#atlas fallen review

[capsulecomputers]

Atlas Fallen Review

Developer: Deck13 Publisher: Focus Entertainment Platforms: PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S (Reviewed) Release Date: August 10, 2023 Price: $59.99 USD

Developer Deck13 has tried something a bit different with their latest game #AtlasFallen, focusing on offering an open world #action #RPG but have they succeeded in making it fun? Read our full review of Focus Entertainment's Atlas Fallen inside to see what we think.

[thegamecollection]

ATLAS FALLEN - REVIEW ROUNDUP!

This action-RPG developed by Deck13 Interactive and published by Focus Entertainment has had a few days out on the dunes and is now ready for its review roundup! The result? Rising from the dust is not an absolute MUST, but it is a somewhat fun kind of sand-glide ride!

IGN - 7/10

"Atlas Fallen is a solid open-world action RPG with plenty of platforming and large monsters to fight. Putting aside its weak story and the console versions’ gritty graphics there’s a hidden gem of excellent combat, robust exploration, and surprisingly deep customization to uncover in the sinking sands of its arid wilderness."

Read the full review here.

Eurogamer - 3/5

"Mindless, pointless, and mind-numbing are all probably descriptors that sound too harsh for Atlas Fallen because, again, it's mainly good old simple fun. Sure, it takes itself way too seriously and the loot chase can get monotonous, but everything outside of the monster-slaying is just an excuse to get right back to the monster-slaying. Or make the monster-slaying cooler with upgrades."

Read the full review here.

HardcoreGamer - 3.5/5

"Atlas Fallen is far from a perfect game, but the important thing is that it’s still a fun game. Even when it can feel like it’s throwing a kitchen sink at you, there’s always something enjoyable to find in Atlas Fallen, mainly its impressive combat that leads to a lot of challenging, enjoyable battles (albeit with a few that could use tweaking), and its visually striking landscapes that allow for a ton of fun sand sliding."

Read the full review here.

Destructoid - 7/10

"I do think there is reason enough to experience Atlas Fallen. Especially if you are a fan of the action RPG genre. It may not leave a lasting impression once you’ve completed the adventure. But it will be enjoyable enough along the way to hold your interest."

Read the full review here.

GamesRadar - 2.5/5

"This is Atlas Fallen in a nutshell, though. It isn't a disaster. It's proficient in some respects, adequate in others, and manageable at worst. But that leaves a creative void in its world and the way you interact with it that calls into question the value of the whole endeavour."

Read the full review here.

PushSquare - 7/10

"Atlas Fallen is a valiant effort from Deck13 Interactive that will go down as its best game so far. With fantastic traversal and a fun, engaging combat system, the developer has nailed the gameplay in every sense. What holds the experience back, though, is a lack of polish to iron out the technical issues and potentially long load times."

Read the full review here.

PlayStationUniverse - 7.5/10

"Atlas Fallen suffers a few mishaps along the way, with enemies able to do cheap shots, modernized fast travel limitations, and a rather empty map. At the same time, there's a fun story here that keeps you moving forward, and combat itself feels visceral without being over-demanding. This is a great entry point for newcomers to the genre."

Read the full review here.

When all's said and done, if you're looking for a solid game to fill your time between now and the next big release then these review scores mostly suggest Atlas Fallen is your bet!

Grab your copy on PS5 & Xbox Series X right here at The Game Collection!

-Jack

[first-impressions-gaming]

Atlas Fallen

Developed by Deck13

Published by Focus Entertainment

Release Date 2023

Tested on PC (16 GB RAM, Ryzen 7 7735, RTX 4060)

MSRP 39,99 USD

I’ll be honest with you, this is not a ‘full’ review, this is only ‘first impressions’ since I played the game for around 2 hours and just could not find the will personally to continue playing the game.

Atlas Fallen was one of the games I really wanted to check out from last year, announcement and launch trailers look just great, this combat and traversal systems look so smooth and and the gameplay looks refined…well, not actually.

First and foremost, when I cannot get the ‘gist’ of a game’s story or opening act I just look up game reviews or game’s wikipedia page to get a deeper sense into it. When the opening act finalized, I was like “wait…what did happen…who are we…who am I supposed to fight? For what reason?” There were so many questions that desire answers, and the game keeps going piling on new questions and plotlines on top of another one and does not explain anything at all. I checked the game’s wikipedia page and game’s page on stores, Wikipedia does not have any story-related info, and Steam page does not mention anything about what this game is ‘about’. I mean, I played games for sake of their pure action with zero plotline or narration, yet, Atlas Fallen has this strange world, characters and NPCs talk about gigantic warfares from ancient times and a decade ago, there is fuck*ng gigantic V-shaped element in the air, and there is zero consistent narration in the game. Who am I here? Where are we? What are these enemies or monsters I am up against?

