rowan kaiser

it's so weird how the vanguard of fascism is freedom of speech regarding Palestine, trans rights, and immigration, all things that the left has been screaming at the Democrats to take a better stand on and the Dems declined.

Cerys

Also someone publish my A Memory Called Empire board game

We already GOT our Startide Rising/Babylon 5/Hyperion shooty RPG, and it was a great time, now it's time for an Expanse/Gideon the Ninth/Memory Called Empire slashy RPG

had a facebook friend tell a story about how she was submitting a headshot to be put up on a website for her professional career, and the guy who got the headshot ran it through AI and posted a completely different image of her than the one she'd submitted and told her she should be "honored"

i just call everything "pop" now. did i enjoy clicking on that thing and seeing/hearing it react? did it make a CLUNK sound or do something cool that made it tangible and enjoyable to interact with repeatedly? thats "pop", baby

My take is that this is part of why "Metroidvania" is a bad term, at least as it has been adopted. Its original incarnation - limited to describing Castlevanias specifically - makes sense, but looking at Super Metroid vs SotN presents very few actual similarities.

Metroid is about adapting to what the game gives *you*, Castlevania is about finding what combination of tools you find works *for* you? Kind of.

The only thing in metroid that makes you need precise shot timing is when you're shooting while jumping.

I barely survived the Youtubery here but the points about how making the feel smoother leads to a very different game are relevant for sure, yeah

In contrast, SOTN has difference reaches / swings / warmups per weapon type. Secondaries aren't powerful because they hit hard but because they have novel attack modes. Dagger is a gun, axe is good vs flying, holy water good vs slow, etc

I think I get what you're saying. Metroid's attacks are all linear and have 0 warm up. Theres no gameplay difference in attacks and combat challenge comes from platforming and positioning exclusively

I think we underestimate the appeal of antigambling politics because every problem gambler is surrounded by 3-10 people who are absolutely sick of their shit.

Definitely agree and think this is why, even though I liked it well enough to finish it, I came away feeling pretty lukewarm about Belmont’s Curse. It’s just too Soulsy in its mechanics and really not what I’m looking for from a Castlevania game specifically

this is an easy thing to describe as a difference, and it does exist, but I'm not actually certain it's the difference that matters in how the games FEEL

Watching some Babylon 5 tonight to remember Walter Koenig. I wish he'd gotten more chances to play villains. Koenig had a great range, but he was born to play smug bastards. He was a true master of the art. RIP to a real one.

PoR and RD have my favorite scale of the series. No need to abstracted it out with Village or mountain tiles. Just lean into the fact you have only 8 peeps and you are fighting in streets or on a boat. It actually helps sell the games narrative better.

Time Between Baldur's Gate 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access: 20 years Time Between Mass Effect 1 and Today: 19 years

this is purely my own gut feeling and i’d love actual devs input, but i get the sense that on top of everything else collapsing, one of the big struggles in games is that the Normal Iterative Sequel, reasonably scoped and made on a quick schedule, seems to sell like six copies now

yeah no answer is actually good here because the urge for the Franchise to continue regardless of everything else is inherently anti-art

"Tails, huh? How'd you get that nickname?" - Bad Ally Sonic

This does have a name and a location so there's SOME detail