Author: Trafficblast

Ninja Theory’s new melee-focused action game, Bleeding Edge, is now out on Xbox One and PC. If you’re an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, the game comes included in the service on both platforms.

At first glance, Bleeding Edge looks like it may resemble plenty of the character-based multiplayer games that have released in recent years (like Rainbow Six Siege and Apex Legends). However, the game has a lot of similarities to multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games too, so there is a bit of a steep learning curve at the start.

Once you overcome that hump, though, Bleeding Edge can be a great game to play with your friends if y’all have nothing to do and are stuck inside all day. In the following article, we go over some tips to help improve your chances at succeeding in Bleeding Edge.

Use The Environment

There are quite a few environmental hazards that can damage or outright kill you. If you know what to be careful of, though, you can use the environment as a weapon to finish off your enemies.

What you want to look out for are pits (as well as the edges of the map), missile barrages, and trains. The missiles will only damage you, but falling off the map or getting hit by a train is a great way to die instantly. Every tank and most of the damage fighters can push enemies with one of their attacks, so feel free to shove someone to their doom if it feels like the actual brawl isn’t working in your favor.

If you want to be an absolute prick genius of a trapper, some fighters possess abilities that almost seem made for killing enemies through the environment. Kulev can use Bamboozle to take control of an enemy and walk them straight off a cliff, for example, while a combination of Buttercup’s Yank and Miko’s Stasis is a sadistic method of pulling someone into the path of an oncoming train and making sure they’ll be stuck there long enough to get run over.

Don’t Focus On One Class

Bleeding Edge currently has 11 characters, all of which are divided into one of three different classes: damage, support, and tank. Damage fighters have quick abilities that typically focus on one target, support fighters buff and heal allies, and tank fighters can take a beating and have more area-of-effect attacks. You aren’t expected to know how to play all 11, but you should know how to play at least one character from each class.

A standard team size is four players, and you ideally want at least one of each class to achieve a good balance. It seems like one damage, two support, and one tank is ideal, though I’ve seen teams succeed with two damage, one support, and one tank as well. Because a well-balanced team is key to success, you need to be prepared to play as any class. For example, if you see two of your teammates have picked support and one has picked a tank, then you should really go with a damage fighter–otherwise, your squad isn’t likely to be able to pull off strong enough combos to fight the other team.

So if your primary pick is a tank, make sure your secondary and tertiary options are a support and damage character. You never know when you’ll have to step up and be the one to balance your team.

Take The Time To Learn Abilities

Similar to games like Siege and Apex Legends, identifying your opponent is key to success. If you know who your enemy is, you know what they can do and thus how to counter them. This, of course, only works if you know what every character can do.

Before jumping into a match, complete Bleeding Edge’s three basic tutorials and one advanced tutorial. The tutorials actually put you in control of several different characters during combat scenarios, offering an excellent opportunity to see how a few of the fighters operate without the threat of other players. Unfortunately, the tutorials focus on damage and support fighters–so swing on by the Dojo to see how the tank characters work.

Be sure to check how far a ranged character can hit a target, the area-of-effect radius of certain abilities, and the strength of certain character’s passive skills. These will all help you better understand a fighter’s strengths and weaknesses.

For example, though Daemon’s Stealth/Sleep ability allows him to get the drop on opponents, it ends the moment he attacks or gets attacked and has a nearly 20 second cooldown. If you’re a character with an ability that has a good range or shotgun-like spread and you see a low-health Daemon in front of you try to Stealth/Sleep escape, just fire off an attack. Chances are you’ll hit him and break his invisibility, giving you the chance to finish him off. Every character has a weakness to exploit–and playing around with them in the Dojo is an easy way to figure out what they are.

Stay Away From The Advanced Fighters (At First)

Not every character in Bleeding Edge is created equal. Some offer much more powerful strategies at the cost of possessing more intricate abilities that are more difficult to understand. You may want to avoid picking the advanced fighters at first if you’re just starting out. It will possibly be a detriment to learning the rest of Bleeding Edge’s mechanics if you’re also struggling to remember how your character is supposed to work.