The fact that the game does not follow any meaningful plot is the reason I could not put up with it more than 2 hours, my criticism will unfold in the next paragraphs with user interface and overall mechanics better. First, the game opens in clouds, we are playing as Avatar-like blue man running away from titans or giants, then we fall from the sky, then we customize our character, and wake up. At this point I thought that we were customizing the Avatar-like man that just fell from the sky, but no, that is a separate character you will meet later. You customize your character and find yourself in this travelling caravan and there are grim looking soldiers, you converse with NPCs here, and you suggest to uprise against the soldiers, who are kidnapping you to someplace else, and they say no, then off you go to fight monsters commanded by the soldiers. Just keep up with me, okay? While you are fighting monsters, you come across this cuff, you wear it, it gives you superpowers, and it turns out that Avatar-like blue man is inside the cuff talking to you, whose name is Nyall. You return to the caravan, you beat up soldiers. To this point, the game has made zero sense because I am not familiar with the story one bit, I mean, there has to be some underlying plot just working its way to some peak moment. There has to be, there should be! The game had better ‘wow’ me at some point before it is too late, but no, the game does not contain any story, it all feels so randomized that I cannot enjoy myself, I don’t know who I am, what I am doing, what I am fighting with and, once again, where are we?

This silly opening act finalizes and we are in hub area, a town. We get to interact with NPCs, travel around, complete fetch quests for people with zero narration-drive. The trailers make sand-travel pretty cool, but the actual experience is nothing like it, it is ‘meh’ at best. Let’s get to user interface and mechanics now:

The game introduces source materials at the very beginning randomly and with zero explanation, this is something I am scared of actually because the game throws at you so many little things but do not give you tutorial, and expect you to fully understand them. For example, as you travel or wander around you collect plants and flower, collectibles, and the game automatically unlocks a new skill for you with zero input, rewards you with unique currencies and lets you unlock a new perk. As I played the game, it felt more and more like a mobile game, one where you play it for half an hour and you unlock so many things but you have no idea what their purpose are, and slowly you cease to progress at all and you are left with nothing substantial.

I have reviewed at least 70 games so far, and this is the first time I felt the need to criticize voiceover quality in a game, there are countless instances and scenes where multiple characters speak and their volume level don’t match, furthermore when it is a scene one characters is yelling or talking loudly, the other person’s voice is strangely calm and don’t fit the conversation and context at all.

Atlas Fallen disappointed me when it comes to user interface and navigation in menus, every menu and screen feels so…unpolished.

As for menus:

You have ‘Gauntlet’, that presents you Essence Stones, which are active and passive skills, these are unlocked by source material that is obtained from killed monsters. You can set your primary and secondary weapons here as well as check out combat moves for weapons.

In ‘Idols’ you will find passive abilities, honestly I don’t understand why there are multiple sections for abilities

In ‘Armour’, you can check out character stats, upgrades and Perks. Perks are different than Idols and Essence Stone skills, these Perks are unlocked through a different and rare currency.

You have your usual Map and Quests menus too.

Under ‘Journey’ menu you can see all the source material (to unlock Essence Stone abilities) in the most tedious way, codex entries for monsters and superficial story logs, and Formulas. Formulas are achieved through progression, once you are rewarded with a Formula, it means that specific Essence Stone ability is available to be unlocked.

Simply taking a look and navigating through these menus is a hassle itself, the reason is that, they are not well organized and there are loopholes here and there. Why are there 3 different skill section which are more or less same or similar? On top of that, they are unlocked with a unique progression but the game never explains how they work, such as the currency needed to unlock a new skill in Perks. How do I earn it? What is it called?

Essence Stones section is the most cluttered one, and this is the main skill menu that you will interact most, as mentioned previously, through progression the game offers you Formulas, and you can unlock new abilities in this section, the major problem here is that there are 3 tiers, and each tier has its own skill-set, yet the game does not categorize skills at all, it shows you all the skills, and you can only see which skill is for what tier as you move your cursor above them, and you cannot organize or customize the order in this screen, resulting in a disoriented skill menu. I wish the game implemented a straightforward skill-tree, one that is actually helpful and useful. 

I’ll show you the actual gameplay, in this clip I exit the hub area, travel around, come across enemies, and battle them. My biggest gripe, that you can see in the clip, is that the game presents itself as if it is offering an immersive world in trailers, but no, this world is far from immersive, it is the opposite of that. It is a bit challenging to put into words: the world we are in fees like are created in parts, such as hub are, empty deserts, hills, mountains, point of interest locations which have objectives and NPCs; it feels all these parts are created separately, then put together, and this is the final product. When I travel, fight enemies, return to hub area, something feels off here. Locations and environment do not match, and you feel this is not a unified world, this is more of a mix-n-match environment. Let’s take Greedfall for example here, which is an almost open-world game and when I travel across locations and fight enemies and get back to mission location, I never felt ‘this world does not vibe with me’ feeling, when you play a game you expect it to make ‘sense’ even if the game is set in most absurd plot with unreal characters. There has to be consistency and integrity of the world I am in should be connected across the world. Atlas Fallen falls short in this case, as I explored the world more, I grew even more stranger to it. It does not feel natural, it does not feel finished.

Adding to my previous paragraph, the level design does not live up to expectation at all, the game points at a location that I have to reach, but the location does not show up on Map, you only get to see direction arrow in-game and the distance between you and the destination. The world has these mountains and hills, and objective locations are located on top of these mountains, or below them, but you cannot make sure which direction you should go. Why is this simple thing is a challenge itself? An average player should be provided with clues and hints for the destination, in this game I cannot grasp where I am going or where I am supposed to go to access the location.

