Don’t mind me, I’m gonna listen to Duke of Death in loop for the following two months.

Happy to oblige.
To be frank, and I’m sorry if this may sound a bit blunt, you might get more thoughtful replies if your question focused less on dismissing the game up front. The front-loaded tone of your original question is what drew so many downvotes and pushed people away who may have been willing to answer your questions thoughtfully. I also completely missed your point and talked about censorship instead of the game itself because of that.
It’s alright if you don’t like the game or its content, and honestly, I don’t think the game’s for me either; but I wouldn’t be so quick as to judge it as edgelord shovelware before even trying to assess what kind of game it is, especially as the article, which you quoted, made it quite clear that the game had social commentary going on and wasn’t just porn slop.

I think it’s a very interesting experience, although it may not be apt for people who play for the gameplay exclusively. It’s eerie and unsettling in a way that’s difficult to replicate in more traditional/mainstream media, which I think is a good thing in a horror game. If you’re tired of random ghosts, zombies or similar and want a more unique experience, Horses provides that.

Whether you’ll like it, heavily depends on whether you are willing to forgive its shortcomings in the gameplay department in favour of the unique story and social commentary it aims to provide. I’ve played multiple games in the past where I liked the story and didn’t care much for the gameplay, but I also have friends who are unwilling to play a bad game with a good story, so, you know, YMMV.

If you’re asking whether “that mess of a description” exists solely for you to masturbate on or to provide shock value, then I disagree. While the game does feature heavy themes and abhorrent imagery, they exist to convey the narrative. The following is from a Reddit comment (user: yougotiton) that sums it up very nicely:

[…] the puritan can never be free of sexuality, but is vindictive towards the reality of sexuality. It’s easier for them to express their own sexuality through abuse and violence than it is to confront it or interrogate it.

It’s also a horror game, so, you know, abhorrent things are to be expected (and are appreciated when done right).

Whether a piece of art is a monumental accomplishment or a fleeting novelty should have no bearing on the content it is allowed to display. Making that distinction is indulging in censorship.

Unless you’re saying that Michelangelo gets a pass, but Horses doesn’t? How do you know whether a piece of art is worth it? Where do you draw the line?
Stephen King’s IT has the famous scene where children have an orgy in the sewers. Is he allowed to write it? What’s the difference between IT and Horses, apart from the (subjective) quality of the works themselves?

https://youtu.be/iCkwMFoQno0

(1) The devs trying to make the best out of a bad situation and marketing their game in a difficult situation is, like, not their fault? If you have a product, you want to sell it. Especially if you are an indie dev who desperately needs as much marketing as possible, and ESPECIALLY if you get banned from the largest videogame storefront on the planet because of Valve’s shitty review policies. Calling this “publicity stunt” is very narrow-minded.

(2) Some random news article calling them “one of the best indie game developers” is, again, not their fault. First of all, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and secondly, the devs are not out there brainwashing people to like their game. If someone liked their game enough to consider them a GOTY contender, good for them. My 2018 GOTY was CrossCode despite other big titles releasing that same year (MH World, RDR2, Spiderman, Celeste, God of War just to name a few), is it the dev’s fault?

(3) You calling it “barely an art piece” means shit all. It’s not up to you (or anyone) to decide what’s art and what’s not. This is blatant censorship, but I guess that’s alright as long as it’s not something you like?

(4) The problem is not that they would’ve sold fewer copies had they be available on Steam; the problem is that they weren’t allowed a chance to prove themselves to begin with, because of the shitty review policies by Valve who adamantly refuses to review any game twice (despite them having more than enough money to do so) when they find something they deem “unacceptable”, according to their nebulous metrics. Somehow Sex with Hitler is allowed to be sold on their platform, and so are many Japanese hentai games featuring questionably-legal child-like characters, but this one isn’t? Why is that?

Shovel Knight is one of the most successful indie games ever released. We’re not talking of a “moderately” successful game that sold a few hundred thousand copies, like Hyper Lighr Drifter or CrossCode: SK sold over 2.5m copies back in 2019, and I’d wager at least as much since then. How do you go from there to almost bankruptcy?

The gog version remains available.

It’s worth noting that Y0 was a beloved entry that frequently dipped below the $10 mark. The remaster adds a few minutes worth of (according to most people) unnecessary cutscenes, and charges full price for it. For many, the standard edition is not only cheaper, but also better.

Any game is a good point to jump into: the lore in RE is something you can look up if you’re interested, but is not particularly deep or complex, nor is it ever mandatory to understand or to enjoy a title.

I would recommend playing the games you are interested in the most, rather than the ones people deem important for the lore.

LumenTale is an indie monster collector game developed by the same people who worked on the Pokémon fangame Xenoverse. Launching on Steam (Steam Deck compatible) and Nintendo Switch, and other platforms on a later date.

I love the nicknames!

Whopsie, yes, my bad. The two always get mixed in my mind.

