arch_8ngel

New zoonotic diseases originating in a populous country that suppresses media coverage is concerning in and of itself.

They must have updated the box. Mine are pretty shoddy boxes by modern board game standards, which is why I sprang for the laser cut box from Broken Token.

And you would have lost a shitload of money in the process along with a loss of market share to the competing companies in the space that get to market first.

That isn't the way technology cycles work. If you want to wait the year from initial launch to get an incrementally updated version, you can do that already. But the company has invested YEARS of development to reach their release point of the initial hardware. It would make absolutely no sense, at all, to put off that release to wait for their first incremental update to be ready for production. EDIT: it sounds like the bigger issue here is that you just need to cool your heels and not be an early adopter...

Did you just wake up in the year 2020 without having lived through the last 30 years of technology and console generational cycles?

When we were out there, they had that tram you could ride for part of the distance, and then a huge swath of it is underground mall that connects between a bunch of the casinos. It was actually kind of fun to see how far we could go without stepping outside.

I would believe it. My wife and I were out there one time and walked from the strip to the Pinball Hall of Fame. Longest mile-and-a-half of my life.

Well it sounds like Into the Breach is on Switch, so check that one out for sure.

Get "Into the Breach" on PC, or "Battletech". Don't restrict yourself to consoles if you want a decent mech experience.

Large swaths of the middle east aren't really a consistent "dry heat", though. They don't get a lot of rain, but the humidity can be brutal. My wife did some time in Kuwait, years ago, and talked about the heat not breaking until 4 or 5 in the morning, due to there being enough humidity to keep it hot overnight. Then that couples with 120+ deg days sometimes.

Yeah... if you have reliable shade, loose fitting clothing, and plenty of water, high 90's in a desert environment is OK...but 110... once you step out in the direct sun it is like standing on the surface of Hell.

Other than playing it for a few minutes here and there, I don't particularly enjoy the original because it is pretty clunky compared to its contemporary rival FZero. Had a lot of fun playing Mario Kart Wii with the wife back when it was fairly new, though.

Surprised to see any negativity toward Hollow Knight. While I got distracted before the end-game and haven't finished it yet, from the get-go the mood, art, and sound design all grabbed me. It is certainly a little frustrating to not have an auto-map until you make meaningful progress in a region, but once you get used to it, it is just like going back to the classics of the genre. Ran into the same distracted-before-the-endgame on Axiom Verge. But thought it was a great game where the "Metroidvania" moniker is completely misused, since the game is more-Metroid-than-Metroid with no "vania" components whatsoever.

It is a near certainty. It is also a near certainty that the actual infection rate is under-reported, because it strikes me as incredibly unlikely that China is willing to lock down a city of 20 million people over 900 illnesses. So the ratio (death to infection) is completely unknowable since both numbers are almost certainly falsified.

I am certain that both numbers (infections and deaths) reported from China are falsified, as is any number/statistic of any kind that they provide. If it manages to stay largely contained to China we will probably never know how bad or benign it ultimately was. The particularly disconcerting part of this virus is that they can't just screen with thermal cameras at ports of entry, like is done in Asia for most other quarantined viruses.

At least an 8/10 for me. Their music videos were over the top.

Stage - Dr Wily's Castle (MM2) Robot Master - Quick Man (MM2) Song - Flash Man (MM2) Weapon - Metal Blade (MM2)

I've never had a bad purchase, but I have had a couple of bad buyers over the years. With regards to missing packages... have never had that happen to me, in either direction of a transaction.

I'll double-down on that with the fact that he was an early-adopter of accepting Bitcoin on his storefront back when it was worth a lot less than it is today. If he took the chance and kept it in crypto, he might have done well on it.

The quintessential PC fighting game was One Must Fall.

We have a couple of weeks to go, and I know what I am getting into in terms of the build. I haven't participated in a derby in quite awhile, though, so I am mainly hoping that it isn't a situation where some dads with a misplaced competitive spirit suck the fun out of the activity for the kids. Main focus this week is getting my daughter to cook up a design.

I assume the rules will be rewritten for better play balance and to generally be more fun than the original (like with the rerelease of fireball Island). The original is a sort of competitive RPG where up to four heroes from four kingdoms are trying to win (don't recall the exact win criteria, but it involves visiting various settlements, collecting resources, and combat). Classically, the combat was controlled by the Dark Tower, an electromechanical computer that stands in the middle of the board. In the new version, some of that is moved to a companion app, but the tower still appears to feature prominently. But the RPG gameplay appears to be considerably more involved if you want it to be, making for a deeper get than the original.

The kinetic side of Fireball Island is quite a bit of fun, especially of you get younger kids playing with you. It sort of had the same allure as the contraption from Mouse Trap with the extra fun of a game actually worth playing. The old version of fireball Island is thoroughly playable, I just don't think the experience is worth anywhere near the $350 price of entry when an even better ruleset alternative cost 1/3 the price. Dark Tower is one that I always wanted to own, but never committed to buying due to the issues with the electromechanical tower. A friend of mine had a much older brother who owned Dark Tower, and it BARELY worked enough for us to try and play it a few times in the early 90s. Since that time I put quite a few hours into the HTML version of the game online, and realized how unforgiving the original rules were. Having a new version with a redesign of the rules (guy that did Gloomhaven) is pretty exciting to be able to share with my kids when they are a bit older. And in the meantime it will be fun to play with my Heroquest group at work.

I have the full set from the Kickstarter and have not played the expansions yet, but the base game is better than the original, in terms of actual gameplay. I specifically picked it all up so I could comfortably sell my original copy of the 90s version. Edit -- the box quality itself is disappointing, but I finally decided to shell out for the laser cut box from Broken Token when it was on a good sale. Game components themselves are good quality, but the game board IS thinner material than the classic -- works well, it is just that since it is 3 small boards that build the full mountain the overall thickness can be lower than when the entire island is one monolithic piece. I suspect Dark Tower will be similar, from a redesign standpoint, where a more modern revisitation of the rules and game development make a better version of the nostalgic classic...while let you free up a lot of capital by unloading the original

My daughter's Daisy troop are doing pinewood derby with the cubscouts this year, so we need to get a car built next weekend. Looking forward to it.