Eoae

Played Morkredd last night. It was.... interesting. Very short top-down adventure that basically plays out like a mashup of Limbo and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (it's designed to be played co-op but you can play solo by controlling two characters independently with one controller; same as Brothers). It's got a Lovecraftian vibe going on so I was expecting something weird to happen. Was not expecting the last act to take a detour into body horror. Last act abandons the mostly monochromatic color palette for full color (well, red, anyway) and sends your characters into a cave that looks uncomfortably like the inside of someone's stomach. Very fleshy. Then your characters step into a couple organic pods and come out as..... giant, gross worms. Yeah, that was an interesting design choice. Fascinating game. Can't find much about it on the internet, so I'm guessing not a lot of people have played it. Thought it was probably overpriced for it's length, but overall it was an interesting experiment. I like the "control two characters independently using the same controller" mechanic, but i'm not good at it.

They put Lashley over really well in the period around the title win. Miz cashed in on Drew, then Lashley dominated Braun the next and basically beat him clean (with the Hurt Lock, irrc). Then they did a two-week angle when Miz acted like a chickenshit heel and tried to stall, and Lashley had none of it and squashed him in the ring. By contrast, they basically booked Big E's cash-in the same as Miz's (run-in after the champ wrestles a match and is basically beat up). Not sure why they felt like they needed to add the bad leg on top of the Orton match, but ok. Hopefully they book E strong from here on in - and I expect him to beat Lashley clean in the a straight-up match before too long - but I'm not too interested in how they got the title on to E. When's the last time two consecutive title changes were on tv instead of PPV?

Servers for all three LBP games have been shut down since May due to hacker attacks. PS4 servers for LBP 3 are back up.

If Big E does cash in tonight, I hope they put him over strong as a pure fightin' babyface.... by having him hide in the back then doing in a run-in to jump the champ from behind after the champ wrestles a 20 min match and eats a finisher or two. Audiences love babyface champs who only win the belt because the other guy slipped on a banana peel. Not really news, but Vince has weird ideas about what makes a good babyface.

Except for young up and comer Randall Orton challenging for the title, that is very much not the card I'd book if I'm desperate for ratings and looking to put together a "PPV quality" card. Is anyone excited about Shayna doing anything at this point? Seems fairly obvious Charlotte will beat her in some fashion and the match will mostly serve for Nia to dish out a beating or as a way to further the Nia/Shayna breakup angle. Big E teasing a cash-in seems to suggest that he's not cashing in or that he's not going to be successful. A New Day turn on him would probably be a terrible idea, but New Day are pretty stale at this point, so something needs to happen. Hopefully, I'm not the sort of viewer Vince is hoping to lure in tonight. I probably won't read about the show until sometime tomorrow.

Honestly, I’d be surprised to learn that anyone.cares about Vega enough one way or the other to continue punishing her. Seems like people here are reading a lot into very little. It’s apparently not that unusual for WWE to run short on time and have to move a match. I could be wrong, but I’m guessing it’s a case of people seeing what they want to see.

Did he finally sign with NXT or something?

God, I regret reading the last couple pages. I don't think this thread killed any brain cells, but I wouldn't be surprised if a couple are scanning the want ads right now looking for a better gig.

I feel the same way. Then again, I married a girl I met in college, my brother married his high school girlfriend, my daughter married the student who showed her around campus during freshmen orientation, etc. So what do I know? I do question the wisdom of getting married before Covid is under control. Really uncertain what the future looks like or if we even have futures. Anyway, my alma mater is a two-point favorite against ranked Va Tech this week. That's surprising.

I probably sound more critical of the game than I actually am. If I had to review it formally, it'd get a high score. The visuals are gorgeous and surreal, the main character is likable, the narrative themes work (the game is a coming-of-age story about stepping away from other's expectations and deciding who you want to be), and, of course, nearly every moment in the game is wonderfully weird and imaginative. I think, as high concept art games go, I liked Twelve Minutes more and there are a couple games I'd probably vote for as my GotY, but I expect to see this on a lot of people's top 10 lists at year's end. Definitely play Kentucky Route Zero. Visual aesthetic isn't as interesting, but it's in the same vein: odd, experimental game that works better than it should thanks to strong writing. Annapurna has published a lot of good-to-great games over the past few years. I at least look at anything they publish and I usually enjoy their stuff a lot. Deathloop review embargo ended this morning. Early reviews are a lot of 9's and 10's. Metacritic score based on first 40 reviews was an 89. Looking forward to playing it tomorrow.

