So I just finished They Bleed Pixels…. Good! This is the version of Super Meatboy for Shingroes I think. The art style is adorable and extremely stylized and exaggerated, Cthulhu meets powerpuff girls I think is how I’ll describe it. Extremely charming. There’s a decent combo and combat system, they put checkpoint setting in your hands so long as you have enough dark (combo) energy to do so. I tended to look forwards to playing it when I wasn’t playing it…

… until that last goddamn level D:<

but I love to hate it, even if my thumb is a short hop skip and a jump from rawness. last two levels had me at a total combined death count of 800 or so…

Such does the Madness of the Old Ones corrupt those who look upon it, because there were a few times I figured I must be mad to keep going.

@Sinfony SLAY THE HERETIC! D:<

Naw, I hear ya. though I suspect as bowli mentioned that a lot of it is because the medium is young and it's major players aren't risk takers with the stakes involved

that being said I feel like the industry is getting restless, things like spec ops:the line, and such are tentitively exploring new ground, heck even CoD decided it needed branching paths and suchlike.

I think this conversation might be very interesting to revisit after the release of Bioshock Infinite assuming the legends about it are true.

Either way, the medium is all about interactivity, there is no shame in preferring that particular element of it =P

I’m game for squad santa, it was fun~ (though I confess I still haven’t gotten through those shooters ^^;; so dis tractable I am :<)

Season 3 of League of Legends is in full swing, tons of new items and actives. Makes my role (support main) a tooooon more fun. (though mobas are still mobas =P)

@cgrajko EYE does indeed have multiplayer, I always intended to get into that game but never did, though I do understand it’s basic systems, if people head in to play, by all means send me a note, I’d love to get better adjusted in there and some good friends would probably help with that =)

Hero-U managed to make it’s kickstarter money, so I guess we’ll see how the Quest for Glory dudes have aged and whether they can recapture the magic. Of all the things I’ve kickstartered it’s probably the one I’m the most uncertain of.

@redswirl Totally reasonable, I’d go to the tech guys for a raw power analysis, though I’m not convinced the raw power and stats is the most important factor to a console’s long term viability (Vita probably sad about this atm)

I do suspect depending on the outlet they get all sorts of stories from developers, forwarded emails and suchlike, especially if someone’s trying to explain to them about things like the FEZ patch situation or explain why they decided to move to a different platform. I dunno… I’m not in the industry, hard to say!

I guess maybe nobody can really give hardware buying advice? I dunno

I dunno, Tech critics could probably speak to things like the power of the current hardware, how it compares against industry averages maybe, potential output and suchlike.

Still I suspect the game critics who are in the trenches every day might have a better idea of the console’s *potential* since they know more about things like “how Sony’s divided departments tends to affect console update rapidity” and “How Microsoft’s highly restrictive certification process affects their online store” and “Nintendo’s notorious inexperience with online systems and online social elements”

I mean, I wouldn’t say that it wouldn’t be worth getting opinions outside the industry, but I think the people who follow these things every day would have valuable experience in the matter, so long as you trust the outlet. If I imagine Tested doing a review of the Wii U vs GiantBomb doing a review of the Wii U… I think I’d assume Giant Bomb would have a better idea of the Wii U’s future as a platform, rather then as potential.

Not that it matters since it seems that everyone’s review is hedging like a hedgehog might hedge if a hedgehog could hedge hedges. Also there does seem to be a current of severe jaded-ness about. I suspect none of the consoles are going to fair pretty well under the public eye. Hard to say!

In terms of game critics reviewing new game hardware I think I’ll throw a different element into the ring.

If not the game reviewers, then who?

I’m not sure who else would be positioned to speak with less bias on the possible potential or likelyhood of a console making it in this market and what people can expect from it. Sure they might be firing in the dark, but at least they’re in the same room as the target.

(It’s funny though because the few reviews I’ve seen of the Wii U as a hardware system seem to be typified as “Cautiously optimistic” and often using very qualified language like “Frame rate problems, but that might not mean a power deficit!” or “difficult to set up online, but that could absolutely be fixed in firmware later!”

Overall, more positive then I expected, but maybe I just frequent the happy-funtime-sparkles sites =P

@feenwager I…. I dunno, I’m suspicious of current-gen (or at least close) tech being able to drive 2 screens without frame loss without very specific effort from third parties

Effort that I’m not sure nintendo will be able to get from third parties due to history… which will ironically reinforce the poor third party performance…. and that could get quite sad.