About the LGBTQ part: she was working at EA when she transitioned, and she recounted acceptance and support for trans people was codified in her workplace, in a time when transitioning often meant discrimination, rejection and even job loss.

People don’t always remember that EA were the “good guys” before they made bank with Sims and CoD.

Her hour long speech about how 3DO Doom came to be is legendary. If you don’t have the time to listen to it in its entirety, I recommend StopSkeletonsFromFighting’s summary.

I put these links separately from the main post because, although many people remember her for this story, she was a legend who worked on many other games and deserves to be remembered for other, much greater accomplishments.

Do we know who was to blame for that? Last I heard, the publisher and the developers were pointing fingers at each other.

Is that still the only modern day gameplay segment of the entire franchise?

Kind of wild that they never revisited the idea.

Oh, absolutely. Which is why I avoid popular social media: you just end up drowning in AI/botted content.

I love how so many people on Reddit are acting like this is a complete shock. That site has been a cesspool of bots and targeted ads for years now, people still believed they were having real conversations with humans? I’d be surprised if legit content was higher than 50%.

If you like Max Payne, I also recommend Stranglehold. It’s a canonical sequel to John Woo’s Hard Boiled, and it’s a lot of fun, albeit on the short side.

That’s a nostalgic pic.

I love GoG, but I wish it stopped getting games so late that, by the time they release on it, I’ve already bought them on two competing platforms.

Aside from that, this is a solid release. RE1make is one of the best horror games ever made: I was scared shitless even on my third playthrough. Highly recommended if you want a good game for Halloween night.

I signed this petition. I’ve also signed other petitions over the years, I regularly donate to WWF and do other activities that I deem worthy of my time and money.

Caring about games preservation doesn’t mean that I only care about games preservation.

Also, why is it that games preservation is a first world problem, but “stop putting ads everywhere” isn’t? Where do you draw the line?

Journalism at large is dangerously close to dying. People favour free click- and rage-bait headlines on Facebook over quality journalism. The latter can’t compete because quality costs money, while cheap quality articles oversaturate the market. AI only exacerbated the issue.

I suppose it depends heavily on nostalgia.

I have no attachment to Nintendo brands nor Mario Kart in particular. My sister bought a Mario Kart Wii game a few years back and I didn’t care much for it. Having grown up with CTR on PS1, and Spyro and Crash as platformers, I immensely enjoyed the remake.

I like how the kart handles, and the turbo mechanic is a lot of fun and has a lot of depth. But I suppose that MK fans have other things they enjoy from their franchise.

Nintendo can’t catch a breath, huh. This is what, the third big data breach in the last five or so years?

I’ve never played them myself, but I’ve seen some mods that completely overhaul the game.

That being said, I would recommend playing the vanilla experience first, with an HD mod if you’d like.

Freelancer is still the best of its genre, IMO.

It’s abandonware, so you can download it for free, and the community has released a ton of mods over the years.

I remember when people were so excited for the ABK acquisition. They really believed that MS was going to offer all the catalogue for cheap on their subscription service day one, and that Xbox would end up winning the console war.

a game with an Italian plumber stomping on turtles.

Perchance.

They’ll almost certainly sell these bonus levels as a DLC when they actually release. Don’t get caught up in FOMO.

The point I was trying to make is, that with their abysmal sales, maybe these units were produced before the tariffs went into effect, which means that they were not losing money on their sales, but increased the price anyway.

With how much and how fast Xbox sales have been dropping, are they even producing new units to sell? Or are they using tariffs as an excuse to raise the prices and make as much bank as possible with what little customers they have left?

Without going into much detail, I know of an indie studio where the game director wanted a lot of personal oversight on many things, music included. From giving other games’ tunes as a moodboard to take inspiration from for specific tracks, to minutiae like removing an instrument, swapping an instrument for another one, slowing or increasing the beat…

I don’t think it’s a matter of indie vs AAA studios as a lot of people here are making it out to be. It’s a matter of how big of a personality the game director is, and how much oversight they want over their game.

I very much doubt that when (if) the game releases, it will be worth the wait and live up to the hype.

I feel like everybody will answer “Silksong” for the foreseeable future lol

As for me, I’ve been in a mood for zombie games for the past few months. There are a LOT of them, but good ones? Not very much. I finished RE2make (which I kind of liked, with reserve) and RE3make (which I despised) at the start of the year, then moved to RE8, but I found it disappointingly boring, so I switched to Dying Light, which I’ve played for the past two months.

It’s technically a replay because I played it already a few years back, but I didn’t bother with the DLCs because I was kind of over with it by the end of the story, so I hope to 100% it this time. I really like it actually! I just find open world games exhausting in the long run as they drag on a bit too much.

You’re right! It also infringes on Nintendo’s exclusive patent to (a) show things on a screen, (b) move said things with a controller, and © display written text via alphanumeric strings.

What did your boss do to deserve this?

I mean, what specifically?

Nobody was implying exclusivity outside of you.

Slip of the tongue. I likewise reject the idea of eastern writers being “usually” better at writing emotions and/or moral ambiguity, or doing it more frequently. There are countless good and bad stories on both sides.

