Recent reviews by segoli

cookies.

this game made me cry a bunch, but in the good way where I felt like there was goodness in the world and life is worth living for the sake of that goodness. it is the best and most important game I played in 2018.

just because the things that happen in a fictional story aren't factually true in the real world doesn't mean that that fictional story doesn't contain truth. this is one of the truest stories I've ever experienced. I hope you play it and get as much out of it as I did.

as of this writing I've spent 69 hours with AdVenture Capitalist, but let's be totally clear: it has not been a mutually satisfying experience

edit: I have now played this videogame for 127 hours. just like James Franco in the movie with that title, I would be willing to amputate my own arm if I thought it could free me from this

Hate Plus is the most immersive game ever released. I don't say that lightly, and it's not at all hyperbole; whereas other games try to forget that the player character and the player are different entities, Hate Plus actually merges the two together into a unified whole. Christine Love's games have managed to do this in the past, but Hate Plus takes it further in absolutely incredible ways. You're playing a character who is using a computer, and occasionally, your character has to stop doing what they're doing for a while, and occasionally, your character has to get up and do things away from the computer, but in fact, you're the one doing all those things. You're the one at the computer; you're the one who will have to take breaks from playing at certain intervals; you're the one who will have to do things away from your computer in real life. If you enjoy The Stanley Parable, you'll probably enjoy Hate Plus for some of the same reasons, though whereas the whole point of the former is the innovative gameplay, in Hate Plus it fades into the background, playing an important role in the experience without being the whole point.

That's not even mentioning the storyline, of course, which is one of the most engaging and unique to appear in a videogame ever. It's extremely reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, while taking the themes present in that in new, interesting directions. It's both a very good work of literature and a very good work of science fiction, and it's all wrapped up in a very good game. It might seem at times like there's really not much gameplay at all in Hate Plus, but that's because it's integrated directly into the naturalistic choices the game has you make, things that normally don't even seem like decisions. It's unlikely that your experience will be anything like anyone else's when you play, and the way the story unfolds is 100% up to how you let it unfold, and yet you might not ever notice this happening. This is simultaneously better than games that give you really blatantly obvious dialogue trees, where the choices you make are completely explicit, and better than games where the story essentially progresses at random. If you find yourself frustrated playing games like (and this isn't to say either of these games are bad, because they're not) Mass Effect for how much the game beats you over the head with the implications of your choices or Dear Esther because the direction the story takes place in, while unique for each player, isn't one that for the most part can be said to be chosen by the player, then you'll be pleasantly surprised by the middle ground that Hate Plus forges between these two extremes.

Hate Plus is careful never to make the mechanical structure behind the game totally apparent, so it's far easier to get lost in the experience. The end result is a game that genuinely makes you feel like you're a part of the world of the game without feeling like it's shouting "hey! Look at this! You're part of the game!", and it certainly doesn't hurt that the story it allows you to be a part of is one of the best, most nuanced ones to ever appear in a game. Also, don't fret if you've not played the previous game, Analogue: A Hate Story; while there is a bundle of both of the games that includes the soundtracks, and it's more than worth the cost to get both, there's nothing in Hate Plus that demands that you have played the first game, so if you're unable to get both, don't feel like you're missing out on anything crucial to the experience; while there are obviously plenty of plot points that are continued, they're continued in such a way that you can rest assured that you won't have missed anything that is necessary to fully enjoy Hate Plus. Buy this game. Do it now.

I hate this game more than anything. You should play it.

Hunting Unlimited 2010 might be the most pointless game ever developed, and I cannot heartily enough recommend it. If you've ever wanted to shoot an elk with a crossbow through the ear, this -- and this alone -- is the game for you.

After hours of pointing rocket launchers at enemies with poor to nonexistent AI, there's some part of the gamer's soul that just wants to shoot some animals with no clearly existent AI whatsoever other than running in a random path and occasionally dying if you hit it enough times. It's such a brilliantly pointless experience, and every moment seems to say to the player, "why are you doing this?"

From arrows that get lodged in the side of the invisible wall at the edge of the map to the cars and buildings that exist as uninteractive setpieces, every element of Hunting Unlimited 2010 beckons the player to think about the absurdity of the entire game. "Is that animal a ghost?" asks the player character. Yes, JohnDoe. Yes it is. Isn't it a beautiful ghost?