Selfsurprise

You haven't interrupted the flow of the thread game by acknowledging my paranoia, ScottD.Betson, you're just being paranoid.

Dejected Metal ^ "Disco Stu doesn't want to do this anymore". Comparing my own taste in disparate but melancholy genres, a recent track entitled I stumbled across by the sad disco-inflected synth pop band called Chromatics sparked the seed for this imaginary sub-genre in my brain. The actual song structure, and with particular emphasis the percussion and bass, would be in more in keeping with the washed-out shoegazer-cum-low tempo pop standard in the vein of the aforementioned Chromatics, Tropic Of Cancer and Colombey. Despite that, the most notable link to metal would be in the distorted black metal guitar work and extreme vocals. That being said, I think this style would call for an overwhelmingly less macho approach and would likely engender a more ubiquitous approach to singing, something that be both guttural and fragile, rough but ethereal, and not afraid to express its vulnerability despite its obvious black/doom/death lineage. I'm imagining something like a three-way hybrid of the snarling gobbiness of (I'd forgotten how utterly insane Nigel Lewis sounded live), the croaking whisper of and the tensile quality of Antony and The Johnsons Hope There's Someone. I'll admit that Dejected Metal probably isn't the best name I've ever come up with, but I wanted to distinguish the idea from other kinds of depressive and less abrasive strains of metal - this stuff isn't supposed to be funeral doom or DSBM... Gnostic Metal ^ No, I didn't learn everything I know about gnosticism and other cultures in general from Broken Sword 5, and I resent the implication! In much the same way that the persecuted faith of Gnosticism (think Cathars, rather than the modern somewhat vaguer and more collective idea of "gnosticism") emphasized the dual nature of god (Jehovah/Lucifer, creativity/destruction, will/duty, etc) Gnostic Metal would embrace both extremes of metal stylization betwixt the technical and melodic strains and the more raw and brutalistic styles. You might think that this would simply result in what a lot of metal and hardcore bands already do, i.e. veering wildly between tempo and tone in a chaotic and often rather complicated manner. What I had in mind was a more traditional approach to metal song-writing, namely in the form of riff-centric death and black anthems that attempt to reconcile the elements of lo-fi and high-production values, hopefully in order to create something new that hovers uneasily (though successfully) between the punishingly heavy and sublimely melodious.

The start menu is fine, at least when it actually decides to respond to my clicking it. Seriously, does anybody else have that issue? For days at a time the start menu will simply refuse to pop up, forcing me to resort to right-clicking it in order to shut the computer down and otherwise being a titanic pain in the arse if I want to start any programs.

These Streets Will Never Look The Same by Chromatics

Sports: The Setting! Does fantasy football (ala BloodBowl) count? Other than that minor quibble, screw sports indeed.

Loves mutant apes.

Alpha10/Alpha10

A first-person survival horror title with an emphasis on dialogue and locating of "found footage" tapes, running and even fighting are desperate and typically unsuccessful last resorts, at best. The overarching premise and setting of the title is a government-ordained cordoned-off council estate in an undisclosed suburban part of the Midlands in England, mysteriously closed off from public access and beyond the social services jurisdiction since the late 90's. You play as a specialized therapist named Dr. Yanaye Woolrich who (paradoxically) fancies herself both as a proponent of a gentler and more progressive approach to severe mental illness, as well as an "alienist" of aberrant human behaviour in the archaic sense. After uncovering some vague hints in psychotherapeutic archives relating to [REDACTED], housing a community of overlooked case histories, Miss Woolrich makes several well-placed inquiries and after a lengthy period of litigation and wrangling, manages to gain a confirmation from her senior colleagues to survey the estate - but only after signing off numerous legal waivers absolving any interested parties of responsibility. Filled with idealistic fury that she'll find some wilfully abandoned and sad collection of victims forgotten by a pressured medical service and a political climate of financial cuts and hostility to working class squalor, Dr. Woolrich acquires the keys to the ramshackle fence demarcating the entrance to the undisclosed location in [REDACTED]. Amazed by the sheer dereliction and obvious ineffectiveness of the apparent "social containment" (as the forms so callously called it) Dr. Woolrich can't help but wonder at the undeniable fact that none of the inhabitants of the estate have left the location or sought any kind of outside interaction. She soon happens upon the collection of houses in an utterly decrepit state, aged beyond their apparent years (the architecture she guesses is late 70's, at most) and outwardly damaged into near obsoletion. Having brought the individual case files of [REDACTED]'s thirty-one occupants and families, she immediately sets off to contact any member of the community who is willing to talk to her. She'll soon find them, and some of them will be all too willing to talk, and share with her human experience at it's most abject and untenable... The gameplay itself would be very open-ended, much of the narrative and events and contacting of the thirty-one cases occurs partially random and in a non-linear way. One of the more eerie and bizarre elements of the case files in Dr. Woolrich's possession is the redaction of the estate inhabitants first names and very sparse historical/biographical notes for each individual. And for reasons that are unclear initially, each individual has been given an abstract title, vague but descriptive and typically along the lines of "The Ventriloquist", "The Coat", "The Performer", "The Swimmer", "The Mouth", etc. It's only upon researching through each families and individuals homes, living spaces and personal artifacts do you start to build a picture of the hideous and harrowing transformation (mentally, spiritually, physically) each person has undergone. Much of inhabitants lives and inner turmoils are captured on a sizeable collection of videotapes, either kept as new media journals by some of the more articulate inhabitants, or else taken by some unknown figure. However the real meat of the game involves distressing and life-threatening "contacts" with the householders. Whilst fleeing and panicked "fight or flight" actions are possible and occasionally necessarily, your only real chance against the thirty-one is to establish some kind of communication with each individual, tailoring your approach according to the intelligence and behavioural tropes of each case. Some of the thirty-one are akin to deranged and disarticulate animals, and may require unorthodox and non-verbal strategies in allaying their violent tendencies. Some of them, as the story intro implied, are more than capable of speaking English and have an almost overbearing need to unburden themselves of their trauma, though they are no less dangerous or terrifying opponents. In this game it pays to take your time and really analyse the enemies motives and relationships to one another - it may be the only thing that saves your life.

