mikemariano

Sorry, didn't catch this until now. I genuinely don't know how Paper Mario plays, so I wanted a demo to check it out. Just last night I removed it from my 3DS store Wish List.

I beat The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons on Sunday. The final boss is kind of cheap and the story is flimsy, especially when compared to Link's Awakening. But the puzzles and dungeons were solid. The game also brought back a lot of classic Zelda enemies I didn't expect—Lynels recreating their exact NES behavior! I also started Oracle of Ages, and it was fun to see that the game's introduction changes entirely if you've beaten Seasons. Thanks; I did get some unlock messages so I should be fine. But I don't know how I'd survive any more of that dungeon!

The Gaming Intelligence Agency is back and they have declared this week Love Week. I guess there are articles going up all week about all of Love's games?

It certainly saved me however many dollars. This definitely isn't my kind of game. Now if only there were a Paper Mario demo!

Oh man, I need to put this game on my list of SNES games. After I finish A Link to the Past I will play A Link Between Worlds. Then it'll have to be Earthbound/Mother 3.

Last week I finally beat Mom in The Binding of Isaac with someone other than Isaac. (Maggie? Whoever gets the Yum Heart.) But instead of opening the chest I walked into another room that had never appeared before. It was more levels! I was severely overpowered for most of the game. I was a "scary" flying wraith with poisonous quad shot and a ridiculous number of hearts. But the laser eyes of the following level beat me quickly. I should have just finished my Maggie game, assuming I still had that opportunity. Meanwhile tonight I beat Half-Life: Blue Shift, playing through it for the first time. It was brief, but was probably just the right length. The level design was good, but a lot of the enemy placement wasn't very creative (lots of vortigaunts teleporting in over and over). I also took this immature picture of the game's nagging scientist Dr. Rosenberg (voiced by Duke Nukem!) Ah, Kleiner and Rosenberg. What slash fiction there could have been....

I'm not going to click because you're right that it's transparent clickbait, but I'm glad the commentors bring some perspective the article needs. The same thing happened with that "I dated a Magic the Gathering player" article that caused me to block all Gawker sites—the backlash showed attitudes like the author's were not at all prevalent. Anyway, here's my Tip Number 1: Any time your significant other begins playing a new game, ask: "Isn't that a baby game...?"

I heard Tegan doesn't even like gyros. And she has no idea where the Acropolis is.

The first guy was called Kirk, but the next guy was called Picard. Ha ha, I'm such a nerd!

I'm currently playing this on my recently-rediscovered SNES! I now realize that A Link to the Past introduced the "optional sidequest that isn't really optional" quirk to the Zelda series. Link's Awakening did that, too, with its fetch quest, but I'm deep into the Dark World and have yet to upgrade from the green tunic. I am losing three hearts in one hit!

of criticism

Yeah, a drone at the edge of a vent is stated to have zero movement points to exit, so I thought I could pop out, fire a few shots, then crawl back in the vent. But instead it used 1 AP when it said zero, and 2 when it said 1 (when I wasn't at the edge), so that strategy was gone. I am playing a user created mission now that is basically impossible with a new character. My adept cannot connect a punch with the weakest of gang members.

I had this same sensation when watching this interview with Dishonored producers Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantonio. Colantonio described a quest in his previous game Arx Fatalis. The player wants a key or something from a troll, which the troll will give you if you find an item for him. Raf described how, immediately after receiving the quest, testers would save, slaughter the troll, and take the key from his body. Then they would immediately reload their saved game and do as the troll requested. This is exactly what I did when I played Arx Fatalis. I didn't want to be evil, but I wanted to know if it was possible for me to be evil! So, yeah, developers know many of the ways we players "break" the game.

Thanks for reading my Shadowrun letter! It was really odd playing that Double Indemnity user mission, especially because they let you import a character. So my female dwarf shaman was spouting all of Fred MacMurray's lines. But the parts the mission got right were surprisingly on target. Shadowrun Returns user missions also can have this quasi-episodic distribution on Steam. Many of the missions I'm playing are only half-finished, with ending messages like, "Stay tuned for an automatic update that will add the next chapter!" It's a lot of fun to see people just throw up a map and say, "watch it grow into a campaign!"

"Nick Breckon is on assignment—on the other side of the room, pouring himself a drink and playing SkiFree." I miss Nick Breckon.

I have absolutely no pinball skill, and lasted for barely 45 seconds playing Addams Family Pinball this past May at Ground Kontrol in Portland. And just today I was looking at photos of Bill Paxton Pinball, a machine built from the ground up from someone who felt the actor deserved a pinball game of his own. The last time I looked the machine was still in progress, but now it is done and there are videos I must watch.

You're added, Baron! Though I don't play Animal Crossing so I am a worthless friend.

Steam just deleted all my non-Steam games—all the LucasArts adventures, etc. I vow to never play another Valve game forever!!!

https://twitter.com/kylepulver/status/218468351909957632

Wow, it's been over three years since "Remember The Airfield." How Sam Fisher has grown up...

I thought a Facebook app for Twine stories would be kinda clever, but I think success has changed Twine:

Keith David is in this game as "Vice President Keith David." Can Vanaman dunk on Keith David?

Idle Thumbs is a pretty good podcast, but what would make it even better is if you assigned a score to every game you talk about on the podcast. Here, I'll get you started. Please never do this.

Even when Nick isn't on the show they bait him! In this episode he was the poster child for regicide. I took notes while listening so I could write a post in the thread about this, but I think this screenshot speaks for itself.

I'm not sure that cover contains an adequate amount of lording.