This 'edition' (I feel a bit odd calling it an edition, like I'm selling you a newspaper or something) might focus more on some GOG news, so consider this more of a 'lite' news version I guess?

Try keep in mind:

• I'm no professional, I just love gaming news
• I write these in a certain style: trying my best to replicate 'old' gaming sites, forums or articles (which tbh I wasn't even alive for), since to me it feels that even the better sites covering gaming are constantly vying for your support or showing ads
• These are image and GIF-heavy posts (sorry!)
• I'm currently on holiday on a small island off the south coast of Thailand, where 'velium' (not valium) is happily handed over the counter like candy with no prescription. So this may make zero sense

collapsed inline media

---

It's Just GOG?

collapsed inline media

I've seen some interesting GOG things these last few days, and thought they deserved some attention. It's natural in gaming and particularly with the Steam Deck that your focus would be on Steam. But one thing I keep on harassing people about is GOG. I love it, and I love them!

---

GOG Preservation Program:

collapsed inline media

25 years after its original PlayStation 1 release, Breath of Fire IV finally returns, available right now on GOG, thanks in part to the (semi-recently revamped) Dreamlist system that GOG has in place

You can grab it and keep it forever now: https://www.gog.com/game/breath_of_fire_iv

This wouldn’t have happened without the support of over 22,000 passionate Dreamlist voters and the fantastic team at Capcom, who trusted us to bring you this masterpiece in its very best form.

And what do we mean by its “very best form”? Well, Breath of Fire IV also joins the GOG Preservation Program. Our release is fully optimized for modern PCs, with Windows 10 & 11 support, both English and Japanese localizations, upgraded DirectX rendering, new display options (Windowed Mode, V-Sync, Anti-Aliasing, refined gamma correction), a reworked audio engine (with restored missing environmental sounds & added new sound configuration options), and more improvements.

Simply put, this JRPG classic is now made to live forever :)

But, GOG didn't stop with just one. Like last time they brought games to the program, there was a bunch at once. Eight other games, each over 20 years old are now 'as good as they can be':

• Ultima Underworld I+II & Ultima 9: Ascension (completing the Ultima series in the Program)

• Worms Armageddon

• Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood

• Realms of the Haunting

• Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon

• Stonekeep

You can find all the new arrivals here with this link

Oh, and we’ve also prepared a special video that goes more in-depth on bringing BoF IV back, as well as introducing all the other titles to the Program. We hope you enjoy it! If you do, consider following the GOG Classics Vault channel for more content like this.

This video can be found with this link!

---

Gogg Downloader:

A few weeks ago, a user named Hassan Abedi created Gogg: an open-source tool for downloading game files from GOG:

It's a minimalistic command-line tool I developed to help people download games they own on GOG for offline play or archival purposes. Gogg is written in Go and uses the GOG API. It's available for different operating systems, including Linux and Windows.

The most recent new version, 0.4.1-beta includes a major improvement for their service - a GUI built with Fyne.

collapsed inline media

This means you can now choose how you want to use Gogg:

• Stick with the existing Command-Line Interface (CLI) for scripting and terminal use

• Use the new GUI for a more visual experience, which might be more comfortable for some people.

Besides the GUI, Gogg still has features like:

• Downloading game files, extras, and DLCs.
• Resuming downloads.
• Managing a local catalog of your GOG games (list, search, refresh, export).
• Calculating required storage space and hashing downloaded files.
• Running on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

New release's download link on GitHub is here

(You can find the latest code and the documentation on the GitHub repository with this link, too)[https://github.com/habedi/gogg]

Planned for the future is support for Safari and Edge

---

Comet:

A little while ago I convinced my friend imLinguin that Halt and Catch Fire is one of the best TV shows around, and by far the best which is focused on computers - software and hardware.

• The trailer for season one is here btw, if you want to get an idea of what I'm talking about!

collapsed inline media

Without spoilers, there's something in the show called Comet. And, if you know Heroic Games Launcher (a method of playing GOG, Epic Games and Amazon titles on your Steam Deck, Windows, Mac or Linux desktops with!), you'll know it uses something called Comet:

Open Source implementation of GOG Galaxy Communication Service for SDK bundled with GOG games

After watching Halt and Catch Fire, imLinguin worked on a little logo for his own Comet, which you can see here:

collapsed inline media

It's a nice little nod, and is now something of two things I adore!

---

Relisted:

Maybe you're used to the sad news that games are being de-listed. It's sadly quite common with every platform, and is always due to the publishers, never the store-fronts.

