Still can't stop thinking about Andor and that creepy performance, then I remember how he and Samuel L Jackson were wasted in Secret Invasion

I just picked up the highly hyped Blue Prince. On the other hand reviews have also called it a very niche game. I like puzzle games to a certain extent and roguelikes, but these are subjective experiences.

Anyways, I was hoping to get the gist of it and get into a groove and decide if I like it within the refund period.

The game mechanics are explained through notes in the game at it took me 80 minutes to reach a point where an important mechanic is explained.

This could have been done much earlier, I wonder why the developer delayed the explanation when it's just useful information

Other games also front load the prologue with long tutorials and cutscenes. So by the time you get into the meat of the game the refund window is out.

The other elephant in the room is if steam refunds are meant as a demo for everything or just to check technical issues like FPS and network connection issues

Finished my first BG3 run, man the acting is great, especially at the when characters get their big emotional moments. I'm thinking "that's acting!", also recognised Omni Man immediately.

Now I'm on to Alan Wake 2 and omg I can't take the dialogue and voice acting. It feels jarring. The prior game I played was Silent Hill 2 and I remembered it was OK, the MC was very chill in a horror game but its kinda explained by the story

The battery on my Cycle 7 stopped working suddenly, it still works wired, but no power when unwired, not sure if I inserted the plugs upside down or something

I started at 7 and looked forwards to every iteration of the series since then, 8 was more of the same with a weird story, 9 was cute and a good throwback, then I went back to 6 which was a masterpiece, 10 was emotional and beautiful, 12 wasn't great but had cool worldbuilding, being a FFT fan.

Here is when it starts to diverge a little. I would call this the start of 'modern' FFs

I actually liked 13's battle system, it worked out many of the kinks of old systems, like healing after each battle and focused on each interaction as a puzzle to be solved. The story was OK and then the sequels kinda tried to do something different. Lightning Returns had terrible reviews, possible due to the time limit, which is why I never tried it

14 had a bad start and did a reboot to become a well loved MMO, but starting in the first world is such a chore with outdated MMO mechanics as someone who started later

15 was ambitious and unfinished. the first time I was truly disappointed in a FF game.

Then, we have the FF7 remakes, which are amazing, it seems that all the effort, the team members who have passion all signed up for this and it shows, but there's a strong nostalgia bias to it.

Now reading the reviews for 16, it seems there's no real reason to give it a try. At this point, I'm not sure what comes after the final FF7 game, is there a way to make 17 something people would care about?

In a switch you get on/off, but a button returns to the original setting.

Was just watching old comedies from that era which don't exist anymore. Old School, Office Space and the premise was that people had normal lives which were exceptionally boring, they went to work in drab offices, this also brings to mind the Matrix/ Fight Club

Then obviously something amazing happens that introduces the story.

In modern shows, people don't have the luxury of boredom. Mr Robot is constantly on edge, the internet, mobile phones means people are constantly entertained. Severance tries to bring back an ambiguous period but their work is weird and interesting.

First some definitions or my understanding of terms.

JRPG - Story heavy, narrative driven games originating mostly from Japan with anime tropes and featuring turn based character battles commonly

Core gameplay - The main gameplay element of a game, for example Dodging, rolling and spacing combat in Elden Ring, Monster Hunter. Character placement, team builds, XCOM, TRPGs

Sub system - Mini games or the social systems in Persona games, a secondary gameplay element that is different and unrelated to core gameplay

I've enjoyed Yakuza Infinite Wealth, FF7 Rebirth and Persona these few years which led me to think that I enjoyed "JRPGS" so I booted up old "Tales of" game (action battle) and am having a hard time pushing through

I then realised that the JRPGs I've played have a lot of investment into sub systems, Yakuza basically being a collection of minigames polished over several series. FF7 adding even more mini games than the original in a 1/3 installment and also having a non turn based system and Atlus' games having a large chunk of it being a dating sim on top of its flashy UI for the turn based battles.

