I’ve been enjoying Pacific Drive this week. It’s a great survival crafting game in the vein of Subnautica, which is to say there is a linear progression path for upgrades and improvement, and a well-defined objective and end goal.

I just wish it was less stressful. Even just the normal act of activating a gateway to end a run requires a race through your current zone where one misstep can cause you to get stuck long enough to fail. And sometimes conditions just really stack up against you in a way that can be unexpected and frustrating.

Overall though it really hits the spot with its loop. I love returning to the garage and going through the ritual of healing, fueling up, recharging, transferring supplies, and checking on upgrades.

Oh…I also finished and platinumed 13 sentinels earlier this week. I enjoyed that one a lot more than I expected. It’s as compelling as it is eye-rollingly funny how many sci-fi tropes the main story burns through, but I i was frequently and pleasantly taken by surprise. And the battle system, which through the first area I thought was so easy it was basically a formality, really did become more challenging and tactical, especially when trying to get S ranks.

This is Snail again 😄

I’ve never played one except a PSP game way back that I dont think I understood at the time. I can’t even remember why I had it tbh. But I’ve been eyeing the series for the past few years. They look fun, but I’m not typically a Capcom fan and I’m pretty sure it’s not for me. Glad to be able to finally give one a proper try.

Eh…seems sweet but contrived.

In searching for the video, (already provided in this thread) I amazingly found that this appears to be the same school where a selection of boys from the class of 2018 posed for a gleeful photo of them throwing up the nazi salute.

I kind of love Control’s navigation. The map is helpful enough to point you in the right direction, but also shitty enough that you have to pay attention to the diagetic signage. It’s uniquely immersive.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. I am about 25% through with both Remembrance and the battles… Destruction? I’m in awe of the narrative’s complexity. It’s also a little overwhelming, it feels impossible to get any kind of handle on things. The game adds new layers every time you think you’re getting it.

Im really enjoying it though, the mystery is really fun to dig at.

I also beat Malenia this week, which is pretty much the last major thing I had left in my first Elden Ring save. I got help of course (thanks superelva11), but it’s been really satisfying tying a bow on that. 140 hours, plus another 30-35 on a second save - Elden Ring is officially the most time I’ve ever spent on a single game by quite a large margin.

Good luck my friend. Hollow Knight is a special one, but those bosses can be punishing. A few of them took me separate sessions over a few days, which is a frustrating way to play games for me, but it’s such a rewarding experience otherwise. I recently rewatched my recording of beating one of the bosses and I was fumbling so bad, I could see my own desperation in the way I was playing.

Apparently there’s a secret phase for the final boss that I was more than happy to experience via YouTube. I was perfectly satisfied with just rolling the credits.

You can’t be too broke to break As a woman always something left to take So you shouldn’t try to stay too late or talk to strangers Look too long, go too far out of range cause Angels can’t watch everybody all the time Stay close, hems low, safe inside That formula works if you can live it But it works by putting half the world off limits

• Dessa, Fire Drills

It’s been a few years since I watched it and none of this made sense to me. Just read the Wikipedia summary for a refresher and it’s one of the most incomprehensible summaries I’ve ever read. All I can say is that I remember taking the movie at its word more or less. Interesting idea though.

The desperation is palpable.

I’ve actually wondered that same thing myself…

Well deserved. My kids fucking love Astro’s Playroom.

13 legal actions total regarding:

• Prohibiting trans youth care: 6
• Vaccine skepticism: 2
• Limiting immigration services (including for victims of torture): 2
• Censoring content: 2, both of which to my layman understanding would be blatant violations of the first amendment rights of Yelp and Media Matters if brought to suit. The Yelp investigation in particular is mind-boggling.

For a brief second I thought the last might have actual merit:

On March 28, the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division contacted Spirit AeroSystems, a Boeing parts supplier, seeking documents and communications related to airplane product defects.

But of course:

The attorney general’s investigative letter also demanded records “that Spirit relies on to substantiate its claim that a diverse workplace improves product quality,” enhances performance and spurs the company to make better decisions. In a news release, Paxton’s office said his office was investigating “whether those commitments are unlawful or are compromising the company’s manufacturing processes.”

You can see by how many of these organizations immediately acquiesced to the state’s “concerns” how transparently Paxton is using state power vexatiously to just…bully compliance with his political ideology. Paxton is a D-grade villain.

If I thought she had a conscience I’d believe this was meant to be a punishment.

Cat Quest sounds neat, but overall…yikes.

Third game on the list isn’t even actually a game…

**Requires The Sims 4 to play. The Sims 4 is sold separately.

Thank you! I don’t know wth happened but that line was the whole reason I took that quote and apparently failed to get her response into my clipboard.

Decided to check in on things. She got a chuckle out of me from some of the quotes attributed.

Necheles asked her about the number of porn films she’s written and directed, and said, “You have a lot of experience making phony stories about sex.”

“Wow. That’s not how I would put it," Daniels replied. "The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room” with Trump. She added, "If that story was untrue, I would’ve written it to be a lot better.”

Asked if she’d promised people she’d be instrumental in putting Trump in jail, Daniels said, “No.” Necheles then asked her about a social media post where someone had called her a human toilet, and Daniels responded, “Exactly! Making me the best person to flush the orange turd down.” Necheles asked if that meant she’d be instrumental in getting rid of him. Daniels said it was “hyperbole.” “I’m also not a toilet,” she said.

@[email protected] called it saying it would get cringey and gross. The “phony stories about sex” line from Necheles is awful stuff.

The Nightmare Typhon that has a timer? That sucks. I don’t remember having too much trouble in my first playthrough - I have memories of just hiding in a bathroom that it was too big to enter until the timer ran out for one of the encounters. But I can imagine that if you’re in a particularly bad area when it comes for you it could cause problems.

I don’t know if Prey is my favorite game of all time, but it’s on the short list. I can, however, say that it is the game that most fills me with awe. Talos 1 is an extraordinary playspace filled with incredible detail, choice, style, and diversity. The narrative, possibly the weakest element of the game, still packs in a lot of cool ideas and genuine surprises.

Prey also contains by far my favorite opening “level” of all time. Without spoiling, the immediate tonal shift, the creepy mystery, the complete recontextualization of your first 10 or 15 minutes, it’s an absolute spectacle.

In a perfect world, all these devs get absorbed by WolfEye Studios or something and they get a bunch of funding to make another massive masterpiece.