Wandering Adventure Party

Ford Racing 3 is my favourite Win 9x racer. I know there’s other great racing games, some which might be better. But do they have you driving a '67 Mustang in a New England town during Autumn? Do they have you offroading in the snow with an '85 Ford RS200? This could have been a crappy paint-by-numbers affair with licensed vehicles. What you got instead was a history of iconic cars available for a myriad of challenges. You can even race with a 1923 Ford Model T Sedan! Sure, it is slow and can barely accelerate. But seeing that old horse move is something else. Ford Racing 3 might not be innovative. Like all other racing games of the era, it’s got three modes: single race, championship, and time trial. But it’s dependable. On a keyboard, steering is easy. You can also run this with a steering wheel. And since Steam controller button re-mapping to align with keyboard controls, playing this on a Steam Deck is a pleasure. I feel the visuals have largely held up. This game really is all about the cars, and the models are still beautifully rendered. The environments have character. What’s more, the frame rate is stable and consistent. There’s actually music to accompany you on a race though it’s hard to hear it above the engine noise. And that engine noise, paired with wheels screeches, is glorious. The effects are punchy. That said, customization is thin. But that’s okay. This isn’t meant to be an outright simulation but an arcade racer featuring legendary Ford vehicles. Sadly, this game has been de-listed from Steam. It is now abandonware. However, if you have a copy, there are mods available that will allow you to Ford Racing 3 in widescreen 4K. You can find more info here: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Ford_Racing_3 This might be a budget title. But it’s the closest I’ll ever get to driving the legendary Bullitt car.

GPU prices are so out-of-hand, someone just dropped $300M on diamond cooling. They really are using actual diamonds to prevent heat loss. What’s next? Wedding rings going up in price? https://www.pcmag.com/news/secret-buyer-places-300m-order-for-amd-gpus-cooled-with-lab-grown-diamonds

Coromon is a riveting play.And a great replacement for Pokémon on the Steam Deck. Yes, I know that Steam Deck makes for a wonderful emulation device. However, if you want to support indie devs making great games for PC, Coromon is a great choice.

Steam Deck is incredibly popular in Japan, and it regularly sells out. This Japanese YouTuber had to wait months to get her own unit, and she feels lucky she got her mitts on one. Apparently, Steam Deck is such a status symbol that Japanese are now importing them from USA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8T7qqwmm6o

Really wish North America got a release of the WonderSwan. We missed out on some classics.

PC games are typically cheaper than console games. And no, it’s not a fanboy statement to say this because I don’t think most people realize how affordable PC gaming really is. So here goes. Every week, games—good games at that—are given away on Steam, Epic, GOG, and Amazon. In fact, here’s all the free games I got this week alone: Total War: ATTILA Tavern Talk Rebel Galaxy Outlaw Boxes: Lost Fragments My Night Job Just Move:Clean City Messy Battle The value of these six games is over C$150, and I did not spend a cent. There’s also bundle deals, which is where you buy games for super cheap if you get them as a group. Today, I spent C$1.95 on Strange Brigade - Deluxe Edition at Fanatical. It typically costs C$91.99. Key resellers are a great place for super cheap deals. Which is how I got Sid Meier’s Starships for C$0.41. Steam itself offers deep discounts. Right now, Vampyr is 90% off. You can buy it for C$5.49. Beyond the price itself, there other ways PC gaming is more affordable. There’s no online subscription needed to play multiplayer. There’s free mods available that improve the graphics of old games. Just the ability to play your games on a variety of hardware, with different form factors, makes PC gaming more affordable. Back in 2013, I bought Final Fantasy VII. I initially played it on a laptop. I have since played it on a desktop, on my TV, and on a handheld. In fact, when Square Enix created a new version of Final Fantasy VII, they sent it to me for free because I bought the older version in 2013. This new version now has controller navigation for the launcher as well as cloud saves. Again, this was given to me for free. What about the ability to stream my PC games? That’s free. I use Steam Link and Moonlight to play games on my laptop, my handheld, my tablet, my smartphone—and, yes, my arcade cabinet. And to top this all off, I have access to offline installers. Which I can store on a NAS or an optical disc. The cost? It’s free. The value you get from PC gaming is unmatched. And this is why I have such a large library of PC games.

