I've made no secret of my enthusiasm for this throughout the dev process, and while I'm happy with how it turned out, it's definitely in the "good, not great" category. It's a game that won't be a classic in its own right unless they pull the Civ Manuever with an expansion (and they don't have any planned at the…

Yep. It's not terribly useful - the game plays procreation & genetics realistically, and having kids is kind of a big deal in the context of the game - it's just non-judgmentally there. No warning messages, no scolding the player, no weird game systems to make it advantageous in certain circumstances, no Look At How…

Darkest Dungeon does it worse than Massive Chalice, frankly. The total replaceability of DD units means they have no legacy at all. Often you won't even lose them to death, you'll just pitch them because a better, less-neurotic version is freely available to recruit. It's similar in being eugenics-y, but it's also…

FWIW, the general reception has been "It's alright," and that's about where I fall on it as well. If you like Turn Based Strategies, it's a decent entry with some interesting quirks. If you're not a TBS nut already, it's not going to convince you to become one.

I just wish I understood the gimmick. My only memories of Steve Blackman involve him slapping people with a kendo stick. He was like Big Bossman, but an anime nerd with silly pants.

I got the impression she was trying to build a little solidarity via the "We're not so different, you and I!" component and that Jamie was vaguely considering dropping the "niece" play. But there's no real reason for him to, and even if he admits it to her in private, that's no more convincing than Ned's ravens since…

And it would've been so easy to do both! Killing the thin man would've taken like, 30 seconds. Just follow after Trant & company after you're done. It's not like they were hard to spot - Trant is the only Goldcloak in Braavos, and Mace <3 Tyrell was singing in the streets. Even if she loses sight of them for a minute,…

Dorne Watch!

I backed it and have been involved since the early Beta. It's probably not going to light your world on fire, but it's a solid entry in the genre with a few interesting twists. (But bear in mind that "the genre" is more Fire Emblem than Crusader Kings 2.) In particular, it does a much better job than XCOM of…

That's a great example of how the games are structured - any number of companions might have a major turning point! at which you're prompted to make a decision. But - probably in part to facilitate those moments of drama - the best you can do if you decide that Morrigan/Ashley/whatever is just an evil jerk is to…

Beyond being nice little action RPGs, the Ys series has some great, prog rock-y soundtracks. The tone ends up being that dungeons are perilous places, but luckily you are the ultimate badass. A personal favorite:

I do think it's interesting that while it's possible for companions to die - and Dragon Age would later give the option to kick them out the party - I haven't yet seen Bioware give a player option to just arbitrarily decide that a companion is a bad person and needs to be killed for the good of the land. Or even just…

Oath is a remake of Ys III, and it switches out the "Bump" system in Ys I+II for a more traditional Action RPG format. I'm a big fan of Oath, and I'm pretty sure that Origins is similar. (And is a remake of Ys V or something).

While we're sharing recent articles, this is a really good piece on Rust, a new game from the Garry's Mod people. Specifically, it addresses a recent kerfuffle from the designer's decision to procedurally generate players' appearance based on their SteamIDs, rather than giving them a choice (or just making everyone…

I'm thinking some combination of Hitman: Blood Money and Hatoful Boyfriend.

I'd encourage you to give Massive Chalice a go while it's free. It doesn't have that big-budget scope or polish, but there are some very interesting twists on the traditional TBS structure in there. It's been clear since early on that the team/budget is simply too small for it to be a modern classic (and some of the…

I'll add my voice to the choir of "Heavy Rain is pretty good." That's not to say that it's consistently good, but its highs are high enough to redeem the bulk of the lows, in my experience.

Yeah, I really wish that they had tied income solely to panic and satellites were simply recon tools, as they actually are used in real life and cinema military applications. There's still a lot of value to be mined there: expanding units' line of sight, providing map layout information prior to deployment,…

I was really shocked by how much I appreciated the DLC that lets you change the color of your units' armor. Color-coding everyone by class or build was incredibly helpful from a quality of life perspective. Can't imagine they appreciated me screwing up their camouflage, but that's what replacements are for!

I would love to see that, if you have it relatively handy.