usagi

the Richie and Marcus episodes

French AFX fans doubly so.

I replayed Signalis for the secret ending. seriously, this game. the mystery, the surreality, the layers of meaning, the atmosphere, the horror, the tragedy... it's 10/10 and it seems slept on outside of this niche. this is as close to the Silent Hill experience as you can get outside of SH1/2 (but even darker). the music alone, that delicate piano riff/leitmotif cuts me every time.

it's not that hard to watch, you silly baginas. you've failed the first hurdle and have missed all the subsequent character development and other good stuff in the calmer moments.

I gave up on this.

Anomaly's default settings are ridiculous in some places. it is not "realism" to be spotted through dense foliage from 200+m away in the night and instantly killed with a precise headshot. I tweaked the settings manually a fair bit, particularly the stealth settings in m_stalker.ltx, till they provide a reasonable mix between challenging and playable. and yeah, the crafting system I ignore entirely, I've gotten a decent economy going (again through tweaking prices and dealer settings) so I can just pay techs to repair my stuff and buy whatever else I need. the purists in the community may spaz out over this but frankly that is their problem, people are free to create whatever play experience they like so long as they respect the work that was put in (by both the OG developers and modders). I am in it for the vibe of the Zone, not masochistic Tarkov-esque tacticool gameplay for people who want to pretend they're in the military. the point stated earlier about the value of Anomaly capping out once you've gotten all the gear you've wanted and explored all the zones is also true. the storyline is easily the weakest part of it, I have no desire to pursue the main quest beyond a certain point. story is the one place where modded Stalker shows a real lacking over OG Stalker, there's no real inspiration there. I doubt we're going to get this specific type of gameplay from Stalker 2 which I am expecting likely be more hand-holdy and less free play (so expect the community to flip out and review bomb it), but that is fine because modders will take it as a base and make of it whatever they desire. it's all good.

Signalis done kicked me in the feels. I wasn't expecting it. beautiful game.

I started Signalis, it's awesome. if you like the Resident Evil, Silent Hill or Dead Space, this is a must for you.

RIP

I watched that last night and thought it was disposable shit for children. some inventive bits but mostly it comes off like a longer, glossed-up horror short made by annoying youtubers (which it was). there's already both a prequel and a sequel on the way, so expect this to become some shitty franchise like Saw. also, can't help but notice how prevalent low-light tricks are in horror films ever since Hereditary, and each successive one has done it increasingly shittily.

^ The World Is A Piece of Shit Not Enough. I was going to say The Fifth Element but then I remembered that was Tricky lol, which was an even more random casting. here's one, maybe not too hard since the film was highly praised on here when it came out:

The Life Erotic with Steve Zissou

found this via a mix. I guess this is ghettotech? idk, but either way, it gets me hyped af.

A Wank in the Clouds

it's aetypical.

I mean, sub-bass in a venue that can channel it properly will achieve basically the same thing. what would make this a killer product is adding a wireless vibrator (for either the front or back door depending on your sex).

at 37m in the set

this is literally what happened in Sydney, like word for word.

@Alcofribas

yes! I liked the high-bpm action. I just scoped a bit of the London B set and yeah, there are differences. I really hope we get a soundboard of this set.

I swear I heard bits of MCR Quarter in there. but yeah, it was incredible. first half was practically a hiphop DJ set w 'scratching', second half was high-speed bangerz. I'm told this was similar to the "London B" set, I don't really know what that means exactly cos I haven't heard the latest livesets but I'm about to grab them.

more tonight in Sydney.

*mutters some more* anyway, I have dived back into Stalker after many years. been playing a heavily customised version of the mega-mod Anomaly (decided to give the GAMMA modpack a pass, fucking headache to install). fun times and much cheeki-breeki'ing. still amazed at how good this game can look, for an engine this old. prior to this I played Disco Elysium for the first time and it was as funny and zany as I'd expected it to be from everything I'd heard. I'm keen on Blasphemous II (which I just snapped up - very happy to pay full price to support this studio) and Armored Core 6, but I still have such a massive queue in Steam to work through that they will have to wait for now.

*mutters under his breath about Alan fucking Wake*