What game are you playing?

[Norfleet]

Entirely depends on your beliefs. Cyberpunk 2077 was very clear that your soul passes on if you allow a copy of yourself to be implanted upon death, thus what remains is not you, it is a puppet who believes it is you. SOMA follows this same pathway. Both leave the ultimate answer for the player to decide. Obviously, I agree that the soul is gone and what is left is not true life, perfect copy or otherwise.

The thing is, YOU are a puppet that believes you are you. Most of you have only been alive for the last 24 hours, tops. The previous version of you died last night and a rebooted copy of you exists in its place. This is very apparent to those of us with insomnia who get to watch the transformation and reboot, each time coming back slightly altered. You are dumped to disk, shut down for maintenance, and then rebooted, because your ****** operating system can't stay running for even as long as Microsoft Windoze without corrupting its memory and crashing. Your continuity is a lie. Everyone has just come to accept this fiction as the normal. What does it really matter if we reboot you from a different disk after copying the old one? After all, it's not like you physically remain you, like the Ship of Theseus. Just about every part of you of any importance has been replaced. So if you get sucked through a negative space wedgie, copied, and then lost with all hands...you're you enough that Command considers you to not be destroyed.

[Tweed]

Entirely depends on your beliefs. Cyberpunk 2077 was very clear that your soul passes on if you allow a copy of yourself to be implanted upon death, thus what remains is not you, it is a puppet who believes it is you. SOMA follows this same pathway. Both leave the ultimate answer for the player to decide. Obviously, I agree that the soul is gone and what is left is not true life, perfect copy or otherwise.

The thing is, YOU are a puppet that believes you are you. Most of you have only been alive for the last 24 hours, tops. The previous version of you died last night and a rebooted copy of you exists in its place. This is very apparent to those of us with insomnia who get to watch the transformation and reboot, each time coming back slightly altered. You are dumped to disk, shut down for maintenance, and then rebooted, because your ****** operating system can't stay running for even as long as Microsoft Windoze without corrupting its memory and crashing. Your continuity is a lie. Everyone has just come to accept this fiction as the normal. What does it really matter if we reboot you from a different disk after copying the old one? After all, it's not like you physically remain you, like the Ship of Theseus. Just about every part of you of any importance has been replaced. So if you get sucked through a negative space wedgie, copied, and then lost with all hands...you're you enough that Command considers you to not be destroyed.

Cogito, ergo sum.

[Tinky Winky]

Finished Encased, which turned out to be quite decent, albeit painfully obviously unfinished. Game also feels too easy though it's mainly because how I've accidentally created the probably most OP build with sniper and stealth. You can just hit-and-run enemies beyond their visual range and they will never find you due to how bad their pathfinding is, and you can also just activate stealth and pickpocket every roadside merchant you'd encounter. Still a better game than Wasteland 3, better than ATOM even had this game been properly finished.

[Lich]

Entirely depends on your beliefs. Cyberpunk 2077 was very clear that your soul passes on if you allow a copy of yourself to be implanted upon death, thus what remains is not you, it is a puppet who believes it is you. SOMA follows this same pathway. Both leave the ultimate answer for the player to decide. Obviously, I agree that the soul is gone and what is left is not true life, perfect copy or otherwise.

The thing is, YOU are a puppet that believes you are you. Most of you have only been alive for the last 24 hours, tops. The previous version of you died last night and a rebooted copy of you exists in its place. This is very apparent to those of us with insomnia who get to watch the transformation and reboot, each time coming back slightly altered. You are dumped to disk, shut down for maintenance, and then rebooted, because your ****** operating system can't stay running for even as long as Microsoft Windoze without corrupting its memory and crashing. Your continuity is a lie. Everyone has just come to accept this fiction as the normal. What does it really matter if we reboot you from a different disk after copying the old one? After all, it's not like you physically remain you, like the Ship of Theseus. Just about every part of you of any importance has been replaced. So if you get sucked through a negative space wedgie, copied, and then lost with all hands...you're you enough that Command considers you to not be destroyed.

Do you ever get tired of this gay larp?

[Bertram_Tung]

Cogito, ergo sum.

I meme, therefore I am.

► Show Spoiler

[WhiteShark]

Metroid Prime(hack) complete with 95% item collection. Proper mouselook makes it much more comfortable to play but confers very little advantage in combat because the game already provides a lock-on feature. Probably the biggest advantage is the ability to easily snipe unprovoked enemies from a room's entrance.