The only positive thing to note about Atlas Fallen is the combat system. The combat is fluid, it is fast, it is a bit challenging in a fun way and the game always pushes you to use your combo attacks, dodge and freeze abilities. Apart from this, Atlas Fallen is a game I would not recommend to anybody with a healthy mind.

[hardcoregamer]

Review: Atlas Fallen

Atlas Fallen is far from a perfect game, but the important thing is that it’s still a fun game. Even when it can feel like it’s throwing a kitchen sink at you, there’s always something enjoyable to find in Atlas Fallen, mainly its impressive combat that leads to a lot of challenging, enjoyable battles (albeit with a few that could use tweaking), and its visually striking landscapes that allow for a ton of fun sand sliding.

Read some more!

[savingcontent]

Atlas Fallen Review

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but you’ve got a talking gauntlet on your arm after being chosen save a world that desperately needs a hero. Atlas Fallen from Deck13 is a game that’s on the cusp of being great or special, but doesn’t quite reach those heights. This is a gorgeous, well-made game that is a lot of fun to play, thought it doesn’t offer more than the sum of its parts. Atlas…

[apteryxparvus]

hello and congrats on 100followers!!!

wanderer x rtawahist darshan scholar reader, who really overworks themselves and almost always gets sleepless nights because of their occupation in rtawahist, and so wanderer often finds reader either sleepy (or sleeping) in the akademiya's library, or on some open grounds where they can stargaze not only for their studies, but for themselves, and wanderer js either can't see them so sleepless and forces reader to go to sleep, or he watches the stars with them༎ຶ⁠‿⁠༎ຶ

Thank you!! I really like the idea of a Rtawahist Reader, and I hope I did your request justice 😊

Part of my ✨ 100 followers milestone event ✨ running from September 2nd to September 9th.

Pairing — Scaramouche / Reader

Word count — 1,657

Content warning — none

The first time Scaramouche lays eyes on you, he assumes you’re just another one of those Akademiya students, running on caffeine and a never-ending string of sleepless nights. You're sporting the school's uniform, your hat somewhat askew atop your head. He notices the blue pin adorning it, signaling your affiliation with the Rtawahist Darshan, and he can't help but scoff at how it's slightly crooked.

You're stumbling through the hallway, precariously balancing a tower of books that's taller than you. It’s no surprise when you collide with him. He watches as the heavy tomes scatter across the floor, and you scramble to gather them, your lips rapidly uttering a thousand apologies.

With an exasperated sigh, Scaramouche crouches down and grabs the book closest to him — "Starry Atlas: Navigating the Night Sky." He idly flips through the pages, half-curious about the illustrations and the meticulously written descriptions and notes.

"You could at least lend a hand," he overhears you muttering under your breath.

He scoffs once more, closing the book. "You could at least attempt not to endanger anyone's life, Rtawahist."

You respond with a huff but continue collecting your scattered belongings. "My name's not Rtawahist," you retort, meeting his gaze. He can't help but notice the dark circles under your eyes and the exhaustion in your expression.

Scaramouche raises an eyebrow, expecting you to introduce yourself. However, you remain silent. You grab the last of your fallen books, "Exploring Destiny through Astrology" — the thickest and most heavily annotated of them all — and with that you scurry away.

As you vanish from his sigh, he doesn’t give the encounter much thought.

That is, until he meets you for the second time.

You’re nestled in a quiet corner of the House of Daena, face buried within the pages of yet another heavy book. Your hat sits neatly on the table, surrounded by an array of colored pens and papers adorned with doodles and incomprehensible scribbles.

He decides not to approach you directly, choosing instead to observe you silently from his own secluded nook. He has his own agenda for being in the library — researching the available books on the history of Inazuma, specifically the Tri-Commission. He’s feeling irked by a student from his own Darshan, a brash and loudmouthed boy, who had confidently presented what Scaramouche considers the worst thesis defense he had ever witnessed, centered around the history of the socio-economic and cultural impact of the Tri-Commission. He’s now determined to scrutinize the books he had referenced, seeking out the specific passages so he can construct his own review paper, one that disputes the boy's conclusions.

Perhaps it's a tad bit petty, but he couldn't care less.

After an hour or so of sifting through poorly written and dull texts, mental exhaustion starts to set in. His gaze lifts to where you're seated, and he notices that you're on the verge of dozing off. Your eyelids droop, and you unconsciously lean towards the book you're reading.

He can't help but find it foolishly stupid — your unwavering dedication to academics that drains you to such an extent.

Yet, in this particular moment, his icy heart, scarred by past experiences, seems to thaw as he watches you.  Eventually, you surrender to the drowsiness, your head leaning against the wall. He stays in his spot for a moment, confused by the inexplicable warmth he feels towards you — you've only crossed paths twice, and he doesn't even know your name.

When you start shivering, your Akademiya robes not offering sufficient protection against the chilly air seeping from the library’s walls, he doesn’t even think as he rises from his own spot, removing his tunic. He drapes it over your slumbering form.

He’s even more baffled by his own actions as gathers your scattered materials and arranges them neatly on the table.

Finally, he takes a seat beside you. His own body lacks warmth, therefore, he cannot shield you from the cold, but he allows you to lean against him. It’s as if you sensed his presence and an unconscious desire to close the gap between you overtook you. He sighs, adjusting your head to prevent any neck soreness after your nap.

