If there's one thing we've learned over the years, it's to not take eye health for granted. Our brains are so good at adapting to changes, it can be difficult to even notice your vision is changing until you're hit with an advanced issue. Remember, your vision is more than just your eyesight. It's part of your overall health.The American Academy of Ophthalmology predicts a dramatic rise in vision issues over the next 30 years. Besides genetic or age-related changes in vision, there are habits that might be hurting your vision and negatively impacting eye health. We rounded up the most common bad eye habits and the preventative measures you can take to avoid them, keeping your vision healthy.For more information, see what foods to add to your diet and what things you should be doing each day to support your eye health. Remember, regular vision checks are still a must for keeping your eyes in top shape.1. Using expired makeup Upgrade your inbox Get cnet insider From talking fridges to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little less complicated. It's easy to forget that your favorite eye makeup products have a life span, especially when you use them every day. Using expired mascara and eyeliners can put your eyes at risk of infection. A good rule of thumb when determining when it's time to ditch the product is to look for the Period After Opening. This stamp will tell you how long you've got after opening the product before it needs to be replaced. For example, usually mascara can last about three months. It's also important to properly store your cosmetics. Improper storage can affect the longevity of a product and can lead to the growth of bacteria or mold, putting you at risk of infection and subsequent eye diseases.2. Reusing contact lensesIf you think you're saving money by recycling your contacts, it may end up costing you more in the long run. As someone who used to do this and as a result, ended up with multiple eye infections, I can attest that it's a contact lens habit worth breaking. When I switched to using daily contacts and interchangeably using glasses, I drastically reduced my chances of developing an eye infection and kept my eyes healthier. Changing to dailies is worth considering: One study found that people who wear reusable contact lenses are about four times more at risk of developing Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare eye infection that can increase your risk of vision loss or blindness, compared with folks who use daily contacts.Other habits you should break with your contact lenses include sleeping, showering or swimming with them on. Dr. Mackenzie Sward, a board-certified ophthalmologist, warns, "Sleeping in your contact lenses and failing to properly clean your lenses can significantly increase the risk of a corneal ulcer caused by a bacterial, fungal or parasitic infection." As if that wasn't concerning enough, vision loss from contact lens-related complications may be severe and permanent. Also, speaking from experience, avoid rubbing your eyes when you're wearing contacts.Read more: Best Places to Buy Contacts Online Kinga Krzeminska/Getty Images3. Not wearing sunglassesYou know that your skin needs sunscreen to protect it from harmful UV rays, and believe it or not, your eyes need to be shielded as well. Sward recommends wearing proper UV protection when outdoors or in a car, even if it's overcast. "That is because harmful UVA and UVB rays in the atmosphere can increase the risk of macular degeneration, cataracts, skin cancer of the eyelid and other diseases of the eye," she explains. To protect your eyes, Sward advises opting to wear sunglasses with 100% UV protection every time you step outside."Cumulative UV exposure and damage only increases the lifetime incidence of macular degeneration, cataracts, pterygium and skin cancer," she explains. These conditions may be permanent or require surgical treatment to correct. People in occupations with more outdoor work, such as construction or landscaping, are at higher risk of certain conditions related to UV damage, so they should be more mindful of protecting themselves.Read more: Best Prescription Sunglasses4. Not wearing protective eyewearYou should also be wearing protective eyewear when playing sports or doing work that involves the risk of an eye injury. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "estimates that about 2,000 people per day sustain work-related eye injuries, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology estimates that there are 30,000 sports related eye injuries every year in the United States," Sward said.Many of these injuries are preventable and usually involve foreign objects that get stuck in the eye, like dust, wood, metal or plant debris. Other injuries you can sustain from lack of eye protection include blunt or direct trauma from falls or from larger objects such as tools that hit the face.So, protect your eyes and those tiny blood vessels with the right gear. 5. SmokingBesides the known multiple health risks smoking can cause, it can also harm your eyes. Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of macular degeneration, which can cause you to lose vision in the part of your eye known as the macula. Smoking also harms your retina and increases your chances of cataracts, which cloud your eye's lenses and can also lead to loss of vision. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, smokers are about three times more likely to develop cataracts and up to four times more likely to develop age-related macular degeneration compared with nonsmokers. So if you're a smoker, it would be in your best interest to kick the habit.6. Spending too much time on screensWe can all admit we could limit our time on our smartphones, laptops and tablets. Spending fewer hours with these items would also benefit our eyesight. Digital eye strain or Computer Vision Syndrome, is a condition that occurs when you've been staring at a computer or phone screen for too long. It can cause eye dryness, blurry vision, headaches, backaches and other symptoms of discomfort.Sward recommends taking frequent breaks from screens to let your eyes relax and getting fitted for a pair of prescription lenses that are specifically made for use at the computer. "It is important to see an eye care professional regularly to ensure you are wearing the appropriate eyeglass correction and [to] screen for eye conditions that may otherwise not have any symptoms," she said. So, don't skip on your routine eye exams and keep a track of some of these everyday habits to keep vision problems at bay.

Image: Nintendo LifeMy dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots (Proudfeet!), welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl!Before we get all Middle Earthy, let's quickly recap what went down last time, eh? Two covers from the NSO newbie Super Ninja Boy went head-to-head in last week's match-up, and despite us thinking they were both pretty rad, it wasn't a close call. Japan's cover walked away with a comfortable win, taking 67% of the vote and leaving the North American variant with the remaining 33%.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube795kWatch on YouTube This week (if the intro wasn't a big enough giveaway), we're going all Hobbit-y as we compare two covers for The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age on GBA. While its GameCube counterpart went down the full RPG route, The Third Age on GBA is a pure top-down tactics affair which presents a parallel storyline to the iconic movie plots.Both the GBA and GameCube shared the same cover variants in each region, so you can squint a little and try to imagine a rectangular box if you want to know what the designs looked like for the home console release.There are just two different designs to look at this week, so let's get to them. For Frodo... Every Lord of the Rings game on Nintendo platformsBe sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let's check out the box art designs themselves.North America / EuropeTalk about a way to get fans pumped! The North American and European design is all about the iconic Balrog battle in the Mines of Moria (and they call it a miiiine). Legolas, Aragorn, Gandalf and Gimli stand front and centre on the Bridge of Khazad-dm, with the flaming Balrog rising up behind them, whip in hand.It's very reliant on knowing the movie, yes, but even from an outside perspective, this looks pretty epic.JapanThe Japanese cover takes a different approach. There's still a little Balrog action going on, but the majority of the design is dedicated to a map of Middle Earth, perhaps tapping into the game's more thoughtful, considered, turn-based gameplay. Some non-descript character models and everyone's favourite creature of shadow and flame peek through a tear, but this is mainly all about the cartography.Which region got the best The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age box art? (43 votes)North America / Europe86%Japan14%Thanks for voting! We'll see you next time for another round of Box Art Brawl.Related GamesSee AlsoShare:00 Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesPoll: So, Were You Accepted For The Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-On Event?Go on, tell usOpinion: Forget Themes, I Want A Switch 2 Start-Up JingleJingles, all the way

