#i have not played the dlc i am not spending that much money on a ps5

[sapphictalahnah]

So out of aloy and seyka which one’s the handmaiden and which one’s the feudal lord

[funsizedcrow]

cursing my past self for not paying more attention when my dad and sister were playing hyrule warriors like. five years ago.

[jellysshitpoems]

I don’t know any dating sims but if you’ve run out as you say then it seems like you’re the perfect person to ask for recommendations?

Visual novel/dating sim recs??? You bet I have them!!!!! Most of my recs are going to be more on the darker side because you know how it is, I live for the drama. Let’s see how I can do this with little to no spoilers.

Here are my absolute FAVOURITES rn in no particular order:

1. Binary Star Hero

Okayokay, this one is in order because its my personal fav. 10/10, no notes. Three love interests, some very different and interesting endings, most of which are with Ray/Binary Star!! Aka the loml <33 the story is set in a world with super powers, meaning of course theres also super hero’s and villains. But how heroic is the best hero really? 👀

2. Favor

Favor. Where do I begin. Alternative demon he/they thats a littleee too interested in you it seems. But when has that ever gone wrong? 😊 mostly voice acted, costumizable mc, and a story that I am DESPERATE for more of, I will wait however long I need to for the next update. I will be there when it happens. Art style is stunning and its the same creator as Binary Star Hero!!

3. A date with death

Love date with death. First dating sim/visual novel I ever played, and it may have set my standards a bit high because of how amazing it is 🫶 replayed it this weekend while im on my dating sim/visual novel kick, and its still so sweet. One love interest who just so happens to be the grim reaper, and a whole lot of extra content if you feel like getting the dlc! Its like ten days total or something?? WITH ANOTHER FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE MC!! A game after my own heart truly.

4. The kid at the back

Another story I will wait until Im eighty to finish it if thats how long it takes. Super interesting plot so far, two love interests, one is more than off his rocker and the other is a little suspicious. But they’re both cute! Seriously though read the warnings for this one carefully. Sol is my fav but that is a BAD THING TO BE.

5. Error 143

Back to sweet ones! I need a million more of this. I will pay so much money. Dont know what to say about this one really, its just so nice. FULLY voice acted, some mini games, customizable pronouns + the voice acting includes your NAME? WHAT??? Im in love with the art style, and theres a dlc!

6. Killer chat

Lowkey brought back traumatic memories from my discord days. But other than that I love it! Fully customizable mc, voice acted, and four love interests that just so happen to be serial killers 😊 finished plus a dlc! But there IS the definitive edition in the works which is gonna add a lot more depending on funds. Please check it out and please consider spending some money to support the project because its so so good 🙏🙏

[annaki-octo]

Okay, I fully finished Side Order's story with all palettes completed.

Thoughts:

As everyone has been saying already: GAY. SERIOUSLY HOW DID THEY MAKE MARINA AND PEARL SO DAMN GAY IN THIS DLC?? I love them so much.

A lot of people have also been saying this, and now that I have beaten the full game with all weapons, I have to say I agree - an endless mode would be a really good idea.

I also feel like they should have added more bosses. I feel like there aren't enough of a wider variety of bosses in Side Order, I feel like I've fought more bosses in Hero Mode. I never got to play Octo Expansion because I actually only started playing Splatoon 2 over a year ago now. I wanted to make sure I would like the game before spending the money on Splatoon 3 lmfao. And now Splatoon is our special interest lmfao

I feel like the story and lore are just lacking? Not to sound mean lmfao I love Side Order and I like the story, but I do feel like it's not as interesting as it COULD have been. I feel like the trailers and the different promotional art for Side Order really set up a really mysterious kind of story, and lots of theories about like cloning and stuff and I feel like the actual story just didn't end up as interesting as I feel the promotional stuff kinda set it up to be? At least in my opinion.

I love the aesthetics. And the music. GOD THE MUSIC. It's amazing.

I actually like that Side Order is "too easy." It made going up the spire with the weapons I'm usually terrible at using much easier and way more fun than I had anticipated. At some point, it starts to get a little ehhh okay this is kinda boring now but I think that's okay.

I'd love to see speedruns of this.

I think it would have been cool to have different "modes" to play in. Like maybe a mode where you go through the whole spire, but with no color chips, and the rewards are prlz and the higher up you go, the more prlz you get as prize. Or modes where it's all hard floors or all rigorous floors, or all danger, etc.

Speaking of - the danger levels. LMFAO. I love and hate the danger levels. I think

I also think there should've been even more different challenges and stuff.

I think ultimately, I think there just needs to be more variety. Especially considering it's supposed to be a roguelike and how easy and quickly it is to beat the entire game, including the entire game with every weapon.

I love Acht and I so am looking forward to seeing them in future games, I hope!!!

I love Smollusk. I love it so much NFJKDASNK

I had the idea earlier for the final Splatoon 3 splatfest to be Squid Sisters versus Off the Hook versus Deep Cut. I think that would be a genuinely phenomenal way to close off Splatoon 3 :')

[galedekarios]

Do you think veilguard would be worth playing for someone who hasn't played previous dragon age games? I just don't really have the energy or motivation to play several other games first but man that game looks so good

i'm sorry i am replying only now!

thank you for your message. ���

again i want to preface this by saying that i don't feel comfortable telling people what they should spend their hard-earned money on, but if you're already interested in getting the game and are only held back by not knowing if it's worth playing bc you haven't played the previous games? then i will say that i don't think you have to have played the previous games to play this one.

bioware has always tried to create games - more so with the dragon age series, but they did it with mass effect too - that can be played as standalone experiences, which are enhanced if you have played the previous games.

HOWEVER, i do highly, highly recommend learning about what happened in inquisition and the trespasser dlc for a deeper understanding of the relationships and stakes of the world. i think it sets the scene for datv.

if you don't have the energy or motivation to play such a long game, which i completely understand, i would recommend perhaps watching a recap of what happen on youtube. it's much less of a time investment.

in addition to that, veilguard does have a glossary, where they explain lore (events, people and general things pertinent to understanding the world). so if you do feel lost in that regard, you can always take a look at that as well.

i hope that helped!

[dragongirltail]

Finally finished elden ring, not the dlc just base game cause I am not about to give the bastards more money for something I dislike, but:

All of what I've held in beliefs from just the playtime I've had accumulated from repeated attempts before is unchanged, and only some small changes to the positive have arisen. It's an okay game. It's a terrible fromsoft game, but if you set this in front of me and told me it was made by ubisoft to cash in on the souls hype I'd believe that instantly.

Copypasted bosses and enemies out the oiseaux, repeating gameplay patterns and loops that make you grind your teeth and truly hurt the strongest things about fromsoft's game design. Can't say I find any of the bosses memorable except maybe elden beast (good theme) and radagon (fun to parry sometimes), but nothing of the experience stayed with me after the fact! The themes aren't memorable, the bosses and enemies become a slurry of rehashes of bloodborne and dark souls 3 animations sped up by 150%, and the power scaling goes so far up that having an attack rating of 1200 at the end of the game is barely passable.

You run around for 2 hours picking up shit to get strong enough to have a decent time with the first few bosses, then spend another hour running around collecting shit to fight a few bosses, then another 2 hours and then you can plow through the rest of the game cause the open world absolutely destroys what made fromsoft games so excellent.

