Music lover and English teacher with an interest in slightly geeky things

mastodon / blog / listenbrainz

  • 32 Posts
  • 277 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 8th, 2023

help-circle
  • I file all of this under “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

    • Qwant has claimed since 2016 that they have an index. That lie has earned them investments and funding. They do not have an index and they’ve said so after the fact. They also give data to Bing. They are not private but they say they are because the data they share is anonymized.

    • Ecosia is just a Bing frontend like DDG. Caron offsets never work. In order for Ecosia to work you need to see and click on some ads, so anybody using adblockers will not be helping. Their servers aren’t green either.

    • This is because Bing is going to raise their prices and now these companies need to lure in new investors to keep the lights on. It isn’t about sovereignty or data privacy; it’s just about money.



  • Platformers are amazing. I think I like most of the big series that I’ve played—Mario, Sonic, DKC, Crash, Mega Man, etc.—and I really enjoy indie platformers.

    Recent indie games that have taken the tried and true formula of unforgiving precision platforming to the extreme are also amazing. Celeste is a gorgeous games, Kaze kicks ass and retro throwback games like Byte the Bullet and Bzzzt are soooo satisfying.

    I like a good pick up and play game, platformers fit the bill.

    Once muscle memory kicks in, you’re golden. As long as the learning curve is right.

    Going back and playing the first levels with the skill gained by completing the game is such a good feeling.

    For me, SMB Wonder is a 10/10 platformer if we’re looking at recent 2D only. I don’t know many 3D platformers, but Crash 4 is a must play (I think that’s the most recent 3D platformer I’ve played).






  • Shmupdate:

    GreyLancer (oldie but a goodie, too tempting to play on easy mode with rewinds so replay value is lowish, but was still very enjoyable.)

    Crisis Wing (love the graphics, good difficulty levels for near-beginner.)

    Radiant Silvergun (what the hell were they smokin at Treasure!? Even on very easy this is going to take me at least 25 hours to beat using every life/ship I can get. Probably double that! In the first hour of play I went from “well this is garbage” to "oh, I see, you just need to put in the time and effort and then it’s awesome.)

    Still haven’t finished the boss rush on Andro Dunos II so those extra levels will be a mystery to me…

    R-Type Dimensions EX is on sale right now, so I’ll probably buy that tomorrow.










  • I’ve always liked FF. We had FF1 on the NES back when but the battery in it was dead so we had to the leave the console on. My brother got through it after a good number of afternoons.

    I never got into it though. I like watching it. I remember the obsession around FFVII.

    Then I picked up one of those SNES Mini things that came with… FFIV. That one got me. I wasn’t surprised to find out that loads of people love that one in particular.


  • Butterball frozen turkeys are like 25% water, sugar, and salt. They’re nasty. That’s what I grew up on, And I thought they were the best of the best. One at Thanksgiving and another for Christmas! So great, plus the price is right, turkey is turkey, right?

    My mother mocked me for buying something else one year, so I can understand why people would be shocked. The waited too long, they have no backup, they think that having meat is a requirement of a healthy meal…

    But these birds aren’t worth the electricity used to freeze them.



  • I’m tracking sales on dekudeals for the moment but I did get copies of Raiden IV (which is definitely something I enjoy), Ando Dunos II ( still can’t beat the boss rush to unlock the last levels) and GreyLancer.

    I’ll probably pick up Strikers 1945 II this week since it is on sale.

    I’m just patiently waiting and also considering grabbing some physical copies of games that I’ve seen for sale on local marketplaces (Sophstar and Mushihimesama).