I think the core reason is that other gameplay mechanics, from driving to shooting to RTS to combat have high skill ceilings such that people playing CS can transition to Overwatch and then to Marvel Rivals and maintain their level of training over years. RTS have high skill floors for PVP. Meanwhile for single player RPGs without deep builds and customisation, you should be able to complete the story and endgame with grinding or items or clever builds. The first 2 being the easiest and least 'fun'

This has led to mainstream JRPGs needing sub systems to support the price tag while CRPGs like Baldurs Gate 3 have builds and branching stories to make it fun and replayable.

On the other hand Dragon Quest 3 hd-2d remake sold like gangbusters so maybe I'm off on this

Personally 2024 was ok for me even though I was laid off and unemployed for 6 months. Ok maybe it's a little shitty.

If we're in the darkest timeline, what was the last point where it felt there was so much hope and joy in the world?

Some options commonly put out.

• The day Pokémon Go released July 2016. So prepandemic and we went outside and and a girl told me where to find Weedles. Yep I'm in a videogame

• The day before 9/11 or when Harambe got killed

• When Endgame released, culmination of 10 years of marvel moments into a single movie, people cheering in the cinema. Still pre pandemic, maybe there's a trend here

From Twilight Zone to X files to Fringe. Random sci fi concepts in a story with overarching plot. Did streaming kill it?

Got the gamepass deal for $1 again, somehow, different email? So I took the opportunity and holiday season to try out Black Ops 6 and Diablo 4. Obviously the main reason was to play Indiana Jones, but that's another story..

Here are some points I noticed

• The developers expect you to know the game, no more handholding and tutorial for the 22nd game in the series, you already know the buttons to shoot and crawl and sprint crouch. Zombies mode was a revelation, insanely complex since I played the first one and the tutorial only scratched the surface

• This ties in to new mechanics, new game, new things to do right? BO6 has a grappling hook, while not new(?) introduces some sort of proof of concept and different gameplay in a couple of levels which shakes things up, in Diablo, I didn't notice anything new, it feels like a mobile game now though.

• They have no time to chill, devs think Gen Z or whoever their audience is has no time to admire the view. In old Cod, MoH games, you could blow up some tanks and then admire the French countryside after saving the town, here its curated so tight that I don't even think 5 seconds is allowed for you to explore or relax, its crafted like a movie, every 10 steps there must be a guard standing still for you to stealth kill. In Diablo, you go into a field and there are 20 wolves there for no reason and a bear. I thought you started with a 'normal' amount of wolves and then move on to ridiculous numbers in the endgame or post game. You also level up so fast and get access to the entire skill tree

• Diablo's story is now entirely detached from its gameplay, the protag can see the villains cutscenes due to a plot device, no more clever writing to explain events after, you get rewards not from an NPC but from the menu from completing world events, and somehow there are localised areas of 100s of enemies just waiting for you to start a fight in a random spot on an open field, theres a GPS showing you the way to the next objective

Overall I played both for the story and B06 was short and serviceable and let the player control the amount of lore they wanted (they did rip a level right from Control though) The presentation was top notch and had enough themes to make things different, it was also polished to the point where there were no rough edges and dare I say no personality.

I was completely uninterested in anything Diablo talked about, the intro was interesting then it turned into a bunch of fetch quests

My short review on Indiana Jones would be the opposite of Veilguard "It's a good game but not a good dragonage game"

"Its not a great game but a good Indiana Jones game"

We know that certain games are big, like BG3 or Persona 5. But recently games like FF7 rebirth and Indiana Jones just kept going on and on past "Act 3". Also Rise of the Golden Idol seemed a little short to me

Are developers getting more efficient with generating content?

Firstly, no idea about the origin of this phrase, but it seems like a poorly constructed idea that is broad enough to generate discussions on any point of view that you want.

What I take from researching is that sharing your troubles shouldn't be a one way street, if both people support each other it isn't therapy it's sharing, which is just semantics at this point. Can I vent about life to my partner or only to my close friends? or do I need to hire a professional?

