I feel kind of conflicted about this. On the one hand, I think there is a point to be made that unifying Nintendo's software development for a single console would result in more games for people who invested in a Switch; this could solve one of their alleged issues - the comparatively limited software catalog that…

Good point! I always think of them as indie because they're kind of auteur-driven, but that's like thinking of Kojima as an indie creator while at Konami, or Miyazaki at From. These directors and their teams are certainly driven to create unique content that falls outside and sometimes influences the established…

If you're looking for a recommendation, I'd strongly endorse Shadowrun: Hong Kong. It's the most effective noir game that I've played, and it pulls liberally from that East/West neon fusion that Blade Runner established so perfectly. Shockingly, the storytelling and gameplay are both excellent as well (as long as you…

Heck, Game of Thrones alone is pretty much an open-and-shut case for the use of CG in world-building/scene-setting. I saw a compelling side-by-side photo gallery once depicting on-location shoots and the way they had been manipulated by the CG department, and it was eye-opening. The final results don't look fake,…

Me too. Growing up, I generally knew from looking at a character's design that the less complex the avatar, the more tightly it would behave. Not true in all instances, but a good rule of thumb.

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I've heard pretty much universally negative reception, but it sounds boldly designed - both visually and mechanically - and dissenting views like this are helpful in getting people to plunk down their cash when they're in the market for an experimental new experience. I'll…

Hey, if it's good enough for the president…

I'm quite fond of this design ethic, actually. It's being really iterated upon well in the "indie" sphere at the moment, where games like The Last Guardian, The Witness and Snake Pass take a core concept and expand meaningfully upon it without moving on to an alternative mechanic (OK, Sumo Digital is not really indie,…

It's disappointing how badly Rain World turned out, for how utterly beautiful its pixel graphics are. Glad to see the Hyper Light Drifter mention too, as that's a game that I loved the look of but couldn't engage with beyond a surface level.

I think there is a demand for this type of experience - it could really shine in VR - and I'm glad to see that developers seem to be getting better at it. I thought FMV games were awful back in the '90s, and I'm not fond of the new ones, but that's just a matter of personal preference. It's cool that the idea hasn't…

Eh… as a person who may be slightly younger than you, but who grew up with the theoretically more innovative world of 1990s gaming, I would disagree. The modern indie scene is so large, and so easily accessible on virtually any platform, that it offers a host of interesting experiences, from the riffing on classic…

I've had Snake Pass since Easter, and it's 100% worth the time/money investment, both of which are quite small. I think it's $20 on the eShop, and it's worth every penny. It's a puzzle-platformer where your character cannot jump or even move forward in a straight line with any significant momentum, so it really asks…

Funny enough, I've moved almost entirely into the realm of indie titles and Nintendo releases, with a few significant exceptions, so I suppose I'm not one to convince you out of your decision. I do keep thinking that I'd like to pick up a PS4 someday for a handful of ambitious exclusives - Horizon, The Last Guardian,…

Don't know if you play video games, but did you hear that Ryan North is the primary writer for the upcoming game Flipping Death? I was mildly intrigued before that, as it has a compelling art style, but was sold by that discovery.

Woohoo on sobriety. Woohoo on Mulholland Drive. Have you ever seen that before? It's pretty great, especially the diner bit and the scene in a theatre.

Aaaaand I just bought it. If there's anyone I trust, it's @LittleMac!

Hm… glad to hear your take on Human Resource Machine. It's one of a handful of Switch wishlist games (for a system that debuted "with no games besides Zelda," I sure have a long wishlist!), and I was wondering what people thought of it. I loved World of Goo, and have yet to feel interested in Little Inferno, but the…

Oh yeah, also - with regard to Hyrule being on Earth: in the recent Game Informer interview to promote Breath of the Wild, Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma said that Hyrule was set on Earth. To be fair, it was played for laughs, and in the midst of an otherwise humor-heavy interview, so take it with a grain of salt :)

The Lost Temple is one of the game's cooler locations, particularly given how under-emphasized it is. There is a later call-back to it, depending upon what in-game accomplishments you complete, and I was happy to see that the developers brought a little bit of extra significance to the place.

It is genuinely one of the masterpieces in game design. The fact that a player can encounter so much of a complex, interconnected series of systems organically is mind-boggling. It's as though the team took the ethos of Mario 1-1 and applied it out to one of the largest virtual spaces that the medium has produced.…