Nintendo Switch 2

 

I purchased a Switch 2. It wasn't a matter of if, but when. The interesting thing is that when details of the Switch 2 were first revealed, there wasn't anything coming out with it that I thought was exciting enough to immediately purchase one. That hasn't changed. To this day, the 20+ year old The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap are still the most exciting games on the system to play that I didn't otherwise have access to. Both games are in the Legend of Zelda series, and I haven't played either one previously. Because of this situation, I balked at immediately purchasing a Switch 2. Plus, the last games I played on the Switch were Echoes of Wisdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, both around a year ago.  However, after getting the Portal, with its bigger screen, the Switch was really starting to feel long in the tooth. Plus, my kids still play games on the Switch on a weekly basis. What triggered me to make the purchase now was reading about a major update coming to the Switch 2 for Animal Crossing, a game my kids play regularly. I thought that if I'm going to upgrade to it eventually, I might as well do it now so that everyone can benefit from the upgrade instead of arbitrarily waiting. 

The larger screen is a much welcomed upgrade, though the ergonomics of the Switch 2 aren't any better than the original Switch. The Playstation Dualsense and the Portal that it's designed after remain top of the market in terms of comfort in my opinion. The OS looks the same and I haven't been able to tell much of a difference in graphics, though all the games I've played on it are Switch 1 games. The load times are noticeably faster, however.

There are several game ports available on the Switch 2, and the reviews I've read state that most of these ports are much better than the ports on the first Switch, which was severely underpowered for most of the port games. If there were games that I absolutely wanted to play in handheld mode or on the go, these games would be intriguing for me. As it stands, most of these games I've either already played or have access to on the Playstation or through Playstation Plus, so this hasn't been a huge selling point for me thus far. But it is nice to have the option, at least until Sony has its own dedicated handheld device. I'm interested in Nintendo hardware almost entirely because of their exclusive games. I'll almost always lean towards the Playstation for non-Nintendo games. For me, this upgrade wasn't a necessity at the current moment, but eventually Nintendo will come out with a Zelda game or a Mario game for the Switch 2 that I won't want to pass up. Because of this, I decided to just go ahead and upgrade so that I can enjoy other perks in the meantime, even if the biggest perk for me thus far is the ability to play two 20+ year old games. 

Daredevil: Born Again (Season 1)

 

Charlie Cox's Daredevil character is my favorite Marvel Defenders character and show. The original Netflix series has been one of my favorite Marvel series or movies in the entire MCU, actually. With that being said, I was super excited when Daredevil: Born Again was announced, complete with the entire cast of main characters, including Cox's Matt Murdock, Foggy, Karen, and Kingpin. The show got good reviews, and I've been looking forward to watching it since it was released about 6 months ago.

The season starts with Matt's friend and co-working lawyer Foggy being shot and killed by season 3 villain Bullseye. Fast forward one year, and Karen has left New York for San Francisco and Matt, devastated that he couldn't protect his friends, has left Daredevil behind. Meanwhile, longtime Daredevil nemesis Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, is elected mayor of NYC. Similar to how Matt has left Daredevil behind, Wilson is trying to leave Kingpin behind. Or at least he says he is trying. As predicted, things don't stay calm in NYC for long, as crime becomes rampant and Wilson vows to control the vigilantes. Wilson becomes increasingly unstable with his power as mayor, even introducing his own police force to deal with vigilantes, a force that doesn't necessarily have to play by the rules. Things boil over when Matt's client, who happens to be the masked vigilante the White Tiger, is killed by the police.

Overall, I enjoyed season 1 of Born Again. Anytime Charlie Cox or Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) are on the screen, they demand your attention. They are both very good at playing their respective characters. I will admit, Fisk's rise to political power as a known criminal and his willingness to push the boundaries of his power and the police force hit a little too close to home for me in today's political climate. Fisk does become mayor in the comics, but I do not know if his actions are similar there, or if his character for the show was written to reflect the parlance of our times. Additionally, there were a few episodes in a row earlier in the season where Daredevil doesn't make an appearance at all. This was a bit of a disappointment, given that he is the main star of the show. All of this is done to set up a complex situation where Daredevil comes out of retirement to protect Hell's Kitchen and NYC again. I anticipate season 2 will be a bit more faster paced and avoid this issue. Muse is a villain that appears this season, but he and Fisk villain Adam are both under developed and not that interesting, honestly. This show is about Kingpin and Daredevil, and that is a good thing, given how good those characters and actors are. There were a couple of scenes featuring The Punisher as well, which I liked. When the season ended, the Punisher was locked in a cage but was in the process of escaping. The season overall was quite enjoyable, despite Daredevil missing in a couple of episodes. I anticipate season 2 will be even better, and thus am looking forward to it when it releases next spring. 

