I liked Nier: Automata because it asked me to delete my save file after I had finished the storyline, and I agreed it was the right thing to do. I’m the kind of person who keeps incomplete save files I haven’t touched since middle school. There’s always that chance, however slim, that I’ll come back to that…

The time of Akira is rapidly approaching, which means those highly-evolved children are already hidden in a basement in Neo-Tokyo, wherever that is.

In my opinion, Destiny 2 is a game best played with friends. I enjoyed the new story much more than I did any of the stories in the first game or its expansions, but I wouldn’t say the single-player experience is enough to carry the game. Even the online multiplayer can feel kind of hollow if you’re matchmaking with…

I totally agree that MGSV doesn’t respect the player’s time at all. It assumes you want to spend hours on the non-mission parts of the game, and does not offer any shortcuts for those who don’t. I suppose there’s an argument to make that a well-planned mission involves calling your air support in well before you…

This week I’ve been steadily powering up my Titan in Destiny 2, and goofing off in the Crucible with the likes of snazzlenuts, BarryBillericay, and Arturs. I’m happy to report that Bungie has maintained their usual level of quality in the online multiplayer space. The shooting is as snappy as ever. I’m realizing now…

Thank you Matt! This society continues to be the best place on the internet to read and chat about games, in no small part because of your personal efforts.

I think a great deal of what makes a world feel real, interesting, and inhabited is in the details that have no bearing on the player’s goal. This might seem counter-intuitive from an efficiency standpoint, because a game designer’s main goal is to craft a player experience. So why put things in that the player…

Ha! I switched Moira’s hands immediately for that very reason. It’s that whole “healing is her primary weapon so it has to be R2" rule that just doesn’t work with a controller. They pulled the same shenanigans with Doomfist. Fortunately her orbs are mapped to right and left properly, so I haven’t been trying to heal…

I also noticed that Moira can only damage heroes with her weapons. It seems kind of intentional to me, since her whole thing is about manipulating biotic energy. Of course, it’s not perfectly consistent because how could she damage Bastion and Zenyatta (or Genji?) if they don’t have any organic parts? You could…

Our next round of Pandemic: Legacy is November, so we’re on the home stretch! I won’t spoil anything, but we’ve opened all the boxes except the “Only Open This If You Lose Four Times In A Row” one. At this point, I don’t see that happening, but we’ll probably leave it sealed until we’ve finished December. So fun!

So did everybody see the footage of the new Overwatch hero?! I’m really interested to see how Moira fits into the larger structure of the game. Her short-range conical healing and tethered attack, plus the tethered nature of her orbs makes me feel like she’d perform best in tight spaces or with a really close…

I actually appreciated the very limited, often terrible, almost always heartbreaking choices they give you in Firewatch. I see it as a way to roleplay as a character in a game where you’re not allowed to roleplay as yourself. The characters in Firewatch are definitely dealing with complex issues, like depression and…

Enjoy Firewatch! Get ready for that game to take you to some unexpected places!

This week has been all Overwatch for me, what with the Halloween event ending and the start of a new competitive season. I got all the skins I wanted except for the 80's Zarya (next year!), and somehow did incredibly well in my season 7 placement matches. In fact, I must have improved in Season 6 because I placed…

So I know I wrote about this before, but there’s just so much you can make from the two endings to Inside. All the different gameplay clues and interactions with the malformed humanoid beings and mindless drones can point in a number of different directions. But the one my mind keeps coming back to is that the…

I always seem to screw up and get the Diplomacy win by accident. I can never turn down the friendship of the city-states!

Forza was probably my favorite game to mess around in, back when I still kept up with the series. Sure, I would dutifully complete the races and unlock better cars, carefully hitting my lines and avoiding the other cars. But as soon as I had a good crop of super cars in my garage, all bets were off.

This week has been a good mix of Overwatch and Portal 2 Co-Op for me. I believe my foray into Metal Gear Solid V is mostly stalled until the Halloween event in Overwatch ends.

I’m remembering that now. Destiny solved “generic ammo” being picked up automatically by just littering the floor with the stuff anytime you kill something, including other players in multiplayer. The only ammo that’s scarce is the special/heavy ammo, which can now only be obtained in crates in multiplayer, and you…

The Halo series, what ushered in the modern era of shooters, never required a button to pick up ammo for the guns you were holding, or grenades. You only pushed a button to drop the weapon you were holding in favor of a different one. I suppose the choice that makes sense is the one that matches the gameplay flow…