Stephen_Von_Cloud

Cream of the Crop is... well near the top for sure.

I also love this one for Macho Man. So fucking funny.

I love Stone Cold's Austin 3:16. It's when I fell in love with Stone Cold and obviously it's maybe the pivotal moment to setting up one of the biggest wrestling characters of all time in Stone Cold (my favorite for sure).

The delivery is so good. And the lines stick with me.

Also love this Jake Roberts one. The calm delivery of this still gets me. Love Jake and this angle. The man worked avarice into a wrestling promo.

It was Crime Crew. So many funny moments in the series, many of the funniest on GB period.

@audreyedtodeath:hope you like CotN. I think its still great, wish they made more stuff just like it. And it really is a huge step up from previous historical city builders. I don't know if you ever tried those, games like Pharaoh and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom by Impressions, but they are entirely about cramming things as close as possible together and puzzling out roads and routes of units along them. Extremely maddening to me. No real life or creativity to them.

@audreyedtodeath: To my memory it has a campaign (similar to other builder games out there mostly) and a free mode. I believe you get to choose different areas and maybe have multiple settlements going? I played it when it came out and again probably 3 years ago and still really liked it but its been long enough I forget some details. It's enjoyable and way less finicky than other historical builders of that period.

Just checking over your responses and post, I do think you should check out Anno. Those games are all about expansion from my experience, often by sea between different islands looking for resources, and I believe you can basically turn combat off, with it not being too big of a part anyways. You build new settlements quite often in the ones I've played but it all is building to something bigger. Like each may be a little map of its own but you are building a whole network.

This isn't the most recent game, or the best in the series, but just to give you an idea if you haven't seen it. Although I do have to say with all this said I am not a huge fan of the series, for reasons I can't fully put my finger on. Seems like I should like the historical ones more. I think because it has so much of a pure economic focus. I do like Tropico as mentioned by others as well and I do think the new one has an island expansion kind of thing going on as well.

This guy stole my recs. Also check out the Anno series. A new one just came out but they have a variety of them, historical to sci-fi, and they're really all about supply chains and resources.

I will also plug Evil Genius (which came out in... 04!) with the overhaul mod. Graphic still look great and it's still fun. i think Children of the Nile still holds up pretty well even if its missing some life to the overall package compared to modern takes. I would also theoretically suggest Kenshi although it has combat so if you can get past that part it has a lot of management and builder aspects. I haven't played it yet but might grab it soon.

This has been a good excuse for me to dig into the backlog.

Children of Morta is fun. It's giving me the ideal Diablo type feeling without the lifeless, mindless feel that Diablo III has for me. My one complaint is none of the characters grabbing me besides John but I just got the Pyro daughter and still have one more to come.

State of Decay 2. I do like a lot about this but feels a little bit of a chore in the early game but I'm sure it improves. Also as a co-op game its lacking. Unfortunately it feels entirely tuned for "I'll dip into my friends game" vs "me and my friend are playing a whole campaign together". As the partner, you can't even see any management menus, no matter adjust anything, and you can't use their survivors. Not to be too negative. There's good management stuff here I like and I love games that have a real strategy game feel despite being action games. I just have issues with certain elements, like the co-op implementation to the weird world bits like big honking hearts creating the plague I guess?

Mortal Kombat 11. Had put it off forever but finally getting into it. Haven't done the story yet but just been messing with characters and doing some towers and unlocking stuff. I really enjoy Shao Khan most, continuing my trend towards big brawler and grapplers in Netherrealm games. I do like Jax, Raiden, Sub Zero so far as well. It's fun. The variation stuff makes things complicated and could be handled better in a way that let you explore and see differences. Its a lot to figure out at first but I do like the added depth of these systems. It keeps someone like me, who is into RPGs and stuff, something to fiddle with that keeps me going longer.

I still have a lot more to play more of. Some of this is stuff on Xbox Game Pass but I also have Battletech, Into the Breach, and RE2 Remake among other games to play.

This week's Dynamite lost a lot to me from having no crowd. If they could have anyone out there giving a reaction I think it would help, as it did last week. I know they are following direction but I don't see how people crammed in a tiny room are safer... wouldn't being spread out in the crowd be safer?

I was only following some of the Broken Matt Hardy stuff while it was going and now that he's in AEW, so far it's a bit of a mixed bag. I appreciate it in theory but it doesn't really hit for me, being either particularly funny or interesting.

I am fine with him being kind of a weird character and I think some people should relax as far as I think this week they are making the best of a bad situation. i didn't like the teleporting myself but you obviously can't do that in a arena with a crowd so I'm letting them have their fun. We'll see how it goes.

I thought Brody looked good in his squash match and I liked his gear, plus the vignette mocking Vince, always down for that. I am interested to see where his character lands in feel.

Kenny and Sammy was a pretty great match but really lost a lot with no crowd. It feels hard to keep a match going for as long as it did without one, or again some life in the arena.

Another arm triangle from Hager. Yawn.

The commentary was decent but definitely missed the whole crew.

lol well they got that corporate bailout money no problem!

Look up how UK or Denmark are covering workers wages. We just get stepped on in America and people are so beaten down they think nothing good from the govt is possible.

I am really interested to see how this game is just reading lightly through and not playing it yet myself.

There are certainly many games where I think a chase of "balance" has ruined a series follow up or in ways diminished it. Some games that are "broken" balance wise are truly great and its actually a cool feeling to "break" games, something many developers don't understand.

I LOVE Final Fantasy Tactics and not because it is well balanced. There are a number of ways to develop a character that feels like a super hero and they all still make me feel powerful and clever doing them. Hell, they just give you an OP companion in the game at one point but you can just not use him if you don't want.

Halo CE is another game where yeah, the pistol is fantastic but who the fuck cares? The other weapons aren't useless and it is all still super fun. Other Halo games are great but going back I don't think any are as fun, even as they added way more weapons.

I also think there is something to be said for possibility space and how that feels for a player. Seeing comments in here about the game do make me think of in character action type games when you run into enemies that absolutely require certain moves to break their guard or whatever, something I hate. These games give you tons of moves and encourage freedom and expression BUT at times its no absolutely use this move. For me that is rarely interesting and often feels frustrating.

I love that, playing Demon's/Dark Souls games, I can get through them all while almost never at all parrying. Meanwhile someone else can come along and play entirely that way. It creates a feeling of freedom and appreciation for the player, as well as possibilities, that does matter.

It sounds like a small difference but instead, allowing even say 2-3 answers to that problem you run into instead of 1 can really add a ton to a game and allow for a feeling of player empowerment and expression that go a long way.

I think that Developers, especially designers, are using restraint allowing things to be more open in these ways and deserve applause. I think that sometimes feedback from certain groups can certainly go the wrong way. I don't think DOOM had any, absolutely any, problems with weapon balance that needed to be addressed yet it seems that was some focus for them.