Roderick

I am going to echo what many people have said here already: this year I played virtually every big release on Switch, so obviously the GOTY should arise from it. It's kinda weird that you can consider literally the entire catalogue of Switch games for GOTY. It's a tough choice too, with Splatoon 2, which I massively loved (especially Salmon Run), narrowly falling to the wayside because of juggernauts Mario and Zelda. As a singleplayer enthusiast, those will inevitably hold more weight to me. Luckily for Breath of the Wild, I'm in the process of wrapping up Mario Odyssey and its hold on my is waning. I even find that I'm not all too interested in those final 100-odd Power Moons. So I can probably look back at those games in the same manner, and I feel that Breath of the Wild is ultimately the worthier subject. This is the problem with most open world games. Once you've sucked most of the juice out of it, what's left is a vaguely barren world with not much in it. BotW circumvents this by way of its incredibly satisfying movement. Even the act of running over hills is simply enjoyable, and once you jump off a cliff and paraglide downwards in this surprisingly vertical landscape, it's a thrill. But you're right, Miffy, I too couldn't exactly recount what I did in all those many hours, save for the memory of enjoying it very much. When I recently momentarily jumped back into the game to partake in the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 promotion, I was immediately struck by its beauty again. Those first twinkling notes of the Zelda theme... just gorgeous. So I feel that if any game I played it worthy of GOTY, it's this. But, you know, whatever. Mario was superb too, Splatoon 2 is so good, why do we have to pick a single winner? What kind of silly system is this?

You're right, this might be a failing of my ability to place myself in that 2006 perspective. I watch an episode every other day, and I know what I'm in for. If I were expecting the series to not go through with eight time loop episodes (perhaps because I was lead to believe that Haruhi is a show that attempts to pull the rug under viewers' feet at times), it might indeed be frustrating. Even if the quality of the episodes themselves is evident. Allow me to skip into the realm of manga for moment: last week I read the first publication of Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi) and for some reason I'm thinking about it every day. It's very good. Maybe not for a general audience, but if you appreciate a good food manga spoof, this seinen manga is great. It's not the best drawn thing out there, but it hits a weird spot.

That is straight-up baffling to me. The most shocking thing about Endless Eight, after having built it up in my head as a repetitive endurance run, is the insane level of care that's been put into it. Not a single frame of animation is copied, even though they're [mostly] going through the same events! Every time, everything is slightly different and there are new things to look at. I'm way more interested in this than I would be in a 'new' episode, which so far has been hit and miss. For every time loop or enclosed spaces story, there's a baseball league episode. How you could mistake this for filler is beyond me. Maybe Endless Eight was an Umberto Eco-move to weed out the unworthy followers of Haruhi-ism.

Thank you all for your perspective - that was nice to read. I don't think I'll give it more of my attention, though. I'll save that for my first-ever viewing of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which is odd in all the best ways and a wonderful time capsule to 2006 anime. I was there when the thing exploded in Dutch convention fandom spaces, and now it's fun to watch and understand what made it special. Currently well into Endless Eight, which I was taught to fear, but turns out to be 100% enjoyable, not boring and a great time loop story. Did people not have the stomach for that back then? I remember so many folks quitting or getting exasperated by it.

I was surprised to find a mention of Jojo in recent posts, as I came here to briefly blurt about exactly that just now. After seeing a few key people in my environment absolutely obsessed with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and especially one of its characters, Dio, I saw the first episode of - I gather - the latest version. I thought it was a miserable experience. What an un-fun story, and weirdly, badly told too. The characters are heinous and unlikeable, the story made me cringe and I had to wash the whole thing down with a binge of anime short Senyu just to cleanse my palate. I'm sure it gets better after this - it must! Otherwise I don't see how this would garner any attention at all! - but I'm certainly not watching it further.

I'm really looking forward to playing Skyrim, but I've had to push it into the future, somewhere in 2018 if I can pick it up with a small discount. The reason is I've got way too much to play right now. I'm still wrapping up Odyssey (which remains delightful), I'm halfway through Outcast on PC (and I'm now kneedeep into it, clumsy controls and all) and I've just downloaded Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for review, which will easily set me back 50-100 hours. Juggling three somewhat-open-world-games at once is more than enough for now!

I was very happy with the time loop episode! It was silly yet horrific and felt like good ol' Trek. (Michael Burnham is still kind of boring though. It was okay in the first few episode, but she's already boring me with her slow-burn character arc.)

Ohhh, I'm going to try both of those, thanks. Let's see if that helps.

Moustache: 10/10 Film: 8/10 It's slow, procedural, atmospheric, I had a good time!