Of the starting 11 characters, three are more difficult to learn than the others: Maeve (damage), Cass (damage), and Kulev (support). Maeve is tricky because you need to rely on her passive–all ability cooldowns reset when you kill an enemy–to take advantage of her skills that allow her to control the flow of a fight but have some pretty long cooldowns. Cass has powerful close-range attacks but the lowest health of any fighter, making her a risky hit-and-run tactician. Kulev has perhaps the most fun Super ability of any support character, Bamboozle, but unlike the other two, he does not possess many ways to defend himself if he ever gets into trouble and has to hold off enemies until help arrives.

Coming to the game at a later date, Mekko is Bleeding Edge’s twelfth character and the first advanced tank. Their abilities rely on a complex pattern of systems that are difficult to pick up–though their mech is cool, the Japanese-speaking dolphin is definitely not a great option for those just starting out.

Wear Headphones (Yes, Really)

This may seem like a weird tip, but there is a benefit to wearing headphones while playing Bleeding Edge. The game uses sound to help you determine the importance of certain actions and identify threats within the chaos of a hectic brawl. An enemy that’s no longer attacking you will be more quiet than an enemy that is, for instance, and you’ll be able to rely on the volume of a healing ability to determine whether it’s affecting you or a teammate. It’s all much easier to discern with headphones.

Additionally, two fighters–Daemon and Miko–can stealth. Miko can actually make her entire team go invisible. You can still hear the footsteps of a stealthed target though. Throw on a pair of headphones to hear the little pitter-patter of enemy footsteps. Every fighter has a unique footstep sound as well, so you can identify who’s near you just by listening to the noise of your allies and enemies’ footsteps.

If your headphones happen to have a mic too–even better. Communication is pretty crucial in Bleeding Edge and the in-game ping system isn’t nuanced enough to convey the level of strategy you probably want in a fight. That said…

Ping When The Odds Aren’t In Your Favor

The ping system in Bleeding Edge isn’t all that good prior to or in the midst of a fight–it’s missing messages you’d probably want, like “defending this spot” or “enemy here, but wait to attack.” It does, however, have some excellent messages that will help when a fight isn’t going your way.

If you must, you can ping “help” at your team when you’re about to die. However, the far more helpful ping is “retreat.” If you realize your team’s resident healer or tank is about to die, you have to know it’s time to sound the alarm and pull back. Committing to and winning a fight is always the best option, but regrouping and then beating an enemy team is far better than getting annihilated.

Remember, though both of Bleeding Edge’s game modes are objective-based, teams can score points through kills too. If the match is almost over and your team needs five points to win, while the other team needs three and you see your healer go down, you should sound the retreat and regroup with your support fighter at your spawn. Teams are at an immense disadvantage once their healer falls (which is why having two is ideal), so keep track of them and let your squad know if it’s time to disengage.

Take The High Ground

Channel your inner Obi-Wan and seek the high ground whenever possible. This gives you more options for both attack and escape than being on the ground floor. In terms of fighting, you can shoot down with ranged attacks, leap off a ledge and ground slam, and fight any other enemies on the platform with you. When you need to get away, you can fall off platforms from pretty much anywhere and start running, but there are only certain points where jump pads give you the option of ascending. In a game where you can possibly lose yourself to the flurry of a brawl, taking the high ground can help you enter (or exit) the fray on your own terms.

Rely On Movement-Based Skills

Of course, certain characters can more easily take the high ground or escape fights than others thanks to their passive abilities. Take advantage of how your character can move to give you an edge in a fight, especially if it allows you to attack a foe from an angle where they can’t retaliate.

Daemon can use his stamina to wall jump, for example, allowing him to easily escape spots where an enemy has him cornered and then attack from above. Cass will naturally start running faster while moving, so you don’t have to pause and summon a hoverboard to more quickly get around the map like the other fighters have to do. She can also charge her jump, allowing her to reach platforms without the use of a jump pad.

