#I miss these stealth platformers games

[howwwy]

I don’t draw ma boy nearly enough so here I go.

Where are my sly cooper fans

#sly cooper #character design #character art #sly cooper and the thievius raccoonus #sly cooper 2 #cartoonist #digital art #sly cooper fanart #sly cooper fandom #I miss these stealth platformers games #video games

[htchnr]

★ thrill of the hunt ❥ A. HOTCHNER.

➻❥ masterlist. ➻❥ patreon. ➻❥ kinktober masterlist.

🎃 KINKTOBER PROMPT ➥ hunting kink + unsub!hotch.

CW ➥ outdoor sex ⋆ unprotected sex ⋆ piv sex ⋆ semi public sex ⋆ creampie ⋆ slight knifeplay ⋆ if i missed anything, lmk!

WC ➥ 1,8k. SONG ➥ tear you apart , she wants revenge.

SUMMARY ➥ he’s restless. he hasn’t been on a hunt in a while, in fact, since you’ve been together. you’ve never told him to stop, but you can sense he doesn’t want you to see that side of him, coming home late at night covered in blood that isn’t his. so you help him in your own way.

★ - © 2023 HTCHNR. do not copy, share or translate my work to this platform, or any other! - ★

he’s restless. he hasn’t been on a hunt in a while, in fact, since you’ve been together. you’ve never told him to stop, but you can sense he doesn’t want you to see that side of him, coming home late at night covered in blood that isn’t his. the novelty of domestic life suits him, he likes cuddling with you, lazy mornings.

tonight though, you watch his side profile as he reads, watch his eyes flick over the same page several times, unseeing. he fidgets his knee up and down and slides his hand over his jaw, tapping a finger against his top lip. he’s so handsome, warm looking, alluring, and you realize with a rush that goes from your head to your cunt that you want him.

“hey.” you say, breaking the taut silence of the room, he looks up from his book, blue eyes focussed on yours. “i want us to play a game.” he stares at you while you explain your idea, smirking first with amused adoration, then slightly patronizing as he tilts his head.

“hide and seek? with me that wouldn’t be much of a game honey.”

“no.” shaking your head you stand and stretch your limbs, reveling in the way his dark eyes track your movements.

“i want you to hunt me.”

he pauses, thinking it through for a second. “since you interrupted my reading you better run extra fast.” he almost growls then, his usually sweet eyes gone impossibly dark.

“get to running sweetheart.” his voice low and threatening almost.

“fuck fuck fuck” you mutter out loud, almost forgetting that the whole point of the game is for him to find you. suddenly it feels very real. after all, he’s a killer, using both stealth and skill. one girl is nothing to him, a speck of dirt that is easily rubbed out.

reminding yourself that this man loves you and would never kill you doesn’t stop the pounding in your heart as you pause at a fallen tree, wondering if you can fit inside. you realize the game is exciting you just as much, even though you’ve done this for him, to help his boredom, you feel simultaneously afraid and aroused— it’s confusing as hell.

when people hide on tv or in films it’s never so messy. you cringe as dirt slides over your skin from the tree, matted leaves catch in your hair and your legs are awkwardly twisted. still, you’re inside the rotted trunk, and you’re hidden, at least to regular human eyes. you don’t have to lay still for long before you hear him coming. he’s not attempting to be quiet, but is humming under his breath, almost taunting you.

“i’m coming to get you sweetheart..” he sing-songs and you bite your lip not to whimper.

his footsteps pause, and you imagine him, scanning the trees for any sign of you. the urge to see him in his hunter pose is too much and you peek out through a crack in the tree trunk, you can’t resist a look, even if it costs you the game. he stood, the darkness of the night swallowing him along with the darkness of the forest.

his attitude has changed, and he looks nothing like the soft, charming man you’re used to seeing everyday. his shoulders are tight, his hands twitching by his sides— his left hand hovering above his knife that sits in it’s sheath. he’s grinning, his eyes are two black focused orbs, sweeping the scene.

it is amazing to see him like this, and as he moves towards you in one smooth, animalistic movement fear combines with desire, licking up the bottom of your spine. almost ripping the tree apart he unearths you, pulling you out from your hiding place, his hands under your armpits, lifting you as if you’re a child, or a rag doll— the ice cold blade of the knife pressed against your throat.

“i told you to run” he murmurs, the look in his eyes is dangerous, his chest is heaving with panting breaths, his voice is rough and low and betrays his arousal even if you couldn’t see the outline of his cock pressing hard against the fly of his jeans.

“i did” you whimper as he glares and bends his head to kiss you unrelentingly, nipping your bottom lip viciously.

“not far enough, not fast enough.”

“i tried Aaron, let me up…” you struggle intentionally weak against him and he holds you easily with a snide look in his eyes.

“i won the game.. i should get my prize.”

“your prize? oh… “ you words dissolve into a shameless moan as he simultaneously bites your neck and the cold knife tears through your shirt, his rough hands groping your breasts and pinching your nipples. You moan as you move your fingers to his zipper, yanking it down and pull his aching cock out, hot and throbbing against your palm as you stroke him. his mouth falls open as he lets out a strained breath, moving his larger hand on top of yours to force you to speed up your strokes. he seems to want it rough, and you feel exactly the same way.

his hands hold you easily, cupping your spine as he shoves you down on a patch of dry leaves. he crawls on top of you, his hips jerking a little as if of their own accord. “put your hands above your head.” he commands with a raspy voice and you nod, following the direction, twisting them together as if bound, and looking up at him imploringly.

pinning you with a glare he kisses you again moving his hand inside your underwear— swearing when he finds you soaking, pushing two fingers inside you desperate to feel your heat, before he regains control of himself and moves them teasingly in and out, never quite hard or deep enough. “i see.. you like this, you like the chase?” he asks. you moan pathetically, eyes rolling back.

“i like being caught.” you pant, trying to grind down against his hand hard enough to get yourself off.

“turn over.” he groans. “if you like being hunted like an animal i’m going to fuck you like one.”

thrilled, you scramble on all fours, glad to be off the hard ground— you wonder somewhere in the back of your mind if he’s doing this for your comfort. he hovers over you and you hear the clink of metal as he undoes his belt, the sound sending an unexpected bolt of arousal through you, he pulls back on your hips so your ass is cushioned against him and pushes inside you with one smooth stroke, not waiting to let you adjust before starting to move. you cry out as he sinks in and out over and over.

you clench your eyes shut as you shamelessly moan. he grins darkly, moving his fingers between your legs and rubbing your clit as he plows deeper inside you. you scramble for something to hold but he just holds you, fucking into you and you have no choice just to let him bounce you on his cock, let him touch you until you feel as if you were about to explode.

“Aaron! fuck.. please..” you plead, not even sure what you’re begging for as he slides one hand up your throat, pressing the cold blade flat against the hot skin of your throat. your thighs pressing together make you feel even tighter to him, and the sounds leaving his lips against your ear, the filth spilling from his usually smooth and composed self even during sex gives you a clue he’s just as lost as you are.

“scream all you want, no one can hear you out here.." he mutters in your ear. His lips brushing against the shell of your ear as he urges you towards your climax both with his filthy words and the never ending stroke of his fingers against your sensitive bundle of nerves. bucking back against him you let yourself go, clenching around him and riding out the pleasure as you cry out, tears trickling down your cheeks. he holds you as you fall apart, pausing just to revel in the sensations before he picks up his brutal pace again, the knife being thrown down into the dirt as his arm reaches around your throat, resting against your shoulders.

he thrusts a few more times, his balls slapping against your cunt so deliciously as he finally comes inside you with a loud guttural moan, his warm cum painting your walls as he fucks it into you.

He pulls out, his sticky cum pouring out of your abused hole— dropping onto the leaves with obscene splats. he hovers above you on the forest floor for a few moments before he comes back to himself, realizing you’re both outside at night on damp leaves amongst bugs and god knows what else. he let’s out a shuddered groan as pulls you up. your knees shake shamefully and you lean into his solid side with a grateful sigh.

he helps you back to the house, shoving you in front of the fireplace, not speaking while he fusses round you, washing the dirt off your face with a warm washcloth, picking the leaves out of your hair and frowning at the scratches on your arms as if they personally offended him.

“i’m okay..” you reassure him, your eyes heavy with post-sex bliss. you wonder how you can convince him that you enjoyed the game and that you are not so breakable as he thinks. he knows you well though, and as he lifts you up to bed and pulls you on top of him, your head resting on his hot chest. he nips at your ear, sending a wave of lust through your exhausted body.

“we are definitely doing that again..” squealing quietly with glee you hug him tighter to you and slowly fall asleep, happy knowing you have a man who is willing to take such good care of you, but also fuck you into the ground with a knife against your throat if you ask for it.