Alternatively a very direct reading is that your partner doesn't have the medical expertise to solve your mental issues. Which is very fair, but again lay people can't be expected to diagnose if their partner is suffering from depression or just sad that their dog died.

A really negative reading of this is just a toxic excuse, "Oh, my boyfriend cried in front of me so I dumped him, I'm not his therapist"

At the end of the day, ignoring this phrase, should I share that I had a bad day with my partner? Should we talk about trauma that we had as kids? Where is the line if there is any?

Have you ever met a stranger that gave you advice that changed your life?

Have you lost a partner at a young age? Got a rare disease?

Decided to buy bitcoin on a whim in 2009?

Changed careers several times?

I think it's a spin on there are only 7 stories. But Google isn't helpful at the moment. I think it might be Youtuber theorist kinda thing and one of the movies might be The Wizard of Oz

The 9800X3D just came out, so I'm looking to upgrade my 2017 PC to join the modern era, which means I'm waiting to play Baldurs Gate 3 (runs, but not ideal), Dead Space Remake (poorly optimised), Space Marine 2, Cyberpunk, Metaphor etc when I build my new rig in a couple of months.

In the meantime, I've finished some indies like Rise of the Golden Idol, first run of Satisfactory, did the Elden Ring DLC.

Then, there's the gap from now till the next RGG game and Monster Hunter, which would really scratch that action, open world itch.

Any recommendations for action games that feels like you're doing some exploration? Trying to get into a flow state. I may actually take a break and go read a book instead.

Since the streaming wars began, each service took on their own flavour.

HBO - generally decent, prestige television, but has less "content" than other services

Netflix - Quantity over Quality, you get gems sometimes, but also a lot of junk to sort through

Disney+ - A lot of good legacy content and very hit and miss with marvel/disney IPs, fans are willing to complain/ hate watch

So here's the thing with Apple TV, I didn't subscribe to it, I bought an apple product and got 3 months free, and the discourse is either love it or just silence. No one seems to 'hate' the shows.

The Good - Ted Lasso, Severance were the ones I really enjoyed, Ted Lasso felt genuine, especially with the British sensibilities and I will compare this to Shrinking later, Severance was good and hopefully doesn't have the mystery box problems

The Mid - Shrinking is from Bill Lawrence who created one of my favourite shows Scrubs, but it's just super boring, I finished Netflix's Man on the Inside in a single sitting but couldnt continue Shrinking, compared to Ted Lasso, it also feels fake nice, fake chill.

The Ugly - Foundation is probably one of the worst written sci fi on television now. People hated on ST: Picard very vocally and for Foundation I only found a couple of youtube videos on how bad S1 is.

It's bad in a way that is not really related to the books, but having the name makes it slightly worse. The writing is basically equivalent to one of the bad Doctor Who episodes but with 10x the budget. You get occasional bursts of brilliance which basically comes out of Asimov's ideas. However, its extremely hard to point this out and TV fans will defend this, this is not the case with SW shows on Disney plus where people understand the difference between fan service and bad writing. It's pretty hard to find an opinion on Apple TV shows that says "It's OK, I didn't like it" which happens so frequently on Netflix.

I'm not sure why thats the reason, just my observation and wondering if you guys have any opinions on this phenomenon

We're all just roleplaying as our ancestors hunting down mammoths and giant sloths to get fur and meat. No wonder it's so addictive.The book is Sapiens btw

I want to play an easy shooter where you feel like you're in a flow state aiming at targets, the only time I've ever felt like that was in the PS2 Medal of Honour, kneecap, helmet shot, head shot or up till MW4 original.

I've tried the latest CoD and the cinematics and cutscenes are just overblown.

Borderlands would be a kind of turn off your brain type but they haven't made a new game in awhile.

Helldiver had great shooting but the grind, limited levels and multiplayer means I wasn't too invested in it after a hard days work

Was Big Boss actually in the game? It's supposed to be him in the opening with the bandage? Does he reappear for real?

It's been awhile since I last played