Explore >> Select a destination


You are here

www.neilmacy.co.uk
| | pixelpoppers.com
9.4 parsecs away

Travel
| | Let's review. What does five bucks a month get you in mobile gaming? On Apple platforms, five bucks a month gets you Apple Arcade, which is a curated library of games still rolling out but supposed to total over a hundred this fall - and several of the games out so far are well-reviewed. There are no ads, no in-app purchases, and no behavior tracking. Games can be downloaded and played offline, though you can also share your progress between devices via iCloud. Games can be shared between up to six family members and can be played with popular game controllers. On Android platforms, five bucks a month gets you Google Play Pass, which is a curated library of over 350 games and utility apps that are already out (and apparently more to come each month). Many of these games and apps are quite well-regarded. They also have no ads or in-app purchases and can be shared with up to five other family members. And in Mario Kart Tour, five bucks a month gets you the Gold Pass, which gives you some in-game items and features in a single game that still also requires a persistent internet connection for its always-on DRM and which still also has a microtransaction-backed gacha-based unlock system. I think it would have been obvious the Gold Pass was a bad deal anyway, but the timing of the announcements here casts it into really sharp relief. It's so disappointing to see Nintendo fall to such sleazy depths, and I really hope it stays contained to mobile. I've still got Mario Kart 8 on my Switch and I'll be playing that instead.
| | pixelpoppers.com
9.8 parsecs away

Travel
| | So like, I love Nintendo and everything, but this is also the company that decides there is One True Way to play their games to justify forcing you to unlock all characters in an otherwise tournament-ready game one by one, or selling you an expensive controller and then not letting you use it while destroying accessibility by unnecessarily requiring motion controls, or preventing you from backing up your own saves, selling you a save backup service, and then not letting you use it, or requiring an online connection to experience certain content even if playing alone on a portable console. I've heard a lot of talk about entitled gamers, but none about entitled developers. I don't know what else to call it when a developer feels like they can decide for you how you get to enjoy the games and services you've purchased from them and hobbles those games and services in ways that cause real problems for communities, accessibility, and preservation all to stop players from having fun in an unapproved way. See also: Atlus pretending Fair Use doesn't exist and dictating terms for using gameplay footage and screenshots (perplexing after their previous backpedaling on the subject), many developers tracking player activity even outside of their game, and on and on.
| | tinycartridge.com
10.7 parsecs away

Travel
| | All in for Gaist Crusher ? I get more and more... - Tiny Cartridge 3DS - Nintendo Switch, 3DS, DS, Wii U, and PS Vita News, Media, & Retro Junk
| | lisaapaul.home.blog
47.0 parsecs away

Travel
| The full moon in December is called the Cold Moon. It was a lovely moon.