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Return to Ducky Darkness (not an existential novella about Stoke-on-Trent... unless you want it to be.)

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Coming back for another dip into Pools today, with some shots from Chapter 0. Where chapter 6 lost me a bit with its sudden shift to a more chaotic atmosphere, this epilogue/prologue/is there a word for something that feels like it serves both purposes at once? really delivered the goods with building upon the particular atmosphere of the earlier parts of the game - it's eerie, beautiful, tense, unmooring, melancholy, and there are ducks. The ducks are essential. The environment design in this maze is superb and there were a few more moments that reminded me a bit of Silent Hill 4; particularly the opening in the train station, the illogical exterior of the block of flats and the spinning contraption, which looks a bit like the big metal effort in the pool of blood at the end. Ah, memories... (I mean SH4 has a lot to offer, and I will readily go to bat for it, but the final boss fight technically puts you under a time constraint and anyone who knows me can attest just how much I fu...
'Ave a gander 'ere

small cute machines!

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    vroom! Continuing my swan dive back into video games after not bothering with anything for a few months, I've been looking for driving efforts to go at but being out of the loop for ages, it's hard to know what to look for. Also good luck if you're looking for something on the Steam Deck; there's a lot of stuff that's basically one step above shovelware on there, and if you're looking for something more meaty, then compatibility issues rear their ugly heads, or you'll have to deal with the minefield of DRM and those sods that require signing up to online services - ugh . Also, much as I love it, there's only so much time one person can spend on Sega Rally Championship 1995, with the dodgy Chris Cornell soundalike serenading us with the immortal " Game over, yeeeaaaah!!! " (in the right company, that still gets a laugh), so after a fair bit of rummaging, I found greatness, with the cuddly and adorable art of rally. It's different from wh...
'Ave a gander 'ere

The power of the on-screen keyboard compels you

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That's it, it's not "typing" anymore. It's "invoking the keyboard." I will not budge on this. Put a circle of salt around your device of choice, it's time to invoke the keyboard about a variety of things have been occurring recently, as we stubbornly trudge toward the arse end of Summer (I hate this season with a burning passion - give me literally any other time of year or give me death.) Starting with the endeavour to give some love to the front garden because for a while now, I've been at a bit of a loss for what to do with it. For a few weeks in Spring, it looks beautiful with the laburnum, lilac and bluebells in full swing - it's a delightful little fairytale patch of joy and colour during that time but once everything has done blooming, then it spends the rest of the year looking a bit shit. Making a start, I picked up a gargoyle, naturally, and this colourful peacock spinner. The gargoyle looks a bit satanic, so we've just gone ...
'Ave a gander 'ere

'LSD: Dream Emulator' doggy paddled so 'Pools' could do the butterfly stroke

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There's a bundle of blog posts waiting in the wings but I still have a million other things going on and trying to find the files I need to finish them up during little pockets of downtime is proving difficult; it's a sod of a situation but rest assured, there will be footage of local waterfowl doing aquatic bird stuff sometime soon. For today though, we're having a look at Pools, and a fraction of the 805 screenshots I took during my first playthrough (this is after trimming the numbers back 'n' all - it has a very appealing aesthetic!) It has a compelling atmosphere, both beautiful and eerie in equal measure, and the mazes are superbly satisfying to explore. When you get a feel for how everything connects, what passageway leads where and you find somewhere you haven't previously been, reaching a new area feels really rewarding, especially in the moments when you walk into the more grand rooms that almost feel like ancient temples in how they're laid...
'Ave a gander 'ere