I really enjoy the home-shot Bombasticas. Thanks for sharing this one Jeff, I knew very little about Lode Runner aside from hearing it mentioned on occasion. You made a compelling case for why you think it's one of the best games of all time, and really sold me on your argument!
(Also this video was just an all-around fun time.)
I love reading simple but compelling opinion pieces like this. I've just started my personal blog back up because I want to write more, and this is likely the kind of thing I'll aim to focus on for now. Thanks, Austin - reading your words is always a pleasure!
In answer to your closing questions... the series which I can most appreciate but has never appealed to me is probably Mario. Both in its 2D and 3D forms, I have played several of those games over the years and can see how well put-together they are and understand why people enjoy them so much... yet I never feel a real compulsion to keep playing past the opening hour or two.
I don't have a great answer to the other question, but I'll say the last Tomb Raider. I loved the original games from the 90s, and I have had a ton of fun with the likes of Uncharted in recent times, but that game could not hook me in for some reason. I'm hoping the new one will fare better, but that'll have to wait for now as I don't currently have an Xbox One.
I'm very much looking forward to getting my hands on Overwatch! Much like the GB staff, I wasn't super into it for a long while and then recently it's just caught my attention. You're right: every character in that game is so cute! Would love to get some hands-on time with it. Instead I spent this weekend trying Heroes of the Storm for the first time. I don't know why I chose this super-busy period of all times to do so, but I'm having a fantastic time with it. I doubt it'll all-encompass the way Dota 2 has done at times, however.
Survivor Series could probably be summed up as "disappointing." I enjoyed it well enough, but that word really hits home. It's disappointing that the incredible Wyatt/BoD buildup fizzled out so hard. It's disappointing that with such a strong female roster right now the women's title scene still feels so rushed and uninspired. It's disappointing that, at a time when the audience would perhaps be most accepting and understanding of some off-the-wall booking, they stuck with some of the most by-the-book results they could come up with. Still, it's the first PPV I've watched through since WM31, so there's that.
Thanks as always for putting this together! The GotY grind is real... I've currently got Legacy of the Void, Fallout 4, Battlefront, Isaac Afterbirth, and Black Ops III on the plate. Additionally, I want to get to at least Undertale, full-release Necrodancer, the Bloodborne DLC, and the new Rocket League stuff under my belt this year. Also I decided that this weekend was a good time to try out Heroes of the Storm, which caught me off-guard and I'm now pretty hooked on.
I'm not going to complain, because it's a wealth of incredible games and they're a joy to play. But it's a lot of content to splurge out on; a real plate-spinning time in the videogame world.
I too have been loving LotV so far, I'm really glad I decided to jump into it straight away rather than waiting to finish Fallout and MGS first. Will still go back to those but it's great to love StarCraft again.
Oh, also Battlefront is out tomorrow so I'll probably end up playing that. I'm quite happy it's fairly shallow though - I just want to dip in for the occasional Star Wars with some friends. There's too many other great games to have another I need to dedicate a bunch of time to... In fact, I started playing Heroes of the Storm yesterday too (cause I didn't have enough on my plate already) and that game is way better to play than watching it makes it seem.
EDIT: You guys playing Battlefront in first-person are crazy. Sure, it looks pretty and I had fun with it for the first half an hour I played... But third-person feels so much stronger with the added situational awareness and ability to see around corners or over ledges. Also c'mon Brad, Rush is the Battlefield mode. Also Jason Dadstreicher talking about Griffin is the cutest!
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