Underneath my yellow skin

What matters to me in gaming (and what doesn’t), part two

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Let’s talk more about everything that is wrong with gaming. It’s been a shit week, and it just seems to be getting worse. Plus, the weather is so gross. It’s been in the eighties to ‘feels like’ in the hundreds–which suuuuuuucks. It’s definitely summer, which means sticky slimy. And insects coming out to play. Bah. Let me get back to winter, please. I’m doubly mad that we skipped spring because I hate summer so much.

My brother taught me a really cool trick to help with CPU. I usually have about fifty tabs open–up to a hundred or more. (He has over a hundred). You can group together tabs and then ‘shrink’ the group so all of the tabs are hidden. All you see are the the tab group names. It really celars up space, and then you can click on the group tag to let the tabs come out to play.

I was so excited when my brother taught me this, which made him laugh. It was the coolest thing, and it makes my life so much easier. It brought down my CPU usage by around 30%! I joked with my brother that I would be doing this for the  next following hour or two. Onrce you put a bunch of tabs in a group, you can name it and give it a color. It’s seriously the coolest thing I’ve learned in quite some time.

Back to games. We, the consumers, are part of the problem . We are not the cause of the problem, and there isn’t much we can do to stem the problem–but we are definitely part of the problem. Meaning, we’re going to buy the games no matter how expensive they get. There was talk about how expensive  Grand Theft Auto VI (Rockstar Games) would have to get before people wouldn’t buy it. $80 for the base game hasn’t stopped it from selling pre-orders like crazy. The fifth game sold roughly 230 million copies world wide. It came out in September of 2013, so that’s nearly 13 years ago.

This is mind-boggling, but, honestly, it’s not as many copies as I thought it would be. A content creator I watch sometimes said to guess how many copies the game had sold. I thought it would be over a billion, quite frankly. But a quarter-billion is still an astounding number.

I’m sure this game will match if not exceed the number. Or maybe do slightly less, but it’sll be around the same number. People are not NOT going to buy the game. I think the only glitch is that there is no physical copy being produced (which, just, sigh). I said in my post yesterday why I personally don’t care about physical copies, but I do think it’s a shame that there won’t be any. Why? Because a lot of people may not be able to afford the game at full price, and without any second-hand copies, they will have to do without.


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What I care about (in gaming)–and what I don’t

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The news has been grim in the gaming world for months now–if not years. The RAM shortage driving up prices is one thing. The constant layoffs is another. It’s been really depressing, especially the latter. As to the former, I had been considering getting a new PC about a year ago. Right before the prices went bonkers (and, yes, tehre’s a specific reason why), and now I rue the decision to wait. Everything is so expensive now. I mean, that’s not just limited to the gaming world, of course.

The layoffs, though, are what really bugs the fuck out of me (in the gaming world). It’s never the muckety-mucks who are laid off–oh no! They have nowt to do with it, do they? All the talk about tightening belts and what not make me furious. My first job out of college, I was working for a nonprofit. I was making eighteen-thou, which was not much money, even over thirty years ago. The director called us all (but the admin assistant–now, one of my two best friends) in and told us we all had to tighten our belts. Meaning no raises. Oh, and this was a United Way-funded nonprofit, which meant we were forced heavily encouraged to donate to United Way. You know, to show our gratitude that they funded us. But, uh, that has nothing to do with the line staff. The same line staff that is barely making a living wage.

Anyway. I twill forever remember and be grateful to the counselor in the other program for asking the director sharply, “What about you? Are you going to tighten your belt? Give up that Miata you drive?”

The director did NOT care for that at all. He shouted how he paid his dues and had put his time into the trenches. Which I have heard isn’t true. It’s more that he’s the son of a prominent person in the field. Even if it were true, though, it didn’t change the fact that the only thing he did as director was sit in his office and play solitaire on his computer. A computer that we could have used for our kids.

When I went to work for the county and mentioned that I used to work for that nonprofit, the head of the accounting department (for the nonprofits the county oversaw) snorted and said the name of the director before calling him something very disaparaging. In other words, everyone knew that this guy wasn’t doing his job.

I feel it’s the same with the bigwigs of publishing companies, except they aren’t even pretending they paid their dues. I mean, they don’t have to, right?

Waring, rant: We can be pissed all we want about prices, layoffs, and whatever else, but let’s face it. People are still going to do the things that lead to the situation we’re in. I’m not saying this is our fault because it most assuredyl isn’t; I’m saying that as long as there is no  big consequence for what the companies are doing, they’ll keep doing it.


