Logen is in all 3 books of the trilogy, and plays prominent roles in all of them. It's just a matter of the constantly shifting perspectives.

I'm with you, the ending of the 3rd book deflated me and actually lowered my opinions on the first 2 books. I'm curious whether the follow-up books do anything to fix it, but I can't find the motivation to read them now.

This week has been a bit of UFO 50 and Terra Memoria.

UFO 50 hasn't hooked me with a single specific game yet, but the entire package together is incredibly compelling and fun. It's just neat to hop in, play half an hour of a game that makes me think back to playing on my dad's NES, and then put it down for something else, much like how I played when I was 5 or 6.

I'm still very early on in Terra Memoria, but I think it's pretty neat! I like the combat system as they've introduced it so far, and it looks like there will be a lot of depth and choices to make in combat or team-building (maybe). Something about turn-based RPGs feel perfectly suited for the Deck.

PLEASE revive Inbox!

I've subscribed to Shortwave to help bundle and manage my emails, but it's not quite as clean as Inbox was.

I haven't delved into this game much, and I'm not well-versed in 40K lore, but do you only get to play as the Ultramarines, or do they have other legions/chapters to customize as?

I'm a huge Pete Rose hater. I don't think gambling should be associated with baseball, and hate all the stupid gambling sponsors and ads going on.

Now that he's passed, I'm torn between putting him in the hall cuz his career was indeed hall-worthy, or keeping him out since he broke the cardinal sin of baseball.

He'll see none of the glory, taste none of the praise, and give no speeches. Is that enough? Or does it set a bad example for future players (or even kids) that gambling is forgivable?

He came so close!

Astros eliminated? Like honey to my lips, water to my soul.

I like the game, and I sure hope I'm a person.

This is a community for people who enjoy Deadlock, and if you dislike seeing it, you can always block it.

I think it's a shame it had to come to this. I trusted the RC and CAG to make good decisions for the direction of Commander, and there will always be a risk of business execs higher than Gavin and MaRo pushing things to maximize profits, but I also understand why it had to be done. People apparently just can't be civil online.

This talk was a good look into who the format will be resting with, and it's encouraging, at least. They look like they're putting a lot of thought into how they want people to approach Commander, even if I think the entire tier system is wonky. I have some decks that are full of absolute junk and fun cards, but of course they have to run some efficient cards, whether it's removal or ramp, and if those are tier 4 and the rest of my deck plays like a 2, it would be frustrating to have to label it as a 4. Overall, it should just be a shortcut to indicate the general strength or speed of the deck, so people can all have fun in a game. It shouldn't replace rule 0, that's for sure.

I went to my public library for the first time since I was in high school. Applied for a new card, since they didn't have any of my old records, and checked out 4 books. I only brought one with me for a trip this week, Sweet Bean Paste, by Durian Sukegawa, since it was together with the other "book club" books.

I'm realizing that I've really let reading as a hobby get away from me; I have no clue how to look for recommendations, or even what I'm really looking for in a story. I feel like a lot of the SciFi or Fantasy I've read since high school probably still fall under YA fiction, and I don't know if that's what I should still be looking at or not.

I dislike the Epic Launcher and almost every move they've made as a company, but I'm glad that competition exists. People should have choices of where to get games, in ways that make sense for them. Unfortunately, I don't really see a reason to choose EGS other than exclusives and freebies, but hopefully they actually develop it into a valid candidate.

In general, having more publishers and storefronts and developers in a place of stability is good for the industry. It sucks when studios have to get shut down because the funding isn't there.

Any big finds in this list?

I've personally really enjoyed Sea of Stars. I don't know if it's too short or too long, because it did drop out of my attention for a bit, but the good moments are great. One of 2 games where I actually teared up/cried last year.

I like Into the Breach a lot! I'm not much for roguelike/roguelite games because I feel like I'm not improving/learning at the rate that the game expects, but Into the Breach is just so cool and fun, and it's the tactics-based game that has made me think the most on every individual move. Each team plays so differently, and they do make use of the run-based system in interesting ways.

