Problem Machine

I'm one minute into the cast and I'm already mad that you failed to say "subscribe to our chicken feed"

Sure, but frankly I've never actually liked dual stick controls much, usually finding them an inferior interpretation of mouse and keyboard controls. Perhaps ironically, Dark Souls is one of the only games I'll actually put up with it for.

I got a non-Quip electric toothbrush through happenstance a while back, and I had no idea why it would pulse three times at approximate 30-second intervals and then turn itself off until I heard the Quip ad read and put two and two together. So thanks for informing me about the features of my own dang toothbrush. Also thanks Jambe for making me feel better about probably not being able to replace its heads as frequently as I'm supposed to.

Maybe just different associations. If all your sneezing is done while sick or getting your sinuses fucked by pollen it's easy to build a bad association, but if your sneezes primarily accompany pleasant sunny afternoons I guess the associated experience is a bit more pleasant.

Nick doesn't care about lore

Added, followed, hosted

Oh haha, I think I might have gotten a little actually salty there. Like, particularly because I think this DLC has a lot of level design problems, but that moment is absolutely not one of them.

you guys should just do what i do and use some made up bullshit as an email address. You don't get emails thinking you're some stranger, and all you have to do in return is slowly spell it out to people several times each week.

I often tend to be very cautious in recommending things. I kind of think of it like there's a few outcomes with benefits/detriments: A - I don't say anything, everyone goes on with their lives. +0 points B - I recommend thing I like. They like it too! +5 points C - I recommend thing I like. They don't like it! Now I feel weird talking to them and they trust my opinions less! -10 points So I try to develop a reasonable confidence that person will like thing before giving it a proper recommendation. Until then I just settle for saying I like it a lot and the reasons why

I thought it was a fine piece. I've started Infinite Jest twice. It's okay.

I remember being very supportive! That's how I remember it anyway. I'm sure whatever I said it was at very least hilarious.

I hope Jake brings up this interesting and important information on the next cast.

I think the main issue is that right now Steam is both a distribution service and a marketing platform. Should every game that wants to be get on the Steam distribution service? Yes. Should every game that wants to be get on the Steam marketing platform? No.

My experience of DS lore is mostly that you just play through the games doing what's expected of you at the moment and the lore kind of settles in on you through incidental dialogue and environmental storytelling. Actually stopping to read item descriptions is really not something I started doing until very recently. Don't sweat the lore stuff: It's interesting, but primarily it contextualizes the game. I think partially what's happened with Nick is just an artifact of streaming, where most of the people in chat have had the experience of going through the game a few times and have had a long while to understand the significance of each part and how it fits together; however, the vast majority of first plays are just people going from area to area, not putting in a whole lot of thought exactly why until later on. DS2 explicitly acknowledged that you'd have no idea why you were doing what you were doing until much later. DS's story style is interesting precisely because it DOESN'T demand anything of the player. The story elements are just there, and how much you engage with them or don't is entirely up to you. That stuff is important though. Even if it's not what you're there for, I think it still actually is what you're there for to some extent. That is to say, you may not be interested in the specifics of the crumbling age of fire at the moment, but the way that backstory forms a specific and meaningful context for the challenges you overcome is still important. Remove too much of that stuff and action games start just becoming guitar hero without the music.

Yeah dual wielding really did not add a lot to the game -- At least when it's just the howitzer there's a kind of fun timing/guessing game element, but when you're just hosing at your opponent with a rifle there's really not much interesting going on. I ended up using a modified version of the original controls to address this issue, myself. I changed triangle to jump/boost, square to right hand, x to left hand, and circle to switch weapons. It might sound awkward, but it let me fairly easily roll my thumb down a half step to hold boost and shoot and then another half step to hold boost and both shoots.

How could someone mention a Nick Breckon convention and not call it Breck-con!?!?

It is interesting and very specific to this point in time that that whole bit carries a bit of uneasy tension it probably wouldn't have in the past. I felt it too -- but I still thought it was pretty funny.

I think I'm about halfway through and so far that describes basically the entire thing. Like I'm gonna fight four Harald knights, pfft.

Good Dog Content.

In the reality I live in, when Chris said "You're going to shoehorn this into every conversation aren't you?" he appended "you slyboots" after. Also in the thumbs community Terraria game last night someone made reference to a monster being Frankenstain, and not getting the reference I tried to make the exact same joke in reverse. Whoops?

Would very much like to see a Daggerfall stream

Make it so when you try to open one it opens the next one over. Turn that bathroom into a Zelda puzzle.

As, for instance, when that grenade rolls down a hill