And with elden ring being the most popular game they've made yet it means waves of new players who haven't played any of the other games and have no reference of what a fromsoft game should feel like! Which obviously isn't said to gatekeep this genre, but rather because elden ring is still a good game from the perspective of anyone who hasn't experienced better.

And I wouldn't even be so harsh on this game if it wasn't trying SO HARD to just be dark souls again They ended on DS3 because they said the story was told and wanted to go other places and do other things but then elden ring is just dark souls' world again but slightly different so the teacher doesn't notice. Sekiro isn't for me but I can acknowledge how it still does cool things and make it's own path, I don't own a PS4 so bloodborne has been out of reach but everything it has done to differentiate itself is amazing. Elden ring is just king big sad guy finds a powerful thing then age of prosperity happens then bad thing happens now you are shitty lame guy and must go on a world tour to kill all powerful guys to perpetuate a cycle. Dark souls with a new coat of paint, and this time it's got RR Martin's fingerprints allegedly all over it but I cannot in the slightest tell where the guy did anything, aside maybe more of the weird shit that miyazaki isn't known to be into.

If bethesda released a game that was this much reused assets, animations, audio files, weapons, and gameplay mechanics then there'd be a riot for how they could repackage the same game for 60 bucks again. But fromsoft does it and it's a game of the year and miyazaki does it again and it's so good and if you don't like it you simply don't get it and should get good instead or whatever. There's been so many moments with this accursed game where I went "oh hey this is just the animations from x enemy from ds3 but faster", lothric knights, outrider knights, pontiff knights, sulyvahn's beast, just to name a few.

I've tried so hard to like this game, I've given it so many chances and accrued 47 hours in a game I still don't like. At this point I cannot in good conscience say that I just don't 'get' this game, it's got flaws out front and back and yet nobody seems to see them, I don't get it, I just don't.

If you wanna say something about this feel free to comment or reblog, I'll have a wrassle with you if you do

[maddgical-boy]

remakin my pinned post bc i love spending hours on fun formats. anyways

⸝⸝⊂➜﹒it's me! ⊃⸝⸝

mark/vinny ☆ he/him ☆ minor (strictly 18+ only blogs block me)

hello all! here i post about all things daydreaming-related, as well as some self insert stuff since there is big overlap there for me.

i have mainly fictparacosms (paracosms of existing fictional media). i'm kinda shy about them so i don't discuss them as much but please be respectful when i do. they do not always line up with canon and i just want to be happy and have a fun time.

❤️ this blog is a safe space for all madders/iders and whatever you daydream about. even if it's considered really dark nasty shit, and even if it's willingly! fiction is fiction my friends. ❤️

feel free to send asks about my paracosms or about yours! tumblr is buggy and i am chronically ill so i may not get to it right away, but rest easy knowing each ask is treasured in my heart <3 i'm shy but i want to interact with you all.

no dni or anything, just be kind! i make big use of the block button if i don't like your vibes or even if we just don't agree about stuff. unfortunately my block barrier from my main doesn't extend to sideblogs and i have to block separately from here, which i sometimes forget to do. so blanket statement for all my blogs and socials:

🚫 TERFS AND ZIONISTS/PRO-ISRAEL PEOPLE GTFO 🚫

and hey! if you can spare some money check out the #palestine gfms tag on my main! 🇵🇸❤️

if you want to see more of my silly self talking about other random things, my main is @kissthenova!

below are paracosms & tags!

paracosms ☁︎‎‎��₊˚*𖦹

these fluctuate in and out of how relevant they are to me, especially because god cursed my interests to wholly take over my life and then suddenly evaporate like sweat. this is also why i have random mini paracosms that only come out of hibernation if my hyperfixation does too! lmao

───-> ORIGINAL

■ queerer things still — five teens learn of the magical secret realms on earth and travel through them to uncover the main para (enya liao)'s mysterious past. all of them have magical powers and all of them have emotional baggage that they are eventually forced to deal with by fighting monsters that target their greatest weaknesses. everything is weird and also everything is queer (hence the name).

───-> FICTPARACOSMS

■ arrows of shield — big crossover between marvel's agents of shield and the cw's arrowverse. at the center of it all is me, because i am awesome. the only other teenagers (and original paras) are cicero (an entity meant to deal with all emotional and physical pains) and jessop jiang (a boy from the typical 60s american suburb who accidentally killed his mother).

■ the super happy life of akemi ōtani — a blanket paracosm for all daydreams involving any of koei's musou warriors games (that i have played, which is dw8, sw2, 4, 4ii, and 5, and wo4). the name is from one of my two samurai warriors ocs, as she has a very normal, happy life with her dad and sister that is absolutely not besieged by period-typical war. (also my icon on this blog is of nō, who is a character from sw5! she's in her dlc outfit. i love her)

■ yttd paracosm 2 — i don't have a name for this one yet shhh. anyway have you ever theorized that shunsuke hayasaka is sue miley's mysterious fiancé and then made a yttd sona that has become separate from you and is also their adopted child and is also dating ranmaru kageyama and then spent way too much time rewriting the lore of the game to fit this change? that's what this is. (my first yttd paracosm is asunaroland which isn't as major anymore but yeah. i have 2 of these fuckers)

tags i'll use ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

i love using tags i love organizing i love formatting i love archiving ＼(^▽^＠)ノ ���ヾ(*´▽｀)ﾉ ~(≧◇≦)/ﾞﾞﾞ

my original posts -> #mark stops daydreaming for a sec.txt

answering asks -> #mark answers asks, #ask game answers | feel free to send in something from my ask game!

vents about madd -> #madd vent, #intrusive daydreaming | all of these are ok to rb

positivity about daydreaming -> #positivity <3

my art -> #martk | other art is on my toyhouse and instagram! | want me to draw your paras? commission me!

useful madd-related things -> #useful

anything not daydreaming-related, for whatever reason -> #not madd

...and probably other tags i'm forgetting! yayyy!!

all paracosms and paras are tagged #like this* to avoid anything (like fictpara stuff) showing up in big public tags because i am Scared

dividers: animatedglittergraphics-n-more

[evalynstanley]

Games I like! : Guilty Gear -Strive- by Arc System Works I love this game. It's no surprise that I do- and I am sure it is also not a surprise that I main Bridget. The choreography is amazing! as it should be for a fighting game-. The stages are stunning, the art work is amazing, and the music is so adrenaline pumping- It's insane. Never have I ever been so infatuated with a game to the point where I close my eyes and all I can see is Bridget Combos. It really has just hit my life like a truck (In a good way). At first I was debating on buying it- thinking it was too steep a price to pay- but after getting it on Xbox Gamepass for 2 weeks now- I would say it's worth the price on steam. Even with all the DLC.

AND THE LORE IS SO EXTENSIVE AND INSANE!! I LOVE IT! Each character has amazing backstory that actually makes sense on how they are portrayed as! If you have the money- and you want a fighting game that you could spend a whole bunch of hours on messing with some friends- definitely buy this game. I have had so much fun playing with @vesperkruger- And I can't wait for the next time I play it.

