u/kszaku94

This is my very first game of the year 2026 contender, and its VERY likely it will keep the title. This game is so good, that I bought it twice. Its possible, that its as good as (if not better than) Doom Eternal.

Everything about Neon White's presentation, music and story fits into an extremely cohesive whole. The main theme here seems to be anime. I am not a very huge anime fan, but I've had experienced Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion(s), as well as some retro Dragon Balls and Transformers as a kid.

Cowboy Bebop especially seems to be the main reference, with Steve Blum (Spike's voice actor) voicing the main character. The game tells a story of bunch of criminals who end up as a hired guns for heaven. Its just a justification for putting the characters through increasingly cringier scenarios, like silly beach episode. I could not tell, whether the devs meant to make a parody of these tropes, or were seriously engaging with them, but it was enjoyable regardless.

Red had a peak character design, I could not blame White for falling for her.

The main dish here is the gameplay. Neon White is a bit like Doom Eternal on steroids. Your main task for each level is to get to its end, while killing every demon on your path. And you have to do it fast - basically as a speedrun. The game WILL force you to get at least gold medal for some of the levels, and damn, I do respect it for that.

What will help you with all that demon killing and running will be cards. Each weapon is symbolized as a card. Each card has limited number of uses and a special ability on throwing away. For example, pistol will grant you secondary jump mid-air, rocket launcher will grant you a grapple hook, etc. Knowing when and how to use these cards will be a key factor in getting these sweet, sweet platinum trophies. Each level has also a hidden challenge in form of a gift for other characters. The gifts grant you rewards like additional conversations, memories, or special challenge levels.

Some of these challenge levels are straight up better than main campaign (which is already great). Each of the character has a set of levels, which revolve around specific gimmick - like locking of the ability to throw away cards - or are designed in a specific way. I especially loved one of the sets, which were straight up combat challenges.

I've named this post "a Dreamcast fever dream", because this game fits my idea of how Dreamcast game would look and feel like when I was a kid in the early 2000s. Its hard to describe, but imagine bunch of polygonal 3D environments, with slight vaporwave tint, and drum'n'bass/jungle soundtrack. Its like going out of bounds in Crazy Taxi or Ridge Racer 5.

Overall, Neon White is a great game, just talking about it makes me wanna play it.

EDIT: Reposting to fit with the rules.

Hey, so I (31M) am regularly stretching - flexibility classes and usually after my weightlifting sessions (about 4 times per week) - with the goals of improving and stabilizing my splits (I was able to do them as a teenager, now I am trying to regain my middle splits and make my hips more square in the front splits on both legs).

Anyway, for various reasons, I've had a break from my stretching for about 3 weeks. During that time I don't think I've tried doing splits even once. I still was exercising, but flexibility took a backseat - I was in a hurry, and I was wrapping some things at my work before holiday period.

So... During my holiday, I was at the beach, and since I like doing gymnastics/calisthenics on the beach sand (makes "hard landings" more bearable, lol) I did some handstands, crow poses, and it was obviously very fun.

But then, I've thought to myself "I wonder whether I can still do the splits", and... I've managed to slide 100% flat - and on my "worse leg" at that. Being almost cold, with no warmup (unless 30 degrees Celsius counts as that!). Then I've tried doing the middle splits, and again - a success. I know that sand can make it very easy to cheat, so I've moved to a more "stable" surface, and was able to recreate this. Hell, I've even tried doing this in the hotel room as well, with similar success. I was only a little sore the next day (typical after stretching session), but currently, my ranges came back to where they are usually.

Could this be a result of me "surprising" my body with these splits? Being relaxed at the holiday? Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Should I just stop stretching and accept, that I can be a contortionist every 3 weeks or so?

Hey, so I (31M) am regularly stretching - flexibility classes and usually after my weightlifting sessions (about 4 times per week) - with the goals of improving and stabilizing my splits (I was able to do them as a teenager, now I am trying to regain my middle splits and make my hips more square in the front splits on both legs).

Anyway, for various reasons, I've had a break from my stretching for about 3 weeks. During that time I don't think I've tried doing splits even once. I still was exercising, but flexibility took a backseat - I was in a hurry, and I was wrapping some things at my work before holiday period.

So... During my holiday, I was at the beach, and since I like doing gymnastics/calisthenics on the beach sand (makes "hard landings" more bearable, lol) I did some handstands, crow poses, and it was obviously very fun.

