Deadpan

The reveal that the maybe-definitely fake AI is run by a millennial who has somehow tricked Boomers into working unpaid internships for him made me instantly like this guy 10000% more.

My favorite part of Nick's re-do are the little "ha ha ha"s he redubbed: they somehow manage to feel both flat and overacted at the same time, it's an incredible effect.

I know what you mean, but I actually lost because I did keep a thin deck and was up against enemies that load you up with Dazed/Wound cards. There are ways to get to the cards you need, but none as straightforward as something like Acrobatics. Anyway, just beat Ascension 2 with Ironclad. Getting Black Star right at the start dovetailed nicely with my self-imposed challenge of going for as many Elites as possible and I then got carried by Dual Wield + Clash and the free Strength and Dexterity from Kunai and Shuriken. Also, I think this is a new record for the most relics I ever picked up.

Even when I get a decent deck together for Ironclad though, it feels way harder to get it to work consistently because you are far more dependent on relics or combos to get extra card draw going. I had a promising run yesterday that got to 5 energy by act 2 because of a random starting relic and good boss drop, but I ended up not being able to refresh my hand and wasted energy on most turns. At the moment, I'm stuck on Ascension 2 for both characters. I really want to get a good Demon Form run going for Ironclad, and for The Silent just replicating the success of Footwork + Blur + Noxious Fumes would be nice.

Ironclad has more straightforward win condition cards (perfected strike, heavy blade, searing blow, rampage, etc) while The Silent depends more on combo pieces, but it still feels easier to me to consistently win with The Silent because you get more defensive cards. A few dexterity boosts and you're way less reliant on racing down bosses before they kill you, sometimes you even end the game untouched.

Not sure if this has been asked already, but which Mythbusters guy was it?

Here's the problem with that: our understanding of what is historically accurate, much like our understanding of what is normal or politically acceptable, is based on the entire range of perspectives we see. This can be exploited, and alt-righters know this: they push extremist views not because they think the public will pick up those talking points, but because they know it makes it easier to get away with milder claims. It makes the everyday racism and sexism of their base seem more acceptable by comparison. So I'd be wary of saying "Oh, the creative director may be a Nazi, but it doesn't really show in the game. It's just a normal story about a pure and wholesome Christian country threatened by corrupt politicians and hordes of dirty foreigners" (according to a friend who played it for review). That's not about them making concessions, that's a win. That's getting away with it.

I listened to all of A Very Fatal Murder last night based on Chris' recommendation and it really is very good. I also wanted to add a little more context in response to Anya's email. Verb pairings like learn/teach, give/take, borrow/lend or buy/sell are some of the most frequently cited examples of the linguistic theory of verb valency. We intuitively tend to think of nouns as the basic "content" words of language because that's how we are usually introduced to language in our childhood: somebody points to a tree and says "tree", somebody points to a car and says "car". By contrast, this theory suggests that it is actually verbs that are at the center of language. The verb forms the core of a sentence and then fills a certain amount of slots around it with arguments like subject and object to add context to the basic activity it describes. There's a variety of arguments for why it makes sense to think of language like this, and verb pairings like these are one of them. Under conventional models, which assume that nouns carry the bulk of communicative meaning and most other verb classes simply put these nouns into relation with each other, it's surprising how frequently and easily people use the "wrong" verb out of these pairings (as all of you have noted). This phenomenon is easy to describe with verb valency theory, however, because all of these pairings describe the same basic activity, the only difference being whether you make the recipient the subject or the object of the sentence. In other words, the sentence isn't really wrong, you just messed up the word order, which is a much easier mistake for your brain to make.

Lol, I didn't realize that the achievement icon for beating the game 50 times is a galaxy brain picture.

People are too quick to look at a pile of tech and say "I wuv you, wobot!"

