Protected's recent activity
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Comment on Netflix says fifty percent of global users now watch anime, reveals expanded slate in ~anime
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected Link ParentThe sets in Until Then feel very cozy and genuine, setting aside how some of them are colored by Mark's feelings at the time (happy, neutral or panicking). The school is awesome, for instance;...The sets in Until Then feel very cozy and genuine, setting aside how some of them are colored by Mark's feelings at the time (happy, neutral or panicking). The school is awesome, for instance; that principal's office is so damn extra! And I can feel the texture of those plastic tablecloths. There is some cultural confusion - some of the fairground attractions were very confusing for instance. But otherwise you don't need to be asian to feel at home in this game. Quite a feat when the picture frames on the furniture have a two digit amount of pixels.
It took me some time to understand what country I was in, so you're right - they're subtle about it.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected (edited )LinkI've been playing Until Then, another narrative breath of fresh air! This game was in my list for a while before being released more than a year ago; I only got to it now. You play as Mark, a...I've been playing Until Then, another narrative breath of fresh air! This game was in my list for a while before being released more than a year ago; I only got to it now.
You play as Mark, a Filipino teenager who was abandoned by his parents (who moved away for work) years prior and has been living alone in his childhood home ever since. Mark's world is defined by his various peers and classmates. He has a great deal of freedom and is not in any way an outcast or ostracized, but at the beginning of the story is very lost, unwilling to put any effort into anything other than trying to learn a piano song that his mother used to play (have you noticed how these heart-wrenching dramas always feature piano music?)
I should say upfront that this game lands close to the far end of the "Gameplay vs Narrative" spectrum - it's a walking simulator, albeit an atypical one. While there are dialogue choices, minigames and other interactive mechanics, and you must walk Mark around the various sets, the predetermined story of Mark and his friends is told as a long, linear succession of vignettes. Good thing it's a great story! The pacing is very good, all the various activities and small moments making the world of the game pop out (at one point Mark plays, inside the game, what is obviously Doki Doki Literature Club, and you get a brief shot of his horrified face before he decides not to continue). The cast is immediately captivating, each a fully realized character with their own interests and issues. The banter is great; Mark stutters, jokes and flirts depending on what's going on. Like any teenager, Mark spends a lot of time on his phone, using social media or instant messaging, and the game simulates these apps for you, allowing you to share, like and comment on posts. (As an older person, I felt a little smothered early on by all the alert chimes and clashing conversations. People live like this?)
Visually, the game is 2.5D, pixelated and reminiscent of a 90s arcade fighting game or beat em' up (no one's getting beaten though!) Every single character has that "bouncy" breathing cycle animation from those types of games, which can be a little goofy at first, before you get used to it and stop noticing. Even though the art is so pixelated, the artists did an excellent job of being expressive there as well, with characters' smirks, pensive expressions and blushes conveyed to perfection. Cutscenes are animated in higher resolution.
The story is suffused with a pervasive sense of dread. In the backdrop, what appears to have been an earthquake of catastrophic proportions is affecting all public discouse, social media posts, news, etc. You learn that all major roads were destroyed and wounded or displaced refugees are roaming the country, overwhelming hospitals and other infrastructure. Meanwhile, some of the characters appear to be suffering from hallucinations. Others are clearly depressed. This is the kind of game that introduces you to a whole bunch of lovely people and strongly conveys that something horrible is going to happen to someone. I'm still playing, so I don't know if this is true or not. I hope not!
I think I'm going to use this week's post to also talk about two duds that I encountered in 2025.
Albatroz is a game about backpacking in south america, or at least it's supposed to be. Protagonist Isla leaves her boring repetitive job and her city full of indistinguishable people (they really lay it on thick right from the start) to go find her brother, a climber and free spirit who was last seen years prior.
At the start of the game, you are driving a (crappy) car. You also have a crappy map. It's immediately obvious that you need to orienteer a bit, take care not to damage the car and to keep the fuel tank from going all the way empty between gas stations. Cool! The car can't go up very steep inclines but it's still possible to go off road, which I did almost immediately. OK! Eventually I find a sign indicating I'm near the village of Fort Condor. I have to abandon my car and start backpacking now! More cool systems here; Isla's walking speed depends on the inclination of the ground, and you have to forage for fruit and water, which you carry in your limited capacity backpack, and to manage your arm and leg tiredness, and even your body temperature, using clothing and food! And all stats are upgradeable! You have directions for reaching Fort Condor based on compass directions and geographic features. So far so good!
