Bjorn

Thanks!

Souls talk! Weirdly enough, one of the elements that attracts me to the Souls games is not just their difficulty, but also to play dress up with dolls and show them off to people. It's like Dark Fantasy Barbie. Commonly referred to as the game of Fashion Souls. Since playing with others (either co-op or vs) is core to the experience, it's fun to do that in style. So on repeat playthroughs, they became about designing perfect character designs through a combination of face/body, clothes and weapon selection. And the 3 actual Souls games gave increasingly better tool sets to do that, culminating in Dark Souls 2, which has so many options. This was a reason that Bloodborne was a bit disappointing to myself and others, the weapon and outfit variety was much more pared back, so most characters just kind of looked the samey. You couldn't end up with a three way pitched battle between Sauroman, a peasant farmer and Robin Hood. Indiana Jones coudln't face off against Muhammad Ali. Also, I enjoy how rewarding those games are to explore the environment, which I feel has a relationship to their both their difficulty and how everything is hand crafted. Take a Skyrim, which has a majesty and scale that the Souls games might not, but 20 caves in, you've seen 20 variations on cave and if you were to somehow figure out a way to get killed, you wouldn't be excited about taking another shot at the 20th cave to see if there was a path you'd overlooked. The difficulty in the Souls games encourages patience, a slower pace, and re-exploration.

I didn't follow the steam sale ARG much, did it ever resolve into anything interesting?

Dude, sweet fucking jammies. And that's a very satisfied look on your face.

On Toy Story's logic, I always took it to be that the toys don't actually have the foggiest clue what the rules are, and this is all a quasi-religious explanation for them that's been retold from toy to toy, akin to ancient people's making up a new god (rule) for everything that suddenly needed an explanation. The toys are, themselves, a kind of micro-cargo cult. No one, viewer included, is ever actually clued into what is going on in terms of rules or logic of toy life. So breaking the rules is not a "You've violated the laws of physics" thing, but a "You can't take god's name in vain!" thing.

Flamethrowers and bathrobes help almost any situation one can end up in.

Which is funny, because I'm not generally someone who likes how I look in pictures, but I've had a good run over the last few months.

New Christmas robe pimpin.

One of our kitties is very behaviorally challenged, winding himself into bawling/crying fits that we have not been able to break him of (usually to go out, but not always). Logically I understand how to train a cat, but maintaining good training habits at 3 in the morning when he's woken us up by screaming in our face is....difficult. But he's also by far our most affectionate cat. When he's not screaming, he's awesome, and he's awesome like 98 percent of the time. So, he's becoming an outside cat at night. It's just too hard to get a good night's sleep with him inside, and our house isn't big enough to lock him in a room overnight without still being able to hear him. So over the holidays I built him a sweet little kitty house. There's a low grade heat lamp inside that keeps it between 70-80 degress. Soft blankies to sleep on. I do feel bad tossing his ass out into the cold at night, but we're at our wits end of dealing with him. Also, the lady scored that sweet ass stone sign at Goodwill for $1.75. Best Goodwill purchase ever. I need to do some other prettying work to it. The lady will probably burn some decorative stuff into the wood, shingle it, paint his name on it somewhere. But it works for now. Also managed to build it with lumber left over from other projects! I always like putting scrap to good use. The top is hinged and latched for easy access.

I did it before I knew the big chest existed

I accidentally did that a couple of times, and couldn't figure out why he was showing up somewhere he shouldn't and just looked up what the criteria was.

Please feel free to spam the thread with as many kitty pictures and gushes as possible I'm not a dog person, but from what I do know, the younger the better to get them to bond, or at least tolerate, one another. Dogs especially need a lot of socialization when young if you want them to always be chill with new animals and people. Like, ideally you'd want a young dog to meet dozens of other people and dogs during its first year (hence part of the point of dog parks).

This is a complaint I've seen pop up in several places, and is something that sounds super annoying. Even when I'm using a controller, I often still have a mouse and/or keyboard available if they make certain things easier (like menu navigation, as an example). Like in Warframe, controllers work fine to play the game, but many of the menus are virtually unnavigable with a controller because of how they are set up.

That's disappointing, but at least that means I can delay getting one until it's a little more fully baked. I usually switch between controller or keyboard depending on what game I'm playing, favoring controller for anything that's not a strategy game or the like. I really need to replace one of my controllers.

So I was doing some reading on the Steam Link, thinking about picking it and a Steam Controller up with some reward points I've got, but is it true that the Link does not support any surround sound, just stereo? If so, that's a major deal killer for me. Those of you with the controller, once the novelty wore off, have you continued using it?

Humble Monthly Bundle was pretty damn good again. Talos Principle (been on my list to buy since it came out, worth the monthly sub cost all by itself) The Masterplan - I already own this, and kind of hate it because it was an EA game that ended up cutting local co-op, which is the only reason to buy it. But it looks like a good game if you aren't bitter about that Mushroom 11 - No clue about this one, but really positive reviews Grim Fandango Remastered - Already own it, but this will make a good surprise gift for someone Spelunky - Again, owned, but good gift material Fistful of Gun - This is another local co-op game that's been on my list of shit to buy, so that's a nice addition This is the first bundle where I already owned half the bundle, but a couple of them are games I'm excited about giving people, and the Talos Principle and Fistful of Gun, even on sale, are more expensive than the bundle cost.

Dude, enjoy the beaches, beer and freedom.

Gaming in the holidays is always a bittersweet thing for me. As a kid, my older brother and I would, naturally, always ask for new games. We would usually only get a new game bought for us at Christmas and our birthdays, the rest of the year we'd have to make due with renting or borrowing them. So Christmas was always extra exciting because we'd each have a new game to sit down and explore and learn together. Sitting in the dark, the glow of the TV, struggling to stay awake and eventually falling asleep as my brother worked on one of the original Zelda dungeons. It's like, the very definition of home in some ways. My brother's gone now. It was a long time ago (like, pushing 2 decades), so it's not like that loss is anywhere near fresh. But it's hard not to think about playing games with him when the holidays roll around. I still like getting games for Chirstmas. Even though I game a lot at times, it's often a guilty pleasure because as a grown ass adult I know there are other things I could or should be doing. But Christmas is one of those rare times when once all the family time is done, I can just sit down and game guilt free. And for the last decade Christmas gaming time has been spent with the lady and/or our daughter, which is wonderful in it's own way. Giving a kid that Christmas squeal moment is actually better than having experienced it as a kid. Like I said, kinda bittersweet. If you've got those memories of gaming with a sibling, or cousin, cherish them. They're more precious than you may realize.

I feel like this year continues the malaise I've been feeling about AAA in general for a few years. I can't look at AAA games and declare them bad, per se, just the feeling like they aren't what I'm looking for.

Damn, looking at Steam...I have played almost no games that were actually released this year, or at least not enough to have a decent opinion on them (like, I played Downwell and Rocket League, but while great, neither captured me like they did some others). Bloodborne was great, though didn't end up taking over my life the way previous Souls games have. Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth was pretty swell. Warframe (yeah, technically out for a couple of years, but still getting regular content updates so it counts) is scratching a Mass Effect 3 MP itch better than I ever could have hoped.

And a Merry Christmas to all the Thumbs! Hope it's a great day for everyone!

Firewatch isn't on sale. #worstsaleever It is looking like a better sale than the Fall sale though, at least. Might pick up a few more co-op games, even though we haven't played shit except for warframe for a couple of months now.

Steam sale started today? Just tried to go to Steam a couple of times and it's totally down due to heavy load.

Bartenders who serve you a Jack and Pepsi (or rum and pepsi) without asking have a special place in hell reserved for them though.