Coelacanth

If you have 2 minutes to solve a puzzle, is it no longer a puzzle game?

Yes, clearly. It still behaves the way a puzzle - or puzzle game - would: knowledge of the solution trivialises the content. It’s just a puzzle game with a timer.

If moving certain colored pieces requires a button combo or sequence, instead of a simple action, is this no longer a puzzle game?

Depends on how the combo works. Is there an element of skill involved? If it’s like a rhythm game I would just call it a puzzle/rhythm game. Otherwise it’s just a puzzle game with extra steps.

For me, if the main challenge of the game is figuring out the puzzle, then it’s mainly a puzzle game. If a measure of skill is required in the actual execution of beating the game it is no longer a pure puzzle game - but it can still contain puzzle elements of course.

EDIT: I would agree that Tetris is not a puzzle game.

Knowing the optimal thing to do can be seen as but a higher order puzzle.

But knowing the right strategy and item build in DotA or LoL means fuck all if you can’t mechanically execute your hero properly, which - in my opinion - disqualifies them as “puzzle games”.

I’ve been mainlining Esports Godfather, which is the surprise hit of the year for me so far. The title is nonsensical and on the surface it looks like it can’t be good, but it’s been so much fun.

It’s a MOBA-themed sort of deckbuilder/autobattler/management game - which sounds like a hot mess but plays so much better than you’d think. At least after you get over the initial information overload.

I wish the AI was a little smarter, but even with the game being a touch too easy it’s incredible how much fun it is. Loads of cards and heroes to build synergies with and rotating version rulesets keeping things fresh even within a single run.

At just €16 on Steam I’d easily recommend it to anyone with an interest in the genre, and there is even a free demo that covers the first couple hours of a run.

I think your definition of puzzle games is pretty flawed, to be honest. A puzzle does not provide additional difficulty once you’ve identified how the pieces go together, consequently a game should behave similarly to qualify as a puzzle game. The dichotomy is between conceptualisation versus execution.

Puzzle games can be solved or “won” by identifying the solution. Not-puzzle games require execution.

Guitar Hero and OSU! are not puzzle games. Games like RTSes and MOBAs can be argued to have puzzle elements in terms of strategy and meta, but knowing the optimal thing to do will still not give you victory which imo disqualifies them as outright puzzle games.

I know the car is getting the traditional Aston Martin mid-season downgrades, but Alonso has not been great lately either. Is he finally getting old, or is he still feeling the post-China hand injury? That was his last great race weekend wasn’t it?

What a lap from Lando holy

I suspect uncapping FPS would break physics and damage calculations. FromSoft are fond of tying those to FPS.

I’m not surprised about the rest either, though they really should start getting criticized for it in my opinion. No DLSS in 2024 is especially hard to excuse.

I don’t think the writing is particularly good, and it is particularly problematic in Act 3. The pacing falls apart, all urgency disappears and there is also a big problem with the villains. Gortash and Orin are pretty bad characters and the nebulous blob that is the Nether Brain is not a compelling antagonist. The Emperor is a pretty interesting character, but he sadly doesn’t really play out as an antagonist - which I find a massive waste in itself. It also felt like some parts of the plot only make sense if you’re playing as Dark Urge.

The companions all being extremely horny and protagonist-sexual gives off a weird vibe, and the progression and design of the relationship system is extremely bad. As an example, Shadowheart can say you’re her soulmate that changed her whole life on like the second day you spend together! There is also a severe lack of bonding moments that are purely adventure party/friendship and not avenues for everyone else to hit on you.

There being literally 0 consequences for dabbling in Mind Flayer powers felt weird and bad and generally undercut the impact of the entire main story. There is no reason not to fill out your whole tadpole tree (including becoming half illithid), and there is no reward for completely abstaining. No specific dialogue, no impact on the ending. Not even an achievement.

Lots of small attempts at fanservice for fans of BG 1&2 feel like surface level lipservice made by people who never played the originals. The Flail of Ages being a shitty rare regular flail sold in a random shop is just depressing.

I wish they left more BG 1&2 characters alone if they didn’t know exactly what to do with them. Jaheira is mostly fine, but even Minsc felt out of place and shoehorned in and the character assassinations of Viconia and Sarevok just felt terrible. Especially since the role of both of those characters in the plot could have easily been replaced with brand new NPCs.

On a similar note, it strikes me as extremely weird that they seemingly outright refused to have any voice actor reprise their role. Heidi Shannon has disappeared from the face of the earth so Jaheira needed to be recast, but Grey DeLisle (Viconia) and Kevin Michael Richardson (Sarevok) are still out there working for example and Jim Cummings (Minsc) was asking random fans at cons to remind Larian he exists.

For sheer versatility you can’t beat PC, so that is going to have to be my choice. Having flexibility between KB+M and controller, having access to mods and tweaks and (typically) having a wider array of graphics/performance options to tailor to your preferences makes for an unbeatable package.

That being said (and it pains me to say this given my distaste for Nintendo), I absolutely loved the 3DS. The dual screens were cool, it had good ergonomics for me and a nice weight in your hands and there was something very satisfying in the mechanics of flipping it open or listening to the click as you slam it shut. It’s just a really nice device to use.

Very exciting appointment, and a typically Tony Bloom one too. Love that Brighton continues to show ambition and willingness to take risks and trust their analytics. It’s been said many times but they really are an exemplary club in British football.

Can we not go after one of the few good guys in gaming? Please? If you want to hound someone Nintendo is right over there.

This is why the game lost me to be completely honest. I felt like the type of storytelling changed into more of a Sunday morning cartoon type vibe where the gang always wins and nobody ever dies.

There was a point during the story (probably Post-ARR through the beginning of post-Stormblood patch quests?) where it felt like there were actual stakes and risks of consequences and the lives of beloved characters were actually in danger and I loved that.

But instead more people seemed to come back from the dead than actually die.

For sure. Will probably be even more likely if the Elden Ring DLC does really well and further propels FromSoft into a true mainstream household name.

Are you familiar with Bethesda games? The best way to describe it is that it’s a Bethesda game that sacrifices what makes Bethesda games great (the handcrafted open world) in exchange for an illusion of scale and scope by way of procedural generation.

What you’re left with is mediocre writing, boring characters and uninteresting exploration of copy-pasted points of interest.

I’ve played only Origins but this trailer is not doing a whole lot for me. Even visually I don’t like it (which is bizarre because I think Origins looks like shit and still I somehow prefer it). Don’t really like this art direction, personally.

Yes, definitely! Using the !community@instance.tld works well for communities, but linking to posts is a bit of a headache honestly.

Impressive that enough people still care for there to be a backlash.

Phenomenal race, absolute box office stuff. Something happening somewhere every lap, bold strategy calls, flat out driving for the win, chaos, uncertainty and some slick moves to boot. Albon’s double overtake, anyone?

These are the races that remind us of why we watch this goddamn thing. I wish Norris hadn’t gotten unlucky with the safety car but that’s just me being greedy for the sake of the championship table. And Max really deserved the win too, he absolutely had to push himself for this one.

Will be a tough ask to top this race for the rest of the season.

God I wish he never got those injuries in his last season. I know it’s a big ask but I wish he got to close his career on more of a high instead of sort of just petering out.

Georgepedo into Max DNF and McLaren 1-2 to really close up the top of the championship? Sign me up!

Sync is phenomenal, imo. It gets less traction here because it’s not FOSS and the price to remove ads is pretty high, but in terms of features and visuals it’s by far my favourite. Great customisation too.

I’ve tried probably a dozen apps, but can’t get anything else to look and feel as nice as Sync.