there are cathedrals everywhere for those with eyes to see :-)))

rlly makes you FEEL like ur 19 again and still experiencing religious delusions/paranoia. which is like such a specific feeling and thought process and not one I wouldve thought a video game could nail. but nah this took me right back to 2019 and how ill and scared i felt back then. loved any moment where indika was able to sit down and u would be able to cycle through all these beautiful camera angles where each one is centered on her through these like far away creep shots,, like she’s being stalked and looked at w hatred by some unknown figure. idk the feeling of being totally alone but still being watched and like ur never alone even when u want to be is ultimately like an entitled and self important one but it’s crazy to me that a game can get across these v specific feelings.

reminded me lots of i saw the tv glow,,, both ultimately about how living inside ur head and through fantasy is like a v unhealthy lifestyle and bad for mental/physical well-being. how any kind of fantasy whether a positive or negative one is end of day bad for u if it’s all consuming and u can’t live without the fantasies that play out in ur head. u end up seeing and hearing what’s inside ur head rather than what’s actually there in front of u.

religious horror team ico game (tho im sure a case could be easily made that that’s exactly what those games already are) or like alice madness returns w more contemporary aesthetic pretenses. kind of shit that yorgos lanthimos would be making if he wasnt a fucking coward and freak loll and im NOT just saying this bc there’s a disorienting usage of fisheye here tho more things should def use fisheye. zulawski vibesss here too for sure. love this,, finished all in one sitting,, had me in a trance fr
(which the gendered violence had more of a statement or take before the ending and not just in the final section but yk oh well play the cards that im given)

ok but where’s sativa tho😭

Doesn't matter what time of I day I played it, this shit had me DOZING, not in a "this is boring" way but literally falling asleep to the muted color palette, the long stretches of silence, the anonymous music... Sam Barlow pioneering some exciting new innovations in the hypnagogia-core field...

It's a decent enough depiction of the surveillance state, a subject which games have never handled with much grace. The main visual metaphor, your character's reflection looming just barely visibly over everything she watches, got old quick. Who are they telling the lies to? Ah, me, of course. Nice that they could spring for some decent actors with that Annapurna money - I like Kerry Bishe a lot, and they're all fairly convincing in spite of what must have been an awkward shooting strategy (Logan Marshall-Green seems a bit embarrassed from time to time).

The ecoterrorism plot was rote... I was much more interested in unpacking this dude's psychosexual baggage. Cop can't suspend his violent, possessive, misogynistic impulses even when he's cosplaying as a treehugging lefty? Sounds about right!

I never had the delusion this was going to be anything but another Hellblade game, like others thinking this was going to be some kind of God of War renewal for this franchise, so I was happy with what we got.

A frankly stunning videogame with probably the best graphical fidelity I have seen, with a more focused combat experience that feels visceral, desperate and raw for every swing of the sword you make. Alongside this, the audio design absolutely carries this game with just another showing of great voice acting and incredible performance by Melina Juergens.

However, just like the first game, some of the puzzles absolutely kill the pacing and they often come after long sections of walking. Likewise, while I enjoyed the more bombastic story this time around (with some incredible setpieces), the ending is way too abrupt and seemingly comes out of nowhere, which is surprising for a game of this short duration.

(Played on Series X via remaster)

This is the first time I've beaten Arkham City. I got a disc copy for PS3 when it came out in 2011 but my German Shepard puppy (who is now 13 lmao, shout out to Zeus) somehow got the disc out of the console and chewed it up. One whole dog lifetime later, I finally found the time to play through it.

As a disclaimer, I am doing a series playthrough so I didn't do any side content really, just an 8-9 hour mainline through the story. With that said, I liked City roughly as much as Asylum, maybe a tiny bit less. It feels like a one step forward, one step back type thing.

