Gonna agree with you for opposite reasons. The combat in the postgame dungeon, Costlemark I think. The one where you can’t use any healing items, it was a worthy challenge.

The other postgame dungeon, the platforming one was, was way better than many final fantasy challenges like jumping rope and dodging lighting.

Special mention for the incredible soundtrack, the Matoya’s Cave remix especially.

But ya everything before the postgame, the umm main game I guess, was ridiculously short. Imagine FFIV ending when you drill into the underworld, or FFVI ending when the the world breaks, that’s what the story in FF15 feels like. As soon as you depart to the next continent you get rug pulled by a time jump that takes you to the final boss 🫠

Xbox was so great when it launched. Thanks for bringing us decent length controller cables, hard drives, and Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay 👌

Nowadays, uhh thanks for making an unnecessary media center I guess 🤷‍♀️

The mediocrity as I understand was from the rift that developed in the team about the vision of the game being a sandbox vs a campaign.

However, I witnessed a new divide among the team which was less well-known; as more core game developers (such as myself) were recruited to help finish the game, a cultural gap emerged between the newer ‘gameplay’ team and the older ‘Sim’ team. The former group (which went on to spearhead Darkspore) was primarily concerned with how Spore played as a game. Were the mechanics engaging? Did the player’s choices matter? Was the game replayable? In contrast, the ‘Sim’ team carried the traditional Maxis DNA and was more comfortable with Spore as a toy box. Could the players express themselves? Was sharing one’s creations with other players meaningful? Did the game spark the imagination?

These cultural divides ruined Spore’s chances to be a focused, cohesive experience.

http://www.designer-notes.com/2013/09/

It’s like double the effort, but I really like Kenji style potatoes where you parboil and toss them to build a slurry coating then roast that coating into crispy goodness.

Next time I do I want to try a Parmesan finish 😎

Patches Emporium as some kinda armory for new characters.

New game plus isn’t for everyone, but starting with your favorite weapon might be.

German must have its own share of disappointing terms.

Pferd comes to mind as an example. I really expected something more metal like horzdraken or comical like hoofenstreider. But no, just a boring Roman loan word.

Gah what a fucking tool.

Well at least he isn’t getting paid when I rewatch Ace Ventura 2 on plex 😎

FWIW, Moorcock discusses often in his forewords living the hellscape of post blitz London as a preteen. I highly doubt he would ever co-sign on another nazi regime.

Haha so right. My original draft lamented how the psychedelic, pansexual, spy with a little gun Jerry Cornelius only lives on in the pale echo of Austin Powers. But then I thought it was too niche.

But ya The Final Programme was my first literary introduction to homosexuality. The weird psychotropic defense towers on the Cornelius estate may have been my first introduction to mind altering states too.

The original velvet suited dandy from swinging London (imo):

Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe.

I must say this recommendation is delightfully on theme, nicely done 😎

This caught my attention

A Wizard of Earthsea is one of the most beautifully written books in the English language.

I’m a total sucker for beautiful prose, especially Gormenghast.

Do you have any memorable lines that stuck with you?

Stormbringer is Elric’s famous sword. You can hear someone shout it in GoT when Joffrey is about to name his sword. It’s evil and drinks the souls of those it kills, passing some of the energy to Elric.

Anyways. Elric is a sickly inbred albino prince of a an ancient , evil, and decaying empire (aka Fantasy Britain). Without his evil sword he is a total weakling pushover.

And people think this is a white power character/symbol? Blows my mind.

That’s way harder.

There’s always his iconic anthihero Elric, or the modern incarnation Geralt of Rivia. I like The Vanishing Tower (Elric IV I think) as a standalone in-media-res story.

I personally enjoy the really weird stuff in Blood: A Southern Fantasy.

Behold the Man won him an award and I thought it was a thought provoking novella, at least for its time.

What’s a good place to start? I only really know her for invoking the divine right of kings like a boss 😎

Ya exactly this. When used well it enhances the boss. When overused it becomes annoying and cliched.

This looks really really good, crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.

Reminds me of those thin rustic slices with big sugar that you see at fancy brunch joints.

Not sure what they’re called but this is the best picture I could find.

This is how I know how to make it, however the Latin market now sells tomato sauce packets that are about 200 grams and I plan to adjust the recipe to use them and skip all the freezing/thawing of the extra tomato sauce.

1 cup rice

1 drizzle of oil

half can of tomato sauce (these cans are 14.5 ounces)

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/2 medium onion, minced

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

1 boneless chicken thigh, cut up or cubed

3/4 tsp salt, sprinkle of white pepper

1. Pour the oil into a medium sauce pan over medium low heat.
2. Once oil warms, add rice and stir to get rice coated in oil.
3. Once a few grains begin to brown, add the onion and stir to get the onion coated.
4. Once a few onions begin to sweat, add the garlic and chicken and stir to get everything coated, then increase heat to medium
5. Stir regularly until you can’t see raw chicken; ideally everything is glistening with some light browning.
6. Add the tomato sauce and stir until coated Use the chicken broth to rinse tomato sauce out of the can
7. Pour the broth and tomato sauce mixture into the pan and bring to a boil (increase to medium-high or just wait)
8. Add the salt and pepper now.
9. Once at a low boil, put a lid on it and move it to a back burner on lowest heat for 25 minutes.

Reminds me of Absolution Gap and its insistence on brane cosmology theory. Most of the book is a side quest for a transmitter to an adjacent “brane” having the deus ex machina. I haven’t seen “brane” used instead of dimension/timeline since.

I made it 🙂

Use soft butter put 1-2 tbsp of it into a small bowl, depending on how big your bread is etc.

From an old jar of dried thyme leaves I’m trying to use up, I sprinkle some into my hand and rub it together until it gives a smell again. Tastes way better with fresh if you have it.

Incrementally add enough rubbed thyme into the butter and stir it until it looks good. Then stir in some Parmesan cheese, but not so much that it stiffens up (I just add more butter when that happens).

Chili looks really good. I can see the little bits of onion and tomato glistening in the sauce 🤤