BOOitsnathalie
The best Mario Kart game. The best Sonic game. A game that shows nostalgic joy does not have to be confined to remakes and retreads.
2016
Muddy survivor's guilt thematic centrism. Refuses to commit to anything and comes out brutally cynical and earnest as a funeral greeting card. Ironically, the natural conversation system only worked to over emphasize how artificial the script and performances felt. Maybe I'm not giving enough credit to the nerves of these teens, or maybe Oxenfree's reliance on "suicide as shock value" betrays a lack of sensitivity to the trauma it mines.
I don't know if I'll ever untangle my thoughts into anything coherent, so here are some dog brain feelings I had playing this:
- more games should use stock photos
- wowowowow I hate airports
- is AAFACRBD a strand-type game?
- falling in love is like swimming in the bluest water you've ever seen and all you want to do is keep swimming and for your lunges to hold out as you go deeper and deeper. But then you feel your chest tighten and your vision blur and it's too late to change your mind as your body flings itself to the surface leaving behind all the fragile potential that moments before seemed endlessly possible.
- Gorby are you OK?
- more games should use stock photos
- wowowowow I hate airports
- is AAFACRBD a strand-type game?
- falling in love is like swimming in the bluest water you've ever seen and all you want to do is keep swimming and for your lunges to hold out as you go deeper and deeper. But then you feel your chest tighten and your vision blur and it's too late to change your mind as your body flings itself to the surface leaving behind all the fragile potential that moments before seemed endlessly possible.
- Gorby are you OK?
Messy gay disasters on a road-trip to nowhere. The combat can be a pain but when the queer body politics hit, they hit like a motherfucker.
Eclipses an already incredible game. Calling it DLC is unfair to other DLC.
2020
Umurangi Generation is the shitty future we occupy, the compromises and pain and small moments of joy all combusting at once. There are no good choices left, they’ve all been stolen from us. What do you do when the world’s on fire but you’re hungry and the landlord’s demanding rent? At what point does the dark comedy of capitalism finally break? Umurangi knows we’ve passed the point of no return but have to keep living like we still have time. It acknowledges our anger but refuses to give up on the people left behind.
2021
What initially presents as a twee grocery adventure unfurls into something far stranger and more expansive. Discovering what's hiding in the vents is a joy. Makes me wonder what my supermarket is hiding...
2021
A surreal descent into capitalist alienation. The moments when the alien exterior breaks to reveal the human anxieties underneath are heartbreakingly sincere.
2015
Flashback to crying myself to sleep, thinking I'm going to hell, wondering if it's worth continuing to live having already been damned. Childhood is full of absolutes and huge emotions. The devil doesn't compromise, they said, sin is absolute and god's word is law. But they don't know the devil like I do.
2017
A disappointing entry in Matthew Brown's typically stellar logic puzzle series. The rules are clever but puzzles rarely rely on straight logic, instead encouraging trial and error and "stumbling" into solutions. Some might prefer this softer style of puzzle game but I was disappointed in how often I would clear a puzzle without understanding how. A great ruleset doesn't mean much if the puzzles don't make use of it.
2017
A neat Tempest + Panzer Dragoon rhythm game (was that what Child of Eden was)? The soundtrack is all YouTube EDM which is...fine. I really enjoyed some of the creature designs which are all giant low poly animals. You've got the giant low poly sandworm, the giant low poly spider, and of course the giant low poly octopus on a spaceship. I wish you could play all the songs from the start as I could recommend it just for the octopus, but it was a fun proof of concept that just kind of ends.
A sublime communist space opera. Ejects high action in favor of slow-paced character drama. As enthralling as it is minimalist.
2013
Doomed us to a decade of sad dads and black pilled ultraviolence.
2020
Exposes the vapid, capital driven busywork of videogames through alien poverty and new age colonialism. Much closer to the spirit of Dadaism than so many similarly surreal but formless games.
2021
A melancholy, cerebral photoshoot through forgotten screens and broken cities. Communicates so much history and scale through mundane architecture. Part of me wants a more complex camera but what's provided is still expressive enough to produce distinct shots. Calling it prescient almost feels trite.