General Video Game Thread
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My thoughts … spoiler if you haven’t finished the game obv.
I initially chose to fight as Maelle because I didn’t think it was right to erase all the other people in the canvas. I didn’t feel any oozing malice from that ending, just the stark reality of what it meant, and once I sat back and thought about it, I changed my mind. Verso wanted to die, she’d let everyone else go but couldn’t let him go, and instead she forced him to grow old in a life he did not want, while she painted everyone else’s perfect happy ending. We also know Maelle isn’t the painter that real Verso was - so when she repainted the expeditioners, were they really the ‘same’, or were they just versions as she remembered them? Did they actually have agency in the end, or were they just sims living out Maelle’s grief-stricken fantasy life? And I think that the ‘sinister’ face of Maelle’s you saw wasn’t really sinister … it was her facing the grim reality that her fantasy didn’t make her happy, either.
‘For those who come after’ is about the people left behind. It’s about Maelle, Clea, Aline and Renoir. I think erasing the canvas as Verso had painted it would have been wrong, but the canvas already wasn’t what Verso had made - it was destroyed by the family’s grief. They had taken what he left for them, a beautiful reminder of life and love and happiness, and had ruined it. And I don’t think the people in the painting had any agency in the end, certainly not as Maelle had repainted them. I don’t think she’s meant to be depicted as evil, but I do think the message of the game is about coming after and not living with ghosts. And I don’t think it’s about “sometimes it’s okay to let go” but … you still have to live, even when the person you love is gone.
And I thought about it as someone who lost her father a few years ago, and I wondered about the choices I would’ve made if I could live in a world where he was still alive, and there’s still a big part of me wrapped in grief that would’ve made Maelle’s choice. But there’s also a part of me that knows that living in a fantasy world where my dad’s still here wouldn’t be real, and living in a delusion doesn’t help anyone, and it’s not that I need to MOVE ON … but I still need to live, and remember him as he was and had been, versus continuing his life in a way I would’ve envisioned it.
Anyway, just my thoughts. I think the endings could be interpreted in so many ways, and for that I give it a 100/10, and I’m going to wrap here because I am sad again.
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On a different note, I love the Enshrouded team’s patch notes writer. The little comments make me lol
I kid you not, this is in the official patch notes from today.
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@dvoraen said in General Video Game Thread:
I need to know what everyone who has finished Clair Obscur — Expedition 33 felt about the story right meow.
(No spoilers. FEELINGS ONLY.)
I had a lot.
33/10 story.
I loved it. I had to walk away and compose myself before I could finish it, because it’s really hard to hit that perfect parry when the tears stream.
Again, thanks for the recommendation, @dvoraen
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I really enjoyed Deltarune Chapter 4. An unexpected amount of character depth and some great music. More fool me for thinking there were only 4 chapters, though. Guess I’ll be waiting for the 5th chapter in 2026! (And… for 6… and… 7…)
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In honor of Grounded 2 launching into Early Access today, I present another continuation to the saga of –
(Spoilered for those who want to see the new critters fresh/blind.)
s. Because I’m committed to bringing @tsar’s snails home:||
Also I was really surprised it’s Tier III, but I’m glad they put Salty as a weakness. lol
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@dvoraen Can you tame the snails in Grounded 2?
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Unrelated to Grounded 2 (though I’m very excited about that!) is The Demons Told Me to Make This Game. It’s early access and only the first chapter is available, but it’s a Disco-like wherein you’re a demon(?) who possesses a couple different people to advance a storyline. Here are some screeners!
And (spoiler for plot stuff)
It’s so funny and very well written.
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@somasatori said in General Video Game Thread:
It’s so funny and very well written.
…Did…did the demons also tell you to write that review? Blink twice if you need holy water.
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@MisterBoring We can hope. But as of EA launch, no.
They’re not evil, though. They are just “oh no, danger escape into shell”
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@Meg Oh Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeg~ Your dream job (role) has apparently landed in Among Us.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/945360/view/497205194887529404
Make sure to tell @Tez about it so you can both fight over who gets to be sussying or sussssssying (<- sibilant because reasons).