Community Health Center discloses massive patient data breach.gettyUpdate, Feb. 2, 2025: This story, originally published Jan. 31, now includes further expert comments on the cybersecurity challenges facing healthcare providers following this latest medical records breach and a ransomware attack against a major blood donor group in New York.With ransomware attacks reaching record numbers, and more than a billion stolen passwords for sale on the dark web, Im constantly amazed that there arent more data breaches, if Im honest. Not that it makes it any the less shocking when a healthcare provider discloses that the medical records of a million patients have been compromised. Heres what we know about the Community Health Center security incident.More Than A Million Medical Records StolenIn a Jan. 30 filing to the Office of the Maine Attorney General, Connecticut-based healthcare provider Community Health Center has disclosed a data breach, first discovered Jan. 2, has impacted more than a million patients following a successful attack by unknown threat actors who gained access to its networks.In a letter to impacted patients, seen by this reporter, Mark Masselli president and CEO at Community Health Center, Inc., said, that investigators had determined that a skilled criminal hacker got into our system and took some data, which might include your personal information. This doesnt appear to have been a ransomware attack, as Masselli said no data was deleted or encrypted, and the hack didnt impact healthcare operations. We believe we stopped the criminal hackers access within hours, Masselli said, and that there is no current threat to our systems.There is, however, the small matter of the files that the hacker stole: files containing patients personal and health information belonging to 1,060,936 individuals. The stolen data is understood to include:Patient NamesDates of BirthContact InformationSocial Security NumbersMedical DiagnosesTreatment DetailsTest ResultsHealth Insurance DetailsMORE FOR YOUA Medical Records NightmareThis incident highlights the urgency of securing healthcare infrastructuresprotecting not just patient data, but the broader ecosystem of communication, collaboration, and care delivery, Emily Phelps, a director at Cyware, said, Incidents in this sector underscore the ongoing risks healthcare providers face, with attackers gaining access to sensitive data like names, medical diagnoses, and insurance details.Although the Community Health Center attack is not thought to have been ransomware-related, the same cannot be said for the latest healthcare hack. As I reported Feb. 1, the New York Blood Center has been hit by ransomware scumbags who have disrupted the blood donation process of a major blood supplier to 200 hospitals with all the possible consequences that come with such an irresponsible action.Dr. Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at ImmuniWeb and a Fellow at the British Computer Society, told me that healthcare will probably be the most desirable target for ransomware groups in 2025 for three key reasons. First is funding, with most healthcare organizations surviving mostly thanks to governmental subsidies or charity donations, Kolochenko said, this makes healthcare institutions a low-hanging fruit for unscrupulous cybercriminals, who are unwilling to spend a lot of time and effort to pierce multilayered cyber defense of, say, wealthy financial institutions. Then theres the more likely to pay weakness that is introduced by the very nature of the business these organizations are in, where human life is more important than money. Knowing this, Kolochenko said, ransomware groups usually start with a six- or even seven-digit bid, then significantly reduce it to something that the victim can pay, naively believing that it got a great deal. And finally, healthcare providers can handle very sensitive data of politicians, celebrities and wealthy executives, making attacks against healthcare unprecedently lucrative compared to most other sectors, Kolochenko concluded.Masselli, meanwhile, said that Community Health Center had strengthened our security and added special software to watch for suspicious activity, although this will be of cold comfort to those patients whose medical records have been compromised. Given that the attacker also has access to names, dates of birth and health insurance details, this could be an extortion nightmare waiting to unfold.

