#alice kojima

[miraofhearts2point0]

if theyre gonna adapt Border Road they should rename Alice to Doroshii so shes not too closely associated w Arisu. also bc Border Road gives me more Wizard Of Oz vibes, which i think was the point of it

[boowoomuu]

‼️HUGE SPOILERS FOR ALICE ON BORDER ROADS‼️

I really thought Haro Aso wouldn't be able to get to me anymore, but then aobr manages to leave me way more emotionally destroyed than aib somehow...

So yeah, I did this to cope 🙃

"The one thing that I wanted the most...

is right in front of me."

[References and some progress pics under the cut🥰]

[capmangacap]

[pinkcynicism]

Metal gear solid 2 Bunalysis

I was the lucky one getting to do art for the thumbnail in this outstanding video. Like, truly, do yourself a favor and check it out, this video genuinely made me even more trans.

[tearyeyedonce-gentlesoul]

glossary (WIP)

i didn't know there was a word limit on tumblr until i made this, so i unfortunately had to remove links that would lead to specific tags and help with organizing on here. also note that this post might be remade in the future

electricpuke/rocklandgame characters: abel, adam, adam whesker, akihiko kojima, akira kojima, alchemy willow, alice (electricpuke), alice carroll, amaterasu, amy, ana (rockland), ana (viral), annabelle winter, arcadian, aria king, ashley kinley, ashton kinley, athena dianoia, audrey, august dixie, avery greyson, ami, axel, baal, cain zeitgeist, callum willow, cassiel, charlie willow, chase knox, chase valentine, christopher “chris” king, circe, damien morningstar, dante stryker, dominick torrero, dylan, edison tekker, elizabeth bathory, elise, enoch, eve, faereighn, farz murphy (electricpuke), foal, freya, gabriel, gabriel lily, grace quinn, hades, hammerclaw, heidi, horus, hunter, itsuki mori, jack buchanan, jason buchanan, jason carmine (rook), jiyun, john, kali, karasu, kaz tyagi, kenny, kiku kojima, kiyoshi, kurt, lachesis chronis, lady yuzu, leo taylor, lilith, lincoln, logan, loki marshall, lucifer morningstar, macey, marco jennings, marcus de la cruz, max, meredith, mia, michael fitzroy, michael volkov, mio, molly, morgan, morgan le fey, munchie, naoki “nathan” donovan, nicolas flamel, olivia, oswalt morrison, peyton, quinton willow, rai, raizer, raja, ramiel, raphael, raphael sivori, reiko nakamura, richter (hotelpsycho), rory stryker, rose martinez, rosey, roy mcnamara, ruby red graves, sally, samael volkov, sanae, sano kojima, sejun, sergio marino, sergio morrison, shane, shiro suzuki, sparrow, sun-mi yeon (scarlet), sydney dixie, teagan buchanan, the engineer, the REAL vincent metzger, thor, tobias reeves, trace, trevor mcloughlin, tsubaki, tyler, uriel metzger, valak, vencil cartier, veni (electricpuke), verak, vincent castillo (electricpuke), vincent metzger, vlad, xander rosario, yeon seong-mi (emily yeon), zero (dollmaker), zero (empire), zeus

gatobob characters: ashe, anthony shore, beg, celia lede, centicat, chamomile, chastity, chet ichpujani, cry, demon, derek aeron, derek goffard, dragon, evander hutch, farz murphy (gatobob), farzen, fox, gideon bautista, harold, jack, jaqueline, jesse, jedka (facility), komodo, lawrence oleander, lich, lily talor, machete, marten trell, mason armbruster, mason heiral, mona winters, raid, raven, ren hana, richard, roadkill girl, samantha, scream, sid, stan, strade, tom, veni (gatobob), vincent castillo (gatobob)

other notable characters: a.e.d, ellen klein, izm, lucien rire, rodchester williams, shaun

known aliases/blogs:

arioddsandends, askparasitegods, bonesandcentipedes, doctor-dollmaker, electricpuke, fuckbyknifepoint, nagakira, nurseharlot, rocklandgames, runawayoutlaw, scarletaegis, scarletmarionette, trentboyett

gatoafterdark, gatoanswers, gatobob, gatoplays-sos, gatxbxb, gurobob, gurpbob, serpulalacrymans

eras (label for creator universes): altinr, arcane, boyfriend to death, crazy au, dark circus au, devil's night carnival, dollmaker, empire, facility, foxtail, human!au, huntress, inferno, mark of belial, nightclub, of gods and monsters, rockland, route 66, self insert, superjail, the artist, the carnival game, the commander, the doctor, the hunt, the misfits, the price of flesh, the puppetmaster, the serial killer, this is not romance, till death do us part, viral, welcome home, yanaki, you kill me every time, zeitgeist

[canmom]

l'aventure de canmom à annecy - épisode DEUX - mardi 1: Hyakuemu

today started with something pretty cool - I went to a 'making of' session for the upcoming anime film ひゃくえむ (Hyakuemu, lit. 100m) by the team behind On-gaku: My Sound.

The panel consisted of director Kenji Iwaisawa, char designer/sakkan Keisuke Kojima, art director and bg artist Keikankun Yamaguchi and producer Akane Taketsugu. They answered questions in Japanese, which was then interpreted into French, and if you had the phone app, interpreted again from French into English simultaneously, which meant it was a bit of a game of telephone but it worked surprisingly well.

The film is using a pretty unusual rotoscope process: much like The Case of Hana and Alice, it's filmed and edited in live action, which is then used as a basis for animation at a reduced framerate.

The character designs are fairly stylised compared to the live action, and the animation process seems to follow a fairly traditional process of roughs - sakkan corrections - keys - inbetweens, with the twist that it's all done digitally inside clip studio.

