I'm with you on Talos 2 - I'm not done with it yet, but I've played enough to know they are 2/2 on this series. Excellent writing, art direction, and puzzles throughout. It's a real treat.
Thanks for the sensible chuckle I got out of your quest 3 bit there. Less thanks for giving me the push to queue up Rebel Moon. I know it's gonna be butt but I have to gaze into that dark void.
And maybe this will give me the confidence to actually learn a real language -- who knows? OK -- actually, I know that it won't.
You mentioned this once on an episode of the bombcast and I almost pinged you about it before I thought better of it, but you said it twice so I'll just drop my little essay here because it kind of sounds like you are a little bit not joking about this?
I'm not trying to give you homework, I know you're busy as hell, and I get that ADHD can make sticking with stuff (even stuff you want to do) very hard. But you can totally learn a new language because you already learned how to speak one and you did it as an idiot baby that pooped his pants. You're smarter than that guy, right?
I get that this is kind of like when someone says "Dude, The Wire is so good, you should watch it". Like, yeah bud, I'm sure.
But if you want to do it, I have been learning German with my girlfriend for about 3 months using Pimsleur (there are other programs, I have heard good things about Glossika but can't vouch for it. I tried duolingo and was less excited) and in that time we can have simple conversations, I can kind of follow podcasts in the language, and I have figured out a few phrases on my own. I don't want to over-promise or anything but I feel like it is working and I feel pretty good about giving it a recommendation at this point even though I'm not done with the program. I promise I am not the kind of guy that is "good at languages", I am a fucking idiot that basically failed every language class I took.
If you tried to learn in school and had a miserable time (I mean, I can relate...) it was probably because you did a lot of grammar rules and vocab. That's important, but you really do need to just get used to saying the words and hearing the language every day. The lessons are like, 25-30 minute podcasts and you are just asked to listen and then answer questions in the language. I do the speaking challenges after and ignore the flash cards. You could do this on your daily walk to enforce the habit if you're not worried about looking like a crazy person talking to himself in the woods in Swedish or whatever. I'm sorry if this seems like a spam ad, the filters are working fine I promise, just trying to share something that kind of worked for me. It's hard of course, but you beat Bubsy 3D so I'm sure you can handle it.
Hey! I used to really like your stuff on Wired. Nice to see some love for Dwarf Fortress, a really neat game I really liked even though it's also very much beyond me. And Alan Wake 1! That game is great.
Banger list. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that your writing is fun to read, considering your whole job is to be fun to listen to, but I really appreciate your voice on this one. Steam deck and switch makes a ton of sense for someone who travels a lot.
By the way, seeing you guys come out to the table at my first AEW event in Boston was a real highlight of the year for me :)
I also can't stop thinking about Pentiment. It's a really special game, and I am so glad I was able to see it through.
Disco put me off for similar, if more vague "this seems like a bummer to play" vibe-based reasons but it's hard to pretend at this point that I've chosen to not play it out of some noble desire to be above that instead of my real reason (I don't want to have been wrong about it). I appreciate your thoughts on this one, so thanks for the write-up there.
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