#not reviews

[maerambles]

Selena Gomez 👶🏻: Childhood Pics

Can you tell I'm getting most of these from Pinterest (yes).

[leam1983]

Thoughts on Sunken Cities

It's too late to really dig into Surviving the Abyss or Aquatico, but I like the dichotomy between both design conceits.

The first one understands that if you're going, well, abyssal, then it'll get mighty fucking dark real fucking quick. It'll get cold, too, so you need light, heating and enough material to survive the holy-shit numbers of metric tons of water pushing down on you without getting pancaked. It even posits that nobody would get down there and live there without some really illicit reasons. This isn't so much a Goldfinger send-off as it's a fanwank on the concept of government black sites. As in, it gets grim if you don't really manage stuff competently enough.

Then there's Aquatico, that barely leverages its own post-apoc setting and that very quickly goes for something that's notably more chipper. It's less about building where there's maybe the occasional weirdo octopus and transparent fish and more about building something that goes well with the nice widdle coral reefs and the pretty shallow-water fishies. This one's extremely light on the mechanics and has one or two odd choices that kind of bug me, somehow.

Take your living arrangements, for instance. Everything related to maintenance or production is built on the seabed proper, while everything related to housing goes in an elevated dome that couldn't possibly hold together atop its widdle spire if it wasn't buried under several hundred meters of seawater. Not thousands, seeing as the color palette and visual design both work real hard to suggest that sunlight does get through to you - I hope you like those caustics - and the meta seems more concerned with showering you with abundance even on its hardest setting than it is with getting you to micro-manage a settlement.

On the plus side, Aquatico lets you name your cities. If you don't go for something trite and obvious like New Atlantis or R'lyeh, you're made of sterner stuff than I am.

A common con of both games, though: both of them really want to nail the whole "underwater" aspect of the sound design. The problem is that everything is kind of muffled and you get a constant subtone that sounds like your ears getting clogged. On a long enough timeline (20 minutes for me) that leads to massive tinnitus flare-ups.

So... Ow.

[everyanimatedmovie]

Who the hell are all of you? You should introduce yourselves so this blog can be more interactive for everyone.....I am but a lonely and opinionated cartoonist

[a-hunch-with-scaffolding]

Okay, here it goes...

This is a far different undertaking than the sports blog I already run, and I don’t expect much. At worst, this blog will be a organization tool for the books I will have read this year and maybe beyond. Last year, I read a total of fifty books and wanted to review all of them in a format like this. Unfortunately, I did not have time to get to it. So, as part of a new year resolution, I decided to make this blog. I reduced my reading challenge to 30 books, and here you will find reviews for every one of them. You will also find other people’s book reviews and other book related things. Outside of being a tool for me, I hope I can provide enough info for others to make informed decisions on books they want to buy! If you want to suggest a certain book, or ask me anything, my ask box is open! Remember... There is always another secret!

[everyanimatedmovie]

This is a very proud moment - a moment which I thought might never come to be. I officially have sixty-four followers on my brand-new movie blog!

I’ve only been writing reviews for a hot minute, but as we all know, one minute can be a very long time. It’s been a learning process for me, both as a writer and as an artist, and I hope y’all will continue to learn with me!

Thank you, everybody!

[radinagames2020]

2025 gaming goal

I sort of mentioned doing this back in 2023 and never did, so I'm officially making 2025 the year of "play all those games I've been meaning to but never did"

The games basically fall into 3 categories, so I'll split them up that way. Here's the list:

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A) Classic games I've always wanted to play but haven't yet

Final Fantasy (one or many of them? not sure)

Secret of Monkey Island

Ace Attorney Trilogy

Myst* (+ its 3 sequels)

Journey

Bastion

Transistor

Psychonauts (1 and 2, and the VR* minigame)

Ori (both games)

Hollow Knight (and its sequel... maybe)

Monument Valley

B) Games I own and haven't gotten around to trying (2020 redux - all VR)

Obduction*

Virtual Virtual Reality*

Waltz of the Wizard*

Space Pirate Trainer*

Allumette*

C) Games that came out somewhat recently but I haven't played yet

Hades

Cocoon

Disco Elysium

Animal Well

*These are VR games, or I will be trying them in VR. I also want to branch out and try more VR stuff besides just beat saber and VRChat!

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Counting various sequels and games in the series, this is 27 games, so I'll make that my goal for the year. TBD if I get through all of these, but I'm gonna try!

[radinagames2020]

From my steam replay haha. I think this is mostly accurate, although Cryptmaster is the only reason "typing" will ever be on there. I think "Cats" must be from Little Kitty Big City but tbh I play a lot of games with cats in them.... time for a "cat" tag?