Maybe! I hope I’m wrong, but we’ll see.

@redswir1 Best way to figure out if you’re interested is to try the demo =) There’s certainly components from different places but it’s really very much it’s own thing.

You’ve nothing to lose~

(besides, much as I love the complexity of the old games I really don’t think it’s necessary to play them to play this reboot, in fact, I’d go so far as to say it’d be detrimental to your enjoyment if you do)

@angryjedi Sounds brilliant, I’m definately going to pick it up, I just gotta get past Youmacon and all the 4th quarter money sinks x_X

@cgrajko ❤

@unmanneddrone: Yeah… though for the same engine I’m baffled by how casually buggy it can be sometimes, anytime I try to ‘donate’ items to my valkyrie the game hard crashes, the Warrior Maiden’s valhalla ability only reaches back 1 turn instead of 2 (like advertised) it’s kinda awkward but endearing. Hard to say!

X-com storytime!

Classic Ironman game, Second Wave options: Damage Roulette, Not Created Equal, New Economy. . Satalites are in all countries (don’t ask me how near that was), everything’s proceeding well. Alien base mission has dropped terror across the globe, the first Ghost armor has come off the production line and everyone’s already in Titan armors. Alien abduction mission, only 2 countries being attacked, the aliens have really let themselves go it seems. construction site, no biggie.

The main players for this mission are my pair of col. Snipers

Mary “Zero” Mckay from scotland, gifted sniper with a severe couterance, following eerily in the steps of The Lady Grey… So sure of herself that despite being the most senior of soldiers she only goes in with skeleton armor and raw guts.

Holly “Lockdown” Hall, a blue eyed, blond haired bonny lass straight from the US of A. The team dotes on her regardless of her staggering kill count and she’s chosen to be the first to deploy with the new ghost armor. She’s their favorite support, always there with a wink and a smile, or a reaction sniper shot and a followup medkit. She likes being a healer.

between the two of them doubletapping no mission has been too tough, no challenge too great.

So Holly turns her invis on and skips her way off to high ground, she spots a berzerker, muton and 3 heavy floaters. Alright, my team advances to cover and puts enough fire into the berzerker to draw it out and drop it. the muton freaks out and backs into fog of war no biggie.

Second turn my sniper pops the head off one of the floaters,they freak out but can’t do much for cover except fly, one down, two damaged severely (damage roulette really hammers me here) Assault uses Run and Gun and dashes underneath one of the floaters and puts a 2 and a 10 damage scatter laser into it’s underside, heavy lasers and a few well placed sniping shots put it away. Last one dashes back and cowers under the hail of plasma. additional moves reveal 2 more mutons and 1 berzerker. Berzerker goes down to the SHIV (19 damage crit!) and related fire.

this is where things go bad though, the shot revealed my sniper, she’s behind boxed but the cowering heavy floater misses her (total cover behind partial cover!) However, the plasma melts the boxes to slag and suddenly she’s exposed. The muton that fled earlier comes back and the resulting crossfire and a lucky crit between the 3 active mutons ensures that Holly goes down and is bleeding out. Who had the only medkit? Oh right, it was her.

3 turns until death

Suddenly with the squad’s darling bleeding out they’re running recklessly into the darkness like rookies, the support, the heavy, everyone is suddenly heedless of consequence. one double tap rounds from Mary kills the offending Heavy Floater that started this mess and the followup shot takes a muton to 1. The coward muton is killed from a Bullet storm from the heavy’s laser gun, the SHIV skids forwards and finishes one of the crossfire mutons. My support takes his extra 3 squares to a wall and lofts an alien grenade to soften the remaining one and kill it’s cover. Assault moves over but can’t reach it.

2 turns until death.

My Assault shotguns the last visible muton in the face…. but the mission doesn’t end. Everyone takes full runs towards the last black spot on the map, time is running out, Holly’s rasping breaths echo loudly in their ears, even my protege Lady Grey is far more exposed then ever before in hopes of plying her psychic talents towards getting Holly out of there. The crew have taken some fire at this point from recklessness but the Titan armor is holding, there will surely be a few lengthy hospital stays after this

1 turn until death.

