#it's necrodancer but with gun

[300iqprower]

John Wick Hex Girls

[hopeymchope]

So many Danganronpa Mobile Game Collaborations never get English and/or NA releases...

I literally just downloaded "Blue Archive" SOLELY BECAUSE of its A Certain Scientific Railgun collaboration event. Because I am SO deep in the tank for teh Railgun.

...which really makes me stop and think about how I would've downloaded Guns Girl Z or Shiro Project:RE or Divine Gate SO FUCKING FAST if those games AND their Danganronpa collabs were available to me to enjoy. You can take the fact that I bought Crypt of the Necrodancer AND One-Way Heroics solely to play as DR characters as proof of my misguided dedication. :P

But alas... NOOOOOPE. Somehow, the only mobile game DR collab we ever got in North America and/or in English is the Identity V one. You know — the one that is literally just characters skins and contains zero story/character events (AKA all the shit I want to absorb)? Despite my original intention to play those collabs, I ultimately passed when I realized it was just some (admittedly cool-looking) skins.

Seriously: Who gets to decide which games get English translations? And even if one exists (as it did with Guns Girl Z at one point), who THEN gets to decide whether a certain "collaboration event" gets to make its way overseas? Because despite being available in English even during the time of the DR3 crossover event, Guns Girl Z never received that crossover in English.

Honestly, let's dig even deeper than that and ask the REAL question: WTF kills the NA servers of certain mobile games that originate in Japan, but inexplicably keeps others going? It obviously takes more than just an established fandom; sometimes, a smaller fandom and smaller active user base can still keep a game running in English even despite a comparatively larger user base/fandom seeing their game shut the fuck down midstream. So who decides? What makes one financially viable, and the other NOT?

I suppose we'll never know the answer without diving into the publishers' accounting books.

AS AN ASIDE: I find it fucking HILARIOUS that despite Blue Archive being available to NA players for YEARS now, its currently running anime adaption has NO distributor of ANY KIND who is putting it out for the NA market. It's left in Japan. Fuck you apparently, NA userbase.

[obscurecharactershowdown]

Group C Round 3

[image ID: the first image is of Bolt, a dark skinned person with short purple hair, large gray earrings, a yellow tunic top, green pants, and brown boots. they're mid-run, holding a spear. the second image is of Vella, a Black girl with natural hair, pulled back from her forehead by a pink headband with 3 pink peacock-feather-like decorations extending from it. she wears a short, layered pink dress with no sleeves and a high collar. the dress in tattered in places. she is barefoot. end ID]

Bolt

They’re so cool! They have tachycardia which means their heart beats twice as fast in this case- so all beats in the game are double time and it’s super hard to play, they’re very cool and I wish they had more lore but they’re a very fun character to play so :)

Vella

Oh my god Vella- she’s one of the most badass characters I know. She kicks a monster’s ass and escapes her fate of being eaten alive, hitches a ride on a bird and steers it, falls from the clouds into a roof without a scratch, awakens a 300 year old god and casually becomes his friend, beats up the monster again this time with a laser gun, nearly punches a guy and ends up inside of a spaceship, and that’s just the first half!! She also figures out the electronics to unlock a room she was trapped in, creates a bomb, drops it, and somehow is able to like telepathically communicate with someone she’s never met in order to pull off the perfect escape, ensuring peace for the entire world. LIKE!!! This girl does it ALL. AND she can bake!! That’s a bonus!! Vella is also really funny and tends to resort straight to like not trusting people or violence and it ends up with her in some really funny scenarios- please play Broken Age it’s such a good game ok bye <3

[kingabezka]

2 gun start seed for Necrodancer

430010600

Check it out

[rhythmmortis]

the new co-op mode in necrodancer is absolute chaos and it's perfect

[lightkrets312]

so i cleared zone two today

you can guess how

[goldeaglefire1]

I really should be sleeping right now but I just feel the need to say

As someone who has recently bought Crypt of the Necrodancer and happened upon it by pure luck, let me just say

Best weapon by far is the gun

this one

this one specifically

it is just  m a g n i f i c e n t

[rubberduckyrye]

I told you to be afraid--

I finally finished it!!! Wooo!!! I also updated Jaden’s hair to fit the new style. I also decided to add a staircase with Monokuma’s running up it to fill the space and add even more chaos to this already incredibly chaotic piece :D More Chaos! More!!!

The song was remix with Crypt of the Necrodancer, Machine Gun with Bunny Ears, Punishment of the Mage, and a tiny hint of Thousand Knocks/Thousand blows. I wanted to use more niche execution songs to make Jaden’s sound more... well, unique :’D

Enjoy!

[emperorforanhour]

Track by: @valoregal Art by: @rosello-xanthis Character Represented: The Duoritos

Trust in the all-seeing, all-knowing eye, cuz these two triangles are about to make things weird! Bill Cipher, dream demon, and Yung Venuz, gun god, have combined their three-edged powers to take over Emperor for an Hour. With all those phat stackz Y.V.’s brought with him, he probably doesn’t need the cash prize, but God help anyone who tries to tell him that…

- Music from Roguelike games (NO OVERLAP) (Spelunky - Mines C, Crypt of the Necrodancer - Konga Conga Kappa, Dead Cells - Clocktower) - Songs from Gravity Falls and other Disney XD TV Shows (Phineas and Ferb - Squirrel in My Pants, Gravity Falls - Weirdmageddon, Milo Murphy’s Law - Pressure) - Music related to conspiracies or the occult (Muse - Thought Contagion, Eagle - Hotel California, The X-Files - Opening Theme) - Music related to Radiation or the Apocalypse (Lisa the Painful - Men’s Hair Club, Fallout: New Vegas - Big Iron, Godzilla - Godzilla’s Theme)

Songs used: Phineas & Ferb - S.I.M.P. (Disney XD) Crypt of the Necrodancer - Konga Conga Kappa (Roguelikes) Nuclear Throne - Where The Guns At (Offsource :) ) Lisa the Joyful - 666 Kill Chop Deluxe (Apocalypse)

[azael1332excel]

super smash bros chars wishlist and random tier

here the listed chars tier #1 Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden) [Koei Tecmo] Lloyd Irving (Tales Of Series) [Bandai Namco] Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes) [Marvelous] YorHa #2 Type B aka 2B (NieR/Drakengard Series) [Square Enix] Sol Badguy (Guilty Gear) [Arc System Works] Jibanyan (Yo-kai Watch) [Level-5] Arle Nadja (Puyo Puyo) [Sega] Rayman [Ubisoft] Tier #2 Reisalin Stout aka Ryza (Atelier Series) [Koei Tecmo] Gwendolyn (Odin Sphere Leiftrasir) [Atlus] Prinny (Disgaea Series) [Nippon Ichi Software] Ragna The Bloodedge (Blazblue) [Arc System Works] Alisa Ilichina Amiela (God Eater) [Bandai Namco] Lenneth (Valkyrie Profile) [Square Enix] Earthworm Jim [Atari] Booker Dewitt (Bioshock Series) [2K Games] Ezio Auditore (Assassin's Creed) [Ubisoft] The Stranger (Oddworld Stranger's Wrath) [Oddworld Innabitants] tier #3 Ekoro (Gal*Gun) [Inti Creates] Asuka (Senran Kagura) [Marvelous] Adol Christin (Ys Series) [Falcom] Hyde Kido (Under Night In-Birth) [Arc System Works] Madotsuki (Yume Nikki) Masamune Date (Sengoku Basara) [Capcom] Oliver (Ni No Kuni) [Level-5] Valkyrie (The Legend Of Valkyrie) [Bandai Namco] Parin (Gurumin) [Falcom] The Liar Princess And The Blind Prince [Nippon Icchi Software] tier #4 Sora (Kingdom Hearts) [Square Enix] Dante (Devil May Cry) [Capcom] Crash Bandicoot [Activision] Heavy (Team Fortress) [Valve] Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) [Square Enix] Dovakiin (The Elder Scrolls Series) [Bethesda] Shantae [Wayfoward] Tracer (Overwatch) [Blizzard] Phoenix Wright (Ace Atourney Series) [Capcom] Spyro The Dragon [Activision] Amaterasu (Okami) [Capcom] Chosen Undead (Dark Souls) [From Software] tier #5 [All from Nintendo] Rex and Pyra (Xenoblade Series) Springman (ARMS) Ring Fit Trainee (Ring Fit Adventure) Akira Howard (Astral Chain) Sylux (Metroid Series) Marshall (Rhythim Heaven/Paradise) Euden (Dragalia Lost) Bandanna Dee (Kirby Series) tier #6 [All from Nintendo] Blaziken (Pokemon Gen 3) Zoroark (Pokemon Gen 5) Decidueye (Pokemon Gen 7) Jill (Drill Dozer) Tsubasa Oribe (Tokyo Mirage Sessions) Aeron (Pandora's Tower) Frey and Freya (Zangeki No Regileiv) Kat and Anna (Wario Ware series) Captain Rainbow Isaac (Golden Sun) Raymond Bryce (Disaster: Day Of Crisis) tier #7 Waluigi Geno Steve (Minecraft) [Mojang] Jonesy (Fornite) [Epic Games] Any char from League Of Legends [Tencent] Toad Vaati (Legend Of Zelda) Porky Minch (Mother/Earthbound) Tingle (Legend Of Zelda) tier #8 Monokuma (Danganrompa) [Spike Chunsoft] Hollow Knight [Team Cherry] Quote (Cave Story) [Nicalis] Cadence (Crypt Of The Necrodancer) [Spike Chunsoft] Reimu Hakurei (Touhou) Hat Kid (A Hat In Time) Robin (Iconoclasts) Umihara Kawase [Nicalis] Madelyn (Celeste) tier #9 Shadow the Hedgehog, as Sonic's EF (Sonic series) [Sega] Funky Kong, as DK's EF (Donkey Kong Series) Hilda, as Zelda's EF (Legend Of Zelda) Galacta Knight, as Meta Knight's EF (Kirby Series) Octolings, as Inklings' EF (Splatoon) Big Boss aka Venom Snake, as Snake's EF (Metal Gear Solid) [Konami] Kasumi aka Violet, as Joker's EF (Persona series) [Atlus] Rock Howard, as Terry's EF (Fatal Fury) [SNK] Order Sol, as Sol's EF; once he enter to smash (Guilty Gear) [Arc System Works] Sophie Neuemuller, as Ryza's EF; once she enter to smash (Atelier Series) [Koei Tecmo] tier #10 Doomslayer aka Doom Guy (Doom Series) [Bethesda] Scorpion (Mortal Kombat) [WB Games] Master Chief (Halo) [Microsoft Studios] Kratos (God Of War) [Sony IE] Pea Shooter (Plants VS Zombies) [EA] Chiaki Kurokawa (The Idolmaster) Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid) [Crypton Media] Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club) Goku (Dragon Ball Series) [Shueshia] Tetramino (Tetris) [Elorg] Tulio Trivino (31 Minutos) [APAPLAC]

