CF-WRUP V: Good play. Nice talk.

[Delthazar]

In the end, Life was, indeed, Strange. 2.

Spoiler for Life is Strange 2, Episode 5 + full season stuff probably :

strange confirmed

I really liked this episode a ton, which I'm maybe a tad relieved by, both 'cause I feel it was a good bounce back from some of the stuff I didn't quite vibe with in Episode 4, but also 'cause it got the ending mostly right (or maybe all-the-way right, depending on the other variants I haven't seen yet, but we'll get to that)

The Grand Canyon setting we started with and attached hippy compound was all great, the latter in particular for its thematic callback to Episode 3. I'm gonna have to go back and take canyon screenshots later. The characters here felt like older, wiser, more worn versions of the folks at the pot farm. Probably exactly what you'd find in a place like this.

uh, but as for the unexpected, 'SUP DAVID MADSEN. The phases I went through as I slowly realized who he was, that was a journey. "Who's this ponytailed beardo with the... familiar face? wait did he say 'step-daughter' or- WAIT DID HE SAY 'STEP-DOUCHE' OH SHIT IT'S HIM OH FUCK"

it's a pretty wild significant cameo that I did not see coming in a million years and the more you talk to him, explore his RV, and overhear his ambient dialogue, the more important it gets to overall LiS lore. unless the comics are canon (?) this is the first official confirmation on Arcadia Bay deaths (RIP "almost everyone" but particularly Joyce I suppose this confirms the diner really does explode during the storm as Max saw in one timeline), survivors (David and Victoria thanks to Jefferson's shelter - I wonder though if Victoria's letter to David is still in his RV if your Max doesn't get that conversation right/wrong resulting in her abduction, in that case implying she dies too)

but most importantly Max and Chloe are still together out there traveling the country, trying out art galleries for Max, visiting David occasionally and leaving behind polaroids. Green Hair Chloe is now a thing. And is she blacking out her sleeve?

ANYWAY. Seeing that the teaser was correct and The Wall really does exist, and especially Sean and Daniel's conversations about it, was really something. Super, super unsettling. Daniel blowing a hole right through it is a really singularly amazing moment. I think I jumped when Daniel got shot. Yikes.

Loved the conversations with the Mexican couple in the jail. Never sure how I feel about characters like the racist vigilanties or the various other racists we've seen before in this series and the dialogue they get but yeah, those people exist and are out there doing/saying these sorts of things and worse, it's hardly "too on the nose" or whatever other hand-wavey criticisms you might hear from (probably mostly white) players. If it's uncomfortable, and it was for me for sure, then it's probably working exactly as intended.

The scene leading into the ending was pretty wrenching and feels like the hardest choice LiS2 has made me make, and that's good, this is where that hardest choice should be in this case. I ran the blockade and Sean made it to Mexico, but Daniel bailed once his powers weren't needed, and that was all she wrote. After a photo montage co-starring Captain Spirit, 2023 Beaver Creek citizen Daniel (apparently still wearing a house arrest anklet, which is... concerning) receives postcards from Sean (and Cassidy!) in Puerto Lobos. Life for both seems strange happy, if a tad bittersweet.

I liked the ending I got, even if it maybe felt a little short, though I haven't replayed LiS1 or BtS in a while so I doubt this ending is too out of line with those re: running time, plus there's at least three other endings for LiS2 depending on your final choice and morality standing with Daniel and from what I've read those get super divergent.

I especially really like how much Sean's relationship with Daniel plays into these endings as it indicates a hidden statistic somewhere tracking all your interactions with him across the series to get to these final branches, so theoretically it all matters, and there could be tipping points anywhere running right down to the wire as small as "don't fuck with that scorpion" to "kill those cops"

overall while LiS2 and Sean/Daniel didn't grab me as forcefully or wreck me as often or in the same ways as the original and Max/Chloe, it was a wild ride that feels just right at the end and should linger on my mind for a good while yet, quite like the first game did, just for totally, completely different raisins. Everyone's mileage may vary regarding whether or not y'all are like me and prefer LiS1's more supernatural mystery tone over LiS2's road story. It may not be a 100% hit but it's a great and encouraging example of DONTNOD's range as storytellers.

a quick easter egg

Spoiler for LiS 2 Episode 5 :

when you're playing around with the police scanner in David's RV, there are explicit references to Oxenfree in several places. One, just the action of using that scanner is an Oxenfree gameplay element. Two, one of the stations is playing the same or very similar old-timey warbly weird-ass music that Oxenfree had all over its frequencies. Three, at least according to posts I've read elsewhere, one station actually has an Oxenfree character (Ren?) trying to reach Alex and/or the others on a radio, maybe from the tower station on that island.

so basically Life is Strange and Oxenfree are in the same universe

[cybersix]

I also just finished up Life is Strange 2

Spoiler for for LiS and LiS through episode 5 :

It was an OH SHIT moment for me when I realized it was that David. I love how they wrote him as a dude regretful of some of his past actions, but still possessing (and recognizing) that he still retains a little bit of the "I'm the adult and I know more than you" bossiness. Victoria must have a real bad case of survivor's guilt.

