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Companion (2025)

"I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards."

A very fun horror?/thriller with a side of comedy, particularly given how unsubtle the storytelling/messaging can get. It's a bit cheesy in a fun way, they knew what they were doing. A bunch of friends get together at a country house, one of the guys tries to assault one of the girls, and the girl kills him in self defense. Whoops! Turns out she was a companion robot and that shouldn't have happened. Chaos ensues.

Definitely a lot more fun than it is scary, despite its twists and turns, they know what you came for and they deliver without pretending the movie is something else.

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Super Double Dragon (1992)

Sigh, here I go, giving Double Dragon another chance despite repeated disappointments with the franchise in the past...

Color me impressed, the SNES game isn't half bad! It plays a lot less like the NES outings and a lot more like, you know, a good beat em up? It is mechanically a bit unique, you can block attacks, which I don't love but it works well enough. I'm more peeved by the "power moves" and how awkward they are to use, having to hold down the charge button for way too long. I don't adore the music or the graphics, I think the sprites could be bigger, but all in all, I was shocked by how competent it is.

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R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998)

Somehow, I don't know why, the first time I tried Ridge Racer Type 4, I kinda passed on it, thinking it was an average racing game. I couldn't have been paying much attention, I was browsing through the games included on the Playstation Classic and probably wasn't very interested in a racing game at that time.

I chose to give it another shot this year after hearing some people talk about it, and god damn, I get it now. I don't know how many Grand Prix runs I've gone through, but I've played it a lot. I am currently tracking down a copy with the jogcon just for the sake of playing it in its original hardware with a novelty controller. I adore this game.

The menus, the music, the little stories and characters from Grand Prix mode all have a ton of personality. While it takes a bit more time to get into a realistic-looking racing game that doesn't have real life licensed cars, once I was absorbed by the game's world, I believe the original vehicles add a lot to the mix. I wish the original strategy guide could have been released outside of Japan just so I could read up more on the world from an official source.

The gameplay itself is so satisfying. It's pretty much unrealistic and arcade-y, but I personally prefer that to something like Gran Turismo. Drifting around unreasonable corners at an excessive speed is what racing games were made for. It feels so good.

I have some stuff I can complain about though. While the variety in vehicles is vast, thanks to the combinations of manufacturers and teams, the fact that the game kinda expects you to play through Grand Prix at least like 120 times to unlock a secret car is ridiculous. There might be over 300 unique cars, but there's only like 8 tracks and 15 songs in the game, so I got a bit tired earlier than I wished. I guess there's a silver lining though, if you were to get into the game right now, you wouldn't have to invest a ton of hours into it. I kinda prefer a 2 hour long campaign I can play 10 times without getting tired than a 20 hour long campaign that kinda drags before credits roll.

Anyway, this shit's a masterpiece and you should absolutely play it.

And a little bonus!

One More Win: Ridge Racer Type 4 fanzine (2025)

This little fanzine came out very recently at the time of writing, very convenient for when I'm writing about the game. I had to grab myself a physical copy, fan merch (or any merch, really) for the game isn't exactly common and this looked like a good old labor of love.

It contains several short essays on the making of the game, its audiovisual design and so on. What the kids would call a retrospective, with some very nice formatting to boot. Glad I snagged one.

If you're interested (you should!), digital copies are still available here at a very resonable price.

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Warpath: Jurassic Park (1999)

A dinosaur fighting game is a concept that would only really make for a fun game if you completely ignore the idea of realism, like Primal Rage did, or if you instead chose to go for something experimental. Warpath does neither, choosing to go for the very bold option of making a sluggish and dull 3D fighter. The dinos look nice on the ps1 and all, the environments from the movies are neat, and it is a bit of fun to destroy items and eat a random animal that's running around the arena, but the game simply doesn't feel great to play.

I appreciate that there's plenty of playable modes, unlockable dinosaurs, and a somewhat educational "museum mode". Said mode also blatantly tells you "yeah the size differences during gameplay are bullshit, this dinosaur was actually way larger in comparison to this other one". Maybe I would have found the game more interesting if they tried to keep the sizes realistic as well? It's a weird middle ground, they're willing to make compromises in size, but not when it comes to the creatures being nimble like any good fighting game character.

