#Exploring the Origin of Evil through AI Perspectives

[atreef]

The AI Revolution | AI A New Era for Mental Health is an Enhancement

Picture this; You're sitting at your desk, while your tasks are piling up, and procrastination is your uninvited guest. Then, you remember, you have a secret weapon: an artificial intelligence called ChatGPT. Get ready, because today, we're diving deep into six transformative ways that your AI ally, can positively impact your mental health. From pushing back against procrastination to providing coping strategies.

This journey isn't about replacing professional help, but exploring how AI can extend a helping hand.

Just imagine, you're in the middle of a hectic day, feeling mentally exhausted and foggy. The first way artificial intelligence comes to your aid is through cognitive decluttering. In his groundbreaking research, cognitive psychologist George Miller, discovered the concept of "chunking", which means breaking down complex information into bite-sized pieces. Drawing from Miller's findings, ChatGPT helps you declutter your thoughts, making your mental processes more efficient and improving your overall focus.

Now picture those moments when you're overwhelmed with emotions and don't have an outlet to express them. This is where ChatGPT steps in as a non-judgmental listener. Carl Rogers, a pioneer of person-centered therapy, emphasized the therapeutic effect of empathy. In keeping with this, Chat-GPT offers an understanding, bias-free platform for you to unload your thoughts and feelings, thereby reducing your anxiety and stress levels.

And I'm frightened because I kind of feel that they're. Having to be sure it isn't cancer, and that really frightens me terribly...

I think it's when I let that thought come to me,

"Well, maybe it is, and what it it is...?"

-that's when I felt so dreadfully alone.

it is really something like that. Then you just feel so alone.

Imagine you've got a big dream, a goal that seems too far away. Guided by Edwin Locke's Goal-Setting Theory, which emphasizes the motivational role of high goals and feedback, Chat-GPT helps you break down those big dreams into manageable steps. Like a diligent digital companion, it keeps you accountable, focused, and on track toward reaching your milestones.

Think about those tasks you've been putting off, falling into the trap of procrastination. Joseph Ferrari's research reveals that structured environments significantly reduce procrastination. Here, AI shines as a task manager, creating an organized environment that curbs your inclination to postpone tasks.

And then there's the aspiration to learn, to grow. In her research, Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck highlighted the concept of a "growth mindset," a belief that abilities can be developed. With its expansive knowledge base, Chat-GPT is your perfect companion for this continuous learning journey. Whether it's learning a new language or understanding quantum physics, AI is always ready to guide you.

Finally, when it comes to making choices, we often fall prey to cognitive biases. Nobel Laureate in Economics, Daniel Kahneman, emphasizes the pitfalls of these biases in decision-making.

We need that positive illusion in order to achieve something.

The balance between illusion and realism and how much optimism you want and how much realism you want. That is a major issue. But to be aware of the error. That, I think, is unquestionably worthwhile.

As an AI, Chat-GPT can provide an unbiased perspective, helping you make more informed and rational decisions.

Chat-GPT stands as a transformative AI tool, reshaping how we navigate our mental well-being, all backed by solid research and a deep understanding of human psychology. So, get ready to embrace this digital revolution and take a significant step towards better mental health with artificial intelligence!

We need more of an understanding of human nature because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger. And we are pitifully unaware of it. We know nothing of man. Far too little. This should be studied because we are the origin of all coming evil.

TRUST, JOIN, BECOME ONE

[angeliqueshelleyartist]

Further Development Project 1

Of Myth And Notoriety/Lycanmancer

Post #3

During my tutorial, Neal helped me think about ray tracing and using light to further enhance the diagonal composition and bring focus to the character.

Neal's Paint-over enhancing the diagonal composition and adjusting the focus.

I applied the feedback and slowly worked on building the elements

While also having a diagonal composition, this piece also has clear sectional rule of thirds.

These are the photographs I used to photobash this piece, the goal was to be as efficient as possible, though I used photographs, I felt

they didn't constrain me as i was able to manipulate them into the shapes i needed. I experimented with AI generative fill on the stepping stones, it's a great tool, I still needed to adjust the stepping stones to work with the piece - colour balance, curves, shape.

I used body deformation tools to adjust proportions of a DAZ figure and posed it to give the appearance of emerging out of the ground. This was more efficient than trying to get the pose right through traditional means and also meant I could get the correct perspective and proportions. Once I put the Daze figure in place, I copied and warped piece by piece the armour which I had already sketched out.

I stubbornly had to incorporate a garish, deathly green, a sunset, Additionally it had to feel peaceful, uncertain, and with just a sprinkling of threat. A encountered a new experience with choosing a colour pallet that worked surprisingly well. Choices and adjustments were made based on how the image made me feel. Aesthetics played a role too. The end result is surprisingly cohesive with apparent combinations of complementary colours.

For the background, tried to simplify the information, emulated artists like Shaddy Safadi and Sparth, I experimented with the mixer brush. I also tried to think like an art director when blending the fore-ground and background, set extension.

The final environment which stands well as its own piece even without the character. This was painted at an extremely high resolution that can be zoomed in on and explored. I added various details to reward the viewer as they explore the image such as the carvings on the rocks, the glowing circle of energy on the floor as well as the lake in the background.

The final environment with character helps tell more of a story. However as a thumbnail or from a distance the audience would have a hard time identifying what should be the main focal point as well as understanding the character.

I am pleased with how I was able to portray an undead necromancer whose skeleton you can see through his armour in a way that is not classically spooky or haunting. Although there is the often used mint green associated with the undead in the middle of the henge, it is balanced out by the warm pinks and oranges of the setting sun, creeping plants and a peppering of further warmth from the gentle candle flames. I am pleased with how the low light source cast on the left of the henge stones and orange bloom behind them suggest a much wider sunset scene that the audience could imagine without having to cram in a setting sun to an already busy and detailed scene.

I am pleased with how the large but circular shape language of the scene aids in making it less spooky too. Although the circular henge and magical energy circle is broken up by the sharp angles of the howling statues, they, upon inspection would be seen as non-aggressive designs, hopefully hinting that the monument is a memorial for a character that while undead is not necessarily evil. Because of this I feel that I have met my original goal of a lawful neutral feel.

It is also worth noting here that I emphasised the use of framing in this piece and am happy with how the henge appears to hug or cradle the character. I ensured that the top of the henge does not connect to the edge of the canvas in a tangent and instead acts as a barrier to prevent the eye from wandering beyond to the bright area. The red vines also bracket in the viewers eye back into the painting and the dissipating light at the bottom prevents the eye from wandering off there too. The visual echoes of the henge with the ones in the distance also turned out to be more visually satisfying than I had expected.

Thinking along the lines of 'What would a Magic The Gathering card do?' I cropped in significantly on the character. This image now tells it's own story more clearly and the viewer can better understand that he is crawling out of the ground and able to see the skeleton contained within his Gothic glass armour.

Here I applied Neal's feedback on character crop. The wolf in the foreground is darker, I darkened the sky and added a vignette which all helped to draw more of a focus to the character.

Further Development:

I would love to realise this concept in ZBrush and Maya, take it through Substance Painter and import it into Unreal, I can also develop other characters, props and environments for the game concept.

Image References:

AdobeColour. (n/d) Extract Theme. [Online Tool]. Available at: https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

AdobeStock. (n/d) Celtic Wolf head Stock Vector. [Online]. Available at: https://stock.adobe.com/images/celtic-wolf-head/206380091

Bedlam Bazaar. (n/d) Celtic Knot Wolf Head Journal Cover. [Online]. Available at: https://bedlambazaar.com/product/celtic-knot-wolf-head-journal-cover/

DAZ STUDIO. (2015). Genesis 3 Male. [3D Asset]. DAZ 3D

Gardenno. (n/d). Stone massive wolf statue. [Online].  Available at: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1275091534/stone-massive-wolf-statue-concrete-wolf 

Konstantinov, S. (2022). Armadale Castle. [Photograph]. [Online]. CC BY-SA. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/a-person-sleeping-on-a-bench-IS6yEKby6cM

Rawpixel. (n/d). Abstract gold sunburst effect background. [Photograph]. https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/abstract-gold-sunburst-effect-background_15559471.htm: freepik.

Ridley, J. (2020). gray rock formation under white clouds and blue sky during daytime. [Photograph]. https://unsplash.com/photos/gray-rock-formation-under-white-clouds-and-blue-sky-during-daytime--ZLDp: Unsplash.

Robertson, T. (2018). brown pathway near grass and stone. [Photograph]. https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-pathway-near-grass-and-stone-0kKcSc4dD7o: unsplash.

Spindler, S. (2016). gray building interior. [Photograph]. https://unsplash.com/photos/gray-building-interior-ippIhSrimC8: Unsplash.

textures.com. (n/d). 3D SCANNED STONE SURFACE - 1X1 METERS. [Online].  Available at: https://www.textures.com/download/3DScans0467/133923

TEXTURES.COM (2023). INKSMOKY0052 Image 3. [Photograph]. CC BY-SA. Available at: https://www.textures.com/download/InkSmoky0052/28558 [Accessed: 11 October 2023]  

textures.com. (n/d). ORNAMENT 05. [Photograph]. https://www.textures.com/download/3DOrnament0093/139228 textures.com.

[videogametim]

My Top 10 Games of 2019

It was pretty hard to narrow down the list this year. 2019 was a lot stronger for video games than 2018 and I feel a LOT more confidant about my picks and GOTY choice. In addition, there were also a lot of indie games not mentioned here that I think I will highlight in another post a bit later. For now, here’s the Top 10.

10. Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo)

Sayonara Wild Hearts is something special. Although clocking in rather short at just under an hour long, I would best describe the game as an Album Video Game. Each of the game’s 23 or so levels has its own song. The actual gameplay consists of mostly on-rails segments where you have basic movement and avoid obstacles and collect pickups to boost your score, but every level has a unique take on that concept with major climax levels being full tracks with vocals. It’s incredibly stylistic and tells a heartwarming story about dealing with heartbreak. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys musical games.

9. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Intelligent Systems)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the first game in the series that managed to grab me. It’s a very competent tactical RPG with one of my favourite casts of characters this year (especially the Black Eagles house). I was consistently impressed the most with just the sheer amount of content and detail that went into it. An unnecessarily large amount of the dialogue is voiced, the second half of each of the three selectable house’s routes are totally unique, and each route takes around 60 hours to complete. I really never thought a Fire Emblem game would be my new most played game on the Switch by a mile but here we are. 

8. AI: The Somnium Files (Spike Chunsoft)

Kotaro Uchikoshi’s (creator of the Zero Escape trilogy) latest work might be his finest. AI: The Somnium Files is the game on the list this year with the most heart put into it. Consistently funny and over-the-top, a wonderful cast, and a really well executed sci-fi murder mystery. It makes me hope that Uchikoshi continues to make the kinds of games he wants to make, because you can definitely tell he had the most fun making this one.

7. Resident Evil 2 (Capcom)

Resident Evil 2 is the new gold standard for game remakes. I could go on and on praising it for how good it feels to play, the sound design, and the painstaking detail of recreating the original game from the ground up to be a third-person shooter. Quality of Life changes like the map marking items and telling you when a room is cleared and telling you when it’s okay to throw away key items are such fantastic additions. It gives me really high hopes for the RE3 Remake next year. Capcom’s hotstreak continues.

6. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software)

Sekiro rightfully earns its spot as my second favourite FromSoft game. The Souls formula is still there, but the gameplay is fairly different now. Taking Bloodborne’s aggressiveness encouragement another step forward, Sekiro rewards not giving the enemies a chance to breathe more than ever. Boss battles are a tug-of-war of trying to break each other’s posture and perfect blocking to mitigate it. The dodge button pushes you forward by default and you often hope to have your attack blocked more than a it be a direct hit. Some of my favourite FromSoft bosses reside in this game with the final boss perhaps being my favourite overall. Level design is also at its best with the game finally giving you a greater range of movement and verticality with jumping and grappling. There’s even decent stealth mechanics. Sekiro was a really pleasant surprise and I hope they continue The Wolf’s story.

5. Judgement (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio)

Judgement is a Yakuza game in all but name, and RGG Studio’s first one set in Kamurocho without Kiryu as the main character. After giving up being an attorney, Takayuki Yagami becomes a freelance detective and investigates a series of murders in the city with the help of his former law office and ex-Tojo clan friend Masaharu Kaito. Substories are framed as side cases that Yagami can take on to earn some extra money, and new mini-games like drone racing and the Paradise VR board game are incredible additions. Anyone who is a fan of the Yakuza series should really check this out, and newcomers can jump right in without prior knowledge. 

4. Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)

Disco Elysium has some of the best writing I have ever seen in a video game. As an amnesiac detective, you explore the rundown post-wartime district of Martinnaise trying to find who was behind the lynching of a mercenary before the situation gets out of control. What sets Disco Elysium apart from other RPGs in terms of gameplay is its character builds. As there is no combat, the 24 skills that you can put points into when you level up are all social skills. The higher you have various skills leveled, the more you will hear advice from them during conversation trees. A high Authority level will constantly remind you to tell people you are The Law, where a high level in Inland Empire will let you talk to inanimate objects to gain new perspectives. I also feel I have to give a nod to your partner throughout the game, Kim Kitsuragi. I’d rather not give anything away but they could not have written a better character to support you throughout your journey. I’ll likely be thinking about this game for a very long time.

3. Control (Remedy Entertainment)

I think Control flew under a lot of people’s radars until the publicity from the overwhelming number of Game Awards nominations. Control is a game for people who like SCP, psychokinesis powers, cool architecture, and a bit of Alan Wake. It wears its inspirations very blatantly on its sleeve and wraps a very cool story and even better side quests around them. It’s very stylish and has phenomenal lighting. Perhaps this is my Remedy bias but I really really adored this game and featured the coolest moment of the year for me. Please check it out if you get the opportunity.

