This thread is feeding my desire for more of this character

I know you just bought this house two months ago, but that ain’t a septic tank, that’s a pipe leading straight into the underdark. Do you want svirfneblins climbing outta your toilet? You gotta get a sewer hookup. I know this is just how they did it back when the house was built, but that ain’t how it works these days. It was out of code then, and it’s out of code now. I’m gonna be back in a tenday, and I really don’t wanna have to fine you. I’m gonna leave you the Adventurer’s Guild’s business card, they got a department specifically for this kinda high risk plumbing.

What is it about theology that makes it worth less to analyze than something like fiction, or linguistics?

Trying to understand fictional media is a waste of time because it’s all made up.

Trying to understand linguistics is a waste of time because it’s all made up.

Trying to understand the economy is a waste of time because it’s all made up.

Hey wait this sounds like anti-intellectualism disguised as anti-theism

I still think Shadow of the Colossus on PS2 is one of the best looking games out there, even though it was going for a more realistic art style which has aged horribly in most other games.

For a contemporary example, Hi-Fi Rush. Here in 20 years, when modern graphics look like ass by comparison, heavy stylization will always look good.

Hi-Fi Rush | 9/10

The score went up an entire point when The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die started playing. I really hope this gets a sequel.

I’m so happy I didn’t know that song was in the game. I personally rate it 10/10, a perfect blend of gameplay, story, and soundtrack, with bonus points for managing to toe the line between goofy and sincere. That part at the end (“I am a rockstar”) had me bracing for someone to point out how cheesy it was, and no one does. I love a piece of media that doesn’t make fun of you for getting invested.

I realize I need to finish more games. The only four I beat this year were

Baldur’s Gate 3 | 8/10

I’m gonna be real, the replay value is not really there for me. My wizard and my co-player’s paladin are the big damn heroes, and I have trouble getting into another character. I’m not gonna get a better ending than the one I got with _______ and ____, and it feels weird being as into Karlach as I was, and then just pushing her aside and dating someone else

Outriders | 8/10

The world needs more games like this. I love that everyone recognizes that the Outrider is essentially a god. The Russian roulette scene alone brings this up from a 7, but the rather unsatisfying ending brings it down from a 9. I don’t love that they imply some big war between the altered humans, and then ditch that halfway through. The fact that Moloch is introduced as a BBEG and then you kill him in an optional endgame side mission is disappointing. The DLC though, that kicked ass… Right up until the rather unsatisfying end, again. It’s certainly much better than the main game, which isn’t really that bad to begin with. I just want to know what the Outrider learned in that ancient vault.

Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand | 7/10

Don’t get me wrong when I say 7/10. It’s one of my favorite games I’ve ever played, and I want more games like it. It’s hard to explain why exactly I like it so much, but I think I can sum it up with: many other games are rather exhausting, either mentally, or emotionally. This game doesn’t expect a lot from the player, except for proficiency with the simple combat system. The story is simple—there’s an evil god, you find a magic gauntlet that can maybe kill that god, action ensues. I can count on one hand the number of characters that I feel like the game wanted me to remember or care about.

It’s a fun game, solid 30 hours to 100%, 7/10 absolutely recommend.

Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga | 7/10

It wasn’t as good as the first game. Or maybe it’s that it wasn’t as better than the first game as it could have been. A large part of why the first game was so engaging to me was the loneliness. It was just me and the furies, and the puzzles we were solving. Senua’s Saga introduces a few primary characters, and villages full of people, which dampens the furies’ affect on me. The game was also much more confusing. In the first game, it’s entirely nebulous what was real and what was in Senua’s head. You can interpret it as a literal descent into the underworld to attempt to reclaim her lover’s soul, or an entirely figurative descent into her own psyche to overcome the grief of losing him, or somewhere in between. Ironically, this makes it easier for me to parse, because there’s no apparent contradictions. The sequel makes it explicitly clear that Senua is engaging, at least somewhat, in real life. This makes it more confusing, because

Let me know if the spoiler tags didn’t work in your client. I think combining the ::: and the >!!< should cover all bases

🧲 time

Sadly no online multiplayer, but it is up to date alongside the PC version. There is an experimental LAN multiplayer option, but it’s apparently still very unstable

Started playing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice this week. I may or may not have bought it because I got it mixed up with Ghost of Tsushima, so the fact that it’s essentially Bloodborne but in Japan caught me a bit off guard, but it’s not bad. There’s been three separate times now where I’ve gotten stuck on a boss, closed the game thinking “I hate soulslike games, this was a waste of money,” and then beat the boss on my first try the next day.

