losing my mind in recent months and beginning to think i somehow prefer myst 1 to riven; maybe im batshit, but i keep thinking theres something beyond special about its usage of alien machinery that never quite gets explained and the semi connected puzzle structure. it feels extremely unusual still

i now propose the idea that the two pillars of game design are tetris and minesweeper. the former is ultra deterministic checks built upon reaction time and the latter is probablistic conundrums demanding intense reasoning for unpredictable payoff - this is, effectively, all non puzzle game design

theres often a consensus that everything weird has to be inacessible and esoteric because of weird games usually aiming to break rules/challenge perception. this is part of what i appreciate so much about patapon - it proves otherwise. its a trailblazer of uniqueness, yet completely comprehensible

after playing enough games, trying to assort a favorites list is hard for me now

i used to be more cynical and less easily wowed by what games do right, but after recognizing how much blandness there is, i latch onto just about any game with a strong identity/execution so much more now

i really wish grand strategy games had a more specific audience than just history/genre fiction nerds generally speaking - ive been reluctantly going back to stellaris repeatedly, but the intricacies arent all there and i kind of think space is a dumb frontier to deal with territorially speaking

i also would like to say that personality traits in the sims 2 at least are somewhat shallow. my david byrne sim had maximum shyness and shouldve been awkward and that guy was getting laid non fucking stop before he died to burning down the house by complete chance

for anyone who has not yet: i strongly suggest playing (dungeon) crawl (stone soup). its a completely free traditional roguelike incessantly developed for almost two decades. although im not hyperexposed to say if old versions are better, the polish is tangible and its shockingly accessible

dont think many people read each tweet i do, but for those who do... who are your favorite game developers/studios on the whole? maybe up to 3 or 5 picks, can include those that are defunct too

SHOW: FINISHED
FIRE WALK WITH ME: ALSO FINISHED
THE RETURN: CAN'T BE BOTHERED RIGHT NOW

holy fucking shit that series was good. people did not kid about it getting real rough during mid season 2, but when its good its the best television ive seen. lynchs surrealism blends well with frosts writing

ive begun watching twin peaks as of late; its wonderful already! i cant get into much television, and i only liked (but didnt love) the other lynch material i saw, yet im hooked. it revealed something though: it feels almost all the games with truly good/great writing are riffing on something else

APOLOGIES if theres any shit grammar in the review thread. i crunch up lots of tweets and miss shit a lot, just to avoid the character limit - hope its all still readable.

LIVE JOURNAL ON EACH GAME I PLAY THROUGH THIS YEAR INCOMING! (thread)

supposedly old news, but apparently JW has taken over vlambeer, i hope this means ultrabugs gets finished. vlambeers games were the closest thing that there ever were to a modern treasure in my eyes - they just "got it".

you might have to zoom for this - ive been proposing there are alternative methods to games being nuanced than completely emphasizing pure mechanical depth. many acclaimed games (zelda, team ico games) basically do all three of these to achieve success, rather than rigid systematic design alone

alright, no professional aesthetic on here - im using this shit as an extension of backloggd to spout my (non nuanced and non verifiable) takes that i do basically no research for. also just things that interest actively or whatever