This time however we're seeing good news, with a few games now relisted onto GOG:

• Slain
• Valfaris
• Valfaris: Mecha Therion

These were delisted in March, but back now. So thankfully it was only a short wait!

---

Gamesieve:

https://gamesieve.com/

collapsed inline media

This one is rather impressive, and has already had a few little changes which help users. I'm just going to format and paste the info here as it is, since the hard work is done for me already (and there's no room for my own nonsense opinions being thrown in!)

This one is quite long, and detailed, so beware!

What is it?

Full-text search for the entire GOG game catalog, with advanced filters and price-tracking for 12 currencies. I've tried to optimize for information-density without reducing usability. I also put a lot of effort into correcting and enriching the data from GOG's API. Lots more of all of that to come.

Why?

Because I wanted to prove to myself I could, and because I keep discovering new gems on GOG which I wish I'd known about years ago already. The way GOG surfaces games keeps throwing up the same old titles I already know - but there are simply too many games there for me to try and browse through them all without any direction. GOG's search and filtering is acceptable - but not more than that, while so much more could be done in this space.

Searching:

• The search field will search through most of the information you see on a GOG game page - though not the reviews or the technical requirements (those I'll try to expose as a filter at some point down the road).
• You can use "phrase searches", which are also useful for searching for special characters, e.g. for ultimate 'intellectual property': "™" "®"
• You can exclude -terms -"and phrases", e.g. space shooter -warhammer -"star wars"
• I've tried to be intelligent with the way search works - really thinking about which results you might want. E.g. you can search for rpg or roleplaying game and get the same results. I might have blind spots though, so let me know if a search doesn't return something which you think it should.

Grouping:

• By default all editions, expansions, demos, goodie packs and bundles are grouped together into a single result for the main game. You can toggle this off in the top left for a more classic search (as on GOG). The one usecase I've personally identified where this is really useful is when searching for specific goodies like soundtracks.
• Search will return a result if any grouped product matches. Filters only apply to information about the "main game".
• If there are three or more products grouped with the main game, they'll be collapsed. (The 3 editions and 65 expansions for Europa Universalis IV take nearly two full screens to show!)

Product types:

• I've manually identified all editions, demos and goodie packs, and given them separate categories. It's always possible I missed - or misidentified - something. If so, please let me know about it. (N.B. I did apply a broad brush to what is a "demo". Prologues and similar free "tasters" also got lumped in there.)
• There've been a few cases where I made a call on what's most useful which goes against the way products are actually structured; e.g. the chapters of Higurashi When They Cry Hou are technically standalone games, but I decided that they make more sense grouped together as expansions. Lust From Beyond (NSFW) is grouped as an edition of the "M Edition" remake (rather than the other way around), and so on. I'll be happy to discuss the merits of specific cases if anyone cares.

Sorting:

• Default sorting when browsing (and on the homepage) is percentage difference of current price to the best from the last 365 days, followed by percentage difference of current price to the all-time low, followed by release date on GOG (most recent first; taking the date of the full release for early access games, where possible). So this preferentially exposes the best "new" deals, rather than the same old discounts you see during each and every sale.
• Default sorting when searching is "relevance score"; that is how similar each matching game is to the search terms.
• More sorting options are coming very soon.

Filters basics:

• There are two types of filters:

1. Regular drill-down filters, which can overlap with each other. You can exclude each of these with the "X" to the right.

2. Multi-select filters, which have no overlap (with the exception of "never"/"none in the last year" for "frequency of sales"), which allow you to pick multiple categories independently (so that's effectively an OR operation).

• All filters are just regular links, so you can open them in a new tab to browse multiple paths. This does mean all filters trigger a full page load (no fancy JavaScript here), which can be annoying if you want to enable multiple multi-select filters. I might revisit this decision, but for the moment the tradeoff felt worth it.

More about filters:

• The "exclude NSFW" filter is special, in being applied by default (also applying to the recent releases in the sidebar). It's a single click to turn it off, and that's remembered for followup searches. Once it's turned off, the "NSFW" term shows in the Tags filter and can be "required" as usual for any filter.
• If you're not certain what a specific filter does, try hovering over it for a tooltip (if you're not on a touch device), or simply enabling it. The resulting page will frequently have an explanation at the top, e.g. that the "rarely" filter for "frequency of sales" indicates that the game has been on sale 1-3 times in the last year.
• It's a lie that I added the "At most 10 expansions" filter from the "About the game" section purely to exclude Paradox games. You can after all also exclude that filter to get all games with more than 10 expansions! (And then you'll see that of the 30 results, 'only' 5 are published by Paradox.)