Certain characters can utilize their active abilities to move around too. El Bastardo can use Leap of Faith, for instance, to both leap forwards or upwards. He’ll naturally leap forwards, but if you jump before activating the ability, he’ll go up instead of out.

Pay Attention To Where Objectives Will Open

While playing Objective Control, pay attention to your minimap. In the seconds leading up to the objective points opening up again, the ones scheduled to open will start flashing. Remember, just because there are three possible objective points doesn’t mean all three will open up. Use the knowledge of where the next objective points will appear to plan out which to go to first and how you can set up ambushes for the other team. If you understand the lanes of the map, you’ll likely predict how another team will move on a certain point.

Of course, be wary as you move to the next objective point. The other team has this info, too, and will likely use it to figure out their own strategies. Be prepared for a fight if you see that only one of the three points is opening at the start of a round because that likely means everyone is converging on that one spot at the same time.

If you haven’t yet heard, Animal Crossing and Doom fans are the best of friends these days. A slick fan video put together by TheDashingDoctorK shows the mild-mannered dog-friend from Animal Crossing and Super Smash Bros. teaming up with the Doom Slayer to kill imps in a bombed-out hellscape.

If you haven’t kept up with the memes, this all started because Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons happened to share a release date. This triggered a flood of imaginative fanart based around the unlikely pair.

Both New Horizons and Doom Eternal received rave reviews from our critics. “There’s only so much you can do every day in Animal Crossing,” our critic Kallie Plagge wrote of New Horizons. “Part of the fun of its real-time clock is going to bed wondering what you might wake up to in the morning–how your town might change, who might move in, what special visitor might be there tomorrow. So far, I’ve played Animal Crossing: New Horizons for 80 hours over 17 days, and that anticipation hasn’t yet gone away. While I’ve spent a lot of time developing my island so far, I still feel as if there’s plenty left for me to do and see–there’s a lot in New Horizons to occupy your time with.”

Doom Eternal got its share of praise, too. “Though it can take a bit to get the hang of it, the intricacies of Doom Eternal’s combat, combined with its enhanced mobility and option-heavy level design, create a ton of white-knuckle moments that elevate everything that made Doom 2016 work so well,” wrote our critic Phil Hornshaw. “Its combat is just as quick and chaotic, but requires you to constantly analyze everything that’s happening in order to come out victorious. Once you get the hang of the rhythm of Doom Eternal, it’ll make you feel like a demon-slaying savant.”

The new Takedown Shakedown limited-time event in Borderlands 3 has been extended on PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One. The event will now end on Thursday, April 2 instead of the originally planned March 27.

Takedown Shakedown sees the bosses in the Maliwan Blacksite, the location from 2019’s Takedown at the Maliwan Blacksite event, dropping more loot than usual. Gearbox said this special event is to provide some solace for those “stuck at home and looking for something fun to do in the here and now” while practicing social distancing. (We’ve compiled some of the best games to play while stuck at home during these times.) The studio also said it will be “rolling out a series of similar mini-events in the coming weeks.”

According to Gearbox, Takedown Shakedown is specifically targeted at endgame users as only those who have finished Borderlands 3’s main story campaign can access the endgame challenge. While Takedown’s difficulty will scale depending on the size of your party, Gearbox said the event is really intended for “max-level characters with powerful gear.”

This event goes live just before Borderlands 3’s next major piece of DLC, Guns, Love, and Tentacles: The Marriage of Wainwright & Hammerlock, which launches on March 26 for all platforms. With that update also comes a level cap increase from 53 to 57, following February’s increase from 50 to 53. Gearbox expects this seemingly mild change to bring about a “huge surge of power for endgame players.”

In other Borderlands 3 news, Gearbox recently pushed a small hotfix update to all platforms that addressed “concerns reported by the community.” One particular change was an adjustment to Tyreen glitching in-game.

The Division 2 is well into its new season of content following the launch of the Warlords of New York expansion, and now its first global event has gone live. It’s called Polarity Switch, and it adds some modifiers that will make your gunplay feel pretty different for a while.

