I’m replaying through the Bioshock series again and in Fort Frolic in Bioshock 1 there are characters with the last names of Fitzpatrick and Cobb. This reminded me of the Cobb that Lucas Grey killed who was the CEO of Milton-Fitzpatrick. Is it possible that it’s a deliberate reference to Bioshock? Maybe repaying the Hitman reference in Bioshock 2 with the character Tobias Riefers setting a door code to 0047? Or maybe I’m reaching too much
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god help me im playing destiny 2 and i think im enjoying it 
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We lost a good one to the destinite shite, may god rest his soul
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everything is:
“The Noun must fight an eternal struggle with The Noun for the sake of The Noun. contact The Noun to retrieve The Noun so that we might access The Noun and save The Noun once and for all!”
it’s gibberish!
the pew pew feels good though.
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I last played Destiny in January, and I love the PvP and gunplay, but I know that I’ll be completely overwhelmed by new stuff and balance changes. I just can’t be bothered to get up to speed; it’s a shame that it isn’t a “pick up and play” game, even for returning players. I can’t imagine how unapproachable it is for a new player now, I was super confused when I started playing in late 2020.
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i played a bit of the initial cosmodrome mission. pretty chill, except - ironically - for the meditation mission. felt good, looked ace (seriously, the environment looks fantastic), logged off.
came back later that night only to be assaulted by a lengthy cutscene. the game then dumped me on some planet ON A MISSION OF VITAL IMPORTANCE. looked ace, but i zapped back to earth. played a bit. logged off.
next time i booted it up, i was ambushed by yet another bastard-sized cutscene before the game shat me out on some ship, asking me to steal booty. dutifully, i noped back to the cosmodrome and finished that up.
the game then directed me to The Noun where i had to walk around a fucking maze to meet all the Nouns required to do essential stuff: crafting and whatever. like, that’s cool and immersive and everything, but what the fuck is wrong with a cocking menu?!
ahem
this was in-between the machine gun fire of pop-ups screaming at me to GO HERE 4 REWARDS BUY CURRENCY BUY DLC OBEY.
having said all that, my character has a fluorescent pink cloak and goes pewpewpew, so swings and roundabouts, eh? 
seriously, it is an obnoxious way to introduce a game, no doubt, but it plays really well. reminds me of og halo a bit, for obvious reasons.
thing is, i’m looking for things to play with my niece (preferably free), so i thought id give it a go. i enjoy the gameplay loop, but it’s pretty hard to recommend given you have to go through all of the above. i was gonna suggest warframe, but that’s even more daunting.
we do a bit of apex, which is fun, but the wait after dying is nerve grating. introduced her to titanfall 2, though i think the mp is pretty much dead; can’t find a match to save my life.
i refuse to play fortnite and genshin, which she loves, and i can’t afford vanguard, which she plays a lot. guess i’ll eventually get mw2 for christmas just to play it with her. she loves that shit and i love running around with just a knife.
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Civilization VI. Way, WAY too much Civilization VI.
In just the last couple months, I got completely screwed over in turn one as the Inca, forced everyone to buy my blue jeans and listen to my pop music as China and Nubia, conquered the world as the Ottomans, convinced everyone that I would make the best world leader as Australia and Persia, and I’m currently in the process of sending Scotland to space.
I’ve seen things I’ve never seen before, like ties (and tie breakers) at the World Congress and another leader actually physically threaten me with their own blue jeans and pop music (made extra hilarious because it was the early Middle Ages). I’ve also come to appreciate just how little Firaxis cared about game balance with the New Frontier Pass (and, to a certain extent, the other expansions and DLCs). I usually just randomize everything to start a run (it’s a little more exciting that way because you never know what you’ll get) but some of the non-base civs have absolutely bonkers abilities and some of the added modes are BUSTED. I (genuinely) love it.
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Is anyone playing the Warhammer 40,000 Darktide beta? I’m not, but I heard the soundtrack being praised and it’s from Jesper Kyd:
He already did the ones for the Warhammer (Fantasy) Vermintide games I think.
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any good resources for getting into it? it looks scary complex.
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The Tower? I found it to be quite a maze, didn’t help that shite was Halloweenified when I was starting out. You’ll get used to it in a bit, and it’s actually got some cool hidden areas and other little things.
