Also re: Mass Effect Andromeda: If you're a single gay man one of your friends will wait till you've left town moved on to other games to announce that he's bi.

My favorite is BOTW. No surprise there.
I looked through the list of games I've played this year for a common theme. The one that jumps out is "friendship."

I haven't finished it yet! I wouldn't be surprised if others here haven't either.

Loved that subplot and Ezra and Colin's performances. Their tête-à-tête in the alleyway was amazing. The born-this-way outcasts (X-Men, Elsa, etc.) have always resonated with me (as well as countless other LGBTQAI+ folk). Those two went farther into the subtext than other "family franchises" have dared.

The first four were gifted to me in college and there were plenty of Potter loving students to discuss them with. We saw the first movie together and had a group Potter-read-along during an on-campus holiday. I didn't love my college but the post 9/11 job market had me scared of the "real world." Several of my fellow…

Life with Kevin's fourth issue has arrived after a 4 month hiatus. The series continues to balance Kevin Keller's dating and work life. This issue has a refreshingly cynical subplot. Kevin's taken a gay teen to the prom only to find the teen is now gossiping about the experience on a talk show.. Each issue has a…

First basic needs must be met. Food, water, shelter and safety must be accounted for. Till they are depression and anxiety rates will be unbalance-able. Advice on happiness generally assumes these needs are already being met. Hence the "you'll get through it, don't worry" mindset.

Don't expect too much from the FFXV patch. I accessed it from the title screen menu rather than going through a full replay. It amounts to 30 minutes of walking through Ch 13's hallways, some half-hearted combat and watching 2 cutscenes involving the supporting villains.

My favorite moments of that game are at the opening and closing hours. The middle can be a bit of a slog.

I think a key difference is that I enjoyed spending time with P4's cast. I never reached that point in P3 and have yet to really get there with P5. The beach interlude really solidified this for me. Ann and Makoto kept complaining about being bored while Ryuji and Mishima kept making a$$es of themselves. I just wanted…

Pace yourself. This one's a long one.

As mentioned below, I'm 65 hours into Persona 5 and hitting some fatigue. I'm looking for a shorter game to play as a palate cleanser. I hear the sirens call of the summer Steam sale.

One more thing. Don't be afraid to use the games fast-forward option when characters are over-explaining the plot.

I'm 65 hours into Persona 5. I took a week off after the 4th palace, slogged through the 6 hr summer vacation interlude and reached the 5th palace. I took a look at the 12+ floor map, sighed, and turned the game off. I wish the game mixed up it's social / dungeon aspects instead of encouraging you to finish the palace…

The Persona's are a mix of dungeon crawler, social sim and visual novel. The visual novel portion dominates the games first hours as they set up the story, characters and conflict. The game wants you to feel frustrated. Things get much better once the first dungeon opens up but the game doesn't truly take off the…

I play phone games on the train. The free versions of these require a wifi connection. I won't be able to play these.

Namco owns Pac Man yes? And the Atari port was terrible. Pac Man's the one series from that era I'll regularly return to but it peaked at Ms. Pac Man. They made countless sequels and spin offs. They had their shot at turning him into a franchise mascot and putting him in other genres (Pac Man 2! Pac Attack!) but…

Leader-1 sips his tea and sniffs derisively. "Oh look. Another one."
His fellow GoBots chuckle good naturedly and nibble on scones.

We all have our guilty pleasures. And Bay knows his target audience.

Phrasing.