The two of you remain like that for a while, and he's surprised to discover that he doesn't recoil from physical contact. At least, not when it comes from you.

Scaramouche lets you enjoy the nap, aware of your need for rest. You sleep peacefully, faintly snoring. When he decides it’s time for you to leave, not wanting to have you traverse the city’s streets so late at night, he gently disentangles himself from you and rises.

"Rtawahist," he calls out as you stir. You blink up at him, your eyes heavy with sleep and mild confusion. It takes a few moments for you to fully awaken, and he watches as your eyes widen before you avert your gaze bashfully, embarrassed by being caught napping in the library. "Go home and get some proper sleep."

Scaramouche can't help but feel a bit self-conscious, as if he's suddenly become aware of his own actions. He strides away from your secluded corner.

"Hey, wait! Vahumana guy, wait!" you yell, voice still tinged with sleepiness. However, he doesn't turn back, already on his way out of the library. You blink in confusion, fingers fiddling with the extra clothing draped over you — it's the white tunic with blue accents that you'd seen him wear before.

As you stand up and begin gathering your belongings, you’re further taken aback by how neatly they are organized.

That night, as you stroll past the dimly lit streets of Sumeru City, you think that perhaps this may have been one of the most refreshing naps you've experienced in months, if not longer.

The third time he meets you, he finally learns your name.

Nightfall had fallen, the clear sky adorned with countless twinkling stars. The songs of Dusk Birds fill the humid air, echoing through the rainforest, and tiny critters scurry about in the shadows of the lush foliage.

Scaramouche is returning from a mission given by Nahida — intelligence from numerous travelers had revealed multiple hidden Fatui camps, and his task was to determine their intentions and eliminate the threat. 

Strangely, he doesn’t feel tired; he doesn't feel anything at all. His mind is numb. He knows he should be experiencing some sort of emotion after encountering the soldiers proudly donning the Fatui insignia — perhaps anger or revulsion — but instead, there is a hollow void where his heart should have been.

He passes by a hilichurl camp, the savage beasts sitting around a campfire. Their leader, nearly thrice their side, senses his presence and roars, raising his ax. The entire pack rises, each wielding their own weapon, ready to confront the intruder that dares to trespass on their territory.

Scaramouche barely lifts a finger, sending sharp wind blades towards the creatures. They fall to the ground, unconscious. He stares silently at their grotesque forms, repulsion rising in his throat.

"Hey! Vahumana guy!" A familiar voice rings out. He looks up from his position, body freezing as he spots you waving from a nearby cliff. Anger surges within him — how reckless could you be, wandering through the forest littered with roaming territorial Rishboland Tigers and wild hilichurls?

“You idiot,” he yells back, using his Anemo Vision to propel himself towards you. He lands at your feet, and you let out a shriek, clearly not expecting him to soar through the air. 

Your eyes lock on the glowing teal Vision pinned alongside a singular gold feather. "Oh," you manage to mumble. “You have a Vision.”

Scaramouche dismissed your comment. “You foolish Rtawahist,” he continues to berate you. “How irresponsible must you be to wander alone in the rainforest at night?”

“I’m perfectly fine. In case you didn't notice, I'm here to gather data for a paper I'm writing.” You gesture towards the spot you’d arranged on the grassy cliff — a cozy blanket adorned with snacks and a thermos, as well as star charts, maps, and your tools, including a shiny astrolabe, a small old telescope, and a planisphere. “And also to enjoy the breeze and the clear night sky,” you add bashfully.

"Didn't you see the hilichurl camp below you?" Scaramouche demands angrily.

“They were all sitting around the fire! They couldn’t have attacked me!” you counter.

"Do all Rtawahists have a death wish, or is it just you?"

"First of all, stop calling me Rtawahist. I have a name, and it's Y/N," you say with an eye roll. "And since you're already here, why not take a seat and enjoy the night sky with me?" You gently grasp his hands, and lead him towards your cluttered spot. Scaramouche allows you to guide him, remaining silent.

You settle on the blanket, making some room for him. “I never got your name, Vahumana guy.”

"You may call me Kunikuzushi."

“Hmm,” you muse, pronouncing the name slowly, syllable by syllable. “I like it.”

Scaramouche doesn’t quite understand why he had shared his old name with you — he had believed he had moved past that part of his life. Yet, hearing the way you pronounce his name stirs something warm and comforting within the depths of his stone-cold heart.

You adjust your position and point towards a constellation. "That is Peregrinus, a constellation said to represent the free spirit of exploration and self-discovery."

Scaramouche stays silent, listening to you ramble about the stars twinkling in the night sky, the constellations and their deeper meanings. He notices your voice grow drowsy, and soon, you are nearly mumbling your sentences.

You struggle to repress a yawn. "By the way, I never got to thank you for the tunic, nor did I get the chance to return it."

Scaramouche chuckles softly as he watches you drift to sleep moments after finishing your sentence. He watches as you snuggle closer to him, head resting against his chest.