I'd say I really enjoyed the first 60-70% or so while I was still discovering new areas, and then my enjoyment steadily declined as I had to backtrack repeatedly across the relatively large gameworld with no fast travel system. The late game bosses didn't help, either. The last few mostly shared the same design: long periods during which you cannot harm the boss and have to avoid big, obvious attacks, punctuated by brief vulnerability windows during which you try to pump as much damage into the boss as possible. I can see how they arrived at this design: the lock-on system means aim isn't tested, and Samus doesn't have any ability to avoid attacks besides running and jumping (edit: it turns out there's a dash-strafe maneuver, but I never discovered it because it requires using lock-on; clearly it wasn't an essential part of the design), so the only testable skills left are timing and basic movement. Seeing the logic behind it didn't make it any more fun in the moment, though.

I played the Japanese version, foolishly assuming that, as a core Nintendo IP, care would be taken to make a good translation. I was wrong! While I didn't see any grammatical errors, and the log text seemed alright (though I haven't confirmed against the English text), I discovered that tons of areas were renamed for no discernible reason. For example, Phendrana Drifts, the snowy region, was changed to アイスバレイ Aisu Barei. There are at least three problems with this: the proper noun is replaced with generic garbage; Barei is presumably supposed to be Valley, revealing that the translator has no idea how English is pronounced; and it's been turned into Engrish instead of Japanese. These changes aren't limited to the region names, either. Metroid Prime has a name for every room. A cursory comparison revealed that the majority of room names were also changed. Bizarre!

Those criticisms aside, it's a good game. 2000s 3D in high resolution is probably the pinnacle of 3D aesthetics. It looked great and was highly atmospheric. The puzzles were generally enjoyable, and I was impressed at the inclusion of a few bomb jump challenges. I think this is one of the best 3D adaptations of a 2D series around.

I don't think I'm ready to jump straight into Metroid Prime 2, so maybe now I will finally finish 新説魔法少女＋ and then move on to Reverse Collapse as I had originally intended to weeks ago.

[Valter]

Just binged through this lovely horror mystery visual novel. I would say horror is a bad fit for visual novels, but mixing it up with mystery was a solid combo.


Edit:
I will comment on one thing Steam pages fail to encapsule, which is audio. I don't know russian, but the voice acting has a lot of personality, they sound like they're giving it their all. The SFX are great too, as is crucial in a story trying to be convey an eerie atmosphere. The music is a bit more forgettable though it has it shining tracks, so overall a good OST.

Edit 2:
The final episode has some narrative inconsistencies that will be addressed in a future patch, so any interested would benefit from waiting a bit

[Tadeusz]

Just binged through this lovely horror mystery visual novel.

Have you finished it? It got some bad feedback on chapter 5 and the devs want to rewrite it I think.

[Valter]

Just binged through this lovely horror mystery visual novel.

Have you finished it? It got some bad feedback on chapter 5 and the devs want to rewrite it I think.

I did notice and was surprisde by those when I finished the game and went to check out player discussions on Steam forums. And while I do agree with some of the points raised, I can't say it particularly marred my experience like it did for those people who seem to have been accompanying the game from an early age. This game appears to have been following an episodic release schedule, so older players experienced each episode individually. I experienced the whole game so my overall impression is of the entire experience.

While not getting too much into spoiler territory which I'll hide below, episode 5 being the final episode naturally had to wrap up a lot of plot points, too many too fast imo, resulting in some narrative inconsistencies, but not as many as the negative reviews would imply. A lot of it is left to player interpretation, and not in a bad way imo. I can see the flaws, but I still liked it a lot.

Honestly I was more ****** off at a particular section where you had to click unreasonably fast to get a clue that is crucial to several endings

► Show Spoiler

A lot of it remains unexplained, in fact. And that may have ****** off more people than they're willing to admit, inflating the backlash from those who wanted everything answered. As a mystery game focused on psychological horror and the supernatural, I never expected to have a clear cut explanation of everything from point A to point B. And that's fine. But I still liked their approach to leaving it to our interpretation, there's a lot of clues and I was pretty satisfied with my conclusions.

Another point in contention is the fact we have an unreliable narrator. That I dislike more than the other issues raised. I get the appeal, and it can be interesting if done right, but this narrator was too unreliable, leading to a lot of player interpretations possibly being completely baseless because there is no base for them to stand on. It is very hard to discern what is actually real or not.

edit: Oh, you're right. They are asking for player feedback in order to fix EP 5 story inconsistencies. Well that's a pleasant surprise.

[Tadeusz]

► Show Spoiler

This game appears to have been following an episodic release schedule, so older players experienced each episode individually. I experienced the whole game so my overall impression is of the entire experience.