They made a fairly detailed comparison to On-gaku - which I evidently need to see asap, these guys are legit. By comparison they described this as a larger team, and the film as a much more realist style, and more of a commercial than a personal project. Still it's definitely a small team, with only one person apparently responsible for both live action and comp.

Art director Yamaguchi is evidently very talented, but she spoke about feeling inexperienced at the style demanded by the film (though she was the sole colourist for years on On-gaku), and having to experiment a lot. All the film's bgs are painted physically in watercolour for the warmth this brings, based on detailed tracings of photos. She showed one very complex bg animation sequence with 29 drawings, and Iwaisawa apologised for making her do it. They talked about taking inspiration from the backgrounds in Akira.

Kojima showed various settei, and talked about how he'd adjust performances during animation.

Iwaisawa described how they cast actors that resembled the manga characters and dressed them in rough costumes for animation reference, and also directing them to act in a more exaggerated, theatrical style. He also mentioned his excitement at certain sequences, describing the film's ending as like a rock festival. He described his main reason for using rotoscope as the energy he'd be able to get by editing the live action footage prior to animation, as well as his prior experience using rotoscope for short films.

They didn't show a ton of footage but apparently the film is about 75% done, with the live action fully shot. At the end they asked if anyone was interested in working on the film and got a flood of volunteers. All in all it seems like the perfect case of how to do a rotoscope film, and I'm really excited to see it next year - maybe it will hit the same as Slam Dunk.

[tofutasties]

To live is to fall into a pit

In a conversation with an American screenwriter, Ryu Murakami once said that all stories follow the same plot: the protagonist falls into a hole and either crawls out or dies within. When I heard that, it made sense to me; I could see nearly all stories fitting into that pattern. But in his genius, Abe would not settle for the ordinary. The Woman in the Dunes offers a third plot: the man finds a life inside the pit. Even in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice’s experiences inside the rabbit hole work toward bringing her back to reality. Not so in The Woman in the Dunes. When the man is stranded at the bottom of the pit, he at first struggles to escape, but in the end, he chooses to remain there. When he finally obtains his much-longed-for means of escape, he has an epiphany and comes to understand the freedom to be found in staying inside the hole — a freedom that he chooses while letting a different freedom go. And that is what life is. Is that same third option not the framework that governs our society, our work, our families, our life, and our day-to-day life? Unknowingly, we all are lured into our pits, swallowed up, and we struggle to crawl out. But even if we make it out, nothing is changed. Outside, new holes are being dug; being trapped in a different pit is the only outcome. There are many such pits in life. Some are made for us, and others we make particularly for ourselves. For every pit trap, there is also a shelter. To live is to fall into many pits. As long as you are walking forward, you will fall into a pit. —Hideo Kojima, The Creative Gene (2010)

[cinna-gnwaf]

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.  * 　　　 ✦     .     　⁺ 　 .⁺ 　　    ˚

.  •                        — 𝘐’𝘮 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯.

°.   *  ✧ .

·　  ˚  ·　　 * 　 　.        ·   . ✧　.    .

.  * 　　　 ✦     .     　⁺ 　 .

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- ˋ °. • blog by Cinna-gnwaf ( Fawn) •. ° ˊ-

╰─ » · •. * General Info

[ pt/br/en ]

• enfp-a.

• sketch sometimes.

( desenho as vezes.)

• sagittarius.

( sagitáriana.)

• already of age.

( sou de maior já.)

• lazy.

( preguiçosa. )

• dog-mom.

( mãe de doguinhos.)

- Interests ( interesses)

• favorite music : lana del rey, hozier, saint avangeline, chappell roan, melanie martinez, malice mizer, buck-tick, ney matogrosso, milton nascimento, tyler the creator, the weeknd, aurora, depeche mode, molchat doma, mamamoo, bauhaus, kalafina, kali uchis, florence + the machine, francisco alves, pinkpantheress & bôa.

• favorite movies/tv shows ( séries e filmes favoritos): agent carter, avengers, house of the dragon, got, sandman, the phantom of the opera, the mandalorian, good owens, the fox and the round & supernatural.

• favorite games ( jogos favoritos) : bayonetta, resident evil 2 ( 1998 ), resident evil zero, alice madness returns, haunting ground, the rise of tomb raider, atomic heart, okami, lies of p, elden ring, dark souls, the sims & animal crossing.

• inspiration ( inspirações): ayami kojima, riyoko ikeda, narumi kakinouchi, nana toboso, tetsuya nomura, studio ghibli, lana del rey, stevie nicks, kurt cobain, shelley duvall & lesley gore.

pls, don't send unnecessary things.

that's all for today, thank u and bye!

- Fawn. ♡

[technomanticlover]

♡ F/Os by Series

•Obey Me - Lucifer

•Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss - Lucifer Morningstar, Angel Dust, Alastor, Lilith (Situational), Stolas Ars Goetia

•Twisted Wonderland - Idia Shroud, Ortho Shroud, Malleus Draconia, Trey Clover, Riddle Rosehearts, Vil Schoenheit, Neige LeBlanche, Divus Crewel

•Black Butler - Sebastian Michaelis, Vincent Phantomhive, O!Ciel Phantomhive, Gregory Violet, Alois Trancy, Claude Faustus

•Genshin Impact - Venti, Scaramouche/Wanderer

•My Hero Academia - Hawks, Toshinori Yagi, Dabi, Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugou, Shoto Todoroki

•Disney - Hades

•Lore Olympus -Hades

•Toilet Bound Hanako-kun - Tsukasa Yugi, Amane Yugi/Hanako-kun

•Call of Duty - Simon "Ghost" Riley

•Durarara!! - Izaya Orihara

•Cult of the Lamb - The One Who Waits

•Boyfriend to Death/The Price Of Flesh - Lawrence Oleander, Sano Kojima, Ren Hana/Fox

