amiga1200

Guilty Treasures is excellent and I like Lucy and Tam enough to be interested in VOS. But it definitely feels like losing the Nextlander team left a huge staffing gap for regular fun stuff - or maybe they left because that was going away? I'll watch anything Jan does and Danny is great, but the site needs fresh permanent blood doing GB things if it's to feel like GB enough for me to stay subbed. We'll see! Things change.

So much love to you all. Nothing stays the same forever but this still hurts. Everything crossed that those moving on and those staying all have exciting next chapters. Thanks for all those amazing times since 2008.

Replayed this myself recently and it confirmed my feeling from '99, when I first played, that it's my least-favourite of the FFs. I was so excited leading up to it for a return to FF6-style medieval angst, epic storytelling and odd hijinks. Instead, the story is a meandering mess with forgettable antagonists, a disjointed-feeling world and even more WTF narrative leaps than is usual for these games. The ending is incomprehensible. I love the character design but they just feel like there's nothing under the surface. FF7 and FF8 also have their share of narrative issues but I always felt I knew who Cloud, Tifa, Red XIII, Yuffie, Squall, Quistis etc were. Hell, I liked a lot of them. FF6 has the best of all worlds, with memorable characters, mostly-clear motivations, a fun epic tale and lots of secrets and silliness.

But as for this? Yes, both the slow battles and the trance system suck. Hated the "wear a piece of armour to learn its ability" system, too. Forced a lot of grinding.

And Zidane is an almighty creep throughout. They don't give Garnet anywhere near enough pushback against that crap.

ALL of this -- well said. Especially the "additional efforts" point. Austin is a great example. He brought to us his loves of gundam, anime, indie games and a very different kind of dumb to Vinny. But also, as a person of colour, he was well-versed in stuff the others weren't, and he opened a lot of doors/eyes to those things while he was here. He offered something different. So does Drew, so does Jason, so does Dan - but we already have them.

So a woman/POC/both would be great precisely because they offer something else to the mix. They will also be a fun, interesting person who loves certain kinds of games and enjoys doing silly video content. But for people to assert that wanting a new staff member who isn't similar to the others in background and life experiences is somehow separate from wanting to hire the best person for the job, is to ignore the fact that bringing difference (I avoid the word "diversity" since it seems to ignite some folks) is one of the ways a new hire can be the best person for the job. They bring something new.

Looking forward to the ongoing Dan-ification of GBEast. Already a new Endurance Run. What times we live in.

Aw man... Austin, you brought a spectacular body of work to this site. I'll follow you wherever you go but I'm so sad I won't see you and Vinny bounce off each other any more. You're fighting the good fight and with real elegance. Take care and come back to see us often.

Austin is great. Isn't Austin great?

I think this piece just confirmed that GB has scooped one of the best commentators out there. To address such a delicate issue without once attacking the other side, and all the while keeping the argument grounded in terms general gaming fans can appreciate? Kudos, @austin_walker.

So excited for what else you have up your sleeve. I can see why Patrick (who did a lot of worthy paving-the-way work here) was so pleased with your appointment.

Really sad to see this. You bring something unique to the GB table. I'll be following your work from here, Patrick. Massively applaud you for being at the forefront of the inclusion movement in games - and for always trying to be fair and own up to missteps along the way. You say you matured here, but you have regularly demonstrated greater maturity than your critics.

As a parting gift, here are the things you have done that I most enjoyed:

Bringing me to voices like Cara Ellison, Simon Parkin and a bunch of others with different things to say. I am better educated and better informed because of you.

Spookin' With Scoops. Every single gif-gift scream was a pleasure.

The Chrono Trigger Endurance Run. So much joy and easy friendship between you and Ryan.

Your scientist hunk-a-dunk-huff face in THAT year's GotY videos.

Spelunky/Binding of Isaac daily runs. What a comforting morning habit they became - and inducted me into two games I would NEVER have played otherwise.

You're a good guy who has at times received poor treatment, but who stuck to what he believed in and always reached for the positive. They hated you because you made them see things about themselves that embarrassed them. Keep fighting the good fight, man. Your dad would be proud and we all respect the hell out of you.

Remember when you bought a game from a shop and, if it didn't work, you took it back?

Great shout. Hell of a year for it.