#first review

[alexislunacreations]

Tomorrow is the official release day for Love in the Occult Traumatic, and the first review is five stars. I couldn't be happier 🥹 Stay tuned for tomorrow's announcement to find out where you can get your own copy!

#paranormal romance #steamy romance #spicy romance #romance #indie author #indie #debut novel #debut author #self publishing #publishing #first review #five stars #writers on tumblr

[cynn-imon]

This Woven Kingdom (Review)

✩‧₊˚  Rating: 3.5  ✧.* This book really got me out of my slump. After a long one-year break from reading, I picked up This Woven Kingdom from a random recommendation on my feed while looking up books on the search engine. This is not the first time I’ve read a Tahereh Mafi book; I had read the first book of the Shatter Me series and dropped it shortly after beginning the second book. I wasn’t a fan of her first series, but I was willing to give her books a second try. I can say that I definitely liked this first book way better than the first book of Shatter Me. The pacing, I felt, was way better, and I felt I could connect more easily with the characters. However, I still felt like there was something missing when I was reading it. My first gripe had to be with the writing. The entire read felt too much like a chore with the back-to-back prose throughout the book. Everything had to be described with multiple metaphors, with no break at all in between. My brain had honestly melted as I was reading because of the way that it wanted to insist on the fact that the language was so fancy. It was a captivating read, but, with no spoilers, I felt as if the plot could barely hold itself together when it came to the actual dire consequences. A lot of what Alizeh did felt as if she was reacting to the situations that were presented to her rather than going out of her way to figure stuff out herself. I believe that this is caused by the main character not having a real goal in mind or a motivation other than surviving, so the situations that the author puts her in are ones that she herself has fallen into without influencing that decision. Kamran himself was also someone that I didn’t exactly hate but didn’t have any strong feelings towards. His role in the story was basically to mess up whatever life Alizeh built for herself and then be mesmerized by her cunning (which she didn’t have any intention of doing in the first place). I felt like his side of the story was missing a point, like Alizeh could have been the only POV written by the author and the story would've been the same. (slight spoilers ahead) Look, I’m just like any other person and love a good simp, but the simpiness from Kamran felt undeserving, as if Alizeh's existence was all Kamran needed to fall head over heels. I must admit, I am not a fan of insta-love, but this type of insta-love was too much for me. Kamran falls in love with her as soon as he sees her for the first time, and because of that, the romance felt super underdeveloped and "unrealistic". Alizeh basically only met Kamran halfway through and barely knew him enough to actually love him, while also criticizing him earlier in the book. I felt like it could've turned into enemies to lovers, but I was unfortunately disappointed.     The worldbuilding, I had to admit, was super interesting and could have led to a super interesting setting that could have been affected by the existence of Jinn, such as things that could detect Jinn or specific guards meant to handle Jinn. Instead, the book insisted that the Jinn were extremely powerful while undermining Alizeh’s own powers. A lot of the obstacles that she faces seem like something that she could easily face, keeping herself out of danger. The other characters in the story also seem to underestimate her abilities while hyping her up to be something deadly. (MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD) My biggest gripe has to be at the end of the book when a creature of magical nature shows up out of the blue. It was known that Cyrus had strong magical abilities, but magic in this world is barely fleshed out as it is. There could have been so many more uses for the Diviners or other magical beings that could have hinted at the existence of other magical beings. There was nothing that could have prepared me for the being that shows up at the end, totally out of left field. (MAJOR SPOILER OVER) As far as I’m aware, this book was pretty well received, which is something I agree with, but the things that I mentioned definitely dampened my opinion of the book itself, and I feel like I could have said more, but I don’t have the memory of everything that happened. I am still interested in reading the next book, however, and I can’t wait to start.

#book #books #bookreview #review #booktok #this woven kingdom #first review #bookshelf #reading #read #readers #woven kingdom

[bespokeredmayne]

The first review is in

The writer worries about spoilers, but I’m surprised he didn’t know basics about The Good Nurse, and I’d be surprised if a Redmayne fan isn’t well aware of the plot and background of the film. So read on, and savor the positive words about the film and Eddie’s performance.

