Concrete Tremor by Mike Klubnika—https://mikeklubnika.itch.io/concrete-tremor
This odd sentiment when you don’t quite master your craft yet and you get incomprehensively jealous not having thought of someone else’s artwork yourself. This is precisely how I felt when I finished Concrete Tremor and it only became stronger after each subsequent play through. If I had to choose one title to defend the argumentative power of video games, this would be it: a brutalist battleship post-horror masterpiece.
Tears in the Rain: The Last Moments of the Metaverse by chriscollins—https://chriscollins.itch.io/tears-in-rain
We are already at the stage of speculating about the end of the metaverse, and we can only hope the immersive Web3 era to come it will be as interesting as this game.
Fantomas by Vimi—https://vimislikart.itch.io/fantomas
From the creator of the excellent Romancing Flesh, an exploration of forgery and crime through an intimidating Fantomas/Magritte hybrid. A curious interactive novel well worth your time, especially if you are recently interested in analyzing the creative potential of transforming institutional visual arts in interactive liminal entities.
city::ephemera by Infinite Tears—https://infinitetears.itch.io/cityephemera
Another title where visual arts breach through interactive spatial exploration. Exquisite drone of urban hauntology.
Wheat Harvest Paradox by KenForest—https://kenforest.itch.io/wheat-harvest-paradox
Made in 72 hours, this impressive little game about driving a combine harvester in a mirrored timescape made me feel like a NPC in the original Pathologic. It was way more enjoyable.
Mental Break by Nomnom—https://nomnomdev.itch.io/mental-break
A short horror experience checking all the boxes of the genre, but with a unique lowbrow style that really makes the whole game gels in a special way. Great manipulation of players’ expectations and repetitiveness.
দুঃস্বপ্ by Selfish Dream—https://selfishdream.itch.io/hell
The indisputable demiurge of interactive discomfort made a clicker game. That’s all.
Grasping by Duncan Corrigan—https://duncan74.itch.io/grasping
Medical arthritic horror. Incredible style. Check out the insane controller of the original version: I would gladly have this as the centrepiece of the dinner table.
Deep Fear by BlueBird Games—https://nicolas-olivares.itch.io/deep-fear-en-es
Interesting P.T. styled horror with surprising spatial set pieces. It totally nails an atmosphere of paranoia and despair.
More games played lately:
Musha—Yes, the old Genesis SHMUP. Beyond the nostalgia, the boss’ designs are biomechanical masterpieces and certain levels were downright giving me hallucinations. Being raised on Nintendo consoles, I’m rediscovering a plethora of titles I missed on Sega (aside from the emulators) that are not only visually unhinged, but offering slapping soundtracks. More to come.
In Sound Mind—I really wanted to like this game which proposed large and complex levels each deconstructing in its unique way cliché locations of Unity horror game (ISM also being built in Unity). But I made the mistake of playing it on Switch, and on world 3 it became nearly unplayable. Considering how hard it can be (I’m getting old), restarting on another platform was not an option. So recommended if you can play it on PC, skip the Switch.
Choo-Choo Charles—Exquisite world building and immersive as hell. Which meant I finished the game in one session. This can be a good thing, but I’d gladly dig in an expansion.
Huntdown — The best recent retro run and gun I played up to now. Amazing sense of details, brutal gameplay and a variety of ways to dispatch the eighties-infused opposition. Highly recommended.
Vampire Survivors—After three days of compulsive grinding I started seeing gems patterns every time I blinked. I duly deleted the app—this is crack cocaine.
