#citizen review

[antinativefaves]

YOUR FAVE IS ANTI NATIVE: THE MONTGOMERY CITIZENS REVIEW COMMITTEE

[kpopscatterbrain]

Kdramas/Movies with strong female characters

Dramas

Eve (2022): Lee La-El (Seo Yea-Ji) When Lee La-El was little, her father died unexpectedly. Powerful people were responsible for his death. After her family was destroyed, Lee La-El prepared for the next 13 years to take revenge. Starting by targeting Kang Yoon-gyeom, one of the main culprits who orchestrated the death of her father. Along the way she becomes torn between her desire for revenge and her feelings for Yoon-gyeom.

It's Okay To Not Be Okay (2020): Ko Moon-Young (Seo Yea-Ji) Ko Moon-Young is a popular children's book author with antisocial personality disorder. She had a troubled childhood and a turbulent relationship with her parents. She develops romantic feelings for a psychiatric caregiver after a coincidental encounter and often goes to extreme lengths to get his attention.

Hotel Del Luna (2019): Jang Man-Wol (IU) Jang Man-Wol is the moody owner of Hotel del Luna. The hotel catering to the dead has been bound to her soul in order to atone for the sins she committed 1,300 years ago. Through the new manager Gu Chan-sung, the mysteries and the secrets behind the hotel and its owner are revealed

My Name (2021): Yoon Ji-Woo (Han So-Hee) Yoon Ji-Woo’s father gets murdered suddenly. She wants to desperately take revenge on whoever is responsible for her father's death. She starts working for a drug crime ring that her father was a part of. Ji-Woo joins the police department as a mole for the drug ring.

Vagabond (2019): Go Hae-Ri (Bae Suzy) Go Hae-Ri is an NIS agent and is currently working undercover at the Korean embassy in Morocco. She is tasked to help the bereaved families of a fatal flight. She helps Cha Dal-Geon whose nephew was on the flight uncover a darker and more sinister conspiracy than they expected.

Sisyphus: The Myth (2021): Gang Seo-Hae (Park Shin-Hye) Gang Seo-Hae is an elite warrior. She can take down the biggest men with just her bare hands. She is a sharpshooter and a bombmaker. She learned these skills to survive in a world that is dominated by gangsters and military cliques. One day she time travels to save a genius engineer.

Mr. Sunshine (2018): Go Ae-Shin (Kim Tae-Ri) Go Ae-Shin is an orphaned noblewoman and a member of the Righteous Army. Her parents were independence fighters who died in Japan due to their colleague's betrayal. She trains as a sniper. An american soldier Eugene meets and falls in love with Go Ae-shin. 

The Glory (2022): Moon Dong-Eun (Song Hye-Kyo) Moon Dong-Eun was a victim of high school violence. She waited for the bully ring leader get married and have a child. Now she is the homeroom teacher of her tormentor's child. Her cruel revenge plot begins.

Tomorrow (2022): Koo Ryeon (Kim Hee-Seon) Grim reaper Koo Ryeon is the leader of a crisis management team. The teams objective is to save suicidal people. Choi Jun-Woong (Ro Woon) is a young job seeker who is unable to secure a job. One night, he accidentally becomes a new member of the crisis management team.

Remarriage & Desires (2022): Seo Hye-Seung (Kim Hee-Seon) Seo Hye-seung who lost everything in an instant after her husbands affair and su*cide. She signs up to a matchmaking company Rex for the upper class, and participates in the race of her desires for her revenge.

Under The Queen's Umbrella (2022): Queen Hwaryeong (Kim Hye-Soo) Queen Hwaryeong is supposed to act with grace and dignity, but she has troublemaker sons. The queen decides to abandon strict protocols to transform her sons into deserving princes through education and personal growth, all while navigating the complexities of motherhood and royal life.

Juvenile Justice (2022): Sim Eun-Seok (Kim Hye-Soo) Sim Eun-Seok is an elite judge with a personality that seems unfriendly to others. She hates juvenile criminals and gets assigned to a local juvenile court. There, she breaks custom and administers her own ways of punishing the offenders.

K-Movies

Kill Boksoon (2023): Gil Bok-Soon (Jeon Do-Yeon) Gil Bok-Soon is a single mother and a contract killer working for M. K. Ent. Highly regarded by her peers, she has a 100% success rate and is one of a few killers rated "A" by her company. Right before Gil Bok-Soon is set to renew her contract, she gets involved in a kill or be killed confrontation.

