My State of Mobile Gaming in 2024: Part 4 - And The Winner Is...

 

I wrestled hard with this decision in my mind for 2-3 weeks. There were clear advantages and disadvantages for selecting one over the other, and I likely would have been happy with either. In the end I decided on the Playstation Portal. The Steam Deck has one big advantage over the Playstation Portal in that it can play games directly on the device from the Steam library. That is a massive advantage if you are interested in playing Steam games. Steam has a great library, but I have access to almost any game I would want to play on Steam already, either on the Playstation or Switch. Because of this, the Portal had many advantages over the Steam Deck. It is markedly cheaper at $200. Compare this to the $400-$600 cost of the Steam Deck depending on which model you choose. Based on some articles I read and YouTube videos I watched, the Chiaki app seemed quite capable on the Steam Deck. However, it required some setup and there is always the fear that the app would stop working for some reason. The Portal is ready to go out of the box for Remote Play and is not going to quit functioning since Sony makes the device. There is something to be said about Portal's use of the DualSense controller as well. The DualSense is a fantastic controller, and playing Playstation games remotely on the same controller you are used to using for the games, complete with the haptic and rumble feedback, is a bonus. Considering my main objective was to play and have access to my Playstation remotely, the Portal made the most sense for me in the end.

Interestingly, the Nintendo Switch helped with my decision for two reasons. The first is that since the Switch is portable, I already have an option for portable gaming where wi-fi isn't available. This is a major draw-back to the Portal. While major 3rd party games on the Switch are oftentimes a disappointment, the first party Nintendo games are fantastic and there are a number of simpler games that are fun that run just fine on the Switch (see Dave the Diver). The second reason is because of the Switch 2. Rumor was the Switch 2 would be released in late 2024. Now the rumor is that it will be released in the first quarter of 2025. Regardless, Nintendo's next generation system will be released in the near future, and there is a large chance that I will purchase it. With that being said, I was hesitant to spend $400+ for a Steam Deck when I will likely be spending that money for Nintendo's next system. 

I've had the Portal for a few weeks as of the date of this post, and have plenty of experience using it. In Part 5, I will discuss my experience with Sony's remote player thus far.

Lego Ghostbusters Ecto-1

 

If there is one thing I remember as a kid, it is that I was a huge Ghostbusters fan. I had the action figures and headquarters, a wearable proton pack, halloween costumes, etc. You name it and I had it if it was Ghostbusters. The funny thing is that I don't really remember watching the first movie. I've seen it several times, but don't remember watching it as a kid. Was I even allowed to watch it? I think it's rated PG but it was 1980s PG, which typically includes smoking and cursing and sexual references. I've had my eye on the Lego Ecto-1 set since it was released, and so I was excited to receive the set as a gift from Sarah and the girls. It is 100% pure nostalgia. 

This version of the Ecto-1 is based on the car featured in the 2021 movie Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Admittedly I have never seen the film (though I have it on my DVR waiting to watch). This set was a lot of fun to build. With 2,300 pieces and 1.5 feet long, it is a big set. I've enjoyed building the larger car Lego sets, and this one was no exception. I find the details with the steering and various moving parts interesting. They also tend to be some of the less tedious sets. The size of the car makes it perfect for display at the top of my entertainment center, on the other side of my center channel speaker. It really ups the nerd factor in the basement.

A Storm of Swords & Game of Thrones (Seasons 3 & 4)

 

A Storm of Swords is an absolutely massive book. At just under 1,000 pages, it is the largest book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series and is the largest book I've ever read. It is so large, in fact, that it covers both seasons 3 & 4 of the television show. As you can imaging, a large book tells a large story, and the number of characters and locations increases a lot as this book progresses. Because of this, and because the TV show essentially tells the same story (with minor variations), I decided to combine the two posts for seasons 3 & 4 and the post for the book into one super post. A lot of major plot points occur in this book, so I am going to do my best to highlight them below.

Daenerys spends her time traveling the slave cities of Essos, freeing slaves and buying a slave army known as the Unsullied. She is joined by Barristan Selmy, who pledges his support. Barristan was a member of the Kingsguard, but Cersei relieves him of his duties once Joffrey became king. She learns that her long time right hand man, Jorah Mormont, had been selling her secrets to King's Landing. 