I still can’t see the last area, my Assault pops run and gun and does a full move into the heart of darkness. reveals a berzerker and a muton. The muton runs backwards to take cover against a wall, full cover, a serious pain, the berzerker comes straight up to my Assault and bellows in his face. Unfased he stands his ground as an alien grenade tags both the berzerker, the muton and more importantly, the muton’s full cover, as the berzerker charges the new source of pain the assault puts a double scatterlaser shot in his back, first misses, second nets 6 damage or so. Twin heavy laser shots take out the muton, it’s only the berzerker now, Mary steps out of cover and stands naked before the stars just to get line of sight to use a mental power…. 34%, berzerkers are too inflamed to care much about their brain sizzling all that much more… but it scores! 5 more damage down, another missed fire and then a SHIV shot, puts the berzerker, the last thing standing between everyone getting home to *2 points of life remaining*

Last guy to move is my support, nicknamed “Missionary” he has moved into position last round, he’s got an 80+% chance but there can be no uncertainty… He runs directly up to the hulking berzerker with his light plasma rifle and places the gun directly against the back of it’s head intent on earning his namesake and delivering dear Holly from death’s door.

he pulls the trigger at 100% to hit

A single damage point.

The round ends and the Berzerker’s brutal 13 point counterattack doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as the sound of Holly’s death rattle in the ears of her closest compatriots… they had struggled and risked everything to try to get her out alive. and now that risk was all for naught. There’s no going back. That was the deal for the Ironman. Everyone knew overconfidence was a risk, that new technology can be dangerous without the tactics to back it up. With everything going so well in the overall war how could they be defeated by this? It’s just hard to believe…

the team casually ends the berzerker’s life and get onto the Skyranger… a regretful Ops man informs the team that operation that in retrospect had been ominously named “Cold Prophet” had been…. carried out

No one would ever use the term “Success”

If you think you’ve had your fill I’m going to say no, they’re basically a whole swath of new rebalanced content for exactly the same engine

… no really… exactly…. the…. same

Now if you LOVED those games with all your heart and soul then it is a fine purchase decision =P

Man… Lone survivor is pretty messed up and surreal not exactly “scary” per se, but nice and odd and unsettling. Got into the street, not sure how much longer I gotta go…

HOWEVER what I DO know is no way in hell I’m marathoning any type of horror game for 8 hours before going to bed =P especially when I have to interact with real humans tomarrow

otherwise playing King’s Bounty Warriors of the North and it’s everything you would expect. Most of the differences are different mechanics and areas, new critters, new abilties, the tiny dragon became 5 women (maybe? haven’t met them yet) and it’s all the HoMM3 RPG fun you’d expect. more later =)

Edit: Also in for the Hero U kickstarter!
Current outstanding projects are: Project Eternity, Shadowrun RPG, Wasteland 2 and formerly Shaker.

@bowlisimo Frankly I think unfettered good will is still doing pretty good, because despite having spent all the money (and extra), main dev promises anyone who wants a refund they can have it

Interestingly enough only 2 people have asked for their money back, here’s an interesting quote from the lead guy from that article

“When I posted that [I would refund people], I anticipated that I would have to dig into retirement funds and have to shell out $20,000,” he said. “A lot more have taken the time to comment or email me that they don’t want that. That they’re sticking with it.”

he’s also offered all monetary rights to anyone who could finish it. As far as failed projects go, that’s all a pretty feelgood story. Hell, imagine all the people who are part of the first kickstarter who are likely going to get nothing, and they almost to a man went “Yeah, I knew that was possible, and I’m not particularly put out by it.” when there’s *money* on the line? that’s crazy =P

If this is the promised “Kickstarter apocalypse” I’m frankly not impressed c_c

@redswirl at least 2, FTL and something else, can’t remember what it was.

@bowlisimo …. You mean a crazy person? 😀

Actually, that’s a pretty good description. If you woke up and you were the guy spinning the plates, your mental cadence might just be an endless stream of profanity as you feel the plates slipping away, but similarly the longer you keep it going without absolute disaster the longer the heady giddyness of “my god I’m actually DOING this! :D” grows and if you pull off the full trick (or at least stabalize the plates) the emotional payoff is pretty high

@beige that’s great XD In X-com the struggles of the man on top are every bit as harrowing as the ones on the ground.

@bowlisimo The craziness of it is that the story of The Lady Grey actually ended with her buying the farm on the very last mission (characterized by tight corridors and open rooms) but she still got her entire squad out of there. One last sacrifice to save their lives, it was a very fitting arc from the messiah perspective =P.

