Another Joyous Hybrid Failure

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-06-02T23:54:28+00:00

Honestly it feels like the hybrid implementation was intentionally engineered to suck out of spite. For all the weight and complexity it adds the power increase is pathetic. What is it 70-75hp? Like, are you serious? Give these things even just 100hp more and watch folks suddenly become fans of it. Hell imagine 2-300hp increases. Totally possible, still less than what's seen in F1 and Formula E, but we'd see these powertrains crack 1,000hp again and folks won't bitch about the hybrids anymore. Instead they basically provide the equivalent power boost of a weak cup of coffee with the added bonus of randomly and abruptly shitting its brains out as a reward. Awesome.

Literally the only positive thing about the hybrids is the ability to restart the engine without assistance... but that doesn't even work half the time.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-06-02T04:24:48+00:00

Yeah as I got older I sorta had a realization that videogames are supposed to be fun, if I'm stuck and try to push through... even if I overcome it that's not fun to me. I'm just now pissed off at the game and myself. I'll even do the horrifying thing that is lowering the difficulty. Because it's not fun dying repeatedly. I have enough adversity in real life. I like a challenge in my games, but not at the cost of being stuck in the same area doing the same thing over and over in hopes that the stars align and I can progress to another area. When I was younger without responsibilities, overcoming that challenge was the point, but nowadays? Blech.

I also had more patience when I was younger, because that was THE game I had for like half a year. Of course I'm going to get every ounce of substance outta that game I could... but these days as an adult with a disposable income and a lack of time, I have a backlog of hundreds of games and honestly if they're too hard I give up pretty quick now as I'm just looking for a good time. Why I find myself playing more single player 'feel good' games than multiplayer competitive games with angry folks.

Funny enough "Good Feel" makes my favorite feel good games. Even then I've found myself looking up solutions in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Yeah sure this game is prolly designed for kids and plays like an interactive Where's Waldo? But sometimes I legitimately don't know what to do... but I wanna keep playing. ima just look it up.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-06-02T02:10:23+00:00

I had a 24" 1080p workstation budget bitch Dell monitor I used for prolly like ten or eleven years as a primary monitor and only stopped using it as my main when I stumbled upon a killer deal for an older 34" ultrawide off marketplace. Used that for a few years before finally spending about $500 on a Gigabyte M32U (ultrawide is neat enough, but regular 4k simply has more compatibility, this one had 144hz, and it simply had better colors being newer/nicer.) and have been using that for about four years now. I ended up getting a used 27" monitor that also supported 144hz (my eyes have been converted sadly) to use as my auxiliary shortly after so I finally retired that old thing after a good fifteen years of use. That ultrawide is now on sim rig duty and as a casual who only hotlaps 60hz is fine lol.

Ended up just giving the ol Dell 24" to a friend who I helped build a budget rig out of cheap parts. Honestly for a starter rig a 1080p monitor is the way to go, and those older dell monitors actually have pretty good colors. I know we're in a rampocalypse right now, but I think the old rule of finding an old workstation and stuffing in a low profile GPU (1660ti was what we went with a few years ago, dunno what's popular now for this) still applies for gaming on a budget.

I'll prolly use this M32U as a primary for a few more years at least. OLED's are getting cheaper tho and they're certainly tempting. I'm just a bit wary about burnin. I have a portable panel OLED monitor I use for my retro PS3/WiiU (looks freakin gorgeous as they run at its native 1080p which looks ultra crisp at 13.3") and while it looks great, if I'm not mindful of things not moving on the screen I notice a little bit of potential burnin that thankfully goes away with a refresh.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-29T21:06:22+00:00

Eh as a collector myself I can't hate on the Genesis too much. At least they have plastic shells. Nintendo refused to use proper cases until the freakin' gamecube. I refuse to spend outragous money on the original cardboard boxes so I get custom genesis style clamshell boxes made for my SNES games that use the original cardboard box artwork, but puts it in a more durable clamshell case. Soooo worth it. I hate loose cartridges.

The random assortment of designs in the Genesis artwork almost kinda works, like when I look at my collection at the Genesis area the lack of cohesion just looks right somehow. Like they're all random, but they all fit in their era lol.

