Last December I did an end-of-year recap thing that got a lot of fun comments. Thought I'd do it again this year! What games did you complete (or just play a lot of)? What did you think about them? Highlights? Lowlights? Might be a good chance to find some hidden gems while the Steam sale is on too.

I finished a surprisingly large number of games this year. Sorted by date completed, oldest first...

A Short Hike | 8/10

Cute, short, and fun. Perfect game to start the year.

Inside | 8/10

Limbo was the very last game I completed in '23, and I definitely preferred Inside overall. I liked the atmosphere, visuals, and puzzles more here.

Hook 2 | 7/10

NABOKI | 6/10

Up Left Out | 6/10

I bought these three as part of a bundle. Short and fun puzzle games, nothing super memorable.

Firewatch | 7/10

Definitely an enjoyable time, great voice acting, but the ending was kind of underwhelming.

Cyber Hook | 7/10

I really like this style of 3D platformer, but there aren't a lot of them. The only other one I can think of is Grapple, which was hugely underrated.

Lunistice | 6/10

Cute art style, but I remember the controls feeling a little bit janky.

Slay the Princess | 8/10

Fuckin' weird, I love it.

Unpacking | 6/10

I was disappointed that I didn't vibe with this one very much. Telling the story through the items you own is a super cool idea, but I just couldn't get myself to really care about where to place the items which is the entire gameplay loop.

Hades | 10/10 (Top 3 of the Year)

I don't like roguelikes, so I skipped Hades for a long time, but I finally gave in. I LOVED my time with this. The meta progression was done well enough that I felt like I was still making progress overall so the roguelike-ness never bothered me, and every other aspect of this game is perfection. My highest rated game of the year because I cannot find a reason to take a point away.

Trail Out | 7/10

Something something imitation, something something flattery. This is a Flatout game, but it's honestly a pretty good one. I had a fun time with it, but I'd never take this over Flatout 2.

art of rally | 7/10

I'm not a huge fan of top-down racers but with some tweaks in the camera settings it's bearable. What really hurts this game is the penalty/recovery system, it's so eager to reset your car the moment you go off the track, even if only by a hair, it destroys the flow. Graphics are beautiful though.

Hot Wheels Unleashed | 6/10

It's fine. Super repetitive, lootbox-esque progression is stupid, but it's mechanically sound. I would only recommend if you're desperate for arcade racers like I am.

Loddlenaut | 7/10

I love how cleaning games have become a genre. This is a short and sweet game about cleaning the ocean, I had a good time with this one on the Steam Deck.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 | (the PS2 one) | 9/10

There's a decent chance this was the first video game I ever played. If not the first, it's at least among the first couple. I've started so many saves but never actually finished the career mode until now. Aside from the career structure being a bit boring, it's still a highlight of the franchise for me. Beautiful tracks, beautiful cars, top tier early '00s soundtrack, great handling, I love this game.

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 | 6/10

Look, I'm really desperate for arcade racers, okay? This one isn't a live service, isn't always online, no lootboxes, no battle passes, I'll take it.

Toem | 7/10

Cute, but there were several times throughout my playthrough where it felt like what should've been the solution wasn't, and the actual solution made less sense than what I was trying to do, which was a bit frustrating.

Hi-Fi Rush | 9/10

The score went up an entire point when The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die started playing. I really hope this gets a sequel.

Burnout Revenge | 9/10

Another game I've started many times and never finished. NFS:HP2 may have been a nostalgia-driven 9/10, but this is a genuine 9/10. Absolutely puts everything from the past 10 years of this genre to shame.

DiRT 4 | 6/10

Painfully dull. DiRT Rally is a way better sim, DiRT 2/3/5 are way better arcade racers, there is no reason to ever touch this. I finished it because I am desperate for racing games.

Ghostrunner II | 7/10

This one didn't vibe with me as much as the first, and I'm not really sure why. The bike levels were a bit janky but were still fun for variety, and I still liked the game overall, but I'm more likely to replay the first than this.

SPRAWL | 9/10 (Top 3 of the Year)

If SPRAWL didn't have a soundtrack, it would be an 8/10, good time, recommend. However, I have had this goddamn soundtrack on repeat since playing it. This is my favorite video game OST and it's not even remotely close. This is a neurofunk album with a video game tie-in.

