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24 Dec 2024

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The crocodile from Crocodile Dundee dies in Australia
Burt, who had lived at Crocosaurus Cove since 2008, was thought to be over 90 when he died.

The best PC games of 2024 (that don’t need a graphics card)
I’ve been writing these roundups for seven years running and in that time integrated graphics have gotten a lot more powerful. Just look at the Steam Deck and its many imitators: it’s the most popular gaming PC on the market by far, and it’s running off a laptop chip from several years ago. The upshot is you’ve got more choices than ever for games on a low-power PC. Even so, I’ve picked ten fantastic new PC games that’ll run on a toaster, so long as you can find a toaster that’ll run Windows (or SteamOS). And it sure doesn’t hurt that they’re a lot cheaper than AAA games, too — the better to make the most out of any Steam gift cards you have laying around. Here are my picks, in no particular order. If you’re looking for even more low-power games that’ll run on laptops, mini PCs, or older desktops, check out the same roundup from 2023, 2022, and 2021. Game on! Balatro Balatro is where an embarrassing amount of my time went this year. It’s a roguelike deck builder that’s based on poker, so you’re probably already familiar with the basics. But there are no other players to beat or bluff, just a score target to hit. But with every round passed, you can augment your deck with new cards or joker modifiers. So it’s possible to, say, create a run where straights score on just four cards, then power it up further by letting those straights hit with one card gaps, too. It’s hard to visualize, but the way the game makes you cheat in new and interesting was is incredibly deep and addictive. Balatro costs $15 on Steam. It’s also available on all consoles, MacOS, iOS, and Android. Thank Goodness You’re Here This game has been described as a point-and-click adventure, but I don’t think that’s quite right. It’s more of an interactive cartoon, boiled down to the most essential of interactive elements. The real draw in Thank Goodness You’re Here is exploring the sleepy and extremely silly British village, filled with wonderfully voice-acted characters. It’s short and sweet, but if you’re looking for a quick injection of charming Saturday morning comedy, it hits the spot. Thank Goodness You’re Here is $20 on Steam. It’s also available on Epic, PlayStation, Switch, and the MacOS store. Selaco Selaco is that most evergreen of low-power game types, a Doom mod. But that description sells it short. It’s a Doom mod that incorporates about thirty years of innovation in first-person shooters, in both visuals and minute-to-minute gameplay. So you get plenty of pomp and circumstance to flesh out its sci-fi story and far more complex combat with improved AI, but it won’t melt your lack-of-graphics card since it’s all built on 2.5-D graphics. It’s an episodic game that isn’t finished yet, which might feel a little anticlimactic, but there’s plenty of boomer shooter to enjoy in the meantime. Selaco is $25 on Steam. Tactical Breach Wizards If Harry Dresden had become a SWAT officer instead of a private detective, he might have ended up on the same squad as the Tactical Breach Wizards. Blending turn-based tactics with urban fantasy, this game gives you tons of different options for handling each situation, with a door kick and a fireball being equally valid. The story-focused primary campaign is a weird blend of genres, but the game’s forgiving setup gives you near-infinite tools for tackling each situation. If you wished X-Com had a little more Tolkien, you’ll feel right at home. Tactical Breach Wizards is $20 on Steam. Maniac What if you could fuse the top-down chaos of an early Grand Theft Auto or Postal with the “die, die again” roguelike progression of a modern, um, roguelike? That’s Maniac, baby, which perforce comes with the “no kids allowed” warning even if it doesn’t actually have an ESRB rating. This completely