Ctrl blog

Kitty Letter word-scrambled my brain

Who knew an enchanted letter vortex could cause you trouble falling asleep? How a mobile game engraved a repeating pattern into my brain.

Get Meltdown Alert notifications for PlanetSide 2

Receive browser notifications at the beginning of Meltdown Alert events on your server in PlanetSide 2! Join the fight on Auraxis!

World of Warcraft Classic: Hell is other people

I had a fun time playing WoW Classic until other people started showing up.

Where do you even begin to choose from the overwhelming number of monitor options on the market?

Steam for Linux is more secure than on macOS and Win32

Secure app-sandboxing makes Steam distributed via Flatpak for Linux a more secure gaming environment than macOS and Windows 10.

I’d prefer a monthly subscription for updates to Cities: Skylines

I’ve so far paid hundreds of euros for City Skylines DLCs. I believe I’d prefer paying a small monthly subscription price to keep the game in development.

The early end-of-life for Forza Horizon 2 is a game-cultural tragedy

4 years after its release, Forza Horizon 2 has reached its end of support and is no longer available for sale. Blame its music and car licensing deals.

Flatpak, Steam Cloud, XDG Base, and why Linux doesn’t sync progress

A Steam Cloud documentation mistake is the root cause of why some Steam game titles won’t Cloud Sync when installed with Flatpak on Linux.

The fabulous USB Type-C Simulator app

An amazingly simple app lets you experience the joy of having a reversible USB Type-C cable.

Disappointed by own expectations for Zelda: The Breath of the Wild

I’m not a Zelda fan, but all the hype got me to play Breath of the Wild with way too high expectations.

Trend Micro router security feature broke Steam

A “security feature” on my network router began blocking all downloads through Steam.

Workaround for black screen in Unity games under Linux with glibc 2.25

An ABI change in glibc caused games built on the Unity engine to freeze with a black screen. Here’s how to get your games running again.

Top 3 management games of 2016 for Linux

My favorite city-builders and management games for Linux.

Xbox Play Anywhere and EA

Why can’t I play my Windows PC games cross-platform on the Xbox One?

Blindly deploying IPv6? Watch your sales!

OnePlay’s website is available over IPv6 through Cloudflare. However, its backend servers blocked my purchases as they weren’t IPv6 ready.

Beware of treacherous dual-pairing with DualShock 4 controller

I’d connected my DualShock 4 controller to my PC, but ended up making an accidental purchase from the PlayStation Store while gaming on the PC.

I’ve given up on the Xbox One Kinect

There weren’t really any games released for the Xbox One Kinect, and Microsoft is slowly killing it off.

I’m never pre-ordering another game

I’ve been burned one too many times over launch-day issues and poor quality control on new game titles. I’m a paying customer and not a beta tester!

Xbox One won’t tell you when new game episodes are released

More games are being released episodically. However, the Xbox Store won’t keep you up to date on new game episode releases to series you’ve previously purchased.

Origin game platform sends login and messages in plain-text

EA’s Origin game client puts customer’s security and privacy at risk. Fails to encrypt login data and direct messages exchanged between users.

Don’t save game progress in My Documents!

Windows has long had a My Games folder, but many games insist on saving your game-progress to My Documents instead.

Nintendo is discontinuing support for games for the Nintendo Wii, and I fume over vendor lock-ins and other consumer-hostile practices in the game industry.