chummer

For sure! The conclusion I was drawing was less about success rate and more about attitude. Specifically it seemed to me that Dan was less discerning in his shots than Alex. Another data point I'd like to see here is performance over time of the event. A bunch of the staff being into it seems key. It sounds as if everyone was already playing Rocket League independently so they decided to throw something together. That's why I'm interested to see what they do next with it, because it might be another 6 months until it returns. I might be misremembering, but it seems like Windjammers was the last competitive game everyone was into; is that accurate? Also, do they do anything like the Thursday Night Throwdown anymore? I never got to play with any of the staff, but it was always great for getting players into an older game sometimes (Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for instance).

J Allard

I actually think I'd enjoy someone making a solid effort to use these ideas in a good story because often when people try to tell a story on there, the writing is bad. That said, I've really enjoyed that site as a collection of lore for horror ideas people have had. For what it's worth, Titanfall DLC has been free- at least on PC- since March. I've been playing it recently and really enjoying it! I see around 600 players worldwide during peak times (which isn't a lot), but have never had trouble getting into an attrition match. That said, attrition is basically the only mode people are playing, with a handful in the tower defense mode and campaign. If either of you get an itch for it and have the PC version, I'd be happy to play some matches.

So much good info here. Alex seems to only take shots when he's confident, while Dan got in less than half of his own shots. I noticed Vinny playing support and defense a lot, but wow, didn't know how vital a role he was playing at the home net. More saves than every other player combined. I'm interested in one more Rocket League showdown (maybe two if they do a face-to-face one at PAX or something), but I'm also interested to see what they'll onto next.

I'm also an Austin fan, as ever since his arrival and the rise of the GBEast crew I've been much more eager to see stuff from the site. I fell off the Bomcast a few months ago, but the Beastcast really reeled me back in. Between the sports songs bit and thoughtful Star Wars conversation from 2 weeks or so ago, and this past week's minion rants on colors and blank slates, it's been really great seeing their personalities gel together. Also, I've never felt strongly about a competitive thing until today's Rocket League rematch. It tapped into my empathy in a way that made me understand why people get amped over sports. When Alex made the last second score that put them into overtime, I actually threw up a fist.

Titanfall download code for the PC. $5. Been getting into it again lately.

Picked it up on sale and had very similar feelings (though I don't mind the inner dialogue). Do ya'll remember in L.A. Noire how sometimes there were wild tonal shifts in Cole's interrogations? I've had a couple of moments where I feel that happened with Dana and Chloe conversations. Tangent: why did the butterfly picture mean anything to Chloe? She didn't peek around that corner, so I'm baffled as to why that was a revelation to her. So far the time rewind isn't that interesting and sometimes confusing . Towards the end of the first episode, I kind of stepped away from using it and I might stick with using it only when the game makes me. A story about a young woman maneuvering through the social space between child and adult is a story worth telling, and I think the time stuff takes away from it. All that said, excited to play the next episode.

I've finished this game and while part of it remains a haze (I went through it incredibly fast), I remember enjoying it. Totilo's review over at Kotatu highlights the best bits about it. Edit: To elaborate a bit, it's more AC4 sailing (which I loved) and it also attempts to subvert some of the narrative and mechanics of AC, which is neat b/c of how entrenched that stuff has become. It doesn't fully commit to that subversion, but it's a little experiment I enjoyed.

Damn, that's a beautiful description.

Also, for those saying the acting in Her Story was bad:

Someone recommended it here a couple weeks ago- and it's not D&D- but Friends at the Table is fantastic. It's done over Skype, so production is lacking sometimes, but the players and GM are great. I think part of it is that the game they're using (Dungeon World) seems more focused on letting people create and react to situations instead of looking up detailed rules.

I'm sure it has been recommended on here before, but I feel like this week's episode of the Beastcast is a real standout. It hits being goofy and smart in a way that I've only heard the Idle Thumbs crew manage to be. http://www.giantbomb.com/podcasts/the-giant-beastcast-episode-07/1600-1280/ My two favorite bits were about popular writing trends and how they affect content in the age of the internet, and the bit about vaporwave in a larger, good conversation about sub-cultures. Also: texticles.

Just wanted to pop in and complement ya'll on your work. This had some really great stuff.

We kind of touched on the 'cult' element to the game and it feels like almost every organized group you run into is often playing dress-up: . I was wary that this was a bunch of non-native dudes pretending to native, but was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Portrayal of that boss character soured me though.

I'm specifically thinking about the truck driver :/ My game took about 13 hours? (Which is still a pretty good length.) I'll also say that I used a guide a few times to point me in the right direction though, so that may have prevented me from feeling the need to backtrack and double-check things. I also only did grinding twice and I don't think I spent much more than an hour doing so.