After Daniel blew up The Wall I was like STOP HUGGING AND GET IN THE CAR BEFORE SOMETHING HAPPENS! FUCK! And sure enough.

Racism as a theme in LiS2: speaking as a White Person, yeah it's uncomfortable, but it's uncomfortable because racism is a real thing that some people have to deal with all the time. As someone with mental health issues, the attempted suicide scene in LiS was really uncomfortable for me, but it was also extremely powerful in how you really needed to pay attention to Kate's life to be able to successfully talk her down. LiS2 talking about racism and the violent ways that it's expressed is a lot bolder than Bioshock Infinite's "racism exists but we're too cowardly to take a stance on it besides saying WELL MAYBE BOTH SIDES CAN BE BAD".

I left them in jail. Might go back and see if Daniel will hang them from the ceiling by their underwear or something.

I kind of felt like there was an undercurrent of Karen maybe being bi? But maybe that was just me projecting.

My ending:
Sean: If I surrender, we'll be separated
Daniel: I don't want to be separated!
Sean: Okay, cool, we'll just break through the baracade
Daniel: Nooo, I don't want to hurt anyone else
Sean: Bro, I'm not asking you to kill anyone, just knock the cars out of the way
Daniel: I'm not okay with this, BYE

DANIEL, WHAT THE FUCK

Like I guess I taught him to Use His Powers For Good (didn't kill the cougar, told him to stop fucking around with the scorpion, tried not to hurt people when possible) and trying to NOT GET SHOT TO DEATH was just a bridge too far for him.

At least Sean is getting laid in Mexico.

Overall I liked LiS1 and BTS more (Ep5 of the original was a mindfuck, and Ep4 of LiS2 just didn't hit me)

[Delthazar]

Spoiler :

re: the uncomfortable themes, I'm always reminded of something Jon Stewart said once about stop-and-frisk shit in New York: if it's this difficult to simply observe and hear about, imagine what it must be like to live through every day, and that's something both core Life is Strange games really excel at centering.

It's undoubtedly not a 100% perfect simulation but coming from a dev team largely made up of white Frenchmen (and perhaps a small army of consultants) the experiences they build feel remarkably authentic. I'd worry about anyone who can play either game to completion and feel nothing.

Oh right, I forgot about some of the more granular choice stuff.

Spoiler :

I told Daniel not to mess with the scorpion, completed his treasure hunt, arranged the art piece as Daniel suggested, continued to be nice to Karen as I figured she kinda earned the goodwill after BURNING DOWN HALF A TOWN TO SAVE HER KIDS in Episode 4, calmed down Diego, released the Mexican couple but not the racist couple, did my best to escape the jail without hurting anyone but had to injure the two advancing cops at the entrance.

One nitpick I keep seeing people make in other threads that I don't think makes any sense and/or makes way too many assumptions about Daniel's abilities

Spoiler :

"if I were a telekinetic child attempting to escape the country, I would simply levitate the car I'm in over the border wall!"

I don't think Daniel's power works that way - he appears to need line-of-sight to affect objects unless he's pissed off, in which case his power just explodes outwards, and lifting heavy shit while he's clear-minded is an obvious strain. So I doubt he'd be capable of lifting a truck he's currently riding inside + a driver + cargo all the way over that wall without dropping it. If he got out and did it from the ground so he could actually see the full object, then maybe, but from inside he might just fuck up the upholstery.

another minor easter egg

Spoiler :

Daniel's clothes gradually turn into Tetsuo Shima's clothes over the course of Episode 5.

[Falcon Critical]

Okay I'm late to the party this time, but here goes:

Spoiler :

My first hint that it was THAT David was the mural behind his RV. I looked at that was like "huh, that's kinda like Chloe's one. That's a cool reference I guess..." then it turned out IT WAS THAT EXACT MURAL! (though, how David found it in one piece after what happened to the Bay). I loved all the interaction with him, and getting to snoop around in his trailer, though part of me couldn't help but think "take that all you haters going on about save the bay having more screen time". You bet I eavesdropped on David's phone call after his warnings!

