ahead of the curve baybeee
2 Likes
Having finished Horses I find the censorship even more absurd, and reading about how people are justifying it when other games with similar content are also on Steam is frustrating. Gamers are bound and determined to remain in the dark ages.
6 Likes
Sampling this monthās PSPlus offerings.
Lego Horizon: I love the graphics and how everything is rendered in Lego, even the ground and water and clouds in the sky. I wish all the Lego games did it like this.
Unfortunately so far that is all I love about the game. It must be targeted at small kids or something because everything is too easy and boring. If there were a solid argument that there is such as thing as too much polish this game might be a good example.
Maybe itās just the tutorial level and as it goes along it gets better. Not sure if Iāll find out because I uninstalled it immediately after reaching the first real level. I already played the regular version of Horizon I surprisingly am not really up for the Lego-fied version with the simplified controls and simplified levels and simplified story and simplified everything. Not at the moment anyway.
Neon White: Why did I sleep on this so long? I had no problem replaying that first level a few more times to get the high scores and find the secret. I like the story framing but I didnāt like how long it took to sit through despite everything moving at a good clip.
That was one of my problems with Lego Horizon too. I just do not give two shits about the set dressing or the characters or the reasons for any of this stuff thatās going on just give me the game and set me loose on it. I already heard the elevator pitch and Iām on board letās get to it already I never want to see two characters standing across from each other yammering back and forth explaining stuff I already understand but am too paranoid to skip for fear that Iāll miss the one nugget or wrinkle to the game thatās actually new or different this time ever again. I guess I am just jaded as well thatās probably part of it.
But yeah Neon White itself is really good. There are some mechanical nuances to the movement that will be fun to explore and making it a series of speed run challenges is just the kind of hole I like to fall into from time to time.
Red Dead Redemption Remastered Again: Yeah this is Red Dead Redemption alright. Spruced up with maxed out PC settings for the visuals, smooth high frame rates, HDR that is by default too bright and maybe not even ārealā HDR if my suspicions are correct, and definitely still feels like a game from 2010 in all the best and worst ways.
Same problem with the writing/storytelling as the other two I mentioned already in terms of how long it takes to introduce you to the game and its systems (something Rockstar has gotten both better and worse at as the years have gone by) but itās at least all pretty natural feeling and decently written. Iāve been replaying the sequel the last couple months and itās interesting how much they improved and expanded on literally every aspect of this game. If that game got a remaster tomorrow Iād start it up all over again. I really hope GTA VI continues in this vein of having more and deeper simulation-y systems that interact with each other. Basically I hope that game has a whole ecosystem to interact like RDR 2.
I heard a rumor recently that the reason Dan Houser left was because he wanted Rockstar to split internally again into different teams so they could put out more games more often and he could have more stuff to work on but Sam and the other leadership wanted to stick with their current model of occupying all of their studios on one game at a time. It is a shame if thatās true because while I do like the stories that Dan and Michael Unsworth and the others came up with and how they managed to weave them into the games themselves I think I would rather have more interesting interactive world systems and complexity to poke and prod at in a game rather than see all of that take a backseat to trying to imitate Hollywood and make a movie with interactive bits.
Like it would be great if we could have both but I guess we canāt so here we are. Ironic that Rockstar are one of the few developers not only capable of making the kinds of games they do but actually willing to do it. Ubisoft is the other big name capable of doing a big game with a lot of interacting parts but you see how those turn out. Lots of things that sound interesting on paper but in practice end up flattened out becauseā¦ I donāt really know. They just donāt want to risk alienating anyone with the amounts of money they have to spend to make these so the games never end up doing anything really controversial?
Far Cry 7ās purported 72 real time hour time limit sounds bold and interesting but 72 hours is more than enough time to get completely bored with one of their games lol. Or if youāre like me you play the game for 20 or 40 hours then get bored and spend 100+ unfogging the map and checking off the boxes.
9 Likes
I think the main theme of Horses is societal sexual repression. In the world of Horses, sex exists in a contradiction. Consensual sex is āsinfulā but exploitative and dehumanized sex is something that just happens but isnāt discussed, and is almost formalized. I donāt think this game has anything new to say on the subject, but it doesnāt really need to. Itās presentation in the form of a āDoing Chores in a horror gameā is new.
Much like how on steam there are hundreds or thousands of hentai games which area allowed to exist, but Horses gets banned. Valve is fine with endless violence and graphic dismemberment but this is a bridge too far. Again, a contradiction, one that Valve is fine to live within.
Every day we are confronted with these contradictions. Our leaders lie to our faces and weāre expected to go along with it, lest we become āotheredā. Getting banned by major game platforms is ironic given the gameās themes. Some free market we have here.
Most of the people arguing for itās censorship or running these platforms have not had to live fucked up marginalized lives and it shows.
13 Likes
I was going through Games Coming Out in 2025 and saw a visual novel/rhythm game with a Panic! At this Disco reference and went āsign me the fuck up.ā And there was a free demo.