According to a tweet from Ubisoft, Polarity Shift adds damage modifiers to both yours and hostiles’ weapons. That will make you both tougher, and in the process earn you some rewards for playing with the modifiers on.

Polarity Shift follows a recent patch that made a number of adjustments across the board. Those include reworked health and armor values for enemies and allies, damage reduction for enemies and NPCs, reduced health and armor for elites, and more health and armor for heroic and legendary enemies. It also adjusts how progress works for seasonal manhunts in groups, and increases drop rates of certain items.

The Warlords of of New York expansion adds a new area of Manhattan to explore, after the main campaign of the second game took players to Washington DC. It also raised the cap to 40, and made some major quality-of-life and gear changes for all players. It’s available for $30. The Division 2 also recently came to Stadia.

Two days after release, Valve has updated its VR hit Half-Life: Alyx with enhanced movement options. You can now use an analog stick to turn your perspective smoothly, as in most first-person games, a feature the game calls a Continuous Turn. As before the patch, you have the option of using the analog stick to turn in the direction you were already facing by a fixed number of degrees, which the game now calls a Snap Turn. Previously, it was known as a Quick Turn.

In this new setup, you can choose either to keep the Snap Turn or to change it to a Continuous Turn. If you choose the latter option, you can adjust the speed of the turn. You can also fiddle with the distance of the Snap Turn, or choose to turn off controller turning entirely. The patch added some minor improvements, including its detection of quality settings on some PCs. For more on the game’s motion settings, check out our guide to Half-Life: Alyx’s accessibility options.

In our review, our critic Michael Higham called Half-Life: Alyx a triumph. “Yes, this game is somewhat of a companion piece to mainline Half-Life games, taking place five years before Half-Life 2, but that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Disappointment you may have felt in its 13-year hiatus will feel like water under the bridge, and in a way, have played into just how powerful Half-Life: Alyx turned out to be. The names, the faces, the iconic objects that have become synonymous with Half-Life have their specific place. And if you weren’t aware previously, you’ll see just how important Alyx Vance–the series’ most infallible personality–has been the entire time.”

Half-Life: Alyx Update 1.1 Patch Notes

• Improved turning options in Preferences:
  – Added “Continuous Turn”, and associated turning speed options.
  – Renamed “Quick turn” to “Snap Turn” to make its functionality clearer.
  – Added option to disable controller turning.
• Improved hand-over-mouth pose usability for Windows MR controllers.
• Improved the resolution of impact decals on enemies.
• Improved automatic detection of default Quality settings for some machine configurations.
• Fixed an issue where some sounds didn’t play as intended.
• Fixed an issue where the main menu could become less responsive if you had many save games.
• Fixed several crashes.

Now that we’re all stuck inside, it’s a great time to catch up on some of the video game franchises we’ve been meaning to try out. If you’ve wondered what all the fuss is about with Yakuza, now’s a great time for PC owners to jump in. That’s because, between now and March 29, the Humble Store is having a Yakuza franchise sale that gets you the first three games in in the series’ timeline for up to 75% off. All of the games come in the form of Steam codes. Check it out.

Yakuza Franchise Sale

Don’t see the deals below? Click here.

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Just as Yakuza Kiwami brought the original game up to date with modern conveniences, this sequel does the same for the second game in the series.

Yakuza 0 originally landed in the US in 2017. It’s a prequel that offers origin stories for two of the series’ most beloved characters, Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima. It tells a dramatic story of a land battle between two rival criminal enterprises, and contains all the humor, absurdity, and diverting side quests the series is known for. Read our Yakuza 0 review for more information.

Yakuza Kiwami is a modern remake of the first game in the series, which originally launched on PS2 in Japan back in 2005. Pretty much everything has been rebuilt from the ground up, including the graphics and combat. It even features brand-new additional side quests. Our Yakuza Kiwami review has plenty more details if you’re interested in learning more.

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As for Yakuza Kiwami 2, it brings a similar modernizing treatment to the second game in the series that Kiwami brought to the first. The difference is that this game is based on the Dragon Engine created for Yakuza 6, so it has even more enhancements and improvements. Our Yakuza Kiwami 2 review can bring you fully up to speed.

