archer88

Loved the puzzles and the island and all that jazz, but I was disappointed to find that it lead to basically nothing. They made an interesting and compelling world that I wanted to learn more about (nature of the island, statues, etc.) and then went nowhere with it. It would be like if the ending of Portal was just that you died. Still all the snark from Glados and the messages scribbled on the wall, but no payoff. That's how the end of the Witness made me feel; like I ran on a treadmill for 20 hours. Put the work in, but don't actually get anywhere. The Witness is a mental exercise machine masquerading as something deeper.

I think Hitman has the edge. Even Jeff is playing and enjoying it. Also, fuck The Witness. Most bummed I have been about the end of a game in a while.

Its kind of a loose process. They'll compile a list of games that should be considered for the top ten and then slowly cut it down in stages. Usually they go around the table and each person choose one to be eliminated. If someone wants to defend it they can make a case, otherwise it usually gets removed. Sometimes games will return to the list after being removed. Sometimes games stay on the list for no reason other than someone hasn't suggested cutting it yet, so order of removal doesn't mean anything. When they get close to ten people start taking stands for various games. Not always the prettiest phase of GOTY. Eventually they settle on 10 and just need to fight over order. They record a podcast of it and it's amazing. You should check it out when it gets posted at the year end.

I think Hitman is going to take it over Doom/Titanfall 2/Overwatch for the same basic reasons that Super Mario Maker won last year: a well made game that select members of the staff had an incredible and memorable experience with. Hitman kept Brad and Dan hooked like no other game this year.

With minimal effort I can kind of pull off Max Payne from the third game after things go south in Brazil.

A little too big and it should be a dirty wife-beater instead of a T-shirt, but not terrible.

I am also an Engineering Manager with a mechanical engineering background. I don't manage software engineers though; manufacturing team building parts for the elctrorefining industry. I do get to work with explosives though.

Obviously there hasn't been very much worthwhile content for the Kinect 2.0. Taking the Kinect out of the package, while a necessary move by Microsoft, more or less put a nail in the coffin for Kinect games. As someone who really enjoyed a handful of games for the original Kinect, I was a little bummed that there wouldn't be similar experiences with the new hardware. Sure, there have been some neat uses (my son is amused by playing with the animals in Zoo Tycoon) but nothing that really used the Kinect in a novel or interesting way. Until Fru that is.

It's better to just see Fru in action, so I've embedded the launch trailer below (surprise Giant Bomb quote).

Essentially you just use your body to modify the level as you try to move from one end to the other. They don't outright explain the mechanics so you're left to experiment to figure out just what you can do with your body. It's fun and engaging and an incredible value for $15. Not the longest game in the world, but absolutely worth experiencing.

Has anyone else tried it?

Played 4 or 5 hours of competitive and these are my main issues:

1. Battle.net connectivity and player penalties. I have lost a connection to battle.net during 3 competitive games and received a penalty as a result. At first I thought it was an issue on my end but managed to verify that it wasn't. Finally reconnecting only to find out I have lost rank because of an issue on Blizzard's end isn't great. I understand the need to penalize quitters, but if they could distinguish between the two it would be preferable.

2. End Game. A couple issues here mostly concerned with attack/defend maps. First, I've played in rounds that are in overtime where once the point is no longer contested it is captured instantly. Likely a bug but shitty to see in a competitive mode. Second, the sudden death coin flip is a poor way to determine a winner for a hotly contested match. I've had several matches where, for example, the attack team won each round and then took the sudden death. Seems unbalanced, but Blizzard says they're going to address it.

3. Rank progression. Pretty simple. Playing for 30 to 40 minutes only to move maybe half a rank when you win is incredibly unrewarding. Add to that the fact that a loss almost always drops you a full rank and it makes quick play seem like a more worthwhile use of your game time.

4. Toxicity of the community. I guess competitive mode is serious business because when things start to go poorly the team chat gets toxic quickly and the hate and blame really starts to spread. I've never understood the need to tell someone to kill themselves over a fucking game.

It's a nice editing job, but you watch could Kotaku's highlight reel each week and see more impressive plays. Still, not a terrible vid.