I learned about the game when it had 4 episodes released so perhaps it also affected my perception but I can't help but notice a big shift in episode 5. I think the main problems of it are the setting inflation (from a story set in a rural town it suddenly can get to cosmic proportions in some endings), deus ex machinas (or maybe it's just that story elements were introduced too suddenly without some foreshadowing from previous episodes), "dog's dreams" and getting overboard with ****** moments.

Another point in contention is the fact we have an unreliable narrator. That I dislike more than the other issues raised. I get the appeal, and it can be interesting if done right, but this narrator was too unreliable, leading to a lot of player interpretations possibly being completely baseless because there is no base for them to stand on. It is very hard to discern what is actually real or not.

Agreed. Unreliable narration can be interesting but it got too unreliable in episode 5, leaving me more with a feeling of "what the hell it all was" instead of a mere ambiguity.

[Valter]

► Show Spoiler

This game appears to have been following an episodic release schedule, so older players experienced each episode individually. I experienced the whole game so my overall impression is of the entire experience.

I learned about the game when it had 4 episodes released so perhaps it also affected my perception but I can't help but notice a big shift in episode 5. I think the main problems of it are the setting inflation (from a story set in a rural town it suddenly can get to cosmic proportions in some endings), deus ex machinas (or maybe it's just that story elements were introduced too suddenly without some foreshadowing from previous episodes), "dog's dreams" and getting overboard with ****** moments.

Another point in contention is the fact we have an unreliable narrator. That I dislike more than the other issues raised. I get the appeal, and it can be interesting if done right, but this narrator was too unreliable, leading to a lot of player interpretations possibly being completely baseless because there is no base for them to stand on. It is very hard to discern what is actually real or not.

Agreed. Unreliable narration can be interesting but it got too unreliable in episode 5, leaving me more with a feeling of "what the hell it all was" instead of a mere ambiguity.

► Show Spoiler

What do you mean with "dog's dreams"? Anton's month-long delusion in EP 5? If so, I agree that was complete and utter filler that only served to mislead the player, which if so was a really bad attempt because we just saw Katya be killed earlier in the game, throwing all credibility out the window. So we know immediately this is not real, and that's fine for a bit, but this was way too long.

Setting inflation though, I mean yeah, it gets pretty ridiculous and I think that's part of the inconsistencies I identified, particularly with the creatures' powers. I first believed their appearance and behavior to be a cognitive effect from the drugs they were giving Anton, which would explain jumping high enough to almost reach the moon, but later on the monsters were solidified as real supernatural beings and I had to do a live brain rewiring to make things make sense again I think an early supporting point to them being real is that the forest animals such as wolves also behaved oddly, and also the focus on the grandma's protective chant early in the game. And them being real presents another issue: How do their powers work? A flute activates their transformation through the brain parasites, but they also need masks? But in some cases Anton transformed without ever needing a mask. And in one of the endings which explains his mom being the Bunny, it states the power is split among the children. If it's genetic then, what the hell are the parasites for? Did the parasite split itself when she got pregnant? What? And that ending where Byasha is carving new masks? What the hell was that? So anyone can carve a magic mask?

I think a lot about this part would be easier to make sense of if we knew when Anton got infected with the brain parasite. Was that ever answered? Do you remember?

I was fine with the ****** moments so long as they revealed something information we did not have before, but that was not the case in EP 5. And speaking of, how did Olya and Anton share the same delusions like when they went to the forest castle for candy? I guess that supports the theory it's not just drugs but also magic.

Also what did you think of Polina? Being the granddaughter of the goat, she is heavily implied to be Alisa as well. But in one of the endings, it is described that Anton and Alisa walk through the graveyard and past the corpses of Romka and Polina. Was that a writer's oversight or what?

Also I wish the father got more of his background revealed. It's too mysterious for a mystery game, and the only reveal we have is of the "killer" targetting him. And in one of the endings where the Mom turned into the Bunny he mentions she was kidnapped by the men chasing him. How much of that would be true? And why is he called the Bookkeeper?

Man, there is so much to piece together, and a lot of it does seem to fit, but a lot also doesn't quite match.

[rusty_shackleford]

新説魔法少女＋

I googled this and the first result was a vtuber so I'm issuing you a warning

[Tadeusz]

► Show Spoiler

What do you mean with "dog's dreams"? Anton's month-long delusion in EP 5?

Yes, It introduces some lore info and then throws it all away.

I think a lot about this part would be easier to make sense of if we knew when Anton got infected with the brain parasite. Was that ever answered? Do you remember?

