Zelnox

I was re-watching during the break the old Sleeping Dogs DLC Quick Look that was over an hour long and Dave deployed code to production during the Quick Look. Vinny also has a story where he stayed late at work to play something and almost missed the train home. Dave asked why don't they publish more raw content and even then between Vinny and Drew, there was too much work just to handle raw unedited stuff in addition to special features. During those days, the only real platform for them was to share video via the site. There wasn't any competing platforms and even just streaming personal stuff on Twitch.

Fast forward to today, it's only Jan working as the video producer I think and he also hosts the podcast. He allowed himself to fall sick and the site is scrambling to find back-up plans.

It does look neat!

GB at Nite for Summer Game Fest stuff is great.

I'm on the east coast and I remembered catching the streams and staying up until 3 AM night after night to watch and laugh

I miss having a PC to play old strategy games.

Seven Kingdom is a real-time strategy with unconventional CIV-lite mechanics. One had to convert neutral villages and hire them to work or recruit from the villages to have a militia and slowly train them to become good fighters. Villagers are happier when the village has access to multiple artisan products. I think at level 60, soldiers gain their nations' special attack. Generals were so important because they helped train soldiers faster. The espionage component was super neat too, infiltrating the enemies militia or factory and turning cloak when necessary (or even after a promotion!). I've sunk a lot of hours into this game, but barely touched the sequel later (got more complex too).

Kohan is another late 90s/early 00s real-time strategy with a hybrid economy. The best part of the game is the combat system. We build companies of units (like in Ogre Battle) selecting front-liners, 2 backlines, and 1 captain. They move as a unit and retreat as a unit. The companies exert a zone of control and when it touches an enemy zone of control, the two companies engage. The only option left is to retreat or rout. Backline units tend to be pretty strong and so are the unique captains. It's pretty fun to have a full line of companies duking it out, while trying to have free/mobile companies go for a flank and try to take out the strong backline. The player also has to tell some companies to retreat in order to heal and replace with fresher troops. The economy is based on rates of resources per second and accumulated gold. Buildings, units all have upkeeps in resources and a one-time gold cost. I loved the animated sprites in a 3/4 view. I didn't care much for the sequel's 3D models.

Master of Orion is a turn-based 4X game from the late 90s that I still play once in a while today (thanks to GOG). I think this game is the pinnacle of 4X games as it has a satisfying level of abstraction and the mechanics are simple enough and elegant. The tech tree is a marvel (for sure some tech choices really suck and others are way too good, but I guess that's part of the charm). Designing ships is fun. The artwork is great. There are multiple ways to win. This is really a game I wish Rorie would do a feature with Grubb or Dan.

Sid Meier's SimGolf was another game I sunk so much time into. If you haven't watched Ryan and Jeff play it, you should! I don't really care much about golf, but to design the courses in an abstracted way to reward the different kinds of players is very satisfying. Players are rated on distance, precision, and creativity. They also want variety throughout the course, so even just being to stand in front of a magnificent tree before the tee off is rewarded. I really want a new version of this game, because it's really hard to find a copy to play it anymore. Apparently, the IP is in limbo somewhere (maybe at EA).

I'm excited for Gravity Circuit. It's planned to finally release this year. It seems like a mashup of many loved NES-era mechanics.

I think the obsession with the meta being prevalent now is due to the ease with transmitting information on streams, reddit, forums. Not everyone needs to be a try-hard.

I played a bit of Counterstrike not that long ago with some friends to shoot bots and already one guy was saying "don't use that weapon, it's shit, or you need to stand here". I don't know the weapons or care and really don't know the maps. I just wanted to play for fun, like a social thing.

I want to get Rorie's curved monitor.

Putting up some 2s for @zombiepie, thank you for being around and helping everyone feel at home for all these years.

I finally joined the discord server. I've also been around since the beginning and everything changes with time.

I've played Realm of the Mad God Exalt before and I think it was MMO-like and in the browser. It had different classes and you can play co-op. It probably doesn't have the same feel as couch-co-op Gauntlet though.