Turn the map icons off. Turn the minimsp off. Eschew fast travel. It becomes a different game.

I just realized today that I've put nearly 200 hours into it, and have not yet finished the second DLC, Blood and Wine. It's a big game. Part of that is me forswearing fast travel, but it's still a big game.

If ever a game would have benefitted from a level and XP free design, it would have been Witcher 3. Zelda sounds like so much fun, but after throwing down a month's income for an insane PC rig a few months ago, I just don't think that's an option.

I do not regret buying it, but I found the experience to be distinctly underwhelming. The story and the writing was interesting, but the mechanics they settled on for their "you can solve this problem in many different ways" approach just rubbed me wrong. "You need to figure out the particular combination of stats and…

I kickstarted Torment: Tides of Numenara, and got my key. Not playing it.

Yes, this. When you feel like moving on from an area, then just move on. Skip quests! Don't upgrade stuff! Ignore treasures! It's all just chaff. Do the quests that are fun, go where you want, and then just walk away.

Yes, whole fish and its wonderfulness has been a revelation. Thanks, Japan!

I used to think that as well, but a friend of mine has routinely made Christmas Goose. In his case, I think it started as a bit of a hipster affectation, but it grew into a legit family tradition.

Skewer, cook over smoky charcoal, dip in a vat of sauce. That's the "old Japanese man in a shed" way of doing it, observed firsthand in an mountain-town izakaya. He also served raw chicken. Sadly, I ate it. I survived. The hearts were WONDERFUL in comparison.

Afghanistan may enjoy spawning in the Sargasso Sea, if it could get there. We may never know.

Slow down there, Jhonny Boy.

Do you play Paths and Empire on VASSAL? I keep hearing that it's the place to be, but have never taken the plunge. I have fooled around a bit with Tabletop Simulator, and actually played quite a bit of Memoir '44 that way, but nothing else.

But it's Cerberus. They have Reaper Tech. They can do anything!

I'm playing a fair bit of Duelyst recently. It's an online card game, but it has a little tactics game with a board attached to it, which makes all the difference. I highly recommend it.

I really enjoyed Omega, but I can't say why. I think I just liked the environment, and the idea of hacking and blasting through a giant junky space station. I can't point to anything that was really and truly great, but I did enjoy it quite a bit.

Boosh!

As opposed to Japan, where I'll roll up to the 7-11 and buy a 120 yen niku-man with the equivalent of a 100 dollar bill, and it's totally normal and no problem at all.

Was that an earlier version of Mutant Apocalypse? I remember a side-scrolling beat em up featuring Cyclops, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Dazzler, Gambit, and Wolverine, maybe, where Magneto uttered that immortal line at the beginning of the last level.

We have a winner. No saving the world necessary.

Or the glorious days of 1.0 …. Oh, I miss Gameological 1.0