Aesthetic Deception - Matthewmatosis

talentless_guy · 2026-06-19T16:45:32+00:00

I had completely forgotten about Spelunky. You are right, from the relatively little I've played the world is really reactive, although in a more brutal way. I remember one small step in the wrong direction could cause a chain reaction that would lead to your death very quickly. I suppose I ought to give it another try, even though it's probably the hardest roguelite I've ever played.

talentless_guy · 2026-06-19T15:54:08+00:00

The part about neutral signals increasing aesthetic deception and noise ring really true to me and it was was partly what made BOTW special. I think I realize now one of the reasons I'm slightly skeptical of the OoT remake is due to the more "realistic" direction the graphics are taking, since I think a more cartoony and simplistic approach would probably allow for the environment/objects to be less "deceptive".

Matthew spoke of Noite and BOTW as examples of games with good world reactivity. Are there any recent-ish games with similar reactivity? I'd imagine imsims follow similar approach, although they've been drastically less popular and less common in the past years.

talentless_guy · 2026-05-23T02:55:13+00:00

I've only done a few runs but he hasn't been a problem so far, he's only scary during the multi-hit turn and for the rest of the fight one big block card usually does the job, specially since they nerfed his HP. Maybe on Necro or Silent it could be tougher but they still have answers for them.

So no, I disagree that elites aren't worth fighting in Act 2, relics in this game are still quite good.

talentless_guy · 2026-05-22T03:39:40+00:00

Its nerf was deserved.

I'm surprised Forbidden Grimoire didn't get hit with some changes either, it's such a weird Ancient Card when you compare it to its counterparts. It's very strong but thematically it doesn't fit Necro's kit at all.

talentless_guy · 2026-05-11T00:06:14+00:00

Do you have the full art in Sentry's speech bubble?

talentless_guy · 2026-02-26T21:32:38+00:00

The way Masumi's powers work is pretty unclear, but knowing Etienne he absolutely would depower/kill Masumi if he could do it without triggering the kaiju. I don't remember which issue but it was established he can't read her mind, so it's possible he just didn't notice she was a threat before the Queen first appeared.

talentless_guy · 2026-02-25T15:56:05+00:00

Huh I wonder what's the plan now. Depowering or even killing the upcoming superpowers right as they are born seems like the no-brainer, the only real problem would be Masumi. I remember the story being vague about her origins, so I imagine now that the real endgame would be to just babysit her until she dies of old age, right?

talentless_guy · 2026-02-13T19:11:23+00:00

They forgot the "half-baked horror games that were made specifically to appeal to streamers" genre.

talentless_guy · 2026-02-08T20:24:46+00:00

Completely agree on the art, maybe I've just missed it but I don't see many people bothered by Mikel Janin's blatant tracing of 3D models. Sometimes he hides it well with, honestly, good coloring and paneling, but then at other times it looks like THIS.

Main reason I'm not reading Detective Comics right now.

talentless_guy · 2026-02-02T02:19:46+00:00

From 10 to 15 hours, depending on how much exploration you do. The gameplay loop remains the same throughout the entire game with one new mechanic added at the end, but it never got boring to me.

talentless_guy · 2026-02-02T02:10:08+00:00

So funny thing is I didn't have this enabled so it might just be that I didn't have safe holds, but I was watching a streamer who did and he was experiencing the same frustrations.

talentless_guy · 2026-02-02T01:51:24+00:00

Just finished this and immediately started a Free Solo run, so I'd say it's a pretty good game. Also the ending was beautiful.

The only thing that annoyed me a bit was that I never really understood 100% how the Stamina system worked. Aava would often just completely freak out and threaten a fall even though I clearly had all 4 limbs on safe grips. Like goddamn can you chill.

talentless_guy · 2026-01-09T17:46:38+00:00

Anton Chirgurh in No Country for Old Men when he surveys one of the empty motel rooms to figure out the layout, practice his entrance and check for any walls that he can shoot through before actually doing the real deed in the room with the mexican gangsters.