It seems like they took into account the fact that you can’t summon friends when they tuned the difficulty. It’s not easy by a longshot, but it’s not as impossible as other Fromsoft games.

The posture gauge is my favorite game mechanic. Having both defense and offense move the fight along makes it so much less of a slog than other soulslikes. Normally I just dart around the battlefield getting one light attack in every 30 seconds, but this game has me standing right next to the boss, actively rewarding me for memorizing telegraphs and attack patterns. It’s super satisfying.

ETA: I almost forgot another good thing about this game! You don’t level up individual stats one at a time! Some see this lower level of customization as a drawback, but I see it as an improvement. You’ll never get to the end of the game and hit an insurmountable roadblock because you levelled up stamina too much. You can get every skill and use every tool. Boss fights become a matter of mutable equipment loadouts instead of irreversible level choices.

What new game mechanics did Palworld introduce? Everything is kitbashed from Ark and Pokemon.

Not that I hold anything against it, it’s more fun than either Ark or Pokemon, but I don’t pretend that it’s anything new

I didn’t say that no one’s ever ripped off a popular game before…

I’m more than willing to call certain games ripoffs of others if they’re visually indistinguishable. The thing with soulslikes is that every one I’ve tried has been rather unique. I’m sure there are some that are blatant ripoffs of Dark Souls/Bloodborne, but I wouldn’t say that about Steelrising, or Flintlock, or Remnant, or Code Vein. Fortnite and PUBG popularized the Battle Royale genre, but I wouldn’t call Apex Legends or Spellbreak ripoffs of them. This game looks like Horizon the way that Never Grave looks like Hollow Knight.

I’m totally into a new genre of Horizonlikes. I just want them to offer something unique within the genre.

An extra-extra spoiler: there’s a lot to dig your teeth into, philosophically, that makes the whole rigmarole worth it.

That’s a strong point for me, and the main reason I liked it as much as I did. Same reason I loved The Talos Principle, despite having to look up guides for the majority of the puzzles.

If I remember right, the first couple minutes is like a top-down shoot-em-up, but it transitions into that Devil May Cry style pretty quickly

Genuinely, pick up Horizon: Zero Dawn. Your preconceived notions are not accurate to it, it’s a very good game

In a world where human civilization has ceased to exist, traverse grasslands, deserts, forests, and mountains to explore unique Mechanimals and mysterious ruins in different regions, unlocking the secrets of MOTIRAM.

Do you really think the only thing this has in common with Horizon is the mechanical beasts? It can bolt on whatever other mechanics it wants, the base game is a shameless ripoff.

Other people are bringing up other games with robotic animals, but each of these has a distinct visual aesthetic. I can tell a ReCore robot from a Horizon robot from a… wow, those are the only two I can think of. It would have been really easy to enter the market with their own unique aesthetic instead of being indistinguishable from Horizon

This game will come up with about as many new mechanics as Palworld did

Some of those robots look sick, but I’ll be damned if they don’t look like a Horizon fanfic.

This looks about as creatively bankrupt as Palworld, but at least Ark But With Pokemon took two games that I don’t like and mashed up my favorite parts of both. I already like Horizon and Monster Hunter, so Horizon But With Monster Hunter has nothing to offer me

You should go into Nier: Automata thinking it’s a game about a hot chick fighting a bunch of robots. The only spoiler you should know is that the end isn’t the end, and you need to play it again.

You should go into Spec Ops: the Line thinking it’s a game about a cool special forces team fighting a bunch of terrorists or something. The only spoiler you should know is that it’s supposed to feel like a generic third person shooter.

TBF, Warframe was far from a free-to-play tier experience, at least back when I played it. The Second Dream is still my favorite story quest in any game I’ve ever played

Nothing will ever match the effect The Second Dream had on me. This Is What You Are still sends shivers down my spine

I’ve tried to get back into it a few times, but there’s just so much new stuff that it’s hard to pick it back up