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thesmumbo · 1 year

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Smumbo's top 10 games he happened to play in 2022

Not necessarily games that were released in 2022, just my favorites that I played for the first time last year.

10: Night in the Woods (2017)

by Alec Holowka, Scott Benson, and Bethany Hockenberry

Peak fall vibes game. Night in the Woods features a compelling mystery and some great spooky moments. The setting and characters really resonated with me, so I got a lot out of it.

9: The Pedestrian (2020)

by @skookumarts

Pleasant puzzle game inspired by the signage that surrounds us in our day-to-day lives. Some of the puzzles were quite difficult, and I kind of dislike the direction the game took in its last act, but it was still a very fun and unique experience.

8: South of South Mountain (2022)

by @colorbomb

Cute & hilarious visual novel with a fantastic art style. I could not stop laughing throughout the whole experience.

7: Portal Reloaded (2021)

by PORTANIS

From a pure gameplay standpoint, this was a very satisfying sequel to Portal 2, and it's possibly the closest we'll ever get to a Portal 3. Portal Reloaded introduces a third portal which allows you to travel to the same place at a different time, so certain things have been moved/removed. It gets really complicated, and I’m amazed this was able to be created as a free standalone mod for Portal 2.

6: Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery (2022)

by Grace Bruxner and Thomas Bowker

Approximately 3-4 hours of pure, unadulterated joy and whimsy. I can’t believe it took me this long to play Frog Detective, but I’m so glad I did. Everything about these games resonated with me strongly.

5: OneShot (2016)

by @girakacheezer, @nightmargin, and Eliza Vasquez

A transcendent experience. Explores the unique ways in which video games can tell stories, and the nature of free will. Features some interesting meta game mechanics which require you to interact with files outside of the game. The visuals and soundtrack are spot-on as well. Weird how there’s so many great RPG Maker games which work so well in spite of the engine.

4: Scorn (2022)

by Ebb Software

An incredible audiovisual experience. I liked the gameplay too, even though it seems like a lot of people were disappointed by it. I'm amazed that a game like this even exists. Absolutely oozing with atmosphere and symbolic meaning. The story spoke to me on an incredibly deep level despite lacking words, or even any semblance of humanity.

3: What Remains of Edith Finch (2017)

by Giant Sparrow

One of the greatest games ever made. All of the vignettes and set-pieces throughout the game are flawlessly paced, with a wide variety of gameplay and visual styles. Packed with detail, made with love, and so emotionally resonant. I loved this game.

2: Bloodborne (2015)

by From Software

For years, I would try to play Bloodborne whenever I had access to a PlayStation 4, but I wasn’t able to do a full playthrough until 2022. It lived up to the hype. This is my favorite From Software game, and it’s already one of my favorite games of all time. I really hope this gets a remaster/PC port some day. It’s a masterpiece.

1: SIGNALIS (2022)

by @rose-engine

One of the greatest horror games I’ve ever played. Amazing visuals and atmosphere, fascinating world and lore, and a captivating, mind-blowing cosmic horror sci-fi story. I especially loved the evocative UI designs throughout. Highly recommended if you like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Dead Space, PS1 style games in general, or if you have even a passing interest in survival horror. This is my #1 game of 2022.

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chaoticsimlish · 2 years

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Since my post about I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is blowing up, I thought I'd mention some other indie games worth checking out!

What Remains of Edith Finch

Still one of my favorite games of all time, What Remains of Edith Finch is a beautiful and tragic game. You play as Edith Finch returning back to her family home as she's expecting a child of her own. For her entire life she was told that her family is cursed and the entire house is almost a monument to this fact. Each room upstairs is sealed off and tells the story of the Finch family member who inhabited it and how they died. Each of the stories play out in a variety of ways and one of the stories was told in such a compelling way that the studio decided to make an entire game out of it. Check the trigger warnings ahead of time because this game will make you cry. 10/10

Strange Horticulture

After your grandma passes, you take over her plant store. As the story progresses you work to identify plants, explore the areas arpund your town to find new plants, and assist your strange customers in finding the plant they need. There are some underlying secrets in the town like a coven of witches, a shady secret society, and a mysterious woman in a jade mask that you can uncover as you go. You have to be careful of your choices, too many wrong answers and your sanity shatters and you have to put yourself back together. You also have a pet cat named Hellbore that you CAN PET!! A beautiful and relaxing game especially for the fall! 9/10

Growing Up

I've posted about this game in the past, but I'll mention it here again! In this life simulator, you start as a baby and as you grow you choose what you want your person to learn and your choices shape who they become as a person. Your choices also effect the friends you make as you can rescue friends from dark paths or send them down it. You play from baby to teenager and once you hit adulthood you go on to have a baby and that baby is the start of your next run. There is so much to learn and do in this game, the puzzles are addictive, and the characters are fantastic! I will never stop recommending this game! 10/10

Wytchwood

Another cozy game perfect for fall, Wytchwood is an exploring and crafting game. You play as a sassy witch who has to fulfill her contract and rediscover her memories along the way. There are different areas to explore, things to craft, and all sorts of stuff to collect. There's casual combat, nothing too crazy, and the characters you meet are entertaining. Definitely worth checking out for the art style and story alone! 9/10

#indie games #wytchwood #growing up #growing up on steam #growing up game #wroef #what remains of edith finch #strange horticulture

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leonstamatis · 6 months

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top five video games?

oh god i had to think about this one a little bit but:

spiritfarer - comfort game, play it every year if not multiple times a year, not super challenging but very pleasant and also makes me cry a lot

hades - i have logged too many hours in this game. it’s just really easy to fall into a time vortex and keep going. also i like mythology and always have so yknow, biased.

monument & monument 2 - these are phone games, so not maybe what you meant? but they’re fantastic puzzle games, with lovely sound and visual design, and they’re a quick playthrough when you just need to spend 30-40 minutes thinking about other things. great to revisit every couple years once you’ve forgotten the solutions.

pokemon leaf green - this is a nostalgia thing. i still have a save file on my copy from when i was like ten years old with hundreds of hours of playtime on it, and i go back to it on occasion just because it’s familiar and i don’t have to think much.

what remains of edith finch - certain aspects of this game didn’t land for me, but it is stunning and the things that did hit, hit really hard and stuck with me!

