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It’s an older model, sir, but it checks out. We give you the MSI MAG342CQPV, all 34 inches of it.

With that 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio and 3440 by 1440 native resolution, this monitor arguably nails the current sweet spot for gaming monitors. And it’s yours for $280 from Newegg.

Of course, at this lowly price point, you’re not going to get an absolute cutting-edge experience. This is a high-refresh monitor. But it’s 100Hz rather than 144Hz. It also uses a VA rather than IPS panel.

The upside is strong inherent contrast, with the panel rated at 3000:1. That’s far better than any IPS screen. The downside with VA is typically worse response, though MSI rates this screen at 1ms by the MPRT metric. So, it should be around 2ms by the the more demanding GtG measure.

If…

It’s all gotten out of hand. They’ve got concepts playing games now. Specifically, the venerable genre of Twitch Plays—those times when a swarming Twitch chat competes for control over games like Pokémon, and Dark Souls—has evolved to the point that Pi is currently playing Pokémon Sapphire. Actually, it’s been playing it for three years (via GamesRadar).

That’s Pi as in the mathematical constant. The one you probably know as (at least) 3.14 but which goes on, well, forever if you let it. The way it works is this: Every digit between 0 and 9 has been assigned to a button on the Game Boy Advance (some buttons have two digits assigned). The computer then simply proceeds through digits of Pi sequentially and makes the corresponding input. For examp…

A little adventure-mystery puzzle box game is currently totally free on Steam, with Littlefield Studio’s 2021 release Machinika Museum available at a 100% discount “while supplies last.” With the kind of detailed 3D backgrounds that might remind you of Myst, Machinika: Museum is a puzzle-box-solving adventure through machines of extraterrestrial origin.

The protagonist—that is, you—is a researcher whose job is to understand this large collection of strange and sometimes bizarre objects, figure out their stories, and even discover the fate of their previous owner. Developers Littlefield call it out as directly inspired by puzzlebox genre revival hit The Room, from back in 2014, which will probably get genre enthusiasts excited enough on its own.

“In a distant futu…