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catboy with gaming induced RSI

@sunfleet.bsky.social

30-smth | mostly sfw but be 🔞+ to follow | he/him, enjoyer of males | I pretend I have a healthy relationship with media | I don't pretend I have an unhealthy relationship with chocolate | ❤ @neoncomet.bsky.social ❤

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catboy with gaming induced RSI@sunfleet.bsky.social · 4d ago

#sfmt2026 112. Control Resonant As always, Remedy makes the strongest case in the industry (to my taste) for making AAA fidelity graphics, with mind-bending levels and setpieces and the off-kilter vibe. This time, they made a combat system that's actually pretty fun! Never thought I'd see the day

BildSeriously, Remedy's take on a Manhatten that's messed up from the Patterning, which is some paranatural, extradimenional force that warps everything into incomprehensible and chaotic yet clean mirroring, duplications, etc. that defy natural laws of physics and all human logic and reasoning is the highlight of the game. Floating city blocks with buildings that suddenly have their clean lines stretch up nearly to forever, art exhibits that get mirrored cleanly down the middle, one floating corpse that is duplicated and spaced apart in a perfect, uniform sphere, an apartment building where rooms connect to others in a repeating maze up and down and left and right only to open up into a chasm, as if a cube of space was ripped out and left only air, these sights are enough to carry a game for me, I love this kind of stuff, it's like the feeling of stepping into a furniture gallery in real life, getting to the back of the store, and finding there's a sheer cliff there separating you from impossibly more furniture gallery on the other side of a chasm. While unfortunately the real life motion video, a hallmark of the Remedy style even back in the Max Payne days, is pared down in its presence considerably, reserved for Dr. Darling videos in one of the game's story segments (and hey he Is some of the best to ever do it in these games so fuck yeah bring him back) and one out of the way Alan Wake teaser, I think the rest of the game is still pretty good to great (and there's one segment near the end of the game that may not be "mixed media" so to speak but Does have the feel of it which was excellent). The open worldness of it is probably its weakest link, but there's aren't enough world map icons to make it too much of a chore and it's not a significant advantage to get Everything vs. A Good Portion of it. The side quests do more to explore that specific tension between bureaucracy and its intent to categorize and make known and classifiable the world vs. The Unknowable that Control was so good at exploring, sometimes taking on hopeless and horrifying tones, sometimes humorous, and always absurd. The main story is honestly probably a bit more enjoyable than the first game, if only because it springboards off the first one to explore in greater detail the other half of the Ordinary AWE and its consequences from the other side, Dylan, and the bond between siblings that was barely touched on in the first game. Thing is, it doesn't actually tell us much we don't already know, it mostly fills in the details with "yup this implied thing is concrete now" and filling in what was distant about the sibling bond with a more up close and personal look, plus a vague confirmation of a theory about how the siblings came to be. Not saying what's here isn't bad, but it does leave the sense of closure one might expect from the what the game sets up to be kinda...mostly not there. But anyway, the combat??? Hello?? Remedy finally dropped trying to be a shooter and instead to be Something Pretty Good, still not groundbreaking or a reason to get the game but something actually fun. Not to say Control 1 was bad either, but it did feel it was lacking in some variety as telekinesis was just kinda too good; but both of these combat systems thrive best in the chaotic battlefields they create and making you feel like you've got the tools to bring things to a conclusion. This one, being a hack and slash/character action game, could have gone further to suit My Tastes but what's here gives you enough fun tools and enemy variety to make you find a suited playstyle and to execute it skillfully. While I toyed around with most of the primary/secondary weapons and some abilities, I used the hammer/crush secondary the most. I simply cannot ignore a viable smashing hammer playstyle when offered one. I was compelled enough to complete most of the world map icons and all sidequests - not compelled at all to get all achievements or play on NG+, but hey, when/if DLC comes out, might be fun to try some of the combat modifying mods out there, I've peeked and found some that look like it can open up the combat quite a lot. I'll just say in closing - thank fuck Remedy is showing they can still do a good game, it was looking dire with FBC Firebreak, let's hope they can still weather the storm that is The Industry And Market Conditions for the foreseeable future...
catboy with gaming induced RSI@sunfleet.bsky.social · 2w ago

#sfmt2026 110. Baki the Grappler This manga IS just as insane as you've heard. This is straight from the mind of a martial arts otaku where every little concept like "runner's high" is taken 100% as a way to push men beyond their limits to keep on fighting, and that's a tame way of putting it

BildThis is a manga where a fifteen year old yakuza boss grabs a full deck of playing cards and uses his inhuman grip strength to tear a chunk out of the deck like it was one sheet of printer paper. This is a manga where men frequently wrestle with and establish dominance over ferocious, wild beasts as a way to establish their strength. This is a manga where some dude is so patriotic to Russia that he mines a giant hole in the hinterlands with nothing but a pickaxe and a minecart. This is a manga where the "strongest being on earth" is genuinely feared by militaries the world over, especially the United States. This manga keeps saying that all men have at least once dreamed of being the strongest, even if for the briefest of moments. This manga plays all of this straight, frequently diving past the point of ludicrousness, but never straying from its thesis; this is the journey of Baki, and his life lived to become the strongest, to surpass his dad. It makes it easy to eventually be invested in this journey, while laughing and being taken aback at the ridiculous shit happening, because it's all to the altar of strength, and I can't help but feel the implied strength this mangaka believes in is a good boy kind of strength - one that will win, but not just strength for the sake of strength. The nice part is that this manga doesn't beat you over the head about it and doesn't really reinforce the idea much, but I think it's there in the post-match fuzzies shared by characters who have their head screwed on well....well enough, anyway, hah.If that was it though, that wouldn't make for a manga I can't get enough of. It's in the no-spared-effort to depicting the impact and strength of each hit and blow, to letting you follow the flow of a match with strong posing, lead-in and follow through, glorious two page spreads of men kicking the shit out of each other, the strange and often off-putting and ugly way the mangaka emphasizes the stature and musculature of these men, and the expressions man, the expressions are really really good? It makes the weirdos bizarre as hell, the smug motherfuckers look so punchable, the punks brash with spit flying outta their mouths as they make their declarations. It gives the manga an unmistakeable look and feel, and idk, I'm not normally _this_ into fights, especially when they get this bloody, with muscles exploding, limbs twisting the wrong way, broken bones sometimes showing through, but again, this is made by a martial arts otaku through and through - it gets to be fascinating to wonder who will come up on top, as the mangaka builds up each fighter really well, with their own particular styles and signature moves, it brings out the shounen fight enjoyer in me something fierce. Unfortunately, this penchant the mangaka has to latch onto things that would barely be a practical thing in real life and to make it into a character's Thing takes a (I chose to believe it's unintentional, but it doesn't change that it was done/used) really, really racist turn when it comes to one match in the Maximum Tournament arc, for the brazilian guy, since the mangaka decides to make the dude an ancestor of black slaves that makes him outright feral. It's pretty disgusting in an extremely non-endearing way this time, but it's over with in just that match and the concept isn't visited again...at least, in the part of the series I've read. I read the first series. Of like, six or so. The chapter count exceeds One Piece, last I checked. I'm already onto the second series. I Will absorb Baki