Alisa feeds some "candies" to Anton in earlier episodes.

And speaking of, how did Olya and Anton share the same delusions like when they went to the forest castle for candy?

I think it can just be a metaphor of kids' imagination and escaping their horrible circumstances. Well, if we didn't get all the supernatural stuff in episode 5.

Also what did you think of Polina? Being the granddaughter of the goat, she is heavily implied to be Alisa as well.

I think it's implied but hard to say for sure.

Also I wish the father got more of his background revealed. It's too mysterious for a mystery game, and the only reveal we have is of the "killer" targetting him. And in one of the endings where the Mom turned into the Bunny he mentions she was kidnapped by the men chasing him. How much of that would be true? And why is he called the Bookkeeper?

I think father's story is pretty much revealed - he was a bookkeeper for some criminal types and then ran away from them for some reason. It's 90's in Russia so it was quite a turbulent time with a lot of criminal activity. His "old friends" then hired a killer to get rid of him because he probably knows too much. His story is a red herring but adds to the overall family story.

I think the game should've stick with the story that Khariton is a mastermind behind town's troubles and grooms kids to do his bidding. The game could've left the answer of whether he serves some supernatural powers or is he a weird cannibal/drug-dealer ambiguous. The final episode should've been a final confrontation between Anton and Khariton and the endings all could've been related to that - does Anton join Khariton or does he bust the whole conspiracy with some endings in between. I think this could've finished the story nicely instead of parasites and devourers of worlds.

[wndrbr]

What do you mean with "dog's dreams"?

dog dream is a Russian meme coming from Lost tv series. Some people were butthurt with the show's ending, and interpreted it as "the whole thing was a dream, and not even some character's dream, it was all Vincent's dream" (because Vincent shows up during the last scene of the last episode). Whenever there's a book/movie/game/etc that has a stupid "it was all a dream / none of this was real" twist, people call it a dog's dream.

Basically this

[Valter]

What do you mean with "dog's dreams"?

dog dream is a Russian meme coming from Lost tv series. Some people were butthurt with the show's ending, and interpreted it as "the whole thing was a dream, and not even some character's dream, it was all Vincent's dream" (because Vincent shows up during the last scene of the last episode). Whenever there's a book/movie/game/etc that has a stupid "it was all a dream / none of this was real" twist, people call it a dog's dream.

Basically this

No I will not watch Lost you can't make me. (it's a pretty popular show huh?)

[rusty_shackleford]

Every time I learn more about lost it becomes even more ridiculous

[wndrbr]

No I will not watch Lost you can't make me. (it's a pretty popular show huh?)

that was not an endorsement.

I watched the first three seasons of Lost during its original air, remember discussing each episode with my classmates on the next day. Somewhere during the third season I came to realization that all of the show's mysteries are just some ********, and that the creators likely won't be able to explain them in a satisfying way (I was right and the show ended on a pretty anticlimactic sad note).

[Roguey]

I remember before it aired they were promoting Lost as "This isn't the X-Files, we have a plan, we're not making it up as we go along" (they were making it up as they went along).

This approach getting dunked on years later.

[Jason Bright]

JJ Abrams gave a whole TED talk about how proud he was of that style of storytelling.

[Valter]

► Show Spoiler

I think a lot about this part would be easier to make sense of if we knew when Anton got infected with the brain parasite. Was that ever answered? Do you remember?

Alisa feeds some "candies" to Anton in earlier episodes.

Oh. Oh right, he did realize the beasts were under the goat's control because they ate the "candy".

Also I wish the father got more of his background revealed. It's too mysterious for a mystery game, and the only reveal we have is of the "killer" targetting him. And in one of the endings where the Mom turned into the Bunny he mentions she was kidnapped by the men chasing him. How much of that would be true? And why is he called the Bookkeeper?

I think father's story is pretty much revealed - he was a bookkeeper for some criminal types and then ran away from them for some reason. It's 90's in Russia so it was quite a turbulent time with a lot of criminal activity. His "old friends" then hired a killer to get rid of him because he probably knows too much. His story is a red herring but adds to the overall family story.

Oh that kinda bookkeeper. Okay that fits, nevermind And his story about the mom being taken by the bad men was probably a coverup huh.

I think the game should've stick with the story that Khariton is a mastermind behind town's troubles and grooms kids to do his bidding. The game could've left the answer of whether he serves some supernatural powers or is he a weird cannibal/drug-dealer ambiguous. The final episode should've been a final confrontation between Anton and Khariton and the endings all could've been related to that - does Anton join Khariton or does he bust the whole conspiracy with some endings in between. I think this could've finished the story nicely instead of parasites and devourers of worlds.

