Quick poll… did everyone actually use Orlandu in FFT?

Archers in FFT are… weird. You're right, having just one on a normal team sucks. And even if you put Battle Skill or Snipe on as a secondary, you're still better off using a Chemist with a gun.

This weekend, I'm wrapping up Ys, which I started on a lark last weekend and nearly beat in a binge. I really was not ready for the "Bump System" of combat since I started on Ys: The Oath in Felghana, but it's a neat way to streamline the fighting. I just wish it wasn't so punishing to sequence breaking & exploration,…

You're getting to Monaco at a good time. They patched it a month or two ago into an "Enhanced Edition" which reworks all of the levels to be a little quicker and less punishing. You still have access to the original levels, but as they laid out nicely on the dev blog, it's a lot less tedious than it used to be.

A man chooses, a slave obeys, a developer phones in the second half.

I was actually not a fan of Space Alert at all. Something about the setup-then-execute nature of it didn't click with me like it does for Galaxy Trucker. I think partly it was that I wanted more of a Robo Rally dynamic, where if you made a sequence mistake, you ended up in a bad position next turn and then had the…

I really like the idea of co-op boardgames, but I'm still leery of them as a whole. Forgotten Desert/Island are alright (and nice since they're so quick), and I do want to try Eldritch Horror despite a love-hate relationship with Arkham Horror. But the whole genre is really prone to quarterbacking unless you give…

That's a great refresher, but if you don't mind…

I have no idea. They still seem pretty committed to the brick and mortal comic store that sells 20-some page floppies as far as I can tell. On the other hand, my understanding is that Carol's book was selling floppies at a rate that would normally mean cancellation, but it had strong enough digital sales to warrant…

Some of it is also a desire to get past the point of having "the Muslim superhero." Y'know, so when we look at comics as a whole, it's not thirty blond dudes, ten white women with double D's, a black guy, an asian math whiz, a gay, and a Muslim.

Man, I can understand being annoyed by a teenager goofing around, even if I disagree with your take on that particular line. But really, the most painful dialogue you've read in years? In a world where JMS still gets occasional work, three-quarters of DC is doing awful Geoff Johns impressions, Gail Simone is taking…

I don't think so, Planetary just has a John Constantine stand-in that shows up in one of its stories.

It's sitting at the top of Comixology's Bestseller list as well. Sales will taper off as the series goes on (as they always do), but it's a strong opener for the book.

I don't remember it requiring 100% dedication to either path, but I do remember being annoyed that you needed a certain level of Paragon/Renegade-ness to "unlock" the appropriate response in some cases, which was a bit bothersome.

I mean, at least in the first game, they're super-racist so… there's that?

There's something to be said for that though! I always viewed Mass Effect's moral options as deciding whether you want to be a wiener or a dick. (Obligatory plug that Alpha Protocol was the better game and would've made a better franchise.) It's part of why I'm glad they let you accrue both Paragon and Renegade points…

Portal 2 co-op was amazing. I loved the single player game, and the co-op was even better. I played with a roommate, which probably helped. But a few times, we decided in advance that we were just going to blitz through a room rather than slowing down to puzzle it out. It was a ton of fun when it bombed, and even more…

A friend of mine bought the Anniversary Edition, but I haven't tried anything beyond the base game. It's weird - I'm sure the expansions are wonderful too, but I don't feel like the base game is "missing" anything that leaves me dying to try them.

Are you and the kids enjoying Quantum Conundrum? I'm not sure what it was, but it didn't have the magic that Portal did for me. It's still a totally fine game, just not one that I'd go out of my way to recommend to someone.

It's been a long time, but I remember Leo's Workshop being my entire mid-game strategy. The real cornerstone though was getting The Great Library ASAP, since it meant I could totally ignore one arm of the tech tree and get it anyway, all while rushing ahead towards Riflemen. If I didn't get the Library for some…