#eddie redmayne #the good nurse #deadline #pete hammond #first review #TIFF 2022 #world premiere

[girl4music]

First Kill

It’s got a low budget live theater style about it. The direction used is very intimate with close-ups and panning around the characters and environments. Random songs play every other scene and the writing is delivered through narration of the main 2 characters.

As for the story - there’s a lot of detail with this. The families encourage the main characters to make their “first kill”. One a first kill of a monster, the other a first kill of a human. It feels heavy-handed and claustrophobic as it is from the respective main character’s perspectives. But there’s quite the premise developing here that could certainly stretch out for a whole season, not too sure about any more than that.

It’s clearly not a slow burn lesbian love story which is what I prefer. I’ll have to see where this one goes for me to start shipping anyone with anyone yet. At the moment, the relationship between the two main characters seems forced and a little too convenient.

#first kill #first kiss #first impression #first review

[calvin-af-crone]

Surprisingly, NPR Music wins for being the first actual review of Potion instead of re-wording the press release they got. And provides some interesting info.

Young Thug only has one verse and an all-too-brief bridge. He settles into the groove when needed — "that's what this track for," he seems to grin — but pops out of strange corners when he wants us to pay attention. "Ball like Lebron James in the finals," he perks up as electric guitar and bongos rev up, punctuating "Free Big Meech" with a vocal karate kick.

Seriously, I thought he was referring to free merchandise. But, no.

Big Meech, a member of the Black Mafia Family, is currently serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering; meanwhile, last month, the Fulton County District Attorney in Atlanta alleged racketeering charges against Young Thug and Gunna. And while the two cases are very different, the timing of the shoutout is striking. It's a moment in Thugger's first track released since the charges that, if you're paying attention, takes you out of an otherwise chill summer bop to consider how the criminal justice system targets Black rappers just for telling stories.

Kudos to the writer, Lars Gotrich, for providing this insight. Please reward him by clicking thru.

#Potion #NPR Music #first review

[nedlittle]

it drives me bonkers the way people don't know how to read classic books in context anymore. i just read a review of the picture of dorian gray that said "it pains me that the homosexual subtext is just that, a subtext, rather than a fully explored part of the narrative." and now i fully want to put my head through a table. first of all, we are so lucky in the 21st century to have an entire category of books that are able to loudly and lovingly declare their queerness that we've become blind to the idea that queerness can exist in a different language than our contemporary mode of communication. second it IS a fully explored part of the narrative! dorian gray IS a textually queer story, even removed from the context of its writing. it's the story of toxic queer relationships and attraction and dangerous scandals and the intertwining of late 19th century "uranianism" and misogyny. second of all, i'm sorry that oscar wilde didn't include 15k words of graphic gay sex with ao3-style tags in his 1890 novel that was literally used to convict him of indecent behaviour. get well soon, i guess...

#the picture of dorian gray #lit #this is a pointless text post #guess what i read for the first time in the year of our lord 2023 #and yes this is a real review on storygraph that i took a screenshot of. you people are so stupid god bless #girl he literally censored it himself did your edition have 0 introduction or background at all #greatest (s)hits #book discourse

[jamesthewineguy]

My First Wine Review!

#wine #First Review #Youtube

[novelconcepts]

The defintion of hell is knowing a show is incredibly well-received in its first season, but if people don’t become machines churning out tweets, content, and rewatching 24/7, there’s no likelihood it’ll get a chance to tell its whole story. This shit is madness. Shows in different genres shouldn’t have to pit-battle for dominance. First seasons are MEANT to be baselines establishing worlds and characters, not complete storylines. The idea that this golden age of television has turned into “get it done in one or get out” is revolting.

