I was a little surprised to find myself still Flying in some of the games, but my brain has definitely deteriorated in the last five years (my Time Pass skills are so bad!). Dr Kawashima was so sad to see that it had been a while. I remember competing for sub 15s scores and laughing hard at some gallery drawings. In fact, just holding the stylus in my hand brings back memories, especially the summer that we spent playing The World Ends With You. To be a kid again…

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I played a stupid amount of League of Legends yesterday. I don’t know why this is my kind of habit in the lead up to Finals, but it is. I like the game a lot — it has a really great system that combines technical knowledge, zone control, awareness, reaction, psychology, etc.

I bought Gangplank, a fairly safe-to-play carry. Obviously that’ll ring untrue once I actually get around to playing real games, but he’s one of the only champions whose entire skill sets I like. There’s so much to learn that I don’t know if I can invest myself much and at the end of the day, it’s still just a “what the fuck am I doing with my life” time sink of a game.

I played Bloodline Champions recently. Conceptually, it’s more simple, but really threw me off with its control scheme — eight skills mapped to nonsensical areas of the keyboard and imprecise movement. It makes me feel that DotA-Allstars really was either true brilliance or simply an accident in design.

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I’ve been spamming links for The Secret War. Part of me wants to jump in and have everything set for launch day/early access, even though the rewards probably aren’t worth the effort. I have to admit, it’s a pretty nifty ARG, and I hope it’s a good sign of the kind of thing that Funcom will do to make The Secret World something special.

I guess most of the hype is on Guild Wars 2, but I don’t know about playing in a world that I cared naught for the first time around. Perhaps I’ll pick it up eventually, but for now, I’m a Templar.

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Long week ahead. Nevermind. Computer science’d it.

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Adorable Flash short. I’ll LD some day.

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I had more fun playing The Missing Link than the main game. I hate that it’s in my nature to powergame and constantly reload save games, but the fact that it was a standalone chapter meant that I experimented more and played in ways that I avoided during my original run-through.

I look forward to future content, but I can’t imagine that it’s an easy game to design around.

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I don’t like Marauders. Conceptually, it doesn’t make sense to me how Terran were suddenly able to outfit armour which was twice as strong and just as mobile as regular Marine armour. It means there’s no reason why they couldn’t strap Hellfire missiles to the same chassis to make an insane anti-air infantry. Concussive Shells make them really obnoxious to go up against — I don’t like how risky it makes poking. Remember when it used to slow down Archons… those hovering, spell-resistant embodiments of pure rage? That’s basically why I thought they were dumb.

Maybe if it was an active spell (perhaps single use?) that worked more like an actual anti-gravity grenade and dragged units together/backwards? I like the idea that it would only be effective in the hands of skilled/attentive Terrans, even if the snare effect was worse, or it destroyed Force Fields.

My favourite unit, by contrast, is the Immortal. If fulfills the anti-Roach role in the same way, but the idea of the old Dragoons being outfitted with better AI, a heavy weapon and extra shields, and having Stalkers act as a lighter skirmisher just seems more plausible to me.

I know that lore should always take second place to gameplay, but that’s just how I feel about them. In-game, they’re both just dull units that you mix in response to Armored units. I probably overmake both regardless, especially after the realisation that Immortals are as cheap as two Stalkers. (That and the range buff.)

My next post will be better.