off-the-walls action title is basically a GTA “rampage” mission extended into a full game, where the only goal is to destroy as much stuff (and people) as possible before the cops inevitably bust you. Dig those low-poly graphics and splatter effects, too. Maniac is $5 on Steam and Fanatical. Minishoot Adventures Green-capped Link tends to start every game with a stick, or if he’s lucky, a rusty sword. What if he got full-on spaceship instead? That’s the premise behind Minishoot Adventures, a game that transposes the ship from Asteroids into a 2D Zelda-style adventure game. Simple but colorful graphics and some twin-stick shooter mechanics fill in the gaps of an admittedly goofy premise, but before long you’ll get the hand of this genre fusion, especially after a few upgrades. It’s a premise that works far better than you think it will. Minishot Adventures is $15 on Steam. Nine Sols I’d be lying if I said that Nine Sols was the first soulslike to use a 2D graphics setup, or a cartoon animal aesthetic, or a focus on counter-based combat. But it nails pretty much all of them, and does it without resorting to pixel graphics, which is a huge plus in my book. If you loved Sekiro‘s combat and deep lore but want something a little less all-over-the-place visually, this is it. Just don’t expect it to go easy on you, you’ll need help from a lot of NPCs you discover along the way to augment your basic skills. Nine Sols is $30 on Steam. It’s also available as a DRM-free purchase, and it’s also on Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. Empires of the Undergrowth Ask any Animorphs fan, and they’ll tell you that an ant battle is filled with enough drama and intrigue to make Ken Burns weep. That’s the idea behind Empires of the Undergrowth, a real-time strategy that has you building, expanding, and defending an ant colony. Imagine it as SimAnt if Alexander the Great had been a game programmer. You’ll expand and direct your insect army through battles or the full campaign using different pheromones as commands. This one uses full 3D graphics, but its requirements are low enough that you should be able to run it on just about anything. Empires of the Undergrowth is $29.99 on Steam. It’s also available on Epic and GoG. Arco Arco is an 18th century story told with 1980s graphics and 2020s sensibilities. Though it looks simple, the story of indigenous Mesoamericans fighting through a fantasy world is unique and fascinating, and the mix of turn-based combat and tactical positioning should feel “crunchy” to anyone who’s been looking for a new twist on RPGs. Despite the apparently limited setup, the scope is huge and grandiose — it shows exactly how indie games can compete with the big boys in terms of both story and game design. Arco is $20 on Steam. It’s also available on Epic, MacOS, and Switch. Mindcop Imagine an old-school point-and-click adventure game, pushed through the filter of a whodunnit murder mystery. Now imagine that game, pushed through a second filter from a Calarts cartoon, and then throw in a dash of Psychonauts and Persona. In Mindcop you have to find a small town killer by exploring the minds of their potential victims, with a huge amount of goofy atmosphere and inventive puzzles thrown in to keep the formula fresh. Solve the murder, catch the killer, and don’t disappoint your fan club. Mindcop is $15 on Steam. It’s also available on PlayStation and Switch. Honorable Mention: Doronko Wanko If you’ve ever seen a beautiful, immaculate house filled with valuables and designer furniture, and then felt the desire to go nuts on it with a paint bucket, I have the perfect game for you. In Doronko Wanko (literally “muddy dog”) you’re a tiny, un-kickable puppy whose only desire is to spread as much mud around a pristine house as possible. It’s kind of like the exact opposite of Super Mario Sunshine, and your score is calculated in a dollar amount of damages. It’s short, it’s free, and it’s amazingly cute and cathartic at the same time. Doronko Wanko is free on Steam. It’s also available on Softonic (also free).