Guns N’ Runs is a fast and frenetic run-‘n-gun platformer with amazing boss fights. It’s made by Brazilian devs Statera Studio. And I generally love Brazilian-made games because they have this flavour that really is only found in Brazil. A week ago, I shared this Medium post from a Brazilian who was talking about what it was like to grow up playing video games in Brazil and it’s very different from how we experienced the hobby here in North America. If you could afford a console, it was probably a Genesis or Master System because SEGA is huge over there. But a good many people couldn’t, so they would often go to a LAN house to experience PlayStation and PC games. And this colours the games that devs make. Because though they rarely make AAA games, they make a whole lot of indies with a great energy—often referred to as having a "gambiarra" spirit (a Brazilian term for creative problem-solving or MacGyvering)—that really punches above their weight.

It’s Pokémon’s 30th anniversary. So I’m playing everything in my Steam collection that is similar to it. Today, it’s Coromon. And yes, it’s a creature collector. I’m having a blast with this.

It’s taken me years to realize this. I really don’t like couch gaming. The bulk of my consoles have been handhelds. When I want a super immersive experience, I sit at a desk with a good chair. But even when it comes to PC gaming, I prefer things portable. Mostly, I’m on my Steam Deck. Before the Steam Deck, I was mostly on laptops. Why is it this way? Well, I tend to use a TV when I want to shut my brain off. I use a computer when I want to turn it on. There’s also the fact that, while a couch is comfortable, it’s not so good to sit for a long duration. A Steam Deck lets me sit or stand or squat or lie down. Finally, the living room is a communal area. I just don’t feel right dominating it. The rest of the family should feel free to do whatever they want. That said, sometimes I’ll use the TV when there’s something so compelling, everyone in my household wants to see it.

Game Boy—all variants thereof—will always be known as, “Hey, we don’t have enough Tetris!”This one is Magical Tetris Challenge for the Game Boy Color. It stars Mickey Mouse, and it’s developed by Capcom. It mostly plays like Tetris but every so often they throw something weird at you. This was an era before rogue-like deck-builders. And the only real metroidvanias were Metroid and Castlevania.

@syllopsium I had one. Used it for college.

Today I learned that Digimon started as a Tamagotchi clone, not a Pokémon clone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU1PBw-Ov8k

Wow. I really hate Warstride. I don’t just hate the game. I hate the philosophy behind this. Basically, I don’t like it when my state of flow is constantly interrupted. I don’t like tutorials. I don’t like commentary on how I’m doing. Oh yeah, and the multiplayer is completely dead.

I will never understand commodity collecting as a form of “investment”. I have a lot of things that have no functional real value, but which at one point or another had some significant market value (baseball cards, mostly). I’ve never bought them with the expectation that the price tomorrow will be as high as or higher than the price yesterday. I bought them because I wanted to have that thing. And I did. And I still do, because I don’t sell my things, and I especially don’t sell the things in my collections.

Confirmed. R36S can emulate PSP. As proof, here’s the PSP version Assassin’s Creed. And as a reminder, this is a C$55 handheld console I grabbed off Amazon.

@AndyHat Yeah, I thought that was weird. Aren’t giant rats more creepy than dogs?

@julian Thank you!

There is nothing good about war. Not a single thing.

Lots of controversy about Nintendo charging $20 for Pokémon LeafGreen and FireRed—when it’s just a GBA ROM.Now I know this opinion will get blowback but if price is a barrier, don’t pirate. Instead, support indie devs who are making their own monster catcher games—usually at more affordable prices. My current favourite is Nexomon. The first game is $10 on Steam. And it features over 300 unique creatures. Now I’m making my way through Nexomon: Extinction. It is $20 but I got my copy on sale for $2. This one often has deep discounts. But even at regular price, I think it’s worth it because it’s got beautiful 2D visuals with colours that pop. Nexomon 3 is coming. And based on screenshots, it looks like they’re moving into an open 3D world. I’m pretty excited about it. But beyond Nexomon, there’s so many good options and it’s worth exploring what’s out there.

I have no nostalgia for the Game Boy Color’s LCD screen. Sure, I’ll go to bat for CRTs—PlayStation games are better on old tube TVs. But even back in the day, I felt most of the Game Boy Color’s potential was wasted with lack of backlighting. And only now can you really appreciate the graphics since even cheap handheld consoles can have good backlighting.