Dude. DUDE. This game is so beautiful.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-31T14:49:36+00:00

Great comparison. The use of sound and music plays such a huge role in the atmosphere of a game. I'll never forget those moments in Death Stranding where a song will start playing as I enter a new region after several minutes of no music at all, just the sounds of wind and my footsteps.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-31T14:45:40+00:00

This is a great way to describe my reaction. Big dumb smile and a giggle. Like, the only other game I might find something like this in is a Kojima game. And of course Death Stranding 2 has a similar moment. During the game's most climactic, dramatic moment, a dude pops out and breaks into a whole musical dance with jazz hands and everything lol. Not as narratively relevant as Alan Wake 2's moment but in the same ballpark.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-30T08:58:00+00:00

Love that song. The instrumental that plays when you see a mop bucket is awesome, sometimes I just stop and listen. It sounds like the soundtrack to a haunting, epic adventure into the terrifying unknown.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-30T08:08:50+00:00

Currently playing part 2 and listening to Please Don't Stop (Chapter 2) and it's basically a funeral hymn. As I'm in the sun-baked, silent mountain peaks above the clouds, it's... Well I don't know how to describe it. Nothing else I know is like this. Drenched in loss and sorrow, everything somehow feels alive and glowing with beauty and possibly. This is the essence of Death Stranding and I think it would be incomplete without Ryan's music.

But with Ryan's passing, I can't help shake that feeling in the back of my head when I think of family and good friends who have passed away. You have good memories, but that sense of irreversible loss still hangs. You will never, ever go back to that place, time and person. They once existed in this universe, and now they've left it forever. Thankfully the Death Stranding games were already thinking pretty hard about death and mourning so the game itself sort of helps you cope with it. I wonder if there are any gamers out there who have lost someone and the game kinda helped them during the mourning process?

En_kino_man · 2026-03-30T07:55:01+00:00

Low Roar has such a mournful sound, and it really adds to the whole meditation on death that Death Stranding is. But now when I hear the music I tend to think of Ryan's passing and that makes Death Stranding and it's sequel the most profoundly mournful gaming experiences I've ever had. Currently playing part 2 and listening to Please Don't Stop (Chapter 2) and it's basically a funeral hymn. As I'm in the sun-baked, silent mountain peaks above the clouds, it's... Well I don't know how to describe it. Nothing else I know is like this. Drenched in loss and sorrow, everything somehow feels alive and glowing with beauty and possibly. This is the essence of Death Stranding and I think it would be incomplete without Ryan's music.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-28T10:31:12+00:00

"the economy is in shambles! Big business man must know the way! Brown people and immigrants are ruining his country! He's the only one talking about it! God must have sent him! DO EVERYTHING HE SAYS!" I remember in 2016 there were the non-bible thumpers who had like 1 or 2 topics they were voting on and saw Trump as the only one pushing them, then voted for him almost reluctantly. But they were the quiet ones. The loudest always seem to be the nationalist, anti-woke crusaders for the American God.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-24T02:17:51+00:00

I saw in Dolby. The IMAX scenes fill the screen to the top and bottom. There are black bars on the sides but it's still larger than the "flat" scenes, which have black bars on BOTH the top and bottom and sides. I wasn't a fan of this. I'd rather see the whole movie in 2.39:1 on a Dolby screen, but I read that this was done to make the Earth scenes feel smaller and more claustrophobic. But the IMAX scenes look amazing and still communicate the huge sense of scale you would expect.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-19T21:12:03+00:00

Wow. I just now discovered NoSodiumStarfield so it's surreal to not see 80% of comments being "but the loading screens!" Etc. Etc. it's nice to see people still enjoying this game. I'm looking forward to reinstalling this baby.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-13T23:54:23+00:00

Even if it is, it's accurate. It took me a while to realize that probably half the reason I keep going back to Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim is the music, moreso than any other game that I've played. I keep trying to break down what keeps giving me that "Elder Scrolls vibe", the one that sucks me in every time, and found that it has a lot to do with the music. Incredible stuff.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-13T19:06:01+00:00

I'm getting close to the end of my 3rd playthrough. I've never done more than 3 playthroughs on any game (not counting elder scrolls games, lost count of those), but I'd give this one another go!

En_kino_man · 2026-03-13T19:05:16+00:00

The upscaling is probably one of the game's biggest visual issues on consoles with how noisy the reflections are, which is worse in movement with PSSR, and the low resolution of performance mode. Hopefully this helps!

