Not anymore no, the initial reaction was justified. But yeah after nearly 8 years of free content updates they have certainly redeemed themselves

That does indeed make sense, thank you (and many others) for the answers!

Yup, I have. I liked it, but it did not make the top 10 for me, purely because two of the storylines were amazing imo (Connor & Kara) and one was centered around a trope that I absolutely despise (Markus). It didn’t ruin the game for me, I still loved it and will play it again at some point, but because of that I cannot put it in my top 10.

Enjoy the new games!

Ranking is tough but I’ll give it a go. The ranking is based on the impact and enjoyment I got out of them regardless of playtime.

1. What Remains of Edith Finch & Kentucky Route Zero (shared 1st place)

2. Life is Strange

3. Stray

4. GRIS

5. Cyberpunk 2077

6. SOMA

7. Heaven’s Vault

8. The Town of Light

9. FAR: Lone Sails

10. Portal 2

That last one is a bit of an outlier but I have laughed so much while playing it, it deserves a place at the table.

I hate to admit it but it seems that way. Our social systems, transport, healthcare, etc. were severely degraded by rightwing policies, and now many people voted for an even more rightwing party, as if they are gonna clean up the mess. Fucking idiots.

Her life is not your choice though. Thankfully.

I have seen it recommended somewhere in the comments but I want to shed some more light on this game: What Remains of Edith Finch. It is a walking simulator that should take about 2 hours and is best played in a single session.

As Edith Finch, you go back to the house where you grew up in your younger years to explore it. The Finch family has an almost genetic trait of bad luck; many of them have died before their time. You explore the house room by room and explore that person’s last moments.

There is no gore or horror of any kind, but there are children that die, so if that is a trigger I would sit this one out. If not, it is currently on sale for less than €5. It is worth it.

As a non-native English speaker I fully understand what it means and will happily correct it to football for you :P

I bet you make images of stuff too then?

Same here. Needed an image of Uncle Sam as an Air Genasi. Can’t get stuff that specific without a comission (which is expensive and not worth it for a joke sidequest) or AI, so AI it is.

If I could upvote you twice, I would!

Yeah those are worms! Very cool things. They manipulate the mantis to go into the water where they can crawl out and complete their growth. To the detriment of the mantis, of course.

Be gentle…

I’d recommend looking out for rabies in general ;) even without zombiefying, it’s a horrible way to go.

And, of course, get your shots!

Let me put your mind at ease. The zombie ant phenomenon is nothing to be scared of as a human.

In nature, there are many pathogens/parasites. Some of them are able to manipulate their hosts to their own benefit. The zombie ants are not actual zombies, rather they are still alive ants that are manipulated before their death. This disease is caused by fungi of the Ophiocordyceps family. These fungi infect the ants and change their behaviour over the course of roughly one month. First, the ants social behaviour is surpressed and their biological clock disrupted. Then they start wildly walking around in nonsensical patterns. Eventually, when the infection has reached its peak, the ant climbs up some vegetation (grass, reeds, bushes, etc.). Here, it bites and clamps onto this vegetation, and that is that for the ant. It dies in this position. After a few days, a fruiting body (somewhat akin to a mushroom) sprouts from the body to release spores. If the spores manage to infect an ant, the cycle repeats.

Ophiocordyceps is not the only manipulator in nature. The Massospora fungi hijack cicadas and replace their genitals. Then, they induce mating behaviour. When another cicada tries to mate, they get infected instead. And there are many others like them. The way they manipulate their host is different between all of them, but they do have one thing in common: they are all highly specialized. For example, the Ophiocordyceps fungi species generally are only able to infect one ant species. They have co-evolved in an arms race over millions of years, where the ant develops mechanisms to defend themselves from pathogens and the pathogen develops ways around it. The chance of these highly specialized fungi to suddenly work on humans is zero. The same goes for Massospora. So, no need to worry about being forced to climb a tree or grow a fungal penis or vagina (or fungussy, if you will).

While these pathogens are no harm to us, there are, of course, pathogens that do manipulate humans. The most infamous example is the rabies virus. Luckily, there is a vaccine against it.

So, in short, no need to panic. Not about this, at least.

Live fast - die young - leave a good-looking corpse

They already lived together huh…

So they were roommates?

Apparently the maximum limit of a PDF page is 15 million inches in each direction. That’s roughly 381 km or 236.7 miles. This is larger than The Netherlands in terms of square km or miles. If you really want to have a mega dungeon, there’s your limit ;)

Of course, this cannot be printed, but a page is a page!

Deathgasm. It’s about a bunch of metalheads that find some sort of old hymn. When played, it summons hoards of demons/zombies. So then they start fucking up the zombies. I vaguely remember one of them being impaled with a dildo? Either way, it was an entertaining “turning your brain off” watch that’s pretty unknown afaik.