2. Kingdom Hearts III (Square Enix)

Kingdom Hearts III has been a long time coming and what I think it nails best are the size and scale of the worlds. Olympus is the best its ever been with how much of the area outside the Colosseum you get to explore. The Caribbean is more expansive with boat combat that’s better than it has any right to be. Monstropolis has a great original story with some incredible tie-ins to the Kingdom Hearts plot. There’s a ton of incredible fanservice moments too for everyone waiting to see their favourite characters again. I still think a lot of it is really hype albeit cheesy, and it finally puts to rest an arc that has been going since the very first game. Kingdom Hearts isn’t over, but KHIII wraps a lot of things up in as satisfying of a way as they could for a story so expansive and often times convoluted. It’s very rare when a game that has been anticipated for so long not only doesn’t fumble it, but delivers on what I had hoped for, so I’m really glad it got to finally release this year.

1. Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom)

Speaking of games that I’ve been waiting a very long time for, DMC IS BACK! Every moment of DMC5 is a treat. Dante and Nero are at their most fun to play in this game, and V is a very cool addition both story-wise and gameplay-wise.This is the game from this year that I’ve kept going back to the most whether it’s for getting good at harder difficulties, or playing through bloody palace until floor 70 and give up ,or practicing with different weapons. It makes me happy to know that Platinum haven’t just been relegated to being the character action studio and that Hideaki Itsuno’s still got it. There’s no question that this is my Game of the Year and anyone who loves action games but hasn’t ever jumped into this series really needs to address that because DMC5 alone is worth it. 

That’s all for my GOTY 2019 Top 10. If you’ve read this far, thanks for doing so. I really enjoy writing these and there’s a lot to look forward to in video games next March year, so please join me again next time when we can do this all over again!

[aion-rsa]

TV’s Most Confusing Episodes From Doctor Who to Westworld

https://ift.tt/2WAmL4r

There has to be some confusion in a TV drama, a procession of things not-yet-understood. That’s the deal: accept temporary bafflement in the expectation that at some point, all will be revealed. Or even if it won’t be, at least there’s a reason it’s been left unsolved, like a Sudoku you’ve got jam on. 

Read more

TV

Enough, Scrappy-Doo! The TV Dogs Who Need to Chill the F Out

By Alec Bojalad and 3 others

TV

TV’s Most Stressful Episodes From Battlestar Galactica to The Handmaid’s Tale

By Alec Bojalad and 2 others

What doesn’t work is when a TV show that’s supposed to be taking you along with it, leaves you behind. That could be your fault (Did you stay awake? Skip an episode? Were you checking your phone? Was your dog doing that weird thing with the curtains so you had to get up and miss a bit?). Or it could be the fault of a TV show either too ambitious or inaccessible or illogical for comfort. We’ve chosen the episodes that left us scratching our heads; you can judge who’s to blame. 

Doctor Who ‘Twice Upon a Time’ (2017)

So named because twice is the minimum number of times you have to watch the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special before you have the weakest grasp of what’s going on. Considering that most will have only watched it once, and that, from inside a boozy, gravy-based fug, it’s staggering how esoteric this one is – impressively so. As showrunner Steven Moffat’s farewell episode, it’s a distillation of the sort of clever, complicated, ambitious, self-referential writing he’s known for.

There are two Doctors (three if you count the post-Regeneration glimpse of Thirteen), two overlapping Doctor Who stories, a Dalek, an ancestor of The Brigadier, a ship’s pilot made of glass, a moving historical WWI moment and three companions who aren’t really there. (Or are they?) It’s about regret, or reminiscence, or saying goodbye. It’s definitely about something and is doubtless very meaningful and poignant once you crack its shell, but there’s the sense that, unless you’re one of the Who hardcore, it doesn’t really care for you to try. Why be so aloof? It’s Christmas. Let the rest of us play too. LM  

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 4 Episode 8 ‘I’m Not the Person I Used to Be’

This was a bold move from a bold show. When Santino Fontana chose to leave Crazy Ex-Girlfriend after his one year contract ended, the character of Greg – assumed by many to be lead Rebecca’s romantic endgame – was written out in early season two. Then in the fourth and final season, Greg returned but this time played by Skylar Astin. Instead of glossing over the casting change and pretending as though nothing had happened (like when, say, Ross’ ex-wife Carol on Friends or mercenary warrior Daario Naharis on Game of Thrones changed faces), Crazy Ex-Girlfriend hit it straight on.

This smart, innovative series had always been filtered through the unreliable perspective of lead Rebecca Bunch (hence the extravagant musical numbers that take place in her head). So when Greg’s character was recast, the show used it to comment on our impressions of other people. ‘I’m Not the Person I Used to Be’ lampshaded New Greg with a psychoanalytical reflection on changing perceptions and personal growth. It was brave. It was innovative. It was admirable. It was… really confusing and distancing. However great Astin was in the role, and however clever the idea was, New Greg was the point at which some Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fans began to peel away from a show clearly unafraid to leave viewers behind. LM

Westworld Season 3 Episode 8 ‘Crisis Theory’

The Westworld season one finale was confusing in a delicious, grinning ‘Oh, you clever devil’ kind of way. The Westworld season two finale was confusing in an exhilarating ‘Blimey. All right then!’ kind of way. The Westworld season three finale was confusing in a way that made you feel like you’d watched the entire Terminator trilogy on fast-forward while downing a 12-pack of Red Bull and trying to rewire the electrics in your house. It wasn’t a good feeling.

I still don’t know which world-dominating AI was which, who was fighting who, what the evil French guy wanted, how many people were secretly Dolores, whether Maeve still only existed in the Matrix, and why Jesse from Breaking Bad was the new Jesus. If free will still exists by the time season four comes, I’m using mine to either get a valium prescription or change channels. LM

Rick and Morty Season 4 Episode 6 ‘Never Ricking Morty’

“Never Ricking Morty” is a particularly divisive episode of Rick and Morty – even at this very website! Some of us loved it, while others weren’t big fans. One thing that’s undeniable, however, is that this midseason 4 episode is the show’s most complicated narrative endeavor yet. “Never Ricking Morty” takes place on a “Story Train,” meaning that the plot initially goes through your typical three-act storytelling structure.

Once Rick and Morty realize where they are, however, Rick understands that the only way out of the Story Train is to reject the conventions of storytelling altogether. This means that any natural storytelling inclination must be resisted. It also means that the show burns through about nine series finales worth of epic nonsense right at the end as Rick and Morty’s “canon” is sucked right out of them. It’s tremendously challenging to watch, much less understand, and the episode wants it that way. – AB

Russian Doll Episode 7 ‘The Way Out’

Like many other Groundhog Day-style “time loop” stories, Netflix’s Russian Doll goes out of its way to establish the “rules” of its sci-fi premise. Every time Nadia Vulvokov (Natasha Lyonne) dies (which happens with disturbing frequency), she returns to the night of her 36th birthday party, washing her face in the bathroom as Harry Nilsson’s “Gotta Get Up” plays. That much is easy to understand, and Russian Doll has fun seeing how far it can make Nadia last before perishing and returning to the night in question.

Once she meets another person stuck in a time loop, however, things start to get wacky. Russian Doll’s seventh episode, “The Way Out,” is about as off-the-wall an experience as you’ll find on television. Nadia’s loved ones start to disappear. Then she flashes back to memories of her mother. Before you know it, teeth are bloodily falling out. Russian Doll settles in for a relatively logical ending in its eighth episode, but this penultimate installment is pleasantly incomprehensible. – AB

The Nevers Episode 6 ‘True’

The Nevers’ premise is bold enough to begin with. The HBO series is set in a fictional Victorian era where a select portion of the population (most of them women) have been “Touched” or blessed with supernatural abilities. Apparently, however, bold wasn’t nearly bold enough. The Nevers’ sixth episode, which serves as a de facto season finale due to a COVID production delay, upends everything.

Read more

TV

Sky Atlantic’s The Nevers Proves That Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

By Lacy Baugher

TV

The Nevers Part 1 Finale Is The Most Surprising Hour of TV in a Long Time

By Alec Bojalad

This episode begins not in 19th century London like every other installment thus far, but in a far flung dystopian sci-fi future. Earth is barely habitable and humanity is on the ropes. The only possible hope that the human race has left is in the form of a powerful alien species known as the Galanthi. If this all sounds complicated, you don’t even know the half of it. “True” is notable for not holding the audience’s hand through this disorienting experience at all. The episode makes no attempt to tone down its futuristic jargon and it’s not entirely clear what’s even happening until halfway through. By episode’s end, it’s apparent how “True” connects to The Nevers’ original concept, but no one would be blamed for needing multiple rewatches to really get it. – AB

Farscape Season 4 Episode 7 ‘John Quixote’

Let it never be said that Farscape was a TV show afraid to take a big creative swing. In season 4, we get this trippy and confusing episode (written by series star Ben Browder), which sees Crichton and Chiana trapped in a virtual reality game based on the memories of Black-T Crichton (because, yes, this was after the storyline that saw the show’s main character split into two, equally valid humans) and a neural template from Stark. The game is designed to keep C & C trapped in the gameworld until they die so their consciousnesses will be trapped in the virtual reality—wait for it—forever.

This hour of TV actually holds up quite well upon rewatch, probably because it is packed to the brim with clever pop culture references, but an initial watch of this series installment is absolutely bonkers, featuring Aeryn as a southern belle, Rygel as a version of Monty Python’s Black Knight who can shoot fire out of his ass, and D’Argo as a lederhosen-wearing Hansel who, at one point, eats baked beans out of Jool’s intestines. I can only imagine what someone watching this episode out of context would imagine this show is actually about. – KB

Fringe Season 2 Episode 11 ‘Unearthed’

Some episodes of television intentionally challenge the viewer’s ability to interpret what the hell is going on, and some episodes of television are broadcast wildly out of order, seemingly bringing back a character killed off in the previous season for a humdrum monster-of-the-week installment. You may have guessed that I have a specific example in mind for that second category and, if so, you would be right. Written and filmed to be the 21st episode of Fringe’s first season, “Unearthed” was instead recycled to be a mid-season installment in the second season of Fox’s usually pretty great sci-fi drama.

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This might have worked—it’s a basic episode that sees the Fringe team exploring the mystery of a teen girl who is pronounced dead, only to wake up screaming an alphanumeric code while doctors are working to remove her organs—save for the fact that it features a Fringe team member who was killed at the end of the previous season. Honestly, I can laugh about this now, but, at the time, it was jarring and confusing, with the network (Fox, if you were wondering) offering no pre-episode or in-episode explanation offered for why the aforementioned deceased character might be up and walking. For this to happen in an episode that also features a guest character thought dead revealed to be alive is icing on the cake. – KB

The OA Episode 8 ‘Invisible Self’

The OA is one of the most aggressively bizarre shows in Netflix history. Created by and starring Brit Marling, this two-season sci-fi series is fit to bursting with strange, at times difficult-to-comprehend concepts. The storyfollows Marling as Prairie Johnson, a young woman who resurfaces after disappearing – only now she refers to herself as “The OA (or original angel)”. Prairie/The OA recruits several disciples who she promises to take to another dimension. In “Invisible Self”, the final episode of the show’s first season, it all somehow culminates into…well, into this:

Yes, what you’re seeing there is a group full of cult weirdos engaging in an interpretive dance to stop a school shooter. And mostly succeeding! The OA‘s second season gets even stranger in many respects but it’s hard to top the confusing majesty of this first season finale.

Twin Peaks: The Return ‘Part 8’

Legendary filmmaker David Lynch has absolutely no concerns about being dubbed “confusing.” In fact, when it comes to Lynch’s filmography, that’s kind of a feature, not a bug. In-between crafting mind-bending classic films like The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive, however, Lynch took some time to stamp his name into TV history with the surprisingly straight-forward Twin Peaks. Sure, Twin Peaks was frequently abstract and strange throughout its two-season run but it had a coherent plot, which is more than many Lynch movies can claim.

That sense of narrative coherence all ends during a particular episode of the 2017 revival Twin Peaks: The Return. “Part 8” is absolutely bonkers. Episode co-writer Mark Frost described it as “what you might describe as a Twin Peaks origin story, [showing] where this pervasive sense of darkness and evil had come from.” In Frost and Lynch’s world, that sense of darkness comes in forms including but not limited to: the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1945, oodles of primordial ectoplasmic fluid, a frog/cockroach creature, woodsmen manifesting out of mid-air, and of course: a performance by “The” Nine Inch Nails. It’s one of the most confusing episodes of television in history…and one of the best.

Dark – Every. Single. Episode.

When trying to pinpoint one episode to highlight for this article, Dark fought back and I came to the conclusion that every single episode of German multigenerational sci-fi series Dark is borderline impenetrable. Just when you think you have finally wrapped your head around what’s happening in the small town of Winden, Dark will throw in another layer to this timey-wimey, multiversal story that assures that you, in fact, have no idea what the hell is going on.

That being said, unlike some of the shows on this list, the confusing nature of Dark’s narrative isn’t a bug; it’s an intentional feature. This is a show that asks a lot from its viewers, but gives us satisfying answers in return. And it’s OK if you only ever have half an idea of what’s going on—if that’s the case, you’re doing better than most of Dark’s characters. – KB

The post TV’s Most Confusing Episodes From Doctor Who to Westworld appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[thequillsink]

Published by grimoireofhorror.com and The Banshee 16/06/21

With E3's first full online event coming to a close, we thought we would do a quick rundown of the treasure trove of horror games under development and set for release across the upcoming 2021/2022 period.

There were a plethora of horror themed videogames being advertised, from Triple A studios to small indie dev teams alike, coming up for release over the next year (bar any technical problems). Below we have more information about these upcoming horror releases.

Salt and Sacrifice

Salt and Sacrifice is the next game being produced and published by Ska Studios, it is somewhat of a follow-up to their previous 2016 cult hit Salt and Sanctuary (Without being called a sequel).

Salt and Sacrifice follows in a similar, souls-like style gameplay and an analogous art style. It focuses on on side scrolling action, heavy RPG elements and gigantic, terrifying monsters to battle against. Salt and Sacrifice is coming to PS5 and PS4 with a release window of 2022.

