Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 49 minutes ago
Ubisoft is in trouble, but they still hate consumers. They're requiring Ubisoft Connect for the recent Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow reissue on Steam, a game that predates Ubisoft's online DRM schemes like Ubisoft Connect, aka Uplay. Even worse, the release has mostly positive reviews, which is incredibly disappointing. So in this video, I'm taking a stand against such an egregious and pointless use of DRM.
Stuff like this is why Ubisoft's reputation is in the toilet nowadays. They deserve to go under.
00:00 Ubisoft Is In Trouble!
01:09 Ubisoft Connect On 20-Year-Old Game
02:37 Too Many Tolerate This Garbage
04:32 Ubisoft's Inconsistent Use Of DRM
Sources Used:
swedenherald.com/article/ubisoft-reports-159-million-euro-loss-amidst-industry-challenges
gameworldobserver.com/2025/11/21/ubisoft-report-1500-employees-laid-off-in-a-year-and-e1-15-billion-in-net-debt
wolfsgamingblog.com/2025/07/22/assassins-creed-shadows-reaches-5-million-players-but-how-many-copies-has-it-sold
screenrant.com/assassins-creed-shadows-sales-good-save-ubisoft-op-ed
fandomwire.com/someone-is-buying-out-ubisoft-and-tencent-is-the-leading-suspect
gamespot.com/articles/ubisofts-xdefiant-is-officially-shut-down/1100-6532087
Original Splinter Cell on GoG without DRM and patched for modern PCs:
gog.com/en/game/splinter_cell
Ubisoft is in trouble, but they still hate consumers. They're requiring Ubisoft Connect for the recent Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow reissue on Steam, a game that predates Ubisoft's online DRM schemes like Ubisoft Connect, aka Uplay. Even worse, the release has mostly positive reviews, which is incredibly disappointing. So in this video, I'm taking a stand against such an egregious and pointless use of DRM.
Stuff like this is why Ubisoft's reputation is in the toilet nowadays. They deserve to go under.
00:00 Ubisoft Is In Trouble!
01:09 Ubisoft Connect On 20-Year-Old Game
02:37 Too Many Tolerate This Garbage
04:32 Ubisoft's Inconsistent Use Of DRM
Sources Used:
swedenherald.com/article/ubisoft-reports-159-million-euro-loss-amidst-industry-challenges
gameworldobserver.com/2025/11/21/ubisoft-report-1500-employees-laid-off-in-a-year-and-e1-15-billion-in-net-debt
wolfsgamingblog.com/2025/07/22/assassins-creed-shadows-reaches-5-million-players-but-how-many-copies-has-it-sold
screenrant.com/assassins-creed-shadows-sales-good-save-ubisoft-op-ed
fandomwire.com/someone-is-buying-out-ubisoft-and-tencent-is-the-leading-suspect
gamespot.com/articles/ubisofts-xdefiant-is-officially-shut-down/1100-6532087
Original Splinter Cell on GoG without DRM and patched for modern PCs:
gog.com/en/game/splinter_cell
![Alex Kidd In Shinobi World [Sega Master System] - 1CC (Full Game Playthrough)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ed3xYmij0gY/mqdefault.jpg "Alex Kidd In Shinobi World [Sega Master System] - 1CC (Full Game Playthrough)
It came down to my last life and my last piece of health, but I got the job done. Its not a hard game, but there are a few challenging points where the slightly janky controls just dont help.
The key is to get extends early so you can coast through the second half of the game. I got pretty sloppy starting with the second boss battle, but the extends I got earlier kept me going until the end.")
![Post Void [PC] - Complete Playthrough (All 11 Stages, Full Run)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/G500oO2inFQ/mqdefault.jpg "Post Void [PC] - Complete Playthrough (All 11 Stages, Full Run)
Post Void is a first-person shooter developed and released by YCJY Games for PC in 2020 on Steam. It is known for its extremely fast paced gameplay and roguelike elements such as randomized stage layouts and random powerups. It is also known for having an arcade-style scoring system.