Ballerina (2023): Jang Ok-Ju (Jun Jong-Seo) Ok-Ju used to work as a bodyguard. Ok-Ju is friends with Min-Hee, who is a ballerina. Min-Hee asks Ok-Ju for a favor. She wants Ok-Ju to take revenge.

The Witch: Subversion (2018): Ja-Yoon (Kim Da-Mi) A young girl escapes from a mysterious laboratory where she was trained to become a murder weapon. 10 years later, the girl, named Ja-yoon, is living a normal life, apparently without any memory of her past, she becomes involved in a crime.

Special Delivery (2022): Eun-Ha (Park So-Dam) Eun-Ha is a special driver for deliveries. She delivers anything or anyone for the right price. Her success rate is 100%, but she gets involved in an unexpected delivery accident.

Brave Citizen (2023): So Shi-Min (Shin Hae-Sun) So Shi-Min used to be a boxer in her student days. She now works as a contract teacher at a high school. She confronts a school bully, who frequently torments other students.

[showyoumyfavoriteobsession]

SHOWYOUMYFAVORITEOBSESSION YEAR IN REVIEW ↦ Games Played in 2023

[starsfromtoulon]

[gloomth-and-wanderings]

So who's going to write the Jed Leland and Smithers crossover fic

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

Citizen Sleeper

What if Disco Elysium, but in space, and you're an escaped robot instead of a cop?

I just got finished binging through Citizen Sleeper again to play the free DLC stories, and wanted to recommend it here because I think it deserves more love. It's a narrative video game that I think would really appeal to a lot of you - Disco Elysium is a good touchstone, I think, in that it's very much about game mechanical interactions revealing the story, being a stranger in a fascinating and complicated place, questions of identity and belonging, and different forms of struggling communities trying to exist together.

More ramblings about why you should play this below

So first off, it's relatively short - six to eight hours, so it's easy to get the whole story. Mechanically, you're getting a number of dice each 'day' to put into activities, and getting a bit of story back with the results. One of the major themes of the narrative is chronic illness/disability; your robot body is slowly (intentionally) falling apart, and so not only do you have to get money to eat each day, but you have to constantly source the medicine you need to keep yourself together - if you don't, your condition degrades and you have fewer and fewer dice to work with. But this also eats into the time you have for understanding the space station you're on, and making the connections with other people that will get you better opportunities and support when you have a day where all your dice are low and nothing is going to go right. It's a frustrating spiral that will feel very realistic to anyone who's trying to live with a chronic condition. (Although, because it's a game, there's some good hidden tricks it uses to make it feel frustrating without actually locking you out of progress.)

The other characters that you meet in the world are good; there are some longer storylines where you get to know them over the course of events, but also some of my favorites are the ones you see only briefly, but repeatedly - the mushroom seller that kept me fed, the barkeep at the place that I could reliably pick up tips, the stray cat outside the apartment you gradually put together for yourself... you don't have a constant companion, and the game doesn't provide romantic opportunities (because you're a robot? because you're a stranger passing through? because there's only so much writing they could put in?) but there's still some good connections to be made, queer and disabled bodies are everywhere, and if I had one regret for the game, it's that there weren't more ways to spend time with people once their arc of the story had 'closed' but the game was moving on.

And then there's the story itself, about an exploited and abandoned space station, and the ways people try to survive - by exploiting others in turn, by trying to protect themselves and what they have, by escaping to new communities, or just trying to get through the day. It is very much a story that believes the only way we'll make it is by helping each other, but also it's realistic about the obstacles in the way of that. It's very good, and I love the way all the choices you have to make are reflected back by the characters around you.

Anyway yeah, go play Citizen Sleeper - there's a set of free story expansions that came out too, so if you went through when it originally came out, there's a bunch of new fun stuff for you to look for as well! (I do wish some of the systems made more of a reappearance, but also, game design is hard. :)

[state-of-franklin]

All the people that think Oppenheimer is a propaganda movie actually make me laugh, because it is propaganda! Just not the nationalistic/patriotism kind.

It’s literally about a guy that lives to regret his most renowned invention, who wished more than anything it wouldn’t become a weapon, and when faced with his own guilt is told to suck it up and fake a smile.

This movie is trying to get the audience to understand the plight of the scientist that feels like he invented death. He was manipulated time after time by the US military and government, and truly was used for his genius more than he “used” anyone.

It is a 3 hour movie of pain, regret, and opposition between scientific progress and moral implications of doing so.