Author's note: being an overworked STEM student myself, I can totally relate to Reader 😪

Do I have 3 chapters and 1 lab protocol on Genetics, and 2 chapters and 3 research papers on Psychology to read for this week? Yes. Am I procrastinating reading them by writing this? Yes, again 😋

[boxkeith]

Video Games I Played in October 2024

October was a rather hellish month, but I didn’t pull the trigger on playing any idle games so I’m not completely a lost cause. It doesn’t help that my game consumption this month was mostly putting 20+ hours into five different games (finishing up Wukong and Zelda, and three I started this month). A smidge more variety might be in order, which for me usually means snagging a random shitty metroidvania and doing that for 8-15 hours. So it goes. This review also puts me over 110k words in my game diary for the year, which is daunting.

Kryptic – I do not know how I feel about puzzle games. Sometimes I want deeply invested puzzles that require a pen and paper, genuine cleverness and creativity, and iterative problem solving to unwrap a larger riddle. Sometimes I come to a new screen and realize my only reward for puzzles will be more puzzles and then desperately need to do literally anything else with my life. Kryptic was the former until it was the latter, not helped by the puzzles varying WILDLY in quality and complexity in ways that made overthinking a near-certainty. Shoutouts to including all the cyphers natively at least.

Dome Keeper – One could be forgiven for confusing this with Wall World, though Motherload has been out for a hot minute and it’s not like we’ve gone exceptionally far since Dig Dug. It has the classic roguelike issue of a slow start that’s boring to repeat alongside an overly quick endgame where either your upgrades trivialize everything you encounter or you die before getting a chance to play with your fun toys. For a second it makes me wish for a game like this that had more permanent progression, but I have played Steamworld Dig 2 and good lord that game has problems. I dunno. Maybe I just don’t yearn for the mines.

Throne and Liberty – The CIA is continuing its MK ULTRA research, and in this instantiation they are attempting to see if I can quite literally be paid to care about an MMO. Turns out the answer is no. I got a solid 45 minutes into the tutorial before I realized I’d played the tutorial previously as part of a beta test, and if that doesn’t say something about generic action RPG starts and how there’s only so many ways to render a realistic wooden barrel in a cave, I don’t know what does.

Super Fancy Pants Adventure – Unlike most people my age I don’t have an overabundance of nostalgia for flash games. I think I transitioned to PC gaming just a hair too late to really get in on that zeitgeist, though I did certainly play more than my share of popcap games and random shit on newgrounds. Coming at this having barely played the originals, I respect it but also don’t have the patience, reaction time, or dearth of other pursuits required to play this style of platformer. It’s not so much fiddly as it is exacting and particular, but I don’t want to spend ten minutes trying to figure out exactly the pattern of keystrokes that’ll make a little guy do an overly precise jump. I don’t have math homework to procrastinate on anymore.

Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand – I fucking love terrible video games. Can’t get enough of them. The Surge 2 is better than Dark Souls, and so when I learned those lads were making a game that was 100% fucking about I was completely on board. Not on board enough to pay for the game rather than waiting for it on gamepass (which is also how I played The Surge 2, to be fair), and also not on board enough to fail to confuse it with Immortals of Aevuem when asked for what game I wanted from a list that may or may not have had both of them on it, but nevertheless completely on board. It feels fucking good to punch things in this game and they have the whipfist from Prototype, but instead of hijacking helicopters you’re tethering onto monster hunter knockoffs trying to wallop them. The partbreaking system is pretty inconsistent and the lock-on is still just as dogshit as The Surge 2, but overall the game feels smooth and graphically it has a love for sand on par with Mirror’s Edge’s obsession with concrete. I especially like the momentum system’s attempted risk/reward of combos increasing the damage you deal and the damage you take, and the added wrinkle that your passive and active abilities are socketed in along the momentum bar so you have to weigh getting access to attacks early with slotting in abilities that help you build momentum. The story and lore are whatever, the game is like five hours too long, and they make the baffling choice of having a solid 80% of the setting revolve around a slave underclass that are Unnamed but at no point do the rebels just… start giving them names. You’re just “Gauntlet Bearer” i.e. one of the good ones. That being said Asterigos did an even worse job of having any of its characters object to chattel slavery and in that game they were being ground into food so … I dunno. The bar’s low I guess.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – As someone who has been an ardent Zelda fan for about as long as I can remember playing video games, Twilight Princess is a fascinating entry in the series. Its aesthetics and tone aren’t really approached in any other Zelda game. Structurally it takes a huge amount from Ocarina of Time, but it goes out of its way to flesh out a large number of NPCs and tries to have an actual story and setting that doesn’t revolve around Link. Zelda barely has a role even as a mcguffin, and in many ways Midna is the main character. It’s deliberately quite linear, with the tears of light sections serving to drag you through each area top to bottom before letting you explore it properly once you’re oriented. As an actual game I’d say it’s… functional? At worst it has some pacing issues and there was clearly cut content in the lategame, but it’s hard to point to any one facet and say “this could be better” because there’s such a robustly holistic vision of the type of game it was trying to be. It’s hard to step back from my childhood fondness for the game and the love grown over 5+ complete playthroughs, but I’m also not trying to step back from that. If anything I’ll probably reread the manga once I’m done with the game.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – Sekiro had been pitched to me in a variety of ways over the years; ‘the most unique/difficult/interesting Fromsoft game’, ‘the best parrying has felt in a video game’, ‘the only good media named after its main character other than Columbo’. None of these spoke to me, and I had not so much avoided the game as been disinterested. Even after playing Nine Sols and gaining a grimaced tolerance of parrying, I wasn’t convinced. Steam Family Sharing dropped a copy in my lap though, and I needed to hit buttons in something after Atlas Fallen. The game’s fine. It’s merely fine. Bloodborne had interesting things to say about the Dark Souls formula and said them through its mechanics and its level design in ways that enhanced its own identity and actively punished playing as though it was Dark Souls. Sekiro isn’t as transformative, because the emphasis on parrying means that positioning isn’t rewarded – you NEED to get attacked and react appropriately in order to be proactive. Nine Sols had this same stilted cadence, but in 2D your relative position with an enemy is much clearer and the game not only had a variety of defensive options but also rewarded you with resources for parrying that could then be spent proactively. In Sekiro your reward for parrying is gradually staggering the enemy, and although chip damage accrues and slows the rate of stagger degradation it’s still a much different cadence. I do not hate the game. I do not even dislike the game. I expect to finish the game, or at the very least get to what I feel is a reasonable stopping point and deliberately cease playing rather than merely falling away. But I do not see myself loving the game. When I first started playing, I told a friend in jest “Everything I wanted from Sekiro I got from Ghost of Tsushima”. I don’t think that’s true, and I didn’t think so at the time. I just also don’t know what it is I actually want from Sekiro.