But suddenly you run into a magical fog. You see the ghost of your brother, which you're required to chase for way too long (at some point I camped, right in the middle of this scripted sequence) before a scripted passing out. You wake up in the village, where you meet a shaman who is clumsily forced into being your love interest, I think, and now you're doing clunky fetch quests. You need to feed the bridge guard before he'll let you leave. You can't sleep before you do this quest, but you can't do this quest at night, so if night falls you're doomed to a long period of boredom. The game is full of did-anyone-actually-test-this moments like that. It's also very... Unity. It takes like 15 seconds to go in or out of houses in Fort Condor because a trillion assets have to be loaded or unloaded. It's visually kind of pretty, but not in an efficient, well optimized way.
You leave the town, backpack a little more and now you're in the middle of a magical thunderstorm in the mountains! You're forced to do a very long, confusing platforming sequence with no guidance. Don't go the wrong way or you'll get stuck between the mountainside and incongruously placed invisible walls! Don't fall, or you have to start over! You finish this, there's a cutscene, and just as I was wondering damn, I'm so far away from my car, I'll never see it again, why did they even bother to implement it? there's a cutscene and bam, back in the car, no need to bother actually crossing the distance back. I move into the next "region", even though I never actually visited anything marked in my map and I don't know if I was supposed to. In the next region, there are no gas pumps, so I max out my fuel tank's capacity, upgrading it all the way. I shouldn't have bothered, because at one point the game forces the car out of gas anyway. Oops!
I backpack to a campfire. The campfire is on top of a boulder that must be reached by jumping. The game forcefully injures one of my characters' leg and then tells me to go to the campfire. It's Fort Condor all over again. I cheesed this by switching between characters in such a way that the gap was magically crossed without using leg strength. Then I was forced to collect 3 healing herbs, except since I had 1 at the start, and 3 is the backpack maximum, I was stuck.
At this point I'd had enough. This game has a cool foundation and people clearly put a lot of actual work into it. At the same time, it's horribly balanced and horribly designed. It doesn't know what it wants to be. It constantly gets in its own way. It forces you to be bored and waste time instead of letting you actually backpack. Why the hell does it take 30 minutes to pump fuel into the car? Why does an apple's worth of food meter last almost no distance? The developers, clearly inexperienced, do not understand how the instructions and level design must be sufficient for the player not to be totally lost - or if the game is supposed to be survival open world, let that happen instead of mixing impossible to overcome limitations with annoying, cookie cutter cutscenes.
(EDIT: I thought this was hilarious on re-read and was going to let it stand but for the sake of accuracy... Fort Condor is of course a location in Final Fantasy VII. It's El Condor.)
I left the most controversial one for last. Unsighted is a game people generally seem to like, so I'll keep it brief. It's a cool top-down pixelated cyberpunk action game. Nothing wrong with the visuals! There's combat, including with guns, some environmental puzzle solving, and dialogue cutscenes with various characters. I did not dislike any of this, strictly speaking.
I did dislike that once you reach the hub/camp area you have to swim through an overwhelming amount of enemies that are way too strong for you to even go anywhere, unless you're extremely accurate with your weapons. It was frustrating and didn't feel well balanced. I died several times, got bored and gave up.
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Comment on Netflix says fifty percent of global users now watch anime, reveals expanded slate in ~anime
Protected Link ParentI was going to say it's too bad Netflix anime is on a scale from 1 to 8 - they're sometimes good but never quite reach excellence - but I'd forgotten about Edgerunners, that might be a 9 from me....I was going to say it's too bad Netflix anime is on a scale from 1 to 8 - they're sometimes good but never quite reach excellence - but I'd forgotten about Edgerunners, that might be a 9 from me.
Conversely they fund some hot garbage on a regular basis. I wonder just how hands off they are. Some shows make me think someone should probably have noticed something before the show is published and is received as poorly as one might predict.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2025 in ~games
Protected Link ParentWell, no one else is interested so you win! Please send me your steam username!Well, no one else is interested so you win! Please send me your steam username!
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Comment on Summer Games Done Quick 2025, a week-long charity fundraiser featuring speedruns, is live (runs July 6 - July 12) in ~games
Protected LinkThe Beat Saber showcases get better every time! I love that the game is recurrently showcased, it's great for bringing new people to the community. I recommend anyone with an interest in the game...The Beat Saber showcases get better every time! I love that the game is recurrently showcased, it's great for bringing new people to the community. I recommend anyone with an interest in the game go watch them!
