#upper one games

[miloscat]

[Review] Never Alone (PS4)

A platformer with a purpose.

I thought I’d follow up Below Zero with some cold-themed games from my backlog. This one is very icy indeed as it’s a retelling of a fable from the indigenous Alaskan Iñupiat culture about a supernatural blizzard. As a product of a native culture advocacy group, Never Alone <Kisima Inŋitchuŋa> is not just a cute puzzle-platformer but a celebration—and education—of Inuit identity and community, from the content of the story to the prominent documentary snippets that tie into the themes.

In its short runtime, Nuna and her fox friend are chased by a polar bear, avoid the Aurora Borealis (made of the mischievous and dangerous spirits of children), swim through a the belly of a whale, contend with a murderous miscreant, befriend various spirits, and ultimately confront an ice giant. Each story beat has a lesson or some cultural background that is elaborated on in the interview segments, such as the Iñupiat’s respect for nature or community-mindedness.

Each character has their own skills: the girl Nuna can push boxes, climb, and throw a magical bola, while the fox jumps higher and can convince spirit creatures to move around and act as platforms. The game is built around this cooperative dynamic, so local co-op multiplayer is a main feature but it’s still perfectly playable solo, as I did, by swapping between the two. These mechanics can be a little clumsy at times; with its basic Unity platforming I’m reminded of the game Little Bug which I played earlier this year.

Luckily Never Alone is never too demanding and checkpoints frequently. It’s more concerned with telling its story than it is presenting a tough challenge. This cultural focus and the metastory of the game as an educational tool echoing the personal stories of the contributors enriches the experience beyond what it would be as an average platformer.

Also available is Fox Tales, a DLC expansion that tells a new story with the same characters, reframing a fable about two brothers fighting a giant mouse as an opportunity for the girl and fox to solve more puzzles involving water currents, projectiles, and a canoe. It’s a nice extra with new gameplay states and some newly shot interview segments, and well worth checking out in addition to the base game. After playing both, I find myself longing for every culture on Earth to have a video game just like this, that makes playable adventures from their art and stories while presenting insights into real peoples’ way of life. It’s fascinating and valuable, a real treat!

[theonewhowails]

Golden Fleece

[kaiserouo]

modern au

[divineandmajesticinone]

KISS X KISS X KISS: Love ii Shower (2023) I Atelier Kiss "Aside from me, do you ask someone else to model for you?"

[vendettapandav]

“Curly deserved better” “curly deserved so much more” “curly didn’t deserve what happened to him”

No no no no that’s the POINT. Curly is just as bad as Jimmy. He let so many of the giant red flags that tumbled out of Jimmy’s mouth slide. He was told multiple times about the abuse Jimmy was inflicting on Anya. He ignored Anya even when she pushed so far as to hide the gun on the ship bc she genuinely feared what Jimmy would do to her. Curly heard it all- saw it all- and he chose to do nothing. He had every opportunity to intervene before the crash but he didn’t. He chose not to. He blathered on and on about responsibility, about his willingness to do anything for his crew, but when they needed him most he did nothing. He just stood there and watched and let it happen.

And now he can’t do anything. He has lost the ability to make that choice. He physically can’t intervene now. His chance to change things and take responsibility has passed him by. Now, he has to just sit there and watch how the mask formed from all those red flags he so willfully ignored peels away and reveals the monster that was always there beside him. Now, he has to just sit there and watch as one by one, Jimmy manipulates and drives each and every one of the people that he swore up and down he would protect to the very edge, and kills them. Now, he just has to sit there and watch as Jimmy justifies each of his actions by blaming everyone else for the situation he put them in- the situation that Curly allowed him to put them in. He has to sit there and watch as Jimmy does everything in his power to create a palatable, sanitized narrative of what happened all so he can cover up what he was doing.

And Curly chose to stand there passively and allowed all of it until he physically didn’t have a choice anymore.

And in the end, Curly is the only one left to tell the story. The story of how it was all his responsibility, how he was supposed to do anything for his crew. And now, it’s all his fault because he couldn’t do just one thing. He has to live with that fact for the rest of his life. He has to live with the fact that his willful ignorance, his choice not to act, cost four people their lives. He will live with those physical and mental scars forever. But even worse, he has to live knowing that that’s the truth. And that in some cruel, twisted way, Jimmy was right.

The truth doesn’t really get rid of that awful taste in your mouth though, does it?

[jimmyspades]

THE BLACKLIST 1.10 "Anslo Garrick (No. 16): Conclusion"

[toomanycharr]

A reminder that male and female charr have different horn/ear set ups!

