3.5 years after starting Risk of Rain 2, 44.5 hours in, I have finally beaten a Solo Monsoon difficulty run playing as Bandit



Take that, Mithrix!

Way too late, but may I join y'all now? Been on a roll so i'll probably have a decent chunk of the 50 done.

So, now that the reviews are out, who's excited for Space Marine 2?

I'm not into shooters at all but I bought this game and am excited about playing it. Looks so authentic to the setting. I had just a few weeks ago finished the W40k novel The Devastation of Baal and this could be exactly this scenario (different chapter though obviously).

🙋
Finished Boltgun recently, that's got me in the mood for some warhammer. However Space Marine 2 is too expensive for me atm (spent all that i could on the Resident Evil humble bundle) so i just downloaded Space Marine 1

I'd say one person's actions shouldn't be the cause of an entire feature being removed.

Also thanks to them Le_Don's pfp caused me to do a double take with my scroll wheel :|

I completed ~ 20 games this month (mix of retro, indie, and AAA titles)

Notable completions:
Deadpool - 08/12
Mafia II: Definitive Edition - 08/15
Borderlands 2 (Replay) + All DLCs - 08/15
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix - 08/19

I started the replay of Borderlands 2 back in 2021 and just finished it this month. I have also enjoyed Kingdom Hearts' story and I am already working on the second game based on release order.

Black Myth: Wukong didn't make the cut for August as I am trying to get 100% on that game and it is taking a while.

For September, I will be playing Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, Final Fantasy XVI (PC), and GoW Ragnarok (PC). And of course, I will try to finish my backlog (which will never happen).

How was the deadpool game? I've been meaning to get to it, I've got a ps3 copy.

This was one hell of a month for my completions, (PC completion unless otherwise mentioned)

27 Completions

4th - Citizen Sleeper

5th - Terra Nil (Netflix, IOS)

6th - Muramasa Rebirth - Hell's Where The Heart Is (PSVita)

7th - Hohokum (PSVita)

11th - Dead Space Remake (Normal diff)
Gotham Knights

12th - Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Death Incarnate diff)

16th - Neon White

18th - Dead Space 2 (Survivalist diff)

20th - Dead Space 3 (Impossible diff)
Crysis Remastered (Delta diff)

21st - Jusant
Dadish II (IOS)
Lost in Random

22nd - Dordogne
Mirror's Edge Catalyst
Unravel

23rd - Open Roads
Maquette
Maquette (Speedrun)
Lil Gator Game

24th - Scorn (went past midnight, if i started it half an hour earlier it'd be a completion for the 23rd
Sea of Solitude

26th - Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Jedi Grandmaster diff)

27th - The Case of the Golden Idol

29th - Frog Detective 1

30th - Frog Detective 2

Also finished Frog detective 3 on the 1st of September

Of these, my top 5 are, in descending order
Citizen Sleeper, Scorn, Dead Space Remake + 2, Jusant, Neon White/Wolfenstein TNC (cant decide on the last spot)

Lost in Random?

yep, your turn.

Anyone here interested in a GOG key for any of the following games?
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation + Chronicles
- Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

PM if interested (standard stuff, no new accs, etc etc)

Fellow tarnished, glory to the Erdtree!

im stealing that image, thank you very much

Also, Shadow of the Erdtree is absolutely incredible. I'm about 25 hours in. The bosses are really, really good (Rellana with the parry tear was so much fun, and Messmer's setup and execution was basically perfect imo)

Also, holy fuck it's got some of the most gorgeous views in the game

I'd like to nominate Kunitsu-Gami, Capcom's new tower defense game (it's on gamepass btw)

I WAS LOOKING FOR THIS GAME 😭 I've been thinking about it for like three days now, i remembered the trailer after the direct but completely forgot the name.

All 8 UBERMOSH games for me. Absolutely amazing bullet-hell games where you need to survive for "just" 90 secs.
Most of the later games have under 10 reactions, and none have more than a couple of written reviews, if any at all

Uvehj told me to buy the collection when I shared a link of the first game's steam page on the discord server (which is a damn good deal btw, all the games for the price of one, and it's half off pretty often so it was like 26 rupees (0.49USD adjusted with steam's regional pricing))

What followed was a couple of days of "Okay, enough UBERMOSH for one day" followed by a good few more hours of UBERMOSH.

