TheMightyEthan

I'm on the third Scarlet Odyssey book, Primeval Fire. It came out a few weeks ago, but I re-read the first two to remind myself of everything that had happened, and goddamn these books are good. It's high fantasy, but set in an African-influenced world rather than your typical medieval Europe. I highly recommend them. @danielpholt I'll have to add The Devil and the Dark Water to my list, I loved T7.5DoEH.

Yeah, I hear he's kind of a dick. I didn't hear anything about his reaction to this though, what was it?

Prey That was really cool. Don't really have much else to say. Hopefully they follow up on the sequel tease in the credits.

You guys convinced me, and I convinced my wife by telling her that it's apparently the best depiction of Native Americans ever in a major movie. As soon as I told her that they had actual native people not just as consultants but as actual highly involved people at all levels of the production she was like "well then let's watch it, I want to support that," so we're watching it this weekend.

The Looker This is a parody of The Witness, but even though it's short (took me just over an hour start to finish), it's a neat little puzzle game in its own right. Grade: B

lol, you're correct about the solitaire, but also I just have been bingeing them like crazy, I got 27 hours in Shenzhen in 5 days.

Shenzhen I/O Yet another Zachtronics coding game! Apparently I like these things or something, too bad there aren't more of them... In this one you're working as an electrical engineering, you have to design integrated circuits to perform set tasks, and code the chips to do each step. The coding part is a lot like TIS-100, with extremely similar language and limitations, but in this one you get to arrange how the pieces are connected for yourself, so it has more flexibility. That flexibility allows for more complex puzzles, but also makes them more approachable. In TIS-100 in the later puzzles I often felt like there was one "correct" solution that I was trying to work out, whereas in this game there are tons of approaches you can take, so you don't end up beating your head against a wall when you can't figure out the one single answer. It also has more of a frame than TIS-100, with you working for an electronics company in China, and the different puzzles being contracts your company has been hired on, and surrounded by e-mail discussions with your coworkers. I don't know why, but that kind of thing really enhances my enjoyment of a game, so it's a definite plus. Basically, it's like TIS-100 but better in every way. Grade: A

Hmm, maybe I should look into that movie, I didn't realize it was on streaming already.

TIS-100 That was neat. It wasn't nearly as involved as Exapunks, but it also didn't cost as much so can't really complain. I only beat the main game, not all the optional puzzles (I will probably dive into those now), and I left one puzzle unsolved, but I solved the main mystery of the computer, so I'm still counting it as beat. Also, I only skipped the one because when I googled it I found several people saying "I am a professional programmer and could not solve this puzzle" so I don't feel bad about that. I definitely think Exapunks is the better game, both the setup and the constraints you're working with are more interesting, but I would still recommend this to anyone who likes Exapunks and wants more of that kind of thing. Grade: B

I loved Exapunks so much and I wanted more. Shenzhen I/O was just added to PC Game Pass today, but it seems it's recommended to play TIS-100 before Shenzhen I/O, or it might be hard to go back to this, so that's what I'm gonna do.

Exapunks Now I've beat TWO Zachtronics games! (Opus Magnum was the other.) This game is so awesome. The way you're actually coding these little machines to go do your bidding, and hacking together really complex behaviors from really limited machines is just so satisfying. It also has the normal Zachtronics thing of it being really freeform. You're not so much finding the solution to each puzzle as you are designing a solution to the problem before you. It's so great. Grade: A+ Maybe I should go back and give SpaceChem another try...

Maybe it was that they gave it back to Abrams instead of Trevorrow because of the backlash? Idk, it was a long time ago, I just remember that they changed something as a result of the backlash and as a result I stopped being interested in the next movie.

Oh yeah, I didn't mean that as a dig at Abrams, just that I really liked what Rian Johnson did with VIII, and they took it away from him because of the outcry over all the stuff I liked about it, so I had no interest in seeing whatever came after.

I decided I wasn't going to see it when they gave it back to JJ Abrams because people hated what Rian Johnson had done with VIII.

Good game. I share your Star Wars burnout, video games are the only thing from the franchise that gets me interested anymore. I still haven't even seen Episode IX.

Exapunks This is a Zachtronics game where you play as a computer hacker who has to program these little agents to infiltrate computer programs to steal/alter/delete data (basic hacker stuff). The coolest part is that you're actually coding, it's not abstracted in any way, so really the game is just a series of coding puzzles with a cyberpunk story as a backdrop. I love it, possibly even more than Opus Magnum, which was my favorite Zachtronics game up to this point. Also, my new mechanical keyboard makes me feel like a real hacker when I'm playing it.

@danielpholt That Hot Wheels DLC is great. @MetalCaveman Is that game as dirty as the cover makes it look?

So it's like a roguelite whodunnit?

Forza Horizon 5 Hot Wheels DLC Played this with my new racing wheel. I always thought they were neat but a little excessive for anyone besides real car enthusiasts, but it adds so much to the experience I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to playing racing games with a controller. As for the DLC itself, it was great, it adds back in a lot of the crazy over-the-top-ness that I thought was missing from the main game. The only bad thing I have to say about it is that I wish there was more content, which isn't much of a criticism. I do have a little bit of an issue with a couple of the criteria to unlock each new tier of car, but I muddled through. It was a little frustrating having to do the drift zones, but once I did them it didn't dampen the rest of the experience. Grade: A As Dusk Falls Holy shit this is great. If you're someone who likes choose your own adventure type games, like the Telltale or Supermassive games, this is right up your alley. It has a little bit less gameplay than those do, because you never actually control your character walking around a scene looking at things, but honestly that's an improvement IMO, I always found those sections annoying anyway. The writing and performances are great, and while the series-of-stills presentation may not be everyone's cup of tea (I've heard it described as the highest quality animatics ever made), I loved it. And that story, no spoilers, but damn. I really hope they make a sequel. Grade: A+

Microsoft and Valve need to get a deal done where you can link your Xbox and Steam accounts and then any game you have through Gamepass you can download to the Deck through Steam. Similar to what MS and EA have for EA Play and using the EA app to download those games on PC.

It is indeed "You-be-soft" and I hate it so much, I won't say it.

Yeah, that's definitely an issue I have, I can't get excited for new Netflix stuff because I don't believe for a second that they won't cancel it halfway through.

I have been sleeping on MCU of late, as you put it, but did watch Ms. Marvel and second the recommendation. It's good stuff. Interesting that there's no "Avengers" film in Phase 5 at all.

Looks like there've been some free weekends, maybe that's what I'm thinking of.

I thought Avengers was f2p now...?