I think you're right about the 'building your own cult,' Bjorn; Brad is building his own Rando Army of bored wanderers. I managed to avoid taking joy right up until the last three battles, where I felt it was thematically appropriate for him to do so. The part of the ending I didn't understand wasn't the world stuff, but the emotional places the characters were in as the closing came. That idea of a cycle of abuse is important, particularly when thinking about this game in context of the first one. Having played through all of it now, I think the rape with the truck driver was kind of unnecessary. It didn't add anything and is never sympathetically explored. There's also plenty of other things that show the world to be a fucked-up place. I also didn't like the fact that the psuedo-Native American character is literally a red-man :/

So I just finished it and, well, that was certainly a bizarre experience. I didn't quite grasp the ending as the dialogue moved to being very ambiguous. I think I'm going to have to check out those YouTube videos, Bjorn, so I can get a better grasp on what happened. I think this game's strength is in the touristy nature of exploring a world where people are doing strange things. A thought that I had about the game was how when you're in a world filled with people that have accepted that they are the last generation of humans, they are probably more willing to do bizarre things and follow a charismatic person. So I guess you essentially spend the entire journey fighting cults? I also ended up save-scumming a few times as well. The game has multiple characters that have perma-kill moves that will immediately destroy a companion. There doesn't seem to be any way to protect against them though, so I didn't feel bad scumming. Part of what makes the world so weird is the music as well, which is incredibly good and often helps create meaning in the cutscenes. I'll probably have more to say after I read up more on the harder difficulty content that I missed, but I'm going to point out that this game is somehow connected to a game some of the devs made in 2012 called: Lisa "The First"

Ah, yes. I suspected and confirmed that song is from Matt Farley. Essentially, he has created music about a variety of subjects and often just replaces a name/object in the lyrics of a song that's musically the same. He sings birthday songs, city songs, sports team songs, and office supplies along with other stuff that ranges from mundane to bizarre. He has managed to eek out a living through Spotify by having a glut of tunes. You can hear his story (which is far more interesting than what I've laid out here) in this podcast. The Wherehouse used to make custom mixtapes and when I was a kid I had one that consisted of Chuck Berry, engines revving, and rainstorms. Apparently it helped me get to sleep. Lastly, I'd love to hear you guys do a spoiler bit on Her Story.

I don't think you're going to find too many people arguing against that article because, yeah, the plot is easily the worst part of the game. I'm of the same mind as Argobot and would say that the way I interact with the plot is much more fascinating and what really makes the game stand out. I still also think Seifert's performance is strong. The only times she ever comes off as someone pretending to be a character is when the writing is at it's weakest

This reminded me that there was game jam game that replicated that interface: I Know This

2 hours in and I'm enjoying it! Battles feel quick, I haven't had to do any grinding (though I'm playing on Normal mode as you suggested, Bjorn), and random battles are limited to a few areas, which I feel are three things I need to have when dealing with menu-based combat systems. The game is front-loaded with a lot of story, though thankfully it's very focused on the characters and not lore. Definitely. An early companion spouts some misogyny, but there's no veneer of likability to him. The game even has some meta-comments that make it clear that this dude is a jerk. The music is great. This is my favorite track so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1a_LxEW2bU Eager to play more of it.

Austin Walker asked this question of the designer in an interview over at Giant Bomb. My memory of his answer is vague, but: It is 'S.B.' and I completely agree.

This is one of my favorite threads on here, so I want to bump it by putting Her Story in here. Most all of the FMV games frame the videos as events that are happening in real time and the player as a participant in those events. Her Story abandons both of those things to good effect, as it ends up being an earnest use of FMV that isn't terrible. I don't have a lot of experience with FMV games, so I'm wondering if there's any others that do the same thing. Also, Camdrone is a thing that's been hinted at for about two years now. The Pax exhibit from 2013 hinted at a lot of old FMV games, so maybe there's something there?

Dragon Age: Inquisition- Found myself at the 60 hour mark and kind of just sped through the last three missions of the game. I didn't even touch Hissing Wastes or Empries. A lot of the great character interaction stuff from previous games was still there, but it was blockaded by all this #Content that wasn't great. Played a tempest rouge and while I liked being a super fast character in a series that's always been kind of slow, combat became that MMO waiting for cooldowns while holding an attack button style that I'm bored to tears by. I think I was most disappointed by Like Mass Effect 3, I didn't feel like it delivered well on the promise of carrying over world-states. But again, that party interaction stuff is still great. Also, Josephine and Vivienne need a spin-off game where in Orlais where they engage in games of intrigue and such. Her Story- Posted my thoughts in the game's thread, but can be summed up by saying it has great acting and a novel way of discovering narrative while the writing quality varies wildly. For $6 though, it's an easy recommend.

Didn't know how FMV could be made interesting again, but here it is. While I didn't like how the game signaled to you that you found out an important bit, they weren't as invasive as they could have been and still let me connect the dots on my own. I really thought that the acting was great and the framing was novel enough that it kept me going. But while I enjoyed the game, I'm struggling to believe that it's as subtle as some of ya'll are reading it as.