Ask Lemmy

Don't Trust The B in Apt 23

There's this indie game called The Gap. It's about a man who is trying to find the cure to Huntington's disease to save his family. He discovers that déjà vu is one's own memories from a parallel universe. He uses this knowledge to search other realities to find the cure. It's a slow burn but it's so good.

This is actually one of my favorite games and it has the third place spot after Silent Hill 2 and SOMA. This isn't a horror game just to be clear. I haven't seen anyone talk about this game which is a real shame. I highly recommend it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1458300/The_Gap/

My two all-time favourite videogames, one of them kinda obscure and the other very obscure: What Remains of Edith Finch and Kentucky Route Zero respectively.

What Remains of Edith Finch is a ~2 hour story where you explore your family home as Edith Finch. The Finch family has had a lot of bad luck, and most of its members do not get old. As Edith, you explore the house room by room to see the respective person's last moments. It's not a horror game, though I should put a trigger warning for child and infant mortality for the game. Play it in a single sitting, treat it as an interactive movie. I cannot recommend it enough.

The other one, Kentucky Route Zero, is a bit harder to recommend to a general audience. The synopsis is as follows: Conway drives deliveries for an antiques shop, the last one he will ever do as the shop is closing down. On his way to his destination, he asks for directions, and is told he needs to take Kentucky highway 0, an underground highway with a hidden entrance. As the game goes on, we explore the mysterious underground world of Kentucky, with its strange inhabitants and culture, and expand our cast of characters along the way. I honestly cannot give a more accurate description of it without giving stuff away. This game has no puzzles or interesting game mechanics. You cannot alter the story much either. What it offers, though, is a glimpse into a surreal world filled with hope, longing, loss, regret, and, most of all, mystery. The game will not answer all your questions. There is no grand reveal before the curtain closes. You can puzzle things together from your exploration only.

I think that, for many people, it will be quite boring. But it pushes buttons for me that no other media I have encountered does. It is best played at night if you're tired, as the whole game kind of feels like a weird dream that you struggle to recall as you wake up. If that sounds up your alley, well, here you go.

The Raid and The Raid 2 are, without a doubt, the most nailbiting action movies I've ever watched. I consistently overhype this movie to friends as the best action movie ever made, which is replied to with an eyeroll or something - until the first fight scene, where they look at me with a "what the fuck is THIS?!" face. By the end of the movie they are completely convinced...

And then I tell them the second movie is just as good and their heads explode.

Very obscure 45-minute 1991 anime movie: Christmas in January. Rated extremely low (5.46 / 10) on MAL, it's absolutely one of my favorite movies. It's whimsical and melancholic and so so interesting. Reminds me a lot of the Ghibli movie Ocean Waves, which is also an underrated gem (and, while I'm at it, the Kimagure Orange Road masterpiece sequel movie from the same director as Ocean Waves).

I really love stories that are just miraculous/odd/interesting excerpts of people's lives that are otherwise inconsequential. There was nothing grand or life-changing about the events in the story, but I will never forget the delicate social interplay in the shoe store, or the only scene that actually takes place in January at the very end: just a moment of reflection.

Better off Ted. I dont think it is underrated, but it definitely seems to be not well known and only got a couple of seasons. It's the first time I got mad at Netflix canceling a show I loved.

Dilberts Desktop Games was a cooky arrangement of several different mini games that were fun for kids whilst satirical enough for adults to enjoy.

It came out as a demo on PC Shopper, back when Adams' politics was tame. The game absolutely bombed on reviews, but the music and the elevetor game live rent free in my head

Music: Salmon. It's ADHD music ... it jumps around a lot. Rock / rap from the late 90's. Great instruments.

Show: Kung Faux. Stoner comedy. Old kung fu movies re-dubbed in a gangsta style and set to hip hop beats. Edited to evoke comic books, 70's movies, and video games.

Mr. Robot is one of my all-time favorites and my most recent favorite was Mr. Corman.

Hypernormalisation — documentary about political theatre

Norsemen was a great series but I understand why people didn’t get into it or even tried it. The humor is very special and maybe takes a little time to settle. It all feels like the cast didn’t know what’s going on and was making it up on the go, which is part of the fun.

Another one: Minesweeper. I feel like most people never understood how this game even works and just clicked randomly until something exploded. It’s actually purely logical! In the classic Windows version there is unfortunately always a high chance to encounter fields that can’t be solved by logic. This is what Mineswifter solves. If you want something more complex, there is the Hexcells series. Get the last one, Infinite, as it has a puzzle generator integrated.

