The Queue: Twas the night before the night before…
@CoryjTaylor
And so many creatures were stirring!
Who’s got everything done already? Not this guy! There are presents to wrap and people to see and places to go and and and… I need a holiday.
I’m sure that everything will be much calmer next week.
Until then, it’s time for — The Queue!
Q4tQ: ever found a game that’s not what you usually like, but it does something different that makes it work for you?
I just started playing Dredge, which has the gameplay of a cozy game – most of the gameplay is going around in your boat, fishing and talking to people in very small island towns and helping them out. But it’s also a Lovecraftian-style horror game. You frequently pull up horribly malformed fish. Some people you help have been trapped on islands due to sea monsters. Crows with glowing red eyes will steal fish off your boat. Some of the items you find and return to people are clearly affected by otherworldly magic. I’ve delivered two packages to a village that had rotting, whispering things in them. And at night… there are reasons you don’t go around at night.
I normally don’t like cozy games, but the creeping background horror of this game makes it a lot more fun and interesting for me. I’d love to say I hope I get some answers about what’s going on, but I probably don’t want to know.
I’ve wanted to play Dredge for a while, but since it’s not on my Xbox I just have to look on sadly as other people get to experience their own Weird™ fishing journey. Someday I’ll get my chance, maybe. Or I’ll bite the bullet and install it on my computer and play there, even if I can’t sit on my couch.
As for games that got me to play them despite not being a fan of the genre — No Man’s Sky. I don’t know why this crafting/exploration/survival game has managed to win me over, but it has! I’ll happily explore the galaxy and manage my little space house and scan weird-looking alien creatures. What NMS has that Raft, Ark, Conan, Grounded, Palworld and a slew of others have I can’t put my finger on, but I’ve put a bunch of time into it.
It’s a great podcast game, which goes a long way for me. I know I’ve talked before about zoning out while playing to the dulcet tones of Cecil from Welcome to Night Vale.
Maybe it’s been a more solitary experience where I can do my own thing without worrying about trying to meet up with some friends and build a grand base. I think it’s mainly that inevitably one of us would play more than the others and then kind of carry/push people forward and we’d lose our own personal discovery journey.
I’ve kinda just been doing my own thing, and I’ve only checked the internet for hints a pair of times when I was really stuck. Which has been nice. There’s been no min/maxing happening — just one traveller trying to find a good source of sodium to keep his shields charged.
Q4tQ I’m only going to have a little time Monday night to play WoW. What should I focus on? I haven’t visited Siren Isle yet.
If this is your first night playing this week, I’d try and get my Timewalking or Delves done for the Great Vault. The fancy gear from there could last you longer and be a more ‘efficient’ use of limited gaming time than just unlocking the first part of your Cyrce ring.
However, if you’re just looking for a little hit of Warcraft story, then yeah I think you could take your first steps into the Siren Isles and come away with a bunch of done quests. I’ve heard that it shouldn’t take you that long to get things going.
You could also spend the whole time just trying to get your hands on a reindeer pet, I hear they’re the new hotness right now.
QftQ: What bosses would you have for any particular story mode raid, excluding the obvious end boss?
Feel free to explain the reasoning!
I think that if the Story mode had all of the wing bosses that would probably make the most sense. Whatever cap off each of the LFR wings are usually the most important ones as you’re going through. They’re the fights that might have some ties to the questing out in the zones. Looking at something iconic like Icecrown, if we went in and didn’t fight Saurfang, Putricide, the Blood Council, and Sindragosa it wouldn’t feel quite as complete. Note that I did exclude Blood Queen for her lieutenants, because we meet all three of them before we get into the raid, and that lets us put the stake in the heart of three dangling plot threads.
Q4TQ: can you believe those clownsters?!?
No, but I can believe it’s not butter. So many things in life aren’t butter.
Ep 13 of secret level. the Concord one. I stand by what i said. If theyd made a full movie before thry got out of alpha there would have been a decent fandom chomping at the bit for the game
Poor Concord. I really enjoyed the little Secret Level short they had too! Would things have been different if Concord waited for the short to come out before it launched? Maybe slightly, but I also think they would’ve just run headfirst into the Marvel Rivals of it all and still not done the numbers necessary.
Secret Level has been really fun to watch, even if I didn’t know the game that they were based on. Just like Love Death and Robots, there have been a few that I’ve wanted full-length movies out of, and a couple that I’m glad ended when they did. I will say though that in the second season I hope they can find a few more examples of things that just don’t revolve around death.
Don’t get me wrong, I like a bit of the ol’ ultraviolence, but there are so many more games out there that don’t involve that and could’ve had a fun little short. Why not some racing, farming, or puzzles? I know that they’ve been greenlit for a second season, and I hope that we can get more from Arnie’s terrible King in New World, more Space Marines, and maybe some Burnout Revenge, Stray, or Stardew Valley to balance things on the other end of the spectrum.
I saw someone point out that they couldn’t boop Bacardi last week because his face was stuffed in my nacho cheese bowl, so here you go, nothing but face! Get your luck in for your video games before it all goes to getting good Christmas presents!
Today’s Anna Earworm™: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Don’t forget to help make Anna’s day better by leaving her lots of questions! Also, the other writers are hungry for questions too, maybe toss them some.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
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