And there’s the whole issue with a certain buffoon who doesn’t understand how tariffs work and is currently trying to speedrun an economic collapse, so who knows if the hardware components will be available in three years.

However, unless there’s a significant change in games that makes the current Gen unable to play games, I think it’s likely going to be a great device in three years time. I know that I have no plans to upgrade mine.

I mean, nothing is stopping a whale from contacting Hello Games to get a bespoke spaceship… 😂

No Man’s Sky has almost every feature that Star Citizen will have/has:

• Frigates
• Walkable ships (via the new corvettes)
• Space stations
• Food/cooking
• Quests and lore
• Planet exploration
• Ship to ship dogfights

Like, by the time SC releases, the game’s features will have been done by multiple companies. I expect people actually buying the game, if it’s ever released, will do so for the memes and not because the game has anything innovative to add to gaming.

Steam Deck 2 is very likely a long way away; they’ve said they won’t be doing minor upgrades—only major ones, and the current models still play most modern games just fine without issue. There’s no reason to wait on a Steam Deck if it’s within your budget.

You can absolutely play a Steam Deck on the couch. It’s effectively the same sort of device as a Switch, just without all the Nintendo nonsense of knowing that you’re supporting a company that specializes in squashing industry innovation through litigation.

You can even buy a dock that uses the USBC port as an HDMI output, if you want to play on a bigger screen, and connect your favorite Bluetooth controller.

Jesus H Christmas, that’s depressing

At that point where it matters, I feel like I should be buying the music from the artist, not streaming. My latest favorite band, Mad Routine, gives you the WAV masters when you buy their albums, and they are meticulous about sound; those lossless tracks actually sound better, even with Bluetooth.

However, I think few bands are actually putting in the effort to have beautifully crafted lossless tracks. Also, I have no way of knowing if Spotify is merely increasing the bitrate but using the same lossy source file, which is what I suspect is probably the case. After all, why share valuable goods when you could pretend and throw out a few buzzwords, instead?

I think the analogy is apt. If you post a price on goods, and somebody walks into a store, picks up the item, and walks out without paying, they can’t simply say, “Well, I didn’t care to read the price, and nobody presented me with a contract, so I just took it,” as a valid defense. There’s sometimes an explicit agreement upon terms, sure, but there are times where that agreement is implicit: they put a price on a thing, I pay it, else it’s stealing. I don’t need to sign a contract every time I get groceries.

I do, however, agree that this will only have teeth once it’s argued and upheld in court the first (few) time(s). If nothing else, it’s good to see people trying to solve the problem, rather than just throwing up their hands and letting billionaires run amok with virtual impunity. Maybe this won’t work to reign in AI tech bros, but maybe it will inspire the things that do.

I wouldn’t know! I’m currently exploring the black, and that hasn’t changed much! I think it’s had some improvements, though, since Horizons. They maybe added a new ship…? Still one of the best space flight sims.

On the other side of the coin, No Man’s Sky added walkable ship interiors to their new Corvette class ships, so they’ve basically added everything Star Citizen promised, just with more cartoonish graphics. Either are still great choices for scratching that space exploration itch.

I have to wonder if they’d be more interested if you’d said you fly a space ship with a HOTAS (as in Elite Dangerous).

Eh, I think I’ll just rewatch episodes of Bluey instead.

Still playing through The Messenger. Excellent game that everyone should play.

I don’t actually own Silksong just yet, so I just started a game called The Gunk. So far, kinda has that Savage Planet semi-realistic vibe to it, and the voice acting is really good. The beginning hooked me, so hopefully it has a satisfying ending when I get there.

Oh, neat! I had no idea something like this existed!

Hopefully people who use SecureBoot have plans in place

Not with that attitude! /j

Barf. I try hard not to think about it, since it’s shoved in our faces at every turn, but you’re absolutely right that our data is going to these AI corpos.

Hot take: buy your music instead—direct from the artist whenever possible, or start building your collection from whatever you can find at a thrift store.

…the websites that host stuff and do it free and efficiently.

It’s never free. The instance you’re using isn’t free; it’s paid for by donations. ISPs and server hosts don’t just give bandwidth out of charity or for the public good. One way or another, these for-profit companies are getting their pound of flesh, typically by selling targeted ad space.

The fact that these companies are adding chat features means they’re now going to try mining conversations for additional consumer profile data points, which they can then sell to advertisers.

This new change is gross, and I hope nobody uses it.

…For dinner? …In prison? …Take a one-way trip to Mars?

If so, then I agree.

Those worked pretty well by the end, tbh