Oh, the Obsidian RPG kickstarter is on it’s last 5 hour sprint ( http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity ) 3.5 million, I hope they haven’t promised themselves into a corner here, because damned if they haven’t hit every single stretch goal so far. Hopefully the reduced scope and requirements of a 2d RPG will let them pull it off.

One campaign and a bunch of multiplayer later I can’t imagine the game present or future that would topple X-com from my game of the year… It’s just so…. so…. so X-com that it hurts (sometimes quite a bit!) and even more besides. The production values are excellent, the strategy at the micro and macro level are both fully engaging and challenging, It’s just so wonderful.

This isn’t to say it’s perfect, the research could use some good future skills, launchers, etc. there comes a point where the head of research is just hanging around even without much in the way of labs. The story is fairly light, (though still better then the originals,) even this weakness though becomes a strength with how it makes way for your own stories to be created.

So, I told you about my sniper that earned the nickname “Lady Grey” (brief correction, she’s actually korean, took a bit until I got a good look at her armor flag.) She saved so many lives and was so clutch on her shots all throughout the game that I started to imagine the other soldiers developing a reverence of her bordering on the religious (I partially blame Beige’s comment on Necromunda since when I was playing that I was also poking aroud 40k lists.)

When I accidentally triggered a cyberdisk? Critical hit kill from The Lady Grey. Muton berzerker rushing down my lead medic? Doubletap kill from The Lady Grey… it quickly went from “Oh man I hope this hits” to “The Lady Grey calls you to her Hall o__o”

Her severe countenance on the dropship invoked the feeling on a no-nonsense character who will get the job done come hell or high water, and so combined with her miraculously steady eye and steady hand the soldiers couldn’t help but trust her.

I could see them exiting the dropship, and maybe a rookie would be freaking out, maybe another soldier would lay a hand on his shoulder and say “Do not fear brother, The Lady Grey has eyes upon us” and thus they did walk into the darkness unafraid.

Much later, when I unlock the psionics training lab, and my first batch of test subjects go in there was one result I wanted over all others, only one way it could go and leave me satisfied… and the RNG did smile upon me that day. Only one soldier would return as the new peak of human evolution…. the testing pod opens up and it reveals the face….. of The Lady Grey….

Then the soldiers did fall to their knees to praise the one who would save them all, the one who would save the human race and all hopes rested upon. “We knew…” they would say “We had always known…”

What a great fist pump moment. and it only got better from there =D Thanks X-com! Thanks for creating a legendary story that will only ever be true for me, through nothing but your RNG, a nickname list and the knowledge of how rare such a scenario is. How many strategy games could claim such a character arc, one that has me hoping to reprise that character through further playthroughs and other games entirely, I certainly know what any named female sniper/archer/psionic/whatever will be named now for years to come.

Top marks X-com… top top marks… on your weakest element.

(Oh, and multiplayer is a great 10 minute skirmish with lots of variation.)

@cgrajko With youmacon coming up I think I’ll have to poke at something else, maybe Lone Survivor?

@cgrajko I did always intend to do The Void, dunno how long it’d take to play that though, I’m going to have serious trouble pulling myself away from X-Com

Speaking of which, I’ve currently worked my way both up to the first alien base, and through about 16 some soldiers, rookies and veterans alike. Many faces have come and gone through the X-Com halls, but only one has ever stayed. A sniper from China, she’s proved herself time and again with a steady hand and impeccable aim, standing strong where others have lost their heads and shortly after their lives. Her transfer papers name her Min Ju Park, but her squadmates know her as…

“The Lady Grey”

damn I love this game (even if I’m cruising for a digital bruising, 3 countries have bailed already and all the awesome nicknames in the world won’t stop that c_c

So, X-Com comes out in a handful of days, and since a big part of that game is naming your own squaddies, I figured, what better way to name some of them squaddies? So, if you have a moment, please note what class you’d like to be and we’ll see where it goes

If I remember the classes are: Heavy, Assault, Sniper, Support and then the trees branch from there.

(All that of course predicated on it being a 15$ product of modest means, in fact, might as well just watch the giant bomb quick look, it captures what this game is pretty well =P http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-tokyo-jungle/17-6591/ )

@beige I too will speak for the Hero!

