Remi Cayouette

Did you patrol the streets of Lytton, California? Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel (1987, Sierra On-Line) was another one in the long line of excellent Sierra adventures - this time designed by former California Highway Patrol officer Jim Walls. You take on the role of Sonny Bonds, a cop in the crime-ridden town of Lytton, California. The story begins with routine patrol duties: attending briefings, issuing speeding tickets, handling drunk drivers, breaking up bar fights with bikers, and investigating a fatal car crash that turns out to be a drug-related murder... and sometimes you have time to pull over a pretty lady (one that could easily make a cameo appearance in the Larry games...) just to piss her off. Eventually, Sonny goes from ordinary traffic duty to heavy narcotics, as he pursues the ruthless drug kingpin known as the Death Angel (Jessie Bains). Emphasizing "realistic" police procedures (within the limitations of a game, of course), evidence handling, and protocol over arcade action, the game had a much more serious vibe than other Sierra adventures. Its gritty authenticity and in a way also educational tone made it a standout classic in their lineup. I liked it a lot (still liked Space Quest a little more), and it showed that Sierra was more than just feel good comedy and slapstick humor.

@exQUIZitely Among those, Kings Quest 3. Such a fascinating adventure and puzzle to solve

I know Sierra made a gazillion adventure games - but among these iconic four - which one is your #1?

these guys really know ball. why can’t factorio get stuff like this too?

@code_wizard_uk @randomcodingdud I am sympathetic to that, particularly when I did a lot of coding. Less so somehow with other mental activities, coding just seems to click best at night

@RemiCay @randomcodingdud I often get 3am epiphanies. Great for solving shit, not great for sleep.

You know when you get stuck on a problem for long enough you kinda lose interest. That happens on this project. But i think i solved it. The AI and it's pathfinding was bottlenecking sometimes - usually in combat. Anyway. still slugging away

@exQUIZitely Good fun solo or with friends!

Jones turns 35 this year! Jones in the Fast Lane (1991) by Sierra is the game where fries cost a ridiculous $87 a serve and you could earn your engineering degree at Hi-Tech University after hours. It's essentially a digitized board game. Just a single screen and not particularly complex - but incredibly fun, addictive, and full of charm. You guide Jones through his days, weeks, and months: working, studying, paying rent, buying pants and a TV, chilling on the weekends, and seeing where life takes you. I played this one to dust back in the day. Someone please make a modern version someday - it’s too good to be forgotten.

@randomcodingdud I love that feeling, but sometimes it takes a frustratingly long time for that breakthrough. Still great to be past it

@RemiCay you know how ya wake one morning and go "That's it!" Strange phenomenon probably explains why i'm so tired all the time. Brain never switches off, even (especially?) during sleep

"Asphalt... and trouble" Full Throttle was one of LucasArts' finest ever adventure games. Released in 1995, it's set in a gritty near-future where biker gangs rule the highways. Gang leader Ben Throttle is framed for murdering motorcycle mogul Malcolm Corley. You (Ben) must clear your name, save the Polecats gang, and stop a corporate mega-villain. It feels like the mid 90s were the absolute peak of the point and click adventure genre, with multiple high quality games (Legend of Kyrandia, Simon the Sorcerer, Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle, etc.) being made. Full Throttle is clearly one of the best of its kind with an excellent story, wonderful pixel-style graphics, a great soundtrack and most of all putting you into the role of one of the coolest dude's ever. It had its own kind of humor, some action sequences (a bit unusual for adventure games but they worked well for Full Throttle), mixed with classic puzzles. LucasArts at its peak was the undisputed #1 with some of the best games of the 90s. This was also reflected in the sales numbers: LucasArts typically aimed for around 100,000 copies per adventure game, but Full Throttle sold over 1 million units, making it the first (!) LucasArts adventure to reach that milestone. I wished this one would have gotten a sequel. Two attempts were made in the early 2000s but both got cancelled. By that time the market had already shifted away from classic point and click adventures, so LucasArts pulled the trigger. Also, Roy Conrad (Ben Throttle's voice actor) died in 2002, which further complicated things.