He had a knee injury at some point when he was on the main roster, but it was concussion symptoms that kept him on the sideline the last 12+ months of his main roster run. he says in the video they he’s going to be out a short, but indeterminate amount of time, but that sounds a little like wishful thinking If it is concussion-related.

Finished it last night. It won't be my game of the year, but, yeah, a helluva a lot of fun and impressive from a creative standpoint. Really dug the narrative/life lesson, and the visuals are just weird and trippy and gorgeous. If you had told me I'd get into a psychedelic sci-fi rock opera that much, I would probably have laughed. I thought everything was outstanding except... the actual gameplay. This is very much a game that doesn't want you to get stuck on anything before the end of the game. The platforming is relatively easy and forgiving (you respawn a few feet from where you died) and the rhythm game mechanics are even more forgiving. I'm not a big fan of games where you can pause the game for hours simply by not choosing a dialogue option or pressing a button after an npc talks. Not only can you do that, but you can get through the rhythm sections by simply pausing to write the correct button sequences down. The game won't penalize you for getting things wrong or simply not trying and will just repeat the sequence over and over until you get it right (everything around you freezes until you get it right). I just ignored the game and let it repeat one sequence over and over at least a dozen times until i scribbled the right sequence of button presses into a notebook, then did it in-game. Beyond that, I thought the indie roots showed a little too much. You can't interact with most of the NPC's you meet in town, on the starship, etc. When you do bump into an npc who can talk to you, they only have a couple lines - at most -and, if you try to talk to them again, they just repeat the same sentences over and over again. Also, the game is basically on rails. They were only a few times when it wasn't clear where to go or what to do to move the game along. Most of the time, you have no choice but to go forward until you encounter what you are looking for. Very seldom do you have to decide whether to go left or right or try to figure out where the person you are supposed to find might be. And it's a small annoyance, but I was annoyed by the number of times a npc says "follow me" then disappears and magically teleports to the spot they want you to go to, leaving you to blunder along looking for them and wonder if you're still going the right way or somehow lost track of them. I'm assuming the npc's don't just walk from room to room with you due to budget/technical limitations. There's more gameplay than most walking simulators, but less than most platformers and rhythm games. i described Artful Escape to someone as What Became of Edith Finch on acid and 'shrooms and Hendrix. That's actually a compliment. It's one of the weirder, more artsy/experimental games Annapurna Interactive has published, and that's saying something. Also, I am officially old. I found the folk riffs to be quite pleasant while the guitar rock riffs were grating. Edit: Also, the director is named "Johnny Galvatron" and he's a founding member of an Australian rock/pop band called the Galvatrons. This game definitely feels like something an aging rock n' roller would design.

GameStop is redrafting its mission statement. The company says it is “evolving” beyond games and will become a “more general technology company”. I don’t really see this going well. Also, when did Funko pops and Hot Topic t-shirts get reclassified as technology?

I kinda like Cage from his time in So Cal and Lucha Underground, but he's always struck me as replacement guy. Like, if Lance Archer quits your promotion suddenly and you need a monster heel to replace him, Cage would be a decent prospect. Or you want to bring in Brawn Stroman but Brawn laughs at you when you make him an offer and you still need a big guy with some name value, Cage could be the first one you'd call. Or at least fourth or fifth. He's got some value - at least as a heel - but maybe not in AEW right now since the AEW roster is loaded in both quantity and quality. Also, I remember what Cage looked like when he debuted. Willing to bet a fair bit that the copious amounts of steroids he's (allegedly, cough cough) done are far more likely to ruin his health than the Covid vaccine.