TAGLIST ➥ @toastbrot8410 @mrs-ssa-hotch @fictionallifestuff @weirdothatwritess @crystalflwr @stella95827 @taintedstranger @mija-novella @gffesegjoiegj @bubbly-parker @mediocremalachor15 @goldenangelwingsandcandy @0nex-is-dead0 @2hiigh2cry @the-1n0nly @hotchsdharma @tgskitten @crystlroses @notforeverlong @emmeilyy @whatisthereality

#⋆୨🩷©2023 htchnr #⋆୨⭐️aaron hotchner #⋆୨🎃2023 kinktober #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner #aaron hotchner smut #aaron hotchner imagine #aaron hotch hotchner #aaron hotchner oneshot #aaron hotch hotchner x reader #hotch smut #hotch imagine #hotch x reader

[spacevixenmusic]

Unfairly Maligned Games, Vol. 2

Games I loved that got low scores, review bombed, or have some other weird negative stigma attached to them that I think is unfairly earned.

NOTE: I don't believe in giving games a number score or a letter grade. Maybe I'm just bad at criticism or very easy to please, whatever.

We Happy Few [2018]

Originally advertised as some kind of procedurally-generated stealth horror survival game that people kept insisting was "like BioShock" even though there is literally zero correlation or even vague resemblance to BioShock, this game's crowdfunded development process was a long hard rollercoaster ride through concept and scope changes, getting picked up by major studios and publishers, a constantly evolving marketing campaign, and a loud, rude blasting of negative press right before and right after launch due to bad take misinformation and some game-breaking bugs on Day One.

We Happy Few started as a Kickstarter project from Compulsion Games, a small studio known only for their previous game Contrast. In Contrast, you play as a child's silent imaginary friend in a cabaret dancer costume who can phase in and out of backgrounds to become a shadow on the wall and solve platforming puzzles. Working together, you help the child navigate through her emotions as her parents struggle through their own relation-shit in an early 1900s European port town. Seeing as their first game was stylish as hell and widely praised among indie crowds, it's no surprise that a Kickstarter for a new game from that studio became an instant success, so much so that it caught the eye of several big studios (Microsoft and Gearbox Publishing), and it quickly turned into a vastly bigger project with many more hands working on it. The proc-gen element was downtuned and streamlined, and the main emphasis of the game became about survival, stealth, and story.

And let me tell you. In terms of story, this game is phenomenal. The simple premise is that you play through the lives of three people living in 1950s-60s England, under a government that is forcing everyone to take these candy pills called Joy that make you instantly and excessively cheerful, so you can easily forget about all the horrible things that the government wants you to forget ever happened about The War, the Missing Children, and all the people still actively dying of malnutrition from the ongoing Famine and all that. The people are mandated to forget their worries, grin and bear it, pretend everything's just peachy keen, and if you refuse to take that pill, people will notice your un-cheerful behavior and call the police to track you down and beat you senseless. Can't have any Downers in our perfectly lovely happy town, now can we?

The game's art direction features two stark parallels between a dreary English village and early 60s-70s psychedelia (with a hint of A Clockwork Orange for good measure), and a soundtrack influenced by bands of the era, such as The Doors, The Beatles, The Byrds, etc. The dichotomy of looting dilapidated rural homes while avoiding plague-ridden peasants versus the rainbow streets and lava lamp light show sex dens in the cities is truly astonishing. It's a game about, funnily enough, Contrasts between the bright and cheerful life everyone is forced to think they're living, and the grim depressing reality that lies underneath. Many people initially assumed this meant the game had some kind of anti-drug message about not relying on your depression medication cause pills can't fix everything, but it's clear right from the get-go that's nowhere near the case. We Happy Few is a story about revisionist history, the pressure to conform, submission to a corrupt system that might not even know what it's doing, and the very British notion of Keeping Calm and Carrying On as if major atrocities hadn't just been committed in a massive world war.

Gameplay-wise, this is a strange hybrid of survival and stealth, with combat definitely being present, but taking a backseat for the most part. It's much easier to distract enemies than fight them, and many of the characters excel at hiding in plain sight, provided you don't do anything to make people suspicious, like running and jumping around or breaking into houses to raid them for food. You do have options and skill trees though, so the game does allow you to tailor it to your own playstyle to a degree. I had significantly more fun playing it slow and methodical, sneaking up and choking out enemies, and watching NPCs bump into each other awkwardly while quoting ancient English literature for no apparent reason. Taking it slow, reading every scrap of paper and Journal I found, my final playtime was about 50~ hours.

Again though, let me gush about the story for a second. The base game has three full chapters, each of which has you play as a different character with different strengths and game mechanics (including such wildly inventive ideas as the burden of motherhood taking up inventory space if you don't periodically check on the baby you have to leave at home, and carefully maintaining a balanced blood sugar level so you don't collapse?!). Their stories are all deeply connected in ways that aren't immediately apparent but are cool as hell once the pieces of the puzzle come together. Each chapter more or less takes place at the same time, but the events always play out slightly differently, because memory-altering drugs fuck with your sense of reality and make us all question the reliability of each narrator. If that wasn't already cool enough, the game also features three DLC packages where you play as three ADDITIONAL characters, each of whom is also a recognizable face in the main story if you're paying attention. These DLCs add even more neat mechanics and open up the story events even more in and around the main game. They were honestly all an absolute blast to play, especially if you were already as invested in the story as I was. And the subject material goes all over the place, touching on such highly specific topics as 60s science fiction, gay lovers, Beatlemania, trippy drug-induced murder mysteries, the British occupation of India, and plenty more. I can't stress enough what a unique storytelling experience this game has to offer. It really is unlike anything else I've ever played! But alas, we should probably talk about why nobody else seems to be as enthused about the game as I am...

Aside from the huge misunderstanding about the game's message, We Happy Few was bombed with criticism on Day One due to some major bugs that hadn't been ironed out - remember, for a $60 game backed by some big names in the industry, it was still very much an indie passion project from the start, and it's clear it wasn't given the full AAA treatment at all. Several big-name Game Reviewers (a field I detest almost as much as Cartoon Reviewers) ripped into the game for its bugs, and while I can't fault people for being mad at broken quests and at least one full-on softlock, not everyone experienced those bugs, and many of them were ironed out in later patches. It's almost like chasing those Day One reviews and videos are a bad idea for people who want to Enjoy Games. Sadly, first impressions are all that seem to matter anymore in gaming, so those early negative reviews still sting to this day. But people out there will give games like Skyrim a perfect 10/10 despite a significant number of similar bugs (hell, they're almost a charm of the series at this point), so why should an indie game not be given the same graces?

In closing? We Happy Few is a phenomenal story in a completely fresh setting that really doesn't feel like anything else before it. The game has been criticized to hell and back for its early bugs or for "boring" gameplay or whatever the Review outlets chose to report, but to me it stands out as an extremely unique experience in a sea of Lowest Common Denominator games. I'd rather play an imperfect or buggy game with a unique or highly niche premise than yet another polished piece of pristine pop pleasure, and I genuinely think people would enjoy games like We Happy Few if they just lowered their goddamn expectations for once in their lives.

#unfairly maligned games #we happy few #fuck the haters I have nothing but love and praise for this game #it hit ALL my pleasure sensors and really resonated with me #and if I can convince even one other person to try it then I have succeeded in my mission

[blueeyedrat]

Steam Next Fest, winter 2023. New year, new games to try. Some hits and misses this time around. First impressions under the cut.

(Part 2)

Mineko's Night Market – I've been curious about this one for a while, mostly for the setting and artstyle. Visually it looks quite lovely, but gameplay-wise I ran into some issues. The controls were a bit awkward, and I couldn't connect my controller or remap any of the keyboard inputs to deal with it. The demo is kinda short, and showed off parts of the game I wasn't as interested in (a brief walk around the main town to talk to a few NPCs and gather a few resources, and a stealth mission that wasn't particularly compelling). There's probably a lot more to explore here, but the demo didn't really explore any of it. I'll need to see more before I pass judgement on this game.

Pocket Planet – It always comes back to hexagons, doesn't it? Gotta love hexagon tiles. I expected a Dorfromantik-like (seriously there's like two of them every event — the more the merrier, I guess?) but really it's just a straightforward puzzle game. Place tiles, fill out a set area, create certain tile formations (forests, mountains, islands, etc.) to solve puzzles. It's as much Terrace as it is Dorfromantik, and I have to admire a kindred spirit.

Pan'orama – This one, on the other hand, is closer to what I expected. As far as games of this sort go, it adds one interesting element (planning out specific tile combinations to create unique structures with different effects), but I'm not sure how much variety that adds to repeat playthroughs, and the game lacks other elements and some visual clarity in the process. Seems alright, but I've seen better.

