Miguel Sanchez

Looking forward to getting pulled up by someone after Sunday's Dead Pool update because I missed their pick

Fun fact: Stalin died on the same day as Sergei Prokofiev, his obituary ended up on page 150-something of the paper the next day Everybody on the 8th of September on this list is fucked: Deaths in 2022 - Wikipedia

Hold on, got it

RETURN OF THE KING (should've been "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II" but I'll let him off for being out of form

Just think, Witchell will have spent years crafting this absolute word salad.

She could have sold one of her paintings to outsource it, surely.

There's me learned that Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire are different things. Who knew?

Sounds like they took a leaf out of the David Cage book of interactive drama - humans don't have to act like humans if you want them to do something the player doesn't.

I'd take a guess and say the credit cards are still using a magnetic strip rather than a chip.

Do we though?

You never know when someone might phone a premium rate sex line.

Gorogoa is also currently on sale on the PS Store, if you're interested.

Gorogoa (PS4, 2018) In the Annapurna Interactive Deluxe Limited Edition, Gorogoa is introduced with a word from its creator: Gorogoa is a (sort of) 2D puzzle game where you move square images in a two by two grid to manipulate the scenes depicted within and solve the puzzles. Doing this progresses the story in the pictures, which involves a young boy seeing a mysterious creature from his window, discovering what it is, then spending the rest of his life searching for offerings to give it. Gorogoa was created by one man, Jason Roberts. It took him five years to commit this story to video game format, hand drawing all the images and animation. There is a decent amount of information on this available online, including the inevitable youtube video essays, but this one is actually from Roberts himself so it's a bit more relevant: There are a few other, longer talks from him on there too I've just discovered. I'm sure I'd find them interesting, but the one I've linked is a good starting point. To start, the gameplay. The puzzle mechanic is the best kind of puzzle mechanic - inherently simple, but able to be expanded and made more complex as the game progresses while still retaining the core concept. There are four squares and up to, but not always, four images on them which show the story happening. In order to progress you need to move the images around to allow it to progress. To start, the boy walks into a cupboard in one image, when he walks out you need to move another image over to allow him to walk out on to a roof top and into the next area he needs to. It's a very simple process which is explained intuitively with no words much more effectively than I've just managed. As someone with very poor logic skills who doesn't play puzzle games very often, I see strengths and weaknesses here. The premise is intuitive and easy to pick up. It also offers a tremendous amount of satisfaction on your first playthrough when you work something out and are able to progress. Because of the limited amount of combinations though, there are times where you can eventually progress just by moving the pictures around or zooming in and out enough times until you've exhausted near enough every possibility and just move on by default. This slightly undermines the sense of satisfaction which comes with a puzzle game (and which in this case is arguably complementary to the story), with progression in these cases accompanied by mild annoyance rather than genuine achievement. On a purely visual level, if it took one man five years to create and animate all of these images then, quite simply, it was worth the wait. Every individual image in Gorogoa is gorgeous. The fact that most of them can zoom in and out shows even more depth and detail is even more remarkable. The game's design and aesthetic is strengthened massively as a result here, as on a surface level each image is striking, yet the knowledge that there is more adds to both the beauty of the image and the feeling of depth within the game. The way some puzzles are solved through tricks of perspective and manipulation links the art style to the core game mechanic very effectively, making the whole experience feel more cohesive and perfectly self-contained. I really need to just talk about how great the art is. So many of these individual images are striking in a way which makes you just want to look at them on their own, without a game or any other distractions to take in. The colours, the detail, the changes in interaction when you're zoomed in or out in certain frames, it's remarkable. The minimalist soundtrack in the background is almost too reserved, but for the most part it allows you to focus on the puzzles and the story without overwhelming an additional sense for the player. If the game is worth playing for its two to three hours of puzzles and images alone, then what of the story? I don't really know how to describe it outside of what I said in my opening paragraph without looking really dumb and uncultured. A boy sees a creature of some sort - if I had to compare it to anything I'd say it's like a combination of a classic Chinese dragon and images of Aztec gods with bright colours, fierce faces and lots of flowing details and extrusions. I think it's supposed to look spectacular and undefinable because that's what the boy perceives it as. It also ties in to the constant theme of the game's images having more detail you see when you zoom in, as we eventually see later in the game. (There was a break in the writing of this review where I went off and read a bunch of stuff about Aztec culture then did other things.) Gorogoa's story ostensibly depicts a man's life as he attempts to find and collect five fruits to offer to the mysterious creature he sees from the window in his youth. We see different stages of his life - as a child, as a young adult going through what appears to be some apocalyptic event, as a slightly older adult deep in study/learning, as a seemingly depressed working man (still staring out a window) and then back to a child briefly before what appears to be the end of his life, as an old man in a wheelchair looking at what I realise as I'm typing is a destroyed version of something he interacted with earlier in the game. Remember when I said earlier I was going to make myself seem really dumb and uncultured? This is where it happens. If I watched the hours of the game's creator explaining his motivations, if I knew anything about religion or philosophy and had another few weeks I might attempt to uncover and explain everything myself. I'm sure there are multiple parallels and allegories and as many different layers to the narrative as there are in the pictures. What's ultimately most important is that the game constantly keeps you invested in what's going on and eager to find out what everything represents. What I can say with certainty is what I think about the story in conjunction with the images and the music and the gently satisfying core mechanic. It's a beautiful combination. Actually, genuinely beautiful. It might take a few plays of the game where you know how the puzzles work and can properly focus on the details without frustration, but there's a lot to discover in this game if you want to take the time. It's remarkable that a game with no words, spoken or written, with no prompts or direct control over the characters can contain the poignancy which Gorogoa does. It feels as if each action, each movement, is a moment for reflection on the consequences for the man. The result is an experience which can last as long as you want to keep exploring, always with the sense that a deeper or more profound understanding is waiting for you each time. If anyone's keeping score, that's two for two from the Annapurna Interactive Deluxe Limited Edition. I don't want to say something as brief as Gorogoa is perfect, but I'm having a hard time thinking of any other way to finalise my thoughts on it. I don't think there's a single thing I would change about it.

Cheerfully still awaiting an answer

My ears could withstand two straight days of this, right?

Azerbaijani language - Wikipedia The 180 degrees rotated e looks to be pronounced as æ, so closer to a double ee in English than anything else (I think)

No I think she's always been like that