is a possible avenue for success.

I’m going to take a less cynical stance and say I’m looking forward to this. They didn’t file in Texas, so they won’t get that prized 5th Circuit rubber stamp big businesses desire, so the legal slap in their face will be glorious.

Tbh, as importent as they were to the nacent development of the games industry, based on past and recent behavior towards fan games, I kind of hope they eat their hats on this.

Favorites:

• Steam Deck. I haven’t been this excited for a console since the original Xbox. I play a lot of games that I would otherwise avoid on my gaming rig, and it’s excellent for traveling.

• Steam Controller. This one was worth the effort to get used to, and it introduced me to gyro controls and paddle buttons. Also, it was integral to the Steam Deck’s control scheme design.

Least favorites:

• Wii. There were a few good games, but the controllers sucked ass. GameCube was better.

• Game Gear. Screen was a smudge-fest. Any kind of motion was super hard to see.

• Gen 1 Xbox controller. That thing was massive and awkward.

Certainly not, but it’s usually not hard to identify either.

Fair. Make sure you take care of your mental health, either way. No game is worth sacrificing it, but that’s just my humble opinion.

Deep Rock Galactic has been pretty cool (single purchase, no subscriptions). Nice community, devs who listen. Great solo experience, too.

Another good F2P game is Warframe. The community is generally nice, especially to new players.

Competitive games, though, seem to attract the alt-right tryhards who find pleasure in causing others misery. I quit those several years ago for my mental health, just because I was tired of listening to toxic people lose their shit. They can scream at each other, for all I care.

Wish I did, because I’d play with you, but if those companies aren’t taking moderation seriously, I’d personally choose to do something else. There’s lots of other games out there, after all!

It absolutely will determine what I buy. Given the amount of shovelware before AI, I don’t want to further encourage lazy/predatory development practices.

How, tho?

Seriously, how do you even get started? It’s like the tutorials are all, “This is a basic ‘Hello World’ module/flake. Now, you are a master.” I would love to figure it out, but I need a little more hand holding.

(duck-typing)

Quick, duck!

The GBA port is…okay. It has some of the “improvements” that the SNES got, and the balance just feels off, to me. I would say that it still controls better than the SNES version, however.

Give them all a try, though. Maybe the NES version will feel lacking to you and you’ll love the SNES ones!

How designers handle waking sleeping NPCs is always amusing to me.

Oh, nice. I’ll check that out

I remember the moment I figured out you can jump forward to clear some of those spikes.

Kirby’s Adventure just feels the best to control. I don’t like the way they changed how powers work in Superstar, and I think the variety, controls, and level design aren’t as good. Sometimes, more isn’t always better.

FFTA is the best in the series, but it’s also the most unique story. FFT is still the usual “fantasy” universe you’re familiar with, but there’s an interesting element of isekai in FFTA.

Battletoads is hard, but not impossible. Everyone remembers the third level with the bikes being a pita, but I did it as a kid. Tip: towards the end, there’s a part where walls will come at you faster and faster, but if you try to stick to the middle and move just enough out of the way, you can weave back and forth. Don’t overcorrect; light touch. If you get really good, there’s even a secret in that part that lets you skip several levels. Look for a sparkle!

Little Nemo is based on a comic, and it’s a really unique puzzle/action platformer. I haven’t played anything quite like it, but it was one of the first NES games I owned.

Mega Man 2 unequivocally has some of the best chiptunes in any game. There’s a reason there’s so many remixes on OC Remix just from that game.

Starfox 64 is the original SNES Starfox but with better graphics, gameplay, and story. There’s also multiple endings…

Hope you have fun!

Not really, when you don’t buy games when they come out. A lot of mine are freebies, and I never buy anything that isn’t a deep discount (especially from AAA studios), which means “new” for me is often several years old already.

Yep, that’s the one. I misremembered the year. Maybe I got it in 2023, I dunno.

FF Tactics on PS1 is great. Playing my roommate’s copy was what led me to buy FF Tactics Advance, which is even better, I think.

Both excellent games, and better than Thief 3, Thief 2014, and Dishonored.