•Ao no Exorcist - Rin Okumura

•Tokyo Ghoul - Hideyoshi Nagachika

•I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - AM

•Heart No Kuni no Alice - Peter White

•Monogatari - Koiyomi Araragi

•Brothers Conflict - Tsubaki Asahina, Azusa Asahina

•Bungo Stray Dogs - Osamu Dazai, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Edogawa Ranpo, Chuuya Nakahara, Nikolai Gogol

•D. Gray-Man - Allen Walker, Yu Kanda, Nea/Thirteenth

•Danganronpa - Komaeda Nagito, Kokichi Ouma, Junko Enoshima, Toko Fukawa

•Demon Slayer - Tanjiro Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma

•Ensemble Stars - Mayoi Ayase

•Fruits Basket - Kyou Sohma, Yuki Sohma, Hatori Sohma, Hatsuharu Sohma

•Fullmetal Alchemist - Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Roy Mustang

•Haikyuu!! - Hinata Shoyo, Oikawa Tooru, Kageyama Tobio

•Higurashi no Naku no Koro Ni - Rena Ryuugu

•Osomatsu-san - Ichimatsu, Todomatsu, Karamatsu

•Ouran High School Host Club - Tamki Suoh, Kyoya Ohtori, Hikaru Hitachiin, Kaoru Hitachiin

•Persona 4 - Naoto Shirogane, Yu Narukami

•Persona 3 - Akihiko Sanada, Shinjiro Aragaki, Ken Amada, Aigis

•Persona 5 - Akira Kurusu, Futaba Sakura, Ann Takamaki, Haru Oukumura, Yusuke Kitagawa

•Soul Eater - Death the Kid, Stien

•Spy x Family - Loid Forger, Yor Forger

•Sword Art Online - Kazuto Kirigaya, Asuna Yuuki

•The Case Study of Vanitas - Vanitas

•The Devil is a Part-Timer - Satan

•Mirai Nikki - Yuno Gasai, Amano Yukiteru, Akise Aru

•Tokyo Revengers - Kazutora Hanemiya, Manjiro Sano/Mikey, Ken Ryuguji/Draken, Chifuyu Matsuno

•xxxHolic - Kimihiro Watanuki

•Yuri!!! On Ice - Viktor Nikiforov, Yuri Katsuki

•Angel's of Death - Danny Dickens

•Baldur's Gate - Astarion

•Coffin of Andy and Leyley - Andrew

•Final Fantasy VII - Cloud Strife

•Yugioh- Yugi Mutou, Atem, Yami Bakura

•Avatar the Last Airbender - Zuko

•Blood + - Charles

•Borderlands - Handsome Jack

•Castlevania - Alucard

•Deltora Quest - Lief

•Gangsta - Nicholas Brown

•Killing Stalking - Oh Sangwoo, Yoon Bum

•The Mortal Instruments- Jace, Sebastian Morgenstern, Simon Lovelace, Gem Carstairs, Will Herondale

•Aggretsuko - Haida, Retsuko

•Gravity Falls - Mason "Dipper" Pines, Bill Cipher, Alcor (Transcendence AU)

[mrsgabby-vtuber]

Alan Wake II: 8/10

Gabby G. Ghoulligan

A masterclass in narrative presentation, held back by technical follies and a lackluster combat system

Cultural Context

The early lead up to, and ultimate the entirety of, the 2010s represented a shift in the horror game genre. Resident Evil 5 (2009) had just been released, completely transitioning the beloved survival horror franchise into a coop action shooter. And although the premiere of Dead Space in 2008 proved that intense survival horror was still desirable, that franchise too would find itself following its parentage into the action genre under E.A.'s demand. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009) would be the last well-received Silent Hill project, sandwiched between Silent Hill: Homecoming (2008) and Silent Hill: Downpour (2012) , until Hideo Kojima's P.T. would stealthily drop onto PSN in 2014. In the wake of the loss of Silent Hill, survival horror fans had slim pickings for equally mind-itching narratives. Many likely found themselves attracted to the upcoming Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010) , whose popularity with early Youtube personalities would kickoff the Era of the Lets Play. But before this would happen, one last scratch came from Finland to remedy their burning itch.

Alan Wake (2010) presented itself as a novel come to life, cribbing much of its aesthetic and themes from the likes of Neil Gaiman and Stephen King. The game sets itself in Washington State, a lakehouse settled on a cliff occupied by the titular Alan Wake and his wife Alice. Alan is, for all intents and purposes, a Stephen King stand-in. He's a highly successful author, plagued by his success and subsequent writer's block. His wife arranges for their lodgings, secretly hoping this will provide him with some miraculous inspiration. Throughout this game, Wake finds himself fighting away shadows, known as "Taken", and collecting scraps of a manuscript he doesn't remember writing.

All in all, the game's combat sequences are satisfying, but leave little room for diverse play. Enemies have a shroud of darkness that serves as a damage sponge. Wake can use his flashlight, limited by the number of batteries he has collected, to remove this shroud. There's also a variety of throwables, but their differences are minimal. Explosion range, whether or not they stun enemies, and how long their light lasts are the main variables at play. Wake can also pick up a set of weapons outside of the starting revolver: a shotgun, a hunting rifle, and a flare-gun. Again, these are your standard fare of weapon options: fire rate, spread, average shot power. Once you've reached the halfway point, these combat encounters are all but solved, and it turns into a battle of attrition. What ammo are you willing to part with in the short term versus the long-term potential of restocking your supplies? In 2010, this was serviceable, but the Dead Space franchise would provide its players with a more nuanced flow to combat. Outside of combat, however, Alan Wake's gameplay is incredibly dry. Basic, exploration-based puzzle solving requiring you to interact with an object or pick up an item. This, combined with the lackluster gameplay, made for a middling action game at best and a barebones survival-horror at worst.

