Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is one of the most prolific games of all time, and in March of this past year Valve announced the long-awaited sequel, Counter Strike 2 (CS2).
CS2 promised a lot with its reveal: completely overhauled graphics, sub-tick technology, and volumetric smokes. Now just over six months later everyone has access to CS2. Has Valve delivered on their promises or were they flaunting a new game for a quick bump in players?
It is important to note that when talking about CS2, CS:GO was also buggy and unbalanced when it was first released. Only after years of working on the game with feedback from the community did CS:GO become the game it is today.
With that fact in mind, CS2 right now is a buggy mess unlike the now crisp CS:GO.
CS2 released with many changes, the biggest being the UI. The player’s HUD is completely different compared to CS:GO, changing the location of the player’s health and ammo with a sleeker more modern design.
Inferno’s “church”
The UI changes don’t stop there though. They overhauled the buy menu opting for a simpler design compared to the circle menu found in CS:GO.
CS2 has notably forgotten about a beloved setting found in cs:go cl_righthand. This setting would change if your gun model was on the left or right side of your screen. It’s absence from CS2 has left many questioning why they would remove this tactical advantage.
The UI wasn’t the only major overhaul found in CS2. Along with it came a brand-new set of visuals. While CS:GO’s graphics did improve as the years went on, it was always limited by the twenty-year-old source engine.
CS2 abandons that limitation, and it flourishes graphically because of that. Equipped with a new “raytracing esque” lighting system and new textures, the game looks visually stunning on higher settings and is still good-looking on lower settings. But graphics aren’t everything.
Inferno’s “Apartments”
CS2 also chose to change the outdated tick system. Previously, CS:GO relayed what happened every 64th of a second to the main servers, this is also true in CS2. The difference in the two systems is that CS2 records where you are looking when you shoot. Previously CS:GO shot where you are looking at when that shot registered with the server. Theoretically this will be more accurate to what happens but for those with a bad connection this can feel unfair because they seemingly die behind cover.
The gameplay of CS2 is by far the worst part of the game. Most of the community has come to the consensus that the game does not feel as clean as CS:GO did. Both the gunplay and movement feel unresponsive and laggy. This is not helped by the fact that sub-tick heavily favors those with lower ping.
The last major change to CS2 is volumetric smokes. This changed how smoke grenades work entirely. Instead of releasing a ball of smoke that would block vision and penetrate walls, the smoke conforms to the area and objects around it.
Along with this change, came a new way of walking and seeing through smoke. An H.E. grenade’s detonation clears a temporary opening for a person to see or shoot through. These volumetric smokes are executed very well and surprisingly do not cause any major FPS drops.
Despite so many major changes to cs:go’s fundamentals, CS2 still keeps true to what CS:GO built. With that being said, CS2 is a long away from being completed but it will only reach that state if the community sticks with it and helps improve what’s wrong.
As mentioned in a previous article, Yume Nikki is a cult classic indie game that was released all the way back in 2004 that explores a young shut-in’s dreams.
While Yume Nikki’s influence can be seen in many different corners of the indie scene, the game hasn’t received any updates in almost ten years. Just because there haven’t been updates doesn’t mean the community hasn’t been active; in fact, some of the community has taken it into their own hands to continue the series.
“Dot flow” and “Yume 2kki” are arguably the best and the most popular fan games released. The problem with these two games is just how hard it is to play them. Even with an English translation, there’s still many other steps needed to play them.
Yume Nikki Online Project or YNOP aims to fix that and add even more onto the games. YNOP is a free fan-made port of Yume Nikki, Dot Flow, Yume 2kki, and even more games all modified for online play complete with English translations. The best part? No downloads are required.
INSPIRATION SECTION
Kikiyama is the creator of Yume Nikki, and much like the game itself, he is shrouded in mystery.
Kikiyama has all but disappeared since the last official release of Yume Nikki, only having appearances when a remake of Yume Nikki came out and doing oneinterview with other indie game developer, Toby Fox. This appearance and interview really are loose terms: signing off on the game’s release and nine yes or no questions is all there was, but nonetheless, he’s out there.
Yume Nikki’s inspiration can be seen far and wide across the indie game spectrum but the inspiration for Yume Nikki can be found easily, in fact, you can just look at the title. Yume Nikki directly translates into dream diary in English. Because of this many have theorized that Yume Nikki is Kikiyama’s dreams, giving an explanation as to why there is little to no story.
FAN-MADE PROJECTS
When playing Yume Nikki for the first time some players may be expecting a more horrific experience or even more in-depth exploration of the dream world. Dot Flow and Yume 2kki aim to solve both those problems.
