I’m really surprised, because not only I am I still playing Titan Quest, but I think I’m liking it more. I’m really into it, somehow. Despite the heart of the game being “click on monster to burninate.”

Some people seem to really, really hate having to backtrack, ever, for any reason. For such a person, the careful and deliberate exploration you describe would be miserable.

I was super involved in painting this week, and strangely enough had to actually do work while I was at work, so my gaming has been pretty minimal. I continue to plow through Titan Quest. It is bizarrely engaging. Hit things, watch the corpses pile up, move on, repeat. I suppose that is just what I’m in the mood for…

I finished painting a 10-man unit of Praetorian Karax. I was super motivated to paint this week.

No, the game was perfectly clear the whole time, if a bit strange at points - but there was a lot of guidance about how to interpret the strange bits. The ending was also entirely clear - just abrupt and pointless.

I am happy to hear that you’re enjoying Pyre. I was surprised, quite a bit, when the game opened up like that, but you’re right - by pure length SOMETHING was going to be necessary.

Since putting The Surge on hold, I’ve played a run on Surviving Mars, played Kona all the way through, played The Final Station all the way through, and then started a game that I am almost certain to NOT finish — Titan Quest. I’ve never been a big fan of action RPG’s, but for a few moments of brainless button…

I finished The Final Station last Sunday. I really, really enjoyed the game itself - but the ending was a pointless downer, of the sort that inspires bizarre “but maybe the whole thing was just a dream of a man about to be executed” CT to give it greater meaning. True story - someone honestly (I think!) used that…

The way I interpreted it is that the Wild Hunt did not need to be defeated for Ciri and Avellach to do their thing ... if the Wild Hunt would just decide to go home. However, they were committed to doing their own thing with Ciri’s power, and would always be able to intercept her before she was able to do her thing.…

I’ve heard that the upcoming Insurgency - Sandstorm is supposed to be really, really good. BF1 was almost what I was looking for, having last really enjoyed a multiplayer shooter with Red Orchestra 2.

I somehow missed the Mantis Lords until I was way, way into the endgame content. I was just trying to pick up all charms at that point, and could have gotten to the first ending had I wanted it - and then I finally opened the door that leads to their room.

I live here, and have for the past 13 years - mostly up in the Kanto, but this is my third in Hiroshima. I’ve been ... near the Kurashiki historical district, and I had to escort students around Naoshima - but did not have any museum tickets for myself.

I finished Kona earlier in the week ... and that was a good game all the way through. The finale did some dodgy finale stuff, but it was mechanically competent and not glitchy, so it was merely okay and not terrible. More than one can say for a lot of indie games. So, with the ending out of the way, I can give this…

Wow, I wasn’t all that far away (near Okayama city, in Hiroshima prefecture), but it more or less skipped me entirely. That was an odd storm, super strong and super compact.

I know Pillars of Eternity did, but even they found them so restrictive and resource-intensive that they’ve been moving away from the concept.

Well, I hit the wall a bit in Surviving Mars, and instead of starting a new colony from scratch I decided to look through my library for something else that seemed relaxing.

I really liked Pyre, and stuck with it to the very end. Great game, and breathtakingly beautiful.

This was utterly soul-crushing to read. Not because of the content itself, or the choices, but because of the moment in my life this collection captures. 1998 was just half a year before I made a life-defining terrible decision, leading me to leave my beloved hometown of Los Angeles and all of my good friends from…

Get rid of it all. All of it. And that thing, too. It’s totally worth it.

Taking some advice from wise commenters last week, I put The Surge aside for some nice, calming city-building on the Red Planet. Surviving Mars has gotten a fair number of patches and a bit of DLC since it released last year, though to be honest I have barely noticed their improvements. A lot of them have to do with…