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The PS3 fat could only read PS2 disks because it had stripped down PS2 hardware included. It was effectively a PS2/3 combined. This was part of what drove the cost up, so they gutted that hardware from the slim.

PS4s can't read PS3 disks because the PS3 used a bespoke PowerPC based chipset that was a colossal pain in the ass to develop for. So for the PS4 to have backwards compatibility, they would have had to either A, include PS3 hardware in the PS4 (expensive) or B, create an efficient software translation layer/built in emulator (see "pain in the ass").

From what I have heard, they smartened up with the PS5. It's basically just a faster PS4. At it's core, it's based on very similar hardware, so it's easy to make PS4 games run without issue, but the boost in performance allows games designed specifically to take advantage of it.

No. I daily a Galaxy S23. I really like it except for all of Samsungs preinstalled apps that can't be deleted.

A couple months back, I bought a refurbished OnePlus 6T (2018) to mess around with Linux and de-Googled Android, and guess what, my phone which is 5 years newer feels virtually no different. It does have a better camera, granted, but personally that doesn't effect me as I do any serious photography with a proper camera anyway (also, I have to acknowledge that the 6T is slower as it's not really a flagship phone like the S23, but the 6T feels comparable quality and performance wise to some mid range 2024 phones I've used).

Bottom line, unless we see more Apple M-style chipsets in phones, imo, we're at a plateau. You could get a $200 5 year old phone and be fine.

Mazda. Reliable, reasonably priced, good performance, an option for every type of driver (from RWD roadster to full sized SUV), gorgeous design language. I think people are going to look back on the current Mazdas and think they aged like fine wine. They're also one of the only brands I can think of that have a truly unified design language across all models (besides maybe Audi and Mercedes)

Rookie. Sneeze into the back of your knee, then we can talk

I'm biased towards AMD in general, I just find them to be a slightly better value, but Intel CPUs are great too, and I don't think they have any noticable issus on Linux.

As for other hardware, it depends. Just make sure to do a bit of research and compare multiple options, especially for something like the storage, motherboard, RAM, or power supply. It's usually pretty easy to sus out which brands are trying to catch your eye with low prices and tons of RGB, and which brands are offering a great product (I will suggest Seasonic for a power supply. They aren't the cheapest but the build quality is excellent).

Oh 100% agreed. I think it was the Song of Susanahh especially that I thought could have been cut down by about 50%.

And yeah, it would definitely be nice for him to see his work faithfully adapted. I do selfishly hope he takes a backseat creatively though. He's a phenomenal writer but a terrible filmmaker (imo).

Good point, I shouldn't have used the world 'literally.' I was just trying to make the point that there are plenty of creative ways where tremendous amounts of money could end up back in someones pocket when by all means it should have gone elsewhere.

And yes, your example is perfectly believable and I wouldn't at all be shocked if that kind of thing happened frequently.

Yeah that was a fever dream. On the bright side, Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) is apparently the one in charge of a series coming in the next few years. So that should be pretty solid. Fingers crossed lol

I think you may be out of luck with a built in achievement tracker unfortunately, although I personally haven't looked into it. I've never been a big achievement hunter, but I'm sure there are external Linux compatible tools for tracking such things.

As for recommendations, you're going to see a million names thrown around. As a broad suggestion, I might start with something based on Debian (tried and true, tons of resources, huge community). Maybe Pop! Or Mint. There are purpose built gaming distros with more tools and optimizations out of the box, however these are often small projects with shorter histories so I'm hesitant to recommend them.

As for desktop environment, it depends on what you want. KDE is my go to. By default it handles very similarly to Windows, but it's incredibly customizable so you can really set it up however you want. KDE also has basic HDR support, which can't really be found elsewhere. Gnome is a little more MacOS like, but it's really its own beast. Gnome is great if you leave it default but I think it sort of falls apart when you try to customize it.

Also, if you do decide to go with Linux, I emplore you to look at getting an AMD graphics card. Their drivers are built into the Linux kernel so they require little to no setup, and usually perform better than NVidia. NVidia cards often have niche, hard to solve issues (speaking from experience. I spent a few years with a GTX1080 and often had the strangest bugs that I just couldn't solve. Switched to an RX7600XT and everything just works). As a bonus, AMD is also usually cheaper than NVidia.

Fyi an alternative to Playnite with a similar goal is Lutris. You can even integrate several platforms like Steam and GOG to download games directly through the Lutris interface.

On top of that, it's super easy to install games via exe's, custom install scripts, add existing install folders, etc. The UI is a little bit spartan compared to Playnite, but it's very powerful.

I say this because, among other things, a huge benefit of Linux is that it's great for older hardware. From the sounds of it, you aren't looking for the latest and greatest in terms of build specs, so Linux may be right up your alley (also no built in spyware, ads, forced online connections, and resource hogging processes that can't be disabled).

Ah, Dr. Doone Struts himself