Where Remedy shined brilliantly, however, the game's atmosphere and world-building. The collectible manuscripts from Alan's novel "Departure" are littered across the game's maps. Each one read and voice-acted by the competent Matthew Porretta, these pages provide a kind of "preview" to what's to come. The prose is very similar to that we'd find in Remedy's earlier Max Payne titles, which is later used as a plot thread to imply that the titular Max Payne is an invention of Alan Wake's fictional writing. Of course, by the time of Control (2019)'s re-introduction of Wake's character, the studio had loss the rights to the name "Max Payne". This makes for a very interesting plot line later in the sequel. Outside of the in-universe writing, there were also a series of live action productions for the fictitious show "Night Springs" - a clear facsimile of The Twilight Zone. Players could find certain television sets airing individual episodes, which were later canonized to be Alan Wake's first step on his path to becoming an acclaimed novelist. There were also a number of radio and music broadcasts found throughout the world, which provided texture to the history and culture of the small Washington town, Bright Falls. Players could find themselves engaged with this world and its background radiation of a greater space beyond the rustic mountains.

This multimedia approach to narrative and game design led to its partnership with Microsoft to develop a new IP, Quantum Break (2016), whose success ultimately allowed Remedy to buy back its rights to Alan Wake. From there, they've since partnered with Epic Games, and developed Control (2019) and a remaster of the original Alan Wake in their new "Northlight" engine. Their focus on creating engaging, cinematic experiences has influenced the visual design of their most recent titles, particularly Control and Alan Wake II.

Presentation

The creation of Northlight paved the way for Control (2019)'s fantastical "projection" character profiles. These are the most stand-out feature of Control's gripping atmosphere, where live-action film sequences of a given character is played over the 3D game space. This is an impressive implementation of the all-too-typical "collectible audio logs" that has plagued games for decades now. From Bioshock (2007) to Horizon Zero Dawn (2017), characters can't seem to stop recording themselves for the most mundane things. Control and later, Alan Wake II, are not unique in how they re-contextualize these recordings as remnants of a person's thoughts. However, the addition of the environment influencing their presentation gives them much more weight. These are not just a series of lines voice acted, and scattered. They are intentional, they provide greater context to the environment, and their visual design feels hand-crafted on an individual level. This design element alone helps drive home the sense that we are engaging in not just a piece of media, but a material thing with some sort of importance to the grander tapestry of Remedy's body of work. An object of power, if you will.

This is all available through the game's impressive lighting engine, something Remedy has been trying to perfect since back when Alan Wake (2010) was initially going to have a day/night cycle. Atmospheric lighting, ray-tracing, and an enhanced physics-suite are additional technical features that allow Remedy's latest titles to feel hefty. Unique to Alan Wake II is of Bright Falls' ever-encroaching darkness. This is most felt during Saga's segments. Players are oft surrounded by dense forest that stretches upward to hide the sun. Only the minimal light of dusk manages to peek through the slim breaks in the tree-line. Curated, subtle brushes of the grass tickle at the edges of earshot, an owl hoots, and something in the woods stirs unexpectedly. I found myself using my flashlight even during segments in the late afternoon, so my own light could burn away the heavy shadows that would fall across rocks and buildings. Alan's waking nightmare of a fantastically-morbid New York is much darker, both literally and figuratively. Tasked with finding his way out of The Dark Place, Alan often finds himself at the remains of a cult's ritual sacrifices. Scenes of bloodied halls, charred train passengers, and flooded TV studios are his only means of getting out. Swirling veils of dark aura will often blur a path in the game's intuitive attempt to direct a player's intended path. The silhouettes of the Taken intermingle with non-hostile, but equally creepy, shadows constantly whispering slurred ramblings of "the writer" and "my story". Saga and Alan's respective environments mirror each other. Nature surrounds the player as Saga, a deer being preyed upon as it treks through the dark woods. Players as Alan are left isolated, a lone survivor in a pitch city with nothing but remains.

The game's soundtrack is a whiplash of what should be tonal dissonance. Instead, I've developed a fondness for Finnish folk music and Scandinavian power metal. Chapters are divided by songs which astute players may notice are either summaries of what they've just played, or what is to come. Not all of these are hits, unfortunately. I remember distinctly a very lacking horrorcore rap track towards the end of the game. That being said, I have been listening to Yötön Yö (Nightless Night) as performed by Ahti and the Janitors on repeat for several days. I don't have a masterful ear, so I won't focus too much on the soundtrack. There's probably something for everybody in this game, and the soundtrack is freely available online via streaming services and fan-rips.

I will say, however, that Alan Wake II 's use of "jump scares" is somewhat outdated at this point. There are several moments throughout the game where a scary visual, along with a loud roaring type sound, are flashed in front of the player. There's not a setting to turn this off, and many of them serve the narrative purpose of announcing the presence of "Mr. Scratch" - the villainous embodiment of the Dark Presence using Alan Wake as a template. I would have preferred some other way of conveying this information, perhaps like flickering lights or simply the absence of light itself. With that being said, the game's overall presentation was stunning, outside of some technical issues.

