I love this series in principle, but every time I read them I wonder why it's so rare that the two diners are actually from the very obvious two sides of the real divide we all know the title refers to?
I had to google what this is because I don't know much about this stuff, but I'll definitely bear this in mind for further down the line, cheers :)
Coming from a level design background, being able to scale and rotate the same few meshes to make a lot of the final environments, for levels of any shape, is kinda the dream... which is one of the reasons my game is set underground :) (and leans into a moody, lower-resolution aesthetic, etc)
I have, but not listened to it - just added it to my wishlist, cheers for the reminder :) (It's a pity that Neill Blomkamp's Aliens sequel didn't happen)
Alien Resurrection, at the end of an Alien Quadrilogy all-night marathon at a film festival. The joy of seeing Alien and Aliens on the big-screen for the first time (and back to back), followed by the novelty of rewatching Alien 3 (it's fine), and then... absolute confusion and nerd rage
If you know this video of the brilliant Anna-Maria Hefele - or just love music that seems at once to defy the laws of physics & exalt them:
She graciously agreed to add custom thematic vocals + a new song performance to @thekillingstone.com - out now on Steam early-access.
youtu.be/vC9Qh709gas?...
Number 1 for me
(Flashback to me at a friend's house playing one of the Viz games on the Amiga for the first time, thinking it was absolutely nuts / amazing)
Mortal Kombat on the MD was a nice little moment of console history because it was distinguished from the snes version by having a cheat code to unlock proper (red) blood - I'm guessing the Amiga version had the red blood turned on by default, because you could get away with anything on the Amiga...
Yep, Sensible + Bitmap Brothers all the way.
And I saw Xenocrisis but haven't played it yet - it's on the wishlist!
Yesssssssss. (Notice how the fidelity of the information you get on later mission briefings increases, as they update the version of the SatScan software 👌)
A few other classics missing from this box that would be nice to finish it off with:
- Gunstar Heroes
- The Chaos Engine
- Shinobi III
- NBA Jam
The Megadrive was a world of bangers, and I was very happy this Christmas to find my old game collection that I built up back at uni (which I thought my dad gave away years ago!):
"Chow Yun Fat getting revenge on the guy who killed his friend by blowing his head off at point blank range while covered in flour" is a top-tier halloween costume waiting to happen:
How my (weird, story-driven dystopian sci-fi) game looked after the first week of creating the project, vs how it looks now:
...Leaving space for interesting unpredictability, whether through gameplay (emergence from combined systemic gameplay elements) or narrative (interesting character-driven responses that might surprise players, while still making sense for the character)
Interesting design talk in between, too - @jon.inkle.co take on player "agency" echoes what imm-sim types refer to as intentionality. Players making intentional choices based on understanding of gameplay elements + situation, while not necessarily having control over what might happen as a result
Blade Runner, The Last Express and Shadow of the Colossus made this the most instant-click episode for me so far
I also have a stupid iPhone I can't put my own music on, so listening to stuff on the go was one of my last sticking points with leaving Spotify. The gamechanger for me was learning that you can use the Bandcamp app to listen to all the music you've bought on it, stream stuff you've bookmarked, etc
Yeah I'm using MusicBee too. Not too bothered about lossless quality though - did a hearing test compared to 320kbps mp3 and couldn't tell the difference (and wouldn't want filesizes to become an issue)...
Bandcamp Friday alert: it's Bandcamp Friday, right now, and for like 22 more hours. Get some music, pay some artists.
Re: MS never fixing any of their broken shit: bsky.app/profile/oreg...
Yeah I also splashed out on the MX Vertical (my first vertical mouse), only had it since October but it seems good.
(Have also started using a wristpad at the bottom of my mousemat to rest my arm on, because it feels much better to me with the vertical setup)
See Weirdcore's music video for a recent Aphex Twin track for a particularly mental version of something along these lines (particularly in the 2nd half): www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqay...
(Just saw that I forgot to reply to this) Yeah I definitely plan on talking about my game on my youtube channel when the time comes, but not yet :)
Re: software, I'm using Music Bee (as recommended in that youtube video I posted) - free, very customisable, good tags + album cover management, has a built-in cd ripper, etc: getmusicbee.com
But re: physical mp3 players, I did also buy an iPod Nano 7 (notable because it has bluetooth)
Update on this 6 weeks later: ditching streaming services completely and switching to buying albums on bandcamp has completely refreshed my engagement with and appreciation of music. Owning music is nice, streaming it makes you treat it like slop, and I feel daft for not doing this years ago.
Here's a video about how you can make a simple Portal 2 level in 60 seconds: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky7T...
And if you're up for some OG boomer shooter-ing, then here's a video about how to start making Doom levels in 5 minutes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTIc...
![Mega Drive Longplay [209] Sub-Terrania](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sdd77mc2jk2idlmmr3qmhcud/bafkreids52vi5jgcs4ozmpxvpehwbcqcdlmn7qlxqi2zbxig4mimg32m44)