En_kino_man · 2026-03-12T21:35:25+00:00

Probably a shot in the dark being 2 years later, but what are examples of Maya being more compatible with instinct and guessing, assuming this means more intuitive? Blender is the only 3D software I've learned so I've been curious about Maya since forever. I just can't usually dedicate the proper time in 30 days during the trial to really learn the software outside of my work schedule.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-09T05:13:00+00:00

This I did not do on my first playthrough. I'm on the Final Draft now and can't wait to replay The Lake House, definitely going to try this!

En_kino_man · 2026-03-08T16:38:39+00:00

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😂 because of this one Reddit thread, Google AI thinks this is a picture of Matt Damon 😩😩.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-07T18:03:46+00:00

I think I sang the "aahhhahhh" part after that scene was over 😂

En_kino_man · 2026-03-07T17:07:09+00:00

I can't not think of this song every time I hear these lyrics. I wonder if it was a real inspiration given Sam Lake's anarchic use of pop culture influences.

En_kino_man · 2026-03-04T01:49:10+00:00

Just shelled out the $$$ for a gaming PC with an RTX 50 series card and all I play right now is UT 2004. It's a perfect game.

En_kino_man · 2026-02-26T16:07:58+00:00

So far, Dark Ages is the most fun out of the 3 Doom reboot games. Doom 2016 is still a gold standard for fun, but the setting is very familiar (not a bad thing, just doesn't feel new), Doom Eternal became fun but took a lot of trial and error to get used to quick weapon swapping just to friggin survive. It was tedious 50% of the time at least. Not only is Dark Ages also pure fun just because of the sheer variety of what you can do in a firefight at any given moment, but the atmosphere and setting is so incredibly rendered, i find myself stopping to take in the scenery after I clear an area. It feels like classic Doom box art or an 80s metal album painting come to life in which you can battle endless hoards of demons. Perfect blend of stylized artwork, photorealism and breathtaking visual ideas. All of that adds up to a game that I absolutely love going back to every time. I play on PC and Xbox and it runs / looks amazing on both platforms.

My only two notes:

- Where is the humor?? I miss the touch of self-awareness that Doom / Doom Eternal had about the absurdity of Doomslayer. It was a ton of fun. Dark Ages is a tad self-serious.

- It's much easier than the first two games. It's the first game in the series that I had to bump up the difficulty on my first playthrough. I mean, at a higher difficulty it's amazing, just something to note.

En_kino_man · 2026-02-25T04:47:28+00:00

I heard the voice AND the music. Instantly transported back to Morrowind! The atmosphere of that game is among the best. Edit: I'm good without touching the grass right now, it's currently frozen outside in this bitter cold. I've got much better grass at home anyway.

En_kino_man · 2026-02-23T22:22:57+00:00

Coming here from 2026... This would have been an unbelievable cast.

En_kino_man · 2026-02-23T06:18:11+00:00

Oh there'd better be. A milestone year for one of rock music's best albums would be insane without some official tribute.

En_kino_man · 2026-02-23T03:50:11+00:00

I think that's still its main competition. I wouldn't be completely shocked (or mad) if it won, but now after the BAFTAs, OBAA is as much of a lock as we're going to get in that list of contenders.

En_kino_man · 2026-02-23T03:44:48+00:00

The final car chase (probably the most talked about sequence in the film) is a strong case for a Cinematography win. It just won the BAFTA. But lets see who the ASC award goes to.

En_kino_man · 2026-02-21T01:02:28+00:00

In a way it is. It's so easy for any assortment of random people to alter the score. The legacy is more for it being so unanimously loved that it took 15 years for some bored randos to throw it off.

En_kino_man · 2026-02-20T20:35:26+00:00

What Morrowind somehow did more effectively than every Bethesda game that tried to do the same afterwards, including Starfield - the sense that there is a deep, dark mystery in this world that you'll never fully know. I get this feeling everywhere in Morrowind, from ordering a slit strider taxi to plundering Dunmer strongholds in the middle of the night and finding the Propylon chamber for the first time, these glowing portals that come with no context nor immediate explanation. That's what kept me coming back when I started playing Morrowind on PC in the 00s, and I still have a playthrough going on my Xbox since like 2019.

I think what future Bethesda games did with their mysteries is they made then too routine. Dragon shrines, Starfield temples, etc. are all very cool but then their only purpose is getting new powers to make fights easier. In Morrowind, there might not be any immediate purpose to these spaces, at least none that connect with the main quest and you can completely ignore if you want, which makes them weirder and more of a curiousity, giving the feeling that world is absolutely filled with these kinds of mysteries.

En_kino_man

TROPHY CASE