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[Review] Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

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Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is an existential horror game, developed by The Chinese Room  and published by Frictional Games in 2013. Started development as a mod and is an indirect sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descen t, set in the same universe, loosely tied together via references to its internal mythology. /// Premise You take control of Oswald Mandus, a millionaire industrialist from the late 1800s, after a bout of bad fever and memory loss, Oswald wakes up with his children missing while rumblings shake the walls of his mansion. Following the instructions of a mysterious man on the phone, Mandus will venture deep into the underground complex of the machine he has no memories of building, bringing its gargantuan mechanisms back to life in order to save his sons. /// Gameplay What do you mean? There is no gameplay, I'm only partially joking. Ok, let's get this out of the way, at its core, A Machine for Pigs is a narrative-driven game. In one fell swoop, it removed, inventory...
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[mini] Bulletstorm: Fullclip Edition

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Bulletstorm is a first-person shooter developed by People Can Fly (the same studio behind Painkiller ) in collaboration with Epic Games . Published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Later remastered and re-released in 2017 by Gearbox Software under the title Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition which is the version played for this review. /// Plot Bad boy black ops soldier Grey turns into a space pirate and swears revenge after being tricked into killing civilians by a comically evil, space confederate General Serrano. Years pass and Grey crosses paths with Serrano's capital ship, the situation goes south, leading to an emergency crash landing on the planet below. His friend gets injured, turned into an unstable cyborg, and off they go to enact revenge on the General, and maybe find a way out of the planet. It's a clichê fest and the game is aware of it. File it under Carmack's porno plot rule, expected story to be there but not the main draw. Als...
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[Mini] Cultist Simulator

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Cultist Simulator is an absolutely genius game. And it is absolutely not for everyone; it appeals to a particular audience. And no, it's not one of those ironic simulator games about building Kool-Aid tanks. If I had to summarize quickly: It's a game about maintaining a balancing act, spinning a dozen plates while taking risks and experimenting to further your goal of supernatural ascension, with the ever-looming presence of catastrophic failure knawing at your heels. I can easily identify all the aspects that would make someone hate this game with a passion. Obscured mechanics, ticking timers, and especially the lack of clarity. Most first-time runs of Cultist Simulator will be confusing and end abruptly. Death via overwhelming dread or fascination. And that's by design. It hands the player a few cards, some action tiles, and says: Do you want to ascend through powers unknown? Want to know how? Well, combine some cards and figure it out yourself. Good luck. Of course, the ...
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Steam Next Fest 2022

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Hey, it's me. I've been absent since... February?! Yeah, the plan for lots of reviews has gone down the toilet. You know the story. Seen it a thousand times before when it comes to online projects. IRL stuff and college took priority, and I had barely any energy left to write, or at least not enough to reach the quality standard I want. But now I'm on break and the Steam Next Fest is going on, so I took the chance to write about it. For those unfamiliar Next Fest is a week-long event with thousands of game demos to try out. So I wanted to list a few of the ones that caught my eye. Starting with... /// Agent 64: Spies Never Die Developer: Replicant D6 Self Published This one is a clear homage to the classic N64 Golden Eye, with the aiming system and everything. While familiar with it, I got no nostalgia for the N64 era, so even less for Golden Eye itself, but I had a fun time with the demo. /// Anger Foot Developer: Free Lives Publisher: Devolver Digital Anger foot is about ...
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[Review] Homefront

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Homefront is a modern military first-person shooter developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ (the old one) in March 2011. /// Premise The year is 2027. The world has suffered a decade-long energy crisis, and economies have crumbled. Reduced to a mere shadow of the superpower it once was, the United States became the target of a North Korean takeover. American malls, suburbs, and city streets are now battlegrounds as the civilian resistance fights for freedom. (Side note) THQ 's marketing said the script was written by John Milius (of Apocalypse Now ), a blatant lie. In a report by Gamasutra later corroborated by Kotaku , former Kaos employees confirm Milius never wrote a single word of the script, affirming C.J. Kershner is the true writer, and that Milius's role was nothing more than a consultant. /// Overview Preamble: The COD comparisons. It is inevitable to talk about Homefront without mentioning the Call of Duty games. Regardless of the series current quality,...
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[Review] State of Mind

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State of Mind is a graphic adventure game developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment, released in August 2018 running on Unreal Engine 4. /// Premise Berlin 2048, following a hazy accident, journalist Richard Nolan wakes up in a clinic with selective amnesia. After heading home, he learns that his family is mysteriously absent. Setting off to do what he does best, investigate, Richard gets sucked into a conspiracy larger than he could've imagined. /// Structure and gameplay State of Mind is broken up into five chapters. Playing from a third-person perspective, our main protagonist is Richard Nolan, roaming the rainy, neon-drenched streets of Berlin trying to put the missing pieces of his memory together. The game focuses primarily on storytelling, with no combat system of any kind I guess the most simplified mainstream descriptor for its gameplay would be a "walking simulator," but I dislike using the term as it's too dismissive. Character motivations. Interper...
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