There aren't many puzzles and what's there is very boring. The witch trials start as a really interesting turn on the Ace Attorney, but they begin to drag quickly and are missing some excitement without the investigation step. The whole thing starts to overstay by the end, but holy shit is the high from Professor Herschel Layton and young Phoenix Wright pointing at the same time completely unrivaled. The game is pointlessly too long, but it's also a totally sufficient thing if you pretend it's manga (it is).

A concise meditation on memory, dreams, and the act of retrieving them. The game pulls from and directly cites conversations director Julian Palacios (which you can read about here) had with their grandfather who passed away by the release of the final build, but the product is a generous collection of spaces to reflect on even if the approach isn't totally within my taste. Promesa is more similar to looking at a painting than any other game I've played, which carries many negative and positive complications for me. Worth the 40min to clear once and certainly will call for your time afterwards, even without hitting every possible scene. For fans of LSD Dream Simulator looking for the Pixar Animated version of that game.

I got covid right before Christmas in extremely inconvenient temporary accommodation. Really, couldn't have been a worse time and a worse place to get covid. This meant 10 days of gruelling self-isolation while watching all my friends return home for Christmas. It also meant that I only had my Macbook on hand to fulfill my gaming needs while fending off this particularly debilitating bout of Omicron. And if you've ever gamed on a Mac, you will know two things: 1) It's not a great experience and 2) The selection of games is very limited (especially if you have one of the new ARM macbooks)

Why does this matter? Well, Dirt Rally was one of those few games that I had in my library which performed well on Mac. And I want to be super hyperbolic and say that this game made me not want to off myself during self-isolation, but it did not, those feelings were indeed very persistent. But there's something exhilarating about playing this game, in cockpit mode and on a keyboard. Moreover, there was this contrast between the dynamism of Dirt Rally and my fatigued, diseased body that I think elevated my experience with this game. It was like taking a quick soul-stirring dip in an icy lake before returning to the warm depths of my bed, where I spent the majority of my isolation, consuming so many strepsils they doubled as my laxatives.

Is the game actually any good under normal, non-covid circumstances? I don't know. I am not a rally driver. But it is fun. It is an uncommon experience in gaming to make decisions based on split-second verbal (and not visual) instructions. Your co-driver has the birds-eye view of the track, you can't get anywhere without listening intently to his instructions. There is something really rewarding about that; taking a turn up a hill before you're even able to see the corner because your co-driver tells you to. There are a few tracks set in Wales with devilish puddles that will splash onto your windshield and make it nigh on impossible to discern what is left and right (at least in the cockpit view), I have never felt that much love for a video game character as I have my co-driver in those moments.

The game also lets you progress at your own pace. Your opponents will pick cars in the same class as you for each event, allowing you to stay with slower cars until you're comfortable with progressing to some of the faster and more unruly cars.

I think it's got the bones of horror down - the puke-tinge of sky, the slow tension of a decrepit elevator descending and not being quite sure what's inside, the understandable unease of someone silently walking inside your apartment. i even appreciate it pulled the sudden jump cuts from gravity bone / 30 flights of loving. i just think it needed a slightly stronger editing hand, especially in the car scenes (and i mean, i get it - it was a late-night art bell call in show, but also: damn, it went on a long time).

also, i'm not entirely sure i understood what happened, plot-wise.

Perhaps most notable for its cast, who are so goddamn extra I couldn't help but be endeared to them, even as the humor threatened to swerve into 'wow, so quirky!' That being said, the story they inhabit is woefully disjointed, bouncing between buffooneries and serious subject matter which isn't meaningfully addressed. The resolution of the story is sweet and delightful but left major subplots unaddressed. Even as I yearn for a more balanced narrative featuring these characters, I can still celebrate this game as a product of an independent creator's vision, discussing marginalized intersectional identities. Absolutely still worth checking out.

I accidentally took a class with my least favorite professor for a second time Spring 2018. I had taken rhetorical studies with him Spring 2017 and it was the worst class of my entire college career. When I arrived in class January 2018 and saw this professor my heart sunk. His classes were boring and unfocused. I played Butterfly Soup during this second class, and it was infinitely better than listening to this professor drone on. I didn't play it with sound on because I was in class, but the game was so good without sound that I didn't feel like I needed it.