Don’t shit on a fucking movie because you read a tumblr post about it. Do your own fucking research and maybe go see the movie before you lay such harsh judgement on it.

[dreamygunjan]

Thursday Murder Club Moodboard

[mo-nroette-blog]

citizen of a kind (2024)

-based on a real-life story

[gotouda]

watching satc 2 this movie is so fucked in the head. ive seen it like 20 times but everytime im like. how could we let this happen to my friends carrie samantha miranda and charlotte. and why did they drag aidan into it

[adamwatchesmovies]

Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

It would be difficult to find a revenge action film more preposterous than Law Abiding Citizen. This picture has a grudge against common sense and intelligent thought. As such, you often have difficulty predicting where it will go next. It isn’t that it’s clever or full of unexpected twists; it’s that the directions it chooses are so obvious you think “There’s no way this is where it’s going”. That mindset will cause your brain to start connecting dots that were never meant to be connected. To its credit, the story - as ridiculous as it may be - is engaging as it plays out but you would never be able to defend this film as "good".

During a home invasion, Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is forced to watch as his wife and daughter are violently murdered. Afterward, Clyde is outraged when prosecuting attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) informs him that Clarence Darby (Christian Stolte) is about to receive a reduced sentence for testifying against his less violent accomplice, Rupert Ames (Josh Stewart). Embittered by this betrayal of justice, Clyde spends the next ten years plotting his revenge against the men who took his family away, and the system that didn’t punish them adequately.

The vigilante Death Wish genre is taken to an extreme with Law Abiding Citizen. Though the film isn’t as gory as anything we might see in any of the “Saw” films, the horror franchise’s influence is unmissable. Clyde is a galaxy brain genius, the kind that’s playing 4D chess while you’re playing checkers. He’s got robots rigged to assassinate his targets, can somehow coordinate a half-dozen operations from within a prison cell and uses a voice synthesizer to lure his prey into torture dungeons. He's amassed a fortune and the mechanical know-how that ensures the police are powerless to do anything but play by his rules.

It’s difficult to tell who we're supposed to cheer for. The home invasion - which happens about 15 seconds after we’re introduced to Clyde’s wife and daughter - is the kind of crime paranoid delusionals would have nightmares about but could never happen in real life. There isn’t an ounce of humanity in Clarence Darby because we’re supposed to cheer as he gets tortured to death. Nick clearly doesn’t care about anything but his conviction record (which should be easy in this case, one look at Clarence and any jury would sentence him to the gas chamber) so you won't shed any tears if he gets turned into chunky salsa either. Yet at some point, the film decides Clyde is “going too far”. He turns into the villain and we're suddenly supposed to be on Nick's team. You think it’s a deliberate reversal, or maybe all part of Clyde’s bigger plan. Maybe he knows what he's doing is wrong so he’s setting himself up to die to complete his masterpiece Seven-style. It’ll all be worth it because he’s building “a better system” through Nick or something. No, that’s just you being smarter than the movie and thinking you see patterns where there are none.

The film's broad and ridiculous characters perfectly match the absurdity of Clyde’s intricate revenge plot. When the movie lays all of its cards on the table and tells you how he managed everything… it doesn’t make any more sense than before. Even if he could keep track of every lawyer, judge and police officer in Philadelphia (which can’t be that big of a city if we’re to believe this film) the amount of things that could’ve gone wrong, that go wrong but shouldn’t, that don’t go wrong but should will have you picking chunks of your brain from the ceiling.

Despite (or maybe because of) the unconvincing performances (people underreact to what’s going on constantly) and sloppy writing, Law Abiding Citizen maintains an energy that prevents it from ever being boring. At one point, we’re told that Philadelphia is paralyzed by fear. Parents are scared to bring their kids to school, everyone’s paranoid about who’s going to be next, etc. Why? Clyde might be a madman but everyone should know EXACTLY who he’s going to go after next. He’s only after people he feels wronged him ten years ago. Unless you were the judge, the attorneys present, part of the law firm or one of the officers who botched the evidence retrieval (don’t they always in these kinds of movies?) he wouldn’t lay a finger on you.

Wacky morals, combined with a sloppy story make Law Abiding Citizen into a film that has the potential to be “so bad it’s good” if you’re in the right mood. I got some chuckles but nothing to write home about, so I’ll just call it bad. (December 3, 2021)

[ausetkmt]

JADARRIUS ROSE being attacked by Police dog in circleville ohio

A Circleville, Ohio, officer who was seen on video deploying a police K-9 that attacked an unarmed Black man while he was surrendering to authorities is on paid administrative leave as the incident is under investigation, the mayor said.