I felt it went without saying that this was referring to mainstream media because… video games. With an emphasis on action because… video games.

Most of the examples I mentioned were mainstream movies and videogames that sold millions of tickets/copies. Or at least as much mainstream as Kamen Rider and Yakuza. There are tons of examples of well-written human drama.

I also fail to understand why action = video games. There are tons of successful games where action is not the main focus, or sometimes it’s not even present at all. I enjoyed the cozy vibes of Life is Strange, for example.

Which, to use one of your examples, let’s look at (ugh) Rambo. The first one IS a pretty interesting character study into a man with extreme PTSD who can’t stop fighting his war (which is plenty of tropes). Which is why it is so telling that once they shifted fully into the action side, almost all of that went away outside of cheap drama over the naive pseudo-daughter… getting sold into slavery and raped to death.

As for your critique of (generally shonen) anime? Let’s look at the ur example of Dragon Ball Z (also DB but it is less fun). Vegeta.

Brushing off the first Rambo movie because of subpar sequels, and then using Dragonball (a series that had nowhere to go after Frieza and yet still gets milked with subpar sequels to this day) as a talking point is just nonsensical.

Mentioning Vegeta as a good example of moral ambiguity is hilarious because he is probably one of the worst written characters of all time, who single-handedly ruins the characterization of the entirety of the main cast.
The dude committed genocide or attempted one at least once per narrative arc and everybody was okay with spending their time with him for literally no reason. If I had two bullets and was standing in a room with Vegeta and Hitler, the safest option for Earth as a whole would be to shoot Vegeta twice. There is “respecting” another person, and there is “brushing off crimes against humanity because that character is cool”.

By the way, I don’t want to imply that eastern (Japanese? I don’t think you mentioned other media outside of Japan) writers are worse than western ones. I loved the first Yakuza game (the second one was very dumb and killed my interest in the series; maybe I’m missing out). Metal Gear Solid and Xenogears are, to this day, two of my favourite games ever. I went to the cinema twice in a row to watch Godzilla Minus One. I could also mention Oldboy for something outside of Japan, or Red Cliff, and those are both very much mainstream as well, and action too.

Contrast that with The West where The Hero is contractually required (formerly legally required…) to stop short and insist that killing the man who slaughtered dozens of children would make him no better… before being given an out when said monster grabs a gun out of nowhere.

As opposed to eastern culture/media, where the average shonen protagonist will punch the villain enough to convince them to join the good team? Like, you are oversimplifying so much, I don’t even know where to begin. I’m also a bit confused by your point because you lament western characters only beating evil guys to a pulp, then contrast them to an eastern character doing the same.

If your point is that characters in western media don’t display emotions, there are tons of western movies that do exactly that. You won’t find them in generic action movies, but that’s true for pretty much any media around the globe, including eastern ones.

Rambo (the first one, the only good one) has Stallone crying his heart out at the end of the movie. Stand by me has the characters face their insecurities and inner demons throughout the entire movie. Lord of the Rings, Interstellar, Lawrence of Arabia, Saving Private Ryan, Silence (western movie based on Japanese book, maybe this is cheating?). Automata’s entire point is to challenge toxic masculinity.

I could also mention animated films such as How to train your dragon, Tarzan, Puss in Boots Last Wish, Wall-E, Treasure Planet, Finding Nemo, Wild Robot or Emperor’s new Groove, which all have either human male individuals, or male-coded characters that happen to be animals/robots/aliens (IF your point was that male characters are often too macho and emotionless; if you were complaining about characters of any gender doing it, then the list expands).

If your point is that there’s no moral ambiguity in western media, half the above examples still stand. Rambo beat countless (evil) cops, but he’s not seen as a hero for doing so, and he’s a broken man by the end of the movie. Lord of the Rings is choke full of morally ambiguous or conflicted characters, although the most prominent and a fan favourite is Boromir of Gondor. Interstellar has the main character abandon his family to save humanity, and the movie doesn’t explicitly condemn nor praise him for his actions. Saving Private Ryan has the characters conflicted on what to do with a captured german soldier within enemy territory, and the consequences of their choice. There’s the entirety of the Goodfather series following an explicitly evil, but charismatic set of characters.

As for videogames, moral ambiguity was the entire point of TLOU2, although many people disliked that one for various reasons. Styx 1 (haven’t played the second one yet) has you play a character which does good for the wrong reasons, and bad for the good ones. Life is Strange 1 and 2 (haven’t played the rest of the series yet) has lots of morally ambiguous characters, often including the main cast. A Plague Tale, especially the second one, weights on how violence can ruin a person, even if they are forced to commit it for their loved ones.

I’m just mentioning titles off the top of my head, and I’m probably forgetting a lot which could further my point. Point is, I wholeheartedly refuse this idea of eastern media being the only ones capable of displaying emotions or moral ambiguity.

Seems like too many games missing for $35 tbh.

Like, most of those are games I could play for free on an emulator.