Technical

For context, I played the game on PC, where it is being hosted on the Epic Game Store. The game was marred with technical issues on release, and the development team requested players use EGS' bug reporting functionality to contact them. Unfortunately, the steps necessary to do this are incredibly unclear. Moderators on r/AlanWake found it necessary to detail these steps in a pinned thread dedicated to bug reporting. Many issues included dialogue not syncing with mouth animations, items not being interactive, and a soft-lock that occurred in Chapter 5. Thankfully, most of these issues were resolved in the 1.0.13 update, which added NG+ alongside various bug fixes. Unfortunately, I still dealt with VRAM issues forcing the game to reduce the game's textures (including your in-game map) to mush. I have a pretty good PC, decked out with an Ryzen 5800_x3D and an RTX 3070, which meets the game's recommended specs. The lack of a built-in measurement of VRAM usage led me to constant experimenting with my settings, which only served to pull me away from the atmosphere of this game. I also found a well-reported bug where one of Saga's final inventory upgrades cannot be interacted with . Thankfully, the game's balance didn't make this too much of an issue, but it's very frustrating to solve a puzzle for no reward. Despite Remedy's technical proficiency with their engine, I was also disappointed by what I felt were only standard options. Unlike the game's contemporaries, the RE Franchise, none of these settings have a visual component to them. Players with less technical know-how may find themselves in similar "test and repeat" scenarios as myself. The aforementioned lacked of a VRAM usage graphic also means that players will have no idea how much certain settings will affect their system. There's also the matter of DLSS frame generation seemingly not working at all . You can, technically, go into an .ini file and change the setting manually. However, I did not notice a difference during gameplay, and cannot confirm if the feature worked as intended. All in all, the game was functional, but I found myself fiddling with it far more than I would expect from the title.

Gameplay

People introduced to Remedy by Control (2019) will feel an immediate difference from general movement to gunplay. Actions like changing equipment or aiming your weapon are far slower, movement speed is significantly slower, and the camera is much tighter even compared to the original Alan Wake. While different than what some folks are used to, this is a tried and true game-feel for us survival-horror girlies. This game takes much more pages from the Resident Evil remakes specifically, down to the d-pad being your weapon selection interface. Fans of the more recent Resident Evil titles will also find themselves engaging with a much clunkier, less tactile inventory management system. This game is very conservative with how many items it allows per stack, and that serves the purpose of forcing the player to leave some things in the magical shoe box. Unfortunately, the shoe box is also not infinite, and more resourceful players (like myself) will find themselves having to needlessly toss aside several items to fit a shotgun into a shoe box. This and the lack of responsiveness in the controls lead to a damp, mushy feeling to the whole menu. If the shoe box was changed to be an infinite storage device, as it already is in the narrative, then my gripes would be mostly dissuaded.

As Saga Anderson, the FBI Agent in charge of investigating a recent string of disappearances in Bright Falls, you can explore three main areas. In each, you can find a variety of nursery rhyme riddles scattered around the map. These rhymes aren't particularly difficult themselves, but completing them all will require some heavy exploration, retreading old steps, and some themed combat challenges. These reward you with additional charms for your bracelet, which give Saga various bonuses such as: increased maximum health, greater healing from items, better resources from pick-ups, etc. However, half of these rhymes will reward you with the "coffee mug" charm, which serves as an instant revive. Playing on normal difficulty, and having some proficiency in the genre, I didn't find combat so difficult as to use up one of my 3 charm slots for what is essentially a worse restart button. As such, half of my shoe box's inventory was entirely charms . The second most prominent item I'd found were full-heal items like the first aid kit. The reward for completing all of the nursery rhymes? Some lore about the Federal Bureau of Control, and an extra slot on your charm bracelet. Maybe then someone will find a use for those coffee mugs.

The game does a great job of maintaining its dynamic difficulty, and some of it seems tied to your pistol ammo. Midway through the game, I noticed that sometimes, fallen enemies will drop ammo. And I noticed that it was primarily ammo for my starting firearm or my flashlight. The game seems to want players to always have at least 12 pistol bullets, with a maximum of ~ 30 (assuming you don't have any ammo in your other guns). More spreadsheet-inclined players have probably mapped out the ideal inventory setup by now, but my results after ~ 20 hours of play involved me stashing several high-damage throwables and full heals away in my item box. During the end game, I received one last weapon to my arsenal, which directly replaced my current shotgun. I recall having to walk up and down a flight of stairs in the police precinct to get to the nearest safe one, so I could drop off enough resources to grab it. Unfortunately, the game doesn't tell you how many slots a given item takes up in your inventory, so this took more trips than I'd care to admit. For the record, it's 4 horizontal lines.

The gameplay loop between Alan Wake (2010) and this sequel are very similar, but AW2 manages to win out its predecessor's shortfalls by giving Saga Anderson some mentally-stimulating criminal investigation abilities. Without diving too deep into it, Saga has the ability to intuit her subject's inner thoughts. She also projects her Mind Palace, henceforth called "The Mind Place", around her to help keep track of her lines of questioning, clues, and collectibles. Players will find themselves investigating scenes, picking up documents and evidence, and gaining "clues" to answer "questions" on Saga's cork board. While it's not as complex as the infamous "Pepe Silvia" corkboard from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia , it provides a clear through-line for key plot elements. You can tell the writers had a very fun time designing this mechanic, because they play around with it often. Late into the game, the Mind Place serves as a moment for self-reflection, and Saga's methods are used against her by the Dark Presence. Other characters interact within this Mind Place as well, and its real-world counterpart ties into another series of collectibles - the Deer Heads.

Finding all of the stuffed Deer Heads in Bright Falls is a much more relaxed task, and mostly only serves to provide some extra texture to Saga's inductive reasoning abilities. There are ten total, and the reward for finding them all is sufficient for a simple matter. Don't worry too much if you don't find them, because they aren't critical to the story or combat. Much of the same can be said of the various "cult stashes", which are boxes filled with ammo that require puzzle-solving and key-finding to open. Many of these were pattern recognition puzzles, but I did have to solve more than two math problems - even some pre-algebra, which was a fun surprise.

Most importantly, there are the Alex Casey lunch-boxes. Collecting these serves as your method of upgrading your offensive capabilities. You find a lunch box, you get some scraps of a manuscript, and you use a sum of those scraps to unlock an upgrade. The game gives you three choices per type of weapon, and some upgrades have multiple tiers; (25% healing to 50% healing, for example).

