#CO – Video Review

[hardcore-gaming-101]

I.Q Mania

A few months after I.Q Remix‘s release, the games’ developer Sugar & Rockets was folded into Sony’s internal development studios, and there wouldn’t be another Intelligent Qube for a good few years. It seemed like the series was more or less done, with nowhere to go and nobody willing to take a chance on it. Then came the PlayStation Portable.  The excitement of creating games as powerful as those on the original PlayStation for a handheld resulted in many ports, remakes and reworkings of classic PS1 titles during the PSP’s early years. It was in this context that Intelligent Qube came back one last time with I.Q Mania, which returns to the style of the PlayStation titles and supposedly includes all of the puzzles featured in the previous games. 

Read more...

[lokh]

why is the search on youtube fucking garbage

[whimseysthrone]

Immersion & Worldbuilding in Co-op Video Games

Void Crew, Deep Rock Galactic, and Helldivers 2: three co-op games, three “shooters” (kind of, more on that later), and three games that build on their own self-contained fiction. I’ve played all three. I’ve enjoyed all three. So why do I only admire two of them? Continue reading Immersion & Worldbuilding in Co-op Video Games

[exoticalmonde]

So me and my bestest friend @notanegrill began playing a game about making stories. It's called Storybook, and as the title suggests we're coming together to create the most legendary story of them all.

V: *Opens first page*

Me, normal voice: "At the end of this book lies a crown-"

V: "NO! STORYTELLER VOICE!"

Me, using that one voice from the Theatre scene in 'We Were Here': "It is bestowed only to the finest storytellers of the realm."

V: "Hehe, way better."

Spoilers Ahead:

So we start the world as any world begins, with a tale as old as time - Adam and Eve. Which is... Me! Me and V because I will pick his ribs clean if he doesn't 100% the achievements (he enjoys it, ok)

And we were both excited for 0.7 seconds before V hits me with the important questions of:

V: "Who is Adam, Eve?"

Me: "It's you, silly goose!"

V: "Oh, okay." c:

And like with every story that has Eve in it:

:)

It's adorable to see Bernard getting some love though!

This game just flies by so fast when it's the two of us thinking, taking turns on what gets to be where so we push the other forward where our own ideas fail us. Playing games like this with a buddy truly beats playing it alone.

It's tagged LGBTQ+ because you can put two guys or two girls in love in some of the frames and it's adorable. They interact well.

Me: "Oh look! It's the tiers of regret whenever I decide to open up."

Can't believe this whole story is about how Edgar dies and forgets he's dead while being dead so he ends up shocked that he's dead when he sees himself in the mirror.

It's such a good plot for a fanfic not gonna lie... It's Genshin related and not meant to be here, but /I/ am the one who is writing this 'review' and I am the rat that makes all of the rules.

V: "These... Two pixels, why are they so hot...?"

Me: ".... Yeah."

V: "I know you want her dress."

Me: "Oh I want to BE her."

Us two: *GASP*

V: "Are you ready?"

Me: "VAMPIRE TIME."

V: *Accidentally does this because he randomly drops characters on the map after figuring out what to do.*

V: "My brain (is so big)... I'm singing up in Harvard."

V: *Struggles with the simpler map later*

Me: "I think we have to sign you off Harvard now."

AND THE ENDING IS SOOO CUTE IT'S SO SUBTLE I BARELY NOTICED BUT IT MADE US SO HAPPY TO GET TO THE ENDING.

Like giving two kids a paper crown and calling them 'champ'.

Someone in STEAM was asking how to solve the Maid and the Knight story and someone commented under it with 'God bless you'. Seriously, we managed on our own and it's all because it was 50/51 and we HAD to finish it to get to the ending.

During our reviews:

Me: "I think the graphics are beautiful. For a game that has a simple idea of making stories via characters and places being put together, everything is very well animated, interactive and apparently, given the achievements, it also has MULTIPLE options to work with."

V: "I agree. Also, there is an update in September."

Me: "Overall, it's a game I'd get if it's on sale. It's 20$ and in comparison to a visual novel with 40K words, a couple scenes, art etc. If that was 20$... I'd still think twice, but the point is - for what it is and it's original, a game I have never seen before, I think it's pretty good. It also doesn't have any background music, it could probably set the mood for some chapters. But the sound was totally good. No sounds overlap no matter how quickly you click around so it doesn't create a caccophony."