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Comment on Summer Games Done Quick 2025, a week-long charity fundraiser featuring speedruns, is live (runs July 6 - July 12) in ~games
Protected Link ParentI considered posting it, then I thought don't be stupid Protected, kfwyre will surely do the nice post with all the links when he has time ;) Such a good lineup of runs and events this time...I considered posting it, then I thought don't be stupid Protected, kfwyre will surely do the nice post with all the links when he has time ;)
Such a good lineup of runs and events this time around! I'm looking forward to a bunch of them.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2025 in ~games
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Comment on Weather forecast is for extreme heat in Europe. Heat related deaths are expected. in ~enviro
Protected Link ParentBack in my old building I had a little split AC unit in a corner of the living room, with the outdoor unit in the balcony; it could cool down the living room if necessary (not the bedrooms). There...Back in my old building I had a little split AC unit in a corner of the living room, with the outdoor unit in the balcony; it could cool down the living room if necessary (not the bedrooms). There were only 4 AC users in the building in total, and I attended condominium meetings in which non-AC owners complained endlessly (for hours) about AC owners, how the units were noisy, produced water, were ugly, etc etc. (my downstairs neighbor, also an AC owner, could not complain, thankfully).
That's the culture in Portugal. That place was incredibly hot, and a lot of people would rather stew in there - in fact they'd rather other people stewed in their homes than let them have AC. The red tape changes from place to place. In my brother's city, the city itself must approve any AC installations that are visible from the street.
When I moved to where I am, in what remains the largest investment I ever made into anything in my life so far, I installed AC in every room. People mocked me for it, saying this place was cooler than my previous home, which is true. Have I regretted it? Absolutely not. They complain about heat waves and I turn on the AC. I care about the environment, but I don't see the benefit in being miserable and unproductive all day long.
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Comment on That dropped call with customer service? It was on purpose. (gifted link) in ~life
Protected LinkSeems like those CEOs are saying just that, silently or not. Everyone knows this is how things currently work. I'm very medieval about this stuff. I keep a ledger in my brain. If a company does...“No one says, ‘Let’s do bad service,’”
Seems like those CEOs are saying just that, silently or not. Everyone knows this is how things currently work.
I'm very medieval about this stuff. I keep a ledger in my brain. If a company does this to me, they are attacking me. I fight back in every way I can, boycotting their products, denying them business, pestering higher ups if I can, sharing my stories online, making sure friends choose a competitor, until I feel like they have lost an amount of value equivalent to the damage I took. Then maybe we're even, depending on how impractical alternatives are or not.
The problem is one of scale, though. The article fails to mention the fact that there are a lot more people now, in absolute terms. The greater the number of customers, the smaller the impact of each individual customer's actions. And often when trying to fight back online you are drowned out by manipulation and disinformation (see: amazon reviews), although there are certain ways to suceed even so.
It wears you out, but we need to have a culture of fighting back by default. It's the only way to ensure that even if we can't coordinate effectively, bad behavior from these companies translates into bad results due to the uncoordinated actions of their mistreated customers.
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Comment on The 2025 Steam Summer Sale is live (runs June 26 - July 10) in ~games
Protected Link ParentI don't recall if you have played Klei Entertainment's difficult sidescrolling space colony simulation game, Oxygen Not Included? You can dig in every direction! (And it's 70% off right now...)I don't recall if you have played Klei Entertainment's difficult sidescrolling space colony simulation game, Oxygen Not Included? You can dig in every direction!
(And it's 70% off right now...)
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected (edited )LinkBefore COVID knocked me down and made me forget even that it was time to write in this thread, I played Ellingby House, a myst-like adventure point and click game. You play as a nameless security...Before COVID knocked me down and made me forget even that it was time to write in this thread, I played Ellingby House, a myst-like adventure point and click game. You play as a nameless security contractor who has been hired by an old and prestigious financial company called JR Holder and Sons. Your workplace is Ellingby House, the 10 floor building housing their headquarters. But soon after you park your car in the underground parking garage, you find that the building is in lockdown - you can't leave! The phones don't work, and due to impending structural repairs, no one will come in to work for several weeks!
The game plays similar to Myst III or IV - it's traversed as a graph of preset locations where you can look around in 360 degrees. It has a "realistic" (up to a point) vibe and, just like Myst, includes full motion video footage for the conversations with the main characters, "cleverly" overlaid onto the scene. I thought the design/mood for the building and its various company offices was fairly well done, with some caveats. It makes some sense when you balance the scale of the project with the size of an indie team, but they used a ton of stock and AI-generated assets. The thousand silly paintings hanging all over the walls aren't so bad, but I found the computer-generated voices for all the audio recordings, cutscene narrations, etc. very robotic and immersion breaking. Only the filmed actors are fine.