Alan Wake's portion of the game is much more streamlined. Unlike Saga, Alan doesn't have much in the way of collectibles. There are some "Words of Power" which serve as his form of the lunchboxes, and operate much the same. Likewise, he has a number of stashes he can find, which again only have some excess resources that can be used in combat. Wake's main addition to his previous game's loop is the introduction of "The Plot Board" - a narrative device that allows him to change the context of the story he's been trapped in while occupying the Dark Place. As Alan, players will explore the map to locate the next "murder site", where they'll find hints as to how to drive the plot forward and change the scene. His powers have their limits, however, and do not allow him to change the story's genre - it must remain a horror story. As such, Alan has to navigate horrifying sequences of events that have an affect on the reality of Bright Falls and Saga's investigation. I never felt that either character's respective parts overstayed their welcome. The freedom to switch between each playable character at a whim was a very good choice, and I think that'll help keep this game from getting stale on further replays.

While I functionally 100%-ed the game (all deer heads, all charms, fully-upgraded Alan, etc.), the need for backtracking through mostly-empty sections of the map were dull. Unlike cult stashes, there's no map markers for uncompleted rhymes and discovered but untouched Deer Heads. I ended up needing a guide to breakdown which ones I was missing. Areas you revisit after their stories are settled will repopulate with a small amount of enemies, but I was never leaving these areas with less than I walked in with. Perhaps the game's balance was a bit too lenient on normal difficulty, or maybe Sam Lake's team valued the story they were telling over resource management.

Story

Sam Lake is Sam Lake is Alex Casey is Alex Casey is Alex Casey is James McCaffrey and Sam Lake is Max Payne. Who exists inside of Alan Wake's books. Who is a character in the Control universe.

I can best describe this game's narrative as a Finnish version of the kind of overly-genuine auteur we find in Hideo Kojima. Sam Lake and his writing team have a clear appreciation for their influences and their heritage, and they've used their last few titles to really sell that as a visual identity for themselves. They've been using the same ring of Finnish body actors and American voice actors for the same gang of characters in all of their stories. Even Quantum Break (2016)'s Shawn Ashmore comes back as a character name Tim(e) Breaker . They're not afraid to be on the nose, but it never comes off as pretentious. Self-love for a world this team has been developing since at least 2011 is on remarkable display, and ultimately culminates in a story that is, if sometimes predictable, at least fun to participate in. Many of Remedy's inside-jokes with their characters may go over the heads of people not in the know, but some of them will land by the time the player is reaching the big end game.

The plot itself revolves around Saga Anderson, whose investigation of Bright Falls quickly develops into a horror mystery as residents hint at a time in her life she doesn't recall. A jaded ex-husband, a flooded trailer park, and a family she's never known. The Cult of the Woods leads her to find Alan Wake, the author that went missing in Bright Falls 13 years ago, washed up on the shores of Cauldron Lake. He's involved somehow, the Cult using his manuscript Return as a blueprint for their ritualistic murder, but she's unsure how. Meanwhile, Alan Wake finds himself caught again in the nightmare, unable to cut away from an insidious loop within his writer's room. Pages and pages of a manuscript he doesn't remember writing, his name scratched out on the title page - the door slams. Mr. Scratch, delirious, seething with primordial darkness attacks him. A gunshot rings, and Alan finds himself back again.

I was an avid Stephen King reader as a teenager, and this game's story brings me back to the place where I could engage with horror at face value. There's no jaded, inversive tongue-in-cheek at play here. The game takes its horror elements seriously, but isn't afraid to use levity either. And when it does have levity, it indulges itself to its fullest extent. Likewise with the darker elements of the plot. Players should be aware that there are some intense scenes that, while not always violent and gruesome, can be just as impactful and effective. Things like a burning train car filled with the screams of a few dozen people, anxiety disorder, and suicide. These aren't the only examples, but these did stick out to me personally.

As usual, Remedy's background story-telling is excellent. Radio broadcasts, Night Springs clips, and manuscript pages all return as collectibles that serve to provide a greater scope to the story as a whole. There's also the addition of choice characters from Control found in select television displays, live action advertisements from Bright Falls' local Finnish population , and plenty of interactable elements in the environment that add more to the setting. My personal favorite was the Ahma Beer TV commercial.

Conclusion

By the end of Alan Wake's New Game+, titled "Final Draft", we receive a conclusive end to Alan Wake's journey. However, that's not to say there isn't a promise for more. With an upcoming Control 2 in the works, alongside Max Payne remakes, I can only hope this isn't the last we'll see of Saga Anderson or Alan Wake.

Rest in Peace James McCaffrey.

[lovehael]

what system / console do you preferably play video games on? also what are your favourite games?? :)

Had a bit to say so I'm putting it under a readmore~

Growing up my family had Sega Genesis and PlayStation, but my siblings were usually the ones who got to play them, so I became more familiar with PC games! MMO's and such n American McGee's Alice.

Here I am playing Tomba while my sister uses the family PC... She used to get so annoyed when I won during Tekken from button mashing lol.

Also have fond memories being scared playing Silent Hill 2. Rule of Rose and Haunting Ground are good n spooky too.

Eventually got a PS4 of my own (the cannot download P.T./Silent Hills demo notifcation still haunts me), gained an appreciation for FromSoftware games, as well the Metal Gear series thru diligently watching my brother play the entirety of them. My partner is also obsessed with both Kojima and FromSoft, so we enjoy those together as well. I've always been a big fan of Square/Enix stuff too. There are a lot of games I want to play with an emulator but haven't gotten around to it...!

In recent times I've been playing Elden Ring, Disco Elysium, and just started playing Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis.

