rinwsedsosege
2018
Replaying this right now on pc after last playing it a few years back on release, and tbh some things don't hold up from how I remembered it - - still a lot to admire though :o
The best part of God of War 2018 is - by a pretty sheer margin - it's level design, which dictates a dance between the designer and player intimate enough to let me just about fully role play that the ancient nordic dungeons I'm ransacking exist as a chunk of their nordic world, over being a vehicle for combat encounters and lite puzzle solving. It's a fun dance as well, always nudging you just lightly enough to make you feel like an active contestant and not a marionette
The best part of God of War 2018 is - by a pretty sheer margin - it's level design, which dictates a dance between the designer and player intimate enough to let me just about fully role play that the ancient nordic dungeons I'm ransacking exist as a chunk of their nordic world, over being a vehicle for combat encounters and lite puzzle solving. It's a fun dance as well, always nudging you just lightly enough to make you feel like an active contestant and not a marionette
2019
i could have a day where i feel like the dumbest trashfire to ever exist, and playing this would still make me feel like im an omniscient all powerful demon god, just because of how incredibly well this game fulfills and embodies that fantasy. its like that game 'super hot' but its actually in real time, and you can ride a motorcycle right up into your resurrected demon brother's face in mid air
When i first beat ganondorf, i felt more or less satisfied ending it there. Then i found out there's a mod that lets you play as 2B from nier automata, that changes all the battle music to nier automata music. Then i found a mod which turns all the rupees to toilet paper. Then i found a mod that lets you put the bunny-deer-horse god into a stable so you can ride it forever. Then i found a mod where you can make all the koroks say f u c k when you drop the rock they were hiding under on their heads. And before i knew it id already spent 100+ hours on this game.
1989
The complete insanity of tetris is that every time I start a new round of it, there are entirely new questions i have to ask myself, new problems to solve. As you play it more and more, and the skill ceiling gets higher and higher, your playstyle transforms over and over again, changing the rules and even entire challenge of tetris.
Most versions of tetris may seem quite similar, but the truth is they are all ENTIRELY different from one another. The version which in my opinion has the most infectious complexity is NES tetris, for a number of reasons often not even intended by its developers. The game becomes less about predicting where to best put pieces, and more so about which placement of pieces can give you the most freedom of movement, within the limits of how fast you can move a piece relative to how fast they fall down, which are imbalanced in this game.
High level NES tetris play involves compulsory use of at least one of two mechanics: hypertapping and DAS. Hypertapping is self descriptive; it is how you button mash your controller, and literally every single player i've seen has a different method for it, different ways of holding the controller, different hand positions. DAS, or Delayed Auto Shift, is a brief window of time after you've dropped a piece where you can 'charge up' the next piece, by holding down the directional key you want that piece to go in before it drops. In NES tetris the timing for DAS is very difficult and requires a lot of practise, but is incredibly satisfying if you can pull it off effectively.
Tetris is a game that is impossibly infinite, it is infinitely entertaining and challenging in ways more complex than even any scripted puzzle game i've played. The puzzles in Tetris function less as riddles, and more as exhilarating debates, fumbling to find the perfect word as questions are hailed onto you.
Most versions of tetris may seem quite similar, but the truth is they are all ENTIRELY different from one another. The version which in my opinion has the most infectious complexity is NES tetris, for a number of reasons often not even intended by its developers. The game becomes less about predicting where to best put pieces, and more so about which placement of pieces can give you the most freedom of movement, within the limits of how fast you can move a piece relative to how fast they fall down, which are imbalanced in this game.
High level NES tetris play involves compulsory use of at least one of two mechanics: hypertapping and DAS. Hypertapping is self descriptive; it is how you button mash your controller, and literally every single player i've seen has a different method for it, different ways of holding the controller, different hand positions. DAS, or Delayed Auto Shift, is a brief window of time after you've dropped a piece where you can 'charge up' the next piece, by holding down the directional key you want that piece to go in before it drops. In NES tetris the timing for DAS is very difficult and requires a lot of practise, but is incredibly satisfying if you can pull it off effectively.
Tetris is a game that is impossibly infinite, it is infinitely entertaining and challenging in ways more complex than even any scripted puzzle game i've played. The puzzles in Tetris function less as riddles, and more as exhilarating debates, fumbling to find the perfect word as questions are hailed onto you.