Daily Challenge - 2024-07-25
Score: 259 / 300
🟪🟪🟦 🟪 = 93 | P | Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter
🟩🟪🟪 🟦 = 84 | R | Unmechanical
🟦🟦🟦 🟪 = 82 | S | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

1 point off on the score of unmechanical, as well as the first two categories for CoD

Oooh, this looks fun. So the rule is 3 strikes, right?

Page 01 - 10 games - Elden Ring, Portal 1 & 2, DISCO ELYSIUM MY BELOVED, Hollow Knight (my beloved), Hades, Celeste, Tomb Raider, Ghost of Tsushima, DOOM
Page 02 - 10 games - Batman Arkham Asylum + City + Knight, Half Life 1 & 2, Undertale, Jedi Fallen Order, Sekiro, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War 4
Page 03 - 10 games - Resident Evil 2 Remake, DOOM Eternal, Zelda BOTW, Little Nightmares, Ori and the Blind Forest, Far Cry 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Life is Strange, Witcher 1, Limbo
Page 04 - 6 games - Half-Life 2 Ep 1 & 2 + Lost Coast, Cuphead, Firewatch, Hi-Fi Rush
Page 05 - 3 games - Titanfall 2, Final Fantasy 7R, P4G MY BELOVED
Page 06 - 4 games - Resident Evil 3 Remake + 4 + 7, PREY 2017 MY BELOVED
Page 07 - 7 games - Subnautica, Wolfenstein TNO, Inside, Dead Cells, GRIS, Mirror's Edge, Spider-Man GOTY
Page 08 - 1 game - Final Fantasy VII
Page 09 - 3 games - Far Cry 5, A Short Hike, Inscryption
Page 10 - 3 games - Super Mario Odyssey, Minecraft, Spec Ops The Line
Page 11 - 2 games - Ghostrunner, Half Life Blue Shift
Page 12 - 3 games - Bloodstained ROTN, Transistor, SUPERHOT
Page 13 - 2 games - Enter the Gungeon, Suicide Squad KTJS (truly one of the worst games I've ever played)
Page 14 - 2 games - Journey, The Wolf Among Us
Page 15 - 4 games - Aperture Desk Job, The Stanley Parable, Hitman 1 (W.O.A)
Page 16 - 1 game - Hitman 2
Page 17 - 5 games - Life is Strange 2, Injustice, ABZU, F.E.A.R., Superliminal
Page 18 - 1 game - Helltaker
Page 19 - 5 games - Final Fantasy XV, Half-Life Source, Wolfenstein TOB, Toem, Battlefield 1
Page 20 - 2 games - CoD BO, Final Fantasy IX
Page 21 - 1 game - CoD MW2
Page 22 - 3 games - SUPERHOT MIND CONTROL DELETE, Kingdom, Final Fantasy VIII
Page 23 - 3 games - CoD BO2, The Messenger, Danganronpa
Page 24 - 2 games - Zelda Link's Awakening (2019), Goat Simulator
Page 25 - 1 game - VVVVVV
Page 26 - 3 games - Grim Fandango, DOOM 3, Assassin's Creed 3 remastered
Page 27 - 1 game - The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
Page 28 - 2 games - Oxenfree, DBZ Kakarot
Page 29 - 1 game - Metal Gear Solid
Page 30 - 1 game - Spider-Man (okay so the goty version is already on the list but im gonna keep it 😅)
Page 31 - 3 games - Life is Strange Before the Storm, Final Fantasy XII TZA, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
Page 32 - 1 game - Battlefield 4
Page 33 - 4 games - Venba, Final Fantasy, F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate, Tekken 7
Page 34 - 2 games - Mortal Kombat X, Uncharted 4
Page 35 - 2 games - Zelda LTTP, Battlefield V
Page 36 - 3 games - God of War, My Friend Pedro, Getting Over It
Page 37 - 3 games - CoD MW + MW3, Serious Sam 3
Page 38 - 2 games - Spore, Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
Page 39 - 2 games - Game Dev Tycoon, Star Wars Squadrons
Page 40 - 2 games - Hitman 3 (W.O.A.), Lego Ninjago Movie
Page 41 - 1 game - Zelda Minish Cap
Page 42 - 3 games - Pokemon FireRed, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Luigi's Mansion 2
Page 43 - 1 game - Zelda OoT
Page 44 - 2 games - Super Hexagon, The Last of Us Remastered
Page 45 - 1 game - Vanquish
Page 46 - 3 games - Little Inferno, Batman the Telltale Series, Before Your Eyes
Page 47 - 1 game - Uncharted 2
Page 48 - 5 games - Machinarium, Everhood, Battlefield Bad Company 2, The Swapper, Super Mario Bros.
Page 49 - 1 game - Medal of Honor (2010)
Page 50 - 0 games - STRIKE ONE
Page 51 - 1 game - Untitled Goose Game
Page 52 - 4 games - Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk, Shadow of the Colossus (PS4), Emily is Away, Zelda LBW
Page 53 - 2 games - Carrion, Ace Combat 7
Page 54 - 2 games - Uncharted, Gears 5
Page 55 - 3 games - Pokemon Emerald, Avengers, Zelda TP
Page 56 - 1 game - Batman The Enemy Within
Page 57 - 0 games - STRIKE TWO
Page 58 - 1 game - Uncharted 3
Page 59 - 0 games - STRIKE THREE