My State of Mobile Gaming: Part 11 - Further Emphasis On Streaming (Part 2)

It's as if Sony read my mind when they expanded streaming on the Playstation Portal. I just recently said that until Playstation makes a portable device that can play games on the device itself, streaming was likely the best way to play games on the Portal given the reliability issues of remote play on the PS5. In the somewhat recent past, Sony introduced streaming for select games on the PS5. Where this gets a bit odd is that there were two groups of game libraries for streaming. One group of games was on Playstation Plus, a library of around 400+ games. The second group was from your own personal library, where select games have the option to stream. For the Playstation Plus streaming library, the only use I found for this was if there was a game you wanted to try before committing to downloading the full game on your console. Otherwise, there was no real advantage to streaming the game unless you wanted to play it quickly or save hard drive space. This changed when you could stream the games on the Portal, however. Now you had access to Sony's large streaming library on the Portal, which is a huge advantage given the aforementioned reliability issues with remote play. 

Having the ability to stream games from your own personal library was a bit difficult to understand. Your always going to get better performance running the game on the Playstation itself vs on the cloud, so why this would be a needed option was a bit confusing. That is, until Sony expanded the streaming capability of the Portal to include games from your own personal library. This is a huge upgrade, as obviously having the ability to stream the games from your library that you are wanting to play is better than being limited to an arbitrary library on Playstation Plus. This also expands the number of games available to stream to over 2,000+ games I've read. It's not perfect, as 4 out of the 5 games I'm playing right now don't offer streaming. I'm sure this will expand as time progresses, however. Last night I was able to play Forza: Horizon 5 for over an hour on my Portal via stream without a single disruption. Previously, I would have never tried to play a game like this on the Portal with remote play. Overall, I'd like to see Sony make a dedicated portable device that integrates with the PS6. I hope those rumors are true. In the meantime, the expansion of features and ways to play games on the the current Portal have been encouraging. 

Assassins Creed III

 

After playing Fallout 4 last year, I got into a Boston kick. We were able to visit Boston earlier this year and went on the Freedom Trail tour. Ever since, I've been on a revolutionary war kick. Assassin's Creed (AC): Valhalla was the first AC game I've played, and enjoyed it, and thus I've been interested in playing other AC games. AC III takes the franchise to the 1770s during the time of the American Revolutionary War, and thus was the perfect blending of recent interests.

AC III is a Playstation 3 era game, and was remastered for the Playstation 4. The remastered PS4 game is what I played, and initially it looked terrible. It looked like I was playing the game through a bad Instagram filter. A quick Google search took me to a Reddit thread which explained that this was an issue with HDR, and turning off HDR in the Playstation options would fix the problem. Sure enough, turning off HDR did fix the issue. In the grand scheme of things it was a minor issue. I only bring it up because of how strange of an issue it was. Now, onto the game. Below is a summary of the historical timeline, from ChatGTP:

1. Haytham Kenway (1754)
• The game begins with Haytham Kenway, an Englishman & Templar who appears to be an Assassin, sent to the American Colonies to locate a mysterious First Civilization temple.
• During his travels, Haytham meets and falls in love with a Native American woman named Kaniehtí:io (Ziio).

1. Ratonhnhaké:ton / Connor (1760s–1783)

• The story shifts to their son, Ratonhnhaké:ton, who grows up in his mother’s Mohawk village.
• When the village is attacked by colonists led by Charles Lee (a Templar), Connor vows revenge and joins the Assassin Brotherhood under mentor Achilles Davenport.
• Taking the name Connor, he fights against the Templars’ influence in the colonies, believing they threaten liberty.

1. The American Revolution

• Connor becomes embroiled in key historical events, including The Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s ride, Battles at Lexington and Concord, And George Washington’s campaign.
• He works with figures like Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and George Washington, while trying to protect his people and stop the Templars’ manipulation of the revolution.

1. Father vs. Son

• Connor eventually learns that his father, Haytham Kenway, is a high-ranking Templar.
• They briefly work together against a common threat but ultimately clash over ideology — freedom vs. order.
• Connor kills Haytham in their final confrontation.

1. The End of Charles Lee

• Connor hunts down and kills Charles Lee, the man responsible for his mother’s death, bringing an end to the Templar plot in the colonies.
• He secures the land for his people, but the encroachment of settlers continues — symbolizing the bittersweet cost of freedom.

It is really cool to see historical Boston and play through some of the major revolutionary war events listed above. It was by far the best part of the game, and to be fair, the majority of the game focused on the historical events. The AC games always have an underlying Assassins vs Templars theme, incorporating modern day events with the historical story using the Animus device. For me, these modern day events missed the mark. First of all, I didn't really understand what was going on. I think it was a continuation of a storyline from the first two games, maybe? It never really explained it, and every time the game jumped to modern day, I immediately wanted it to go back to revolutionary Boston. There were a couple of other gameplay issues that I had (the map was confusing, the gameplay was a bit simple), but in general I really enjoyed the historical timeline aspect of this game. It was fun playing through the historical events and learning about some of the historical figures. AC Odyssey was a miss for me. I'm glad I enjoyed AC 3. It restored my faith in the series, and I plan to play other AC games again because of it.

