AtheistPreacher

There are two fantasy series that stand above the rest for me, and they're very different.

If you're looking for something light, breezy, easily digestible, and full of action, I can't recommend Jim Butcher's Dresden Files enough. There's 17 books in the series now. They follow Harry Dresden, a wizard and PI who runs around Chicago solving crimes and battling various supernatural nasties. If you've ever seen any of the TV show Supernatural, it's a lot like that, but in book form and better. They're also quite funny--Dresden is in the classic Spiderman mold of a hero who can't stop making sarcastic quips at the bad guys. Great literature they are not, but I keep going back and re-reading them because they're lightweight and fun, and I'm not always in the mood for a slog. Only warning is that the first book just isn't as good as the rest, Butcher became a better writer as he went, so I'd at least get into the second book before deciding they're not for you.

As opposed to Butcher's "urban fantasy," Robin Hobb's Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies are classic high fantasy in a medieval setting, following the life of a royal bastard who trains as the family hitman. Hobb's strength is in writing compelling characters; they're probably my personal favorite set of fictional characters I've ever encountered. And truly fascinating and original systems of magic, stuff I never could have dreamed of. These books have a little less action than standard fare, but the characters and story more than make up for it. FWIW, I bought signed copies of these two Hobb trilogies for both my brother and mother last Christmas (2022). My brother had already read them and was a fan, but my mom liked them enough that she's since bought another set for one of her friends, so I know she's not shining me on when she says she's really enjoying them.

It might be worth noting that both of these series are written in first-person rather than third. For whatever reason I've come to generally prefer first-person narratives when they're done well. These are both done very well.

I was never a regular reader of SI, but I would occasionally pick one up while waiting in a doctor's office or whatever. I usually started by flipping to the back and reading Rick Reilly's column. For me the most memorable one was Reilly describing some dude sneaking into over 30 straight superbowls.

Anyhow, it really is weird seeing the apparent death of such a storied publication. But outside of those waiting rooms I mentioned--and the tabloids sold at grocery store checkouts--it's difficult to imagine individuals subscribing to any magazine anymore.

If you say so, can't say I've taken a really close look at her moveset or anything, it was just a common sentiment I was seeing from surface-level coverage. But if she's not meant to be a Heihachi replacement then his removal seems all the more egregious. He's the most iconic character Tekken has, axing him is like Capcom taking Ryu out of Street Fighter. Why would they ditch such a popular character?

I guess I can still hold out hope that this another headfake, not like they haven't told us before that Heihachi was dead. Or they bring him back as a clone or something. Though they seem unusually devoted to the idea of him being gone this time. I guess we'll see.

As an aside, Gen Fu was my favorite DOA character and they actually did remove him from DOA6. That one I can at least understand because he was never an especially popular character. But I wish these games would stop removing fighters I like!

Yay for notifications being fixed!

Wow, this is really somethin' else:

Brian Cox summarizing the Tekken story was definitely not a thing that was on my bingo card.

Tekken was always my favorite fighting game series. That said, I don't think I can play a Tekken game that doesn't have Heihachi. He's been my main since forever, and even though Reina is seemingly supposed to be a replacement for his moveset, it just ain't the same. Also, I'm just not nearly as into fighters as I was when I was a kid. Still, I'll be interested to see how it looks at release...

Conversely, it would be hard for me to overstate exactly how much I hated that mission of crawling through the hospital. I viscerally despised it down to my bones. The thing is, I don't mind watching huge amounts of game cutscenes, like Xeno series levels of them, but when a game forces the player to engage in the most boring, braindead repetitive interaction imaginable--hold d-pad to crawl really slowly--for friggin' 30 minutes, it makes me want to set my hair on fire. Just make it a cutscene, guys.

Speaking to the larger game experience, I remember really enjoying it when it came out. The stealth-action gameplay itself is genuinely great. But the whole recruitment and base management aspect... yeah. I remember in the endgame I had set myself the task of filling up my base with recruits who were S-rank in at least one category, minimum. I did end up doing that... and as soon as I did complete that arbitrary goal, the bottom fell out on my motivation to play, because it made me realize how little it actually mattered. I'd developed all the weapons and tools I wanted to develop well before that... well, except for the stuff that Konami added later which can only be gotten by paying more money to unlock more bases, paired with doing a lot of online raids to recruit S++ dudes. Which I was never going to do.

Maybe also worth saying that while Metal Gear Scanlon is probably my favorite long-form video series this site ever did, for me the MGSV part of it was the least interesting by far. It's the most fun Metal Gear game to play (IMO), but rather a bore to watch; no more wacky codec conversations, nor enough general Metal Gear nonsense.

Almost a decade on, it is kind of a weird one. I feel sure I'd still enjoy the core gameplay, but as for the rest of it, eh, probably not so much. Also, I remain unashamed of my words and deeds.

@sombre: FWIW, the solution I saw in the Chrome thread was to

1. Click on "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" at bottom of site;

2. Allow "Functional Cookies" and "Performance Cookies."

Worked for me. Then at some point they got disabled and I re-enabled them again.

Meanwhile forum search is still broken, has been since early September. Any chance this is going to be fixed, ever? Or will things on this site just keep breaking until it ultimately shuts down? Notifications have also been broken for the last month.

IDK, it really seems like no one is actually working on any of this stuff, and/or no one actually cares. I let my premium subscription lapse, and I can't say I have any desire to re-up for a site that is constantly broken and never fixed.

Regarding Starfield, this Hard-drive.net article seems to hit the mark. What a ridiculous thing that it won the Steam award for "innovative gameplay." Yeah, sure, OK.

Seeing as I'm a gay man and like the Persona games, I could see checking this out just for the gay romance options. But... uh... not willing to shell out $30 for the privilege, nor even the $18 required for the current 40% off price of the Steam Winter sale. IDK, for $18 I feel there should be some decent gameplay involved. Fun reading the blog, though!

Don't know whether these typos/puns were intentional or not, but either way I applaud you. There are sicko games and then there are sicko sentences, and I approve of both!