#Laurie-juspeczyk #tam.ask #ask meme #THANK YOU. THIS WAS A GREAT QUESTION.

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broodygaming · 10 months

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So I'm really diving head first into this whole itch game jam thing. It's super neat. Anyways. Another longer one, two weeks, just started tonight and it's the overall theme is narrative focused stories with the specific prompt just revealed to beeeee :

Doomsday!

Hahaha, of course the one i JUST made in three days is about the end of the world and had I had two weeks to make it, it woulda been beautiful. Not that I can't still work on it obvs but. Ya know. For the jam. It's just so ironic that this prompt and theme of jam is so so so so perfect for the thing I just already made and therefore in no way can use 😂😂

ANNYWAYS I'm brainstorming an idea that is kinda emotionally similar to that one level of What Remains of Edith Finch? Her brother, near the very end who worked at the fish factory...

I want something where there's a dual story happening. One of a normal person at their normal day but with heavy themes of depression and hopelessness etc etc. This build up of, like, everything around them falling apart. The apartment is busted. Bad day at work. Bills piling up. Angry family. An expensive accident. Normal depressed poor people relatable problems. (too close to home anyone? haha jfc) And then when they go to bed there's this other story playing out. A big fantasy adventure and it's (at first) subtly affected by the choices you make as the mc. You choose X in the real world and Y happens in the fantasy world. For it to be slowly unfurled that this is like an escapist dream for the mc. Maybe I'll have it happen during the work day instead of at night, to drive home the theme of escapist fantasy.

Anyways I want it to be SUPER dark, cuz ya know, Doomsday prompt. So TW for bad mental health stuff going forward but.

I want it to be this slow reveal that no matter what you do, everything is falling apart and the persons "bad luck" is bleeding into the perfect fantasy world. So much so it's no longer an escape for them, it's another burden. Building to the end which is the doomsday event for the fantasy world... the death of the person. Super dark. But... ya know. Hopefully poignant.

I told this to my mom, just chattin as you do. And she literally was like "that's way too dark, jeez Chevie. You don't have to be all doom and gloom" and I'm like LITERALLY the prompt is DOOMsday. DOOM. HAHAHA. Like what are the odds that's the literal word she chooses just to describe the idea haha. Jeez. But yeah. Just an idea.

#just shoutin into the void as you do #I like the idea of subtly implementing spoon theory into it as well like...#you take a shower but can only do two of three things #wash your body - clean the clogged ish drain while there or - wash your hair #and if you choose to skip the first then there's a weird problem in the fantasy world that causes everyone to smell or something #or the second there's a huge flood in fantasy land when the bathroom floods irl for the mc #and the third there's a swarm of bugs that causes everyone to be itchy as the Mc has an itchy scalp from dandruff or whatever idk #just spitballing for the flow of the game not the minute thematic details #i like the idea of choices but it can't be too many

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mino2aur · 1 year

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sorry this post had been driving me crazy. not because i disagree with the point that not every indie game has a furry in it but becasue i knew for a fact that there were furries in outer wilds and a hat in time. turns out i am certain that most of these games have a character i would call a furry, and some have a charatcer that i could probably call a furry, and three of them let you wear an animal themed hat. my sincerest apologies to all involved in the original post please treat this as the ravings of a madman rather than a serious critique

my personal definition of a furry is an animal character that walks on two legs and behaves in a humanlike manner, or a human character who dresses/appears in some way like an animal. if the beaft only fulfills one of these traits then i put it in the arguably category. i have also noted when i have not played a game and am simply pulling from the wiki

stardew valley:

i also think that krobus should count as a furry but thats definitely more of a vibe thing. wait a minute shit is the mouse anthro enough? this one might be a confurmed one actually but im not editing the pic again

subnautica:

do you think that a talking animal counts as a furry? thus is the debate that plagues the categorization of the sea emperor. also in subnautica below zero there is al-an who is 100% a furry

LISA (unplayed):

there were more but i have been at this for hours so who gives one

yume nikki:

im just fucking certain one of those things counts as a furry. theres so much shit in that game come on man

OMORI (unplayed):

this feels like a pretty big one to miss. like thats definitely a furry

minecraft:

it feels fucked up that the piglin is the only one i can think of so maybe theres more i havent played the new updates so maybe theres more furries now. also your minecraft skin can be anything you want including fursuits

slime rancher:

this one is definitely iffy to me but i do feel like theres an argument to be made. im just not gonna be the one to make it

enter the gungeon (unplayed):

again there has to be more. anthropomorphic animals are a very popular video game enemy subtype

dicey dungeons (unplayed):

the dice, somehow, is a furry

vampire survivors (unplayed):

he is a fucking bear

pizza tower (unplayed):

this one is a bit of a stretch for “character” but theyre definitely in there. and once again i bet you anything theres more

spelunky (unplayed):

also some of the characters in this game seem a bit racially insensitive

darkest dungeon:

it was originally going to just be the abomination but i do think plague doctors technically fall into the furry category so shes here too. this also is not including the various anthropomorphic animals you can fight

shovel knight (unplayed):

+ others

fez (unplayed):

talking owl? potentially a furry thing? i don’t know

what remains of edith finch:

okay this one. is technically not debatable i just don’t feel right being like HAH ANOTHER CONFIRMED FURRY about a dead six year old. also given that she was straight up hallucinating she might have been. like. i don’t know. she could plead insanity to being a furry i guess

among us:

theres so many fucking amongus cosmetics now its crazy theres like 5 animal ears ones now

outer wilds:

inscryption:

this one probably should have gone under arguably if im being beautiful and true with myself

castle crashers (unplayed):

again theres probably more

untitled goose game:

look the goose technically doesnt fit either criteria but i feel like the fact that you inhabit the goose creates a sort of furry-like atmosphere. i have a paper due in six hours

hyper light drifter (unplayed):

a hat in time:

see also the conductor, cooking cat, empress, walrus captain, the various anthropomorphic animal npcs throughout different levels, and the various animal themed hat flairs. this one was a pretty big one to get wrong

slay the spire (unplayed):

ehhh? maybe?