Edit: wrong year for the latest Thief game

• Kirby’s Adventure (NES)
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)
• Chrono Trigger (SNES)
• Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project (NES)
• Battletoads (NES)
• Little Nemo: Dreammaster (NES)
• Mega Man 2 (NES)
• Mario 64 (N64)
• Starfox 64 (N64)

I know you want to avoid Final Fantasy style games, but both Chrono Trigger and FF Tactics Advance are unique takes on JRPGs (you’re open to Earthbound, after all). They are also timeless, IMO, and stand up against modern titles.

Kirby’s Adventure is great all around. Has saves, interesting gameplay, tight controls, excellent music, secondary secret objectives, and it’s just goddamn adorable. It’s also better than Kirby Superstar, IMO, but do try both.

I hear there’s some politicians who enjoy “vacations with friends…”

The use of “would have” instead of “will have” is making my eye twitch…

I’m going forward just to see more of the environment, but I nearly gave up in the beginning for that reason. The gameplay itself is a bit stale, and it reminds me a lot of mobile games with how simple the combat and AI is. There’s also no explicit “Exit Game” option, so when playing on Steam Deck, you have to open the menu and force exit.

If not for the highly detailed environments, I’d think it was a mobile port.

Been playing The Ascent, a 3/4 looter shooter. Not a particularly deep story, and you are kind of a nameless nobody (so not much of a character arc), but they nail the atmosphere. Each zone has that cyberpunk dystopian feel with lots of NPCs loitering around, so the world feels alive.

The combat is kinda okay. The enemies aren’t particularly unique: the guys with guns try to maintain a distance, and the melee guys zerg rush you. Additionally, there’s a high-low aiming system that doesn’t feel good to work with, but is a necessary part of combat. You upgrade your guns via a finite currency, and as far as I can tell, each gun type acts as your “class.”

Overall, I’m having fun, and I will be playing with friends later on, but it’s not going to be for everyone. Its Mixed and Mostly Positive reviews on Steam are justified.

People who love Tetris are akin to people who love Rubik’s cubes. Not something I ever really was interested in getting into, but I respect the craft.

I really liked BioShock Infinite. I enjoyed the story, I enjoyed that it was a deviation from the previous two, I liked the characters and the dimension travel. I especially liked the “fake facade” of it all, versus the overt, grimy dystopia of Rapture (which was fine). It gets extra points for being playable with ReShade on solely a Ryzen 5600G.

emacs is not that hard. You can learn emacs in one day—every day.

Loved AoE II. I still play it on occasion, and I grew up playing it with cheat codes (there’s some silly ones). I think it still holds up well to this day, even with my nostalgia glasses off.

If you’ve never played it, my only caveat would be to expect the AI to not compare to modern iterations. “Balance” in campaign missions sometimes comes in the form of giving the AI an unfair advantage, but everything can be overcome, and you can always save-scum your way to victory. It’s fun, and I definitely recommend a play if you are into retro gaming or RTS’s.

Or a stupid wager.

So excited for this. I’m going to start a new game when it drops.

Considering the US, where they’re filing the lawsuit, has just recently opened up the floodgates of corporate lobbying power thanks to SCOTUS, I don’t know why anyone would want to support such a maliciously litigious company.

The subpoenas will continue until morale improves.

Good to have the facts straight. It’s creepy enough on its own without inventing details.

• Castle Crashers is a classic multiplayer beat-em-up. Plays great on Proton (if that’s important).
• Lost Castle is in a similar vein, though more roguelike.
• River City Girls (and sequels) is either great arcade brawler.
• Neurovoider

Great indie co-op games:

• Deep Rock Galactic. No split screen, but endlessly repayable with goals and targets in each mission. Also fun in solo.
• Caveblazers
• Guacamelee
• Tunche

Upcoming games to consider:

• Wizard of Legend 2

Agreed. Depending on the business sector, the PR damage could be worse than the cost of litigation.

My company has a very expensive software product they sell to other businesses (to the tune of millions of dollars a year per customer), and the cost is a hurdle the salespeople have to overcome. If there was litigation against them over trampling another business, that doesn’t exactly instill confidence in a trustworthy business relationship. So they pay their licensing costs.

I’ve read that some people are going back to simpler tech stacks, and it feels like they’re just leaving money on the table if that demographic continues to grow.

Who knows, though? Maybe somebody new will fill in that niche.

Yeah, I don’t see the point. It’s a browser with bossware enabled; it’s supposed to be for businesses to easily lock down and monitor their employees’ browsers.