Dot Flow, unlike Yume Nikki, does not shy away from body horror and tries to make the player uncomfortable. Dot Flow consistently offered up scare after scare that all worked well in tandem with the deteriorating mental state of the protagonist.
Yume 2kki is a project for fans by fans, made by over 100 different developers Yume 2kki does not disappoint in the content section. With 36 worlds the player can choose from when entering the nexus Yume 2kki makes sure to never let the player think they know what is going on.
GAME-PLAY SECTION
As mentioned previously, Yume Nikki follows a young shut-in named Madotsuki and their dreams. Yume Nikki establishes a few very important concepts that Dot Flow and Yume 2kki both expand on like the nexus and effects.
In Yume Nikki, the nexus describes the place just outside of Madotsuki’s room which can only be entered in their dream. The nexus as its name implies serves as a connector to many different dreams, in Yume Nikki these dreams are represented by doors with symbols to represent the world.
In Dot Flow the doors are completely gone in favor of exits in each of the cardinal directions, while this does reduce the number of entrances in the nexus it makes it easier to get to important worlds that may serve a story purpose. Yume 2kki decides to expand on the nexus even more making the nexus an even bigger room with objects to interact with that represent the world.
The other concept, effects, is harder to explain because of the many purposes they serve. The main purpose for effects is to reach the end of the game, which can’t really be called an ending in the context of a story because there really isn’t a story. Effects also serve as transformations that have a variety of effects on the player like making them go faster or being able to light up a world.
Yume 2kki doesn’t just expand on existing effects, giving them new purposes for example. But it also adds an entirely new feature in combining effects. This along with improved menu UI and having more effects in general really make Yume 2kki a never-ending game. Dot Flow, despite not changing any major features about effects or even the rough number needed to complete the game, the effects in Dot Flow are an improvement. This is entirely because of the story that is placed around getting the effects and rust.
When discussing the worst games ever made many people jump to games like E.T. for the Atari or the original release for Final Fantasy 14, maybe even No Man’s Sky. These games are among some of the most buggy, poorly designed, and rushed games in history. But what if the worst game wasn’t buggy at all? What if it had 8 years of development time? What if it had a good concept with a strong base to build off of? The game that fits into all three of these criteria? YiiK, stylized as YIIK and pronounced YEEK.
YiiK is a self-described “Post Modern RPG” with all the classic RPG elements: turn-based combat, quick-time events, and party members.
YiiK follows Alex Eggleston, a college graduate coming back to his hometown, while meeting the protagonist the player will encounter the biggest flaw in the entire game, the writing.
Long droning monologues that provide context already given to the player combined with an extremely unlikable and static protagonist culminate in making some of the most difficult writing to sit through.
Arguably the worst part about the writing is the lack of consequences to Alex’s actions. Alex is constantly the worst person possible in every situation or interaction and unlike games such as The Witcher or Skyrim, these actions aren’t the players’ choice, it’s just who the character is, what he says, what he does.
After playing the game for some time players may expect Alex to grow throughout the story, even if that growth isn’t earned story wise. This doesn’t happen. Alex stays the same morally questionable, sometimes even morally reprehensible character that only thinks about himself, and the game agrees with him.
(the next paragraph contains spoilers for YiiK, if you would like to play the game, please skip it)
Throughout the game Alex only thinks about himself, hetruly believes the world revolves around him and at the end of the game it’s revealed that the world does. While I won’t get into massive lore details just know that Alex is right in believing that he is the most important in the universe by virtue of being Alex Eggleston.
While the writing may be bad, that alone wouldn’t ruin a game. The combat mechanics of the game also help to make it the worst game.
Slow, basic, and repetitive are used best to describe the combat of YiiK. At first glance the combat system may not seem horrible; this illusion is washed away by the end of the first hour of gameplay. To understand the games short comings, it’s important to look a game that did this combat style, based around timing inputs, well.
Paper Mario, for the N64. This game had one of the most innovative combat systems found in a turn-based RPG, letting the players’ skill determine how much damage is done. On top of the skill-based combat it also hosted a large variety of moves/attacks. This is where YiiK fumbles.
YiiK’s combat system does not change. The best moves or attack order will always stay the same, there is no room for variety in the game. Another major problem with YiiK is the scripted fights/losses. Multiple times throughout the story you MUST lose in a fight to progress, this is disheartening when playing.
