Happy Backloggiversary.

I think that it's sometimes best to leave certain details out of a story, especially when they're not relevant to the plot; there is such a thing as overdevelopment, and today's game stories are lousy with it. It's like if every single character, no matter how minor, doesn't have a novel-length backstory and/or undergo some sort of miraculous transformation, it's, "The character development is bad." That and many games have great stories without really giving them to you. In something like INSIDE, the events are laid out for you; you will see everything, but not necessarily understand everything. And keep in mind that you are playing as a small child ins a pretty bonkers-ass situation; you are taking on the role of the child, overcoming obstacles, trying to survive, and everything that comes with that, including not knowing what the hell is going on. Not only that, but like the child, you are experiencing these events without context, leaving you free to interpret them however you see fit; this is one of the things that made the original Zelda what it was. A picture is worth a thousand words, but without solid context, those words are amorphous, and you are able to shape them in many ways.

That and nothing pisses me off like getting in the zone and really getting into a game, only for it to yank the controller out of my hand for an hour-long exposition dump; you weave that into the damn narrative! Not that I dislike story-heavy games, but I think that pacing is very important. Grinding in the original Dragon Warrior doesn't get to be a chore, because it's consistent throughout the game; grinding right before the final boss of a newer JRPG after coasting through the rest of the game is absolute torture.

I think that those contexts are what makes INSIDE shine the way that it does. Also that Limbo was great, and this is like a better version of Limbo.

It's been a little while since I've played it (okay, so only a few months, but my memory is garbage), but to the best of my recollection, here are the particulars. So the Not-sees were experimenting with making people into mindless drones, hence those weird control helmets all over the place. There isn't a lot of backstory on the world, itself, but it wouldn't be all that off-the-wall to assume that they were trying to create an unquestioning army. Now, to do that, they created a central hive mind to control them, which was that horrifying amalgam of flesh; assumedly,the thing it was hooked up to is what made it into some kind of power source for the helmets. This way, they could power the devices, but could control the drones without it, so that there wasn't any risk that it would take over and destroy their society. Kid winds up in the tank, and gets absorbed by the thing, but not before releasing it to go on one final rampage. Of course, the thing couldn't sustain itself forever outside of that tank, so the Not-sees decided that the best way to deal with a horrifying, invincible flesh monster was to just let it out of the city, where it could thrash and writhe for a while before finally dying in a place that it wouldn't be able to wreck more shit. Also, the developer really liked Ecco 2: The Tides of Time.
Probably. Unless I'm forgetting some crucial details, that, to the best of my understanding, is what happened.

So, I see your progress note on INSIDE. That was some ending, huh? :thereisnoemoticonforwhati'mfeeling:

I'm glad to help; I saw that video, and you were the first person I thought of.

Don't know how you feel about this, but... [Link]

The game looks really good; I can't wait to try it out someday. I've been having all sorts of weird connections, lately; strange dreams and visions that have had some kind of connection to the next day or so. Sorta makes me hope that there's nothing deeper to that dream where the streets were completely engulfed in flames...

Is there seriously a character named Bad Billy? I remember reading that as being what someone who wrote for a gaming magazine (either GamePro or Game Players; I don't remember) named himself for his review of Road Rash 2. I've been using it to describe reckless drivers in new pick-up trucks ever since.

Also, hey! Garnet and Undyne!

New Theme (Same old color scheme because i still like it.)

The idea here is that I force myself to play 5 disparate games chosen via cookie opening. Will it work?

10,000 hours?! Holy crap!! That's why I've been using Game Genie on the old games. I figure it's close enough to the real experience and I can focus on the ones that'll actually pay off.