Making my way through FF16. According to the PS5 dashboard completion percentage I’m at about 70% complete right now. So I might be able to finish over the weekend, but having a six-year-old at home might make that harder to accomplish.

Either way, I’m really enjoying it despite it being absolutely archaic in terms of its actual game design. It’s really carried by its presentation, soundtrack, and decent story. They’ve arguably stripped away too much of what typically defines a Final Fantasy game here, but I’m still having a great time by just choosing to appreciate what it does do well.

It’s B all day. Close the polls because it ain’t even close.

They absolutely did. So much more room for air/sound to flow through those speakers in CRTs. That’s why most people resort to sound bars at a minimum to get halfway decent sound for today’s flat panel televisions. You just can’t fit powerful speakers into them.

I’ve tried them all, and as of right now Connect feels the most polished and feature rich. So that’s my recommendation.

Another hot tip: don’t refer to people as “normies.”

Nostalgia is really interesting in that it’s inherently bittersweet. It’s nice because it grounds us in a shared timeline and focuses on mostly positive aspects of some past point in time, but it’s also sad because it means thinking back fondly on a time that will never be again.

So maybe it’s the bitter half of that bittersweet feeling that you’re subconsciously averse to? Either that or maybe your past/childhood was mostly negative or even traumatic? I’m no psychologist, so really I don’t know what I’m talking about.

An empire that we lived in and got to experience when it was thriving. That’s why dead malls in particular have a distinctly bittersweet feeling to them. Those of us who frequented malls in the 80’s and 90’s can vividly remember when they were filled with people, commerce, and social activity. They were such lively social spaces back then, so seeing them slowly succumb to the ravages of time and fade into irrelevancy is both sad and fascinating.

Nah. It’s morbidly interesting IMO.

Yep. Still have my black one with AmberElec installed. I love everything about it other than the display’s somewhat muted colors and mediocre battery life.

We’re so fucking cool, aren’t we?

Phew.

Lol. I read this in an entirely different context, like you were implying that they’d go to hell for this.

In my opinion the cheapest, simplest way to experience a significant jump in quality from what you’re currently doing is to buy an Aeropress.

You can get one new for only $30-40, and after trying a few times you’ll likely be blown away by how much better the coffee it produces is than what you’ve grown accustomed to with the Keurig.

An electric kettle is another good purchase to go along with your Aeropress, and it generally comes in handy for plenty of other uses too.

If you start getting into making better coffee at home with the Aeropress, then the next step on your journey would be to invest in a grinder and make the switch to whole beans. That’s really the last thing you’ll need if you’re trying to max out coffee quality at home.

As for drinking it black, that’s totally up to you. Personally I like a little cream and sugar in my coffee, and I’m probably seen as a coffee snob by my friends. Don’t let anyone tell you that black is the preferred way to drink coffee. It’s all preference, and I like the heavier body that cream/milk gives the brew.

If you end up taking any of this advice, then here’s my go-to recipe for the best Aeropress coffee:

• Set the Aeropress up inverted (you can Google this)
• Between coarse and fine grind (two scoops)
• Heat water to 195°F
• Pour water in until it just covers the grounds to let it bloom, then wait 30 seconds
• Fill the Aeropress up to the top with more water
• Stir for ten seconds
• Let brew for one more minute
• Press slowly into mug
• Add cream/sugar to taste

I hope that helps. Just be warned… Once you go down this path, you’ll likely no longer be able to tolerate K-Cup coffee.

That’s really cool that someone thought to preserve this and put it on display in a museum. It’s like a modern historical artifact from the golden age of computing.

“Shouldn’t we wait for reinforcements?”

“I am the reinforcements.”

• Vagrant Story, PS1

We’re done here. That’s the one.

I do remember Lost Souls, yeah.

And that Papyrus font… I can feel the 90’s-era PC gaming vibes radiating off of it. Love it.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread because I would also love to know if I’m missing out on some good games journalism out there. Sadly, sites like what you’ve described are increasingly rare in the modern era. Nevertheless, here are a few that come to mind:

NintendoLife is pretty great for this if you’re looking for Nintendo-related news, reviews, interviews, and feature articles.

One of their affiliate sites, Time Extension, is also really good for long-form articles and retrospectives about retro games.

And while it’s mostly just news, like you said, Polygon will sometimes surprise you with some really excellent feature articles that have a lot of thought and research put into them.

Yeah, that surprised me, actually.

I just took Mastodon for a spin only a week or so ago, and it felt much less active than most of the communities on here do. Just my anecdotal experience, though. I couldn’t find more than a handful of Twitter-migrated accounts on Mastodon that I cared to follow. There just wasn’t much happening on there that I’m interested in when I last checked. I’ll look again.

Oh hell yeah they are. I’m a tech enthusiast, myself. Don’t even get me started on Wednesdays because I’ll never stop.