V: "Yeah, the music, or the lack of thereof is still fixable."

Me: "Well, there's the update. Might as well wait and see."

V: "Overall ranting?"

Me: "Hmmm..."

V: "On the count of three?"

Me: "Ok."

V: "Ugh I'm stuck between two... Ok, one... Two... Three!"

Me and him at the same time: "Seven."

V: "Why am I not surprised."

And that's it! It was truly a wonderful experience. Big thank you to developpers and the entire team that came up with the game. Can't wait to see what the updates may be and thank you, V, for sponsoring our gameplay.

Hope we get to play much more in the future.

[mira0000000-blog]

SONIC FROMTIERS SQUID GUARDIAN OST JUMPSACARE

[gamingingoodcompany]

Portal 2

How many players? 1 to 2 What console(s) is it available on? PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo Switch

The original Portal was just a small side project packaged with the highly anticipated Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and the long-awaited Team Fortress 2. To the shock of many, it turned out to be the most well-liked of the bunch, with many claiming it was the best game of the entire decade. It was an ingenious puzzle game with a wonderful unique mechanic which should be quite obvious from the title. Just one example: you could put a portal into the ground, one into the ceiling, and fall infinitely until you reached terminal velocity. It was clever and fun in equal measure.

As with all successes, it was only a matter of time until the developers returned to it to wring out more money, thus Portal 2 joined Half-Life and Team Fortress in having second instalments. Fortunately, Portal 2 is still great and just as inventive and fun as the original while also bringing a co-op campaign separate from the main story. You and a friend can bring double the portals to solve puzzles, all the while still being sarcastically remarked on by the resident robot darling GLaDOS, whose glorious pitch-black humour has only aged like a fine wine.

Portal has universal acclaim as one of the all-time greatest games that everyone must experience for its uniqueness, brilliance, and fun. Portal 2 allows the fun to be shared between family and friends and is just as good as it was before. Although the first-person perspective takes some getting used to, the games are truly worth it.

[staying-elive]

I gotta stop getting into arguments with guys in youtube comment sections.

[elitheaceofalltrades]

Unsolved Case - Game Review

Happy Saturday!

It's been a while since I did a game review but my friend and I played a co-op point and click puzzle game for the first time last weekend and I thought I'd talk about it. The game is called Unsolved Case, it's by Eleven Puzzles and it's free to play on steam.

The game was fairly simple and the puzzles easy. Not so easy that you were bored but simple enough to not be that much of a challenge. This was definitely a chill fun co-op than a hardcore mystery or master puzzler.

It took us about 63 minutes to complete the game in total (the devs said 30-60 so just over), which is inclusive of any cut scenes. The cutscenes were pretty interesting and were voice acted which was nice. I wouldn't say that we struggled much with any of the puzzles, though the forklift puzzle took us some time. Actually, i did struggle a bit with the TV guide puzzle as well, because (mild spoiler) I was treating it as connect the dots as opposed to bingo.

The mechanics were easy and I had a fun time playing with my friend. Both parties are required to have a copy of the game but it is free to play. You also need some way to communicate with your partner externallly as the game itself does not support audio communication. We used discord but you could use whatever calling method works best for you.

My biggest problem with the game was how it ended. The game was advertised as the prequel to the Cryptic Killer Series, however in my opinion it was a prologue to that storyline as opposed to a prequel. I'm not sure if it's a mistranslation as I know Eleven Puzzles is based in Poland or a miscommunication because I'm used to books instead of game. In my mind, a prequel is usually a book/series that is set prior to main storyline and usually used to give backstory. Where as a prologue is more the preface/introduction to a story or act. They're both similar but a prequel can be taken my itself whereas the prologue cannot exist without the rest of the work. Maybe I'm wrong in how there terms are defined and used, particularly in gaming space, but that is how I understood them going into this game. And by those standards, this game is a prolgue, not a prequel.

