What's Good #23

published 2026-08-31 | tags: #whats-good

Welcome to What's Good #23, for good stuff I got, watched, and played in August 2026.

Steam Machine

This month Valve finally decided to take my money and give me a Steam Machine + Steam Controller.

I setup my basement as a home office and have been thoroughly enjoying the PC Console experience. It was a breeze to setup, the controller feels wonderful, and I am very happy with it's performance.

While the Steam Machine and the Steam Deck both run the same software, more or less, the hardware on the Machine is much nicer. It's able to play every game I've thrown at it at a comfortable ~60+ FPS at 1080p resolution.

I am not a 4k gamer, I just have a dinky monitor on a dinky table that I use while I sit on my dinky couch, and I am happy.

Pebble Time 2

Speaking of pre-orders finally coming home to roost, I got a Pebble Time 2 this month!

Coming from the fit-bit I am totally happy to sacrifice workouts, or at least the thoroughness of workout support, in favor of a thriving app ecosystem and open source plugins!

It's very customizable, has most of the features I want, great battery life, and the media controls aren't locked to YouTube Music! (yes that is a real thing on fitbit)

The Odyssey

I saw Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey this month and I really enjoyed it.

My main experience with The Odyssey was doing stage plays as a kid where we basically just did the voyage part with the cyclopes and the giants and such, so I was confused that Odysseus had a kid and stuff.

It did inspire me to read the translation by Emily Wilson, which I haven't completed yet but is very accessible.

Backrooms

I love a good YouTube success story.

I've followed backrooms for a few years now, watching the creepy VHS aesthetic found footage horror series. I wasn't sure what a Backrooms movie would entail, but this totally delivered.

There are interesting characters, good motivations, exceptional special effects, and a coherent story which I was not expecting.

I'm interested to see where this story goes.

The Boys Season 5

I watched the final season of The Boys this month.

I feel like it got some flack online, but I was frankly totally content. The plotlines I cared about were tied up, the ending was satisfying, and I am open, but not excited to see more stories in this universe.

It was an interesting super hero story, well told, if a bit edgey for the sake of it at times, and I had fun.

Fallout Season 2

I also watched the second season of the Fallout TV show, so apparently all I watch are Amazon shows.

Fallout is totally fun, at least for somebody with a familiarity with Fallout but I haven't personally played any of them.

The special effects and set-pieces are really great, the world is interesting and dynamic, and at least 2 seasons in it doesn't feel like it's getting stale -- the series is still dynamic.

I do find it funny that the series is pulling a lot from Fallout New Vegas which is famously the best [modern] Fallout game, but also not one made by Bethesda who is [in part] producing the show. It's almost like they wish they had made New Vegas and are trying to ret-con that...

Obsession

I also watched Obsession and I really enjoyed it. I found the premise thought provoking with lots to dissect and reflect on themes and metaphors, etc etc.

The acting by Nikki is stupendous, the main character being the villain, the possibly perfect ending, it's all spot on.

Children of the Sun

Children of the Sun is a sniper puzzle game.

You are a sniper who has taken it upon themselves to kill a bunch of cultists.

The trick though is your bullet travels from target to target, drawing a constellation across the map as you shoot your first target, then from there your next target, and from there the next -- you get the idea.

There are good challenges, interesting enemy design, but ultimately it does feel like a puzzle game. There is almost no time pressure, so you are encouraged to be contemplative about your moves. That said if you want to get a high score you do need to act fast for bonuses so you will get some muscle memory as you wipe and retry the same level over and over and over.