Jadarrius Rose, 23, was bitten by a Circleville police dog on July 4 following a lengthy vehicle pursuit that began as officers attempted to pull over a commercial semi-truck police say failed to stop for an inspection, according to the highway patrol case report and footage released by the agency.

Mayor Don McIlroy on Monday identified the Circleville officer who deployed the dog as Ryan Speakman. He has been placed on paid administrative leave, the mayor told CNN.

The incident is being investigated by a use of force review board, whose findings are expected to be released next week, the mayor and Police Chief G. Shawn Baer said in a joint statement Friday.

The statement confirmed the Circleville Police Department “was involved in a mutual aid request by the Ohio State Highway Patrol” after the driver of a semi-truck refused to stop and the K-9 unit responded to assist.

The police union representing Speakman said it “patiently awaits the outcome” of Circleville’s investigation before it gives a further statement. Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association Senior Counsel Joseph Hegedus is representing the officer, according to a statement by Tom Austin, the union’s executive director.

Mitchell Christian, a certified police and military K-9 instructor who reviewed dashcam and body camera videos from the incident, said Speakman’s decision to deploy the dog onto a surrendering person was “not indicative to what a canine handler should do in that scenario.”

“The handler should be able to look at that guy and know he’s not a threat. You wouldn’t Tase a guy who was sitting there with his hands up,” Christian, who is the owner and head trainer at Christian K-9 Academy in West Jefferson, Ohio, told CNN.

Police dogs are not trained to kill or have “life-altering effects,” Christian said. They are trained to help officers apprehend a suspect safely and their level of force can be compared to that of a Taser, he added.

“I will say it’s probably not a good example for a K-9 handler’s decision-making skills there because I would say most handlers out there would choose not to deploy the dog on a guy who’s clearly trying to give up, at that point,” Christian continued. “Ultimately, it’s always the handler’s decision whether to deploy the dog or not.”

The vehicle pursuit began after a Motor Carrier Enforcement inspector tried to stop the semi-truck, which was traveling west on US 35 in Jackson County, Ohio, due to a missing mud flap, according to the Highway Patrol case report.

But when the inspector turned on the lights on his marked patrol vehicle, the “suspect vehicle continued west on US 35,” the report says, noting the driver made eye contact with the inspector.

When the driver – identified as Rose – failed to stop, the inspector notified dispatch to send a marked patrol unit to assist, the case report says.

During the police chase, Rose told emergency dispatchers that officers were “trying to kill” him and he did “not feel safe” pulling over the truck, according to recordings of Rose’s 911 calls released by the Ross County Sheriff’s Office.

The video shows authorities pursuing the semi-truck, which appeared to initially slow down and stop. As it does, the footage shows an officer getting out of a vehicle, pointing a weapon toward the truck and ordering the driver to get out. The driver does not exit the vehicle, however, and starts driving again. Multiple law enforcement vehicles are shown joining the chase, the footage shows.

The driver eventually stops the semi-truck and gets out of the vehicle surrounded by several police cars and officers, the video shows, before cutting to what appears to be a state trooper getting out of his vehicle and walking toward the driver.

“Come to me,” an officer is heard saying to the driver. Another adds, “get on the ground or you’re going to get bit.”

The driver is shown on the road with his hands up.

“Do not release the dog with his hands up,” a state trooper warns several times from a distance, though it is unclear if the state trooper could be heard by other officers.

The case report says Speakman “exited his patrol car and began giving commands to the suspect” before he deployed the K-9 on Rose after repeated warnings from the state trooper, according to the video footage.

The dog runs toward officers and then turns to Rose and attacks him, pulling him to the ground, the video shows. Rose is seen and heard screaming and crying out for the officers to pull the dog off of him, the video shows.

He continues to cry out as officers call out for a first aid kit. Rose was later shown being treated by the officers.

Christian, the K-9 instructor, told CNN Rose appeared “clearly confused” before the dog was deployed in the video footage because he was getting “two different commands from two different officers.”

“I don’t think the dog is lacking the training,” Christian said. “I think it was just a bad deployment.”

Rose was treated and released from a hospital before being taken to the Ross County Jail, according to a case report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which notes he faced a charge of failure to comply with order or signal by a police officer, a fourth-degree felony.

He was released from custody July 7, the Ross County Prosecutor’s Office told CNN, adding the office is still collecting evidence before it determines whether to move forward with the charge against him.

