Whoa, as a former medievalist (focused on the Byzantine Empire, and necessarily the Crusader States) that sounds super interesting!

Hooray!

Between the eShop and a more robust production run, everything but the original Wii version should be available now.

We should exchange friend codes! Mine is 0276-1588-9867. On a related note, do you know how to actually battle/trade with your 3DS friends? I haven't pulled it off yet, though that may simply be because they're not online at the same time as me.

Have you played Xenoblade Chronicles X? I found that to be pretty appealing as an in-depth but not overly complex RPG on the Wii U. Failing that, the original Xenoblade is great too - you can find that on the Wii, the New 3DS, or the Wii U (via the eShop). I find a pretty fine line divides games in which I'm invested…

That's good to hear. I've often wanted to try out the South Park game, since the mechanics (and mention of Paper Mario/FF Tactics) sound super appealing, but I don't enjoy the visual style or writing of the Park/Stone crew. At this point I'm content to avoid it, but I'm glad that style of game is still being made.

I don't think it would be a good or bad thing, just a development of your interest in different art. As long as some new hobby or passion takes its place, of course. It would be a drag to lose interest in something you enjoyed without gaining anything new in the process.

This seems like something of an over-correction to that recent era of games (let's say 2005-2011) in which everything was explained to death. It's nice to find a game that lands squarely in the middle, isn't it?

I disliked Team Skull right up until the third island, when I realized that they've finally grown on me. It's nice to have a handful of competing interest groups with distinct ideologies and personalities, and Team Skull is usually good for a mild laugh at their ineffectual attempts to commit crime.

The heavier plot elements are such a double-edged sword in Pokemon Sun & Moon. Sometimes I enjoy them (and they definitely pick up steam as the game rolls along - I'm on the third island right now), but other times I just want to wander around and catch some darned Pokemon. Never would have suspected the Pokemon…

Dark Moon is so great! I sometimes wonder if I should go back and play the original game, as I missed it back on the Gamecube, or if it will feel kind of hollow after having loved its successor.

Enjoy Final Fantasy XV. I wasn't caught up in any of the hype on it, as I don't actually own an XBONE or PS4, but caught the Gamexplain coverage yesterday and thought it looked pretty great; I suspect it hits a lot of the same beats as Xenoblade Chronicles X, which I loved, though I'm not crazy about the all-male main…

That's intriguing. I'll have to look into it, as I enjoyed the trilogy but wasn't at all interested in a continuation (and have consequently avoided any information about it). A buddy in the Air Force is pretty pumped about it, though, and finding out more about this might give me some fodder for conversation the next…

Of the Mass Effect 2 DLC, most is nonsense, but a few stand out: "Kasumi - Stolen Memory" was good for featuring a very different setting than the main game, as you infiltrate a party, and "Lair of the Shadow Broker" had a great main plot that was nonetheless self-contained (a very cool, unique enemy is featured at…

Games Thread

This is strikingly similar to a list I'd make, though I'd likely push Sunshine to the bottom, just above the original Mario Land, and shift 1 above 2. Wait, the Galaxy games aren't here! Galaxy 2 would appear just above 64, and Galaxy 1 would appear just below SMB3.

The upside of this is that most of the games hold up extraordinarily well, so you've basically got a built in back catalog of excellent content to play for years ahead. I've been playing through Zelda games that I missed over the years (having only played Link's Awakening and Ocarina of Time as a youth), and virtually…

The Wii U is like "fun" distilled into a single console experience. Love it.

I turn the 3D on every once in a while (I've recently been playing Super Mario 3D Land, where it's put to excellent effect), but it's more a bonus than anything else. Like you, I get eye strain/motion sickness pretty rapidly even with the much-enhanced stable 3D. I'm always surprised to hear about folks for whom 3D is…

So I have kind of a silly question about your website, as a fan. I like to visit it, but I found some time within the past 6 months to a year that it takes forever to load (presumably due to the image quality). Intriguingly, it loads much faster on my phone, presumably due to the phone automatically compressing data…