If you grab all of these titles while they’re on sale and you’re wondering where to start, we have you covered with our Which Yakuza Game Should You Play First? article. The TL;DR of it is that either Yakuza 0 or Yakuza Kiwami are great places to start. But since Yakuza Kiwami was originally intended to be the series’ introduction, it’s probably best to play them in release order. So there you have it.

Disclosure: Humble Bundle is owned by Ziff Davis, the parent company of IGN. Humble Bundle and IGN operate completely independently, and no special consideration is given to Humble Bundle announcements or promotions for coverage.

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Chris Reed is IGN’s shopping and commerce editor. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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Over 450 students of the United Kingdom’s National Film and Television School got a nice surprise when director, David Fincher, gave a remote masterclass in filmmaking.

Fincher’s filmography covers a multitude of major films like Fight Club, Seven, and Zodiac. With the United Kingdom going into lockdown on Tuesday over coronavirus concerns, the National Film and Television School used this as an opportunity to enlighten students.

National Film Television School director, Jon Wardle, posted on Twitter about having Fincher on video with at least 450 students using Zoom.

It’s been a tough week so we wanted to do something to lift the spirits of @NFTSFilmTV students. So this afternoon 450 x students sat down for a masterclass via @zoom_us with THE David Fincher. Thx @nevpierce & @VenetiaHawkes for helping me set it up. David is a legend. pic.twitter.com/oaJLKi9tRh

— Jon Wardle (@jonwardle) March 24, 2020

UK film school students happily tweeted about the surprise despite all the chaos currently going on. Student Ryan Ninesling wrote, “everything is terrible but at least we got to hangout on zoom with the one and only David Fincher today!” Elle Haywood also tweeted, “Every afternoon should be spent hanging out with David Fincher”.

Fincher is currently working on the Netflix original, Mank, about the making of Citizen Kane, revolving around screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz.

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The movie industry has had a rough time recently with COVID-19 as movies have been delayed such as Black Widow, The Batman, and A Quiet Place Part II. While theaters chains like Regal Cinemas and AMC Theaters in the U.S. are closed temporarily, Chinese theaters are starting to reopen.

Keep safe during the COVID-19 pandemic and understand how to stay healthy with these CDC guidelines.

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Jeffrey Lerman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @Snakester95.

With the 15th anniversary of NBC’s The Office this week, as well as the new revelation that Steve Carell reportedly didn’t want to leave the show after Season 7, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the beloved series…

Originally dismissed as a weak — and low-rated — remake of the acclaimed UK series, The Office really came into its own in Season 2 and also found its audience grow dramatically, soon becoming a beloved TV comedy. And while many wish the show hadn’t gone on as long as it had, as it eventually lost steam, there is still plenty of great episodes to look back on over the show’s nine-year run.

The following Top 25 episodes list, first written as the show came to an end in 2013, looks back at the adventures of Michael, Jim, Pam, Dwight and the many others who worked at Dunder Mifflin. Read on for the full list (and one honorable mention)!

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Honorable Mention: “Sexual Harassment”

Season 2, episode 2: The honorable mention slot goes to this early episode, in which loud-mouthed sales rep Todd Packer shows up to offend just about everyone in the office (especially Phyllis) right as Dunder Mifflin orders a company-wide review of its on-book harassment policy. The real victim though?  Michael’s beloved/bemoaned “That’s what she said!” catchphrase.

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25. “The Deposition”

Season 4, episode 12: Michael was all set to deliver some knockout testimony on behalf of his girlfriend Jan as part of her BS wrongful termination suit against Dunder Mifflin – until he found out that she once gave him a terrible performance review that internally killed his chances for promotion. Naturally, torn about which side to support, Michael makes things as awkward and painful as possible.

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Lawyer: How long have you known Ms. Levinson?

Michael: Six years and two months.

Lawyer: And you were directly under her the entire time?

Michael: That’s what she said!

Two seasons later and he’s still got it!