Can't wait to see Jesse/Dodger's version though, they saved the bay so I wonder how it will play out.

I told Daniel "we don't have time to play with the scorpion" rather than telling him off, made the statue the way I wanted it (arms > head > belly - it represents the size of people's ego man!), and pretty much did everything I could to be there for lil bro. My farewell letter to Karen was apparently lukewarm, but when I accepted her hug Sean did call her Mom, so I like to think it slipped out. She'll remember that.

When we broke through the border I was with c6, I was shouting at them to stop hugging and run back to the damn car. Then when I couldn't run as we went back that way I knew what was coming. It really felt a lot like the end of LiS1 Ep4 where suddenly you have no powered options and shit is going bad. At least noone died.

I talked to the Mexican couple, but didn't break anyone out of prison. It's their third time trying to cross, they know how to handle themselves... but mostly I was just like "fuck all of this no slacking this time just run". I did stop for our bags when Daniel pointed them out though.

At the checkpoint Sean did his whole "whatever happens" speech, but I was all in on "WE'RE GOING TO FUCKING MEXICO BRO!" Daniel agreed and went full Magneto, fucking up all the cars and cops and gates. To this day the only time Daniel killed was that Cougar, so I like to think he didn't kill anyone with all the car throws there.

It was still tense AF after he was done, I was again shouting at them to "GET IN THE CAR, GET LOW I DON'T WANT YOU TO GET SHOT! PUT UP ANOTHER BULLET FORCEFIELD AT LEAST TILL WE'RE OVER THE BORDER ARGHH TOO TENSE!" Turns out Daniel did a good job though, so we got through together just fine.

The ending scene I got was starting a Diaz Motors garage in Puerto Lobos, Daniel is reminiscing over Sean's diary when some thugs come in pointing guns at Sean. Daniel fucks them up with his powers enough to scare them off, then the bros go to sip beers on the beach. I suppose because "Overall I taught Daniel to put himself and his brother first" the ending had a slightly dark tinge, showing the two of us alone and using Daniel's powers to defend ourselves.

I romanced Finn, so I got a letter from him earlier in the episode (how do so many people know your address but not the cops lol). Apparently he's got years of community service to do so he's stuck up in the states. I thought maybe after six years he would have shown up down in Mexico but there was no sign of him. It was fun when Daniel was like "Hey bro, I saw Stanley and Arthur kissing, is that weird?" and being able to respond "I kissed Finn y'know", which apparently I hadn't mentioned to him before lol.

I'm glad it was a mostly happy ending episode, after LiS1's final episode was fucking intense and stressful. When Karen took them up to the campsite I found myself thinking "y'know, what if this just all goes smoothly, that'd be really nice." But it is LiS, gotta have some high tension.

I think that I have a new such moment of the year...

Spoiler :

The brazen fan service of David's trailer lol. Having a way to tie the girls back in and basically say "hey, they're doing fine, even getting along with ol' Step Douche" was such a salve to me. I stopped reading the comics after the second issue, because I don't need my girls to just have more drama. They need to just go out there and live their lives and be happy, and that's what this suggests they do.

[Falcon Critical]

After watching Geek Remix play through, some differences:

Spoiler :

Even early on things were different, my Sean didn't draw Karen in his picture of her RV (when flipping through diary pages), I drew Daniel as 'badass' in the diary and he loved it, and in general he was a lot more confident and violent with his abilities. He still doesn't want to hurt anyone though, he's just a little less careful with his power.

Since I guess you didn't see the lawbreaker Daniel border scene, when you say "we're going through the border" Daniel is like "aight cool" and steps out of the truck alone, throwing cops around the place. They start shooting at him and he full on Magneto/Fortune blocks and bends them around us, smashing all the things up then casually gets back in the car and we drive on through lol. That's a lot different to how it plays out in their law-abider playthrough.

ENDING ENDINGS

Spoiler :

It was interesting to see the different law endings (they showed both).

The surrender option is rough, Daniel gets a good life but Sean is fucking broken. That they just drove off in different directions even after he got out of jail... I'm like "where is Sean even going to go?" Almost a Shawshank Redemption moment, so much would have changed I'm not sure what he can do now... and he's clearly got issues. Pretty rough that actually giving in to the justice system leaves Sean the worst off.
RELATIONSHIP: Long time passed, can see each other, don't seem to want to.

