It’s hilarious and incredible how we still haven’t made a Metroidvania game that solidly and undeniably bests the game that added the -vania in the first place.
No, you work 40 hours a week to bail out unsustainable businesses, give tax breaks to billionaires, clean up unpunished pollution, and support the infrastructure that allows corporations to pay starvation wages for 40 hour work weeks instead of living wages.
Max Payne 2 is one of my favorite games of all time on any platform. Great memories. I don’t like how Remedy went so far down the artsy unintelligible plotting road after that, but they’re still one of the best developers out there in my opinion.
Binding of Isaac is some OG classic stuff if you haven’t played that one, and Neon Abyss is a fun side-scrolling game on a similar vibe. Rogue Legacy 1 (very OG) and 2 and Dead Cells are also side scrolling , with a dash of Metroidvania.
If you like Slay the Spire, Astrea is the same thing but with dice, and Monster Train also scratches the same itch.
Drag Me to Hell. Deep down, an allegory for eating disorders and self-image. Superficially, Sam Raimi rolling out reasons to dump gross shit on and in Alison Lohman’s face for 99 minutes.
I felt like the problem with Dark Fate was less that the film itself was in any particular way flawed and more that the universe doesn’t really have any more good stories in it.
There are many rich and fertile fictional universes where you can imagine new places and politics and technologies ad infinitum to tell new and exciting stories. There are character universes where you can dig deep into the families and relationships. But Terminator, fundamentally, is just “modern day world” with a very specific doomsday arc. The only story to tell that deserves to be called part of the Terminator universe is the story of thwarting that doomsday. And once you’ve done so perfectly via Terminator 2: Judgment Day, there’s literally no point in sticking around.
Alas, that’s my least favorite of hers that I’ve read so far. Her angle is to all the questions you want answered, then get the answer. Spook, being about the unknowable, means the answers are a lot less fulfilling. Still a worthwhile read, just not her best in my opinion.
Cheap version: listen to the sounds of your breathing. Relax all your muscles from head to toe, then just try and isolate the sounds of air coming and going as you breathe. Focus on it long enough and hopefully you pass out.
It sounds like this theory posits that humans may never be advanced enough that we’d detect ourselves unless we learn to live harmoniously rather than virulently.
Hollow Knight never did it for me for some reason. I’m sure it’s great, but I just can’t get into it. Like, at all.