Oh and at the other end of the spectrum, I once found an almost-empty bottle of Froot Loops-flavored vodka at the back of my brother's freezer. He swore it was from his girlfriend/female platonic friend/whatever the kids are into these days who was totally into it. I still think he's wrong for allowing such a thing…

I don't doubt it, but the vodkas that are good enough to drink that way tend to be expensive, right? I used to get the best of both worlds by mixing middle-tier vodka (I used to favor Moskovskaya) 1-to-1 with something like lime (my favorite), lemon, or (once in a while) pure cranberry juice that has a nice strong…

As horrible as this bill is in so many ways, I'm not sure that this particular claim is valid. The Washington Post's "Fact Checker" just gave it 4 Pinocchios, i.e. the same level of truthiness as 98% of anything that ever comes out of Trump's mouth.

What is "What is"? I don't remember that one.

True, there were some weird gaps like that, but I just got used to those after a while. It didn't impact my enjoyment of the game.

You bet! For XCOM, yeah, the alien blood doesn't bother me, but panicked soldiers and/or their sudden, bloody, and inevitably shocking/disappointing deaths can be quite overwhelming when you're invested in them as the "Commander". In fact, though, it's the tutorial mission with the psionically "possessed" soldier…

Thanks, we'll check it out!

True. I was so blown away by the overall Chuck storyline (and also, it felt like that part of the game was filled with New Vegas references but maybe that's just me) that I kind of just took it in stride when Chuck just handed out free items to end each character's story arc. But yeah, it was a bit like Lost or…

Yeah, first time ever playing a Mario Kart game, and also I haven't played on the 3DS much at all, so I guess a lot of what I've talking about is just about getting used to things. And to be honest, I did fine on the first run and felt pretty comfortable overall (first place in all races but one for the first cup,…

Once you've made it through the cop's big 5-level shootout at the docks, I think you've seen the hardest that Hotline Miami 2 has to offer. I agree with your assessment overall of the second game vs. the original, but the final chapter is so astoundingly unique, even though it only takes about 5 minutes to play…

I think I'll have another spin at Late Shift soon. I didn't notice the writing coming apart in my one run so far— it made perfect sense that the whole plan would go off the rails when my dorky garage-attendant math student tried to tangle with forces much larger and more vicious than himself on a lark.

Hah, yeah, I hadn't made that connection. If anything, it goes even farther with a similar conceit— the game just kind of runs with the twist, with no particular wink or nod to the player. I loved how abruptly it all ended, it worked perfectly for me.

This game is really great for that. The only times I got into "try everything with everything", it turned out that in fact I had failed to pick up a certain boring item very early in the game that turned out to be useful right near the end. Which reminds me— another thing I loved was that there was an almost perfect…

Thanks! We actually don't have a WiiU, and I know he's going to insist on at least trying XCOM specifically, but it's an excellent idea to go about this in an organized way and look for slightly less difficult/intense games in the same genre. Frankly, I think he likes the look of the little combat cutscenes in XCOM…

Two things that are really awesome about Thimbleweed Park (and then I'm going to bed, I swear): First. almost all of the puzzles actually make sense, i.e. very little of the super-contrived stuff like "acquire a rubber skin costume and stretch it over a manhole to trampoline up onto a roof"— if you ignore the fact…

Oh, and as for "What Have You Finished This Week", it's Thimbleweed Park, which I just wrapped up 20 minutes ago. Basically, this seems to me to be the ultimate Ron Gilbert adventure game (and I say this as someone whose gaming adolescence was defined by Monkey Island— my senior yearbook quote was "How appropriate,…

Last week I finally and conclusively ditched some other games I had supposedly been playing (notably Mass Effect: Andromeda), and started playing a big mix of other stuff. It's 2am so I will keep this short, but here's what's on tap:

Major breakthrough! I finally figured out how to do the blood swab (and thank you so much, game devs, for making that a freaking two-step process), which meant I could make the arrest and go on to the next section, which suddenly moved things forward on a number of other puzzles. Life is good.

Not too long, I think about an hour and 15 minutes.

Be advised, Late Shift is not just a regular game with FMV elements, like the Tex Murphy series or something. It's a straight-up interactive heist movie. (NB, I don't know anything about Until Dawn, so maybe that's the same thing.)