The study isn't from Oxford. It's from a team of Chinese scientists (likely in China) who used a large dataset collected in the UK.

The study is published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, which the Oxford Academic collects and reproduces for their academic press.

If you care about story, I'd recommend going 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7 (Like a Dragon), Man Who Erased His Name, and then Infinite Wealth (8).

If you specifically want turn-based combat, you can start on 7 and honestly be pretty OK.

If you just want to have an enjoyable time, you can jump in on any side entry, like Judgment/Lost Judgment, Isshin, or this new Pirate one.

Overall, the mainline Yakuza games have an earnest and serious plot, with moments that take it over the top. But all of it is interspersed with moments of random goofiness and levity. My cousins have spent months on Yakuza 0 because they got really into learning Japanese Mah Jong and enjoyed the slot car racing.

The Chromecast with Google TV^(TM)

It seems like most of your issues are not with the Magic Arena client, but with the formats being played on Arena (namely Historic and possibly Timeless?).

If you're into a slower, more methodical format, look into playing bo3 Standard and Explorer. Decks can still be explosive, but not as ridiculous, and typically the level of threats is about equal to the level of answers available in the format.

Alternatively, lean into limited formats. Draft decks will always require some personal thinking, every set is like a brand new format, and in limited, Tempo is key. Card advantage is key. Threats are key. Answers are key. Everything matters, and most people aren't going to even have 4-ofs in their deck, so there's a wider variance in cards seen. Plus, it's a place where commons and uncommons can shine!

Also, I don't mind when people copy decks. Some people are trying to learn how to play well and efficiently, rather than express themselves with deck building. One Standard deck I was playing last year was based on a Gruul Haste deck I saw on YouTube, and then I made it and modified it based on what I had and how many wildcards I wanted to spend. I ended up doing the same for a different deck I built in paper: start with a deck list, modify it based on what I have and how expensive buying the remaining pieces would be. I still brew my own silly decks, but there's a reason that a meta can exist. Fine-tuned competitive decks are typically more consistent at winning than random brews.

As for my personal dislikes...

• The timer should exist in best of 1

Not just the rope system, but the chess clock. Maybe have it set to 20 minutes per player or something. It drives me nuts when I touch bo1 and realize that I'm spending so much time waiting, but I can't quantify it. In bo3, I can hover over the timer and see that I've used up 3 minutes while my opponent has used 7, and at least feel justified in my impatience.

• Better deckbuilding and deck categorization options

Deckbuilding is frustrating. When I want cards that are green, it gives me all cards with green in their color identity, which I wouldn't play in a mono-G deck. The search feature is slow and makes me wonder if my game froze up each time. Trying to move multiple of a card into the sideboard is multiple click-drags. The crafting interface feels barely slapped on, and makes it too easy for new players to accidentally spend their wildcards. And overall, while we have space for tons of decks, I really wish I could just save all of my decks, or at least a revision history of each deck so I didn't feel the need to duplicate it along the way to have something to turn back to if my tweaks are bad. I turn to third party trackers for this functionality, but it should really just be part of the client.

• As a newer player, Draft was intimidating because it required a gem (money) investment every single time

I know this is how it works in paper Magic, but I really wish there was a way to draft and practice for free in the client. I know there's DraftSim and you can get a group together on Discord, but that's too much to ask of a new player. I don't mind dropping a few bucks now and then, but the "stakes" of it all get me anxious and pushed me away from even trying it for the first year.

I think if I hadn't jumped the gun and bought a metal one, I would have gone for this (and been happier about it).

Bought it, gonna give it a shot tonight. I remember hearing about this while on a bus to class maybe 7 years ago, and even though I wasn't a Spelunky guy, I wanted this thing immediately. Derek Yu seems to have a pretty good handle on how to make a compelling game, so I'm looking forward to seeing this collaborative project.

I believe Erdogan (and Turkey in general) were big players in getting the wheat trade deal settled, as well as the prisoner exchange, though I could be misremembering. It's just a weird situation of Erdogan having a history of centralizing power, but also making moves to be more relevant on the global stage.