Unsolved Case cuts off on a cliffhanger which apparently continues in Unboxing the Cryptic Killer (which is Cryptic Kill Series Part 1). That was very much a let down and we were both startled when it ended as we felt it ended rather abruptly. (We both actually went "it ends here?" simultaneously😂😂). I get that it was supposed to entice you to play the original game but I would have preferred they call it a prologue or demo or teaser as opposed to a prequel so that i could have expected it would have had an open ending as opposed to being a game by itself. In fairness to them, Unboxing the Cryptic Killer is only like £5 and less than $10 in USD, CAD or AUD but still. If it's a free to play demo, call it that. Again though, this could simple be a miscommunication since I'm not a gamer or since English isn't their mothertongue. Still though, it unsettled me enough to take half a star off.

All in all it was a pretty fun hour of our day and it was a good low stress way to spend time together but I wouldn't play it again. Given that my final rating of this game is about 3.5 stars!

Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

(There isn't a half star emoji and that makes me to sad.)

~Eli

Ace of All Trades, Pro at None😆

[diomedrian]

Maisie needs to write a new album that is nowhere related to heartbreak and is just about thriving and having fun and being absolutely in love with her friends and there's zero boys breaking her heart cos there's zero boys she's giving attention to

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Video: Hello Mary Shares Furious Ripper "0%"

New Video: Hello Mary Shares Furious Ripper "0%" @hellomaryband @Frenchkissing @grandstandhq

With the release of last year’s sophomore, self-titled album, New York-based indie rock trio Hello Mary — Helena Straight, Stella Wave and Mikaela Oppenheimer — received praise nationally from the likes of Rolling Stone, who wrote that the album was “one of 2023’s sharpest, nosiest debuts.” Building upon a rapidly rising profile, trio will have an incredibly busy summer: Already developing a…

[hardcore-gaming-101]

Ryu ga Gotoku Kurohyou

While Sega and the Like A Dragon people were working on consoles, they contacted a studio named Syn Sophia to work on a spin-off series. While they were known mainly as the Style Savvy people at this point in time, they were once known as AKI Corporation, and were responsible for countless pro wrestling games and the Def Jam series. They had what it took, and delivered an authentic Like A Dragon experience aimed for a younger audience. Ironically, they accomplished this with a far more violent protagonist – which might have more been an idea from the RGG people (Nagoshi is listed as the writer on Wikipedia, but there’s no source as of writing).

Read more...

[thebookpeddler]

Journey Through Tyria | Guild Wars 2 Review

(This was my submission for an exam at a company I was applying at. Putting here to serve as part of my portfolio. Will update with images soon.)

Guild Wars 2 is an immersive and groundbreaking MMORPG that has captivated many players since its release. With its vast open world, dynamic events, diverse classes, and engaging storyline, Guild Wars 2 offers a gaming experience that stands out from the rest of the genre. 

Guild Wars 2 presents a very unique take on the genre with its unique weapon-based combat, expansive character customization, focus on exploration and jumping puzzles, and nonlinear progression. 

Guild Wars 2 offers a diverse range of classes to choose from: from the generic broadsword-wielding warrior to its one of the most unique classes, the mesmer. The game offers vast customization options that deviate from the holy trinity of Tank-DPS-Healer formula seen in any other MMOs today. You can focus on making your paladin a one-man killing machine or turning your necromancer into a support that can absorb your party’s banes and convert them into boons. Basically, any class can play any role. 

Its combat emphasizes by its weapon-based skills. Whichever equipment you arm yourself with can determine what type of playstyle you are heading into. Paladins using maces to heal allies, or go with a one-handed sword for those flashy one-on-one duels.

The nonlinear progression highlights one of the key aspects of the game: its exploration. Never would you ever grind so much for the next tier item. Once you get the highest level 80 exotic-grade armor, you do have the option for getting ascended gear. But the stats are quite negligible so you can totally ignore it. You also have the option to craft legendary gear, which would take you a lot of time. But again, all these are optional once you get the best equipment you can afford.

Guild Wars 2 wants you to go out and explore the world. It does so by its unconventional questing structure in comparison to other MMORPGs. You encounter these dynamic events that occur spontaneously which makes the world more immersive. This innovative approach keeps the gameplay fresh and encourages players to collaborate with others, fostering a strong sense of community.

You also come across various points of interest, vistas, and one of its coolest parts: jumping puzzles. Hidden in one map is at least one jumping puzzle that contains treasures and adds to your achievement score once you get through it. Aside from minigames, it is one of the most engaging parts of the game.