#the sandman #paper girls #some of the hot takes on Twitter are breaking me #‘why don’t we know the whole story? it’s bad writing if you don’t have a complete story in the first season’ girl WHAT since WHEN #how many excellent shows were weak as fuck in S1?? and here we’re getting shows with incredible first seasons fighting for their lives #like fuckin Christ dude the idea of long form storytelling is allowing your story time and space to spread out #otherwise we would only make movies #i am so sick of this edge of my seat fear that any new show I fall in love with will get axed because the higher powers don’t care about art #this has to be a bubble right? this has to pop at some point and go back to shows valued on what they are #and don’t even get me started on creators having to beg for good reviews to balance out review-bombing from shitheads #if every one star review is clearly bigoted from the comments? why is anyone taking them into account?? #why is there no way to manage this shit aside from creators being like ‘please help us”’

[glittergradient]

congrats to dan and phil for not making the 100 tumblr ships of the year list for the first time ever, they're finally free

#i think it's the first time at least? #edit: i checked and yes it’s the first time since 2014 #they didn’t make the list in 2013 but back then tumblr only counted the first 30 ships #year in review

[slushy-sash]

Grrrr mr gallagher... 😳

This drawing was made in collaboration with VEIKK Tablet who have kindly sent me to review their Creator VK1060 Pro. If you're interested, pls click this link for 21% OFF your purchase!

#hiiii its your baby's first review collab 🥹 #i actually got this collab offer sometime back in january when wacom got into the ai promo scandal #which is fucking hilarious to me when you think about it #veikk knows what they were doing lol #honkai star rail #hsr #gallagher #gallagher hsr #my art

[hellmandraws]

Not gonna lie, I'm super excited about the upcoming One Piece live action series! It's out Aug 31 on Netflix. I actually think it's gonna be good! 🤞🤞🤞

#reminder that the strike has NOT called for a boycott from viewers! #we want to show that we want more of this show and that Netflix has to pay their writers properly if they want to keep profiting from it #don't forget: the continuation of a popular show is a bargaining chip for the writers #one piece #one piece live action #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #nami #usopp #sanji #when I first heard about the LA years ago I thought they were crazy #manga live actions are never good and OP is basically unfilmable #but when the strawhat cast was revealed I sat up straight and started paying attention #they were all spot on! absolutely unheard of in a live action! #and everything I've seen and heard about it since has just seemed so promising #early reviews are starting to come out and they're all positive #guys I think they did it #I think... Netflix actually made a good live action adaptation?? #and of OP of all thing?!?! #(I won't be able to watch it until Sunday though so I'm gonna have to stay off the internet completely to avoid spoilers! TAT)

[slitherpunk]

games i liked in 2023 (And Other)

I like games ! You know that ?! and I played a lot 2023! and I liked a lot :). They aren't in any specific order, it's just a little highlight of games that stood out to me this year. I've attempted to write a few thoughts on each so I hope take a look. I wrote playtimes for some also but that is very subjective.

-Ones that actually came out 2023-

Lunacid https://store.steampowered.com/app/1745510/Lunacid/ I think I mentioned enjoying this in 2022 but it officially released so I can say it was one of my favorite games in 2023 :3! I like to feel around this game's walls for secrets. I like the npcs that are full of hope and whimsy despite the bleakness of its world. Chill and occasionally spooky first person dungeon crawling around moody caverns and ruins varying from underground forests to vampire castles and blood lake. (Blood lake!!!! Lake of blood!!! Big creature there.) Lots of fun weapons and spells to find, I like the one that lets you turn blood into coffins.

~20 hours

Orbo's Odyssey https://feverdreamjohnny.itch.io/orbos-odyssey If you played the massively popular demo for "Peeb Adventures" by feverdreamjohnny then you know that Johnny makes some fun and funny games and this is certainly one of them. speedy and satisfying platforming! funny dracula moments! short and sweet.

~2 hours

A Walk in the Woods https://mooncaller.itch.io/a-walk-in-the-woods Quaint little GBStudio game :) Made by some friends of mine for a jam :) It's cute I like it. There's minigames where you catch bugs and birdwatch.

~30 minutes long

Undertale Yellow https://gamejolt.com/games/UndertaleYellow/136925 I've only completed the pacifist run and checked out a neutral run so far. as the title somewhat implies, this is a prequel to Undertale where you play as the fallen human who had the yellow colored soul. This Undertale fangame has a lot of charm!!! A lot of battles really feel like they could have been in the original, with quite a bit of extra flair in some circumstances.

