The Queue: A Short Hike

I know I talk a lot about indies as of late, but there are few games with as impeccable fall vibes as A Short Hike. It’s very cozy and not particularly long, but it’s a very soothing sort of play session. I really recommend it.

This is The Queue, our daily column where you ask us questions and we’ll answer while we have a little walk outside, the chill as just crisp on our cheeks as the leaves crunching underfoot. Make sure you wear a jacket!

I’ll let Reverend Lovejoy field this one.

No, but they’ve added a short-lived Overwatch Classic event where you can opt to play in 6v6 mode. It’s not just the addition of the extra tank and old maps, though. They’ve also included some older classic builds, such as Symmetra’s car wash turrets, and Hanzo’s old scatter arrow, plus it looks like you’re going to be able to stack heroes again — I remember playing one memorable Hanamura where everyone on my team was Junkrat. We did not win, but it was so glorious nobody cared.

The event started yesterday, and goes through December 2. I’d assume it’ll come back like the Prop Hunt mode seems to from time to time, but if that piques your interest definitely queue now.

They’re also doing some more earnest live game-style testing to see about adding a 6v6 mode to Overwatch 2 in the next couple upcoming seasons — not as a part of the season, mind; that’s just the time frame.

I usually don’t enjoy playing cooking games too much, because they’re usually centered around rapid management and triage, and I find that stressful and not fun. There are a few in that space that I have my eye on, like Fruitbus, which is more about foraging and exploration in order to smash ingredients together and less about spinning plates. The thing is, most of those aren’t actually discounted, just highlighted. Same with Moonglow Bay.

Not to be all, “we used to be a society” but I really hate it when they do that. I get that it does give them more visibility and therefore probably a bit of a bump, but it’s pretty annoying to browse through.

That said, maybe Venba. It’s only half off, but it’s more narrative than hair-on-fire fill-the-bar gameplay.

Back in the day when we had to use physical, mechanical timers for short-term tasks, they were frequently called egg timers, because one of the most precisely timed tasks in the kitchen was the timing of eggs from soft to hard boiled (four minutes for very runny yolks, around ten for hard). Initially they were a box with a dial that controlled the timer, but after a while they started making them to look like eggs, with a rotating top and bottom. Then, somebody decided to make them in a bunch of different shapes and one of the more popular ones was manufactured in Italy and shaped like a tomato. This is the one used by the guy who came up with the idea of using the timer in 25/5 minute work/rest periods, and then trademarked the technique and the word “pomodoro” in the context of timers.

So, Pomodoro(tm) became a standard for productivity, and I’m using a digital one as I type this Queue out, though I prefer a 15/3 interval. Funnily enough, I’ve been trying to find a decent mechanical one shaped like a tomato and it’s kind of a struggle.