Price tracking and currencies:

• I have price history for the US since April 2021, with massive thanks to gogdb for providing that. Whenever you see "all-time low", that means "since April 2021".
• I have price history for Canada, Brazil, the UK, Germany, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, China and Australia since early December 2024. I extrapolate price differences before that based on US price history, but this is pretty crude, so take it with a grain of salt.
• For the moment I only present price information in a single currency for each country. If you have a usecase for wanting a non-default currency for one of these countries, let me know about it?
• As far as I know, prices in the entire eurozone are identical, so if you're from France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, etc, you should just be able to look at German prices. (If anyone knows an example to the contrary, I'd love to hear about it!) At some point down the road, I intend to actually compare prices for all products for all eurozone countries to make certain of this, but for the moment this isn't a priority.

Data quality:

• Besides badly chosen defaults (the many release dates of xmas 1991 and NYE 2000 and so on), data entry at GOG is obviously the work of humans who occasionally suffer from fat fingers. I've identified and corrected a lot, but I have no doubt there's a lot more to find. I'll be happy to take a look at any errors you know about, and since I'm also a human, please let me know about my own fat-fingered mistakes as well! (I'm also thinking about a way to contribute fixes back to GOG, though I suspect I'd really need a more rigorous process for that to actually be useful / something GOG would actually want.)

---

World of Goo 2:

collapsed inline media

Available now on GOG! Sadly still a higher price than on other store-fronts, but what can we do. The price for DRM-free joy is higher than the alternatives, I suppose!

---

Amerzone Remake:

Amerzone - The Explorer's Legacy has released also on GOG.

collapsed inline media

Answer the call of exploration as you travel to Amerzone, a forgotten Latin American country, to fulfill the last wishes of a late explorer. Investigate the ruins of this secretive land reclaimed by nature, meet intriguing characters with deep backstories and solve intricate puzzles to uncover the truth. Will you unveil the mysteries surrounding the mythical Great White Birds?

The link to the store page on GOG is here!

---

Junk Store:

collapsed inline media

My preferred method of playing GOG and Epic Games titles on my Steam Deck is Junk Store.

I like the UI and how it so closely resembles Valve's own for the Deck - it feels about as native as I could hope, and like it is an extension of the official Deck's UI/UX. I love it.

Anyway, Junk Store is turning one year old tomorrow! Since their first release, 12 months have passed. Nice to see that a project which began as a method for playing Epic and GOG for the dev and friends was released to the public.

If you're interested in some more Junk Store info, then check out:

• The GitHub page is here

• Their website is here

• Discord link is here

• Their update on what is next for Junk Store is here, which I shared one month ago on Lemmy

---

Top Lists:

The recent bestsellers on GOG are:

• Breath of Fire IV
• Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Ed.
• DOOM (2016)
• Control Ultimate Ed.
• Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection
• In Sound Mind - Deluxe Ed.
• Alien Isolation Collection
• Homeworld Remastered Collection

The top wishlisted in the last 30 days are:

• Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
• Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
• Silent Hill 4: The Room
• System Shock 2: 25th Anniv. Remaster
• Sudeki
• Baldur's Gate 3
• Resident Evil Bundle
• Dino Crisis Bundle
• F.E.A.R. Platinum

---

A Recommendation:

collapsed inline media

If you've not played it before, I can't recommend Islets enough. Its one of those games to me - which feels uniquely perfect on the Steam Deck (like DREDGE, Art of Rally, Hades and so on!)

Its such a cute lttle indie Metroidvania that stands out thanks to the charming hand-drawn art style, and cozy atmosphere.

collapsed inline media

The game’s unique hook is its interconnected floating islands, which you gradually piece together like puzzle pieces.

collapsed inline media

Combat is smooth and satisfying, with upgrades that add depth without silly overwhelming complexity, while the small but dense world encourages backtracking in a way that never feels tedious. Add the quirky characters, and you get a game that’s both relaxing and engaging—perfect for players who love exploration-focused adventures like Hollow Knight or Ori, but prefer a more approachable, breezy experience. It’s a short game, but I just love it.

collapsed inline media

---

And Lastly?

If you missed their blog post last year, GOG shared 10 fun facts about GOG themselves. I love these, and maybe you will too, if you're looking for some quick entertainment!

https://www.gog.com/blog/10-fun-facts-about-gog/

---

That's all folks

Sorry its so brief compared to my other efforts. I just thought it nice to focus on a space which rarely gets the attention (I think) it deserves.