pathologic (unplayed):

i remembered this guy from the hbomberguy video

disco elysium:

NOTES: i felt like there was probably an angle for super meat boy, soma, and rocket league but they would have been wayyy more trouble than they were worth. i also tried very hard to find something for stanley parable and ultrakill but no luck

IF YOU have any corrections to make please feel free to provide i am learning so much about indie games today. sorry again to the original posters

#torment

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britishsass · 2 years

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Things I Have Seen

I know I get a lot of "Do you know [x]" questions, and although I love them, I'd like to make a quick list of stuff to explain a lot of stuff. Let's go. This is gonna be messy. Sorry if this shows up in any sort of search results. It's not my goal to have that happen.

ANIME/MANGA

Assassination Classroom

Black Butler

Death Note

Fullmetal Alchemist

.hack: Legend of the Twilight

Sgt. Frog

One-Punch Man

Way of the Househusband

BOOKS

Too many. I can't list them all.

GAMES

A lot of these ARE me watching Let's Plays. They'll be marked with an asterisk.

Ace Attorney* - Only the first one

Ao Oni*

Bendy and the Ink Machine*

Bugsnax*

Cuphead

Danganronpa*

Disco Elysium

Doki Doki Literature Club*

Fire Emblem: Awakening

FNAF*

Fran Bow

Ghost Trick*

Hatoful Boyfriend

Henry Stickmin

Ib*

It Takes Two*

Kingdom of Loathing/West of Loathing

Mad Father*

Misao*

My Time at Portia/My Time at Sandrock

MySims - Kingdom and Agents specifically.

OFF*

Pokemon - Most main-line, PMD, Ranger, GO, Snap, and Pokepark.

Professor Layton - Literally all of them. Including spinoffs.

Psychonauts

Sally Face*

Stanley Parable

Team Fortress 2*

Undertale

Until Dawn*

We Happy Few*

What Remains of Edith Finch

Zero Escape

TV SERIES

Animaniacs

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Doctor Who

Early Edition

The Good Place

Gravity Falls

Green Eggs and Ham

Inside Job

Invader Zim

Over the Garden Wall

Total Drama

Wander Over Yonder

#queue #the owl posts #the owl's vault #listen. i've been into a lot of things. this is just a bunch of 'em.#I am so very much vibing anymore.

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monster-noises · 2 years

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7, 23, 28 & 29 (for whomever is haunting your dreams)

oo hoo hoo! I am still thinkin about my Webcomic quiet a bit so this time I'll be answering for Haggarty(R) and his twin brother Rantham(L)!

First! A brief introduction: Haggarty is the main character of the webcomic I'm writing, he's a sweet and quiet young man with a friendly and loving disposition but he's a little awkward and not the most confident. He loves to go on adventures with his friends and brother, but is often a bit of the odd one out and so spends an equal amount of time just on his own. He herds fluffy pigs on his families farm and is happy to spend the day tending to them all on his lonesome. Rantham is Haggarty's twin brother (though most people they meet are surprised by this, Rantham has very Youngest Sibling energy). In contrast Rantham is boisterous and rambunctious, a little wild and a little mischievous, trouble always seems to find him some how some way. But he has the same good heart as his twin and never truly means to cause anyone harm. He's a potter and a sculptor with his own private tent/shed set up at the back of the family farm.

Do they have any unusual fears?

Both of them are at least a lil bit superstitious, so their most unusual fears are all like.. creatures from folk stories that may or may not be real. Haggarty particularly is easy to rile up with one or two spooky stories or "first hand accounts" and has oft been the victim of jokes and pranks because of it. But Rantham takes the cake on this one for being Genuinely convinced and terrified of a creature called the "Reed Worm" that supposedly lives in old loose hay. To be clear this thing Definitely doesn't exist, their older sister Clements assumes he's playing it up to get out of barn cleaning, but the fear and belief is 100% real.

How would they want to die?

Ideally I think both of them would want to die peacefully at home, but Rantham has said if he dies doing some kind of extremely rad Stunt he'd be okay with it. And secretly Haggarty would be happy to go out in service of protecting someone/something, but he keeps that to himself.

Are they a #gamer?

Haggarty is the type to get really into a fun casual puzzle game (2048, peggle, flow, that kind of thing!) and occasionally be convinced to play through an interesting emotional single player experience, as long as the controls aren't too complicated. (journey, superliminal, what remains of edith finch etc.) Where as Rantham would absolutely be involved in multiple MMO's or online multiplayer games.. (Destiny, Overwatch, Hearthstone, WoW) Truly a #gamer. He'd be the guy who's just there to have fun, jumping into a server/game and being Silly in a harmless and genuinely entertaining way. (very ed-sheeran-but-it's-about-toe-sucking energy)

not that either of them has or would get to play games because they live in a rural fantasy village without modern technology sdkjhfd...

If they were real would you be friends with them?

I'd like to think so! A lot of my creations fall into "I love this little bastard with all my heart but if they were real? oh my God no." But these guys??? Genuinely chill and kind and good of heart. Though I'd probably get along better with Haggarty because Rantham's very Big energy would probably get a lil' overwhelming.