The consoles I currently have are PC, PS4, and Nintendo 3DS (mostly just play Animal Crossing on it). Hoping to get a Switch soon so I can play Splatoon ~w~ I don't consider myself an avid gamer because I ultimately spend more of my free time drawing and reading manga or watching anime/shows/movies tbh, so I'm always open to recommendations and enjoy watching others play too.

This was a nice message to receive, thank you!

[capmangacap]

[breezeinmonochromenight]

Whats Your favorite character design? Could be from a game you played or haven't played.

If you mean generally, I like more clean designs with like… either one big focal point or increasing amounts of intricate details that are cohesive. To name a few: Alice Elliot from Shadow Hearts, Ezio in Assassin’s Creed II, most iterations of Lara Croft, Pyramid Head and the Bobblehead Nurses, DMC4 Nero, Heather Mason, Genichiro Ashina, Mercy and Hanzo in Overwatch, Okatsu in Nioh, OG FFVII Aerith, Genesis and Sephiroth in Crisis Core, the FFXV guys + Lunafreya, the vast majority of characters Kojima has designed, all the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus + most Soulsborne bosses (Dancer of the Boreal Valley is a standout fave).

I don’t really have a single favorite character design I can point you to because it’s situational tbh lol — I really like a character to look like they belong in the universe they exist in and fit their role in that universe. Like… if you dumped your average Final Fantasy character into The Last of Us or vice versa I’d find it extremely offputting. I personally can’t vibe with white haired battle bots wearing lolita/ouji fashion and lingerie for uniforms if it’s solely for fan service. That kind of thing.

You could also show me a character design I absolutely love depicted in an art style that I really hate and that would be a total turn off as well lol — but that’s more of an animation thing way more than video games.

[carica-ficus]

Recenzija: Plavi Dnevnik

Originalni naslov: The Blue Diary

Autor: Alice Hoffman

Datum: 17/03/2024

Ocjena: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Priznajem da sam jedna od onih osoba koja ponekad kupi knjigu pa je zatim pospremi na policu i zaboravi na nju, stoga mi je jedan od važnijih ciljeva ove godine da napokon pročitam sve te knjige koje imam, a koje nisam još dotakla. "Plavi Dnevnik" sam kupila na Interliberu prošle godine, primarno zato što je Hoffman autorica kojoj vjerujem i čiji su me radovi već uspješno osvojili, ali moram priznati da nisam očekivala da će mi se ova knjiga baš toliko svidjeti, a definitivno nisam očekivala da će mi postati njezino najdraže djelo.

Radnja prati brojne likove čiji su životi međusobno isprepleteni u maloj zajednici gradića na zapadnoj obali SAD-a, nakon što Ethana Forda - voljenog sugrađana, marljivog stolara i brižnog oca - uhapse za zločin počinjen prije 13 godina. Dok se mnogi uzdižu na noge i žele ga podržati, njegova žena Jorie odluči saznati pozadinu jezive priče te dosad nepoznatu prožlost svoga muža.

Ako se Hoffman po nečemu ističe, to je njezin jezik i prekrasan način prenošenja radnje. Njezin stil nije kičast, ali je opširno ukrašen toplim, uvjerljivim i snažnim vizualima koji prate radnju i savršeno ilustriraju osjećaje likova i njihove unutrašnje borbe. Jezik cvijeća igra veliku ulogu u ovoj knjizi, kao i brojni ostali elementi prirode, a Hoffman ih iskorištava u svoju korist i pretvara ih au divan spoj prenešenog značenja i doslovnih osjetilnih doživljaja.

Radnja se sporo razvija te je veći naglasak na likovima i njihovom poimanju promjene koja zahvati njihove živote, a ne toliko na samom procesu osude Ethana Forda. Nova stvarnost potiče likove da se napokon okrenu samoreflekciji i shvate kako je sve u životu prolazno pa tako i mir i blagostanje. Ipak, Hoffman niti u jednom trenutku ne dopušta čitatelju da pomisli kako nesreća dovodi do potpunog beznađa. Ljubav, suosjećanje i briga zbližuje stare prijatelje i ljubavnike u nove, čvršće veze kojima je ovaj turbulentan period bio prijeko potreban da napokon shvate tko i što im je u životu najviše bitno.

"Plavi Dnevnik" se također bavi temom veza između žena i njihovom potrebom za međusobnom podrškom. Većina ženskih likova je na jedan ili drugi način pretrpilo sebičnu izdaju od strane svojih partnera, očeva ili drugih muških uloga u njihovom životu, te su primorane žrtvovati vlastitu sreću na račun većeg dobra. Dok muškarci generalno snose samo posljedice vlastitih prijestupa, žene vode brigu o široj slici i pokušaju umanjiti ukupnu štetu. Tako na primjer Ethan vodi računa samo o svojoj vlastitoj sudbini, dok Jorie pokušava pružiti podršku svom mužu, spasiti njihov brak, brinuti se za njegovog sina, te zadržati svoj ugled u zajednici. Jorie razumije da je Ethanov zločin uništio više nego njegovu vlastitu budućnost - on je svojim djelima uništio nju i sve što je imala.

Hoffman genijalno uspjeva čitatelja povesti na put otkrivenja zajedno sa Jorie. U početku prikazuje Ethana kao onakvog kakvog ga svi znaju, no kada on napokon prizna svoj zločin i kada Jorie sazna tko Ethan zapravo jest, tako se njegov lik mijenja iz savršenog u realističnog. Hoffman tako uspjeva dočarati takozvani pogled kroz ružičaste naočale, a "Plavi Dnevnik" oda je bolnom postupku njihova odstranjivanja. Saznanje istine nije lak proces te uvjetuje brojna odricanja, od kojih je najteže upravo suočavanje sa činjenicom da ništa više neće biti kao što je nekoć bilo.

