When you look back, it was cool what they were doing at the time, but progress is such that all newer games have iterated on those groundbreaking formulas and improved upon them, making the older games seem less spectacular than they were at launch. I have fond memories of playing PS2, N64 and Dreamcast, but when I go back to play some of those games I enjoyed as a kid, I find that there's always something super sub-optimal like the controls or some arcane mechanic that doesn't make much sense. I find this to be the consistent issue going back to PS2 era and earlier.
I think the PS3/360 era is the one I have the most nostalgia for all things considered. There were a lot of stellar RPGs like KOTOR and Mass Effect that generation. Stuff like Red Dead Redemption was coming out. Control schemes finally became generally standardized and understandable. Tutorials, saves and decent graphics were really finally all combined properly for the first time.
I find the same sort of issue with movies. When you go back passed the 80s, you start hitting pacing issues. Same with video games. When you go back passed the mid-2000s, you're going to run into early installment weirdness.
I've been keeping up with Bazzite and Chimera, and it looks like they've made some progress.
The ROG Ally is listed at gold level compatibility, denoting it requires a few workarounds and has some caveats. I would not be able to get over having no control over the LEDs, so I'll keep an eye out for a bit later as well.
Biometric authentication can be required for some companies. You'd have to opt in to use the system or at least agree to the terms set forth by the employer. This kind of stuff doesn't just get collected just because; it's pretty sensitive data.
What you're talking about is a cyberpunk nightmare; some corporate-assisted mass surveillance designed for like, union busting.
If you're making vocal and facial profiles of employees you must have some reason to do so, and it can't just be to burn cash. Like I said before, this stuff costs money, and it's kind of pointless unless you're using it in a way that makes money, selling the data somehow.
There are easier ways to spy on your employees. This is not cost-effective.
I use Zoom for work now and each call can be several gigabytes large, depending on resolution of shared materials and a few other factors. If you want to save that kind of stuff long term, you have to pay to keep it somewhere. If you multiply several gigabytes over a few dozen calls a day, you're going to end up with terabytes of garbage you need to store. Zoom also informs you of when a recording is starting and active, offering for you to leave the call or otherwise implicitly agree to being recorded. You have to pay for all these things because there's a significant amount of processing power involved. It's not like it's free to run facial recognition and speech recognition.
When I did contract work for Apple support, the spying was way more efficient than just listening to my calls. My supervisor could literally always see my monitor through the chat program we had installed. There's all kinds of remote software for things like this. If an admin wants to see you misuse your equipment, they have easier ways of finding out than sifting through calls to find wrongthink.
I've heard great things, and I've been watching the original run of the X-Men animated series in preparation for watching '97.
Animation tends to get me more hyped than anything else. They always do crazy shit in cartoons that they never really try to do in live action. I've been a big fan of all the DC animated stuff since forever, and Marvel is getting back into the game with a really strong entry with '97.
I really like The Drumhead from TNG. It establishes the nature of Star Trek at its most essential. It's mostly a talking episode, although there's some action with an explosion, which is perfectly average to me. It gives you a feel of the dynamics of some of the politics in the universe, which I think is a great way to get people involved. It's got one one of those great Picard speeches that puts a badmiral in their place, solving the problem non-violently. It's also a great parallel to any slippery slope security tightening after a major event happens, which is basically always a timeless message of avoiding overreaching authoritarianism at all costs.
Another TNG one I'd pick is probably The Ensigns of Command. It's another example of an episode that's mostly talking, a little bit of action, with a non-violent resolution. It's fun watching Picard come up with inane legal bullshit to deal with the very strictly by the books alien species, satisfying their requirements in a way that meets his agenda while also being within the rules.
Honestly, I could rationalize different episodes all day, but since those were the first two that came to mind, I'll just leave them at that.
I used to play against the computer as the particle weapons general, build up a massive defensive perimeter, build a bunch of particle cannons, and then draw dicks in the enemy base with the laser.
Nah, it was way better back in the day. Everything was baked in-house, and your meals were served to you on proper dinnerware with porcelain cups. It was closer to a diner than a fast food place. They changed suppliers for their beans in the mid 2000s and it all went downhill from there.
Canada has the same problem, but our monopoly now is an everything company. Loblaws owns pharmacies, financial institutions, telcom infrastructure, and are vertically integrated throughout the logistics and production side of the grocery chain, while also operating the most stores. They got caught price fixing bread for almost 20 years, and they posted the highest quarterly revenue in decades after "adjusting for inflation". The government is talking about trying to more heavily regulate the industry but when there's only basically one guy doing it, he effectively tells you to go fuck yourself because you can't turn to anyone else.
Right now, for the month of May at least, we're actively boycotting their stores, which is quite difficult in a lot of remote regions. It's a good thing that it's springtime though, because farmers markets are opening up more frequently around town where I can get actual quality produce and goods from real people who produced it all themselves. I am with you 100% on wishing we were all market-based and not supermarket-based.
At the very least, we're trying to hit the corps in the wallet and see what happens. The CEO has actually been on record calling the boycott "misguided".
Most of them, honestly.
When you look back, it was cool what they were doing at the time, but progress is such that all newer games have iterated on those groundbreaking formulas and improved upon them, making the older games seem less spectacular than they were at launch. I have fond memories of playing PS2, N64 and Dreamcast, but when I go back to play some of those games I enjoyed as a kid, I find that there's always something super sub-optimal like the controls or some arcane mechanic that doesn't make much sense. I find this to be the consistent issue going back to PS2 era and earlier.
I think the PS3/360 era is the one I have the most nostalgia for all things considered. There were a lot of stellar RPGs like KOTOR and Mass Effect that generation. Stuff like Red Dead Redemption was coming out. Control schemes finally became generally standardized and understandable. Tutorials, saves and decent graphics were really finally all combined properly for the first time.
I find the same sort of issue with movies. When you go back passed the 80s, you start hitting pacing issues. Same with video games. When you go back passed the mid-2000s, you're going to run into early installment weirdness.