On a first playthrough that’s almost certainly true but it isn’t actually required. The games can be played with zero leveling. 

Interesting, I’m guessing not a fan of Metroidvanias then? I don’t think I realized it until just now but I’ve always thought of Dark Souls as just a 3D Castlevania. The fact that you can go anywhere at any level without needing to be able to turn into a bat or collect a double jump is a significant design departure.…

Oh, and get me out of the greys. It’s absurd I’m still stuck here. 

Hey Luke. So I’ve been casually flipping through this fine art for years... is there an actual “take my money” button? This is some next level stuff.

That’s good to know. I always think of Gamepass similarly to the old Festinger cognitive dissonance experiment. The one where people get paid to lie and the more they are paid the less they believe the lie. Fascinating stuff. I think the Gamepass model is probably the future, I just hope people commit to the games…

Huh. Always interesting to get other perspectives. I think Ori has some of the absolute best movement ever in a game and it’s a favorite of mine. To each their own! I’m curious if you think gamepass ever alters your opinion on games? Since the game is “free” (I know it’s a paid service but you didn’t buy Ori…

Dragon Quest XI gets a pass because it’s Dragon Quest and it derives a ton of charm from just how classic all of its design elements are top to bottom, from art to sound to combat. I know people love DQXI but I found it miserable except for how charming the characters were and the art style. Specifically: I hate the…

Yeah, seems like it’s this. I have a founders pack (now deactivated because it’s been three months) and actually playing the games is the best I’ve seen so far. The service/business model is hot garbage. If xCloud/Azure is close to on par performance wise that seems like the final nail in the coffin for Stadia.…

I see the concerns with this one but based on watching what I can/reading what’s out there I’m still super optimistic. It sounds like they really are trying to make a “new” Guilty Gear instead of Rev 3. Arcsys seems to be leaning heavily towards approachability the last few years and they’ve honestly gotten pretty…

This might be the silliest, most important thing I’ve ever used some tax refund money on.

I am that friend. Well, possibly. I bought that once. Totally worth it. 

Ok, here’s an odd one. Kileak: The DNA Imperative. It’s not a good game. It’s the first game my engineer dad latched onto. We spent hours mapping every floor. He loved tracing every bit of the map out. I couldn’t bring myself to progress until he’d finished. He tries to keep his maps going whenever I play a Dark Souls…

Love me some BBTAG! That game is straight up fun. It still shows up at more Arcsys-centric events at least. I’m hoping Granblue turns out as well but I played in that alpha a bit back and was not particularly in love. The movement felt... off for me. I’m no expert though so I’ll be holding off until I see if the…

I... ok, two things here. I love your videos first off and I cackle out loud with no one around at least once per video. No joke, you always do something. Here’s my second thing though: how on earth did you make it so much your thing that you can be intentionally verbose in a way that every gosh darn writer wishes but…

This was my thought. I genuinely hate to play the “I went to film school” card because I did and honestly that’s embarrassing but Ad Astra has so little trust in the audience the narrative comes off as childish. Every single beat in the movie feels like I’m being bullied by some little kid who keeps asking “do you get…

Interesting. I haven’t had a chance to see it but my best friend, someone I generally trust when it comes to films/games and somehow trust more when he says “you of all people need to see this”, has said basically the same thing. It’s worth the second watch I hear. Maybe I’ll get around to this one.

I think that it’s supposed to be read both ways. I think it’s intended to be a postmortem of what happens when passion collides with naïveté. The extra work they created for themselves was entirely self-imposed. They didn’t have to do it the way they did but they wanted it to be great, not just checking off little…

I went to the Warp Tour in like... 1996. I had tickets and wasn’t trying to do anything wrong but made the “mistake” of bringing a skateboard to what was basically a skate festival. My friend and I were going through security and they said “you can’t bring those in” to which I replied “oh we just” and pointed towards…

I have a Founders pack for Stadia and think that the streaming tech absolutely delivers. The service as it currently exists has just been stripped of all the features required to make it a quiet “everyone just has the Stadia app installed on their phone” success that I think I think Google is actually going for. It…