Quickly:
- The parry mechanic in DOOM: The Dark Ages is less obtrusive than I feared.
- Isles of Sea and Sky gets kinda frustrating toward the end; I seem to be missing a few upgrades though, so maybe that's on me.
- SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance is stellar (Lizardcube hasn't missed yet) and way more Metroid than I expected.
- Animal Well is up there too, but I'm not sure sure how I feel about the roguelike elements.
- Inmost gets a little silly toward the end and loses some of its impact, but still really good.
Bloodily:
- Played through the original six episodes of Blood; can't remember if I ever did that back in the day. Still nothing quite like it. Marrow impresses immediately, but I'll get back to it. I feel like I should've waited for Cheello to update Coagulated for Refreshed Supply, but oh well...
Metroidly:
- Metroid II - EJRTQ Colorization is really well-done, and the core game holds-up nearly 35 years later; a little short, but still huge - especially for an original Game Boy game.
- Trying PrimeHack after a few hours of Corruption on original hardware is a revelation.
- Other M at 1440p, 8x SSAA, and 16x Anisotropic Texture Filtering with a DualSense feels almost contemporary.
Consumerly:
- Finally found a copy of RUSH: A Disney • PIXAR Adventure for Xbox One in the wild (and it has a "Microsoft Company Store" sticker on it), as well as Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for PSP, and a sealed copy of Destruction Allstars on PS5.
- Boox Go 7 seems to be the sweet spot that balances portability, display, performance, and public-library support - so I got one for my partner.
Privately:
- EndeavourOS + Waterfox + Startpage? Waterfox's AUR package doesn't seem to be maintained all that well and I'm not really interested in Flatpak, so I opted for a manual installation. Still running Windows 11 + Edge + Bing in most places, and Android for mobile; Gemini's getting annoying on the latter though, so... Graphene? Lineage? Calyx?
Thriftily:
- ASUS RT-AX57 for $10
- Wi-Fi 6 is way faster than I need - seeing 2401Mbps negotiated, but I'm on a 100Mbps Internet connection and the router only has Gigabit Ethernet. The Agile Multiband and DFS stuff is interesting, but seems to significantly limit connection speeds on a few of my devices.
- TP-Link RE305 V3 AC1200 Wi-Fi Range Extender/AP/Adapter for $7
- Should be useful; reminds me of the DWL-G730AP I used on my 360 from 2006 into 2011
- Antennas Direct ClearStream 2V TV Antenna for $14
- Was actually looking for one.
- An HP power adapter for a buddy's old laptop for $5
- I told them I'd find one :)
- An HP power adapter for that $12 EliteDesk for $4
- Might need it to replace the $10 official universal travel one - down to $20 total ;)
- Rock Band 3 Xbox 360 Wireless Keyboard for $8
- It's also a MIDI keytar!
Really gotta move the old routers... Keeping these though:
- ASUS RT-AX57 (AX3000, Gigabit, 2x2 MU-MIMO)
- Linksys EA8500 (AC2600, Gigabit, 4x4 MU-MIMO, USB3.0, eSATA)
- TP-Link Archer A8 (AC1900, Gigabit, 3x3 MU-MIMO)
