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September 2024 Retrospective

Last month I complained about how much I had grown to dread these retrospectives. So to shake things up I have moved away from "the good", "the bad", and "honourable mentions" sections and just wrote about whatever interested me, in whatever order felt good. Let's see how it went.

Balatro on iOS

Balatro is a poker-based roguelike deck-builder that was released on consoles and PC early this year to critical acclaim. The goal of the game is simple, play poker hands to collect points and beat a certain score. If you win you collect some currency which can be used to buy power-ups that assist you in gaining even more points and currency. The game effectively goes on forever but you only need to beat a certain number of scores before you've "won" the run. You can continue playing endlessly but the scores to beat ramp up exponentially so sooner rather than later you're going to find yourself in an unwinnable position.

September finally saw the release of a mobile version which feels like the perfect platform for Balatro. I'm sure the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch are also a lot of fun but being able to quickly switch over to Balatro on my iPhone or iPad just feels right.

It is also on Apple Arcade so I highly recommend anyone with a subscription to check it out but based on what I've played it is still worth $12.99 CAD for the paid version.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster

Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2 are some of my favourite games from the Xbox 360 era. They were truly unique for their time and the risks the developers took struck the perfect chord with me. I know they weren't everyone's cup of tea, but to me they were nearly perfect.

I am happy to report that Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is an extremely faithful rendition of the original game. Capcom could have a done a "proper Remake" and modernized the game to fix what a lot of people would consider to be "wrong" with it. But this is one of the purest remasters I have ever seen. It transported me back 18 years to where I was murdering zombies on my Xbox 360 in university. I was shocked how I could still remember which stores in this fictitious mall had the best food and weapons. They even left in the contentious save system which I still believe is one of the best and most important aspects of Dead Rising.

I really hope Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster sells well so Capcom will also remaster Dead Rising 2 which is undeniably the best game in the franchise. Fingers crossed it comes out in 2026 on the 20th anniversary of the release of the first game.

Veritasium: Hacking SS7

Obviously routing phone calls across the entire planet is going to be a non-trial endeavour but I did not realize how much our solution to it relied on a web of trust that is so easily broken. Veritasium's video on hacking the Signalling System No. 7 protocol was eye opening. Usually when we imagine someone hacking a phone it is an unscrupulous character gaining unfettered access into a telecom's computer and taking whatever nefarious actions they wish. But in reality we have bad actors spending a couple thousand dollars a month to gain the ability to tell AT&T or Bell "this phone number is roaming please send any calls to it over here" and it just happens.

It is both hilarious and sad how the telecommunication companies refuse to innovate in the smartphone era. They have given up on improving privacy and safety until they are effectively forced to address it. Almost every single hole in our communication network has been patched by software companies building apps and services that offer end-to-end encryption for text, voice, and video. At this point we should treat all SMS and phone calls as compromised and assume the person on the other side is malicious. The video rightly calls out that SMS should never be used for two-factor authentication but unfortunately a lot of companies (including major ones such as banks) only support SMS 2FA instead of time-based one-time passwords.

The Grand Tour: One for the Road

After 22 years spread across Top Gear and The Grand Tour we have seen the last collaboration between Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.

It is bittersweet but nothing can last forever so I'm happy to see the chaps go out like this.

Season 1 of Fallout

I have been burned by so many poor adaptations of video games that by default I assume they will be shit and hope to find myself pleasantly surprised.

Season 1 of Fallout is one of those pleasant surprises. It's not going to win any awards but it was consistently enjoyable television which is something that has been in short supply lately. As a fan of the games you'll be able to appreciate the plethora of references and callbacks. But if you're completely new to the franchise I'm sure you'll be entertained by the absolutely insanity that comes from traversing the Wasteland.

Deadlock

Deadlock is a game currently in development at Valve, supposedly designed by the same person who made Dota 2. It was described to me as Monday Night Combat meets Overwatch which got me really excited. But in reality is just Dota 2 from a third-person perspective with ranged weapons. I don't think that is inherently a bad thing but I was hoping for something a bit more casual. I stopped playing Dota 2 because I would get stressed just thinking about queueing for a game and I've already reached that same point with Deadlock.

Again, the game itself is not bad. It is actually very polished for a "closed playtest" but at its core it is still a try-hard MOBA where you need to be looking up builds, reading patch notes, and perfecting your laning, or you won't be successful. At least not in the games that I've played. I have yet to experience a match that I would say was competitive and enjoyable for both teams.

Gamers Nexus expose on EK Water Blocks

Peglin

I really wanted to love Peglin because it sounds like it should be a great game. You play pachinko but instead of clearing the board you're activating powers to damage enemies that are trying to attack you, similar to something like Puzzle Quest. Pachinko is one of those games that relies heavily on randomness but our lizard brains believe we're just one good shot away from victory and that hope keeps us coming back.

Unfortunately the RPG elements in Peglin rely far too much on random number generation and don't provide the player with enough ability to mitigate it. I am all for roguelikes that do not allow players to just use the same build over and over again. Some level of randomness that the player needs to adapt to is what adds to the replayability. But in Peglin I consistently found myself thinking that my "deck" of pegs was just getting worse and there was no point in continuing the run which is the hallmark of a poorly designed roguelike.

I highly recommend the developers look to games such as Monster Train, Balatro, and Hades to understand how after every round the players have the ability to move themselves into a better position. That is what makes us want to see the run through to its conclusion rather than quit and retry hoping for better RNG.

Practical Engineering: The Hidden Engineering of Landfills

I have seen some of Practical Engineering's videos over the years but it was his recent one on landfills that finally made me click that subscribe button.

Metaphor: ReFantazio Prologue Demo

I played the "Prologue Demo" for Metaphor: ReFantazio and am totally hooked. It is made by a lot of the same developers who worked on Persona 5 so I shouldn't be surprised but I am really happy to see that outside of the high school setting they can still create great things.

The full game is being released on October 11th and I absolutely cannot wait.

La Sportiva Skwama

If anyone out there is looking for some intermediate bouldering shoes I highly recommend La Sportiva Skwama. I've been using the neutral beginner shoes but when my latest pair started to tear I decided it was time to take a risk and try upgrading. The Skwamas are easily the best thing I've done for my bouldering hobby because the aggressive toe really has made the difference in the V4-5 routes at my gym.

Review September Goals

October Goals

#MonthlyRetrospective