Guild Wars 2 offers a captivating storyline that keeps players invested in the game world. The personal quest combined with the overarching storyline 

Guild Wars 2 follows a "buy to play" business model, which means that players are required to purchase the game upfront in order to access the core content and play it without any additional subscription fees. Unlike any other traditional MMOs, Guild Wars 2 offers a buy-to-play model that offers more bang for your buck. It has free-to-play with limited features. But for what it’s worth, the game’s purchase, along with its expansions, will get you so much content compared to other games with the same price but offer so little content. 

Guild Wars 2 is a masterpiece in the realm of MMORPGs, offering a vast and visually stunning world, dynamic events, diverse classes, and an engaging storyline.

[esperderek]

I have to have a chuckle at the Screenrant article posted recently about the Galactic Starcruiser, which totally wasn't about Jenny Nicholson's video honest.

In part, because early in Nicholson's video, she talks about how unnatural it is to have your influencers speak in adcopy and copyright rather than the more colloquial nicknames, and how it makes the people speaking about the product seem very insincere and, well, paid off. Because normal humans don't speak that way, but advertising does.

What's the first two lines in this article?

"As a life-long fan of Star Wars, there was nothing quite as exciting as finding out that I would be working on the immersive Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience. Located at the Walt Disney World Resort, the Galactic Starcruiser opened on March 1, 2022, and welcomed passengers to board a two-day, two-night cruise through the stars, during which they could live out their own Star Wars adventure."

No one talks like this naturally. No one writes like this naturally.

This is supposed to be your passioned defense of the place you worked at, the people you worked with, and the memories you made along the way. C'mon! Why don't you open with a story, perhaps an anecdote about the best moment you had working there, or the devastation of the day you lost your dream job. We need to feel your humanity! But there's nothing of that here, to the point where you can just hear the TM behind Galactic Starcruiser.

The first half of this article continues in this vein, reading like a press release Disney marketing put out, just with past tense rather than present or future tense:

"Essentially, the Starcruiser experience was a 48-hour movie that passengers were actually a part of. It was all facilitated through the "datapad," which was accessed through the Play Disney Parks app."

"To facilitate the overarching immersive experience and storytelling, the Starcruiser built a jam-packed itinerary for each and every guest that would consist of a variety of important activities: the captain's toast at muster, a bridge training exercise, lightsaber training, and more. These types of events were essential to understanding what was happening, as they would give passengers the chance to interact with characters and build their story. This is why the Starcruiser could never be just a hotel; every part of it was designed for enthusiastic interaction."

Like, c'mon. I used to work in television. I've seen and used adcopy in my former job, and this is some serious adcopy. It honestly wouldn't shock me if the author dredged up some old adcopy they had lying around about the topic and just transferred it over, changing the tense. You're not here to sell us this product, because there is no product to sell. It's gone, it's been gone for a year, you don't have to sell us on IT. Speak about your experiences.

The next part is yet another topic that Jenny Nicholson pointed out, the bad faith excuses that influencers and advertisers made for the extreme price point:

"What many people don't know, however, is that the price included much more than just a room. The passengers' food, park tickets, recreation activities on board, non-alcoholic drinks, and more were all included - with merchandise being one of the few additional costs on board."

Which is absolute bad faith reasoning, especially when there are plenty of other vacation options that are ALSO all-inclusive, but are MUCH cheaper and offer MORE amenities than the Galactic Starcruiser did! Including Disney Cruises, owned by the same company! Seriously, you can go on a halfway decent sounding cruise or all-inclusive resort somewhere warm for, like, a week or two and spend far less than GSC cost.

Then the last part is essentially: "All the workers liked working there and the bad reviews afterwards make the workers who worked on it feel sad. :("

Which, like, companies have been hiding behind that reasoning for ages. Curiously, the author never offers....any reasons or stories. WHY did working on it impact you so much? What set it apart, what were the people like, what did you like about working there, why are you so passionate about it even a year later? There's nothing, just a generic sort of "We worked hard." and "We're sad it's gone." Why? How? What happened? The video you're obviously writing this in response to is filled with personal anecdotes and stories, it's the backbone of the video! Again, you need to give us something to show your humanity!

Especially when you consider that Nicholson repeatedly points out that the only highlight about her experience, the only thing that kept the damn thing going was the workers.