[biggie-chcese]

ship ask game. points at you ominously. My Wawa

THE WAWA!!! beloved... of course my liege

(spoilers for halara's DLC and chapter 4)

Yuma - 12/10 and you may be wondering "wait this ranking is different from the yuma post" my rankings are relative and dynamic. keeps you on your toes. this is hands down my favorite halara ship they are among my favorite dynamics in the game hands down. i am just super enamored with the sides of themselves they draw out in their gumshoe gabs

Yakou - 5/10 this is one i like more platonically but like im down for it. i really love the their interactions in the DLC and halara saving yakou was really epic

Desuhiko - 6/10 i just think this one is funny. i dont see them being serious but desuhiko is definitely their side bitch

Fubuki - 8/10 this one's cute. i don't think about it much but the DLC definitely sold me on it. halara placing trust in fubuki's abilities is a pretty big thing and it's really nice to see how fubuki kinda brings out halara's softer side

Vivia - 4/10 there is something that can be said about their conflicting work ethics and philosophies as detectives, especially from the group confrontation in chapter 4, but it still doesn't personally compel me enough to brainrot over this one

Shinigami - 4/10 i like the fact that shinigami canonically said she was pretty okay with the idea of having a threesome with halara but other than that im not that interested

Zilch (Real) - 9/10 yeah these two should bond over their love of animals and i follow the "zilch's ears are organically attached to him also he has a tail" headcanon which i think halara would love. that's halara's pet freak

Swank - 6/10 picture this: halara visits the biggest casino in kanai ward and gets into a win streak in poker. they're attracting a crowd. swank is there gambling his blood money and goes to check the commotion to see halara at the center of it. their eyes meet, and there's this spark of competition. they play a long and tense game of poker- one in which halara comes out on top. swank is seething at his loss, but he also cannot deny the heat in his loins after spending all evening closely observing every detail of halara's face. halara sends him a wink, and the scene insta-cuts to them making out nasty style in a luxury suite. later that night, they both indulge in expensive gourmet foods and aged wine, bonding over the people they've swindled money out of. when the sun begins to peek over the horizon to mark a new day, halara dismisses themselves and returns to the NDA with brand new peacekeeper insider information. all according to keikaku

[dragon-snoots-a-boopin]

I am not 100% if I have done this before so I am going to call this my updated Destiny 2 vs Warframe post. However, before I get into thing, please note that EVERYTHING I SAY IS BASED ON MY OWN EXPERIENCES IN BOTH GAMES and that my experiences may differ from yours and if you can't accept that then just stop reading now and go somewhere else. Now I shall get into my thoughts and opinions on both of these games.

I am going to start with Destiny 2 here and the things that I like about it because, contrary to what one may think, there are things about Destiny 2 that I do like. While doing that I will also make comparisons to those same things in Warframe too.

If there is one thing I can definitely give Bungie credit for is just how good everything looks in Destiny 2. The environments, characters, weapons etc all look really, really good. They definitely have some extremely talented artists over at Bungie and it really shows. Of course, Warframe is also a very good looking game too and is also one reason why I like Warframe but, I think Destiny 2 has a little more going for it in the looks department.

Another thing, and this is something I really enjoy from Destiny, another thing that I really love is the music in Destiny 2. I can sit and listen to all of the soundtracks for Destiny 2 anytime and all day long too. Hell, sometimes I listen to Destiny 2 music when I am playing Warframe. But, on the same note, I recently listened to and downloaded the Warframe soundtracks and they're very good also! Sure, I'm not a fan of the lyrical tracks on the second soundtrack but the rest it and all of the first one are really nice to listen to anytime.

Yes, that is pretty much where things that I like about Destiny 2 ends so, let's get into what I don't like.

First up to bat here is that calling Destiny 2 a free to play game is an utter joke. What can one do as a free to play player in Destiny 2 anyway? Well, there is no base game campaign anymore which was the major reason I even tried Destiny 2 in the first place. You get a tutorial mission in place of that and the first mission of each expansion and that's really all the story content you get. You have a limited number of strikes, I think only three or four of them. You have Gambit which, honestly, I have no idea what this mode is as I've never done it. You have Crucible which is PVP which I imagine is a small amount of maps for F2P players. There's the Dares Of Eternity activity from the 30th Anniversary and then there are two raids and one dungeon. Yeah, as a F2P game, Destiny 2 lacks so much. Once you do these things beyond the first time, you'll see just how boring this game really is. Comparatively, Warframe absolutely EXCELS at being a F2P game, especially with the vast amount of content at ones disposal. You have like seven to eight planets to do all the nodes on, you have Duviri which also has The Circuit and Steel Path, you have the stuff associated with Railjack missions and so on! Best thing too is that a good amount Warframes and weapons can just be obtained from farming assassination missions and don't have to be bought from a store. Warframe has a terrific F2P structure that definitely sets it far above Destiny 2.

Of course, if you don't want to be a F2P player and don't want to sit in an empty well of content, you could always fork over somewhere between $160 and $200 to get all the DLC for the game. Oh yeah, you could also spend additional money on the season pass and in game shop too. What? You don't want to fork over more money for a game that you already paid money for? Yeah, no one wants to do that. This is the area where Warframe excels because it has an actual, sound F2P structure. Now, I've heard some people say that one doesn't have to spend a dime on Warframe and I am sorry, but that isn't true. The difference with Warframe is that one doesn't have to spend much on the game. To me, Warframe having a limited number of inventory slots is a major thing. Initially when starting the game, you have a whopping two Warframe slots and if you get more Warframes, it'll cost you 20 platinum per slot and platinum is something that has to be bought with real money. I myself have spent around $7 on platinum because of this, because I have 11 Warframes with a 12th on the way soon. I find it to be a little but looser when it comes to inventory slots for primary, secondary and melee weapons. But here's the thing, you can EARN more inventory slots by doing the Nightweave dailies so if you want to get more slots slowly, that's the way to do it. Also, yes, of course, like Destiny 2, Warframe has a store where you can buy stuff with you platinum. But, ultimately, Warframe is such a better F2P game that Destiny 2 will ever be. Clarification: It has been brought to my attention that it is actually possible to not spend a dime on Warframe, even on inventory slots for Warframes and weapons. This is possible because one is able to trade their leftover Prime parts for platinum. I myself have been showed this by a friend and I myself find it to be complicated. I just plainly forgot about this method until it was brought to my attention and I thank those who did for reminding me about this.

The next thing is that you basically can't play this game single player. Not only because the matchmaking system will match you with random players regardless of if you want to or not, but also because I found that a lot of things that are NOT those opening story missions for each DLC is just way too hard for a single player to handle. I find that Warframe is only a little bit better in this regard. Early on when doing planet nodes, you can do them my yourself no problem. I found though that once you hit Saturn, Uranus & Neptune, that pretty much goes out the window. But, those early planets are also not completely possible to do single player because the boss fights will require other players, otherwise they're way too difficult.

Kind of coinciding with missions is that I really with they would do away with parts of the mission where they don't allow one to respawn. I mean, even in a group this can be trouble and I don't think it's fair to the players to have be worry about dying and having to restart an entire leg of a mission over again. I am so, so glad that Warframe doesn't do this. However, Warframe only lets one respawn four times but, after that, you can rely upon other player reviving you. But, if you're doing something alone and go through your four respawns, then your fucked. But, Warframe definitely does this better in my opinion.