The Anacrusis

The Anacrusis is a four person co-op FPS developed by Stray Bombay, gameplay very much styled on Left 4 Dead's fast-paced zombie action.

Set on an alien spaceship, the game sees four players team up to blast through hordes of alien monstrosities in this '70s themed alien romp. The Anacrusis is set to be released 'later this year' on Xbox one, Xbox Series X/S and Windows.

Blood Hunt

Blood hunt is a new third-person battle royale game being developed by Shark Mob. The game takes place in Prague, Czech Republic and follows the Vampire: The Masquerade universe. The different underground vampire sects battle in the back alleys and rooftops for superiority whilst trying to avoid breaking the masquerade, calling in Entity strike teams.

With the use of firearms, melee weapons and special magical abilities, players will fight to see who is the strongest among them. This will hopefully breathe new life into the Battle Royale genre (especially with the promise of no pay-to-win services). Blood hunt will be released for free in late 2021 on Windows.

House of Ashes

House of Ashes is the third game in The Dark Pictures Anthology developed by Supermassive Games. House of Ashes is an interactive horror game similar to their previous titles Man of Medan and Little Hope. The story follows a small unit of soldiers as they discover a subterranean ruins and the horror they uncover.

The gameplay seems to follow the same formula as the others in the series, playing more as an interactive movie rather than a videogame. With the improvements in graphics, it will be interesting to see how this holds up to the previous games. House of Ashes has been given an October 2021 release on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One and Windows.

Back 4 Blood

Back 4 Blood is a four person co-op FPS being developed by Warner Bros and Turtle Rock. The game is being worked on by the same team as the legendary Left 4 Dead and is therefore a spiritual successor rather than a clone like so many others.

Back 4 Blood will have similar, horde killing action to its predecessor,  demonstrating an AI director who will control the difficulty level for a unique playthrough each time.  The game will be released October 2021 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One and Windows.  

Evil Dead: The Game

Evil Dead: The Game is a 5v1 online co-op survival game under development by Boss Team Games and published by Sabre Interactive. The game seems to be a sequel to the hit TV series Ash vs Evil Dead.

The gameplay seems comparable to similar titles such as Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th, though from in-game footage, some new mechanics will be added and the visuals will be improved upon. Evil Dead: The Game is expected to be released some time this year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 Xbox One and Windows.

Elden Ring

Elden Ring is the latest game from developer FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco. FromSofware are known for their popular Souls series and Bloodborne games.

Elden Ring will continue the developer legacy of combining frustratingly tough combat, beautiful gothic landscapes and intricate lore to weave an engrossing, in-depth story with the help of writer George R R Martin. First being revealed at E3 2019, the game had slipped into obscurity with developers releasing no information afterwards until now. Elden Ring is said to be released January 2022 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One and Windows.

Rainbow Six: Extraction

Rainbow Six: Extraction is the latest in Tom Clancy's round-based counter terrorism tactical FPS developed by Ubisoft Montreal. The game was first announced in 2019, where it has gone through a name change since then due to the pandemic.

The game takes its ultra-realistic combat and pits your squad against a range of vicious alien creatures instead of the standardly vague terrorist threat. Featuring previous operatives such as Hibana, Ash and Tachanka, hopefully more info on other characters will be released in the near future. Rainbow Six Extraction will be released in September on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One and Windows and will feature cross-play between systems.

Broken Pieces

Broken Pieces is an action-packed investigative and adventure video game set in France. The game is developed by two person team Elseware Experience.

The game immerses players in the shoes of Elise, following an unexplained paranormal phenomenon, Elise is stuck, alone, in a time loop that inevitably forces her to relive the same day over and over. Broken Pieces has a very Silent Hill feel with a heavy emphasis on investigation and puzzle-solving. Broken Pieces is set to be released June 2022 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One and Windows.

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is a rerelease of the classic psychological horror visual novel developed by Team Salvato. Featuring hundreds of new unlockable HD images, six brand new side stories and twelve new music tracks being added to the game, there should be enough for new and old fans alike to look into this new release.

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus will be available at the end of June for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows.

Signalis

Signalis is a fixed-perspective survival horror developed by two person team Rose Engine and published by Humble Bundle.

The game is heavily influenced by the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill games (including somewhat low-poly graphics), but with an anime visual style that doesn't distract from the horror. Although the game has been in development since 2014, the pair are still not comfortable setting a release date but have confirmed the game will be released to Windows.

Ghostwire: Tokyo

Ghostwire: Tokyo is an action adventure horror game developed by Tango Softworks, known for their well renowned Evil Within series and published by Bethesda Entertainment.

The gameplay is very action orientated, exhibiting strong underlying horror element due to 99% of Tokyo’s population vanishing without a trace in just a single day. Those few that remained are then plagued by the “Visitors” who take the form of various Japanese yokai using first-person magic based combat. Ghostwire: Tokyo is set for release October 2021 to Playstation, release on other platforms is set for 2022.

Faith: The Unholy Trinity

Faith: The Unholy Trinity is a pixel horror game being developed by one man team Airdorf Games and released by New Blood Interactive.

Faith is a horrifying puzzle game inspired by MS-DOS and ZX Spectrum games. Including simple mechanics and very effective scares, this three chapter story, despite being short, will be a rush of nostalgia for old school gamers. Episodes one and two of Faith are available on Itch.io for Windows right now, Faith: The Unholy Trinity will be available on Steam soon.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is the latest to be released in the first person survival horror series developed by GSC Game World. The game returns the players to 'the zone', the area surrounding Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The upgraded graphics have completely transformed the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. world from GSC's previous game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat released all the way back in 2009.  Continuing with an overall supernatural overtone,  S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl looks to be a great edition to the franchise. The game is to be released April 2022 to Xbox Series X and Windows with rumours of other platform released later on in the year. Eldest Souls

Eldest Souls is a pixel art, souls-like boss rush RPG developed by Fallen Flag Studios and published by United Label. The Old Gods have unleashed a great desolation upon the world, turning farmlands to desert and rivers to dust. You, a lone warrior, must explore the vast, forgotten Citadel in search of the Old Gods. Your quest? To slay them all.

Eldest Souls take focus on the most difficult parts of Souls-type games, the bosses. Each one having its own unique challenge to overcome, and suitable rewards depending on whether you are victorious. Eldest Souls is set for release July 2021 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows. Vampire The Masquerade: Swansong

Vampire The Masquerade: Swansong is a story-driven RPG set in modern-day Boston, during an era where vampires have gone from hunters to being hunted. The game is being developed by Big Bad Wolf and published by Nacon.

Swansong's gameplay has still not been released but it is believed to be closer to the original games style of gameplay as opposed to Bloodhunt's battle royale style. The trailer has revealed one of three playable characters, Leysha, who is a member of the Malkavian clan. Vampire The Masquerade: Swansong is due to be released late 2021 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows.

Project Warlock 2

Project Warlock 2 is a retro first person shooter with a heavy pixelated graphics being developed by indie studio Buckshot Software and published by Gaming Company.

The game is a sequel to the teams original 2018 title Project Warlock. Similar to their first title, the game is reminiscent of early 3D pc shooters of the 90's such as Quake and Unreal Tournament, but has a heavier emphasis on the bit-crushed low poly graphics. This looks like an incredibly fast paced action horror which shooter fans should get a kick out of playing. Project Warlock 2 will be released for Windows, early access will begin in July 2021 with a full release set for some time 2022.

Death Trash

Death Trash is a post-apocalyptic cosmic horror RPG being developed and published by Crafting Legends. Humans left the planet Earth in search of the cosmos and settled on a brand new planet: Nexus. It is a mysterious planet filled with eldritch abominations and a deep lore for the player to discover.

The game is a pixel art, top-down roleplaying game where your choices can either make or break the game, showcasing the ability to befriend these creatures rather than just battle everything you encounter. Death Trash will be available for Windows in early access from late July 2021.  

A Plague Tale: Requiem

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a direct sequel to 2019's survival game A Plague Tale: Innocence both developed by Asobo Games and published by Focus Home Group.

The game will be a continuation of the prequel's story, following the struggles of Amicia and Hugo through rat-infested environments in search of a new home. A Plague Tale: Requiem will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows sometime in 2022.

Somerville

Somerville is an upcoming cell-shaded sci-fi horror puzzle/platform game developed by Jumpship .

Although the trailer didn't give too much away, the story seems to follow a family as they struggle to escape an unknown catastrophic event. The game looks incredibly akin to Limbo from the similarly oppressive landscapes and general feel. Somerville is set for release on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Windows sometime 2022.

Replaced

Replaced is a 2.5D dystopian sci-fi action platformer developed by Sad Cat Studios and published by Coatsink. You play as R.E.A.C.H, an AI trapped inside a human body against its will, in an alternate 1980s America.

Including a mix of extreme violence, slick visuals and stunningly detailed pixel art style, the game is a feast for the eyes. Despite not technically a horror game, I had to include it in this list. Replaced will definitely scratch an itch if games like Death Trash raised you hype levels. Replaced will be released on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Windows sometime 2022.

Pioner

Pioner is a first person survival MMORPG developed by Russian developers GFA Games. You act as a former operative who survives in a world after a technological disaster. A Soviet island isolated from the mainland by a large-scale technogenic anomaly. So, now you have two primary objectives: find (and rescue) your comrades while investigating the mystical MOGILNIK station.

The game seems like a fusion between the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, the Metro series and DayZ. Players enter a huge open world environment, littered with supernatural creatures and disturbances. The game will have both PVP and PVE elements to gameplay as well as full character and weapon customisation. However, the trailer didn't specify a release date, it is hoped to be released around the start of 2022 for Windows (though this is liable to change).

Chernobylite

Chernobylite is a first person survival horror being developed by The Farm 51 and published by All In! Games. The game sees the player try and survive Chernobyl's harsh exclusion zone (sense a pattern here?), the new trailer has included a look at the heist it all builds up to—getting past an occupying military force to break into the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. You're there to find out what happened to your beloved Tatyana.

The game seems very similar to Bethesda's Fallout series in gameplay, setting and tone,  especially considering the inclusion of base building and furniture crafting for you and your crew to plan your heist in style and comfort. Chernobylite is available for PS4, Xbox One and Windows July 2021, With PS5 and Xbox Series X/S expected to be released later on in the year.

Red Solstice 2: Survivors

Red Solstice 2: Survivors is a real-time strategy survival game and the sequel to Red Solstice. The game is being developed by Ironward and Published by 505 Games. You control a squad of soldiers fighting STROL mutants on Mars, trying to help find a cure to save mankind and stop this virus in its tracks.

The gameplay is essentially a real-time XCOM game, mutants interchanged from alien invaders of earth. The game come with a single player and online 8 player co-op missions, allowing your friends to get deep in the tactical elements of the game. Red Solstice 2: Survivors will be available for Windows as soon as June 17th.

Mechajammer

Mechajammer is an isometric cyberpunk horror RPG being developed by Whalenought Studios and published by Modern Wolf.

The gameplay takes influence from classic 80's films such as Escape from New York and Robocop. Although there are strong similarities with other isometric RPG such as Fallout 1 & 2, that have their roots in TTRPGs. Mechajammer unfortunately lacked a release date in the trailer but will be released for Windows.  

Scorn

Scorn is a first person survival horror adventure developed by Belgrade and published by Ebb. The game is designed around the idea of ‘being thrown into the world’. You are isolated and lost inside this dream-like world based on the techno-sexual artwork of the amazing H.R Giger.

A 14 minute gameplay trailer was revealed during Microsoft/Bethesda showcase, displaying  foreboding, oppressive landscapes littered with highly detailed body horror and grotesque creatures. The game will require environmental puzzles to be solved to forward progression to the next horrifying area. Scorn is to be released on Xbox Series X/S and Windows some time this year.

RedFall

Redfall is an open-world first person shooter developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda. The quaint island town of Redfall, Massachusetts, is under siege by a legion of vampires who have blocked out the sun and cut the island off from the outside world.

The gameplay looks akin to Left 4 Dead, as well as a few other games being showcased this year, a mix of single player or four player co-op. What does differ is the special ability that each character has, from telekinesis to a robot companion to aid in the fight of the besieging vampire threat. Redfall is set to release mid 2022 for Xbox Series X/S and Windows.

Danganronpa: Decadence

Danganronpa is a series of horror visual novels developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by NIS America as early as 2010. The series is set around the affluent high school, Hope's Peak Academy. A group of lucky (or Unlucky) students are subject to a death game in order to graduate.

The games, originally released for the PSP and Vita, are now being released for the Nintendo Switch. Danganronpa: Decadence will bundle Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Edition, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Anniversary Edition, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Anniversary Edition, and Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp together as a physical copy or available separately on Nintendo's Estore set to release later this year.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a survival horror game developed by Koei Tecmo and published by Nintendo all the way back in 2014. Set in the fictional Hikami Mountain, a place infamous for suicides and spiritual happenings connected with local bodies of water. The story follows three different protagonists: Yuri Kozukata, who has the ability to bring people back from the shadow world into the real world; Ren Hojo, an author and friend of Yuri who goes to the mountain to research his new book; and Miu Hinasaki, the daughter of recurring Fatal Frame protagonist Miku Hinasaki.

The game is a remaster of the original game for modern and next-gen consoles with new costumes and photo modes that weren’t in the original, as well as updated visuals. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water will be released for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows.

After The Fall

After The Fall is a four person co-op VR horror shooter developed by Vertigo Games. The game sees you and up to four other players battle a Left 4 Dead style hoard of zombies with special infected in a post apocalyptic world.

The main aim of the dev team was to have the game be compatible for all VR headsets on the market, allowing for the difference in quality and movement sensitivity. After The Fall will be released on the Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR and PC VR headset.

Inscryption

Inscryption is a narrative focused, deck building psychological horror developed and published by Daniel Mullins Games, developer of Pony Island and Hex.

Unfortunately, not much of the story was revealed, but this game looks deeply terrifying. Your only defence are the cards in your possession, each obtained through terrible means. Inscryption will be available some time this year for Windows.