She had nothing but praise for them, and nothing but contempt for the higher ups who wasted and abused that enthusiasm, to the point where one of her last points was "Hey, Disney is basically exploiting labor."

Much like Jenny, I'm also not condemning anyone who had a good time working there. Good! If you were having a good time at work, that's great. If you have good memories about the people, awesome. But I'll note two things:

a) That doesn't meant you weren't being exploited, and

b) That doesn't mean you have to be a useful idiot for the corporation you worked for afterwards.

I'm not conspiracy brained enough to go "Oh, Disney TOTALLY forced this article into being.", because a cursory examination of the author's prior works and such suggests a lifelong passion for Star Wars, she did work at the hotel, and she's a Star Wars Editor (whatever THAT means in this day and age) for Screen Rant. Apparently one of the heads of Screen Rant says that Disney had no hand in it either.

Though, I can see why people would think that way. It READS like a press release, not something a normal human being would write about an experience they feel passionate about.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

M.I.A. - Paper Planes 2008

"Paper Planes" is a song by British hip hop artist M.I.A. It was released on 11 February 2008 as the third single from her second studio album, Kala (2007). It samples English rockband the Clash's 1982 song "Straight to Hell", leading to its members being credited as co-writers. A downtempo alternative hip hop, pop track combining African folk music elements, the song has a less dance-oriented sound compared to other songs on the album. Its lyrics, inspired by M.I.A.'s own problems obtaining a visa to work in the USA, satirise American perceptions of immigrants from war-torn countries, and said that the issue was probably "them thinking that I might to [sic] fly a plane into the Trade Center".

M.I.A. had wanted to work with American producer Timbaland for the album Kala, but her application for a long-term US work visa was rejected. This was allegedly due to her family's connection to the Tamil guerrillas, commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, a claim M.I.A. denied. Her visa problems were also attributed to her criticism of the Sri Lankan government's discrimination and alleged atrocities committed against the Tamils, with whom M.I.A. shares an ethnic and cultural heritage. She expressed this on her politicised debut album Arular. The unexpected success of "Paper Planes" paralleled M.I.A.'s condemnations of the Sri Lankan government's war crimes against the Tamils, generating accusations that she supported terrorism.

The song received widespread acclaim from contemporary critics, who complimented its musical direction and the subversive, unconventional subject matter. It won awards from the Canadian Independent Music Awards and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and earned a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. The song has received praise in publications such as NME, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, each naming it among either the best songs of the 2000s decade or of all time. The review aggregator Acclaimed Music reports it as the second-most acclaimed song of the 21st century.

"Paper Planes" was used in the theatrical trailer for the 2008 stoner comedy Pineapple Express, directed by David Gordon Green, which catapulted the song to mainstream success in the US. "Paper Planes" and the DFA remix appear on the soundtrack to Danny Boyle's drama Slumdog Millionaire, released in 2008. The video game Far Cry 3 (2012) begins with "Paper Planes" used in the opening cinematic sequence.

"Paper Planes" received a total of 68,9% yes votes!

[hedgehog-moss]

Update on the French protests: we've had a well-known expert in contemporary political history call the situation we're in "the worst democracy crisis France has known since [the end of the 4th Republic]" and meanwhile the government is trying its hardest to maintain a façade of normal functioning by a) hiding from protesters, b) hiding protesters from view, and c) banning saucepans and other means of drawing attention to the protests that are being swept under the rug.

I mean casserolades are an old tradition in this country but they wouldn't have been needed if Macron &co hadn't started almost systematically banning protests in entire districts of the towns they visit and setting up police roadblocks to prevent peaceful protesters from going anywhere near them. (Too bad because these are the kinds of images the media get (these 2 are from Le Monde) when protesters get to talk to Macron <3) :

Protesters corralled away where they can be easily ignored started banging pots and pans so the protest could at least be heard in the background of TV footage, and then pans started being confiscated.

French courts have repeatedly struck down the bans as illegal but police prefects keep churning new bans out every time Macron goes somewhere anyway, trying to publish them at the last minute so there's no time for a judicial review. (I saw a sign at a protest last week that went "Stop with all the bans we no longer have time to disobey all of them")

After boldly banning saucepans by calling them "portable sonorous devices" last week, today a police prefecture banned "festive gatherings of a musical nature" in a town Macron will be visiting tomorrow. They're (ab)using counter-terrorist legislation for all this, so these days we get to read unheard-of court rulings that go like "We are suspending this prefectural decree as we do not consider festive gatherings of a musical nature to pose a significant terrorist threat to the President."

