You do know they added an assist mode a while back right? It’s lets you do a ton of things and could be used in a pinch if a boss is really giving you grief. The atmosphere in Control is so much fun that I really encourage you to keep going, even if it’s a bit creepy!

Weird, I am not a very skilled gamer but Control did not really give me any issues (save for a section near the end of the original game). Can I make a suggestion? Focus on your levitation skill and use it liberally to keep a distance between you and the baddies. Gun-wise, focus on your standard pistol and treat it as…

Totally agree. There was a brief window when I got satisfaction from overcoming a hard boss or level (Super Meat Boy comes to mind, with its easy-to-restart-the-level design) but in most instances I’m not gaining anything by upping my twitch dexterity or by memorizing boss or level patterns, which is what so much…

Ditto. I’m not a fan of the difficulty-fetish that gaming has turned to ever since the Souls games. I’m not sure if it’s motivated by the revelation that difficulty/failure can be part of gameplay or the increasing prevalence of Let’s Play streamers, but it feels like a huge chunk of interesting IPs these days also…

Returnal is, without question, the most challenging game I’ve played in a long time. The enemies are relentless, and you’re quite fragile.

My thoughts exactly. Though I think going peacefully in your sleep is the ideal way to go, but 89 ain’t bad at all. Hopefully he didn’t suffer much.

That boombox gave me serious flashbacks to turntable.fm and its kind-of-weird, kind-of-awesome collaborative DJ experience and for a split second I thought there might’ve been a tie-in. Alas. Either way, these sets look fun--it must be a wild time to be a kid, especially one whose parents are happy to throw fuel on…

Welcome to the sunk cost fallacy, leading companies to waste endless resources pursuing legacy ideas and gamblers everywhere to lose their shirts.

I assume they do it so that when ex-players like me read these articles we feel good about our life choices

Obligatory plug for SNES Drunk and his review of Clock Tower on the SNES:

Oh this reminds me of the bygone era of text-based MMOs, where there was far less emphasis on complicated raiding and more opportunities to level yourself through non-combat skills. I miss those days. Sometimes you want to play a game to chop orcs down with swords and hurl fireballs and sometimes you want to play a…

I’ve seen a few clips from The Talos Principle, I may have to give it a go when I have some free time. Thanks for the recommendation!

Braid mostly did things right from what I remember (it’s been a minute and then some), though there were a few puzzles in the later stages that had pretty annoying timing mechanics, especially with your shadow.

Possible unpopular take: I hate time travel elements in puzzle games. They tend to be finnicky, require a ton of trial and error, and, in the face of harder puzzles, shift gameplay from cerebral puzzle to twitchy response-time based challenges.

Absolutely agreed. I’m also going to hijack this topic comment to ask: Why does it seem like Path of Exile has exploded in the last few weeks/months? I’m not sure I’d ever heard about it until then, but apparently it’s been in beta since 2013 (!) and even its major console releases were 2+ years ago.

I actually think it can work quite well as a way to break the expectation and catch someone’s attention. Purple tends to get used in this way I notice, though not always. I’m also not sure red makes sense as the end point in heat (and I also don’t recall seeing it much) since red is so often associated with…

Way back when I went with a friend to check one of these out—more for the curiosity and novelty than anything else. And boy was it strange. Lots of old men in the front row gawking at the strippers/dancers like they were practicing gynecologists, all followed up by a shocking amount of lining up to take photos with…

Part of the problem for me is that World Tier progress is lost when you die, which clashes with aggression-based gameplay. As such, because I’m trying to protect my World Tier progress I play more carefully which, paradoxically, can create worse situations and a greater chance of dying.

Fez is most definitely worth it. I’ll admit I rolled my eyes a little at that reveal since the game is so old now, but I forget how many people didn’t have a chance to play it. Really fun and inventive.

Huh, I was not expecting an Oxenfall II in the least, but I’ll happily play it. The first was a great narrative-driven game with non-stressful gameplay that made it perfect for a late night or early morning play.