URBO – Now here's one that's very much up my alley. URBO has a minimalist style similar to builder puzzle games like ISLANDERS, but gameplay-wise it's closer to a merge puzzle game like Threes or 2048: place buildings on the grid, three of the same type adjacent to each other combine into bigger buildings, go until you run out of space to build. A simple idea, with the potential to be very addicting. Looking forward to this one for sure.

Slopecrashers – An arcade racer. This one didn't leave a great impression, unfortunately. Maybe I'm just not that familiar with snowboarding games, but the controls never clicked with me and none of the objectives felt manageable. And something about the style (characters, environments, UI, audio, etc.) felt... generic, I suppose? I don't think I'll be coming back to this one.

Mail Time – A cute 3D platformer. Simple, but charming. The movement seems fine even if the controls aren't as tight as others I've played, and the area shown off in the demo puts a nice variety into a small space. Most of the game's appeal is in its visual style and characters, which are pretty solid, and the main character in particular offers a surprising amount of customization. It's nice, and that's all it really needs to be.

#urbo game #mineko's night market #mail time game #pocket planet #pan'orama #slopecrashers #bryan writes about games

[gascon-en-exil]

What are your 5 favorite FE maps? Be it for story, gameplay, or anything else.

That's quite a difficult question, both because there's so many of them to choose from and because it can be hard to compare maps from different games especially when there are different design philosophies, ex. how most of FE4's maps are a slog to play through but are fantastic in terms of laying out the game's broad narrative. Still, in no particular order:

Genealogy of the Holy War Chapter 5

On the subject of FE4, the atmosphere of Chapter 5 absolutely sells it, full of mounting dread and a sort of fatalism that one rarely sees in FE or in a lot of video games for that matter. The massacre of the knights of Leonster and Quan and Ethlyn's deaths play out as a part of regular gameplay, with no way for the player to intervene in time, and the chapter hits you over and over again with every conquered castle and anxious character conversation and the inevitable barbecue that Sigurd is marching toward. The pacing slows to a crawl in the middle because desert maps are terrible, but like I said this is mostly about the story and atmosphere. Chapter 5 is the one that makes me most skeptical of IS remaking FE4, because of how much it conflicts with the philosophy of never allowing the player to feel too bad. Watch them add an Avatar who figures out Arvis's plan but sticks around anyway until Sigurd sends them to follow Oifey and Shannan at the last minute, paving the way for them to be playable again at the start of Gen 2.

Fates Revelation Chapter 21

Revelation's numerous gimmick maps miss more often than they hit, but this one is fairly interesting with tiles that shift enemies between promoted and unpromoted forms. There's some fun tactical potential here, especially as you can use a Dragon Vein to swap the tile effects, and it's more memorable fun than the route's awkward attempts at platforming or a stealth mission lifted from Path of Radiance or...God, that snow level....

Blazing Blade Chapter 26x (Eliwood)/28x (Hector)

Sonia is one of my favorite FE antagonists, because she's just so delightfully evil even as I'm fairly indifferent to her woobie of an adopted daughter. This map is sort of a take on a water dungeon concept, with platforms that sink and rise every few turns. It can be a headache to navigate, especially as Sonia is one of those bosses that spams long-range magic, but it's generally not too difficult to figure out unless you're actually trying to use Nino. The ending is great too, with the reveal that Sonia was a morph all along and didn't realize it.

Three Houses Crimson Flower Chapter 17

FE16's map design is overall unremarkable, so on the basis of character work alone it was either this or the non-CF battle in Enbarr for its Ferdibert boss conversation. This one took the prize though, because 1) that boss conversation requires me to be using Ferdinand, whereas the Dimidue death scene can be triggered by anyone, 2) that's just one line, and while it does provide the energy for the ship's Wicked parallel that the voice actors took advantage of that's nothing compared to a dialogue scene that's so gay that it had to be laid over a black screen because any visual would completely obliterate all attempts to no homo Dimitri and Dedue's relationship, and 3) unlike every other instance of optional character moments in battles I can think of in this game, getting the Dimidue death scene actually makes the map easier as you don't have to fight Dedue as a Crest Beast. That's some good gameplay and (very gay) story integration right there.

Radiant Dawn Part 3 Endgame

Desperately needs the option to skip enemy and NPC phases, but it's got a feeling of dread and inevitability similar to FE4 Chapter 4 thanks to the ominous counter in the corner of the screen that goes up whenever any unit is defeated. It's complicated and sprawling and I've seen this map play out in all sorts of ways based on what the AI decides to do, and the enemies can be quite difficult too and make it tough to rush ahead and treat this like a rout map. Then the counter gets to 80 and the map just...ends, and so does the world sort of. The first time you play through it without knowing what's coming up it can all be pretty jarring.

#Fire Emblem

[self-loving-vampire]

🍎

I’m curious about what sorts of videogames you usually play. I’d been meaning to ask you if you’ve seen TUNIC but I didn’t know if you kept up with action RPGs

I haven't played TUNIC but I'll take this opportunity to give my general opinions on various genres. I'm going to be brief but you're all encouraged to ask further questions.

RPGs: I love all kinds of RPGs, whether they're turn-based or action. If there's one style I dislike then it would be real time with pause.

I also prefer western RPGs that draw more closely from tabletop games over JRPGs. Freedom and immersion are some of the things I prioritize the most in these games.

S-tier.

Strategy: My second favorite genre after RPGs. I have a preference for turn-based ones and have played many of the really influential/significant games in the genre. I don't really have the ability to make my fingers zoom as fast as they need to in order to be really good at RTS though. I also just prefer being able to take my time to look at things and multitask a little.

A-tier.

Deckbuilding Roguelikes: I like many aspects of these, from building synergies to using cards to express various things and figuring out complex interactions.

A-tier.

Simulation: Depending on the level of detail and complexity, this can easily be really engaging.

B-tier.

Immersive Sim: Depends on what kinds of completely cracked things you are allowed to do in them but there's enough interesting games in here to warrant a high rating from me.

B-tier.

Shooters: Both first and third person are good. I don't really have a preference when it comes to camera position.

However, I think more "realistic" shooters with real-life weapons tend to be bland compared to the more creative and diverse arsenals and abilities you get in more sci-fi games.

B-tier.

Horror: Fiction doesn't really scare me, so there's an aspect to these games that I feel I'm missing and if they don't have much else going for them I'm not going to like it. However, a lot of horror games have really good aesthetics and manage to incorporate fun mechanics. I especially like some of the Resident Evil games and stuff like Darkwood.

B-tier.

Survival: For some reason, I really like the idea behind many of these games. Having to gather and manage resources and build up a cool and comfortable base in a hostile environment and all. Particularly fun with friends.

B-tier.

Mystery/Detective Games: There's lots of ways to sabotage this genre by pretty much leading the player to the right answer, but there's also clever ways to make them reach those satisfying conclusions on their own. I really enjoy figuring things like this out.

B-tier.

Shoot 'em Ups: Touhou and (to a much lesser extent) Deathsmiles are really the only series in this genre that I have much of an interest in. Touhou is definitely A-tier even in terms of just playing it, but most of the time this is just fine and not particularly noteworthy to me.

C-tier.

Beat 'em Ups + Platformers + Action-Adventure + Puzzle + Metroidvanias + Stealth + Tower Defense: All of these are decent for passing time, and some of the best ones are definitely worth it. However the genre as a whole is usually not what I even look at when I'm thinking about what I want to do.

C-tier.

MMORPG: I can only really enjoy these if I'm playing with friends. I see an incredible amount of potential in this genre, and would even say that it is possibly the most interesting one in all of gaming, but it has various issues and I'm also just not talkative enough to be the type of person who really enjoys it.

C-tier.

Fighting: I want to like fighting games. I often really like a lot of the characters from them (they tend to have amazing designs) and I really appreciate the artistry involved in expressing what a character is about through their moveset and animations.

However, I struggle to actually play them for very long because they can make my chronic pain flare up. Even just playing casually against the computer comes at a cost because of that.

C-tier.

Idle Games: "Enjoyable" only on a really superficial level without the quality of design to carry it any further. I can't say I like these games.

D-tier.

Rhythm: It's not a bad concept but it doesn't really stimulate me the way other games do and I also don't have the timing to be very good at these.

F-tier.

Racing: If there's some form of combat involved this can reach D-tier at best but otherwise it's just not that interesting to me.

F-tier.

MOBA: No.

F-tier.

Gacha: I will look at the hentai but otherwise see this as a blight upon games.

F-tier.

Sports: Absolutely not for me.

F-tier.

[radellama]

Games I played in 2020 (Reupload)

This post somehow got deleted when I removed it from my pinned, which is strange, cause all my other ex-pinned still exist... Anyway, good thing I kept a personal archive, so here it is again, unedited!

