These days I just assume nothing’s playable offline. It’s not like my PS5 is ever offline anyway, so it’s not really a point of concern for me.

The actual reason I like physical games is because they’re generally cheaper when they just release and get discounted far sooner than digital games.

For example: Armored Core VI costs 69,99 euros on PS Store.

An online game store here sells it for 19,99 brand new. That means I can buy a copy for myself, I can gift you copy, buy a third one to light on fire as a sacrifice to the gaming gods… and still have money left over for two frozen pizza’s.

That’s why I like physical.

It’s not the price point. Most of the people who’d be in the market for one wouldn’t buy it because it doesn’t take discs. When I bought my PS5, I specifically bought the disc version. So I’m not going to ‘upgrade’ to a machine that doesn’t have one and only really offers ‘improved performance’ as its main selling point. It just doesn’t make sense.

If you’re new to the platform and are used to buying only digital, it might be more palatable. But as someone who’s been with Sony since the very first PlayStation: I’m gonna pass.

I don’t have a cat. I’m always amazed at people who just let theirs roam free about the neighbourhood. I feel like that’s a good way to let your cat get hurt, abducted or worse.

Just yesterday evening, I was coming back from work on my bike. And there’s this lovely orange cat just walking in the middle of the street. No collar or anything, but looked healthy and well kept as far as I could tell. I’ve seen him around once before in the next street over.

If I was so inclined, there’s basically nothing stopping me from picking him up and taking him home. That should be somewhat concerning to his actual owners, no?

After it gets dark, they refill it with lighter fluid. Every morning they light it fresh with a big ‘ole Zippo.

Some works will outright lie about it. For example, the TV show and movie Fargo specifically tell you it’s a true story, and even that names have been changed but ‘the rest has been told exactly as it happened’.

To me that’s weird. It doesn’t really add to the end result in my opinion, but would breed distrust when people discovered it was wholly fictional.

Still, even with things that are meant to be accurate portrayal of an event, it’s always good to check the facts. Hollywood just can’t help but fiddle with reality to tell a more interesting story, even when it doesn’t need it.

“Oi, cunt!”

While I’m not fundamentally opposed to kids learning basic math, even at that time it was used (think 1990-1996) it was a bullshit argument to ban them. After all, they were already cheap enough that a kid could have one on their wrist!

Heck, you can now buy them for less than a dollar on Aliexpress. But why would you, since literally every smartphone has one built in. It was silly to ban them.

Those remote control watches were actually banned at the schools I went to as a kid. Along with other calculator watches, couldn’t have one of those either. ‘Because you need to know math and won’t always have a calculator on you when you grow up’ 😂

I am aware of that excellent video, yes. And indeed I’ve played literally every game he shows there. I really like some of them, but none have that charm that actual Outrun has.

Outrun. The last one we had, Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, was fucking awesome. I literally bought that for every system they released it on. It’s one of my most played games.

I’d absolutely love a new Outrun in that same vein. There’s been a few half decent clones over the years, but none match both the gameplay, proper branching paths and overall vibes.

SEGA has long since stopped selling it because they no longer have the Ferrari license for the cars. But as a car guy, I’ve easily got dozens of suggestions what to replace them with. Ferrari’s are nice… but I’d also love an Outrun with Lamborghini, Porsche or a whole pack of Japanese cars like NSX, AE86, RX7, Miata…

So basically, the ISS has the equivalent of a car up on blocks parked in its driveway. How delightful.

It’s a shame they can’t toss the responsible Boeing/NASA folks out that same airlock.

Neat, I didn’t know that was a thing that they offered. Sounds like a good idea to keep people safe from stupid mistakes.

Yep. Years ago I interviewed someone for a radio program here in the Netherlands. This was a forest ranger, on the topic of people foraging for mushrooms. It was the hip thing to do at the time.

He explained how wildly dangerous it is for average people to do. Especially when looking up things online.

He showed me two images that looked basically identical. He explained to me that one mushroom was edible and delicious. And that it could be found in the forests in the United States. The other, identical looking mushroom can be found in European forests. That one liquifies your internal organs and causes you to shit yourself to an agonising death.

He explained that each year a handful of people die from eating it. Because they looked up a guide online, and failed to understand that there’s regional differences between edible and deadly mushrooms. And by the time they got medical attention, there was nothing that could be done.

I’m not a fan of mushrooms anyway, but I’d certainly never be dumb enough to go pick some myself. That shit’ll get you killed.

“Greetings, we’ve been trying to reach your civilization about the extended warranty on your Class 7 interstellar exploration cruiser…”

It’s a cliche, but at least he died doing what he loved. And at 90 with a career like his, going out like that is probably preferable to dying in a hospice bed.

Godspeed, mr Anders. And thank you for one of the most iconic, inspiring images ever made.

They’re lucky the damned door stayed on…

Imagine training for ages to be an astronaut. Only to get shoved into this tin can made by a company who’s name is now synonymous with shoddy workmanship. A program that’s had numerous development delays, launch delays and STILL launched with known issues like the helium leaks.

I’d take a Soyuz over this any day of the week.

That’s pretty much what I’m assuming for an actual answer.

Though I’ve certainly read about people who spent ungodly amounts to save pets, even old ones or street dogs. Bless them for it, for sure.

Seriously though… I’m all for giving animals excellent care. But is that actually a thing people do? Give their hamster an MRI? That’s a very expensive procedure for humans with good insurance, so I’d assume it to be rather unaffordable when applied to pets like this.

I could see it for say, a beloved dog who’s got years of life left. But hamsters kick the bucket if you breathe in their general direction.

When you can pack the peak amount of players into a decent sized ballroom, that’s never a good sign for your game’s future.

At this point they’re probably better off just refunding buyers and shuttering the game entirely. Doesn’t feel like this is a salvageable situation.

You can’t do that. ‘Cause it’s freaking me out…

https://youtu.be/eLqC3FNNOaI?si=7gT4tdHwlxahWDS3