Lithium-ion batteries used in portable electronics like earbuds come with fire risks. Adding flame ... [+] retardants to their plastic battery enclosures may not be help. It can also lead to health harm.gettyIf youre reading this on a smartphone or laptop, you can thank lithium-ion batteries. Their high energy density, long lifespan, and fast charging capabilities have revolutionized portable power. Electric cars, e-bikes, smartphones, laptops, earbuds, and more use them.Unfortunately, these batteries also pose a major fire hazard. In New York City alone, 277 fires were started by lithium-ion batteries last year. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, lithium-ion battery fire incidents occur on U.S. flights weekly or more.In an attempt to mitigate this serious danger, manufacturers are adding chemical flame retardants to the plastic cases surrounding lithium-ion batteries. Is it making a difference? In a Viewpoint published last week in Environmental Science & Technology, scientists from the University of Toronto and the Green Science Policy Institute explain that adding flame retardants to the plastic around these batteries has no proven fire-safety or other benefit. Additionally, the types of flame retardants widely used in battery enclosures are linked to cancer and other health harms, and if the enclosures enter the global recycling stream, the harmful flame retardants can end up in inappropriate places like childrens toys, food containers, and utensils.Flame Retardants In Battery Enclosures Have No Proven BenefitAs the usage of lithium-ion batteries expands, flammability standards that are met with chemical flame retardants are being hastily adopted for a variety of plastic battery enclosures. However, there is no publicly available research demonstrating that this use of flame retardants curbs battery fires under real-world conditions. Flame retardants in plastics cannot impact the highly energetic fires from a lithium-ion battery in thermal runaway.Trying to stop thermal runaway fires by adding flame retardants to plastic is like adding a screen door to a submarine. Its a futile effort against an overwhelming force, according to distinguished fire scientist Dr. Vyto Babrauskas.MORE FOR YOUFurther, when plastics burn, flame retardants can create additional smoke, soot, and toxic gases, which are major causes of fire deaths. They can also produce dioxins and furans, which can contribute to firefighter cancer.Flame Retardants In Battery Enclosures are Linked to Health HarmThe flame retardants widely used for this purpose are organohalogen and organophosphate chemicals which have been linked to cancer as well as neurological, reproductive, and immune system harm. Young children and pregnant women are the most vulnerable.The flame retardant chemicals can migrate from plastic cases of many productsfrom earbuds to e-bikesinto air, dust, water, people, animals, and end up in our food supply. If recycled at the end of their useful life, these products can contaminate the recycling stream and impede the circular economy. This contributes to the contamination of products made from recycled plasticlike the infamous black plastic spatula, sushi trays, and childrens toys. Disposal by burning or landfilling leads to toxic emissions and can be harmful to the global environment and human health, especially in low-wealth countries.Other Flammability Standards Have Turned Out To Be IneffectiveThis would not be the first time that the use of flame retardants to meet flammability standards has resulted in health harm without proven fire-safety benefits. For example, an unfortunate long-time California furniture flammability standard did not reduce fire deaths. Meanwhile, the flame retardant most often used to meet that standard was linked to the loss of three to five IQ points among U.S. children and a fourfold increase in the risk of dying from cancer. Since that standard was updated a decade ago to be met without flame retardants, furniture fires have remained minimal or even decreased.The best solution for both public health and fire safety is to prevent battery fires from occurring in the first place. Strategies like improving battery management systems and stopping the use of faulty batteries can prevent dangerous thermal runaway fires. This would save lives both from fires as well as from cancer and the many other health harms linked to flame retardants.

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SpaceWe will never get an image of the Milky Way from above, but M81 or Bode's galaxy is a good stand-in and now is a great time to see it, says Leah Crane 29 January 2025 M81 or Bodes galaxyAlf Jacob Nilsen/AlamyThere is something about seeing our home from a distance that is special whether its spotting your neighbourhood from an aeroplane or looking at pictures of Earth taken from space, it lends a sense of perspective. Astronauts call this the overview effect: a feeling of awe and connection to the communities and world around us, and the beauty of our little green planet. It has always seemed a bit sad to me that we couldnt get an even broader perspective, a picture of our whole solar system or galaxy from afar,