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Indie games, Dark Souls III, and me

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Let’s talk more about indie games and Dark Souls III (FromSoft, definitely not an indie game). Here is my post from yesterday in which I talked a bit about both. Well, I talk about indie games and FromSoft (if not specifically the FromSoft I’m currently playing) I’m in The Ringed City DLC, and I have finally attained my beloved Black Witch Set, which is after the first boss of the DLC. The armor is also in the second Souls game, but it’s harder to get in that game. Or rather, there’s a chance that the game will glitch and not give it to you after killing an NPC invader. And that invader only shows up in the Scholar of the First Sin edition after you light up all the torches in the area (there’s something like 20 of them? Oh, wow. There are 49 of them. So more than double what I estimated.

Because the level is very vertical with many ladders, the drop can get hung up on a ladder in a way that you can’t reach it. Quitting out and logging back in (something that usually works for drops you can’t reach/didn’t get as the NPC falls to their death) doesn’t do anything. This happened to me once, and I was so mad that I had taken the time to do all the torches, kill the invader, and I got nothing for my efforts.

In this game, you just have to get to the mid-point of The Ringed City DLC (well, not quit mid) and defeat a different NPC invader to get the armor. There’s a veil that you can get a bit later that you can wear instead of the hat. I don’t wear either, though, because I’m wedded to my ridiculously big hat. It’s my favorite piece of armor in any From game, bar none. And it’s not even close.

Anyway, I want to sing the praises of Dorhy’s Gnawing once again. It’s a miracle that sends out little bugs to chew away at the enemy, and it procks bleed really easily. That means that after a certain amount of damage, there’s a burst, and the enemy takes a big chunk of damage.

It takes 25 Faith, which is quite a lot in this game. I tend to spread my points, and my beloved Chaos Bed Vestiges takes 20 Int (and 10 Faith). Plus, I need 18 Strength for the Executioner’s Greatsword (my early-to-mid game sword) and 26 Strength for my beloved Lorian’s Greatsword (my late-game sword). It takes 30 (!!) in Attunement to get 5 spell slots. I knew it was a lot, but I didn’t realize it cost THAT much.

One of the best QOL changes Elden Ring had was that the number of spell slots was not depnedent upon any stat. You started with two regardless of class, and then you had to find Memory Stones around the map. Each one gave you a slot, and there were a total of 10 of them in the game. Plus a talisman (ring) that gives you two extra slots. So you can have a  total of 12 slots! Luxury.

I need to find an indie game to play now that I’m done with Creature Kitchen (The Rat Zone). I’ve tried several word game demos, but none of them have quite hit the spot. I’m still playing Birdigo (John August, Corey Martin), but I’m hitting that “I want to quit but I can’t” space. I have two achievements left, and I’m going to get them done if it kills me. It won’t, but it’s killing my joy for the game.


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Indie games are (often) my jam

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Let’s talk about indie games. As AAA games are getting more and more bloated, and more and more expensive, indie games are holding the line as far as scope and cost. And yet, they are still innovating and creating experiences that are thrilling, charming, chill AF, engrossing, etc. They continue to delight me even as there are many indie games that are, to put it politely, hot garbage.

I think one of the reasons I have such a good time with indies is because I am much more open when I try an indie game than a triple A. Or rather, I go in with less preconceived notions than I do when I play a triple A game. In addition, I have different expectations when I’m buying a triple A versus an indie game.

Side note: I rarely buy triple A games. I mentioned this in the post yesterday how the last one I reviewed was Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions) in December of 2024. Again, we are not talking about FromSoft as they are in their own category. The last game I reviewed from them was–well, it was Elden Ring Nightreign, but that doesn’t count. The last real FromSoft game I reviewed was Shadow of the Erdtree, which was released in June of 2024. Wait a minute. I did review Nightreign, and it came out in May of last year. So that’s the last AAA game I reviewed. I’ll be honst with you. If it wasn’t a From game, I wouldn’t have bought it.

(Restrains from going down the FromSoft path.)

I don’t do multiplayer games, either. I don’t do shooters, sci-fi, or  strategy games. I do do RPGs, adventure games, action-adventure games, and cozy games. Within the cozy genre, I like story-driven games, games about death, and cooking sims. Cooking sims and other kinds of sims.

