@Alice: They should be fine, unless you’ve been microwaving plutonium. And who is Rico Lupus? Your anagram is faulty!

@CIA Dream Lid: The story to the first KH game is actually quite straight forward by series standards, but after that it span out of control.

@Lusi: I’ve been using my iPod for podcasts and have just had it lying on my bed, so the microphone must be rubbing on something. I’ll buy a pair of those headphones with a built in mic, but it might be a couple of weeks.

@Gyme: I felt the same way about No Man’s Sky. E3 sold me on it. Instant transformation from “Who cares?” to “day-one sale”.

I hope you are wrong about FF7. Obviously!

@CIA Dream Lid: Holy shit it’s an info blast!
Hang your TV on the wall, then you won’t need the feet!

Re. FF7: My comment to Gyme above will do.

Your feelings about Nintendo’s show (they had one!) are broadly consistent with what we’vfe been seeing from fans. Very lukewarm. I wanted to be excited, but I didn’t see anything there that looked really engaging. I’ll buy Mario Tennis, and I’m glad they are making it, but that’s not something upon which Nintendo can be said to hang their hat.

I don’t think No Man’s Sky will necessarily be a massive time sink. I suppose it certainly could be–it’s vast, so yes–but from what I have seen and read, it can be played with just as much enjoyment on and off as the fit takes one. It’s not like EVE where it is an economy sim that requires constant finessing if one is ever to turn a profit or defend one’s mining rights. It’s a ‘drop in, explore,’ sort of experience, and that should be rewarding whether it is 1h a month or 4h a day.

How are you not excited about early access on Xbone? It’s the announcement of the century!

I’d bump the Imitanis Literary Introduction to the top.

I am convinced that your job is door-to-door board game salesman. You travel around the country with a lorryload full of board games and knock on doors to demonstrate them. You set it up, play a game with the fam, and then try to sell them that game and others.

SN has been rubbing on his mic for weeks now and I appreciate you bringing it up so I know that it isn’t just me who is noticing it. I’ll have a word with him: if he can’t get his recording stuff sorted, he’s not going to be on the panel.

I’m glad you received your copy of Candide (I didn’t know), and that you were pleased witht he inscription. I’ve had that copy for years. I think it was given to me by one of my professors when I was an undergraduate. Enjoy!

When I go to bed at night, I usually spend about ten minutes doing anagrams of DICEADMIRAL in my head as a way of relaxing. I have a huge list of them now.

Fear not loyal Blastites! The Info Blast has once again returned! (for now)

Feature
Cruel Summer Donation Drive

Nocturne in the Moonlight
I would probably participate in this playthrough as I love Castlevania games, but my TV is still packed up from my move 4 months ago. The feet for it were packed separately and were misplaced during the move and have yet to be found.

NEWS
FF7 Remake
I have never played FF7 and I doubt I’ll play the remake either. I can’t justify a PS4 when I barely use my Wii U or PS3. Lusi, you’re not likely to get what you want. This remake is the ultimate Monkey’s Paw. Sure you get your game back from the dead, but it’s a terrible monster that you don’t recognize.

Kingdom Hearts 3
I only played one of the GBA entries in this series. For a series about Disney characters mashed up with Final Fantasy the plot sure is dense and angsty. I didn’t really care for it other than the fighting, which was cool.

Amiibo Skylanders
Owning neither, I care even less about the combination.

Nintendo Overview
I wasn’t super excited about Nintendo’s show this year. I’m more interested to see new IPs that they try like Splatoon. Of course I’m always game for some Fire Emblem.

No Man’s Sky
This sounds neat, but like it would also be a massive time sink that I can’t really do any more.

XBone Early Access
Meh.

Bup Talk
Yeap.
If you’re going to cut him off once Lusi then you might as well follow through repeatedly or Bup will know that you don’t mean it. You’ve got to potty podcast train him.
It’s like Highlander. There can be only one.

I did get a strong Empire Strikes Back feel from his description when he got to the shield generator part.

Imitanis Literature Corner
*Should I move this to the top of the Info Blast to match the updated podcast format or is it better here at the bottom as a reference?*
Bugenhagen explains the Lifestream

Imitanis Gaming Moment
In the last few weeks I played several new board games but I’ll focus on the most interesting: Tragedy Looper (2-4 players, 2 Hours, Heavy Deduction/Bluffing, MSRP: $40, CSI:$28).

Tragedy Looper is a deductive game about Time-Travelers attempting to thwart an unknown disaster. The game takes place in a Japanese city and players will take the role of one of three protagonists who can go back in time and aim to prevent tragedies or the one mastermind, who is orchestrating the disaster and opposes the players (you could say he’s aiming to create the worst of all possible worlds). The Mastermind gets a script card which tells him which of the cities denizens play which roles. There may be a cultist, a Lover, a conspiracy theorist, a serial killer and a dozen or so more roles, though only a small handful are used in any given scenario. The script card also lays out certain win conditions for the mastermind. The protagonists get almost none of this information but have a chart of all possible roles and rules.

The Mastermind plays cards on various characters to increase intrigue or paranoia or move characters around, attempting to trigger the lose conditions without revealing the characters’ roles. The protagonists each play a single card to try and stop the things that the mastermind does. They can increase goodwill (so that the characters might cooperate with their goals and help them reveal information), stop intrigue or paranoia, or move characters. At various phases throughout the game character abilities may trigger and this should give information to the protagonists and/or prompt loss conditions.

The game is played out over a certain number of days and loops, each loop having the same number of days. For example: 3 loops/ 4 days would be a total of 12 days, resetting after the 4th twice. If the protagonists do not lose by the end of a loop then they win the game. If they lose all loops then they get a final chance to guess the hidden roles of every character. If they’re 100% correct then they still win. This puts the onus on the mastermind to make sure that he wins every loop without giving away too much information.

I really enjoy this game as a protagonist. It scratches the logical part of my brain as you have to make deductions about possible scenarios and roles and how they interact. As the mastermind though, the game is very much more a bluffing game as you already know everything and must mislead the protagonists. I think that the bluffing appeals to me less than the deduction, which I love. In my group this is fine as there’s someone who likes being the mastermind.

If deduction and bluffing appeals to you then I recommend this game, with a caveat: you must play with the same people every time. If you are a mastermind playing against new players then you will just crush them and you’d not want to place the burden of mastermind onto a new player. The learning curve is pretty steep and it definitely correlates to playing ability.

DiceAdmiral Travel Moment
This weekend I drove a total of 14 hours so that I could spend a couple days with my dad for Father’s Day. It was worth the trip. He wasn’t expecting me and was very happy to see me. The weather was also fantastic.

Final Notes
Whoever was rubbing on their mic needs to be strung up. They have trees in Australia right? That sound is so terribly grating that I almost shut off the podcast partway through.

I don’t know if I mentioned it in a blast that actually went live or not, but I did get my copy of Candide several weeks ago with a lovely inscription from our narrator and proprietor. It even has that awesome old-book smell. Thanks!

Random Kickstarter Nonsense that you might enjoy: Dominoker

Hurray for the return of bloopers!

Final Quotes

Donators
Cumulative total record holder: Imitanis
Single Donation record holder: Imitanis

Donators eligible for end of year drawing: 8 I’d love to hear confirmation of this number occasionally. [Updated accordingly. -Lusi]

As for the remake of FF7, I predict that the fans of the original are going to be very disappointed with the remake. The fact that they are even talking about changes to the game is a big red flag. I would have been content if they just gave it new graphics and updated sound, like they have done in the past with other remakes.