Tokyo Jungle

Who will speak for this game of craziness?

Today a man called me at work to talk about games. Near the end of the conversation I tried to tell him about Tokyo Jungle.

I tried to talk about it like a normal game, about the wide selection of characters animals, about brawler mechanics and instant kills and counters. It wasn’t going well, I didn’t seem to be getting across what the game IS

I quickly switched to stories, I told of how my pack of pomeranians had bested a massive jackal pack on entering the sewers, despite major casualties. I talked about how this same pack, flush with victory and rebuffed , launched a sneak attack on a crocodile and were rebuffed, no handy grasses meant once the crocodile managed to clamber his way to my high perch, he made short work of every toy dog up there. I told him about a deer double jumping to the top of pickup truck so it could get onto a scaffolding and drop kick a bird.

I told him about how a baby chick got seen by a terrier, and how the terrier immediately went for the kill, lunging savagely. How this tiny bird ducked to the side, pirouetted and then flying kicked the dog in the back of it’s head (and then fled to the tall grasses.) No one can know how this came to be. We only know that it was goddamn awesome. I told him about giraffes kicking away hyenas and race horses running down derelict subways, about kangaroos punching tigers and cats equipped with kendo masks, jet packs and roller skates.

Needless to say, the stories are what makes the game.

Who will speak for this game of stories?

The stories somehow work because of the game’s realistic setting but completely unrealistic gameplay. Take a look at the stories told up there again, each are awesome because it takes something familiar and through game mechanics makes it bizarre. You may play the game as an animal would most of the time. Sneaking about, staying out of sight, and eating only those weaker then you. But when things get out of hand you can lean on your gameplay skills and your own personal actions add in the awesome to the mix. Successfully guiding a toy dog to tear apart a jackal pack gives you a greater sense of accomplishment because there’s a context to recognize how that COMPLETELY SHOULDN’T WORK.

Making the player the key vehicle for creating stories is the best possible choice.

Who will speak for this game of choice?

This is not a game of moral choice, far from it. It is entirely possible animal lovers might have a hard time watching a very national geographic ‘kill or be killed’ battle between toy dogs and feral cats. Still, when a player brings up the animal selection screen and it lets you scroll around the vast ocean of silhouettes populated by incredibly varied animals it immediately sets you upon a solid goal of “I have to unlock this thing” Sometimes it’s a player wanting to roll a herd of hippos up on a congregation of alligators, maybe they want to have a giraffe walking tightrope across the buildings of shibuya. Perhaps they just want to unlock the dinosaurs and be ace number one predator across all the lands. Either way, it keeps them invested, keeps them coming back, keeps them struggling, striving for just a few more years of survival, just a few more calories to get the next animal, the next step, the next story in an incredibly fatal land… just like any good jungle should.

Who will speak for Tokyo Jungle?

I will

because it’s goddamn awesome.

@Beige I’m game to multiplayer it up, until recently all my friends have been available at completely different times and in different amounts which means…

@redswirl Never fear, I’ve got 4 characters currently at various levels, and the way xp works gaps close super quickly, so gaming together with friends and achieving reasonable parity is very simple =)

Borderlands 2 5 hours hence… I told myself I wasn’t going to go midnight gaming for this one… but… well…

I guess I’m still prone to some versions of hype I guess… I’ll be looking forwards to seeing some Squadies in the wilderness of Pandora! 😀

Other then that playing some FTL, Civ V Co Op (burns a day alone right there) and eyeballing Sengoku Rance… well it’s just been life as it ever was.

Recent news
Wii U Thoughts: An attempt to gather the hardcore crowd back in, sadly thwarted by the fact that all the hardcore have almost by definition invested into one of this generations other consoles.

Bayonetta 2: Thank you Nintendo forever for saving this game, I’ve given you some serious shit over the Wii cycle for your lack of support of games I like, and my Wii hasn’t been plugged in for ages, but you have my heartfelt and honest thanks for making sure one of those madhouse crazy “we do what we like ’cause a pirate is free” games.

speaking of madhouse games Tokyo Jungle: 😀

I picked up TERA for 18$ on Amazon so if there’s any squaddies on that game lemme know so I can join ya. I’m only going to be in there for one month to get me to Borderlands 2 PC release =D

Also: New Dungeons of Dredmore expansion is really great, the dimensional addresses work across games so even if you have a half dozen unsuccessful ones you can bring them over to successful ones. deciding when to spend addresses feels good. The addresses can only be used once and always make the same levels/items regardless. This also means you can trade them to friends if you find good artifacts or whatnot. Great idea!

and No Time to Grind is the secret best option to tick, double damage and the floors are smaller, this lets you play with skills without dropping 5+ hours to check out a build.

