I groan at yet another account situation… But I adore RGG’s work, and will do anything for more Yakuza. Yakuza 3-5 remastered was the reason I even got myself a PS5. Yakuza 0 and Kiwami were the reason I got my PS4.

Five bucks says that the guy who didn’t vote for Ichiro didn’t hand out 10 votes, and that the snub is purely because they don’t believe anyone should be unanimous.

I’m in the LA area. Glad that we’re staying above freezing, especially in the wake of the fires.

But seriously, it feels like we’re getting these humongous weather patterns fairly regularly now. Maybe someone should investigate what’s going on with our global climate and causing these.

Yeah, if you read other articles by the author, it’s all slop like this. Also note that the OP seems to only link articles from this site…

I haven’t been active in TF2 in years, but I have 2.9k hours, all without idling for items. That game was basically another life for me, around 2010-2016. In that timespan I picked up PC gaming, got into shooters, got into TF2, joined a community, started collecting strange weapons, got my first unusual and traded it, and captained a Highlander team as Pyro.

The game was and still is amazing; I only ever stopped because it was becoming detrimental to my life and schooling. Now, when I try to play, I mourn the loss of my old community servers, get frustrated with my worse skills, and despise the number of bots I run into on Valve servers.

I added this to my Steam wishlist like 2 minutes after I saw this announced… Maybe a year ago? I’m awful at skate games but I really love the look of this game.

It’s a mod, but it may as well be a completely new game. It’s a huge revamp that Max has pumped so much time and money into.

Energy could have lost:

• Guide of Souls
• Galvanic Discharge
• Static Prison
• Amped Raptor

And on the non-energy portion of it:

• Ocelot Pride
• Ajani
• Phlage

I guess removing Raptor helps prevent those unwinnable turn 3, turn 4 board states, at least. But getting rid of Phlage would get strip away some of their removal and survivability. Getting rid of Guide of Souls would kinda crush Energy as a deck. Ocelot and Ajani are being left alone because they can still be used in a Boros go-wide deck, at least.

TOR in Legacy feels okay to me, but I don’t play or follow Legacy too much. I feel like Legacy has the answers and counterplay for it, though, no?

Honestly, this feels very well thought-out, and close to an ideal B&R.

Standard is still finding its footing post-Foundations, and it’s a bit too soon to really ban anything there.

Pioneer, I could’ve been happy to see Cruise get banned, but that might be too much of a shakeup after last ban. Jegantha going away feels funny, because almost no decks truly relied on Jegantha as a win condition or anything, but the value of an extra card was just too much, and its Companion condition was just stifling creative builds. In general I’d like to see a bit more variety in midrange decks be viable there (I’m a Gruul Boats player, and that deck has basically vanished over the last year).

Modern needed these bans months ago. One Ring was just too homogenous. Basically every deck that could fit it wanted it. It stalled out games in a way that didn’t feel interactive. Boros Energy definitely needed a check, and I hope Amped Raptor is enough to bring it back down to earth. Could have just as easily been Ajani or Ocelot Pride or Galvanic Discharge, but time will tell. The unbannings seem relatively safe. Opal should open up some affinity decks. GSZ is a big maybe; I don’t know if Yawg would even want it right now. Looting is great. Twin is hilarious, but shouldn’t actually make an impact besides getting old Modern players back into the format.

Legacy needed those bans. The frog was scary good and flexible, and the Bauble just shut down too much in a format where free things are vital.

Overall, just an absolute Christmas gift of a B&R. Hoping to see this improve player turnout at local events.

I’m having a good time with it! If you’re a Marvel fan, it draws from a lot more than just the MCU, and is much better for it in my opinion. If you’re not a Marvel fan, it’s similar to an Overwatch, but with each character playing drastically different from each other. Character complexity can feel like a lot, but it works out in a chaotic, fun way.

Iron Man, my preferred character, has a projectile repulsor blast, a close-range unibeam, perpetual flight, boosters to move quickly (with a recharging meter), a temporary damage buff, rockets that can fire while buffed or while using boosters, and an ultimate bomb. If he’s on the same team as a Bruce Banner/Hulk, then whenever Hulk drops Gamma radiation, Iron Man’s buff is stronger (and green).

On the indy front, I picked up Terra Memoria, and it’s been interesting so far!

Hell Let Loose, I’m assuming. Haven’t played it, but I think it’s a WW2 sim shooter?

I mean, it’s certainly one way to have “flavor of the month” characters without actually having to rebalance things monthly.

A lot of good games can be based on randomness. Being in control of the deck building means that your choices shape the odds. I used to have a similar viewpoint as you, but learned to really embrace randomness and the design challenges it presents.

I say this as a Magic player, where even the greatest players in the world can get screwed or flooded on mana. The possibility of screw/flood increases the importance of card draw/card selection, makes the playability of low-mana cards more important, and makes heavy color pip investment, multiple colors, and higher mana costs a very serious concern.

Oh, I already have it, I just needed a good reason to hop into it and really give it a shot over the holidays.

I’m fine with games that push you to change your combat; combat that’s only there as a stat check and grind doesn’t feel like a compelling reason to have combat.

I was on the younger end of the target demographic, but I got big Geocities vibes from a lot of those pages. Such a neat game.

I’m like, one toe deep in 4 different turn-based RPGS. What does this one do particularly well?

Hey, don’t forget about good old Riding the Dilu Horse. +2/+2 and Horsemanship that stuck around, with no counters or attachment.

Wyrmspan is awesome.

If you enjoy Wingspan, Wyrmspan feels like a Wingspan where you can actually “build” in a cohesive manner, and everything feels a little tighter/tougher due to the reduced number of resources you can get per action initially. The ability to earn more actions within a round becomes pivotal. And it feels like there are different viable paths to victory, whereas Wingspan really felt like "get early pink ability birds, then focus on high point value birds.

My board game group has switched over without looking back, and we had already invested in the Nesting Box and every expansion for Wingspan.

Thanks!

I didn’t know/understand the integrated memory thing.

It seems like this thing is like 80% of the way to an amazing machine. Hall Effect sticks and a great screen and chip set, but the Windows 11 nonsense and the short RAM keep it from being an auto-recommend.

If SteamOS goes public, I’d really hope to see how this device fares.