The Séance of Blake Manor

4/5 | Steam | Amazing atmosphere and voice acting; fun mystery plot; not very challenging.

The developers of The Darkside Detective are back with another spooky supernatural mystery game! That’s about all the games have in common though, as rather than a tongue in cheek goofy point-and-click, this is a first person puzzle game with a much more serious story.

In terms of puzzle games, this one is very easy. Your clues are collected on a corkboard type screen, and you can put them together to form hypotheses, but this part is very straightforward and the game basically holds your hand through it. Even though “time management” is part of the game, it never really causes difficulty - it’s mostly just there to make the game feel more real, and prevent you from having to talk to all 20 characters each about 100 dialog items. There are 37 mysteries and I solved all of them on my first playthrough, saving 100% of the saveable characters. So if you’re looking for a challenge, this isn’t it.

But I still loved it, because the real meat of the game is exploring - talking to people, learning about their pasts, exploring the grounds, etc. And this is where the game shines, because the setting, mood, and voice acting are all stellar.

The plot is a vaguely spooky one with a lot of inspiration from Irish mythology, as well as dabbling into a few other cultures’ supernatural sides. Learning about all the myths was a big plus of the game, and it made the story feel really grounded.

The ending was great, with a fun twist and an exciting finale. My only complaint is that in the very end, a character who you’ve learned over the entire game is a terrible person basically gets off scot free and befriends the protagonist. But I suppose I can forgive the game that, as everyone else feels like they get a satisfying conclusion.

Overall, this is a really fun game with great atmosphere, even if it is easy on the puzzle side. Definitely worth giving this a spin next October!

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Okay dokay! I have no idea why i made X look soo scared :( THIS WAS ON ACCIDENT I WAS HALF ASLEEP WHILE DRAWING THIS PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR MY SINs

Ephesians 4

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,

“When He ascended on high,
He led captive the captives,
And He gave gifts to people.”

(Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Therefore, ridding yourselves of falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are parts of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. The one who steals must no longer steal; but rather he must labor, producing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but if there is any good word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

i actually lwk love playing male toons cuz people will use the pronouns for the toon to refer tp you

I came so fucking hard last night it’s all I’ve been able to think about all day. I haven’t had the energy to get off lately, I felt every second of that. It took me forever to actually cum but fuck. It was over once it was over. I kept going until I couldn’t.

Eight of Rods. Art by Shannon Hochman, from Silver Crystal Visions.

how many stellas does it take until the answer becomes clear

This feels like a problem.

oh my god the blanksword demo is free on steam and i forgot

Just realised one piece is not coming out on my day off and i might actually be sick with nerves

>> got BG3 on sale

>> it’s yuge

>> sdd is a smol uwu bean

>> had to kick da4 to another disc to make room

>> very nearly just bahleeted it

>> feels weird man

Daily pencil 10

TR-49

4/5⭐| Steam | Fun, if quick, puzzle game, with an interesting if subtle plot and great voice acting

From the makers of Heaven’s Vault comes another puzzle game, this time about searching for books inside a weird computer archive. The only interface is entering 4-character codes into a machine, which may or may not lead to specific documents. Finding the documents’ titles unlocks snippets of them and helps connect the various documents through time and history. The gameplay is very reminiscent of The Roottrees Are Dead, just with a plot centered around fascism, dark magic, and resistance instead of family soap opera celebrity drama. 😅

The puzzle aspect of the game is very fun, and I enjoyed it, even though it never really was that hard. At first, the sheer amount of material feels overwhelming, and I love being faced with a giant puzzle and slowly unpicking it. Even later on as the final connections became very straightforward, I still had fun and felt satisfied overall! The game takes notes for you, which definitely makes it a lot easier than something like Blue Prince - not sure how I feel about that, but it didn’t really affect my enjoyment. :)

The WWII era machine aesthetics are gorgeous, and the sound design is amazing, both with really immersive, chunky sound effects and wonderful voice acting. My only issue is that at first, the voice acting kept interrupting me when I was trying to read and absorb information - but you’re not on a timer, so pausing to have conversations and then returning to research is fine. I also think the second “outsider” character to appear was a complete miss. He was upsetting for no real purpose, as far as i could tell, and I basically ignored him completely.

My other complaint is that the “final ending” is so easy to find - I wish it was some sort of ultimate puzzle combining the entire games’ worth of knowledge, but instead it was just a super obvious step from the previous solution. There are 4 endings though, so finding all 4 of them is a fun little exercise even when you have completed the entire archive.

Despite its small issues, this is definitely a game worth playing. It only took me 5 hours to 100%, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It serves up an intriguing world with fun puzzles that’s beautiful to look at and listen to - what more can you ask for?

He’s so stupid

We heart four (and frank/experiment 1170 ig…)

https://www.tumblr.com/four-two-six/809230825033973760

ty for the ask :3

3. What ideas come from when you were little
actually i cant think of many ideas that ive had since i was like *little* little, undertale fandom was my first big one and that’s where like Alll my creative stuff originates i think cos it’s about when i started writing/drawing for reals. i was big into the Undertale Fandom Fandom (aus and stuff more than the game itself), so naturally i picked up a lot of edgy and tragedy from various sans aus, and i think some of the horror of time travel/timelines, inability to control your fate, repeated death, and the blessings/curses that come with Being Main Character kind of came from all that. also the fact that i cant make a character’s eyes normal to save my life they gotta be Freaky in some manner. idk

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn’t your thing
actually this is the insanest thing to say but there aren’t a lot of artists i Admire like as people or whatnot, and usually if i like someone’s art I Gotta Replicate It. that said my taste is really specific so theres always at least one thing i don’t like about an artist’s style, no one has it perfectly how i like it. in a sense thats what drives me to improve and design and draw more. i guess i enjoy the stories surrounding barnett newman’s red yellow and blue series even though abstract art is Deeply not my field.

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated
always and forever my most recent piece of art at any given time, which is currently my nines redesign <3 here’s my baby boy stinky awful blingus horrible man

all of my more polished pieces actually have Something i dislike about em, but here’s a few that i think are particularly sick awesome and deserve some love (first one is my poem #mypoem)

used customplayermodels to make a little tail for my skin… ahh so cutes

Roman number. IV. 4.

I believe that one of the rooms in the Manor was taken over by spiders.

They are quite friendly, but Luca hisses at them. Something he picked up from Shu.

–Four