Burning_Spear

Can we please stop with these two now? Jah bless, I wish them a fun and bountiful life, but please put them on mute.

Late start this morning after a four-and-a-half-hour run on Civ VI last night. Jah bless the Spearess, who tolerates going our separate ways at the end of every Friday night so I can play.

I'm about 75 percent of the way through my latest Civ, so I'll be finishing that this weekend. And then we'll see if there's time for anything else.

Happy gaming everyone!

Was this the company that leaked the Switch design?

@dskatter Yeah, the paid hardware tour. I was watching that thinking, I must have misheard something — they're really trying to get people to purchase a hardware-walkthrough app???

@Joeynator3000 Agreed. I have the lowest of expectations. I've held firm in not purchasing this — even though I want to play it — to send a message that releasing games in an incomplete or poorly functional state is not OK, but I may reconsider if the Switch 2 enhancement eliminates the problems. My guess is we'll see minor improvements.

And while I'm at it, SHAME ON Nintendo and Game Freak for making the folks who've already purchased the game wait this long.

I found it underwhelming. Maybe if Mario Kart hadn't been teased it would have scored higher for me. The console itself, to me, lacks that one bit of innovation that every Nintendo console before it has had. Voice chat, great, but that's something that has been in the industry 20 years. I'm excited for the console but just saying the announcement didn't add much spark to what we already knew, in my opinion.

@datamonkey It's Atari, so there will inevitably be a physical release, followed by an updated physical release and a series of other opportunities to repurchase what you've already paid for. But I'm still in on this one.

The trailer looks awesome on my OLED. I'll be on this ASAP.

I'm the person who has never played Minecraft. While sandbox-type games generally don't appeal to me, I have to say the block-style art is a big factor in my reluctance to get into the game. This upgrade doesn't push me across the line, meaning my Wii U copy of Minecraft will likely remain unplayed.

I'm already deep into Civ VI this weekend. In between, hacking around on the Game Boy Color and maybe a little Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Happy gaming, everyone!

"Do you have the ambition build a kingdom?"

Sheesh, I spend all day editing at work and now I have to do it in my leisure?

I have an 8BitDo Pro2 for Switch, and while it's my go-to controller, my lone complaint is the buttons are a bit too spongy and sometimes don't register. Many a Balatro hand blown because I didn't make sure all the cards had been selected!

The original was one of my favorite DS games. I wish they would reboot that.

@squidduforeal Makes me want to play Galaxy again!

@PikminMarioKirby I put a couple hundred hours into the first one. Awesome game. At some point, I'll pick up the sequel.

Last weekend of winter means game time will soon be diminished as the Spearess and I return to the hiking trails and seaside destinations.

I'll be playing Civ VI for the most part this weekend. Also Super Box Delivery and banging around on Tetris Attack on the GameBoy Color to fill in 20 minutes here and there.

I usually knock out the Tetris 99 special themes on Friday night but haven't gotten to that yet this time around.

Happy gaming, everyone!

@Danrenfroe2016 The DS-era games were still being overseen by the series' creator, and the developer still valued the series for something more than a money grab at that point. Natsume (Harvest Moon) is just producing cheap knockoffs at this point and asking people to understand that they're not a competent developer, while Marvelous (Story of Seasons) allowed the entire BokuMono team to switch to Rune Factory, leaving a poor third-party development team in charge of the SoS titles.

The games fans knew as Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons died with Trio of Towns.

Money grab. Sad days for the franchise that spawned one of the most popular gaming genres.

I've been spending most of my time in Civilization VI, which had been in my backlog for years. So much fun but so much to learn.

I've also been fooling around with Challenge Mode on Super Mario Bros. Deluxe for GBC. I just noticed that, though I beat all the challenges probably 30 years ago, I still haven't beaten the cumulative score challenge, which is going to require achieving supreme scores on most of the levels. Lamenting that this is one of the few GB or GBC cartridges I have left with a working battery. It's holding its charge to remind me of yet another unfinished project.

@batmanbud2 I got about halfway through Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World but never finished it. But I had already 100-percented it on Wii U. Agreed that it's the best game. No crying baby makes up for what Yoshi's Island does better, in my opinion.

Potentially good news for the five people who emulate Switch without stealing.

Mattel Football was amazing!!!

We're beginning what should be a beautiful Saturday, but a sore back is likely to keep me indoors. And winter returns tomorrow. So ...

I've been playing Civilization VI for the past week. That's correct, VI. It has been in my backlog for years. Just finished my first run, which I lost after nearly 375 turns, thanks to a silly decision to spread Rastafari to a hostile city. I'll try again this weekend, Jah bless.

I've also had Super Box Delivery downloaded on my PS4 for a week, and I want to crack that open in the next couple of days.

I'm also still having fun with gold stake runs on Balatro, and other games in the mix include Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons, Tetris Ultimate on the 3DS, Splatoon and some random GameBoy titles to fill in 20 minutes or so here and there.

Happy gaming, everyone!

"What do you make of these new guitar controllers from CRKD and Gibson?"

I can make a hat; I can make a broach; I can make a pterodactyl. ...