The bust through option was kind of how I expected after seeing the description of "you go through but Daniel refuses". It's clearly worse for Daniel with the house arrest and such, and it was an interesting choice not to show Sean in Mexico at all other than those photos. Makes me wonder though if you kissed Finn what that photo with Cass would be, it'd suck if it was a picture of Sean with Finn, since I didn't get to see him in my Mexico ending. Makes me wonder if Cass would have been there in my lawbreaker ending had I romanced her.
RELATIONSHIP: Basically they can never see each other again.

The bust through lawbreaker ending keeps the bond strong, and is pretty much the dream they were working towards. The parts that suck for them is that they're both hardened by the experience, but other than that loss of innocence the only part that irks me is that it never clarifies whether you contact or are visited by any of your friends.
RELATIONSHIP: You're together, but not so innocent.

I'm interested to see now what the "you try to surrender but Daniel refuses" ending looks like, pretty sure I can get that if I try to surrender... but I'll wait for Jesse and Dodger to finish theirs in case that's what they do.

[Delthazar]

From just the quick glimpses I've seen of it on Tumblr, the happiest ending is probably

Spoiler for endings no one here has seen yet probably! :

the Surrender variant that features Lyla and Karen joining Daniel to meet Sean when he gets out, then everyone goes hiking together. I assume that requires keeping the highest possible standing with Daniel throughout the season, calling Lyla both times you're able in episodes 1 and 2, and accepting Karen in episodes 4 and 5.

I feel bad for not getting this ending because Lyla absolutely 100% deserves that ending.

Re: Finn

Spoiler for just speculation :

whether or not he ends up in Mexico with Sean probably depends on whether or not you blamed him for how episode 3 ends. Could also be weighted by whether you went with Finn and Daniel or followed later with Cass.

So, maybe kissing Finn + going along with his heist plan + protecting him from Agent Flores' questioning + visiting him before escaping the hospital + running the blockade but Daniel bails = Finn in Mexico, instead of Finn on community service in the US for years.

[cybersix]

I kind of feel like the ending FC got is sort of... weird?

Spoiler for more LiS2 ending spoils :

From the looks of the ending Del and I got, you don't need to kill anyone to get through the border, and somehow "Daniel learning that he should put himself and his brother first" turns into "Daniel is a crazy supervillain" Incidentally, I drew Daniel as a badass and he remarked "I look like a supervillain... I don't look that evil, do I?"

On the other hand, "Daniel learns to respect THE LAW" means... Daniel gets himself put under house arrest and abandons his brother to be alone in a foreign country. Sean surrenders himself and gets to go to jail for 15 years for a crime he did not commit. Sounds fair.

It's not quite as morally tone-deaf as Bioshock's ending where killing any Little Sisters = you obviously will take over a nuclear sub and use it to kill a lot of people, but there's really no way to get a satisfying ending, is there?

Really curious how the chat with David goes if you save the Bay.

Spoiler for that other ending we haven't talked about yet :

If Sean decides to surrender and Daniel refuses, Daniel uses his powers to drive the car through the gate, but finds Sean has been shot to death on the way through.

[Falcon Critical]

Finn-bae

Spoiler :

I did all those things, I kissed Finn, I went along with the plan, I took the blame, I visited and forgave him on the way out of the hospital... the community service letter you find in Karen's trailer, so that happens before the end. I fully believe I'd get the Finn photo if I was more law-abiding, and believe that he'd come down to Mexico in the Blood Brothers ending I got, even if that wasn't the focus of the end cutscene.

Regarding endings:

Spoiler :

REDEMPTION (Jail ending) - So there's a variation where everyone goes hiking, as opposed to just the brothers? Because just the bros is sad AF, sure they're both free and in the US, but Sean seems fucking broken... and Daniel gets to live his life as a normal person but he doesn't seem all that happy. Lyla and Mom showed up to see Sean released (in the one I saw) but disappear after that. Thinking about it I'm sure Lyla got on with her life and would have wanted to be there on that day, but 15 years man. If she was stuck in limbo just waiting for him to get out that's sad too.

It's something that LiS could probably do better, having ending vignettes to let us know what happens to all the people we met along the way. It is perhaps less realistic that the protagonists would even know, but I'd like to know as the overseeing game master.

We could create a collective head-canon, for shits and giggles.

