I had it on the ZX Spectrum, where it was still absolutely vicious but not all that colourful! Seven year old me never completed it, even after I got it on Amiga, but I might just give it another go on seeing this. …I can still hear the theme tune…!

Every now and then I turn off my ad-blockers (Pi-Hole, ABP, uBlock Origin, and Ghostery) for a particular site that I feel bad for blocking…and then re-enable them all once all the adverts – and sheer volume of trackers – spew data left, right, and centre. Unfortunately ad-blockers are just like condoms: they keep your machine virii-safe[r]. Much better use of your time, and likely better for a creator’s pocket, is supporting them via Pateron or whatever gubbings they offer.

I also have an alternative use for uBlock Origin too – blocking webpage elements on certain sites (such as WRC) that like to spoil things on their landing page when all you want to do is login and watch the event without being spoiled…!

I’m mostly switching between the System Shock Remake (one of my Kickstarters finally coming through…) and Aliens: Dark Descent – which is far better than I was expecting. The only real sticking points so far is the squad acting as ‘one’ (it’s a pro and a con), and the sheer RNG of alien movements – hit the RNG just right and you’ll go from a Hunt event, straight into a difficulty increase, straight into a Boss encounter…!

Prey is a fantastic game – and unfortunately the last Arkane game I ‘clicked’ with, and a good part of that is likely due to Prey being a spirtual successor to System Shock 2, and Dishonored being the successor to Thief. The roguelite DLC for Prey isn’t bad either! I really wanted Harvey Smith to work on a successor to Deus Ex, but, oh well…

My other half and kid got me a Father’s Day card and gift (whoopee cushion) last week. Their mistake; I expect another this week!

Soundtracks filled front-to-back with bangers that have stuck with me over the years:

Sonic Mayhem’s Quake 2 – and, of course, Trent Reznor’s Quake. 植松 伸夫 – Final Fantasy 7. Grant Kirkhope/Graeme Norgate’s GoldenEye 64. Max Lichtenstein’s Pax Imperia 2. Richard Joseph’s Chaos Engine. Just about anything Mick Gordon touches. …aaaaand just about every Mario, Metroid, Sonic, DOOM (Heretic included), Command and Conquer, Advance Wars…

I’m kinda hoping someone will point out this feature already exists, but I wish there was a way to subscribe to a topic. Right now it feels like multiple instances are forming their own, say, gaming community, and it feels like this is splintering the community rather than growing it?

Other than that, I actually really like the decentralised nature – and, while this is likely due to the very early nature of things, man is it nicer here. Weirdly feels like early Slashdot days…

Honestly my backlog has still somewhat grown at a steady pace, but I’ve kept my Steam Deck mostly roguelikes for killing time and one or two ‘main’ games which helps keep focus. The steady stream of disappointing 2023 releases has certainly helped too…! It’ll be interesting to see stats if Valve do another Steam Replay; 2022 on Deck for me was Vampire Survivors, Rogue Legacy 2, Horizon, Hitman 3, and Elden Ring.

I also still alternate between the Deck and my main machine, playing more controller-focused stuff on Deck. My main machine is more FPS and driving-sim focused – although it would be amusing to play a sim on Deck hooked up to my racing rig…!

I’ve played Diablo since the first one (back when my harddrive capacity was smaller than the CD the game was on!), but couldn’t believe how many people mentioned that D4 felt great on a controller, even if they usually played with K/M. Seemed alien to me.

Goddamn were they right. Not only does it run very well on SD (I lock mine to 40FPS), but it really does suit a controller well. I might even switch to an XBox pad when playing on my main machine…!

After religiously following the order number tracking efforts on the Steam Deck subreddit (finally got mine May '22) it’s been my ‘clearing the backlog whilst sitting with the significant other’ device…heavily punctuated with Vampire Survivors and, lately, Diablo 4. It’s a great little roguelike device – stuff like Cult of the Lamb, Spelunky 2, and Rogue Legacy 2 – that I can just play for a few minutes wherever the Heck I’d like.

I still find it like holding black magic. I’m a software engineer, and I understand how it works, but playing a Windows port of a PS4 game (like Horizon) in Linux in my hands is something I don’t think I’ll ever not be impressed by!

I fell into the SE pit a little while back. I really enjoyed it being such a long slog with long-term objectives, but then after a while it felt like I could play a few hours after work and get nowhere. If you want your Factorio game to feel like it’ll never end, and there always being something else to work towards, it definitely scratches that itch!