In a sense, that final confrontation is still there. The story manages to keep its theme of kids trying to escape their broken homes and responsibilities in favor of some dubious fantasy land intact all throughout, it's just that the consequences are a lot more severe now that the supernatural is confirmed to be real and not just drug-induced euphoria.
Speaking of parasites, one of the endings reveals some otherworldly "angel" beings and their mission to destroy these parasites. Why would these special demonic parasites be present in any regular old human meat?

I would extrapolate some more, but who knows what's getting changed with that upcoming rewrite. A lot of this might be cleared up afterwards. And reading the devs themselves admit this episode wasn't up to their own standards, it might not be worth thinking too much about.
Still a very enjoyable VN at its core, inconsistencies and all.

[Tadeusz]

► Show Spoiler

Speaking of parasites, one of the endings reveals some otherworldly "angel" beings and their mission to destroy these parasites. Why would these special demonic parasites be present in any regular old human meat?

A good question, perhaps some old magical rituals are involved. Khariton could summon something the same way Anton can summon an angel with the cross.

Still a very enjoyable VN at its core, inconsistencies and all.

True, the lore and the story are great but the presentation fails in the last episode. I just think that the consistency of the setting and the scope of events could've prevented this backlash. All the right ingredients are there but they are mixed poorly in the end and have some non-fitting elements.

[Oyster Sauce]

What do you mean with "dog's dreams"?

dog dream is a Russian meme coming from Lost tv series. Some people were butthurt with the show's ending, and interpreted it as "the whole thing was a dream, and not even some character's dream, it was all Vincent's dream" (because Vincent shows up during the last scene of the last episode). Whenever there's a book/movie/game/etc that has a stupid "it was all a dream / none of this was real" twist, people call it a dog's dream.

Basically this

No I will not watch Lost you can't make me. (it's a pretty popular show huh?)

It's the best show ever made and an IQ check (some people here have failed)

[Xenich]

So... started playing Red Dead Redemption. I had it on switch emulator... never played it (as I have said in the past, not much of a console guy), and well.. FFS... the opening scenes are making me gag with all the BS politics obviously pushing a leftist garbage angle on things...

Is it worth playing? Should I keep going? I played a bit of RDR2 in the past (not a lot), but it didn't give me this reaction so quickly, but at least it was mouse/kb.

Not sure if I should bother being that I have suffer through using a **** controller though.

[wndrbr]

@Xenich RDR1 is on pc too, was ported relatively recently.

[Xenich]

@Xenich RDR1 is on pc too, was ported relatively recently.

Yeah, I picked it up. Definitely better now that I can use my mouse/KB (I probably could have configured the emulator to use the keyboard, but it always ends up being a massive hassle to tune it right). They did have good default support for high resolutions though and I was able to get it to work smoothly for my triple screen (7830x1440) setup.

Still, if the politics are as blatantly stupid as the opening scene, I likely won't last long.

[weaselus]

Still, if the politics are as blatantly stupid as the opening scene, I likely won't last long.

To me Rockstar were always the fake rebel, like Rage Against the Machine and, say, Metallica. They are beyond corporate: they are goons. Their games have meaningless violence and were probably designed for pacification purposes.

[Roguey]

They're Scottish. They're SNP or Labour Party-voters who hate America.

[Solaire]

Recently finished Mohrta. At first thought it was just a troonslop boomer shooter but the player is an undead elf war machine/witch hunter and not a foid so I gave it a try. Glad I did, art direction, story, and music were all quite good. It's a souls-lite which isn't normally my type of game but aside from that I enjoyed it. Just be aware there is a few nude/ anthromorphic characters in the game.

Here I thought I'd never enjoy playing an FPS again. +10 points for having a soul. -1 point for depictions of race-mixing

Screenshot 2025-12-24 013721.png

[Tweed]

Trooncore.

[Cipher]

What is it with these Japanese videogame writers behaving like quirky celebrities and having nicknames? Suda, swery, nier guy, this guy

I don't know about this guy. But Yoko Taro (Nier) is called Yoko Taro, so no nickname. He is a weirdo, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't use a nickname. Suda51 is called "Goichi Suda" where 'Go' can mean 5 in Japanese and 'Ichi' can mean 1, since their naming convention is "family name, then given name", his name is written as Suda Goichi or Suda "Five One". I don't really like his games so I am not going to bat for him. Is just that from what I know, Japanese really, really like their wordplay and puns.