Sloshy

Don't say that! You're going to make me sad. Sam and Max was what brought me to Telltale in the first place... Well, that and Strong Bad since I'm a huge HSR fan. I remember loving the free episode of Sam and Max (I think S1E4) so much that I bought the book from the Telltale store along with every single season. It's a shame that they're filled with "adventure game logic" that practically requires a player's guide at some points now but for humor value alone, those games are downright legendary.

Ah, Vanillaware and their standard fanservice. I always found those hot spring conversations in that game to be pretty hilarious and that game really has some of the most gorgeous 2D imagery of its time. It's a shame that it's arguably outdone by UbiArt games now, never mind how the game reuses so many areas and art assets that I'd sometimes wonder if I accidentally went the wrong way. Anyhow, I dug up a bunch of old screenshots from Steam that I felt were worth sharing. First, Dear Esther. Everyone knows how gorgeous this game can look but I think it's worth sharing a few pics from the latter part of the game that still blow my mind, as well as one from Final Fantasy XIV ARR back when I started playing it. Square really knows how to do aesthetics well.

See, this is actually the first "Ubisoft" (note the quotes) game I've played. I've played a bunch of Rayman games, Prince of Persia (2008), the original Far Cry, Trials, etc. but never an Assassin's Creed or the other few Far Cry games (though I own them all). This was actually my first open-world "achievement-athon" of sorts like this and I'm already bored of it. I'm a bit worried now about playing Ubisoft's other AAA titles despite how many good things I've heard (especially about AC2, AC4, and Blood Dragon) because of how Watch_Dogs burnt me out to that underlying concept they all share. I genuinely wonder how long they can keep up making this style of game before people get overwhelmed with content and become bored.

Dude, PS+ was the entire reason I got one! I was browsing PSN one day on my PS3 looking at what was new for that month when I realized that, by now, I had probably close to a dozen free games for the system including most of the good launch titles. I bought one, a couple memory cards, and physical copies of Muramasa, P4G, and Lumines. That's probably the second-best gaming decision I've made in a long time, next to building a gaming PC a couple months ago. My Vita is my favorite place to play most portable games now, even if all of the really good ones are only on the 3DS.

Funny you should mention this game because I'm getting closer to finishing it myself. I absolutely adore the art style choices in that game since it makes it feel both new and old at the same time, you know? I've heard the comparison that it's like a "bullet-hell" version of Metroid (like Touhou, Ikaruga, Jamestown, etc.) and that makes a lot of sense considering how many shots you're supposed to dodge and reflect over the course of things. I'd actually argue that it does the whole Metroidvania thing almost as well as the original Super Metroid did and in some places a bit better since there are no "blow up the glass tube that any logical person would assume is impossible without prior knowledge" moments. I'm playing it on PC and am really digging the graphical fidelity as a result, but I also got it from PS+ (though I don't own a PS4 yet). Also, was I the only person who noticed these really weird reflections in the game? They're only visible in a few general areas but I find it fascinating considering it shows that the devs used at least two completely different methods for showing reflected objects on screen. One for dynamic models and one for the surrounding scenery.

Recently I've completed my first open-world sandbox-type game: Watch_Dogs (with Aiden Pearce's iconic baseball cap, of course). I've fiddled around with open-world games before like Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption but I've never actually finished one's campaign before this past week, and I have to say that I'm left feeling extremely mixed. People have practically written entire books already on how the game fails in certain aspects so I don't need to repeat those, but I'd like to call it essentially the world's most technically advanced mini-game collection, and not even that good of one. A lot of the game's aspects were made with care and the whole game absolutely shines with polish, but I never felt like there was a cohesive whole to any of it, especially the storyline. Everything that happened, and everything I could do on the side, just felt so pointless that I was never really able to enjoy it for what it wanted to be. That said, I'm glad that I got it for free with my new graphics card (thanks NVIDIA!) and I'm looking forward to the future Season Pass content along the way.

Even though I'm a bit of a young 'un compared to most of us here, I imagine, I'd love to hear this too. I was fortunately raised on old Nintendo games so I think my first platformer was Super Mario World at my grandmother's house. If there are any twelve-year-olds out there who have no knowledge of older game design styles, by all means, count me in as someone who would love to listen to you. Also, hi everyone! This is my first post here but I've been listening to the cast for a while, especially Tone Control which brought me here in the first place. I'm a twenty-ish male with a background in Nintendo and PC gaming who is trying to break into the world of game criticism, analysis, and/or journalism while pursuing a CS degree in the hopes that I could design one myself someday as an indie. I probably have one of the largest game backlogs here (my Backloggery account for proof) solely so I can always have the ability to try out whatever's "hip and cool" these days. It's nice to meet you all and I'm looking forward to being an active member in the Thumbs community!