SecretAsianMan

I agree. Part of the reason I never got into the Idle Thumbs Slack (apart from the fact that it's extremely inconvenient for me) is that I don't like the neverending stream of consciousness conversation. Here on the forums my disorganized thoughts are at least placed into a somewhat appropriate category and I have a window of more than 5 seconds to say something. I never feel like I'm butting into a conversation by posting in a forum, but I feel like I'm doing that all the time in Slack. If this really is the end (this is what, the third end?) then I'll be sad but I don't have a lot of extra time these days anyway. I'll always cherish the time I've had and the people I've met. Thanks for everything folks.

This also describes me. But even before the current hiatus I felt like the forums were slowing and most of the active community had moved to Slack (which sadly isn't a viable option for me). I'll keep a silent vigil just in case.

My first thought was The Inner Light which you've already included. It's the quintessential Picard episode. I can think of several choice Picard moments but the episodes they occur in are not necessarily Picard-centric. I think Devil's Due has some fun with Picard as space lawyer but there's also a lot of sci-fi nonsense to wade through. Sarek has an excellent scene with Picard struggling to contain the ailing Vulcan's emotions but again it's just that one bit at the end and it's more about showcasing the talents of Stewart than it is about Picard. Lessons is a Picard focused episode (and a very very minor follow-up to The Inner Light) but I find the episode to be awkward and not especially good. The Battle has a lot of Picard background as well but it's also just not a good episode. Captain's Holiday is another Picard episode that also introduces Vash who returns in Q-Pid but it's not terribly interesting. Ménage à Troi has a wonderfully silly Picard moment in it but that's lot to swallow just for that moment, glorious as it is. Chain of Command you talked about so I won't get into it. All Good Things centers around Picard as well but it clearly won't have much meaning without the rest of the series. I guess ultimately I don't have any full episode recommendations that fit your criteria, maybe just some clips.

After being away for a long time I've started getting back into KF2. There have been some major changes since I last played so it's almost like a new game. The meta is completely different and I'm having to learn everything all over again. They added the ability to prestige so I've reset all my perks and I'm a scrub again. It kind of feels great. I'm not sure how long I'll be sticking with it but if anyone wants to play I wouldn't mind some company.

I've been playing Dead Cells recently. It's a 2D roguelike metroidvania game with some Souls gameplay as well. It's currently in Early Access on Steam but feels much more complete than most other EA games I've played. Dungeons, enemies, and weapon/item drops are procedurally generated each time you die. Some abilities are permanent once unlocked, allowing you to reach new areas or take a different path. Enemies will sometimes drop a cell that can be used upgrade weapons/items or unlock new ones if you find a blueprint for it. In between levels is an NPC that will let you use your cells, but if you die between levels you lose everything you're carrying. Unlocking a weapon places it into the pool of potential drops and upgrades are permanent as well. There aren't any permanent player stats, instead health, strength, and item skill are upgraded though pickups found around levels and reset upon death. Enemies telegraph their moves pretty clearly so you can dodge-roll around them but they hit quite hard. There's also a flask that refills your health and can be upgraded to hold multiple charges. You can carry two weapons, two items, and one accessory at any time. Weapons all have unique properties such as a sword that coats enemies in oil and increases fire damage, a pair of twin daggers that crits on the third strike, or a bow that can freeze enemies. Items operate on a cooldown and can be things like grenades, traps, abilities, etc. Higher level weapons/items can also sometimes have secondary effects like poison or deal/receive 2x damage. Accessories provide passive bonuses like taking 30% less damage or granting gold when you pick up a cell. Gold is used to buy weapons/items at stores during a run or for opening certain doors. Gold is reset when you die although there's an upgradable skill that lets you retain a certain percentage of gold. Gameplay wise it feels pretty good. There's some slight jank such as climbing on things can sometimes be a bit awkward and the dodge isn't quite as responsive as I'd like. It's pretty difficult as you'd expect from the combination of genres. I really dig the look. It's pixel graphics but the animation is smooth although I have noticed some slowdown at points. There's a couple of neat things I like such as alternate paths that lead to harder areas and doors that lock after a certain amount of time (there's an ingame timer at the start of each run so you can get an idea if you're going to make a door or not). In general I'd say I'm digging this game. It almost feels complete already, although I have no idea how far I am in terms of progressions. If anyone out there liked the idea of Rogue Legacy but hated playing it, I'd really recommend checking this out.

The Stilt Village used to be called the Fog Fjord. The level progression map changed quite a bit over the course of development. The boss names all changed too (I still think of them by the old names and keep getting surprised when I see a different name pop up).

The complaint about lesser weapons poisoning the (weapon) well has been around since the game was in early access. There have been several calls from the community for a way to lock out certain weapons so they won't drop but I feel like that's a double edged sword (pardon the pun). If you can lock out all the stuff you don't want, then you can essentially just pick a power build and never deviate from it which defeats a lot of the point. Personally I'm hoping they continue to weapon balance and make changes as needed. They've done it with several weapons over the development of the game. The wrenching whip for example started off really weak but it was modified to attack faster with a critical third hit and became one of my favorite weapons. I also agree the bosses need a bit of work. I'm not a huge fan of the small confined area since it's counter to every other part of the game (the exception being Conjunctivius, formerly known as the Watcher aka the big tentacled eyeball). I also dislike how they completely negate most of the mutations which forces you to change everything just for one fight. I disagree that their design favors faster, weaker weapons though. The most effective methods are the tactics, mostly traps or grenades since they can be deployed without having to stop which allows you to spend time dodging since most of the boss difficulty lies in the fact that they never stop attacking. Of course this means you need to plan ahead and put points into tactics, which can be a (very) effective build but less fun in my opinion. Also agreed about enemy scaling. Never a fan. In other news I beat the Hand of the King last night. I ended up scaling back to zero boss cells and using some speedrun tactics (double heavy turrets with bonus damage to flaming enemies and a weapon that spreads fire). It was my first time going back to my early access save. I had initially started a new one on the recommendation of the developers but after a while the thought of unlocking everything and grinding all those cells again felt too tedious considering I had already done it. At this point I think I have 2 or 3 things left to unlock and I'll have 100%.