Events are kind of boring. At the time of making this, it is their Halloween event, The Festival Of The Lost, and the event is kind of boring. The event playlist consists of killing an amount of Headless Ones in an amount of time and then doing a boss. There are like three maps for this playlist and the boss that spawns at the end is always the same too. Yeah, I do it for getting gear and weapons and because I don't have much else to do but yeah, playing the same mode on the same three maps over and over is boring. I've honestly not taken part in any of the events in Warframe so I have no idea how they compare.

The lack of unique weapons is a small thing that bothers me. You could get a super awesome legendary weapon and yeah, it looks like 20 previous weapons that you have already used and the only reason it's even special is because of damage numbers or whatever. You have all these talented artists, surely you can make more cool looking weapons for this game. Warframe definitely excels here as they have completely different and unique weapons that looks very different from each other.

Now, I am going to make this a Part 1 post and am going to do the same thing as I've done here for Warframe in another post.

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

Games Of 2024

2023 was dominated by Tears Of The Kingdom, and it wasn’t until the very end of the year that I had another game I even wanted to consider for GOTY. In 2024, I already had three main contenders by June. Funny how that works out sometimes!

Even outside of those three, it’s been a stellar year. I think as BBLC progresses, my attitude towards games has changed enough that acquisition is no longer a priority; I’m really only buying games that I want, rather than anything that seems like a good deal. As a result, there are fewer clangers (though there’s still been plenty of Bins!). Not at all a bad thing, I’m certainly spending less money, and I’ve managed to whittle the backlog down to under 40 games for the first time in about 5 years. With 59 games played in 2024, will next year see the backlog cleared? I've said so every year since I started so probably not!

Expect to see some virtual reality on next year's list! A last minute surprise from Santa saw me gain ownership of a Quest 3S headset which I'm still adjusting to. 2025 may also bring us the successor to the Switch, and regardless it will certainly be bringing Metroid Prime 4. Odds are good that my GOTY 2025 has already been decided. But that’s the future, and this article is about the past. Video games!

-

Ys 8: Lacrimosa Of Dana

Last year’s ‘GOTY That Isn’t TotK’ is this year’s ‘GOTY that I think people reading this will enjoy the most’. I started playing it at the end of last year and it lasted into February of this year, so I get to count it for both years. My early estimation that Ys8 was going to be a great time was spot on, with fast fluid combat and a ripping soundtrack, but what surprised me was how much I enjoyed the cast of characters, as they came together in Castaway Village one by one, each with a tale to tell. When the game ended I genuinely felt a little sad, because I was going to miss our little village. Of course, there was also the small matter of the end of the world to deal with, but that’s old hat for Adol by now. I have the novelisation to read through still, whose existence still baffles me.

-

Hitman 2 Hitman Harder

Between only being sold 80% of the actual game (via a bundle that didn’t mention this, the rest having since been de-listed and impossible to acquire) and a general apathy for the score-chasing content (all of which was denied me due to playing offline, because this entirely single-player game needs to always be online or it doesn’t function correctly) I was less than impressed by Hitman. It’s a shame all the corporate bullshit ruined what could have been a fine time.

-

Project Wingman

I have so much to say about Project Wingman. It's my 'Game Of The Year That Is Just For Me (I, Solely, Am Responsible For This)'. I played through it three times in succession all the way to the hardest difficulty setting and came away still wanting to play more. A constant visceral thrill that nails the hard-to-master experience, skill progression is palpable and pulling off a crazy stunt that nails a difficult kill is always a rush no matter how many times you do it. Outside of that, the radio chatter between characters is wonderful when you can take your attention away from the dogfighting to notice it, and I've developed an affection for the whole squad- an impressive feat given you never see more of them than their planes zooming by for a fraction of a second. The orchestral soundtrack is phenomenal, culminating in a truly harrowing final boss sequence to utterly gorgeous music. And then right at the end of the year they dropped a six-mission DLC pack with one stage in particular that will live with me forever as one of the most stressful and most enjoyable videogame experiences of my life. No exaggeration, I came away from it with my arms and legs going numb because I was so tense I wasn't breathing. …In, like, a good way. You'll be seeing this again in next year's list because I still just hop into a mission from time to time so I can enjoy the skies some more- and it's VR capable so you can bet I'll be sitting in the cockpit for real once I get my sea legs.

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Ducktales

This really landed in that sweetspot where licenced games were good, didn’t it? Before the SNES era where they were deliberately made unreasonably difficult because Disney didn’t want to miss out on the rental money, and long before they became shovelware dreck because they knew it would sell even if it was bad. I can imagine a modern audience turning their nose at the idea of playing an old disney platformer for these reasons, and that’s a shame- there’s a good, if brief, time to be had here.

-

Touhoumon Another World Revised

At about 80% of the way through the story, this accessible and player-friendly game said “ok, now you’re a competitive player” and started pulling off some absurd nonsense that no casual player could hope to understand or counter. A real damn shame as I was enjoying the hell out of it until that point. There's some neat QoL stuff that is probably found in most fangames and romhacks these days, but still I'd like to see the official games adopt some of it. Let me change what ball my pokemon are in!

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Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

This game is just neat. I think giving it the Final Fantasy title may have actually done more harm than good, but it's still a good time with some fun ideas, a mild Zelda-lite approach to dungeons, and a monstrous soundtrack. Control your expectations and you'll have fun with Mystic Quest.

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Orwell

In my BBLC review, I wondered if I was doomed to fail no matter what I did as part of the game’s political commentary, or if I just sucked. Having played through it a few times to see all the alternate routes, turns out I just suck. Surveillance works!!!!!

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Wandersong

Nope, I still can’t talk about it. You have to experience this one for yourself. It’s a warm blanket on a chilly day, and you'll love it. This isn't one of those "but actually it's DARK AND GRIM!!!!" kinds of 'trust me', it's just lovely and has some really fun surprises.

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Banjo Kazooie

It's very rare that old games are as good as you remember them, but BK just got it right. Every bit as playable today as it was when it released, tight levels absolutely crammed full of things to find and very fun movement throughout. Even the humour isn't as dated as I suspected it would be. Simply a top class game that has withstood the ravages of time.

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Hexologic

I finished it before I wrote my post, so I'll let that stand. It's great!

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Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

I played four DKC-likes this year, and this was my least favourite. It's almost-but-not-quite like the old games brought into the modern era, but they changed all the small things that made it DKC. Also I know he's a gorilla and is supposed to be weighty and feel heavy, but even so the momentum is just all over the place. DK feels very difficult to control once he gets going, and also very hard to get going in the first place, which was never a problem in the SNES games. Finally, the puzzle rooms are just thoroughly miserable and I'd rather they were excised completely. There's perhaps 6 unique designs that are re-used ad nauseam through the whole game. The SNES games had 1-3 unique rooms per LEVEL. It's not at all a bad game, but definitely disappointing. Despite all of this, it gets 10/10 because Dixie Kong is cute.

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Yooka Laylee impossible Lair

It's a better Donkey Kong than Tropical Freeze was. Not without frustrations- when you take damage Laylee will fly around the screen randomly and chasing her down will often just lead you into more trouble, for example- but they are worth enduring for the excellent level design and fun secrets. HOWEVER! The Impossible Lair itself, which is the game's final level, is complete and total ass. I understand that's the point of it, and in that regard it’s a job well done, but something that is 'bad on purpose' is still bad. If not for that, this would be an easy and hearty recommendation to anyone who likes 2D platformers, but the final hurdle is too much for anyone who doesn't have a steep tolerance for frustration.