Then turns out it is about being British and Emo and a teen in 2009 or so. I was immediately taken back as the title music was much closer to mid-west emo from 1998 (which only very recently did Emo The Genre become a continuous chronology! This is revisionism!!)
The one song in game sounded more any kind of brit-pop and much less than alexisonfire, Hawthorne Heights, MCR, saosin, scene-Myspace eyeshadow-longbangs-skinny jeans that I immediately associate with Emo of the time. But I wasnāt in England or high school at the time. Iāve been investigating 2000s British Emo all day to try and figure out why the music sounds like Everyday Shooter noodly guitar than, well Emo. But I am saying I donāt think it is inaccurate it is just not with the mellow drama. Like there is a second reference to the P!ATD song in the game! there should be more theater kid than alone in the bedroom in sound.
Those are gripes. I didnāt hate the writing and it felt honest and real. Iāll buy the full game and make it have 51 reviews rather than 50.
If you want to have conversations about horrible spin-kick mosh pits and Funeral For a Friend and if the music seems right for the time period please reply here. Gonna go listen to The Used now.
10 Likes
I have no fucking idea what arc raiders or embark or whatever are if that makes anyone feel better.
9 Likes
Beat the finale of the Orc expansion campaign in Warcraft 2 after nearly 2 hours of restarts until I got a good enough start to actually play the map lol
5 Likes
I had an incredibly drunk dude at a bar the other day try to talk to me about Arc Raiders and at least he wasnāt so drunk as to not noticed my total disinterest. Then he tried to get me to tell him the bartenderās name when she wouldnāt tell him and somehow believed that I didnāt know it.
This is my review of Arc Raiders.
14 Likes
the only extraction shooter i see anyone missing out on is Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst!!
8 Likes
my friend literally bought me a copy of Arc Raiders to play with him and I Justā¦. Canātā¦ I spent 1000 hours on Apex Legends (which he didnāt like the faster pace of) but I just dont like the extraction loop, donāt like the PvP, it feels confused and toxic in a way BRs arenāt.
3 Likes
I literally get side-eyed and kinda side-talked to ācause I tell folks coming into the office that the position theyāre taking on is as important as it is underpaid and that they will be doing a job that carries a 150k/yr. national average of pay for half that.
But-as Iāve laid out to the management before-I staunchly refuse to lie to new hires about what they are getting into and the responsibilities, difficulties, and stresses they will face in the job or the critical role their work plays.
11 Likes
Iām halfway through Dragon Rage (PS2). This game looks awful. It is a weird mixture of Drakengard 1 tier grimdark story and setting, and two dimensional sacharrine characters more befitting of an edutainment game, or a Dora the Explorer character or something. Just, there have been ten thousand years of dragons as chattel slaves and magic soylent green but also the fairy talks to you like an ABA practitioner talks to a small disabled child, teases you by calling you ādragon breathā and things of that sort. If you donāt save the eggs, dragons will never be free from work concentration camps again and dragon children will only ever be worked to death then converted into fuel, race you to the next checkpoint! Gameplay is unpolished but diverse enough to be engaging. Timed missions are horrible because they require quickly navigating unintuitive requirements while traversing big unfamiliar maps. I said to @Gimelrey that it feels a lot like a PS2 era Grand Theft Auto game and this is most of what engendered that feeling. Just a new type of mission literally every mission and every third mission is some insane entirely non-playtested, possibly glitchy nonsense you will repeatedly fail. Going to beat this though. Saving the dragons of the world is meaningful to me even when expressed incredibly stupidly.
9 Likes
Still playing Top Gear Rally on GBA with youtube 1 hour long drift music video. A huge thanks to the developers for using the space for the track instead of jamming OST.
6 Likes
Finished Ace Combat 6 how the fuck is it 1:20 am???
6 Likes
Having to interrogate my lifelong distaste towards JRPGs after really enjoying Stray Children and now finding myself knee-deep in the translated Splatterworld prototype that just dropped and loving it!?
Canāt tell if this is some kind of positive personal development in letting go of arbitrarily held standards or just an inevitability of my own worsening mental healthā¦ in other words, wrestling with who I identify more with, innocent baby-rick or zombified toddler-rick:
16 Likes
Splatterworld: Dropped and Loving It
4 Likes
Been playing Kingdoms of the Dump and I absolutely love it. Itās such a charming little game with aesthetics and humor that just perfectly clicks with my taste.
8 Likes
Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)
been awhile since i played this one and iād appreciate it if someone could refresh my memory: is it normal for the fan to get this loud during the intro missions?
also: oh my God, these controls are miserable
Splatterworld
an open world Splatterhouse sequel?
2 Likes
Not quite, itās an unreleased famicom RPG in the splatterhouse series
2 Likes
Unfortunately yes. The PS4 is notorious for turning into a jet engine for some games.
1 Like