Excluding games like mario kart/just dance/jackbox games ect that are kinda just.. You play them, thats it; this is a (hopefully) comprehensive list of the games I played in this shitty year. Its a bunch of my thoughts and rambles, with somewhat of a rundown of what the games actually are. These are vaguely in the order I played them in this year, and I have another whole post on just the Resident Evil games I played that I’ll keep seperate, cause this got out of hand lmao.

Under the cut so I don’t clog you all up.

---

Owlboy

Owlboy… This game is so fantastic, I got it twice. Literally, I have the digital version on switch and bought physical for ps4. What can I say? I really love this game. The soundtrack, visuals and story are just incredible, and it feels right at home alongside other games I hold close to my heart.

You play as Otus, a shy and mute owl who tries to help out but often gets the short end of the stick. Things start to get serious when the threat of a pirate attack looms over his small and unassuming town, as he tries to help figure out how to help and stop the pirates. With the help of friends he makes along the way, Otus and pals start to discover that there’s something more sinister beneath everything going wrong.

Playing this handheld on switch feels just as nice playing console on ps4 (yes i know i can put my switch in the dock, but at the start of the year playing this i had no internet and my tv was packed in a box ready to move :P) I think I have a pretty strong resonance with this game due to the fact that I played it at a strange time in my life. Bushfires were burning up the country, the smoke from them was thickly hanging over my town as I tried to pack up all my belongings and move to the city, and no one could come help me due to the severity of the smoke. The stress of trying to move and start up at university all within a few days was getting to me and reflected in slightly more insomnia than usual, so this game kept me good company. There are a lot of really good emotional beats within the game, and it was well worth being a thorough player and dicking around to exhaust all npc dialogue; I believe some of the best emotional scenes are optional and could be missed if you don’t go searching for them. That said, even if you may miss one or two of the hard hitting feely stuff, there’s plenty of really nice moments in the main story that you can’t miss. I especially liked the way it touched on how to approach and deal with your friends when grieving through tragedies, and that there are moments where the characters tell each other how much they mean to each other. Overall its just such a gorgeous story about a young owl trying to help, and how far of a journey that takes him. I’ve played it probably 5-6 times this year across both platforms, I feel like I can’t get enough of it. While a shorter game, it doesn’t feel like it’s missing anything, and has a fairly satisfying end, even though it is rather open ended. 

Love this game, and would encourage you to play/watch a playthrough if you get the chance. (Also big fat win for this game being set on a bunch of floating islands!! Fuck yesssss)

Some songs I really liked were: 

Strato https://youtu.be/_JHq-jJZUlw

Such Perfect Peace https://youtu.be/aW1vcLi6IOI

Tropos By Night https://youtu.be/LUY7_Q600LM

~~~

Aragami

Oh boy, how do I start. I really liked playing this game, it was the first time I’ve really delved into stealth games, and I had a great time. It took me a while to get used to the controls, I feel like this is probably better to play on ps4 or pc, but it was still great on switch. While I do enjoy games set in Japan, that wasn’t the main draw for me to play this game. The idea of being a shadow assassin infiltrating the light clans during the night, it was so interesting and beautifully executed!

You play as an undead, malevolent spirit of the shadows, summoned by the young girl Yamiko to help break her free from the imprisonment of the light clan. While the story isn’t particularly deep or enthralling, it is enough to keep an interesting motive to continue playing. As you collect Yamiko’s belongings that are guarded, you slowly release the shackles of her imprisonment and share her memories that are attached. One thing of note here, not only do you have the option to choose which style of play you want, its actually encouraged to shake up how you go about each level! I plan on replaying soon and challenging myself to play differently, I tried to simply not be spotted by any enemies, and killed whoever was a nuisance. There are achievements to be had for complete stealth and never being spotted by an enemy, or killing every enemy in the map; every time you do well and receive points for excelling at a certain play style, you can buy weapon and attack upgrades. These were very fun to save up and collect, from adding more ways to attack and distract enemies for a much more thought out attack strategy, or sending out decoy shadows and having shadowy hands consume enemies in an insta-death. 

Not only did I thoroughly enjoy my time playing this game, I also felt like it was just well designed. I honestly can’t remember a time playing where I felt I was unfairly frustrated at a death, it usually felt like my own error and something that I could figure out myself. Perhaps a few of the boss fights were a bit mediocre in that aspect, but I can remember most the boss fights clearly enough to say I thought they were clever and creative ways for light and shadow to clash. It has been a while since I have played, and looking nostalgically to a game I played in Feb/March needs to be taken into consideration. However, if you wanna give stealth games a go, this is a great action-adventure stealth to play, and has a gorgeous aesthetic with a soundtrack to match! Well worth playing if this sounds interesting to you.

Notable songs for me were:

House of the Raven https://youtu.be/AAd9cm1nFfE

Trapped! https://youtu.be/vH7ehpPUIwI 

Main Theme https://youtu.be/m09et2hlLMk

~~~

Stardew Valley

Ahh Stardew. Honestly I played it more last year, it was a great way for me to relax AND rest my back to play this on my switch in bed after work. I still played it enough this year that it warrants being on my list, and I’ll say it’ll be on next years as well since the new update will be coming to consoles early next year, and I’ll bet this will be what I inevitably come back to playing to give my brain a break once uni starts up again.

Fairly simple game, you’re a newly appointed farmer taking over your grandpa’s old estate, you can farm… thats about it. Just kidding, there’s actually quite a lot to do so I always come back to this (also the ease of repetitive rituals make the autism go wheeeee!) It’s really nice getting to know the townsfolk, even date ones that catch your fancy. I’ve got like 3 or 4 files on the go, one of which is me playing as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Enterprise Farm, just trying to grow a massive vineyard with a few animals and other plants just for fun. What can I say? The brainrot goes deep.

I’m very excited to see what the updates will hold, I had a lot of fun with the previous update that lets you befriend the sewer monster and move into your house. And also that you can get a movie theatre if you go the right path. This game has so much love poured into it, and it is genuinely one of, if not the best farming sims out there.

Not much more to really say except I love this game a lot, so here are some songs I really like. 

Fall (Raven’s Descent) https://youtu.be/idOmc35hlhU

Spirit’s Eve Festival https://youtu.be/gI3c4_K3smY

Winter (Ancient) https://youtu.be/Zr-PHm_qLgg

~~~

Cave Story+

I love Cave Story, it hits a certain sweet spot of nostalgia as I had it on wiiware growing up. It fascinated me as a kid but I think most of it kinda went over my head, so it was really nice to see it put on Switch! I played this a lot at the start of the year, but I also did a playthrough with my friend to show her what its all about. You can ask Nika, I did final cave (hidden) with joycon drift and somehow made it! /after like 20 tries lmao

You wake as a robot soldier with amnesia, and come across the mimigma village where you find that a girl mimigma named Sue has gone missing. As you try to search for her, you come in contact with her brother, and find out more about why they went missing. The further you investigate, the more dangerous it becomes, as it is made apparent that you are in fact meddling with a plan The Doctor has to take over the world or something, so you gotta fight a big toaster and a cute witch a bunch. Its a very charming and charismatic game, the wit of the old translations has pretty much been carried over, and this game is a pretty important part of the history of indie games. Well worth looking into how this game was created as its very interesting!

Definitely recommend playing, I love this game cause holy shit cute robot protags (and a floating island!!) I believe the original version of the game is still free to play on pc, otherwise cs+ is probably the best and definitive version to play, the main reason being you can stack a bunch of dogs on your head :P

Good songs:

Balrog’s Theme https://youtu.be/pcxw5QuqwZw

Plantation (Main Theme) https://youtu.be/td-evNdOvts

Safety https://youtu.be/l9Fk1e41_aA

~~~

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

What an interesting game in the series. Honestly I feel a bit conflicted with this one.

While I did enjoy the early days, and can see that its got some of the best gameplay/mechanics in the series yet, it feels a little soulless. 

I’m really not a fan of the way they were drip feeding updates out to us, the content should all be there from the beginning. Special events like holidays, I can understand them being free updates that are patched in, but things like Redd and the art section of the gallery? What the hell, why wasn’t that there from the beginning? I remember being very disappointed at the lack of art gallery, and not feeling all that satisfied when we eventually got it, because it should’ve been there? I know that I’m sounding a bit like a broken record with it, but while there is so many new things, like being able to terraform and having the most control over your town, I mean island, we’ve ever seen in an ac game - even the fact that we can put furniture outside now; that stuff is awesome. I won’t change my mind on that. But the taste is soured by the fact that theres so much stuff that feels like it’s missing. Brewster wasn’t a part of any museum update as far as I’m aware, it’d be awesome to set up his cafe on the island somewhere! There isn’t much expansion in the way of Nook’s store, and THE LACK OF FURNITURE SERIES. Collecting furniture series was one of my favourite things about ac, and I was so excited going from wild world to new leaf, finding that there were even more fancy furniture sets to collect. To have them all taken away.. I think there’s the cabana set still, but bruh I want to collect the sets I loved collecting as a kid, seeing what new additions to the sets will be added, seeing if Gracie will have any more expensive shit to buy. Gracie isn’t here :( There are a lot of the older npcs that just aren’t here and it feels pretty empty without them tbh. I know that the idea is that this is literally the next gen of ac as a series, and some of the npcs are the children/grandchildren of the old npcs we know and love, but I dunno it’d be nice to see them sometimes too. 