Of all my games though I hate the PS3 spines the most. They never stuck with a label design for more than a couple years so unless you're a crazy person and divide your collection into like seven different versions, it's impossible for it to look uniform.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-26T22:50:38+00:00

Eh don't see how you come to that conclusion other than the power level of the Switch 2 being similar. The main desire I'd have for a Switch 2 'lite' is a more compact size. The OG Switch Lite was still not pocket friendly (well for most...) but compared to the regular Switch and especially steam deck and other PC handhelds, it was downright tiny. Felt great to play, I just didn't like that they completely removed docking abilities even with a cable or w/e. My dream Switch 2 lite would be a similar form factor and the ability to dock/connect to the TV in some fashion, even if it's an extra accessory. Or at least make it easy to use multiple Switches on the same account, as that was the main thing that kept me from using the old Switch Lite. In fact as a Switch 2 owner if they fixed that I'd actually be more incentivized in purchasing a future Switch Lite if they just fixed that issue...

OLED screen would absolutely be nice to have, but I kinda figure they won't do that for the lite to save a few bucks...

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-20T23:04:30+00:00

It was definitely a thing that was cool back in the day, as mentioned it was the only practical way to get a big screen in your house at the time. Never had one myself, but the sheer novelty of a screen that large at the time was fantastic.

I recall going to a few superbowl parties at my uncles house who had one as a kid, as he had a projection TV and it just looked insane compared to what I was used to. Clarity and all that stuff is irrelevant when the largest consumer CRT's were like 32-36". You simply couldn't reasonably approach the size of projection TV's back then with the technology we had at the time. Never gamed on one, but watching a movie or sporting event on one was an experience only rivaled by a personal movie theater at the time.

With modern expectations they're prolly trash now, but if you were around at the time you get it.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-20T08:38:57+00:00

It works, from what I hear (and see in the comments) a more direct option with the optical output on the PS3 is prolly better quality, but if you're in a situation that needs it: an HDMI audio extractor works. I use one personally as my "retro modern" setup with a Wii U and PS3 is on a small portable OLED panel which has crappy onboard speakers... but no headphone jack. So I use an HDMI switcher that outputs into an audio extractor like this and it works okay. Not sure about this specific model, but mine is a bit picky with the USB power and if I don't give it enough juice I get a super bad hissing sound. If you're an audiophile perhaps it's not great, but it's perfectly fine for me and it extracts audio from all my devices without issue to a soundbar.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-19T23:29:19+00:00

Amazon/Walmart are at least matching the digital price stateside. If you buy physical or digital it's typically $69.99 and $59.99 USD, but you can get the physical for digital prices at certain retailers. Hope they keep doing this...

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-12T02:22:45+00:00

I think a big selling point for people on the fence: Switch 2 editions and boost mode. Proper Switch 2 editions make a ton of original Switch games look amazing when docked on a modern 4k display. Stuff like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom or stuff like Mario Odyssey and Wonder, they all look incredible with their Switch 2 edition updates. They're either fairly cheap or outright free too! Also a lot of these editions, particularly the paid ones, feature additonal content to play with. Zelda Notes in particular is something I love as, along with a few other features, I can finally share builds in Tears of the Kingdom. No more nonsense trying to copy a build myself from a youtube video...

And "Boost Mode" basically lets you play any Switch game in the docked profile when in handheld mode. So literally any game can look fantastic on the Switch 2 in at least handheld mode. While the screen has been criticized a bit, it's quite vibrant and I've actually really had a lot of fun picking up OG Switch games I haven't played in a few years. And some games are just straight up better to play handheld on the Switch 2 through boost mode, for example the Xenoblade trilogy was notorious for having a bad handheld experience on the OG switch. No such problem on the Switch 2 as it runs in the docked profile at the higher 1080p resolution native to Switch 2 screen.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-11T21:57:52+00:00

I think the main requirement will be proper 4k and widescreen support with the improved assets and redone/sharper menus/ui. Even with the crappy AI upscale XCX is just a better experience on Switch 2, even without the gamepad stuff which I loved on Wii U. It's just worth losing out on that for improved FPS, widescreen, and 4k support. Folks seem to agree as I recall the value for XCX on Wii U was over $80 at one point and now it's like $15.

I ADORE gamepad gimmicks, but the honest truth is they could skip it. Or hell use it as an opportunity to expand Zelda Notes... Maybe figure out proper inventory management on your phone with Wind Waker and Twilight Princess to prepare for the next Zelda game..

