That’s interesting to know, thanks! Most coffee shops where I live would probably never get busy enough to use a spare shot. Perhaps they change out to a single shot portafilter, but I’ve never noticed.

Follow-up question - each portafilter is two shots right? So if you end up adding an third shot to a coffee, what do you do with the leftover fourth one?

(Or do you have a smaller, single shot portafilter?)

Yes that’s true! I find that games like that have their own sort of niche, in which players usually know quite a lot about the game (from watching others play it online) before jumping in. And there’s an expectation that they’ll refer to the wiki regularly. These kind of games can’t have a tutorial that covers everything, because there’s way too much to cover.

This is a weird one for me because it often depends on whether I paid for the game. I got the first Fallout game for free (from GOG or something), and when I inevitably became confused by the UI and objective I ended up giving up on it. If I’d bought the game (either today or back when it came out) I definitely would have invested a lot more time into it, and got past that initial hump. Back when PC games came on disc with an instruction guide, reading that was part of the experience. There’s definitely a awkward period around the early 2000s when games were becoming way more complex, but before in-game tutorials were regularly a thing. I find it hard to go back to a lot of those games.

Likewise I played the first hour of Resident Evil HD on my PS4 (free with PS+) and never had the motivation to get into it. After paying for it in a Humble Bundle, I played through the whole thing on Steam and loved it! The fact that I’d paid for it was able to outweigh the fact that the game was quite outdated. I guess I felt like I wanted to get my money’s worth.

Any game from 2005-ish onwards feels ‘modern’ enough that I don’t usually have this problem.

Glad you enjoyed it! It was a really interesting heist type novel with some great world building. Cool how it basically started its own ‘cyberpunk’ genre.

I’ve read Project Hail Mary - that was great fun, and went to interesting places I wasn’t expecting.

11/22/63 is one I’ve been wanting to read. Will definitely do so at some point next year!

What did you think of Neuromancer? I finished that not too long ago.

Wow that’s a lot! Do you have any particular favourites of the ones you read?

Well I hope you’re able to slow down the pace a bit (assuming that’s what you want)!

Ah thanks for clarifying. Would you not say that reading it slower would be the more enjoyable method? If you’re after escapism, wouldn’t it be better to engage yourself fully in the plot? At least for me, I find escapism works best when I’m fully immersed in the story’s world and characters. What you’ve described sounds more akin to someone skimming a research paper.

Storygraph is quite a good alternative from my experience

There is definitely an element of that from the article and I agree it’s ridiculous. Some authors and their followers attack those who give poor reviews (because they can’t accept criticism, instead arguing that a ‘professional’ review would give them a much better score) and on the other side you have people reviewing books that aren’t even out. In many cases it’s no longer a place to find genuine reviews, but an unmoderated wild west with crap at both extremes (a bit like Twitter in that respect). It’s a shame because there are plenty of people leaving great reviews, but it’s becoming much harder to find them.

Out of interest, what do you mean ‘you don’t read too closely’?

Yeah I agree with all that! Definitely a bit too much school life stuff near the start. The story starts to get properly interesting around the halfway mark, but also branches out so much that it’s hard to follow. I’d love to see a similar game in this setting, with an equal complex story but told in a more standard way.

Also yeah Megumi’s part kinda sucked. Didn’t ever get interesting.

Thanks for the clarification on those bits!

The texture of the balloons made me think I was looking at meat for a moment

The monster from Sidmouth

It’s possible I saw it but just forgot, with the number of games currently on my radar. Hearing about it again has reignited my interest though! Will keep an eye on it

First I’ve heard of this game. Looks interesting & the art style is neat!

I’m not sure about Vita, but there is a decent 3DS emulator (Citra). I haven’t tested MGS3 on it

I started playing it years ago but quit after reaching the Strip - this time I will make sure to actually finish it! The writing is great and the quests are really memorable.

I like the sound of this! The Starfield coffee article was funny. $7 a month miiiight be a little bit much for me - but I’ll keep an eye on this and if the journalism is decent and they put out a fair number of articles I’ll definitely consider it. I guess I used to spend around that amount on gaming magazines…