I love GOG and their DRM-free stance. I love how GOG takes games preservation seriously, and most importantly I love the color purple - so that means this one wins hands down :)

News Links:

You can check my previous (and far longer) News Posts here - I’ll link them for you so if you’re curious:

• Steam Deck / Gaming News #2
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #3
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #4
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #5
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #6
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #7
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #9
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #11

Mastodon

If you want to follow me on Mastodon, I’m posting there every single day (typically), so come join in if you’d like:

collapsed inline media

...anyway, I hope you enjoy some of this! My next News Post will be back to the regular a-little-bit-of-everything content. I hope you're all having fun playing whatever games you're loving at the moment, too!

💜

Mark Carney led the Liberals to a narrow victory on Monday in an election dominated by issues like affordability, tariffs and annexation threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

CTV News is declaring the Liberals have won enough seats in the 45th federal election to form a minority government.

As of 11:00 p.m EDT, the Liberals had won or were leading in 156 out of 343 ridings. Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are set to remain in opposition, with 144 ridings so far. Parties need 172 seats to form a majority.

My general assumption for the lowest I can expect a person to behave is basically always looking for their own absolute gain, and any attitude towards other people comes secondary to that. So while a person living by this standard wouldn't donate to charity without some other motive, they would have basically the same answer to something like the trolley problem as anyone else.

Am I wrong thinking of this as a "minimum reasonable behavior", or is there something people actually gain from the suffering of other people?

This question was born out of seeing how people are being treated by the US government at the moment, but I'm asking about more than just that. People like abusive partners/family, hostile cops, or just bullies in general.

I see you mods. It's good to be home.

When do ripped jeans stop being fashionable?

Trump is intending to turn the tariffs into a sales tax to replace the income tax. This place a monumental amount of the tax load on poor and middle class Americans. The tariffs do not show up on your receipts or your tax return, but it is a huge economic burden nonetheless. If the republicans manage to make a case for getting rid of the income tax, it will be very difficult to reestablish it.

We cannot allow republicans to control the narrative on this. We need to stop talking about tariffs and taxes like they're two separate things. TARIFFS = TAXES. Repeat this over and over again on all media platforms.

---

Originally Posted By u/BeneficialNatural610 At 2025-04-27 02:04:23 PM | Source

---

Back in 1970, Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock, where he introduced the idea that too much rapid change could leave people feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and disconnected. He called it "future shock" — and honestly, reading it today feels almost eerie with how accurate he was.

Toffler believed we were moving from an industrial society to a "super-industrial" one, where everything would change faster than people could handle. The book was a huge hit at the time, selling over six million copies, but what's crazy is how much of what he talked about feels even more true in 2025. Some examples:

• Disposable culture: He predicted throwaway products, and now we have single-use plastics, fast fashion, and gadgets that feel obsolete within a year.

• Tech burnout: Toffler said technology would become outdated faster and faster. Today, if you don’t upgrade your phone or update your software, you feel left behind.

• Rent instead of own: Services like Airbnb and Uber fit his prediction that we’d move away from owning things and toward renting everything.

• Job instability: He nailed the rise of the gig economy, freelancing, and how fast-changing industries make it hard to stay trained up and secure.

• Transient relationships: He warned about shallow, fleeting social connections — something social media, dating apps, and global mobility have absolutely amplified.

• Information overload: This term literally came from Future Shock, and if you've ever felt exhausted just from scrolling through your feeds or reading the news, you know exactly what he meant.

Toffler also talked about the "death of permanence" — not just products, but relationships, jobs, even identities becoming temporary and interchangeable. He warned it would cause "shattering stress and disorientation." Looking around at the rising rates of anxiety, depression, and burnout today, it’s hard not to see what he meant.

I think about this book a lot when I read about some of the sick things happening today. Is this a warped perspective?

...Because he speaks for the trees

Two members of Elon Musk's DOGE have been given accounts on classified networks that hold highly guarded details about America's nuclear weapons, two independent sources tell NPR.

Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern, and Adam Ramada, a Miami-based venture capitalist, have had accounts on the computer systems for at least two weeks, according to the sources who also have access to the networks.

Prior to their work at DOGE, neither Farritor nor Ramada appear to have had experience with either nuclear weapons or handling classified information.

