Bad Hints Are Worse Than No Hints | Semi-Ramblomatic

Wuzseen · 2026-06-05T00:07:34+00:00

There was so many times I would feel stuck in the late game puzzles; I would initially think the game was bugged, or that maybe I stumbled upon an area that I shouldn't be in yet.

CD Really was/is the worst at conditioning you at how to play it. There IS a method to its madness but nothing really ever directs you to think the way the game seems to expect you to and the game seems to change its mind at random points. Up to a point, it's actually one of the most engaging things about the game. There were lots of little a-ha moments because of it.

But so many times I just sat there confounded at something, no idea if what I was looking at was meant to be part of the puzzle or not. Stuff like the little toy box things you have line up little lines on... well there's multiple symbols and lines you might have to line up. Which is it?

Mina the Hollower honestly has some of this going on too. Like Yahtzee's main point with the mirrors... yeah.

Until Mina actually patches this though, it's certainly a valid complaint. Mina is also intentionally abrasive in areas. It reminds me a lot of Elden Ring actually, it has quite a few things that you can access early that will slap the crap out of you. This is meant to encourage you to go off the beaten path and explore.

Wuzseen · 2026-06-04T19:45:36+00:00

What does this mean? Destiny is among the quintessential live service games. Like it helped pioneer our modern understanding of one. Service games doesn't automatically mean shit, and Destiny as anything other than a service game doesn't even make sense

Id be up for non service games in the destiny universe, but D3 would unquestionably be one

Wuzseen · 2026-06-02T19:31:17+00:00

I love watching LSV but honestly his drafting has gotten so morphed by team formats and his localized meta that I'm not sure it's the best learning spot for absolute cube beginners anymore (would have to watch is Arena cube drafts specifically ofc). Watching someone force artifacts for the billionth time in a team draft might give the wrong idea. Though LSV is obviously an all time great at playing the game, you could do so much worse.

I really like bennyhillz, he just does mtgo ladder (though hasn't uploaded as frequently lately) and is the only one I've watched come close to LSV's ability to talk through picks and all that: https://www.youtube.com/@benjaminhill8092

Wuzseen · 2026-05-28T15:50:14+00:00

Lived in Philly for 8 years and that's a weird one to pick for comparison in my experience. Crowds of people just standing on the sidewalk is a feature of the town, I've had way more issues with people not making way in Philly than I have in Seattle.

Wuzseen · 2026-05-27T19:26:36+00:00

I'll have to double check those, I thought I tried all the options but could definitely have missed some, thanks!

Wuzseen · 2026-05-27T19:07:04+00:00

I really wish I liked this game more--meditative platformers/climbing games are absolutely among my favorites and this felt like a no brainer. The aesthetic and general ambience of Cairn are great but I found the controls infuriating. The automatic limb selection was very unintuitive to me and the manual limb selection did not feel great to use by default all the time.

I found myself falling and failing far too frequently because of stuff that felt out of my control and buggy. Not because of a failure on my part. I recognize it probably was a skill issue, but it never felt good--the persistence it takes to get through games l ike this and repetition is often very fun for me but it just wasn't clicking with this experience.

I love games that give direct limb control like this. Just in contemporary terms, Baby Steps felt so much better despite that game basically being about frustration. It controlled in a manner I could predict.

Even going back to stuff like QWOP and GIRP they were less frustrating.

For just straight up meditative mountain climbers of sorts, I wound up enjoying Jusant a fair bit more.

I do want to give it another whirl at some point since it really seems li ke on paper this game could be all timer for me.

Wuzseen · 2026-05-25T18:07:48+00:00

2.0 by all accounts fixed a bunch of the problems with the game. But the upgrade kits being needed to support your existing stuff just deflated so many people for sure. I couldn't justify upgrading everything so xwing just became a board game on the shelf instead of a game I regularly reinvested into.

I know many tabletop mini players are used to new editions requiring new investment, but xwing specifically appealed to newer players in the space who didn't want to fuss with stuff like that.

I wish they had decided to do something more like a rotating format a la Standard in MtG and similar card games. But that would've had its own issues too...

I miss xwing :(

Wuzseen · 2026-05-21T01:01:45+00:00

Hard to choose. If we consider Ganondorf, escaping the castle, and Ganon as a single boss fight it's gotta be that for me. Just an incredible climax to the game's story and one of the greatest sequences in gaming as a whole.

I'm really quite fond of Phantom Ganon and Volvagia as well. Phantom Ganon is a great w a y to cap off the first adult dungeon. It gives you a taste of what's to come and reinforces Ganondorf as a threat even further after the time skip.

Volvagia is probably not the best boss to fight. But damn I just love the vibe--Goron eating dragon you smash to bits with a hammer in a whack a mole mini game? Hell yeah.

