Idiot Cube

To me, that sounds less like an issue of technology not improving and more of issues endemic in the video game industry. That is, "DO THINGS ASAP I DON'T CARE IF THERE'S BUGS WE HAVE A DEADLINE TO HIT" and just the unfortunate fact that most retro game developers are novices relative to the people that actually developed the retro games they're inspired by. It would be great if more developers took advantage of the technological advantages that we have access to now, but nowadays those new advantages are mostly things under the hood, that only nerds like us give a shit about. It doesn't sell copies to Joe Schmoe that doesn't give a shit. Technological advancement is entirely possible, it would just require a financial incentive on the part of developers, which would require the average person to be more computer literate.

Had a dream a couple of nights ago. My friends and I decided to meet up in one of our cities, and we chose my friend's city, the bustling metropolis of Linton, Indiana. Only the town was under attack by some Iron Giant looking motherfuckers and the town itself was more like a city-state with a king and various factions vying for power within it, these power struggles being worsened by the crisis of said Iron Giants stalking the land. Well we did some shit I don't remember and I met up with some friends from my elementary school days and then eventually we were invited to the King's Palace and we were sitting around a table on an elevated section of the room watching the King's speech. I leaned over and whispered a shitty joke to one of the elementary school friends then froze cause there was a huge glass smashing sound that came from the skylight above me. An Iron Giant had punched the skylight open and glass shards rained down on me; I remember thinking I should be bleeding but since I was in a cutscene I didn't take any damage. At that point there was general chaos and people were running around screaming and the King and his bodyguards started fighting the Iron Giant (I remember his guard doing the Assassin's Creed NPC combat pose). Now a decision was to be made - side with the King and defeat the Iron Giant or side with one of his councilors and kill him in the chaos. I think I was going to help the King but then I woke up.

Not intended to be that serious, but just something kicking around in my brain for a while.  Basically I realized that a lot of popular internet songs came from a variety of places throughout Europe, but were often divorced from that context when people saw them.  So I compiled a list of top two songs per European country that matter.
 
(Well, all the ones that matter except Poland.  I really really tried to get some songs from there, but the closest I came up with were from Sabaton, which can't count.  I suppose I could go with Chopin, but as my standard elsewhere was not to use two songs from the same band that still doesn't get me to two.)
 
This isn't intended to be definitive, since I had to stretch for a few countries.  So please bitch about my choices.  No really, please do that, I probably made suboptimal picks all over the place.
 
ENGLAND:
 

I have a brand new, not-at-all-fake-leak for ya'll.
 
 
Yikes... When I said I wanted more Monster Girls in Smash Bros., this is not what I meant.  

I've seen too many good men die to care about fighting anymore.
 

Aw shit. How are we going to afford a Nintendo Online subscription now?!

I want my money back, you diseased chimp.

I wanna play Minecraft but like when I first played it and didn't know anything. I want Creepers to be scary again.

I wanna play Minecraft but like when I first played it and didn't know anything. I want Creepers to be scary again.

I loved the higher difficulties on Metal Gear Rising.... except for Revengeance on Armstrong.  Specifically the second part of the battle where it's a hopeless fight until Blade Wolf bails you out.  I believe the cutscene to get past it is triggered either by Raiden getting hit after a relatively short timer, or by a much longer timer elapsing.  However, on Revengeance Armstrong will one hit kill you with every single attack (in this section of the fight), so your only choice is to just run down the longer timer.  And this amounts mainly to running away repeatedly and hoping that you don't accidentally back yourself into a corner that you can't get out of.  It's pretty lame, and a shame for what is otherwise an amazing experience.

As I've gotten older I've realized how little I like hard-for-the-sake-of-hard games. I mean, I never really liked stuff like Super Meat Boy, but in general I would push myself into playing the hardest modes because I figured people would think I wasn't trying hard enough. But there came a point where I just said "wait, I'm playing this game to have dumb escapist fun. Why am I frustrating myself over and over just to say I did it?" and I let myself play average-level difficulty. I understand the fun derived from challenge, don't get me wrong, but there are times where I just want to be a god amongst men. Also, in games like Civilization, the computer always cheats and that's not actual challenge.
 
I still play smash handicapped with all 9s bots though.

Pizza.

Aaaand there are already Konky Dong memes from the trailer. Just as I predicted.

Too bad Corv missed out on the race war a few weeks ago.

my arm My Arm MY ARM
 
 

Because Valve doesn't want to make updates. They want to make money.

You have reached enlightenment, my child.

I had a dream that TF2 had a surprise Spy update. We got a watch that worked kinda like the Dead Ringer, but instead of cloaking, it made the Spy tiny and fast, but backstabs deal only half of the total enemy health as damage and reduced Spy's max health.