Month: March 2020

Enlarge (credit: Jan Woitas/picture alliance via Getty Images)

It might be stating the obvious, but your car's headlights are a safety device, and not all headlights are created equal. For a while, carmakers have been fitting powerful LED headlights to their high-end offerings, but more often than not, their cheaper cars—and particularly cheaper trim levels—get saddled with much-weaker illumination. But sometimes a commuter wants to see more of where they're going when the sun goes down. Eventually, they go looking for a solution, starting with their local automotive parts store. But stuffing aftermarket LED headlight bulbs into OEM housings designed for conventional halogen units results in dangerous glare for oncoming drivers. While LEDs can deliver more intense light at a higher end of the spectrum, most aftermarket units also create a hazardous condition.

The major brick-and-mortar auto parts stores know this, which is why they tend to shy away from aftermarket H11 LED bulbs, other than ones clearly marked for use in fog lamps or "for off-road use only." It's a different world online, with off-brand H11 LED bulb listings on Amazon, eBay, and Walmart websites failing to carry the same prominent warnings.

You can get pulled over for non-spec headlamps, and for a good reason. In addition to issuing a citation, the law enforcement officer may have the legal right to force you to remove the bulbs. More ominously, once the officer has pulled you over, you risk a vehicle search. With all that in mind, it would be wise to keep a set of securely packaged OEM bulbs in the glovebox or trunk if you are running aftermarket LEDs.

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  Here I am enjoying my new life in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. [credit: Nintendo ]

While reviewing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the year's first major Nintendo Switch-exclusive game, I was pretty distracted. I received my review copy of the game at the end of February, pretty much the moment when my hometown of Seattle went on high alarm over coronavirus fears. As each day passed, citizens were encouraged to become more vigilant: to work from home, avoid large gatherings, engage in "social distancing," adjust travel plans, and otherwise reduce contact with the outside world.

As such, my impressions of Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be forever colored by how it fit neatly into a quarantined life—and I imagine I won't be alone in that impression.

For nearly every real-life scenario that I've become anxious about, I've gotten a comforting virtual version on my new Nintendo-designed island. Yes, I can go to friends' houses (friends who happen to be cute, anthropomorphic animals). Yes, I can go shopping. I can help strangers with everyday tasks. I can wander freely and finish a series of zen-like errands and chores. And I can hop on a plane and fly to other islands without facing scrutiny from community leaders (which, in this game, is a talking, sweater-wearing raccoon named Tom Nook).

Enlarge / These violent delights have violent ends—also these guys make awesome games.

If you're stuck at home looking for distractions to take your mind off of COVID-19—or if you've realized that you don't actually have to pay attention to your department's snooze-inducing staff meeting and you'd rather not watch your boss try and fail for twenty solid minutes to get WebEx desktop sharing to work—I've got a humble suggestion: how about watching some of our "War Stories" videos on game-design challenges?

We started "War Stories" a couple of years ago with the idea being that we'd sit down with some brilliant game designers and get them to describe to us a moment in their work when it felt like they had run up against an unsolvable (or nearly unsolvable) problem, and how they eventually overcame that problem. Over the years we've heard some fascinating tales of programming derring-do from some fascinating folks—people like Sid Meier (Civilization), Paul Neurath (Thief: The Dark Project), Glen Schofield (Dead Space) and even Lord British himself, Richard Garriott (Ultima Online).

(The series is also in active production, and there are two new episodes nearly finished—including one that we'll be publishing tomorrow about a certain rotoscoped prince, and one coming soon about a certain neuroscientist named "Karan.")