We have to talk about price point as well. I rarely pay more than twenty dollars for an indie game. There are a few that were twenty-five or so, and even that made me hesitate. But, I still forked over the money, and I was glad I did. I don’t usually do the money per hour conversion, but one particular game I’m thinking of that was twenty-five bucks, I put over 250 hours into it. That’s 10 cents an hour.

When I say I don’t expect the same things from AAA games versus indie games, I don’t mean that I expect less from one or the other–I just mean I expect different things. With a non-From AAA game, I expect great graphics, sweeping narratives, thrilling action, and just everything to be epic. I swear to god, I am not being snide or snarky when I say that this is a good thing.


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Creature Kitchen (The Rat Zone): A Quick Look , part three (and more)

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I’m back for one more post about Creature Kitchen (The Rat Zone) because it left such an impression on me. In yesterday’s post, I mentioned how I really appreciate a short, curated experience that has a strong direction/vision. And cute animals. I can’t overstate how adorable these creatures are, and how much I enjoyed feeding them.

The beauty is in the simplicity. There were a few puzzles in the game, yes, but they always had a purpose (usually to give an ingredient and/or recipe). The devs made it really easy to follow along, and there was only one time I had to look somethinig up. I’m still not sure if what happened was a glitch or what the devs intended, but either way, it was no big deal. It would have been a big deal, of course, if it had blocked me from progressing, but it did not.

The music is great and really fits the theme, too. I’ve included another track on the OST below. It’s very atmospheric, and the track I included today is under a minute long. All the tracks are vibrant and evocative; I’m impressed by it as much as I am by most of the other aspects of the game.

I know I’ve said it before, but I love a game that has a vision and carries it out well. I’m much more forgiving of a small indie team that is dedicated to their game than I am to a huge AAA team that, well, it’s not fair to say they’re not dedicated to their game. I would bet they are dedicated as well. It’s just that those games aren’t as interesting to me*. The last AAA game I played was….I can’t even remember what it was. I think it might have been Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions) at the end of 2024. I gave it a 6.5/7, which is at least 2 points less than most people’s rating of it.

I know to keep my mouth shut when people are gushing about something. I may just say it’s not my style or my kind of _______, but i rarely go on at length about it unless asked. One time in the Discord I’m in, people were raving  about Pulp Fiction. I mentioned that I got dumped because of my opinion on it, and I said I’d leave it at that because I did not want to yuck anyone’s yum. One guy said it was one of his favorite movies, but he was curious to know my opinion. So I gave it to him. He said it was fascinating to read, and he thanked me for it.

With GTA VI, I just say it’s diplomatically not my kind of game and leave it at that. I watched Ian play a chunk of the fifth game on stream, and I hated everything about the game–especially Trevor. I don’t like pop culture that does not have a single redeemable character. I didn’t like Fallout 3, either, in a large part for that reason.


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Creature Kitchen (The Rat Zone): A Quick Look, part two

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I firished Creature Kitchen (The Rat Zone) today. Once I was done with it, I went back and 100%ed it. I did look up where a few ingredients were and one recipe, but other than that, it was pretty easy. I was able to get most of the achievements while playing the game, which is how I ilke to do it. I don’t like having to grind for a meaningless achievement. (Looking at you, FromSoft and the ten hours it took for me to get that certain achievement in DS III, and that was a short amount time compared to many others).

The achievements in this game were for the most part reasonable. There was one that was kinda ridiculous, but, fortunately, it was fairly easy to do. Just tedious. I get why it was included (thematically appropriate), but it didn’t add anything to the experience.

Here’s my post from yesterday in which I talked about how much I liked the game and mentioned a few minor frustrations I had with it. I have much more to say about it, starting with my puzzlement that it’s repeatedly been called creepy.

Honestly, I don’t get it. I have seen it said over and over again that this is a creepy game, and it simply is not. It just isn’t. This is the hill I will die on with this game. I don’t see even a whiff of creepiness/scariness. Am I the one who is wrong? Probably. Or rather, I’m probably in the minority as I usually am. I will say that I’m starting to feel a tad bit gaslit about this because I don’t see it at all.

Normally, I can at least get a glimpse of why people feel the way they do, but I don’t see it at all in this game. I see cute. I see cozy. I see crunchy pixel graphics. I see charming. I see, yes, creatures. I do NOT see creepy. I do wonder if I’m being punked. Is this  kind of a long con where everyone is in on it?

Setting that aside with difficulty, the game kept me engaged until the very end. Without any spoilers, I felt like it was giving me a big hug, and I smiled a genuine smile of warmth and appreciation as the credits rolled.