I usually listen to episodes on Youtube, and when I opened this one I was dismayed to see how far the normalization of Nick's telepresence has progressed. In the last few episodes, Nick's old microphone and pop filter were still on the table, but pushed to the side to give a clear view of the newly-installed Nick screen (on which you can see the microphone Nick is talking to in Canada). That seemed perfectly natural to me, the transition to long-distance podcasting went relatively smooth and it makes sense to keep the three mic setup in case you have a guest in the studio or whatever. However, when I clicked on this episode, I was shocked to discover that Nick's old microphone was now positioned directly in front of the screen, as if the screen itself was talking into it. This is a small change, but it makes a big difference conceptually: up until now, you cleared up space to show video footage of your human third host joining you live from Canada. Now, however, the video station has itself become the third host and it is but one small step for Nick's face on screen to be replaced by a simulated recreation, or something even more sinister. Don't let your guard down Thumbs.

Right, that part is buried a little bit in the description, but I'll need those by the end of January. I'll be sending out confirmation and reminder emails soon though, so just wait for those notifications.

If you have some favorites from 2017 that you'd like to write about, I'm hosting a big retrospective over on Haywire (again). Just fill out this form to take part. Da Rules: 1) If you'd like to do multiple games, fill out the form multiple times. 2) This is more a list of interesting games than great ones. Weird game jam games or itchio gems are very welcome. 3) You'll have to write a 200-300 word laudation to explain what's interesting, exciting or entertaining about the game. You don't have to review it, you don't have to go into the negatives at all.

I can't imagine playing this game on a trackpad seeing what huge circular movements it had me doing with my mouse hand. I actually had to clear off most of my desk to play it and right before I managed to complete the game I changed the mouse settings on my PC to make everything a bit faster. I've also needed to make a bit of a mental adjustment early on to remind myself that I'm not controlling the guy or moving the handle but directly applying force to the hammerhead. Especially when you're lifting yourself up and finagling yourself into a position that can be key.

One of Nick's endorsements, It's Alive with Brad, provides a possible solution: Make some fermented garlic honey.

I just made it to the top. Then I checked speedrun times, which are down to just over two minutes, by the way.

Really enjoyed the Heffalumps and Woozles joke, but not as much as I enjoyed listening to Jake fall apart during the ad-read.

I think I plugged this about everywhere else, but haven't done so here yet: The German video game magazine WASD is currently kickstarting an English version (only 2 weeks left!) and if it works, I'd be in charge of the translation. It's a print magazine for adults, full of heady essays picking apart themes and mechanics and such, you can think of them as similar to Kill Screen, except they actually pay their contributors fairly! I'm super excited about this project, both because I love the idea of more intercultural exchange in games criticism and because it's a great chance to get paid doing something I love amidst my more tedious freelancer engagements. And a chance to support quality games writing that's packaged into an incredibly well-designed magazine and then shipped right to your door. The Kickstarter is currently trailing a bit and could use a big push to get us to the goal, so if you know anybody who would be interested in the project, your help spreading the word would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I'd like to endorse the Youtube channel of a guy called Ninox. His gaming videos are really enjoyable and occupy an interesting kind of middle ground. They're not Let's Plays, since all the dull moments are edited out or heavily abridged, but they're not abstracted to the point of being pure punditry either. Instead you get a nicely edited recap of his experience playing a game for about a dozen hours, which includes both a kind of travel report of notable events and him commenting on the systems and mechanics he engages with. In a way, it strikes me as a kind of successor to the New Games Journalism spirit, and for somebody who appears to have started doing this less than two months ago, his work is remarkably well-crafted on all levels. This channel was only recently pointed out to me by a friend, and I was shocked to see he only had about 30 followers. He definitely deserves much more of an audience given the amount of work that clearly goes into these videos and how wonderfully relaxing they are.

Shoutout to Jake for the "Back at it again at Krispy Kreme" reference.

While endorsing PB&J sandwiches, Nick said "I would recommend it" in the exact same cadence as "I would definitely recommend it" from the soundboard and it totally ruined me.

I think your approval of the WASD.global domain will increase even further when I tell you that, naturally, I registered it via hoisted.zone

Update on the house situation: I spent about an hour crafting enough hatchets to slowly break down by door, found nobody inside and then added a new lock. After that, I found a rad suit and climbed to the top of the launch site building, but on the way down I fell and died. Turns out I forgot to put down a new sleeping bag in my house. Went back to get my stuff, but without the rad suit I died on the way to my corpse. My key is in that area now, so through my own errors, my house has become inaccessible to me once again.

Welp, somebody's been through my house, picked it clean and changed the locks.