[sazorak]

Every Game I Played in 2019, Ranked

 2019 sure was a year that happened where I happened to play some video games. Here’s the ones I played enough to form opinions, in a rough ranked order of preference.

It’s kind of weird that I’ve done this for five years now, but hey. I like to talk about things that I like / dislike. Hopefully you’ll empathize with my complaints, and give ones I enjoyed a try.

As a bonus, I also tweeted about the anime I watched and enjoyed this year.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018

Orm & Cheep: Narrow Squeaks – 1985 – ZX Spectrum – ★

How far would you go for a joke? For the sake of a joke, I spent an hour beating an incomprehensible, shitty ZX Spectrum Game about Orm & Cheep, an 80s British children show I only know about from a Trash Night video making fun of it.

Orm & Cheep: Birthday Party – 1985 – ZX Spectrum – ★

… and also this one, though Birthday Party is marginally better than Narrow Squeaks. Marginally. Extremely marginally. Congratulations to Orm & Cheap: Birthday Party.

16. River City Girls – 2019 – Switch – ★★★

The style of River City Girls is great. I like a lot of what it’s doing in terms of look and sound. It’s just that… well, River City Ransom’s gameplay was interesting something-like 30 years ago. Gameplay wise, this game hasn’t evolved that much from OG RC Ransom. The combat certainly feels better, but as far as it controls… I can’t tell if it’s not taking advantage of modern controllers and just sticking too close to the original’s control scheme, or if side-scrolling beat-em-ups are themselves just so staid and dated these days that there’s not much to be done. I just wasn’t having much fun, and the RC Ransom progression of new techniques and stat boosting didn’t exactly make me want to keep going.

It’s a real shame because in terms of pure aesthetics and concept, the game is amazing. I just don’t actually enjoy playing it. Oh well!

15. Baba is You – 2019 – Switch – ★★★

The core gameplay concept of Baba is You is fantastic. The way you manipulate nouns and verbs to construct phrases that operate as equations in a physical environment is super interesting. The early goings of the game were quite fun.

The problem I have with this game is that when you hit a wall in it, that wall can sometimes be impenetrable. I found that Baba is You is at times too subtle with its attempt to “teach” you tricks or onboard you into approaches to puzzles; it’s possible to come to solutions without taking away the lesson the designer intended, which can make later puzzles basically impossible.

The difficulty curve feels all over the place; I was extremely high on this game early on, but after getting completely blocked moving forward for hours on end, with the only real recourse being to either look stuff up or stare at past puzzles to try to figure out what apparently crucial lesson I missed despite coming to my own solutions, I ultimately decided to just do something else.

14. Cadence of Hyrule – 2019 – Switch – ★★★

Zelda has great music. Crypt of the Necrodancer has pretty good rhythm-game action. Combine them, and you get… well, it turns out you get a pretty OK procedurally generated Zelda-game with Necrodancer mechanics, I suppose. The appeal is easy to understand, though I’m personally not sure I care much for the final product.

I enjoyed the original Necrodancer well enough as a simple run-based, short-ish rhythm dungeon crawler. The brevity of each given “run” (stemming in part from my own inadequate skill, I suppose) worked well with the style of gameplay, in that it never really became much of a chore.

Meanwhile, I enjoy Zelda as an extended puzzle adventure game where there’s an innate unthinking flow to the actions. I’m not typically thinking much about the moment-to-moment about the actual mechanics of the action; the brain’s desires flow directly to the motion on the screen, as it were.

Combining the two results in a Necrodancer experience that’s way too long, and a Zelda experience that is way harder to control. Add the fact that the procedurally generated world isn’t that interesting and I’m just rather lukewarm on this. Meh!

13. Super Robot Wars T – 2019 – PS4 – ★★★

It’s fantastic that Super Robot Wars is finally getting proper, high-quality localizations again. It felt like a dream to finally be able to play this franchise again after being forced to stop after the DS era. Playing through the rather roughly translated, and somewhat monotonous SRW OG: Moon Dwellers was good because the OG games tended to have the highest production values and narrative quality (missing out on 2nd OG may have also helped). SRW V was my first foray into the more recent non-OG games, and so shined as something rather fresh to me.

Two years on, and two Super Robot Wars releases later, it’s plain to see that Super Robot Wars’ current annual release cadence is not great. It results in incredibly repetitive, monotonous games that rely heavily on asset reuse— both between games, and even within the same game. Part of the problem is that the derivativeness doesn’t feel additive. It’s not like SRW T is SRW V + SRW X + New Stuff; it’s more that SRW T is a reskinned SRW V, with some heavy series-asset reuse to boot. I think it’d be a bit more tolerable if it felt like these games were building on each other, but every single one feels exactly as slight and mechanically weak.

Super Robot Wars’ combat have not been particularly good from a tactical sense for a long time now. The original OG games were probably the last time the combat was particularly interesting for me, as it presented an actual challenge and difficulty curve. Nowadays, they are entirely fanservice cakewalks, even on the hardest modes. Hell, they’ve apparently decided that increasing the difficulty of the game means you don’t get to chase the special challenge goals, which actually can paradoxically make portions of the hard-mode actually easier than the normal. Bizarre!

 I guess the idea is “well, folks are playing this to see the bits, so if it’s hard they won’t!” Which… I disagree? If the gameplay is deeply unsatisfying, why wouldn’t I just watch the damn series? Crossover shenanigans don’t mean much whey you don’t do much with it. Fanservice talking heads ain’t enough!

The addition of Cowboy Bebop and the return of GaoGaiGar and Gunbuster should have had me onboard. The series list for this game is fantastic. But what they do with it is so flat that about 30 chapters in, I just… stopped. It wasn’t worth it. I’d plainly seen all that it had to offer. Easy, slow, and repetitive gameplay isn’t appealing to me, even if I do get to see Spike Spiegel doing sky donuts to take out a Zaku.

Additionally: stop putting Nadesico in these games. The units are boring, the plot is boring. Stop devoting so much time to it! It sucks!!

12. Ape Out – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

Ape Out is a game where you’re a big ol’ gorilla murdering guys with guns while dope ass percussive jazz drums play to the action. It’s cool, it’s short, it could honestly probably do with being somewhat shorter, but whatever. I enjoyed it.