Try it if you're curious, but be aware that there's a reason why no one ever talks about it like it's a hidden gem.

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Duke Nukem Advance (2002)

By no means the only FPS on the GBA, but ambitious nonetheless. It's "an all new story" but the narrative is forgettable even for Duke standards. However, what I appreciated about it is that they chose to respect the limitations of the system and create entirely new levels rather than trying to poorly port Duke3D.

It's alright I guess, a bit challenging, closer to a classic Doom experience, but with wackier weapons.

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The Combatribes (arcade, 1990)

Another classic arcade beat em up that feels like complete shit to play, because unlike a sensible game in the genre, enemies recover from your attacks faster than you do, meaning you can rarely perform combos and have to rely on a very boring hit-and-run playstyle if you don't want to get your ass kicked.

There's cool techniques to perform, like throws, stomps, slamming enemies against each other and the like, so fights against groups of weaker enemies can be fairly entertaining, but the second a boss shows up, the fun stops. I seriously have zero patience for unintuitive games that throw cheap hits at you and essentially punish you for landing your own blows.

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Duel Fight Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Warriors' Strongest Decisive Battle (1999)

Portable consoles have sadly been home to plenty of failed attempts at fighting games, both original and ports. The team behind this odd game (seriously, the one Transformers traditional fighter we get is based on Beast Wars and on the GBC?) knew what they were doing though, and produced a very cute and fun game. The roster is small but diverse, including odd picks like Generation 2 Megatron, that one triceratops that could transform into a triceratops carcass (yes, really), a kangaroo OC, and a moon rabbit girl who isn't even a transformer. She has a crush on Starscream, she's just like me.

The game also includes a bunch of minigames and unlockables that would have seriously kept me playing for hours if I had this as a child, had it been released in a language I could understand. Which leads me to a clear downside, it's a Japan-only game. Not the biggest deal if you only care about the fighting, you don't need to understand japanese to play the vast majority of fighters out there, but slightly annoying if you want to engage with the rest of the content it offers.

A very cool bonus is that, if you have a Super Famicom with its respective Super Gameboy addon, you can play this like any other fighting game with a friend on your TV, which kicks ass. I'm currently looking for a physical copy for that very reason. Thankfully they're not hard to come across and they're fairly cheap.

If you like Beast Wars and are looking for an odd fighting game not many people are paying attention to, I don't think you'll be disappointed with it.

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Afflicted (2013)

Came across this movie through a youtube recommendation, decided it was interesting enough, and it was a nice surprise. It's a found footage in the style of a video blog, fairly low budget, and it's written, directed and primarily acted by the same two guys, which made it feel quite authentic. Apparently they considered making a web series, sorta like Marble Hornets, but decided on a traditional film instead.

The plot doesn't fully lean into super duper scary horror all the time, which is totally fine. If you think about it like the youtube vlog it's presented as, you end up thinking "yeah actually I would expect a couple of vloggers to act like this", which makes it fun. The final third of the movie leans more into action, something that I didn't mind given the tone wasn't that serious, even if it makes the whole thing feel a bit less grounded and "realistic".

Yeah this gets a big old thumbs up and a "definitely check it out". Some people might dislike it and think it's stupid if they expect a more traditional found footage horror film, but that's why I'm setting the proper expectations.

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WWE Royal Rumble 2025

I am mostly a WWE hater these days, but I still tune into some of their shows here and there out of curiosity. As much as I dislike the company for plenty of their decisions, they still got tons of performers I enjoy watching in action, and there's a lot of them in action in this show.

I am one of the many people who didn't care about Charlotte winning the women's rumble, and her presentation as a babyface just because she returned after some time away from the ring was a very noticeable miss. No wonder they quickly pivoted to presenting her as a heel again. Nice to see Stratus and Nikki Bella show up, and Alexa Bliss finally coming back.

Some seriously memorable moments include Cody's alabama slam into a ladder to Kevin Owens, that shit was brutal, I liked their match quite a bit. As for the men's rumble, you gotta respect IShowSpeed because he wasn't just a celebrity cameo for a laugh, brother took a couple of scary bumps. I was invested in the altercation outside the ring between Reigns, Rollins and CM Punk, that did have me coming back to see some other shows since their feud got pretty heated. Hated seeing Logan Paul, as always, but I didn't mind Uso getting the win in the end.