Roshan Gupta left Google to move to Portugal.Gupta wanted to pursue a better work-life balance in 2022 and start his own business.Gupta said it's important for those going into tech to be aware of the industry's demands and pace.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Roshan Gupta, a 46-year-old business owner who moved to Portugal with his family in 2022. Business Insider has verified his former employment and identity. This story has been edited for length and clarity.I'm the traditional Silicon Valley story. I grew up loving technology, went to MIT, studied computer science, and got my first job at a startup.My last role was at Google leading the Messages team. I had a big team of product managers, and it was a 300-plus org with a nine-digit budget. It was awesome. I loved the company and I loved the team, which is probably why people thought I was crazy for leaving and moving to Portugal.When people make big changes, often there's this sort of big moment. But the truth is, it's a collection of all these other moments and the catalyst that finally puts you over the top.My wife and I, and eventually our two sons, like to be adventurous, but we were also on the path you're supposed to take, which is to get a job, earn a paycheck, work harder, and climb the corporate ladder. The adventures we had been taking would be like moving from California to Austin and then to Seattle.During COVID, we kept thinking: What if we made a bigger change?The catalyst was a tough work-life balanceWhen you enter a field like investment banking, you know it's going to be a grind and often, you get in and you get out. I graduated back in 2000 when the internet was booming. Mobile phones were just coming online. I was the first generation to be connected 24/7 and I don't think we've seen the effects of that yet.My wife and I both worked in tech and we found that the more we did and the more success we had on paper, the worse our quality of life was getting. We were doing well from a career perspective and financially but time for family, self-care, and community wasn't happening.One option was to work like crazy for 10 more years, earn a crazy amount of money, and retire. But I didn't know if I could make it 10 years working at that pace. You don't know how much time you have left.When I was running the Messages team, I had teams in the US on different coasts, in Zurich, and in Asia. I would wake up, pick up my phone, and start working. I would get the kids out to school, and by 7:30 or 8:00 a.m., I was in my seat taking calls.I was in Google's Seattle office, but my teams were all over the world, so I would commute for 45 minutes to get on a video call. There are pros to being in the office, but there are also cons. So much of my work was on a video call talking to teams all over the globe.By 6 p.m. or so, I would force myself to get off because I had to pick up the kids. Then I would give them dinner and pop them in front of a TV, or try to spend some time with them, but I was already spent.Then I would get a flood of emails because Europe is waking up. By the time I got on top of that and was about to go to bed surprise, Asia wakes up. When I wake up the next morning, I have all the stuff left over from there. Then the US is waking up, and you repeat.Imagine repeating that for years.At a previous job where I wasn't a product leader, I still felt overwhelmed.We'd all try these tips and tricks like not checking emails after a certain time or scheduling emails to send in the morning, and then a month later, it would all go out the window, and we're all back to grinding.I'm still busy in PortugalAnother factor for moving was I wanted to try building my own business.I have Type I Diabetes and I felt I could never be an entrepreneur in the US because it would be difficult to afford healthcare for myself and my family.In Portugal, I was able to start a company called AmplifyPM, and I help senior product managers become product leaders and I teach them how to scale and handle the increase of responsibility in a sustainable way.I thought if I came to Portugal and took a break from work and started my own business, I would suddenly have oodles of free time.I still feel busy. The difference is the pace of work.Working with companies like Google and others felt like drinking out of a fire hose. You sit down and the amount of work you get done in that same amount of time is off the charts crazy.When you get promoted, you likely get promoted because you have the capacity to handle more. At Google, I loved the team, the company, and what we did. That let me handle such a large amount of things because I found meaning in my work, but it was not enough for us as a family to keep going in that direction.In Portugal, I'm spending that time at a more sustainable pace.I don't want the lesson to be that if you have a career in Big Tech, the only way to thrive is to leave. This career unlocked so much for us and I don't regret it.It is a culture that keeps pushing you, but if you go in with awareness and understand how it can be, it can be great.I loved it and I may even go back one day but this is how I chose to restore balance for now.

