He looks REALLY familiar to me. I swear I've seen him somewhere before, in some other context, but I can't remember where/what/why.

I thought the same thing, but I honestly believe that maybe it's just the way he presents himself that makes him seem friendly and approachable. I googled him and didn't see anything I would have recognized him from. He's been a concept artist on lots of big name games and movies, so maybe he appeared in some behind the scenes thing on one of those? I dunno.

Stardew Valley released on PS4 and Xbox One this week. I highly recommend it for those that like a very leisurely experience. It's very Harvest Moon. You manage a farm, dive into caves to fight monsters and find loot, craft things, talk to the folks in town and give them gifts, go fishing, rebuild a community center, discover lots of secrets, etc. It's a very charming little game made by a single person over four years. You all probably remember it from it's release on Steam earlier this year.

The Steam version has controller support which is identical to the way it works on PS4. I'd maybe recommend to Steam version as it's not very taxing (My Surface Pro 4 runs it perfectly) and there are some neat mods available for it. That said, if PS4 is your only option or preferred platform, it's a totally good port and definitely worth a play at $15. FWIW, I have the Steam version, but I bought the PS4 version too and started a new farm.

"C'mon. We both know why you're here. You don't need a story. You kill demons. Let's go have some fun"

I cannot wait for Danny to post the extended interview with Hugo Martin later this month. He is an absolute joy to listen to. I love his attitude, and he's hilarious.

I loved it because it didn't take itself seriously. I loved the attitude and general bad-asserry of it all.

"C'mon. We both know why you're here. You don't need a story. You kill demons. Let's go have some fun"

YES!

This one covers what DOOM 4 would have been and why/how they rebooted it into just DOOM.

Just admit you like boobs Kojima.

I know. I was emphasizing that the studio has a huge systematic issue.

It's not even a systematic studio issue, it's a cultural issue. It does bother me with Cindy in FFXV (in fact that's the reason I never fill up the Regalia's tank at Hammerhead), but it's one character out of five or so important female characters, the rest who are dressed fairly normally (for the universe), and happen to be their own, independent, strong characters. Definitely not enough to ruin the entire experience of the game for me.

I was literally embarrassed

This is a studio whose PR dude thinks that the only reason players would want female party members is for them to look sexy.

"So a lot of feedback from Europe was that Cindy is too sexy. But they do want a female character in the party. It does feel a bit contradictory."

It's not about being sexy. She could be sexy in attire that's appropriate and functional for a mechanic. It's about being dressed in an absolutely ridiculously inappropriate manner given the story circumstances.

I was literally embarrassed

This is a studio whose PR dude thinks that the only reason players would want female party members is for them to look sexy.

"So a lot of feedback from Europe was that Cindy is too sexy. But they do want a female character in the party. It does feel a bit contradictory."

Yeah I've been really enjoying FFXV a lot.

I was literally embarrassed to be playing a game where the mechanic dresses like a stripper.

It managed to top the embarrassment I felt when playing Deponia Doomsday…

We know Cody didn't like it, but is anyone else playing it? I have never enjoyed a Final Fantasy game. I played a bit of FF7 when a friend got it for his Windows computer in '98, but, to ten-year-old me, it didn't even come close to the joy of playing Ocarina of Time, so I wrote it off. I never tried another FF until FFXIII on Xbox 360, which I also didn't like. So I have basically no experience with the series.

It's fascinating, because the storytelling in the series has essentially shifted from the stage to film. Games Prior to 10 were essentially presented the same way a stage play would be, where we have a mostly unchanging, wide perspective of the characters while they converse. The characters in the old games had to use broad gestures. Jumps and stuff like that in the 16 bit games, and flamboyant animations in the Playstation era. This actually kind of worked well because it distanced you from what was actually going on and injected a certain amount of imagination into the experience. As a player when you have this distance, the lack of interactivity of the world and limitations of the world building are not felt nearly as much.

If you walk into a town in say, FFVII, you will find that there are a very limited number of places where you can go. You can maybe enter 5 houses. Which is ridiculous sounding right? Hundreds if not thousands of people should live there. People just stand around and have maybe 3 or 4 different phrases when you speak to them. But that doesn't bother you nearly as much because the method of presentation does not line up with how we perceive the world.

But when you switch to 3D, now the towns feel small. People standing around feels weird. None of the 3D games have overcome this. We don't get our characters in broad strokes and without voice acting, but we get cinematics with characters than are now more real and can emote much more effectively, which only more highlights the faults with the games.