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Sunset Overdrive

I am astonished by how little impact this game left on me. I Recycle Binned it in my review but I actually played it through to the end (not 100%) and the whole experience just washed right off me. It is an incredibly, extremely, astonishingly ok game, just about as Fine as a game experience can be, and it's hard to talk about. I am however left to wonder; after film had been a medium for twenty years or so, do you think there was a sudden wave of 'haha, because it's a film'-style jokes? It seems to be rife during this era of video game to grind everything to a halt in order to waggle their eyebrows at the player and make self-references. It's very very difficult to pull that kind of humour off well and Sunset Overdrive doesn't manage it. (MGS2 and Undertale are the only examples that come to mind of it being done well.)

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Earthbound

For as frustrating as Earthbound frequently is, holy smokes the entire Giygas sequence is worth it.

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Great Ace Attorney

I’m still plodding my way through this one so I won’t give a definitive verdict. It’s definitely a more disposable entry into the series- not necessarily a bad thing. I do not like the jury system at all, it doesn’t add anything to the cases, the jurors are all annoying and they don’t have any actual character (none of them are named) so it’s not like they are actually going to matter to the story at all. I’m on case 4 and poor Naruhodo just can’t catch a break!

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The Corridor

It's a short experience that I talked about as much as I wanted to during my BBLC post!

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Melody’s Escape

I don't have anything more to say about Melody either. Good game!

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Soundodger

I got maybe 2/3s the way through the advanced levels before calling it quits. Very fun game but I had played all the songs I enjoyed and the remaining ones were a slog to get through with some annoying patterns (the reverses are very cool in theory but I have no way of knowing when one will happen or where the bullets will go, stop this). The Chipzel level is absolutely fantastic and that's all that matters.

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Mass Effect

I had fun being the universe's most petulant jackass, starting fights for no reason and condemning people to death because I could, but the gameplay itself was a little underwhelming. Combat lacks any sense of impact and I found myself simply watching healthbars to see if I was actually doing any damage with my shots, as there is no other sense of feedback. It was also a lot shorter than I expected, though that might be in part because I didn't do any of the sidequests- still, KOTOR and Dragon Age's main quests felt a lot longer. Overall not a bad game, perhaps past its prime- I didn't play the Legendary version which may be improved in exactly these ways.

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Dragons Dogma

A surprise hit in the late summer, I went into it expecting a mostly-okay RPG in the Elder Scrolls vein, but found a much snappier and more responsive experience. I modded the shit out of it for some QoL stuff that had me scratching my head but once that was done, Dragon's Dogma became one of my favourites of the year. It wasn't only because you can throw people off cliffs without consequence. Not only because of that. The legend of my tiny homunculus called Balls will live on for eternity.

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Final Fantasy 6

In the ever-swirling vortex that is 'ranking final fantasy games', this one was mid-tier for me. People praise its story and characters which I agree are ALMOST very emotive, but also three minutes after his entire family and country are killed in a horrific poison attack Cyan is having goofy lol magic robot clown hour and the mood is a little off kilter as a result. Going to invoke the wrath of the entire universe by saying, of all the FFs, this one could use a modernisation the most. FF7 didn't need it, FF4 REALLY didn't need it, but FF6 would very much benefit from it. Giving its characters room to breathe in animated/voiced cutscenes would nail the tone, I think. Now, listen, this goes against EVERYTHING I usually stand for, alright? Leave Chrono Trigger well alone. I only want this for FF6.

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Master Of Orion 2

Surprisingly I didn't play much Orion this year. I think I burned out playing an especially large amount last year and didn't quite get the buzz back. I think I got a little too good at it, I guess. Maybe I should switch back to Civ 5 in 2025 which is the-same-but-different enough to scratch the itch but give a different experience.

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Neopets

Neopets is in a weird spot right now, even for Neopets. I came back last year to join the faerie festival which gave away an endgame piece of battle equipment for little more than logging in 5 days consecutively, and stuck around to take part in the plot that was due to begin six months later, which released literally the only weapon in the game that is more powerful for little more than logging in for 20 days consecutively. Since then there's been a vast swathe of incredibly rare and expensive items just kinda given away for nothing, which is an effective if questionable way for them to tackle the thorny issue of black market off-site sales for real money, but I suspect there is something else at play here. When mobile gacha games shut down they usually have a month-long event where you get to roll at vastly increased odds just for the fun of doing it, and I wonder if the same is happening here. 'The Void Within' plot signals the December of neopets as it is known today, and rather than try to fix the myriad issues it'll be retired and reformed into a mobile-friendly app game, or just licenced out for endless mediocre match-3 games (oh, too late). That's sad to think about, but I do at least intend to ride out the plot in full.

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Half Life, Hazard Course, Deathmatch

I painstakingly sought out and tinkered with the demo version of Half Life, which was actually its own standalone title called Uplink, in a fit of nostalgia. HL1 is showing its age a lot, in part because it was so ahead of its time. It is so atmospheric you expect it to play a far more modern game of stealth and cover, but in actuality it plays a much more oldskool run-and-gun type of game. Anyway, about two weeks after I managaed to get it working, Valve updated the steam version of HL1 to work seamlessly on modern computers and it also now comes bundled with Uplink in the package. Womp womp. The Hazard Course is also fun to run through- it's the tutorial for what was a pretty complex game at the time, and I remember me and my brother used to race through it and I frustrated him with my strategy of ducking under doors to clear them half a second faster than you can when standing. I miss those days.

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Starcraft 1 demo

I first played this in… goodness, 1998? 1999? We only had the demo version but I played it a lot, and had strong memories especially of the little animated profile pictures each unit had. The soldier guy saying “go go go!” but only opening his mouth one time was a source of endless hilarity when I were a wee boy, and it was a sudden remembrance of that fact which made me seek out the demo once again. The game hasn’t held up too well, especially in terms of unit pathfinding, but it sure scratched the nostalgia itch. If you linger on the first mission briefing too long the AI lady gets concerned and asks if you’re alright, which I thought was really cool as a kid.

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RTX Portal

My ultra-fancy new graphics card came with this as a demonstration of its power. It’s the standard Portal in all ways except it’s very shiny and nice. I was particularly impressed with the way light refracted through the big red floor buttons. But I’ve never really been one who cares much for graphics, and it wasn’t long before I just stopped noticing how nice it looked. Still, Portal is a great game and it had been long enough since I last fired it up that it was worthwhile going through it again.

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Xenoblade Chronicles

Incredible game. It's my third Game Of The Year, and any other year it would have absolutely swept up. I own both 2 and 3 but I wanted to play the first game before starting those, so I rented it and it absolutely blew us away. midgi got ABSORBED and she wasn't even playing, she just happened to be around while cutscenes were happening and suddenly she's sitting with me to watch the rest. The characters, the voice acting, the staging, the music, everything was superb. …Except the gameplay; the battles are a bit pants. But who cares about that when Melia is here? Metal Face was such a great villain, Shulk is a lovely protagonist, I wish Dunban was my dad. Xenoblade's got it all and I can't believe it took me so long to get to it. I can't wait for 2 and 3, the latter of which I understand is even better, BUT I don't want to burn out on RPGs so I am being very well behaved until the backlog dice roll them.