Ive had this game for years, but I finally decided to focus on clearing it just recently and got the clear! The pace is just insane. Every stage feels like an adrenaline rush. You have to keep killing enemies to keep your idol filled up to stay alive. It kind of reminds me of an arena shooter like Quake 3 in terms of how fast it is, though the gameplay is quite different in many ways. Another comparison point would have to be Hotline Miami. It shares a similar aesthetic and penchant for fast but deadly gun-play, but the perspective here is first-person instead of top-down.
As mentioned earlier, there are roguelike elements to this game. One, the stage layouts do vary slightly from run to run for each stage. They dont vary dramatically and the types of enemies that are used in each level stay the same, but you still cant memorize every part of each stage in order to beat it. Youre better off learning how to deal with each type of enemy you encounter.
The weapon choices are not many, but there are enough to provide for some different playstyles. You always start out with the pistol, which is accurate but lacks in damage outside of headshots. You can get the shotgun, uzi, or knife later as a powerup after a stage. My personal preference was the shotgun. Its not great for your accuracy rating at the end of a run and it doesnt reload very fast, but it makes it a lot easier to kill enemies as it takes out anything in one hit with plenty of spread, headshot or not. When coupled with the explosive ammo and reload speed powerups, it becomes even deadlier. One tip is that its important to reload as soon as you shoot when using this weapon.
This game has eleven stages total and doesnt take long to finish if you can survive until the end. My run of this game was less than seven minutes officially. At the end, whether you survive or die, you get a final score based on your time, kills, headshots, and accuracy. This game has online leaderboards, which your best score is added to automatically.
Buy this game. Its only $3, even when its not on sale. One of the best bargains on Steam.
Game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1285670/Post_Void/
Strategy guide that was helpful: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2230481167
00:00 Intro
00:11 Stage 1
00:40 Stage 2
01:17 Stage 3
01:54 Stage 4
02:45 Stage 5
03:39 Stage 6
04:28 Stage 7
05:26 Stage 8
06:04 Stage 9
06:42 Stage 10
07:30 Final Stage")
![Ridge Racer 64 [N64] - Screamin Eagle 1st Place Car Attack](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HWqpbBE-MHs/mqdefault.jpg "Ridge Racer 64 [N64] - Screamin Eagle 1st Place Car Attack
Ridge Racer 64 has some hard races later in the game, but the hardest one of them all is probably Screamin Eagles Car Attack race. Its not the biggest difficulty spike as Lizard Nightmare precedes it and takes that crown, but Screamin Eagle requires better execution as you cannot block Screamin Eagle as easily as Lizard Nightmare. You have to be almost perfect with your driving in this case. I only hit the barriers twice after Lap 2 and even then, Screamin Eagle was almost on my bumper as I crossed the finish line after six laps of nearly perfect execution. An absolutely insane race and one of the hardest in any N64 racing game.
Played in Simple64 using my Qanba Crystal mixbox setup.
00:00 Intro
00:23 Race
03:33 Results")
![Noiz2sa [PC] - Endless Extreme Mode 6,359,050 pts (Free Doujin Bullet Hell Shmup)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HqBbsYo0ATk/mqdefault.jpg "Noiz2sa [PC] - Endless Extreme Mode 6,359,050 pts (Free Doujin Bullet Hell Shmup)
One of the best doujin bullet hell/danmaku shmups of all time. Noiz2sa features 10 individual stages you can play separately as well as four different endless modes. It is known for its minimalist graphic style that surprisingly few games have taken inspiration from over the years, as well as being a free, open source game from Kenta Cho, who is also known for rRootage.
This is Endless Extreme mode, which is the second hardest of these modes. The only thing that distinguishes this mode from the hardest one, Endless Insane, is that this one still has some slowdown in it. Its still pretty hard to last longer than 2 minutes in this mode, as the bullet density gets higher and higher. The simplicity of this game is what makes it excellent.
