Yeah the Arkham games definitely have a charm to them. I think for me it's how perpetually unflappable Batman is despite the total meltdown each evening depicted in these entries can be for him.

Thank god for all my time playing Warlords against my brothers back in the day or I could never have beat that first spike (if we're on the same page, I'm guessing it's either the mountain heavy stages or the water heavy stages). Getting a TON of flying units leveled up and mobile ASAP to make sure you can't get…

Yeah, it really shows what a letdown some of the parts of Arkham Knight can be when the most indepth conversations you can have with these villains are in their holding cells at Gotham PD…. Where they're all lined up together and you just keep hitting X on them over and over and over again. Not exactly very well…

It goes really in-depth about a LOT of different RPG standards in ways few titles back then and today do, I agree. So much under the surface of any of its mechanics. Just some side bits off the top of my head—

I dunno man, I hear the Bat's not looking too good right now either.
But anyway, we need to take down Penguin's crew later tonight. That bastard trying to take over our turf in Arkham City! And what's with all these phones ringin'?!?! I hope we get to blast Two Face! He wasted a buddy of mine with that coin flip ah…

Yep yep I remember that one too! Epic difficulty if you waited too long to fight Valsu in particular so you could get stuck in an endless heal/slash loop. Great world and unforgiving old school execution all in one, to be sure.

Have a blast with Metal Gear Solid 3! It's really awesome! /cheer!

I'm not 100% certain but I'm relatively sure the Substory in question doesn't pop up until later in the game (I'm guessing at least Chapter 6). And it is part of a chain of Substories. If you want the specific #s to keep in mind, I'll post those below in the Spoiler Blocks.

Congrats on getting Yakuza 0! I hope you have a great time with it!

There definitely CAN be some interesting components that arise in a rather unique way from a random encounter system, to be sure. Rare enemy spawns, fear that any next step will trigger a fight that might be your last, and a general dread/wonder at the impending unknown all around you.

I love a ton of different things about Final Fantasy XII (including the spectacular character designs you mention which are the polar opposites of, shall we say, The Tidus Approach©), but I concur 100% in wishing that chest contents weren't relatively randomized.

Salutations~!

Regarding point one: I may be incorrect, but I believe the scene that first cemented yelling "serpentine" while avoiding gun fire in pop culture history arrived with the always exemplary and superlative comedic skills of Peter Falk in the 1979 film, The In-Laws:

That's a very good point. Keeping the system simple makes it harder to be utilized for OP balance breaking or ill intent. And yeah, that would make for some really awkward team play moments. ESPECIALLY if someone accidentally or otherwise shoots their friend THEN proceeds to use them as a shield instead of healing…

"I’ve been staring at a closed door for five full minutes now, waiting for the monster to attack."

Whoops! I usually remember to link to a Youtube clip for these crazy, random references. My apologies.

This is probably pretty morbid of me, but it occurs to me a new gameplay design approach for a fellow wounded player friend could be to sacrifice yourself as a human shield for your teammates' survival (i.e. you set up an option to become an item for others to use of sorts with a time limit/HP shield barrier in place…

Much as with Hitman, this is definitely something I'm keeping an eye out for in the future whenever it has a sale. It looks like a lot of fun. My next purchase is reserved for Yakuza Kiwami (also $30) though, since Yakuza 0 stole my heart and smashed it with a bicycle… and then threw it over a balcony with a high…

I haven't played this game myself, but I HAVE watched a huge amount of footage/LPs for this. There's some really nifty emergent gameplay possible here on top of the old school Free For All strats meets Battle Royale arena template present.

That's a shame that The Emoji Movie is not just bad but dishearteningly terrible too.
"Birthday cake, birthday cake, unicorn, woman's shoe."