[citizenhullabaloo]

Smash, Pass, Trash: Outlandos d'Amour by The Police

Disclaimer: Completely subjective opinion! Remember that before you bully me 😦

Pros?

It’s punk with FLAVOR. The reggae undertones added on a debut album that could make or break a band – and made it iconic. With the album art giving you three preppy looking boys and coupled with the fast pop melodies, you’d see this is a great representation of nuance. You CAN have a punk love song and a suicidal reggae song! Plus, hits like “So Lonely” and “Roxanne” are too good to ignore.

Cons?

It’s a TINY bit rough around the edges, but honestly, it adds to the charm. It’s PUNK after all, what do you expect? Nothing else really, unless you aren’t into repetitive vocals, which do ingrain in your head a bit if you listen to this on repeat like crazy.

Afterthoughts?

One of the best punk debuts, because punk is SUPPOSED to push the envelope. Punk is the ATTITUDE, and Punk Rock is the genre. There’s really not much to say, unless you disagree about punk… then that’s a conversation for another day. 😉

Rating Scale: Smash, Pass, or Trash

Rating: Smash!

I would prefer to listen to later Police records, but sometimes when I just want the SPEED and ATTITUDE, this record definitely has it 🙂

6 / 5 (Based off my The Music Checklist)

[everydaydeeds]

Day 3587 - Got my iNaturalist stats for the year - much higher species diversity than I remembered!

[doorplays]

2022 Roundup of Games

Hello! This is Doors. I haven't written here in a while and now I am going to fix that by writing a bunch about the games I played this year!

By my best count, I played about 28 games this year, with 7 of those being games I didn't finish. I’ve enjoyed them to varying respects though, and now I’m here to talk about 17 of them with as little spoilers as possible!

This roundup of games is not ranked, I just listed them haphazardly. I put up a short review for each game so you have an idea of what you’re getting into, and have a rating for each! Most of these are games I very much enjoyed, and if you find yourself playing them, go ahead and message me! I’d love to hear peoples’ thoughts on these games.

This is also something I want to start doing every year, and the best time to start anything you want to start is, well, now! And thus:

Let’s get to it!

UMURANGI GENERATION

I'd describe this game as "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater except Tony Hawk was a photographer". You are dropped into various levels and environments and, within a time limit, you have to achieve the objectives set out by the game. This usually consists of you taking pictures depicting specific things and taking a picture at a certain vantage point.

What I like about this game is its environmental storytelling. And well, really, that's the only way this game tells its story. It's all around the levels just waiting for you to see and take pictures of them. You find memorials, posters, people, all instrumental in telling the grim story that the game has.

I enjoyed experimenting with lenses that I unlock as I progress through the game, and experimenting with various filters! I feel like the game captured my imagination enough for me to enjoy it.

Door Rates Umurangi Generation: 4/5

PYRE

Supergiant never misses. From Bastion with its gripping story, and Transistor with its lovely aesthetic, to Hades with its frenetic roguelike gameplay, they always know their stuff. They know their style and they flourish in it, unafraid of experimentation.

With Pyre, I'd say that they experimented too much. The gameplay felt a bit clunky for me, though that may be because I stubbornly played on mouse and keyboard instead of controller. The gameplay loop revolves around you undergoing rituals, which are more accurately described as sports games. You play fantasy soccer, essentially!

Despite my gripes with the gameplay, I was so enamored by the story, the art, and the worldbuilding. I've grown to love and care for most, if not all of the characters, and I was really rooting for their success. I even found some antagonists charming and hoped that they find success as well.

In the end, I enjoyed it a lot. Supergiant are really good at making games, and with Hades 2 looming, I'm hoping they produce another knockout game.

Though despite my issue with them experimenting too hard here, I do hope they experiment more with their next games. But that's a subject for another post...

Door Rates Pyre: 4/5

THAT WHICH FAITH DEMANDS

This game is a sort of choose-your-adventure type game. At the start you get to describe your character's background, their competency, etc. Then when you're shipped out to do the job, you discover that there's more to the job than you expect.

I am always enamored by sci-fi, and am even more enamored by fiction that has something to say about the divine, so when this game mixes the two of them I completely and utterly fucked with it. This shit? Absolutely up my alley.

You can also interact with your workmates here and discover more about them, but I find that the divine part of the game is what really pleases me. I only wish that there was more story to see and read!

