Roderick

It was the most recent one. I was gobsmacked that they could individually alter every single tooth in that editor. We've come a long way since having a few wholesale replacement facial sprites to choose from. Here's the video:

Last week I chanced upon the Pro Wrestling (whatever) episode of Monster Factory, the first one I ever watched, and I had to pause it because I was laughing to the point of hurting myself.

I don't have asperger's or an autism spectrum disorder, but I have many friends who do, and what I can tell you is that, boy, this is such a wide-ranging quality of 'being', that it's hard to pin down any one single experience as 'the' asperger one. Some of my friends have fought to get normal jobs and don't seem to be hindered all too much by their asperger qualities. Others have dropped out of school because they couldn't keep up with the noise and stress. Some have relationships, others don't. Some have resigned themselves to living off meager disability welfare, others have carved out a niche where they make themselves extremely useful despite their limitations. For instance, the lead editor of our Japanese magazine has it, and she is performing excellently at her tasks. For sure, some of the more sensitive writers in the team ocassionally have a beef with her as she doesn't cushion her critique on their work, but otherwise I honestly couldn't be happier with such a dedicated, work-from-home boss. What I admire to a high degree is that I know EXACTLY what I'm gonna get. It may or may not be related to her autism, but she's incredibly dependable. Anyway, shooting off-topic there a little. I would advise against trying to become some other person. If you have autism in any way, that's just who you are. As ugly as it may get, it's as much up to your environment as it is up to you to figure out a stable, sustainable life together. (That's not exclusive to situations where autism is in play, just maybe a little harder.) In everything I have seen in my asperger friends, it is clear that this is by no means an impossible task: most people find great ways to work around it and make it play to their strength. Much like you have done in your choice of career. The good news is that in our current day and age, there is a high acceptance and spreading knowledge of autism (to the point where they are regularly if sometimes too flatteringly depicted in movies and shows are supersmart heroes and wonderpeople), so you're probably much better off than you were twenty, thirty years ago.

With or without the challenge levels; Kingdom Battle is just about the perfect length. I was wholly satisfied by the time I got gold on everything, and I don't think I'll be returning for the DLC. Maybe not even the inevitable sequel, though if it's years down the line rather than 2019, I might be tempted. Nappi, has Steamworld Heist 2 been confirmed or rumored? I still want to play that and Dig 2 on Switch.

Were you the host to this pandemonium, of did it take place in another house? I hope the former...! Glad to know you came out of this pretty OK.

Never cared for Monster Hunter before. The world was always disappointingly rendered, the gameplay felt off (floaty, cartoony). Last week I tried out Monster Hunter World at an event and I loved it. It finally clicked. They've managed to create a striking, detailed environment, the combat was immediately challenging and immersive, and there's a gruff-looking cat chef. Now all I need is a PS4.

I was interested in this game and after listening to the podcast, I bought it. Now, I had steeled myself for a tough experience, where I'd first have to cycle through a couple of lost colonies before hitting on a better run. Imagine my surprise when the first game I started has already taken 4+ hours (granted, I pause all the time to digest events and give orders) and has me building and expanding on a pret-ty solid base. I do admit that I tweaked the difficulty setting to the one below standard, but that was based on the information that this game was tough as nails. Nevertheless, I am enjoying this. Look, I'm not a hardcore strategy person, I just really enjoy this type of game where I am rewarded for turtling the heck up and I can take my time mopping up straggler zombies. What I like about it so far: - Upgrading my buildings, rather than having a lot of obsolete early buildings. This makes my colony feel up to date and relevant. - The thrill of expanding and rushing to get walls up! - There's a limited number of troops you can build, so I actually know what is most useful to build most of the time. - "Infected Executive". What I'm less immediately enthused about: - The visuals aren't super interesting to watch for hours and hours. Maybe other maps bring more variety. - I haven't struck out with a group of soldiers yet to explore the map, so I don't know if the game rewards exploration. Maybe in the campaign there will be more incentive to reach out and do stuff on the map. - Pausing is completely up to you of course, but in trying to make the most out of every situation I am pausing all the time and boy, does a game take a long time because of that. After four hours I'm not even halfway! That's nearing Civ times for a round, and that's crazy considering how much there is in Civ.

They really went to a place there!

This is such a left field thing. I love it purely for its bonkers concept and visual style. This is something LEGO would normally do and feels like a good fit for Nintendo.

I'm apparently one of the rare people that loved Bioshock Infinite, because I am just a sucker for loopy twisty bendy stories and this game legitimately Blew My Mind (Gamespot.com) in its later stages. BUT, if you're not feeling it due to a lack of more freedom, I don't think Infinite will ever deliver on that. For sure, there will be some cool fights in larger arenas with ziplines and stuff, but never to the point where either the original vision for the game is attained or you really feel like you're let loose on this world. Maybe only one area near the end. So, knowing that, just enjoy the crazy scenery and how this game unfolds like an excellent origami flower.