Didn't regret checking out the show, the Royal Rumble is almost always entertaining, and the other matches in the card were quality as well.

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Heretic (2024)

I have mixed opinions on this film. Hugh Grant puts on a great performance, I'd say the first half or so of the movie takes its sweet time and is pretty damn good for it, it's deligtfully tense and unnerving. However, there's a point where tension and stakes have to escalate, and the shift is a bit too much. I wouldn't say I hated the whole thing, I generally liked it, but I definitely would have preferred a version of this story that stayed a bit more grounded and unsettling rather than what they actually did.

I'll keep it vague and relatively spoiler free because I do think it's worth a watch.

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Inspired by @punkitt-is-here 's Horsecomix :D

(Original Tweet)

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[lorz-ix]

I do not ask this out of malice but what do you do when you're a genderfluid lesbian and you want to follow an lesbian nsft blog with men dni in their bio.. do u not interact with it at all if you're a guy at a particular day. What if you are bigender are you only allowed to interact with the blog within 12 hours. What if you're a wet slurry of every single gender identity ever but you're 50.1% of what most would consider to be a girl. Many things to consider

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{this user wants you to toss them their keys}

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Twilight Imperium (fourth edition) (1997/2017)

Probably the board game I return to the most often, since one of my friends is really into it. He even has a good amount of fan-made addons and accessories. There are so many playable factions, we actually don't play it enough, we're not even close to having tried them all out.

Now keep in mind, sitting down to play this is an event. Being very generous, the game's runtime averages at least one hour per player (meaning 4 players would take at least 4 hours to finish a regular game), so if you add however long it takes to set up beforehand and to clean up afterwards, we're usually meeting before lunch and finishing up sometime before dinner. It's quite the time investment.

If you've ever seen a table set up to play Twilight Imperium, and keep in mind the duration of the average game, it might seem incredibly intimidating, but the rules themselves are quite easy to learn and keep track of. There's no complicated math or systems to micro-manage, but there are quite a few game pieces to help keep track of everything.

Gameplay-wise, it's almost like a tabletop version of Civilization. There are diverse factions with unique quirks, negotiations between players, technology trees to invest on, and most importantly, hexagon-based warfare. I quite like the variety in possible playstyles and the possibility for memorable moments, like that time I had one of my ships dart across the map for a suicide attack that wiped out half of another player's fleet, as retaliation for attacking me first.

My main gripe is that, despite the lengthy playtime, there are so many options for upgrades that I'll sometimes feel like the game is over too soon. Like I never feel like our power levels have reached the endgame, the game simply ends at one point because someone scored the required amount of points. We could always run longer games with a higher victory requirement, after all it doesn't feel like a drag once you're into it, but we're talking about a game that already takes most of the time out of our day.

Aaaanyway, if you get the chance, you know someone who plays Twilight Imperium, or you know a place where they'll let you borrow it or some shit, consider giving it a shot. I promise it's not as intimidating as it looks.

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First marathon of the year!

Gotta admit, a bunch of these games are very similar to each other, so my individual thoughts about them are gonna be relatively short and shallow.

The House of the Dead Remake (2022)

I had heard some negative stuff about this remake, but I was able to get my hands on it for very cheap, and I honestly quite enjoyed it. As a remake of an arcade game, it's light on content, but it's still fun enough to play through the same campaign several times. The achievements and unlockable weapons are a good enough incentive.

Also, being an arcade game, it has its negatives, particularly when it comes to difficulty balance, cheap hits, how much you need to mash the trigger at some points... The worst though, is how there isn't an easy way to play it with reliable light gun controls. On the nintendo switch, it's utter shit and you shouldn't even consider it an option, just like with any switch game that asks you to point at the screen with any degree of accuracy for any extended period of time. On the ps4, the version I bought later because I heard it had ps move controls (and because I wanted the box that came with some extras), it's not as good as I'd like. Maybe some of those crazy pc players with their expensive gun controllers have better options, but that's tough to recommend to anyone who isn't a hardcore fan.

Anyway alright game tbh. I heard the sequel came out but I haven't tried it yet. I once again see negative reviews but I think I'll probably enjoy it.

