sclpls

I'm not sure I would characterize most contemporary literature as subtle, but also at this moment in history I wouldn't say there's a dominant literary style.

I agree with what Gormongous had to say about the Banner Saga. I thought the writing was quite good. I generally dislike fantasy writing so I was surprised that the writing engaged me. Like Chris, I also liked the game's slow, deliberate pace which is why I thought the amount of text was okay and not off-putting. Snappier text would have felt tonally not of a piece I think. The comparison to FTL makes sense because in both games you move from place to place, you're managing supplies to keep you going, and you have these events where you pick between a couple of options, and then engage in some battles, however despite those similarities I think it's a mistake to lump the games together. FTL is a quick roguelike experience whereas the Banner Saga is a RPG (Stoic is made up of ex-Bioware people I believe) where the events are set by the game designers. You're supposed to play FTL over and over again so having a lot of text would be inappropriate. I doubt it was the intent of the designers for people to play the Banner Saga over and over again, so having more writing doesn't strike me as gratuitous or excessive. The game is not perfect by any means, I'm excited to see Stoic make a sequel to the game, and see what changes they decide to make because there are a lot of decisions about the game design that can be further refined. What is there for this game though is strong enough that I'm glad I played it.

Yeah, it's unfortunate. I haven't checked out CoP but I haven't heard any great accounts about it which is really unfortunate because it sounded so good.

Jake's wikipedia page is now the best thing.

My admittedly unsophisticated opinion is I'm really enjoying EU4 a lot, and it's an easier game for me to wrap my brain around than CK2, even if by a lot of measures CK2 is the better game of the two.

I agree with everything Hexgrid wrote (although I'm not a game designer), and also just want to add that when I first started listening to 3MA my experience with strategy games was pretty much limited to some Sid Meier and Firaxis games, some RTS games from the 90s, and some Euro board games. So for me one of the pleasures of the show is how much it has broadened my horizons for what strategy games have to offer. Andean Abyss, for example, is definitely a game I picked up because it was mentioned on the podcast, and that game has resulted in some of my favorite board game experiences of all time. So in a way, I think the best 3MA episodes are the ones that cover less well known games.

FYI, there's a spoiler tag you can use to hide that text. I've played the game already (although not with that outcome!) so I'm not sweating it, but I'm sure some folks would appreciate it.

Thanks!

No way, Peggle is like the ultimate game for de-stressing.

Unless a game has immaculate UI, I'm probably going to hate the crafting system in a game. I'm playing Fallout: New Vegas right now, and mostly like it way more than Fallout 3, but the crafting system drives me bonkers.

Did Chris mention what his twitch channel is that he's moving to? I didn't catch it... P.S. Good talk about the Great Game!

Somehow I completely missed up until yesterday all the variable gameplay modes like low gravity and sword boomerang! This game that I love just got so much better!

That video is the best

I loved this game, but I did not love the final boss... not one bit.

Well this looks promising. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/07/02/dont-starve-dev-on-its-espionage-xcom-incognita/ The developers are still being tight-lipped, but this definitely is going to hit a lot of sweet spots for people. It sounds like starting with the recent XCOM as a base, but they are trying to address some of the shortcomings with the game by having randomly generated maps, and keeping the emphasis on informational awareness so you don't have the conservative tactical game play of "move to cover, go to overwatch, repeat". If they can have create the tense atmosphere of a Jean-Pierre Melville flick I am going to be delighted.

So they changed the name of the game to Invisible Inc. It's a fine pun, but I preferred the name Incognita so I'm a little bummed about this.

Spelunky's PC release was this year though, and the Daily Challenge was a new feature that was added to it, and that specifically is what got Chris hooked so I'd argue that's a valid contemporary choice.

So are you the one responsible for the Remo vs. Klepek twitter account?

This is a pretty good Polygon piece on improvisation in games like Nuclear Thrones that acts as a nice companion piece to Chris' comments about Nuclear Throne (also: bonus Spelunky content). http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/17/5304982/games-that-develop-you-how-players-teach-designers-about-their-own

They need to add a feature to all of the games where when someone online says something slanderous to you Nidhogg boots up.

You can't just segregate Spelunky from other games. It isn't like DOTA with its various lords looking down on other games with a smug sense of superiority, esoteric knowledge, secret handshakes, and ancient hazing rituals that distinguish it from the masses. Spelunky is a game of humble origins from its days a free title made in GameMaker based on the premise that the intermingling of genres (scandalous!) like the simple platformer, and the (at the time) unfashionable roguelike can show the best of what gaming has to offer. It's a game of the people, and when discussed it needs to exist in fellowship with other games.

So Burial at Sea added some light stealth mechanics to Bioshock Infinite. Also noticeable is that Garret and Booker share a similar cynical and world-weary outlook on life. And as so many players have observed, Booker also has a strange compulsion to rummage through trash cans and desks for like coins and hot dogs. So I am positing that there is some tear that reveals they are the same person. The only flaw in this theory is that Elizabeth has to pick locks for Booker, but we can suppose at some point she might teach him the tricks of the trade (say, in between the crypt mission and the Assassins mission in Thief 1, when Garret first gains the pick locks ability). We are now extremely close to tying all Looking Glass, Irrational, and Fullbright games into the same universe. We just need to figure out how to tie in some flight and golf sims, Ultima Underworld, and that mech combat game to all of this...

It seems to me that this image makes it pretty clear which side of the fence they're on:

P.S. Good Spelunky talk!

The Google discussion caused me to see what Google ads thinks it knows about me. It got my gender and age range right, but it's interests for me was mostly off, and I feel this really dumb sense of pride because of that.