I'm really struggling to think of too many similarities between Outer Wilds, Deathloop, 12 Minutes, and Returnal beyond "time loop"

C'mon, man. You've watched enough indy wrestling to know he would just no-sell the spot.

Show peaked for me early. Project Eve looks interesting. Forspoken has my attention. Back half of show was loaded with big announcements, but not necessarily games I'm too excited about yet even though the games will be good to great and I'll end up buying them on day one. Buzz around Deathloop makes me think it will be special. Interesting that Cory Barlog is no longer directing God of War 2. Wonder what happened there. I don't follow Barlog on social media anymore but he at least seemed to be directing last time I checked. After God of War was released, Barlog talked about having plans laid out for the next four games in the franchise. Ghostwire Tokyo looks less interesting every time I hear about it. Lol, probably just me but the top three announcements for me today were Alan Wake Remastered release date and release dates for Eternal Cylinder and a Juggler's Tale. Not for nothing, but all three games look very interesting and are dropping in less than a month. I'm probably going to buy an absurd number of games between Sept. 23 and October 8. Several big titles and a bunch of interesting indies coming out in that timeframe.

I don't know him, but I know people who know him and everything I've heard about him indicates he's a great guy. Family man, stands up for his players, recruits players who stay out of trouble, honest, likable, etc. Most of the alumni loved him from day one. Problem is, so far he hasn't won football games or recruited the sort of players who generate excitement. I'm hoping he turns things around, but I'm not hopeful. There's not a lot of excitement around the program right now. People didn't like Dana Holgerson (previous coach), but Dana brought future NFL'ers to town and won just enough to convince the fanbase that a BCS playoff berth was within reach. Right now, there's not even a lot of talk about Brown being able to improve the team.

I remember watching Hayashi splat himself in WCW on a floor dive against Raven and thinking "that dude just shortened his career by a lot". That was 20+ years ago and Hayashi is still going.

My alma mater is playing Long Island University this weekend. I think the plan is to get us ready for life without big time college ball (aka life in the Big 12 after Texas and Okla. leave). I'm legit curious to see what the crowd is like. I have a feeling Covid will have less of an impact than a meh performance against Maryland last week and general fan hostility towards the current coach, who made a lot of big promises but is 12-11 in his first two+ seasons with one conference road win. Next two opponents are Va Tech and Oklahoma in Norman, so 1-3 start seems possible. Current coach has had three starting qb's in two years who should have been able to play in Div. 1 (one started at Bowling Green before transferring here and put up great numbers, another was Austin Kendall, who was originally recruited to Oklahoma) and none have looked good or progressed, so fans are irate.

That doesn't sound like a terrible idea for Cole, though I'd stop short of calling it good. And i don't think it would work. Having Lee turn heel and become a generic big scary black guy is a waste of Lee, though it might be better for him than his current gimmick as the invisible man. I want to say that most of the audience could distinguish between long-haired wrestler Adam Cole and middle-aged announcer Michael Cole, but I'd probably just be setting myself up for disappointment.

Thought the main event was underwhelming in general. Hayter getting jobbed out to Soho was disappointing too, though the catering insult was amusing. Not really getting Soho's sudden appeal. The Adam Cole bit ruled. When Tony surreptitiously did the finger point at the end of Baker's interview, I thought to myself "Cole should come out and stomp his hand."

If even a third of the wild rumors about tomorrow's PlayStation showcase are real, it's gonna be a h*ll of a show. Honestly, Sony could remaster some of its first-party PS3 games and I'd be happy. I want LittleBigPlanet 1 & 2, InFAMOUS 1 & 2 & Ico HD on PS4 or 5 more than I want new titles. Ratchet & Clank Future Collection wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Whenever I see things like "sunburn, soreness, falling down stairs" in injury reports, my first thought is usually "Ok, what did you really do (that you don't want to admit to or is banned by your contract)?

I was stunned by how ordinary Jordan looks in this photo. Just any other average person. I wouldn’t have recognized him if the caption didn’t identify him. After looking at the photo a couple times, I finally realized Jordan is sitting behind the guy I was looking at. Lol, sometimes, I am dumb. ?