This was a tough one. But I’m probably going to have to say JSawyer Ultimate for Fallout: New Vegas. A continuation of the game director’s own rebalance mod, it makes the game hard in a way that feels fresh and fair (unlike the baked-in Hardcore mode).
I like to pair it with my runner-up: JAM - Just Assorted Mods, for a more modern HUD and a sprint feature. Of course then you need the NPCs Sprint mod to rebalance combat and- you know what, all of the Viva New Vegas modlist while you’re at it ;)
I count Dark Souls as a Metroidvania in my head, honestly.
But I think the actual defining feature is unlocking new abilities to reach new locations.
DS1 has you unlocking new areas that are interconnected with ones previously explored, but you don’t really unlock new moves to get to a new place, it usually just happens after you beat a boss or buy an item.
Porn and weed.
I’ve no doubt there are people that can use it moderately, but my brain just keeps wanting more. I quit cigarettes with no issues. I went from drinking a 6-pack a night to barely drinking at all. But those two really are hard to escape. Every time I kick weed I always have a night where I’m relaxing and I go and get a preroll - then end up getting more and smoking for the next few days before I realize what I’m doing. Same thing with porn. I can smoke a hell of a lot of porn.
But seriously, it’s hard to quit. And I think that part of the reason is due to my inability to label either of those things as “real addictions” in my head. Neither of those things are demonstrably decreasing my quality of life, at least not the way cigarettes and alcohol did, so I’m having trouble contextualizing them as harmful. Porn is easier for me in that regard, since it definitely subconsciously affects my views on the human body, and noticing that more is helping me shake the habit.
For the record, I do think weed is a lot less harmful than booze. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to use it, and I’ve been using it the wrong way for so long that I don’t think I can use it the right way.
To quote one of the great philosophers of our times:
“Well, Stan, the truth is marijuana probably isn’t gonna make you kill people, and it most likely isn’t gonna fund terrorism, but, well son, pot makes you feel fine with being bored, and it’s when you’re bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or being creative. If you smoke pot you may grow up to find out that you aren’t good at anything.”
Now, I don’t necessarily think all of that is true. Plenty of people are creative and innovative and also smoke pot, but it does make you content with doing nothing. Very relaxing in the moment, until you realize, after a few years of daily smoking, that all your friends have been learning new things and growing and you’ve been sitting on the couch watching TV the whole time. It’s totally fine to use every now and then, and by no means should be illegal, but we do need to start being realistic about how daily cannabis use quells that burning desire to be active and improve ourselves.
Just looked it up, I knew that one was etched into the folds in my brain.
San Andreas Max Health + $250k. Saved me in the warehouse mission in Las Venturas lol. I hope I’m getting this right:
R1, R2, L1, X, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP
It’s been quite a while since I’ve read it, so this may not be a fair assessment. But, I fucking hated The Catcher in the Rye. I wasn’t even required to read it for school or anything, I just did. Perhaps I just found Holden to be insufferable. I think that was the point, but it did not make it a particularly enjoyable or insightful read at all, save for the overwhelming supertext of DO NOT BE LIKE THIS GUY. The part where he hires a prostitute and just cries in front of her really stuck in my mind. That was when it really sunk in for me that someone read this book and decided that Holden’s views were so accurate that he had to go shoot John Lennon with a gun for being phony. Almost unbelievable.
Ooh I forgot about Project+! The only way to play Brawl. It turns it into possibly the best Smash game to date.