The text is also pretty bland tbh. I remember enjoying chatting for hours with villagers in wild world, I got tired out quicker with new leaf but it was still pretty fun chatting with everyone; but here they all have like 4 things to say and its a bit sad. It doesn’t feel like there's extra dialogue for when you get close with a villager, there aren’t as many games to play with them, even at festivals they’ve been pretty bland. It just sucks because I was so looking forward to it, and the intro to the game really hit home cause it really played into the whole ‘starting a new life in a new land’ kind of deal, and I got the keys to my apartment on the same day, so it was a pretty cool moment. 

I dunno, this is mostly complaining, there are things I like about the game, but theres a lot thats just pretty shit tbh. I expected better, especially because they pushed back the release from 2019 to 2020. Also oh my god fuck the flower breeding, I don’t want to spend hours crawling through various strategy guides trying to figure out the exact genetic makeup of my flowers just because I want a blue rose. I have put this game down and not played for quite a while cause of all my grievances, I also had a lot of trouble getting to my friend’s villages online so I only really did local play with my sister lol. I’m probably going to pick it up again soon, I plan on gifting a copy to my youngest sister so we can play online together when she gets her switch, so I’ll see all the updates that have happened over the second half of the year in one go and hopefully have a bit more fun than my first impression. 

To try tl;dr this; I’m not a fan of the way this feels like the mobile game, with drip fed content and kinda bare minimum stuff to do when previous games feel way more fun. I’ve felt more nostalgic to play ww or nl on my ds instead of picking up nh on switch, so I feel like something’s gone a bit wrong here lol. Still a pretty decent game and looks nice, but unless you’re really into these kinds of boring games, and maybe if you don’t care as much as I clearly do, it’s still worth playing. 

Some of the songs are pretty nice too, though wild world soundtrack will always and forever be the best one :P

12 PM https://youtu.be/xs4FJOvLPC8

5 PM https://youtu.be/uLtJIPu-Cns

Phase 6 (Rain) https://youtu.be/9JzOGqWbpmE

~~~

Paper Mario: Sticker Star

Let me preface this by saying, I knew it was this shitty one when I bought it. It was on sale and I was cautious about Origami King coming out, so I thought, fuck it, I’ll play the shitty one and then I’ll at least be pleasantly surprised at worst when I play the new one. 

It’s a pretty bland setup; bowser bad, stole something, use stickers, toads are everywhere. I really felt the lack of storyline, it was a little sad but honestly I expected it so I wasn’t that disappointed. There was still a few really fun and witty dialogues from the toads, so I’m glad that’s an important enough staple to still carry that humour. I only cleared like two or three worlds I think, before origami king came out and I played it instead. I might go back and continue playing cause I’ll admit, I’m curious as to how it pans out, but I’m also honestly not that invested.

Oh, I should also mention in the Egyptian level there are like. Human toads and human koopas. As enemies and murals on the wall. They were deeply unsettling and the cause of a lot of yelling at friends and forcing them to see that shit. Like, look at this. What the fuck

Overall, just a lame spin off feeling game, I wouldn’t really class it as a main entry cause it is so lackluster, but tbh it wasn’t as miserable as I thought it’d be to play. It just feels a bit empty, but it is also on ds lol. So.. it’s fine. I also enjoyed the soundtrack, it has moments where it sounds clearly inspired by pm64 and superpm. It’s not so bad, so if anything I’d be interested to hear the rest of the soundtrack in context too. 4/10 would not recommend, just read a wiki on it if you’re genuinely interested. I’m taking this bullet for all of us.

Decalburg https://youtu.be/tUpbaJePhLo

Intermission https://youtu.be/c9HJTxl15VQ

A Thousand Miles Away https://youtu.be/q4hC7X-fu4g

~~~

Paper Mario: Origami King

I preordered this game and got a cute origami set to actually fold myself. I like folding origami, so it was really fun to fold the characters while I finished up my last online uni class of the day before I was able to boot up and play for myself. I wanted to go in playing with an open mind, and feeling ready to appreciate anything that even vaguely resembled what I wanted (esp after playing sticker star lmao) 

Honestly? Not disappointed at all! This was a genuinely enjoyable game to play, had quite a few nice emotional beats and it was a gorgeous world to explore. It definitely feels more action-adventure than rpg, but I think that’s just the style paper mario is going in whether I like it or not. The turn based battle system (haha get it, cause its turn based, and you base your attacks on how you turn the staghea heahaa funnyyyy) it was a fun lil gimmick but it made me yearn for the battle stages of the first two games (haheheeee cauhsse yureee on a stagggheee) Honestly I think this battle system shines with the boss battles the most, having to turn the stage around to navigate it more akin to a snakes and ladders setup in order to land an attack on the boss was actually really fun once I got the hang of it. There is a training stage to get good at both regular and boss battles, but tbh trying to figure out the best methods to hit enemies in normal battles just became a brain-tired and I didn’t feel like solving the puzzle. I always gave it a genuine shot for the first few times encountering enemies, but honestly in late game I just paid the toads to kick their asses for me lol. 

Speaking of the toads, you have to rescue like, a fuck tonne of them. They’re literally everywhere. Its great tbh. They all had something to say and it often made me chuckle, so it was always well worth saving them to return them to their homes. 

Like most the pm games, theres a big baddie that get a big cool thing/powers that control everything, and you go through various worlds to undo the damage done until you confront the baddie at the end. One thing I really liked about this was that, with Boswer not being the enemy, you get to interact with the normal mario enemies we know and love, and get to love them more. It was really nice finding the hidden cafes and ordering a drink to chat with the minions, as every good pm game should be, it was just delightful chatting with all the npcs. I love that the classic dry wit and often sarcastic humour bled through into this game so thoroughly, it really gives life to the whole thing and eased my worries about being a cranky old gamer with a nostalgia boner for the classics. It feels like a pm game despite being a very different and unique game in the series, and despite it not really retaining as much of the rpg elements as I would’ve liked, it was a really nice game to play.

There are actually characters that join your party in this game! I was in such shock and delight that they’d brought that back; albeit not fully. Without spoiling too much, the party members are kinda limited to their chapters/sections, so while it would’ve been awesome to have permanent party members to swap out depending on how you want to navigate, it was nice that they added them at all when they’d been steadily phased out of the series. The only thing I will be a bit cranky about is that they’re pretty much useless in battle, they seem to have what feels like a 75% chance of fumbling their attack and missing, so its not worth relying on them to help out really. Other than that, the party members added some great depth to the game and helped really add character. They’re not as iconic as some of the party members in the first two games, but they’re still very loveable and I enjoyed having them join me on this journey.

Have I mentioned that the game is gorgeous? Cause it really is. While its not really the pop-up-storybook aesthetic the early games had, and really focuses on the whole paper thing, this game feels as though it utilised the origami aspect and the sets feel like paper mache dioramas, so it still has a strong visual charm which is lovely! The places you go to as well… I really loved the autumn mountain and shogun studios, and the desert+sniff city at night were really pretty. The music is awesome too, I enjoyed the full effect of my nice tv speakers I saved up for to get when I got my tv, everything sounds fantastic! Well worth getting your favourite headphones and listening to them. 

Before I go on and ramble on and on about how pleasantly surprised I was at this game, I’ll just leave it at that. I was pleasantly surprised, and will definitely replay at least a few times when I have that paper mario itch. 

Here’s some bangers:

Toad Town in Trouble https://youtu.be/kGv-4THIwjg

Autumn Mountain https://youtu.be/h-xnSuonaZw

Sniff City https://youtu.be/BZxhlRLjlOY

~~~

Everbody’s Golf (PS2)

I’m not a sporty person in general, I don’t even really enjoy playing sporty video games. But this? This was an iconic part of my childhood. And I’ve been playing it a lot recently. As I kid I didn’t understand how to unlock more characters and courses to play, but now that I’m not a stupid kid anymore, I’ve been steadily playing to unlock all the characters and shit cause I genuienly adore this game. Apart from farming sims like stardew and harvest moon, THIS is my go-to game for relaxing. 

The early stages, soundtracks and characters are so ingrained into my memory, that even when I found a second hand copy online last year and bought it, I still remembered everything, and it’s just as fun as it was back then. My roommate knows that I’m not sporty at all, and she told me she was thinking ‘Wow, Rads playing a sporting golf game? That feels a bit out of character, but it he likes it…” - and then she saw what it was, and described it perfectly. It’s a dumb anime golf game. And it’s the best.

I put this here because it’s awesome and I have been playing it a lot recently while in lockdown, and because I actually found someone on youtube that had the soundtrack. They’re all the extended versions, but here are some of the themes that I could probably hum by memory if prompted.

Mt Sakura C.C. https://youtu.be/izbThUSB8W8

Mini Golf 1 https://youtu.be/BwcCGW2rSvA

Character Select https://youtu.be/Gk90vCnuWJc

~~~

Everybody’s Golf (PS4)

Well, it’s the newest iteration of the game I loved as a kid, and it was really cheap if I bought the disc only online since it wasn’t the VR version, so ofc I got it. 