Like Bioshock Infinite, these games take us to an uncanny valley becoming all the more common with games. The aesthetics suggest a world that the designers can't deliver.

So what you're saying is... games made with a bigger budget have made immersive gaming worse... huh... so #codywaswrong according to Cody.

No that's not exactly it. Case and point Uncharted 4 with the market. Feels totally real. The problem is that they need even MORE money and time to solve these problems if they refuse to design around it. It's a misapplication of the resources on primarily aesthetics instead of a balance between aesthetics and mechanics.

We know Cody didn't like it, but is anyone else playing it? I have never enjoyed a Final Fantasy game. I played a bit of FF7 when a friend got it for his Windows computer in '98, but, to ten-year-old me, it didn't even come close to the joy of playing Ocarina of Time, so I wrote it off. I never tried another FF until FFXIII on Xbox 360, which I also didn't like. So I have basically no experience with the series.

It's fascinating, because the storytelling in the series has essentially shifted from the stage to film. Games Prior to 10 were essentially presented the same way a stage play would be, where we have a mostly unchanging, wide perspective of the characters while they converse. The characters in the old games had to use broad gestures. Jumps and stuff like that in the 16 bit games, and flamboyant animations in the Playstation era. This actually kind of worked well because it distanced you from what was actually going on and injected a certain amount of imagination into the experience. As a player when you have this distance, the lack of interactivity of the world and limitations of the world building are not felt nearly as much.

If you walk into a town in say, FFVII, you will find that there are a very limited number of places where you can go. You can maybe enter 5 houses. Which is ridiculous sounding right? Hundreds if not thousands of people should live there. People just stand around and have maybe 3 or 4 different phrases when you speak to them. But that doesn't bother you nearly as much because the method of presentation does not line up with how we perceive the world.

But when you switch to 3D, now the towns feel small. People standing around feels weird. None of the 3D games have overcome this. We don't get our characters in broad strokes and without voice acting, but we get cinematics with characters than are now more real and can emote much more effectively, which only more highlights the faults with the games.

Like Bioshock Infinite, these games take us to an uncanny valley becoming all the more common with games. The aesthetics suggest a world that the designers can't deliver.

So what you're saying is... games made with a bigger budget have made immersive gaming worse... huh... so #codywaswrong according to Cody.

Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts.

We know Cody didn't like it, but is anyone else playing it? I have never enjoyed a Final Fantasy game. I played a bit of FF7 when a friend got it for his Windows computer in '98, but, to ten-year-old me, it didn't even come close to the joy of playing Ocarina of Time, so I wrote it off. I never tried another FF until FFXIII on Xbox 360, which I also didn't like. So I have basically no experience with the series.

It's fascinating, because the storytelling in the series has essentially shifted from the stage to film. Games Prior to 10 were essentially presented the same way a stage play would be, where we have a mostly unchanging, wide perspective of the characters while they converse. The characters in the old games had to use broad gestures. Jumps and stuff like that in the 16 bit games, and flamboyant animations in the Playstation era. This actually kind of worked well because it distanced you from what was actually going on and injected a certain amount of imagination into the experience. As a player when you have this distance, the lack of interactivity of the world and limitations of the world building are not felt nearly as much.

If you walk into a town in say, FFVII, you will find that there are a very limited number of places where you can go. You can maybe enter 5 houses. Which is ridiculous sounding right? Hundreds if not thousands of people should live there. People just stand around and have maybe 3 or 4 different phrases when you speak to them. But that doesn't bother you nearly as much because the method of presentation does not line up with how we perceive the world.

But when you switch to 3D, now the towns feel small. People standing around feels weird. None of the 3D games have overcome this. We don't get our characters in broad strokes and without voice acting, but we get cinematics with characters than are now more real and can emote much more effectively, which only more highlights the faults with the games.

Like Bioshock Infinite, these games take us to an uncanny valley becoming all the more common with games. The aesthetics suggest a world that the designers can't deliver.

Ratings:

15 - F
14 - N/A
13 - C+
12 - D
11 - N/A
10 - D-
9- B+
8 - A
7 - A-
6 - B+
4 - C

Everything else is shit.

8 is definitely the best one, so give it a try. There's no grinding required, since everything scales according to your level. In fact, being low level can be beneficial, since powering yourself up with the junction system can make you more powerful proportionally at lower levels. You can one hit the final boss at level 10, but not at 99 for example.

In addition, I feel as if 7 and 8 are actually about something.