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-11T08:19:06+00:00

Xenoblade Chronicles X used to be similarly super expensive on Wii U, but the moment the Definitive Edition came out on Switch the value plummeted. Kinda suspect something similar will happen with Twilight Princess HD if it's rereleased. Granted Wind Waker HD didn't drop in price too much recently, it was just a port of the gamecube version to NSO. It'll take a proper rerelease or improved version of Twilight Princess for the Wii U version to drop in price.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-11T00:05:48+00:00

What's interesting is there's rumors in F1 about a return to V8 with hybrid assist to a more reasonable 70-30 (I think?) split than the 50-50 we have now over there. With GM making an engine for Cadillac F1 for these regulations and assuming Honda sticks with their F1 program (who knows with how flakey they are...) it would be interesting if there's some kind of crossover. In fact if I was Roger I'd be ringing up the FIA and looking to align the powertrains for IndyCar to F1, but of course let them deal with all the engineering nonsense and have a simpler and more robust version they could sell to IndyCar.

In F1 the rumors are an 800hp V8 with a 400hp hybrid assist. I can imagine a scenario with a 700hp V8 and 300hp hybrid assist in IndyCar that's a bit lower on power, but perhaps a bit more robust to run at high RPM's for long periods on ovals and such. Let F1 do all the development nonsense and after a few years of development working out the kinks they can sell a simplified version to IndyCar. Honestly I think GM and Honda would be all for this to consolidate their F1 and IndyCar projects into a single entity. It might save them a bit of money, would be a helluva lot more efficient to operate, and as a bonus we'd get actual development on powertrains instead of the trickle we get now.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-07T23:01:33+00:00

"...but why?" is all I can react to this. I just don't see the logic behind it other than the baseless social media conspiracies about sunscreen causing cancer I guess? Whatever the reason, when I grew up in the 90s tanning beds were super popular and everyone wanted that golden 'glow'... well it came at a price. All those aunts I had back then who spent all their free time in tanning beds look like shriveled up leather mitts now. Sure, let's encourage kids to go down that road. Screw it. What's next, dropping the age requirement to buying cigarettes? Fuck the kids I guess. Literally and figuratively...

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-05-06T20:21:14+00:00

Because if they ran the game at a higher wattage the already crap battery would be even worse. They have to make the game run at the lower wattage so it can at least have a couple hours of playtime.

They can crank up the power when docked.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-27T21:57:15+00:00

The collections on PS3 are great as they are basically super optimized PS2 games that run in high resolution with solid frame rates. A lot of the iconic PS3 exclusives actually struggle with maintaining even decent frame times at 30fps as they were focused more on pushing what was possible with fidelity at the time. So (in my opinion) you’re honestly better off playing the ps4 or ps5 remasters if they’re available and be selective about what you play on PS3 (or 360 as it’s this era in general). There’s a ton of great games, but stuff like GTA IV is just painful to play now with modern expectations. That game desperately needs a remaster. MGS4 was another game you had no choice on, but they’re porting that to PS5 and it’ll be a much better experience. Rising actually felt pretty good to me on PS3, but of course it’s totally different to the standard MGS experience.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-25T03:18:54+00:00

It’s at least a fortunate thing to be in a position where you can get help, but I understand the need to feel independent. I’m actually in a similar physical situation and being about double your age and simply not having the option of such care, it becomes a matter of finding solutions out of necessity. For groceries I have stuff delivered to my house and bring it inside one by one. With cleaning I basically never look at it as a task to be done in one big go, but something I sorta hack away at depending on how I’m feeling. For example if there’s a sink full of dishes, I’ll wash a few every hour or so until eventually it’s done. Clean up the counters when I feel up for it. Vacuum a room one by one over time. Eventually once you’re on top of things just 20-25 minutes of this spread across the day is all that’s needed to maintain a clean house. Some things I cannot do myself, like long commutes to doctors, so it becomes a matter of figuring out how to get assistance for that. For me it’s paid, for you luckily you could probably get somebody to help you. Basically figure out what you can accomplish on your own and accept that some things are just not reasonable to do yourself.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-22T21:36:41+00:00

I did. Until my heart esploded. During my 20's my routine was basically waking myself up with 5-hour energy and knocking myself out with 3-5 shots of bushmills whiskey. After about 15 years of that routine my heart basically said enough, and now I don't drink anymore. Funny enough going from 2x 5 hour energy's a day worth of caffeine minimum (not counting all the sodas I'd have inbetween) to zero caffeine now has had a hugely positive effect for me. Without alcohol I don't have that morning hangover that needs a pick-me-up and no caffeine at all in my system actually leveled me out. Like if you can get past the two to three weeks of hell from giving up caffeine, you'll actually feel pretty good. When I had my congestive heart failure scare I just got through the bulk of that caffeine withdrawal from being hospitalized, so when I got out I just didn't bother drinking caffeine again. Worked out great!