I was literally speechless when I boot up the game and hear Owl City first thing, I fucking love Owl City and I know I don’t really check up on the music as much as I should but I didn’t know this was a thing lmao?? https://youtu.be/TEfCCPEX8oY

/for context, this is the ps2 intro… really makes you wanna play anime golf mmmm https://youtu.be/MUPhWQ3fe38

Tbh this was a bit of a lame golf game… I mean its a golf game they’re all kinda lame, but I dunno, on PS2 it had a certain charm with all the characters you could select and play as, along with the courses all having some kind of uniqueness. Also, PS2 had not one but two mini golf courses, and a nice lil par3 course of fun and short holes. This one? Nothing of the sort.

It just kinda.. Is that you play really long courses and rack up points lol. It feels a bit sad without minigolf and shit, it is fun making your own character to play as, but I dunno I feel like it’d be better to have that create-a-characer ALONGSIDE the classic golf characters we know and love. 

Also, honestly the soundtrack is nothing special. It’s nice enough, but I would mute it and put on podcasts or albums I wanted to listen to instead. Just listen to Owl City

Eagle City G.C. https://youtu.be/OkSwUweo7cM

~~~

Flower

Another game played out of nostalgia. My dad got a PS3 when our DVD player died, and really we only used it as DVD/Netflix on the TV, but one of the games he did get on there was the Journey Collectors Edition, which had Flower. 

It’s a very simple game, you are a single flower petal flowing in the wind, blowing over other flowers in the hope that they bloom. Its very relaxing and simple, and I played it when I was really not doing well with the pandemic and living alone during the worst of the lockdowns. Doing creative works that require some form of portfolio work when I can’t even leave my apartment to see my family, that really sucked ass. But, as much as I wanted to play Resident Evil, I held off to have it as a congratulatory game when I finished Uni for the year. Which is why I played the shit out of flower while I got to the final assessments of the year.

I don’t really have much more to say about this, other than its a very nice and relaxing game, and it was nice and relaxing during a time when I felt incredibly shitty and stressed. 

Life as a Flower https://youtu.be/uL1zvhZzxeM 

Sailing on the Wind https://youtu.be/4n-UpQJ6gRI

Peaceful Repose https://youtu.be/WN5jRb2ADto

~~~

Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes

...I should’ve just played normal trigger. This rom hack is a nightmare. Ok it’s not that bad, there have been a lot of things that I genuinely (want to) enjoy. 

I don’t really know where to begin with this one. I started playing in my discord just to see the extent of what this is, with the sole goal of getting further than where I got as a kid. I got further, I’m almost done in fact, but I have to do so much grinding cause there is no way to beat the boss without seemingly maxing out everyone because the battles are so ridiculously unbalanced. 

Tbh, I have a whole lot to say about this rom hack, and although I didn’t really like it, I still liked it? I have a whole essay of incoherent thoughts stored in my brain, and one day I’ll talk about this more in depth. Without being too disrespectful, don’t play this game. I took the bullet for you all again, and I will continue shooting myself in the foot as I plan on recording footage of it again to make a video essay on it eventually, please wish me luck, I’ll genuinely need it lmao.