Hello folks, been a while! I just hadn't really found anything to write about (except for Disco Elysium which i've been raving about in the HLTB discord ever since i finished it, and am actively trying to write something on)
However, we ended up talking about the Mascot Horror genre on the abovementioned server, and i ended up writing a thing on it on there.

Since it's a topic i'd love to recieve more opinions on, here i am.

Here's No One's word-vomit on "The Degradation of Mascot Horror as a Genre"

FNAF was unarguably the start of mascot horror as a genre, and its been the template for what the genre even is ever since.

Mascot Horror is inherently a genre that's steeped from head to toe in nostalgia. For FNAF, it was a game (atleast initially) unequivocally about some sort of nostalgic fear of animatronics at restaurants like Chuck E. Cheese and the uncanny fear of such machines dancing and singing in robotic, inhuman sequences.

HOWEVER, I feel like the genre's switched... nostalgias in a way.
FNAF absolutely blew up, and my generation is one where basically everyone 15ish and above grew up on the series (via youtube especially). I feel like the new wave of these games is
1. targeting not some nostalgic fear and twisting the childlike into something horrific, but simply target the nostalgia of games that did so in the past
2. trying to sell as much merch as possible by being as "cute" as possible to appeal to as many kids as possible, some of which might not even understand what they're interacting with exactly.

The one mascot horror game that (atleast for the first 2 episodes or so) clicked with me was Bendy and The Ink Machine. Me and my friends absolutely grew up on tv cartoon channels. I don't think my brother's ever even seen an episode of Tom & Jerry or Mickey Mouse. That was the last time i felt like someone was doing the "childlike wonder being twisted and perverted" thing. It came out at a time the generation that would play it would be intimately familiar with the thing it targeted most likely (keep in mind im not talking about the quality of its gameplay and systems but simply the type of horror it tried to execute. as someone who's not really scared by horror, it didnt scare me, but i could appreciate what it was trying to do)

But these days it feels like the genre is targeting the nostalgia of its predecessors itself (not even talking about trying to appeal to children to sell merch to them)
None of the people that are the target audience of Poppy Playtime will be familiar with VHS tapes. They will not have any nostalgia about it.Maybe dolls?
But in an effort to appeal to both my generation and the next, it seems to be going for both "how cute" and "how disturbing" with no subtlety.

In my opinion Mascot Horror is something that only works with the assumption of subtlety, something disturbing lying under the facade of the intimately familiar. That is what has made FNAF stick with all of us kids who watched those videos and/or played those games. That subtlety is completely absent here. "Oh look, the toy company is inserting spines and nerves inside your toys and now they're talking!" bitch tf do you think you're toy story?
its not disturbing, its pitifully pathetic imo.

Note: The reason i specifically talk about Poppy Playtime is because it's the only one of the new mascot horror wave I've personally played and not just seen in videos.

The discussion on the discord started with a question about the monetization of these games (which seems to just be "get kids to make their parents buy plushies) and while that turned into a long discussion overall, this is what it got me thinking about, since its a genre that a lot of my people my age have been exposed to,a lot.

