This is part of why I keep my smart TV as dumb as possible: no internet connection, all streaming is done via an HDMI-connected old laptop with ad block enabled

Rakuen is the one that always comes to mind for me

About Me: Video Games Favorite Game: Kentucky Route Zero Beat Story: Pentiment Favorite Art Style: Crawl Biggest Personal Impact: The Beginner’s Guide Best Combat: Hollow Knight: Silksong Overhated: Telling Lies Underrated: Full Metal Furies Overrated: Super Mario Odyssey Needs a Remake: Progress to 100 Criminally Overlooked: Open Sorcery: Sea++ Favorite Protagonist: Void Stranger Favorite Antagonist: Portal 2 Best Soundtrack: Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Best Multiplayer: Samurai Gunn Not Usually My Thing, But…: ZeroRanger Turn My Brain Off: Rhythm Heaven Fever Best With Friends: Spaceteam Best Retro Game: Super Mario Bros. 3 Nostalgic Childhood Game: Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga Game Everyone Should Play: corru.observer

I always enjoy filling these out even if deciding what makes the cut is a struggle

Big hell yeah to The Beginner’s Guide, Dog Airport Game, Crawl, and Anthology of the Killer

not the point but wow is that a terrible metaphor at the end. puddles are small and shallow, there’s not exactly much there to “look further” into

The Calvin's dad explaining records meme. He is explaining that the two kinds of meme are Calvin's dad and Loss. Despite being a meme about Calvin's dad, this one is Loss.

Me playing Ironclad vs. Doormaker on Ascension 10 in Slay the Spire 2. I have only 8 HP left, but Doormaker is down to 44 HP and I'm about to hit him with a 54 damage Perfected Strike+

Run history screen for the successful run, showing relics including Runic Pyramid and Chemical X, and cards including 2x Cascade+, 3x Headbutt+, 5x Perfected Strike (most of which were upgraded or enchanted), 5x Pommel Strike+, and Expect a Fight. Also, the timer shows 50:07, my fastest run yet!

First Ascension 10 win in Slay the Spire 2, let's go! Cascade+ with Chemical X is real silly, especially when you've got 2 of them. Final fight got a little dicey because they both decided to hide at the bottom of my deck, but I pulled through even if I got down to single-digit health.

relatedly, I’m still annoyed that Vast Error’s RSS feed for new comic pages never got fixed after it stopped working in 2023. did my best to keep up with it for a little while longer via Discord server notifications once I realized the RSS was busted but I eventually fell off of it completely

Can’t make it for the stream but looking forward to watching the VOD later! Good luck with the puzzles!

I’m currently beating my head against Ironclad A10. Mostly I’m just trying to go infinite again, since I’ve done it a couple times already on lower ascensions and the nerfs that make it harder to pull off haven’t made it into the main branch yet.

Bits & Bops Custom Mixtape — BIRDBRAIN (Jamie Paige w/ OK Glass & Kasane Teto) YouTube video by towairaito

Speaking of rhythm games, shoutout in particular to this banger of a fan-made Bits & Bops chart for BIRDBRAIN that’s chock-full of clever little touches, including basically inventing an entire new type of cue.

Clouddrop YouTube video by Jamie Paige - Topic

After enjoying @jamies.page’s music in a few different rhythm games (and in anticipation of her upcoming UNBEATABLE DLC) I recently picked up her whole discography, and now can’t stop playing the deluxe edition of Constant Companions on loop (and tearing up every time I listen to Clouddrop).

Get more from Tara Wrist on Patreon creating Critical Essays and Art

lost a couple patrons for my patreon this month. much as i struggle to produce updates for it for psychological reasons, i do have to note it *is* my sole source of income, the means by which i pay my rent, and thus every dollar counts, and that loss *is* gonna hurt. so if *anyone* new can sign up--

Only just learned today (via the latest Patrick Willems video) that Simon West, the director of the Never Gonna Give You Up music video, was also the director for Con Air, so we have him to thank/blame for both rickrolling and all the stuffed bunny-related shenanigans in Homestuck

Ironclad fighting against Queen in Slay the Spire 2. Queen is at 10/400 HP on turn 1 and is being targeted by a Pommel Strike ("Deal 15 damage. Draw 2 cards.") to finish her off. Ironclad also currently has 77/80 HP and 43/3 energy, and every card remaining in the deck has been drawn except for 1 card in the discard.

Went infinite in Slay the Spire 2 (again), killed the final boss in a single turn. I can see why they're rebalancing this character, because completely breaking the game like this is a fun sometimes-treat in roguelikes but you don't really want it to be this easy to pull off.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP: An oral history Celebrate the 15th anniversary of Superbrothers, Jim Guthrie, and Capybara releasing their musical adventure game, and everyone wondering what was up with that.

Sworcery turns 15 today, and we've got a big new feature looking back for the anniversary.

god. yeah. I was like 13 at the time, my life was being upended by my family moving to Beijing and I spent the flight there totally enraptured by this weird artsy little game. the OST became the first album I ever bought on iTunes and the game basically kickstarted my interest in indie games

Undertale and Automata are the only referenced games I’ve played but Asriel and Automata’s credits are both definitely Victory Laps, putting spectacle and narrative/emotional payoff over mechanical challenge. (In fact, in both cases you explicitly overcome them with help and not your own efforts.)

I kind of want to say “every single boss in Rhythm Doctor”? They’re all basically the coolest thing ever and each one does something interesting and new and depending on the day I feel like any of them could be my favorite. The final boss definitely is the most off the charts on spectacle though.

oh hey, I recognize some of these! Open Sorcery: Sea++ used them for its tarot cards and elemental symbols

Now, StS2 could take the approach used by the digital adaptation of Dominion where undos are allowed only if no information was revealed (by drawing cards or triggering any effect with random targeting). Mewgenics has crits and hidden enemies/traps though, so it’s a nonstarter there.

There is forgiveness in Mewgenics: you get one free do-over of a fight per run before you start facing consequences. The issue with a more granular undo button is it would let you peek at random outcomes. You could target an enemy in grass, then take it back and do something else if you miss.

This video is very kind, and it's surreal to be grouped together with two other really great games.

Great breakdown of our final level, and the idea of "saving the best for last" even if a lot of players will never see it.

Thanks Jacob!

Echo Point Nova, Despelote, and Rhythm Doctor. FWIW, Jacob says in the video that he doesn’t think knowing their endings in advance will diminish your enjoyment of those games.

So happy to hear you gushing about Rhythm Doctor, I’ve been playing it since the Flash days and it really is just one of the coolest games out there. That final level had me absolutely losing my mind when I first played it, and even just watching your footage I still get swept up in its energy.

idk about the mainstream reception, but I do know a number of people and independent games crit outlets I follow avoided playing or covering it as part of the BDS boycott of Xbox

I think barebones sokoban is often kinda boring (usually these are one-off puzzles in non-sokoban games) but it’s a solid foundation to make interesting puzzles (Stephen’s Sausage Roll, A Monster’s Expedition, Patrick’s Parabox, Void Stranger, and Baba Is You are all some of my favorite games).

I was asked to give my thoughts on generative AI usage in games - here they are!

Bar chart titled “Q: To what extent do you consider yourself to be a gamer” with scores ranging from 0 (“I am not a gamer”) to 10 (“I am a gamer”). The bars don’t line up with the numbers on the x-axis because there are 12 bars but only 11 numbers.

I looked at the linked presentation and (a) the “of gamers” part of the claim is also pretty meaningless when multiple participants didn’t even consider themselves gamers, and (b) unless fractional responses were allowed that chart is fucked up, why are there 12 bars for responses from 0 to 10?