Thanks for another amazing episode, so glad to hear Jim on there! I’m glad he brought up Train Hot Dog…I tried to listen a few times and it really felt like some kind of avant garde art piece. Also, I guess thank you for giving me a platform to create puns so bad they don’t even register with ⅔ of the panelists lmao. exodus I’m very disappointed that there was no mention of Socket! Shenzhen.io seems like a canonical best answer.
Re #2 I have a real soft spot for series that carry on the subtitle of a previous game as its own series or end up with nested numbers, just because of how dumb it becomes. e.g. Star Wars: Dark Forces –> Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II –> Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast etc. or Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare –> Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 etc. I’m sure there are way more examples of these delightful messes.
Re #10 I actually saw Paddington 2 in theaters on a date, and it was delightful (the movie). I feel like a video game equivalent would have to be something so charming and unassuming that it just bubbles its way to the top out of sheer benignity…not sure what specific example I can think of, maybe how Tetris Effect ended up at the top of some of that year’s “best of” lists despite not being in the typical mold of a heavy duty AAA blockbuster. I mean, how can you hate Tetris?
Re VIII: Personally I find vanity plates incredibly insufferable (and usually delight in figuring the most obnoxious way to deliberately misinterpret them) but I just saw OMG MOVE yesterday and couldn’t help but nod in approval.