Needed a globally accessible place to jot down notes about books, films, music and the such.
https://www.patreon.com/pattheflip/posts/on-opiates-168214033
Weightlifters use heavy weights to create microscopic tears in their muscles so their bodies will fix the tears and make the muscles stronger; games can do that to our souls.
... most players out there do not want to play the game in order to get better, they want to play the game and have the game tell them they're getting better.
https://kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com/2026/08/14/the-magic-kind-of-middling-all-my-love-to-6-10-games/
https://unwinnable.com/2013/04/09/talking-is-harmful/
Interesting enough essay on Spec-Ops
there was one thing that I saw and I thought, “He’s wrong on this. Do I tell him? I should tell him! No, I shouldn’t tell him! That sounds rude!” And that’s the thing. With the world being so much smaller these days, I don’t know how to interact with you in that regard.
https://www.eurogamer.net/the-folklore-roots-of-sekiros-anus-ball-snatching-enemies
The kappa relate to bums in more ways than one. These yōkai are the source of many an ancient horror tale. Matt tells me they're known to "emerge from the depths to drown swimmers or passer-bys for their shirikodama (literally 'small anus ball')".
"The shirikodama is a mysterious organ said to reside in the human colon, and kappa love to extract them from unwary swimmers the hard way: by hand. Or claw." Matt tells me that in times of old kappa were often blamed for drownings.
Intriguing enough interactive story. Bit silly at times (mashing buttons to escape an attack dog) but the story is good.
Wonderful silly game where you just walk around but work on increasing your arsenal.
Also great while stuck at some mini boss (looking at you, General Seven Spears) in Sekiro.
Just started, but wonderfully moody game in the style of Limbo and Inside, with a dystopian black and white world that feels like a mix between Brazil and Bladerunner.
FromSoftware, hard as hell (harder than DS?) but so cool, with the grappling hook swinging between rooftops, and the stealth thing.
Have to reply a fair bit, not sure this walking simulator/horror game is for me.
Just a bit too cliche in story, just a bit too dependent on style, just a bit too shallow in acting; first time main character stumbles upon corpes; oh my god!!
two minutes later... not a word.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-narrative-had-to-be-baked-into-the-corridors-marc-laidlaw-on-writing-half-life
he was a rationalist rather than a populist - oppressing with appeals to reason, not emotion.
(this is not directly important to the story or the game or the article but the sentence itself is amazing)
[Marc] Laidlaw had the dev team explain the stories they were trying to tell, and helped them solve narrative problems through level design. “Lots of traps and detours and obstacles and occasional moments of breakthrough,” he says. “Really good level design tells its own story. You don’t need NPCs popping up to tell you what to do if your visual grammar is clear enough. Then when characters do pop up, they can say lines of dialogue that make them feel like characters instead of signposts.”
amazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AFqYeXKK3I
Great stories, and breathtaking visas in Horizon again.
GoW:R feels a bit of a grind, but still enjoyable.
Interesting enough game where you basically watch video clips to figure out what happened to an actress.
Has a good mechanism to jump between clips and the rewind function shows some interesting stuff at some point
Enjoyable enough game where in cyberpunk Paris you need to fight using certain patterns for maximum impact to get your memories back.
Sometimes you need to go into someone's mind and adjust their memory. Fun concept.
Quite cinematic in its story telling and cut scenes. Nothing super great but enjoyable stuff.
Writing this while still playing (and not doing the game justice, I'm not reading all the background stuff), it seems a serious attempt at a Matrix meets Tombraider (without the puzzles, without the bullet time). It's not bad. The story telling, while not spectacular, is okay, considering the audience and time it came out.