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Final Fantasy 5 Four Job Fiesta

Didn't finish on stream this year, but we played long enough for me to roll berserker for the first time! Thf/Whm/Ber/Nin was my final team, rerolling a Chm in the fourth slot for something a little more fun. Some real nice interplay with that team, thief gives zerk some much needed speed, while eqp axes on white mage makes for a very entertaining quakebot (and whm powers up the rune axe on the berserker of course). Finally, white magic on ninja makes scrolls super deadly, leading to another triple crown. I wanna play with a blue mage next year!

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Donkey Kong Country 2

The best of the DK games, despite starring Diddy Kong. That soundtrack is just legendary and the level design still fully holds up, but most importantly it gave us Dixie Kong. I only wish the DK Coins had some purpose like they do in DKC3- it is still fun to collect them (though I have long since memorised where they all are) but if I ever miss one it feels like a slog to go back and get it just for a high score at the end of the game.

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Donkey Kong Country 3

Pretty much every level except the very early ones have some sort of gimmick in this game, which makes them all memorable, but with ~50 levels and so ~50 gimmicks you can be sure not all of them are winners. The waterfall levels are a particular nadir with a lot of fiddly jumps that send you falling back to the start of the level for daring to explore in a game that normally encourages it. I kinda miss the straightforward platforming stages in 3, but it's still a good game.

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Space Crusade (Atari ST, DOS, Amstrad)

The first computer in my life that actually belonged to me was an Atari ST, and Space Crusade was my favourite game for it. I didn't really understand how to play it (a moderately technical board game adaptation was a bit beyond me at the age of six) but it was a fave, and later in life I came to own the superior-in-every-way Amiga version and played that to death. Curious, I wanted to go back to the ST version to see if the differences really were that significant (yes) and in the process learned of an MS DOS and an Amstrad version, so I had to give those a go too. Suffice to say, Amiga remains king. This is a pretty cool game that unfortunately has a significant reliance on RNG and it will ALWAYS screw you over, which makes it more frustrating than it needs to be.

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APB Amiga

And while we're playing old Amiga games, holy crap my brother had this for like 3 days and I always had a very vague memory of it but I couldn’t remember the title or anything else about it until just by happenstance I was on an amiga website and saw a screenshot of it, and lo and behold a decades-long mystery was solved. It's kinda bad!

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Bar Games

This uhhhhh wow haha I shouldn't have been playing this as a kid

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Deadlock

Valve's new game that was a big secret for a long time, by the time this post is going up I'll be allowed to talk about it in full. I hardpicked Vindicta on my first round and haven't looked away. I don't really care for MOBAs; every round is pretty much exactly the same game and I get bored quickly, and I DEFINITELY don't have the patience to learn the ins-and-outs to become anything close to proficient, but it's fun with friends.

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Unreal Tournament

This was another nostalgia trip. The bot AI doesn't really hold up any more but the shooting is so frenetic it's still fun anyway. I dread to imagine what the online is like.

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Lord Of Rigel demo

This might be The One. I only played a little bit of the demo and it felt a lot like Orion 2 without aping it fully. It also felt very different from Orion 1, which a lot of Orion-Likes tend to lean towards. Feels promising- I want to play the full version before getting too attached though.

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Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster

First time playing this version! Obviously I have played FF1 to death in other flavours but there's some fun changes here, most obviously a return to vancian magic (spell slots instead of MP) but more significantly a change to how enemy AI works. Chaos can now use Curaga at any time and even spam it if you're unlucky. Strategy remains to buff up as much as you can until he first casts it and then delete him as quickly as possible. I did a normal run through with characters called Fighter, Thief, Red Mage, and White Mage (you'll never guess what classes they were), and then a sort of casual speedrun taking advantage of the PR's ‘boost’ function to essentially cheat my way through as quickly as possible, using what I have figured to be the most optimal party- Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, and Red Mage. Got a time of 2:14 which I think could pretty easily be pushed under 2 hours. I love this game and I know it very well so it's nice to get a slightly different take on it. Music is fantastic, obviously.

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Team Fortress 2

I don't know why I do this every year. I play the Halloween event, get frustrated by all the BS, stop playing and decide not to play any more… then load it back up an hour later and see if the next map sucks less. It doesn't. I just really want to finally get that one single cosmetic that never ever dropped over 10+ years of running the same event, and I don't even know why I want it any more since I don't even play the game. It's a shame that something I used to look forward to has become such a thorn in my foot. It would be improved significantly if you could do the contracts in any order, so you could skip the truly awful maps. Oh well, back to grinding out souls to roll the slot machine one more time.

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Tacoma

Not much gameplay to this, but I enjoyed the story. It has a moderate twist to the ending that makes the player's actions a little more positive (rather than mercenary) and leaves things open in a fun way. It's hard to talk about it without spoiling it.

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Ghost Trick

Please play Ghost Trick, by whatever means necessary.

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Entropy Zero

This is a Half Life 2 mod so I didn't want to make a BBLC entry tearing it to ribbons because, heck, teams of folks coming together to make mods is awesome even if they aren't to my taste. This one has some very impressive mapping, and custom weapons which are rare to see, but the tone is all over the place and bucked me off like a bronco. It wants to tell a dark broody bad-guy story about revenge and does so via a main character who makes wisecracks after every kill and communicates entirely in pop culture references. I dipped when the keraaaaazy aperture turret sidekick was introduced and the dialogue became "[wacky oddball nonsense]!" "Shut the hell up" ad infintum.

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Portal Reloaded

I fell off. I am 85% sure I have solved the puzzle I am stuck on correctly, but slightly incorrect angles on the laser beams all need adjusting and it’s a total pain to make those changes given any alteration in the present fully resets the future. Alternatively, I’ve just solved it incorrectly, but I can’t know that for sure until I’ve iterated my current solution enough times and it’s hard to raise the motivation to do that.

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198X

I think I said everything I needed to in my post. If you think it might resonate with you, it probably will.

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Bloody Hell

I finished it not long after my BBLC post. The final boss was fun for me, but I can definitely see someone with less STG experience getting frustrated with what was a pretty significant difficulty spike.

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One Button Boss Fights

Only played a little little piece of this. In a 2D single-screen game there is simply no reason for the camera to wobble and shift around with the player's movements. Nauseating.

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Shining Resonance Refrain

The music that plays while it is raining in town is utterly lovely, but all the effort in this OST otherwise went to the various pop songs that the characters sing, which isn't my personal cup of tea. It's surprising to me that in a game themed around music, I've kept only a few tracks for my personal playlist. This is a pretty fun RPG as such things go, a little cheap and a little janky but I enjoyed the characters and story a lot. Main character Yuma never endeared me but the villains are all great, ranging from 'I can fix her' to 'absolute bastard man' and all points between. Very fun roster of bad guys.

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Child of Light

It's been on my backlog since 2016, but attempting to play it in November 2024 proves that time has been unkind here. Wrestling with the required ubisoft account launcher only to find the game crashes upon launch. Hopefully one day it'll get patched to remove all the ubijunk.

