A surprisingly strong cyberpunk noir mystery that is well-told and compelling even while being somewhat obvious and traditional. Lacuna sits firmly within its genre and tries little to rock the boat, instead focusing on fleshing out the political situation in its world, providing genuinely tough choices, and making each character act according to believable motives and values as well as just being endearing in different ways. I truly cared about these people.

I also love art that hates the police but is told from their perspective. It's such an interesting challenge getting across your intended message while also having your protagonist have a realistic amount of resistance to questioning what they're doing. You're able to be a "good cop" if you can do things right, but only to a point. Ultimately as I was able to do here, the only good cop is one who actively sabotages the organization they work for.

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Played on Linux through Proton. Please add a Proton/WINE option to Windows games on Backloggd.

I'm not sure Vomitoreum said much of substance about its themes of sexual violence, decay, revenge, and so on. The gunplay is surprisingly simplistic even compared to the game it's based on, is pretty unsatisfying, and quite easy. The Samus ball thing makes me feel woozy. The backtracking gets confusing and it all gets worse when you have to rely on your flashlight being a buggy little npc that floats around you and often doesn't go where you want it to. There's a lot of annoying little things in this game.

Despite all that, I can't help but kinda like it. The art is fucking gorgeous and the novelty of an FPS metroidvania lasted long enough to get me through Vomitoreum with an at least somewhat positive opinion. I want to try more gzdoom games independent from the classics...they seem like a fun area to explore.

I have to wonder what this game feels like to players who aren't Souls vets. So many of its decisions are fueled by its relentless attempts to counter the mindset and playstyle Dark Souls teaches its players. The final boss even says to your face: "Hesitation is defeat," clearly stating the mechanical thesis of the game. You attack, attack, and attack while deflecting sometimes...other options like running away, blocking, and dodging are niche mechanics for very few situations, and if you use them in general combat you WILL have a hard time.

This took me quite a while to complete. It's hard to tell due to the amount of idle time, but I think Sekiro took me about as long as my first run through Dark Souls.

I do feel somewhat limited in the intelligent things I can say about this, because so much of what's floating in my head is comparisons to Souls and what makes those the greatest pieces of art in existence. I still don't feel ready to fully tackle those, and that sort of leaves Sekiro hanging as well. Oh well, for now I'll leave it at nearly every element of this game being the most brilliant thing I've ever seen.

Played on Linux via Proton.

Adorable designs and queer shit drew me in, but this is kinda just the anti-me game.

...give me a version of this with the horny shit but without the drugs and extreme excess and constant crimes against humanity and other edgy stuff. It's not funny or charming to me...it's just gross and makes me want to curl up in a ball until I forget about this game's idea of fun.

Helltaker does the "horny game about evil beings doing their thing" infinitely better and in a way that doesn't make me feel like shit.

It's a game about coming together with the workers of several failed startups and burning Amazon to the fucking ground while also smashing Alexa under your feet, and unionizing. It has so much contempt for the utterly contemptable and so much love for the absolutely lovable. This is so obviously my shit that it's almost funny.

I could do some boring minor criticism of it from a mechanical perspective, but it feels so beside the point. It's a good time and does its job of supporting the revolutionary spirit this is all about. Solidarity forever.

Played on Linux through Proton.

While in-game, this is an excellent adaptation of one of the greatest games out there. It got me back into Magic, and for that I appreciate it. However the limited number of formats (not even pioneer?), bugginess of the client, and lock-in not even allowing trading your cards really drag down what could be the definitive way to play Magic on the internet. Their decision to wreck Historic with the release of Alchemy was the last straw, so I quit.

All my Magic playing will now be done on Cockatrice (a FOSS client) or hopefully in paper on SpellTable.

Played on Linux through WINE.

Inscryption goes through so much effort to present the argument between flavorful design and mechanical purity, and does an exceptionally good job at convincing you that the former has more soul, is more compelling, and often leads to better mechanical design in the first place. After all, the first third which stands in for flavor, pomp, and presentation also ends up having the most satisfying and rewarding mechanics.

The middle third is a bit of a slog as it contains the most rigid and low-powered tcg gameplay, but I have a hard time even holding that against the game. When something impacts you deep enough, in-the-moment flaws like that become irrelevant. I think Leshy understood that.

I think Inscryption is the highest effort defense of the Kamigawa block I've ever seen.

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Played on Linux through Proton. Will keep posting this until there's an option to choose.

I thought this playthrough would help me collect my thoughts and write a proper review, but they're still scattered and swept away by the uncomplicated love this game pulls out of me. I live for dialogue. Speech checks are the ultimate power fantasy for an awkward nerd like me. I love the politics, I love going for an independent Vegas and figuring out how much to collaborate with the various flawed factions around me. I love the audio logs, I love the terminal entries, I love the exploration, I love the looting, I love the sheer number of factions, I love the companions (especially the gay ones I love the gays), I love the silly generic voicelines, I love the music on the radio, I love hearing about major events on the radio, I love playing along with my own moral compass, I love the positivity buried under the bleak setting (bless the post-post-apocalypse), I love the little environmental stories, I love the Followers they're just so sweet, I love those ghouls on their rockets, I love the super mutants, I love the voice acting, I love every god damn silly throwaway joke or reference, I love "obsidian's gay cowgirl" in the credits, I love retrofuturism, I love all the love in this fucking game, I love making weighty choices, I love getting the gang together for hoover dam, I love Fisto, I love Christine, I love Arcade, I love No-Bark, I love Marcus, I love Veronica, I love Chris, I love Julie, I love the King, I love Dala, I love ED-E, I love the mods, I love the physics bugs, I love kicking Caesar's ass, I love kicking House's ass, I love Yes Man, I love the appliances in owb, I love the ambient music, I love each and every god damn thing about this god damn video game!

Played through Proton on Linux. I'm going to start putting this message on things unless/until an option is added to Backloggd.

What's weird about this DLC vs the others is that I'm not really sold on Ulysses. Despite the super interesting teasing throughout each of them, I don't think his motivations or ideology come together into a very coherent whole. His speeches sound cool, but honestly I mostly see him as a means to get into the courier's past, which I still appreciate.

Despite lacking strong characters, Lonesome Road excels at nearly everything else. The environments are the most beautiful the game has to offer, and they lead nudge the player down a perfectly paced path. The atmosphere is thick and unique, though not overbearing like Dead Money could be at times. Combat encounters are dynamic and on higher difficulty levels require more thought and adaptation than the game typically asks of you. The gaining momentum as you walk this road and are tricked again and again just feels so GOOD and grand and I adore it.

Played through Proton on Linux. I'm going to start putting this message on things unless/until an option is added to Backloggd.