#feature
#feature
by Amr (@siegarettes)
The emergency broadcast system is still operating. Still relaying stories of our great scientific progress, in the middle of our overgrown city ruins. We survived here, that’s clear. Turns out our salvation was in the depths of the Earth, not the depths of the space beyond it. I wish I’d known that before they sent me away.
Then again, maybe it’s better that I didn’t see it. In between the celebratory broadcasts are hints at the desperation, the rush to find a new home. Maybe our life underground was less the scientific marvel it seems and more a solution for a cornered society. There were tensions here. At least, that’s what the minefield doting these apartment complexes would point to. Maybe they were to keep the giant creatures at bay, but somehow I doubt it.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
A cloud of viscera surrounds me. It hasn’t been a half hour and I’m swimming in gore. I found a harpoon and set out open up the gate mechanisms trapping me here, and was immediately ambushed by a massive, razor toothed worm. Worms the size of my submarine shot out of its gullet, and it ambushed me from tunnels in the walls. Growling synths shook the air around me. My slow charging, pitiful harpoon couldn’t even cover the space above me so I had to bide my time and slowly cut away at it until it finally gave and disintegrated into a pile of flesh.
I’m in one of the tunnels it carved now. I’m hoping this leads me out of this cavern.
~~~
by Amr (@siegarettes)
The Momodora Diaries are a chronicle through Momodora Under the Moonlight.
I finished the final boss only to be greeted with this. It turns out that I needed to obtain two items in order to be able to properly purify the final boss and lift the curse on this blighted city.
So I trekked back, realized that an item I had found basically useless after I found it was really the key for unlocking the final item, in a place I’d long forgotten I had to unlock.
I’m so glad I’m playing this game long after the FAQs have been written for it.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
The island of Pipe Push Paradise has an infrastructure problem. They have a single plumber, and he’s been asleep for about a week. And of course every pipe seems to have come undone since then. That’s where I enter, on a lonely sailboat, coming to fix the plumbing problems of a town that seems almost indifferent to my existence.
Out of sheer indignance and stubbornness I’d like to say that I’ll complete all of Pipe Push Paradise’s puzzles. But sometimes you’ve got admit when you’re over your head, and I am waaaaay over my head with these problems. The flat shaded, Golden Books-esque aesthetic might seem inviting, but it quickly became clear that this island’s plumbing problems are mind bending nightmares.
Single Press is a series of short writings on small games.
Good atmosphere is like a bath, or meditation. It’s a space where I can leave myself, slowly taking it in over prolonged periods of time. At its best, a piece ebbs and flows, cresting like a wave and building a small narrative. Shape of the World is one of these standout pieces. It sits alongside games like Proteus, or Future Unfolding, that make an compelling argument for the walking sim, and the subtle power of simply existing in a space.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
I love being proven wrong. After doing this for a while you get a sense for how a game will generally turn out, and everything I’d seen of Vampyr didn’t give me much confidence. There was plenty of promises of meaningful choice and interlocking systems, big words that more often point to overambition than anything else. Vampyr definitely doesn’t escape that overambition. There are many rough edges–abrupt loading screens within open areas, dialogue playing over itself, oversights inside of main quests–these are only a few of the things that point to Dontnod reaching beyond their resources.
Despite that Vampyr has been surprisingly compelling. Its focus on conversation and investigation gives weight to the web of relationships within its cast. Character dialogue is limited, but the process of tracking down people, learning about them, and slowly coming to a greater understanding is deeply satisfying. Characters have tangible histories, and I often found listening to them tell their own stories as engaging as following my own.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
[TRANSCRIPT BELOW]
God of War makes a big deal of the fact that the entire game is framed in one continuous take. Comprised of an extended shot, uninterrupted by cuts, the long take–or oner–has gained a certain reputation in film due to the technical difficulty required in capturing it. In an episode of the video essay series, Every Frame a Painting, Tony Zhou described the long take as something “critics and film students get raging hard-ons for”, and yeah, there’s definitely a masturbatory quality to it. So I can see why a game in the AAA space, which often deeply values technical achievement, would pitch God of War’s long take as yet another technical feat it’s mastered. I mean, sure, you did a 2 hour film in one take, but how about a 30 hour game?
by Amr (@siegarettes)
[TRANSCRIPT BELOW]
When I started de blob 2 I expected a breezy puzzle platformer full of cities ready to be painted. What I was greeted with was an opening that dragged its feet, was a bit too wordy on the tutorials, and took its sweet time getting to the playful coloring bits. It was all well and good from there, with the dynamic soundtrack and simple puzzles providing a pleasant whir of activity.
Then I hit Blanctown.