Bjorn

The idea of "apology debt" is kind of gross to me. It's never going to be enough now, for you and others who feel that way. There was a window in time when a better apology might have been accepted (and that ain't no guarantee), but there's no debt moving forward. There's the fallout from their choices, sure. Schafer didn't apologize well enough with his statement, and Hack n Slash wasn't enough to make up for the disappointment of Spacebase. Some people lost their faith and/or trust in DF over Spacebase. That's fine, I can totally understand why some people would feel that way. But the way that you're communicating your feelings about this are weirdly personal feeling to me. Maybe it's just the way you're coming off in text. I'm somebody who is very big on apologies in my personal and professional life. I give them when I think I've transgressed and expect them when someone has transgressed against me. I can look at Spacebase and just see that it was bad all the way around at the end. No amount of Tim grovelling is going to make me feel any better.

To be clear, I'm not critical of the mechanics of Psychonauts at all, I think it was a pretty damn good 3D platformer (of which we have lots of bad examples to show how hard that can be), and it incorporated it's themes/stories into gameplay and level design in a way that was uncommon at the time. Environmental Storytelling wasn't even a buzzphrase yet when it came out. I just think it's not the mechanics that made it special, not that they were poor or substandard in any way.

That's worth it, I really dug Shadow Complex, and always meant to go back and try some of the speedrunning challenges on it.

And I think when you consider the thousands of video game sequels, those represent the data points well outside the norm, not within it. Two of those examples also come from Bioware, and one from Obsidian (which I think Obsidian is a dev one can make an argument for excels at improving on narrative/character). That's rarefied company. I think that kind of reinforces how difficult it is to improve (or even match) narrative in sequels in games. Mostly I'm arguing for keeping my own enthusiasm in check. I'd rather have my expectations set low for this than too high.

I used the term lightning in a bottle because I think it's very, very difficulty to recapture the same whimsy in a sequel. Video game sequels often improve mechanically, but rarely improve in terms of narrative, tone or character. Mechanics aren't what made the original special. The only sequel we have out of DF is Costume Quest 2, and it's fine, but mostly forgettable. It's just more, but more is usually less charming than the original. I guess I'm expecting the likelihood that a Psychonauts 2 ends up more like CQ2 and less like Psychonauts 1. I'd be much more enthusiastic about a Brutal Legend sequel, because it is a game that mechanically I think has a lot of room to grow and improve.

I was irritated when the Spacebase thing happened for a few different reasons, but I got over it. DF's been around for 15 years and has produced something like 15 or 16 games, most of which I've either liked or loved. They've been one of the most accessible and open companies in gaming. Out of all that time, and all those games, we have this one example where they fell down, both in game production and communication. I can forgive that.

A Psychonauts sequel is a weird proposition to me. The original is, without a doubt, one of my favorite games of all time. I've got enough doubts about whether or not they can capture that same lightning in a bottle twice that I'm not sure I want to preemptively fund this. But, I also have few doubts it will get funded, so I suppose I'll still get to play it anyways. Goddam, that's a bummer. I almost skipped the link and your spoiler and took you at face value.

The problem there is shitty Christmas music!

Oooo, the Gnomist is finally available for full viewing online! This is a short film I saw at a film festival over the summer, and was one of my favorite things I saw. This was shot in Overland Park (suburb of Kansas City) and is just fantastic.

I disagree with the premise that many of those aren't somehow Christmas movies. What, is there some canonical list of things a movie has to have to be a "real" Christmas movie? Like Santa or some shit? Many of the movies on that list feature family, particularly familial loss or drama, at the center of the stories. And I'm not sure there is something more Christmasy than family, and all the love, pain and drama that comes with it.

Heretic.

The lady and I get nostalgic for it now and again and might play for an evening, but we haven't played regularly most of this year. Warframe is definitely our new co-op space jam. That said, if you wanted to play some, feel free to drop me a line and one or both of us would likely be willing to jump in for a few matches. The last couple of times we played, there were still people playing in public matches, thought not a bunch. We saw the same handful of people multiple times in an evening, but it was enough to usually have a team of 4.

Agreed. Exploration and interactions with the crew were by far the best aspects of Mass Effect. The entire overarching story could have been dumped without any real impact on the quality of the game.

Somehow I missed a new video for Andromeda was out. Most noteworthy thing is the likely revelation of the protagonist's name. Edited to add: I'm super happy an official video used FemShep as a voiceover rather than ManShep. FemShep's voicework was always way better anyways.

I actually made it through a Steam sale and bought no games. Pretty proud of that (which is terribly, terribly sad).

There's no I in team killer...oh wait.

In Mass Effect 3, it was nearly impossible to predict how Renegade Shepard was going to react based on what you selected. It's the only one I ever finished on Renegade, so maybe they were all that way. At first it bugged me how wildly different her reactions to things were, but I eventually came to decide that it was the best way to characterize her. She was obviously suffering from PTSD, had a billion reasons to be paranoid, had died and been reborn. Being a completely stable personality would be the least likely outcome after all that.

Yep! Big name porn stars count on merchandising their famous bits as part of their income. I don't know that the dildos are as big of a seller though. I suspect it's because women generally watch less porn (because they are rarely the target audience, so porn generally caters to the male sensibilities/eye), and are thus less likely to give a shit about a famous porn stars famous bits. Now I really want to know if there's an Anus Anonymous for people trying to give up butt sex (there probably is and it's probably terribly motivated).

The back half of that new Bowie song is far more enjoyable than the front half.

Yep, they literally make a mold of famous people's genitals, anus, boobs, etc. I've got a buddy who does body casting (not for sex toys, as art pieces), but it's a pretty straight forward process. Plaster for big body parts, a less rigid molding material for...sensitive/detail oriented parts. Celebrity sex toys cost more, but do the same thing, so I don't quite get the attraction to them.

If it's fake, there's at least 2 accounts involved (completely possible, but a hell of a lot of work for a joke). It's just...holy shit. I also used to have some people just like this on Facebook (most of whom have either unfriended me or I've unfriended them over time), and this nails the way they type online.

I can't tell if this is real or fake. Strict Christian Mom Makes The Mistake Of Asking Twitter What This Is The mother's twitter is here. I just can't tell, some of her responses to people tread the line of being satire and others seem so earnest.

I think a megathread also denotes time plus length.