BattleTech – 2018 – Steam – ★★★★

Despite being famously a “mecha guy”, BattleTech has never really been my thing. While I’m not opposed to mecha-as-tank-analog, it’s not my primary focus in the genre; I like my robots to be fast, really. I like mecha getting into melee and fucking shit up. Mecha for me is a power fantasy. That’s not really BattleTech / MechWarrior’s thing. That all being said, I quite enjoyed my time with BattleTech, the PC-game rendition of the tabletop thing. It’s a neat turn-based tactical robot combat RPG with an interesting overarching campaign structure… to a point.

The first issue I had is pacing. While the game is turn-based, the combat and movement plays out in real-time. And given how lumbering these robots are, this means that a single mission can take aaaages. Think 45 minutes to an hour for a single mission. It took me about 20-30 hours to get to the campaign’s halfway point, which is when the game really started to sour on me.

The second issue is one of variance. Let me run you through the fundamental loop of the game. You are a mercenary captain that has a ship of mechs and mech pilots, and you fly around from planet to planet taking on jobs. You need money to pay for your ship to keep going, as well as to pay your pilots. It’s expensive to outfit your mechs, and severe damage to them can both REALLY eat into your budget and also take weeks in-game to repair. Missions are rated based on difficulty, and you are expected generally to field a greater “tonnage” of mechs in excess to that difficulty. This all plays out pretty well.

The game starts with you possessing mostly lighter mechs, and as you progress, you’re presented more and more missions in the campaign that require increasingly beefier mechs with more armor and more guns. Whereas in the tabletop game there’s presumably a kind of “point” system by which players are given a limited amount of tonnage that they can field on any given mission (for purposes of balance), there’s no such limit in the game; as such, you’re encouraged to field the four-ish beefiest robots you have, as they’re the most likely to kill everything fast while coming out with the least damage.

How do you get these beefy mechs? Well, you don’t buy them; instead, you’re aiming to kill opposing pilots and leave their robots as much intact as possible so that you can salvage or steal them. It’s kind of amusing; your entire gameplan after a point becomes “how the fuck do I shake this robot around a bunch such that its pilot dies???” It makes sense in practice, but if you think about it for even a second it comes across rather silly. Given you need good mechs to progress, you don’t have much other choice other than just running tonnnsss of missions and hoping you eventually get enough mech fragments to reconstruct some of your own. But beefy-ness isn’t the whole story, as some of the robots you can get just plain suck, regardless of their tonnage. You’re basically rolling dice again and again hoping a robot worthy of stealing shows up so you can kill its friends, and try to kill its pilot as gently as possible. You go through this cycle four times, across the four different weight-classes, until you’ve got what you need in terms of a team of class-appropriate mechs.

The fundamental lack of variety in what you field combines with every single mission really being “how do I kneecap everyone” instead of the given mission objective to make the game quite samey. Mission types don’t vary much, and the environments don’t constrain you all that much, either; the only ones that are particularly interesting are moons and Mars-like planets where your mechs’ ability to regulate their heat become much more constrained, which can necessitate loadout changes.  

I enjoyed the story enough for what it was, but honestly? After 30 hours, I was pretty much good. I had a good time with BattleTech, but I’d had my fill.

Mortal Kombat X – 2015 – Steam – ★★★★

In my ongoing adventure of playing the Mortal Kombat games for their goofy plot / story modes and nothing else, I played Mortal Kombat X. I’m not sure there’s much to talk about these other than “Hey I enjoy their dumb ongoing narrative; I wonder where they’ll go from here!”

11. Mortal Kombat XI – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

Ditto. The plot for these games are getting sillier and sillier, and the ending of XI may be the most ridiculous yet. In a good way.

10. Devil May Cry V – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

Character action games are heavily predicated on the question of “How do we spice the game up over time so that it stays interesting… without overwhelming the player?” Devil May Cry V’s answer is “well, we’ll slowly give them more characters with their own expanding skill sets, that’ll be neat!”

It is neat, but I’m not sure it was actually a good idea. The three protagonists all have extremely different move sets, meaning that the forced switches between them on a chapter-to-chapter basis results in you never really mastering any one of them. Each character has a ton of depth, but… take, for example, Nero, the “main” protagonist. He has a sub-mechanic involved with revving his motorcycle sword to boost damage. I never actually figured out how to get to work. Never really had to, because he had so many other mechanics that were also effective, and I never had much time with him alone to dial in the weird motorcycle thing.

DMCV also does probably my least favorite gameplay gimmick of “introduce new mechanics in a boss battle!” Like great, you gave me a whole new move set here, and are now going to rate me on my performance when you’ve never given me a chance to learn these skills? Oh wait, you’re giving me new mechanics in the final boss battle!?! Fuck off. That sucks!

Also, I think I’m an outlier, but I actually preferred playing as V, the control-three-characters-at-once-while-reading-a-book guy. Just felt like I dialed his move set in easier. Weird.

9. Untitled Goose Game – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

I’m not going to pretend that this is a deep game, or an enduring game, or even necessarily a great game. But I had a lot of fun with it, I have a lot of good memories thinking about it, and I am glad that so many people out there are now wrestling with the fact that birds can be both terrible and also good. Untitled Goose Game carries a powerful message about avian kind. You would do well to learn from it.

8. Super Mario Maker 2 – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

Mario Maker 2 is such an incremental upgrade to Mario Maker that it hardly feels like it earns that “2”. That being said: Mario Maker 1 is pretty darn good so it’s not like that’s all that bad. The additional mechanics and story mode are good, granted, but like… I had been wanting more than just Mario Maker 1.5.

As is, it was pretty easy to get bored with Mario Maker pretty quickly, given it was mostly a game I’d already played quite a bit before. The addition of the campaign held my interest for a fair amount of time, but I’m not exactly coming back to this all that often. Hopefully the content updates they seem to be rolling into it keep up.

7. Kind Worlds: Lo-Fi Beats to Write To – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

This is less a video game and more a sort of vague pen-pal application masquerading as a game, but man… the existence of this thing is neat. It’s just a program where folks write letters about their problems, and people send them stuff back. That’s it.  It’s kind of a sweet thing to just exist.

I’m not a person with what would one term especially Heavy Problems, but just going through other folks letters and giving them an encouraging word is itself nice.

6. The Outer Worlds – 2019 – Epic Game Store – ★★★★

Having been deeply disappointed with the quality of Fallout 4, I was very happy to see Obsidian come back to do their own Fallout-a-like. The Outer Worlds isn’t perfect; I wish it had a bit more of a bite, the gunplay was… fine, the environment design was kind of dull, and the gameplay loop did not outlast the length of the game itself. But I had a fun enough time with it.

That said, I think the dearth of me having much to say here sort of speaks to how… rather unambitious the writing and design ended up being. There’s not a ton to say about it. It’s more responsive than a Fallout 4, to be sure, but even that caps out at a point. It doesn’t necessarily offer much in the way of RPG-style different “paths” to develop your character in terms of who they are or how they behave, beyond the sort-of four-way axis of “grouch to nice” and “corporatist to socialist.” The skill tree ends up being pretty flat, and you can basically become a master of everything by the end.

Shruggo.

5. Pokémon Sword – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

Pokémon Sword/Shield is a bizarre thing— its design is constantly fighting against itself. There are tons of ease-of-use improvements– but it somehow has some of the worst online in the series. It gives you dozens of complex, half-explained systems— but also feels the need to hold your hand lest you get lost in its incredibly linear, dull story. It adds challenging Pokémon raid battles that you largely need to team up with other players to beat— but also has one of the most trivial progressions in the series. It has a huge and varied open “Wild Area” where you can catch hundreds of Pokémon before ever facing the first gym— but that wild area largely exists as a world unto its own separate from the traditional Pokémon “routes”. It doesn’t want to have a plot up until the very end when it decides that gee, I guess we have to, even if it makes no sense.

Let’s go into these in more detail.

Sword/Shield introduces a ton of gameplay improvements. Auto-saving, while problematic in places, is super useful. The ability to move Pokémon directly from the box to your party is great, and removes a lot of process headaches. Single hand controls are a godsend for both improved accessibility and general ease of use. Items are way easier to get, Pokemon are easier to raise, and this is probably the easiest game in the entire series to breed and raise “high tier” Pokemon for online battling.

On the other hand: despite your friend list being loaded into the game, you are forced to use a bizarre password system and request system that is super confusing and prone to issues. You cannot directly trade or battle or play with friends except through this, which occasionally results in headaches anytime someone uses the same four-digit password as you and your bud. The Max Raid battle system is super poorly explained in-game in terms of how you find and join others raids— I only divined it by a tweet someone made. They did away with the “GTS” trading system they had used for the past decade that allowed global Pokemon bartering, presumably in favor of encouraging more natural trades— but didn’t give any way to actually communicate with people in game what you want to trade for. It encourages more in-person interaction, but that’s once again playing into Game Freak’s obsession with the Japanese mode of gaming.

