We've been married for more than five years and in all that time, whenever she would send me a message in Japanese while I was out and about with my headphones in, Siri would just say "(wife) just sent you a message I can't read" and be done with it.

Today, for the first time ever, the Siri voice switched over to Japanese mode and actually read the message. Starting with English and ending in Japanese, Siri said, "(wife) just sent "牛乳も買って来て".

I'm so elated over this change. It's such a small thing, but HUGE. I just thought it was cool and though it worth sharing.

Unlike many other games, the biggest draw to the Trails franchise is its world. The entire franchise is divided several story arcs. One arc can come to a close, but then it becomes a part of the story for every game that follows. New protagonists may find themselves interacting with older protagonists, antagonists that had a minor role in one arc will have a major role in another... The story can keep going as long as you're willing to start the next arc in the series.

If anyone is interested in getting into a JRPG series that isn't Final Fantasy, this is a superb candidate. Trails in the Sky is where it all kicks off.

So let's get down to it.

Tutorial: Trails in the Sky (FC) on M-series Macs

• Download & Install Whisky (A wine wrapper thing that works with apple's translation stuff.)
• Download Steam (Grab the windows ver)

Mac Settings > Privacy & Security > App Management

• Add Whiskey (Doing this helps prevent game installations in Steam from freezing later on.)

Whiskey

1. Add new bottle (I named it “Steam”)
2. When finished: Bottle Configuration > Enhanced Sync = Off (Having this disabled also helps prevent game installations in Steam from freezing later on.)
3. Select Winetricks > DLLs, find and run amstream, quartz, and Lavfilters. (This will provide codecs to allow videos to play.)
4. Click the “Run” button, select SteamSetup.exe, give it a moment to launch.
5. Go through the install process, login, sign in, the whole shebang.

Steam

1. Purchase/Install The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky.
2. Launch the game by selecting “Play”, then select “Launch Configuration Tool”. Give it a moment.
3. Display > Resolution = set whatever you prefer (M1 MBP = 3024 x 1964)
4. Display > Windowed Mode = Off (In Windowed Mode at native resolution, mouse & keyboard tracking doesn’t work right for some reason. It might not be an issue if you use a gamepad. With Windowed Mode disabled, cmd+tab can minimize the game.)
5. Input > Field Turbo Rate = 6x, Battle Turbo Rate = 6x; Default = "Run"
6. Select “OK” to close the configuration tool.
7. Select “Play”, “Play Legend of Heroes Trail in the Sky”

Enjoy the game.

Hope this works for you. Good luck.

Since the AVP came out I've been yearning for a path back into VR. Quest 3 is the obvious answer and I've even had it in my amazon cart, hovering over the "purchase" button at least twice now. However, I just can't bring myself to pull the trigger and now I'm starting to take a closer look at the PSVR2.

So about me:

• I already have a PS5.
• I used to have a PSVR 1 back in the day, with an Oculus Go for "multimedia" purposes. (Giggity)
• I don't have a gaming PC. (I use a Mac.)
• I actually convinced my dad to get a Quest 2, so he's in there somewhere.
• I wear glasses, if that matters.
• I will probably be moving back to my forever country with whatever I end up buying.

Quest 3 gives me...

• No cables, lightweight, pancake lenses, colored pass-through AR, hand tracking (cool!), slightly higher resolution.
• A LOT of games and new games entering the store regularly. (I'm keen on whatever that assassin's creed game is).
• Could play golf or "go fishing" with the old man.
• Would definitely watch multimedia. (wife might even use it from time to time) (also, giggity)
• I can see myself playing around with productivity and virtual monitors for my Mac.
• UI improvements are getting exciting now that Meta has some competition in Apple.
• Side-loading, mods, alt stores, huzzah! (PS5 remote play?)
• I might be able to put the old, horrendous Lenovo Mirage VR180 camera I bought to use with my Oculus Go back into use with this thing somehow. (I am skeptical, though)
• Controller can be stowed when traveling with batteries removed, Headset is small enough to slip into a carry-on.

PSVR2 gives me...

• OLED, HDR, eye-tracking. tracked foveated rendering, cabled fidelity, comfortable out-of-the-box, haptic triggers, headset rumble. (omg these hardware features! Ugnh!)
• More than €100 cheaper than a 512gb Quest 3 (which is the one I'd buy).
• I already have some PSVR2 compatible games in my PS library. (I really want to replay No Man's Sky in VR, too)
• Games on PSVR are more graphically impressive and haptics make them more immersive.
• No concern for headset battery life, peripherals, battery packs, or other hidden costs (which makes that €100 price difference mentioned before more like a €200+ difference).
• I won't have to feel weird about Meta being meta about everything I do in and out of the headset
• I could use this for games and hold out for a something like a Vision "Air" or a Quest "Light" later on to use exclusively for media consumption. (Giggity)
• Cable is probably long enough to reach my bed, meaning late night, big screen Flat PS5 gaming in HDR, OLED glory!
• No battery in the headset Means it can be stowed in traveling. Controllers can be kept in the carry-on

So yeah. My biggest gripe with the Quest 3 is that gobsmackingly absurd 1-2hr battery life, the comfort complaints, and the hidden costs/bulk associated with all of that. On the other hand, my biggest gripe with the PSVR2 is what looks to be a concerning lack of interest from Sony and the implications for the future of the platform. That said, there are already more than enough games for me on either platform, so maybe that wouldn't matter.

Anyway, I'd like some outside perspective on the matter. Thank you to anyone willing to oblige.

I apologize, I’ve been out of the loop for more than a decade with piracy, so I have a dumb question.

My friend has a cracked version of Baldur’s Gate 3 (GOG, I think) and I want to play online with him. I don’t mind actually buying the game for myself on Steam so I can install it on both my Mac and Deck, but I don’t want to spend the money if it means a legit copy that doesn’t play nice with his cracked copy.

Can cracked games play online with legit games, would I need a cracked copy as well, or is online MP simply out of the question?

Thanks to anyone willing to give a response.

Basically, I'd like to make desktop mode look and feel a little more like MacOS, and this app is kind of essential. Unfortunately I don't know anything about what's happening when it doesn't install. I've set a sudo password, I've disabled read-only, I've initialized the pacman keys (whatever that means), now it says "unknown trust"...

Is there a straightforward tutorial somewhere on how to do something like this for an absolute beginner? I assumed changing the appearance and layout of my desktop should have been an easy and harmless first step for a Linux noob to try, but I already feel like I'm just smashing my head up against a wall.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.