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It has been long rumored that Hadrian ordered his wall from Strictly Limited Games.

I pretty much just go ahead and buy it digitally too, and then the game never leaves the shrink wrap. But it stinks for folks who only want, or can afford, to buy once.

We've got three versions of the cover to grade and yet the Game Profile says "Cover Unavailable."

@The21zonz It plays much faster than you remember after a long break, take it from me. I'm still getting back up to speed.

After finally reaching 100 percent on Balatro last weekend, I've been knocking around on this or that and thinking about what I'm going to get into next. The Spearess will be away Sunday, so I will have plenty of time.

With all the hype around the launch of Civ VII, I recalled that I still haven't even touched Civ VI, which has been on my Switch for years. So I will be cracking into that today or tomorrow.

I've also been back into Splatoon. As I said last week, the long OCD time with Balatro eroded my Splatoon skills, so I've been polishing up here and there.

And of course, Balatro has been alive and well. It's nice to go after gold stake or a high score without the pressure of an achievement. I actually beat my all-time high score earlier in the week, and on gold stake too.

I've also been in Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons and Tetris Ultimate, and I intend to try Super Box Delivery on the PS4 as well.

Happy gaming, everyone!

This was inevitable, as Xbox is part of a larger company that ultimately answers to stockholders, who likely have long been wondering when they would see the balance-sheet return on Spencer's spending spree. Eventually it's about turning a profit, and you're not going to do that by selling consoles at a loss and restricting triple-A games that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop to less than 50 percent of the gaming community.

I need to beat the Jokerless challenge to 100 percent Balatro. I got Completionist++ last weekend and zipped through the other challenges this week.

I unlocked the DKCR theme in Tetris 99 last night. One of my favorite themes. The music fits perfectly, in my opinion. I felt like it had me totally focused.

I also want to get back in shape on Splatoon. I played a little recently for the first time since the Balatro addiction really took hold, and boy, am I out of condition.

Three-day weekend. I promised the Spear-ess some together time, but I also hope to finally start something new.

I'm fine either way as long as that infernal little blue icon is not constantly imploring me to open the app to see the latest avatars or to tell me I've earned another 20 platinum points for doing who knows what? I ... despise ... notifications.

B-A-L-A-T-R-O. There just can't be enough awards for that game.

"... though given Atari's strong history with physical releases, we can probably expect a boxed version later down the line ..."

I'm sure we'll see Atari physical releases, re-releases and re-re-releases down the line across every console that ever appears hereafter.

@Ganner You know what? I love playing Balatro, especially after a long day. There's no physical skill required. I can just sink into my chair, put my feet up, enjoy a cup of tea and get lost in the game.

But I'm starting to miss other games, such as Splatoon. I haven't been in the Splatfest at all this weekend. So I think once I find that last elusive joker, I'll start bouncing around with a bunch of games ... until the Balatro update with the new jokers arrives later this year.

What little gaming time I have remaining this weekend will be spent pursuing Completionist++ on Balatro. I have 149 of the 150 jokers gold-stickered, so the game is now part roguelike and part spot the difference, in that winning a run is almost secondary to scanning shop after shop for the one joker without a gold sticker, which, by the way, has been hiding for at least five hours.

I want to get in some Splatfest too.

@Ganner Still going heavy on Snowrunner or mixing it up?

I so enjoyed MiiVerse and miss it very much when I boot up my WiiU. It really did feel like I was entering a bustling room of Nintendo friends (and a few crass idiots) every time I turned on the console

I'm nearing the finish line for Completionist++ in Balatro. I'm better than 95 percent of the way there, needing gold stickers on only seven of the 150 jokers.

I also downloaded Tetris Diamond from the Japanese eShop and want to give that a try, as I've never played it before.

@WiltonRoots Jah bless.

One of the best games I've ever played!

I wonder if the affected employees were told they "need to feel comfortable with not having a job."

@somnambulance You're one joker ahead of me. It's almost reaching the point at which it's more difficult to find a non-gold joker than it is to win the run. All but three of my outliers are uncommon or rare.

I'm still going after Completionist++ on Balatro. I'm 90 percent of the way there, needing to gold-seal only 15 of the 150 jokers.

If he wants me to buy more games he shouldn't have made his so ridiculously addictive!

I'm still pushing toward Completionist++ on Balatro. I'm more than 80 percent of the way there. But with the three-day weekend, I may use some of the extra free time to get a new game going on the side.

I think the leaks only would have been "damaging" if they had spoiled a transformative element — e.g., the Wii U Gamepad or the 3D feature of the 3DS — or if they had teased some transformative feature that ultimately wasn't part of the console. In this case, for me at least, I think they actually prepared me to expect very little change.

Maybe clarify what type of security risk? Someone hacking my personal data? Wedding crashers? A Russian airstrike?

Balatro and maybe a little Splatfest. I'm still grinding away at Completionist++ in Balatro, with more than 75 percent of the jokers gold-sealed. It's a fierce challenge!

I have one of the "original" Hyperkins. They're pretty good and much sturdier than the OG Rock Band controllers. I will probably pick up another as I still play the Wii Rock Band entries from time to time.