~10 hours

vs really cool bird https://bobacupcake.itch.io/vs-really-cool-bird you know that really cool bird that rob bobacupcake made well you can fight it in undertale and it's really fun. yeah two undertale fangames. . . wat of it …

~30 minutes

Misericorde: Volume One https://xeecee.itch.io/misericorde I wont lie the main draw for me into this was cute anime nuns I sure didn't know a whole lot else about it when I dug into it. But it's (the first part of) a VN murder mystery! And I enjoyed it a whole lot. All the characters are memorable and I really enjoy how all of them have differentiating designs. The protagonist is so failgirl. She sucks so much and I love her. I'm very intrigued by the mechanics of the game's world, it clues you in near the beginning to expect something a bit supernatural/fantastical, which gives you (and later the protagonist) a curiosity about what's real and what isn't. The music is all very impressive too, with the ost reaching past 100 tracks varying through post-rock, folk, drum & bass, and others. (Remembering when the track "Scandal" played and my friends and I took a moment to be like- okay hang on this track pwns.) Big fan of its haunting locals and how the aesthetic of the game fits them well. Also the humor is a lot of fun, and I love all the moments getting to know the different characters. Very excited to see the eventual continuation of this.

~12 hours

Absolutely Perfect Specimen https://chambersoft.itch.io/absolutely-perfect-specimen It seems like a lot of people are craving toxic horror yuri lately. Here's a recommendation. It's a VN about the android maid "Pan" and the mad scientist girl who created her. Horrifying & gut wrenching & largely about having other people define you. The art and music is haunting & poignant and matches the ever increasing feeling of dread throughout. It's yuri with the chunks. Peak robotgirl horror for those who can stomach it.

~90 minutes

Wordhopper https://kokoscript.itch.io/wordhopper Very quaint word search type puzzle game for ms dos! I think its style is very slick and that's pretty impressive to see. Chill game with nice vibes and eyecandy visuals. also it was so cool to have played this and then ended up seeing the dev's booth at Vintage Computer Festival Midwest. I was like omg woah I just played this.

~bunny

Bossgame https://lilyv.itch.io/bossgame This game is yuriful as f*ck. Delightful humor and fun character dynamics! A simple-to-understand-difficult-to-master boss rush battle system that makes you satisfied to get it right, and enticing to get just a little farther if you get it wrong. There's a lot of detail and charm to this game's menus and dialogues and win screens, I remember noticing that once you beat a boss there would be some marquee text that would pass by with some prose on it. I love how it balances its silly moments with its heartfelt moments and its high octane moments. I like the character development and revelations had throughout the plot. & I like how good the protagonists are for each other :) It's very sweet. It's hype as hell. if you want some boss rush action paired well with that sweet sweet girl's love, you *will* play this game.

~5 hours

Elly's Adventure https://bikwins.itch.io/ellys-adventure Very cute and witchy!! You are the little witch girl "Elly" on an adventure to get your toys back!! Feels like a pretty authentic gameboy type experience, it takes a lot of design cues from Kirby's adventure and the like. I am a big fan of how playful it feels.

~1 hour

Nour https://store.steampowered.com/app/1141050/Nour_Play_with_Your_Food/ This was a treat for me, but I understand that not everybody is going to get it. It's a game where you play with food(and food accessories). And that's it. It knows what it was going for. I think a lot of people were expecting something else for some reason. It's a cute little toy game and I felt satisfied with my time with it.

~food

Hi-Fi Rush https://store.steampowered.com/app/1817230/HiFi_RUSH/ Do I have to say this game is super fun? It's a big one everybody probably already knows it. This game's dopey humor made me laugh a lot and I'm not afraid to admit it.

~12 hours

WHISKEY.ST2007S https://bonicle.itch.io/whiskey-st2007nes One of the last games I played in the year because it released super last minute. Does anybody else get a rush when running a shopping cart down the parking lot? This emulates that feeling. Short game where you collect whisky stones in the whisky stone dimension because you forgot to go christmas shopping until the very last minute. it rules. It's very short you can go play it right now & get a highscore.

~5 minutes

re:curse https://devpalmer.itch.io/re-curse Discovered this one near the very end of the year also. Fun little rpg maker horror/humor game about a weird scientist lady, her butch, and an evil clown computer virus that figured out how to warp reality. I got a kick out of it. and also enjoyed digging through the game's files, which was actively encouraged by the dev, which I thought was very fun.