The better: I think the pivot from metroidvania to open zone with some Metroid flavor is a similarly successful pivot to the one the Jedi games made between Fallen Order and Survivor. It's a good evolution. The combat is more fun and has more impact, with thoughtful new tricks that iterate its now-legendary gameplay to solid effect. The story is better and more personal, even if the characters still vary in quality a lot. Better boss fights. Slightly less backtracking than Asylum. The high points here story/game wise are better than the equivalent points in Asylum.

The worse: Something big was lost in the shift from the cohesive, consistent, polished, perfectly paced structure in Asylum to City's downright strange pacing. City tells 70% of its story in 3 hours and then makes you spend another 4-5 hours on the last chunks. it has a tendency to make the story move too fast when it should take its time and then pad things out with enemies/puzzles when you're ready for the game to be over. City has good, real boss fights but it also has a bunch of really flimsy boss encounters that make it seem like Rocksteady ran out of money/time at the finish line.

Really good, important game -- just maybe shows its age a little bit more than I expected in 2024. As an aside, I played the BioShocks last year and the thing I realized is that PS3/360 era games now totally have a classic games vibe to them. It's so odd.

Tweaking- the game

Seriously though game is a technical marvel easily one of the best looking games ever and it’s a great experience, one of a kind. Sound design is incredible too you have to play with headphones and slaughtering those mans is so satisfying.

Suffering builds character development was a person it might be Senua😭

Less substantial than the Dredge DLC as the rewards are just a few new dishes and a Godzilla bowhead, and its mostly one big boss fight which isn't the game's strongest aspect. Still they have Miki from the Heisei era movies and Ebirah show up so there was clearly some genuine fan love here instead of just getting the Godzilla name for the publicity alone so it’s all worth it. Make sure to add this to your account though, because apparently it'll only be available until like the end of the year or so.

Reverse Collapse was a game I was really looking forward to for a long time, now that it’s finally here I’m happy to say I like it a lot. But no game is absolutely perfect, and RC does have some flaws, which I’ll start with.

Stealth as a mechanic is interesting, the game allows you to use guerrilla hit and run tactics on some maps, or just stealth maps flat out. I really appreciate the variety but stealth in a turn based strategy game built off of AP usage is a little annoying. There will be turns where you can probably move 1 or 2 tiles per turn because being in stealth mode consumes an extra AP, and pretty much every tile that isn’t road just eats away at more AP too. Flat out stealth maps are very trial and error too, working more like puzzles with a single solution. Thankfully a lot of stealth maps can be done loud as well, but they are occasionally mandatory and I always find them a slog.

Secondly I find the balancing to be kind of wacky. Normal difficulty is unbelievably easy compared to challenging. This is because there is optional EXP grinding, but also because it’s just easier to S rank maps so your units will just naturally be higher levels over time. While challenging lacks any EXP maps AND you lose out on parts and EXP if you don’t S rank maps. You eventually just get to a point where your units and items are not strong enough to genuinely fight anymore, and I was forced to bring the difficulty down just to continue. Let it be known I nearly got up to chapter 3 on challenge but the last map was just too much. This balancing issue really comes out during chapter 4, where all my units are just too strong to really have any trouble. The player just slowly gets more and more options to the point where not a lot of problems can’t be fixed in one turn.

This game has a lot of items and they are not made equal, this isn’t too much of a problem on its own, but I do find it a little silly how one note a lot of them are. For example there is a sound emitter you can build to attract zombie enemies, this cannot be used against anything else. Same with the shockwave grenades that move zombies around. I’m glad that these items can be disassembled for parts, but I do think a lot more items could find uses if they thought things out more.

Lastly, I do wish the game had a bit more character interactions. We only really see Mendo and Jefuty interact during those cooking cutscenes. This is fine for the most part and I really like these, but I just wanted a bit more. Jefuty makes comments about how she grew attached to Jevon, Atena and Carl too, but we barely see her do anything but talk business with them. I guess it’s just supposed to be implied that she’s been fighting alongside them forever so she naturally began liking them more.

