I mean, we could call them both “ability-gated single-location adventure games,” but that’s even more ungainly than “Metroidvania.”

My girlfriend spends more time playing video games than I do and she has no idea what “metroidvania” means. It’s not vernacular – it’s jargon.

Yup, totally agree. I was going to post something similar. I loved Hollow Knight, don’t get me wrong. But I would say it was that it just did everything really well, as opposed to some big innovations or anything.

This is the only kind of prequel apologia that I can deal with. It never occurred to me that an adequate horny teen romance was hiding somewhere in that ponderous digital action.

The Others. Now here’s a movie that I think actually works better once you know the twists and, in its own way, becomes much more intriguing on a rewatch. Still think this is the movie Nicole Kidman should have won her Oscar for. Gothic, creepy, and in the end deeply moving.

I’m with you. The reunion asks us to have tender feelings that the characters themselves do not. The movie treats Al Swearengen as the next thing to St. fucking Francis when he spends most of the running-time downing hooch and contemplating atrocities. But I must admit that his final line filled me with warmth and…

The monsters were impressive and have made me interested in seeing the original, if only to see if the human aspect is handled better. My understanding being that the King doesn’t really appear much so there is more time to deal with the human drama.

My man.

Xenogears. Upscaled graphics, maybe some more animated cut scenes, a proper Disc 2, and the ability to speed up or skip text.

Einhander: I would settle for a simple remaster rather than a ground-up remake. I can remember playing a demo disc for this game and being completely captivated with the Bladerunner decor and the strategic weapon-swapping. But the game only becomes more complicated (and unforgiving) in the next stages. This one…

To this day, I’m mad that anyone thinks the movie Inception is good. It was built up so much at the time as “smart.” When I finally saw it, I was bewildered that anyone could call it that.

This game kept me hooked because it’s willing to be what it is without over-extending. The mechanics are a refinement rather than a bold reinvention. The story balances critique with down-the-center genre storytelling. And the pacing lets you savor the atmosphere a bit more than the previous entries, with their more…

See also how I found the Hannibal TV show wonderfully campy at times precisely because it was so over the top, and Bryan Fuller knew it was over the top, and still wanted it to be sincere and straight-faced.

And I think Sontag got that wrong because the gay men she referenced in her original piece KNEW when they were being too much. They could conjure up camp because they understood the point of it. It’s why John Waters could create those films with those characters.

That would solve a lot of problems, but (as you probably know) the Democrats have a serious problem with the senate’s electoral map. Enough low-population states are solidly red that we are probably looking at a right-wing majority in the chamber for the rest of our natural lives.

I love gel pens! I do find that my handwriting with a good pen is a blend of print and cursive because of that.

Fountain pens are a niche item, for sure, but they’re making a comeback thanks to brands focused on inexpensive, low-maintenance options. For around $30 you can get something that gives you virtually the same writing experience as the status symbol brands.

And unless the focus of writing goes from being able to communicate with others to just being able to communicate with our future selves, that makes print inherently more practical.

If people don’t learn to write cursive they won’t be able to read it either. So much would be lost.

I understand some people find cursive faster/easier, but if that were the universal experience cursive wouldn’t be this far into decline. It’s not as of this trend only started when laptops entered schools.