The Queue: Get Jinxed

This is The Queue, our daily column where you ask us questions and we’re not afraid of you.

I see you out here trying to jinx me, Cory.

Every time I’ve prepped and been ready in advance, suddenly, something happens. One year, my mom decided the week before Christmas she was going to come visit after all, and despite having all my shopping done, I suddenly wound up at Target on December 23 because she had more shopping to do. A different year, everyone in the family got norovirus. One year, I decided to make cookies for everyone’s presents and literally all of them got dropped on the ground outside. Another year, I was so ready for Christmas that I actually started sorting out all my end-of-year tax stuff and then I had a baby a month early, on Christmas Eve.

So with that in mind, yes, Cory. I’m done with my Christmas shopping. I need to make cookies, but I have a schedule and a plan for doing so, and most of the stuff already. I have crafts, I have activities planned, the decor is up — though we are going to go look at the sales next week for more — I have a Christmas music playlist, I have gifts for teachers and the schedule for school holiday parties, and almost everything is due to arrive by the end of this week, in plenty of time. The few fragile things in shipping I can replace relatively easily.

Do your worst.

I got our daughter the game Priorities, because we love Kids Without Maturity so it’s a similar idea, but aimed at talking more. We also got Happy Salmon, which is kind of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza-adjacent — lots of yelling, lots of fun. We love Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza so we’re always looking for games with a similar vibe.

We also got our son a set of Snap Circuits, which is kind of like a game, in that there’s a sort-of solution, but there’s quite a bit more to it than a regular puzzle. I’m not sure I’d call it a game per se, but also it isn’t not a game.

I haven’t purchased video games yet, because I’m waiting on the Steam sale, and also there’s a ton to play. In addition to Hearthstone Battlegrounds and WoW, especially since Winter Veil started yesterday, there are a number of other favorite games with holiday updates, from Sulfur to Winter Burrow. I have plenty to keep me busy. I probably don’t even need to buy anything on Steam sale, but I’m weak and my wishlist is disgusting.

Far and away, The Witness. I’m usually a puzzle game sicko, but orientation type puzzles (like those tiled puzzles where you slide them around to make a picture, or even Rubik’s cubes), are way down the list in terms of favorites for me. As such, the style of the core puzzle in The Witness left me completely cold. There were some other, very intriguing puzzles scattered around, but they tend to be tough to find, and the reward tends to be weird little navel gazey bits of lore that struck me as less intriguing and more pretentious.

It is an older game, and as such there are a few spots where a modern game would have done something slightly different. A big case of this was, when I got to the end of the game, there was no acknowledgment that I was near the end of the game, and no toast notification when I was about to pass the point where I couldn’t go backwards. The game itself is very non-linear, in that it lets you hop around to different biomes, try new things when you gain new knowledge and understanding, so just abruptly ending without letting you know it’s time to tie up the loose ends is a weird choice. And then when you re-load the save, it just plays that same end cinematic again and dumps you back to the main menu? I have never been more done with a game.

I’m glad I didn’t find the lore intriguing because if I wanted to know what happened I would’ve been pissed.