Jessica Jones (Season 3)

 

I've finished season 3 of Jessica Jones, and with that I have watched all of the Netflix-era Marvel Defenders series shows, minus season 2 of Iron Fist, which I skipped on purpose. The only show left to watch is 2025's Daredevil: Born Again. Jessica Jones is on my podium of favorite Defenders characters in third place, so I was looking forward to this season. While we're discussing the podium, surprisingly The Punisher is number 2, and Matt Murdock's Daredevil is number 1. 

Season 3 starts where season 2 left off. Jessica is still mad at her friend/adoptive sister Trish for shooting her mom and going through with the experimental surgery to become superhuman. The very end of season 2 eluded to the fact that the surgery was successful, with her dropping then "catching" her phone with her foot. Adept comic readers probably figured this out long ago, but in season 3, because of the surgery, Trish is transformed into Hellcat. I was completely aloof, and didn't see this coming at all until the end of season 2 after Trish had the surgery.

Trish turning into Hellcat sets the stage for season 3. As mentioned, Jessica is still mad at Trish from the events of season 2. Jessica is attacked by a psychopath killer named Gregory Sallinger, who targets people with abilities and powers, believing them to be "unworthy" of their abilities. Jessica uses her private investigation skills to try to imprison Sallinger. This proves difficult, and the newly aggressive Trish Walker as Hellcat seeks quicker justice. This reaches a tipping point when Sallinger kills Trish's mom, and Hellcat attacks and kills Sallinger. Jessica is compelled to do the "right" thing, and turns Trish in to the authorities. In the final scene, we see Trish being taken to the Raft with Jessica watching in the background.

This season was fine, but I prefer the dynamic we got in season 1 with these characters. As the season progressed, it became a bit unclear who the actual enemy was - Sallinger or Trish. I don't particularly like Trish as a villain as I don't think she's a bad person by nature. Sallinger is a terrible person, and a good villain for a psychological thriller, but a bit of an odd choice for a comic book villain. Also, his identify was revealed very early, and since Jessica is a private eye, it would have been nice for his identity to have been a bit more of a mystery. This season also suffered a bit from the same problem that I had with Luke Cage season 2. With Hellcat being the more aggressive character going after Sallinger, and then subsequently becoming the villain and going to jail, you could almost remove Jessica completely from this season and it would have turned out mostly the same. 

Jessica Jones as a character is a good one. Her alcohol loving, don't give a shit attitude is always entertaining. Each subsequent season of all of the Netflix-era Defenders shows got a bit worse (with the exception of Daredevil), but this doesn't mean they were bad. They just weren't as good as their initial seasons. Jessica Jones has been announced to appear in Daredevil: Born Again season 2, and I am excited to see her appearance in that show next year.

My State of Mobile Gaming: Part 10 - Further Emphasis On Streaming

It's difficult to believe that we are entering the last part of the Playstation 5 lifecycle. Yet here we are, nearly 5 years after the PS5's launch, and rumors about the PS6 are beginning to take shape. The PS6 is anticipated to launch in 2027, and one of the more intriguing rumors is that it will have dedicated portable hardware to play games on the go. With the success of the Switch, and the recent reveal of Microsoft's Xbox handheld device called the Asus Rog Xbox Ally X, it seems as if portable is the way things are going for consoles. I've never owned an Xbox, so while a device such as the Rog Xbox Ally X picques my interest, it isn't something I'm going to buy. Much like how I wrestled with the idea of getting a Steam Deck, I'm in no way involved with Xbox or PC gaming, so getting such a device wouldn't make sense. However, I like where gaming consoles are going. As streaming becomes more of an option, the idea of playing your games on multiple devices away from the console itself is intriguing. While I don't see the console disappearing entirely, at least not during the next cycle of consoles, this concept of accessing content away from the console itself has tons of advantages. The fact that portable devices are getting powerful enough that they can run mainstream games is impressive. Which brings me to my current state of gaming on the Playstation Portal.

I was an early adopter to the Playstation Portal, having purchased one almost as soon as they became available. I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the device, though it's mostly been love. My biggest beef with the device is that using Remote Play is finicky at best. I've done everything in my power and with my knowledge to optimize my network for Remote Play, and the damn thing still disconnects frequently. The thing is, it was working quite well for probably close to a year. For whatever reason, however, for the past 2-3 months it has had difficulty maintaining a consistent connection. This is frustrating for obvious reasons, but the biggest frustration is that it isn't exactly clear why it has connection issues in the first place. Researching solutions on the internet is useless, so I'm stuck in frequent disconnect limbo. Being an early adopter, I accept the fact that this device and technology isn't ready for the masses, so I'm excited to see devices like the Rog Xbox Ally X and the Steam Deck being produced, although from what I've read the Rog device may also not quite be ready for the masses.

