How did I not know about that. Maybe because I haven’t been on Facebook for over ten years.

That’s fair I’ll edit.

Yeah the payphone is also up there, and honestly, opening the secret compartment in the ledger too. Which when you think about it, all those best moments are so missable. Completely psychotic by the devs.

And customizable automation can be a fun optimisation game in itself. I played through Dragon Age: Origins with the Even More Advanced Tactics mod and took great pleasure in setting up the tactics to be completely automated like a self-playing piano.

I hope we’ll see him do some GT3 racing when he quits F1. Has to be in the cards along with Le Mans, surely?

I’m thinking we’re sticking with games older than this year, as the dust hasn’t settled yet so to speak? Because honestly otherwise some recent entries would qualify for me. I’m thinking of you, Blue Prince and Clair Obscur.

I have a lower opinion of BG3 than most (it’s fine), but I absolutely agree that the Raphael boss fight and music was an absolute gaming highlight, and worth the price of admission alone.

Alan Wake 2 in its entirety would qualify for me, but if one moment has to be singled out then the We Sing chapter was something else. Honorable mention for

near the end, that was incredibly memorable.

Finally, and the real standout for me was the Final Dream in Disco Elysium. The most emotional, most impactful and heartbreaking and memorable moment I’ve had in gaming. And the most impressive seeing as Kurvitz (who wrote the scene) managed to distill the pathos and denouement of the entire game into three words to close the dream:

You could start at the Empty Child/The Doctor Dances too for another quality Moffat episode with more Doctor in it than Blink.

And these are the days that remind me being an older gamer with limited time can kind suck.

I am definitely very often on the border between frustration and enjoyment when playing this game. And that’s even just playing on Normal difficulty.

It’s definitely a game that is split in three parts: one part roguelite resource management and house-building, one part puzzles and one part detective game about putting together the narrative and lore. And I can absolutely see how it is frustrating if you don’t enjoy all three aspects. Which is a shame because some of the puzzles are really great puzzles.

Conservatory can only be drafted on the corners of the manor, and it’s an Unusual room I believe. Helps trying to put stuff like Solarium and Greenhouse on the board before opening a corner room to maximise your chances.

But in the end if you’re not having fun then you’re not having fun. Better play something else then.

Well, it looks like you have a pretty solid list of tasks to work on. Have you been back to room 46? That should be on your list as well.

You do get RNG control eventually, but like everything in Blue Prince it’s locked behind a puzzle. Well, that and certain room upgrades like taking any upgrade that gives you +2 Dice.

It takes some time, but you have tools to mould the house however you want. However, RNG is definitely a factor there is no denying that. In the beginning though I didn’t mind so much as there are so many mysteries to investigate that no run ever feels “dead” - you always learn something or progress somewhere. It’s mostly towards the end where it can get frustrating as you’re looking for for example specific room combinations, but as I said - by then you have the tools to control it somewhat.

I also never really got frustrated because there is no time limit and no penalty to calling it a day. If a run doesn’t work out it’s so quick and easy to just go again.

It’ll be all over the Game Awards this year, I think. It’s sold 2 million copies for a reason. Absolutely gorgeous music too. Heavily recommended!

For the first week in almost a month I’m taking a break from Blue Prince. I’m still enamored with it and am watching a couple or let’s plays of it still, but I’m now at the very end-endgame and I have probably only the final puzzle left and I’m stumped. My brain is fried and I’m taking a breather and hoping my sister and her fiancé catch up to me so we can all have a crack at the last puzzle together potentially.

In the meantime I’m continuing my extremely impatient gaming by jumping on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I promise I will get back to my backlog soon and do this sub justice. I have F.E.A.R. installed and everything.

Anyway, Clair Obscur is amazingly good. Actually worth paying full price for and I don’t mind supporting small developers either. Could this be the best AA game of all time? I honestly can’t believe a small studio pulled this off. The gameplay feels like a fresh take on turn based while still giving Souls-like satisfaction at beating a tough boss. The story has been stellar so far and the voice acting is phenomenal. I’m playing with French VAs because it just feels right for this game and this setting. If you don’t mind reading subtitles I highly recommend it, the french voices are fantastic and Maelle in particular is stealing the show. I actually prefer her to the English one.

Or that yeah.

At the end of the day he got more races in F1 than most at his level of talent. It sucks for him but F1 is a ruthless business and there are simply too few seats and too many drivers available. No team will have patience for mediocrity.

Will the Larry games still be up on GOG I wonder? I’ve played the (remake of the) first one and have been curious about Love For Sail as well as it’s apparently the best one (?). For better or worse they are iconic games that are part of the cultural landscape of gaming.

We had Balatro last year. Blue Prince released a month ago and is a bona fide GOTY contender from a tiny studio and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is possibly the best AA game of all time but sure, the games industry is dead. I’m convinced, back it up boys.

I don’t really think it’s a matter of perspective. These sites all omit the title of whatever thing it is they’re talking about so you have to click through to find out. They do it because research has shown it works to increase clicks. That is well within the definition of clickbait.

Go weeyums!