Merus

I see this as a Captain Toad of the Metroid series: of Nintendo's franchises, Metroid is the one they think of when they think of science fiction and shooting, but this clearly isn't a game that should star Samus Aran, because the emphasis is in different places. Hence, the Galactic Federation. I suspect people wouldn't be as salty if it didn't seem like they weren't making games with Samus Aran in them. Edit: I kind of love how everyone is confused that Kanye West went to E3. Does he like games? Is he in a game? Doesn't he have like a million things going on? Why did Kanye West go to E3? I thought, with gaming's mainstream respectability, that the old 'wait, what's Stephen Spielberg doing at E3' stories would have dried up, but we've managed to go a whole new level instead.

It's sort of a shame that Persona Team get points for trying, but that they also get points for clearly trying in a way that most other developers don't. Catherine had similar problems - god it fucked up, but it's about recognisably human situations that no-one makes games about.

I think the point, that's been made earlier, is that no-one actually can describe what a 'real' Metroid is. Every game in the series has had different design principles, and fans have very different ideas about which elements of those games are indispensable.

So my Numenera game doesn't have enough players, so that's on hold as well, so I might be able to take over Reyturner's game while he's busy and if players are still interested/available. I can make the time you guys normally played at, so that's not a worry.

Probably not torches

See, I saw the byline on that article and decided to ignore it, because of the frequency of John Walker not knowing what he's talking about. I'm expecting VR to be an expensive novelty - for me, an exploration game in VR would be fantastic, but it's apparently hard for players to move around without them getting a little nauseous. That kind of kills it if the only way you can have players comfortably move through a space is by teleporting them.

It may also void your warranty

This is deeply ironic in hindsight given that Next Level reportedly pitched a mainline Metroid game a couple of years ago.

Boy, going from that to Unepic will be a jolt

I appreciate that Jane is frantically trying to work out how to stop people from flushing that turtle down the toilet

Yeah, uh, Zen Pencils is infamous for recontextualising quotes to strip any character out of them. Take this one from Ayn Rand, turning one of the 20th Century's most divisive figures into a kid trying to get cookies. He's also got that inspiration guru thing going on where any critic is reframed as being a hater, so he's been doing this for years, never growing.

So pre-orders have started for Heart of Thorns: base price is $50. I'm not paying that. Guess I'm done!

I'd say vagueness and loquaciousness: it uses very big words to say very, very little. But that's only part of it. It's a mood setter, but what mood is it setting, exactly? You don't fondly remember a foreboding sky; the only real statement it's making is that there's a something coming back but we're explicitly told that we're not supposed to have an emotion about that; describing a memory as burning in the heart is just weird. It is a word salad.

Yeah, it's pretty garbage. I'm looking forward to FF7 not even close to measuring up to people's memories of FF7.

Am I the only one that's expecting Unravel to be a mediocre platformer that people will forget about in a couple of years, like Limbo? Edit: the Thumb War has begun in earnest:

My (limited) understanding is that cultural appropriation is the problem with how rock music was basically black music until white people came along and popularised it - for whites. Not a lot of black people really benefited from white people deciding rock music was pretty cool. It's almost entirely not about the culture itself, but about how non-white people are denied full influence at the cultural table and how, if they don't hold on tightly to their culture, it gets exploited.

ONE TWO THREE FOUR I DECLARE A THUMB WAR

Oh it's Trials the game that put in a bunch of weird background details that led to a lockbox that will be brought to Paris next century so the grandkids of four current Trials players can unlock it and see what's inside A Rambo cat riding a unicorn firing a golden gun into the air is sort of in line with that series (although I think that development studio might benefit from just taking their batshit insane ideas and just doing them rather than sticking them in Trials) Anyway, wow what the fuck E3. This has been crazy. Like, Nintendo announcing Earthbound Zero isn't even going to make the top ten most unexpected announcements at this rate. (did anyone else notice that Ubisoft managed an E3 first by having two women of colour on their own during their presentation?)

It occurs to me, 160 posts in, that Splatoon got something impressive going where it includes two control schemes, and advocates of both argue that using the other is a mistake.

Oh god please don't let this be true. Obsidian hardly needs yet another pit to shovel money into.

Cara Ellison, Fixed Address Holder

don't worry Twig you're still dumb to me

Well the title screen's different. No-one actually knows at this point what's different to the Earthbound Zero rom, and Nintendo certainly isn't going to compare the two.

Ryu's SF2 button inputs working is a thing of genius, and making those inputs slightly stronger in terms of damage but not in terms of speed or movement is also a clever way of balancing it: experts are going to be able to reliably put in those button inputs but because the danger area's the same as his special moves, the mechanical advantage you get for being able to do the button inputs is very slight.