[crave-mp3]

still thinking about that unreal unearth review that said it was "about as thoughtful as bullet points on a freshman year Great Books syllabus [, which] scan as a naked ploy for depth" and complaining about allusions to the atlas myth on icarian (bc apparently the quota is One mythological imagery per song),,,,, while deriding the line "you were frozen like an angel to me"--a reference to an actual scene in the Inferno (lucifer the fallen angel being trapped in a pit of ice)--as "an incoherent mix of metaphors". congrats on failing to recognize that reference dude. maybe you should have read a little further than that Great Books syllabus

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

2022 Writing Year in Review

thank you for the tag @northerngoshawk!! 💕

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: 18

2. Word count this year: 172,404 words! we could get really technical and subtract the word counts for the fics i technically wrote in 2021 but typed/posted in 2022, but that’s a lot of work i don’t feel like doing lol

3. Fandoms I wrote for: ATLA, Law & Order, MCU (+ Venom), Monk, and Medium. not sure i want to know what that says about me...

4. Pairings: petermj (mcu), allison/joe (medium), kincoy (claire/jack from l&o), zukaang (atla), tylara (atla), mjflash (mcu), and kataang (atla). a nice mixture!

5. Stories with the most:

Kudos: Walls (my mj&flash friendship fic) comes in first with 114 kudos

Bookmarks: Walls comes out on top again with 29 bookmarks!

Comment threads: this thing of darkness (i acknowledge mine), my mjflash + venom!flash fic, has the most comment threads by far with 47, the result of a small but loyal following of readers who made my day every time they commented 💛

Word count: by a hair, The Wrong Note (my monk x medium crossover) has the highest word count at 37,630 words! this thing of darkness (i acknowledge mine) has 37,011 words

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): im proud of all my works for different reasons! today i shall spotlight my children will listen series, consisting of two waterbending-centric fics narrated by kanna and katara respectively; both stories explore cultural loss and intergenerational trauma. i’d never written companion pieces prior to that point, so im proud of how i was able to construct those parallel narratives! i also had a blast reworking one of my favorite shel silverstein poems to weave throughout the story

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why): ?? this is a silly question. fanfic is my hobby, im not writing it for journal publication. onto the next one!

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received: literally Every review i got on the children will listen series; i had no idea how impactful those fics would be or how many people would relate to it, but im so glad i ended up writing and publishing them! i also have to shoutout ocean’s review on time apart, time together (the tylara fic i wrote for her bday 💛) bc she truly Understood that story through and through, and i am equal parts delighted and relieved that she did (since it was written for her 💕)

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: i mean, im a college student. i almost never write fic during the semester, lol. i Literally haven’t written fic since,,,, august 2022. (technically i could have written some fic these past few weeks BUT it’s the holidays so i’ve been spending time with family + revising my research paper + loosely working on some original writing)

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: BRUH all of my law & order fics surprised me 😭 come on, babe (why don’t we paint the town?) contains Thee sexiest scene i’ve ever written; find a flask (we’re playing fast and loose) is written SOLELY from jack’s pov (a 50-year-old white man, how low have i fallen); and it was more than worth it (my kincoy magnum opus) was my first foray into nonlinear storytelling. all in all, 2022 was quite an experimental year for me!

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: i’ve talked to death my favorite excerpt from it was more than worth it, so instead i’ll spotlight an excerpt from if memories could fade away (my mj birthday fic):

Ned sticks his tongue out at her, and MJ responds in turn before opening the door anyway, because he’s Ned and she’s MJ and it’s always been just them, the two of them, eight years going on eighteen.

“Damn, girl, you live like this?” Ned says as he enters, watching where he steps so he doesn’t trip over one of her many piles of everything—textbooks, clothes, journals, old CDs too scratched to use that will soon become the basis of MJ’s next art project: voices we no longer hear.