~90 minutes

-Didn't technically get to until 2024 but released last year-

SWOLLEN TO BURSTING UNTIL I AM DISAPPEARING ON PURPOSE https://1207.itch.io/swollen-to-bursting-until-i-am-disappearing-on-purpose People love to dunk on a lot of indie rpgs for being "quirky Earthbound inspired and about depression" or whatever. Earthbound's great. If people can nail the kind of humor and absurdity it likes to pull off while also balancing difficult topics I think that deserves a high mark. SWOLLEN TO BURSTING was fun. Bizarre and charming places to explore & distressing secrets to find. I like how it blends meander-around-the-town gameplay with Yume Nikki sort of exploration and effects. Also I'm a big fan of the music. I like how it has the lofi sound which matches the early 3d look of the game.

~6 hours

HalOPE https://starbage.itch.io/halope Another for the fans of sweet little rpg maker games that have a lot of heart. HalOPE is about an incomplete little angel wondering through worlds. Each has a theme, usually to do with an emotion or feeling, and they do well at evoking that feeling as well as its antithesis. a lot of the music is very homey and charming at moments and unnerving at others, sometimes lonely, all doing well in their corresponding chapters to further the feeling of its specified theme. There are so many delightful characters and designs in this & I found myself feeling really attached to their tiny little stories. The narrative at the core of it all hit me. If I may be vulnerable, I cried a whole lot at various moments in this game. It was really cathartic. I feel very excited for people to experience this game.

~5 hours

-Favs I finally got around to that didn't come out 2023-

An Outcry https://quinnk.itch.io/an-outcry Kind of sad it took me so long to get to this one, but glad it meant I got to play the "definitive" updated version of it. Apartment wandering RPG maker horror. Bum smokes from your neighbors and use them to save the game. I wish I could unwrap a lot more of what I like about this game than I can without spoiling too much. But if I could, I'd probably go on for too long. Let me attempt to be succinct & not giving too much away. You can tell pretty early on that An Outcry is about taking action when necessary & not turning a blind eye. What it explores about player vs protagonist agency is very fascinating to me as well, and I enjoyed learning about the inspirations for why the game's narrative works the way it does. The character Anne is such a sweetie and I love her a whole lot. This game has a very tangible feeling, this apartment complex is dirty and crumby, it smells of smoke, and there's a surrounding desperation you can feel.

~5 hours

Pigments https://punkcake.itch.io/pigments Honestly I had gotten this game in a bundle and while I was playing it I hadn't looked at the name and I just kept calling it FRUIT. On call with my friends I'd be like "hey im gonna play more FRUIT". I straight up didn't read the title screen. But it's called Pigments. You play as a fruit and you try to paint the whole floor and not get sliced by buzzsaws. Fun little arcade type game.

~fruit

Bridge, October 3rd https://lowpolis.itch.io/bridge-october-3rd Very short vignette. I like it. It's what it says it is. I'm not going to overexplain.

~like a minute

-Other Games I Want To Mention-

Pseudoregalia https://store.steampowered.com/app/2365810/Pseudoregalia/ I think a lot of people might have already known this one but I felt like it was a pretty fun 3d platformer. There were a few issues I had with it (boss fight at the beginning was frustrating, and I got lost a lot [but it looks like there's been a map patch by now, so, perhaps for some that is a fix]). I enjoyed it but sure felt weird that the only accessibility option was to give the protagonist pants. What kind of joke is that?

~5 hours

Mushroom Musume https://mortallymoonstruckgames.itch.io/mushroom-musume (Disclaimer, this game is still early access, but I saw a lot of people talking about it last year. SO I will mention here?) Haven't played much of this yet, but I have enjoyed what I played so far!! As of writing I've gone through 6 playthroughs, I feel like I've hardly scratched the surface and I've been so impressed by its depth. It's very charming, you never know what sorts of fairytale shenanigans are going to happen, and it's very cool to see how your different stats will affect things. It very much plays out like a roguelike vn. Which is not the sort of thing you may expect to make much sense but it pulls this off well. Also all the mushroom girls are very cute and I love them very much. I hope the sad goopy one who had bugs in her skin rests in peace.

