The single player mode was decent. I like the career structure, it’s something unique compared to most other racing games’ checklists of events.

Driving physics were a minor improvement over Heat, which was already solid on that front (especially compared to the train wrecks of NFS '15 and Payback).

Contrary to most NFS fans, I wish they leaned more into the cartoon/anime aesthetic, something closer to Auto Modellista. I’m guessing EA didn’t want to risk it though, so Unbound’s aesthetic feels a little half-assed as a result.

Car customization is great as expected, Ghost nailed this in NFS '15 and basically copy/pasted the same system into everything since, which I’m fine with.

The multiplayer is live service garbage and I’m very disappointed that all post-launch updates have ignored the single player mode entirely… Or maybe I should be happy that they didn’t incorporate live service garbage into the single player…

Overall, 7.5/10 if you ignore the multiplayer. It’s Ghost’s best game.

A lot of these games are pretty short and playing on my Steam Deck during lunch breaks at work is responsible for several completions. I also basically never play online multiplayer games.

Shorter games is the biggest factor though. Just for fun I combined my time in To the Moon, Parking Garage Rally Circuit, Jusant, Sprawl, Toem, ExoOne, Ghostrunner 2, Loddlenaut, Unpacking, Lunistice, Up left out, Naboki, Hook 2, and Inside, and the total number of hours it took to beat all of those was 37.

I’m guessing you probably have more than 37 hours in your favorite online game this year, I just spend my hours on different games lol

Corn Kidz 64 looks super fun, I will definitely be picking that up!

lol when I was reviewing my HLTB log for this post, I had the same thought. “I did all that this year?!” The benefit of mostly playing shorter games, I suppose.

Sea of Stars has been on my radar for a while. I’m not huge on turn-based combat, but it looks so good!

Finally picked up the Cyberpunk DLC. Got Pacific Drive as well.

Still deciding on:

Dead Cells - I found two roguelites I actually like this year (Dome Keeper and Hades) and want to see if I can go three for three.

Dragons Dogma and Stalker - Games with recent sequels I’ve never touched. For $5/piece I’m tempted to give both a try.

Dying Light 2 - Been in the mood for some dumb open world fun recently, and I refuse to buy anything from Ubisoft to fill that void. This seems decent and I liked the first one.

Same here. I really enjoy Nonagon Infinity but haven’t been able to get into any other album of theirs.

Madeon - Good Faith

I adore Madeon’s first album, Adventure. I knew Good Faith would be different and I was really looking forward to it anyway, and it when it finally came out, it just never clicked with me. It’s an album I come back to probably once per year to try it again, but I just don’t vibe with it. It’s an album I respect a lot, but I just don’t like it.

Justice - Hyperdrama

Still a pretty new release admittedly. That opening track is one of Justice’s best ever songs, but the rest of the album just isn’t grabbing me. I’m hoping it’ll grow on me over time.

To twist your question a bit: The Glitch Mob - Ctrl Alt Reality

Another case of an artist moving in a totally different direction, and when I first listened to it, I didn’t like it. Similar feelings to Good Faith. But then I listened to it again. Then again. Then again. There wasn’t a sudden moment where it clicked, it just got better with every listen. It’s probably my second favorite album of theirs now.

And to twist your question even more. I thought I would dislike: Muse - Will of the People

I’ve been in the camp of “modern Muse isn’t that bad” for a while, but there’s clearly been a downward trend. Even I cannot defend Simulation Theory. I expected WOTP to be more of the same, and somehow I ended up loving it. It is maximum Muse cheesiness, in the best way possible.

I’ve been itching to upgrade to AM5, this might finally be the CPU to finally make it worth it. Hopefully power draw and thermals are good, I’d like to do an ITX build if possible.

i’m on a diet, i’ll just take the crackers

sudo eat | grep -v "Chocolate Cream"

Still J.C. Staff. Hopefully the production schedule doesn’t melt this time around.

I occasionally think back to Rocket League, which I loved in its earlier days. I put close to 100 hours into it, which is a lot for one game for me. Then they added lootboxes, leaned harder into the competitive space, and just completely sucked the soul out of it. And yet it’s still hugely popular.

I just don’t get it.

I’m so torn about stories like this and GTA online. Because on one hand, people play these games, and people won’t switch to Linux if they can’t play them.

But on the other hand, I just cannot give a single fuck about live service trash like this. I struggle to understand how people play games products like these, and I absolutely don’t understand why anyone would waste their time cheating in them. And yet they’re absurdly popular.

Despite gaming being such a big hobby for me, I feel so disconnected from what the average gamer values.

Early release is a nice surprise, especially after F40 (or was it 39?) got delayed so many times. Upgrade went smooth for me, upstream accent colors are nice to finally have. Kind of a bummer it doesn’t apply to Nautilus icons though.

it’ll usually be the artist’s name. Like if you search for “Taylor Swift”, you’ll get exactly zero results because that phrase is blacklisted due to a complaint from the label. If you instead search for a specific song, you will see results, and can work backwards from there to find the album you’re looking for.

The last time I had trouble finding something on Soulseek, it was an album that had released a month or two ago, so it might’ve still been too new.

Yeah, I’ve had to use that blacklist workaround on many occasions, lol

Oh wow, I never realized that was an option. Fixed, thanks!

I also just noticed I got the percentage in the meme wrong. Oops.

Linux is now at 4.55% desktop marketshare (up from <1% in early 2018).

Linux’s desktop marketshare has risen by ~350-400%, not 3.5-4%.

EDIT: reuploaded with corrected value

Context:

Back in 2018, Philip Robohle (doitsujin) developed DXVK because he wanted to play Nier Automata on Linux.

Valve hired him to work on it full time, then they released Proton (Wine + DXVK) a few months later. Proton likely would never have existed if it weren’t for DXVK, and by extension the Steam Deck either wouldn’t exist or would use Windows instead, and all the other cool Linux-related stuff Valve have worked on since probably wouldn’t have happened.

Desktop Linux’s marketshare rising is obviously not exclusively because of the gaming improvements, but it’s for sure a huge boon. Good enough for a dumb meme like this, lol

Can we reschedule? I have plans tonight