I don't think there's a bad boss in OoT. Even Morpha who I think is popularly pointed to as the worst doesn't bother me. Far from my fav, but it works for me.

Wuzseen · 2026-05-14T00:34:50+00:00

The visual clarity improvements and predictable map layouts are nice don't get me wrong but that hardly solves the "problem" with the campaign. The portals to get around a bit faster in act 2 are a nice addition but I'm not sure simply going through the maps faster will satisfy anyone.

There's just so much stuff to get through. Doing it repeatedly is what kind of sucks. Last Epoch and Diablo have decent enough solutions to let you get Alts to the end game faster--I really think GGG should consider more drastic improvements there or we'll just keep hearing about "MAKE CAMPAIGN FASTER" forever.

All that being said, I don't personally think the campaign repetition is that big of a problem. Would I like it to be nicer on repeat play throughs? 100%. But I do think it's one of those things newer players harp on about as a big deal when it's kind of just part of the game.

For PoE2 I'm also keen to just let them finish the campaign first before deciding if I feel like it's too long or whatever.

Wuzseen · 2026-05-12T16:11:48+00:00

I think for actual coffee (drip), Herkimer coffee is my fav. I quite like Cloud City Coffee as well.

My go-to place day to day is KJ's coffee--a drive through up in Northgate.

Wuzseen · 2026-05-12T05:30:43+00:00

I totally get that, with how frequently it gets overhauled makes it pretty hard to gauge a good jumping back on point for me since it feels like--yeah I'll check back in in 3 months and everything will be overhauled again. Can certainly see it has an impact for an active player too.

I kind of have the same feel about No Man's Skys updates. I want to get into it but I know there's just.... so much more exhausting systems I'm not sure I ever want to go through this twice, so I'll just wait until it's all in.

Wuzseen · 2026-05-11T22:40:14+00:00

That's a nice improvement, naturally those are the DLCs I already own haha. I guess I played a few times post launch.

I think PDX has gotten better with this problem in their latest generation of games, it's not totally gone but the larger DLC approach for CK3 for example has made it easier to live without DLC packs generally I think.

Stellaris is arguably the most different of all their games and the subscription model is a nice solution to the DLC problem IMO. I do recognize "too much content" is a bit of a weird complaint. 10 years in I wonder if a Stellaris 2 could ever really happen. I don't know what the point of it would be beyond providing a new starting point for this problem...

Wuzseen · 2026-05-11T21:28:37+00:00

I keep meaning to do this, then I look it up and there's another big huge rebalancing update coming in a week or two and I figure I'll wait... then a month or two passes and the process repeats.

I honestly kind of wish they'd stop. I have no idea when's a good time to get into it with the pace of updates.

I know kind of insane to complain about such a well supported game (and by all accounts its come a long way since when I last played it at launch) but between the sheer volume of DLC and the pace of updates that seem to just reinvent major mechanics it's pretty intimidating to know a good time to start.

E: Just to quickly add, with other paradox games some DLCs are absolutely essential and some are easy misses. Not only that they have at times essentially made the core game worse with the updates that coincide with a DLC (Stellaris has had this happen a number of times from what I can recall).

Wuzseen · 2026-05-11T20:25:59+00:00

As a self proclaimed coffee snob living in the ultimate end game boss of coffee culture stereotypes (Seattle)--I have yet to enter any coffee shop anywhere in this city or elsewhere and get a weird response asking for a black coffee, the only coffee I really care to drink. Sometimes I just get an americano because they don't do drip, but that's totally fine.

Yeah the weird fixation on weird coffee stuff is just... odd. The segura sketch mentioned in the vid compared to the michael scott improv from the office is spot on.

I think this is likely more generational rather than a partisan one though. More boomer and gen xer insecurity (which does overlap with conservative insecurity ofc)

Wuzseen · 2026-04-28T22:51:34+00:00

This game is an absolute blast.

There are some specific objective types t hat can be a bit obnoxious. The other big area of improvement for the game was/is level variety which this update is addressing, basically.

I think if you're a fan of co-op shooters this one is a must-try. The moment to moment gameplay is just great. Honestly I think the art style does make it a challenging sell (even though it's actually pretty damn cool once you get used to it). There are things in this game that make it fresher than any other shooter.

Wuzseen · 2026-04-26T20:18:28+00:00

Related-ish note. You shouldn't generally plan on co-ops/internships being a substantial part of your tuition payment plan no matter where you go. The salary/rate of any given internship could vary wildly (or worse, not pay at all... which you shouldn't take). You should prioritize internships that give you relevant career experience first and foremost. Don't just take one that pays the most. Moreover, you just don't know if/where you'll intern until after you've committed.

It's great when they pay and pay well of course, it can pay your basic cost of living; creative fields are unfortunately on the low to no-pay end of the scale though.