The story was simple and sincere. I was wondering if there was going to be a twist, and there wasn’t. Not really, anyway. I’m going to put a spoiler tag on this, but it’s not really a spoiler. I’d rather be safe than sorry, though. I tend to err on the side of being spoiler tag heavy.

In the Discord I’m in, there’s an ongoing debate about spoiler tags and when they should be used. My thing is that it doesn’t hurt to slap a spoiler tag on something, so why not? There are times, though, that it looks we’re writing confidential FBI docs.

*SPOILERS*


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Creature Kitchen (The Rat Zone): A Quick Look

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I have been moaning about the glut of mediocre games on Steam in the last–well, several months if not years. Steam Next Fest has become a drag. I’m not saying there aren’t good games in the Steam Next Fest; I am saying that it’s really hard to find that gem. That’s why I depend on groups likke Wholesome Games to give me a heads up on what’s new in cozy gaming. In this case, they had a trailer for a game called Creature Kitchen (The Rat Zone). I have included it down below. I don’t usually go for the crunchy pixel look, but there was something endearing about this one. I don’t know what it is, but I was drawn in.

Then, I found out it was a cooking game, and I was sold. I didn’t even need to know the story or anything else. Me cooking for different animals*? Hell yeah! There was a demo, so of course, I installed it. I didn’t have much of an idea what to expect, so I went in with an open mind. I did love the fact that the game had an eighties feel to it. It’s in first person, but for whatever reason, my nausea remained at a very low level. It’s manageable, and I only had to take a break once.

I can’t overstate how charming the game is. And how it leads you gently from point to point. For the most part, I had no problem figuring out what I was supposed to do. Only once did I get stuck, and it was a glitch in the system. Meaning, it was a fault of the game–not anything I’d done.

By the way, my biggest complaint–and it’s not even that big–is just a bunch of small QOL issues. Such as it doesn’t constantly save, and you can’t auto-save. Which means that you can lose a small bit of gameplay. Like, a minute or so. It’s not great, but I’m also not too pressed about it.

Another small complaint–the frying pan mechanic is really frustrating. You have to cook a piece of food on one side for a few seconds before flipping it to cook the other side. Much like you have to do in real life, yes, but you have to flip it at a certain angle that is counterintuitive to me. And if you don’t do it just right, then it falls out of the pan and into the fire. And you have to cook it again. As someone who has awful dexterity in my fingers, this is agony to me. And it doesn’t add anything to the gameplay experience.

I sympathize with devs who want to include mundane activities, especially in a cozy cooking game, but–by the way. This has been called a creepy-looking cozy cooking simulator. I may be missing something, but it’s not creepy at all. I mean, there’s


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Dark Souls III: when FromSoft gets silly

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If people know Dark Souls, they think of it being a grimdark fantasy game that is relentlessly punishing. It’s hard AF, and all the bosses will destroy you. That’s the Cliff Notes version of how most people who don’t know From games well think about Dark Souls.

I’m not dissing people for that, by the way. They’re not wrong. The games are grim, dark, and utterly depressing at times. There’s a sense of nihilism* to them that can be disconcerting–even to me. I can see the hopeful spark in them–if I squint. But the darkness is pretty unrelenting. Here is my post from yesterday in which I waxed poetic about my love for the game.

That’s why the absolutely silly parts of the games are a blessing. Today, I was running through

*SPOILER*

the Grand Archives, which is a late game area because it’s a great farming area. I did it so many times in the past. You can clear around seventy K in one run through, which is a nice chunk of change. The thing is, there are these arms and hands that spring out of the books, and they can curse you if they touch you. They are everywhere!

The only way you can protect yourself from the hands/arms (and they’re a weird shade of purply-pink) is to dip your head in wax. Yeah, you read that right. There are pools of wax in strategic places in the archives, and there’s a prompt that says something like, “Dip your head in.” Did it say why? Of course not. Did it say what it would do? Nope! You were just supposed to trust that it was something you had to do because the game told you to.

Now, I will say that FromSoft rarely outright tells the player to do something detrimental (I want to say never, but there might be  a case or two) , but I wanted to know why I was dipping my head in wax and making myself look like a candle. And to make matters worse, I lost my big hat in the process.  Not literally as I still had the attributes, but it didn’t appear to be on my head any longer.

