strawdonkey

The effect of Main Power Up varies depending on what weapon you use, I've not experimented much with it yet. The only thing I usually keep constant is my shoes, which have a main of Object Shredder, and one sub each of Bomb Defence DX, Special Saver and Quick Super Jump, which all have a big impact compared to their cost of one sub. After that I usually go with some combination of Special Charge Up, Ink Recovery, and Ink Savers. I have preferred loadouts but some amount of ink saving is good with most weapons.

Another Splatfest weekend is upon us! This is the first one where I've looked at my battle stats and found that I've not played at all since the previous Splatfest. On the plus side I was lucky enough to land in four 10× battles this time around, and am still having no truffle finding quick games. Must get around to playing more Ranked once the fest is over too.

Game of the Year A1. Hollow Knight "Hollow Knight felt like a great example of dumping you in a world and asking you to get on with it. The controls are tight and the combat is very satisfying, and while there's a bit too much trudging around at times there's a real delight in discovering and unlocking the (still very inconvenient) fast travel. It's very difficult, but always felt like you could master it with enough practice - and despite being unsettling as shit in places there were some really wonderful moments where you'd just marvel at the destroyed beauty of the archaeology." A2. Deltarune Vol. 1 "This was so close to occupying the top spot. Hollow Knight is excellent but finding that this had stealth-released on Halloween made me genuinely excited in a way that very little else does, and everything about it made me feel a mixture of trepidation, and the feeling you had when you got a Megadrive at Christmas. Deltarune (hey it's an anagram of Undertale!) is Toby Fox's newest thing, and it dials everything up to 11 - the dialogue is even more ridiculous, the one-liners are genuinely hilarious, the battle system is well thought-out and some of the music might even be better than Undertale's (and I used to hum "Asgore" to my infant son to calm him down in the middle of the night because apparently I am a tragic excuse for a human being). Even the download page and installer are wonderful. It is completely free and it gave me probably the best Halloween I've ever had." A3. Into the Breach "Very inventive SRPG that doesn't outstay its welcome - a single playthrough is about 2-3 hours - and once you're victorious, starts changing the rules in loads of fun and inventive ways. Just knock it down to Easy to begin with as it is very unforgiving." A4. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon "Random freebie from the Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Kickstarter that I didn't even know I was getting until a few days before it released. It's a NES-throwback 2D Castlevania game in all but name, which looks and sounds wonderful, like you remember a NES game until you go back and everything flickers and it's all clunky and oh god There's none of that, just a really solid Castlevania homage with a bunch of different toolsets to use over multiple playthroughs. You don't realise you'll miss the boring guy with a sword until he's gone." A5. Danmaku Unlimited 3 "Very solid vertical shmup that rewards learning the stages and the scoring system. If I had one complaint, it would be that the scoring is too unforgiving; if you make a mistake then your run is often over, I have hit some seemingly bonkers scores and I can't get close to them again due to the requirement to run a basically flawless stage. Instead of your combo ticking downwards after a set period of time, it just resets to zero, and that basically halts your scoring potential for the rest of the level. Easy mode is a great way to get into the bullet hell genre though - it's a very easy single-credit clear and there is plenty to offer for people who are more familiar with the genre." Honourable mention: Magic Arena, which has finally provided the world with a decent online client for playing Magic: The Gathering! Biggest Disappointment of the Year (game, hardware, or anything else) Z1. Marble it Up! "Marble it Up! is genuinely wonderful, as you'd expect from the people who brought you Marble Blast Ultra on 360 - but on Switch, it cost almost £20, came with 40 stages (several of which are very short training stages) and still hasn't received a content update at the time of writing (mid-December). It feels almost unfinished, but I've faith that when the additional levels and modes do arrive it will be easier to recommend as a complete package." Z2. The Hex "The new game from the creator of Pony Island, which was... 2016's game of the year for me. Pony Island does a great job of subverting your expectations in a game, whilst spinning a decent yarn and giving you some puzzles to solve. The Hex feels like what happens when you take Pony Island and try to make it longer and more involved. It's a lot of fun but felt like it didn't hit any of the marks that made Pony Island so special - it's just a game with some (often excellent) characters and a mystery to solve using some inventive methods. Pony Island made you feel like the game was playing you at times; this is 'merely' an adventure." Z3. Z4. Z5. Sound Design of the Year S1. Deltarune "Seriously. Listen to Rude Buster and tell me you haven't achieved Peak Videogames. https://tobyfox.bandcamp.com/track/rude-buster " S2. Hollow Knight S3. Visual Design of the Year V1. V2. V3. Writing of the Year W1. Deltarune W2. W3. Gaming Format (System) of the Year F1. Nintendo Switch Publisher or Developer of the Year P1. Best Supported Game (released pre 2018) of the Year B1. Splatoon 2 Your game of the year that didn't come out this year (basically what is your favourite game you played this year that came out in 2017 or earlier) X1. Best game character of the year C1. Ralsei (Deltarune) C2. Susie (Deltarune) C3. Hornet (Hollow Knight)