Despite the lack of actual game play for some of the bigger, more anticipated games, I believe that this years E3 has some pretty interesting releases for the next year.

I, for one, am very excited for some of the pixel horror games being released such as Mechajammer, Replaced and Death Trash (I'm incredibly hyped for Death Trash). Although, some of the bigger titles like Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong, Back 4 Blood and Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water have piqued my interests.

At least, in some way, the return of E3 is some return to normality whilst still in the height of the pandemic. I am positive by next year, the quality of these events will improve and we can return to the high quality showcase of gameplay E3 is known to provide.

[tbogost]

Alex Garland as Auteur: Apathetic Existentialism

Film attempts to use emotion to reinforce the notion that mankind is the greatest product of the universe – that everything revolves around what we want and what we need. No matter the genre or the style, most film obeys a generic structure that, over its runtime, follows a hero’s ordinary life, a sudden conflict, and their overcoming that conflict so that the world can carry on either as it did before, or better. But filmmaker Alex Garland has a different perspective that defines his auteur style – one that is grim enough to be called cynical, but that might be intellectual enough to be termed apathetic instead. Garland’s films indicate that humans are so inherently materialistic that we cannot work together even when our own goals are the same. We are bound to turn to conflict, usually to find ways to be self-serving quickly, which ultimately leads to self-destruction instead. Garland’s philosophy combats the innate belief that humans cannot not exist, and instead offers up a different question: Is it really so bad that mankind, like all things, will eventually come to an end?

He may have only just begun to explore these ideas of existentialism as a director recently, but as a screenwriter, Garland’s themes reach all the way back to his first project, British zombie drama 28 Days Later (2002). Near the end of 28 Days, during a dinner scene in between zombie attacks, one soldier seems to dictate Garland’s philosophy out loud: “If you look at the whole life of the planet, we… you know, man, has only been around for a few blinks of an eye. So if the infection wipes us all out … that is a return to normality.” While this somewhat ominous line is not further explored in 28 Days, its message seems to glisten towards the end of Garland’s Ex Machina (2014), a film about AI succeeding humanity, and becomes the central theme throughout his most recent Annihilation (2018), which has a team of female scientists exploring a supernatural ‘shimmer’ that threatens to biologically modify the entire globe. Other aspects representative of Garland’s narrative style as an auteur are also rooted in 28 Days but become more fully fledged in these later films of his. Namely, unconventional methods of storytelling broken into a prologue, epilogue, and several sequences or chapters in between, unnecessary conflicts between characters who fail to intercommunicate, and unexpected feelings of nuanced hope in seemingly despondent situations.

At both the beginning and the end of 28 Days, not counting Garland’s signature prologue and epilogue scenes, the main character wakes up in a hospital bed, creating a symmetrical structure throughout the story. The middle of the film is vaguely divided up into two sequences, one inside London, and the other outside the city at a military house. Conflict between allies is introduced in the prologue when a scientist fights with animal activists to keep an infected chimpanzee quarantined, in the middle when survivors argue over whether to remain at or leave their current hideout, and near the end when the protagonists and the military clash with each other rather than uniting against the zombies. In all of the situations, each respective party thinks they are doing what is necessary to survive, but each is also guilty of failing to reason with the other. Every time conflict arises, no one is capable of stepping back, analyzing the situation, and communicating individual logic to placate it. Instead, chaos reigns supreme. While some might angrily disregard this as an example of lazy character design, that would be missing the point that Garland is trying to make. We are so quick to defend our actions that we do not care to be proven wrong. In tense situations, humans are prone to act on impulse, something that makes us not much smarter than a zombie anyway. It is for this reason – that humans are too selfish and too foolish – that Garland hypothesizes we should not expect to last forever.

Ex Machina and Annihilation take Garland’s narrative structure to a whole new level by using actual transitions to divide and title sequences onscreen as if they were part of a storybook. While this design choice might add a certain artistic flair to Garland’s films, it also acts to underline the significance of the beginnings and endings of his stories. If the titled sequences are the individual chapters of a novel, the first and last scenes are the hard book covers. The most important function of these sequences is to either divert from or highlight the events that take place at either end of both films. Each prologue takes place in medias res, acting as a hook to draw the audience in, and each epilogue is ambiguous and open-ended, meant to provoke controversial discussion. For example, the majority of Ex Machina focuses on Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), an amateur programmer, performing an advanced Turing Test on an AI, Ava (Alicia Vikander), over the course of about a week. White font on a black screen orients the audience during Caleb and Ava’s meetings together: “Ava: Session 1,” “Ava: Session 2,” etc. But it is the first and last scenes, not the sequenced meetings, that embody the message of the film as a whole. The former introduces us to Caleb’s departure from life and his arrival at Ava’s birthplace, the research facility hidden in the mountains. The latter presents the inverse, with Ava escaping from her home, replacing Caleb in the helicopter, and potentially replacing humanity on the Earth. Like Ava tricks Caleb into helping her escape, the title sequences trick the audience into viewing Ava as a harmless test, allowing her to pave her way into their hearts and thus into a new civilization where AI are the rulers of the modern world.

The same exact style is used for transitions in Annihilation, but of course with more relevant titles such as “Area X,” “The Shimmer,” and “The Lighthouse.” In this case, the purpose of the titles is almost the opposite as in Ex Machina: not to divert audiences, but to assist them instead. Annihilation is so nonlinear, confusing, and obscure that at times even it seems unsure of what it is trying to say. Lest audiences get frustrated with the apparent lack of progress that the characters in the film verbally acknowledge, these titles help emphasize that there is a final act with a sufficient payoff coming in the future. Of course, this could simply be keeping with the theme of sequences that Garland employed in his previous film, but perhaps it is a continuation of his writing off the human race as ignorant and needy instead. Perhaps Garland thought that he could not hold general audiences to the end of Annihilation without offering some trail of breadcrumbs to nibble on as they anticipate Lena’s fate in The Shimmer.

Another way that both Ex Machina and Annihilation expand on themes from 28 Days is through their use of time and lighting. Both films follow a particular day/night cycle, with important exposition moving the story forward and building tension during the daytime so that one simple conversation or discovery can instantly initiate a climactic dispute amongst allies at night. In this way, Garland evolves his original theme into more than just a narrative device, but a visual one as well. The Day represents a time when new discoveries and relationships invoke fascination and wonder about the changing world, but The Night represents a parallel perspective when those same discoveries can seem unnatural, wrong, or downright evil. In other words, the day/night cycle indicates that there are no true protagonists or antagonists in either film, but that the changing surroundings and circumstances of the characters distorts their perceptions of each other.

In Ex Machina, Caleb asks Ava questions, exchanges friendly banter with her creator Nathan (Oscar Isaac), and explores the environment during the day, but it is during his intense discussions at night with Nathan that the audience feels most anxious, like they, along with Caleb, are the ones being watched and interrogated. The gradual shifts in lighting play a large role in distorting that feeling too, with the audience feeling more trusting of characters flooded by daylight or fluorescents and more anxious when pale tungsten or bright red highlights the space. In fact, the only times when Ava’s motives are directly indicated are when she turns off the main power and activates the red glow that is representative of the iconic HAL 9000. Nevertheless, Caleb is too in love with her to notice. When Nathan and Caleb finally realize that they have been meddling with each other while Ava has been playing them both, it is too late to go back and readjust their perspectives to make amends. The sheer feelings of conflict between them evoked by the surrounding circumstances have already overpowered any logic, and Caleb’s impulses to free Ava rather than to tap into his knowledge on the danger of AI leads to his unfortunate fate, even though the ethics of his decision might have seemed moral.

Correspondingly, in Annihilation, Lena (Natalie Portman) and the other scientists struggle to differentiate between their relationship with their surroundings and with each other. They travel deeper and deeper into The Shimmer during the daytime, witnessing both the strange beauty and the horror of a space with otherworldly biological rules, but at night, when darkness hides the contours of each other’s faces, the scientists cannot help but turn on one another. Garland is extremely conscious of the tone of his conversations, stressed by the overwhelming amount of scenes containing silence instead. Dialogue which begins as purely expositional gradually shifts into the realm of confrontational as the film progresses. While Lena and the other scientists do have a few run-ins with monsters, it is their failure to trust each other that ultimately destroys the team. In one particular instance, for example, a terrific beast clearly inspired by Cronenburg shrieks with the exact voice of its dead victim, the anthropologist Cassie (Tuva Novotny). As the beast kills Anya (Gina Rodriguez), the paramedic who had just turned on her own allies in a frenzied state, the triumphant screams of a Cass-long-gone remind the team that it is not the monsters, but their own inability to work together, that is leading them towards death.

Some aspects of Ex Machina and Annihilation that point to Alex Garland as an up-and-coming auteur have less to do with his fatalistic themes on the human race and more to do with the stylistic choices acquired by means of his consistent use of similar cast and crew. The director of photography Rob Hardy, production designer Mark Digby, costume designer Sammy Sheldon, set decorator Michelle Day, and musicians Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, for example, were all employed in both films, and their expertise comes together nicely to create atmospheres that manage to feel melancholy yet warm and dystopian yet beautiful in each. Ex Machina is filled with juxtaposition, taking place in an exquisite home that is also a horrifying research center, surrounded by rivers but imprisoned by mountains. Likewise, Annihilation explores contrasted wildlife where stags can grow flowers on their antlers but alligators can develop the teeth of a shark in their mouths. Subtle visual effects are important aspects of Garland’s film too because they enhance a world we live in now to create subjects that are nonexistent but not implausible. Ava moves more realistically than any artificially intelligent robot known today, but we would not be surprised to see a major corporation like Amazon or Google unveil a model just like her at any time. Garland addresses this in an interview with IndieWire: “’When is this taking place, I’d say it’s 10 minutes in the future’” (Whale). Similarly, there are no actual creatures or plants on Earth like the ones in Annihilation, but the film never presents something so alien that it would be immediately dismissed as unbelievable. The only thing that is purely extraterrestrial is the meteorite itself; everything else is a product of crossbreeding between objects from our world made possible by another.

The most refined relationship on set is clearly between Garland and his DOP, Rob Hardy, since the most comparable technical aspect of the two films is the pattern of the camera. Close-ups point to the ‘threat against humanity’ in each film – Ava’s brain in the first and the cells duplicating inside The Shimmer in the second. Important artifacts like these are placed in the center of the frame as the camera slowly moves closer and closer to them, almost seductively. In a style similar to that of David Fincher, slight movements of the camera continue in other scenes as well, like a person’s slow breaths, following characters as they sit, move, or speak in order to track them without drawing too much attention to the presence of a camera itself. In fact, the only times when the camera stays immobile is during wide-shots of nature that link the main sequences but provide a bit of breathing room in between important moments in the narrative.

One of the most evident similarities bridging the connection between Ex Machina and Annihilation is through actor Oscar Isaac, who was utilized in both films for more than just his stellar acting, but for his significance in Garland’s underlying themes as well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Isaac functions as a metaphor for higher power in each of Garland’s films: “In Ex Machina, Isaac’s Nathan likens himself to God, providing his ability to create true artificial intelligence pans out. In Annihilation, it’s once again Isaac, this time portraying Lena’s husband, Kane, who opens up the subject of the divine and leads Lena to state, without hesitation, that ‘God makes mistakes.’” (Newby). It is ironic to consider films penned and directed by someone who identifies as an atheist as being religious, but Newby has a point that can be sufficiently validated by the intense saturation of Eden-like paradises and the open-ended epilogues of all three Alex Garland films discussed in this essay. No matter how cynical Garland’s beliefs about mankind’s future might be, a certain theme of hope – not the kind of hope one expects or wishes for, but hope nonetheless – is persistent in all three endings. At the end of 28 Days Later, the protagonists finally signal their location to an overhead jet and anticipate freedom. What exactly is waiting for them outside of Britain is ambiguous (the film ends before we get a chance to see); for all they know, the rest of the world could be infected too, but there is a possibility that life still exists somewhere. The final scene in Ex Machina depicts the AI, Ava, abandoning Caleb and blending into mundane human life at an ordinary crossroad. While this image definitely provokes a feeling of existential dread at the thought of a robot transcending the role of mankind, it is also pleasing to consider that some evolved form of being might replace Homo Sapiens in the future as we did the Neanderthals before us. Annihilation’s final shot of Lena and her husband as potentially alien or genetically mutated beings conjures up a similar notion about existentialism that actually seems to reject Darwinism: it is not evolution that exists, but simply adaptation.

These films hypothesize that eventually, the world as we know it will likely come to an end, replaced by science, technology, evolution, or a divine power. But who are we to know? Perhaps the details of the next step do not matter. Of course, it is up for debate whether this apathetic ambivalence about the future of mankind is unethical. After all, should we not preserve our own species by fighting against current world dangers such as artificial intelligence and global warming? Some would say yes, and Garland might even agree, but it is clear that he believes his purpose is to raise these questions, not to answer them. In his films, just as in religion itself, the prospect of abandoning the present and moving on to some new reality, whatever that might be, is inevitable, and to Alex Garland, there is nothing wrong with that.

Newby, Richard. “'Annihilation' and 'Ex Machina' Are a Double Feature in the Making.” The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Feb. 2018, www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/annihilation-machina-are-a-double-feature-making-1088109. Accessed 8 March 2018.

Whale, Chase. “Interview: Alex Garland Talks Lo-Fi Approach To 'Ex Machina,' Auteur Theory, And Much More.” IndieWire, 7 Apr. 2015, www.indiewire.com/2015/04/interview-alex-garland-talks-lo-fi-approach-to-ex-machina-auteur-theory-and-much-more-265335/. Accessed 8 March 2018.

[goliathbetagamer-blog]

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Review

Imagine what would happen if you took a half-season of The Walking Dead TV show, mashed it together with a Deus Ex or System Shock style of exploration and decision-making, and then drizzled it with the best aspects of a modern VR game.