Booster separation

@creepitz_ @exQUIZitely Oh my gosh yes

@exQUIZitely play a while... play forever 🤣 I was seven years old and I think I never finished this game. maybe I should give it another try sometime.

Post a screenshot of a game that was driving you insane back in the day. If this image still causes you PTSD, then I feel your pain. That hangar was the definition of agony...

@exQUIZitely I was so excited for Baldurs gate and enjoyed it, but suffered several different game-ending bugs that caused me to completely restart, never finished it. Baldurs gate 2 the same thing happened a couple times - turned me totally off the entire series. Loath it.

If you're an RPG fan (and old enough), then maybe this little story will resonate with you... When I first read about a game called Baldur's Gate (1998) in one of the many print magazines still around in the 90s, I started counting the days until its release. As an old-school pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons player from the 80s (and well into the 90s), I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into what promised to be the best RPG set in the wonderful world of Faerûn. I pre-ordered it at a local store and checked in almost daily as the release date neared. They probably thought I was a bit odd. I didn’t care. The anticipation, the agony of waiting, the joy when it finally arrived, the first time opening the box, installing the game while inhaling the manual… And then the first time the game loaded on screen - simply unforgettable memories. Baldur’s Gate was like crack for D&D nerds like me. Simply looking at the character inventory screen was giving me chills, man it was so good, so close to what I always imagined a great RPG in an "open" world would look like. Little did I know that sometime later Baldur's Gate II was in the works and it would be even better...

@oldyzach Cedric, the horrible owl from Kings Quest. So terrible that totally turned me off the rest of the series of games

I'm traveling right now, so my internet connection isn't great. If it were, I might have tried to put together a short list of the game characters that annoy me the most. So instead, I'll just mention Timothy from Lands of Lore.

Why France is now Europe’s most targeted country (after Ukraine) by foreign disinformation campaigns. And how the country has become “best in class” for detecting exposing fake news economist.com/europe/2026/04…

@oldyzach While I raise a glass to Stardew Valley for 2016, I give the crown to Hearts Of Iron 4. Honorable mention to Civ 6.

So, what’s your favourite video game from 2016?

@exQUIZitely I was about the same age so I similarly struggled

@RemiCay I played it when I was 8 or 9. At that age it's pretty challenging but I loved it nonetheless. Very addictive, played it a lot with my brother trying to figure out the moves together.

Regardless of the genre, my favorite games are those that are easy to learn but hard to master. In other words, it takes you 2 minutes to understand the objective but the skill ceiling is quite high. An absolutely timeless gem is Sokoban (published in 1982), a game that fascinates me to this day. The graphics and sounds are sub-par at best, but gameplay is HIGHLY addictive. The idea is to move boxes/crates around in order to get them to their final destination without blocking the way for the "Sokoban" (Japanese word for storage worker/manager) or other boxes. Sounds super simple in theory but requires a lot of abstract thinking and planning ahead, especially in the later stages when the levels become more complex, when you can easily created deadlocks. You can only push the crates, you can't pull them, so one wrong move could spell disaster... Sokoban was developed in a solo effort by Hiroyuki Imabayashi and it exists for pretty much every system today, including endless cloness. You could call it the godfather of puzzle games.

Hello, Moon. It’s great to be back. Here’s a taste of what the Artemis II astronauts photographed during their flight around the Moon. Check out more photos from the mission: nasa.gov/artemis-ii-mul…

@exQUIZitely My favorite gameboy game was Kirby Dream Land, though I think Battleship and Tetris probably got more game time

I got a Game Boy for Christmas in 1990. With it came Super Mario Land (released in 1989). It was my first game and remained my favorite. What was yours?

@oldyzach Tough to choose between Civilization 5 or Just Cause 2! The game play of Just Cause 2 was so much fun, but I give it to Civ 5 for replay value and depth of gameplay

Let’s get back to farming. What is your favorite video game from 2010?