Sword/Shield perhaps has the most sheer amount of systems in any one of these games. It’s not necessarily all good, but in terms of “wow, you’re not babying us huh” it is at least interesting. There’s Pokemon that evolve based on absurd, never-explained conditions like “number of crits in a single battle”, “pass underneath this specific rock when they’re at low health”, “spin baby spin.” The wild area has tons of mechanical stuff that they let you explore without forcing your hand much, and they let you explore it freely without really railroading you. There’s a separate wild-area specific currency system based on raids / dens that you just stumble upon unprompted, really.

On the other hand, the core story progression of the game though… is perhaps the most infuriatingly patronizing thing I’ve experienced. Cutscenes happen every 15 seconds, often-times forcing your movement, and are almost of zero consequence beyond someone going HEY YOU SHOULD GO THAT WAY. The game is completely unwilling to let you get lost when going through the story. It’s constant, it’s unrelenting, it’s maddening. It literally made me mad.

Pokémon Raid battles are super interesting. The battles themselves aren’t necessarily hard, but the kinds of things they present— in terms of providing access to unique Pokémon, rare items, and the fact that they’re not as “rinse-and-repeat” as normal battles— gives the system and game increased longevity. It’s a pretty deep system, with meaningful rewards. A five-star battle is time consuming and you run the risk of failing, but if you pull it off you can get items like TRs, EXP candies, even bottle caps (super useful items that let you increase the baseline stat “DNA” of your Pokémon), and the captured Pokémon can have unique moves you’d normally have to breed and possess extremely high baseline stats. You can even get hidden secret abilities! Nice!

On the other hand: the core game progression is so piss easy and straight forward. The game’s leveling curve is all out of whack, in part because their introduction of a forced “always on” EXP share. In older games, you’d only get EXP from actively battling and beating a Pokemon in a fight, or having participated in a fight. Now, your whole team gets EXP just from being around, and you also get EXP from catching Pokemon, making curry, and all sorts of other small activities. All of this is fine or even good in the abstract as it makes raising stuff easier, but the game isn’t well balanced around it. Encounters don’t scale, which can result in you steamrolling the game if you engage with any of the game’s other systems prior to beating the game. I had to compensate by stretching my normal party of six into a party of 10, constantly swapping members out to keep the average level across the party down. Additionally, the only non-PVP reason to train and breed pokes, the Battle Tower, is so trivially easy this time that… why bother??

The wild area system is brilliant. A big criticism I’ve had with this series in the past is that the kinds of Pokemon any given player is bound to encounter and capture tend to be pretty similar. The limited amount of Pokemon that tend to be put on a traditional Pokemon route, and the limited means you have to encounter them (“hey I walk through the grass, we’ll see what pops up”) doesn’t trend towards players ending up with very different party compositions, just because there’s not a ton of options at any given point. The wild area completely tosses that out the window. As an open space, the types of things someone encounters will vary wildly— and it’s further varied by player-specific weather conditions that dynamically change the encounter tables. It completely opens up the kinds of Pokemon one can encounter early on, presenting hundreds of appropriately leveled options for players. It’s brilliant. The intermixing of both grass-only, overworld-visible, and raid-specific Pokemon also increases the range of encounters. It’s the accomplishment of the core Pokemon concept of “explore and find everything.” Finally.

On the other hand: the wild area is actually kind of boring to explore, visually speaking. It’s basically the Ocarina of Time field with sporadic patches of grass. There’s little actually diversity or mechanics to its exploration, especially when compared to the fact that… the game still has normal routes. They still behave as they always have, except that by the total remove of “Hidden Machine” mobility moves, the ability to explore geographically has been severely hampered. There’s no “gee, I can’t get there yet, guess I’ll have to come back later” except for a single mobility mechanic (the ability to go over the water, introduced very late in the game). It makes revisiting past areas mostly a box-checking exercise, and in general feels like an odd juxtaposition. They either should went all-in on the wild area or better merged the concepts together, because as is it feels… weird. Especially because the wild area could have done with being bigger and more diverse looking.

The game spends most of its time having no story at all, which is kind of boring. Juxtaposed with the railroading stuff where there’s still constant cutscenes with their mostly mediocre characters who don’t do all that much, it almost comes across as padding than anything. There are good characters (Piers and Marnie are the best, the gym leaders in general are good) but man do they try too hard to put Leon over.

But then at the end they introduce the story super quickly and it’s very dumb in a way that made me laugh out loud so congrats I guess.

All in all, I rather liked Sword/Shield. It’s no Sun/Moon— which innovated in tons of places and had an extremely charming story, cast, and progression— but the places that it innovates, and the ease-of-use improvements that they’ve put in the game, are great improvements to the baseline formula. While it’s caused a ton of drama online, the Pokédex and Pokémon Bank stuff are not huge impacts on my personal enjoyment of the game. It kind of stinks a bit, but the overall package is still quite good and fun. 

 The Legend of the Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Master Mode – 2017 – Switch – ★★★★★

Breath of the Wild was my favorite game the year it was released. The harder Master Mode is something that had interested me as something to check out for a replay, but I decided to wait until the shadow of my previous playthrough loomed somewhat less. Breath of the Wild is, after all, both a monumental game and also a monumentally large game. Going back to it for Master Mode would mean (by way of my own obsessive brain) 100%ing it all over again, which is extremely time consuming, even if I don’t go after the all the Koroks.

There was also this sort of reticence in my behind to confront the creeping suspicion I’ve had in my mind that some of the DLC additions have made the core game worse. Which, I would say… is probably somewhat the case. Certain DLC gear items extremely imbalance standard play and really fuck with the exploration of the game (specifically, Majora’s Mask basically making you not have to fight multiple enemy types). Still, I knew I could ignore those, and just focus down on the core experience of Master Mode: harder enemies, regenerating enemy health, and the introduction of floating platforms.

Turns out, BOTW is still fucking amazing, and while the additions Master Mode make aren’t essential, they do make for a fun second run of a fantastic game. The harder enemies make the early parts of that game WAY HARDER (making you really have to get good at using your bombs and stealth), and while that difficulty ramp doesn’t keep up throughout (which, honestly, the platforms are somewhat to blame as they make getting certain bits of higher-level loot earlier easier), it’s still just a great game to go back to.

Breath of the Wild remains my all-time favorite game. Hyped for BOTW2.

4. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★★

Sekiro is in a sense the purest expression of the Souls formula. Stripped away of the jolly co-op, the PVP, the stats, the equipment, and most customization to speak of, Sekiro asks the simple question: can you do this? Can you learn all the systems in this quite challenging game, and engage with it on its own terms?

In its mechanical simplicity, I found Sekiro to be my favorite game of that lineage, as it has allowed them to really polish the gameplay by its singular focus. It just feels amazing to stealth around and backstab dudes, parry everything, and triumph in nail-biting sword duels. While you do gain new skills and equipment (in the form of the ninja tools), they are just supplementing the fundamental systems of the game, rather than acting as diverging ones. So really, most of your time is spent not learning wholly new methods of combat, but instead improving your mastery of the core one.

And the feel of mastering that combat is incredible. By the end you feel unstoppable; normal enemies that would have been challenges early on are nothing. Even a lot of the bosses become trivial as-time goes on, bar the few ‘mastery test’ bosses interleaved throughout the progression. This isn’t some “hey I got more EXP and now over-level for everything!” thing, either; this is me, the human holding the controller getting skilled enough to become a Sekiro master. It’s an amazing feeling.

I beat every single boss in the game, including the hidden ones, and enjoyed the hell out of it.

3. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★★

I’m very much on the record as being a huge IGAvania partisan. I fuckin’ love the core loop of that permutation of the Metroidvania formula. Koji Igarashi no longer being able to make Castlevanias hurt me. A lot. Over a decade of time spanned between the last IGAvania game, Order of Ecclesia, and the release of Bloodstained. I was a bit worried.

Thank god Bloodstained is really, really, really good.

Bloodstained is extremely “one of those.” You move about a 2D interconnected world, collect items and abilities until you find the stuff that let you move forward in a new area. It’s kind of an eclectic hybrid of IGA’s past titles. The castle design feels very Aria of Sorrow. The shard mechanics feel close to Aria/Dawn of Sorrow’s soul system. The weapons feel very Symphony of the Night meets Portrait of Ruin. The overall mechanics of movement feel most akin to Order of Ecclesia. All in all: a good mix.