#monster noises #wait does.. does haggarty have a tag?#huh! he doesn't! lets fix that..#HatWW #will do I think!#short for the full title: Haggarty and the legend of the Whistling Witch #Anyway!#rapid fire Lazarus answers in the tags because it Feels Necissary #Meat Husband #(7 I will be answering in a following post)#how he wants to die: Quickly.#He's under no impression that he's going to get the chance to die old and/or peacefully. So he just hopes that whatver takes him #Be it Miranada - a terrible accident at the factory- his Cadou - some unforseen force #it takes him quickly #He's a man who can divine the holy and righteous from a great many terrible things #pain is not one of them.#Particularly his own.#Alas Laz is in fact - a very old man.#he's about as Un-Gamerly as one can get #in the survival/escape AU's he definitely gets his hands on a phone #and is about as competent as you would expect someone who left the modern world in the 70's to be.#Lazarus is a very good example of the 'I love you but absolutely not'#perhaps in a non-village version of his life #where he's just an unsettling eccentric who makes scary taxidermy #but as-is he is Terrifying

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awesamcozy · 10 months

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Ur taste in games is so good wtf (except overwatch but nobody is perfect(i have over 1k hours in overwatch))

If you are looking for shorter games i can only reccomend what remains of edith finch! Its super short, only like 2ish hours long but very good (if u like 'walking simulator games then layers of fear 2023 (its a bit spooky tho but its a trippy puzzle game that deals with very mentally unwell MCs) and the stanley parable are also good) undertale is super fun too if u havent tried that one yet

If you like fps but dont wanna do online play then i could reccomend the borderlands games and doom (its so much fun but very gory) and also bioshock

For longer story based games i can vouch for god of war (the new ones), Detroit become human (tbh only for connor), and just for the fun of it kingdom hearts.......and spiderman is also v fun!

Falls to my knees ive played all of these

Ikay not all of them.. i havent played spiderman and detroit become human but i dont really want toooo...? Insomniac spider man cant be that good right

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ourflagmeansgayrights · 1 year

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I haven't read the fic, so I don't know the full contents of it, but I am a huge fan of What Remains of Edith Finch (& OFMD, of course). Edith Finch is a really great narrative-based video game, about Edith, the last of her entire family, returning to her abandoned home and uncovering the mysteries of the past. Her family's believed to be cursed, with nearly every member having an untimely death and memorialized in looked room and Edith finally learning how they all died. The games entire plot is focused on death. It's about the loss of fanily and the grief we carry through generation, so a little bit of the opposite of OFMD's message of found family and it's never too late to heal. It's a very sad story but extremely cathartic and haunting and beautiful. I reccomend it, and you don't have to be huge into video games to play. Though i get its not for all because of the subject matter. So what I'm guessing is seems like anon was just frustrated that someone wrote a story where Stede being sad was gonna be a focus. Which yeah I like Stede being happy too but there's nothing inherently wrong with writing a story where he's not and it's kind of rude to say we should shame someone for it. You're kind proving their point there for maybe why they wrote the fic anonymously. Again tho, I did not read the fic so I don’t know if it has anything offensive in it, but from that anon's reaction, it seems like that wasn't the issue, but just Stede not being happy or doing things to make Ed happy.

oh shit wait i HAVE heard of that game and wanted to play it but i forgor 😔

anyway yeah i’m usually someone who goes looking for fanfiction when i want MORE of canon* and i’ve consumed all of canon so like for personal taste reasons when fics don’t have the same time as the source material im usually like :/ eh. but i recognize that’s not everyone’s deal and some ppl go to fanfic to find something that’s LACKING in canon. so like extremely angsty AUs are fine. this incredibly sad au sounds like it could be good tbh

*usually. sometimes a fic falls outside of Canon Vibes and it’s REALLY good so it works for me. but usually i only rlly start looking for fic bc i’m starting to run low on how much emotion i can squeeze out of every second of canon and i need a new source of dopamine.

#ask #anon #mine #video games #txt #og

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henbased · 3 years

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its that time of year again. that time of year where these things become my whole personality.

#📌#nitw #otgw #night in the woods #over the garden wall #if you see me becoming frighteningly melancholy on main #dont worry about it #what remains of edith finch falls into this too #but its not autumn vibes

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qu1nby · 2 years

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“I was raised to be forgotten.”

Was The Suicide of Rachel Foster a good game? No, not really. Did it have great dialogue and (in my opinion) a lot potential? Yes, yes it did, which is why I am SO UPSET it ended the way it did. Spoilers incoming!

TW for murder, suicide, and grooming

1) the story kind of… falls apart halfway through. On day 4 we’ve forgotten about the whole “get the hotel running and investigate so we can sell” thing and are shown a bunch of articles about Rachel’s death. Where did Nicole find them? Taking the player with her as she picked them up would have been a great way to give more insight into Rachel and her thoughts, considering her name is IN THE TITLE.

2) gameplay! I like narrative walking stimulator type games, so that combined with psychological horror sounded great. and, for a bit, it was! I liked wandering the hotel, even though I got lost several times. It helped that it was nice to look at. I could spend hours looking out the windows in the overlook. Unfortunately, there is a point where the back and forth becomes too much. Go to the apartment, go to the garage. Start in the church, go to the apartment, go back to the church. See what I mean? When put next to games like What Remains of Edith Finch, where there are several different and interesting rooms to explore, the hotel starts to seem a little bland. There are only so many times I can walk through the same couple of rooms without becoming bored.

3) Let’s talk about Irving! I liked him a lot! His relationship with Nicole developed pretty naturally considering the situation (I’m going to assume they talked more off screen). I even liked the plot twist! That is, until he started talking about Leonard.

Why are we not putting more emphasis how fucked it is that Leonard fell in “love” with a 16-year-old girl? It was gross to hear Irving call that love. I thought that Nicole understood how fucked it was too but NOPE. It’s brushed off as her being jealous of Rachel!

4) why does the game punish Nicole? It’s not her fault her father did what he did. It’s not her fault her mother killed Rachel. I can understand Irving wanting to expose the truth but there are so many different ways he could have done it that didn’t mentally destroy Nicole. The scene with the mannequins almost convinced me that Nicole killed Rachel, because why else would the person behind the scenes go through all this trouble?

5) the ending. If you’re going to have your main character commit suicide in the end, don’t make your player do it themselves. Turn it into a cutscene! I understand that the developers were going for something there but it didn’t really hit they way they thought it would. You know what would have been a more impactful ending? Showing Nicole leaving the hotel and telling others what happened. Who is going to go to the hotel and bother piecing together all those clues? Rachel’s death will remain a suicide, defeating the purpose for Iriving’s character.