Door Rates That Which Faith Demands: 4.5/5

ENTER THE GUNGEON

I started this game very early in 2022, and let me tell you I did NOT expect it to shoot up to my most played game on Steam. There’s just something about this game that just drags you in easily with its wacky randomness and fun mixups and somewhat cute aesthetic.

You start out choosing one of four possible characters, then in typical roguelike fashion you do run after run as you unlock more guns, more accessories, more characters, and even more areas to explore! It is a very fun game where you can just go pew pew pew at everything.

Door Rates Enter the Gungeon: 4/5

SKATEBIRD

You are a bird. And you have an urge... to skate. It’s a cute little game with cute little birds! You can change up their feathers, their fashion, and do some neat skateboard tricks. My biggest issue with this game though is that the controls are very clunky. But from the short time I played it I found it very amusing.

Door Rates Skatebird: 3/5

HOLLOW KNIGHT

A friend of mine gifted this to me years ago, and it only took me like... half a decade or so to finally finish it! Heck yeah progress.

Anyway, this game is a nice Metroidvania. I found the aesthetic very nice, dark yet welcoming. I couldn’t have imagined making a world full of bugs work out to be cute! The music is also wonderful and the worldbuilding is great.There’s much to discover and a variety of areas. The story is also great (though I imagine my enjoyment was a bit diminished after I spoiled myself a bit lol). I enjoyed it a lot.

Door Rates Hollow Knight: 4/5

HEAVEN’S VAULT

Another friend recommended this to me, and I instantly fell in love with a concept. Sci-fi archaeology! Learning about dead languages! Good worldbuilding! All of these tick so many boxes for me it’s amazing really

I liked the artstyle too, a mix of 2d and 3d, 3d for the environments and 2d for the character sprites. I adore it, something similar was done too for Paradise Killer, another fave of mine.

I really enjoyed the story of this game and its vibes. I replayed it some more trying to unlock more of the language since language knowledge persists between playthroughs, but my save got deleted at one point and I didn’t continue. Nonetheless, I wholeheartedly recommend this game!

Door Rates Heaven’s Vault: 5/5

VAMPIRE SURVIVORS

A simple survival game/roguelike/bullet hell of sorts, and yet it’s so addicting. A friend gifted me this game and it got me in a vicegrip instantly. In this game you go and kill enemies, get experience, and level up to get various weapons and items so that you can kill more enemies. You accomplish achievements so you can unlock more characters. You get more gold so you can upgrade your stats. It’s basically a distillation of “number go up” and how much we enjoy it! Big damage big effects. It’s like rolling up a snowball and watching it get bigger and bigger and eventually it becomes an avalanche and massacres an entire village of ghosts. Sure you crash and burn sometimes but it’s still fun building it up!

The game is very cheap and has recently released an expansion, and is even free on iPhone/Android! Go try ittttt

Door Rates Vampire Survivors: 4/5

HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST

I played Zero Dawn years ago and enjoyed it very much, and I’m glad to report that now that I’ve played the sequel, I still enjoy it a lot! The gameplay feels the same for me, and the graphics are still very breathtaking, though I didn’t have as much opportunity to take pictures here as opposed to in Zero Dawn. I enjoyed the story a lot too. I have nothing much to say about it other than it being a solid sequel, and I look forward to more entries to this series!

Door Rates Horizon Forbidden West: 4.5/5

2064: READ ONLY MEMORIES

This game is by the same people who made VA-11 Hall-A, and is set in the same world and a few years before it. It’s a visual novel with a lot to say about technology, consciousness, and people. I loved the pixel art and I loved the writing! I grew to care for the characters, which was something I did not expect. I recommend this game!

Door Rates 2064: Read Only Memories: 4/5

PAPERS PLEASE

I played Return of the Obra Dinn and enjoyed it so much that I thought I should check this game out as well. Both were made by Lucas Pope. And both are pretty cool in their own way! Return of the Obra Dinn had a focused story and a straightforward objective, but Papers Please had you living life as a simple border control officer and it really shows. Day by day the difficulty ramps up as you have to look out for more potential mistakes in peoples’ requirements. And in the meantime you still have to provide for your family.

While all of this is going on, life continues, and there will be world events that surprise you. I love how this game weaves its simple gameplay into a good narrative. It is a very solid game.

Door Rates Papers Please: 4/5

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE

I started this in 2021 but only finished it early 2022. I haven’t played the original so I’m glad to play this with updated graphics! In fact it’s a huge overhaul even.