It sows a sense of doubt into the player. It makes them wonder if they even need to try for this boss. If it would just be better to lose instead of trying just in case. And that mindset isn’t even wrong. It would be easier to just lose every boss before actually attempting them.
The last important thing to mention is how much potential that YiiK had. The game had some of the best video game composers making music for it. YiiK also had an interesting idea; a unique art style that was modern while still being blocky/polygonal.
That’s my biggest problem with YiiK. It had potential, YiiK could’ve been a great game and it still can be. Currently the developers are working on the 1.5 update, this update is promised to change the problems that plague the game. Changing the story direction, improving combat and the dungeons found in the game. This update could be what the game needs to switch from being the punchline of jokes to being a great game. When it comes out, I will be playing it and I implore you too as well.
Released in June of 2020, Valorant is a PC-based, first-person tactical shooter featuring two teams each picking five characters with unique abilities falling under the umbrella agent classes: duelist, controller, sentinel, and initiator.
Gameplay features five-person teams who select any combination of agents based on tactics favored in a predetermined map where teams face off in an attacking and defending scenario.
Updates feature new agents with specialized talents like Astra, Gecko, and Kay/o as well as new maps like Breeze, Pearl, and Lotus.
Valorant’s competitive scene started early in the game’s beta with many streamers, YouTubers, and organizations (orgs) holding tournaments and show matches or one-offs. Eventually the scene evolved into global competitions supported by Riot Games, the creators of Valorant, culminating in million-dollar prizes.
VCT LOCK//IN intro
VCT LOCK//IN is the first, global tournament of the annual year and the first major or officially sanctioned event by Riot Games in addition to Masters and Champions later in the year. Unlike past majors, LOCK//IN would be a single elimination event with no loser’s bracket.
A color-coded map of VCT,
Coming in NA teams were expected to dominate with “super teams” like cloud9, sentinels, and NRG. Along with NA, Brazil’s LOUD would be fighting on home turf after winning it all in last year’s VCT Championship.
Asia Pacific or APAC had a surprising showing during last year’s championships with DRX making it to third place before losing to Optic. Global Esports would also debut as the first team from India to make it to the global stage.
Europe, Middle East, and Africa or EMEA had a poor performance last year compared to years prior but coming in they looked strong with teams like Na’Vi and the always strong Fnatic.
Teams to look out for in the league split
EMEA
Natus Vincere or Na’Vi is definitely a team to look out for, after picking up FPX’s old roster and ascends’ super star cNed they had a dominant showing during the LOCK//IN making it to the semifinals.
The former FPX star Ardiis, now replaced by cNed a former VCT champion completes what felt like a team that always came up short.
Na’Vi isn’t the only team to look out for in the EMEA league, Fnatic was amazing during the tournament not dropping a game until grand finals. Fnatic’s last map vs LOUD was an amazing performance with them taking 9 rounds in a row and winning in over time.
AMERICAS
Na had the most disappointing performances during LOCK//IN, with Cloud9, Sentinels, 100 Thieves, and Evil Genius’ all being destroyed by DRX, Fnatic, and Talon respectively.
Besides this disappointing performance NRG had a good run and gave LOUD a run for their money. With the new team focusing around Ardiis and former Optic stars FNS, Crashies, and Victor.
As always LOUD had an amazing performance even after losing pANcada and Sacy during the off-season, LOUD played amazingly well and is a shoo-in for Masters later this year.
APAC
Talon had a surprisingly good run during LOCK//IN beating teams like EG and coming close to beating DRX.
Team Secret performed one of the biggest upsets in the tournament beating Team Liquid one of the favorites from EMEA.
You can’t talk about APAC without mentioning DRX, ever since 2022 DRX has been running APAC. No one has ever been as dominant in their respective region except for maybe 2020-early 2021 Sentinels.
DRX came very close to being in the grand final’s versus Fnatic only losing to LOUD in a nail biter of a last game.
RIVALRIES
Fnatic, despite being one of the top teams of EMEA has always been in the shadow of FPX and Sentinels. They lost to Sentinels during their undefeated run in Reykjavik, and all throughout 2022 placed lower than FPX but LOCK//IN was different. Beating Sentinels first round with a clean 2-0 sweep and beating Na’Vi, who picked up the former FPX roster, with another clean sweep, 3-0.
LOUD and NRG, a rivalry so deep it shattered previous records for most concurrent viewers. These two teams may not have played much but the players on LOUD and NRG have a ton of history, the reason? Crashies, Victor, and FNS. These three players beat LOUD during last year’s masters Reykjavik during grand finals back when they were on Optic but LOUD also beat them during grand finals of Champions 2022. During the quarter finals game LOUD set the record straight and beat NRG 2-1.