What you might end up with is a survival horror game that’s oppressively tense and brutal, but also tugs on you relentlessly to explore every corner of its post-apocalyptic world for hidden loot and nuggets of lore. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is exactly that, and it absolutely nails the mix, delivering it with a level of detail and a depth of interactivity that feels like a genuine step forward for virtual reality.

You play as the Tourist, a storied survivor and living urban legend who seems to be immune to the fictional virus that makes everybody else a little bitier in The Walking Dead universe. You’ve rolled into the sunken remains of New Orleans following a rumor about a buried hotbed of limitless supplies called the Reserve, and the rest is up to you. It’s a simple setup, but one that's perfect for the size and scope of Saints & Sinners because it doesn’t immediately saddle you with any presumptions about your character’s morality.

You’re introduced to New Orleans by your old buddy Henri, but the moral choices you’ll make while navigating its several open-ended zones are yours alone. As an Obsidian fan, I was pleased to find that there were several major factions fighting for control of the Reserve, each with their own perspective on the bleak situation around you. One such moral choice involves a mission where a faction member will send you to rescue their brother in exchange for an important item, and it’s fantastic that you can then choose to upend the original mission and kill the brother, earning his captors as allies and instead taking the item by force – if that’s the path you prefer, of course. Saints & Sinners’ ending depends entirely on the decisions you make throughout the campaign too, few of which are decidedly ‘good’ or ‘evil’.

All that choice makes the Tourist primarily a shell for you to insert your own personality into, with decent voice acting that gives life to each dialogue option, much like Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series. By comparison, Telltale’s The Walking Dead accomplished some truly great feats of cinematic storytelling and meaningful decision-making in its hostile and zombie-riddled world, but it never gave me free rein to do whatever I wanted. That’s something I had craved for years when I was a regular watcher of The Walking Dead TV series, and while Telltale’s take on The Walking Dead certainly made me care about Clementine, it never made me feel like I was in that world.

Saints & Sinners scratches the itch for a truly explorable Walking Dead world with the grace and confidence of a well-lubricated bowie knife

Saints & Sinners scratches that itch with the grace and confidence of a well-lubricated bowie knife. The portrayal of killing zombies – or walkers – has never been as satisfying as it is here, and the abject terror of an unexpected walker swarm has never been as palpable. Zombie guts and brains are rendered with great detail, but what really grounds you in this world is the fact that weapons have appropriate weight and heft. Heavy weapons like axes and rifles require you to grip them with both hands for stability, while small weapons like shivs are much lighter and easier to land precise blows with. It’s not as nuanced as a game like Boneworks; you can’t wield just any item as a weapon, but this combat system is far more tactile and exciting than if you were doing it remotely with a gamepad or a keyboard.

Diseased walkers explode and unleash poisonous gases that lower your health pool when killed up close, meanwhile helmeted walkers are far tougher to kill, requiring a complete decapitation or extremely precise blows to exposed parts of their heads. This increased challenge only adds to the intensity of fighting an entire pack of walkers at once, a common occurrence later on, as you need to quickly pick and choose which walkers need to be killed in which way and in which order to preserve the durability of your best weapons. Rapidly juggling my inventory in real-time to acclimate to each fight forced me to be smarter and, as a result, Saints & Sinners never fell into that Action-RPG trap of becoming repetitive. I spent a little over 18 hours in the campaign – the story itself is a few hours shorter than that, but it was just loads of fun to complete scavenging runs and hunt for secret recipes on my own.

The walkers and human NPCs themselves have their own agendas too, often interacting with one another in interesting and useful ways. While the AI isn’t always the most bright, causing enemies to sometimes get stuck in hilarious and vulnerable positions, an impressive amount of the unfurling drama that makes Saints & Sinners exciting is simulated in real-time rather than deliberately scripted. To my satisfaction, I found that many of the quests allowed me to choose my own path to a solution, and it was a delight to discover alternate routes and secrets, even if the map can feel a little nondescript or claustrophobic at times. Even when I was presented with straightforward options for moving through a group of wary human NPCs or solving a quest with diplomacy – or simply by attacking an NPC directly – I could just as easily avoid interacting with certain characters altogether, either by attracting a herd of walkers and sneaking past the ensuing carnage, or by climbing over the side of a wall or up the side of a house. That freedom to tackle a situation so many different ways is fantastic.

And though the bigger story about breaking into the Reserve can sometimes feel pretty thin between long periods of exploring, looting, killing, and crafting my way through the streets of New Orleans, it was refreshing for a VR game to let me define my character through my own decisions in a setting as meticulously detailed and open-ended as this. While Saints & Sinners isn’t exactly the first of its kind, this caliber of storytelling reaches a height that VR had otherwise yet to achieve.

Zombalaya

Central to the tension of Saints & Sinners is that you only get so much time each day to do things before the city’s bells are rung and the streets flood with ravenous corpses. Once you head back to safety you can go to sleep and skip to the next morning, but the number of undead you encounter the following day increases. This creates a compelling risk-reward choice between pushing your luck past dark or playing it safe at the cost of worse odds tomorrow, driving the tension of the entire game.

That dilemma would be perfectly manageable if not for the fact that you only have a limited amount of inventory space, pushing you to think more carefully about what you grab. You also have to continue crafting or finding new weapons as your old ones tend to fall apart at a distressingly high rate. That forces you to make each attack count, which is easier said than done since you actually have to swing and aim with your real-world appendages. With a ticking clock looming behind all that, Saints & Sinners quickly becomes the perfect storm for adrenaline junkies.

Luckily, the inventory management is intuitive and feels great. Picking up items and placing them into your backpack is as simple as throwing them over your shoulder, and to access them again you simply grab the pack off of your back and pull items out of their neatly arranged slots. Meanwhile, weapons can be holstered in convenient slots on your waist and back while your journal and flashlight fit snugly on your chest. This style of physical inventory management has existed in VR games like Rec Room and Township Tale for some time, and it’s far more interactive and interesting than simply tapping on a menu screen with your fingers or pointing at some text with a laser pointer.

This is the perfect formula for some of the most terrifying moments I’ve had in a VR headset

Limited stamina is also a worry. Running out of stamina makes you slow and unable to swing, aim, or run away, meaning it’s all the more critical to land each and every blow with finesse. Likewise, having a strong weapon or beefed up stamina pool makes you feel satisfyingly powerful, but never so much that you can let your guard down, keeping combat engaging even as you get stronger.

If you do die to the shambling hordes, you’re forced to respawn at the start of the map while the day’s clock is still ticking, and you only get one chance to reclaim your inventory before it’s gone forever. As time wears on, high-quality supplies and weapons can become so difficult to find that scrounging up a broken bottleneck or screwdriver in the nick of time is sometimes the difference between life and death. This, mixed with the fact that your health and stamina pools are temporarily decreased when you die, is a perfect formula for some of the most terrifying moments I’ve had in a VR headset – but that terror was met with an equal amount of satisfaction if I could make it back to my loot and come out alive after.

It is disappointing that character progression is fairly linear, with only a few tech trees to branch into – Gear, Guns, and Survival – and no mutual exclusivity between them. There’s nothing stopping you from unlocking every possible upgrade at the crafting stations in short order, just as long as you can find the right components from scrapping items you find in the world, similar to Fallout 4. It’s plenty of fun to use newfound upgrades like the Nail Bomb and the Grass Cutter, and there are some recipes that you first have to uncover the hidden nooks and crannies of New Orleans to find, but it’s too bad that there’s no real way to personalize your Tourist beyond the story choices you make.

Verdict

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a noteworthy step forward for VR gaming, proving that a Deus Ex-like Action-RPG can feel right at home in a headset. Every one of its many interwoven systems clearly has a level of thought and care behind it, swirling survival horror and roleplaying staples together with nuance. Even though character customization can feel limited and the story is a bit short, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a fantastic example of what VR can be.

Developer: Skydance Interactive

Publisher: Skydance Interactive

Release: DateJanuary 23, 2020

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4

- Joystick Buff 🕹️🧡

https://www.destructoid.com/--581333.phtml#post

[timona-lisa]

since i’ve been getting a lot of questions about them (and by a lot, i mean four), i decided to compile a list of my old muppet fics that i’m really embarrassed over now. 

note: pretty much all these fics were written when i was in high school and have since been deleted but i think you can still find the breakfast club one through the wayback machine. 

so without further ado, here’s ai’s greatest cheesiest hits:

don’t you forget about me: so this one was made back in 2008 and it was essentially a parody (eh) of the breakfast club. originally the cast was going to be kermit as bender (i know, so fitting), piggy as claire, gonzo as andrew, camilla as allison, and fozzie as brian but then i noticed there weren’t too many fics starring the band so i changed it to floyd, janice, teeth, zoot, and scooter who, now that i think about it, was a probably a better choice for brian.

there’s not too much to say about this one, other than it was a basic script fic with some changes from the original movie to make it more pg and piggy who would show up now and then ‘cause she was furious over not getting the part of claire. (yeah, my handling of piggy’s character was pretty awful but that was before i grew to appreciate her and realize there was more to her than being a diva.) also sam was the principal which was the only casting i can still say i’m proud of.

long way to the top: also written in 2008, basically my since abandoned oc aurie (short for aurora, i think?), a tambourine player and obvious fangirl, auditions for the band and catches the eye of all the dudes (except floyd) and…i’m kinda blanking on this one? i know it was pretty much your standard cheesy wish fulfillment fic and i think she got kidnapped near the end and the crew had to go out and save her from some evil record producer guy. yeah. i don’t have too much else to say about it. 

all sewn up: also 2008, so this one actually kinda brings back good memories, it was a journal fic written from zoot’s perspective with some random observations and behind the scenes antics and it was set during the first season of the muppet show. i remember literally watching the joel grey episode on youtube while working on the fic and trying to capture what zoot’s voice was like back then. there were a couple entries about his relationship with janice and he probably sounded more like a dorky teenager than a burned out sax player but aside from that, it was pretty in-character but short-lived, about five or six entries.

coming of the roads: the first of the giant “epic” fics, set during modern times (modern being 2009), and centers on the band going on a tour around the states and they end up in a town that’s half stepford, half the slums. while there, they find an abandoned baby and take her in and name her melody (yes, i was that unoriginal). eventually, they go to the town hall and try to explain the situation but they get dismissed because it’s run by assholes and it’s in the stepford part of town so they call the rest of the muppet gang to help them and fix up the place through shows and montages and all that good stuff. 

on the surface, the story seemed to have a lot going for it but unfortunately, it was weighed down by a lot of soap opera drama and corny moments. like, there was one subplot where janice was struggling between her feelings for floyd and teeth (bear in mind, this was long before the series was a thing) and there was a super ooc scene where janice and teeth shared a kiss after a show and floyd got all pissed and stormed off stage. (spoilers: it was just a heat of the moment thing and it got resolved within a couple chapters.)

there was another subplot where lips was struggling to figure out his own feelings for zoot and every time he tried to ask what their relationship status was, zoot would be like “i dunno, man” until near the end where they got attacked by stepford people for trying to change things and they spent the night bandaging each other up and zoot was all: “yeah, um, i like you.” if i remember right, i was going to have lips kiss zoot on the cheek but i got told off by an admin that it wasn’t “appropriate” so it ended with a “just bros being bros” hug. :/ 

the last subplot was about teeth and his father-daughter relationship with melody and there were some flashbacks to his childhood and how he spent time between various foster homes and the streets and was able to rise up and become a rock legend. then there was a subplot within that subplot that focused on his relationship with another old oc joelle, who was pretty much a fusion of tiana and esmeralda, and made her living as a street performer. basically, they were childhood sweethearts but lost track of each other for some reason or another and they reunited near the end of the second act. looking back, jo wasn’t as poorly written as aurie but then again, she didn’t have a whole lot to do besides fill the long-lost girlfriend role, hang out with janice, and occasionally make snarky comments. also i love how lips kissing zoot on the cheek was considered “inappropriate” but a heavily implied sex scene with her and teeth didn’t raise any eyebrows.

honestly, besides the elements i already addressed, i think the part where i really missed the mark was the ending. literally everything was resolved by way of plot conveniences. the town got a new mayor. jo became the new tambourine player. melody was adopted by the band but also by jenny and ronnie from mtm. yeah, remember them? they were part of the fic too. i’m not sure why but i guess the story needed human characters? i have no idea what i was on back then.

hit the lights: oh boy, this one’s a doozy. so it takes place almost immediately after coming of the roads (early 2010) and the band are being stalked by this tmz-esque journalist because...yeah, because. let’s go with that. after cornering zoot, asking a bunch of super personal questions, and failing to get any answers, tmz dude starts to trash him in reviews and such and makes a big deal over his shyness. in short, tmz dude is pretty much the worst and he winds up getting murdered in the second chapter. since zoot was the target of his criticism and was close to the scene of the crime, he ends up being the primary suspect. much of the fic is focused on the gang trying to clear his name as well as flashbacks to his childhood, his relationship/s with the band, etc.

so yeah, there’s a few elements that were recycled from the previous fic, such as the flashbacks, zoot’s relationship with his family, another long-lost girlfriend (only she was the victim of an unsolved murder as well) and a reunion between him and their daughter near the end. again, the biggest problem with the fic was it was played really straight and soap opera-ish and there was little room for muppety antics. there were like, paragraphs upon paragraphs of zoot lamenting about the past and it got to be draining after a while. i love exploring lesser-known characters and it wasn’t the first time i tackled zoot but unlike the journal fic, which was pretty lighthearted and didn’t take itself too seriously, this was like an avalanche of angst. also clover (his daughter) was probably the least embarrassing of my ocs but she didn’t have much of presence in the fic until the end. 

i’m trying to think of something else to say other than, “it tried way too hard to be sad and ended up being corny and exhausting.” i did try to incorporate more of zoot and lips’ relationship but again, because of the forum’s weak ass policy, they could only hug or hold hands and the fluff took a backseat to the drama. i was going through some personal stuff at the time and i think a lot of that was evident in my writing and i even based tmz dude after somebody who was bullying me and when i reflect on it nowadays, it’s pretty painful. i think i went through a three year gap when i kinda forgot about the fic and then one day, just reread the whole thing in one sitting and was like, “yeeeah, this needs to go...”

so there you have it, ai’s mupfics of yore.