Then on top of all that the wizard pocket dimension gives you a ‘bank’ zone where you can dump all those crafting mats or even resist specific items.

Overall top marks, well played Gaslamp games!

@rampantbicycle I’d like to suggest Deja Vu for the NES. It is held back from direct sleuthing since the main character has amnesia, which causes you to by necessity focus on the ‘who am I?’ question, but it’s the closest I can think of.

Also, to the Squad in general, Borderlands 2 is 10% off for the weekend on steam if you already own Borderlands 1. I’ve already got a handful of people prepared to do some solid Co-Op multiplayer in there and I’d be thrilled to add any Squaddies interested to the roster of possible fellow vault hunters. Good luck out there =D

@mjpilon Oh man I hear you, same thing that happens to me, if I went on there I’d probably just dig some horrible deep hole in the ground and fill it with terrible things 😀 (enough monsters mean monstergirls right? ;___;)

anyway, on somewhat game related news I went to a nightclub for the first time (yes, I know… >_>) and what were they serving there but Dragon’s Breath. I bellied up to the bar and ordered one…. very good! Didn’t even become a smoking crater or pile of ash or anything! 😀

I respect myself some minecraft in a major way, and I can understand the pull… but my mind is way way too disorginized and lawless a place for anything like self-set goals, so I think I’ll probably cash out of this one. Good luck out there though =D

Oddly enough, I was JUST poking through recent bombcasts (miiiight have been Weekend Confirmed) and I remember them talking about something that was ‘bioware class’ resonate decision making… I think it was them talking about the Telltale Walking Dead games. It’s not fantasy themed but as far as I’m aware you have a group of people you’re managing on an objective. (3:40 as of this posting left on the mega deal)

I haven’t played them though so your millage may vary, but I will say if you want to jump in now’s the time since the Steam Summer Sale has punched them down to minuscule cost investment

If you’re feening for the quest element more then the party element it would be worth eyeing The Sale for The Witcher 2.

On the other hand if you want a party of distinct characters there’s really no game in town but JRPGs, that’s really their stock and trade. I expect someone is going to go all LoTR on Western RPGs someday, but it’ll probably take a while. At the moment if you want damn good pasta you can’t shut out all Italian and have a good selection.

I dunno…. Borderlands 2 in September? They got distinct personalities, and it looks like there’s a quest structure and loot mechanics, but that’s as close as I can think of if you don’t want to invoke the JRPG specter.

Personally my best suggestion atm would be Witcher 2, good luck out there~

@pepperized considering how this apparently surprised at least one longtime member of the squad I don’t think you have to worry about anyone trying to hard sell you on MLP XD)

We’re pretty live and let live here, so you got nothing to worry about =P

@cgrajko I’ll have to get back to you on that slightly briefly, just got back from monster hunter and work looms large tomarrow =)

@rampantbicycle @angryjedi damn straight =D

@angryjedi Oh no question, having seen a few episodes (and someone even broadcast full episodes onto the ceiling of ACEN 2012 =P) I’d certainly set it as one of the Great Works of Cartooning alongside things like the Batman Animated Series. Super solid, strong character personalities, enjoyable on it’s own merits for a variety of ages and such, and most importantly… bringing the goddamn WHIMSY with the force of a thousand suns. Even if it’s not top on my list of things I gotta watch (it’s a looooong list, and I haven’t made progress on it for ages 😦 ) It’s on there somewhere, even if I don’t ascribe to the fandom per se.

Thought it’s true, I tend to have some pushback against ‘Aversion Fads’ because this thing about hating certain things on the internet (Beiber (and all boybands before him), furries, and it seems that there’s some contingent trying to make it stick on MLP.) because it’s cool(?!) or someone told you to do so is some real highschool maturity level horseshit. =P or at least that’s my opinion on the matter. So I’m unfairly predisposed towards giving a friendly nod towards it even if it wasn’t bringing back civility and irrational happiness to bros.