Better Off Ted I feel is reasonably well known and did manage to get an unexpected second season. I feel like a chunk of its potential audience had already left Television for streaming even back when it first aired.

I think The Good Place is one of the best things to ever happen to tv. I know it's not some secret piece of tv that nobody knows about, but it hit the right notes in my soul that I don't think people are singing its praises loud enough, even a decade on from its release.

Look I'm not saying that it isn't well rated, but too many people dismiss "Avatar: The Last Airbender" as a cartoon or a childrens show when it is in fact a masterpiece.

Motherfucking

Centaurworld

Got massively slept on.

Henry Kuttner's short-ish story ‘Year Day’ from 1953 predicted how advertising will be in the future that we're on track to hit. The story was published in the collection appropriately named ‘Ahead of Time’.

In terms of current games, I have to say Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Uses the Far Cry formula as a jumping off point for a very immersive experience that's about the beauty of Pandora. It's one of the most beautiful games I've ever played and really deepens the Avatar franchise. It's also the rare action game that is also cool to just hang out in and walk around, explore, forage for materials. It offers a kind of escape that games like Animal Crossing do in that regard (even though you're not building anything; it's just such a rich immersive world that you feel like you're actually in Pandora).

Not4Sale: TV Sheriff and the Trailbuddies.

Nobody had seen it, it’s in insane audio/visual dreamscape/nightmare. It’s very difficult to find, but it’s worth it… especially going into it on acid without knowing anything about it. My friend did that to me, put it on, said nothing once we were trippin balls, and by the end I had cried laughing more than I have for any other piece of media I’ve ever seen.

I’ve seen introduced many friends to it the same way.

Tour de Pharmacy

It's a mockumentary about the Tour de France, but everyone's been kicked out for doping.

There are only 5 competitors left, Andy Sandberg, John Cena, Daveed Diggs, Orlando Bloom, and Freddie Highmore.

They've got the actual Lance Armstrong doing a "hidden informant" bit.

Each of the racers has a wacky backstory. Hijinks ensue. It's a great time.

Not the best movie ever, but I had an absolute blast with it.

Movie wise:

1. Logan Lucky - "Trying to reverse a family curse, brothers Jimmy and Clyde Logan set out to execute an elaborate robbery during the legendary Coca-Cola 600 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway."

I really found myself loving this movie, which was a surprised to me. But I believe that I found myself loving the characters and how they were shown on screen. I also loved the pacing of the movie. I never felt like there was a moment that had over stayed it's stay. The story it's self was interesting enough for me to keep wanting to watch as well. And no, it's not a film, it's a fun movie. It's not trying to be the next Heat or The Sting.

2. Kubo and the Two Strings - "Kubo mesmerizes the people in his village with his magical gift for spinning wild tales with origami. When he accidentally summons an evil spirit seeking vengeance, Kubo is forced to go on a quest to solve the mystery of his fallen samurai father and his mystical weaponry, as well as discover his own magical powers."

It's a powerful film IMO. There was a lot to love from the experience and it's one of my all-time favorite stop motion films ever.

i simply do not hear enough people talking about Outer Wilds, i know it released in the same year as the AA game by Obsidian - Outer Worlds, the title of which is different by whole two letters, which provided a very good distraction but

AAAAA

Outer Wilds is a lighting in a bottle video game that the majority of those who have played it wish they could experience for the first time again. it's a stunning piece of art that makes you cry and you're not even sure what exactly just happened. but there's always a point where it all just hits you - and all you can do is cry

it doesn't handhold you, in fact it doesn't give you any objectives at all, you're lead through the entire game by sheer curiosity alone - and oh boy will that curiosity make you zoom across the space back and forth until you get to the bottom of it. when you utter your first "oh what's that? i'm going to check it out" it'll have you, you might not realise it yet but you're now primed for adventure

this is the only game i'm not afraid to overhype. i watched that game sit in my library, for over a year, and in that time i hyped it up in my head to unreachable levels, to the point where eventually i was close to afraid of playing it because how could it possibly meet that standard i've envisioned? and you know what? it was better than i've ever imagined. it waited for me to be ready to sit down and play it, and then it delivered and experience that i'll forever treasure

maybe it won't hit that exact sweet spot for you as it did for me, but bloody hell can i assure you you'll never forget it - even though you'll wish you did, to play it for the first time again

oh and if any of my vague praise made you interested - rule #1 of Outer Wilds Club: don't talk about Outer Wilds. don't look up anything about it, you want to experience it as blind as you possibly can, some people even go as far as buying their friends a copy so they never have to look at the steam page screenshots