~mushroom

Knuckle Sandwich https://andybrophy.itch.io/knuckle-sandwich -_- Hm. Where do I start with this one. I was pretty excited for this one since the demo and kickstarter in 2018. I felt like the demo was a hell of a hook that got me curious & horrified. As time went on, it seemed to be shaping up into something really cool. turn based combat with action commands and wario-ware-type microgames?? with a banging soundtrack?? like, count me in!! Then it released and well, the gameplay, art, music all delivered. It was very fun and engaging in those aspects. But the story… oh it just devolves into disappointing nonsensical randomness. The whole hook at the beginning seemed to be completely thrown away for the wild goose chase plot that ensues, leaving you to wonder if it was ever going to be relevant again. It felt like it had no idea what it was trying to say or do. It disappointed me that a game that has so much good in so much else about it gets brought down so much for me by this plot.

~12 hours

Rhythm Doctor https://store.steampowered.com/app/774181/Rhythm_Doctor/ (Putting this one in mentions because it is early access.) I really enjoyed the act 5 release. When I first saw this game, I kind of shrugged it off, thinking "that base mechanic doesn't seem like it will last". I thought it was basically just that one ghost shooting game from Rhythm Heaven which I Hate. Well let's just say I am now seeking penitence for my previous transgressions. It's really fun. There's a lot more to it that I didn't know when I first took a look. Also, consistently amazed by people's custom levels, I had no idea that its level editor allows people to do so much in it, I look at some levels and think "This editor seems as complex as an industry standard video editor". I'm looking forward to what they're planning next, very curious how they could possibly one-up the last update.

~rhythm

El Paso Elsewhere https://strangescaffold.itch.io/el-paso-elsewhere This was really fun & funny so far but unfortunately I had been encountering an issue with a certain level where the game would crash. I reported the issue, got a response, and there has been an update since then so I think there's a possibility that it got fixed but I have not tried yet. I would like to return to this sometime but having to relearn controls midway through is always daunting to me.

~?

-Things that looked good but didn't get around to-

Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood https://store.steampowered.com/app/1340480/The_Cosmic_Wheel_Sisterhood/ Still don't know a whole lot about this. But there are witches, and I like witches.

Casette Beasts https://store.steampowered.com/app/1321440/Cassette_Beasts/ I haven't felt thrilled about Pokémon lately. I know a lot of people seemed to really enjoy this little monster-collecting-rpg. The style is appealing to me as a die-hard gen 5 fan. I started playing it but haven't set aside the dedicated time for it yet, but I'm excited to dig in more when I do.

Little Goody Two Shoes https://store.steampowered.com/app/1812370/Little_Goody_Two_Shoes/ Started watching a friend play this, and I'm certainly curious.. Some sort of horror fairytale but also there's yuri? Yum. Enjoyed the style and animation in the nightmare segments that I saw.

Venba https://store.steampowered.com/app/1491670/Venba/ I've picked this up a while ago but still haven't gotten around to it, but I'm eager to, I've heard nothing but good things.

Goodbye Volcano High https://store.steampowered.com/app/1310330/Goodbye_Volcano_High/ I think there are gay dinosaurs in a band and it's going to be the apocalypse? I have also heard nothing but good things about this.

-Things I watched friends play-

Signalis https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262350/SIGNALIS/ This was a pretty big one. You probably already know it, right? Watched a friend play this and I missed various parts but I understood a solid bit of it. hey. robotgirls are always getting put in these fucked up situations. have you noticed this? one time i got really high and cried about it. it isn't fair

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk https://store.steampowered.com/app/1353230/Bomb_Rush_Cyberfunk/ This one was also probably big enough you don't need me to sing its praises. but it looked really neat. swag.

-Various Thoughts-

Lately I've been thinking more about design and narrative. I feel like I haven't been doing as much analysis as I should be when it comes to games. I want to dissect more what games are saying and figure out meaning. Also attempt to see how the mechanics aid in that. I feel like most of my own work is pretty abstract & random. I simply make what I like. While that's fun and all, I still want to improve in a lot of ways, especially in having more of a theme or message. Figuring out how other games accomplish this is obviously a good step toward this.