My lovely fellows all have Terry’s Chocolate Orange sponsorships, and rock tasteful orange and navy gear.
I have to say, there’s not actually that much to do for free in Destiny. You’ve got the introductory missions, a bit of planet exploration and the core activities (Strikes, Gambit and the Crucible), but they’re either short lived or repetitive. The bulk of the good stuff is from the yearly expansions and season-based content. It might not be the best choice, given the backlog of lore and complex gameplay systems. As a sidenote, the juiciest character abilities are also behind a DLC paywall.
Have you had a crack at Splitgate? That’s decent and Halo-ey, for the low price of £0. Realm Royale (pretty similar to Fortnite) and Dauntless (knockoff Monster Hunter) are both pretty good (and both free), but I don’t know how active they are these days. Sniper Elite 4 and Zombie Army 4 are great fun, both have co-op campaigns and multiplayer modes that always have few lobbies open (you can also have a blast in private survival lobbies). You should be able to get them pretty cheaply, and they were free with PS+ a year or two ago so you might have them already.
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that’s the mother.
im sure it does have its nuances, but i’m surprised there isn’t a menu as well.
ah, bugger. well, if it continues to intrigue, i may dip in. lightfall looks kinda cool.
thanks for the tips. i’ll take a looksee.
yeah, i have those. not sure she does though. i’d play overwatch 2 with her but i ain’t giving them my phone number on a platter.
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It can be a bit much when you’re just starting out but it has a far friendlier learning curve than something Paradox would put out. That said, the game itself has the Civilopedia (which is also an app) which you can use for assistance. There’s also the Civilization wiki which expands upon a lot of the things covered in the Civilopedia and explains how stuff can work for or against you. I’d also highly recommend PotatoMcWhiskey videos (he’s like (a less problematic) MrFreeze2244 for Civilization) and TheSpiffingBrit (kind of like if Frote7 and Kevin_Rudd merged and played Civ).
At its most simple, the game is about planning for the future while defending the present. Just starting out, play on Prince (or lower) difficulty and learn city and district placement. Basically, all you need to know is that there are six “currencies” and each tile (except snow, desert, and mountain) produce one or more of them. Food and production are the most important because without them you won’t have enough population to work tiles or ability to build anything. Science and culture help those respective victory types while faith and gold are ways to buy things that is often quicker than building them. Different combinations of terrains, features, and resources produce different amounts of those currencies (and will produce more with improvements). Luxury resources keep your people happy while strategic resources keep your armed forces equipped. Districts produce far more and can be optimized further by proper zoning. Each leader and civilization also have strengths and weaknesses when it comes time to choose how you want to try to win but I’m pretty sure I play civs “wrong” all the time so it seems like you should be able to lead anyone to any victory with enough forethought.
That probably seems like a lot, which is why I recommended an easier difficulty for your first go round or two; the AI has a nasty habit of trying to overrun you in the early game if they sense weakness so turning down the difficulty should help tone them down a bit while you get acclimated.
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this was great! thank you for taking the time to write it all up.
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No problem! It’s usually quite fun even if you don’t know what you’re doing (unless the game starts your hill based civ in flatland 
); let us know how it goes when/if you get started.
(Oh! Before I forget, there’s also an in game advisor who I would recommend turning off sooner than later (because you’ll learn better strategies) but can be helpful to walk you through the basics in the beginning.)
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Last of Us Grounded update: Got through The Coal Mine w/ David and the Tunnel in Salt Lake, probably some of the most punishing Infected areas of the game.
Also I beat the David boss fight in one attempt, totally a fluke!
Next up is the Hospital – final area-- I hear lots of people have trouble with it because the enemies’ assault rifles are mega powerful on Grounded, but I’ve stealthed through that area before pretty well. I think I can do it again!
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“That’s the bossfight? That’s just 3 minutes of looking at cupboards while hearing vaguely evil stuff from a generic white guy”
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I did it! I finally beat the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy!
Took me quite a while. Let me tell you, I am bad at this game. Also the game is way too particular with its game design.
The game consists of Investigation segments and Trial segments, one where you have to find clues and the other where you find contradictions in people’s testimonies.