With those small gripes out of the way, I can get into praising what I really like about the game.

For starters, I love the general gameplay loop. Unlike something like Fire Emblem your cast of units is usually small. You’ll typically only have 3 units at most, with the most you can possible have being 6 at one point. This creates really desperate situations where you are always unbelievably outnumbered and on the brink of being overwhelmed. You need to be clever and a little lucky with placement and item usage. Items are your equalizer, from grenades to automatic turrets, to tear gas, they all do horrible things to the enemies to even the playing field. It’s really satisfying to set traps for the AI for a turn, and then watch like a psychopath with a massive smile as they trip every trap and get themselves killed. Enemy AI is pretty relentless and it seems like every map has constant reinforcements. You’ll wipe out a massive wave, and then two more will spawn. Units themselves are fairly unique and have a massive skill tree, with passives and actives to rely on. I think a couple skills are absolute dogshit, but other ones are way too good to pass up, and turn characters into monsters. Every unit falls into a role.

Mendo: Jack of all trades with strong survivability.
Jeffry: Glass cannon with massive range.
Arena: Agro tank and item spammer.
Jevon: I don’t actually know what to put here but he’s basically the most broken unit ever. Like absolutely unreal it’s so clear why they don’t let you use him too much.
Carl: Supporter and debuffer.
Lige: Melee burst and dodge tank.

These units all have pretty nice diversity in terms of what they do, and every turn you’ll find yourself setting themselves up and settling into their usual roles. I was nervous that things would feel too samey with such a small character roster, but I’m glad I was wrong.

The writing is pretty enjoyable. I do think the technical mumbo jumbo gets a little much sometimes, I’m a long time GFL fan so I don’t mind it, but people new to the series may not feel the same. Characters are all pretty likable and generally pretty rational too. There weren’t really any situations where I thought people were acting annoying or stupid. Enemies seem pretty one note at first, but there is some depth there as you get deeper into the game. I need to praise the tone for this game though, it’s pretty rare these days to play something that takes it’s tone seriously the whole time, never breaking for ironic jokes or whatever at any point. It’s corny to say but the game is very sincere with its premise and story, and it makes a lot of it feel really authentic. A lot of cutscenes have full Japanese voice acting too which definitely helps sell it.

Lastly, the art is top tier, along with the music. I need to praise the menus as well because the HUD is easy to read and quick to use.

Overall I do really like Reverse Collapse: Codename Bakery. Despite the ridiculous name that my friends make fun of every time I bring it up, I thinks Mica continues to craft one of my favorite fictional universes, the wait was absolutely worth it, and I’d encourage anyone to give it a try if they like strategy or GFL.

Just keep in mind this game can be really trial and error at times, play the game on normal first to learn the quirks and the mechanics, as it lets you reset every turn and save whenever you want.

difficult to rate! stylish and memorable on its own, but so inherently deferential to "moon" that it can't help but pale in comparison.

for instance, 24 killers implements daily restraints on time and action in the same way moon did, a meter which you upgrade over time... except while moon's version felt tight, restrictive, and well-considered, only bloating to a non-issue in the endgame, 24 killers' version is immediately vestigial and loose, acting more as a reference than a design choice. a more in-depth example of ineffective inspiration is its npcs, filled with quirky dialogue that reflects love-de-lic's offbeat writing style but each given half-a-personality, a far cry from moon's living, breathing, time-based world and character habits. because of this, dialogue is always brisk and silly, but lacks meaning unless you're in a conversation with one of the 3-4 main characters who matter to the story. and that's not even to mention what you need to do to help them, each npc divided into six groups of four that require you to repeat the same minigames/tasks per category (do some squats, plant a seed, drive a car, etc.), further emphasizing the lack of unique identity across the cast. most of the designs are wonderful when you see them walking about (i loved the speedster cats in particular, of course) but their words feel interchangeable.