It’s lovely to see these characters in high definition. Barrett is fuckin STACKED and it’s lovely to see Jessie and Aerith. Tifa looked lovely in a dress! And it’s nice to see Biggs and Wedge having actual personalities here.

Gameplay was snappy enough and I have no complaints about it. And I enjoyed enough how the story was told. I’m looking forward to part two!

Door Rates Final Fantasy VII Remake: 4/5

CITIZEN SLEEPER

I like this game.

It’s a sci-fi RPG. You arrive at the space station named Erlin’s Eye, where many people have made a home of. You learn of its history, its people, and most importantly, how to survive in this place. While it presents itself as sci-fi, it tells a familiar tale of trying to survive in a new frontier.

The way it plays is that every in-game day, you get a certain number of dice, already pre-rolled. You have to manage these dice in order that you get to use them succeed in the tasks you need to succeed in. In a sense, it’s a mix of RPG and resource management, which is very interesting to me.

I enjoyed the story and the characters. It is a surprisingly familiar story that resonates, and the gameplay is chill enough, along with the music. It has my Seal of Approval

Door Rates Citizen Sleeper: 4.5/5

PENTIMENT

The same friend who recommended me Heaven’s Vault told me of this game. I got it on the Xbox Game Pass and fell in love with the aesthetic. Each frame looks like an art piece you can hang in a museum!! It reminds me of like. The Bayeaux Tapestry. Idk why that specifically came to mind but. Yes.

In this game you play as journeyman artist Andreas Maler. You are contracted by the Kiersau Abbey in the village of Tassing to make art. Through Andreas’s eyes you get to know the village’s history, mingling with the village folk, breaking bread with them even!

This game... this game is not just about history, not just about choices, this game is also about you living with your choices. Andreas’s regrets, successes, and the butterfly effect of his presence on the people of Tassing are told with great import. If you play this game, I urge you not to savescum or make a new save when things don’t go your way.

It’s one of my top games of 2022. Go play it!

Door Rates Pentiment: 5/5

NO MAN’S SKY

I’ve been playing this game ever since it came out, and it continues to be a treat. It was only in 2022 though that I actually played the Expeditions. And it is very nice to see how fellow explorers just help people along through them by making bases, planting markers, and just putting up some messages! I’ve enjoyed this game for years because of its variety and beauty, but it’s only now that I felt how rich its community is. I look forward to exploring it more in the coming years!

Door Rates No Man’s Sky: 4.5/5

FINAL FANTASY XIV

2022 was the year I wrangled together a static, which is essentially an 8-person group dedicated to clearing certain content in FFXIV. We were out here trying to clear the new Savage Raids, Pandaemonium Tiers 1 to 4. It was my first time being a sort of raid leader, and it was honestly an interesting experience! It was rough at times, but I nonetheless formed lasting friendships and strengthened some current ones. And it was very enjoyable suffering playing together with friends :)

As time went on though, I had to drop my subscription because of IRL responsibilities. But this game will always be important to me because of the friendships I have made and continue to make.

Door Rates Final Fantasy XIV: 5/5

MTG ARENA

Okay.

I have a love/hate relationship with this game.

On one hand, the game itself. Magic: the Gathering. It’s honestly enjoyable! My favorite format is Historic Brawl and I enjoy brewing decks for different commanders and just playing out matches conveniently!

On the other hand the economy SUCKS and it does a lot of things to make you feel that FOMO feeling.

I’m honestly waffling between uninstalling it and not uninstalling it and I probably should uninstall it? But I have to admit I do still enjoy the game...

Either way: Magic the Gathering is a great game. MTG Arena? It’s a good way to play the game, but it’d take you a while to collect the cards you want, so jury’s out on that one.

Door Rates MTG Arena: 2.5/5

SUMMARY

That’s a lot of games!!! I played some others but I didn’t have the time to include them here, but I enjoyed most of them all the same.

I enjoy the unique experience of playing games because you are not just... reading the story, you aren’t just watching an event or anything. You are an active participant in these experiences! May it be a story-rich game, a game with fun mechanics, or even a game as simple as Wordle, you are more in charge of your experience. And I find that cool!

I’m gonna try and continue to write more reviews as I play games! I’ll make this my New Year’s Resolution sure let’s go with that. Take care dear readers!

[samasmith23]

Thunderbolts (1997) #1 Review

I just read the first issue of Kurt Busiek & Mark Bagley’s classic run on Thunderbolts collected in an omnibus that I just bought and dang! This was certainly an incredibly strong start to this series!