She remembers getting each CD, starting with Let Go on her tenth birthday, back when she lived in New Orleans and always kept her curly brown hair in symmetrical cornrows or cropped at the base of her neck because of the suffocating humidity. She remembers taking each CD and ripping the music to her computer so her dad could move it onto her tiny red MP3 player for the long, long ride to Queens that began the next day. She remembers two CDs breaking during the drive and one CD breaking when they arrived because she threw it at the wall of her empty new room, angry, so angry she’d been ripped from her home like music from a shiny silver disc and it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair—

“You see, guests usually stay downstairs,” MJ teases, pushing aside a pile of clothes so Ned has room to sit on her bed. She takes a seat at her desk, spinning the chair around to face her dearest friend. “If I’d known you were planning to invade my personal space, I might have considered making my living arrangements more presentable.”

Ned snickers. “Considered, and then not done a damn thing about them?”

MJ winks at him. “You know me so well.”

Ned has known her so long, known her messy room, known her impenetrable walls, known her since she was thrown into a new school in a new city expected to make new friends when Michelle knew even at ten that would never happen, not that year, because 5th graders had already chosen their loyal companions five, six, seven years ago and there was no room for a Black girl to fit into a white noise machine that already hummed along without her.

Her parents sent her to school anyway. She must not have been persuasive enough.

MJ MY BELOVED!!! 🥺💛 i enjoyed playing with sentence length/rhythm and metaphors/similes in this fic, and i think this excerpt in particular captures that experimentation

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: hmmmm well i tried my hand at some action sequences in this thing of darkness (i acknowledge mine), which probably counts for something. and like i already mentioned, it was more than worth it was my first foray into nonlinear storytelling (and a lot of people told me they enjoyed it!) + if memories could fade away involved stylistic experimentation. in other words, i think i grew as a writer simply by letting myself try new things, from how i told stories to what content i included within them!

13. How do you hope to grow next year: i just want to write more, honestly. the more i write, the more i can try, and hopefully the more i’ll grow! to be more specific, i want to try my hand at some sci-fi/near-future dystopian original stories (à la kazuo ishiguro’s klara and the sun)

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): probably ocean and ambi! they always put up with my fic-related ramblings, are wonderful to bounce ideas off of, and by virtue of their existence (and enthusiasm) remind me why i love writing fic in the first place 💛 in terms of non-tumblr influences, haha, reading the promise by damon galgut was a GAME CHANGER for me. third person omniscient with no quotation marks?? the entire story is an allegory for post-apartheid south africa?? a stylistic and thematic MASTERPIECE. i can only dream of writing a novel with such artistic daring

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: lol this thing of darkness (i acknowledge mine) is packedTM with shakespeare references and milton jokes; if memories could fade away explicitly mentions one of avril lavigne’s albums (seen in the provided excerpt); won’t you hang a picture? references nancy drew; and Walls involves a whole project about the picture of dorian gray. when narratively appropriate, i never hesitate to sneak in my own interests 😂

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: write for fun! write what you love! don’t be afraid to experiment! listen to the incredibles soundtrack while you write! read, read, read! write with a cat on your lap! never delete anything! write when you’re inspired and write when you’re not! if it brings you joy to create, then what you create is good enough!

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: honestly, i want to focus on my original writing and my research more, so i may not have as much time for fic. that said, i hope to write:

a sequel to this thing of darkness (i acknowledge mine)

the next part of my mcu medium!au

ml fic in general

atla fic in general

time will tell!

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read: i know a lot of people have been tagged for this already, so apologies if im bombarding you or if you’ve already done this! i’ll tag @justoceanmyth, @ambivalentmarvel, @seek--rest, and @shifuaang :)

[maximuswolf]

Wayfinder or Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand?

Wayfinder or Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand? Both games have seen a 180 in their development from initial launch and have great recent reviews. I like the RPG elements of both. Thoughts? Submitted September 22, 2024 at 11:41AM by Djentleman5000 https://ift.tt/crh3RjA via /r/gaming

[hamishpetersen]

distrust, disorientation, disintegration

Review published in HAMSTER Magazine Issue 4 of:

Daegan Wells A Gathering Distrust Ilam SOFA Campus Gallery 21 February - 22 March

Daegan Wells A Gathering Distrust Ilam SOFA Campus Gallery 21 February - 22 March

distrust, disorientation, disintegration Hamish Petersen

eleven ceramic pots are lined up like a narrow jetty, risking itself the further it extends. they are made of clay Daegan dug from the shores of Moturau, near a memorial for the ‘Save Lake Manapōuri’ Campaign.

“Moturau is the correct Māori name for Lake Manapōuri. […] The name Moturau is sometimes said to have been given by the northern rangatira Tamatea, who travelled through the area with his travelling party after their waka, Takitimu, capsized at Te Waewae Bay.” [1]

Daegan dug the clay not far from where they remember having fallen over on a childhood trip. this was familiar ground at the time. their family had relocated nearby after finding employment in the second hydroelectric project at the lake in the mid nineties. it’s always a strange sensation to fall over on familiar ground, to ram your hip into the kitchen bench while absent-mindedly refilling your water glass. Sara Ahmed reminds me that disorientation, “can shatter one’s sense of confidence in the ground, or one’s belief that the ground on which we reside can support the actions that make a life feel liveable.” [2] for the Save Lake Manapōuri campaigners it was the threat of topographical disorientation that motivated a call to action (for inaction) in a rising euro-american awareness of mass extinction, deforestation, and climate crisis. you’ll have to rearrange your week if the water rises and an isthmus becomes a channel.