Speaking of Rachel, is she a ghost forever now? Irving said that they’ll get to be together when he died, but he neglected to say how. Will he and Nicole become ghosts? Wont the hotel still be sold since Nicole died?

This is already too long but let me say how I think the ending should have gone. For starters, scrap Irving being evil entirely. It makes no sense. What would make more sense is Leonard leaving clues for his daughter before he died. Say he felt guilty for Rachel’s death and the situation as a whole. Say he built the shrine, moved to the attic, and rarely left. Sure, some of the clues would probably have to be changed, but it sounds like an improvement to me. Nicole comes, finds the clues, uncovers the truth, and then Irving sends out a team or rescue her or something. It’s better to write a predictable story than a bad one.

#the suicide of rachel foster #man this was theraputic #I should do game reviews more often

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oriocookie · 3 years

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games ive been playing bc im a Gaymer™ (and some thoughts on them)

most recent update: october 20, 2022 added unpacking!!

games i’ve finished are above the cut, games i’m still in progress on are below so any trigger warnings on those are incomplete. please let me know if i missed any TWs on the completed games, and recommend some to me in the notes! if you need to know about a specific trigger for a specific game, send an ask/a dm/comment on this post! i gotchu!

TWs and commentary may contain spoilers. read at your own risk!

- What Remains Of Edith Finch (completed)

played on xbox

beautiful game

it’s well done and most textures are fucking flawlessly lit

my only issue is there are things that don’t come back that feel like they maybe should???

like, i was dicking around in front of the garage door before i went in on like my 3rd replay, trying to find things to look at that i missed the first few times, and then something clattered inside the garage and edith said “i heard something moving around inside the garage”

and like. holy shit?? holy shit. when i went in to look around there was nothing that had fallen over and nobody inside so uhhhh??

i Get that it’s a clever thing to make you go inside the garage.

i know.

but Still.

anyway wonderful game and its p short so aspiring streamers, this one is for you! its abt an hour nd a half/two hours worth of gameplay

TWs: death, grief, blood visuals, gun visuals, birth visuals(?? this one is more of a just in case), meds, alchohol, possible suicide (there’s no way to Know)

- Night In The Woods (completed)

played on xbox

this game is one of my favorites of all time

the characters are likable, the dialogue’s funny, the art style is SO damn cute, it has all these fun minigames, openly queer characters, catchy songs, a bit that might give you an extistential crisis, the works!!

it’s a really good game, my issue is there’s really no way to get everything.

you will Always miss something

the gameplay took me 12 hours to complete and i had watched playthroughs before so it’s a LONG game

but this is so high on the reccommended list

TWs: death, cultish behavior, christianity (this game is super cool about it tho, the pastor is a woman and she’s very “no matter what people believe in, i will help them”. yknow. like Actual christians), vomit, knives, derealization, depersonalization

- Knights and Bikes (completed)

played on xbox

this game is hella cute and it’s good to play with a friend! i played it once on my own and i’m currently playing it again with my sibling.

an issue with the multiplayer function is that it doesn’t splitscreen, once my sibling got stuck and we couldn’t progress onwards because the game wouldn’t let me walk too far away from her. makes sense i guess

the storyline is so cute and it reminds me of night in the woods(see above) someone in the comments of this post recommended it to me so💜💜💜 thank you.

all the game mechanics and race minigames are so good 10/10.

the artstyle? WONDERFUL. melza and nessie have the cutest little faces. i have a older sibling problem so they are now my younger siblings. i have adopted them.

captain honkers is my siblings favorite and she insists on stopping whatever plot is going on in order to feed and pet the goose.

nessie and melza are written like real kids and i applaud the devs and writers for that.

TWS: money issues, possession, ghosts, cuts and bruises that are kinda graphic but not that bad

look at this book i found!! it’s got cute art and everything!!! it’s a retelling of the story which i understand is not some people’s thing but honestly it’s great so far!

- Slime Rancher (story complete)

played on xbox

literally whoever developed this game went “so how cute can i make this” and then absolutely SMASHED that limit

i havent even finished the game yet but it’s adorable

my problem is how EASY it is to fall into the ocean and how confusing the map is

i keep getting lost so i wish i could put like,,,markers on the map?? or have the map tell me what slimes are in what region??

idk maybe i’m just dumb but i am very lost all of the time while playing this game

also the soundtrack is impeccable and it’s a very good game for chill streams

hey hi update i’ve finished the story part of the game. it ripped out my heart and stomped on it then wrapped it up in a pretty bow and gave it back to me. wtf.

TWs: there are monsters that try to eat you but you can opt out of having those spawn, flashing(dont stand too close to plort or food deposits if this is an issue for you! the little burst of light when you put something in tends to strobe!!!)

- Firewatch (complete)

played on pc

this game is absolutely hilarious

and beautiful!! its not necessarily realistic but everything has a style to it that makes my little gamer heart happy. i set a screenshot i took as my pc background and it looks very pretty

the music also really makes the game. it hardly ever shows up but when it does you notice!

everything is voice acted by the way, which sets up the game very well! i never once felt like they were reading from a script, and it made me laugh a ton, even when i was pretty scared.

this is kind of an extension to the TW list but if you struggle with paranoia and feelings of being watched, don’t play this game!! it relies very heavily on that mechanic to make you scared, which is good for horror but bad for people who deal with that every day of their lives. please be careful!