Short Review For Major Teams
100 Thieves didn’t perform very well, they had two extremely close games and lost in a blow out to Fnatic but I have hope for them during the league split.
EDG showed some of the most unique and fun gameplay, it was a treat watching them compete even though they didn’t make it past round one.
Na’Vi had an amazing performance during VCT LOCK//IN establishing dominance in both Valorant’s competitive scene and CSGO’s.
Fnatic won LOCK//IN for a reason, they’ve worked hard to get this point and are still looking strong.
NRG had a great run and almost beat LOUD losing during overtime in close game that could’ve gone either way.
Talon didn’t make it to the semi finals but still played great, losing to DRX. They will be a team to look out for during the league split.
There isn’t much to say about LOUD, they as always played amazingly well and just barely lost during grand finals
DRX is by far the best APAC team, they are unmatched giants in their region but on the global stage? It feels like they can’t hold their own.
Fnatic‘s Rise to The Greatest
The crowd roars as the two teams enter the packed Brazilian, Sao Paulo stadium. After huddling they sit down at their setups. The massive lights illuminating the arena drown out the gaming monitors’ glow. 10,000 people pack the seats to watch this match. After five, long hours of gameplay the last game of grand finals starts.
Down 11-3, Fnatic have everything stacked against them, the Brazilian crowd roars for every round the European Fnatics lose.
Then Fnatic calls their last time out. The crowd hushes. It’s a brief rest for everyone in the match’s controlled chaos.
Refocused, Fnatic follows through with their coach’s advice and win just one: the first of many they need to have a chance of winning.
Now it’s 11-8, five rounds stolen from under LOUD’s nose. Fnatic builds hope. LOUD worries. The tension is visible as both teams shift in their seats.
11-11, Fnatic needs to win one more round to confirm overtime but it isn’t looking good, it’s a 2v1 and Aspas LOUD’s best is still alive. Alfajer, the 17year-old prodigy from Turkey doesn’t falter, he gets two and takes the lead for the first time the entire game. Screaming out in joy Fnatic players almost jump out of their seats.
Fnatic loses the next round, but it doesn’t matter as overtime has been secured, now only two rounds stood between Fnatic and their first global win. Fnatic isn’t sad or angry about losing the round but instead reaffirming, all that was needed of them was two rounds and Fnatic knew that.
The first round of overtime went Fnatic’s way, everyone in the stadium grew quiet at the thought of Fnatic winning. All you could hear in the stadium was the casters commentating and the players on stage.
Fnatic gets one, now it’s a 4v5, then a 3v5. LOUD starts dropping like flies until only ASPAS is left, the best player on LOUD left in an impossible 1v5. Knowing that ASPAS has clutched situations worse than this, Fnatic doesn’t let up and because of it they win.
Finally, Fnatic triumphed over the mountain that was LOUD, winning the last round flawlessly. Excitement permeates through the entirety of Fnatic, as they went up to accept their trophy, the ever so loud crowd was now silent. Grand finals ended 3-2 in favor of Fnatic, crowning Chronicle as the first person to have ever won two global events and finally giving Fnatic their first and a well-deserved global title.
EPISODE THREE: THE LONGEVITY OF SUCCESS By Logan Jacobs
Official Transcript:
Hailey Boehme: Welcome back, everyone. From Mustang Post News, West Fargo, this is Sheyenne Perspectives. I’m Hailey Boehme.
In our last episode of Sheyenne Perspectives, Dairell Alvarico delved into change and how we react to change, whether we like that change or not. This week Logan Jacobs continues our series by reflecting on success. Specifically, what success and failure means in the music industry. Here’s Logan.
[THEME SONG – KOLBY THOMPSON.]
Logan Jacobs: How does success stand against the test of time? Will those that are successful now find success in 20, 30, even 40 years? How can we know?
Will we yearn for music like this in the future? What makes an artist successful and how long that success last.
But what is success?
Anthony Peterson: the easy answer is sales, in the short term.
Logan Jacobs: That’s Mr. Peterson, choir and History of Rock-n-roll teacher at Sheyenne High School.
Anthony Peterson: Are they selling records, digital downloads? Are they streaming on YouTube? All of this is now playing a factor into the top ten records or song in a country or in the world
Logan Jacobs: Although that may not be all there is to it, maybe success is something much more complicated.
Anthony Peterson: Sustained success is really more about can you evolve with the time and be a trendsetter instead of just repeating yourself over and over.