Robb Stark is winning the war on the battle field but losing everywhere else. His mother Catelyn has tasked Brienne of Tarth to escort Jaime Lanister back to King's Landing in exchange for Sansa and Arya. This angers Stark bannerman Richard Karstarck, who seeks revenge against Jaime for killing his sons. Jaime and Brienne are captured by the Brotherhood Without Banners who sever Jaime's sword hand. Robb executes Karstarck after he kills two Lannister boys. He hopes to regain Walder Frey's trust after he reneged on his offer to marry one of Walder's daughters. Robb strikes a deal with Walder to have his uncle Edmure marry one of Walder's daughters instead. At the wedding feast, Walder appears to forgive Robb, only to kill him and Catelyn, along with multiple supporters, in what is one of the most memorable scenes in the entire series, known as the Red Wedding. 

King's Landing prepares for the royal wedding between Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell. Prince Oberyn from Dorne (played by none other than the Mandalorian) arrives for the wedding. Oberyn seeks revenge against the Lannister family for their part in killing his sister. At the royal wedding, Joffrey humiliates Tyrion before dying from being poisoned. Cersei has Tyrion arrested for murder, while Sansa escapes King's Landing in a plot by Littlefinger. It is revealed that Lysa Arryn and Littlefinger killed Jon Arryn and framed the Lannisters, a mystery that was a focal plot point in the first book. Littlefinger marries Lysa, but kills her shortly after when Lysa becomes enraged after seeing Littlefinger kiss Sansa. A trial occurs for the murder of Joffrey and Tyrion is found guilty. However, before he is to serve his punishment, he escapes prison and kills his father Tywin as he leaves King's Landing.

Jon Snow goes north of the Wall to infiltrate the wildlings. He develops a relationship with a wildling woman named Ygritte, but ultimately returns to the Night's Watch to prepare for battle. The wildling army, led by Mance Rayder, mount a massive attack against the Wall. The Night's Watch survive after being helped by Stannis Baratheon, but are severely weakened. Bran & Co. travel north of the Wall. We learn that Bran is a warg. At the end of season 4, Bran finally finds the Three Eyed Raven. Arya travels throughout the riverlands with the Hound until he succumbs from battle wounds. Arya, finally free, arrives at a port city where she boards a ship heading for the free city of Braavos. 

My State of Mobile Gaming in 2024: Part 3 - The Steam Deck

 

I've been interested in the Steam Deck since its release. The thought of having a handheld gaming device powerful enough to play high-end PC games is super cool. I don't have a PC at home (I use an iMac) and so I also saw this device as a gateway to computer games, as games for Mac are limited compared to the library for PC. Despite my interest, time and money have prevented my pursuit of the device. Between the Playstation and Switch, I already have access to more games than I have time to play. Additionally, the Steam Deck isn't exactly cheap. It's priced well for what it does, but at $400-$600 depending on features, I need to be all-in on the device in order to spend that kind of money. With that being said, the Steam Deck is a device that has remained on my radar but I never seriously considered buying one until a chance conversation over the holiday.

I had never seen a Steam Deck in person until this past Christmas. I was talking to someone who had one and so I got the chance to play with it a bit. We were discussing the advantages of handheld gaming, and I mentioned my intention to buy a Playstation Portal. He then informed me that you could use Remote Play for the PS5 on a Steam Deck. My head nearly exploded as I had never once thought about that possibility. I started doing research and discovered that there is an app for the Steam Deck called Chiaki that enables Playstation Remote Play (apparently you can run this on the Switch as well). For the first time since the Portal was announced, it had competition in the form of the Steam Deck. Now I had a decision to make: Do I pick the Portal that is more affordable but with less features, or do I pick the Steam Deck that is more expensive but is a whole separate gaming system? Tune in to Part 4 to learn about my decision.

My State of Mobile Gaming in 2024: Part 2 - My Network

 

We have fiber optic internet at the home with 100 MB download speed. Fiber optic is considered the optimum connection method, but in the grand scheme of fiber optic speeds, 100 MB down is not all that fast. With that being said, we have had no issues with our internet speed. We can simultaneously stream HD videos, surf the internet, stream music, etc. I haven't had any trouble playing games online either. The only issue I've consistently run into in terms of internet performance is when trying to use Playstation Remote Play. Anything I've ever read says 10 MB should be adequate speed to stream efficiently. Remote Play is no different, as Sony's site recommends 5-10 MB minimum. We have 10X that speed, so the question is why do I have so many problems with Remote Play? The answer I've discovered is that speed isn't the problem. It's latency.

I have very little understanding of internet latency beyond what I can infer from the words in the phrase. However, it doesn't take much reading to learn that one of the best ways to improve latency is to bypass wi-fi and hardwire your devices with good old fashioned ethernet cable. In the past this would have been very difficult to accomplish, since my PS5 is in the basement and my main router is upstairs in my kitchen. However, when I updated my wi-fi router a little over a year ago, I decided to go with a Mesh network. This provided me with a node or access point on every floor of my house. Simply moving the basement node close to the PS5 allowed me to connect the Playstation to the network via ethernet.