The Investigation bits are annoying in that you have to interact with things in a specific order for certain people to show up, or tell people about a specific person/thing, for them to open up about a new topic. It’s very particular and there’s no info on what to do next.
The Trial bits are where you have to press statements to reveal more info, and find contradictions with evidence in your case, or previous testimony. It is also very particular in how and when certain pieces of info are supposed to be revealed and how. Most of it I think was worded too vaguely, or sometimes I’d think too many steps ahead and present the wrong thing – leading to many failures.
I’ve mentioned it before, but thankfully I found a Hints website that slowly reveals hints bit by bit to each step in the case. Helped guide me where I needed, reveal answers I was truly stumped by (and had no chances left on), and got me through it!
The game is full of flamboyant characters with puns for names. Great music and art as well. My only overall criticism is that the gameplay format doesn’t evolve that much over the 3 games. It’s also very visual-novel-y, lots of reading, and it made it hard to have to think oh I’ll need to set aside an hour to get through this segment, or, This case might take 4-5 hours overall, I’d better not start it, cause I know It’ll take me a while to get through it, I’ll forget the details of the case.
The final case of PW 3 is a great one that ties up the main mystery/antagonist of 3, and a few of the lingerins mysteries of the trilogy. Very good.
Also I LOVE that the prosecutor in 3 is named after one of my favourite plays. Waiting for Godot. Such a suave guy, too.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I get the appeal of the series. I still prefer Ghost Trick from Shu Takumi’s works…
Here are quite a few pictures I took of funny lines or ending art that I found cool. Spoilers for some stuff inbound.
To think he would meet a real, True Gentleman™ later on…
This one reminds me of PW vs. Prof. Layton. 
Dialogue preceded by: 
No motive, no crime… No motive, no crime…
DICAPRIO POINTING MEME INTENSIFIES
Some of the localization team had lots of fun with this script.
And also, a compilation of Alternate Judge (surprise cameo in one case, full role in another) being Canadian :canada:
“Broodal”
And on a more serious and impressive note, I REALLY DID IT! Finally beat The Last of Us Remastered on Grounded Difficulty! Holy moly this was tough as nails.
Unforgiving combat checkpoints, very easy deaths, always dangerously low on ammo… it was a tense, frustrating, but fun experience.
The Hospital at the end was pretty easy, all things considered. The first floor took a few tries, but you can stealth by pretty easily with no distractions. Enemies operate on a stand-still, look left-right basis.
The second floor was a bit harder – actually, it was pretty easy sneaking by the enemies to the final door, but for some reason there were two enemies hiding in cover at the end of the room. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
Thankfully, a panic molotov killed the two of them before they could shoot, and a planned-out smoke bomb at the door provided me just enough time and cover to escape!
Yaaaaay! Now to never do this again, or at least maybe once, in like 4-5 years. There’s just one trophy separating me from 100% completion now, maybe it’ll be a little easier in NG+…
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I’ve killed everyone in the Hospital 
currently replaying TLOU2 on grounded and Pokémon Fire Red on GBA 
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I highly recommend playing The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles duology in the future. They’re the only Ace Attorney games that I feel really reached the highs of the original trilogy (though I don’t consider any of the games bad). They do some interesting things to spice up the investigation and trial segments. Plus, they feature everyone’s favorite gentleman detective, Herlock Sholmes!
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Will do. I’ve heard quite a bit of good about them – especially since an official translation/western port was sought-after for a very long time.
I do own the rest of the PW series on 3DS, since they had quite a deep sale earlier this year. About 7-12$ each. So I’ll get to those too, sometime in the future. But at the moment, I’m Phoenix’d out…
Though I am considering replaying Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, given my newfound knowledge of the PW series and common tropes/structure.
Fun (or un-fun?) fact, it took me two console versions to get through the PW Trilogy…
I got it on the 3DS, played through 1 and most of 2, then put it down for a loooong time. I eventually saw it on sale for a good price on the Switch, and figured I could replay it with remastered art, get a refresher of PW2 that I’d forgotten about for a while (since the final case usually ties all previous ones together), and get it on the comfort of my TV (and handheld). And it worked! Mostly. Played the entire trilogy - except case 5 of PW1 because that one’s way too long and convoluted - with the benefit of being able to use it as a planted TV position, or a take-where-I-want handheld version, that I admittedly used more often than not.
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