Imagine my (and my Japanese friends') surprise when posters advertising the release of their album here started appearing. Non-classical Asian artists getting a marketing push is a once-in-a-decade thing, and this is what they decided on?

Oh, calling them immersion and engagement seems useful. I'd always used the former to mean the latter as well, but I figured even by my standards using a word contrary to how you'd expect because I personally find the concept normally associated with it so very worthless is maybe a taaaad snooty.

Twilight over Thanalan for life, man. ARR newbies don't even know what they missed.

The crazy thing is how great an instrumental it already is on it's own. I think it was Paul Nice who (barely) chopped it up for the "rematch" between Lord Finesse and Percee P, and while that's obviously due to the fact that it was the musical backdrop of their original 1989 battle, it also just makes sense. There's…

So, to make this more constructive: What's everyone's favorite original drum break in hiphop?
I'm gonna have to go with Super Hoe. I particularly love how it's used by Natural Elements on 2 Tons and Mr. Voodoo went nuts over it.

There's obviously a lot lost. Take Me to the Mardi Gras is probably more distinctive than common and Get Out of My Life, Woman is apparently used surprisingly sparingly, but School Boy Crush absolutely belongs on this list though. Nothing quite screams good ol' DITC like those jingle bells, man.

If by "enjoying" you mean "getting scared witless by", sure. It's the single most terrifying movie from my childhood, and I loved, say, Gremlins and had zero problems with that.

It still is the standard for plain text internet communication, isn't it?
Like, when you look at a raw email without the fancy Outlook/Gmail rendering, it'll still show the ">"s in front of quoted lines, right?

It's an odd issue. The main reason things are the way they are is a lack of assertiveness on part of European writers, I think (RetroGamer does good work, but doesn't seem to have a lot of ambition to speak to people who hadn't been there in the first place). That really just leaves American writers, who are more…

I hadn't seen it, but when I found out it exists I immediatedly elevated it above the newer one, because, come on, Richard Attenborough as a knife-happy thug?

Whoa, above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks, that's perfect!

"Weekend" won't do. Right before my new job on Monday there's been a two week long outdoor film festival here of which I could catch the second half. It was pretty good! Well, all of the short movies that were shown sucked, but okay.

See, I specifically singled out Space Quest V when I talked about the series here, too! You get me.

So that exists too. I recently saw some screens from the Japanese Mega CD version of The Secret of Monkey Island and it all looked so wrong without the official LucasArts font. Speaking of which, I have to say I even prefer its made-with-the-limitations-in-mind look to KQ5's admittedly pretty backgrounds that were…

Goddamn it. Like I said above, I'm still going through King's Quest. I have Gabriel Knight lined up next and I'm expecting a lot because of its pedigree, but The Colonel's Bequest is the one I actually want to play because it personally looks the most appealing to me. I upvoted like 4 different GOG requests to add it…

I'm still making my way through Sierra's catalogue and while I enjoy it more than you are (I think most Space Quests are genuinely good and King's Quest III for example deserves a bit more praise for its unorthodox design), I'm really stuck at King's Quest V right now because wow, it's so little fun.

As some might remember I have my own yearly summer tradition, and I'm happy to report I got my Boku no Natsuyasumi in the mail this morning, just in time for the first of August. This year I'm completing my set with the PSP version of the very first one. Fishing and bug hunting and insect sumo and all that good stuff,…

Do I even have to mention Boku no Natsuyasumi again at this point? Apart from the setting being an obvious fit narratively, visually and aurally, there's also no time pressure, meaning you'll always find time to go to the fridge.

Does the Japanese version actually have variations now? I remember it being nothing but "Tekishou uchitottari" no matter the character or situation the last time I played a Musou game. Which, to be fair, seems to have worked quite well in Koei's favor, considering it's so ubiquituous that it's become the go-to example…

SHRIEEEEEK. I was gonna mention that Ori's the only 2015 release I've played so far and how that means I have no favorite game of 2015. I do agree that the music's nice!