I have a bit of an obsession with the Need for Speed series, and while I've played all of them, I haven't completed all of them (the ones with a campaign at least). So I started playing through the remainder a while back.

Both Shift titles were in that list, I played Shift 1 first. I don't love it, but it has fleeting moments of something more. Every now and then you get into the flow of a track in a car that handles well, and it just clicks. That's maybe 10% of the time though, otherwise you're dealing with janky physics and brain dead AI.

It's been a long time since I've played Shift 2 Unleashed, from what I remember it was a marginal improvement over Shift 1. Before I get into me being wrong, let me bring you up to speed on racing games in general if you aren't an avid follower of this mess of a genre.

Racing games are generally categorized as arcade, simcade, or sim racers. Arcade would be Need for Speed Most Wanted or Midnight Club 3, sims would be Assetto Corsa and iRacing. Simcade, as you'd expect, is somewhere in the middle. Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo, PGR, GRID, etc.

The best simcades are the ones that simplify the driving characteristics of a sim while adding in something unique. PGR4 has a kudos system that rewards skilled driving and a killer soundtrack to make moment-to-moment racing more exciting, Forza Motorsport 4 feels like a car nerd's wet dream with the amount of passion poured into everything surrounding the driving, etc.

A big problem with simcades as of late (Forza Motorsport 8, Project Cars 3, etc) is that they stop after the first step. They simplify sim physics to make themselves playable on a controller, and then they do nothing else. There is no reason to play FM8 over FM4 or Project Cars 3 over Shift 2.

So what's Shift 2's deal?

It is the most visceral simcade (maybe racing game in general) that you will ever play. Here is a video I recorded of a quick race around Brands Hatch.

(side note: this game is almost 15 years old and goddamn has it held up graphically)

What is Shift 2 doing to make this race as intense as possible?

1. It is pitch black. You better not crash and break your headlights, or you are fucked. Your opponents' headlights light up your cockpit when they get close, adding to the pressure.

2. Your vision blurs the faster you go, until the only thing in focus is the track in front of you.

3. Dirt and bug splatter hits your window, occasionally directly in your line of sight.

4. The hood of your car shakes at higher RPM or when going over bumps, making the cars feel more physical.

5. The transmission whine sound has been made more prominent compared to reality, meaning the car is basically screaming at you at all times.

6. Your head moves to follow the track, every bump shaking your helmet. In most other racing games, you are the car. In Shift 2, you are the meatbag inside the car. This is especially relevant when you crash. Your view jerks forward, your vision goes grayscale and blurry, and your driver breathes heavily for a few moments afterward.

7. No rewind mechanic. If you fuck up, your race is over. Don't fuck up.

8. AI are willing to jostle for position. They aren't as intelligent as some modern sims, but they're way smarter than Forza's AI and collisions carry an actual risk in Shift 2.

Now look at this video of FM8. It feels sterile in comparison.

Even if you remove points 1 and 6 from Shift 2's favor, a race at dusk with regular cockpit view, it still looks and more importantly FEELS incredible. And now here's FM8 again.

Shift 2 isn't perfect, it shares some problems with Shift 1. Notably, some cars just straight up suck to drive (the slower/heavier ones), both PC ports are iffy, and it succumbed to licensing hell and can't be purchased anymore. But still, after 14 years, it's leaps and bounds ahead of the driving experience of every other simcade racer released since, including its own spiritual successor.

It sucks that no other racing games have really tried to follow down this path since. Slightly Mad Studios' own Project Cars (1 & 2) carried some of these ideas into an actual sim, but then they shot themselves in the foot with Project Cars 3 and haven't done anything since. They're been absorbed into EA in the meantime, so who knows if they'll ever have the chance.

I wish it didn't take me so long to revisit Shift 2. If you're itching for a good simcade racer, give it a shot. It feels fresher than ever with how stagnant the racing genre has been as of late.

How I feel explaining SAML to an end user

I've been in a fortunate position this past year of having some extra money to throw at shiny new hardware and I've experienced a side of Linux I haven't dealt with before...its poor support for shiny new hardware.

I grabbed a Ryzen 9000 CPU and an X870 motherboard...only to find that ethernet didn't work on kernel 6.11. I had to use a usb-c to ethernet dongle for several weeks until 6.13 released.

Just today and what prompted this post, I splurged on a 4k 240hz HDR monitor. HDR is obviously in-progress and I did not expect it to work out of the box. Critically, what I did expect was for the 240hz part to work, but I couldn't set it to anything beyond 120. Skip forward a couple hours, and I now know what EDID files are and how to use different ones. For more insight on my night, see this issue, this blog post, and this blog post. After all that, 240hz is smooth, goddamn.

For me, I'm not complaining. I love desktop Linux far more than shiny new hardware. I would return this monitor before considering not using Linux, and in the latter case it was a good chance to learn more about how Linux deals with display devices.

But I'm also one of many people here who wants to see desktop Linux become more popular, and if a regular person encountered either of those issues, they're going straight back to Windows. While that monitor issue has been fixed upstream, it's still broken in an up-to-date distro like Fedora and the monitor is over 6 months old at this point.

When it comes to stuff like HDR, that's obviously progressing quickly and is likely to become a non-factor in the future. But new ethernet controllers and new monitors with invalid DisplayIDs are likely always going to be coming out. Unless you're willing to tinker, your only option is to wait weeks or months before buying the new shiny thing if you want to use Linux.

That brings me to my question, is there a future where this isn't the case? And what would be required to get there?

Do motherboard/monitor/IC/etc manufactures need to submit their own kernel patches well in advance of product releases, like what AMD and Intel do for their CPUs and GPUs? Are we just waiting for them to give a shit?

Is there any possibility of hardware support-related patches getting backported to older kernel versions sooner rather than waiting for new major releases?

This is kind of an ungooglable question, and I figured it might make for an interesting discussion topic if anyone has more insight or thoughts on this.

Trying Plasma for a bit to see how green the grass is as a longtime Gnome user. The last time I ran Plasma on my main desktop was version 5.11, I think? It's been a while...

so much to organize, damn you humble bundle

"Find ethical alternatives built by people who are not out to fuck you over"

A video about exploring dead MMOs and multiplayer games.

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.

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?

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.