TWs: dementia, paranoia, death, animal death, corpses, cheating on a spouse (if you choose the right dialogue), fires, (brief) abuse mention

-emily is away (two storylines complete)

played on pc

honestly? not a huge fan of this one.

storyline 1: i chose to like. not stay talking to emily? it ended at 2006 if that makes a difference.

the entire game was just me going “so what is the most neurotypical answer i could give right now”

i like movement games so the solely text based game was Not as fun for me.

but whatever

ill probably play again and find out why everyone Really likes this game so much

okay storyline 2: i chose all the nastiest answers

wow shes not dating brad shes dating travis. weird.

also every time i insult her music taste i die a little inside thats so Mean

but its for resarch

i feel so BAD being mean to her wtf :((((

alright thats over and now i feel like a dick. thats enough emily for tonight i think

TWs: romantic breakup

-pikuniku(complete)

played on xbox

ever wanted to play a game where youre a jellybean with legs fighting against capitalism?

thats this

need a friend to take down the evil Sunshine Co.? its co-op! live your dreams of toppling capitalism with your best friend by your side

its pretty fun! if you like to have everything explained to you then this probably isnt right for you but thats ok

its a cute cartoonish style, very simplistic. like a less detailed night in the woods or knights and bikes! and yall know thats my JAM

lots of little side quests to do so enjoy running around the open world doing whatever the hell you want

TWs: at the very beginning the villagers are very prejudiced and scared of you, since youre a different species then the rest of them

-unpacking(complete)

played on xbox

ok this was cute

my little sister begged me to get it so she could watch me play it, since the youtube videos she was watching weren’t getting uploaded to youtube kids fast enough.

very soothing, i put on a youtube playlist as i was unpacking this persons houses throughout their lifetime and it was calming but also very rattling especially the college chapter (since thats a thing for me soon at the time of writing this)

the ending couple chapters i was like trying to puzzle together if the persons lover was a girl or not and results inconclusive, could be a guy very comfortable in his masculinity

ok while checking some stuff for the tws i figured out that its a girl!! yay wlw lets go

TWs: theres a chapter, chapter 2010, that sorta seems like domestic violence? the infamous diploma-under-the-bed chapter, where you can’t put basically any of your stuff anywhere, and after this chapter, lots of the characters things are damaged or missing, as if there was a big fight. could be reading way too much into it tho

- Spiritfarer (incomplete)

played on xbox

this game. this game. ive seen Nobody talk about it but it’s so cute!!

stella, the player character is ADORABLE, she’s so damn happy to be doing that job and hanging out with her friends!

its so cute her animations are my favorite thing!!

this game tackles grief and loss, mourning, death, and fear with stella and her cat, dandelion

its such a cute game and its based in greek mythology, you just get to steer a ship around and help out lost souls!!

also an adorable game for chill streams

TWs: death, watching loved ones die (heavily implied stella took care of her best friend in her last moments), ghosts, jellyfish(this isnt a typical tw but they feature prominently as someone’s greatest fear in the game so), storms

-Raji: An Ancient Epic (incomplete)

played on xbox

okay i’m not even out of the training stage yet and this game is a FUCKING DELIGHT.

music? 10/10. story? 100/10. graphics? 1000000000000/10.

the cutscenes are all done in this amazing puppetry style and aaaa!!!

if there is one game on this list i really want you to play, it’s raji.

it’s all about hindu mythology, it’s so so easy to follow along(even for me, who admittedly doesn’t know too much about most religions) and i adore it.

listen go download raji right now. i will fucking WAIT. just. please.

it deserves a lot of love and support

TWs: demons

- Journey To The Savage Planet (incomplete)

played on xbox

okay this one is significantly less wholesome than most of the ones here

i have maybe an hour put into this game?? and there have been 3 drug jokes, 4 different swear words, a heavy implication that you are a slave for capitalistic labor, and something that i’m like 90% certain was a sex joke.

so yeah

t’s a pretty game, but honestly it’s really just a horror game disguised as a survival game

the entire time i’m exploring i just keep singing “🎵i hate souuuuunddddsss, if i round this corner and hear a sound i will dieeeee, all sounds can shut up forever please and thank youuuuuu🎵”

so if that doesnt give you an example of what my mental state is playing this game idk what will

TWs: uh everything listed above, and also terrifying flying squid

- Oxenfree(incomplete)

played on xbox

i’ve watched a play through of this one already but shhhhhhh we don’t talk about that (also its not like i remember what happens anyway)

anyway i LOVE the art style.

it’s like a more simplistic version of night in the woods and y’all know that game is my Jam.

can you all tell gravity falls is my bread and butter because all my favorite games are about creepy towns and weird creatures

i’m not far into it and so far my only drawback is the clunky dialogue.

it just. it sounds Off. i don’t know how else to put it.

i like the radio function a whole lot though

plus the concept is sick as hell it’s literally the dialogue as the only thing holding this game back and not even by that much!!

TWs: grief? it’s been a while since i played i need to head back

- Hollow Knight (incomplete)

played on xbox

i’m honestly not sure about this one.

i’m notoriously bad at platforming games, plus i have no idea the story of hollow knight.

ive played for about 5 hours and i have zero progress.

this game is one that i would only reccommend to people who Know that they’re good at platformers and also are good at remembering where theyre going.

i’m still playing this one and struggling

TWs: all the npcs look like cartoonized bugs, and you have to fight your own spirit whenever you die

- Outer Wilds (incomplete)

played on xbox

this game is goooood.

it’s hard to do, but it’s a space exploration game and it’s Hella fun.

you do have to respawn alllll the way back at your starting planet and it basically rips away any progress you made, which makes sense for the story but damn it’s annoying.

the aliens are cute tho

and the soundtrack is still the only game soundtrack i’ve actually spent money on, because it’s good!!

if you do decide to play this, i wish you luck!!

TWs: none?? none i think??

- Unraveled (incomplete)

played on xbox

i’m so ashamed of this game.

it’s the cutest, most cottagecore-y game in the fucking World, and i rage-quit it

i fucking rage quit unraveled

this is my greatest shame

i’m actually gonna go look up a playthrough as soon as i’m done, because i want to see the rest of this game.

i’m stuck on like stage 3

anyway its a good game it’s just another platformer which my fingers do not appreciate

TWs: death, dementia, being alone???

#what remains of edith finch #night in the woods #slime rancher #spiritfarer #journey to the savage planet #hollow knight #outer wilds #unraveled #knights and bikes #games #video games #game development #raji: an ancient epic #oxenfree #firewatch #emily is away #pikuniku #unpacking #ori games

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starbirdfinch · 3 years

Text

Welcome To My Tumblr!