But then, I've thought to myself "I wonder whether I can still do the splits", and... I've managed to slide 100% flat - and on my "worse leg" at that. Being almost cold, with no warmup (unless 30 degrees Celsius counts as that!). Then I've tried doing the middle splits, and again - a success. I know that sand can make it very easy to cheat, so I've moved to a more "stable" surface, and was able to recreate this. Hell, I've even tried doing this in the hotel room as well, with similar success. I was only a little sore the next day (typical after stretching session), but currently, my ranges came back to where they are usually.

Could this be a result of me "surprising" my body with these splits? Being relaxed at the holiday? Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Should I just stop stretching and accept, that I can be a contortionist every 3 weeks or so?

You know, every once in a while I go on a Twitter, because I guess I hate being happy...

Yesterday was one of these occasions. I've said to myself "I wonder how people reacted to the announcements during SoP - what could possibly go wrong?".

Good Lord. Don't do that. Be stronger than I am.

The big AAA games are just a battlefield now. Just the sheer amount of grifters who jump from one controversy to another, from one astroturfed marketing campaign to another... This is just so fucking sad man.

What puzzled me at first, that Ace Combat (and to some extent - the new Onimusha game) has little to no presence in discourse. Like yeah, every now and then there was somebody who was excited about the release date, but most people do not care about AC.

I have theory about that. Ace Combat is in a fun place as a series. Its obviously big enough to be supported by a big publisher and one of the major console manufacturers, yet not really big enough to be an ideological battlefield. This makes for rather healthy community that is pleasant to interact with and contribute to (the weird planefucking stuff aside).

One other thing that surprised me about Ace Combat's fanbase, is that due to its rather niche character, the new people who try to get into the series are genuinely curious. The amount of annoying tourists who insist that "everything needs to be remade in UE5 with streamlined and lame controls" is surprisingly low. Hell, people are willing to jump through the hoops to play the JP version of Ace Combat 3.

My message is - enjoy it while it lasts. Understandably, Namco, Sony and Project Aces want the game to be as big as it is possible. And more power to them. But I believe the days of the state of things as they are right now are numbered.

It was a pleasure.

The simplest way to tell whether somebody is going to enjoy Death Stranding, is to commit a cardinal sin of game reviews - compare it to Dark Souls.

Do you like Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Elden Ring/Demon's Souls? Do you like it for its twitchy action gameplay, variety of character builds and big beefy bosses with insane attack strings, or for its weird but captivating fantasy world, with a ton of poorly explained systems and poison swamps?

Because Death Stranding is a game about overcoming one Miyazaki poison swamp after another, except that poison swamp has (sometimes literal) hands, and will throw you like a plastic doll, if you don't respect it. Its also one of very few non-RPG open world games, that makes use of its open world for something else, than boring checklist objectives.

Its also super polished, AAA game, with top tier Hollywood talent, and extremely niche gameplay, that is super easy to undersale as a "walking simulator", that Sony was somehow convinced into financing. This is the real Kojima miracle working.

I'm not going to talk about lore, plot or the fact that Norman Reedus plays the role of main character, or that the game is about package delivery in a post-apocalyptic world, everyone and their dog knows that. This was the main marketing pitch. Instead, I want to talk about what this game is for me. And I think, it is the biggest revolution in open world game design since at least GTA3.

This might be a bit controversial, but the biggest difficulty in making open world games, is the technology. How to use enough smoke and mirrors, to convince the player that their character is in the real city, real island, something like that. This is where the biggest innovations happen, with more computing power, comes the ability to put more "real" stuff on the screen, without resorting to tricks like the Silent Hill fog.

But the games remain roughly the same. "You go to an NPC, watch a cutscene, go to a marker on a map (either on foot or via a vehicle), do some third person shooting, watch some cutscenes and go back" - can be gameplay description of GTA3, Red Dead Redemption 2 and ton of other AAA open world games. "Oh there are also checklists you can accomplish" - this can be also said about ton of open world games.

To me, that means there is very little point to an open world design. The player is going to cover kilometers of terrain, during which very little happens. Yes, you can say "that's the point, you are meant to vibe and take in the atmosphere", and I get that, I have my share of time doing that on the streets of Liberty City or Night City.

The problem with that is... That I can do that in the real world as well, and its going to be 10 times more impactful. If you like driving around open world games to immerse yourself, I recommend going out for a 2 AM nightdriving trip. Put on some moody music, pick a destination in your city, and just cruise there. The Friday/Saturday night air tastes differently once you do that.