the game's most experimental and novel mechanic is the one i know i'll never fully experience, and one i could hardly find discussion of–the save file system. each save file in the game has it's own unique modifier, treated as parallel universes within the world, and reaching a certain point in each save file allows you to transfer and stack those bonuses for each playthrough. it's a really cool idea, but also.. i mean. i'm not playing this game 24 times to completion! it seems like the sort of idea designed for an extremely short playtime, but my first playthrough took me a solid seven hours. i looked through the save file blessings to see what they entailed, but honestly they didn't seem that impactful on their own either. to reiterate: this IS a really cool idea, and i really think it's worth mentioning, but it also applies to such an incredibly niche audience that i basically didn't even experience it. shout out to anyone who plans to get every steam achievement here, though.

and now that i'm done with all my big complaints: this game really is cool! you don't often see love-de-lic-esque games being made at all, and what we have here is one filled with a lot of love and a unique flair. i think the visuals are what'll stick in my mind the most, every character has a sticky design and the clay-mation aesthetic holds up well in all areas. from what i know, this game was made primarily by a solo developer, and it seems obvious they took a lot of care into making the small in-game map and numerous npcs look as visually interesting as possible. while i'm disappointed this game couldn't reach moon's highs, i certainly had a good time playing it.

tl;dr: 24 killers is a quirky ~7-8 hour package that oddly doesn't seem to strive to go above and beyond, and i'm honestly not sure whether to fault it for that.

One of the rooms in this game has the shape of a heart and is full of capybaras, and if that doesn’t prove to you that this is the clear GOTY of the year of the decade of forever so far then I don’t know what will.

Despite being a highly anticipated game for me, probably one of this year’s releases that excited me the most this year… I had no fucking clue what Animal Well really was. By that I don’t mean that ‘’I didn’t know what to expect’’, there have been a ton of games I didn’t have expectations of what they would be prior to playing them, but at least I had a small idea what they were about, their mechanics, and overall ideas. But with Animal Well, I had no clue about how it could even play like.

It was supposed to be a Metroidvania? Is it Puzzle-Platformer? Or perhaps an immersive-atmospheric experience? Maybe a highly experimental take on open spaces and secret finding? I didn’t really know before I hit ‘’start game’’ to be honest, and yet, even before that point there was something that called me, that fascinated me. This world of blues and greens seen through the lenses of an old CRTV is an aesthetic I didn’t know I missed this much, or maybe is that it’s done so effectively here; the surround sound and flickering lights that accompany such abandoned yet beautiful looking structures and the nature that melds perfectly with it… I don’t know, it reminisces of feelings and memories I don’t think I can properly put into words, but still filled me with a desire to explore this rabbit hole.

Well, I finally played it, and I have finally found the answer to all of those questions that once plagued me:…

…Yes.

Animal Wells is an experience that feels like it takes inspiration from a million different places and ideas, and yet it molds them together to create something unlike any other game I can think of; is the idea that surrounds the ‘’Metroidvania’’ genre distilled in its purest form, yet it’s far from being simple.

The well is a place of few words; none of the areas have a proper name, there are no NPCs to chat with, and it’s not like the small slime-like creature we play as has a mouth to begin with. The only text present is one found in menus, small one-word prompts, and the name of the items, and that’s more than enough… because the rest speaks for itself. Each area and the animals that live in them chant a different song, each room a part of a puzzle of their own; I didn’t know for them to have a name for places to stand out vividly in my mind, like the Lake of the Cranes, or the Giant Bat’s Cave, or even smaller locations like the Peacock’s Palace or the Disc’s Shrine. The world of Animal Well may be quiet, but everything speaks volumes, like visting an abandoned virtual zoo: every encounter with a new-found critter, whether friendly or aggressive, every new interaction like distracting dogs using the disc, or every major tense moment like running away from the Ghost… Cat? Dog? I actually don’t know which of the two is supposed to be, nor do I need to know that the entire sequence and puzzle is an amazing highlight and super satisfying to overcome completely on your own… No wait, that’s also the rest of the game!