Besides, I still find a fair amount of moe tropes adorable and awesome. Who am I going to throw stones at seriously? 😉

@angryjedi Oh man, I missed that on stream, how great! I fully appreciate people of fandom making a thing for love of their fandom =)

…… besides, the world needs a bit more sweetness and light culture, I suspect this is the nerve MLP touched for some.

Mmmmmm Steam sale has begun huh?

…. Tempted to try HoMM6, I’ve been a long standing fan of HoMM and King’s Bounty… but it’s still not compelling enough to me for $25… which is CRAZY, you’d think I only had mobile games as reference… ah well

I’ll think on it

@bowlisimo Strike the Earth! The great thing from here is finding how far the system flexes when you apply your new understanding of the system to it. Want sunlight underground? dig a pit of channels, don’t like having an open pit into your lair? Forge glass blocks out of sand and set them in the ceiling. Towers? doable. Levers which collapse support pillars in case of invasion? easy, and the list goes on forever.

Then the real interesting thing is how each person develops their own style of Dwarves. I have a friend is a monument builder. He wants nothing more then to build glass towers with trees growing on the top of them and waterfalls coming down the side (he did it…. somehow, still not entirely sure how he managed a few of those things c_C)

For my side my dwarves are more like elves (according to Dave =P) I tend to do a lot of agriculture, so I end up with farms both above and below ground producing strawberries and suchlike, which has a byproduct of generating several very good cooks.

I know another Dave (they’re everywhere) who creates a veritable deathtrap of a fortress, then takes away everyone’s clothing and then makes a military full of wrestlers. I guess they’d be greek dwarves? I’m not sure what to make of his style yet =P

Anyway it’s an amazing thing.

@Impynickers You lucky dog :<

Anyway, I wouldn't worry about literacy right now, first I'd spend some time getting the sense of things she likes and the things she's good at, platformers like LBP sure, but what else? I can (and I think Pete would back me on this one) recommend recettear for testing the water on sim-y/management stuff and Zelda style action in one, plus it's super cheap. If you're going to ask her to do a first person thing, you don't get more charming and personable then original Portal (plus if it's not still free it's super cheap and plenty of people have spare copies kicking around).

I dunno, that's where I would start. If she has one of those "I WILL BEAT YOU D:<" personalities you might toss Spelunky at her. If she's got D&D chops Dungeons of dreadmor is a sound one.

I'd say find out the things she already likes and then find the games that capitalize on that theme or that style of thought, if she might like adventure games you can go whimsical with the Kyrandia games, pulp with the Lucas Arts Indy game or noir with Gemini Rue. There's a vast span of gaming, you got plenty to pick from =)

@bowlisimo Oh man I know what you mean. Mad kof’s play was like watching a performance art. From the technical side the precision of the pokes and the evasive teleport cancels to regain or alter the spacing of the match was mind blowing. From the spectator side the way that one match where they traded perfects of first characters and especially the reverse OCV that Bala pulled out near the end of the set was crazy. Even if you didn’t know the game the KoF finals were probably the best concentration of EVO moments this year. =D

There was this moment after the reset when Bala just wandered the character select screen back and forth for almost a full minute. He was a broken man then and even someone who didn’t know anything about fighting games could see it

Then for him to pull it together from that state for the reverse OCV was insane =D Great times. I worked most of the weekend so I’m still going over the archives. Legend has it SCV finals were Cervantes vs Tira how crazy is that? =D

(for anyone who wants to poke at the archives they’re http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo1/videos and http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo2/videos respectively, (sub streams were http://www.twitch.tv/8wayrun and http://www.twitch.tv/xiei for Virtua Fighter and Anime fighters respectively)

@redswir1 Of course! If you’re up for some practice I’d love to get some matches with you =) just set a time and place~

Quick reminder: EVO, one of the largest fighting game tournies in the world is currently underway, every competetive fighting game you can possibly imagine and quite a few you might not is being played by the absolute best of the best.