What's most interesting abut Death Stranding, is how it sets that setup on its head. There is very little action at the destinations you go to - usually watching a cutscene and flipping through some terminal screens. The most action-packed and nerve wrecking sequences, are going to happen during transit. The game will be constantly throwing obstacles your way - be it terrifying ghostly things, "bandits" or just a really deep river. There is constant stream of interesting decisions to make - should I try to cross the river on my bike, and risk losing it along with the cargo, or do a bonus trip to a distribution centre to get materials for the bridge? Maybe I should ditch the bike, and try to carry the cargo on my back? Should I try to get through a bandits territory, or walk around it (usually a longer trip involving mountains)? Can I take some extra cargo? What if there are slippery slopes ahead of me? What if... It goes on and on.

A lot of open world games falls into trap of introducing systems, and then failing to impose any consequence for ignoring them - this is also something Death Stranding solves, because literally everything matters. Your main task will be delivering cargo from point A to point B. But unlike many other titles, everything you carry is not some abstract thing in a magical inventory system, that might introduce some slightly annoying speed penalty if you cross some arbitrary boundary. Death Stranding will allow you carry more stuff than it is necessary, and will punish you heavily if you overestimate your abilities. You've fallen into the river? Good luck catching up with the cargo, that now going down the stream. You left your bike in the rain to deal with the BTs in peace? The cargo will get damaged eventually. You don't have the repair spray? Well, good luck delivering the cargo before its lost. You have not taken spare shoes with you to carry extra cargo? You know the drill.

But if there is one thing Death Stranding is not, its cruel. There is a social strand system. Somebody will put down a ladder in their game, and it will appear in yours, just when you need it. Its a brilliant system, and has works like a charm.

Death Stranding is a GOTY contender for me. Only thing I regret, is that I used to doubt in it. I should have played it earlier!

This June, I will be 32 years old. I remember gaming going from 1024x768 to Full HD resolutions. I'm very hardly impressed by graphics anymore. Especially during this generation - all of the biggest and greatest games (Resident Evil 4 Remake, Elden Ring, GTA Online, Fortnite, the new God of War or Horizon games, etc) are still running on the last generation consoles...

And even with the "next gen titles" like Stellar Blade or Rise of The Ronin... There is nothing about them, that makes them impossible to run on last gen consoles. The PS4/XBONE generation had some graphically impressive games.

But I'm always happy to be proven wrong, and I'm grateful for Returnal for doing just that. Even with the current generation pushing 6+ years, Returnal feels like a work of alien civilization. Nothing about Returnal, makes it possible on last gen consoles.

Lets start with the DualSense controller implementation. Aside of the tech demo that Astros Playroom is, nothing in PS5's library has an implementation this incredible. During start of each run, the controller makes this pulsation noise, which is super memorable. This is such a smal detail, but it takes the game's personality a long way.

I've always thought the adaptive triggers are a gimmick, but Returnal proved otherwise. Its implementation is amazing, and I wonder why almost not other developer made something like that. Maybe the battery in these controllers dies super fast, but damn, its worth it.

I want to praise one more thing (in the technical state of the game) - I think there are 2 "hard" loading screens in the game. One of them are the logos displayed after booting the game, and the other happens during resumption of the cycle. Its really hard to go back to other games after playing Returnal. You can start blasting aliens less than 2 minutes from booting up the console, which is quite amazing.

And yeah, blasting aliens. The gameplay is great. Not only the game is super fluid and responsive even with hundreds of projectiles on the screen, control over it feels like a pure joy. My only tiny nitpick, is that the melee attack can be weird with its magnetism at times. It feels like its 50/50 whether it will lead you to the enemy you want to attack. But the weapons, the enemies, the combat juice is all there, and its amazing.

But.

The game is a roguelike- or is it roguelite? Anyway, after each death, you start from the beginning. I've tried to give honest attempt at this formula, but I can not ever stick with it. I can appreciate the gameplay system, the depth, etc.... But no matter which game I try - be it Enter the Gungeon, OTXO, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Downwell, and now - Returnal - I lose my will to play it after some time. And that's a shame, because Returnal seems to cater towards players who are not really into roguelike. You can skip bosses you've defeated once already, which was a welcome feature, but still...

After about dozen or so of hours I've gotten tired. And I've loved my time with the game, its definitely landing in my top of the year list. But I don't think I will ever complete it.