Na kraju se tema ženske borbe te saznanje istine isprepleće u jednu tragičnu priču koja naglašava koliko je važno prepoznati djela iz nečije prošlosti, bez obzira na količinu vremena koje protekne ili na pozitivnu promjenu koju čovjek učini nakon zlodjela, jer zločin je ipak počinjen i potrebno je za njega snositi posljedice. Nadalje, bitan je razlog nečije promjene. U Ethanovom slučaju, Hoffman postupno otkriva kako je njegov savršen život rezultat osjećaja krivnje, no primarno iz sebičnih izvora - Ethan smatra kako će se pomaganjem zajednici i svojim besprijekornim zalaganjem odužiti za period života tijekom kojeg je drugima činio nažao. Upravo zato se Jorie počinje udaljavati od njega i zašto odlučuje saznati pravu istinu.

"Plavi Dnevnik" je prekrasan roman koji se dotiče teških životnih odluka i destruktivne moći istine, a koji je satkan od nježnih, plemenitih i dirljivih trenutaka prepunih nade, ljubavi i brižnosti. Nudi nešto doista jedinstveno te je savršena knjiga ukoliko ste u potrazi za nečim osjećajnim, moćnim i ispunjujućim.

[poeticlicense12345]

SAČUVATI SEBE- U SEĆANJU ILI ZABORAVLJANJU

Kažu da su dobre knjige one koje vas udare tako snažno da vam je potrebno dosta vremena da dođete sebi. Čitala sam ,nedavno, knjigu Lize Đenova “Još uvek Alis” (“Still Alice”), a potom gledala njenu filmsku verziju., I još se oporavljam.Osnovna, noseća tema ove knjige je suočavanje sa savremenom pošašću, Alchajmerovom bolešću i demencijom, kojom se danas, sve više bavi i medicina, i čitavo društvo, pa, naravno, i književnost. Knjiga koja je , ove godine, dobila Ninovu nagradu, "Arzamas", I. Dimić,takođe se bavi ovom temom na osnovu autentičnog iskustva autorke, suočenu, direktno, sa ovom bolešću kroz dramu svoje majke.

"Još uvek Alis" otvara I još jednu, filozofsku,temu, koja mi je veoma bliska, a to je koliko nas sećanja čine srećnim. Da li je važnije, da bi se opstalo,steći sposobnost zaboravljanja ili pamćenja?

Glavni lik, knjige I filma, je Alis, ugledna profesorka lingvistike I komunikacija, koja se u trenutku, kada se nalazi u zenitu, i privatno i profesionalno, suočava sa dijagnozom Alchajmerove bolesti. Knjiga postupno tretira simptome ove podmukle bolesti, od lakog zaboravljanja, preko dezorijentacije u prostoru do, na kraju, neprepoznavanja svojih najbližih. Potresno je kako osoba kojoj je struka oblikovanje reči I umeće komunikacije, savladava teškoće koje bolest postavlja pred nju, duboko svesna njihove ozbiljnosti. Zadivljuje njena borba da, uprkos svemu, dokaže, I sebi I drugima, da je ona još uvek “ona Alis”, u bolesti koja briše sećanja, ali ne I ličnost kakva je bila. Ona pokušava da svakodnevno uči da bi mogla da se izbori sa nefunkcionisanjem svog duha, a da, istovremeno, savlada umeće gubljenja identiteta. Alis, duboko svesna da njeno juče nestaje, a da je njeno sutra neizvesno, bori se, snagom koja zadivljuje, da nauči da živi za sadašnji trenutak. Ona savladava to svakodnevno preživljavanje, u kome će gubiti delić po delić sebe, sačuvanog u sećanju, jer Alis nema prošlost kao uspomenu, ni budućnost kao “nameru”. Ima samo danas u kome pokušava da pohvata pokidane niti svog života.

O sećanju kao jedinoj mogućnosti da se opstane govori I Danilo Kiš u svojoj knjizi “Rani jadi”, prvoj iz porodične trilogije. Jevrejski dečak, Andreas Sam, koji „nosi“ ličnost samog pisca,svojim sećanjima pokušava da zapamti svet i ljude oko sebe, koji, u okrutnom vremenu u kome živi, nestaju.Tamo gde pamćenje zataji, Andreas ga dograđuje svojim asocijacijama i svojim čežnjama. Kada se, posle dužeg vremena, nošen nostalgijom, vraća u svoj grad, u svoju Ulicu divljih kestenova,ne nalazi ništa kao dokaz da je sve ono što je nosio u svom sećanju, zaista postojalo. On tada, kao i mnogi od nas, na osnovu upamćenih predmeta, pojava, osećaja i utisaka, pokušava da rekonstruiše svoje detinjstvo, da pronađe svoje „izgubljeno vreme“, svoje „izgubljene dane“, ali nema „dokaza“ u nekim znanim predmetima ili starim slikama koje su zaustavile vreme (sećam se da je moj otac, po izgnanstvu iz Prištine, najviše žalio za slikama, jer, govorio je,da se oseća kao da jedan deo života nije ni postojao, jer ga ništa ne može više potvrditi !) Kako u sećanju ništa nije pouzdano, njihovu autentičnost može potvrditi samo naše srce, ono "nešto" duboko ukopano u nama.

Ja se često, u svojim sećanjima, vraćam u svoje detinjstvo i mladost, u grad čije ime nose naši snovi. Pokušavam da povežem neke istrgnute slike i da dam život osećaju da su postojali neki ljudi, koje sam poznavala i volela, neke ulice kojima smo razdragani hodali, neki grad, iz koga smo odlazili, da bi mu se uvek ponovo vraćali.

text author: Tanja Petrović Krivokapić