Preliminary results have been promising. In addition to Remote Play, I also ran into issues streaming games on the PS5. Limited testing has shown improvement in both streaming games and Remote Play since connecting the PS5 to the network via ethernet. Using my iMac, I was able to play 30 minutes of Ghost of Tsushima without major interruption and complete an entire race on Gran Turismo 7. Using Remote Play to play a racing game would have been impossible when the PS5 was connected to wi-fi. Ghost of Tsushima did drop out of HD a few times, but only momentarily and there were no major frame rate drops or interruptions in the connection that made playing the game difficult. Using ethernet seems to have improved performance enough that I was satisfied with moving forward with Remote Play. I thought the Playstation Portal was an obvious choice, until a chance conversation over the holidays. 

Ghost of Tsushima

 

Ghost of Tsushima is another personal success story for Playstation Plus. It is a great game that I would not have experienced without the subscription gaming service. I just about gave up on the game because I was distracted by other games. I'm glad I didn't, however, because I ended up really enjoying the experience.

The game takes place in Japan in the 1200s. The Japanese island of Tsushima has been invaded by the Chinese Mongol forces, led by Genghis Khan relative Khotun Khan. You play as Jin Sakai, a local samurai lord who leads a resistance against the Mongols. As the game progresses, you do favors for various people throughout the island in order to gain their support in fighting the Mongols. The favors typically involve freeing a group of people being held captive by the Mongols. The gameplay involves a mix of stealth action and parkour, but heavily features samurai sword fighting. The plot throws a couple of twists and turns at you, but is generally predictable and straight forward. 

The gameplay is also very predictable after awhile. However, what saves the game is the advancements in fighting style as your power grows. You learn different sword fighting techniques which have advantages against certain enemies, so as you are fighting you have to think about which technique would work best. Additionally, you acquire different weapons as you progress as well, which adds enough variety to the fighting to keep it interesting. One of my favorite things to do was to chuck a knife at a charging enemy who is expecting a sword fight. 

In addition to the advancing fighting styles, the multi-person battles are absolutely awesome. As your forces grow, you begin attacking larger Mongol forts. The battles than ensue will contain multiple NPCs fighting on each side, reminiscent of a battle from Game of Thrones. There is absolute chaos surrounding you, and you bounce from enemy to enemy, changing fighting styles and your approach with each person. It really is a fun experience and the best part of the game in my opinion.

New Sound System - Part 8: Dolby Atmos (5.2.2)

 

The so-called chef's kiss was placed on my new sound system over the Thanksgiving weekend when I added Dolby Atmos enabled speakers to my home theater. This caps off a two year process of upgrading my components or adding new components to my downstairs home theater. Previously, I had a stereo setup that essentially never got used. I now have a full surround system that is used every time I use the TV. I also upgraded the TV and receiver to handle 4K video. The Atmos-enabled speakers shown above were the final upgrade, and I now consider the project finished for the foreseeable future except for possible minor tweaks (see the upcoming My State of Mobile Gaming posts as an example).

Dolby Atmos is a type of spatial audio that adds sound above the listener for overhead effects. The standard is to have two rows of speakers in the ceiling that beam sound down towards the floor. I was not interested in the construction that would be required to thread speaker wire through my drywall and mount speakers in my finished ceiling. Instead, I opted for Atmos-enabled speakers. The wedge shaped speakers sit on top of my floor standing loud speakers and beam sound upward towards the ceiling. This allows the sound to bounce off the ceiling and back down towards the floor and listener, akin to Bipole surround sound.

I was really excited to add Atmos to my setup. I felt like it would "complete" my theater and make it as modern as possible. Unfortunately, I don't think I can tell one bit of difference after adding the newest set of speakers. I even turned the relative volume on the speakers to +3 (all of my other speakers are at 0 except for my rear surrounds which are at +1). I just cannot hear additional sound coming from them. My basement is not an ideal room for surround sound speaker placement. It is one large open room that is interrupted by a staircase. I tend to sit in the back left corner, which is also not ideal as I am really close to the left speakers and really far from the right speakers. I also have a really large center channel speaker. So large that it won't fit in front or underneath the TV. Instead, it sits on top of my entertainment center, just a few feet from the ceiling. I suspect that both my off-center sitting position and the sound from the center channel filling the upper air of the room are contributing to my lack of awareness of the Atmos sound. With the awkward room it will be difficult to adjust the placement of the speakers much, so I feel like I'm locked into my current setup for the time being. With that being said, I definitely don't think the Atmos enabled speakers detract from the theater experience. Maybe with some fine tuning I can enhance the effect of the speakers.