Jack Schrupp always had a hard time digesting protein powder, so he decided to make his own.After years of refining his recipe, he launched Drink Wholesome as a side hustle in 2020.After overcoming several business challenges, he quit his teaching job to run the company full-time.When former collegiate athlete Jack Schrupp couldn't find a protein powder that suited his stomach, he decided to take matters into his own hands.He bought a spice grinder and a small blender, loaded up on ingredients such as oats and eggs at the co-op market a mile from campus, and became a bit of a "mad scientist" in his dorm room. "I would make a powdery mess and, oftentimes, it was on top of a mini fridge like in a bedroom, not even in the kitchen," the 29-year-old Williams College alum told Business Insider.The taste "left a lot to be desired," recalled Schrupp, "but it didn't upset my stomach, and that's what mattered most to me."He graduated in 2018, took a teaching position at a boarding school in New England, and moved onto a different campus, his protein powder equipment and ingredients in tow."I lived in the dorm and I didn't have a whole lot of privacy as in, my life spilled over into the lives of my students and vice versa, so they knew what I was up to, and they were very interested. At some point in time, we had a little tasting, if you will," he said. "And that was honestly very helpful feedback because they are brutally honest."Schrupp continued tinkering with his recipe, testing variations with honey, date sugar, and maple sugar.Partnering with a local bakery and spending $20,000 on his first round of inventorySchrupp figured that other people with sensitive stomachs might be interested in his product. After years of experimentation and recipe refinement, he decided to test his hunch and launch a protein powder company called Drink Wholesome in early 2020.The first thing he did was cold call manufacturers and ask if they could make his product in bulk. He connected with a small, local granola company that did contract manufacturing for other local businesses, and they agreed to make his first batch in two flavors: mocha and peanut butter coconut."In hindsight, those are ridiculous flavors to launch with because, today, 80% of my sales are for vanilla and chocolate," said Schrupp. "But mocha and peanut butter were my favorite flavors. That's just what I liked the best and so that's what I started with." Schrupp graduated from Williams College in 2018. Courtesy of Jack Schrupp His startup costs amounted to about $20,000, which he pulled from his savings."I didn't make very much money teaching, so it was a very significant investment for me," said Schrupp, who had a loose sales plan of pitching his product to local grocery stores and setting up booths at local sporting events.Selling online was never on his radar, nor did he want it to be until the Covid-19 pandemic forced his hand.Overcoming the 2020 pandemic 'curveball' and the 2021 bird flu outbreakSchrupp received his first round of inventory in February 2020, weeks before the COVID-19 outbreak shut much of the world and his sales strategy down."The pandemic really threw a curveball my way," he said. Two months into lockdown, "I really had not sold many bags at all, and I was genuinely convinced that I was just going to have to throw it all out and move on with my life."What initially appeared to be a setback turned into an advantage: His inability to meet with customers in person forced him to turn to online sales. He started selling on WooCommerce and Amazon, and while his initial customers were all friends and family, strangers eventually started finding his product. As of 2025, 99% of his sales come from those two platforms.As a small-business owner who's never sought capital from investors, he's grown to appreciate e-commerce, even though it's not his ideal way of finding and interacting with customers."It allows you to reach an incredibly large number of people with a small, finite amount of resources," said Schrupp. "E-commerce is incredible. What I will say, though, is it's not very rewarding. It's faceless."His faceless customers kept returning, though, eventually wiping out his initial inventory. He ordered a second round this time he made vanilla and chocolate flavors in the summer of 2020. The next year, another unexpected event nearly put him out of business."In 2021, there was a massive, unprecedented bird flu outbreak that, almost overnight, drove the price of egg products up in some cases 500%," said Schrupp. "Because I was only selling egg white-based protein powders, my profitable business essentially became unprofitable overnight."It forced another pivot: He launched a vegan, chickpea-based protein powder that he no longer makes, but it introduced the idea of diversifying his product line. He now makes an almond-based vegan powder and a collagen-based powder."Through the challenges, we've adapted, we've iterated, and ultimately come out better, more resilient, more flexible," said Schrupp.Leaving education to run Drink Wholesome full-timeSchrupp