Selfsurprise

I've always liked the shape of South Dakota's borders, it looks like a rectangle that got slightly bored before it finished the bottom right-hand corner of itself... :3 All of those monuments and parks would make for interesting state to explore in a post-apocalyptic setting, and the points you cited about the state's arguably safe position in the US would give players the impression of being in a relatively untouched wilderness, that is until they stumble upon the evidence and consequences of experiments conducted in the regions many military facilities. Some sort of vast underground network of interconnected vaults could add another dimension of complexity to the setting. Also, South Dakota may have little in the way of mutated wildlife, but it does have a horrifying trench coat wearing bigfoot/evil spirit hybrid monster called the Taku-He.

Fallout 4: Far Harbour

I've just cooked a chilli cheese pasta thing but it's too hot to tuck into right now. I'm feeling much more frustrated about this than I care to admit.

Illus. ARKENN

"Not sure if serious or just trolling." Sorry, the dragons expression reminded me of Fry's squint meme... :3

[/replying to Alyxx's avatar] "Baby you already made it into the most private place I know - my heart. Next stop, my pants."

I like it! Making him a self-deprecating American of Irish immigrant descent would potentially be a lot funnier. One the charms of Freeman's Mind is that Gordon's personality didn't mesh well with his contemporaries behaviour and expectations, it' fair to say Freeman is a bit of a nutcase and only results in comedic encounters with NPCs. Given the reasonable amount of conversations Patrick has with the inhabitants of the Covenant estate, I think there would be a good balance of Patrick's irreverent interactions with other characters and his own largely self-contained monologues. As the series went on he might become increasingly half-hearted and despondent of his cultural disconnect "from the homeland."

1. You 2. You 3. You 4. You 5. Yorkshire Puddings

10/10, nobody likes a manual dexterity show-off. Just noticed this, thanks Reverend :3 Is it the colour or italicisation that's makes it difficult to read, or Mr. Murray's poetic rendering?

Accursed Farms condemns clone cheeseburgers and overpriced cultist Yakuza cats in the truck.

Starbound + Ape Escape 2 = Apebound In a post-homo sapiens plane of existence, explore the cosmos with your sentient primate crew and capture pseudo human monsters with your elaborately built siege gadgets.

Muggy as balls.

Given the August rumours in gaming news of a Fallout: New Orleans potentially in the works (I'm cautiously hoping they turn out to be true) what better way to revive this thread than ask the following question: What states or cities in ol' 'murica would make potentially great settings for a Fallout game? Rather than doing my usual historical rambling thing in order to justify my bizarre and non-lore friendly choices for locations, I'll leave the question open for now in the hope that anyone is interested in unburdening themselves of their imaginary forays. I'll hear you out!

Oxenfree: Whilst not exactly the most obscure indie title to be gleaned from the crop of 2016, I really enjoyed this game. Stylistically and aesthetically unique, Oxenfree is a sort of peculiarly platformer-esque third-person walking simulator didn't look or play like anything else I'm aware this year. Add a great but intimately modest cast of characters, dollops of artfully played ambiguity and an intriguingly open-ended narrative that kept me wanting to know more without feeling unresolved or needlessly vague. Short but sweet, with plenty of replayability due to the game's core themes and premise.

I've been playing Ape Escape 2 a lot this week, and I've reached the conclusion that I'd never want to set foot in it's particular universe. Essentially the series is a metaphor for how unethical scientific experimentation may end up doing humanity more harm than good - most specifically in the form of a violent fraternity of terroristic simians, each with their highly erratic behavioural problems and psychological aberrations. Despite the actions of the game's protagonist manifesting this terrifyingly implacable threat to mankind, it seems the world's governments either aren't willing or unable to coordinate their military or logistical efforts in order to end this situation - instead resorting to allowing the same gormless fool whose incompetence allowed the apes arising to occur in the first place, to singlehandedly attempt to capture the aforementioned apes with a series of increasingly bizarre and non-lethal devices. P.S. It's a good game, btw... :3

Frozen Ghetto by Martial Canterel

That caught me out as well, when I initially copied and pasted the images address from Tumblr into my post, I got the first panel and had to edit my post accordingly.

Do you have any examples of criticism you've written for games besides what you've posted here Helio? I don't think anything you've ever posted regarding gaming in general or specific titles has ever been aimless, I always enjoy reading your stuff. Mind you I agree with your sentiments that resorting to a "thumbs up/thumbs down" approach for most critics can result in rather dull commentary. Good critics will elaborate on a particular game's thematic context or look slightly beyond the actual games content to the development and "real world" reception of it. My perennial poster boy for art criticism, Hal Foster, speaks of there being a crisis for criticism in his topical medium in regards to how the discipline can retain a healthy distance from the commercial and vested interests of modern art. Whilst the myth of unfathomable pseudo-pornographic elitism marrs the popular imagining of modern art, gamings relative "newness" by comparison means that it's suffers from a less rigorous mode of self-reflexive critique and analysis - from both critic and audience alike. I think many fields of creativity, gaming included, are equally suffering their own cultural misdirection from their original intention - if some of investigative work of Jim Sterling and others is anything to by. In a way gaming and contemporary art both have issues regarded disingenuous reviewing and financially powerful bodies possessing an undue influence on the reporting of their output.

I'm inherently suspicious of anyone too keen to surmise their beliefs immediately, or otherwise assign themselves a neat identity sans any natural inclination or individual nuance. I'm all too aware of that hoary old "those that preach have the most to preach about" adage. I also worry that subscribing to certain leftist politics or adhering to specific lifestyle choices will instantly relegate me to the "loon" category, thanks to the horrifying mutant strains of liberal orientations that the internet vomits forth - which to be fair and for the sake of balance is only as bad as the equally horrific right-wing elements.

Fallen Lords by Martial Canterel

I'm all for the Fallout series branching out, even in the series context of America. It's not as if the USA has a shortage of states or cities! New Orleans would make an absolutely setting for the post-apocalyptic lore, with its rich heritage of dixieland jazz and musical flamboyance, it's religious and racial co-mingling, the contentious politics of Louisiana itself, it's necropolitan European-stylized cemeteries, swamp dwelling roux-ga-roux werewolves and numerous other cryptids, alligator people, unique beverages with French names like Café Brûlot Diabolique, horrifying mutant strains of marsh-dwelling animals, and the subsequent delicious home cooking made from said marsh-dwelling animals. Just so you know I'm going to allow my imagination get the better of me and beat my calloused cynicism into submission over this. It nothing ever comes of this I might have to run away from the planet out of sheer disappointment. EDIT: In my haste to post I kind of glazed over the IGN part where the developing team in question is Obsidian, not Bethesda. I apologize for slamming belly first onto the rumour mill.

Since my absence from the forum, I've played through Oxenfree four times already.