Logan Jacobs: Take for example rapper Redveil. For three years now he’s been producing successful albums. Three, in fact. He’s certainly popular enough where people are taking inspiration from him at this point. But will his success last? Will he be able to evolve and maintain his trendsetting creativity?
But who are some others that could be successful?
Anthony Peterson: Well, historically if you look at the bands or the artists that were able to recreate themselves year after year and record to record and do new things, while doing it at a certain level and keeping their level of success and sales, you have to initially look at someone like the Beatles or the rolling stones in the 60s and the 70s as a group that not only was massively successful but they were pioneering new styles and genres every year, and doing it in a way no one else had before, so not only were they successful but they were trailblazers into new areas of music
Logan Jacobs: Chance, another rapper, was once trailblazer, yet in recent years he has seen a significant decline. He hasn’t adapted. He hasn’t maintained a level of creativity and work ethic that promotes continued success.
Will, however, he reach a turning point? An epiphany? A moment where he’ll regain his creativity that will lead to a level of success as he achieved before. Lead to record sales.
Although, there are some who are still successful
Anthony Peterson: More recently I think you have to look at someone like a Taylor Swift who started in a more traditional country world and every record she’s had in the last decade plus seems to change and evolve artistically and lyrically which allows her to not repeat herself and she’s finding new success with new audiences; and she’s in her mid 30s now, for 20 years of success is not easy. In the music world it’s very easy to be a one hit wonder and then disappear because you have nothing else in that bag.
Logan Jacobs: The key to finding sustainable success is not only to grow and change, but to be untouchable by others in your genre. An unrealistic level of ability is needed at all times for you to keep your success. Chance had built up this reputation that came crashing down through the release of one record.
Anthony Peterson: The neat thing about older artists success is that it doesn’t seem to go away, there is still a market for something that is now dubbed classic rock, and if you look at, locally at arenas near here there’s going to be a plethora of artists that are selling massive amounts of tickets, that have had their biggest amount of success in the 80s, 70s, and maybe even the 60s. That are still touring and selling out all over the world.
So having that impact that they had in their time is still very relevant because there is still a market for it. I want to assume that modern artists are still going to be musically interesting and sophisticated 30 years from now and people are still going to be seeing their concerts.
Logan Jacobs: Now fans are stuck romanticizing about what they can not have, an older version of Chance. One that has not stained his ethereal presence on the music world. Reminiscing about the past, until another “Chance” comes around.
Anthony Peterson: The one unique thing I could spin in for some artists is some of them never had a reunion, like the Beatles were never able to reunite because John Lennon was killed and now another member of the band has since passed away, there is only two of the four left, they can’t be the Beatles anymore because after the band broke up they were never able to reunite so like with the Rolling Stones who started at around the same time, they’ve been a somewhat stable group for the past 50 years, some people think that tarnished their legacy and its like there not as good as they used to be, or they’re old or dad rockers but obviously people still want to see them,
where you have a different group like the Beatles who only existed in that one decade and they never were able to do anything else, so there are different ways to look at it because I think some people like what they can’t have more than something that’s like still around, I think that’s benefited the Beatles success because they know they can’t see them in concerts so they yearn for that old music cause it only existed back then and there’s no way to ruin it.
Logan Jacobs: Can an entire music career die, only because of one poor release? Can an artist redeem themselves after failure? Or are they forever stuck, known as the person they formerly were?
This podcast was recorded and edited by Logan Jacobs and hosted by Hailey Boehme. Sheyenne Perspectives theme music was composed and performed by Kolby Thompson under the direction of Mark Berntson. Special thanks goes out to Anthony Peterson.
Hailey Boehme:
Next week on Sheyenne Perspectives, Carter Phillips will dig deep into what fuels people’s desire to create.
Chance The Rapper was a name that used to rule the world of Hip Hop, after the release of Coloring Book, Acid Rap, and 10 Day Chance felt like an artist that could never fail.
Six years later Redveil is making a name for himself long after Chance’s era.
Chance The Rapper or Chancelor Bennett started his early career with his first mixtape, 10 Day when he was only 18 years old.
10 years later Redveil or Marcus Morton released his third album Learn 2 Swim at 18 years old.
Both young artists soon found success through their breakout hit, but will Redveil make the same mistakes Chance did or will he continue his success?
Chance preforming at the Summer Fest
Chance in 2011 got caught on campus with marijuana and was suspended for 10 days, inspiring his mixtape 10 Day. Eight months after that incident Chance would release his first mixtape.
