Keyrock

I do too.

New Mighty No. 9 gameplay trailer:

With Deadfall Adventures finished, I decided to fire up Final Fantasy VIII. The game is a weird mishmash of updated higher res models and original 1999 graphics. I could, of course, just turn the updated models off and play with all original models and textures, but I strangely enjoy the jarring, bizarre mixture of horrifically low res textures and updated models (which still look terrible, just less terrible). I'm also still playing Mario Kart 8 and Monster Hunter 3 in spurts on and off.

Obsidian Entertainment Lovable Loser - Got dumped by the cool girl while you were both in high school. Tends to stumble over his own feet. Has taken the fall for other's mistakes in the past. Doesn't have a lot of money and winds up taking odd jobs to make ends meet. But he's fun to hang around with because he tells the best stories.

I like this for two reasons: 1) Christopher Walken is my favorite actor ever, on account of him being awesome. 2) I'm a proponent of the Oxford Comma. Show of hands, who here is Pro-Oxford Comma and who is Anti-Oxford Comma?

I finished Deadfall Adventures. I thoroughly enjoyed the game. What it lacked in production values it made up for with solid gunplay and great pacing. The game does a terrific job of mixing up combat, exploration, and puzzle solving, so you never fall into a rut of doing one thing for too long. As the game began, and had the great mix of puzzles and combat, I feared it would start ditching the puzzles and get very combat heavy in the latter stages, because so many previous games have fallen into that rut. For whatever reason, a shockingly (and sadly) high percentage of games that split their focus on combat and exploration and/or puzzles, fall into a rut of a linear grind of battle after battle after battle after battle in the finishing stages of the game. I don't know if it's the developers running out of inspiration, running out of time and throwing together a bunch of filler battles to finish up the game quickly, or some weird notion that finishing with a metric ****ton of combat somehow makes for an exciting finish. Luckily, Deadfall Adventures avoids this rut and remains 50/50 puzzle & exploration/combat throughout with the elements wonderfully mixed together and spaced out, right down to the very end. There are 11 levels in the game. It took me a little over 17 hours to finish, but that's with taking time to find all the treasures, including going back to previous levels a few times to find treasures I missed. On that front, I was wrong about there not being treasures in the last level, there are. The reason I thought that was because getting all the treasures through the first 10 levels allows you to get every skill upgrade in the game (treasures are essentially skill points in Deadfall Adventures), making the treasures in the final level useless to me, though someone who missed some treasures along the way would find them useful. Someone just trying to get through the game and not caring about finding treasures could probably beat the game in 12 hours or so, I estimate. In conclusion, I liked Deadfall Adventures a lot. The game got pretty lackluster reviews so I wasn't expecting much, but what I got was nearly 20 hours of thoroughly enjoyable adventure goodness. Had I bought the game at full price(I didn't), I would still be satisfied, though I'm not sure I would recommend it to everybody at that price. At the 75% off price point I scooped it up at (10 buckaroos), I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone and everyone who's down for a FPS/adventure/puzzle game hybrid and can look past cliche story and hilariously bad voice acting and dialogue. I give the game 4 chest bumps out of Predator handshake.

I've reached the final level in Deadfall Adventures, though I'm going to go back to the penultimate level to get one treasure I missed. I know where it is though I haven't figured out how to reach it and I got to a point where I couldn't go back any more, and because of the checkpoint save system and lack of manual saves *sigh* I couldn't just reload a previous save. Luckily, I won't have to replay the whole level. It's relatively early in the level and once I figure out how to get to the treasure then reach a checkpoint, I can just stop there then go back to the last level and I'll have the treasure, which will make all of them, as there are no treasures to find in the last level of the game, to the best of my knowledge, and I've gotten all the treasures in each of the previous levels.

Mayan ruins

I think he responded with appropriate force And here I have been capturing the spiders and taking them outside unharmed. I guess I have been doing it wrong the whole time.

Rumors or not, The Cavs absolutely should deal Wiggins if that's what it takes to get Love. Even if Wiggins achieves his full potential, it will take several years for him to get there. LeBron is 29, he'll turn 30 before this year is over. Most basketball players' primes go from about 25 or 26 to about 31, maybe 32, if they manage to stay healthy. There are obviously exceptions and LeBron is a freak of nature, but even so, you can't reasonably expect his prime to extend past 34. Kobe extended his prime beyond how long most mere mortals could, but we all saw how his body has broken down the last couple years. I don't think LeBron wants to wait 3 or 4 years for Wiggins to mature to start winning championships again, he wants to win right now. Could the Cavs win this year with Wiggins and without Love? Sure, but they wouldn't be favorites. With Love they become one of the favorites, if not THE favorite, for the title next season.

Some Risen 3 screenies:

Dang, that's inspirational. /wipes away tear

I'm not down for anything rapey happening to Leliana either. However, I am down for her getting her bowels slashed open and her guts spilling out. You know, tasteful and classy like.

Aw yeah, a horribly scarred villain, and he's Russian on top of that. Double movie cliche bonus! Woohoo, a mine cart section! This just keeps getting better! I love the scoped Kar98k so much. It's not even fair when I get my hands on that rifle.

Ran into my first QTE in Deadfall Adventures. And just after I had sung the game's praises for not having any. Figures. At least it was an easy QTE and it's not an insta-fail one. Still, though. *sigh*

This doesn't below in a funny things thread. This belongs in a sad, sad, no, God no. Why? Why would you do this? thread.

5. The future of gaming Future of gaming my ass, modern games have felt like that for a good while now. Future really is now in that one. But that arm cast is a welcome change! I, for one, welcome our new sentient trash can overlords.

Wuxia RPG. Please let it be a Wuxia RPG. If BioWare won't do Jade Empire 2, then let Obsidian fill the void and make a Wuxia RPG, except better, because they're Obsidian.

Well, this was bound to happen eventually. Actually, we've already had a high profile Kickstarter failure in the form of Clang. I didn't pledge to Yogventures, nor have I even heard of it until now, but sucks for the people that did.

MMA fighter unleashes EPIC TROLLFACE

New Fatal Frame reveal trailer. It's all in Japanese. Oh boy, I hope this comes west and soon. I would love me some Fatal Frame on my Wii U.

I wound up scooping it up a few days ago from GamersGate at 75% off. I like the game a lot so far, but I get why it didn't get particularly good reviews: Cons: Super cliche Indiana Jones ripoff story Subpar to cringeworthy voice acting and dialogue Poor animations during cutscenes Uninspired enemy AI Checkpoint autosave system with no manual save (checkpoints are spaced out really well, but still, WTF?) Pros: 50/50 mix of combat and puzzle solving Great pacing and mix of gameplay elements Solid gunplay and weapon variety Ability to use the environment in combat (set off traps to kill enemies, shoot stalactites off the ceiling to kill enemies) Cool exotic locations to visit Decent bit of exploration (the game is fairly linear but there are plenty of treasures to find off the beaten path) It's a game that sort of tries to be a AAA title, but is clearly not. It can't deliver action setpieces with the same bombast that the big boys do and the production values are certainly not AAA. At the same time, its got its charms. Plus, I haven't encountered a single QTE yet and no one has tried to rape anybody, which are pluses in my book.

It's Deadfall Adventures. It's sort of a Tomb Raider type game, except first person and much less rapey.

Next to the MG 34, which, sadly, I've only gotten to use twice so far, and for very short periods of time, the Karabiner 98k (preferably with a scope) is my favorite weapon in the game so far. Sniping is the best. Solving puzzles in ancient temples, now this is my jam.

My old friend, how I missed you! Let's never be apart again. Sadly, a mere minute later we were parted.