Salutations~!

Amen, that’s a great rundown of one of the ways Prey respects player choice, even when it means you get to fuck with its structure.

Great article on the GLOO gun. Loved reading the various ways people “break” the game as the whole “approach it any way you want” is such a big part of the appeal for immersive sims like that. I was introduced to them via Dishonored but didn’t learn the term or genre as a whole until I watched a video on it. (I should…

Well, there’s a vast contingent of my wife’s family (parents, brother, various Canadian aunts/uncles/cousins) descending on our new house this weekend to check it out for the first time since we bought it in August, so I probably won’t get a lot of video game time in. But for next week, it’s probably:

Salutations~!

It’s interesting that you mention the tonal change in Prey, because I agree that there’s one, but for me it came when I had visited every segment of the ship, because at that point I felt like I had achieved mastery over the space I had hitherto been exploring. That being said, seeing the entire ship and meeting…

In Hatoful, after you get every ending, play through one more time from the beginning. In my mind, it was very very very worth it. That’s all I’ll say.

For Undertale, I think that early “antagonism” that you describe is the game gently guiding you from the outset into the idea that you should be questioning what it…

Salutations~!

Some people seem to really, really hate having to backtrack, ever, for any reason. For such a person, the careful and deliberate exploration you describe would be miserable.

I am also among the few who found the diligence that dungeon requires to be a feature and not a bug. If memory serves, there were only two complaints I had about navigating the Water Temple, and both of them are solvable using the tools the designers give you, as long as you’re willing to use those tools. The first is…

Great article! I had thought about the verticality of the water temple but had never considered the multiple other examples you cite, especially something as plain as the Fields of Hyrule. Their emphasis on verticality was such a good way to utilize what a 3-D world affords you as a developer - after all, why would I…

I did read that Castlevania article, but the comments quickly went very, very “Kinja,” so I avoided them. I’m also not a big Castlevania guy, but I did enjoy Chris Sims’ article ranking every game from best to worst here:  https://www.svg.com/127892/every-castlevania-game-ranked-worst-to-best/

I was planning on playing Dungeons & Dragons for the first time in literally years. I had rolled up my character, written the backstory and everything. Everything was ready for us to have a session at the local comic book store on Monday night. God, however, had other plans. Instead, the city was suddenly under…

Man I didn’t even peep the comments on the Castlevania article that day cuz I was in a rush and mostly skimmed the article.  Didn’t even occur to me people would get that upset for calling Symphony weird.  The Internet I tell ya!

Salutations~!

Yeah, my SO’s family is from there and while her parental house is fine, her friend’s house is destroyed. Her mom is now making 60 onigiri for the neighbourhood every day. The community spirit is strong which can be a godsend in tough times like these. (shout out to the old dude for lending me soap in the sento too)

Bad week for different parts of the country. Glad you’re well and it at least sounds like services are starting to be restored on Hokkaido, but I’m sure the remote places will be far more difficult to get back to normal...crazy that Nintendo’s Direct delay announcement was the first I heard of that earthquake...

I’m really glad you’re OK over there. I hope you’re able to find a great single player game with which to connect and recuperate. Have a wonderful time with Pyre. Still haven’t gotten to it myself, but it’s in my queue. 

I had no idea about John Cygan. That’s so sad. He really is fantastic as both Solidus Snake and Canderous Ordo. Best of fortune to you with the remainder of MGS2!

“Hi Jack. I know you’re on a dangerous infiltration mission in which American democracy and maybe reality itself are being exposed as a sham, but if you don’t mind I’d like to stop you for a minute while I ask some Voight-Kampff questions about where our relationship is going.”