Thanks for posting this! I wasn't interested in the movie, but this is actually the first positive thing I've read about it. It's good to hear alternative perspectives, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

I feel like the two utterly magical experiences I had in gaming this year were (1) an experience with The Witness very similar to yours, except I was at Mass when it happened - gotta confess my inattention, I suppose, haha - and (2) the awe and freedom I felt the first time I took off in a Skell on Xenoblade…

Good call on Green Man Gaming. I've tried to steer clear of those CD-key clearinghouse websites, if only because I've heard some reports that their stuff is obtained through questionable means and the content creators are basically getting shafted. Not sure how conclusive those stories are, though, so I'll look into…

It's super-tough, don't get me wrong, but it's a different kind of challenging than the puzzles in Zelda games (perhaps my favorite game series). I think you'll be fine with The Witness, as I too struggle with Zelda puzzles sometimes but enjoyed my struggle with this game.

No, I haven't solved those puzzles on top of the mountain. They're weirdly tough. I did complete one, but the remainder stumped me. I also can't complete that damned water-draining puzzle underneath the ruins either. Now you've got me curious about what's in the cave!

Oh no, that's a bummer. I figured it had run pretty much perfectly on PS4/XBONE. Maybe picking it up for my fancy-pants PC would be the way to go. I just want to vote with my dollar in favor of FROM support on Nintendo hardware if the performance/visuals aren't abysmal. Obviously not a pre-order, but what is?

I can't wait to play Dark Souls 3! My hype for it has slowly grown as the year has gone on, and if I get any SteamBucks for Christmas I'll likely pick it up. Otherwise, given the rumors about a Switch version of the trilogy, I'm hoping to hold out for that package. Dark Souls on the go? Sold!

Funny enough, I'm not sure it's a game that needs to be beaten to be thoroughly appreciated. I've gotten to a point where the handful of puzzles remaining to me are seemingly impossible for me to master, so I've moved on to other arts and entertainment. Strangely, this inability to progress doesn't dent my love for…

I'm with you 100% - it's the top of a very large pile of games I played this year. Suddenly realizing the solution to a puzzle a week later and going back to the game to confirm is probably my game experience of the year.

Oh man, brace yourself because The Witness is incredible. It's one of the most refreshing games I've played in years, and heads above Blow's previous effort, Braid. One critical piece of advice going in - do not play it for the story. Narrative is not what the game's going for, as far as I could tell, but the thematic…

I think the Game In Progress reviews are an excellent addition to the site, as is the Cross-Talk format. I'll echo Skeletons and note that cross-talk wouldn't be as ideal for a less customizable experience, but I suspect games with a strong element of choice and/or divergent narratives would benefit from this approach.

Oh my goodness, I hadn't even considered the issue of computer systems in cars but you're absolutely right! As for trying to maintain prototypes, I agree with you wholeheartedly - preserving the development of games is not incredibly significant, particularly when so much work remains to be done on preserving the…

This is pretty fun to find out! It's amazing how you can play clear through the whole darned series and miss out on details like this that would be fundamental to a more mythology-heavy universe.

Even as a person who wouldn't put it at the top of their personal Zelda list, I find it impossible to regard it as anything less than seminal in the medium. While every later 3D Zelda improved on it, they are also built upon its rock-solid foundation. One of the funny things about playing the 3DS remake last year was…

Heck yeah. Funny enough, my fancy PC is primarily used for Dolphin, though I use it for a handful of PC games as well. While N64 emulation is pretty crummy, the Zelda Collection on Gamecube includes both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, and an enterprising person online did up some lovely HD textures to keep it from…

With good cause. It scares us too.

I don't know, they come across as pretty oppressive in that Christmas Special…

To be fair, most of the demonstrations in the late 1960s also failed to make anything better. In the long term, the ideas held by that era reached out and slowly improved institutional problems, but virtually none of the widespread '60s protests could be considered successful. Civil rights represent a major, major…

Funny enough, this is actually germane to my career - I'm an archivist, and the "digital dark age" is something we're collectively dealing with as a profession. It's actually already started, as a fair amount of digital content from the 1980s to the early 2000s is effectively lost. Why this is considered acceptable…

I've heard it's very good too! Plus I'm going to jack the concept from one of its levels for one of my own after having seen it in a promo video, haha.