discovering that show, during a sleepover when I was a kid was like a fever dream

lmao

there's that short story by Stephen King called The Jaunt which has something like this. It's pretty good

yeah it's kind of a weird post with the way it's all worded. framing it in a "why what you like is wrong" way probably hurts it more than anything. it doesn't invite discussion and is more or less just a ranting if you're not giving examples.

it's not like anyone here is trying to force someone to like the same games they do and the first thought I had after reading was "okay..."

Personally I like all sorts of storytelling as long as it's involving topics/genres I'm interested. Lovecraftian setting? inject it into my veins. stories about realistic depictions of depression and suicide - sign me up. There's not a singular formula that all my favorite games need to adhere to - why would anyone want all their story structures to be so rigid and similar?

Anyways one of my favorite games, probably my overall favorite, is Control. It does a lot of 'show, don't tell' while also having an incredible amount of world building there for you to engage with if you're interested. The setting is like they tailor-made this for my interests. So pumped for the other games coming out in that universe

felt the same way about Hotline Miami 2. it just didn't have the same feeling to it for whatever reason, despite the mechanics being arguably better/refined. That first game though, it's so good