(Of course, do what you want but- It seems a lot of newer charr people just don't know!)

[antigonenikk]

hoosier and leckie are actually not cringe to me at all....at any modern day university leckie is the super hot dude in your english lit class who u see around town on dates with actual models. hes kind of annoying when it comes to literary analysis, but will always open the door for you and is polite to the professor. not cringe. meanwhile hoosier is the most desired man on campus. definition of nonchalant. faded on dabs 24/7, chain smoking cigarillos, blasting the loudest rap in the world from the speakers he smuggled into the dorms. always has on a ripped vetements hoodie he stole from bucky's dorm room to piss him off. invites to every frat party on campus. opposite of cringe.

[charlesreedscoolhat]

Charles: and how do I contact you in the future?

Johannes: you don't 🌟 bye you soggy bitch ✨️🕺✨️🕺🟨🟨🟨

[storywestistrash]

i am actually so tired of the way westerners treat eastern europeans

[everchased]

ready to slap larian's hands away from their own fucking game i stg

[pergaminaa]

Following up on this post:

By the end of the giant book (which Manon enjoyed immensely), she kinda sorta got addicted. Not to the reading or the books, but to Dorian reading those books for her. (it's what she claims, but she did enjoy some of these stories and wanted to explore more)

She thought it was probably a preference towards audiobooks, but she tried those and barely lasted a minute. No, she was just into Dorian reading those books, nothing else. She doesn't like the books themselves, just the man.

Dorian, on his end, loves it. He made it his mission to take Manon to bookshops and have her pick whatever book she wanted and he’ll read it for her.

Of course, Manon being Manon, she had to tease him. She does choose the filthiest, smuttiest books available and just has Dorian read those.

And he does.

With his impeccable acting and voice he always manages to turn the tables and instead of her getting a reaction out of him, she ends up all hot and bothered thanks to the man her heart decided to bind itself to.

[idolsummons]

fifty points for anyone who can recommend me a good novel that doesn't have romance in it

[3416]

Thanks for explaining! So does that mean an alternate would have a jersey with an A and a jersey without an A when they’re rotating? I can’t believe I never even noticed lol but seriously I wish leafs fans would pick a damn opinion and own up to it like the way they hated jt for his contract and wanted him traded up until he passed the C to auston and suddenly he’s nhl joe Biden and it would be sacrilege to make him share an A like it is nawt that serious it can nawt possibly be that serious

yes!! behind the scenes, everyone already has multiple home and away jerseys already, so the leadership group with rotating a's just has them with and without depending on the game! i'm fairly certain mitch and auston just switched off every other game most of the time, but i feel like i've heard about some teams doing away vs home alts etc etc. all of that seems up to the team, you just submit your roster and can only have 3 ppl with a letter per game. most teams just stick to 1 c and 2 a's, but when one of them is out, sometimes someone will be made an a temporarily too.

and tell me about it, lol!!!!!! people just act like it's the biggest deal in the world and i'm truly like.... jt just willingly stepped aside and handed over the whole ass captaincy, which isn't uber common....... you're gonna tell me he draws the line at sometimes not having an a on his jersey? did the whole team just forget he's been their captain for yrs and has the leadership qualities that he does bc he's not wearing it? god forbid. i've seen it about mo a lot too and i'm just like. i get ppl are sentimental abt his tenure with the leafs but be VERY real if you think morgan rielly is gonna throw a hissy fit abt some shit stitched on his jersey every other game. it's not like you get paid more one way or another. it's not like there's a real impact beyond you just not being at the forefront in terms of talking to officials.

[pagesofkenna]

i'm trying to work through some of my video game backlog before i play new games and theres two big titles im planning on getting in september, so

[rodlaveraryna]

ok time for me to rant for a sec: i'm sorry if this offends anyone but i can't stand the jannik as aaron burr (hamilton musical mind you, not the real person) comparisons. don't get me wrong, wait for it has some great lyrics that fit with jannik nicely but as a whole the core of burr's character is like the antithesis of jannik. the reason jannik went from in and out up and coming top 10 player to world #1 grand slam champion is because of incremental improvements in his game that might not have looked like much match by match but are clear as day in retrospect. on the other hand, burr's inaction is a key negative trait of his and he only realizes that after he's fallen behind from his peers. and while you could perceive this "catching up later" as being jannik coded, jannik has been active since the beginning trying to catch up with and surpass his peers after a practically nonexistent junior career. burr is defined by being passive while jannik is anything but.