chummer

When I first saw Cuphead however many years ago, I was immediately reminded of an early episode where Jake talked about how great it would be to make a game with animation from this era (might have been the JP episode?). I'll also direct ya'll to Fleish & Cherry in Crazy Hotel, which goes a different gameplay direction but is drawing from the same visual influences:

I can distinctly remember hearing Nick, Chris, and Jake's voices when I heard my first episode, trying to figure out who they were, and how different my impressions of them are now. They were talking about Rock Band (I think the drums specifically). Chris' baritone voice made him seem way older than the other two in my mind.

So I picked this up during the Steam summer sale, booted it up today and WHOA! I've just passed 5 hours playing this thing. While I have a few hours in X-Com, I got a grip on this one way faster and fee like my first run is going extremely well. Granted, I'm playing on Normal. I think part of it is that I feel like there's a specific base/resource build that you have to go for in X-Com that I don't think you do here. (I always got stuck in that level where the aliens turn humans into zombies.) I love the houses aspect and I think it works better than X-Com because even if you know nothing about an individual troop, you can gain a lot of information about them from their crest and quick glance at their family history. There's this transference of importance because they're placed in connection with houses you as a player have a relationship with already. That relationship comes from having picked out the beginning houses, picking regents, and picking spouses.

Bought it but haven't started. Thanks for the warning though. How's the JRPG stuff? I assume you mean random encounters, menu-battles and character leveling?

Dragon Age: Inquistion for me.

Picked up a decent, little bundle of games, being most excited for Massive Chalice, This War of Mine, and LISA. A successful sale overall.

Adult Swim Games is really out there doing it, huh? Soundodger, Paranautical Activity, Jazz Punk, Super House of Dead Ninjas, and Volgarr the Viking are all games they've published and I've really enjoyed.

Talos Principle is the cheapest it has ever been at $13.59. Might have to get that one...

Having played a few hours of Yakuza 4 (and really liking it) I actually think Deadly Premonition is the continuation of Shenmue. I loved Shenmue when I was 14, but it has turned into just fondness as I've gotten older and recognized all its failings. I don't think Shenmue needs a follow up because I feel a lot of that game's charm comes from the specificity of being a game about Japan in the 80's, which I get plenty of from that game already. I'm fine not knowing what's up with the demon mirror or why they call it a mirror even though it doesn't seem to reflect anything. That said, it's getting made apparently (2.5 million on the KS as I'm writing this) and I would love to see something with the same amount of character.

To be sure, I don't want to negate the great things you and others have pointed out about the game. The environment and animations look beautiful. The sound was great. Climbing around on the catbird seemed fun. All that stuff really drew me in. That said, I felt like there was a lot of waiting going on with the catbird. Waiting for it to come after you called. Waiting for it to go down the stairs. Waiting for it to jump across. Also, moving blocks around is the worst type of environmental puzzle because they often- like here- move slowly. I think it was the combination of these things that really put me off. I'm also curious to see what failure at any one of the various points through the video would look like on the player end.

that gameplay looked excruciatingly slow

So, it seems like Bethesda is just looking at what the mod community is doing and saying "Let's just add it in!" Wasn't sure what to expect, but Fallout 3 with more systems wasn't it. This is not a knock against the game, just kind of baffled. What I will knock is that new dialogue cross. I really like the multiple-lines option and I'm curious what the cross will mean for quest mods from modders who don't do voice acting. I don't know, ya'll. I. Just. Don't. Know.

Oh! I keep on forgetting to chime in that I would love a FarScape rewatch/first watch cast. I watched about 4 episodes of the series after Danielle expressed her enthusiasm for the show, but I didn't keep at it and I'm sure a podcast to watch along with would get me to do it.

I don't have much to say other than I think it's cool that the podcast name sounds like a pulp fiction periodical.

Tried to play the first one and I got stuck b/c I couldn't find a key on level 3 or something and I didn't have the drive to go back to earlier floors. That said, I just picked up 2 during the GOG sale and wow, it's really fun. Moving through a mix of environments in a more open world setting is incredibly fun.

Spirits of Xanadu Sunless Sea Endless Legend Dustbowl This War of Mine Shovel Knight Ori and the Blind Forest Reign of Kings Alien Isolation I've still got a bunch of games I'm playing through (I picked up Okami and Ni No Kuni during a PSN flash sale a while ago) so unless the discounts are deep, I'm not in a hurry to buy anything real quick. I have the tendency to not play new games I buy, which I feel bad about because I'm on a budget and could have picked it up later for much less (Lichdom Battlemage comes to mind).

When I first saw the episode title, I assumed it referred to 'shipping, and there was going to be some joke about someone with the internet pseudonym of 'Droopy' creating romances between fictional video game characters.

At 35s, you can spot a wild Cage grinding against his video game's protagonist in her underwear. That is all.

I've yet to play either, but I'll check them out! I put some thought into what games give me similar feelings and I thought of Eidolon. It's so wonderfully quiet just walking around. There are survival game elements, but they're not punishing. The game just lets you Wander through the world while providing direction that's equivalent to holding your sword up and following the light in SotC. The God of War series came to mind as well. Specifically, it's the way both SotC and GoW can do scale. I distinctly remember in GoW 2 crossing the giant chain-reins and feeling so very small. I'll also note that while GoW has grander scales, SotC makes everything feel more dangerous. I think this is because while both Wander and Kratos are doing fantastical things, SotC doesn't operate with the same hyper, fantasy fulfillment that GoW does. From the way Wander wildly swings his sword to the way he staggers his steps after a jump, his animations make his actions feel precarious. *air horn*

Damn. Feel like this event is rolling up so fast. I'll say the thing that about most excited about E3 this year is seeing Austin Walker help cover it with the GB crew. Oh, and whatever Fallout 4 thing we'll see and possible The Last Guardian (b/c I'm hopeless).

Sony Computer Entertainment's Mark Cerny is now leading development on The Last Guardian Was.... was Knack any good?

The first time I played through SotC I didn't run into any of these problems, so it was mostly a series of highs for me. When I was reminded that the 10-year anniversary was coming up, I picked up the PS3 version and had a much harder time with it. (I got stun-locked in two boss fights!) It was an odd experience and I can totally see how someone would quickly put it down if they ran into those problems.

The way some people feel when the Half-Life 3 thread is brought up is the same way I feel when this thread is brought up. I often think to myself that there are clear inheritors to HL2 (Wolfenstein, Metro 2033), and its influence is so pronounced in many games that my desire for a sequel isn't as strong as seeing another 3rd person action game that does what Ico or Shadow of the Colossus did (some people have suggested Nier to me). Am I totally wrong? Are there great games in the vein of Ico and SotC that I'm not seeing?

Scanned this article, and most of the 'gameplay balances' that are promised seem to be about combat, which doesn't seem to address the problems you folks have been bringing up. Derp. Unfortunate b/c it looks so appealing.