The game is massive. There’s so many weird one-off mechanics (something I appreciate), bizarre callbacks, goofs. There’s an in-depth alchemy system (mostly used for cooking, which is funny). The shard system is a bit boring in places— some shards are extremely simple and forgettable mechanically— but the shard leveling system is kind of hilarious in how broken it can become. The familiar system from SOTN is back and has been essentially perfected by making it a dedicated slot so you can just hang with a fairy or sword pal.

I wish the game had more enemy diversity, and the story left something to be desired. Many shards just aren’t very interesting. But the game is just so dang fun. The core gameplay loop is just so compelling, and the game just feels so dang good. I’m glad they took all the time to polish the gameplay feel because hooooooooooo boy.

Looking forward to those DLC characters for some additional playthroughs.

2. Outer Wilds – 2019 – Epic Game Store – ★★★★★

“Space exploration”, “cosmology”, “archeology”, and “sociology.” While these are certainly not the only fields that dominate much of my attention, they are some big ones. The Outer Wilds is a space exploration game where you explore the structure of a strange but exquisitely constructed solar system, and dig through the remains of a mysterious vanished alien species. Also, you’re stuck in a Majora’s Mask-like apocalyptic time loop ‘cuz the sun keeps exploding. Should probably find out why that’s happening.

I went into this game completely blind, entirely based on the way Austin Walker was raving about it on twitter. Austin’s interests in heady space shit is pretty similar to my own, and turns out? Worked out quite well for me. I blindly explored this solar system for about twenty hours over the course of a couple weeks, and came away from the experience misty eyed at the ending. Outer Wilds is fantastic.

It’s a surprisingly touching and cozy for a game that mostly about you going off into space on your own, all alone. And that’s because you’re not, really. Outer Wilds is less about the science of exploration and archeology and the meaning of it, why it matters even in the darkest moments. Why do we explore? Why does science matter, divorced from the parasite of industry and markets? What value does it give to us, to future generations?

The game is built on the notion that even as we individually wander, explore, and discover, we’re all together collectively building on something that may outlive us, even outlive our species, the pursuit of a collective knowledge that transcends personal enrichment and individual accomplishments.

You are but one a few alien explorers, each on their own adventure. As you adventure, you catch their signals as you cruise across space. The things you learn and do are further built on the relics and messages left behind by the Nomai, the species that came before. This sense of a personal and emotional connection in the act of discovery is the heart of this game. We’re not standing on the shoulders of giants; we’re holding hands with those before us and those after us to build a bridge to a future that we may not live to see.

It’s a positive message of hope in the face of oblivion. 

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★★

I’ve been really on-and-off on Fire Emblem over the years. I first got in on the franchise with Awakening, which I rather liked for its anime-ass sensibilities— though not without criticism. I found the combat kind of obnoxious in its tendency to get muddied down in the Oops You Done Fucked Up, Time To Reset junk. It was too anime-ass in some places, not the least of which being its incredibly one-note characters who had little bearing on ongoing events so as to support the permadeath system without too much wasted effort on the developers’ part. Fates, the follow-up on Awakening, only amped up these criticisms, becoming convoluted, stupid, and kind of obnoxious to play.

I had hopes that Three Houses would be an improvement. Initial impressions made it seem way more serious, way more grounded, with a lot of improved systems. Turns out: it was better than I could have dared of expected or hoped. Three Houses isn’t improvement, or even innovation; it’s a revolution.

Three Houses is great. It’s long, it’s got so many different systems going on that I hardly know where to begin with describing it, but… it’s great. It’s the platonic ideal of what I’d like out of a Fire Emblem. Things feel like they matter. The setting feels weighty, the plot is actually good, and the characters are absolutely marvelous.  

No, it’s not perfect— its handling of representation could DEFINITELY be better. Some of the narrative is hokey as hell in places. Certain routes seem to have gotten more attention than others. The class-based specialization systems could do with more depth such that so many characters don’t end up mostly identically specialized to each other.

But… I found the combat extremely enjoyable.  The charge-based rewind mechanic removed the feel-bad gotchas of unanticipated troop appearances and bad rolls etc. The characters are fun, and they’re kept relevant all the whole way through via creative framing of events. The ability to roam an actual physical space via the monastery made the world feel more alive, and made everything feel more real.

The writing was actually interesting and nuanced, exploring things like faith, race, social classes, feudal politics, and romance. While the three routes are largely similar, it’s interesting just how different the underlying messages of each of them ends up being. I appreciate that in this game where you otherwise spend most of your time hanging around with nobles in a church ends just short of you rolling out the guillotines by the end.

This is a tactical RPG in 2019 that I have put something like 150+ hours into, having beaten only two of the four routes. I was, and still am, deeply invested in everything that is. I’ll probably go back to the other two routes when the final DLC is out next year.

SAKURAI, PUT EDELGARD IN SMASH

[convictagainstda]

roguelite summaries

the binding of isaac: your mom thinks your ghost that's in the attic is god and you hide in a large basement and whoops sorry it's not real now you're a skeleton with a ghost chained to him

nuclear throne: you're a naked person that hates the cops looking for the last chair in the world so you can blow it up and run away and then do it again and again sometimes as different naked people

enter the gungeon: you're a sad inside person or robot or bullet who wants a magical gun because all these other guns, such as a talking gun, a cheese gun, a death laser, and a gun of solid gold and so much more are useless.

monolith: oh! look at the cute ship! they're drinking cof- OH NO WHAT IS THAT HORRIFYING THING LOOKING AT ME WITH WEIRD MUSIC AND ALL OF THIS BULLET HELL OH GOD THE LORE WHAT THE HELL

darkest dungeon: you clean up the mess of your dead grandfather while his ghost follows you around and comments on your friends who you try to keep from dying and not doing very good at that

crypt of the necrodancer: break your fingers dancing around as an anime character who is either there for some reason or trying to kill an evil blue dude, his fursona or a technician.

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: June 2019

Halfway through the year! Here’s how I spent the month of June.

……….FILM……….

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Delivers on everything I’d want out of a Godzilla movie: destruction, cool monsters, and bland humans making crazy decisions. It perhaps took itself a little seriously, but that also felt on-brand, you know? Hopefully this series keeps going so we can get to a Mechagodzilla showdown.

Booksmart (2019) So good. We caught this at the end of its run so it’s a shame I can’t tell more people to go out and see it. Great bff chemistry, nuanced cast, funny, and solid direction. It felt familiar and new. Oh but as a former teacher, the Jessica Williams bits were all sorts of problematic.

Rocketman (2019) Just wonderful! The framing device of rehab wasn’t just a break from the biopic tropes, it was a crucial element towards reinforcing the main thrust of the film. Sure it goes through the rise and fall of a star, but it uses that arc to show the growth of a human. That’s why this is great. Also Taron Egerton is just overwhelmingly great.

……….TELEVISION……….

The Bachelorette (Episode 15.04 to 15.07) I worry that Hannah isn’t going to make it to the end of the season without some sort of emotional break. The slightly unhinged antics were fun at first, but now it feels like it’s bordering on full-on meltdown. I still long for a season where we’re given simple romance and good good friendships, but until then I suppose we’re stuck with Luke P. It’s really hard to watch a genuinely problematic relationship continue but hopefully he’ll be gone soon. Also that clip episode was next level.

The Magicians (Episode 1.10 to 3.08) It’s still doing a great job of acting as a sort of remix of the books. The stuff from book 2 is carrying over to the later seasons and while it’s not moving quite as briskly as the first, it’s still doing a great job of showing a different perspective and interpretation of the core plot elements.

……….READING……….

Thisby Thestoop and the Black Mountain by Zac Gorman (Complete) I put this on hold at the library thinking it was a graphic novel. Then I saw it was categorized as “children’s so I figured, knowing it was a collab between Gorman and Sam Bosma, it was an all-ages comic. Turns out it was a children’s chapter book and I loved it! Light-hearted, touching, and full of lovely illustrations by Bosma, it delivered everything I wanted in a format I wasn’t expecting. Also it’s about the adventures of a D&D-styled dungeon’s gamekeeper, Thisby Thestoop. So if you have a kid (or you, yourself) want an RPG-adjacent read, this is a great choice.

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (Complete) Compilations like this are always a lot of fun and I find it interesting to pick up themes when reading a collection of myths. There’s an awful lot of punishment in Greek mythology and in reading these, I really picked up on a lot of tests. Tests of strength or drinking ability or speed and it’s all rather fascinating. I admit that Gaiman’s writing is what brought me to the book but it’s rather subdued. Very cool to read how interested in Norse Mythology he is and it adds another layer to his other books (particularly American Gods). I don’t know if I’d recommend it if you were only a fan of Gaiman��s work, but I’d definitely suggest it if you’re keen to learn more about Thor and Loki and the gang.

