That's one of the primary things that gets me cooking.

Is Moonlight not one of the nominated films? I thought that one was pretty much a shoe-in, from all I'd heard.

Don't regret it. Stellaris is probably my biggest disappointment of 2016, aside from Hyper Light Drifter. Unlike HLD, though, which disappointed largely because my expectations were too high, Stellaris was disappointing even coming at it from a "this might be good angle." As a veteran of Paradox strategy games, I feel…

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about fire! I felled one of those monsters the first time it appeared on the wall, but figured I'd be unable to do so with a barely visible sliver of health remaining. I thought I'd find the transforming enemies to be irritating (and maybe I still will at some point), but they are so far a…

Cool! I'm actually planning to jump back into No Man's Sky in the new year. I played it for fifteen hours or so, then moved on to other things, but thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game back in August.

I'll grant that Paper Mario's combat is the least appealing aspect of the game, but I still found it quite entertaining over time. Much of that comes down tot he interface itself, as I never grew tired of coloring in cards and flicking them at the top of the screen. It's like a weird mobile game buried in a…

Games Thread

Heck yeah! Have a Rainbow Magical Imaginary Chip on us!

Greetings from December 27th. We made it through somehow!

What's intriguing to me is that my approach to this varies pretty radically from game to game. XCOM, Dark Souls or Donkey Kong is appreciated for intense mastery, while something like Persona can be utterly infuriating when I come up against an enemy that I'm expected to grind for x hours to beat.

It's so pointless not to have the option. I prefer playing with the permadeath setting, but why cut out a significant portion of the audience to satisfy, I don't know, some hypothetical player who wants to take his or her completion of the game as a point of personal pride? Oy. I think one of Nintendo's best…

That's quite interesting! Thanks for sharing. My first reference when chatting with my wife about this was, hilariously, those old Gameboy Color Game and Watch Gallery remakes, where you could switch between alternative versions of the game (but only from the main menu, if memory serves).

Ugh, that's a drag about the difficult gathering situation. Hopefully you can extricate yourself with your little immediate clan if things get too bad. I forget if you and your wife have any kids, but I'd imagine that would make the situation all the trickier. Good luck, buddy, and know that whatever the strife, it'll…

I have a love/hate relationship with JRPGs, and Dragon Quest in particular, but for the innovation or concept alone, DQXI is fascinating. I'm sure there are other examples of a game being rendered in two radically different perspectives/art styles simultaneously, but I can't think of any.

Woohoo, just finished The Witness. Definitely in my Top Ten Games list since I started playing 'em 25 years ago.

I've definitely had times, particularly in the wild world of emulation, where I've been more excited to tweak the settings just right than play the game itself. It's a special kind of absurdity, isn't it?

I bought it on a whim a while back and was saddened to discover it doesn't have gamepad controls. Not going to be playable on my TV, I suppose.

If you're looking to jump back into games, I'd heartily recommend a 3DS. You basically get ten years worth of portable games, and unlike a lot of the major ambitious releases for console or PC, they run without any major glitching or tweaks. I'd also suggest relying on the community here - it's a bastion of good taste!

I say this every time it comes up, but I hope you enjoy Minish Cap - I think it's my favorite of the 2D Zeldas, and it doesn't get enough love.

Congrats Nate - you really are great!