Blur 8/10

The fact that when I first played this I instantly got a message from a friend I hadn't talked to in years asking "HOW DID YOU GET A STEAM KEY" says so much about the legacy of this game. It existed for such as short period of time and was horribly underrated. (I wish I owned this game on Steam, but it was a non-Steam copy.)

Webbed | 7/10

Cute platformer, don't really much about it at the moment besides skateboarding spiders.

Bastion | 8/10

Played after putting many more hours into Hades to see where Supergiant came from. I was impressed by how well it holds up, fun to see earlier concepts that Hades would perfect.

Old School Rally | ?/10

Technically an early access game, but I finished all the available career events. Very promising PS1-style rally game.

Stories: The Path Of Destinies | 8/10

You ever have one (or hundreds) of those games you got in a Humble Bundle 5 years ago and just never touched? This was one of those, I randomly decided to play it, and it was great! Fantastic voice acting, fun story, fun combat, I wish I played it sooner.

Exo One | ?/10

I don't know what's going on and at this point I'm too afraid to ask. I think I launched a marble at Jupiter?

Hardspace: Shipbreaker | 8/10

This was my podcast game for a while. Not very deep, but it's fun to gradually tear ships apart. Definitely recommend playing on the lower difficulty, having to worry about O2 and stuff kills the vibe.

To the Moon | 5/10

Explaining why I don't like this game involves major spoilers. To keep it vague, I really don't like how they handled one of the characters in the story. If you've played the game, you either understand or think I'm insane because apparently this is a masterpiece.

ExoCross | 6/10

Very basic offroad racer. Used to be named "DRAG" but then the developers were bought by iRacing. The game seems like it was frantically rushed out of early access after that. The native Linux port is excellent though.

RUINER | 7/10

10/10 vibes, 5/10 gameplay.

Furi | 8/10

"That final boss sure was easy... oh? oh! OH FUCK!" followed by many deaths until I finally won.

Pseudoregalia | 8/10

10/10 movement/controls, but the environments felt a little bland. There's an accessibility option to put pants on your character.

Guacamelee!: Super Turbo Championship Edition | 6/10

It's fine, but nothing especially noteworthy compared to other metroidvanias I've played.

Redout II | 9/10 (Top 3 of the Year)

(I played with the assists off because I am a stubborn bastard, I have no idea how the assists change the gameplay.)

Redout II will repeatedly punch you in the face until your brain wraps itself around controlling these 2700km/h deathtraps. But trust me, once you get good, it's euphoric. One of my favorite gaming experiences this year was missing out on a gold medal in a time trial by several seconds and thinking "how the fuck is this possible"? And then I tried again. And again. Going faster, and faster, until I had beaten the gold time by several seconds. Every time you think you can't go any faster, you're wrong, just be better.

Crayon Physics Deluxe | 5/10

Great idea for a puzzle game, but the janky physics made it more frustrating than fun.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 7/10

It's fine, but doesn't really feel like it lives up to the hype surrounding it.

Mini Motor Racing X | 6/10

Painfully dull career mode, but I'm desperate for arcade racers.

Parking Garage Rally Circuit | 7/10

Short but fun.

Minecraft | ?/10

I haven't beaten Minecraft in probably 10 years, so I started and new save and beat the game again for the hell of it. I'm not sure how to rate Minecraft out of 10 at this point.

Jusant | 9/10

Super beautiful and chill, I recommend avoiding spoilers and just playing it.

Dome Keeper | 7/10

Trying to keep the Hades "maybe I don't hate roguelikes" thing going, so I got Dome Keeper. I feel like it's too easy and there's not enough variety in runs, but I still had some fun with it.

Dead Cells | 8/10

And finally, one more roguelike. I've "beaten" the game, as in I've reached the credits, but only 0BC. Still playing it, but won't be chasing 5BC or anything like that. I do wish there was more meta progression with this one, a lot of runs feel like a complete waste of time which is my main problem with roguelikes, but the core gameplay is excellent.

This post is mostly just me bitching about the music industry but also genuine interest in what other people in this community do when it comes to music streaming. Apologies if this is an incomprehensible wall of text.

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My favorite self-hosted project is Navidrome. I've been running it for years and it's been absolutely perfect the entire time. Related clients like Supersonic and Tempo have been fantastic as well. More than half of my donations to open source software have been to music related projects like these, I use them for multiple hours every day.

