Austin Walker decided to return to Stellaris this weekend, hoping to lead his bird society to the heights of galactic civilization, but when a space anomaly shows up, things go bad, leading to Danielle Riendeau and Patrick Klepek to nod, sigh, and wonder how things might have been different. Elsewhere, I talk about my fear of sea spiders in the underwater horror game Narcosis, and we return to The Question Bucket to ruminate on why some games have a backlash after they're released.