Thank you for responding to each individual point! I have much to consider.

Bad story can be a hard pill to swallow these days.

Yeah, this one was on my radar. I agree that a game like this should not have taken this long to emerge from the franchise.

Thanks for the recommendations!

Yeah I’m not keen on a subscription service where I essentially rent a game until they no longer can be bothered to host it or whatever. I’ll try to find alternative for stockpiling retro games.

Yes this looks like a good game for me, thanks!

Very cool - I just might try this, thanks!

I love how the PNW just largely doesn’t refer to people as anything.

Half-hearted ‘Pal’ dominance in New England is also concerning.

obvious astroturfing

DotA 2: Should have had random items as rewards from matches based on the hero you are playing, instead of entirely random. Also, they should have had in-game currency for their stores rather than just barter and RMT.

Disco Elysium: Thought cabinet should not cost a skill point to remove an already internalized thought.

EU4: More internal realm management/struggle.

WoW: Raising the level cap is always a mistake. Obsoleting content is always a mistake. Worst storyline imaginable.

Heroes of Might and Magic: Conflux in HoMM 3 was lame

I had the misfortune of eavesdropping on a conversation recently where some guy who was working in a bourgeoisie brewing facility recently switched jobs to work at a waste water treatment center and he was advocating for removing fluoride from water with a level of rationale that I have to assume he picked up from co-workers parroting information they heard on the Joe Rogan podcast.

I own it and would play with a group.

I have not played it, yet - so I will be garbage-tier at it. Fair warning.

I have experience with many other paradox games though so I imagine I’d pick it up fairly quick.

I checked the solution and it was much simpler than I expected; can’t the pawn just kill the knight to avoid the king having to move back/forth? Doesn’t seem like checkmate since to escape check it is legal to capture the threatening piece.

Yes, Your Grace.

The name made me fearful that this game would be cringe. However, the trailer assured me that it would be awesome. It’s very story-driven, and while the narrative is pretty set on rails/linear you do have “importance” of choices when it comes to resource management.

The game has a lot of great humor and music throughout. It even will K.O. punch you right in the feels.

The game also “respects your time” which is great these days…

It’s the failure of the Soviet education system. If we can characterize the Soviet people, it is that they are far too naive.

Eh. They were in a bad spot economically due to Saudi market manipulation at the behest of the west, a military defeat in Afghanistan, a space-race posturing/propaganda. They definitely could have held out longer but they were on the back-foot and were opting for a peaceful/graceful loss rather than forcing a military loss. This worked for the West also as they didn’t want to involve their direct military which is why they extended a “peaceful” option for ending the cold war. The icing on the cake was Gorbachev was an intelligence asset (someone linked evidence for this here once, I lost the bookmark apparently; if he wasn’t then he was the only truly naive Soviet citizen).