dium

Also bummed I didn't get a mew. I probably would've had to pick one up within the first few days, my neighborhood has a high concentration of dorks. For a hot second I considered groveling for one on Reddit but fortunately I found my misplaced dignity in time to realize fuuuck that.

I just want to say that I think the Kate McKinnon character is one of the coolest looking genre-movie (or genre-anything) characters that I've seen in a while. It's like she took the trope of the kooky gadget genius and said "this is mine now, this is now my archetype" and I was cool with it. Granted this is based on nothing but wardrobe and a bit of emoting in the trailer, so we'll see how long the feeling lasts.

Yeah, that kinda sucks. In my timezone it was just something I watched for 6 minutes when I got into work, and so I wasn't terribly disappointed.

Made official in the direct that just happened. We learned nothing about it, though, except "Holliday 2016" release. Also: The Pokemon brand is so hilariously utopian, both in game and marketing.

Yeah, I've said that in the past too. And same as you, I didn't stick to it at all. If I'm being honest with myself, I don't need a whole lot of incremental improvements to pull me into a new Pokemon. Embarrassingly little, in fact. But I do need SOMETHING. If the next Pokemon game simply looks like XY but in a new region and a few new mon, and it's totally possible that's all it will be, then I definitely don't need that.

Oh thank you totally missed that

Oh, I guess we do know: https://mobile.twitter.com/NinlendoAmerica/status/702866171687731202 "Later this year" Edit: nope fake

Saturday. What a day. Grooving all week with you. I actually don't wanna fill this up with jokes (even if they were good) because reading a bunch of sincerely nice things in one place like this is such a pick-me-up.

Reyturner,

I didn't have them spelled out for me quite so directly, but the hint that led to my discovering ~those~ puzzles was heavy enough that I felt disappointed in myself. Actually, every hint that I've (both intentionally or more commonly unintentionally) read about this game has made me feel guilty. Disproportionate to any other game.

The new sectoids are a little bit genius, I think. It's a bit of thematic escalation from the first game, as mind control is a late-ish game enemy ability in EU. But the reality of how the mechanics work (as you describe) actually make the new sectoids the lowest priority targets of any enemy group (as long as you're in a good position to kill them next turn, if necessary). Still haven't listened to this episode; it sounds like a really stressful listen, to be honest. But I'm enjoying the discussion here a lot. I tend to agree that the strategic layer in XCOM2 is an improvement from EU, but not by a huge margin and not without its own new frustrations. The tactical layer is just better in every way, though. I love the timers. I understand how they might feel like a dumb, brute-forcey counter to snail paced overwatch strategies, but it works really well so I don't see a problem. I think the length of timers is spot on too: usually I have several turns to spare at the end of a mission, but occasionally I come right down to the wire and have to plan my last three turns out with precision and with a sense of exhilarating stakes. Necessary disclaimer that we're all making, I guess: yes it's buggy and it really sucks

That's good to hear!

This game really makes me feel how my current PC is a budget build from 7 years ago with a brand new graphics card shoehorned in it. I can boost the graphics as high as I want and basically don't miss any frames, but man oh man do I spend a lot of time watching aliens standing still before they attack.

He makes it sound like whatever's next, it'll be another 7 year wait or more.

Gameboy (Color): Both Link's Awakening and Pokemon Red N64: Ocarina of Time DS: Pokemon again Wii: Zelda again 3DS: Once again, Pokemon This makes me seem like a Pokemon/Zelda megafan, which isn't really the case! It's never JUST the Pokemon/Zelda game, of course, but they've repeatedly been the last straw to push me over the mixed-metaphorical hill.

The people in my life who were (and are still) really into Myst like it for the story and world building much more than the graphics or puzzles. You aren't the first person I've heard to call the Myst story "really bad" so I'm not gonna argue with you, but let it be known that the opposite opinion is also popular. That said, I tend to wonder if people conflate Myst's story (which is pretty threadbare and elemental) with Myst's hammy amateur acting. I find the FMV stuff to be endearing, but that's about the most nostalgia-tinted and charitable thing someone can say about it.

There were a TON of them, but I don't remember ANY of their names. I know that doesn't help. I remember as a child going to Office Max or CompUSA or whatever other boring-ass store that sold Windows software and the "games" section of the software aisle would be at least 50% Myst clones. EDIT: A quick googling reminds me that Rhem was a name I saw a lot. Also Schizm. Games with those kinds of names.

Chris said something in the latest podcast about how consuming games quickly and ravenously in order to "participate in the conversation" surrounding it does a disservice to this game in particular, which would benefit from a slower and more piecemeal approach. I definitely did feel like I was rushing through The Witness faster than I normally would for exactly that reason. Especially towards the end, when I admit my reason for playing started to shift from the pure joy of solving puzzles to being able to say I'm "done". I don't really regret playing it the way I did, since I've enjoyed talking about this game while everyone else has been playing it, but I do see that it was a trade-off. Fortunately, there's 2 or 3 lasers I've yet to set off, as well as a bunch of other hidden puzzles to find and solve, and I fully intend to come back and tackle them on a more leisurely time line. I also doubt how many of the + puzzles I'll end up doing. I've found several of them that I thought were really cool! But there are so many and while finding them is fun, searching for them seems much less fun.

Whoops, mispost.

Love The Witness and The Witness talk, but loving even more how Myst is now part of video conversations again (and NOT in that infuriating dismissive "wasn't that shit horrible?" way that is STILL the default mode of discussing Myst, unfortunately). Myst was cool, is all I'm saying.

Just got to the ending. Having set my expectations low... I feel compelled to admit publicly that I "cheated" once, with a puzzle in the final area. I didn't look up a solution, but I read a comment on here that got me thinking in a different (and ultimately the correct) direction. Not sure why I feel the need to confess this like a sin, but I do. I guess I get the sense that The Witness demands that kind of "purity" from me, which is a somewhat gross thought.

This was inevitable. They couldn't (1) "safely" continue to add and change card mechanics on top of card mechanics or (2) ever expect to get new players ever again if they didn't start obsoleting cards. And you can't start obsoleting cards without pissing off people who played/payed for them, even if you give people a legacy format. Unfortunately, this system is particularly unappealing to the very specific group that I'm a part of: I played Hearthstone through Nax and GvG but stopped right there. So for me, the cards being obsoleted are very specifically the cards I actually have. So my chances of getting back into Hearthstone (which I've considered) have dropped significantly. The removing adventures from sale entirely part just seems bad, actually bad.

My completely arbitrary soldier customization system in XCOM: I never customize names or physical features other than clothing, and I only customize clothing once they're high enough rank to get a nickname. I like the widely multicultural feel of recruits that I wouldn't get by supplying my own names. And deciding what they all look like feels outside of the scope of the role I'm playing when I play this kind of game. But I can't resist the urge to play a bit of dress-up (it's one of gaming's purest joys).

I don't know if you're right or not. But

That makes sense. But I still wonder how it's possible to miss an entire category of puzzles, since I've been running around the island looking for things to solve all week!