24. “Business School”

Season 3, episode 17: Occasionally, Michael surprises his employees with unexpected wisdom and unorthodox effectiveness. His trip to speak to Ryan’s business class was not one of those moments; stupefying the much more modern and adept students with his antiquated antics.

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This episode also marked Ryan’s banishment to the “annex” after Michael discovered that Ryan thought the paper industry as a whole was a dying enterprise.

Also, a bat gets loose in the office, causing mass chaos, screaming, terrified prayers from Angela and an epic blank expression from Creed.

23. “The Return”

Season 3, episode 14

Dwight: “How would I describe myself? Three words. Hard-working, Alpha male, Jackhammer, Merciless, Insatiable.”

Man, remember when over 10 million people used to watch The Office?  In “The Return,” Michael headed over to Staples to win back Dwight while Jim and Pam teamed up to pull the ultimate rage-inducing cell phone prank on Andy.

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The upside: Andy put his fist through a wall and vanished for four episodes. The downside: Karen got upset with Jim after she realized he still had feelings for Pam.

22. “Cafe Disco”

Season 5, episode 27: Michael tries to cheer up the office by using the Michael Scott Paper Company closet area he still was still renting as a place for his workers to unwind, drink coffee and maybe try out a new dance step or two. Unfortunately, Phyllis throws out her back and Dwight swoops in to give her an “injured horse” massage.

Dwight: “This is oil from the gland of an otter. It keeps their fur water resistant, as well as traps heat. Now I need you to lie still for an hour.”

Later on, when a dejected Michael shuts down the party, the employees start it up again. Proving that “The Man” can’t tell you when to dance and have fun. The power of Cafe Disco was something the kids needed to discover for themselves.

Michael: “Now I know what the founders of Phillip Morris felt like. You just want to give people a smooth, fun way to relax, and suddenly, you’re just some terrible monster.”

21. “Beach Games”

Season 3, episode 23: “Beach Games” felt a little gimmicky at first, sure, but once the Dunder gang discovered that the winner of Michael’s dumb Survivor-style games would take over for him when he landed a job in corporate, the fun began. And then Jim hit Michael with the fact that he was also applying for the same position, letting Michael know that the job wasn’t the sure thing that he thought it was.

And then, when everyone’s back was turned, Pam walked across hot coals, giving her a surge of beautiful confidence.

Pam: “Hey. I wanna say something. I’ve been trying to be more honest lately, and I just need to say a few things. I did the coal walk. Just… I did it. Michael, you couldn’t even do that. Maybe I should be your boss. Wow, I feel really good right now. Why didn’t any of you come to my art show? I invited all of you. That really sucked. It’s like sometimes some of you act like I don’t even exist. Jim, I called off my wedding because of you. And now we’re not even friends. And things are just, like, weird between us, and that sucks. And I miss you. You were my best friend before you went to Stamford. And I really miss you. I shouldn’t have been with Roy. And there were a lot of reasons to call off my wedding. But the truth is, I didn’t care about any of those reasons until I met you. And now you’re with someone else. And that’s fine. It’s… Whatever. That’s not what I’m… I’m not… Okay, my feet really hurt. The thing that I’m just trying to say to you, Jim, and to everyone else in the circle, I guess, is that I miss having fun with you. Just you, not everyone in the circle. Okay, I am gonna go walk in the water now.”

20. “Garage Sale”

Season 7, episode 19: Michael proposing to Holly while the two of them got drenched by the Office sprinkler system was one of the best, most endearing scenes of the series. And when you throw in Yoda voices?

Michael: “Holly Flax…marrying me will you be?”

Holly: “Your wife becoming me will I.”

Bliss.

It was definitely the best of Michael’s proposal ideas, but it wasn’t the first.

Michael: “How bout this, I throw a corpse dressed like me off of the roof…”

Plus, Dwight attempts to swap his way up through a warehouse clearance sale starting with a thumbtack. The idea works until he’s thwarted by Jim’s packet of “miracle legumes.”

19. “The Convention”

Season 3, episode 2: A tremendous Michael/Jim bonding episode, where key members of the Scranton Branch and the Stamford Branch attend a supply convention in Philly. Or as Michael predicts, a “booze-fueled sex romp!”