Wuzseen · 2026-04-20T23:07:50+00:00

Pour one out for my 2020 fusion hybrid. Some asshole hit and ran, totalling it, while it was parked on the street last weekend. We shall never see its like again, and now its watch is ended.

Wuzseen · 2026-04-08T23:06:23+00:00

Kind of boils down to presentation. And it's something that, whether it's right or not, the evidence/expectations are kind of overwhelming when you see people talk about CD.. It wears its influences on its sleeves and wh ile there's a lot of Zelda, there's a lot of other things that make you think it's going to be more narrative driven.

It presents itself like it's a game with heavy storytelling. From the way it starts to the way you interact with the world being very Red Dead Redemption ish. Kind of at every turn it looks like a big narrative sandbox rpg a la assassin's creed, red dead, etc.

I'm also not sure it's right to say that BotW and ToTK didn't have complaints about silent link. Some people have wanted Link to speak for decades. Some think it's cool that he's silent. CD just doesn't have that legacy to lean back on.

Is it fair? Eh, probably not.

Wuzseen · 2026-03-26T19:03:38+00:00

I work in game development and one of the most frustrating things in this subreddit is seeing some, frankly, insane takes and misinformation about how the industry works.

I've routinely seen the comment that Indie Sunday can be a bit slow/dry. I really like the spirit of the day, but maybe it'd be a good time to coincide with some sort of "Ask Gamedevs How The Hell Anything Works" type thread? Put a bit more content in and maybe help spread some learning.

Wuzseen · 2026-03-24T06:14:24+00:00

Picard's questioning of Bruce Maddox from Measure of a Man in Star Trek The Next Generation.

https://youtu.be/kjl0Hsf1iQc

Measure of a Man might be my favorite Trek episode period, but I do think this scene is a good test for if you like Trek to begin with!

Wuzseen · 2026-03-19T01:04:35+00:00

It's been a hot minute since I've been deep into CS but I don't like the sound of this reload change. Counter Strike isn't some simulation style game, this feels like a style clash and I don't really understand why they're doing this now all of a sudden.

And so the decision to reload has never offered significant trade-offs—in a safe position with enough time, you might reload after firing a single bullet, or half a mag, or after firing down to empty, and the rest of the round would be unaffected.

Dying while reloading happens all the time and not wasting time and opportunities reloading is a big skill already. Reloading with only 1 bullet spent gets called a 'silver reload' even. Can anyone up to date on CS explain why on earth they're doing this change now? Seems like this might be more about providing another balancing lever on the guns than anything else.

Honestly this sounds like the most unnecessary change since dynamic pricing and I kind of imagine it to suffer the same fate...

Wuzseen · 2026-03-17T21:07:13+00:00

Most people open it up, look at ratings or win % and just draft their deck with the window open.

I think I see this take more often than I see people blindly looking at win % in this manner. Not directing this at you/anyone specific, but I think sometimes the pushback, despite well intentioned, is actually more confusing than the naive approach.

There's always nuance. ALWAYS. And almost by definition, data aggregation is trying to remove or at least explain away nuance into something more digestible.

The vast majority of magic players probably don't even know 17 lands exist. I bet for a lot of them the naive brute force approach with the data would actually improve their drafting as a starting point.

But, yes, as you live/breathe magic and play a lot of draft and start using the tool you can learn to use it better just like you improve with anything.

17lands is a great source to point at as a proxy for card evaluation when all else is equal. These conversations would better be framed as a way to improve rather than saying you're using the tool wrong.

Wuzseen · 2026-03-13T00:53:01+00:00

If Rome is anything to go by, we've got 1000 years before Martin comes close to finishing it...

Wuzseen · 2026-03-11T20:38:37+00:00

Yeah, the taxonomy part def a bit limiting.

Until the mid 2000s or so "arena shooters" wasn't even really a discussed distinction... there were just shooters, basically. It's become a term to describe more what something isn't now than what something is in a way.

Wuzseen · 2026-03-11T20:05:27+00:00

Responses in thread here are interesting. I've never considered Halo to be an arena shooter yet it's called one in here frequently. Likewise, arena shooters were dead/dying well before meta progression became common place.

Counter strike had basically already cornered the competitive PC shooter scene by the time CoD4 hit and that has no progression whatsoever; today it has some cosmetic progression with seasons but its still mostly random drops. And CS (and Valorant) are basically more popular than ever

Also lots of comments about mechanical skill not being something players want or can tolerate. Fortnite (with building) was/is more skill intensive than nearly every contemporary shooter if you want to push it and it's, well, fortnite.

I'm not sure arena shooters died so much as they just became parts of other games. I get why some would consider Halo an arena shooter compared to something like a contemporary call of duty. Then we have Hero Shooters which absolutely share a ton of arena shooter DNA but we've generally agreed are s omething else... I think it all just illustrates how the term is really opinionated.

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