Only gaming I’ve done lately is beat the Elite 4 and Delta episode of Pokemon Alpha Sapphire. Due to being underemployed and having other recent large expenses it will probably be a while before I pick up a Switch 2 or any other game, for that matter. I only got Pokemon and Kirby from a Christmas gift card. Time to go clear out the backlog.

The franchise is very much split in gameplay style between the 2D and 3D entries. Generally the 2D games are much more highly rated, but there are good 3D games (and not-so-good 2D games) too. Here’s a list of what’s worth checking out of each:

2D The original trilogy from the Genesis (found in various Genesis collections and Sonic Origins) Sonic Advance trilogy (GBA) Sonic Rush (DS) Sonic Mania (any modern console and PC)

3D Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 (Steam, modern consoles MAY have digital copies) Sonic Colors (most easily accessible through recent remaster on PC and modern consoles) Sonic (X Shadow) Generations (just remade everywhere) Sonic Frontiers (haven’t tried it myself but heard it’s alright)

While I agree that cats are fine outside (while supervised and/or staying within their own yard - a small harness and leash can do the job), cats are just as healthy and happy staying indoors. My own cat actually refuses to go outside despite enjoying looking out the window all the time. I tried taking him outside a couple times to get him some exercise and he absolutely hated it. Different cats enjoy different environments.

I never used a guide or anything either, I was 13 when I beat it the first time, but finding that one missing key always trips me up for at least a few minutes.

The Water Temple.

“Pretty capable” will get you dunked on in the PC gaming world. For what I’ve seen PC gamers actually recommend I could buy 2-3 modern consoles.

Although the concept of it being in a Sonic game was pretty silly (and an entire path to play through no less) and the character is really annoying, I heard that even the Big the Cat fishing mode in Sonic Adventure (originally on the Dreamcast) was even good, gameplay-wise. I have played it but I don’t have much experience in other fishing games to compare it to. The only other fishing (mini-)game I have for comparison is the fishing in the 3D Zelda games. Between the two I think I prefer Zelda, though.

(Finally) finished Fire Emblem Fates Conquest and started my run in Pokemon Alpha Sapphire. Got to the first gym slightly under-leveled, and the Nosepass almost swept me, but in the end I cheesed it by using Destiny Bond with my Ralts. I was hoping it and my Torchic would get some XP from the battle since they’re both going to be on my main team, but not losing to the first gym was more important, lol.

If I play anything on Switch it will probably be more Kirby’s Return to Dreamland. I’m on the ice world and it looks at first glance like this is a really short game, but I do know the plot twist so maybe there is a bunch more content coming. I’ll see.

The console looks like a nice upgrade and I’ll get one eventually, but with most games also releasing on Switch 1 at least for a while and not much announces for it that interests me right now, coupled with a personal financial situation that prevents me from comfortably affording a console regardless of its price, I can wait on it for now.

Ubuntu 8.10 in early 2009, after Windows Vista otherwise bricked my laptop. I’ve distro-hopped on a few occasions but most of my 16 years of Linux have been on Ubuntu. That said, I moved away from Ubuntu after a failed upgrade to 22.04 LTS, to OpenSUSE and then to KDE Neon, now I’m on Nobara and couldn’t be happier.

Like I mentioned before, “tutorial pulls” are part of that hyper-generosity that gachas will commonly have for new players to give them enough of a dopamine rush to hang around and be more likely to spend more later. That generosity will not last and can’t last or elee the game will not make nearly as much money. Give it another week and you will find that the supposed good luck runs out, as well as the free currency offered for things like logging in, and then it will start requiring a ton of grinding or real world money to acquire the necessary currency to get to the “pity” in order to ensure you get a top-rarity item. That’s how gacha systems work.

Most “pity” systems require hundreds of pulls beforehand, which unless someone saves months worth of free currency for those pulls, can be very expensive in real world money to get the currency to afford. In a way, pity systems are just designed to increase the amount of money players spend.

The difference is in the details, that with other paid DLC, you actually get the thing you paid for, guaranteed. With a gacha, if they’re promoting some super-strong character, weapon, etc. that you want and you buy currency to spend in the gacha, you are not guaranteed to get that item or anything of the same quality/rarity in any of those pulls you make. It’s all random chance, gambling at its core. Exceptionally good or bad luck can start playing psychological tricks on you, such as FOMO (there will always be something stronger coming soon), sunk cost fallacy (you’ve already dumped this much into it and got nothing, what’s the difference with this much more?), and before you know it, if you’re not watching carefully, you’ve spent far more in in-game and/or real money than you realized. That’s far different than a one-time purchase straight-up for a cosmetic or weapon to use with no further need to spend any more, and that’s what gets people hooked like gambling. You may not have experienced this much because gachas tend to be very generous to new players in order to get them started out quickly as whales fodder and get them hooked on the adrenaline rush of “winning” in the gacha system before the gacha currency starts to dry up on them.

I mean, it can be both at the same time. The games may be good as games (I play a few myself) but the mechanic can also be extremely predatory to those who have a problem with gambling and/or controlling their spending.

Outrage farming is getting really tiring overall, not gonna lie. It’s OK, everyone, we can feel other things aside from angry and life will go on.

This looks like any Nintendo launch lineup I can remember: one “big” game they think will draw people in just for that (in this case Mario Kart) and not much aside from that. The fact we’re even getting more than one additional first party title is comparatively impressive, but overall Nintendo launch lineups are pretty much always sparse. I think you’re right and we’ll see the “real” launch window lineup around the holidays.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Tired of government censorship, whether it’s left or right wing. They both do it, and it sucks either way. Then both sides will “champion free speech” when they’re not the ones in power.

I admit I haven’t played too much of either Dragon Quest or FF. I have a bit more experience with FF (I’ve at least started playing 1, 7 and 10). I’ve only played Dragon Quest III, currently going through its HD-2D remake and enjoying it decently enough. If I like it enough when I finish it maybe I’ll pick up I and II as well.

This, and it’s THE big traditional JRPG franchise in Japan itself, as big as or bigger than Final Fantasy. FF just happened to have more worldwide appeal.

I think the biggest factor in that is getting tutorials and such out there that focus on the basics, written by people who mainly do things on Linux using the basics and GUI tools. So much of the Linux content out there is focused on power users and even the tutorials for new users tend to be written by those power users who may have been tech focused before switching and forget or just don’t know how basic they really have to get to not make people feel intimidated. Given the right distro/desktop environment, and there’s plenty of good ones to start with, people can use Linux almost just how they use Windows. They just need someone to show them how without pushing them to do everything in the terminal too fast or going immediately to scripting as a solution to problems.