This was what I was going to add. It’s basically just walking around and finding panels that have small 2d mazes on them, and solving the mazes. Sounds simple and honestly quite boring, but it quickly becomes far more special and ends up being so good.
Some of the solutions made me feel like my brain was folding in on itself before clicking into place
Seeing what’s been already recommended here, my suggestion sounds out of left field even to me… But somehow, “Elden Ring bug easier” makes me think first and foremost of Zelda breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom. Huge open world with secrets everywhere, engaging aesthetics and, challenging yet less punitive combat. The only thing would be that the combat is less emphasized, an exploration and problem solving more. But combat is still very much there and you can go quite deep in its mechanics, especially with all the time stopping and telekinetic shenanigans.
Edit: Not really a western ARPG I guess but the freedom of play is similar
Try Blokada 5. It sets up a local vpn inside your phone and blocks all the ads and trackers. The application is free and open source. Don’t download it from the play store as it downloads version 6, which requires a subscription and does cloud stuff (version 5 instead works locally)
This right here, I’ve been using Blokada for the last few years and it stays on permanently. My biggest gripe is that a certain social media website (starting with an R) which we shall not name have their own built in ad platform which Blokada is useless against other than that it’s perfect.
Personally I've had some issues with ads getting through 5 on a few devices. Version 4 always works in those cases, even though it's a bit less efficient (apparently).
Separate of that it also works with VPN Tunnel, which is great for getting around cell providers that block tethering.
Plex will cast to a Chromecast with subtitles. It will also fetch them if you don’t have an SRT file in the folder of your video with the same name. Lenguages is also selectable at the time of fetch. I do not pay for pro. Nonetheless, I have not tried jellyfin and cannot tell you if it is possible there or not. My guess is it should.
Hatoful Boyfriend has some really great moments, especially if you pursue Anghel or Okosan. It also will make you cry your eyes out in the true ending, so there’s a good balance.
The Bluetooth mode is made specifically for the Nintendo Switch on that model, on PC and Android you need X-Input mode, which is made available through 2.4GHz and USB-C.
I complained about that part too, and 8bitdo doesn’t seem receptive…
I complained about that part too, and 8bitdo doesn’t seem receptive…
I mentioned it to them and they were very helpful… They specifically sent me a beta firmware for the reciever that allows me to toggle between Switch mode and Xinput mode by holding Select+Y or Select+X respectively.
Interesting. My interaction with them wasn’t really helpful. Not for this issue, but I raised an issue that the macro function doesn’t allow you to replay certain buttons (like ‘+’), which limits it’s usefulness. I reached out to them and they said they’ll pass the info back to the team and never heard from them again. I bought this controller specifically for the macro feature (and specifically for being able to replay ‘+’), and without that functionality, the controller is completely useless for me. I already own a Switch Pro controller and I prefer it’s ergonomics/shape much more over the 8bitdo.
There’s a difference between the Ultimate BT (with hall effect joysticks and the paddles) vs the Ultimate 2.4g, which received BT support later on. They don’t use the same firmware.
I have the Bluetooth + 2.4G one with hall effect sensors and paddles (with the 2.4G/Bluetooth switch on the back and included 2.4G receiver in the dock).
I didn’t realise the dedicated 2.4G one received Bluetooth later, but the firmware was for the 2.4G receiver, not the controller, which I’d assume to be the same one regardless? That said, it’d only allow you to use “Switch Pro Mode” and “Xinput Mode” when connected via 2.4G to the receiver. Bluetooth mode behaviour will be unchanged… But given the choice I’m not sure why anyone on PC would use Bluetooth instead of the 2.4G anyway, unless they’re not using the dock with that particular computer…
All that aside though, my initial comment was to indicate 8bitdo were actually quite helpful when I reached out to them, in contrast to the person I was replying to… To answer OPs actual questions:
Bluetooth mode outputs as a Switch Pro controller by default, so a lot of games on PC won’t recognise it unless you use Steam Input or some other translation layer to convert to Xinput. There are numerous applications to do it, but Steam is probably easiest and most accessible. To set the paddles etc You can download the Ultimate Software on your Phone or the PC to set the back paddles and tweak settings.