The Zero Trust era is coming: What that means for VPNs and your data
The days of walling off the outside world to protect your network are quickly going the way of the Dodo. Thanks to the extraordinary growth of remote workforces, the adoption of cloud-based networking, and new cyber threats, the old network security model just no longer works. In this time of ultimate shareability and interconnectedness, threats can come from any angle—including inside your network. Enter the Zero Trust security framework. By trusting none and verifying all, Zero Trust can make any network, home of business, become Fort Knox. With the old “castle and moat” style of protecting networks going by the wayside, many speculate that VPNs will follow suit. So what does this all mean for the security of your data and will you still be using a VPN in a few years time? Let’s dig in to find out more and see what the future holds for your network security. What is Zero Trust? NordLayer Despite huge investments in firewalls and VPNs, organizations and even individuals are finding that they’re still vulnerable. This is down to the inherent flatness of most networks. Once hackers are able to penetrate a network, they can easily move around without worrying about additional security checks. Zero Trust is a way to combat this type of unwanted access. Zero Trust architecture might sound like some newfangled technology, but it’s really just a strategy used for network security. It’s a type of cybersecurity methodology rather than any single program or application. The basic idea behind Zero Trust is to, well, trust no one. Pretty simple right? In reality it takes the form of better and more comprehensive authentication in front of a service; principles such as ‘least access needed’, and the assumption that the network is always under attack, guide this model. Why is this authentication important? Take a castle as an example. A traditional VPN acts as the moat surrounding the castle. This makes it difficult to get in, but once inside you’re able to roam about freely. Zero Trust security on the other hand can be thought of as castle guards. They’re posted at every doorway, acting as gatekeepers for that area. Anytime you want to move to another room in the castle, you need to gain permission from that area’s guard. This level of comprehensive security is much better at limiting the damage that an intruder can do if they manage to get inside. The principles of Zero Trust are already being used by some forward-thinking organizations and companies, but it’s only a matter of time before the same ideas will be leveraged for use in home networks and personal applications as well. Will Zero Trust replace VPNs? Due to the very nature of Zero Trust, traditional VPNs are facing a reckoning. Because Zero Trust architecture is very effective at keeping networks secure, some in the security community argue that it threatens to replace VPNs as a method for remote access. Personally, I don’t think that will be the case. Zero Trust may become a default practice for companies in the future, but this doesn’t mean that VPNs will go the way of the dinosaurs though. Apart from just security, VPNs still provide other great features such streaming service unblocking and avoiding bandwidth throttling.Sam Singleton They still provide myriad benefits when it comes to both professional and personal privacy. Just because you’re accessing a Zero Trust service that’s authenticating every step of the way doesn’t mean your activities are private; someone who’s watching your traffic can still piece together everything you’re doing. A VPN remains the best way of obfuscating your traffic and keeping it out of sight from prying eyes. Seeing as how Zero Trust architecture and VPNs don’t inherently conflict with one another, it’s most likely that Zero Trust is something that will be used in tandem with a VPN rather than its direct replacement in the future. Zero Trust and VPNs to protect your data, the power of friendship As more and more people begin working from home, their home networks will begin to grow larger and more complex. Wireless routers and access points will then become juicy targets for hackers to compromise private data. Zero Trust security at home can take the form of multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all personal accounts. We are already seeing MFAs such as Face ID, personal USB hardware tokens, and passkeys becoming more popular. Windows 11 now allows users to easily setup and start using biometric passkeys with the right equipment. Unfortunately, there are no current packaged solutions to Zero Trust at home. Until it becomes more ubiquitous, you’ll need to take it upon yourself to follow these practices. Utilizing things such as the aforementioned MFA, network segmentation, and strong firewalls are a good start. This is in addition to using a good VPN. When working from home or connecting to a company network, it’s always a good idea to use a VPN—even if your company doesn’t require it. Zero Trust security won’t replace VPNs, but it does stand to make them better in ways that most people won’t even be aware of. In the future, it’ll become essential for VPN providers to keep customer data safe through Zero Trust practices—and be able to prove it as well. This behind the scenes benefit figures to reap huge benefits for the security of customer data. Top VPN with Zero Trust practices ExpressVPN Read our review Already major VPNs are starting to make it part of their privacy practices. ExpressVPN recently updated its Trust Center policies to include new core tenets such as “Embracing Zero Trust”, “Employing zero-knowledge encryption”, and “Principle of least privilege”. I expect to see more VPNs jump on board with similar privacy policy guidelines as well. This is all great news for all VPN users, not just the privacy-conscious. With VPNs enacting more Zero Trust security practices to keep user data safe on the backend, they are doing their part. But until Zero Trust becomes common practice across all networks and accounts, we’ll need to take it upon ourselves to go the extra mile and protect ourselves at home.