★ Bio ★

Star ★ She/Her ★ 23 ★ Hetero-Ally

You can all just call me Star- I am an artist and writer. Mainly a comic artist, character designer, and currently practicing concept art and hopefully story boarding. I will post my artwork, will mainly would be random drawings or practice art, possibly even short stories- I hope you guys enjoy what I post and I appreciate any form of support!

I always wanted to create stories ever since I was a child; have been working bits and pieces of my art and stories almost everyday from doing small doodles to planning worlds & concepts. Part of me will feel like my stories might not be good enough but I’m enjoying the journey of improving my art, writing, and storytelling & hope I’d be able to finish one story. ^^

★ Media ★

Currently Working On!

Will add more soon!

★ Disclaimers ★

• If you want to draw my characters- you have my permission. All I ask is no ship art with anyone other than their love interest, no NSFW (ESPECIALLY my persona and animal characters), no genderbends, and no human forms of my animal characters.

• Please keep in mind that some of the things I post here that are related to stories may not be set in stone. This is just where I post my concept and ideas.

• My stories also contain dark content- mainly gore and death. I will put warnings of the dark contents my stories have and if they contain content that make you uncomfortable, I recommend not reading it.

• The short stories and comics I post about my characters will either be canon or not canon, some of them would be just for practice or fun. If Canon, the story will have ✩C✩ at the beginning of the story. If Non-Canon, the story will have a ✩NC ✩.

• I also may not post much as of right now as I want to try and focus on my mental health and straighten out my life- I will be posting artwork but stories may be a while.

★ Facts About Me ★

✩ I like playing Video Games- mainly Visual Novels and Story Interactive games. Some of my favorite games are- Dragon Age Series, What Remains of Edith Finch, Pyschonauts 1 & 2, Mass Effect Series, Andromeda Six, Red Embrace Series, The Errant Kingdom, When the Night Comes, Fatal Frame Series.

✩ I have too many stories and original characters. :,3

✩ I have two fluff demons aka kitties who are my little troublemakers. I had the first one since he was a tiny kitten, my mother owned his mama and the second one, I adopted her as a kitten we found meowing under our house one day. ❤️

✩ I don’t like coffee. I actually prefer tea. My favorite tea is French Vanilla black tea with milk and sugar.

✩ I watch several cartoons and anime. Some of my favorite shows are The Owl House, Akudama Drive, Rugrats, My Hero Academia, and Gravity Falls.

✩ I have ADHD, had it ever since I was a child. I also show symptoms of anxiety.

✩ I love reading webcomics- some of my favorites are Blades of Furry, Eaternal Nocturnal, Homesick, I Hope So, TRUE FUTURE, Litterbox Comics, Pixie and Brutus, No North, the Dog Star.

Have a Cookie! 🍪 😊

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andmaybegayer · 3 years

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I don’t have any particular Cyberpunk 2077 opinions beyond “Video Game Workers Need A Union” but as to the actual content of the game, I feel like they will be similar to my GTA V opinions, which I can talk about with confidence because I actually played it.

GTA V has a 97 or something score on Metacritic from critics but a 78 from user reviews. I think that both of those are too high, it’s a solid 70 game to me from the perspective of whether it’s a good game, but it is a very impressive piece of media. Cyberpunk is eventually going to pan out as “a pretty okay game that is fun to play but in no way particularly groundbreaking for the medium,” in contrast I would say that “What Remains Of Edith Finch” should be considered a noteworthy application of the art of Video Games.

It’s hard to look at something that so clearly took time and effort and consider it just okay. I fall victim to this with architecture and engineering, I look at a hot garbage building or a terrible piece of hardware and recognize that it still probably took hundreds or thousands of person hours to make, and it softens my opinions a bit. If I spend long enough looking at a decrepit parking lot that ruined a neighbourhood I will still fall in love with it because look at how much fuckin tarmac this is. It all got planned and poured and flattened and painted by humans.

It’s hard to look at something as big in scope as GTA V and say “well too bad you fucked it up”. There’s so much cool stuff! It’s big and detailed and dense but it’s still a mediocre game with bad writing. As a game it fails, as a project it succeeds.

(There is also something to be said for “scores are inflated because rabid bases of fans threaten to dox anyone who gives a thing a poor review and will buy absolutely anything no matter how terrible it is”, which isn’t a problem unique to video games in any way: music and movies also suffer from this, Justin Bieber could release a cover of 4′33″ and ask his fanbase to stream it and it would outperform your favourite indie band by six orders of magnitude. Infinity War made more money than god despite having absolutely no substance whatsoever.)

#media #video games

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playing-stories · 3 years

Text

Why Playing Inside Made Me Hate Myself

There’s a level in Inside (Playdead, 2016) that sees the player-character, a nameless young boy, sprint from cover to cover as supersonic booms blast at timed intervals. I discovered pretty quickly that being caught out in the open during one of these blasts kills the boy in a horrifying explosion. His dismembered limbs go flying towards the camera before the game cuts and asks the player to try again and again.

Even thinking about this level inspires a visceral horror in me. It took me so many attempts to finally get it right. Not only that, but this level was what made me understand what made Inside such a disturbing game - it made me loathe myself. But why self-loathing? Seeing a young helpless boy struggle through a brutal and hostile environment and seeing him die over and over is upsetting but why do I hate myself in particular?

Perhaps in all these bad feelings I directed some of them towards myself. Do I hate myself for making me see these horrible things so many times? Maybe I feel betrayed in some way because I’ve exposed myself to something sickeningly sad and violent.

No. There’s definitely more to it than that.

The level with the sonic booms is an excellent example of why Inside makes me hate myself for two reasons: 1) It’s deeply impersonal and 2) I’m really bad at it. Let’s address these both in turn.

It’s Deeply Impersonal

The sonic boom level comes at mid-late point in the game. At this point, I have played enough of Inside to understand the situation at hand. I am playing as a young boy and my goal is to enter a mysterious facility. What I am running away from or towards is unknown. I have so far seen piles of dead pigs, security systems that kill trespassers, and limp men who can be controlled by whoever is wearing a special helmet. These men are being paraded in front of others; some stoic bourgeoisie types.