Motherlands by Simon Spurrier & Rachel Stott (Complete) I love bonkers sci-fi. There are giant fleshy bounty hunters, pixelated teleporting guns, tiny lizard people, and civilizations all on the backs of crabs, but at the end of the day this book is about the relationship between a mother and her daughter. Sure, both are bounty hunters, but it uses the fantastic to explore the personal and that’s what my favourite speculative fiction does best.

Black Hammer Vol. 1: Secret Origins by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston (Complete) Think alternate Justice League trapped on a farm in an alternate reality (likely our own). It’s a family drama set in a small town and it’s really good! At first it felt like a “this is our version of Shazam! This is our version of Martian Manhunter!” but the characters are breaking away from the tropes and it’s in that deviation that the book really shines. Worth checking out.

The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo by Drew Weing (Complete) As far as all-ages comics go, this has a good range of appeal. It touches on topics like gentrification and xenophobia, but uses monsters to communicate them. The main characters didn’t really resonate with me (the POV character doesn’t get to take much action and the expert is perhaps a little cold for someone meant to show compassion for all). There’s a second volume and while I didn’t love this, I want to check out the next chapter to see where it’s all going.

……….AUDIO……….

Factually (Podcast) If you know Adam Ruins Everything (either the show, youtube clips, or the podcast) then this is a natural continuation. I’m still not sure why the transition from the other podcast to this as it feels essentially the same, so I can only assume it was a contractual or savvy business move. Also the podcast is a deeper dive into common misconceptions in the world and it has Andrew W. K. for the intro music. What more could you want? 

……….GAMING……….

Maze of the Blue Medusa (Satyr Press) We had a bit of a lull this month from me being sick, but the party continues to hesitantly explore deeper into the maze and so is running into more dangerous encounters! It’s all very exciting.

Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda (Brace Yourself Games) Having never played the original indie game (Crypt of the Necrodancer) I found it to be a steep learning curve and I died a whoooooole bunch at the start. Now I feel like I’ve found the literal (and metaphorical) rhythm of the game. Lots of fun, a great blend of new and familiar Zelda elements, and just a generally breezy game that can be very difficult. Oh also you can play as Zelda! For the whole game! 100% recommend.

Gato Roboto (Devolver Digital) Perfect bite-sized game. Three-ish hours of a cat in a mech suit is exactly what I wanted and it didn’t fail to deliver. The bosses are challenging though I admit most of the other enemies were pretty chill. Worth the modest cost and the whole thing was a lot of fun.

And that’s it! As always, feel free to send me any recommendos as I’m always looking for something new to watch/read/hear/play!

Happy Sunday.

[majornelson]

This Week’s Deals With Gold And Spotlight Sale

Here are this week’s games and add-on deals on the Xbox Games Store. Discounts are valid now through 17 June 2019.

These deals will expire at 10:00 am UTC on Tuesday June 18th 2019

Xbox One Deals

Content TitleContent TypeDiscountNotesStellaris: Console EditionXbox One Game30%DWGStyx: Shards of DarknessXbox One Game75%DWGLife is Strange 2 – Complete SeasonXbox One X Enhanced25%DWGPro Fishing SimulatorXbox One Game40%DWGLetter Quest /Paranautical Activity BundleXbox One Game67%DWGGuacamelee! Super Turbo Championship EditionXbox One Game67%DWGSpace Hulk: TacticsXbox One X Enhanced67%DWGHand of FateXbox One Game67%DWGBeast QuestXbox One Game80%DWGDragoDinoXbox One Game50%DWGDungeon Rushers: Crawler RPGXbox One Game50%DWGInkXbox One Game70%DWGIt’s Quiz TimeXbox One Game40%DWGNinjin: Clash Of CarrotsXbox One Game70%DWGParanautical ActivityXbox One Game70%DWGPillar by Michael Hicks and Gonçalo AntunesXbox One Game40%DWGPuzzle Bundle Vol. 1Xbox One Game75%DWGRoyal RoadsXbox One Game35%DWGSherlock Holmes: The Devil’s DaughterXbox One Game80%DWGSherlock Holmes: Crimes & PunishmentsXbox One Game75%DWGStellaris: Console Edition – Deluxe EditionXbox One Game30%DWGThe Journey Down TrilogyXbox One Game30%DWGThe TechnomancerXbox One Game75%DWGThea: The AwakeningXbox One Game50%DWGTyler: Model 005Xbox One Game70%DWGWRC 5 FIA World Rally ChampionshipXbox One Game80%DWGWRC 6 FIA World Rally ChampionshipXbox One Game80%DWGWRC 7 FIA World Rally ChampionshipXbox One X Enhanced67%DWGMonster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 2Xbox One X Enhanced40%DWGMonster Energy Supercross 2 – Special EditionXbox One Game40%DWGRIDE 3Xbox One X Enhanced40%DWGRIDE 3 – Gold EditionXbox One X Enhanced40%DWGEuro Fishing: Hunters LakeXbox One Game60%SpotlightEuro Fishing: Le Lac d’OrXbox One Game60%SpotlightEuro Fishing: LiliesXbox One Game60%SpotlightEuro Fishing: Manor Farm LakeXbox One Game60%SpotlightOlliOlli2: XL EditionXbox One Game75%SpotlightDoom and DestinyXbox One Game30%SpotlightAlekhine’s GunXbox One Game80%SpotlightLichdom: BattlemageXbox One Game80%SpotlightGuilt Battle ArenaXbox One X Enhanced60%SpotlightPlease, Don’t Touch AnythingXbox One X Enhanced30%SpotlightCrypt of the NecroDancerXbox One Game80%Spotlight

*These offers are only valid for Xbox Live Gold members.

Please note: prices and availability are subject to change and may vary by region.

Xbox 360 Deals

Content TitleContent TypeDiscountNotesDead IslandGames On Demand70%DWGCarsGames On Demand67%DWGThiefGames On Demand85%DWGMurdered: Soul SuspectGames On Demand85%DWGToy Story 3Backward Compatible67%DWGDead Island RiptideGames On Demand70%DWGFarming Simulator 15 – Lamborghini Nitro 120Add-On33%DWGFarming Simulator 15 – NivaAdd-On33%DWG

*These offers are only valid for Xbox Live Gold members.

Please note: prices and availability are subject to change and may vary by region.

via Xbox Live's Major Nelson http://bit.ly/2R5ZwZy

[improvidence318]

rileyomalley replied to your photo: PAX was pretty awesome. Hung out with friends,...

Got any games in particular you’re excited for? :o what potentially sold you on possibly getting VR?

Furious Seas felt really fun to play. I also got to try Population One, but I’m not quite as interested in multiplayer gun combat for VR. Swords, maybe. The flight mechanic looked fun but I want a game of just that. Virtual BASE jumping!

I hear the Rick and Morty VR game is hysterical. I’m sure there’s loads of other VR greatness that I never noticed because I had almost zero interest in it as a platform.

Beat Saber also looks dope as fuck. Didn’t get to play it but I’m always a sucker for rhythm games.

Speaking of Rhythm games, we also got to try out Just Shapes and Beats, and holy SHIT, am I getting this immediately.

Binding of Isaac meets Crpyt of the Necrodancer? Sign me UP!

[uneminuteparseconde]

Des concerts à Paris et alentour

Octobre 31. Acid Mothers Temple + Bambara (Le Beau fest. off) – Glazart 31. Thierry Balasse joue Pierre Henry – La Gaîté lyrique 31. Terrine + Regalec + Victime – La Pointe Lafayette 31. Linda Fox + Flesh World + Johnny Labelle + Teenage God + Disposition Matrix – Le Petit Café 31. Marie Davidson + Oktober Lieber – Petit Bain 31. Ensemble Economique + Jeremiah Cymerman – Le vent se lève 31. Archetype + Ujjaya (Sleep Concert) – Les Miroirs de l'âme 31. Phill Niblock & Thierry Madiot + Trio Grands Lacs – Instants chavirés (Montreuil) 31. Operant + Panzer b2b X + Resonant Pole + 9hz (Unhuman b2b Sinus O) + Ahxat – tba (gratuit avant 00h30) 31. Chris Liberator + Mayeul + Demian + D. Carbonne + Falhaber + Moth – tba 31. Metzger + Crave + Faulkner + Moyo – Serpent à plume