BLOOD BROTHERS (my ending/Mexico together) - I didn't read it as Daniel killing everyone at the border, but someone on reddit mentioned that one of the newspaper articles it scrolls past talks about a 'massacre at the border', so perhaps he did. Seems a little extreme, but I still choose to believe Daniel was mostly beyond caring rather than actively trying to kill anyone.

LONE WOLF (Daniel solo ending) - Still haven't seen this one, but heard about it. Seems interesting, and I'm kind of surprised there's only one of the 4 main endings where one of the brothers dies. I was kind of expecting during this episode that they might pull a Banner Saga 3 and let you (or Daniel) die at a few points, making it feel like an accomplishment to make it to the end alive.

The part that FUCKS ME UP about the Lone Wolf ending though, is Lyla. When you look at Karen's laptop you can see that she's come around and is starting to deal with your disappearance better (after she's in a real dark place when you call her from your grandparents' house). There's like a 95% chance that she'd find out Sean was killed trying to cross the border via a news feed, and that would be devastating. Thinking about how all the people you met would deal with that news is rough. The brothers may not be the same people they were at the start in my ending, but at least we're alive.

[Falcon Critical]

I just remembered another early indicator of which path Daniel is on:

Spoiler :

When Daniel interrupts your story of their life, if he's good he talks about "A Mighty Fire Unicorn!" interrupting them, but she's nice. In my playthrough he said "A chubacabra!" and talked about how we had to defeat it. Made seeing the 'Chubacabras from Outer Space' DVD a fun link to Daniel's headspace.

Also did anyone else feel bad about one of the collectables being a bottle opener from Two Whales Diner? Taking one of David's few mementos of Arcadia Bay seems a scumbag move.

[Delthazar]

hey C6 since you mentioned it there's a new Bioshock in development. new studio, some old names, but no Ken Levine

or as Waypoint puts it,

After the uninspired "both sides" misfire of Infinite, a return to BioShock under new leadership might be the right direction for the franchise's future.

hee hee hee

[Delthazar]

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/prom ... hits-sale/

[Falcon Critical]

Yassss nice!

[Delthazar]

Control seems to be running just fine so far on my somewhat aged i5/960 using the default low/medium settings. And it looks far nicer than I expected on those settings, too. Can only imagine how good it looks on more modern kit with all this wild lighting tech.

Loving the audio design as well. Makes me wish I had proper surround in here. Anyway. I have suspicious [redacted] documents to collect about [redacted] [redacted] sharks loose in the [redacted]

[cybersix]

or as Waypoint puts it

When that game came out all the reviews lined up to give a hand job to Ken Levine so I'm glad someone finally has some sense here

[Delthazar]

I'm sure it's come up on their pods over the years as well but at this point nailing down specific episode numbers ain't easy

also you'd 100% be into Control if you liked Alan Wake and/or Quantum Break even a little bit, Control is probably better than both and possibly Remedy's best game to date

e: you should always listen to Waypoint Radio regardless of topic 'cause that's how you get to learn useful new terms such as "telecom pope"

[cybersix]

Alan Wake was alright. Alan Wake's American Nightmare was pretty damn good. It basically was just a much shorter game with a lot of cool ideas they came up with after the fact.

I've been meaning to check out Quantum Break (it's not like it isn't on sale pretty often) but I feel like my backlog is so long that I should quit buying new games

[Bier_Engel]

Moved on to Fire Emblem 6 (the one with Roy as the protagonist; never released outside of Japan, but easy enough to patch, if I remember correctly). I started it a while ago but got frustrated and quit. This time around, I started completely from the beginning and I noticed that my attacks are missing significantly less and the RNG seems to be screwing me less, also. I just surpassed the chapter that I got stuck on during my old file, so I'm in it for the long haul this time, I hope.

[DHerder222]

I think I'm going to give Greedfall a go. Has anyone here played it? It got decent/good reviews and is intentionally designed to harken back to Obama-era BioWare titles. Team-based open-environment RPG-lite and such.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAcJBgnbrKY

Much of the negative comments in reviews focused on clunky combat and general glitchiness, but in the four months it's been out I hear some of that has been patched up.

[Thunderhead]

Spiders has been making independent RPG's for years now, and I've heard good things about Greedfall.

Heh, Spiders making games...

[cybersix]

I have never heard of Greedfall or Spiders, but I'm intrigued. It's also on sale already.

intentionally designed to harken back to Obama-era BioWare titles.

best description

[Delthazar]

Coffee Talk is pleasant. Chill, mellow. A Mood. Vibes? Sure.