The House of the Dead (1996)

This one I played via an arcade emulator, though I ran across an actual cabinet in the wild months later. You don't need me to tell you it's fun, especially if you get to play it with a light gun, but just like its remake (or even more so), it's full of cheap quarter-munching tactics.

The House of the Dead 2 (1998)

Probably the most memorable game in the series thanks to its immediately captivating story, especially that voice acting. I played the PC version this time around, which introduces some extra game modes, but I think the ideal way to play it would be to simply play the arcade version with as many credits as you can to avoid frustration. Some of those bosses can be pretty hard.

Despite being made only 2 years after the original, it looks a lot better and doesn't look nearly as outdated. While I prefer the more intimate haunted house setting of the first game, you can't deny that zombies in Venice is cool.

The House of the Dead III (2002)

This one I was able to play through a great ps3 port, armed with my trusty ps move controllers and with a friend by my side, which greatly improved the experience. Seriously, those controllers work pretty damn great for games like this. If the remake on ps4 didn't feel better, it must have been because the controls weren't implemented properly.

When you make your way through the third game in a series, even if it's an arcade zombie light gun game, you might be at least a little bit invested in the world and the story. HOTD's story is quite silly, but at this point they're leaning into it and I'd say it's fun to follow.

In terms of gameplay, they do switch the formula up a bit, and it feels great, but frankly the boss fights kinda ruin the entire game for me. I hate that sloth, the fool, in particular. Unlike previous games, in HOTD3, if you don't interrupt the boss's attacks by inflicting enough damage before they hit you, you don't hurt them at all. This makes it extremely frustrating, since if you're not good enough to interrupt those attacks, you'll never get through some of those fights, no matter how many credits you use.

The House of the Dead 4 (2005) + HOTD4 Special (2006)

Another ps3 port for this one, it might be the most accessible game so far, since it feels very modern and flashy, lots of enemies on screen at once, grenades, a high rate of fire and so on, while also being one of the easiest entries in the series. Quite a bigger shift than 3 was after 2.

HOTD4 Special was apparently a special attraction in some arcades that featured a moving cabinet, which I've never seen, so as far as the ps3 version is concerned, it's only a couple of extra chapters that expand on the story a bit.

I think I enjoyed this one in particular because of the change of pace and because I didn't have to lock in so damn much.

House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn (2018)

The most recent, non-remake entry in the series, though not the last chronologically speaking, so the storyline still has unresolved threads, if you care about that. Tragically, this is an arcade exclusive. I was lucky enough to find one in my city and played it through with a friend, but I certainly wish it was easier to access.

I thought it was quite good, it looks decent, it gives the fans more bits of story, and the gameplay is very interesting, giving the players access to plenty of diverse weapons. I feel like the series was going in the right direction, but it's been 7 years and 2 remakes, so I don't have much hope for a real sequel.

The Pinball of the Dead (2002)

This game is a massive shame. I love pinball games, and it's definitely cute to see bits of HOTD2 translated into pinball tables, but it kinda feels like shit to play. The visuals could be better, the performance should have been much better, and you know the physics make or break a pinball game so they absolutely needed to be on point. I didn't have the patience to play a whole lot, I really wish this could have been good.

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Old School RuneScape Leagues V: Raging Echoes (2024)

An in-game event so massive it deserves to be talked about. At least I played it enough that it deserves to go in here.

OSRS Leagues are a subscriber-only yearly event where you start a new character from scratch in a dedicated world, but you have massive benefits like infinite stamina and exp multipliers, so progress is incredibly fast, letting a casual player like me experience areas of the game I've never seen before, as well as letting experienced players compete for records and high scores. It's easy to see the appeal.

Being a newbie, it was frankly a bit overwhelming at first, since I had no idea how to plan out where I wanted or even needed to go. I got a bit burnt out during the first half, honestly. However, once I started getting into it, I enjoyed it a ton and lamented the end of the event period. I beat some bosses, got some skills to level 99, I had some crazy items, it was great.

I was tempted to keep playing OSRS after the event ended, which I did for a bit, but again, I played a lot so I was a bit burnt out and moved on to other games for the time being. I might try to get a friend or two along for the ride next year, who knows.