I’d recommend playing around with some first person shooters using the Gyro. Steam specifically has a Flick Stick-like mode that is a really fun way of using the Gyro in FPS games like DOOM. You angle the stick to the direction you want to face, and then use gyro to aim up/down and make fine corrections. E.g. to snap turn 180degrees, just flick the right analogue stick down. Works brilliantly when you (eventually) get the hang of it, it’s so much faster.
I have this controller and bluetooth mode works just fine for me on my PC and steam deck, those do run linux but the protocol is the same in windows. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
It will work with Steam, as Steam itself is able to capture Switch-input, but if you try to use it outside of Steam in a software that expects X-Input it will not work as expected.
I wasn’t able to use it on Android in BT mode either, most games I tried wouldn’t recognize it, but would work fine using a USB-C cable.
Depending on what I’m encoding, I am trying as much as possible to do AV1 + Opus.
x264 kind of stands on its own. It is a legendary encoder with excellent encode times, but h264 is an ancient codec and it really shows if you don’t give it a bitrate that’s, frankly, too high. I use it most frequently these days for sharing short, low res clips of videos on Discord or through iMessage or something.
So that leaves us with with our modern choices: hevc, vp9, and AV1.
Off the bat I would say VP9 is irrelevant just because it’s way too slow to encode, and is effectively superseded by AV1. To whatever extent possible I try to use AV1, reencode into AV1, download AV1, and so forth. When done correctly it will shrink files even smaller than hevc can, it can encode relatively quickly with SVT-AV1 and is patent unencumbered so it’s actually supported in web browsers. If the video is an AV1 .webm it will play in Firefox. If I need subtitles, I can put them in a .mkv.
HEVC (with x265) is a pretty strong choice. I will not avoid downloading torrents in this format but I will avoid encoding into it. It maybe has better compatibility in certain cases, like if you have a “smart” TV (ugh) that can natively decode it. In which case that might override any decision you will make: you just want the best compatibility with your existing hardware.
As for audio, that’s Opus. Every time. It absolutely whips. For stereo audio I can do Opus at 96 or 112kbps and it is transparent. Another source with more going on (maybe loud explosions and effects and all that) could possibly benefit from 128. It’s great.
The final thing to mention about encoding is no matter which codec you use you will have to learn a bit about how to use it. You can one and done the encoders with default choices, but at minimum you do need to factor in what happens when you do things like change preset speeds. From there you can consider things like what about changing the keyframe interval (for shorter vids I will do more frequent keyframes to make seeking tolerable. For something like a full movie a keyframe every 10 seconds is probably fine. But what about scene detection? What about bit depth?). Potentially much to consider.
I think it’s the work that goes into it, at least for me
Money abstracts it too much. Sure that game cost $20, let’s say an hour of my job time. But because it’s the weekend and money has obfuscated this fact a bit I just buy it and move on.
But a game that takes an hour or more to find, download, install, and properly get running? I just did that work on my own free time with no obfuscation, so I’m more likely to want to reap the reward of it
For example: spent a couple hours turning my old hodgepodge of emulators I’ve been using since 2014 into a nice Retro arch installation that my steam deck can also fully utilize a couple weeks back. Because of that I spent some time downloading old games to play, mix of old faves and ones I never got around to.
After all that work it’s all Ive really been playing lately, and the cycle shall repeat I’m sure
Honestly these days it’s much more difficult to find a good pirate copy compared to getting a working copy you pay for that yeah, if I put in the effort to pirate a game, I’m going to play it. Though I do enjoy having a really large steam library, so I usually just buy something just so it grows.
Currently playing a lot of Minecraft with my daughter and her boyfriend. Have set up a server so we can pop in and out when we want to. Having a blast.
Also playing started playing sea of stars. Beautiful game and excited where it will go.
And there is always time to play another round of enter the gungeon!
ok, i tried that (109.202.99.45) and it still does not work. The “retrieving metadata” progress animation keeps animating, and no info in the magnet link on the ipleak.net website shows up.
Nier Automata. I really hated the replaying it part. The combat gets incredibly boring after the first two playthroughs. I also found the supposedly “deep” story to be extremely lacking, very on the nose and, like way too much japanese entertainment, bipolar when it comes to emotions.
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