Queuenanigans

Yesterday’s Nintendo Indie and Partner Directs were full of a lot of cool announcements, but the one I’m most pumped for is Coffee Talk Tokyo. Coming out on Steam as well as on Switch, XBox and Playstation 5, the third entry in one of my favorite indie series is heading overseas to a café in Tokyo to make drinks, talk to the locals, and maybe change someone’s fate if you get an ingredient wrong. It’s a charming and wholesome series and it’ll be a day one purchase for me.

That said, I am concerned that this may be the second sequel in a row where Freya — my absolute favorite character — will be largely or completely absent. Hopefully she finds her way to Japan for this entry but I’m guessing we’ll need to cross our fingers that the new characters can match her presence.

While I try to remember the ingredients for the STMJ let’s answer some questions! I hear there may be exciting stuff happening in World of Warcraft this week? Let’s find out together!

There’s a lot happening next week:

The end of ReMists.

The release of the next Guild Wars 2 expansion Janthir Wilds.

Gamescom — Europe’s biggest gaming convention — starts on Tuesday with an opening night show featuring who else but Geoff Keighley.

Oh, and there’s a little thing called The War Within releasing in early access.

So even though I had earmarked this week for in-game cleanup, I knew I had to get out last weekend and take in the sunshine while I still could. So I drove on up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at many places on the Virginia portion south of Roanoke. Mabry Mill (pictured in the header) is one of the more iconic sites on the BRP so it was nice to see the water flowing and the wheel turning. Unfortunately the sun was high up in the sky when I arrived so the picture looks pretty washed out, but that’s ok — it’s a memory, not a piece of artwork. I saw a deer grazing on the side of the road, hawks riding the thermals, and lots of pretty butterflies. It was a nice trip, and hopefully I’ve stored up enough air and sunlight and mountain music to last me these next few weeks.

While I feverishly plan my next trip outdoors, let’s answer some questions!

Next Monday I complete my fiftieth trip around the sun. This now makes me eligible to use the local senior center or to join the AARP. I of course will do neither of these things (unless the senior center offers a mountain dulcimer course again); to quote the late great Jimmy Buffett a second time this intro: I’m growing older but not up.

I keep going back and forth as to whether I should consider it a big deal; heck knows society and party stores want me to, but I also know they do so out of glee that I’m “over the hill” — but I like to think I’m still climbing. Still, it’d be weird to let it pass by with no comment or introspection, so I’m just going to motivate myself with League of Legends songs and Dylan Thomas poems.

While I do everything I can to rage against the dying of the light, let’s answer some questions!

Sharp-eyed readers may notice that today’s header image is one I tacked to the end of my last queue — if so I commend you for your observational skills and/or stalking behavior.

I saw a lot of gulls last week on my annual summer trip to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Like most of the rest of the country it was pretty hot but not unbearably so; I was still able to do my normal resting and recreationing even if I read a lot more books than typical.

Of course all things good or bad must come to an end, so I’m back in the grind of things (the annual temptation to send in my work resignation from a beach chair was once again suppressed). While I sit here and ponder my next trip let’s answer some questions!

Mitch may not be currently writing the queue, but his spirit lives on!

Let’s answer some questions before a fight erupts over the title!

Tavern Talk comes out tomorrow. A fantasy version of one of my favorite games Coffee Talk (which was an inspiration for it), Tavern Talk looks like a fun opportunity to be an innkeeper, sending adventurers on quests and changing their fates via the drinks you serve. I played the demo when it was first released (still available if you want to give the game a whirl beforehand) and every character I’ve met so far is a delight. Based on what I’ve seen I’m hopeful that the full game will fulfill the promise of its demo and inspirations, and if not well I always have Coffee Talk to play again.

So while I impatiently wait for the game to release let’s answer some questions!

After a month away for patch 10.2.7, Season 4 and ReMists I finally got back to playing and finishing Tales of Kenzera: ZAU and let me tell you this game was so good my friends. While it is your standard “metroidvania” game, the graphics and music were amazingly well-done. The gameplay wasn’t revolutionary for the genre but it still managed to add some twists to the standard formula, and some of the environmental puzzles were hard. This was clearly a labor of love for the dev team and while there’s more than a half a year to go it’s sitting at the top of my Game of the Year list. If you like metroidvanias at all you should definitely pick it up — the price is pretty low too, only $15-20 depending on platform.

While I ponder which mask to wear when fighting my enemies and escaping lava, let’s answer some questions!

I’ve written up two guides to gems this week, one for Cataclysm Classic and one for The War Within. And while they’re not hard to write per se, they require a lot of meticulous work and fact-checking which are not my favorite things to do. By the time I finish I want to immerse myself in a sensory deprivation chamber for an hour just so my eyes can listen to fragrances for a bit. Sadly I do not have access to one so I’ll need to content myself with my second favorite post-writing activity, video games.

ReMists is of course the big news alongside Cata Classic (which I’m skipping) but even though it’s been less than a week I’ve already made huge progress towards my goals. Which is good because I have a lot of other games to play — still need to finish Tales of Kenzera: ZAU and Persona 4: Arena Ultimax, and I’d like to get started on Unicorn Overlord. We’re also only a couple weeks out from Summer Game Fest 2024 — Assassin’s Creed: Shadows got a head start by announcing last week — and I’m sure there will more games added to my list that weekend. TL, DR: SO MANY GAMES.

So while I level my Goblin Hunter through remixed Pandaria let’s answer some questions!

Telogrus Rift has solved the issue of transportation among floating rocks perched at the edge of the Void by transforming your character into some sort of Void or Shadow creature. While it’s surely a creative solution, I can’t help but think doing it too often will result in extra shadowy appendages over time or a one-way trip into the neighboring abyss — and neither result seems ideal. Maybe Gryphons and Wyverns aren’t fond of all that black and purple?

That said, despite the clear and present danger to your character’s existence I do recommend partaking in the new patch 10.2.7 questline. It doesn’t take very long and you see the pieces of The War Within start to come together.

While I ponder whether an Earthen covered in tentacles would actually be a roper — no, not those ropers —  let’s answer some questions!

Hey everybody! That’s right, little ol’ me is stepping in for Cory this Monday. Don’t worry, though, I’ll be sure to make it at Cory-ific as normal so don’t be distressed! That said, I tried to get song lyrics to work and I totally could not do so. He makes it look so effortless, too!

Anyways, why don’t we get right to it?