Even though I already knew the big plot twist about the supposed new team of superheroes actually being Baron Zeno’s supervillain team the Masters of Evil in disguise, it was incredibly fun to see how the twist was subtly foreshadowed all throughout the issue! Not only are Zemo and the Masters of Evil name dropped during the opening news announcer’s list of threats following the disappearance and apparent death of the Avengers & Fantastic Four during the Onslaught crossover, but one of the villain groups that the Thunderbolts fight in their big superhero debut are the Wrecking Crew, with whom the Fixer/Techno had previous connections with back during his time as a member of the Frightful Four, nearly stating that he can’t fight them because of said associations before Citizen V (aka, Baron Zemo) quickly vocally assumes his reasoning to instead be that its because the Wrecking Crew are too powerful (effectively preventing their cover from being blown during the middle of a fight).

Additionally, knowing the twist in hindsight made reading the Thunderbolt’s dialogue even more enjoyable for me since it was fun noticing the double-meanings and lies behind their words in scenes such as their first interview with mainstream news outlets, as Baron Zemo as Citizen V paints his team as merely “volunteers who don’t consider themselves to be heroes” and don’t seek to “usurp the Avenger’s name and record, but rather to gain their own reputation through their actions.”

While on the surface “Citizen V’s” words make the Thunderbolts appear to the public as benign and humble concerned citizens who simply seek to help others after the disappearance of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, in actuality they allude to Baron Zeno’s ultimate plan of gradually gaining the trust of the general public and media in order to be eventually sanctioned by the US government just like the Avengers previously were, bringing the Masters of Evil one step closer to world domination.

And even in the first issue we’re already witnessing the seeds of Zemo’s plan beginning to bear fruit, as the Thunderbolt’s opening fights against both the Wrecking Crew and the Rat-Pack (who respectively attempt to destroy the Statue of Liberty and steal property and valuables from civilians who were tragically killed in the Onslaught incident; latter of which is excellent world-building continuity-wise) ends up winning the team even higher approval numbers in the polls than even the Avengers had during their initial debut during the Silver Age (likely due to the public still mourning the recent loss of the Avengers and fearing future supervillain attacks), as well as the team being contacted by an official liaison from the Mayor of New York.

To the citizens of New York who just suffered a severe tragedy that caused immense property damage and killed countless civilians and even seemingly their mightiest heroes, the Thunderbolts suddenly arrive on the scene to re-inspire a sense of hope and optimism that now seems to be disappearing in the Marvel Universe. The Post-Onslaught atmosphere honestly gives me a similar vibe to the feelings of despair and sense of unity which defined the post-9/11 era, even though the first issue of Thunderbolts came out in 1997, 5-years BEFORE the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But just like the Post-9/11 era, said-newfound reassurance and strength that the Thunderbolts promise to the public is ultimately proven too good to be true, and is in actuality nothing more than a hollow sham designed to advance evil agendas (in that sense, Baron Zemo’s evil agenda with the Thunderbolts to take over the world in response to the Avenger’s absence bears some unintentional parallels to the George W. Bush Administration using the 9/11 tragedy as an excuse to perpetuate war crimes in the Middle East).

Like I said, the parallels are definitely NOT intentional since this came out before then, but it’s a feeling that I still I couldn’t help but notice while reading and made Thunderbolts (1997) #1 feel even more poignant and intriguing (especially for a book about a team of supervillains disguising themselves as superheroes)!

So overall, definitely a strong opening for Busiek & Bagley’s Thunderbolts run! One which expertly and subtly fleshes out its creative and unique premise in the span of just a single issue, and makes the reader invested in wanting to see more of how the Thunderbolts will continue to manipulate the public to their favor, as well as explore the interpersonal characterizations and dynamics of the individual supervillains who comprise the team! And I’m particularly excited to see what I think of the individual Thunderbolts members because aside from Baron Zemo this is my first ever exposure to these characters! The one that interests me the most so far is Moonstone/Meteorite (aka, Dr. Karla Sofen), a former psychiatrist turned-supervillain who possesses Danny Phantom-like powers and is a master manipulator of other people’s emotions who first fought Captain America and the Hulk, and according to Anne Carol from the ComicsCollective podcast Moonstone is originally Zemo’s second-in-command before she plays a major role in-relation to many of the other Thunderbolts member’s redemption arcs!

To hear more of Anne's analysis alongside her colleagues Dallas & Alexis, check out their episode discussing the Thunderbolts on the The Comics Collective! Link's below: