When ‘next gen’ (eg. PS5) becomes the new ‘current gen’, then the old ‘last gen’ becomes retro.

Probably safe to assume that the streaming app on your phone is collecting the same data about your viewing habits, whether or not you Chromecast it to another device.

I honestly think it will not live up to the levels of hype that the community will build itself up to.

Coupled with my suspicion that the single-player game will be as barebones as possible, with the goal of funnelling as many players into the next iteration of GTA:Online as quickly as possible, to sell more Shark Cards.

The good news is that in the end I’ll either be proven right, or pleasantly surprised.

RTS are inherently limited to PC.

I agree with everything else you said, bar this. I first got into RTS’s on the PS1.

To me, RTS’s peaked around Red Alert 2 (pre-Yuri’s Revenge); I just wish I could find more voxel-based 2d RTS’s with that same ‘arcade-y’ feel.

I’m quite a procrastinator myself, I’ve found gamification helps get chores done (e.g. do the dishes after dinner, get an hour of gaming time guilt-free).

Throw on a podcast or long-form YT video/stream VOD and shit gets done pretty painless.

This should be an actual case of ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’.

“Why would I teach when I can make just as much money manning a grill?” Puts pressure on school boards, and empowers teachers unions to finally lift teacher salaries in order to not have a massive staff exodus.

This continually is the case in Australia, where our minimum wage is indexed every year; most employers tend to pass on the increase % as a minimum.

It’s because most game devs are owned by publicly traded companies; shareholders searching for constantly improved earnings man’s that games are rushed out the door, incomplete and packed to the gills with monetisation.

Balder’s Gate 3 is a perfect counter-point to this mindset; games can only launch once - so launch it properly.

As an aside; I do wish that there was a millennial billionaire who grew up playing some Konami classic titles, and were in a position to take over the company, take it private and focus on restoring it to its former glory. But there is no such thing as a benevolent billionaire, so it’s just a pipe dream.

5 (6?) 3.5in floppies to get Dune 2 loaded on my Amiga 2000; at least I could take the time between disks to go to the bathroom, grab a snack, read a book etc. 😅

To steal a term bandied about when talking about AI; this is the worst it’ll ever be again.

Yes, it’s an absolute mess - but with a passionate enough community, someone will develop a front-end to automate and streamline this process.

Getting the data was the biggest challenge.

We’ve got a pair of LG C1 OLEDs in the house, and the best thing we did was remove any network access whatsoever. Everything is now handled through Apple TVs (for AirPlay, Handoff etc.), but literally any decent media device or console would be an upgrade on what manufacturers bundle in.

In most situations, ‘vision and concept’ just add bloat and additional clicks required to complete the same tasks as the previous, spartan/utilitarian design did.

A good example of what I’m referring to is the Metro UI of Windows 8; yes it arguably looked ‘prettier’ - but that’s largely subjective and made actually using the device worse, without 3rd party applications to restore the Windows 7 Start Menu functionality.

Sometimes, albeit not always - programmers do end up making pretty efficient UIs.

Granted there was no standardisation in the industry, but I’m pretty sure they used the same remote across most of my portable MiniDisc players growing up (ie. from MZ-R55 to MZ-R900… the MZ-NH1 had a different remote altogether)… I didn’t even realise there were restrictions?

The issue with the inline controls that evolved since (and morphed into Bluetooth controls) is that they’re too basic, compared to what I’d like.

On the go, I long since ago switched to wireless audio - using AirPods Pro and a ‘vintage’ Apple Watch 3, but I would gladly opt for a wireless/bluetooth lapel clip style object with the same controls those old Sony had.

I’ve had a quick look around - but haven’t managedd to find anything that would fit the bill. Honestly, not even sure if smartphones offer sufficient functionality over Bluetooth to make something like that work out of the box?

If you’ve never used an inline remote, it’s really hard to explain why they were so much better from a UX perspective than what’s available now.

If I want to control media on my smartwatch, I need to flick focus on my wrist - usually stopping me from being able to fully use that hand, identify the right controls on the touch screen (and that it’s even on the right screen, and not obstructed by notifications) and hope that they register correctly.

Those old inline remotes were basically a useful ‘Bop It!’; control inputs varied: twist a dial, tilt the end, button press, slide, scroll dial and provided full tactile control which could be truly used one-handed (when clipped to my shirt).

It is a true shame that they were left by the wayside, when multiple devices ended up amalgamating into the modern smartphone.

I have one - but its touch screen is no replacement for bespoke, tactile controls.

This is all well and good, especially from a nostalgia perspective (in addition to the general pushback against cloud everything); but what I miss most about portable music nowadays is the lack of decent inline remotes (think early 2000s Sony MiniDisc players).

The player stated in your pocket, and the remote handled everything, volume, playback, and even had a dot-matrix screen to identify and navigate playlists!

It saddens me to know that if everyone who went out and kept blindly pre-ordering games from Konami, Blizzard (or any formerly great studio that is now just trading on their name and pushing out the jankiest titles); instead put that money towards shares of that company - they’d have enough of a voice to dictate that companies future, and have them produce something other than the microtransaction ridden, poorly thought out, barely put together, live service garbage we’ve been getting for the past 2+ console generations.