Yeah Steven U has a ton of little hints sprinkled throughout the show. A bunch of subtle (and not so subtle) callbacks will be missed by not watching everything but the majority of what makes the show great will still come though. I'd make the list myself but I'm not nearly as well versed in the show as I am something like Star Trek.

I started watching Steven Universe with a friend though I haven't kept up with the last few seasons. Incidentally Ben, I've asked her to make a skip list for season one that might help you out.

While I agree that the bulk of the variety comes from what weapons/skills you find I think in a run based game you'd still want randomization otherwise you could just book it straight to the exit. Peak play then becomes about memorization rather than knowledge of the game's systems and your skill with them. Granted you can just ignore enemies and run around looking for the exit if you really want (and that's probably what speedruns of the game will end up being), but I think knowing where everything is ahead of time removes a lot of the spontaneity as well. I wouldn't discount the impact the combination of weapon, enemy type, and level layout have on encounters. Most of the time it won't matter but every now and then it does and you're only going to get that with procedural generation.

I've been playing DC on and off since it first came to Early Access but I've not tried the final release or the last beta update before that so there's probably some new stuff I haven't seen yet. I'm tempted to start over fresh but I've already invested so much time unlocking and upgrading that it's probably not worth it. I might record some updated gameplay if there's any interest in that. Heck, I may even stream it. I'll probably crank the difficulty back a bit though. The last time I played I was using 3 boss cells and I still haven't beaten the final boss yet.

Just a heads up, this game is officially out now and 20% off Steam this week.

The Expanse takes some time to gain traction and the more sci-fi bits are harder to swallow given how grounded the bulk of the show is but I'm a sucker for hardboiled/noir stories. I still need to finish season 3 but I'm glad it's getting a 4th.

On the surface I love the idea of more Picard but I'm worried by the statements that it won't be the same Picard. It makes sense from a story perspective given how Nemesis ended as well as from an actor perspective as I doubt Patrick Stewart would want to return only to rehash his previous performances. What worries me is the direction the "change" will take. It could be great but it could just as easily be a complete disaster. I'd rather he remain the classic character he is now than some half assed attempt by CBS to justify their streaming service.

I'd reverse 2 and 3 but otherwise agreed. I don't remember much about 3 apart from not really liking it. 2 I actively dislike. 4 and 5 were much better than I was expecting, 4 in particular. I really like 1, especially in contrast to the following movies (although 1 also has a HUGE pet peeve moment for me during the infamous computer heist scene). I like that Ethan just barely manages to come out on top, he's competent but not the super agent he is in the rest of the movies.

Are you still open to revisiting any of the games or are you sick of FPS's for the time being? Namely I'm thinking of Left 4 Dead, TF2 (which we never did get around to playing), and maybe a handful of other co-op/multi games.

Mostly agreed. Part of the anger toward the characterization of Luke is also his status in the lore and fandom as the literal white savior of the galaxy so naturally making him anything but perfect amounts to heresy. Except he's not the savior. His struggle during Empire and Return is a personal one, he doesn't do much on a galactic warfront scale. All of this other companions are the ones who actually bring the empire down, he's at best a distraction to the Emperor. I even have issues with the way he takes down the first Death Star. Besides a lot of design nonsense that bothers me (keeping in mind I haven't seen Rogue One), I have a personal theory that the Force had nothing to do with it. Also regarding Rey I agree that she's too much of a blank slate.

Luke is kind of a crappy Jedi. I think he gets way more credit than he deserves. I feel that Rey has more potential than any Force user seen thus far given all that's she's been able to accomplish with zero training but as @Gormongous said character portrayals have been very inconsistent.

I'd agree with most of that

It's not really an SGDQ thing but it is speedrunning related. ESA2018 (the European version of GDQ) was just held recently and TheMexicanRunner pulled off the first live blindfolded deathless run of the infamous Battletoads turbo tunnels. As one of the many, many, many people to never get past this level as a kid, it's impressive as heck.

I'm reminded that I also saw the Last Jedi a couple weeks ago.

I feel like that's taking the race more seriously than it should be. It's just a silly motivation to give them a goal beyond simply completing the levels. The real point is to show off the levels and skills of the runners. The format is just a way for them to have some extra fun. Is there a better way to do it? Sure, but they all seemed into it and I still enjoyed watching. Can't really ask for more than that.

I think the Mario Maker race had some pros and cons. I can understand wanting to have a much better idea of an estimate so imposing hard time limits on each course makes sense. It also made for a dramatic finish on one course. On the other hand you lose some of the momentum and excitement that gets built by immediately jumping into the next course and with maps like these it doesn't seem like 5 to 10 seconds of lead time is very significant, especially given the way the race played out. I think it worked overall though. I preferred it to one of the previous marathons where the format was "we picked a random level to be the winning one and which ever team beats it wins, j/k there was no winning level". I'm glad to see them play around with the format at least. Also yay Henke!