Novembre 01. Elysian Fields – La Maroquinerie 01. Casual Hex + Hyäne – La Pointe Lafayette 01. Kiku, Blixa Bargeld & Black Cracker – Petit Bain 01. John Maus + Mac DeMarco + The Voidz + Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever + Étienne Daho + Yellow Days + Cola Boyy + New Optimism (Pitchfork Music fest.) – Grande Halle de La Villette 01. Or:la + Yves Tumor + Dr Rubinstein + Lotic (Pitchfork Music fest. after party) – Trabendo 02. Blood Orange + Chvrches + Chromeo + Bagarre + Car Seat Headrest + Dream Wife + Lewis OfMan + Boy Pablo + Kaytranada + Tirzah [+ Fever Ray : ANNULÉ] (Pitchfork Music fest.) – Grande Halle de La Villette 02. Arne Vinzon + Lem + Bertrand Désert – bar du Grand hôtel Amour 02. Sec + Igloo + PoulainJar + Towl Ben – La Cantine de Belleville 03. Bon Iver + dj Koze + Jeremy Underground + Stephan Malkmus & The Jicks + Unknow Mortal Orchestra + Avalon Emerson + Snail Mail + Daniel Avery + Muddy Monk + Peggy Goo + Michael Rault (Pitchfork Music fest.) – Grande Halle de La Villette 02. Emma Ruth Rundle + Jaye Jayle – Petit Bain ||ANNULÉ|| 02. Assassani + Phantom Love + Techno Thriller + Cockpit + Elzo Durt – La Station 02. Perc + Hermann b2b Sentimental Rave – Rex Club 03. Cheb Gero + Ko Shin Moon + Kink Gong – musée Guimet (gratuit) 03. Antti Tolvi + NW"Rir1009" + Le bruit vient de la cuisine + O Reche Modo + Porve A Za Penize – Le Petit Café 03. Fatma Pneumonia + Sainte Rita + Id!r + Andres Komatsu – Carbone 17 (Aubervilliers) 04. Peaches Christ Superstar – Cité de la musique|Philharmonie 04. Crack Cloud + Escape-Ism – Olympic café 04. Deena Abdelwahed – Concrete 05. Colin Stetson – Café de la danse 05. Echo & The Bunnymen – Bataclan 05. David Byrne – Zénith 06. Soft Kill – Olympic café 06. Agnostic Front + Fishing With Guns + Blackened – Gibus 07. M.A. Beat! + Domotic – Olympic café 08. Half Asleep + Delphine Dora – Médiathèque musicale (gratuit) 08. Cold Cave + Choir Boy – Petit Bain 08. Jealous + The Absolute Never + Drone à clochettes – Alimentari 09. Le Syndicat faction vivante – Salle Gong (gratuit) 09. Sonotanotanpenz + Le Ton mité – Le Chair de poule 09. Words & Action – Le Klub 09. Kikagaku Moyo + Frédéric D. Oberland – Petit Bain 09. Rendez-Vous + Prurient + Silent Servant + Poison Point + Crave + Low Jack b2b Moyo + Clara 3000 & Coni – La Machine 09. Regis + Vatican Shadow + Samuel Kerridge + December – Rex Club 09. AZF + Randomer + Identified Patient + Zuli + Benoua b2b Legitime – Concrete 09. The Hacker – Badaboum 09>11. Baba Commandant & The Mandigo Band + Senyawa + Brothers Unconnected (Alan & Richard Bishop) + Porest Group + Kink Gong + Robert Millis + Jesse Paul Miller + Mark Gergis + Hisham Mayet + Olivia Wyatt – théâtre Berthelot (Montreuil) 11. Bo Ningen + Cassels – Point FMR 13. Hot Snakes – Point FMR 13. MellaNoisEscape + Puts Mary – Petit Bain 13. Sophie Agnel, Joke Lanz & Michael Vatcher – Instants chavirés (Montreuil) 14. Cocaine Piss – Supersonic (gratuit) 14. Peter Murphy & David J jouent "In the Flat Fields" – Bataclan 14. Jerusalem In My Heart + Good Luck In Death + Florian Abou Yehia – Petit Bain 14. Tout de suite + Mr Marcaille + Le Crabe – L'International 14. Charalambides + Bridget Hayden + Jon Collin, Nina Garcia & Augustin Bette – Les Nautes 14. Blind Delon + BLNDR + IV Horsemen + Paulie Jan + DJ Varsovie + Panzer – Rex Club 15. Father Murphy + Le Jour du seigneur & Kaïto Winsé + Arnaud Rivière – Les Nautes 15. Méryll Ampe + Emmanuelle Bouyer + Anne Flore Cabanis + Matthieu Crimersmois + Frédéric Mathevet + Colin Roche + Anton Mobin... (Extended Score #2) – Le Cube (Issy-lès-Moulineaux) 16. Frigs + Plomb + Cave Story – Supersonic (gratuit) 16. Parquet Courts – Elysées Montmartre 16. Jasss + Nkisi + Bonaventure (Biennale Némo) – La Gaîté lyrique 16. Ellah A. Thaun + Love Coffin + Bryan's Magic Tears – La Station 16. Noir Boy George + Officine + Foune Curry – Instants chavirés (Montreuil) 17. Moriarty – Librairie L'Atelier (gratuit) 17. The Damned – Elysées Montmartre 17. Jung An Tagen + Matthias Puech + Meryll Ampe & Konpyuta – 100ECS 17. Eomac + Defekt... – entrepôt en banlieue 18. Ensemble Links : « Drumming » de Steve Reich – Cité de la musique|Philharmonie 19. U.S. Girl – La Maroquinerie 20. King Champion Sound + Pierre & Bastien + Rose Mercie – Le Klub 21. The Breeders – Le Trianon 21. Lydia Lunch & Ian White – Espace B 21. Ekafaune + Badbad + Baba Yage – Le cirque électrique 22. Société étrange + Pyjamarama – Le Zorba 22. Scout Niblett + Miles Oliver – Petit Bain 22. Cookies + Trotsky nautique + Guns'n'Ganseblumchen – La Pointe Lafayette 22. Tomoko Sauvage + Jacques Demierre & Axel Dörner + Frantz Loriot + Anna Frei & Franziska Koch (Textures fest.) – Instants chavirés (Montreuil) 22. Serge Teyssot-Gay, Christian Vialard & Éric Arlix : Hypogé – Le Cube (Issy-lès-Moulineaux) 23. Michael Nyman : "War Work: 8 Songs with Film" – Salle Pleyel 23. Ennio Morricone – Bercy Arena 23. Kollaps + Trepaneringsritualen + Verset Zero – Gibus 23. Le Mystère des voix bulgares – église Saint-Eustache 23. Saravah revisité (Areski, The Recyclers, Arlt, Bojan Flames...) + Hyperculte + Waltraud Blischke (dj) (BBmix fest.) – Carré Bellefeuille (Boulogne-Billancourt) 23. Yasmine El-Baramawy + Dennis Tyfus + Les Sirènes (Francisco Meirino, Jérôme Noetinger, Mathieu Saladin & Juliette Vocler) + Denis Rollet (Textures fest.) – Instants chavirés (Montreuil) 23. Tommy Four Seven + AnD + Stephanie Sykes + VSK – Concrete 23>25. Anne-James Chaton & Manuel Coursin : "L'Affaire La Pérouse" – La Pop 24. Geometric Vision + Solveig Matthildur – Supersonic (gratuit) 24. Seefeel joue "Quique" + Insides – Petit Bain 24. O'Death Jug – Le Bal 24. Endless Boogie + Pan American + Facs + Von Limb + Waltraud Blischke (dj) (BBmix fest.) – Carré Bellefeuille (Boulogne-Billancourt) 24. Frustration + Twin Arrows – Rack'am (Brétigny/Orge) 24. Trentmøller (dj) – NF34 24. Arnaud Rebotini + Vernacular Orchestra + Soul Edifice – Rex Club 24. ABSL + Cem + Elad Magdasi + Mind/Matter + Moth + Nico Moreno + Paramod + Parfait + Raär + Sentimental Rave – tba 25. Satan + Kill + Necrodancer – Espace B 25. Evan Crankshaw & The Dead Mauriacs + The Mauskovic Dance Band + Waltraud Blischke (dj) (BBmix fest.) – Carré Bellefeuille (Boulogne-Billancourt) 27. Mudhoney – Trabendo 27. Etienne Jaumet – New Morning 28. Andy Moor & Anne-James Chaton – Cité de l'architecture (gratuit) 28. Adult. – Petit Bain 28. Borja Fames + Eloïse Decazes + Èlg – Instants chavirés (Montreuil) 28. Ensemble IRE joue "Nexus Entropy" d'Ulrich Krieger + Marc Baron + Lionel Marchetti (fest. Bruits blancs) – Anis gras (Arcueil) 29. SK/LR – Chair de poule (gratuit) 29. Interpol – Salle Pleyel 29. Esben & The Witch – Point FMR 29. CHDH + Mariachi + Lårs Akerlund & Sten Backman (fest. Bruits blancs) – Le Cube (Issy-lès-Moulineaux) 29. Rakta + Marée noire + Trashley – Instants chavirés (Montreuil) 30. Mick Harvey – Petit Bain 30. Artus + Fleuves noirs + Hex – Le cirque électrique 30. Spit Mask + Poison Point + Lunacy + Some Ember + Offermose + Kaukolampi – La Station 30. Deeat Palace + Tamara Goukassova + Tryphème – L'International 30. John Chatler + Samuel Sighicelli + Shapednoise (fest. Bruits blancs) – Anis gras (Arcueil)

