I know I'm mega late on this, but I agree with you very much on this - I don't actually like achievements for the little secrets like this. It's part of why Proteus is so freeing - if you got an achievement the first time you "beat" the game or saw an aurora, it would ruin everything.
You'd end up finding these things…

How are you watching TV and playing a videogame at the same time?!? I struggle to listen to podcasts at the same time for all but the least attention-grabbing games.

More Monster Hunter Generations for me! I'm starting to try out new weapons other than the Longsword, starting with Aerial Style Insect Glaive. This seems to be just as fun/frustrating and possibly OP as the last game, but with Aerial, the cool forward launch is proving really great. Unfortunately, still being in low…

It also seems to break scrolling on the site after I close it

Well, possibly - looks like you can unlock high rank quests by going through high rank? But currently, I have just unlocked a more final-boss-y monster: the final boss of the last game. I think that's basically cheating.
Also, both the "final bosses" were new Elder Dragons in 3U and 4U. This guy is just a normal…

The Deus Ex discussion is quite interesting. I feel like neither "side" of the discussion will ever, be convinced by the other's arguments, though.

Ah, Final Fantasy V (GBA). Was super excited to play it when I bought it from Ebay a while back. But sadly, I think the save battery is dead or something, and I'm unlikely to want to play through without saving. Maybe I should just emulate it or something.

Well big(ish) news for me! A friend of mine just got Monster Hunter Generations, and another friend is getting it soon! Prompted by his mention of the game, I started playing again, and I'm really enjoying myself, since I finished all the terrible gathering quests before they finally broke me and made me stop playing.…

Naturally several people mentioned Rufus T Firefly already.

Dr. Lucien Sanchez is pretty good as well!

Oh Peter Serafinowitz is in this? Neat, maybe I'll look up the scenes (or even play the game myself?!?).

I think possibly as mainstream games put more of a focus on story, this kind of issue becomes much more noticeable in games lots of people play. Third act problems are common across all types of media, and with games getting more expansive stories, that's just more opportunities for the story to screw up.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. I mean, yes I like anime, but I get annoyed by: shouting, "fanservice", immature jokes. I'm not a big fan of Mecha shows. But I really loved the show, despite it being all those things to the extreme. It's just so… I don't know, positive.

Ideas keep building up for my projects (new developments for existing ideas, not totally separate ideas thankfully). I feel like I could make fairly solid plans for quite a few of them. But I keep procrastinating on the actual skills needed to make the magic happen.

Finally a person I actually know has Monster Hunter Generations! So naturally we have been doing some multiplayer. Also, another friend gets the game soon, it's gonna be an actual hunting party!
Anyway, prompted by this, I actually started playing again, and with all the terrible gathering quests out of the way from…

Are pinball machines not a "thing" here in the UK, or do I just not know where the cool, pinball-having places are?

Perhaps that - but from the article it sounds like investigating provenance is not done very often, and it sounds quite difficult - I'm not sure that for example, an academic investigating the provenance would have got as far as the journalist. As they said in the article, the starting points were all (conveniently)…

Wow, what an interesting article.
'The American Association of Museums’ Guide to Provenance Research warns that an investigation of an object’s origins “is not unlike detective work”'. I wouldn't necessarily call that a warning. When I first read that sentence I went "Oh that sounds really cool". And indeed the article…

I would play that game! I'd also read the quirky sci-fi the game was based on - that's what the title sounds most like to me.

If by "skip the tutorial quest" you mean "tell Atlas to bugger off", then you can still get a pass. I went into my first anomaly, and was given the recipe for it. I think you are asked about what choice you want to make, and I said I'd explore the universe on my own. I don't know if that helps. (I'm also at 50%…