“This pass or ford, Te Kauranga, was where waka entered Circle Cove.” [3]

attempting to retain the orientation to the world they had sketched around them, the locals took to public protest action in order to have their lived topography legitimated by the commercial and governmental bodies that threatened to submerge them. the campaigners’ story was somehow written in a script that achieved legibility for those in power, whereas other stories entwined in that whenua at different times were illegible (read: unintelligible (read: unreal (read: illegitimate))).

who gets heard when successive acts of speech are speaking over one-another? over the land. over the silvered macrocarpa of hay barns. over the seasonal tracks to a southern kainga, or the best places to cook in the rain.

in some sense this work subverts the typical reading of craft practices like pottery through these stories. the red, bisque-fired pots on the floor fit readily into a negotiation of binaries and

hierarchies of usefulness / decoration, femininity / masculinity, and particularity between functionality / formalist history in the vein of the pākehā potters and image-makers lauded for their ‘capture’ of an essence of Te Wai Pounamu. however, the way Daegan articulated the space using a projection of pensive, frothing waters onto crisp aluminium in one corner, casting spears and flutters of light across the room, called me into my body. i felt myself small and my movements calculated in order to orient myself to the row of pots in the appropriate way. in this environment the clay forms were language through which land, peoples’ histories there, and Daegan’s relationships with Manapōuri locals were articulated through an embodied process — Daegan and the clay. some stories get through that somehow, not that I need to know all the details. they are not always for everyone to know.

FFO: Ceramics, environmentalism, queer phenomenology, swimming in space, activism, layered histories.

[1]Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, “Popup Panel: Moturau” Kā Huru Manu, Atlas — A Cultural Mapping Project, 2018, http://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas. [2] Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology, (Durham; Duke University Press, 2006), 175. [3] Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, “Popup Panel: Pakererū” Kā Huru Manu, Atlas — A Cultural Mapping Project, 2018, http://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas.

[smlpodcast]

The SML Podcast - Episode 898: Send More Lactaid

Download Episode 898 --

News of the week and some disturbing pre-show rituals are discussed on this episode of SML!

The show kicks off with Jacob, Aki, and Bri on hand to talk about why Aki was late to the start of this one. Then we discuss actual news with the sad news that Xbox will be shutting down the Xbox 360 Marketplace in 2024. So much for hoping the BC program returned… We also chat the THQ Nordic Showcase, the latest additions and departures for Xbox Game Pass, Forza Motorsport's missing features, release dates, and a new pinball platform? Plus reviews!

0:00 - Intro/News 37:03 - Atlas Fallen - Deck13, Focus Entertainment (Aki) 47:30 - STRAY - Bluetwelve, Annapurna Interactive (Bri/Aki) 53:57 - A Castle Full of Cats - Devcats, Silesia Games (Bri/Aki) 1:01:20 - Hidden Shapes: Cat Real + Trick or Cats - YAW Studios, QUByte Interactive (Jacob) 1:04:47 - Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance - Creepy Brothers, Sometimes You (Aki) 1:13:13 - Bright Lights of Svetlov - Vladimir Cholokyan, Sometimes You (Jacob)

The show ends with some Breath of the Wild goodness from Ro Panuganti!

1:20:38 - Ro Panuganti - Molduga (Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

https://www.deck13.com/ https://www.focus-entmt.com/ https://stray.game/ https://hk-devblog.com/ https://annapurnainteractive.com/ https://www.devcatsgames.com/ https://twitter.com/SilesiaGames https://twitter.com/yawstudios https://www.qubyteinteractive.com/ http://creepybrothers.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@MrRocotos/ https://www.sometimesyou.com/ https://ropanuganti.bandcamp.com/ https://www.keymailer.co/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sml-podcast/id826998112 https://open.spotify.com/show/6KQpzHeLsoyVy6Ln2ebNwK https://twitter.com/theSMLpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/theSMLpodcast/ https://store.streamelements.com/thesmlpodcast ALL REVIEWED GAMES HAVE BEEN PROVIDED FOR FREE FOR THE PURPOSE OF ANY COVERAGE ON THE SHOW

[headstuff-org]

Game Review | Atlas Fallen

http://dlvr.it/StsfjN

[worthplaying]

PC Review - 'Atlas Fallen'

http://dlvr.it/StScZr

[monterplant]

Atlas Fallen review - a game built on sand

Atlas Fallen has some of the best traversal in games but a plain story, oaken characters, and lack of polish make it a solid but unspectacular fantasy RPG. Continue reading Untitled

[cavenewstimes]

Review Roundup For Atlas Fallen

The studio behind The Surge and Lords of the Fallen is back with Atlas Fallen. It’s the newest action-RPG from developer Deck13, which is based in Germany and owned by Focus Entertainment. Atlas Fallen seems to fall in the good, but not great territory over on GameSpot sister site Metacritic. The action-RPG has a 64 metascore at the time of publication based on 32 reviews. While critics note the…