I made the mistake of attempting to play Morrowind after Oblivion and I just.... couldn't. It may be making things too simple, but things like objective markers greatly improved my experience in Oblivion and going backwards just didn't work for me personally.

One restriction that a lot of people seem to hate is Bioshock Infinite's limited arsenal you can carry into battle. Since I'm bringing it up, I'll admit I'm a fan. Not only is it more realistic to only have 2 weapons to choose from at any given time (I realize how silly it is to talk about realism in a game about quantum mechanics) but it allows you to get more intimate with those weapons instead of constant swapping. You learn to love certain combos (Bucking Bronco + Shotgun) and overall just helps the pace. I wouldn't recommend this for every game though... For instance, DOOM with this idea would feel absolutely neutered.

So does that mean Campo Santo won't be able to make a third game? Valve does seem to have an aversion to 3s.

@hanabi In a game about going fast, there's no room for fishing and a weird romance between a frog and a cat.

Why is he wearing a belt if he doesn't have pants?

Bad.

Reference material :

@tokeeffe9 A Weekend in the City and Intimacy are probably my favorites. Four was decent, but woof... that last release was really rough. I'd kill for a return to form from them.

Whew, I meant to post more remixes I dig last week, but I pinched a nerve in my hip and had a fun week of not being able to walk. Don't get old, that's the lesson I'm learning.

There's an entire album of Intimacy remixes and it is absolutely fantastic, but if I had to pick one song in particular, I'd go for this one. The chorus here is ridiculously infectious, improving on the original in a lot of ways. There's already a lot of energy in the original but I find a lot of the effects added here really place some interesting layers on what was initially presented.

The original can be found here.

I'm slowly working my way through the stream via YouTube and wow... just incredible. For some reason, the rhetoric in the community after the 2 year anniversary was that things were stagnating, that we're not getting enough new content, and the usual "more scripted, less podcasts" comment. Numbers were starting to slip a bit and even I'll admit, I had small pangs of worry. That's why it's even more jolly to see the results of this stream, the Patreon numbers rising, and even cool collabs like the Cory Barlog Spoiler Mode coming to fruition. You can tell how much the support meant to all the fellas and I'm a major fan of most of the changes. More early access content, finally removing the awful group stream committee vote, etc.

It serves as a needed reminder as to what makes the Allies so special. I could see a lot of creators continuing to let things decline or finding excuses for why things don't work but even after a small dip, they took immediate action and came up with a plan. It's also great to see our community hasn't lost faith and will continue to help in any way that we can. I honestly cannot wait to see this E3 coverage.

To get even more hyped for the upcoming Avengers movie...

Marvel Strike Force

Even mildly aware of the Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes game? This is that... but with Marvel. It is bonkers to me how nearly every mechanic is absolutely similar, although Disney owns both properties so maybe it's not that unusual. I prefer Marvel to Star Wars though, so I'm sure I'll be grinding away for awhile.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

So I've been on a bit of a "visual novel" kick lately, what with finishing the entire Danganronpa series not too long ago. I figured it was time to dive into the other beloved series in the genre, the Zero Escape games.

If Danganronpa is about emotions, bonds between those stuck in the killing game, and constant paranoia, then Zero Escape (at least the first) is about scientific theory, conspiracy, and a lottttt of math. Potentially a wee bit too much math. While the Ronpa focuses on murdering people in some really unique ways, Zero Escape seems content with going into detail about real life experiments and unexplained phenomenon. Things like morphogenetic resonance and the Ganzfeld experiment were things I knew nothing about going into this game but I find them extremely fascinating - which apparently the writer of this game did too.

The characters in this one are real well thought out and don't fit into cliche one-dimension stereotypes. It's nice not to have a character that always talks about food or one that always make jokes - they feel much more fleshed out and nearly all of them go through a wide range of emotions throughout the story, making me like every single character. Most puzzles aren't too difficult either - they supply you with enough information in the environment to figure out what you need to do, plus the characters themselves will give you hints to lead you in the right direction. It's only when you find yourself going for the true ending of the game does the game bop you over the head with a lot of math puzzles that aren't super fun.

Speaking of, I loved the choice given to the player and how you can obtain different endings, most of them not being desirable outcomes. They provide you with a flowchart so you can easily move back to various decisions without having to replay everything and you can easily skip over repeated dialogue. Strangely, it's only while pursuing the "true" ending of the game that I started finding things I dislike. Firstly, without the use of a spoiler-free chart online, I don't think I would have ever figured out the correct path to get that ending and the pace of the story just drags. You have to end up replaying most of the more annoying puzzles and for a game that was well thought out, the ending just feels.... nonsensical in a lot of ways. Games having bad endings is pretty standard but it's surprising to me how quickly this one fizzles out.

Either way, there was enough good in the game to keep me interested and ready to immediately jump into Virtue's Last Reward!

Destiny 2 ya'll!

I do think he's got an interesting (albeit unproven) theory that Bungie holds back on all the important updates until right before an expansion, to rebuild faith in the game and get more sales. I personally got burnt out by the first Destiny and after sinking about 80 hours in, felt I had really wasted my time with the game and never plan on stepping back in.