Décembre 01. Nadia Ratsimandresy + Bruno Chevillon + Uriel Barthélémi + Marc Sens + Annabelle Playe (fest. Bruits blancs) – Anis gras (Arcueil) 01. Deux boules vanille + Jeff Mills + Molécule + Renart + Nicolas Horvath joue P. Glass, T. Riley et J. Adams + Ensemble Links : "Music for 18 Musicians" de S. Reich (fest. Marathon!) – La Gaîté lyrique ||COMPLET|| 02. Beak> + Le Comte – Café de la danse ||COMPLET|| 03. Idles + John – Bataclan 03. Pardans – Olympic café 05. Julia Holter – Petit Bain 05. Sudden Infant + Massicot – Centre culturel suisse 06. La Tène avec Jacques Puech, Louis Jacques, Guilhem Lacroux & Jérémie Sauvage – Centre culturel suisse 06. The KVB + M!R!M – Badaboum 07. Kink Gong – Médiathèque musicale (gratuit) 07. Antoine Chessex + Nina Garcia + Francisco Meirino – Centre culturel suisse 07. Heimat + Bordigaga + Bruno Billaudeau, Xavier Mussat & Black Sifichi (Semaine du bizarre) – Instants chavirés (Montreuil) 07. Nosfell – Espace 1789 (Saint-Ouen) 07. Shxcxchcxsh + W.LV.S + Wlderz – Rex Club 08. Père Ubu (Semaine du bizarre) – Théâtre Berthelot (Montreuil) 08. The Horrorist + Federico Amoroso – L'Officine 08. Jean Benoît Dunckel + NSDOS + CloZee + Kiddy Smile (Inasound fest.) – Palais Brongniart 08. Blawan + The Advent + AWB + Yogg & Pharaon + Netsh – Concrete 09. Panteros666 + Matt Black + Erol Alkan + Kiasmos (Inasound fest.) – Palais Brongniart 09. The Fleshtones – Supersonic 09/10. Moriarty – Cité de la musique|Philharmonie 12. Nova Materia – La Maroquinerie 12. Le Réveil des tropiques + France + Helio Polar Thing – Petit Bain 13. The Callas + Selofan + Hørd (fest. Magnétique Nord) – La Station 14. New Model Army – Trabendo 14. Carol Robinson, Bertrand Gauguet, Julia Eckhardt & Yannick Guedon : "Sequel to Occam Ocean" (2018) d’Éliane Radigue – Palais de Tokyo 14. Sida + Broken English Club + Toresch + Moderna + Wr2old + Shazzula (fest. Magnétique Nord) – La Station 14. Hangman's Chair + Jessica93 + Revok – Les Cuizines (Chelles) 14. Rebekah + Paula Temple + Anetha + Hannah b2b Charlene – Concrete 15. Gaspar Claus – Cité de la musique|Philharmonie 15. Ata + Oliver Hafenbauer + Chinaski + Last Love Pilgrim + Kilian Paterson + Slyngshot + DJ Neewt (fest. Magnétique Nord) – La Station 15. Job Sifre + Fatma Pneumonia + X1000 + Spunoff (fest. Magnétique Nord) – La Station 15. AZF – Rex Club 18. Drab Majesty – Point FMR 19. Belmont Witch + Zad Kokar – Instants chavirés (Montreuil) 22. Yan Wagner + Il est vilaine + Magnüm + Mayerling – La Maroquinerie

2019

Janvier 18. Francis Dhomont (fest. Akousma) – MPAA Saint-Germain (gratuit sur résa) 19. Armando Balice + Ingrid Drese + Jérôme Noetinger + Loïse Bulot + Robert Hampson (fest. Akousma) – MPAA Saint-Germain (gratuit sur résa) 20.  Catherine Bir + Raphaël Mouterde + Francisco Meirino + Roland Cahen + Yoko Higashi & Lionel Marchetti (fest. Akousma) – MPAA Saint-Germain (gratuit sur résa) 22. Emmanuelle Parrenin & Dominique Regref – La Ferme du Buisson (Noisiel) 24. Rouge Gorge – Le Chair de poule 25. La Secte du futur + Shiny Darkly – Supersonic 25. Léonie Pernet – Gaîté lyrique 26. Chloé – Elysée-Montmartre 29. Dominique a – Salle Pleyel 31. Deena Abdelwahed – Gaîté lyrique

Février 02. The Residents – Gaîté lyrique 02. Shabazz Palaces + Dälek (fest. Sons d'hiver) – théâtre de la Cité internationale 06. Brendan Perry – Petit Bain 07. VNV Nation – Le Trabendo 09. The Ex : "Ethiopian Night" (fest. Sons d'hiver) – salle Jacques-Brel (Fontenay-sous-Bois) 10. Therapy? – La Maroquinerie 11. Massive Attack feat. Liz Fraser jouent « Mezzanine » – Zénith 16. Anthony Braxton + Dave Douglas & Bill Laswell (fest. Sons d'hiver) – théâtre Jacques-Carat (Cachan) 21. Mlada Fronta + Absolute Valentine + Neoslave – Petit Bain 22. Nils Frahm – Le Trianon ||COMPLET|| 23. Nils Frahm – Le Trianon

Mars 02. Boy Harsher + Kontravoid – Badaboum 12. Yann Tiersen – Salle Pleyel 20. Oomph! – La Machine 22. Delia Derbyshire (diff.) + Lettera 22 + Evil Moisture + Caterina Barbieri + Drew McDowall : "Coil's Time Machines" (fest. Présences électronique) – Studio 104|Maison de la Radio 22. The Young Gods – La Maroquinerie 23. Pierre Boeswillwald (diff.) + Max Eilbacher + Andrea Belfi + Sarah Davachi + William Basinski & Lawrence English (fest. Présences électronique) – Studio 104|Maison de la Radio 24. Warren Burt (diff.) + Mats Erlandsson + Okkyung Lee + Low Jack + BJ Nielsen (fest. Présences électronique) – Studio 104|Maison de la Radio 29. Perturbator – Le Trianon 30. Marc Almond – Le Trianon

Avril 08. The Specials – La Cigale 10. Daughters – Point FMR 14. Arnaud Rebotini joue la BO de "120 Battements par minute" – Cité de la musique|Philharmonie 27. She Past Away – La Machine 27. Chloé : Lumières noires – Le 104

Mai 10/11. Dead Can Dance – Grand Rex 11. Christina Vantzou + Eiko Ishibashi + Jan Jelinek + NPVR (Nik Void & Peter Rehberg) – Le 104 12. Massimo Toniutti + François Bayle – Le 104 17. Philip Glass : Études pour piano – Salle Pierre-Boulez|Philharmonie 18. Bruce Brubaker & Max Cooper : Glasstronica – Cité de la musique|Philharmonie 31. François Bonnet + Knud Viktor + Jim O'Rourke + Florian Hecker (fest. Akousma) – Studio 104|Maison de la Radio

Juin 01. Eryck Abecassis & Reinhold Friedl + Hilde Marie Holsen + Anthony Pateras + Lucy Railton (fest. Akousma) – Studio 104|Maison de la Radio 02. Bernard Parmegiani + Jean Schwarz (fest. Akousma) – Studio 104|Maison de la Radio 26. Magma – Salle Pierre-Boulez|Philharmonie

Juillet 11. Masada + Sylvie Courvoisier & Mark Feldman + Mary Halvorson quartet + Craig Taborn + Trigger + Erik Friedlander & Mike Nicolas + John Medeski trio + Nova quartet + Gyan Riley & Julian Lage + Brian Marsella trio + Ikue Mori + Kris Davis + Peter Evans + Asmodeus : John Zorn's Marathon Bagatelles – Salle Pleyel

Août 23>25. The Cure (fest. Rock en scène) – parc de Saint-Cloud

Septembre 13. Rammstein – La Défense Arena (Nanterre)

en gras : les derniers ajouts / in bold: the last news