Yeah, sadly it sounds like that’s the case. Shame. I hope Pine ends up being a better variation on the theme.

The two things that I think of as distinct to arcades that doesn’t exist otherwise:

You should write a novel this way.  It was great and I thought the beginning really wrapped the whole thing up perfectly.

“... the last five or ten years of game development trends didn’t happen.”

I really appreciate reporting that doesn’t pretend the last five or ten years of game development trends. There’s a million places to stick the ‘turning point’ flag, but if the twin FO76/Anthem debacle wasn’t the nadir for industry BS masquerading as product, it’s going to suck to see what it will actually take to…

I played about a half hour last night with a friend, and it is just incredibly charming, bittersweet and immediately immersive.  I really like this one.

Still playing Fire Emblem (second playthrough), this week is Control, Knights and Bikes, Wilmot’s Warehouse, Astral Chain, Heave Ho, that remaster of Catherine and possibly Decay of Logos if new reviews are positive.

Didn’t have a system that could play Quantum Break, so I’m really looking forward to this.

Utterly brilliant book except for the female love interest who felt noticeably underwritten and shoehorned in because... all book must have love interest that goes nowhere because reality? Otherwise, it was magnificent. The song is not a pairing I would have imagined working together, but very good.

Well, months ago, the plan was to finish Fire Emblem fast and then finally knuckle down and dedicate however long it took in the autumn/winter to savoring RDR2.

Where are all these amazing games coming from, I thought this was going to be a quiet year?

I don’t understand exactly what you’re arguing here?

I hope the people who like these games enjoy it as much as you did, but I’ve barely got the time to play all the good games I want to give a go anymore, so I’ve pretty much written them off. Especially in an RPG - if the story’s not compelling, I’m not really sure why else I’m playing.

It certainly seems like they’ve found their niche making retro-feeling JRPG’s that are disappointing for the same reasons a lot of old JRPG’s were.

If you aren’t already familiar, you might like reading Jay Rayner’s restaurant reviews in the Guardian. He occasionally tries or mentions a dish that I’d never heard of - he recently savaged a bad take on a dessert that sounded intriguing in the right conditions - frozen berries lightly sauced with white chocolate.

Castle Crashers is set to hit the Switch in a little over a week, I think. Did you mean Pit People maybe?

I don’t care much about side-scrollers or juvenile humor and Freedom Finger was still one of the stand-out games at the last Pax East. The game has a fantastic soundtrack, great animations and really clever level design. Being able to pick up enemies and use them as your own weapons is just fun. It’s a great game.

If you’re enjoying it, keep with it. Days Gone inexplicably buries a lot of its best features past the 15-20 hour mark.

I’m pretty sure EA has companies dig their own graves as a part of the onboarding.

But it’s enough, right?  The gameplay is a bit wonky or there’s something unpolished or there’s a tower defense game in the middle of the single-player roadie adventure... but it’s so damn charming, and unique, and clever in little ways that elevate the experience just enough.