Brackstone

Vinny trying to do all 3 games in an hour sounds insane but that first level went really well so now I believe.

I had a similar with Taskmaster. Discovered it a couple years ago and was hooked, told friends about it but they didn't care. This year, they all got into it.

It's really the perfect distraction, a great show to just unwind and have some fun with.

@hughj: That's what blows my mind, a decent chunk of their messaging has been raw power, that we'd see the kinds of games that couldn't run on any other platform. I never believed it, but I believed that they'd be able to offer greater performance relative to a current pc/next gen console. That they can't even meet an Xbox One X's visual quality is just insane.

At least so far, according to the Digital Foundry review, it's not 4k60fps. Seems like most games are running at lower settings than even the console versions, and being upscaled to 4k. I think the Verge review got in touch with Bungie and they say Destiny is running on medium PC settings.

Yeah, got to echo the sentiment that this Party Pack just doesn't seem great. Trivia Murder Party is fine, but it's been done before. Push the Button seems like it just implements the rules of several hidden identity games, but with added complexity that just doesn't work in a party setting. It's not that it's bad, it's just a too complex for a style of game that has so many other, established options that are arguably better. If they had taken out all the rooms except the drawing room, that would have been interesting, make it a drawing focused Spyfall.

I'm not sure, but I'd assume someone's made app versions of Spyfall or Avalon or One Night Werewolf by now, and those games are all quite good for doing some lying with your friends.

The rest of the games seemed pretty boring to be honest.

In the off chance that Jeff reads this given his currently busy lifestyle and hasn't already heard about these, you can get cat claw covers. A popular brand is called Soft Paws but there are tons of options that might be better. They're little rubber covers that come in various sizes that you can apply over your cat's individual nails to stop them from scratching, and shouldn't cause any problems as long as they're the right size, so they won't impede retraction or mess with their movement at all. They last a few weeks and come off naturally as the nail grows.

They were being pushed heavily by vets and the animal shelter in my town because they're trying to put an end to outdoor cats due to how much damage they cause to bird populations. They're a popular temporary option for outdoor cats to at least get used to being indoors. I definitely think there's better options for most people in terms of protecting furniture and all that in the long term (proper training), and if your cats are real outdoor cats that roam for hours and get into fights and stuff, you don't want to leave them defenceless, so they should keep their claws.

But if you're concerned about the baby getting injured it might be worth the peace of mind until baby Gerstmann gets a little older and the cats get more used to being around the baby. If you're unsure about application or correct sizes I'm sure your vet or even some pet groomers could help you out. But again, it's not right for every cat so really you'd know best.

@dgtlty: I beat this in singleplayer the other day and had an absolute blast, it's probably my favourite Soulsy game not made by From Software (haven't played The Surge yet though).

It feels like it's well balanced around both singe player and co-op. The hardest encounter in solo was the first one for me (it's randomized), getting used to managing both a boss and the minions they summon, but once you figure out the pace of how you're supposed to deal with bosses, it all comes together.

In co-op it seems like the main change is increased health of everything. While that might sound like a lazy form of difficulty, because the boss fights are always boss + adds, it means increasing the health of the adds actually requires you to operate as a team for the sake of crowd control, whereas in singleplayer adds are really just a distraction and a spatial awareness challenge rather than a significant threat on their own.

I think if they do another RE game, it should be Revelations 2. It's asymmetrical co-op, so one person can be Barry Burton shooting big guns in typical Resident Evil style while the other person is a weird Russian little girl throwing bricks at zombies. It's also got Claire and Barry's teen daughter hitting things with a crowbar. I think they'd have a lot of fun with the format of it.

Dead Space is also a great choice. Probably the best realization of the more actiony RE mechanics.

People might be sick of it, but I really like watching Abby play survival horror games. Especially these kind of ones, where there's enough action that she's not uncomfortable the whole time, but she can still get spooked once in a while.

I kinda get the Dan mic mute thing, but I think it's a little mean spirited. So many GB features with Dan turn into "Dan gets worked up about something he doesn't know and the crew has to work hard to calm him down and move on". Muting his mic isn't the right way to do it, but I'd be lying if I didn't think Dan can be a bit much sometimes. I think part of it is definitely him playing it up or being intentionally stubborn, but I also think the crew is maybe a little conditioned to get worked up in response to Dan almost regardless of what he says.

There are better ways to reign it in, because I do believe Dan is starting from a genuine place, everyone just gets a little too excited too easily and videos end up derailing in the same way every time. It can be a funny bit, but when this bit happens so often it stops being entertaining.

This episode was amazing, utter chaos.

But boy did it make me remember how just awful Trevor is. If I never have to see anything of him again, it'll be too soon.