Samsung and Xiaomi apps on their factory defaults are mostly fine, update them once and suddenly you have ads flashing after every 2 interactions with your phone

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Spaghetti_Squash_Marinara.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_squash

Hi all, I have transitioned my desktop PC to linux and am really liking it so far. I recently bought Oblivion Eemastered, but it seems like it's too much for my old 1060 6gb to handle. So now I'm looking at what options are available - and would obviously like to get an option that works well with Linux. Since I don't game as much anymore, I don't think I can justify spending much more than €300 on it. I haven't looked at the GPU market for 8 years now, so I don't know what's going. What advice do you people have? I have looked at the 4060, the 7600 and the 7600XT, but not sure if they are good value, I'm getting mixed info online.

I appreciate any help and advice you people have.

The Regime has issued 2 new Executive Orders which have a lot of implications, especially when paired together.

Remember, historical authoritarian consolidation typically follows this pattern:

1. Target marginalized groups first
2. Create legal/administrative frameworks under crisis justification
3. Gradually expand systems to broader populations
4. Centralize power under executive control

---

Summary of the Executive Orders

1. Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens

   • Orders the compilation of a list of "sanctuary jurisdictions" [Blue States and Cities] which are deemed in defiance of the Regime.
   • It warns of consequences for places with Sanctuary Jurisdiction Status including suspension or termination of Federal funds as well as legal remedies and enforcement measures to bring such jurisdictions into compliance.
   • When a State or City is judged as defying the Regime, all Aliens in that Sanctuary Jurisdiction lose Federal Benefits. There is no specification if the Alien is a criminal, if they are legally staying in the US, or even if they have a green card and are a Resident Alien.
   • The order also states that it will violate States rights and that the Federal Government will identify and take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices that it disagrees with.

2. Strengthening and Unleashing America's Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens

   • Provide Federally funded legal resources and indemnification to law enforcement officers who incur expenses and liabilities for actions taken while enforcing the law
   • Recruit, retrain, and protect law enforcement so that they can better carry out the Regime's orders
   • Make examples out of anyone that in any way defies a law enforcement officer or the Regime
   • invest in the security and capacity of prisons
   • increase the investment in and collection, distribution, and uniformity of crime data across jurisdictions.
   • increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist State and local law enforcement.
   • determine how military and national security assets, training, non-lethal capabilities, and personnel can most effectively be utilized
   • prosecution of State and local officials who direct the obstruction of criminal law or engage in DEI
   • Use of Homeland Security Task Forces to coordinate the expedition of this order

What is the Regime planning with these 2 orders?

• Regime command over State autonomy

  • The intention to withhold Federal resources by demanding cooperation in immigration and law enforcement.
  • The Regime wants to assert unchecked authority to force compliance.
  • States might resist, but absent constitutional safeguards, they’d have no recourse -- only political defiance (e.g., governors refusing Federal funding).
  • Regime oversight of local law enforcement erodes state/local autonomy, ensuring loyalty to the regime.
  • Funds and equipment flow to loyalists, reinforcing regime-aligned factions.

• Threatening sanctions

  • Withholding Federal funding
  • Directly prosecuting state officials for obstruction
  • Framing critics as "criminals", discredits opposition in the eyes of the public.

• Fear and Compliance

  • Further militarized police that are free to do anything they want foster a climate of fear, discouraging dissent.
  • Rhetoric of "protecting innocents" legitimizes crackdowns to the general public.
  • Creates a scapegoat "Criminal alien" that could be expanded to other groups

• Expanded Law Enforcement Powers

  • Grants law enforcement agencies broader authority, including reduced judicial oversight in certain cases.
  • Increases funding and resources for local law enforcement, including military-grade equipment, under the justification of "protecting innocent citizens."
  • Directs federal agencies to coordinate more closely with local law enforcement, potentially bypassing state or local autonomy.
  • Coordination between federal and local agencies enable better surveillance of dissidents or censorship.

• Erosion of Checks and Balances

  • Limits judicial review for certain law enforcement actions, weakening accountability mechanisms.
  • Creates a patronage system where agencies depend on executive branch resources.
  • Reduced judicial oversight allows the regime to bypass legal challenges.
  • Rapid implementation without legislative debate avoids scrutiny or opposition.

Historical Parallels

• Germany (1930s): The Reichstag Fire Decree centralized power under the guise of "public safety."
• Venezuela (2000s): Chávez federalized police and courts.
• Modern Autocrats: Rules against "extremism" in Russia or "subversion" in China are used to criminalize dissent.
• Militarization: Increased police militarization can lead to suppression of protests or civil unrest under the guise of maintaining order.
• Echoes authoritarian playbooks where law enforcement is weaponized against political opponents.
• Language emphasizing "law and order" and "protecting the innocent," has historically been used to justify crackdowns on dissent.