For songs… just go listen to the entire chrono trigger soundtrack, yasunori mitsuda will always and forever be a personal hero of mine and he did an amazing job on this soundtrack. You can hear the passion and hard work he put into it, which surprisingly is something this rom hack has in common. As much as I dislike a lot of the decisions made in this game, I have the utmost respect for the team that just sat down and made what they wanted to. There are some genuinely cool things that really show the passion these guys had, like making entire new animated sprites to put in the game. I will grumble and moan and try to be respectful in the same breath about this another time, so just go play normal chrono trigger. 

~~~

Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns

Well. You saw my Stardew review. This is another farming game I like to play because it’s cute and I don’t have to use my brain. I’ve been playing this on my DS during summer cause I’m exhausted from moving house for the third time this year, and just wanna marry pretty boy Cam again. He likes flowers and cats and wears a purple hat and I fucking LOVE him. 

That is all I care to say, this is a really cute hm game so fuck yeah. 

Bluebell Town https://youtu.be/Zm0skaRnpeA

Konohana Town https://youtu.be/bDjOTuveJ8U

Music Festival https://youtu.be/QLAfmB7T-jE

#rads reviews #goty #not gonna tag all the games.. can't be bothered lol #but ya... have this reupload while i work on this years lol #im gonna have to make a new pinned post with links to everything so stuff doesnt get lost or deleted #its a little hard atm cause my blog wont let me search anything in my own blog lol but whats new

[shiegra]

idk if you ever used an xbox 360 but do you have any game recs? i discovered over the weekend mine still works after being off for like. a decade

I have not used an xbox 360! ahhhh I was excitedly trying to see if there were cross platform games but I didn't really see any for PC crossplay? Someone said that's more of a function of modern games

But! Not sure what genre you're into (and I will link trailers so you can look at gameplay to see if it looks interesting) but I have a couple to mention! A lot of these are ~bigger games because I was trying to check what games were on the 360 so indie games might not be on the lists I was looking at.

Dishonored (gameplay) is a stealth and/or rampage game where you seek to clear your name and secure the safety and rule of a child empress. Abyssal powers, climbing on rooftops, general shenaniganry.

Skyrim's the classic (endlessly re-released lol) fantasy wandering RPG where you go all over a huge map and do shenanigans and can be a cat person. It's received fair criticism for its lack of focused narrative but if you enjoy making your own fun in a game there's a lot to do.

The first of the Tomb Raider (gameplay) reboot games is also on xbox 360, and I enjoyed it a lot. Retools Lara as a bit less of a colonialist jackass and more of a legitimate scholar and archeologist early in her career, trying to survive and save her girlfriend on a sinister island.

Undertale is a game I still haven't finished myself (just because my attention span is abysmal) but came very highly recommended in terms of story, charming characters and unexpected story gravitas despite a lot of humor.

Borderlands 2 was my first FPS so I have a soft spot for it but it has a very distinct style of humor and action. (I played it without playing Borderlands and still really enjoyed the story and new cast of characters, but YMMV)

If you're more into hectic platformers, my sister liked Battleblock Theater a great deal if I recall correctly! Limbo is another one, heavily stylized and slightly mentally scarring lmao but a well designed platform/puzzle game.

I wish I had more narrative based games to suggest lol but I guess I'm kind of a blow shit up type of gal. I heard The Secret of Monkey Island was a fun/humorous adventure game, but that the remaster on xbox 360 was kind of a mess in terms of 'retouching' the graphics and some lines? I wanted to find a trailer but all I could find were really dry gameplay clips of the character walking from point A to point B or a trailer that was all about an industry retrospective.

I'm sure I'm missing so much, but hopefully something here gives you something intriguing! :D

#axbox #loisfreakinglane

[resident-sleep3r]

Platformer Postmortem

In the end I moved away from the stealth aspects due to time constraints. If I was to try again I would lower the scope of my game or make sure I had a larger time frame to complete the game as having such a large scope and so little time caused the parts that were made to feel like they were missing something. The reason something feels missing is most likely because without the intended stealth aspects and without having focused of the platform puzzlish aspects, there is little drive to do anything and there isn't really any central gameplay loop. If given another go I'd also work on improving the animations as the lack of frames and the lack of uniqueness in the existing frames make the game feel too blocky and don't give enough feedback to the player to let them get a strong grasp of what's happening.

[neverendingrelease]

Releasing Today, Feb 21, 2024!

Feed the Cups is another one of those restaurant far-too-busy management games, this time starring cute animals and a hand drawn style. I'm confused why you're making drinks for food products, but it's a neat twist I guess. It has co-op and and roguelite upgrade system put into it. Early access - I'm not sure what's missing from it.

La Sombra is a stealth hacking top down game. I like the Saul Bass minimalist art style.

Sling Puzzle: Golf Master is another chill puzzle game. Can't really get enough of these.

Slave Zero X is a little bit confusing, it's a sequel to the 1999 game Slave Zero, but I'm not sure if anyone working on it is from the original game? Apparently SungWon Cho and Anjali Kunapaneni are voicing in it? It's a beat-em-up that will have a story and is supposed to be fighting game deep. So I guess it'll be more like a fighting game endless mode? Not sure. I've never really heard anyone talk about the original game but I guess it's someone's cult classic.

Skyland is really neat, it's originally a Gameboy Advance homebrew that someone made and now it's on Steam. It's a puzzle game where you have to defend your sky castle from other blocky sky raiders. Sort of 16 bit, blocky FTL.

Kneedle Knight is a cute 3rd person platformer. It starts a mouse with a needle and a thimble on their head. Looks like it's a pretty short story, so they're adding timed leaderboards.

Geometry Survivor looks a bit like a cross up between Geometry Wars and Vampire Survivor. I think it might be a lot to look at but it seems fun.

#game release #indie games #steam #spotlight #feed the cups #la sombra #sling puzzle: golf master #slave zero x #skyland #kneedle knight #geometry survivor

[futureailist]

Texts: The Ultimate Messaging App In a world dominated by an array of messaging platforms, finding an all-in-one solution that streamlines your communication can be a game-changer. Texts, the brainchild of Guillermo Rauch, is not just another messaging app; it's the ultimate messaging app. Now under the Automatic umbrella, Texts offers a transformative messaging experience that brings together your messages from all major messaging platforms under one roof. All of Your Messages in One Inbox Texts lets you seamlessly send and receive messages from a multitude of messaging platforms, including iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord DMs, and more. No more juggling between apps; Texts unifies your conversations. Privacy First Your privacy is a top priority for Texts. Unlike many messaging apps that monetize your data, Texts operates on a monthly subscription model, ensuring that your messages never touch their servers. Your conversations are encrypted and sent directly to the respective messaging platforms, keeping your data secure. Assisted by AI Texts leverages AI to supercharge your messaging experience. Chat summaries help you catch up quickly, while the integration of ChatGPT enables you to draft responses more efficiently. Plus, you can write in your native language and let AI translate it for you, breaking down language barriers. A Better Inbox Say goodbye to inbox chaos. Texts keeps your messages organized, no matter how large your inbox is. Search functionality helps you locate past messages effortlessly, and you can archive conversations to maintain a clean inbox. Supercharge Your Messaging Texts offers a range of features to enhance your messaging experience. You can read messages in stealth mode, schedule messages to send when recipients are active, snooze conversations, and take advantage of keyboard shortcuts for lightning-fast navigation. With customizable dark and light modes and a flexible UI, Texts tailors to your preferences. User Testimonials The impact of Texts on users has been profound. Many have lauded its ability to consolidate their messaging platforms, improve productivity, and bring a sense of relief to their digital communication. In the words of one user, "WTF did I do before this?" Texts is a game-changer for anyone looking to streamline their digital communication. Don't miss out on this transformative messaging experience. Join Texts today and revolutionize the way you connect with the world.

[game-dev-progress]

Cat Burglar Postmortem

This week we begin working on our asteroids style game, meaning that I unfortunately don’t have time to implement the cat discussed in the previous update. I thought we had three weeks to create the prototypes for each game, so I designed more mechanics than I could implement with the cat, meaning I never had time to actually implement them into the prototype. Despite this, I'm pretty happy with my stealth-platformer, the wall jumping feels smooth, the playtesting feedback was extremely useful, and I have a much better idea of how to further build on the game in future. Aside from the missing cat mechanics, the game is almost structurally complete. In the Game Design Workshop, Fullerton states that a game is structurally complete if the playtester can interact with the game independently of the game designer. In order to achieve this, I would still need to add some sort of tutorial, whether that be simple text instructions on how to move, jump and wall jump or a dedicated tutorial section at the start of the level which teaches each mechanic one by one. 

If I had to redesign any elements of Cat Burglar, I would change the enemies. The current sprites I am using for them is a simple blob, however to properly make the level feel as though you are infiltrating a vault, they should be guards the same height as the player. This would make sections where you had to stealthily get past the blobs more difficult as their vision would start from a higher point, and the player would be more likely to collide with them if trying to jump over the guards, resulting in the player taking damage. Unfortunately, simply replacing one sprite with the other would not work with the current level design, as some wall jump sections would become nearly impossible if the guard’s hitboxes were taller. 

Another thing I would change if I redesigned the level is making it more engaging when escaping the vault with the diamond crown. In the current level, it’s extremely easy to escape as most of the challenge of the current level comes from climbing vertically using the wall jumps to evade guards and progress to the next area. If I was to redesign it, I would make the level more horizontal so that the player couldn’t simply drop through previous challenges, and redesign puzzles to feature the cat.

Continuing with future prototypes, I’m going to prioritise coming up with an idea for my game before classes, as I found it hard to create ideas during class. I’ve already got a great idea for my third game, but am still unsure on how to make my asteroids game more original. See you again next week where I hopefully solve that problem!

Sources:

Fullerton, T. (2019). Game design workshop : a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. Crc Press.

#postmortem

[alljamesbondgames]

James Bond 007: The Stealth Affair

Original Release: 1990

Developer: Delphine Software

Publisher: Interplay

Platform: Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS

Version played: MS-DOS

This game first came out in the UK, where is was not a James Bond game. Here it was “Operation Stealth”, a point and click adventure starring a 007 rip-off John Glames. When Interplay released the game in the US, they applied for a James Bond license, renaming the main character and adding a bit of text explaining that Bond is “on loan” to the CIA.

This is a point and click adventure – but what I call the “bad kind”. A good point and click adventure, to me, is one where no matter where you are in the game, you have access to the required locations that have what you need to proceed. A bad one has objects you can miss and be stuck much later (after having saved your game), and the worst will make needed objects simply difficult to see.

The Stealth Affair sets its tone fairly early on. You arrive with an airport with a briefcase and a passport, and a guard asks for your passport. If you show your passport…game over. Visitors from America make for great hostages and you get captured. You need to find out what country is liked and then create a fake passport.

There’s a newspaper stand in the area, you have no coins but luckily if you examine the coin return you’ll find one. Then you can buy a paper and reveal the country (it’s randomised from a small selection). You then have to use your briefcase and “operate” the briefcase to open it, use a calculator to get to a hidden compartment and then create your passport.

The next section is mostly about getting coins to buy a flower as a sign for your rendezvous. You go to a bank, swap coins, get the flower sit down, follow instructions and you’ll eventually get captured. This section is really just a lot of back and forth as the puzzles change from obscure to not really having any puzzles at all.

