I am returning to Hollow Knight thanks to the Silksong hype. I had dropped it before because I was unsure where I needed to go to progress and was getting sick of running around the map trying to figure out which paths were actually available to me and which needed some equipment I didn’t have. Well, I did figure it out and basically have everything important unlocked so now I am enjoying it again.

If you do pick it up again, I have some advice. First, there’s a relic in an area called the Hive that will give you passive health regen if there’s a long enough gap between instances of damage. This means you can keep messing up a platforming section and as long as you don’t rush it you can heal back after messing up without needing new sources of soul. Second, there are some sections that are traversable with minimal equipment but become trivial with more. Deepnest was really annoying to me when I went through it and I frankly would have probably enjoyed it if I had one really helpful item unlocked (or even just a bit more health). Third, don’t worry too much about money. Normal enemies don’t give you much from farming and I think I’ve run out of stuff to spend it on mostly from other sources. So don’t be afraid to let it go. If you’ve unlocked the fast travel thing, just head back to vendors when you’ve noticed you accumulated a decent amount.

Like I said, I’m enjoying the game again after years away, but I really wish they had a better way of letting you know where you should go next and what isn’t available to you. Needing to go through zones again to check if something is now unlocked or not is tiresome. The pins help but they are not enough, and I didn’t think to reserve certain colors for certain types of obstacles the first time.

I think the undo button was Android-only

Yeah it’s not supported for my system so I can’t even launch it. But I was watching some friends stream it and it crashed for three out of four of them within two games. I don’t think any of us will be getting it after release.

There is an unstuck button. It’s in the bottom left if you hit esc iirc. I’ve used it a few times.

Its name is wordplay in Korean, where P means blood. But it is weird when translated.

Yeah it’s good in a lot of ways but especially early on you can just get stuck with no way to progress in a day due to bad luck. Also, many synergies require a sequence of specific randomly-generated rooms and the resources to use them when they show up (and in viable locations). But there are a number of permanent upgrades that make it much more consistent, and a few of the minor upgrades are fairly common.

TLoZ: Spirit Tracks had you control Link primarily but you used Zelda’s ghost to possess things, help you fight, and solve puzzles. It would be hard for a solo dev, but you could have a knight with an AI that proceeded based on what paths you unlock for it. So the princess would be some sort of astral projection I guess. But then, you wouldn’t really feel trapped. Maybe you need to hide your activity from the dragon or distract it for a stealth aspect or resource management. You would need to balance swapping back and forth between your body and helping the knight. Might be easier to settle on an in-universe justification after figuring out the core gameplay.

I haven’t played it and hate nearly everything I have seen about the age system, but they did make the map generation more varied in the latest patch. They’ve called the map inadequacies a priority to work on, so it will probably get better if you return to it down the line.

My friends and I really like Civ 5, but we didn’t get into 6 much and had some reservations about the changes in 7. I think we’ll get it at some point, but it will probably be during a sale after some more polish (and maybe some mods to adjust some of the controversial changes).

But I’ve had the itch from the hype and I’ve been wanting to try some other turn-based 4X games. Old World is 75% off on Steam at the moment so I pulled the trigger yesterday. I’ve seen gameplay but I’m eager to try it myself. The narrative choices seem like they add a lot of meaningful decision-making that I want to explore. I also played some Age of Wonders 4 and have enjoyed that too, but there’s a lot to learn with all the combat mechanics. It means there’s a lot of replayability though.

It seems like Overwatch news always gets very downvoted. Is it just because people dislike Blizzard’s mishandling of the game? That’s hardly reason to shoot the messenger for major updates. OP hasn’t endorsed anything, they just shared the news neutrally.

Its hardware is yet to be announced, yet is somehow already obsolete.

The Bazaar is a similar game releasing soon. It’s still primarily focused on developing synergies between items in your build, but there’s more varied events between pvp fights and configuring your pack is simpler because it’s on a line rather than a grid, if that makes sense. It will be releasing as free to play probably in February or March.

You can rebind a/d to strafe left/right instead. Most players do.

There’s a couple of quests that have a time limit, and it’s easy to not be aware since all the others can be completed whenever. I only knew beforehand because I read about it, and I’m glad I did, because letting them unintentionally expire has really bad outcomes.

Also I got a mod for infinite respecs. Otherwise I would worry about wasting finite consumable points and never spend them.

Mass shooters are obviously despicable, but they wouldn’t generally be terrorists. The definition of terrorist requires a political motivation. But even if you did include school shooters in the count, they still would be greatly outnumbered by the amount of people in actual terrorist groups. Some like Hezbollah are effectively armies. Also, I can’t think of a game where you deal with isolated mass shooters.

Yeah no problem. It’s always nice to be able to discuss something with others and be respectful even if you don’t fully agree.

I understand where the protesters are coming from and the idea that doing anything sounds better than just allowing the world to deteriorate. But I genuinely believe the less dramatic strategies do work better, even if it’s hard to feel the effects. Not too long ago, the idea that the climate change was happening and that humans were to blame was largely ignored. Now, most people acknowledge that it’s the case, and it’s a matter of making it a priority. But that’s still meaningful progress.

Anyways, thanks for the conversation and being open to push back. It’s great to see in spaces that seem more divisive than ever.

The problem is that it doesn’t help their cause in the least. If anything, it damages it. To onlookers, it makes supporters of the cause look crazy and makes them easier to dismiss by opposition.

Climate change is a very serious problem that requires billions of people working together to solve. Culturally significant objects being vandalised is a much less serious problem but it also only requires a few individuals to not do what they have done to become a non-issue.

By all means, protest polluters, badger policymakers, and argue in forums. But if you start being annoying to people equally as powerless to effect meaningful change you’re only going to make people less likely to listen to you.

This wouldn’t be 25% of your profit, it’s just increasing one of your expenses by 25%. It looks like it’s going up to $3000.

Edit: Enterprise price is negotiated with each company, so there’s not a set subscription price. But it’s still just the price of one expense, not a portion of total profits.

It also helps that there isn’t a competitive mode yet. Until recently it didn’t even track your stats in a visible way. Also, people can only get in by being invited, so you have to have had at least one person who has vouched for you in some way, which probably selects against the most toxic personalities.

Gigantic: Rampage Edition is free to claim on Epic Games this week, so if you might be interested in the future, it would be worth grabbing now.