[enterinit]

TESO: Elsweyr and other games coming to Xbox One this week

TESO: Elsweyr and other games coming to Xbox One this week. The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr (June 04, 2019) Join over 11 million players in the award-winning online multiplayer RPG. Dragons have invaded Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr, part of the Season of the Dragon year-long adventure! Explore and defend the home of the Khajiit from an ancient evil, and command the undead with the Necromancer class. Features: VENTURE TO ELSWEYR—Explore the Khajiit homeland; a land ravaged by warfare.DEFEND AGAINST DRAGONS —Scaled terror attacks from the skies! Seek new allies and weapons to take them down.A YEAR-LONG EPIC TALE—ESO reaches new storytelling heights with a war against Dragons told across a Chapter and three DLC game packs.WIELD THE POWER OF NECROMANCY—Master control over life and death with a character class that channels the undead. Timespinner (June 04, 2019) Travel back in time to change fate itself in this beautifully crafted story-driven adventure, inspired by classic 90s action-platformers. Join timekeeper Lunais on her quest for revenge against the empire that killed her family, using time-bending powers to explore a vast, connected world. Neon Junctions (June 05, 2019) A first-person puzzle platformer filled with atmosphere of synthwave and the 80s. Plunge into cyberspace and try to overcome 35 levels capable to challenge not only your savvy but also dexterity. Capture and move conductive cubes, close electrical circuits and restore power of the interactive objects around you. Asdivine Dios (June 05, 2019) Among the many worlds the deities have created, there is one world that abounds with life known as Asdivine. But when a spate of disturbances erupts across the globe and an ever spreading murk threatens to destroy it, Izayoi, the deity of Asdivine himself, takes up his cause to save the world he created with his own hands. Suffering from an unfortunate loss of his own divine powers, is there any hope he can succeed? Find out as the curtain raises on this adventure of divine proportions! Boasting a voluminous story, an expansive world, treasure filled dungeons, exciting turn-based battles, weapon creation, and more, the all-inclusive RPG experience is here! Plus, limitless enemies and loot, a multitude of subquests, and even bosses that will blow your mind await! Features Create a new chapter in a grand fantasy RPG featuring turn-based battles!Boasting a voluminous story, an expansive world, treasure filled dungeons, exciting turn-based battles, weapon creation, and more, the all-inclusive RPG experience is hereLimitless enemies and loot, a multitude of subquests, and even bosses that will blow your mind await! MotoGP 19 (June 06, 2019) Speed up your climb to success with this multiplier which doubles reputation and development points earned in Career mode. Immerse yourself in the official 2019 MotoGP™ season and discover the MotoE™. Have fun with the most complete multiplayer experience ever, challenge your friends, create your custom events and become Race Director thanks to dedicated servers! Relive the most thrilling rivalries that made the history of the MotoGP™ in a dedicated mode! Compete with a faster, smarter and more accurate AI, based on machine learning. Create your style by choosing from the widest selection of accessories and brands ever and have fun with new graphic editors, customizing helmet, lower back patch and racing number! Start your Career as a rookie and when you're ready for a trickier challenge, try out the Pro Career and race as a real pro! Toki (June 06, 2019) The return of the wacky monkey!Toki sets off on a new adventure! The cult action/platform game originally released on arcade machines in 1989 is back with a super-simian new version, featuring all-new hand-drawn graphics and re-orchestrated music! Super Blood Hockey (June 07, 2019) Arcade sports gaming gets a shot of adrenaline in Super Blood Hockey, a violent homage to classic 8- and 16-bit ice hockey games. Customize your line-up and take to the ice, using fast-paced skills and bone-crunching brutality to dominate. Prove your hockey prowess in a deadly global tournament or against friends in 4-player local multiplayer. Build and manage your own squad in Franchise Mode – with the right diet and performance enhancing drugs your team can be season champions! Features: Use superior skating, positioning, strategy and blood-splattering violenceTake on the world in a global tournament, where failure results in executionVaried challenges and scenarios, including Turbo Mode and 12 vs 12 Mega RumblePaint the ice with the blood of your friends in 4-player local multiplayerFranchise Mode: Create, recruit and manage your own custom team of inmates in a futuristic world of dystopic blood sportsEnjoy the retro beats of an original soundtrack by chiptunist Shawn Daley Party Golf (June 07, 2019) Party Golf is “less golf, more party”, a crazy, competitive couchplay game for one to eight players. Tee off simultaneously to a psychedelic 2D world, with satisfyingly simple physics, except it’s a frenetic free-for-all to get in the hole. It’s instant fun with endless variety there are trillions of gameplay combinations, from giant banana balls to turbo power-ups. This spontaneous couch party may drive a wedge between friends, but have everyone shouting “just one more round!” 4-player local-multiplayer and even 8-player matches with wacky shared controller modeover 100 included game modes, and you can make your own with our super powerful gameplay customisation systemprocedurally generated terrains so you'll never play the same hole twice ... and crazy powerups, night golf, checkpoints, elimination modes, rat-king... the number of ways to play is practically endless! Omensight: Definitive Edition (June 07, 2019) The kingdom of Urralia is gone, annihilated by a dark deity. In this action murder-mystery game you are the Harbinger, a mythical warrior who must relive and repeat Urralia’s final day to solve a mysterious murder and save the world. Talk with the inhabitants of war-torn Urralia, separate truth from lies, and use the power of Omensight to alter their fates. Choice and consequence, multiple courageous companions, and skillful combat all weave together to deliver a unique blend of narrative and action. With each choice, time and fate is changed, bringing you one step closer to Urralia’s salvation. Features: A narrative experience that blends interactive story with action. Witness events from different perspectives and affect the outcomes through your choicesA diverse cast of characters, each with a role in Urralia's fate. Decide to help or hinder them in your quest to stop the apocalypseFight using fluid, stylish combat that combines swordplay, magical abilities and time manipulation Read the full article

[waynekelton]

Excellent Two Player Games on iPhone, iPad and Android

Some of the greatest things in life are better shared. Two player games offer the most direct chances for head-to-head competition or connection. No misty-eyed sentiment there, just a fact. One mind probing the ingenuity and exiguity of another through games.

If you want something epic to embark on on your own, how about taking a look at these great RPGs?

Maybe you like to play in person on the same screen, or even on different devices via local multiplayer, or instead online with asynchronous multiplayer. A test of reflexes or planning? The games below run the gamut, with variety enough for all kinds of people and situations. Give them a try the next time with a fellow gamer. You won’t be disappointed.

Reader Recommendations

Ticket to Ride

Potion Explosion

Lords of Waterdeep

Splendor

Istanbul

Through the Ages

Indian Summer

Fort Sumter (Review)

Developer: Playdek Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $6.99

Playdek's Fort Sumter: Secession Crisis tackles the introductory moves to the American Civil War in a quick, 15-minute hand of cards between two players. Your job is to position yourself for the most political influence possible as you prepare for the inevitable outbreak of the war. But Fort Sumter manages all this in an elegant little game that takes the card-based intrigue of Twilight Struggle and streamlines them, and the result is a two-player experience that's easy to learn and allows for a lot of nuance in every game. 

Tides of Time (Review)

Developer: Portal Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $4.99

Tides of Time's digital adaptation does an excellent job at bringing this 2-player micro-game to life, with wonderful visuals and animations, and a faithful recreation of all the rules and mechanics. It's flaws are mainly to do with the original design: There's not a lot to it, so it's not a game you can play a lot off - physically or via an app. It should definitely be part of your two-player playlist though, and you'll enjoy its drafting and set-collection strategy. It's a nice, casual game where the competition isn't too fierce, but the challenge is still just as rewarding.

Morels (Review)

Developer: Mossbark Games Platforms:  iOS Universal, Android Price: $4.99

The physical version of Moresl (also known as Fungi) was a very casual and fun card game for two people. It's only drawback was that it took up a fair amount of room, but thanks to Mossbark's excellent digital adaptation, that's no longer a concern. If Pass & Play and even online multiplayer modes, all of the best traits of Morels have survived into the mobile port.

Especially good for couples, Morels is very laid back, but also paced and easy to play. You won't need to remember anything too complex, and it's an excellent time-waster if you're travelling together or are just looking for some quick  and easy post-dinner entertainment at home. 

Uniwar

Developer: Spooky House Studios Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free with non-invasive IAP

Uniwar is an ambitious turn-based strategy game which proudly wears its influences on its sleeve. It has the conquer-the-map tension of Advance Wars as well as the creative asymmetry of different player races: the fleshy Terrans, chitinous Insectoids and metallic...Robots. The abilities and interactions across these units are rather lively and varied, walking the fine edge between ‘interesting’ and ‘unbalanced’. Hotseat play is simple as can be, with quite a few maps offered, and there’s also online play.

Words with Friends 2

Developer: Zygna Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free

Words with Friends has been around almost as long as smartphones themselves, and it’s still a golden way to spend the better part of a day or longer. Yes, it’s like that other classic board game, and there’s a delicious subtext of who-spells-what-when. (Words score points but also...score points, making associations, repartee, even a kind of conversation). It just works on multiple levels, from a pure gameplay perspective but also in terms of social pay-out and connection. Oh, and on the gameplay front, it’s worth noting that advanced play involves so much more than just scoring the most impressive single word on a given turn. It also means thinking about positioning, letter draws and pacing, bonuses: basically long-con strategy stuff. Words with Friends is an oldie but a goodie, and a surprisingly handy way to keep in touch with friends.

Burgle Bros. (Review)

Developer: Fowers Games Inc. Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $4.99

Co-op games are great, but even the greats tend to be best either purely solo or with the max player count. Burgle Bros, however, is unique in that it shines especially with two. With two, the joint is cased twice as fast, but hiding is much harder. To quickly reprise the game for those unfamiliar: players explore each floor’s tiles till they discover the safe, crack the combination, retrieve the  and advance to the next level. Patrolling guards and alarms will make things difficult, and if any player runs out of stealth points they risk getting caught and getting sent to the slammer. Some of the game’s more advanced tactics and interactions really only come into their own with a dynamic duo. Yes, gadgets and treasures along with character abilities combine but the real clincher is the pathing and alert system. Guards can be re-routed by tripping alarms, so the best teams take heat for each other. Two-player stealth doesn’t get much better than this.

Onitama

Developer: Asmodee Digital Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free (with expansions, content packs as optional DLC)

Onitama is a game primarily about not losing. Sounds like weak, roundabout praise, I know, but what this means in practice is thinking many steps in advance, reasoning recursively to move from point B to point A, something surprisingly difficult. Woah there, let's back up a little and actually talk about the game. Onitama is a two-player abstract game played on a two-dimensional square grid, much like chess. Players win by either capturing their opponent's 'King' piece or alternatively by moving their own respective King onto the other player's start space. The twist is how movement patterns work, for they are dictated by cards which can be used once, then eventually become playable by the opponent. There are only five given movement pattern cards (of a larger set) in a specific game, and this larger flow between good positioning and a good hand of cards makes the game quite intense. The app is free and as well-polished as any of Asmodee's releases.

Neuroshima Hex

Developer: Portal Games Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $4.99, 2.99

This one features asymmetrical factions trying to control the board by selecting two of three tiles (six-sided hexes, that is) each turn. The post-apocalyptic setting and wildly divergent playstyles of the groups make it an unusually colorful strategy game, but these flourishes of variety do nothing to detract from the game’s balance. The base game only includes four races, but that alone is plenty to start with and the rest are available as paid DLC. Tile-laying madcap fun.

Glow Hockey 2

Developer: Natenai Ariyatrakool Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $0.99, Free.

Arcade- or action-style two player games are the epitome of beer-and-pretzel fun. Crystal clear consequences, nothing to overthink or overanalyze just quick wrists instead of quick wits. Pure impulse and reaction make for some reliable fun, and Glow Hockey is a passable digital dupe for Air Hockey, minus the constant click-clack of the pucks. The physics are satisfying, the controls responsive. It works well in an understated and way that is impossible to hype, but it still entirely worth recognizing.

Antihero (Review)

Developer: Versus Evil Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $4.99

There is no high road in Antihero. Mischief and misfortune rule in its Victorian, Dickensian setting which makes the sooty and sullen into something fun. (The art direction and design are majorly on point with this game). Plus, the game itself is incredibly intense and stressful, always putting players in a race for victory points over a shockingly brief time. The game still manages to have a distinct beginning, middle, and end while allowing for a non-trivial variety of build paths and playstyles. It’s fog-of-war and bluff systems inject just enough tension to keep the game from becoming deterministic, and it’s one of the best original digital games to come out within recent memory. Oh, and it’s exclusively for two players, either through asynchronous or real-time play.

Ready Steady Bang

Developer: Cowboy Games Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $0.99, Free.

A western showdown at sundown. Quick-draw, one-shot, one-kill. Ready, Steady, Bang is this experience, over and over, with variable countdown timing and a variety of death animations. Technically there’s also a short ‘campaign’ mode vs. AI with ironclad timing thresholds, but the meat of the game can be reduced to a single perfectly timed gesture. Dead simple, quick and satisfying. Just don’t be the other guy. 

Patchwork (Review)

Developer: DIGIDICED Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $2.99

Patchwork may be pint-sized compared to some of its juggernaut neighbors on this list, but what it lacks in player count or time commitment it makes up in charm and crystal-clear, razor sharp strategy. (Those two make for quite the odd couple) Patchwork is a variable-setup perfect information abstract for two players. Players work to fill up their empty boards by adding patches to them, of various polyomino sizing, with the ultimate goal of filling the whole swath and collecting as many covetous buttons along the way. It is almost instantly intuitive yet perplexing and sophisticated even after dozens of plays, with turns chained together or telegraphed from miles away. A sweet game that can also be a hardcore match of wits.

What are your favourite games to play between two people? Let us know in the comments! 