Played on Linux via WINE using the 64-bit version created by IoriBranford:
https://github.com/IoriBranford/noiz2sdl2/releases/tag/0.1.1")
![Raiden [Playstation 1] - General/Hard mode First Loop 1CC 2,970,810 pts (The Raiden Project)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/I68HTIrTz18/mqdefault.jpg "Raiden [Playstation 1] - General/Hard mode First Loop 1CC 2,970,810 pts (The Raiden Project)
0:00 Intro
0:12 Stage 1-1
3:12 Stage 1-2
7:11 Stage 1-3
10:53 Stage 1-4
15:05 Stage 1-5
19:12 Stage 1-6
24:10 Stage 1-7
28:19 Stage 1-8
32:12 Stage 1-8 Boss Safe Spot
35:23 Stage 2-1
The Sega Saturn may have been the shmup king of Generation 5, but one thing the Playstation had that the Saturn did not was excellent ports of the Raiden series like The Raiden Project. The Raiden Project features Raiden I and II in nearly arcade perfect ports and was also a launch title for the PS1 in the states. For each of the two games featured, there are four difficulties, including a General mode which is the highest one and harder than the arcade originals, which is the difficulty this run of Raiden was played.
The original Raiden is one of the most successful shmups of all time. While it was derivative of Toaplan in a lot of ways, its level of polish and presentation, as well as punishing difficulty, blew gamers away back in 1990 and was even a big hit in North America.
The key is playing Raiden well comes down to routing. Not only do you need to lead the fast, aimed bullets properly while avoiding the occasional static patterns, you also need to time your item pickups well at the same time. If you move around without a purpose, you will die quickly. While youre on top of the world since youre very strong youre fully powered up, one small mistake can kill an entire run because its extremely difficult to recover from getting hit in most cases, especially in later stages.
This run was not a No-Miss of the first loop, as I had a couple of dumb deaths near the end of Stage 1-4 as well as the beginning of the final boss in 1-8. However, I got lucky in Stage 4 because I had a max power up and missiles waiting for me to pick up without much resistance. The bullets get faster the further you go into the game, even faster than the original arcade game which is saying something. The scroll offset, which prevent the entire stage from being on screen at one time, is actually your biggest friend for survival because if an enemy is not on screen, it cannot fire at you.
The best main weapon is by far the wide shot in this game. While there are parts where the blue laser is decent, it is very clear that the wide shot (red powerups) is the most useful in most situations. Also, while a lot of people prefer the homing missiles, I prefer the nuclear missiles in many situations because it does a lot more damage per shot, making them incredible when point-blanking. This is ideal for speed-killing bosses.")
![F-Zero Maximum Velocity [GBA] - All 1st Place Queen Cup Master Difficulty (The Stingray)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/I6ip31nFAzY/mqdefault.jpg "F-Zero Maximum Velocity [GBA] - All 1st Place Queen Cup Master Difficulty (The Stingray)
00:34. Crater Land - Loop Circuit
02:49. Tenth Zone East - Plummet Circuit
06:01. Empyrean Colony - Twist Circuit
08:28. Fire Field - Land Mine Circuit
11:20. Fire Field - Warrior Circuit
13:54. Summary
F-Zero Maximum Velocity was one of the launch titles for the GBA when it was released in the Summer of 2001. It was notable for taking place 25 years after the events of the original F-Zero and having new pilots and vehicles as a result. It was also the first game by the current Mario Party devs, NDCube. Maximum Velocity, while featuring a different cast of characters, plays very similarly to the original F-Zero on SNES. The boost works the same instead of using a bar like F-Zero X, but the handling is more refined here. The graphics here are pretty similar as well, though the vehicles appear to be pre-rendered 3D.
The actual driving takes quite a bit of time to get used to. The key to taking turns is to tap the accelerator to keep your grip. Of course, it helps to use L and R to help slide the car left or right during sharper turns. With certain cars, you can utilize those shoulder buttons to drift instead of turning with the D-Pad as some cars are very slide-prone, but I do not use that technique much if any. I didnt need it to be honest.