I can't readily compare the remake to the original, haven't played the latter in a while. Maybe it is just the swampy area, like Erkki says. I've just finished Shamazaar. What will frequently happen [at least there] is that Cutter runs up against something (even small obstacles) at which point the 'forward' button becomes completely unresponsive. A dead stop. Maybe I'm spoiled by the likes of Breath of the Wild, which does away with non-climbable obstacles in its entirety. The jumping is arguably worse. There's no real telling what the ultimate point is for Cutter to launch off a platform. I always feel I should be on the edge before jumping, but often he just slides off without jumping. If I want to make a serious attempt, I'll have to initiate the jump a good meter before the point my feeling tells me I should jump. This was already the case in the original by the way, I distinctly recall it. (Cutter also has a borderline useless upward jump, where most of the time you'll want his jump to cover at least a little horizontal distance.)

That might be true! I got around to playing PoP2008 a few years ago and it was just such a nice experience.

It's been mindboggling to see how Switch-deprived Japan is, more so since it's a Japanese console. Here in Europe the shortages are way over, and it was never that bad. Sure, apparently every single Japanese person is legally forced to own a Switch, but still. You can get one on the shelf over here in the Netherlands, whenever you want. It has provided the world with many great photographs of Japanese folks queueing up though.

IT'S HERE! After the failed Kickstarter Appeal just worked away at it and BOOM, we have an HD update of Outcast, available NOW! I have it. It... doesn't really hold up. The graphics are actually pretty nice and modern, though it's obvious they had a few key areas that they couldn't easily facelift without putting in serious work, notably animation. That's not the problem though. The problem is that it plays horrendously. Was Outcast always this atrociously sluggish and unresponsive? Maybe. Maybe I never noticed before because it was 1999 and I was just super thrilled to be playing in such a massive world. But man, it's bad. Controlling Cutter feels like wading through a knee-deep swamp, you're always fighting to make anything happen. The slightest stone in his path will make him grind to a halt and you'll need to awkwardly turn around 90 degrees to circumvent the obstacle. I haven't yet mentioned the jumping, the sheer horror of trying to jump. Did they think this would pass in 2017? I can't imagine it. This must be a budget restraint, but at the same time I feel they did make some adjustments to movement, just... not very good ones. I dig being back on Adelpha and Lennie Moore's soundtrack remains one of the best ever made. But for anyone not on a nostalgia kick, I cannot recommend this. It's very nearly unplayable. Outcast's legacy was handed over to the likes of Assassin's Creed and Gears of War (in terms of control scheme), who ran with it and evolved it, and there's no going back, it seems. Maybe they'll patch in some better movement, but I'm not holding my breath.

Agreed, AC1 was huge and already insanely ambitious. And I remember there being a few years between the first and second game, without all too much in the way of announcements and fanfare (they were probably quietly slaving away at the Ezio spectacle) where I was really hoping there'd be more. Well, that wish certainly came true.

Now mind you, I haven't played anything after Revelations, so I am by no means up to date with what AC has become since 2011(!). But I distinctly remember what I loved about Brotherhood: it's a tighter package and Rome is an amazing place to discover and traverse. It was the first time I felt that the series had nailed what it was trying to do. The first game was glorious in all its clunky ambition. The second game was so sprawling and disjointed that it barely held itself together. Then came Brotherhood, with its slightly decreased scale, and it simply clicked. There's an elegance and density to it that felt refined. Revelations built on that, without doing anything altogether surprising, so it was a bit of a letdown. And I just totally loved running around in Renaissance-era Rome. But of course, YMMV! I was just happy to see my opinion echoed in that Polygon bit.

Though that might be well and true, that is pretty dismissive of what is supposed to be an amusing story. 'How dare you tell something that isn't exactly like the other thing!'

Listening to this podcast is a dangerous pastime. I work standing at a high computer desk and I collapsed onto the floor in laughter after the story about Jake's friend's mis-reading of the ending to The Usual Suspects. Which reminds me of a morning viewing of American Psycho after I stayed up all night. At the end of the film It took me a while to, begrudgingly, accept the more pedestrian, actual version.