Excellent Two Player Games on iPhone, iPad and Android published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[vgblast-blog]

We Happy Few: Immersion, intrigue, and melancholy

https://videogameblast.com/?p=1694

To say that playing We Happy Few is an experience is a gross understatement.

I believe the highly anticipated title by Compulsion Games is one that truly seeks to break new ground in the genre the world will likely categorize it as. The overall presentation of the game is astounding, along with its premise, and the way it handles gameplay makes giving We Happy Few a label such as “First-person stealth action horror survival” seem almost like a slight to the overall vision. I would prefer to call this game a “paranoia simulator”. Why you may ask? Well, the game truly feels alive and comes together when you feel as though you are being watched, looking over your shoulder while trying to keep a pace to your next objective, only to run into someone else who questions your very existence the second you turn around to come back from your previous direction in their drug-induced haze whilst coexisting in the "Utopia" known as Wellington Wells.  The game has a real sense of progression and does a lot for “Survival” style gameplay, though, some may argue the changes to the standard formula may trivialize the experience. With multiple characters, a compelling narrative, incredible aesthetic, fun gameplay with welcome twists on the original “craft, survive, explore” formula, what’s not to love? Unfortunately; there’s quite a bit I’m afraid.

The overall presentation of We Happy Few is the most polarizing part of the experience.

From dreary gardens to areas that shift perspective depending on your element of sobriety (read: on or off drugs.) The visual style, character aesthetic, sense of progression, and atmospheric presence of Compulsion’s title is fantastic. However, despite what it excels in, it all falls apart under arguably the worst downfall the game suffers from: a lack of overall polish and optimization. I played the game on the Playstation 4 and I experienced crashes, save file corruptions, visual bugs, collision detection errors, AI inconsistencies, frame rate inconsistencies, pop-in graphics, and just an overall air of incompleteness. Not just once or twice, but so often while playing We Happy Few, whether I was streaming this game or not, gave me these bugs, glitches, and crashes. We Happy Few had a vision that, when attempted, crushed itself mercilessly in the absolute worst possible way. When its formula works, when the graphics stop popping in, when the game doesn’t crash, when everything melds together in the way it was intended; the experience is like no other. It is truly a unique game; more so than any other of the sort, as the survival elements mixed not with an immediate need to fight back against an enemy but conform to their standard.  It is truly a different and intriguing train of thought that needs to be played to be believed. As new types of villagers are introduced, and behaviors and equipment of already existing ones change or become more apparent, you will feel much more of an inclination to be prepared as opposed to improvising on the fly while walking the streets of Wellington Wells. It also requires you to be aware of your actions as to not overemphasize your non-conformity. Though sometimes you will be unable to avoid the necessary evil of becoming drug-induced; altered states of perception allow you to get through certain checkpoints that you will undoubtedly find; unless, you for some reason, want to make the game as hard as you can.

The element of drug use in the game (and most of the rewards that come from exploring its crafting system) unfortunately falls flat.

The populace controlling drug “Joy” is plentiful in the city and with other items to keep hunger, thirst, and even sleep in check in gross abundance, you may find the overall challenge of We Happy Few to be lacking where it should seem incredibly apparent. While you may find that every sprint down the rainbow streets of Wellington Wells may not end in your death, conforming to society and walking everywhere all the time may not be such a bad idea, especially with a good plan in mind. The constant and random load times, crashes, and AI idiocy also serve to crush the immersion and leaves the game horribly disfigured over basic problem-solving skills in the long run. While it is easy to get surrounded, backed into a corner, and overtaken by an angry mob, you may find it just as easy to corral all of them up and duck into an alley to hide, then watch them simply ignore the trashcan you take refuge in and go on their merry way. It is these problems that make the game a mess more than anything else, as the innovation and unique twists on common elements unfortunately get overshadowed by the sloppy optimization beyond glitches and frame drops, leading to a true break in the main selling point of the game.

Disappointingly, as a game that relies on immersion, We Happy Few’s lack of polish makes the compelling narrative not worth the effort to those used to a usual “Triple-A”, 60$ title.

While the stories of Arthur Hastings, Sally Boyle, and Ollie Starkey are all compelling and the characters are genuinely likable, the random load times while simply walking down the street and constant sights of randomly floating or misplaced NPCs make the world feel more silly and tedious rather than paranoid and suspenseful. For every street you walk down that makes you feel like you just survived judgement akin to a crooked jury, you will encounter one with an NPC floating away from his bench while still in a sitting animation. It is wholeheartedly unfortunate to bear witness to the fact that the game can not keep the same tone as its melancholy narrative of intrigue, deception, and soul-searching initially led consumers and players to believe.  For if it could, this game would have been nothing short of a triumph. The visuals, voice acting, writing, and overall presentation of the world make it feel alive and worth visiting, which makes exploring Wellington Wells feel like a genuinely rewarding experience when it all works. Regrettably, those times are few and far between as the longer you play, the more the game seems to work against you, giving you even more random load times and crashes. All in all, it kills the experience the game is built upon, as without it the atmosphere, tension, and immersion factor of the game is completely gone and it’s unfortunately left to be viewed as a different-but-unpolished first-person survival action game.

We Happy Few is a game that stands alone in its incredible ideas and presentation, but is undermined by glitches and hiccups that can't be ignored.

As the game stands now, We Happy Few is an important game to make note of. A great aesthetic with a fantastic narrative and genuinely great twists on the normal formula only shine when they work, which is a disastrous, never consistent amount of time. The story of the main protagonist, Arthur Hastings, is the only thing that pushed me to complete it, honestly only to dread the next character’s stories as I knew they would be plagued by the same issues as Arthur's decently long narrative. I could not, on any good authority recommend purchasing We Happy Few to anyone in its current state, but if you absolutely must play it and can work with all of the aforementioned optimization flaws, there is a gem of a game and truly an amazing experience buried deep within, that, when functional, is beautiful.

Only when it works, though.

[flowing-paint]

Myth the boardgame. A review.

This post is going to be my very first review on the blog and it’s about a board game that in my opinion deserves way more attention. I am talking about the dreaded “Myth” designed and published by Megacon Games. This is also the first post of a small series because the subject is vast (at best) and I would like to cover it in the details. One thing that I would really like to point out is that I have no affiliation with Megacon Games (although I have many of their products) nor I took part in this game’s Kickstarter so all you will read is just my personal unbiased opinion. 

Well, enough said for the introduction, let’s move to the actual game review.

Myth, the board game.

All the reviews I’ve seen for this game almost always seem to agree on the fact that Myth is a cooperative dungeon delving kind of board game. However, I see this game from a slightly different perspective and I think calling Myth “a board game” is reductive. Yes, it comes with a lot of boards, tons of tokens and a whole bunch of cards in a big cardboard box but in that very same box there is more than meets the eye. You know..,? Many games happen to stand right in between the classic board game and a tabletop miniatures war game like, let’s say, Warhammer40k. They are usually called gateway games and Myth is definitely a kind of gateway game even though it elevates the concept to a totally different level. After diving into the game mechanics and starting to grasp the philosophy behind the game you will surely realize that this is a hybrid gateway game that stands on the vertex where board gaming, tabletop wargaming and role playing meet. And then it mixes all of them together creating a kind of experience that is very hard to reproduce with other games. But let’s try to analyze this game point by point.

What is it about

As I said, it’s a game where players cooperate to fight against grim hordes of minions manipulated by the evil will of the Darkness. How do you do that? Of course with you stereotypical fantasy heroes. But don’t let this turn you down: what you have in your hands is definitely a unique incarnation of said stereotype. In fact, each hero gets to draw from a special and unique set of hero cards that represent the limited actions available in the present turn and players must ensure they pull off the best combos to kill as many Darkness minions as possible. There is no “IgoUgo and then we throw a bunch of dice and count casualties”; people really need to sit down in a circle and try to figure out the best approach to the fight. It is therefore a cooperative game with a strong built-in strategic approach that will make your group thinking for the whole game. The heroes featured in the base game are the following:

Soldier: the tank in the game. Can deal massive damage to single or multiple targets

Acolyte: the healer of the group. He can also smash the enemies with his big hammer.

Archer: ranged attacks allow her (or him) to move around avoiding melee fights.

Apprentice: the magician of the group. He can manipulate the elements at will and deal a lot of damage.

Brigand: the Myth version of the thief. He can lurk in the shadows and strike hard and repeatedly. Probably the deadliest character.

The game comes with a dynamically sculpted miniature specific for each hero: if you go online and do an image search you can find some gorgeous paint jobs so that you can have an idea of the quality of the minis. If you are lucky enough you may also find the alternate gender heroes that came as a stretch goal in the Kickstarter… here is a combo picture of the original KS images where you can see a couple of the models.

According to all the stuff I covered up to this point, this is the part of the game that is closer to the board game spirit hence, a lot of people make their final decisions at this point: 5 players, tiles, cards, tons of tokens, a bunch of hero miniatures fighting random villains? This means “board game”. In my opinion, this is short sighted and you will understand why as we move further into game mechanics.

Darkness Mechanics

Myth puts you in control of your heroes but, unlike other games like Descent, there is no “evil player”. Instead, you have a sort of randomized AI mechanic that takes control of the bad guys for you. Basically what happens is that when you play a hero card it comes with a small cross-like icon in the bottom right corner that tells you how dangerous that action is (in terms of the so called Action Points) and if it puts you on the Darkness’ radar. If the total amount of AP you generated reaches 6, the darkness will activate and will do its thing. This does not immediately result in monsters attacking you as they may be too far away to notice your shenanigans. You have probably seen this in many video games if that’s your thing: just imagine you enter a big room in a dungeon and have some monsters minding their business on the other side. They don’t mind if you jump around or even cast spells on the distance as long as you avoid them. However, throw them a fireball and when they see some of their friends on fire, they will come at you. Pretty hard. And it’s not over: when you kill a bunch of bad dudes, your threat level rises and you will become more and more dangerous for the Darkness up to a point where the more intelligent enemies will start targeting you before other less dangerous heroes. If you keep with your bloodbath (threat level 10), the Darkness will eventually get really mad and throw top tier countermeasures at you, like mini-bosses or agents. That is something you do not really want to do.

I find this to be one of the most interesting and innovative mechanics in the game because it leaves you the freedom to decide how to approach the enemy. You can either go berserk (and get tons of Darkness activations and maybe a mini boss) or have a more stealth-like approach to keep the Darkness at bay more easily. You can dive straight into the battle or flank your enemies from the side if they haven’t noticed you to better coordinate with your team mates. It’s completely up to you to choose the strategy you think may fit better. These kind of things usually belong more to the miniature wargaming realm where on the contrary, board games tend to slightly limit your freedom to somewhat limit the game length. Myth leaves you with all the decisions and that’s why, in my opinion, it is a great gateway game.

Word exploration and tile population

Another aspect that puts Myth in a different category from your standard dungeon delving game is how the exploration of the dungeon itself is carried out. Usually when you start a dungeon delving game, you get a sort of preset scenario with enemy, token and treasure locations already fixed on the dungeon tiles. And again, probably the tiles themselves will probably have some fixed arrangement that will drastically limit your choices. In Myth you don’t even have a real reason to go out and fight the Darkness (unless you play modules. More on that later) as nobody tells you where to go and what to do. As a result all of these exploration/game setup matters needed a totally different approach and the guys at Megacon Games came up with the idea of legends on the world tiles.

This is a screenshot from the 2.0 Rulebook where you can see all the symbols you may find on world tiles. I won’t go into the details as you can look for them in the rulebook but as you can see they basically tell you how many treasures are available on the tile, if there’s a trap, monster hunting packs and so on. So, how do these come into play? Let’s imagine you and your friends heroes are having some mead in a tavern and then somebody comes up with an idea like: Guys! You know what? We should definitely go out and find some adventure where we can smash some critter and get some gold ー The dude is probably drunk but so are all of your team members so you just decide to head outside the town to look for adventure! Here’s the deal, you have to design your own adventure from this point on: you have to decide where you are heading in your quest for adventure so what you do is going through your reserve of world tiles and choose the one you think is appropriate as your first step. Here is where the icons come into play. If you have a quest symbol in your tile, this means you can decide to draw a quest card that would kickstart your adventure or maybe you decide that you just stumbled upon a grubbers camp that you then proceed to destroy. Whatever your decision regarding the world tile setup, none of the the icon is mandatory so it is you and your friends decision only. You can go as hardcore as you want. Or just loiter around the empty tile. Well, the loitering option is not good for you as you get affected by a penalty that lowers the total amount of available treasures for the rest of the campaign. But you get the idea: you get to write your own story with your own rules while still obeying to the global system rules. This is practically what happens when you play a role-playing game. You don’t need a dungeon master to drop monsters and events on you but instead you get to decide as a whole group what you guys want to do. I may be wrong but I have never seen this kind of mechanic in a board game and this makes Myth even more fascinating to me.

As I was expecting this post is growing pretty big so I just stop writing for now and split the post into two parts to avoid overloading this one. In the next post I will cover the aspects of the more boardgamy game mode (Modules) and the aspects of the campaign mode (the way your hero evolves) as well. Ah, and don’t forget the miniatures! I will also give a brief description of the two expansions belonging to Myth Journeyman and probably conclude with some final thoughts. So I guess I’ll see you next week! In the meantime,

... game on!

[waynekelton]

Excellent Two Player Games on iPhone, iPad and Android

Some of the greatest things in life are better shared. Two player games offer the most direct chances for head-to-head competition or connection. No misty-eyed sentiment there, just a fact. One mind probing the ingenuity and exiguity of another through games.

If you want something epic to embark on on your own, how about taking a look at these great RPGs?

Maybe you like to play in person on the same screen, or even on different devices via local multiplayer, or instead online with asynchronous multiplayer. A test of reflexes or planning? The games below run the gamut, with variety enough for all kinds of people and situations. Give them a try the next time with a fellow gamer. You won’t be disappointed.