XCOM 2 + Layers of Fear = Picturaephobia An atmospheric and heart-stopping turn based exploration/RPG combat game in which you wander through a supernatural manor house battling monstrous paintings that have come to life.

^ Pot / > Kettle

There isn't a race of microscopic demonic worms living inside of eyes, Reverend Ushanka Cat, you're just being paranoid! But the original Freedom Clavicle game was so good! I don't care if a man named Car Phillips wants to hark back to that trite overrated pile of guff called Orange Granularity. That game was pretentious as balls.

I find drinking loads of cola helps me relax. Like warm milk in a baby's belly. I need to give Ross Scott a thousand dollars but I don't have it on me right now.

9/10, self-effacement is the key to the fine art of not being a massive jeff. "Teaching art, and making art, is always sooner or later about coming to terms with one's own ignorance." - Barry Schwabsky, The Perpetual Guest

"If you stare into the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, the Anti-Mass Spectrometer stares back."

Some of the wisecracks about Hideo Kojima's new production company and his recently revealed title Death Stranding has been tickling me in all the right funny places. See below for an example of what I'm talking about... Most of the jokes I've read relate to Mr. Kojima's reputation as a bit of creative firebrand, his bold statements about pushing gaming paradigms and inverting expectations, including but not limited to a concept of a "raw gaming experience" in an interview some years ago in which he had an idea to make a game which would lock out players if they let the main character perish - in other words, if you die you can never play the game again. I hope you understand that this thread in only done in jest and that actually I love Kojima's expansive and unrestrained ideas about what gaming could entail, which his dreams about console peripherals that blows air and fragrances at players in order to immerse them in a given setting, and other such imaginative forays into possibilities for the medium. In this thread, please post some similar yarns to those in the above screen capture. Imagine just what Kojima will do with this new title now that he seemingly no corporate pressure and no restraint at the hands of his previous benefactors Konami. ~ In Death Stranding the player can pick up animals and collectibles, both living, dead and/or partially eaten. Depending on what state you find them in-game, Kojima Productions will get your real life address and send you an individual of the actual species you collected, in whatever state you found them in. Anybody who picks up a physical copy of the game will trigger nanomachines present in the box itself which will go about altering the DNA of the buyer. Slowly but surely you will become a Were-Kojima, and transform into a half-Japanese game developer every time you watch a cutscene. The butt naked protagonist of Death Stranding only attack involves crying manly tears at his enemies, whatever they might be. All of the bosses are actually dead when your arrive at their lairs. The aim is bring them back to life. The final game will only be available on vinyl.

This gives me an idea for a thread game.

The more I've played the new game and thought about the underlying premise, I actually really enjoy the Doom-verse. It's an insane game franchise but I honestly think that if humanity had access to the howling pits of hell itself we probably would exploit it for our own commercial ends, UAC style. I feel like the human race (or to be more fair and not tar everyone with the same brush, the western European model of social engineering) are basically Ferengi at this point.

I've never been more pleased to be proven wrong in my assumptions You guys are awesome, I knew I could rely on the discerning tastes of Alyxx and company. I'm constantly amazed by people's resilience to jumpscares, they get me almost every time. There's plenty of things in a game I played recently called Layers of Fear that kept me on edge, and that usually involved paintings suddenly appearing behind me or a doll falling from the ceiling. I'm just a timid and nervous gamer who gets a little too emotionally invested in a game... ;p Saying that, I played Until Dawn a few months ago and the amount of easily anticipated jumpscares in that game went from being nerve rattling to downright comedic in a matter of a few minutes. Honestly, a scene involving a grandfather clock loudly chiming made me leap out of my skin more than all the close-up shots of the screaming monsters faces.

Tick Of The Clock by Chromatics

^ Alyx's expression does it for me. She seems unsure whether she is repulsed or aroused by Alpha Gordon's trapezoidal face.

Guerrilla Hugging

This might not be the right place for this, it's a good problem to have, but you know when you've discovered a song you just can't stop listening to? So much so that it starts to eat into time you ought to be doing more productive things? I've recently discovered the song Lady by a band called Chromatics and despite my inner-adult-brain's many inquiries into "what the hell I'm doing" (to paraphrase Ross) I'm managing to procrastinate and stall my better judgement in order to keep listening to the track. tbx8qRg6tPE I must of purposefully listened to it thirty to forty times this week, no foolin'.

Anybody here a fan of the Youtuber A Jolly Wanker? Well he's uncovered some exclusive footage of recently announced Skyrim Remastered. vMFMCqRkuAA Disclaimer: Final product and content may differ from the above promotional material. :3

I think the critics and proper survival horror nerds could see it's greatness, but apart from my friend Dan who lent me the first game most people I've spoken to (IRL and online) have been rather dismissive of it, including some serious sci-fi horror fans I've met.