If you saw games here that interest you I highly urge you to take a look, many are pretty short, and I pretty explicitly wanted to highlight some smaller titles. If you know me you know I like to uplift small games. (Save for the occasional big game, but that's rare these days) I think it's healthy for you to play and support independently developed & published works. I don't want to ramble too much this time about why that's important, but I hope that you might have found something you may enjoy here and if not then I encourage you to find small stuff that you would like. And I would like to encourage everybody to share their findings as well! Little games need our help to be seen and talked about! They don't have the budgets the big ones do for advertising, and advertising on your own is a whole ton of work. If you like something, spread the word! I'm sure the developers would very much appreciate that.

#indie games #video games #game review #ramble #GOTY 2023 #idk what to tag these as #gonna tag with all the games so i guess? #don't read the rest of the tags if you want to read through the post first lol #lunacid #orbo's odyssey #a walk in the woods #undertale yellow #vs really cool bird #misericorde #absolutely perfect specimen #wordhopper #bossgame #elly's adventure #nour #hi fi rush #WHISKEY.ST2007S #re:curse #SWOLLEN TO BURSTING UNTIL I AM DISAPPEARING ON PURPOSE #HalOPE #an outcry #pigments #Bridge October 3rd #pseudoregalia #mushroom musume #knuckle sandwich

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

So I finally watched Puss in Boots 2....

#it was so great???? #like holy shit it caught me so off guard on how good this was #the animation alone was something to marvel at but i was taken aback on how enjoable this film was #i wasn't much of a fan of the first film and didn't pay this one any mind but i got intrigued by the positive reviews #for me it's up there with Shrek 2 on the list I'm not joking #puss in boots: the last wish #puss in boots the last wish spoilers #puss in boots spoilers #puss in boots #puss in boots 2

[vashti-lives]

The new Martha Wells book-- Witch King-- is fucking delightful if you like slightly complex fantasy that doesn't hold your hand. This is a book that never ever commits the sin of explaining stuff to a character that should already know about it for the sake of the audience. Exposition only happens in ways that are natural and logical, which sometimes means stuff just isn't explained.

It's not as obviously accessible as The Murderbot Dairies is-- it's plot is a little more opaque, there's more moving pieces, it's less directly comedic-- but man I like it and Kai is in someways a similar protagonist to Murderbot. Powerful but vulnerable and often just a little out of his element. Lonely in the face of a lot of people who are afraid of him.

Its very much a found family story. Like, literally. The book goes back and forth between the past and the present. The parts of the narrative that are set in the past are about Kai meeting the people who become his family, and the parts of the narrative set in the present are about him going to find members of that family that have gone missing. Family is a theme that's always there.

In spite of the swap in narratives there was never a moment where I was listening to one half of these stories wishing I could get back to the other one-- they were woven together very well and I found them equally compelling.

Anyway I am very certain there are people who saw there was a new Martha Wells book, then saw it wasn't Murderbot and decided to peace out. Some people probably won't but I think it's worth trying. Tor released enough excerpts that you can get a feel for what it's like and decide if you'll like it or not. The mystery is fascinating and, like Murderbot, it's casually queer in a really good way. Martha Wells clearly loves her a lesbian power couple.

#i listened to the audibook and the narrator is also very good #martha wells #witch king by martha wells #witch king #god i hope this is the first in a trilogy #reviewing partially because i saw someone be shitty this isn't a murderbot book and this offended me #writers can and SHOULD do new things #deal with it

[rwnjun]

gorgeous gorgeous boyfriends make lunch for each other

#this is the first time i‘ve ever drawn a comic esque thing like this #maybe this was funnier in my head!!! i dont care #this was obviously inspired by that one video of the guy making lunch for his gf #and also the so what if his boyfriend made it for him S P I D E R M A N review that someone made a gif out of lol #aftg #all for the game #neil josten #andrew minyard #andreil #aftg fanart #aftg art #my art

[filmloversociety]

Barbie (2023) + letterboxd reviews (from letterboxd instagram)

#the first one is literally me #oscar worth performance #barbie #barbie 2023 #letterboxd #letterboxd reviews #greta gerwig #barbie movie #margot robbie #ryan gosling