In an effort to try and act cooler than Jim’s new boss, Michael throws a raucous room party. No one shows up of course, but Jim, knowing that Michael turns things that aren’t about him into things directly about him, takes the time to visit Michael and tell him that the reason he left Scranton was because of Pam.

Michael: “I love inside jokes. Love to be part of one someday.” 

18. “Threat Level Midnight”

Season 7, episode 17: A big episode for Michael with regards to him coming to terms with his own ludicrous inaccuracies and inabilities. Shot over eleven years, Michael’s homemade “Michael Scarn” secret agent movie featured players from the past, such as Karen, Roy, Jan and Troy, while simultaneously giving all the employees a chance to laugh at a Michael Scott camp classic. The trouble was that Michael himself didn’t see the “camp” in his classic.

Jim: “I did not love the dialogue. Or the character. I took the role to impress the receptionist who will remain nameless.”

17. “The Job”

Season 3 finale: In this double-sized episode, Michael, Jim and Karen all head to New York to interview for a job that Michael eventually discovers belongs to the soon-to-be-fired Jan – his domineering ex who he just mistakenly took back due to her newly augmented breasts.

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By the end, Jim, hesitant to move forward in his relationship with Karen, seems like a lock for the new position until he gets a note from Pam that sends him back to Scranton to ask her out on their first official date.

Pam: “I haven’t heard anything, but I bet Jim got the job. I mean, why wouldn’t he? He’s totally qualified, and smart, everyone loves him. And if he never comes back again, that’s okay. We’re friends. And I’m sure we’ll stay friends. We just… we never got the timing right, you know? I shot him down and then he did the same to me, but you know what? It’s okay. I am totally fine. Everything is going to be totally…”

[Jim walks in]

Jim: “Pam. [to camera] Sorry. [to Pam] Um, are you free for dinner tonight?”

Oh, and who could forget “www.creedthoughts.gov.www/creedthoughts?”

16. “The Negotiation”

Season 3, episode 19: Darryl, asking for a raise that would give him a higher salary than Michael, encourages Michael to ask for a raise of his own. Michael then basically winds up getting the maximum amount because he squeezes Jan about their romantic escapades.

Meanwhile, Jim decides that the best way to pay Dwight back for saving him by pepper-spraying an enraged Roy is to keep quite about Dwight’s relationship with Angela.

Dwight then decides that the best way to welcome Andy back to the office, after his stint in anger management class, is with a face full of pepper spray.

Jim: “I guess, all things considered, I was lucky Dwight was there. And Roy was lucky that Dwight only used pepper spray, and not the nunchucks or the throwing stars.”

15. “Niagra”

Season 6, episode 4/5: This big, double-wide “event” episode gave us our first ever Office flashback reveal as Jim and Pam, somehow knowing that their “friends” and colleagues would steal away the spotlight during their wedding, were shown getting married by themselves by a captain on a Niagara Falls boat. It was like Proto-Nolan!

Jim: “I bought the boat tickets the day I saw that YouTube video. I knew we’d need a backup plan. The boat was actually plan C. The church was plan B. And plan A was marrying her a long, long time ago. Pretty much the day I met her.”

The rest of the episode involved Andy tearing his sack, Pam trying to hide the fact that she’s pregnant from her family and Michael, having not made hotel reservations, spending the night in the ice machine room. At least he got Pam’s mom at the end as a consolation prize.

14. “Scott’s Tots”

Season 6, episode 12: Absolutely representing the most awkwardly worst thing he’s ever done, Michael has to tell a high school class full of graduating underprivileged seniors that he can’t pay for their college tuition like he promised a decade earlier.

Yes, Michael’s absurd promise motivated the entire class to work harder for years, but there was simply no getting out of how horrible this was.

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Michael: “I fell in love with these kids. And I didn’t want to see them fall victim to the system. So I made ’em a promise. I told them if they graduated from high school, I would pay for their college education. I have made some empty promises in my life but, hands down that was the most generous.”