never imagined his life as a full-time entrepreneur running his own business."I had this plan to teach for a while and then become an administrator and possibly even head of a school. That was a dream of mine," he said.After three and a half years of juggling teaching and coaching with a growing business that was starting to feel more like a full-time job than a side hustle, Schrupp had to decide between the two career paths."I was doing too much, and I felt like I wasn't doing anything well or, as well as I could have and that was discouraging," he said. "I felt like I was just spread too thin. My life was very rich and rewarding, but I wasn't sleeping enough. I was very stressed." Schrupp's sister, Tessa, joined Drink Wholesome in 2023. Courtesy of Jack Schrupp In 2023, at the end of the school year, he quit to run Drink Wholesome full-time.The decision wasn't challenging from a personal finance standpoint."I'd spent five years teaching at boarding schools with free housing. I didn't earn a lot of money, but because I didn't have to pay for housing, which is a huge cost, and I lived pretty modestly, I'd saved money and did certainly have a safety net," he said.Plus, he could always go back to teaching if he needed to.Based on the trajectory of his company, which did seven figures in online sales in 2024 according to screenshots of his sales dashboards viewed by BI, he won't need to return to a teaching career anytime soon but he might want to."Running your own business is isolating and, especially if it's a hard journey, which it often is, you feel like you are doing it alone with no one to turn to for help or advice," said Schrupp, who works remotely from his home in Hanover and has one employee: his sister, who is based on the West Coast. "So I wouldn't say that entrepreneurship is like a hack or should be the ultimate goal for everyone. You should definitely, if you're ever considering it, take into account the loneliness that comes along with being an entrepreneur."There are perks, of course he says he's earning more money as a business owner and remote work allows him to travel much more than his teaching career did but he's figuring out if the money and flexibility are worth it."It's not so much that I'm lonely, but I'm professionally lonely. That's certainly the case, and I'm OK with it for now," said Schrupp. "But I don't know if I would want to do this for the rest of my life."

Is a thousand video games in year even possible? (SJBright / Alamy Stock Photo)A reader explains how and why he attempted to play a thousand different video games last year, with a goal of at least 83 a month.Gamers come in various types. Those who wants to play just the blockbusters and those who play multiplayer titles repeatedly to get really good at them. Hardcore gamers can inch their way through super hard games or try run after run in roguelikes. And many others stick to casual titles or buy popular sequels like EA Sports FC and the latest Call Of Duty.I am what you might call an outlier though. I like to play as many titles as I can. This means I rarely play very long or super hard games all the way through. But I do think it reasonable to give a game a chance, even if its not a genre I tend to like. I also prefer to buy physical games. When I started keeping a list in 2013, I had 322 physical games.I first wrote to GameCentral about my backlog in January 2016, when it stood at 450. And by August 2017, despite selling off some of the games, the backlog had ballooned to 763. Years have passed, and many titles played. But with a job that includes selling games and an ongoing Game Pass subscription, the list is going up rather than down. In fact, a year ago I had 1,481 games on my list. So I decided to set myself a challenge play a thousand different games in 2024.I soon realised that if there were no rules it could be an easy target to reach simply by playing free browser games for a few seconds each. I wanted this to be more about just getting my numbers up to meet a target, so I set myself some ground rules.Firstly, every game has to be finished with that is played to a point I dont want to play it anymore. That could be completed, but it could also be abandoned for being too slow, too boring or too difficult. Or maybe just not being my thing. I also decided to not include browser games or mobile phone games. No illegal emulation was allowed, nor Antstream, which with 1,300 games available would make things too easy.Playing 10 games every three days for an entire year would not be easy. I went through my games and made a list of how many I had on each format. I had collected a number of free titles from Epic Games, but with no dedicated graphics card quite a few would not be playable.I had a couple of compilations of Atari 2600 games. With the Xbox 360 store closing in July, and the vast majority of games having a demo, this would be a good source. But demos would not count if I wanted to keep playing when they ended. I didnt want to only play short games, so I also included longer titles I had wanted to play