Alright, let's talk about mother!, the new Darren Aronofsky film. Which I at first was hesitant to see, because I had heard people being shocked and upset about it, and I generally dislike upsetting films. Then again, Aronofsky is responsible for one of my favorite films, The Fountain, so I felt I had to at least give it a try. With some trepidation I entered the cinema yesterday, ready to quite possibly walk out at the sight of - well, I had already spoiled myself for the big shock at the end, which was the only way I could ever steel myself to watch it. I was prepared. Then it turns out to be a comedy. Well, probably not deliberately so. I facetiously texted this to a movie-loving friend: mother! - a comedy film about how introverted people feel at crowded parties I appreciate mother!. I want to see it again. It's not a good film per se, it's kind of a big mess. By which I mean: some performances are so good, some are so bad, and the whole thing feels like a big budget student film trying to be Meaningful(TM). It is serious about shocking you and disturbing you, but the reason it's a comedy is because of Jennifer Lawrence. I have nothing against her, but she is almost comically miscast in what is essentially a really difficult part. Her character is constantly reacting to what other people do, keeping her feelings inside, or freaking out. But when Lawrence gazes at the camera blankly, unlike say Javier Bardem, there's nothing there. Nothing happening. And when she's screaming, she unfortunately tends to lose her voice and all that comes out is awkward squeals. You need someone there that you believe has so much inner turmoil going on inside when all they do is stare in front of them. I feel sorry for the actress, but part of the reason mother! made me laugh out loud multiple times is how un-sorry I felt for the character. And it's unfair too. Lawrence has to go up against awesome actors like Ed Harris, Bardem and Michelle Pfeiffer, who each get to play characters that are alive and joyful and weird in ways that Lawrence's is not. So begins a game where she is taunted over and over by these horrible home invaders. And it's often hilarious because Lawrence cares so deeply about all of it. 'Hey! You can't come in here!' is her signature line. 'Don't sit on that sink, it's not secured.' In contrast to Bardem, who is hilariously shrugging everything off. 'It's just stuff, we can buy new!' he says. He keeps apologizing, even when, well, the end thing happens. The end. It's pandemonium taken a little too far. The movie kinda lost me there for a while, as the house devolves into a warzone and a church. It was more fun when the whole thing was about social micro-transgressions wrought upon an ever-suffering Lawrence. Then again, when it happens, it's so suggestive and bizarre that I was more marvelling at its weirdness than grossed out. It's not gross, not really. I feel little need to delve into the symbolism of the film, in the way that I needed to figure out what was going on in The Fountain. mother! is so on the nose with everything it does, it robs itself of mystery, strangely. There's even a throbbing heart in the house shrivelling up and I swear that is straight out of my own graduation film at art school. I almost couldn't believe I saw Aronofsky do it in his film. So, yeah, it's really not his best film, or even 'good'. But there's so much in there that's worth seeing. Harris and Pfeiffer and Bardem! Superb whenever they're on. You'll laugh, if you've got my inclinations.

In no way wanting this Hammacher-Schlemmer discussion to stop; I also tie my shoes like in the gif. It's a thing I discovered randomly on the internet a few years ago and then consciously retrained myself to do. It's a very satisfying way to tie your shoes.

Chris Plante had a spot-on bit on Polygon the other day (https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/27/16554856/assassins-creed-origins-games-ranked) where he ranked the Assassin's Creed games and he is 100% correct. Brotherhood #1.

Kirk Hamilton had a spot-on bit on Kotaku yesterday (https://kotaku.com/video-game-mini-maps-might-finally-be-going-away-1820011897) where he notices that Origins is among the recent spate of game to not feature a minimap, and how this is a grand improvement. I couldn't agree more. The wait is on for all but the most sprawling of games to do away with maps altogether and force people to actually live and breath and visualize the landscape for themselves again. (For reference: one of the first things I try to do in almost any immersive game is to switch off most if not all of the interface, I try to minimize looking at the map for navigation and the greatest sin of all is teleportation, which I sometimes succumb to because my flesh is weak.)

Good point, Simon. Collecting moons is both so addictive and relatively easy that you kind of rush through in a binge. Might be worthwhile to stop and smell the piranha plants. Noodle away some time. There are enough features to help you out. Miffy, using an amiibo at any point in the game will net you some coins. Further features are unlocked by using them on the robot roombas that pop up once you finish the story beats of a level. Use amiibo there for costumes and moon-locating services. I'm really hoping the challenge ramps up at some point, though. So far it's all but effortless to progress. I can do a lot of cool tricks already (jump, throw cappy, launch myself at cappy, bounce off him, then launch myself again - it's amazing how far you can reach with a little acrobatics), so test me on them already. I get that the main story should be accessible for everyone, but I cut my teeth on Sunshine and that was no picnic. Even Galaxy offered some hefty challenges. Mario games ought to be a little demanding.

I don't really feel the need to rank the two - both GotG and Thor are fine and they do their own thing in a way. Let's get back to Goldblum. There is a moment in this film, and people who have seen it will know of what I speak, that I am half convinced is him just... doing something, like improvising, or forgetting his line, and it's in the movie and it's... prime Goldblum.

Seconded that Sunshine is really interesting and fun, whatever its flaws are.