Chance performing on his latest tour
Chance was an artist whose fame blew up and with that came people’s expectations. During the 2012 tour Chance would be working on his new mixtape, Acid Rap.
This new work would delve into Chance and his relationship with drugs and smoking. Chance would meet the expectations put on him and even surpass them, Acid Rap really showed Chance’s talent for making music.
With his talent Chance would continue to rise in the Hip Hop scene.
Chance’s last mixtape would come out to critical acclaim and became the first project ever to chart solely because of streams.
In May of 2016 after almost three years of radio silence about his next project Chance would release Coloring Book.
Chance The Rapper performs during Spotify’s RapCaviar Live in Brooklyn, New York.
Once again It felt like Chance had surpassed his previous work and with it Chance took his spot on top of the music world. Over the next three years Chance would tour two times all while working on The Big Day.
Despite how much time he put in, his first studio album would not turn out the way fans or Chance wanted. At nowhere near the quality of his past works, fans were left wondering what could have led to such a failure.
About a year after The Big Day was released, the public would find out the reasons behind the subpar album. During the recording sessions Chance reportedly had “Procrastination and lackadaisical effort.”
Chance’s future is now full of uncertainty, with no clue on when or if he will release another mixtape or album.
Redveil’s newest music video
Redveil was just 12 when he got into making music, but it wouldn’t be until 16 that he would release his first album, Bittersweet City.
His first album wouldn’t give him immediate success but instead lay the groundwork for his future projects. Just under a year later Marcus would drop his second album Niagara, Marcus’ breakout hit would not come until about a year and a half later.
Learn 2 Swim would come out to almost instant success because of the lead single, pg baby.
After blowing up the expectations on Marcus increased ten-fold. For right now we have no clue if Marcus will keep up the trend of improving with every work, or if he will stumble like Chance.
As the month of October is in full swing and Halloween is fast approaching, gamers may be looking for new or different scares. However, fear often takes a back seat in this style of play and tension takes over. And that tension is delivered in different and sometimes unusual ways. Multiplayer, Psychological, and Traditional are a nice triad of horror.
Multiplayer Horror: Phasmophobia is a fun 1 to 4 player ghost-hunting game in which players find pieces of evidence to determine what type of ghost is pursuing them.
As the ghost initiates what is called a “hunt” all players who are in the house at the time get locked in with the ghost until the conflict is resolved.
Players have tools to assist them such as the walkie talkie. During the hunt the walkie talkie also shuts off so players’ voices can only be heard by those nearby.
Other players looking down at my dead body
Death is always a risk. The ghost’s primary purposee is to track down players and kill them with a touch.
However, there ways to avoid these disturbing deaths. Different items like smudge sticks or a crucifix can ward off ghosts, buying the players more time.
Players can buy these items using a shop system offering many different items such as a head-mounted camera so teammates can see a first-person perspective from the van or candles that maintain player sanity in dark rooms.
However not all items can be bought in the shop like cursed possessions. These cursed possessions range from a ghost summoning circle to tarot cards that may save players from death.
Overall, this game is an engaging first-person paranormal investigation with mortal consequences yet a fun team-based action.
Yume Nikki’s, “Staircase Of Hands”
Phycological Horror: Yume Nikki is a true cult classic. Released in 2004, Yume Nikki explores dreams and nightmares.
While this game is far more psychological than horror, there are still horrific elements which have inspired other great horror games such as Omori, and the Lisa franchise.
As young shut-in Madotsuki, players go around dreams, collecting effects, doing events, and diving deeper into said dreams. Effects are the closest things you get to a progress system in Yume Nikki. Not all effects are useful, but some are extremely useful such as the bike making you go faster or the lamp lighting up dark worlds.
Although the effects can be described as a “progress system” gathering all 24 effects should not be the goal when playing Yume Nikki. Looking at Yume Nikki through that lens may lead to overlooking impacting events and areas such as going to Mars or meeting Uboa. These events and areas make up such a huge part of Yume Nikki and can be witnessed only after doing very specific steps that would have been missed by just chasing after effects.
Yume Nikki’s, “Pink Sea”
Traditional Horror: Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion, has the player exploring a haunted mansion. In the mansion players will find different specimen, these specimens all have unique abilities each having their own way of trying to kill the player.
Unique abilities can range from having a puddle of goo to slow the player down, to forcing the player to constantly look at the specimen as they venture through the different rooms of the mansion.
After venturing through the mansion’s 1000 rooms players will face off against a final boss and depending on their score will either get a good or bad ending. Players will also face a sad truth of the mansion that had been hinted at all throughout the game.