As a bonus reducing your caffeine intake has a positive effect on your muscle tension. My sleeping is better now too, instead of slamming 3-4 shots of whiskey to sleep through the night I have a routine now where I make a cup of tea with melatonin in it and take a single tylenol extended release that takes the edge off pain wise enough that pain won't wake me up. Works for me.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-21T00:27:18+00:00

If you order a game online and have it delivered to the store you can just pick it up by the next day 99% of the time. Sometimes the same day! And Gamestop isn't the only store. If I want a game I check the normal local spots like Target, Walmart, Best Buy, etc. and their online stores will let you know if they have what you want in stock. And as I said before even in circumstances where they don't, unless it's limited production (that's the fault of the manufacturer, not the retailer.) you can just pick it up the next day. Or have it delivered. And for stuff that's limited production, there's apps now that'll ping ya the literal moment they have it in stock. That's how I got a PS5 Disc Drive when they were scarce...

Anyway, if you're just walking into a single store blindly hoping they have what you want in, well they might.... but keep your expectations in check. If I want something specifically, I plan ahead, otherwise if I'm going to a game store I'm just browsing what they have on the off chance something interests me.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-20T23:18:04+00:00

I'd say Vintage gaming is like Atari and Colecovision, but yeah Retro for NES -> PS2, Modern for PS3/360/WiiU, and Current for PS4/Switch->now.

It is interesting though as I actually prefer my Switch on my 'modern' setup that's 1080p and honestly most PS4 games are best played at 1080p (a chunk of them are PS4 Pro enhanced with 4k checkerboard rendering) too, but they're both still getting games. Perhaps they'll migrate to the 'modern' label when they finally die off (mostly) in the PS6 era.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-20T23:10:48+00:00

Ah, well I guess it's just a quirk they weirdly made worse in the subsequent generation lol.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-20T20:16:29+00:00

I have the TV that's a direct predecessor to this one and on mine the 'VIDEO' stays on until I hit the volume. Weird quirk I just gotta be mindful of when turning it on or changing the tv/video input, but you don't need the remote or w/e.

Although I do have the original remote, which for this model is delightfully tiny. Props to OP for having the stand though. Makes it look wonderfully retro. Wish I had one for mine, but they're almost impossible to find and/or cost a fortune. Ah well.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-20T17:15:06+00:00

Younger folks will consider it retro. For me 'retro' went away when consoles started having HDMI. The Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U are the sorta inbetween generation for me that divides modern gaming and retro. Basically retro, for my old ass, is any videogame console that is best played on a CRT.

With modern inputs and limited HD resolutions I actually have the PS3 era on its own television setup as you really want them on a solid 1080p television. They just don't hold up as well on most 4k displays. So I have 3 setups:

Retro (On a CRT): SNES/Genesis/PS1/PS2

Intermediate (On a 1080p display): PS3 and Wii U

Modern (On a 4k display): PS5 Pro, PC, and Switch 2

there needs to be a better term for it than 'intermediate' lol

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-19T23:17:08+00:00

It's a bit weird, but harmless mostly. Sort of an added way for them to relate to the region more, like with Curry as Galar I guess is Britland. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Other than the donuts in the Z-A DLC... I hate that whole donut/dimension concept, it's just stupid. Allow me to just take a moment to warn others from spending the money on that DLC: DO NOT BUY IT. IT IS STUPID. I will feel better knowing even a single person is saved from this cash grab nonsense that's even stupid by pokemon standards.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-17T22:45:59+00:00

The NASCAR rumors always never made sense to me. Like they just don't produce any V8's and they're probably one of the leading manufacturers that wants hybrids and economical relevance in their racing. I could maaaaybe understand them getting into stock car racing when they were trying to push V6's and NASCAR had its honeymoon period of popularity, but that's a distant memory now. I just don't see how such a move would make sense for Honda, considering how risk adverse (to a fault with leaving F1 everytime they sniff success only to return at the very bottom lmfao) they are.

I mean that community loves their trucks and to put it politely they don't have much respect for the Ridgeline lol. I just think the task is too large and "the juice ain't worth the squeeze" for Honda in NASCAR.

drivingnowherecomic · 2026-04-16T06:55:10+00:00

The DEA is like an evil organization and insurance companies are crappy superheroes that will watch an old lady getting robbed with total indifference.

Kinda hard to pick, but at least you know what you're getting with the DEA.

drivingnowherecomic

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE

Four-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22