You end up getting captured by the villain’s henchmen who, in typical Bond fashion, tie you up and trap you into a cave, blowing the entrance, instead of just shooting him. One thing to note is that Bond never has access to a gun in this game, although he does punch two people throughout it. This cave section highlights another one of the game’s problems: the “USE” and “OPERATE” commands. In the cave you find a pickaxe and breeze coming through the wall, but if you use the pickaxe on the wall, it does nothing. You need to stand in the perfect spot and “OPERATE” the pickaxe a few times.

This leads to the first action sequence: here you dive through water with limited air. The controls are atrocious, and Bond sticks to rocks extremely easily. Action scenes in adventure games are a nice idea, but they really need to be enjoyable.

After this you need to investigate a hotel room, although make sure you go out of your way and talk to a crazy person on the beach selling the next big thing. You’ll need that later on. Investigating the hotel, where you’ll end up getting captured again.

This is where the game sneaks in the first time you have to do an action in the middle of a cutscene. All the shortcut buttons for the different actions skip dialogue, so you have to use the right click menu, but during most of the cutscene, right click does nothing. You have to right click at the right point and operate the object you used earlier.

You then get thrown into the sea and have to escape, this is a moment where you have to perform the actions immediately or you’ll die – there’s no room to think or misclick on anything.

Bond then infiltrates the enemy base as part of a magic show, then sneaks off in a disappearing act. Time for another action sequence.

We have a top down maze. Guards move around, but can’t go through the revolving doors, which Bond can move. They are incredibly tedious and the guard’s patterns are random. You need to find a key and then the exit. After completing this, you have to do another. Operation Stealth had four mazes in total, but two were removed for the Bond version, although one is too many.

Then you get to investigate the boss’s office, one of the best parts of the game. Here you have everything you need to investigate, you need to find a hidden safe and use your codebreaker to help you find the code. You feel like a spy in this moment. You then get ambushed and have to play a dreadful jetski minigame until M and Q pop up in a submarine to tell you that the villain, Dr. Why, has threatened to nuke multiple cities if the government don’t give them more plutonium than they have access to.

Bond swims to Why’s secret underwater base and gets captured again, he manages to break free and gets a disguise (before going through some more terrible mazes, this time filled with giant killer rats and you can only see a small area around Bond). Before entering the final room, you’ll need to create a distraction then enter the final room, with the final confrontation with Dr. Why where you have to perform the right actions at the perfect time. The day is saved, buy Dr. Why has escaped, taking the captured Bond girl with him.

In this final confrontation, you only have to do two things. But unless you’re reading a guide, you’ll likely never be able to figure it out.

One of the items is an inflatable raft. In the final secret base, there’s what looks like just a panel for a machine, but when you hover over it, it says its a garbage disposal, the raft is hidden there. While this is annoying and difficult to spot, it’s at least something you might encounter and split off. The other item you need is impossibly obscure. It can be found during the swimming section before the final base.

If you swim the wrong direction, you’ll come across a screen with a few pieces of seaweed. You can play the game without ever seeing this screen, and you have no reason to fully explore before going on. You may examine one bit of seaweed and it will just state that it’s seaweed. If you examine the correct one, it will mention something stuck in it. However, even then the object you need doesn’t have anything when you hover over it, so you need to keep clicking around that spot for the right pixel to activate picking up the most vital object in the game: an elastic band.

Once you finish, Bond has a big reward ceremony where the leader of the country declares a national holiday in celebration of the super secret spy.

The Stealth Affair has some nice moments, but frustrating gameplay. The dialogue is great in some parts, but other parts haven’t been altered from when the game was parodying Bond. The graphics and sound are very nice, along with the animation, so the presentation is pretty good all round.

Other Versions

Atari ST

The Atari ST version is identical to the MS-DOS version

Amiga

The regular Amiga version is the same, however the most common cracked version has an extra feature: if you have the Amiga memory expansion, the game will put the dialogue thought the system’s robotic speech synthesis. The downside to this is that if you skip any dialogue, the game will crash.

#james bond #point and click #adventure games #007

[vyragosa]

im trying to get into metal gear solid again (already tried several times unsuccessfully because i found the controls difficult to use) and im getting the feeling that phantom pain probably isnt the best way for me to get into the franchise (i know exactly one character, and i keep treating it like death stranding going in guns blazing trying to knock out everyone in my sights) none of this will deter me this time though i swear to god im beating this game and getting the master collection

I WOULD SAY HONESTLY DON'T SWEAT IT it's. i never really owned any goddamn playstation platforms anyway and keyboard controls are, fucking hell on earth so catching up playing is painful

i resorted to watching some entries and codec stuff not unlocking all myself and i'm too much of a brute for stealth so there's that too...

am still doing it in chronological order so going for phantom pain first will definitely make you miss stuff (and even chronologically some stuff still fly over my head so yknow, might even be better to do it by order of release of course)

ofc others will answer better than me 👍

#anonymous #im literally opening farming simulators instead of MGSV SO fhhffhghff

[riflebrass]

I'm a little over 10 hours into my RE4 Remake run and I'm just a little ways past where Leon and Ashley get separated for the first time.

The juvenile plagas are pretty hardcore in this game. They are way bigger than they were in the original and take a lot more punishment to kill. They can also levitate the host body for a few seconds before swooping down at you.

The catapults at the beginning of the castle were a lot harder this time around. Sometimes they lead my movements really well so I run into them. Other times they shoot where I'm standing so if I stop because I think they're leading me I get beaned anyway.

The fight against the blind dude with the claws was pretty cool. The stealth mechanics made it fairly easy for me to beat him with just a knife (there's an achievement for that). I got tagged with his claws a couple times because I missed the melee prompt and just slashed him instead of stabbing his plaga but I was able to beat him on the first try.

I still don't have a rifle at this point. In the original I needed it for the part where you provide cover fire for Ashley while she cranks the wheels to raise the platforms in the water but the Red 9 with the stock was plenty accurate at that distance. In the original aiming with the keyboard wasn't very precise so even if the Red 9 was super stable it was pretty risky trying to hit the cultists without hitting her in case she gets picked up. Also it's worth noting that with the Red 9 at it's highest power upgrade available at the time cultists going after her in this part reliably drop after 2 hits. Elsewhere it can take 3-4 so that was nice considering I didn't have a ton of ammo.

[fmp1cieranshippy]

EXTENSIVE RESEARCH 5

How does your game discuss environment?

The bug in the story was added so many genetically altered chromosomes to the point it basically mutated in size, small and or big, with few mutations in the long run growing wings not growing wings, changing to unrealistic disgusting looking colours, showing signs of mutations as in sickness yet it becoming apart of the bugs lifestyle and the way it keeps itself alive instead of being a problem for the bugs themselves.

My game firsts introduce the experiment going wrong, to then introducing us to a small friendly town a few months or weeks later, having missing animal issues while getting to know all the characters and the character that you choose and the town itself. While also slowly addressing the threat that will be revealed later on into the story.

To contrast to this information of how my story explains environment, I will look into us playing with insect genetics and movies based on that topic and other movies in similar contrast to elevate that idea and to give you an idea on where I am coming from.

The Fly

This is to also build some contrast to my story and idea, as what can happened when you mess with genetics of an insect and what you do when you play with mother nature, which is what i can build that the secret organisation can use the bugs they capture at the end of the game to help the humans from new diseases etc which stupidly results in mutations to people as people began turning into monsters which becomes the new disease. a good contrast to take from this as to show that playing around with mother nature should be taken with caution and not taken lightly.

This Research here will help me understand how when we play with genetics on insects how it can change the way they act look and react etc etc and if it has good side affects or bad side affects. just to contrast to my stories bug and how it was genetically altered.

From reading through this what I've gained from this is the concerns of using insects for modification, as their are some issues to tackle first before doing so, like if we change to much or give them something to remove an issue like disease would it backfire and cause variant of that disease or just another disease in a different circumstance.

Which is good contrast to my bugs as in my world and worlds story the government has banned tests on bugs as situations have shown that mutations happen to bugs more often then to animals and people.

and a good contrast that illegal testing is still happening no matter of the cause as of course there is.

What makes for excellent or interesting pixel art?

Grab some information from this website to understand the styles and the history etc

During the fifth generation of gaming, titles started to deviate from pixels and lean much harder into the realm of polygons and full motion video. Metal Gear Solid effectively recreated the stealth action gameplay from its MSX forefathers on the considerably more powerful PlayStation platform. Players were enthralled as video games inched closer and closer to pure realism. In turn, many developers decided to leave pixels behind, electing to challenge themselves to fulfill those players' fantasies.

However, some games retained this pixelated art style while still taking full advantage of increased horsepower, such as Castlevania Symphony of the Night, also for the PlayStation. While polygon counts grew higher and 3D gaming blossomed, the love for pixilated visuals never really went away, and independent developers have done their best to keep it alive and well.

Eastward's world is filled with bustling towns overflowing with cartoony and expressively animated characters to interact with. Beyond the towns, Eastward has dark and gloomy caverns filled with dangerous foes. Eastward's art style invokes the likes of Nintendo's classic EarthBound, which served as the inspiration for both Eastward and the playable video game within Eastward titled "Earth Born."

Upon looking at the imagery and taking bits of informational and reading through, what is considered good pixel art is the exact amount of detail that you can go in a small canvases while also doing the opposite, where little less detail can be eye catching still and still be engaging and how small and big you can get in pixel art and still have a good looking piece of artwork.

The fact that it is easier to shade with the art style than in normal art styles, as you can draw out shapes or weird shapes that mean nothing until you put it together and magically its hair, the amount you can do with pixel is amazing.

The fact that it focus on old style like games use to have which has a bit of nostalgia feel to it,

And it does not matter if the artwork is terrible, as I learned you can have terrible art yet the story and gameplay can elevate your artwork to make an amazing experience, as the strange style might make it more entertaining and also with pixel art it doesn't matter for style as pixel art you can never go too detail or less detail as if you go too detail it may look realistic at that point or if you go too less detailed it will look like a weird blog, but that is the perfection of the blocky style you can be terrible at drawing but still create something amazingly stupid or terrible looking in pixel art and it still be considered awesome and cool. It just depends on what works and what doesn't.

To the contrast to my designs, its a mixture of simple and detailed, as this mixture it all depends on what is in focus more and what is in focus less, for the town the town is not as focus so less detail is added, with contrast to the cave its more detail as that is a big focus and focused more. Same with the bug to the contrast to the people the bug more focus as that is the main thing in the game idea people less focus as they are just suppose to make the bug a much bigger focus and give it more contrast. |Same with the shed design I might make as that as well will be more in focus so more detail will be added. In my opinion it just depends on what is in focus and what is not in focus and it can go both ways where you can no focus at all with anything and it still have some contrast or you have so much focus with everything and again is has good contrast but it can go with more contrast or too much contrast, so in my opinion I need a different range of pixel art to elevate what should be in focus and what should not, as that helps the players and others to know what to focus on more and what to focus on less.

#Youtube