Came across the Polygon interview as well and wanted to give it an idle thumbs up!

New Mini Direct out, with the following things: - Dark Souls for Switch! We had guessed this one was coming of course. A Remastered version with all the add-ons and Artoriases. So if you feel like kindling and dying and gitting gud and praising the sun and jumping here while on the move, this is for you. - Luigi is coming to Odyssey! That's a welcome thing. Not really as a playable character though: there's a new kind-of-multiplayer mode called Balloon Fight, where you first hide a balloon in a level, and then another person can race to find it. And yoy can find other folks' balloons. - Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze is coming to Switch. Now all we need is Captain Toad and Tokyo Mirage Sessions and there won't be a single good game left on the Wii U that isn't ported. - On that note, Hyrule Warriors is also coming. Which I think is a good move. I have seen Fire Emblem Warriors in action and it looks so dreary, graphically speaking. The humdrum engine they use for this series fares much better with the simpler and more colorful Zelda stylings. - Some add-ons for some existing games, hooray!

Read it! I've come out at the other end of Endless Eight, and it was delightful through and through. Watching new episodes felt like wrapping myself in a warm, comfortable blanket: I knew what I was getting, I was interested in the minutiae and sure I'd enjoy it. At the start of the final episode I finally guessed how it would end, which was fun. This whole thing made me think about how pleasant it is to see something deeply familiar in structure, yet created slightly differently. It's the Teletubbies-effect. Repetition isn't just for babies, it appeals to us as well on some deep level. And in the deepest irony - looking at the historic people who desired 'new' episodes of Haruhi rather than the Endless Eight extravaganza: the following three episodes were new and very boring. An ill-conceived three- or even four-parter about filming a school movie. Man, this show is the worst sometimes. Whenever it tries to do slice of life, it's just utterly boring by the grace of the sf-stuff being so much more appealing. After Endless Eight, a regular old school life arc feels like a dud.

I've played (and greatly enjoyed!) the first two, have yet to start the third [or fourth]. Deponia (1) was my introduction to Daedalic and the whole new renaissance of German point 'n click. I can't help but love it for it. As a tangent, I realized when I played it that my memory of adventure games strayed a little from the reality of adventure games. In my head, the [Lucasarts, Sierra] classics had always been like Daedalic's games: stuffed to the hilt with puzzles and interactivity. When I revisited a lot of them years later, to my surprise that wasn't the case most of the time. Screens would have a handful of observable points, maybe one or two items to pick up. My youthful imagination had filled in the rest. So it was a treat - or indulgence - to play Daedalic's fare, which tends to do exactly that: push the amount of puzzles and stuff per square centimeter to its breaking point. I loved it. It felt very true to Deponia especially, situated as it is on a garbage planet. Deponia 2 was more of the same, which isn't bad! Perhaps a little better paced (Deponia 1 had a lengthy early-middle section leading into a swift denouement). Where I enjoyed Deponia, I fell in love with The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav though. That bears mentioning. There was something extremely moving about that dark, wistful, German fairytale, where everything was just a little different from the usual polished fantasy setting. Its sequel, Memoria, had its moments, but didn't come close.

Your Ides of March

I agree!

I don't think there's a Truman Show thing going on there. The robots, who are obsessed with flowers and gardening, have created a fertile oasis in what is clearly a snowy mountain region. It seems to me they've constructed a biodome to keep out the cold.

Your post prompted me to look up some A.D. Police clips and my god. I had forgotten that this was indeed how (adult) anime looked in the late 80s and 90s. It is so utterly, completely different from how anime looks today! I had just coasted along with its development, but seeing this is a shock. It seems so alien. A nice thing: I've been asked to give a little lecture/speech kinda thingy before a screening of Your Name in January. Hey now!

I'd not gotten around to buying the Wii U boxed set of Steamworld Dig & Heist, and now I have no reason to! Looking forward to this, probably even more than playing Dig 2. (Though I should prolly play both anyway.)

The post-game of this game is long, people! They add so many new moons to collect. One has me wondering if I'll be able to 100% it though, the

It has a motorcycle that Link rides on now. GOTY forever.

The shocking twist will be that your partner is actually your own ghost from 17 hours ago. It looks great! The Firewatch aesthetic lends itself well to those beautiful Egyptian murals and hieroglyphics. The best part, though, is the precious video real estate spent on the operation of the antique camera with all its knobs and twists. I can picture the Campo Santo folks obsessing over getting all of that right.

Not to hijack this topic, but - yes, well, that's what I usually feel with open world games. Whether it's GTA or Assassin's Creed; as soon as the missions are done, the world feels a little hollow. Not much to go back for, in a way. Breath of the Wild sort of prevents this by not being overly stuffed with things in the first place: instead it's all about traversal. [And finding Koroks.] [Mostly Koroks.]