About a year ago, Sony enabled streaming on the Portal, completely bypassing the need to have a Playstation. In the past year, the streaming library has expanded a lot. My experience with streaming has been very positive. While not perfect, streaming provides a much more consistent experience than using Remote Play from the PS5. My connection with Remote Play has become so finicky that I'm starting to factor in whether or not I can stream the game on the Portal into my decision on which games to play. I've had the chance to stream games on the Portal and play them later on the console, and cloud saving between the devices worked perfectly. I did this a bit with The Witcher 3. 

I'm interested in hearing more about the capabilities of Sony's portable device for the PS6 (if the rumors are true). I imagine that it will involve a combination of streaming from the library in addition to local installation for games. I already have opinions about what this could look like and the pros/cons of this approach, which I will save until a later date. In the meantime, I'll continue to play my Portal, but will likely lean a bit more towards games that I can stream over playing Remote Play.

The Witcher: The Last Wish

 

I've been on a big The Witcher kick after recently completing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Prior to playing that game, I knew little to nothing about the character or series. I knew the games were based on a series of books, however, and it just so happens that the books are available to read on Kindle Unlimited. I discovered that the recommended order to read the books was not the same order as the books were released. The Last Wish is a series of unrelated short stories about the main character, Geralt of Rivia. There wasn't much in the way of introductions or story setup, and if it weren't for my background knowledge from the game, I would have had no idea what was going on in this book. I suppose since it came after some of the other books, the author Sapkowski assumed readers would have familiarity from them. At any rate, I'm glad I had some background of what was going on from the game. If someone were wanting to start the books from scratch, I'd probably recommend they do a little research, at least on the main characters.

At any rate, The Last Wish is a collection of six or seven short stories. They introduce Geralt, and you get a good sense of his demeanor and what he deals with as a Witcher from the short stories. I already had a pretty good sense of this from playing The Witcher 3 for 50+ hours. However, there were a couple of short stories in this book that caught my interest. The first involves Ciri. The entire plot of The Witcher 3 is about finding and protecting Ciri. You learn that she is "special" because she has Elder's Blood, and you know that she isn't Geralt's true daughter (she's more of an adoptive daughter), but you never really learn how Geralt came to know Ciri. The short story in the book explains how this happens. Geralt saves a man's life, and invokes "the law of surprises". From the book and ChatGTP:

As a reward for saving Duny’s life, Geralt refuses gold or land and jokingly claims the Law of Surprise himself — “Give me what you already have but do not know.” Moments later, Pavetta becomes nauseous, revealing she is pregnant. That unborn child is Ciri, tying her fate to Geralt’s forever.

The thing about this chapter, though, is that Ciri's name is never mentioned. I figured out that they were referencing Ciri based on the context, but had I not played the game I would have never known Ciri existed.

The second story that stood out described the circumstances of how Geralt met Yennefer. Geralt's friend, Dandelion, releases a djinn (similar to a genie) from a bottle. Dandelion is injured in the process, and Geralt finds the closest sorceress to heal Dandelion. The sorceress happens to be Yennefer. Yennefer agrees to help Dandelion, under the condition that Geralt helps her. From the book and ChatGTP:

Yennefer heals Dandelion but senses that Geralt still holds one unspoken wish from the djinn. She decides to use him and the djinn to capture the creature for herself, hoping to gain immense power. Her plan backfires: the djinn goes berserk, destroying parts of the town and threatening to kill her.

In the chaos, Geralt realizes Yennefer is doomed unless he uses his final wish. What he wishes for is never directly stated, but it’s implied that he wishes for their fates to be intertwined forever — binding their destinies together. The djinn vanishes, Yennefer is saved, and the magical explosion subsides.

In the aftermath, Geralt and Yennefer — drawn together by both magic and newfound emotion — spend the night together, beginning their complex and tumultuous relationship that continues throughout the Witcher saga.

Yennefer was much discussed in The Witcher 3, and she was referenced by name in the book (unlike Ciri), so I was quite familiar with her character. They even reference their bond in the game, and in one scene they meet up with the djinn to break their bond. In the book, however, the importance of this bond is unknown, unless you are familiar with the rest of The Witcher lore. 

At the end of the day, I enjoyed The Witcher 3 a lot, and thus was happy to extend my knowledge of the characters by reading this book. I think had I started with the book prior to playing the game I would have been lost. I have access to the other books on Kindle Unlimited and will likely read at least some of the other books. I haven't had access to Netflix since the days they were shipping DVDs, but there is a decent chance that I'll pick up a subscription in order to watch the TV series as well.