for a while. Deadpool for licensing reasons this is now a very rare game (Activision)My list was 1,282 games spread across 31 categories. Some of these would be different formats, but others would be variations e.g. Xbox 360 standard disc games, Kinect games, and downloadable games. So it seemed do-able on paper but what about reality?The obvious first issue is work. I run my own business, so that takes up a considerable amount of time. And theres the not small issue of moving in with my girlfriend, with all the associated packing and unpacking. Add to that volunteer work, seemingly endless chores, and on top of that hobbies including playing football, partner dance classes, drumming in a samba band, and regular pub quizzes would there be enough time?Doing the maths, I needed a little over 83 games a month. But as the challenge started on 1st January, I still had my Game Pass subscription. Having got 14 months from codes I used 13 months earlier I had already played all the games on there that were easy to finish with. So, I would be playing the titles I do like for longer, especially as I wasnt planning on coming back to Game Pass any time soon. And with that months jobs including my tax return, and starting to pack for moving day, I managed barely a third of my target at 32 games.So, there would be plenty of work to do to catch up.To be continued but before I go, heres some comments on a selection of games I played early in the year.Gotham Knights (Xbox Series S)While by no means terrible, this Batman-less game didnt hold together very well. In fact, I had more fun riding around Gotham on my bike and admiring the sights than the missions, which frequently killed the pacing with overlong story scenes.SonSon (arcade)This arcade game from the eighties is the free title with Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium and isnt exceptional. But by adding a rewind feature a game that was super frustrating in its original incarnation can be completed with some patience in just over an hour.Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise (Xbox One)My girlfriend Emma plays mainly mobile games but also PC titles like Age Of Empires. So, it was fun to team up with her and play this escape room type game. Both of us found solutions the other had missed as we completed the game. Its often in sales at a little over a pound, so well worth getting for that price.Deadpool (Xbox One)It was totally the wrong time to sell this as the cinema release of Deadpool & Wolverine made the game shoot up in price soon afterwards. And it felt very much like an HD remaster of a mediocre PlayStation 2 tie-in. Deadpools monologues are still amusing though.Langrisser 2 (PlayStation 4)This remake of an old Mega Drive game overcomes one of the role-playing game genres common failings by having pacy battles. But I get a weird sort of claustrophobia when playing turn-based games, where I hate it if my character cant move when enemies attack and I just have to accept getting hit.Tetris (Mega Drive)The Mega Drive release of Tetris was cancelled when Sega realised that the people they bought the rights from didnt actually have them. The game now appears on the Mega Drive Mini console, which adds some additional modes.Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes (Wii)There are so many Dynasty Warriors games and spin-offs released that there isnt much space for clones. This one from Capcom has plenty of fighters on screen but predictably doesnt attempt anything new.Lost Lands 9: Stories Of The First Brotherhood (Xbox One)Hidden object puzzle adventures are pretty common, pretty similar, and pretty boring. This one is much like the others.More TrendingSenj No kami 2, aka Mercs (Arcade)I was a big fan of Mercs on the Mega Drive back in the 90s. Although it had great graphics at the time the arcade game was better, and this is my first play of that version. I plumped for the Japanese version and even remembered some of the boss tactics as I completed it.By reader Jean-Paul Satire Senj No kami 2, aka Mercs, aka the sequel to Commando (Capcom)The readers features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you wont need to send an email.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Project Files: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121249055 .In the first episode of the PCG series, we worked on a attice generation system withing a generated grid using procedural generation. Today, we are going to use the same system and instead of using a grid, we are going to sample points from a custom volume and generate a lattice. // ! https://www.patreon.com/codelikeme Patrons will have access to project files of all the stuff I do in the channel and other extra benefitsJoin this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClb6Jh9EBV7a_Nm52Ipll_Q/join Like my facebook page for more content : https://www.facebook.com/gamedevelopersclub/ Follow me on twitter : https://twitter.com/CodeLikeMe2 Follow me on reddit : https://www.reddit.com/user/codelikeme #CodeLikeMe #unrealengine #ue4 #indiegamedev