The enemies had the same waxy appearance (at least, the humanoid-looking ones), which made it even sillier. As you may guess, they are extremely weak to fire. My Chaos Bed Vestiges literally melted them. This will never not amuse me, by the way. Being a human candle, i mean. Especially as someone with a fondness for pyros. It just makes me laugh inwardly because it’s so goofy! But it’s presented so seriously, which makes it even more hilarious.


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Birdigo; A Quick Review

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Birdigo (John August, Corey Martin) is my casual/cozy word game that I am currently playing. It’s a word game that is a combination of Scrabble and Balatro (Local Thunk). You are a bird and you have to score words to make the filgght to each stop on a route. There are different conditions for each route, and you have to finish one to unlock the next.

There are feathers that modify something for the whole run. Like, you get ten flaps per each X you play. Flaps are points. There is also a power stat, and you multiple the two. I never know exactly how many points I’ll be getting per hand, which makes things very interesting.

This game very much has that “Just one more run” feel to it. Not quite as much as Balatro did, but that’s a good thing. I got so lost in that game; it really felt like an addiction that I just couldn’t quit. I lost actual days to the challenges, and at one point, I was so focused on finishing the Orange Stakes on the Plasma Deck, I had lost all the joy of playing the game. It’s supposedly the easiest deck, but it was the hardest one for me. I just could not get the hang of it, and there was a point where I was actively hating the game. That’s when I walked away from the game.

This is one of my issues (and probably partly because of me being neuroatypical): When I get into something, I get obsessed with it. It’s all I can think of, and I cannot let it go. It can be a good thing, such as with my martial arts. It allows me to focus on, say, the Double Fan Form until I taught the whole thing to myself. It took a year, yes, but I kept at it through the tough times. I don’t know why I didn’t quit–well, yes I do. It’s sheer stubbornness, really. I’m not competitive with other people, but I’m very competitive with myself.

I challenge myself to be the best, however, and sometimes, I’m too hard on myself. That’s because I’m Asian; that’s how we do. It’s also because I had parents who didn’t say much of anything nice about me or to me. Yes, that was partly an Asian thing, but it was also dysfunction. One thing I say to people is just because something is cultural, it doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. What I mean by that is that every culture has its negative aspects, and I used to bristle when people tried to hold up Asians as the model minority because it’s just another way of not seeing us as individuals.

How the hell did I get here from where I was? I’m not sure, but whatever.

Back to the game! Oh, I see how I got there.

Anyway.


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Dark Souls III love is flourishing, part two

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I’m going to talk more about Dark Souls III (FromSoft) and how I’m absolutely in love with it again. But first, I want to share a video I found. I have posted it down below. I found the Elden Ring one first, and it just warmed my heart. These videos are so adorable, and they really just make me smile. It’s the little (tiny) things in life sometimes. Here is my post from yesterday in which I talked about one of my hardest bosses in the game. Today, I will be talking about another really hard boss.

*SPOILER*

I did an optional area today, including a bullshit boss that has the worst hitbox in the world. It’s called the Ancient Wyvern, and when you first encounter it, you do potato damage on it. There’s a message on the ground that says somethnig about a plunging attack. It’s a dev message, and it’s supposed to be a clue as to what you need to do. I don’t remember if I figured this out myself or not, but here’s what you have to do.

You have to race up the level as the Ancienty Wyvern chases you, breathing fire on you. There are enemies along the way, and you have to get to the top of the castle so you can–wait. We’ll get there in a minute. You can access this area roughly halfway through the game. In typical From faashion, it’s really hard to find this esoteric and obsucre area.

Shall I tell you how? Sure, why not. So. There’s an area with a bunch of dragons sitting, looking at a castle in the distance/on the horizon. First time, I saw it and thought , “Hm. I’ll get there eventually.” Because if you can see it, you can go there. At least in the Souls games.

Did I figure out how to get there on my own? Nope! I had to look it up and read the forums with one eye (trying not to see other spoilers). You have to go to another completely optional area, beat an optional boss, kill an enemy, and pick it up down the road. With this gesture, you then go to the area with the sitting dragons again. You do the gesture and get whisked away to the far-off castle.

Which is hard as hell.

Seriously. You don’t want to go there too early. It’s really hard. And the hardest boss in the base game is there. Optional, integral to the story, and so damn hard. It’s another one that I had to summon for in my first playthrough, and they are still so hard now .It’s the Nameless King* and the bird he rode in on. Who is called the King of the Storm. That’s the name bar you see when you first go into the boss arena.


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