If Macron had people showing up in support I don't think we would see so many pissy protest bans because then the media could show backers vs. opponents and things would look normal (and not like 70% of the country is very pissed off with Macron). But there's not much for them to show if they don't show the angry people banging pans and it clearly rankles Macron—we learnt yesterday that he sent a letter to 200,000 political supporters of his essentially ordering them to start making appearances all over the country, to show they are "proud of what you are and of what our country has become [since I got elected]." That seems a bit desperate.

For months Macron &co have been predicting that people would get tired of taking to the streets in large numbers, and now that people are going like—right, let's try a new strategy, small local protests greeting gov members everywhere they go!—we're hearing a clear "no not like that, that's not what we meant :l " reaction from the government.

They've also been trying the strategy of announcing stuff at the last minute, like on Monday the Minister of Education announced at noon that he would visit a higher learning institution in Lyon 2 hours later, and a hundred of protesters still showed up and tried to force their way into the building. They were held off by cops using tear gas and trying to block entrances (there's a pic that made me smile, showing cops trying to barricade university gates with garbage bins—how the tables have turned...!) and the Minister ended up not showing up and moving on to the next step of his schedule (protesters tried to follow him there but police vans were blocking the street.)

The first half of the video is at the uni in Lyon; the second half is in Paris later that day. When he returned to Paris the Minister was greeted by protesters with saucepans at the train station, it's like a national relay race of protesting at times. He had to go back through the train to leave via the other end of the platform under police escort so as not to meet any protesters (god forbid).

Macron commented that this was "uncivic" behaviour and I agree, civic behaviour on the part of gov members would be to at least face the people they choose to fuck over, instead of hiding behind cops and fleeing. Obviously Macron was condemning the 'uncivic' protesters though, and the Minister said he felt "physically threatened" by the "violence of [the protesters'] speech" which is a shit thing to say considering on the same day that he was mildly inconvenienced by having to take a different exit and felt physically endangered by words, yet another protester was mutilated after being shot at by police with a rubber bullet. Not a peep about this incident (or previous ones) from the government. The Minister of Education never even condemned that time high schoolers trying to protest got tear gassed and threatened with riot guns by cops in front of their school earlier this month.

But while people continue protesting despite the actual violence from cops, our ministers are looking pretty scared of citizens banging pots and pans. Here's a list of official visits that got cancelled "for safety reasons" (saucepan terrorism) in the past week:

1. Minister P. NDiaye cancelled a visit in Lyon 2. Minister F. Braun cancelled a visit to Evrard Hospital 3. Minister Delegate O. Klein cancelled a visit in Bobigny 4. Minister Delegate O. Grégoire cancelled a visit in La Baule 5. Minister S. Guerini cancelled a visit in Castelnau 6. Secretary of State B. Couillard cancelled a visit in Rochefort 7. Minister S. Retailleau cancelled a visit to the Paris Saclay University (electricity trade unionists cut the power in the building she was supposed to inaugurate, so) 8. Minister C. Grandjean cancelled a visit in Toulouse (this article says it was probably because the visit was quite near a big highway protest where protesters among other things were building a concrete wall on a national road)

In the same bullshitting vein as "portable sonorous devices", gov spokespeople have been insisting that visits aren't being cancelled, ministers are just "adjusting the course of their trips" which is funny to me. I guess we never beheaded any royalty we just adjusted the course of their necks. I also read a newspaper article that made me laugh, that went like "Minister cancels visit; trade unions disappointed" and I thought it was because the cancelled visit was a meeting with the unions which they wouldn't get to have, but the article said it was actually because they had a good protest planned and wouldn't get to hold it...