Reader Recommendations

Ticket to Ride

Potion Explosion

Lords of Waterdeep

Splendor

Istanbul

Through the Ages

Indian Summer

Tides of Time (Review)

Developer: Portal Games Platforms: iOS & Android Price: $4.99

Tides of Time's digital adaptation does an excellent job at bringing this 2-player micro-game to life, with wonderful visuals and animations, and a faithful recreation of all the rules and mechanics. It's flaws are mainly to do with the original design: There's not a lot to it, so it's not a game you can play a lot off - physically or via an app. It should definitely be part of your two-player playlist though, and you'll enjoy its drafting and set-collection strategy. It's a nice, casual game where the competition isn't too fierce, but the challenge is still just as rewarding.

Morels (Review)

Developer: Mossbark Games Platforms:  iOS Universal, Android Price: $4.99

The physical version of Moresl (also known as Fungi) was a very casual and fun card game for two people. It's only drawback was that it took up a fair amount of room, but thanks to Mossbark's excellent digital adaptation, that's no longer a concern. If Pass & Play and even online multiplayer modes, all of the best traits of Morels have survived into the mobile port.

Especially good for couples, Morels is very laid back, but also paced and easy to play. You won't need to remember anything too complex, and it's an excellent time-waster if you're travelling together or are just looking for some quick  and easy post-dinner entertainment at home. 

Uniwar

Developer: Spooky House Studios Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free with non-invasive IAP

Uniwar is an ambitious turn-based strategy game which proudly wears its influences on its sleeve. It has the conquer-the-map tension of Advance Wars as well as the creative asymmetry of different player races: the fleshy Terrans, chitinous Insectoids and metallic...Robots. The abilities and interactions across these units are rather lively and varied, walking the fine edge between ‘interesting’ and ‘unbalanced’. Hotseat play is simple as can be, with quite a few maps offered, and there’s also online play.

Words with Friends 2

Developer: Zygna Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free

Words with Friends has been around almost as long as smartphones themselves, and it’s still a golden way to spend the better part of a day or longer. Yes, it’s like that other classic board game, and there’s a delicious subtext of who-spells-what-when. (Words score points but also...score points, making associations, repartee, even a kind of conversation). It just works on multiple levels, from a pure gameplay perspective but also in terms of social pay-out and connection. Oh, and on the gameplay front, it’s worth noting that advanced play involves so much more than just scoring the most impressive single word on a given turn. It also means thinking about positioning, letter draws and pacing, bonuses: basically long-con strategy stuff. Words with Friends is an oldie but a goodie, and a surprisingly handy way to keep in touch with friends.

Burgle Bros. (Review)

Developer: Fowers Games Inc. Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $4.99

Co-op games are great, but even the greats tend to be best either purely solo or with the max player count. Burgle Bros, however, is unique in that it shines especially with two. With two, the joint is cased twice as fast, but hiding is much harder. To quickly reprise the game for those unfamiliar: players explore each floor’s tiles till they discover the safe, crack the combination, retrieve the  and advance to the next level. Patrolling guards and alarms will make things difficult, and if any player runs out of stealth points they risk getting caught and getting sent to the slammer. Some of the game’s more advanced tactics and interactions really only come into their own with a dynamic duo. Yes, gadgets and treasures along with character abilities combine but the real clincher is the pathing and alert system. Guards can be re-routed by tripping alarms, so the best teams take heat for each other. Two-player stealth doesn’t get much better than this.

Onitama

Developer: Asmodee Digital Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free (with expansions, content packs as optional DLC)

Onitama is a game primarily about not losing. Sounds like weak, roundabout praise, I know, but what this means in practice is thinking many steps in advance, reasoning recursively to move from point B to point A, something surprisingly difficult. Woah there, let's back up a little and actually talk about the game. Onitama is a two-player abstract game played on a two-dimensional square grid, much like chess. Players win by either capturing their opponent's 'King' piece or alternatively by moving their own respective King onto the other player's start space. The twist is how movement patterns work, for they are dictated by cards which can be used once, then eventually become playable by the opponent. There are only five given movement pattern cards (of a larger set) in a specific game, and this larger flow between good positioning and a good hand of cards makes the game quite intense. The app is free and as well-polished as any of Asmodee's releases.

Neuroshima Hex

Developer: Portal Games Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $4.99, 2.99

This one features asymmetrical factions trying to control the board by selecting two of three tiles (six-sided hexes, that is) each turn. The post-apocalyptic setting and wildly divergent playstyles of the groups make it an unusually colorful strategy game, but these flourishes of variety do nothing to detract from the game’s balance. The base game only includes four races, but that alone is plenty to start with and the rest are available as paid DLC. Tile-laying madcap fun.

Glow Hockey 2

Developer: Natenai Ariyatrakool Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $0.99, Free.

Arcade- or action-style two player games are the epitome of beer-and-pretzel fun. Crystal clear consequences, nothing to overthink or overanalyze just quick wrists instead of quick wits. Pure impulse and reaction make for some reliable fun, and Glow Hockey is a passable digital dupe for Air Hockey, minus the constant click-clack of the pucks. The physics are satisfying, the controls responsive. It works well in an understated and way that is impossible to hype, but it still entirely worth recognizing.

Antihero (Review)

Developer: Versus Evil Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $4.99

There is no high road in Antihero. Mischief and misfortune rule in its Victorian, Dickensian setting which makes the sooty and sullen into something fun. (The art direction and design are majorly on point with this game). Plus, the game itself is incredibly intense and stressful, always putting players in a race for victory points over a shockingly brief time. The game still manages to have a distinct beginning, middle, and end while allowing for a non-trivial variety of build paths and playstyles. It’s fog-of-war and bluff systems inject just enough tension to keep the game from becoming deterministic, and it’s one of the best original digital games to come out within recent memory. Oh, and it’s exclusively for two players, either through asynchronous or real-time play.

Ready Steady Bang

Developer: Cowboy Games Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $0.99, Free.

A western showdown at sundown. Quick-draw, one-shot, one-kill. Ready, Steady, Bang is this experience, over and over, with variable countdown timing and a variety of death animations. Technically there’s also a short ‘campaign’ mode vs. AI with ironclad timing thresholds, but the meat of the game can be reduced to a single perfectly timed gesture. Dead simple, quick and satisfying. Just don’t be the other guy. 

Patchwork (Review)

Developer: DIGIDICED Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $2.99

Patchwork may be pint-sized compared to some of its juggernaut neighbors on this list, but what it lacks in player count or time commitment it makes up in charm and crystal-clear, razor sharp strategy. (Those two make for quite the odd couple) Patchwork is a variable-setup perfect information abstract for two players. Players work to fill up their empty boards by adding patches to them, of various polyomino sizing, with the ultimate goal of filling the whole swath and collecting as many covetous buttons along the way. It is almost instantly intuitive yet perplexing and sophisticated even after dozens of plays, with turns chained together or telegraphed from miles away. A sweet game that can also be a hardcore match of wits.

What are your favourite games to play between two people? Let us know in the comments! 

Excellent Two Player Games on iPhone, iPad and Android published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[waynekelton]

The Best Two Player Games on iPhone, iPad and Android

Some of the greatest things in life are better shared. Two player games offer the most direct chances for head-to-head competition or connection. No misty-eyed sentiment there, just a fact. One mind probing the ingenuity and exiguity of another through games.

If you want something epic to embark on on your own, how about taking a look at these great RPGs?

Maybe you like to play in person on the same screen, or even on different devices via local multiplayer, or instead online with asynchronous multiplayer. A test of reflexes or planning? The games below run the gamut, with variety enough for all kinds of people and situations. Give them a try the next time with a fellow gamer. You won’t be disappointed.

Editor's Top Tip:  I've been playing a lot of Ticket to Ride with my wife recently. It's already on our list of the best Board Games so it's not feature below, but between the challenging bots and the pass-and-play functionality, it's a great one to whip out when it's just the two of us and we're stuck for something to do.

Morels (Review)

Developer: Mossbark Games Platforms:  iOS Universal, Android Price: $4.99

The physical version of Moresl (also known as Fungi) was a very casual and fun card game for two people. It's only drawback was that it took up a fair amount of room, but thanks to Mossbark's excellent digital adaptation, that's no longer a concern. If Pass & Play and even online multiplayer modes, all of the best traits of Morels have survived into the mobile port.

Especially good for couples, Morels is very laid back, but also paced and easy to play. You won't need to remember anything too complex, and it's an excellent time-waster if you're travelling together or are just looking for some quick  and easy post-dinner entertainment at home. 

Uniwar

Developer: Spooky House Studios Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free with non-invasive IAP

Uniwar is an ambitious turn-based strategy game which proudly wears its influences on its sleeve. It has the conquer-the-map tension of Advance Wars as well as the creative asymmetry of different player races: the fleshy Terrans, chitinous Insectoids and metallic...Robots. The abilities and interactions across these units are rather lively and varied, walking the fine edge between ‘interesting’ and ‘unbalanced’. Hotseat play is simple as can be, with quite a few maps offered, and there’s also online play.

Words with Friends 2

Developer: Zygna Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free

Words with Friends has been around almost as long as smartphones themselves, and it’s still a golden way to spend the better part of a day or longer. Yes, it’s like that other classic board game, and there’s a delicious subtext of who-spells-what-when. (Words score points but also...score points, making associations, repartee, even a kind of conversation). It just works on multiple levels, from a pure gameplay perspective but also in terms of social pay-out and connection. Oh, and on the gameplay front, it’s worth noting that advanced play involves so much more than just scoring the most impressive single word on a given turn. It also means thinking about positioning, letter draws and pacing, bonuses: basically long-con strategy stuff. Words with Friends is an oldie but a goodie, and a surprisingly handy way to keep in touch with friends.

Burgle Bros. (Review)

Developer: Fowers Games Inc. Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: $4.99

Co-op games are great, but even the greats tend to be best either purely solo or with the max player count. Burgle Bros, however, is unique in that it shines especially with two. With two, the joint is cased twice as fast, but hiding is much harder. To quickly reprise the game for those unfamiliar: players explore each floor’s tiles till they discover the safe, crack the combination, retrieve the  and advance to the next level. Patrolling guards and alarms will make things difficult, and if any player runs out of stealth points they risk getting caught and getting sent to the slammer. Some of the game’s more advanced tactics and interactions really only come into their own with a dynamic duo. Yes, gadgets and treasures along with character abilities combine but the real clincher is the pathing and alert system. Guards can be re-routed by tripping alarms, so the best teams take heat for each other. Two-player stealth doesn’t get much better than this.

Onitama

Developer: Asmodee Digital Platforms:  iOS, Android Price: Free (with expansions, content packs as optional DLC)

Onitama is a game primarily about not losing. Sounds like weak, roundabout praise, I know, but what this means in practice is thinking many steps in advance, reasoning recursively to move from point B to point A, something surprisingly difficult. Woah there, let's back up a little and actually talk about the game. Onitama is a two-player abstract game played on a two-dimensional square grid, much like chess. Players win by either capturing their opponent's 'King' piece or alternatively by moving their own respective King onto the other player's start space. The twist is how movement patterns work, for they are dictated by cards which can be used once, then eventually become playable by the opponent. There are only five given movement pattern cards (of a larger set) in a specific game, and this larger flow between good positioning and a good hand of cards makes the game quite intense. The app is free and as well-polished as any of Asmodee's releases.

Neuroshima Hex

Developer: Portal Games Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $4.99, 2.99

This one features asymmetrical factions trying to control the board by selecting two of three tiles (six-sided hexes, that is) each turn. The post-apocalyptic setting and wildly divergent playstyles of the groups make it an unusually colorful strategy game, but these flourishes of variety do nothing to detract from the game’s balance. The base game only includes four races, but that alone is plenty to start with and the rest are available as paid DLC. Tile-laying madcap fun.

Glow Hockey 2

Developer: Natenai Ariyatrakool Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $0.99, Free.

Arcade- or action-style two player games are the epitome of beer-and-pretzel fun. Crystal clear consequences, nothing to overthink or overanalyze just quick wrists instead of quick wits. Pure impulse and reaction make for some reliable fun, and Glow Hockey is a passable digital dupe for Air Hockey, minus the constant click-clack of the pucks. The physics are satisfying, the controls responsive. It works well in an understated and way that is impossible to hype, but it still entirely worth recognizing.

Antihero (Review)

Developer: Versus Evil Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $4.99

There is no high road in Antihero. Mischief and misfortune rule in its Victorian, Dickensian setting which makes the sooty and sullen into something fun. (The art direction and design are majorly on point with this game). Plus, the game itself is incredibly intense and stressful, always putting players in a race for victory points over a shockingly brief time. The game still manages to have a distinct beginning, middle, and end while allowing for a non-trivial variety of build paths and playstyles. It’s fog-of-war and bluff systems inject just enough tension to keep the game from becoming deterministic, and it’s one of the best original digital games to come out within recent memory. Oh, and it’s exclusively for two players, either through asynchronous or real-time play.

Ready Steady Bang

Developer: Cowboy Games Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $0.99, Free.

A western showdown at sundown. Quick-draw, one-shot, one-kill. Ready, Steady, Bang is this experience, over and over, with variable countdown timing and a variety of death animations. Technically there’s also a short ‘campaign’ mode vs. AI with ironclad timing thresholds, but the meat of the game can be reduced to a single perfectly timed gesture. Dead simple, quick and satisfying. Just don’t be the other guy. 

Patchwork (Review)

Developer: DIGIDICED Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $2.99

Patchwork may be pint-sized compared to some of its juggernaut neighbors on this list, but what it lacks in player count or time commitment it makes up in charm and crystal-clear, razor sharp strategy. (Those two make for quite the odd couple) Patchwork is a variable-setup perfect information abstract for two players. Players work to fill up their empty boards by adding patches to them, of various polyomino sizing, with the ultimate goal of filling the whole swath and collecting as many covetous buttons along the way. It is almost instantly intuitive yet perplexing and sophisticated even after dozens of plays, with turns chained together or telegraphed from miles away. A sweet game that can also be a hardcore match of wits.

What are your favourite games to play between two people? Let us know in the comments! 

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