The story is... goofy? Ellingby House is a gigantic clusterfuck of corporate malpractice. It very soon (enough that I don't count it as a spoiler) becomes obvious that JR Holder and Sons is trying to pivot into... cryptocurrency mining! They treat their employees horribly and the building, which is old and unmaintained, is literally falling apart, to the point where you narrowly escape death on various occasions. Other than a "lockdown" system that violates every fire code past, present and future, the building is bursting with unnecessarily locked doors, broken equipment, fire exits that don't work, the canteen is infested with rats and cockroaches, the toilets are unsanitary, the lifts are broken, and many of the computers are infected by a ransomware virus. Other companies that rent out some of the floors of the building are variously involved in fraud or criminal negligence. It's a little much if you want to take the story seriously, but funny enough if you just roll with it.
Puzzle design and progression are all over the place, unfortunately. The biggest problem is that there is often a very large area to cover when looking for clues without you knowing quite what you're supposed to do. You may be "stuck" without being able to progress because you have access to a hundred nodes and you are looking for something specific and absolutely tiny. For example:
This spoils the solution to a puzzle but I recommend reading it anyway.
At one point, you will be unable to progress until you find a fuse. You have to obtain the fuse from a vacuum cleaner's tiny plug - it's a british game, and british plugs have fuses in them. How was I even supposed to know that?
There is no way to highlight clickable things in a location, and it's inconsistent which things will be clickable and when. Some switches are clickable, some are not. Some doors are unlockable, some are not. Some items are one use, some are reusable. Sometimes an item you won't need again is accidentally "dropped" or equivalent so you know you don't need it anymore... but sometimes it isn't. And there's no way to take notes. This is especially galling because this game involves figuring out various people's computer passwords so you can read their e-mail. You will need a separate note-taking solution (pen and paper for me).
Occasionally the game will prevent you from "going back" for a time by blocking a path you have previously followed (mainly through the building falling apart), which can help - good job there. But this mechanic is also used inconsistently. You're often allowed into a "new" area with a new puzzle without having everything you need for it, and the way back simply won't collapse until you have gone back and retrieved the missing items - but you have no way to tell that you're missing said items in the first place! Sometimes puzzles are unsolvable simply because you have to return to an area later, even though everything makes it look like you are progressing linearly through the building. And sometimes you need to remember knowledge you may have casually noticed several hours earlier in the playthrough - which might be days earlier for a player with a normal life!
Anyway, the game doesn't feel particularly unfinished or unpolished so much as it feels like the product of a relatively inexperienced puzzle designer. The experience itself was memorable enough. Once I realized what I was in for, I unrepentantly used a walkthrough for the few most frustrating puzzles. If you play it, you should be able to finish it in a dozen hours.
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Comment on Denmark seeks to make spread of deepfake images illegal, citing misinformation concerns in ~tech
Protected Link ParentThe EU has been pushing hard for mandatory backdoors for software that uses encryption for many years now - when an attempt fails a new one is introduced. There is a timeline of another piece of...The EU has been pushing hard for mandatory backdoors for software that uses encryption for many years now - when an attempt fails a new one is introduced. There is a timeline of another piece of legislation here. I don't think a justification like this is "required"; all of these things are already ongoing and plenty justified in the eyes of the idiots most of us send to the EP and other european organs. Yup, things are already as bad as they could be.
I can confirm that my country at least has a problem with endemic politician arrogance. They don't feel like they need to represent their voters at all, which is probably why I was ignored whenever I tried to contact anyone about these laws. Shit like this has led to a rapid increase in support for the far right, much faster than I expected even then asked about it here on Tildes some time ago. The Socialist Party that led the country for most of the last half century recently took its biggest beating ever. Not being a far right voter myself (never have been, never will be), I must nevertheless sympathize. When you repeatedly convey to voters in a democracy that you're going to ignore their concerns, they're obviously going to vote you out, idiots.
That said, and this might shock you a little, I think legistlation - rules for people - is the solution for societal problems. Criminals are going to commit crimes; they should be directly held responsible for those crimes. The alternative is crippling technologies, rolling back progress and setting artificial limits that feel much more restrictive to me.