I'm giving up on using them though, because actually obtaining the music to stream has become harder and more expensive every year. Unlike self-hosted movie/tv streaming, the primary reason I self-host music is to support the artists. I feel better paying $10 for an album I enjoy compared to the artist getting pennies from me streaming it. I'm sure as hell not doing this to save money, I spend around $30/month on average on new music.

My only criteria for buying music is that it's at least CD-quality. Going back a few years, my options (ordered by preference at the time) were Bandcamp, Qobuz, 7Digital, the artist's own website, physical CDs that I'd rip myself, then finally giving up and using Soulseek. Bandcamp and Qobuz would typically cover 95% of what I was looking for, I'd rarely need to use Soulseek.

But over the course of those past few years...

Bandcamp was bought by Epic, then sold to Songtradr, half of its staff were laid off, and it's been a shell of its former self ever since. It seems like Bandcamp is now mostly ignored by artists, with albums rarely releasing or releasing far later than other platforms. It's genuinely a surprise when I find the artist or album I'm looking for on Bandcamp at this point.

Qobuz has been experiencing rapid enshittification as they try to get people to subscribe to their streaming service. Dark patterns added throughout the purchase and download process, albums being pulled from my account, and albums becoming more expensive (I'm seeing a whole lot more $15-$20 albums than $10 albums now).

7Digital is dead.

Artist websites rarely offer lossless downloads anymore. Last time I bought an album directly from an artist was Madeon in 2019, and that's now an archived page you have to go out of your way to find.

CDs are somehow still a reliable option, but I just cannot justify this anymore. At some point having a collection of 250 plastic discs that I rip precisely once and then store forever just doesn't make sense. I'm tired of buying physical clutter to get digital files. I sold a sizable chunk of my collection a few months ago.

Soulseek, the "fuck it I'm pirating it" option whenever I can't buy an album through any available means. Surprisingly even Soulseek seems to be suffering, I used to be able to find anything, but now even a slightly obscure release can be hard to find.

So now, my preferred options are Bandcamp, Qobuz if the album is less than $15, then Soulseek. I'm using Soulseek a hell of a lot more now, which defeats the point of why I do this in the first place. So fuck it, I subscribed to Tidal.

But like, what the fuck? Why is it so hard to give artists more money?

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So, for others who self-host their music collection, or even still rock an iPod or something, what do you do? Do you buy lossy releases? Do you pirate everything? Is there a magical website that has every album for sale that I just don't know about? CDs? I can't be the only one with this problem, but I haven't seen anyone else talk about it.

This entire channel is great if you're interested in video game animation in general.

I'm trying to use Youtube's clip feature for this. If it goes to the full video, skip to 1:30.

One of my favorite songs of all time.

So about 2 months ago I made this post about looking for an iPad replacement that runs Linux. I said I wasn't in a rush, but after thinking about it ever since and seeing the Minisforum V3 go on sale for just $1000, I pulled the trigger.

My impressions are still very new (I have used it for a total of 2 hours at this point), but I'm super happy so far. Installed Fedora 40 and almost everything works out of the box (including a Wacom MPP stylus). As mudkip mentioned in this blog, the volume buttons don't work when the keyboard is detached and auto-rotation doesn't work. The former isn't a big deal and the latter doesn't affect me in the slightest, but I can confirm those issues are still present on a stock Fedora install.

Anyway, there's not a lot of information about this tablet running Linux out there, is there anything anyone wants me to test or any questions I can answer?

The last device I own that doesn't run an open source operating system is an iPad. I basically use it as a laptop most of the time with a keyboard case, but I do like being able to take just the screen to use as a drawing/note-taking tablet. I treat it more like a "convertible" device rather than a tablet alone.

I'm not in a rush to replace it, iPadOS is, eh, usable, but there are things that get on my nerves often. I definitely wouldn't be upgrading to another iPad model if this one died. I'm curious on what kind of hardware is available out there with good Linux support that I can keep in mind for the future. My only requirements would be that it runs normal Linux distros (ideally Fedora) and has a pen/display that supports pressure sensitivity.

The Minisforum V3 looks pretty damn cool. There's also the Microsoft Surface devices that ironically seem popular with Linux users. Anyone have any experience with these kinds of devices? What do you think? What's your favorite device in this class?

I cannot get enough of Health, everything they've worked on since Death Magic has been so damn good.