“Training your replacement,” Futuristic Dystopia edition.

Seconding “Thank goodnees you’re here” and “Date everything”!

Don’t forget the soundtrack, which absolutely slaps.

Nice, I recently replayed 8, 9, and 10. FF8 is definitely the odd one out in some ways, but it has a special place in my heart as the first FF I ever played.

I don’t play/watch horror games, but I like watching ChristopherOdd, and he seems to have a LP series for RE9. He does some commentary on the gameplay but without talking over cut-scenes and such. His LPs are typically not completionist by any means, but he takes an appropriate amount of time exploring and pursuing the story.

Edit: You can find him on YT. Most of his LPs are live commentary with minimal editing rather than recorded live streams, which I typically prefer (ymmv).

Civ 6 was the one that finally got me, and I actually found that easier to get into than 1 and 2, which I had tried before. I did go back from 6 to play earlier titles and also liked 2, 4, and 5, but I keep coming back to 6. Unfortunately, I could not get into 7. I really tried, but I just wasn’t having fun somehow.

Edit: If you like the older titles better, maybe try FreeCiv, which is similar to 2, or UnCiv, which is similar to 5.

Happy Birthday to this wonderful game and what is just a perfect example of the labor of love that some Indie games are. And thanks to Eric for all his hard work and dedication to his community. I probably bought the game about a dozen times now for different people and platforms, and I always felt that this was money well spent.

TF you mean it’s gonna be March in two weeks???

Not sure if this qualifies, but I found the (past) relationship between Kratos and Faye in the new God of War games really touching.

Other examples I can think of: Ellie and Dina (TLOU2), Tidus and Yuna (FFX), Geralt and Yennefer depending on how you play (TW3).

I think this essentially gets at the same point of criticism: Do it properly or don’t do it at all. If you want romance, then write a romantic story with real love and loss that allows players to experience these feelings through their characters, but not shallow “romance options” like the ones that are included in so many games nowadays and that feel like the equivalent of reading two pages of a character’s diary.

Combat in Morrowind: *whoop* *whoop* *whoop* *whoop* AH!!! *whoop* AH!!! *whoop* *whoop* *whoop*

Fucking love this game. 10/10

Linuy 0.1

I think we can all agree that the best option for this story-wise is a rom-com centered around Karlach in an alternate reality where her infernal engine makes her get into all kinds of shenanigans while on a quest for true love (spoiler: there was love in Avernus all along!).

The Assassin’s Creed franchise nowadays seems more like one of those slushy machines at the mall that perpetually move the same ingredients around in a neverending cycle of despair and stagnation.

Don’t remember that dialogue, but the OP made me think of the Jamrock Shuffle (constantly running around town like a crazy person).

As someone whose first TES was Morrowind, it set the bar so high in terms of worldbuilding, I was honestly a bit disappointed with the later entries into the series. Oblivion (more generic fantasy setting) and Skyrim (nordic with dragons) definitely played better, but the worlds were much less unique and memorable.

Mass Effect completely blew me away when it came out. Loved the overall lore about the Reaper threat and how the different species were connected to each other.

Horizon: Zero Dawn was also great in that regard, and the world felt really well put together, even though the lore wasn’t quite as deep.

Had the same experience with Songs of Conquest. Beautiful game, but something felt off that I can’t put my finger on. The game felt really snowball-y, where your chances to win depend strongly on what resources you control early on, and the magic system (while interesting) felt really imbalanced. Nothing really managed to recreate the HoMM feeling for me.

AFAIK, LineageOS is not a fork but a version of Android that is built on top of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).