staxho_o
11 reviews liked by staxho_o
20 Small Mazes
2024
This is my standard for GOTY now and I'm not joking.
Hades II and Metaphor: ReFantazio better watch their backs.
Hades II and Metaphor: ReFantazio better watch their backs.
Solid metroidvania that seems to take a lot of cues from Ori in terms of movement (which means it has good movement).
theatrum mundi
Dark Souls III
2016
Give me that... your Dark Souls.
The DLC is an awesome ending for the series.
The DLC is an awesome ending for the series.
Gone Home
2013
damn bitch you live like this??!?!!!?
Gone Home
2013
Gone Home is v difficult to talk about divorced from the context it came out in and the upheaval that surrounded it shortly after. And honestly I really wouldn't like to, as now it ends up being a formative part of why this game is important to talk about still. Said underpinnings of that upheaval being marred in seriously toxic rhetoric and extremely tred-on ground prevents me from really talking about the history of the game's release though, and it's better I just skip right ahead to the point I want to make with this. And it's that ground hasn't really ever ended, as sincerely as some people would like to hope.
If the negative reviews of this game aren't already an implication of this, reading them will kinda reveal that the romantic pairing and overbearing levels of emphasis on such might've not been without reason today. While I wouldn't ever prop-up Gone Home's narrative as a fantastic success especially even compared to its peers of today in the same genre, it certainly was one that struck me enough back then and proves to me that lgbt acceptance is still a long way to go, especially for me. I didn't come out as enby until very recently, or coming out as being bisexual until a few years after this game's release, but looking back on this now that 'feeling' of what I could come out as being monstrous and haunting to those unfamiliar with it definitely bounced in my head back then.
Not to imply that's the intent of the house being somewhat terrifying when you walk in, but exploring through nooks and crannies in the dark and desolate to find out truths about who you are is a lot more relatable and passionately strung together than a lot of things I could name. Even still, if that kind of narrative slides off you, I'd argue Gone Home is a pretty effective puzzle thread game, even if the structure is a bit linear! So to continuously see its reputation tarnished most definitely for the fences it made, and the comments made to it being so snide and without much understanding for what it is, I end up defending it for the simulacra it stands for me. And idk that's definitely some individualist toxic cross to bear, but i don't care.
If the negative reviews of this game aren't already an implication of this, reading them will kinda reveal that the romantic pairing and overbearing levels of emphasis on such might've not been without reason today. While I wouldn't ever prop-up Gone Home's narrative as a fantastic success especially even compared to its peers of today in the same genre, it certainly was one that struck me enough back then and proves to me that lgbt acceptance is still a long way to go, especially for me. I didn't come out as enby until very recently, or coming out as being bisexual until a few years after this game's release, but looking back on this now that 'feeling' of what I could come out as being monstrous and haunting to those unfamiliar with it definitely bounced in my head back then.
Not to imply that's the intent of the house being somewhat terrifying when you walk in, but exploring through nooks and crannies in the dark and desolate to find out truths about who you are is a lot more relatable and passionately strung together than a lot of things I could name. Even still, if that kind of narrative slides off you, I'd argue Gone Home is a pretty effective puzzle thread game, even if the structure is a bit linear! So to continuously see its reputation tarnished most definitely for the fences it made, and the comments made to it being so snide and without much understanding for what it is, I end up defending it for the simulacra it stands for me. And idk that's definitely some individualist toxic cross to bear, but i don't care.
Gone Home
2013
i thought it was a horror game but the horror part never came up so i just looked like a fool.
Gone Home
2013
This review contains spoilers
"No Sam you don't understand, killing children in the middle east is actually progressive if the soldier who kills them is homosexual"- Lonnie, probably.
Gone home suffers two problems, both of which can probably be atributted to being one of the first games in the indie boom of the 2010's.
The first is that notes as your main narrative device was already pretty overused in the 2013, nevermind today (and its not that im bothered by reading, I love reading in videogames, but only if what I'm reading is well written), but i would be willing to forgive the game for this if what the story , or at least its themes, were interesting or complex.
And this is the second problem of Gone Home, when it came out (heh), queer narratives in videogames were still in its infancy, so I suppose you could actually be surprised by the most basic possible iteration of "two teenagers of the same gender who don't fit in fall in love, the parents of one of them don't approve so they both flee together", but nowadays not only is this bland, but you can kind of see it didn't have any thought put behind its queer narative aspirations beyond young homosexual love.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that kind of story, but when the game tells you explicitly that Lonnie, a lesbian teenager in 1995 who supposedly hates authority, is perfectly fine with offering her soul to the biggest military industrial complex in the world, one which not only finds her repulsive on an ideological and personal level, but will command her to exert unbelievable violence to poor and oppresed people, some of whom might also be queer, AND THEN the game pretty much glosses over it and says the only reason she didn't enlist in the end is because she loves Sam too much makes me think the only reason they made her want to be a soldier is because it's probably the least """""traditionally feminine""""" job aspiration without much more thought behind.
Gone home suffers two problems, both of which can probably be atributted to being one of the first games in the indie boom of the 2010's.
The first is that notes as your main narrative device was already pretty overused in the 2013, nevermind today (and its not that im bothered by reading, I love reading in videogames, but only if what I'm reading is well written), but i would be willing to forgive the game for this if what the story , or at least its themes, were interesting or complex.
And this is the second problem of Gone Home, when it came out (heh), queer narratives in videogames were still in its infancy, so I suppose you could actually be surprised by the most basic possible iteration of "two teenagers of the same gender who don't fit in fall in love, the parents of one of them don't approve so they both flee together", but nowadays not only is this bland, but you can kind of see it didn't have any thought put behind its queer narative aspirations beyond young homosexual love.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that kind of story, but when the game tells you explicitly that Lonnie, a lesbian teenager in 1995 who supposedly hates authority, is perfectly fine with offering her soul to the biggest military industrial complex in the world, one which not only finds her repulsive on an ideological and personal level, but will command her to exert unbelievable violence to poor and oppresed people, some of whom might also be queer, AND THEN the game pretty much glosses over it and says the only reason she didn't enlist in the end is because she loves Sam too much makes me think the only reason they made her want to be a soldier is because it's probably the least """""traditionally feminine""""" job aspiration without much more thought behind.
Snakebird Complete
2023
The gap between primer and normal sure is something huh
Completed every primer level but the normal ones really make you think hard
Completed every primer level but the normal ones really make you think hard
Hollow Knight
2017
Ah, bapa nada.