But this should be legislated in a sane, non-dystopian way. Currently the idea is that you don't have to break encryption if your devices spy on you. Your device already knows who you are, or at least knows enough that it's trivial to find out with a couple extra steps if it's your personal smartphone. Just co-opt the chatcontrol system to identify the problematic images and videos via patterns, send to the police and they can go nab the suspect. Fun solution, right?
Except this means you must never be allowed meaningful control over your own device, which is why there's such massive pressure to pass off "full stack" device integrity platforms as "safety" or "security". Fighting for full ownership, root access to your devices, the right to repair your devices, holding corporations accountable, boycotting them, working against them when necessary, is absolutely fundamental toward the preservation of personal freedoms in the near future, at least in the EU.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2025 in ~games
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2025 in ~games
Protected Link ParentHehe, I'll take it. I specifically mentioned one word to one word, but by Lingo rules, spaces (multiple words) are allowed (as in, they appear in the prompts). Uh oh! Well, Lingo lends itself well...Hehe, I'll take it. I specifically mentioned one word to one word, but by Lingo rules, spaces (multiple words) are allowed (as in, they appear in the prompts).
I'm not good at anagrams
Uh oh! Well, Lingo lends itself well to being played with a few friends! If you win, maybe you can enlist a friend to help you with the anagrams! My british friend was clearly better than I was at those.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2025 in ~games
Protected Link ParentI could take Unrailed off your hands! I don't own it and it would be a good start to get a friend group going to play it (I'd probably gift a couple strategic copies to them later in the year...)...I could take Unrailed off your hands! I don't own it and it would be a good start to get a friend group going to play it (I'd probably gift a couple strategic copies to them later in the year...)
Catherine might be fun too.
Favorite animal species... I'm not much of an animal person, but probably dog! My family has owned dogs and they were nice.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2025 in ~games
Protected (edited )LinkI've been missing out on the fun due to covidness. I'm not in the mood to do something too complicated right now - even though I've encountered several fun games this year so far - I'll leave all...I've been missing out on the fun due to covidness. I'm not in the mood to do something too complicated right now - even though I've encountered several fun games this year so far - I'll leave all that for December.
But there is something I could do that doesn't require dealing with game selection: Spread the
despairhorrorfun (yes, fun! that's what I meant!) of Lingo with fellow puzzle afficionados by giving away one copy to a poor unlucky victim! If you're interested, here are the rules:- Reply to this comment once if you want to enter the raffle.
- You must include in your reply your favorite anagram. The anagram should consist in two valid english language words that are made of the same letters. You may include more than two words if you like, as long as they all share the same letters. Example: hostile is an anagram of holiest (don't use this one!)
- If you repeat the same anagram as another participant, your chance to win will be shared with them. So you have better odds if you're original! (Unless every single participant is equally boring. Game theory...) Feel free to edit your entry before the raffle if you want to change your anagram or if you forgot to add one.
- If you already own Lingo, you can participate for a copy of Lingo 2 instead (there will still only be one gift, depending on who wins).
- I'll have to add you on steam to give you the game (you can remove me after if you want).
I have no idea if there's any interest in this, but there you have it. Since I'm giving it away now, I will probably not be giving away Lingo in December. This is your only Lingo chance!
GIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2025 in ~games
Protected Link ParentDon't forget to create a config.sys menu so you can reboot the system without drivers and have enough base memory to run videogame installers.Don't forget to create a config.sys menu so you can reboot the system without drivers and have enough base memory to run videogame installers.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2025 in ~games
Protected Link ParentAre you giving these away? Reminds me of Kingdoms and Castles! I'll take it off your hands if you're giving it away.Are you giving these away?
Diplomacy is Not an Option
Reminds me of Kingdoms and Castles! I'll take it off your hands if you're giving it away.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
Protected LinkI'm currently reading some magic-system-webnovel type low grade slop, as I do on occasion. I won't name it because I don't want to offend anyone or argue about it; it's fairly entertaining but...I'm currently reading some magic-system-webnovel type low grade slop, as I do on occasion. I won't name it because I don't want to offend anyone or argue about it; it's fairly entertaining but devoid of any real substance.
Unfortunately, someone foisted a good heaping of covid on me last week, and in recent days the brain fog, exhaustion and body constantly wanting to shut down and fall asleep at random and non-random times have kept me from reading even that for more than a couple minutes at a time. Low grade slop 1, Protected 0.
On my shelf, The Book That Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence and The Liar's Knot by M. A. Carrick are waiting for me, beckoning, teasing...
Hmm, I didn't think of Castlevania as anime but I did watch it!