Watching protesters mess with the government in small ways on a daily basis has been good for morale—on Twitter the hashtags #IntervillesMacron and #IntervillesduZbeul popped up (zbeul = chaos, mess, and Intervilles was a TV game show that aired for over 50 years, where French cities competed against one another in goofy challenges). I only mentioned cancellations above, but fun things also happen on non-cancelled government visits, like a Minister having to leave a building via the emergency exit because of protesters blocking the building entrance (which some people argued is worth more points than a cancellation as it's more entertaining):

Various websites were created to keep track of all these smaller protests and to officialise the point system that ranks cities on their efforts to fuck with the government:

(the first symbol means a protest, the second means a casserolade, the last one means protesters managed to get inside a building where a visit was taking place)

(Translation: Ruckus (saucepans, heckling...) 1pt Protest: 1pt Creative action (chasing minister in the woods, etc): 2pts Measures of energy conservation (= power cuts by unions) 3pts Action that leads to a political figure fleeing: 4pts Cancellation of a visit: 5pts — then there's a weighting system where the score is multiplied by 3 if it's a Minister, by 5 if it's the Prime Minister, by 6 if it's Macron.) (I also saw an interesting debate on Twitter this week—since our leaders often embarrass themselves, how should the government's own goals fit into the point system?)

Right now the Hérault department is winning because on top of protests, power cuts and casserolades, protesters greeted Macron with a giant "MACRON FUCK OFF" sign hung from a cliff (!) and took over a highway display so it'd say "Welcome to [region] Butthole Ist"

These past few days I've been discovering unknown French cities (and Ministers) thanks to them showing up in the hashtag after a good protest. I discovered a mediaeval castle I'd never heard of when unions hung banners featuring our most famous revolutionary dates from the castle's battlements. (Two days later, another protest with eloquent banners in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris:)

People are very creative—last week we heard that protesters got prosecuted for giving Macron the finger and insulting him during one of his official visits (< we are a healthy democracy), so protesters in another region tried a more sarcastic approach, and greeted a deputy from Macron's party at a strawberry fair this week with clapping and confetti and "Thank you for making us work 2 more years, thank you for police repression, thank you!" The deputy beat a hasty retreat. Then said he would file a complaint against the harassment and intimidation he had been subjected to. (The tear gas and riot guns and arrests and protest bans are not intimidation of protesters on the other hand. Or the fact that another deputy from his party recently said on TV that they were "ready for war"... They're ready to wage war, but run and hide when people clang saucepans and throw confetti.)

Anyway. I'm enjoying the fact that they can't even attend a small strawberry fair without getting heckled right now. In one of my first posts about the political crisis in March I wrote something like "How will Macron and his gov have any legitimacy to speak about any issues after this?" and it cheers me up to see a lot of people across the country agree that they have no legitimacy to talk about anything, not even the strawberry harvest.

The next nationwide protest is of course for May 1st, but in the meantime it's been really fun following the smaller protest actions all over the place. Members of government & Macron's party keep making whiny statements along the lines of this is terrorist behaviour, we can't go anywhere, why are people not getting tired of fucking with us and the answer is, because it's really entertaining!

This was the last sentence of a recent Le Monde article about Macron's situation and it has such a sinister, end-of-reign tone:

"I'm moving forward," Macron concluded, on April 20th in the Herault department, while behind his back echoed the sound of saucepans.

[gamingingoodcompany]

Human: Fall Flat

How many players? 1 to 2 What console(s) is it available on? PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PC

Puzzles are truly unique bonding experiences. You and a friend pour your brains together to solve a tricky challenge, you try almost everything to no avail, you propose an extremely dumb idea that will never work and your friend recognises that and so you don’t do it until you get desperate and it doesn’t work as predicted, whereupon you and your friend start shouting and you cry that at least you had an idea, and then it turns out that the key to the whole affair was in the first part of the area the whole time and you just walked over it or the camera angle was off.

So anyway, Human: Fall Flat. You and perhaps a friend go through a bunch of wide, expansive levels of diverse themes and visuals including villages and mountains and cities. Using a wacky physics engine that’s like a tube man on a unicycle with two sticks poking out of the sides, you must climb on ledges; push, pull, and carry items to and fro; and flip switches all in the name of solving puzzles to get to the end. Fall off the side of the map and you’ll just fall flat back on the level again.

The basic yet bright visuals give the game a lot of fill-in-the-blanks sort of charm; with what feels like a sandbox and faceless characters, your efforts to solve the puzzles feel like you’re writing your own story of your own adventure. A frustrating adventure full of miscommunications and getting your aim or timing wrong but an adventure all the same. At the end of the journey, you earn your triumph over a brain-teasing challenge and it all comes back to being satisfying at the end.