Brannigan

Hardspace Shipbreaker! Had no idea this was a thing and suddenly I put hours into the early access! You play as an indentured spaceman tasked with salvaging spacecraft for parts to work off debt. Currently that whole debt thing feels more like window dressing, but boy is the ship snipping fun as hell. Effectively it's like a puzzle of dismantling, caring not to rupture fuel lines, causing explosive decompression, not damaging the goods, etc. You get a sort of gravity gun/tether to move bits and a cutting tool for slicing and dicing. Also have to mind your O2 levels, health if you do something stupid, and thruster fuel. You also work in 15 minute shifts, which may seem stressful, but you can work multiple shifts on the same ship, it's mainly there to encourage you to work consistently and again, remind you that you're on the job. There's also a freeplay mode which can be fun to muck around in, but it removes not only the time limit but gives you infinite health/O2 as well, great for trying to explode ships but takes out the dramatic bits of the career mode. Regardless of the mode, it's got a real zen like quality, very relaxing to play, for the most part. Ships get more complicated as you rank up, the progression from tier 3 to 4 was a huge leap and that was truly the first time I was just dumbfounded on how to approach a job, in a very good way(After surveying the ship for a solid 5 minutes, I immediately caused a violent decompression, then ignited the ships nuclear reactor maybe a minute later by accident.) Did I mention you're flying around in space in first person?

Well, tried the Anthem open demo! The movement feels pretty great, except for the apparently-going-to-be-fixed mouse controls for flight and swimmies. It really is probably the best Iron Man simulator there will be? It's also so much trying to be Destiny. So so much. Loot chests and random drops of greens blues and purples, standard loot loots. The town you're in when you're not Iron Man is weird and lifeless, you really just go there to talk to people that feel like they were pulled out of Rage, weirdly stiff animation and dialogue. This game feels like it's gonna be a lore dump in the worst way. It kinda feels like there's a team that really wanted Iron Men and did pretty well at it, there's quite a bit of customization and loadout options for your Iron Man, and multiple types of Iron Men. It feels like there's this other team that tacked on lorespacerpg onto it, and at least from the very small sample in the demo, is pretty lame in my opinion. Unless there's some real meaty stuff that sets it apart from Destiny, I can't really see myself playing it. The actual gameplay is a fun shooty bang bang, but it seems like it could easily fall into looty loot loots where you just repeat the same mission over and over.

I usually not into the job games, but this is just really hitting the spot for some reason!

I'd say it does? I feel like it goes too big and loses sight a little of what made s4 good. Certainly better than the first 3 seasons though.

s4 is the highlight! from what i've seen! I stopped on season 5, just haven't mustered myself to watch s6 and on

I just powered through the main game and part of the epilogue....and uh. jesus this game is way too long. I enjoyed my time, but I wish they approached some of the design differently. Combat in particular feels like it could be much more exciting with just a few tweaks? I mean it was like 30 hours in before I realized that enemies could run up to you and knock your gun out of your hand and vice versa, that was thrilling! But the game rarely ever allows that event to occur. I feel like even just tweaking the ammo count to like, semi-realistic numbers would be a huge deal and vary up the combat a lot, encourage more close combat and movement rather than mostly hunkering down in one spot and hope you don't run of your 2000 rounds of ammo. You'd also likely have to reduce enemy count which, also would be nice? I'm pretty sure I've murdered the population of several towns just doing story missions and paying 50 bucks makes everyone cool with that I guess. The economy is also extremely fucked and does not gel with the story at all. There's constant talk about lack of money by characters and two of story based robberies had me set up for life basically. Arthur talking about not being able to afford something monetarily that is not expensive while holding 3000 dollars is wild(I did not do any side hustles either, money mainly came from story.) It's a very pretty game that is just filled with moments of design and story butting heads hard. I'm saying lot of negative stuff, but I enjoyed it! it's just frustrating at times especially since there's a lot of well crafted bits along with weird and sometimes bad choices in design.