Managing to create a world that feels so well thought-out and designed so every puzzle feels intuitive, while at the same time offering such fun to use and multi-purpose items that can break open the game completely and taking ALL THAT into account is honestly worth getting up and applauding. The Bubble Wand is the clear star of the show for me; being able to create temporary platforms is already a game changer, especially when pairing it with fans and wind currents, but then you realize you can ‘bubble hop’, as I like to call it, by pressing the action and jump button both at the same time and completely bypassing many parts and sections that otherwise would have required other actions, and best thing is that even if it seems that it breaks the game at times, the dev clearly accounted for it since some rooms have passages too thin for you to maneuver or create bubbles or even animals like hummingbirds that immediately pop them once you make one. I normally wouldn’t like when a game makes a tool completely useless for the sake of a puzzle, but in here it makes total sense and balances out the moments were you make out your own path with pre-designed puzzles this amazing, and it’s not like that’s the only tool that lets you get creative anyway.

The moment you get any item, about two seconds is all you need to realize the possibilities it can offer, yet, as in the rest of the caverns, nothing is ever spelled out; you yourself and your own imagination and problem-solving are the ones that need to overcome the challenges this wildlife imposes; I’ve never felt so rewarded in such a long time than when using the Yo-Yo effectively, learning the code to fast travel to the main hub with the animal faces —which remind me of a certain game, I think it starter with ‘’Super’’ and ended with ‘’2’’… can’t put a finger on it tho—, or skipping completely the Ostrich escape sequence and its puzzles, near the bowels of the map, by using the Spring, Yo-Yo and myself. It honestly comes really close to feeling like the levels in Mosa Lina, now that I think about: you have incredibly useful tools that serve a clear purpose, but ones you can also use whichever way you like to, only with the difference that Animal Well is an already built, profoundly engaging and interesting world, and using all this arsenal while interacting with the animal and the curse that seems to affect the well is amazing, and little things like fall or water damage aren’t taken into account to incentivize and reward experimentation even more than it would have otherwise.

If I had to point out a flaw, and one that may honestly be a ‘’only me’’ thing, is the inconsistency with how it handles some switches and shortcuts. While I get and really enjoy some gauntlets of puzzles, he fact some of them reset, like the ‘’On and Off’’ switches, reset every time you teleport or get out of a room, just makes things a tad more annoying, in contrast to how the yellow door switches stay activated even if you don’t press them all or die, which makes other rooms kind of a joke and strips them from the tension found in the boss encounters, for example. I understand that this won’t be that big of a deal for many people, but when the rest of the game is so impeccably designed and each room amounts to so much, these little annoyances are noticeable.

A game that otherwise… I still don’t think I can say I've come close to experiencing all of it. In a way, it’s kinda interesting to have played this so close after beating Fez for the first time, because while both of those games have a similar sense of wonder and are brimming with secrets, that game created its mysteries through the tools you can find within a same room and code-finding through a fragmented world , while Animal Well is an ecosystem on its own, with the complete freedom that entails. Even after finding out what dwelled at the bottom of the well, it's insane how much there’s for me to find, not only the Eggs, but I’m convinced there are things that I haven’t even seen yet, and I know for sure that there are far more items than it seemed at first.

At this point, it shouldn’t be a secret that one of the things I love the most in games, or in any form of art for that matter, is when they give so much food for thought, letting the imagination run wild and feel so massive and grand even if their locations are small; Animal Well is only a 30 MB game, and it’s the perfect representation of all this, the wild desire to explore, to have fun, and to fear the unknown, even when it's scary as all hell.

I’m obsessed with Animal Well, and its ambience, roars, and silence speak to me in a way few games do, and I’m happy to see that’s a sentiment already being shared by so many people.