The vehicles themselves have different attributes, but the attributes themselves are a bit different than in previous games and may be a bit confusing in some regards. While the boost is very similar to the original game, it is measured in two ways instead of just a letter. It has a top speed but also, each vehicle has a unique boost duration. Some cars get more boost time than others, but some have higher top speeds than others. Turning is measured in two different ways: performance and balance. Its confusing but from my experience, performance is how easy the car turns while balance has more to do with grip. Body strength is measured from 0 to 100 instead of a letter. Top speed is measured by km/h, and there is also a graph showing acceleration and top speed.
There is also some hidden attributes, and one is speed retention. Some machines decelerate slower than others after finishing a boost or from taking a hit. Fighting Comet in particular has amazing speed retention, despite a terrible top speed outside of boosting, making it one of the best in the game, thanks to that and its excellent boost that is powerful and reasonably long. One more hidden attribute is hang-time on jumps, which means some cars hang in the air during jumps longer than others.
As I mentioned before, my vehicle for this run was The Stingray, piloted by Alexander ONeill, an ex American football player. There are a few big advantages for it. One, it has the second highest non-boost top speed at 460 km/h. Two, its boost lasts a whopping 12 seconds. On a lot of courses, thats more than half a lap, and you get a boost for each lap after the first one so thats a lot of time boosting. It hardly matters that its boost top speed is the worst in the game when youre spending more than half a lap in your boost, and your top speed outside of that is great. The last big advantage is hang-time. It can glide in the air for longer than most cars and can jump far, especially with a boost. I actually failed to leverage this on my run in the second course because there is a shortcut I missed by not doing so, but it didnt matter much in the end. It also helps that the car has a strong body at 86/100, but thats a minor positive.
The only real disadvantages besides the low boost speeds are acceleration and grip. It takes a little while for The Stingray to get up to speed at the beginning of a race. Also, its a bit tougher to handle than other cars at times because it does not have the best turning or grip.
The Queen Cup is the last cup in the game. Its not as hard as the final cup in some other F-Zero games, as the first two stages are surprisingly easy. The difficulty does ramp up after that, with the last three courses. Twist Circuit is notorious for its twist pads, which can turn your car around if you pass over one, but its a really fun high speed course once you learn how to avoid them. Land Mine Circuit is to me the hardest, as some of the turns early on along with the mines are annoying and gave The Stingray some trouble. The Warrior Circuit at the end has one annoying are, particularly where the motion strip is, as exiting that strip the wrong way can cost you time and position.
Master difficulty is the highest one as usual, but it isnt as hard as it is in X and GX. The AI does follow you very closely, waiting for a mistake to capitalize, but are not perfect by any means. That being said, theyre still no pushover.
Still one of my favorite games on the GBA. I got this with my GBA back in 2001 and still have it.
Played using the VBA-M core in RetroArch with the DDT shader.
#fzero #gameboyadvance #racinggames #nintendo")
![Silver Bullet [PC] - 1CC/Full Game Playthrough 10,502,391 pts](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JHSEqVGt2rE/mqdefault.jpg "Silver Bullet [PC] - 1CC/Full Game Playthrough 10,502,391 pts
Silver Bullet is a recent gallery shooter/shmup created by 1CC Games, the makers of Space Moth Lunar Edition and Star Hunter DX. Unlike previous games, its not a conventional shmup but is instead a bullet hell take on Cabal or Wild Guns. Ill be doing a review of this one at some point, but heres the playthrough for now.
Ive got quite a few discussion videos related to different games coming up. Its just going to take some time to get them ready because Youtube is not my main gig.
00:00 Intro + Prelude Stage
00:39 Stage 1
03:01 Bonus Stage 1
04:02 Stage 2
07:39 Bonus Stage 2
08:54 Stage 3
14:40 Bonus Stage 3
16:01 Stage 4
20:45 Bonus Stage 4
21:45 Stage 5
27:08 Bonus Stage 5
29:37 Final Stage
32:40 Final Boss
34:55 Ending")
