Epsilon82

I agree with some of your criticism here, and I absolutely agree with the suggestion that anyone looking to get into the series should start with the first game, because while the gameplay is tuned perfectly for hardcore fans of the previous game, I think it would be overwhelming to newcomers in most cases.

One thing I would add is that the holding station and side dish mechanic is a truly brilliant addition that adds a perfect extra layer of complexity to the gameplay. The first game was literally just "Do Chore/Cook Food" as they popped up and that was that. It was still frantic, fun, and engaging, but it was pretty easy to reach a skill ceiling. Once you memorized the key combinations it was just a matter of accuracy and APM. The holding stations and side dishes, particularly the effect that a variety of side dishes have on customer patience (and your tips) is brilliant and makes the skill ceiling almost infinite in terms of strategy.

I never really cared much about the "management" side of things in CSD1, mostly because once you got past a certain point there was really nothing left to do; the offerings here are slimmer in the sense of the upgrades, etc., but the addition of the detailed appearance customization and the massive number of customized challenges in the form of the Chef-for-Hire missions really makes this game a much more complete package than the first in my opinion.

Maybe my expectations or standards aren't the highest (I've enjoyed pretty much every COD campaign except Ghosts and BO3), but I've been really enjoying the campaign so far. I haven't quite finished it yet, but I've been pleasantly surprised by how much of an impact this last decade or so of tech improvement has made on otherwise very familiar terrain. It does feel a bit like a "Greatest Hits" or COD 1-3 Remastered in some ways, but that's been just fine with me.

I know what gave me pause at first was that for whatever reason I connected Braid's price to this game. Which is silly because I had heard all the buzz about how huge and full of content this game would be, but for whatever reason I feel like I've been conditioned to think, "Ooh, indie game, probably $15-20" when I hear of certain people or studios.

I'm really not in a situation at the moment where the price is anything of a real factor; I have plenty of money budgeted away toward video games, which makes it even more strange that I balked at the price tag initially. Hell, I even have about $30 of unused Steam credit from the last sale that I couldn't find anything more to spend on, so I'd only really be parting with $10 or so if I bought it right now. The real issue for me is that it might not be something that I really feel like investing my time in when I have such a ridiculous backlog and am eagerly awaiting the PC version of Rise of the Tomb Raider just two days later.

I've been kicking around the idea of treating The Witness like a more "persistent" game, in that I would play it for an hour or two in between longer sessions of something like Rise of the Tomb Raider instead of just playing it exclusively for a long period of time, which would make it fit into my schedule better, but I fear that the nature of the puzzles might be such that it would be making things more difficult on myself than if I pretty much exclusively focused on it. Whether playing it that way would be detrimental or not is really the primary factor in my decision at this point, and it's hard to get a good sense about that from what I've read so far.

I confess I had nearly completely forgotten about this game. $40 does seem a bit steep for me to more or less impulse buy it, but it does sound like it absolutely justifies that price point with the amount of content. If Rise of the Tomb Raider weren't coming out on PC later this week I'd probably just jump all over it now, so that's unfortunate timing. But once I've put that one down, this might be a good change of pace and I'll probably have a bit of a gap. There's not much else really on my imminent radar until Far Cry Primal at least.

Thanks man, I worked very hard on them. I'm grateful that I can always count on your support.

Thank you for extending some NFC West solidarity with respect to shitty ownership. The Niners have had to suffer no small dose of that themselves recently.

As to Westerado, yeah, that definitely sounds about right, although it's pretty funny how wide a net "trying to kill everyone" casts in the video game universe. But there are definitely more interesting consequences if you do it in that game; I highly recommend it.

I think Prison Architect is a bit of a victim of the long Early Access cycle, where so many people who were really interested have already been playing it for years so the impact of its "Version 1.0" official release was blunted. The sensation of Cities: Skylines probably didn't do it many favors either. I really do want to play it, but games like this feel daunting to me at a time when I still have dozens of other games that demand a lot less of me.

Yeah, Dying Light is probably the first AAA game from last year I want to get to, but it may get pushed a bit further since it sounds like Rise of the Tomb Raider is dropping on PC as early as this month. I really like the concept of the day-night cycle and parkour systems, and I haven't played a good zombie game in a long time.

Yeah, I can definitely see how it could quickly become a situation where you'd want both hands on the notes; that was definitely the case with Rock Band Blitz pretty much from the jump, but that was made a bit more intuitive in that you only had left and right notes; the center note here makes the situation quite a bit more complex.

I'm afraid that the higher I climb on the difficulty ladder in this game, the more I might suffer from the habits and control preferences I've developed on the lower ones, but I guess that just comes with the territory with these sorts of games.

You mention that the DS4 triggers aren't well suited for the game; is there any gameplay-related reason not to use the face buttons for hitting the notes? I found myself very quickly switching to using Square for left, Triangle for center, and Circle for right. I'm an admitted total novice at this particular series, though I did play a LOT of Rock Band Blitz a few years back. I just wonder if there's some more advanced techniques or something that I'm not aware of that might make using the face buttons a sub-optimal method.

If you would have told me after the 20 minutes or so I played of the PS4 version of Rocket League that it would end up being my Game of the Year, especially knowing how much I had already loved The Witcher 3, I would have asked you get your head examined.

I thought the concept was nifty, but I figured it would just be a disposable thing I'd play a few matches of then forget about. And the frame-rate on PS4 just didn't seem quite up to the task. It really felt like this game SCREAMS for a locked 60 fps. When I found out the multiplayer was cross-platform, I figured maybe I'd like this game better on more powerful hardware so I took the plunge and bought the PC version and BOY was I ever right.

I haven't been this addicted to a game since I first got into music rhythm games with Rock Band 1, and I basically NEVER play competitive multiplayer. That this game could get its claws into me as deeply as it has is a true testament to sensational design sensibilities. Every single match it feels like I'm learning a new trick, subtlety, or approach to a type of situation, and every time I quit a session it feels like I'm withdrawing from a drug.

Props to Jason for giving this game the respect it truly deserves. What an amazing accomplishment, and I will continue to shovel cash to the devs for as many of the cosmetic DLC I don't really care about as they choose to release. Even 60 bucks feels like an act of larceny for as much as I've gotten out the game already and will surely continue to get for as long as people continue populating the servers.

Do you guys get the sense that Brad really feels quite that strongly enough about MGS V to throw himself in front of the Super Mario Maker train? I mean, for all the praise he lavishes on the game here, I don't sense any corresponding antipathy toward Mario that he kind of started to show for Saints Row: The Third (2011 being probably the most analogous situation here.) I also don't think he quite loves MGS 5 as much as he LOOOOVED Skyrim, but I could be wrong.

If Dan had put MGS 5 ahead of Mario, then I'd bet on at least a big fight, but unless Dan pulls a deus-ex-machina kind of like Ryan did with respect to backing off his own No. 1 pick in 2011, I think Mario's support will be too strong.

It should also be noted (and Brad surely is aware of this) that MGS 5 has been subsequently marred by the odious FOB microtransaction horseshit, making the game an undeniably worse experience now than it was at release. That fact might be enough to dissuade him from putting on the stilettos and digging in for it this time.

LOL. Well played, sir.