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@dvoraen Is Among Us as fun to play as it is to watch people play?
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@KDraygo said in General Video Game Thread:
@dvoraen Is Among Us as fun to play as it is to watch people play?
Really depends on your lobby. I imagine I can dig up some of the clips from Arx folks’ shenanigans (after I get home) because there were some lolsy moments.
I think with people you know who won’t REEEEEE too much - I am kind of guilty of that but I tried not to show it - you can get some quality entertainment.
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If a game could be considered good on vibes alone, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 would be great. The aesthetic, vibe and appearance of the game is gorgeous and definitely on theme with VTM. It’s not really like… a true sequel to Bloodlines from what I can tell yet, maybe something will come up in the story. It’s also only tangentially a VTM game. The main character has telekinesis powers and can glide through the air like a sugar flyer, which is a bit weird for my Lasombra. Hopefully that’s explained somewhere. Phyre is extremely edgy, but I guess that makes sense for an elder from Constantinople who calls themselves “The Nomad.” Fabien, the Malkavian Johnny Silverhand, is a cool character. His interludes (or the one I’ve seen so far) is fun and more focused around investigation rather than the pure violence/conflict that Phyre does. I do kinda wish they’d just married the two gameplay mechanics into one character and if you didn’t have the disciplines that Fabien does, you would have different methods of accomplishing similar goals, but eh.
The characters are pretty cool. I like Safia (Tremere) and Tolley (Nosferatu), though in the latter case I think he tends to lean heavily into the parody of “sassy gay friend serving,” but it is a big change from the usual way Nosferatu are shown.
I don’t really know 5e as much as Revised/20th but the Anarchs are effectively the Sabbat now? They seem like super anti-Masquerade, burn-everything-down types who are militantly opposed to the Camarilla. It feels like they basically took the Sabbat scripts from the first game and copy/pasted them on this one with the Anarchs.
Outside of it having the Bloodlines tag, it’s a nice action stealth adventure game. It’s not terribly RPG-like, just an action game with some RPG elements like very limited skill progression, but that’s fine if that’s what you want to play. They do a good job with that sort of gameplay.
"And the Fool says, pointing to the invertebrate fauna feeding in the graves: 'Here a monarchy reigns, mightier than you: His Majesty the Worm.'"
Italo Calvino, The Castle of Crossed Destines -
@somasatori said in General Video Game Thread:
I don’t really know 5e as much as Revised/20th but the Anarchs are effectively the Sabbat now?
So the quick run down is: The Camarilla lost some major cities (London & Vienna among others) and some major players (Hardestat the Younger and the entire Tremere Council) to Hunters, and the Sabbat quietly packed up their shit and went to fight monsters in the wilderness (quite literally) leaving only small packs of instigators behind to run guerrilla strikes on the Camarilla to funnel resources into the larger Sabbat operation. With the lack of focused Sabbat activity and the Camarilla crackdown on anyone not a member of the Ivory Tower, the Anarchs basically get treated like the Sabbat in a lot of cities, and they respond as one might expect (also they got reinforced by the Ministry / Followers of Set).
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@somasatori said in General Video Game Thread:
I think he tends to lean heavily into the parody of “sassy gay friend serving,”
If he were the only queer character, I’d agree. But I think, at least to me and in my opinion only, he simply is a sassy gay friend/foe serving. But perhaps that’s my view only because I am the sassy gay friend who occasionally serves…
He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
BE AN ADULT -
@Meg said in General Video Game Thread:
@dvoraen omg i haven’t been on bmd in forever but i am glad you linked this. this looks so fun.
i’ll need to bully @Tez and other people into playing this.
And/or play REPO or PEAK.
For no backstabbing reasons whatsoever.
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Marvel Rivals Zombies is simple fun. Best is just being Jeff and swimming around taking down zombies.
