Speaking of history repeating, the G1--the first ever Android phone--released back in 2008 did the same exact thing and everyone hated it for it.  It's funny watching Apple fans trip over themselves trying to explain how this is a feature now...

This.  (Well, except I've done it more than once...)

I find it pretty difficult to have too much normal coffee.  I mean sure there's caffeine in it, but it's also a hot liquid.   There's just a natural limit to how quickly you drink it (and how much you want to drink).

But caffeinated candies?  There is no limit.  Sure you can tell yourself that there's not nearly as much caffeine in just one of them as a cup of coffee.  Maybe that's even true.  But are you really just going to eat one?  I have this problem with caffeinated mints too.  It's so easy to just subconsciously snack on them until suddenly you realize you've eaten the entire container and your heart feels like it's going to explode.

I'll stick to coffee, thanks.  It's safer.

Grass-fed collagen?  I didn't even know collagen could eat!

Having DMM as a partner doesn't exactly fill me with confidence either.

Well, "worst" is totally subjective so I don't know how anyone could prove or disprove that claim...

Well, I guess I have to come here with a counter example.  My college anime club was actually quite different.

Mind you it was a very old club (by anime club standards anyway) with actual history and traditions behind it.  I believe it's one of the oldest still operational anime clubs in the country.  They go back to the days when if you wanted to watch anime with English subtitles you had to make those subtitles yourself.  "Fansubs" were made by college anime clubs back then (and they were on tape, none of this digital crap) and commercial anime was non-existent.  Actually AnimEigo--the fist company to ever commercially release anime on home video in the US--was founded by my club's alumni.

Obviously the club changed a lot over the years.  As commercial anime became a thing they got out of the fansubbing business and during the time I was there we started going in the complete opposite direction.  We used our industry connections to start getting official permission from the license holders to show their stuff (even if you own something on home video, showing it in a large public venue is normally against copyright law) and in some cases they even started sponsoring us to a degree.  But we never lost sight of the club's history and our focus wasn't just on showing whatever was popular at the moment (though we showed some of that too of course) but also on old classics so people could learn where this stuff all came from.  And we also participated in more general Japanese language and cultural events.

Actually that club is the whole reason I'm an anime fan today.  I had barely even watched any anime when I went off to college.  It's probably not an exaggeration to say that club had a pretty profound impact on my life (for better or worse...).  It's been over 10 since I graduated and I still keep in touch with people I met there.

Mind you when I went to grad school I tried out the anime club there and couldn't even stand it.  I think it wasn't until then that I realized just how special my college anime club was.

I guess Shuumatsu no Izetta looks interesting enough to at least give a shot.  It's an original series so we're going into it knowing basically nothing.

Though does anyone else think these like-WW2-but-not-quite settings are getting sort of trite?

Oh god they made a Keijo anime.  I'm ashamed I even know what that is...

That is horrifying...

It's becoming more and more obvious that the company I work for is a sinking ship and isn't going to be around much longer.  I really should be looking for a new job but damn I hate job searching...

I'm one of those old fuddy-duddies who thinks A Link to the Past was the best Zelda game and they ruined the series when they went 3D so maybe my perspective is off, but in my opinion Zelda and Ys are going for totally different things.

Zelda is all about exploration, puzzle-solving, and getting tools that unlock new areas.  The actual combat is simplistic and, quite frankly, not very interesting.

Ys on the other hand is all about the combat.  They're action games first and foremost with RPG elements in terms of leveling up and such.  There isn't a whole lot of puzzle solving or exploration, but there is some very delicious fighting.

So why are we even comparing them?

$399, November 10th.  Sounds good enough for me.  I don't actually have a PS4 yet so I'll pick one up.

Last night I was at a pre-PAX boardgame event (though ironically I don't have a PAX ticket...) and played a little game called Tak which I liked so much I simply have to rave about it.

Now I play a lot of boardgames but Tak feels much more like classic games such as chess or go than most modern boardgames.  Despite that fact it very much is a modern boardgame, only having been dreamt up quite recently.  The rules are simple, there are only a couple kinds of pieces, and the board is a plain square.  But it hides some amazing depth and complexity.  Even better, the way it manifests that complexity feels entirely original.

The basic objective is to make a solid line of pieces (it can bend but diagonals do not count) from one end of the board to the other.  Since the board is square you can go either direction.  Every turn you can either place a new piece on the board or move a piece.  Now where it gets interesting is in stacking.  You can move a piece (or existing stack) onto another piece (or stack) to stack them.  Though you can't place a new piece directly onto another to make a stack, it has to be a move.  The player who's color is on top of the stack controls the whole stack and it counts as theirs for making paths.

Stacks are very powerful for one more reason: You can also unstack them in a straight line leaving pieces as you go, which lets you take over large amounts of spaces in a single move.  This makes big stacks very threatening and adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay.  I watched (and played) some games that developed in really unexpected directions because of this.

Anyway, there are details I didn't cover (keystones, walls) but that's the jist of it.  The game had a kickstarter campaign already and should be available soonish.  It's a really neat game and it's cool that new ideas like this can still be made today.

Edit:

So I scored Sunday and Monady PAX tickets from a guy on craigslist.  I guess I'll be going after all.  But since I wasn't originally planning on attending and haven't been paying much attention to what is being shown I don't even know what I should try and see...

Or I might just spend the whole time at tabletop and indie stuff.  They generally don't have the stupid long lines...

With all due respect, what you have been looking at is not a rough draft or anything of the sort.  It's marketing material.

"Poorly fleshed out"?  They're not trying to flesh things out here.  That isn't the objective.  This isn't even a first look.  It's a teaser.

Do you honestly believe they don't have anything else in their design documents for these characters beyond the one-line descriptions they've shared with us?  Really?  That isn't being cynical, it's being ridiculous.

Man you guys are nit-picky.  I'm not saying this game is going to be great or anything, but it's a bit early to be ripping it to shreds seeing how we hardly even know anything yet...