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Pony Island

There's a chromatic aberration filter over the whole game, coupled with a slight-but-pervasive screen wobble that never stops, which combined to make this game impossible for me to play without feeling very unwell. A shame as it seems right up my alley, but I'm not going to make myself sick for the sake of a neat game.

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Pokemon TCG Pocket

Honestly baffling that this game launched with trading unavailable. Battle events need some serious rework, and battling as a whole quickly becomes boring. They need a random battle feature where you come up against a random deck (from a list of premade decks, not an entirely random set of cards) so you're not stuck fighting the same deck over and over. Maybe, like, you can do 10 random battles per day and you get an hourglass for each victory, or something. I think the pokemon card game itself, in real world form or gameboy form as well as here, is just kind of bad in execution from the ground up, but being bad doesn't mean it isn't fun.

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LTTP Randomiser

LTTP is my favourite game of all time and I was worried playing it in such a way would spoil it somehow, but it was actually the opposite- I got to use my fairly extensive game knowledge to solve unexpected problems and find my way through, and even learned a few things (never once had I stepped into what the community calls Hype Cave, I'm almost certain). Some highlights include spending 500 rupees at the Zora to receive 5 rupees instead of the flippers, pulling a shield from the Master Sword plinth, and getting 300 rupees from my dying uncle, who didn't think to bring a sword instead. I played five runs in total, three on Absolute Baby Mode and then a Triforce Hunt and an Inverse game. Inverse is fun, but as soon as you get Light World access it pretty much becomes a standard game again, so I'd probably only do that once.

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Fartbutt

I fell off after they changed the locker and effectively removed the ability to save a loadout and shuffle between them. They fixed that this year so I went back in, but it was too little too late and I'd been gone too long to get back into it. Also that one battle pass with only marvel skins was absolutely bloody awful because they've already done all the characters anyone cares about. Fortnite Man wearing Captain America's outfit? Gwen Stacey But She's Deadpool? C'mon.

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Research And Development

This is a very cool little Half Life 2 mod that uses the physics engine to create something more akin to a puzzle game. There's no direct combat here- you need to use the environment (and for one section, a giant evil lawnmower) to escape the facility. If you have Half Life 2 (of course you do) it's free and well worth a couple of hours of your time.

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Khimera Puzzle Island

A surprise late entry for this Binned game- the developer rolled out an update to address the only issue I had with the game (and called me out personally when doing so!), and I have since played an unearthly amount of picross. The puzzles are great, soundtrack is top tier, and even the cutscenes (skippable if you don't care) are enjoyable. I have only good things to say about the Khimera series.

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Bins:

Brutal Legend Nirvana Pilot Spore Creatures Blaster Master Dont Give Up Bioshock Knights of Round (capcom beatemup) King of Dragons Klang TWO

That's all for this year. See you at the end of 2025!

[v-bits-fits]

Hello out there, future me or otherwise

Wow, February was a busy month. I got sick with the flu, I went on vacation to Colorado, and obviously work never stops being busy. I even deleted the Nuka World DLC on my game accidentally and ruined my playthrough on my ps4. I'm honestly surprised I was even able to get Chapter 8 out before the month was up.

Luckily, I'm able to play FO4 on the gaming laptop my partner got me for Christmas. I was able to mod and cheat a new game so that my character is approximately where I was in my last playthrough. It's honestly better, because while grinding on my previous game I went through some story lines I might want to explore later. I think it's also better I can use mods and console commands. As I said previously, this story isn't really a narration of my playthrough anymore. Rather, FO4 as a game has become a tool I use to write my story.

I plan on writing a lot more in March. I'm trying to enjoy my home more and go out less. So writing gives me a good reason to stay home and not spend money. It's also a good way to keep myself distracted until this awful winter ends.

I am so ready for summer; I just bought two beach chairs for me and my partner. I'll warn y'all now. As soon as the weather is 75F+, I'm not sure how much writing I'll get done. I do plan on reading a lot at the beach, and I haven't been reading a lot of FO4 fanfiction like I said I would. Perhaps I'll download some onto my paper reader and read fanfiction at the beach.

Anyways, back to Fallout: Genesis. I did get some feedback that not everybody likes to read their fanfiction on AO3. I think I'll spend tonight looking into Wattpad and Fanfiction.net. I have no experience with either of these sites, but if they're simple to work with I'll probably start posting there as well as AO3. Also, I'm probably not going to do any editing like I said I would a couple weeks ago, at least not any time soon. I got a bunch of negative feedback on that. And while I still think I want to someday, I think I'm more interested in pushing the plot forward. Maybe when I finish this arc.

If you have any questions, suggestions, criticism or anything feel free to ask or comment! I'm new to writing, and my education is in STEM, so I acknowledge I'm not the best writer. But I want to improve and welcome feedback! Anyways, as always thank you for reading!

[doberbutts]

So I'm 120 hours into Tears of the Kingdom and I gotta say

Initially I was somewhat disappointed because it felt like I'd burned through 2/3s of the story really really quickly and that was one of my complaints with BotW that the actual plot content was quite minimal and the long playtime was mostly busywork and collectibles nonsense.

Anyway I pumped the breaks and started cleaning up my sidequests and checked my hour count and

"Played for 75 hours or more" OH. I was expecting like. 30. Apparently I'd been having so much fun that it felt like less than half the actual time I'd been playing.

I'm almost done with my collected sidequests so I'll progress the plot again once I've finished clearing them out but I do think that's a mark of a good game design, to make someone have so much fun that they don't realize how long they've been playing because it doesn't feel like work. A lot of these open world games fall into that trap so it's nice to see Nintendo trying to pull away from it because BotW definitely was there.

And for me honestly I consider it money well spent if I get at least an hour of playtime for dollar spent. I only spent like 11 on this because I know Gamestop Secrets but the game was 70 USD at release and I would consider any less than 70 hours of fun to be a ripoff at that point. This is also my reasoning for what DLC I do or don't buy- I am not spending 20 USD for 2-4 hours of additional gameplay.

Anyway it's loads of fun and the gameplay loop is fun and enjoyable without getting too repetitive. I'm definitely not planning to 100% it but I do want to finish what I've started because it's engaging. You will never convince me to find 1000 fucking Koroks or whatever I'm not doing that, but also I've got over half of the shrines down and most of the armor sets at this point.

[championkoma]

I am once again back on my pokemon bullshit.

Over the past 10 years or so, my love for pokemon has been fading with each new release. Starting with Sun and Moon, I began to feel like pokemon had become too kid friendly for me, as I just graduated high school and was truly beginning my adult life. I enjoyed the story of Sun and Moon but did not enjoy the games mechanics in the totems rather than gyms and what not and did not enjoy the region itself so much. After that, ultra Sun and moon released and I bought it but never even beat it until this year because I just couldn’t get into it. I enjoyed the Lets Go games but wish there was more battling involved so I could see my boy mega blastoise more in Kanto. I was quite excited for Pokemon Sword and Shield but once I began playing I quickly grew bored of it, can’t really place any reason why but it just didn’t stick. I had fun with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl but they’re nothing to write home about. Then legends arceus released and I was super hyped for it, and now I still have not finished it. I think it’s the best idea the pokemon company has had in years but I can only play for about 30 minutes before getting bored. Now with Scarlet and Violet, I was not hyped in the slightest but bought scarlet anyways and actually ended up loving the story but thought it was an ugly game, the first dlc was fun and I looked forward to the second but once it came out, I quickly gave up once encountering the trials.