Coverage hub is here, Good luck to east coast, California needs to lose once in a while to stay hungry =P http://shoryuken.com/2012/07/06/evo-2012-is-now-streaming-live/

@bowlisimo I dunno, I figure you need to know only a few things for basic Dwarf Fortress play

1. Set jobs for dwarves
2. mark space for digging out
3. mark block for a staircase
4. mark an area for a shop (only super necessary for the first king
5. Strike the Earth!

once you learn how to flag things the menus will kinda teach you themselves

As to the Dwarf Fortress idea, learning how to play is great, but entirely optional, after all, sometimes people are handed the reigns of power and how absolutely no idea what to do with them =) their hapless flailing about will amuse us and create an ever more entertaining situation for the next guy to handle =P

Heck, if we ever make it to the Dwarven Economy that person will be me >_>

… besides… every game ultimately ends in Fun ( http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Fun ) anyway =)

(bugger that doesn’t appear to have worked properly, oh well it became ugly)

I’m going to poke in here to beat the drum of Dwarf Fortress Squad Succession Game real quick. Think about it! =)

Besides that I’ve hit the 250 hour mark in local Monster Hunter play, freed the man from the beast (again… what is it with these men being beast-ed?) in QfG2 and gotten to the 4th assignment in Atelier Rorona (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz5Ef28DBak). Looking forwards to the Savannah and my Wizard Staff quest!

As for Atelier, so far it has a bit of a workman quality to it. the quests are created randomly and the assignments are so far the only real storyline thread. It has (at least at these early hours) more of a premise then a storyline per se. Hey! You own this workshop now, get to it! =) In a way this game is GUST’s excellent crafting system given center stage. You don’t complete chapters by boss fights or reaching x point, you do it by creating an item or set of items at your kingdom’s behest. So it’s been much more about time management and gathering fortune then finding this or that area or monster. A decent change, but the game is also very clearly their first run at it. Characters are good, though not particularly far outside established tropes. It hits the beats it goes after, make no mistake though, this is a crafting RPG, not a story/character/battle RPG.

So far, so good. Looking forwards to digging deeper!

@redswi1 Nailed it in one, they still got DA3 for redemption =)

I think Pete’s pretty spot on with this one. I expect it’ll be a fallout-y type of thing referencing all those flags they set through the previous games. I’m over it, though until contradicting evidence I now believe EA is willing to push things out before they’re ready and will give that heavy weight when deciding whether to be there Day 1 or not.

Really the most fascinating thing is probably how this changes their relationship and how they position the game. It’ll be fascinating to see what they do with DA3 and/or more ME stuff. Already the ads for ME3 have the tagline “It’s the destination, not the journey” whoever was arguing ‘don’t ship it’ has some hefty internal clout now I’d expect… maybe!

In some way, what’s happening between EA/Bioware is Alternate Future fiction of what could have happened between Blizzard/Activision (or Bungie/Activision now that their fairly generous contract terms have been revealed) I really wouldn’t have pegged Activision as the company to be generous with release scheduals that’s for sure c_c

I’m game to assist our performance while I wait eagerly for Civ V to rear it’s head. Is it on android? It seems like it’s taken some of the internet stalwarts by storm, and I certainly have the time for it for the next day or so

One day left! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGGj46fxgxY

The Next Turn Button…. it calls @_@

Aha, fair enough, I thought I might be losing my mind there for a minute =)

Also: This means those great Persona EnglishByJapanese themes are still possible/likely 😀

What? Wait what? They did? WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED?! T_________T *Shakes his contact*

Major ups for bringing that to our attention also the index of great podcast stories is doubly helpful 😀 (though I’m unlikely to bite just yet with QfG and Atelier consuming my time :<

One day when you all least expect it I’m going to drum up a Squaddie Dwarf Fortress succession game. see if I don’t! =P

I’ve been waiting eagerly for the Gods and Kings expansion to Civ V, a great installment in the series.

Civ kinda lends itself to fiction, Could you imagine a squad multiplayer/succession game where theme appropriate leaders of squadies battled for supremacy of some sort of Squadworld? Push into the eastern block!

anywho, good on that guy, those sort of things are always interesting

I had to bump up my hours pretty seriously so I’ve been mostly working and then passing out at home through semi-concious stints of Monster Hunter and Super Robot Taisen Z2 Hakai-Hen. Been also forging ahead on QfG2, dusting off my rust in Virtua Fighter 5 and taking a summer class besides.

that being said I’ve been rolling around the idea of reviewing either Sengoku Rance or Kamidori… It’s hard to work another game into that already existing backlog… I dunno! I might also write a thing on my experience with the super subset of jrpgs (the moe stuff) since really, Extra Credits kinda covered everything near perfectly in their ‘JRPGs, what happened?’ episode

I’ll get something set up here soonish =D