Andy Williams
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dold.bsky.social
Andy Williams
@dold.bsky.social
I have a lot of interests, but usually I just talk about games. Minnesota!
My favorite games are not the ones I get/want to play the most either. I don't have time to play all my Splotter games AND goofy stuff like stock portfolio games designed for 6 year olds that stay lodged in my brain for half a decade at this point.
November 25, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Magic: The Gathering
Android: Netrunner
Race for the Galaxy
Tigris & Euphrates
Food Chain Magnate
Ra
Res Arcana
Agricola
Mage Knight
Through the Ages

El Grande, Cyclades, and For Science are on the bubble right now.
November 15, 2025 at 11:26 PM
I went into the game store to buy a different tcg that had a cool name and was written in a cool font, but as a 5th grader I didn't have enough money that day. So I bought the 7th Edition Starter because it came with a CD-ROM, and what could be more exciting than that?
November 15, 2025 at 10:26 PM
It's the first in the series I kind of want to just fire back up again, make all the opposite choices, not be a mage. It also makes me want to just fire back up the entire series on a regular basis. Veilguard really cements DA as one of my favorite video games, and I'm so happy how it turned out.
October 25, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Veilguard is not a dark or complex story, it is the most "Mass Effect" of any of the Dragon Age games. But it is also the first one that feels like lessons were learned. I wasn't picking up elfroot because a quest told me to anymore, I was studying the landscape, free of mandatory busy work.
October 25, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Gameplay of all those games would mostly okay as I played them, but did not leave me with a desire to return. What gets me wanting to replay DA 1-3 is just having the stories of those games fresh in my mind again. Veilguard, to that end, is a fitting capstone to my own DA experience.
October 25, 2025 at 5:38 AM
DA: Inquisition was previously one of the biggest disappointments of my gaming library, playing as a leader of a movement and yet spending most of my time doing menial side quest tasks. Trespasser redeemed it for me, and honestly I'm happy I only first played it last year, and not ten years ago.
October 25, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Dragon Age Origins is still my favorite in the series, with the humor, the plot, the cast, and the range of outcomes. Dragon Age 2 I forgot about almost immediately when it came out, upon replaying it this year I was reminded that it did have a lot to like but was compromised by a short dev cycle.
October 25, 2025 at 5:38 AM
I went down the stairs on my belly as a kid too. Apparently I also used a cookie sheet as a staircase sled but I have no memory of that. I guess I was pretty good at scaring my mother.
July 22, 2025 at 12:11 AM
For both games, I looked up a few answers here and there, for things that I had all the answers but just had to assemble the right button pushes. I think the worst note taking design would be a middle ground between the two, where some notes are automated but others you needed to do yourself.
June 20, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Deathloop's map also doesn't show your current position, which I liked a lot. I wouldn't have been opposed to writing passwords down, but if I had to write down the endgame route I probably would have had to retry it a few times to get it right. At that point I think that would have been frustrating
June 20, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Deathloop being a shooter means there's a lot of immediate concerns that would make it pretty hard to write in a notepad, especially when played online. The play space is also big enough that you need to revisit the levels a few times to find all the notes and paths. Not many true puzzles.
June 20, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Blue Prince actually has some user reviews floating around that claim it has *no* puzzles, it's that much of a slow burn. If it had automated notetaking that didn't automate regularly, I would have felt way more stuck than I was in reality. And likely would have tunnel visioned tasks to update notes
June 20, 2025 at 10:26 PM
I'm imagining a page with notes that say "something fishy about this photograph" and then updating to something more specific at a later time. I think it would take a lot of the mystery out of the game, and sounds like it would take considerable resources to be functional at all to the players.
June 20, 2025 at 10:26 PM
A lot of the magic in Blue Prince for me was walking by the same objects for the 30th time with new eyes, new knowledge, and discovering new puzzles. Notes taken a week ago suddenly becoming relevant. I'm trying to imagine how the in-game note taking system would look, and I don't like it at all.
June 20, 2025 at 10:26 PM
To find years later that Bumblefoot, my favorite musician and guitar player, wrote that song was kinda mind blowing. Liked both the show and musician independently for years before learning about it.
May 16, 2025 at 4:58 AM
True to my nature back then, I liked the whiplash of going between different moods. My story ended at a post office where a couple stoners were camped out listening to a working radio, mostly being some of the last people having a good time. Never got feedback on that one because summer happened :(
April 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM
My story was basically trying to be a slow paced journey through a specific path of my home town, post some unexplained apocalypse. I mostly remember the route, the scene about trying to use a trashed bicycle, and my ending (more of an end of chapter).
April 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM
And speaking of Dragon's Dogma, Monster Hunter would be way more fun if I could summon meteors and tornadoes on the monsters. Just saying.
March 2, 2025 at 8:21 AM
The music in Wilds is better than World so far, but neither of them have any standout parts yet. I think part of that is the lack of knowing how close I am to slaying a monster, whereas in Dragon's Dogma my favorite thing is how the music changes when they're on their last stand.
March 2, 2025 at 8:21 AM
The characters are not terribly interesting, but I think they're portrayed very well. They aren't overly talkative, and all very likeable. The lore of the different peoples in Wilds doesn't make sense to me yet - haven't heard a good reason why none of them have any sort of weaponry.
March 2, 2025 at 8:21 AM