Leaning into Jess’s mention of “British game shows,” there’s a new one called “I Literally Just Told You” and the hook is half or so of the questions are written live based on things that have happened or been said as part of the show. It’s an interesting hook, and the first three episodes (available on YouTube) seem to have something for everyone:
Episode 1: How this was probably envisioned when played by people of varied, but basically competent, attention spans.
Episode 2: An absolute shitshow that had me in tears and laughing so hard I damn near made myself sick multiple times.
Episode 3: More like episode 1, but done for charity with celebrity contestants including 2 former Taskmaster participants and Taskmaster Admin Assistant Little Alex Horne.
Always glad to see some love for MLB The Show, and add as a fiendish Diamond Dynasty (aka MLB Ultimate Team) player that it’s 1000% possible to get some of the best cards in the game and build a fun, competitive squad not only without spending a cent, but just by playing the game and not engaging with the virtual economy at all. They clear the phenomenally low bar of “most consumer friendly Ultimate Team mode” by a margin that should be embarrassing to EA and 2K.
On one hand, I feel like I’m part of the target audience: I played a tiny amount of Demon’s Souls when it first came out because it was supposedly something new and interesting, but I fell off hard - not my style of game.
I really enjoyed this episode I think due to Danny and Tamoor’s natural chemistry, but I wonder how sustainable my personal enjoyment of the series will be because I have just come to despise these style of games. I’m glad they exist for the people who love them, I’m glad they have their champions, but it feels like “Souls-like” games have sucked so much of the air out of the rooms from where I get my games news and criticism. It’s like if all of a sudden, hockey was the hot new thing in games and you just despised the sport.
I’m still really eager to see how long this series holds my interest: it’s a battle between how long the incredibly awesome things that Danny and Tamoor bring to the video series individually and together can outweigh a total disdain for the games being highlighted. Against all odds: I’m really looking forward to episode 2.
Still watching so apologies if this is addressed later in the QL, but you can save at any time in towns or on the overworld like the first area they're in. When they go to the desert where there's a save point, you're restricted from saving unless you're at those points.
I can't belive I'm "Well Actually"ing this video, but I feel like especially @brad or @alex would have/should have known this: Temple of the Dog wasn't a collaboration between Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
Soundgarden existed with Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron, but Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were bandless after the death of Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone. Wood and Cornell were roommates, and Temple of the Dog was a tribute to him with those four plus Mike McCready and some dude named Eddie Vedder from California that had flown up to audition for McCready, Ament, and Gossard.
Temple of the Dog released their EP, then Pearl Jam was formed. Sure, in hidsight it's easy to think of Temple as "Soundgarden plus Pearl Jam" since that's what those people went on to be, but it wasn't presented that way at the time.
I just wanted to add a Cronenberg film recommendation: A History of Violence. It’s one of my favorite movies even though I don’t consider myself a Cronenberg devotee.
I picked up NBA 2K20 last year when it was on GamePass and got WAY into MyTeam, the Ultimate Team-equivalent mode. So much so that I bought this year's game because I enjoyed it so much. I'm also, oddly, mostly a single-player player. 2K made some good changes to the overall meta-layer around MyTeam, but the experience of playing the game is - and I don't say this lightly - fucking miserable.
First, the good: they added a progression layer called "Seasons" which run roughly 6 weeks and give you progression goals, like a battle pass system, except they're free. Everyone can participate without additional purchase, and you have some daily goals, some limited time "moments" goals based on recent games, and some season-long goals. They also add new goals in as they add new packs of players, which is where they encourage you to spend money. That's always going to be scummy, it's no less so this year, but there are additional uses for the cards you collect in either meeting these challenge goals or exchanging them for better players (anotehr new feature.)
But holy shit the gameplay is beyond shitty. They introduced a new shot mechanic where the stick controlled your release timing and aiming; I could not get the hang of it. I don't think a lot of other people could, because they patched it almost immediately, and now you can shoot the ball in the following ways: stick with aiming with release meter, stick without aiming with meter, stick with aiming without meter, stick without aiming with meter, button with meter, button without meter. You have plenty of options, but for a single player player like myself, it hardly matters because the CPU sliders are buffed to shit. They did reduce the difficulty of Domination mode so you can play on Rookie, Pro, or All-Star difficulty while it was (I think) All-Star, Superstar, and Hall of Fame at first. Triple Threat, a more casual three-on-three mode, was set last year to increase in difficulty from Rookie on up and use your selected roster as a barometer for how good the CPU team should be. This year, it starts on All-Star difficulty from Game 1, and I've used some low-quality cards and matched up with significantly higher tier payers (Again, all single player). Beyond that, the sliders in both modes for the CPU feel incredibly unfair - they hit nearly every shot they take, are damn near unguardable on defense, and will absoloutly lock you down in Triple Threat. I've won (I think) 6 games of Triple Threat in the 3-ish weeks the game has been out, mostly by cheesing a screen/back-cut strategy - I've lost around 30 games trying to play "straight."
Because my brain is broken, I still load it up every day since there are daily log-in rewards (That don't amount to shit) and maybe play a game on rookie now that that's an option to complete or progress a simple challenge or two. But I hate myself for doing it and enjoy none of my time with the game. Just some thoughts from a solo MyTeam player.
@rorie: If you thought you missed things in our mirror match, oh boy. I didn't attack your Planeswalker because...I just forgot that was a thing you could do. I saw you getting ahead on the board, panicked, and just completely forgot that was possible. I'm not sure it would have made a big difference, you were ahead and ramping up.
I was glad to see you forgot about the Tracker's +1/+1 bonus. My only good play!
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