zombie remake gamelife phase

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Seem to have entered into a "zombie remake" phase of my gaming life – most of which I never played in their original forms: the amazing, limb-slicing DEAD SPACE remake was first, and now I've moved on to RESIDENT EVIL 2 (never played any of the original games when they came out) and DEAD RISING DELUXE REMASTER (which I attempted to play when it first came out). To swap between the atmospheric dread, low ammo, low health, and puzzles of RE2 and the pure mall-ratting insanity and narrative inanity of DR has proven a valuable balm for evening brain capacity needs. And when that fails, there's always POWERWASH SIMULATOR, that digital earthly delight to which, according to the Playstation app, I've given more than 61 hours of my life and will happily give many many more.

ROBOCOP: ROGUE CITY (Teyon, 2023)

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(****+ / *****): Would've been enough getting to hear Peter Weller as Robo again but that this imperfect, glitchy, buggy, repetitive, and at times maddening game (much like Robo himself: love the slowness and clunk of his movements) was so much damn fun is a bonus miracle in itself. Personality - even with stilted, copy-paste (I loved counting how many different iterations of Ulysses Washington and the Archives guy were roaming the Detroit streets - at least nine each by my latest count) NPC voice acting - and Verhovian satire and gore abounded. Is this a "great" game? Not in the slightest - but it's one of the most fun I've played in ages, rough edges, imperfections and all. In Pickles we trust.

Robocop and Pickles pick out a video

STRAY (BlueTwelve Studio, 2022)

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(****+ / *****): Easily the most fascinating cyberpunk dystopia brought to game-life in recent memory (at least since DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION and yes, I'm including CYBERPUNK 2077 here), each small and contained section a vast, deep world unto itself, a unique beating heart throughout. Other than wishing it were longer (not a bad thing) and for a bit more variety in gameplay, STRAY is nothing short of a (n ever-so-slightly) flawed work of game-making genius. Not only are my heartstrings well and duly tugged, but I learned a new word: Hopepunk; meow.

a few notes at +/- 50% of ALAN WAKE 2

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  • A stunningly-realized horror world; the forests, especially, are terrifying – and beautiful.

  • Saga is such a great character and such a fantastic addition to the series that it makes Wake seem like even more of a raging asshole and his portions of the game a bit more of a chore. Yeah yeah, your story rewrites reality, blah blah blah. Fucking writers.

  • I'm really going to miss James McCaffery’s voice in Remedy games.

  • I was skeptical about the shared Remedy-verse, but I love how it works here. I have the Ultimate Edition of CONTROL that I want to replay soon so I'll pick up on more connections.

  • Think I'm finally understanding how Wake's Plot Board works - though I find it far less intuitive than Saga's profiling: "I have to be in the place to write..." Fucking writers.

  • That musical sequence really was something – and maddening. I love my flare gun but I hate reloading it. Or reloading anything, really... 🎶 "It couldn't be clearer... / ... something something, light / true and right..."🎶

  • Mem: you can reload while running but not while dodging.

  • Coffee World!

  • I miss Barry.

  • Have to play at night because of the location of the TV. Can't see a thing during the day. Appropriate, I suppose.

  • Fucking writers.