It's a fantastic game. Oddly, the two complaints that seem to be fueling the backlash, the weakness of the early narrative and the repetitive nature of the endgame, actually serve each other well: the gameplay is lively and varied during the part of the game where the narrative seems generic and relies on sidequests…

Shovel Knight and maybe some Mario Kart 8 for me: intensive thesis writing has robbed me of the ability to play anything that I can't enjoy in 20 minute chunks, so Dark Souls and Wonderful 101 are on the backburner (though I remain determined to finish both in the fullness of time).

I think, by and large, they've made pretty great choices given the constraints of time and the necessity of translating between media. But, you're right, some really thuddingly obvious bad choices (I'd highlight removing Ramsay from Clash of Kings and somehow managing to make the fantastic battle on the Wall into the…

Some (maybe most?) of that is probably logistics: both how much story they can reasonably tell in ten-episode seasons and how television storytelling is just inherently different from book storytelling.

Oh, if you aggro more than one they're a nightmare! But one at a time they're nice and easy. And their attacks are so slow you can sprint right past the whole pack of them after your first Seath attempt when the fog wall goes up.

Yeah, I've only tried him twice, and both times ultimately fell due to an unforced error. Don't anticipate too much trouble beating him: in fact, my only real concern is finding the time to play!

Not at all! My playtime has been significantly reduced, so besides the Duke's Archives and the Crystal Cave, I haven't seen much new stuff!

Glad to hear that: on my near-successful first attempt, that was just the strategy I used!

I hope to join you in the ranks of those who have slain Seath the Scaleless at some point this week. Congrats!

Does this mean you at least had success with Gravelord Nito or whatever he calls himself? I wound up on a totally different path, battling Seath the Scaleless in the Duke's Archives. Unfortunately, gaming time was at a high premium this week and I only got to take a couple of runs at him, neither successful.

I found that using the touchscreen for the draw controls in Wonderful 101 was a good way to get the hang of the shapes, but once you understand how to draw the shapes you want at the size you want, it's way more efficient to use the right stick.

Like @Drinking_with_Skeletons:disqus says, many of the bonus levels reuse the layouts of the earlier levels. Some multiple times. However, these reused maps come with twists reminiscent of the Mario Galaxy prankster comet levels: a Shadow Mario here, a 30-second timer there. And there's a huge quantity of them: the…

I'll mostly be playing board games (Jaipur, Carcassonne, and Eldritch Horror) with the girlfriend at my family's seaside cottage. In between rounds of the less-exciting-yet-higher-stakes game of Try to Write Your Master's Thesis in Three Weeks.

"I saw him in the pie movie and I thought he was a Jew."

Agreed. I thought Brandon's constant Iraq mentions were bizarre in the first three seasons. Particularly in, I think, the last review of season three, when he highlighted a moment and asked if it was the end of the Shield's Iraq commentary.

I'm interested to see how/if it impacts the gameplay. Even with just the two options, and even if you took out all the newer abilities like wall jumping, Mario handles very differently between SMB and NSMB.

It's such an obviously fun idea that I'm baffled that there are naysayers.

Alas, no! I'm basically treating it like the SPOILERS! Luka betrayal scene was a season ending cliffhanger, because the triple punch of Mario Kart 8, a friend of a friend lending me Dark Souls, and my writing a thesis-teaching a course-working for the government-coordinating a book project work schedule is not giving…

I'd say a more accurate version of laterite's statement would be "if you've been delaying on buying a WiiU, there is no good reason to keep delaying." If you like Nintendo games, there are surely enough great ones on WiiU now to keep you busy until the games shown at E3 last night release.

It's a ton of fun! And incredibly rewarding when you finally figure out how to, say, take out the vanguard force in the Undead Parish and kill the Armored Boar.