Freya, like me, never finishes anything.

I think I've seen at least one of each of those terms used to describe Coffee Talk in every review I've read so far, usually followed by "but it's not much more than that" or an understandable reflection on the reviewer's time working as a barista. I slung coffees myself for a few years, though I wouldn't have called myself a barista then or since, still, I get the familiarity. If you've been there, you can't avoid it here, which means the game is getting something right for some of us.

The part where Coffee Talk is a game is rather simple and expected, but I'm not sure it really needs to be anything else. An order will come up amidst the conversations, you'll toss three things together to match it, some kind of beverage will emerge. How you put them together is sometimes spelled out for you, sometimes not: one character might list each ingredient in order, another might catch you off-guard with a "Teh Tarik, please" leaving you to either guess or Google unless you just happened to be in Malaysia recently. Most things with milk give you the opportunity to doodle some latte art via a light painting system, which I imagine is about as cumbersome and finicky as the real thing. (I was never that kind of barista.)

I've been told this is basically the Va-11 Ha11-A model of "BarPG" or "mix-'em-up" or "Root Beer Tapper-like" (I made those last two up) but since that thing's Steam description was enough to put me off it entirely, a meme-delivery vehicle being the last thing I want from any kind of video game, I'll have to take folks on their word. Honestly, I think some people are just trying too hard to avoid the VN label. This is that but with different systems.

Somehow, the name of this drink makes me wanna order an "Obstacles" instead.

But really, you're probably here for the characters - your customers - and the chatter. Whether or not you nail or whiff their orders does apparently have an effect on the outcomes of their various subplots in this not-cyberpunk-Shadowrun vision of Seattle they live in, though I'm not quite far enough along to get a sense of the branch points. Nevertheless, the power of a good cup of coffee cannot be overstated. Insert your favourite Twin Peaks quote here.

These characters and their stories and their world mostly work just fine. They maybe don't always intermingle all that naturally, but then again neither do most strangers wandering in and out of a coffee shop, and some of that awkwardness subsides as strangers become regulars become friends. It feels close enough to a dynamic that could probably form eventually in a shop like this one, open only after midnight, limited in clientele, where everyone there kinda finds themselves in each other's orbits whether they intended to or not.

It really is a mood, maybe a somewhat specific mood - night is the only setting, it's always raining outside, Kind Wordsian lo-fi beats dominate the soundtrack - and if that's the vibe you're looking for then I doubt Coffee Talk can really disappoint unless its characters completely miss their marks for you. Some of the writing can be a tad too cute for its own good, or weird for weird's sake, but it rarely distracts, and is usually counterbalanced by some other piece that feels lived-in and informed by actual experiences. There's characters in here I really care about after five-ish hours, and a few I'm not so high on, and that's fine. No collection of S-Links has ever run the table.



Coffee Talk does what it says on the tin. It's never gonna make me go back to a coffee 'n' donuts hell grind, or gaze wistfully into the sky thinking "those were the days," because they fucking weren't. But I'll be damned if it doesn't get the mellow just right. The mellow I'm looking for, anyway.

Notable tidbit: the soundtrack is available pretty much everywhere. Search on Spotify for Andrew Jeremy. Probably the same in other places. A news post on Coffee Talk's Steam page will have a long list of venues.

[Bier_Engel]

Those of you on Discord know I finished TMS tonight. No plans to do NG+ so soon. Instead, I went back to my old FE games and started Sacred Stones. (I never did finish the Hector run of FE7, but I was also not noticing enough differences to keep me hooked, and I've been feeling nostalgic for FE8 thanks to the music in FEH. Also, this doesn't cost me $10 a month).

[DHerder222]

I'm thinking of playing the first Witcher game on Steam. But I have two concerns: 1) Reviews are only fair-to-good and say it's really not necessary to enjoy the franchise, and 2) Even though it came out in 2008, I'm always paranoid my computer won't be strong enough to handle games released this century.

[Delthazar]

I've never heard anything positive about how that first Witcher has aged. Most folks I've seen who caught the Witcher bug have just jumped right into Witcher 3 with no regrets, so I'm guessing it must do a decent enough job of catching you up.

Witcher 3 also has the advantage of console ports. Even Witcher 2 was at least on the 360 if you still have one laying around.

[DHerder222]

Ooh, didn't know that. I do happen to have one in the closet.

And yeah, haven't decided about W1. There's some super-enhanced-complete version on Steam for $10, so I might end up trying it for the lulz.