Even after beating the story mode Spooky’s continues, by beating the paid hd version players will unlock an endless mode and two new dlcs.
Karamari Hospital and Dollhouse are both vastly different from the past formula of Spooky’s, instead of mixing in random specimen encounters and scripted encounters the two dlcs choose to go down the route of just having scripted encounters. This style of just having scripted encounters makes the story shine, letting the player explore a large dark abandoned hospital, discovering the past secrets left behind by GL Labs.
In Spooky’s Dollhouse the player explores a large mansion with many dark secrets left behind, eventually coming to a climax the player sees Spooky’s final moments. The endless mode opts to ditch the lore aspects and instead just focuses on scaring the player, the player can be chased by any monster across both dlcs and the main game, even adding more specimen exclusive to endless mode.
Phasmophobia, Yume Nikki, and Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion are three games I will never forget playing and games that I would recommend to anyone who’s looking for a good scare this Halloween.
Kendrick Lamar, one of the biggest names in music history and an amazing artist who made a name for himself by working hard and making beautiful music.
He started off at a young age releasing small mixtapes which garnered notoriety on the west coast. Under the name “KDot” he would sign to TDE or Top Dawg Entertainment, and slowly release more mixtapes and singles, even receiving a cosign from Lil Wayne.
While releasing two more mixtapes Kendrick would change his stage name to his birth name, finally going by Kendrick Lamar, he announced his first independent album under the name “Section.80”.
Section.80 would soon put Kendrick’s name even further on the map including features from artists such as GLC and SchoolBoy Q.
The album’s first single “HiiiPoWeR” released a few days after the announcement of said album. Section.80 would be released on July 2nd to high praise, with many people around the world coming to the realization that Kendrick is or will soon become the king of the west coast.
Cover art for Kendrick Lamar’s first studio album, Good Kid M.A.A.D. City
Kendrick’s first studio album “Good Kid M.A.A.D. City” was announced in March of 2012, the lead single, “Drank” releasing July 31st.
MAAD City would be an album that told a tale of Kendricks life and was very popular because of it, singing about his life in Compton. MAAD City would start a trend of greatness for Kendrick with his two following studio albums being some of the greatest of all time.
Kendrick Lamar would go on to make To Pimp a Butterfly and Untitled, Unmastered, with TPaB being seen as Kendrick’s masterpiece and one of the best albums of all time.
Cover art for DAMN
Untitled Unmastered would include cut songs from TPaB, having them all be untitled and unmastered. TPaB and UU would instantly become classics in Kendricks’s discography.
DAMN, Kendrick Lamar’s latest album* would shock the world with a tale of Duckworth, Kendrick’s father. This album would become one of his most popular albums with Humble, the lead single of the album reaching over one billion streams.
The end of this era of Kendrick would be with the soundtrack for Black Panther, as Kendrick would soon go into hiatus.
Kendrick Lamar would break this hiatus not with a new album but instead by working with his younger cousin, Baby Keem. Both would work on The Melodic Blue, Baby Keems first studio album even signing him to his new record label PGLang. oklama.com would on April 18th announce a new album, Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers, to come out May 13th.
When I think about hard games the first franchise that comes to mind is Darksouls with its unforgiving bosses and unique story telling it has become one of most popular franchises of all time but does its newest sequel hold up the standard the other games have set up? Yes.
Elden Ring is one of the most anticipated games of all time with it selling over 10 million copies on pc alone, but sales won’t make a game good, most of the time it needs to have at least one reason for people to play it: story, difficulty, gameplay, all reasons to play a game and Elden Ring has all three in droves.
A story crafted by George RR Martin author of critically acclaimed series A Song of Fire and Ice, a difficulty standard that holds up the Darksouls legacy, and gameplay refined by all past Souls games.
Elden ring also opts for a new style of gameplay, instead of past games where you would go from one boss to another in a very linear order, Elden Ring lets you avoid certain bosses until you are confident enough to beat them.
Miriel, Pastor of Vows, an unkillable and loveable turtle
This new style is best shown off with the second boss you encounter, the Tree Sentinel, he’s first seen when taking your first steps into Elden Ring’s world.
Most players will try and fight this boss thinking it to be the first boss you are meant to fight but most players are wrong. The Tree Sentinel is there to teach you that it’s ok to avoid the fight.
Not everything about Elden Ring is amazing though, because of the nonlinear nature of the game it’s very easy to miss very important parts of the game including the tutorial, which is just a hole in the ground.
One of my biggest criticisms of Elden Ring is the fact that I had to look up so much of the game like, what to do with the dragon heart, where the tutorial is, how the magic system works.