Vampilia usually do this weird metal orchestra thing where everything is epic and overblown, but in April they released an EP that clocks in at under seven minutes, and it is magnificent: https://templeoftorturous.bandcamp.com/album/happiness-brought-by-endless-sorrow

Super House of Dead Ninjas is great, but severely reduces the likelihood of me being able to provide it in Secret Santa this year

The one that immediately springs to mind is also a bit of a spoiler for the game it's in

2,400 hours on Phantasy Star Universe. That's 100 days. Had a group of friends who were also basically always on, hit the level cap constantly and just loved existing in the world, with its ultra-clean neon scifi aesthetic. The actual playing of the game was relatively straightforward and repetitive, but there was something about the gameplay loop, hanging out with friends and the shared enthusiasm when events or the expansion released meant I rarely needed other games to play. I dread to think how many hours alone I spent synthing and upgrading gear and hunting for bargains in the player stores. The rush from buying a premium item with a good elemental stat for cheap was unparalleled, second only to the first time you got to show it off. Eventually the content started drying up, and the updates were coming later and later after the Japanese servers, and we all trailed off at similar times. Without that group of friends I doubt it would have lasted as long but it remains one of my fondest periods of gaming.

Could I have Cook Serve Delicious or Laser League please?

Streets of Rage 3:

01 - The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic 02 - Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit 03 - Palm Reader - Braille 04 - Delta Sleep - Ghost City 05 - The Black Queen - Infinite Games 06 - Abraham - Look, Here Comes The Dark! 07 - Evil Needle - Igida 08 - Toe - Our Latest Number 09 - LUMP - LUMP 10 - Toby Fox - Deltarune Volume 1 OST

I'm in! Will send details later.

I'm reading a bunch about how you can draft forever for $20, which makes this sound like a free to play/pay for cards model. On Steam it's £15.99 though and there seems to be no free option. Am I misunderstanding something fundamental? Is the £16 that it costs on Steam also enough for these unlimited drafts, or do you have to pay again for those drafts?

It's gross. Would not recommend.

I think the missiles were only overpowered in that last game because I had a missile power that contributed to the all or nothing strategy I'd taken. If I'd not won that turn it was basically the point of no return, and at least one of you would have flooded the board with figures within another turn or two. All that said, I was quite disappointed to find that we have basically discovered everything at this point with five games still to play. It feels like we've settled into our favourite starting locations and factions, and we've managed to gimp a couple of the factions so that they are largely never a good choice at this point. The only thing left to discover is tied to random event chance and given that we've very rarely chosen to upgrade the resource cards, it's unlikely we'd hit that any time soon. The main issue is that we are not massive Risk fans - we were kinda relying on the excellent Legacy stuff to keep it fresh, because the first 6-7 games were all excellent and the moments where you unlock a thing are genuinely amazing. Now it's "just" Risk on a board that we modified, which in itself is still rad. I feel kinda bad shitting on it at all as it's been a genuine delight to play for much of the time we've played it.

I've jumped on the Arena bandwagon now that draft has been introduced It's definitely a grind to get all the cards you need, but they've done a decent job with the starter decks - instead of feeling like the usual inconsistent junk you expect from a starter they are just about playable as you get hold of them, and can be upgraded with only a few wildcards (though I remain unconvinced that's a good idea unless you wanted to playv the deck anyway). Loving how they've managed to make MTG feel quick and snappy for the majority of its interactions.