On a studio-by-studio basis, I don't doubt that a lot of the development staff are journeymen, especially as the projects go up in size, but I definitely think you're underselling the role of developers in the industry. You might no longer need a Carmack to make Doom, but every game running on the Unreal Engine, or…

Heck yeah, they're all great.

After reading two volumes of Y: The Last Man last weekend, I ended up reading the next eight volumes over two days. That was enough for me to forget whatever complaints I originally had before; it could be that the characters were much more interesting once the Amazons were no longer the primary antagonists, but I was…

Well, Wikipedia tells me he named the exact actors that played Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard, so I'd put the odds in favor of yolks and jokes.

Me and my friends used to play our "best" characters all the time, possibly for years, but eventually, there was too much trash talking, name calling, and hurt feelings… and I'm sure they were tired of my behavior, too. Now we mostly go for offbeat and/or random setups. Four Ikes? The more the merrier! Bob-ombs and…

I assume you'd recommend NaissanceE? From the trailers, I'd compare it to Antichamber and Kairo (which I loved/liked, respectively), but I'm always up to explore some more alien structures.

Oh, damn, I'd forgotten about Four Swords Adventures. It's an okay single-player game, if you're into that, but with three or four people, whoo!

I'd actually prefer it if Lucas came back over Ness. He's my main in Brawl! I'd be a little surprised if they didn't bring back Ness, though, since he's been there since the N64.

I dunno about games for couples, but I've often found cooperative board games less stressful/more compelling than competitive board games, even difficult ones like Pandemic and Flashpoint. Cooperative video games, on the other hand, are fun, but often just as stressful, especially when they're dependent on skill. I…

Thanks for the details. I meant they're similar in the sense that you're expected to "progress" in one cycle before going back to the beginning with some additional equipment or abilities, but I was trying to be brief.

"No tea, no shade"? First time I've seen that one.

What do you think the Berlin Wall was made of? Wake up, sheeple!

It could be me, but I felt that a few characters (mostly secondary characters) came across two-dimensionally in the first volume. I also thought that Yorick was a little too pop-culture-y, if that makes sense, although it feels hypocritical to complain about that on The A.V. Club. Both get better in the second volume,…

How dare you! I'm a geek, not a hippie.

Was Hal Jordan always a dick, or is that a new thing?

There's no point but what we make for ourselves.

I watched RoboCop this weekend. I'm not sure if I've actually seen it in full, before; I think it's aged fairly well, all things considered. The only other Paul Verhoeven films I'm familiar with are Starship Troopers and Total Recall, and it seems to fit right in.

I'm under the impression that English in Japan is relatively popular for its otherness, but is often less than fluent. It seems to be the cross-cultural equivalent of people in English-speaking countries getting Asian-language tattoos.

I don't think the card system is complex, but in my few games, it feels much more limiting than I'd like it to be. The basics are simple enough (spend a card to get X; spend a card and a mana to get Y) but actually moving takes too many points, and burning cards to get a single point of something is extremely…

If it's a deck-builder, it's not a very good one. I would only say it borrows the elements of a deck-builder, but I'm not a big fan of the game either way. I've never tried the game solo; thinking about it, I might like that better than the three- and four-player games I've had, but it wouldn't be my first choice for…