Anyways, let me know what you think about this i guess.

See you next time (whenever i finish my little massive thing on Disco Elysium which I've redone 5 times now)

Beat Folder Dungeon.
its clearly more of a proof-of-concept than it is a full fledged game because its got a couple of pretty clear issues
The heat system is very easy to break. By the end of my run i had like 160ish heat which is way too much
As abatage said,the heat system is clearly meant to add a strategic element to the game, but:
1. It is way too easy to break. i just got like 3 of the flame items on the 3nd floor and had enough heat to explore every single folder on all the subsequent floors
2. It doesnt really work in a randomized setting. when i didnt have an abundance of heat, it was less strategy and more "oh god wheres the exit"

However, it's also surprisingly engaging and I do think that with more polish this'd be a damn good game. It's already got the fun part down, all it needs is a bit more meat on its bones and a bit more polish, and the dev has said that he's working on it, so it's certainly something i'm going to be looking forward to. Already wishlisted it as well

No one knows better than me

Thanks for the acknowledgement.

Stray Gods is the same as Chorus, which was it's working title.

Stories.

All I want are good stories.Stuff that makes me think about something, or make me feel something.
It's what i look for in all sorts of media, but games as a medium are special. Interactivity adds a whole new layer of attachment and immersion and it's a really cool thing when a game pulls something like that off successfully.

Edit: yeah basically just what siver said 😅

I've said this in the discord server before, but i usually save 10/10 for games that affected me in a way.

So a technically perfect game that did not affect me at all (half-life 2) only gets a 9 from me
but a game that might be imperfect, yet touched me in some way gets a 10 from me (twilight princess)

Sure, it's not always that straightforward, but that's the basis of how i decide to review my completed games (and this reminds me i should add scores to my completions on here)

P.S., ive got seven 10/10s in all my completions

The Last of Us Part II - Ellie is lesbian, Lev is trans.
(and the first TLOU actually, you find a letter about Bill's partner Frank)

Cyberpunk 2077 - character creation supports trans and non binary characters - in-game you can romance either men or women, completely optional.

Ellie was already confirmed to be lesbian in the first TLOU (the left behind dlc to be more specific)

I got some stuff here too

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - Hijiyama and Okino (like someone already mentioned). But far my favorite pairing in the game, and probably the one with the most chemistry.

Virche Evermore: Error Salvation - A side character is head over heels over one of the main bachelors. I kinda feel bad by playing Yves' route, since not only you snatch him from Hugo, but also something rather unfortunate happens to Hugo

Hustle Cat - this one is interesting, since I have the sneaking suspicion that it was first conceived as an Otome (since most bachelors are male except for one), but later turned into Amare (they made it so you can pick the gender of MC as male, female or non-binary). Anyways, it is a very sweet game, and all of the love interest were build with love (which doesn't always happen)

Steins; Gate / Steins; Gate 0 - Lukako is the cutest, most beautiful girl... Except they were born a guy. Okabe's dumb moments after certain event aside after that d-mail where Luka's gender was changed to female and he kinda had to prove it... *Sigh*... Okabe is the one that calls her "Lukako" (names in Japanese ending with "ko" are more feminine). While others think it is disrespectful since Luka "is a boy", I feel Okabe was the first one to accept Lukako in a way? Also, Lukako does hang out more with the other girls and wears more cutesy clothes in 0, which makes me happy because she looks happy :3
The one sad thing is [time travel mega spoiler in 0] Luka ends up discarding femininity in that timeline after the war starts to protect the others, and even gives their life (though is able to meet Okabe on their fonal moments)

Those are the ones I can think of rn, will probably post more later

Also, am I the only one pissed that in Persona 4 Golden Yosuke's romantic social link got Axed?? He and Yu were PERFECT for each other :(

No way there was a Yosuke social link 😭

I'm straight, but i wanna share some too!

Anyways, Night In The Woods

All the Life is Strange games have some representation of gay romances (max and chloe ending up together is the only ending i'll ever accept)

Baldur's Gate 3 (going through it right now, how is anyone supposed to not pursue astarion?)

I'm pretty sure Cyberpunk 2077 too

Got extra keys for Fallout 3 goty and Tomb Raider goty, both for gog. Please PM me if you want one.