the illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 25
for this steam nextfest demo review thread, i will be tapping into Apollo's divine gift of prophecy and attempting to scry how people will be talking about these games in eight to ten months, when they are out. i'm partaking deeply of the sacred fumes and i'm attuning myself to the whispers of a phantom chorus
Show threadthe illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 25
FORBIDDEN SOLITAIRE: your classier breed of streamer will enjoy this game, as will aging millennials who played a lot of CD-ROM games growing up (like yours truly). there will be UNHINGED discourse online over whether this counts as "an Inscryption-like". unfortunately, rinky-dink mobile knockoffs of this game that remove the unique graphics and narrative framing device in exchange for More Microtransactions will make approximately $1,000,000,000,000 more than this game https://store.steampowered.com/app/3414580/Forbidden_Solitaire/
Steam：Forbidden Solitaire

Forbidden Solitaire is a card-slashing horror game about unearthing the contents of a cryptic 1995 CD-ROM that should have never existed. From the creators of Ancient Enemy and Home Safety Hotline.

Show threadthe illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 25

ZERO PARADES: FOR DEAD SPIES: ohhh my god. the ratio of people who have An Opinion on this game vs. people who have actually played it will be fucking unreal. by pandering hard to Disco freaks (none of whom trust ZA/UM by this point), all of this game's positive aspects-- its clarified stat system, its more in-depth health mechanics, its intriguing John Le Carre-influenced burnt spy plot-- will not matter in the face of one question: is this Art, or just a Product?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863680/ZERO_PARADES_For_Dead_Spies/

Steam：ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies

優れた才能を持ちながらも苦悩する主人公となって絶望的な任務に挑む、ストーリー重視の諜報RPG。壊れたネットワークのピースを拾い集め、「歴史の終わり」で絡み合う残虐な陰謀を解き明かし、自らの価値を証明せよ。さもなくば…再び、すべてが水の泡となる。

Show threadthe illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 25
unfortunately the only definitive way to really determine this is to play it while critically comparing it to Disco Elysium, other texts ZA/UM's current and former creators have written on the topic of games and of the relationship between creativity and capital, and possibly just theory in general on making entertainment our current hyper-capitalist death spiral. congratulations. you are now officially a paranoid academic leftist with a broken heart. this is Disco's final, fatal gift to you
Show threadthe illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 25

VAMPIRE CRAWLERS: this game will have two kinds of players:

1. Those who think it is, y'know, fine.

2. Those who are experiencing severe health symptoms from being nailed to it every waking moment like the cursed film in Infinite Jest.

there will be many, *many* mods for this on Nexus which replace nearly every asset in the game with a dizzying miasma of infantile, half-melted anime women. for the second type of player, this game IS sex.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3265700/

Steam：Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors

世界を壊滅させるコンボで魔物の巣窟と化したダンジョンを突き進め！Vampire Survivorsがお送りするVampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcardは、ローグライト要素ありのカジュアルなターン制デッキビルダー。自分で組み合わせた手札で、TURBOTURNTM制覇に挑戦しよう！

Show threadthe illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 25

500 CALIBER CONTRACTZ and CICADAMATA": These two share the same prophecy because they share the same fate: they are exclusively for edgelord transgender speedrunning submissives who have rewired the motion sickness gland in their brains to serve as twitch reflex boosters instead. i will not be playing much of these games myself, but i'm sure i'll be in a spit chain with many, many people who are, and who won't shut up about them during sex

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2571410/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3817250/

500 CALIBER CONTRACTZ on Steam

A 3D-Platformer where you play as a contract killer and your eyes glaze over.

Show threadthe illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 25
i want to be clear though: the aesthetic decisions for these games are fucking flawless. i'm not wired for them, but. 500 Caliber Contractz's Options menu is styled like a DeviantArt page circa 2006 with little flashing 88x31 GIF buttons that say shit like "KILL THE PRESIDENT", and i'm sorry, but that's perfect. i predict i will be THINKING about these games a LOT
Show threadthe illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 25

HELLSLINGER: I couldn't test this out because it's built in GZDoom and doesn't have controller support. it also appears to have been forged from a gonzo furry webcomic on ComicGenesis in 2006 and then shot forward in time, in some sort of reverse 12 Monkeys-style situation. the scrying pool's results are currently inconclusive. in this prophetess's opinion, though, no trailer i've seen has made me actually physically fist-pump in real life harder than this one

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2140540/Hellslinger/

Hellslinger on Steam

Blast your way through the hordes of Hell as you strive to reclaim your soul in this narrative driven FPS. You are Hellslinger, a master of the gun. Shouldn't be too hard right? All you've got to do is slay the Lord of Hell and stop his invasion of the mortal realm

Show threadthe illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 25

TITANIUM COURT: this is it. this is The One. this is going to be the game that makes the entire indie game community fall in desperate hormone-addled-teenager-grade love with it. it will get snubbed at the Game Awards, and all of your jaded, snooty game dev friends will say this is further proof that old man Geoff couldn't find his ass with both hands. and they're right, too. your spouse or relative who Doesn't Usually Play Many Games will fucking ADORE this game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2364580/Titanium_Court/

Titanium Court on Steam

A surreal strategy game for clowns and criminals.

Show threadFutamoder
@irisjaycomics this thing looks utterly incomprehensible from the outside but once I realised what the gameplay loop actually was and what it was doing I literally leaned back in my chair and went "ohhhhhhhh my godddddddddd" out loud
Feb 26 at 10:45pmWeb
Show threadthe illustrious IRIS JAYFeb 26
@steb Once You See It, You Will Shit Bricks