I am with you. I play games like Tower Madness and PvZ on my phone, but high realism games seem impossible. I believe one reason is that kids who grew up playing these games are accustomed to certain paradigms. You are walking around a deserted maze-like space station, you can "collect" weapons and energy, when…

I was great at Master of Orion, but every game since then, I lose on the easiest setting every time. Endless Space is a really good one IMO, and pretty cheap on steam.

This sounds so cliche but just play it on easy, once you really understand the game dynamics you can move up the difficulty. The games are still pretty fun on easy becoming more like SimCiv.

I started Civ at the beginning and love it. I love games and after I get a decent feel for them, if I am just stuck, I will check out some strategy boards on the Net. For myself, I only read "just enough" as I like to figure it out but I also don't like not progressing after a time. I have found that it takes a lot of…

Start with Civ or XCom on an easier difficulty. Even playing Civ 5 on "normal" can be challenging for a more casual player.

*looks at steam entry for Civ 5*

You play it. I only started these games with Civilization V. I think I started like 10 games, losing half way through and restarting before I was able to even win a game on Easy difficulty.

Play them obsessively for thousandshours on end, neglecting sleep, food, family, work, house fires, etc. When you have absolutely no life, then you will be a true strategy gamer.

Watch Lets Play streams on Twitch or videos on YouTube, but that can take even more patience than playing them.

My face when I saw that picture.

Oh my God Terry Silver from Karate Kid 3 wrote that episode of Grimm. It's too early for this nonsense.

I wish I'd seen this back in the day. I grew up with stuff like this.

Wow..I've never seen this. Thank you!

And here I am, sitting here thinking that I'm the only fan of Nemesis in the entire world. I should have known io9 people wouldn't let me down.

Holy crap, I think I saw The Eliminators in the theater. Forgot it completely, but it's coming back to me — don't they wind up with a ninja too?

Pretty sure the 1980s cyborg action movie I've always dreamed of seeing is this one:

I'm tempted to get the "Art of" book coming out next week. I love the design of the spaceships, especially the Milano and her sister ships. (I assume one was named the Danza.)

I can see two Immortals trying to get the last Quickening to win the Prize in there!

Corey Feldman also wins as most annoying adult.

I think part of it is just latching onto supernormal stimulus from ancient parts of our brains.