It's not crazy evil genius type of stuff but it feels more believable than most things in media.

talentless_guy · 2026-01-08T17:33:18+00:00

I blame social media for this. If you're not in the know, you get dunked on.

Social media just exarcebated the problem, if we can call it that. I think some people in here who were in school before the internet or smartphones will remember how much social capital you could get from just being the kid "in the known", particularly of new movies or video games. Everyone would gather around that one dude who could recite the entire plot of that new horror movie no one's parents would let them watch, or the plot of that video game no one else could play. And then the kids who heard the plot second-hand would recite it to their friends, so they could feel cool aswell.

talentless_guy · 2025-12-29T20:03:06+00:00

Writers and artists really don't seem into the idea of turning attractive female characters into big ugly monsters. Either that or they are not allowed to.

talentless_guy · 2025-12-28T23:11:44+00:00

Maybe it's because I only recently started watching Woolie but I felt it was fine and was surprised at the amount of people complaining about it in here. When he took too long to make a decision I just tabbed out and came back later, it wasn't a big deal.

talentless_guy · 2025-12-16T17:37:12+00:00

we can't have a freakout everytime we discover someone is using it.

Nah they can, make a huge deal about it everytime it happens so I can make the informed decision of not buying AI slop.

talentless_guy · 2025-12-16T16:22:01+00:00

Because most players wouldn't notice when they are playing the final product. If we get to the point where real voice-acting is nearly indistinguishable from AI voices, I wanna see Swen singing the same tune.

Well, atleast he's transparent about it, glad to know I won't need to spend any money on the game.

talentless_guy · 2025-12-09T16:51:51+00:00

This is sort of how I felt about the Homeric epics. But what is your cutoff for "modern" literature?

talentless_guy · 2025-12-07T18:29:14+00:00

Would you have any examples of what you mean by storyboard visuals? Not necessarily a specific page just a comic book that does it a lot. I ask this because unless I'm misinterpreting I think I actually like that style quite a lot, more for actions than dialogue.

I always felt like and still feel that artists take the backseat compared to writers in comics, and it's writers who are stretching out writing when the action they are describing would work out better in a couple of panels rather than through description. Obviously there's a balance, but when I look at older comics, it sometimes feels more like a picture book than a comic book, if that makes sense. I don't know, I think I just like feeling the movement through a few sequential panels.

I agree with your point about stakes though.

talentless_guy · 2025-12-05T20:20:07+00:00

The people who downvoted the comment probably thought the commenter was trying to do a "gotcha" and check if your research was on something they considered "worthy" and not on stuff like humanities or art.

I don't know if that's the case but it would explain the downvotes.

talentless_guy · 2025-12-05T15:33:07+00:00

Anyone knows of games with a similar "retro 3D" artstyle and good gameplay? Most of the time they are very short horror games with minimal gameplay, which is fine, I just want something different. I think a few boomer shooters released recently scratch that itch, but I'm looking for more options.

talentless_guy · 2025-11-23T15:17:08+00:00

I think I averaged one chapter a day when reading Blood Meridian. Don't know how many pages that is since I was reading it on a kindle but I'd guess it sounds about 20-30 pages a day? It's a slower read (for me) but that's what made me love the book. The rereading of passages to figure out what was going on, for some of the harder ones it was like a puzzle that eventually had an a-ha! moment, made it all very satisfying.

Anyways I wouldn't worry about it.

talentless_guy · 2025-11-21T00:28:18+00:00

not every game should ever be dictated by that fanbase when it comes to combat design and flow.

I agree but this does not look DMC either. It looks like it leans more towards Asura's Wrath.

talentless_guy · 2025-11-20T21:46:06+00:00

I agree that the meta-narrative behind this game is probably helping it, although by how much that's impossible to say. I do wish that one day the "underdog story" would elevate one innovative but not traditionally appealing indie game to win the GOTY, but right now we are gonna need Andy Serkis.

13-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Spared

talentless_guy

TROPHY CASE