Telling a player everything about a game can ruin the quality of the experience by giving way too much information to a player at once but that problem is instantly fixed if you don’t tell the player anything, just expecting the player to figure such integral things is lazy and can ruin the game just as much as telling the player everything.
Screenshot from Elden Ring trailer
Exploration is one of the hardest things to do right in a game, Elden Ring does it well enough to warrant an open world style.
The main reason that I explored Elden Ring was to try and find bosses, because so many bosses are just missed completely if you don’t explore the world.
Those bosses that you find through exploring are the most fun, you don’t just go through a yellow fog and fight a boss but instead you enter an area like a lake, or a bridge and a boss fight just starts.
I do think there is a severe lack of unique items to find while exploring, I have not changed any equipment since the start of the game because I haven’t found any that fit me.
I have found many sets of armor too, but none fit my build of dexterity and strength instead most being heavily magic based.
That brings me to what I love the most about Elden Ring, the bosses, all that I’ve fought have been a fun triumph to beat but never too difficult, but some have been too easy.
Rennala, queen of the full moon, a demi-god and story boss
I beat Rennala queen of the full moon on the second try, it was harder to beat the two bosses needed to get to her. This problem is not shared with many bosses, but I still feel as though it’s worth it to mention because of how great Elden Ring’s bosses are.
No boss in Elden Ring has felt unfair, every time I died, I knew it was happening 2 seconds in advance because they put so much effort into showing the player when and where a boss would attack.
Because of the time they put into telegraphing attacks it not only feels fair when you die but it also feels amazing when you manage to dodge it for the first time. The same thing happens when you beat a boss for the first time.
As of writing this article I am 25 hours into Elden Ring, I have beaten 10 bosses and two “dungeons” and I don’t know if I could give this game a fair rating, but I can say with 100% certainty that this game is worth buying and playing.
Whether or not you look up guides, farm levels, or spend 15 hours on one boss, enjoy this game the way you want to, because this game is meant to be enjoyed by as many people as possible.
Ye “Kanye” West released 808s and Heartbreak on November 4th, 2008, to mixed reviews. Some hated the new sounds and use of 808 drums while some found the album to be the best Kanye album to date.
The album had an innovative use of synth’s, 808 drums, and melodic lyrics which previously had only been found in underground hip hop groups with Kanye bringing it to the forefront of modern hip hop.
Younger artists such as Lil Uzi Vert and The Weeknd both have taken major influence from the album.
Background
Before the making of 808s Kanye’s mother, Donda West tragically passed away. After, Kanye and his then fiancé Alexis Phifer split.
Before the death of Donda West, Kanye met soon to be up and coming artist Kid Cudi in a Virgin megastore with Kid Cudi introducing himself to Kanye and after Kanye turned down some of his music he claimed “we’ll be working together one day soon”.
Kid Cudi ran into Kanye again at a BAPE store. Kanye would later hear Cudi’s single “Day ‘n’ Nite”, soon after he would sign Cudi to his label “GOOD Music”.
The Making
While working on 808s, Kanye had two artists to help on the album as a whole, Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi and Faheem “T-Pain” Najm. Kanye wanted an album much like T-Pain’s first album “Rappa Ternt Sanga”, with Kanye listening to T-Pain’s first album and calling in T-Pain to make 808s sound more like it.
Kanye and Kid Cudi worked together on four tracks, “Heartless” being the chorus, “Welcome to Heartbreak” being featured, “Paranoid” being background vocals, and “RoboCop” in which he helped write.
Both Jeezy and Lil Wayne inspired Kanye with their use of auto-tune with both getting a feature on the album. Kanye’s sad and melodic lyrics took inspiration from his recent breakup with his ex-wife, with many lyrics talking about her and the whole song of “Heartless” being about her.
After The Album
The album would peak at the top spot of the Billboard 200 and sell 450,000 units in one day, being the worst selling Kanye album at that point.
Two months after the album came out it became a certified platinum selling 1,000,000 units. Now the album is a certified triple platinum selling over 3,000,000 units as of 2020. After 808s and Heartbreak
Kanye West would find himself in hot water during the 2009 VMA awards, after a drunk Kanye walked on stage and said that Beyonce deserved the award for Best Female Video over Taylor Swift.
Kanye would then go into a secluded state recording “never see me again” and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye’s magnum opus. Most look back at the album now as the forefather of modern hip hop.
With many artists such as The Weeknd saying “[808s] is one of the most important bodies of work of my generation”.
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