Overall, I figured I’ve just outgrown Pokemon but once IOS allowed emulators, I decided to get all the older games again and quickly felt the nostalgia and love for the series in full again.

The Delta Emulator for GB/GBA/DS.

I downloaded delta first, as it was the emulator I was most familiar with. I got all the GB and GBA games first but quickly wanted to try SoulSilver for DS again. At this point I’m not too far but still open it up and grind whenever I have time.

ArcEmu for Apple Watch

I then learned of ArcEmu that allows you to play Gb/GBA games on an Apple Watch. I love this idea and downloaded FireRed for it but don’t really use it for anything, but enjoy knowing that I have it with me if I ever leave my phone.

Folium

An emulator for 3DS games has been fun to tinker with but doesn’t run the best on my iPhone 13 mini. Weirdly, Pokemon Omega Ruby seems to run better than Pokemon X.

Overall, I just like to tinker with the emulators on iOS and prefer the DS and 3ds games on emulators, for some reason GB and GBA feels wrong on phones.

Pokémon Go

I have been a day 1 pokemon Go rural player, over the years I have mostly just used it for transferring shiny pokemon to my main switch games. At this point I’m pretty much done with the game as they continue to make the game a pain for rural players who don’t want to spend money. I have transferred all of my shinies to home and most of the pokemon but will still check the game whenever I’m in new areas and whatnot.

Pokemon TCG Pocket

I started playing the new Pokemon TCG Pocket game and im liking it so far. I’ve never been much of a Pokemon TCG player, just a collector and this game scratches the itch for a casual collector like me who just likes to buy a booster pack occasionally here and there. I pulled a full art Mewtwo card which was cool.

Pokémon Sapphire/GameBoy Micro

About 2 years ago, I bought a GameBoy Advanced and a couple of Pokemon Repro carts. Eventually I pulled the trigger on a legitimate copy of Pokemon Sapphire. I work full time and do full time college so I don’t have much time to actually play. Eventually I decided to get a GameBoy micro, and decided to go for a cheaper and more beat up so that I can take it with me everywhere and not feel bad if it gets beat up.

I have loved having a GameBoy micro with me. I still don’t get to play as much as I’d like but it makes lunch breaks more fun at work and something about playing on actual hardware feels so much better.

Pokemon and the impact it has had on me

I have been a lifelong Pokemon fan, many of my earliest memories include Pokemon. I watched Pokemon the first movie probably over 100 times. I collected and traded Pokemon cards on the playground with many of my classmates. I received Pokemon firered as my first Pokemon game when I was 10, around the time Pokemon platinum was released and put hundreds of hours into it. Once, Pokemon X and Y released I made it my goal to complete the pokedex and was successful. I probably put 300-500 hours per game back in the day and now usually don’t even spend 100 hours on the modern games. Maybe I’m just a grumpy old fan but to me it feels like modern Pokemon is missing the heart that old Pokemon had.

Anyways, just figured I’d make a post for the hell of it and just chat about Pokémon.

[thebestoftragedy]

content warning: video games.

as much as I would enjoy a beefy dlc/expansion for bg3 (hunting demons with K&W in avernus??) I also like knowing the game is Done and I don’t ever have to spend money on it a second time after buying it way back in 2020. and with eg da4/dav ea has set a really bad precedent because like, I know that shit won’t be done when it gets released, so other than I guess fomo re: being part of the Zeitgeist when it releases there’s not a compelling reason to pay full price at launch when I can get More Game 12-18 months from now when they put out some GOTY/complete/enhanced/whatever edition that will not cost $55-70.

if I knew it was going to be a Witcher 3 situation where both major expansions are definitively post-main-game content, that might be one thing, but da series is kind of infamous for having stupid dlc that adds mid game missions and entire fucking companions. and I am not playing da4/dav twice any time this decade, I am just not a person who replays long games. I have still never finished inquisition despite at least 3 major attempts because it’s long and boring and bad and the companions all suck except my bestie Cassandra and my worstie Solas. anyway maybe the vegan egg will be on my face in a couple months when I’m bored as shit and buy veilguard but. probably not.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Spoiled Gamers

On a different note ... still playing the Dredge DLC, and still seeing Reddit whining about it.

The complaints are basically, "No new areas; no new exploration! We're just going to the same areas again and seeing them just a bit different! Why are we bothering with this?"

And I sat there going, "But ... new mechanics, new ship upgrades, new tasks, new fish, new aberrations, new aberrations of the exotic fish that used to be once-in-a-lifetime catches and we can now farm if we want to, new types of bait, new story... We have new shit to spend the shitloads of money we keep picking up in this game and new stuff to do; how is that not enough?!?"

And then the lead dev (who is pretty much The Guy; it's not like he's got a huge dev team or anything) actually went onto the post (because we all know this guy has a Reddit account) and said ... basically the same thing: "We were actually shooting for different things in our two DLCs to date - Pale Reach was always about a new zone and a new fish type, while Iron Rig was about making use of all the money you pick up after awhile, giving you a different experience in the world during new playthroughs--" (because seriously it is such a different game if you start a new playthrough with Iron Rig installed than if you get to endgame and then run through Iron Rig) "--and telling a different kind of story to the ones we told in the base game and Pale Reach".

Which ... I mean ... yeah. All three are takes on mortals messing with shit they can't understand, but the themes are different. Base game is love; Pale Reach is ignorance; Iron Rig is greed. And people wanted new zone and new mechanics and new fish and new story ... and I guess they wanted all of those things wrapped up in each DLC, instead of having it spread out.

Do ... people really not understand the difference between a AAA studio, which only has staffing issues because it laid off thousands of people, and an indie studio, which has, like, maybe a couple of people, max? Like, I'm not complaining about how long it's going to take for the next chapter of Scarlet Hollow to come out because that is being made by two people, and only one of those people is doing every single drawing for that game. I get being demanding of AAA games because ... well, hell, we want something for the amount of money we're spending - because while I'm okay on cosmetic items as a concept, I'm not comfortable with the amount they expect us to pay for what sometimes just amounts to recolouring existing armour. I do not get being demanding of indie devs who are doing their best. It's like indie devs get all the backlash that should be reserved for the money-grubbing AAA games companies because "they're all the same", and they're not.

Be nice to your indie devs, people. The AAA games companies are starting to reach the point where the bubble they've been inflating for decades is about to burst. The industry has tanked before, and it's likely to tank again before rising up in a new form. If and when that happens, the indie devs are going to be producing the only new games we get, so ... be nice.

And as I say that, I am looking at the assholes who basically shut down Emika Games. Emika Games makes psychological horror walking simulators, for the most part, and most of them are not very long at all. They're also not very expensive. A whole bunch of people bought the games knowing damn well that the estimated play time was less than the two hour limit on Steam refunds, played them through once, and got a refund. So Emika Games never saw that money and apparently had to shut down entirely, not having enough money to finish the next game they wanted to put out (From Day To Day - the demo's out but it's been "TBA" for years).

This is why I never know how to feel about piracy, y'know. Like, I get not wanting to give certain companies money, but then there's the people who just steal from everybody because they feel entitled to stuff but don't feel like paying for it. It's a problem.