Between two ferns was worth it just for the chicken strips joke

Anyone else watching this? Recently gave it a shot and I am really, really digging it. Really leans hard into comic book absurdity, and apparently draws from the Grant Morrison weirdo run of the comic a lot. There's a lot of really great character building in this, along with pretty great performances by the entire cast. Somehow really threads the needle of complete absurdity and real character drama well. I kind of wish it wasn't a DC Universe subscription show, so more people would be able to see it, but at the same time they treat it more like prestige television and it seems like they're getting to do what they want with it. Somehow a robotman brendan fraser being able to yell "What the fuck" at every absurd thing thrown at him feels a little more real and lived in, because really, if someone who led a relatively normal life got thrown into a robot body and encountered weird shit there would be a lot that.

Re: Dany

Judging from the clip of Aladdin I saw, Will Smith could really have used that new sound.

With season 4 they change up how the seasons are written, with it being a couple interconnected arcs instead of stretching out one story and it actually becomes alot more focused and tighter because of it. The problem for me is with how season 5 starts and largely plays out it drops some threads that were important to the world of the show. It also goes for alot more bombast and Epicness which didn't work for me as it lost some of the character focus of season 4. There's no mad libs shit in either season though! I should add, I was into the show but not a super fan or anything, season 4 hooked me haaard though.

Season 4 is really really good! Though I also back up what secretasianman said

Yea the 5th season finale took place as the fight in new york happened, they actually show a clip of the ship coming in on a tv at some point. This puts season 6 a year post ginger snap. Anyway. I'll watch it, but a little skeptical? Season 5 was fine, there were parts I enjoyed, but season 4 was the highhhhhhhhhhh point of the show for me, there was such a focus on character in that season that I felt got a little lost when they tried to go bigger in season 5. Also Doom Patrol is kinda shitting all over any other comic book show I've seen, it's just so ridiculously good. I never root for properties, but I wish it wasn't on dc's streaming service so that more people could see it. I guess I should say I did watch the new ep of AoS, and it was fine. I wasn't super pulled into it, but we'll see how the show plays out.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Mechanically...fine? I hated the story and characters so much. I tend to bounce off of games or media that do the whole "far-future" or "alternate" timeline thing where everything has some sort of adorable alternate noun and this game felt like that 100%. It's like a non-numbered final fantasy game title that came to life somehow. Oddly final fantasy games are very much what I described but usually don't rub me the wrong way like this did. It also came off very flat in the acting and plotting from what I played of it. Red Dead Redemption 2: While I never finished the first one, I enjoyed what time I spent with it despite it's adherence to rockstar mission structure. The second one....I played for maybe an hour and never touched it again, I just felt absolute no need to play it more, partially due to the million dudes approach to rockstar game missions. I found the main character's voice to be very irritating which did not help. Fallout 3 and on: On paper I should be interested in these? Literally never clicked with me, not a single one. Felt too aimless...and I feel like what the systems are going for in theory and what they actually do don't actually match up, at least in terms of survival. Stalker: Call of Pripyat is the best fallout game! Fortnite: I....don't know why this game is so huge? The building aspect is cool I guess, but I just found myself so...bored, even when doing well. I was kind of angry at how boring it was, and I didn't even pay for the damn thing. I've always enjoyed multiplayer shooters and I just could not deal with this game and uninstalled it within 2 hours of installing it. Somewhat with you on Breath of the Wild. The mechanics didn't bother me but the game just didn't really grab me either, I played a while and just kind of stopped caring and haven't touched it again.

Artifact is a very long ARG for HL3, confirmed

It is very episodic, though there's a throughline that eventually starts to develop

I'm getting better at it, I've now won two matches...in a row somehow, though I was mostly carried other than getting the winning kill on the second one. Also somehow got the kraber sniper rifle and mastiff shotgun within minutes of each other on one of them. I unlocked Mirage which is by far my favorite character. All the misdirects possible to execute flanks or escapes with him just makes it that much more fun. Even when I'm not getting kills with him I can at least use my decoy to reveal enemy positions/distract them from the real threats. I've pulled off some pretty frantic magic moves to grab my squads banners when everyone else is down and reviving the team from wipe just from misdirecting the hell out of the enemy and bolting out.

Apex Legends! Very good! I bounced right the fuck off Fortnite but this is grabbing me nicely. The movement is great even without full parkour, as you can climb up many walls and slide like a boss(It is built off the house that Titanfall made). The teamwork possible just from the ROBUST ping tool alone is great. One button to point out an area interest, or an enemy, or a weapon/ammo/item of use. It also can point out where people have been if there's doors and loots open! The teamwork stuff feels very refreshing after playing a ton of Overwatch and getting increasingly annoyed with the lack of teamwork/comp that happens in that game alot, and annoyed with blizzard's general resistance to enforcing or encouraging teamwork in a more robust way. Apex is also nice in that even if you suck you can contribute just by healing/shielding/reviving/pinging. Also enjoy that you can actually revive your squad, coming back from near full wipes at times. Like Overwatch, the lords here all have unique abilities that can contribute to the squad or damage. Plus right out of an action movie, I once slid past a grenade and then jump kicked over my downed teammate and took out the last enemy with a hit to the throat, as I was down to no bullets and no options. Edit: Many people have pointed this out but it delights me. The roster of characters is quite diverse. The only white man is a guy named Caustic and all his abilities spread toxic gas.

I've strangely had mostly positive experiences playing with randoms. To the point where I get grouped with Godlords of the game and despite my doing shitty they still would compliment me or thank me for trying? I only had one bad experience where a man who got angry because I chose the apex he wanted, despite him not saying he wanted it, and then proceeding to get himself murdered and disconnected immediately. Teamwork is actually one of the big draws for me on this. I had no interest in battle royale games and this pleasing me in surprising ways!

Would have been cool! But still really like it a lot

I enjoyed Annihilation well enough the first time I saw it, but it also stuck with me for some reason. Watching it again it grew on me a lot more, and now it's my favorite movie of last year(I have now seen it many times). The depth of the visual storytelling is pretty wonderful and adds a lot to the enjoyment of it as there were things I missed the first time around. I'm of the rare opinion that I liked it more than the books overall! I enjoyed the books as well, and they worked best when they got very strange and abstract. I however found myself very uninterested in the x-files-y/spy plots for the most part. I saw the movie first, so when reading the books, that stuff felt like fat that should have largely been trimmed off or at least reduced. It's also strange discussing the movie in the context of Netflix, since they did not have any hand in making it, they just scooped up the international streaming rights because the studio basically had no faith in the movie. Ironically in the US Annihilation streams on Hulu and Amazon Prime, not Netflix at all.

Completed Claire's story and Leon's second playthrough. Enjoyed the whole ride, though the events don't exactly line up right between first and second play. Mr. X only haunts you for a portion of the game, though is more present in leon's story, and shows up earlier in the second run as well. Overall enjoyed Claire's story more, partially for the heavy Aliens vibe, but also her story ends up focusing more on how shitty Umbrella is, especially with the orphanage bit. Second run is definitely a bit harder in that ammo is more scarce and stronger enemies show up a lot sooner, however since you've played through it goes by quicker, especially since only the plot-related puzzles change, combinations for lockers stay the same so if you have a good memory or wrote stuff down, you get upgrades faster. Some items show up in different places, but you know the areas well enough to cover ground pretty quickly. Overall great stuff, hope they keep going with the heavier focus on horror in other RE games.

Anyone else playing the Resident Evil 2 Remake? I'm just a couple hours in and really enjoying the atmosphere and tension of it. The original was a favorite game of mine back in the days of yore and I really enjoy how they've modernized it while keeping some of the goofier aspects like the puzzle design in. I like how they've randomized how much damage it takes to put down a zombie permanently, so you're never really sure if it's actually dead unless it's head is completely blown off(not to mention dismembering one is an apt strategy if you don't want to waste bullets on killing). Just got to the point where the dapper looking tyrant shows up and it's gone from slow and creepy to incredibly tense stealth exploration, trying to avoid attracting his attention while not dying, and running like hell when he shows up.

ending makes it.

He's easy to dodge, but puts constant pressure on you, so you end up planning your routes A LOT more. Plus you can hear his thundering footsteps from like 2 rooms away and if you make shooty bang bang he's all up on you. I did die once to him so far because he was in the way of where I needed to go, so I decided to take a longer route downstairs while he was chasing me, ran into a room that was previously clear and had a licker jump off the ceiling and rip me up, then a zombie grabbed me and took vital neck bits away from me. He didn't actually hit me at all, but just him chasing me in there got me killed. As long as you're aware of your environment though you can go safe room to safe room so you can save often and take breaks as needed. RE4 is the last one I played, and this plays much slower I think, even when not being pressured you have to be pretty careful as you don't aim perfectly, takes a second to get a proper bead unless you're just going all grenade launcher on something.