Notice that in my description of the game, I heavily focused on the environment of the game. The mindless slaves, the pigs, and the security systems were things that I, through the player-character, experienced but none of these were put there for me specifically. I didn’t cause any of this, and I will not be able to stop any of it.

Then I come to the level with sonic booms. There is some sort of experimentation going on in this facility, that’s for sure. These booms are just a part of this. Everything is so big around me and I am so, so tiny. I am inconsequential here, dwarfed and alienated by my surroundings. The booms are procedural. They are not targeted. They do not care for young human boys. They are not malicious, they are completely apathetic.

I must contend with the only human agency being present in this scene being my own. Now, in single-player videogames the player is always the only human agent, but in other games an illusion is built that NPCs have feelings, that can harbour ill will towards you, or that they can actively desire the player-character to save them. Taking all this away means that I am forced to reckon with my own complicity in killing this small scared child. Other levels that have the player chased by a pack of furious dogs or smothered to death by a mermaid at least had something that I could shift the blame onto when it killed me. In this level though, the sonic boom level, all I had was myself and the knowledge that I put the boy in this lethal situation

Tobi Smethurst, a games academic, also found this in Playdead’s other game, Limbo (2010), which has another young boy protagonist. Smethurst underlines how the levels in Limbo grew to also feature this alienation between player and environment more and more as the game progressed. Smethurst similarly points to how these games are so affective because they force the player into a place of complicity. Smethurst points out in their paper ‘Playing Dead in Videogames: Trauma in Limbo’ (2015) that in Limbo rag-doll physics mean that all of the young boy’s deaths are visually different. Becoming de-sensitised to the gruesome deaths therefore becomes more difficult. Failing one level may mean the boy falls in a way that bends his neck at an unnatural angle. Failing again may mean that this time he flops onto his front. The player must reckon with the reality that is their agency that caused a young boy’s death. I have not added a picture of a death in Limbo and I only advise looking one up with a hefty content warning.

While I found playing Limbo deeply upsetting, it did still give me a purpose to cling to. I knew from the very first level that I was looking for my lost sister. A little girl needs me is what I told myself. I clung to the fiction that I needed to rescue her. Without it then how was I supposed to face the fact the the person killing this little boy was me? Nothing was chasing me at the start of the game, nothing was out to get me. It was me, me who had walked the boy into a environment that was totally unsuitable and deadly. Inside takes the sister away. There is something at the end of the boys journey, but the player does not know this until late in the game. Whether or not the thing at the end is a good thing is also another question entirely. As I exposed the boy to killer explosions, attempted to make him jump between tall buildings, and led him deeper into the hostile facility I hated myself. I was doing this cruel horrible thing to him. All me.

I’m Really Bad At It

Which leads me on to my own lack of skill. I’m not a great gamer by any means. I love playing, but key tenets of game mechanics like pressing buttons or keeping to rhythms are things I struggle with as a . In Smethurst’s paper, an important point is made. It’s that even though Limbo makes it near impossible to complete every puzzle on the first try, it is not impossible. Both Limbo and Inside are trial and error games. In Limbo some puzzles purposely subvert behaviours that it just taught players moments ago. Nonetheless, even though it is very hard to achieve a no deaths run in either game the slither of possibility means that each death weighs on me even more.

I could have gotten the boy past the explosions this time. If it only weren’t for my lack of skill. If I were only more careful. Why am I so bad at this? I keep killing this kid. I’m going to see him die again and its my fault.

Inside not only highlights my agency in playing and failing at the game, but Inside has been actively made to be like the game environment itself. Brutal. Uncaring. Apathetic. Even though the game is hard, I cannot blame it for killing the boy without also blaming myself to a certain degree. And so I hate myself. The game has convinced me to hate myself while I’m playing.

Killing Little Boys in Videogames

Before I end this piece I’d like to address one more videogame boy that I’ve killed. What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow, 2017) is about the curse of the Finch family and it shows the player through a series of vignettes details of how each Finch family member died.

Calvin is just a child when he dies. He’s ambitious. He wants to swing his tree swing all the way around the branch. He swings, ignoring calls from his mother to come in for supper and goes higher and higher. The tree branch creaks and wind whistles by his ears and he’s almost made it. Then he loses control, and the player watches from Calvin’s perspective in horror as the boy flies over his garden to his untimely death.

Pretty sad cutscene, right?

Except it isn’t a cutscene. It very well could have been a cutscene. The game creators, however, elected to have the player make Calvin swing. The player is tasked with pressing two buttons in time to make Calvin slowly pick up momentum. The player knows where this is going and that this is dangerous. Yet if they want to continue playing they must kill Calvin. Again, the player is complicit in Calvin’s death with each button push leading Calvin closer to losing control of the swing.

For a game that is thematically interested in facing trauma in order to process it, this is a perfect encapsulation of game mechanic echoing game story. By making the player a part of this scene, making their engagement essential, Edith Finch makes its players similarly face something that is uncomfortable and upsetting. Because they are active in Calvin’s death, the players are unable to stop looking at the screen, close their eyes, glaze over, or reject what they are seeing in any other way. Sure, the controls are easy, but they still importantly require a level of effort from the player. The player can shift blame in this scenario. Unlike Inside or Limbo, survival is not an option for Calvin and so the player can easily argue that it isn’t their fault. This time, however, Calvin’s death being anyone’s fault is not the point. The engagement with the trauma of his death is what this scene is most interested in.

I would like to discuss how all of these characters being little boys might also be a contributing factor in why these games make me hate myself. I feel it would risk being too tangential so I’ll merely include a question: How do these little boys affect me simply by being little boys? For now, I will go and wallow a little more in the self-loathing that Inside has managed to make me feel.

Sources Cited:

Tobi Smethurst, ‘Playing Dead in Videogames: Trauma in Limbo’, The Journal of Popular Culture (2015).

#inside #limbo #playdead #what remains of edith finch #giant sparrow #videogames #Game Theory

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