Posted on by Annie Gallagher

Site Progress & Personal Update: February 2020

Guardian Acorn | Continue, Don't Quit

I feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record each month. I’m basically trying to explain where I’m at mentally and why I don’t put out as many updates as I used to. I wouldn’t be so concerned about my output if it weren’t for the fact that it becomes harder to grow my platform when there is less content. I’m considering returning to my original schedule of editing a previous review of mine each week just so I put something out. I do want to get back in the habit of having smaller stuff to post between the political pieces and new reviews.

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Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 2 Comments

Lucah: Born of a Dream (PC/Switch): Obscured by Darkness (Detailed Review)

Lucah: Born of a Dream | Messiah

Just now, I needed to take a look at my previous review of The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa. I needed to do so because my feelings on Lucah: Born of a Dream are similar to that game, and I don’t want people to think I’ve gotten lazy (although with my less frequent updates, that ship has probably sailed). Also similarly to The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa, I did not care for this game.

Both are unique games that clearly had a strong ambition, and both are games that I can imagine a specific niche of people enjoying, but ultimately, both games disregard some of the most important rules of game design and create something that fails to engage overall. The difference between the two games is that they abandon different rules. Ringo Ishikawa abandoned the rules that games should be fun or accessible and tried to use its abysmal gameplay as a storytelling tool.

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Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 3 Comments

Amazing VGM: The Eight Melodies (EarthBound Beginnings)

EarthBound Beginnings | Melody

Oh what’s this? Annie has remembered that her Amazing VGM series exists after not posting anything one since May? Yeah, this series has been put on the back burner for quite some time. Really this blog in general was more of a side thing since I have been so heavily focused on political activism as of late, and thus when I found time to write gaming content, it was for my standard reviews. Of course I still need to get a few of those and I don’t know how soon I’ll get back to doing those, but I have thought back to my Amazing VGM piece on NieR Automata’s “Weight of the World. ”

I just re-read that piece and I forgot how touching it was. Generally my Amazing VGM pieces are short and and quick, but I basically used this piece to speak to both the current state of the world and my own personal life. The same went for my piece on “Reunited ” from Undertale, and I wrote that one before I even had this blog. Considering how emotional this year has been for me, it is only right that I continue this tradition, and to make it even more poetic, I will re-write the last pre Guardian Acorn VGM piece that I needed to revise, Earthbound Beginning’s “The Eight Melodies.” For the purposes of this piece, I will be sticking to official arrangements.

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Posted on by Annie Gallagher

Site Progress & Personal Update: January 2020

We did it folks, we managed to survive three years of a Trump presidency… barely. Unfortunately he has now launched a drone strike on Iran and we may be heading into World War III. I knew that Trump was going to get worse in 2020 but I didn’t think he’d do it THIS soon!! So yeah, hopefully we last until the election or decide to storm the white House and drag Trump’s ass to the guillotine where it belongs, because I don’t want the last post on this site to read like the final few chapters of the Diary of Anne Frank.

It’s hard to believe I once wrote about games or something. I would like to go back to that when we get this embarrassment of a human being out of the White House and replace him with Bernie Sanders, Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 2 Comments

Standard Review: The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa (Switch/PC)

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa | header

It’s no doubt that I have covered some strange games over the past few years. I could have taken the typical route as video game blogger and just covered all the newest and most popular games, but there is something that always draws me to these odd titles that are not perfect by any means, yet still have their own unique charm to them.

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa is the most recent game I’ve played that fits this category. It is one of those “I would not have played this on my own if I didn’t get a review copy” games, and I would say that I’m glad I played it, although I’m not sure I will be playing it again any time soon. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 2 Comments

Arkansas 2020 Elections: The Progressive Candidates to Support (Pink Tsunami)

Arkansas is generally not on a lot of people’s radar as a state that could turn blue any time soon. In fact, Arkansas is one of only five states where Trump had more millennial votes than Clinton. Given that the best strategy for progressives has been to turn out younger voters, this means that Arkansas will definitely be one of the harder states to claim.

Despite the slim chance there is of victory in this state, I have had my eye on Arkansas by sheer virtue of the fact that its incumbent Senator is just THAT much of an abhorrent scumbag. Tom Cotton is someone who first came into public consciousness when he called for three New York Times journalists to be thrown in the gulag because they said mean no-no words about George W Bush, and invoked Hitler in less than a minute into his first speech as a US Senator. Tom Cotton is your stereotypical Republican war hawk, and as Kyle Kulinski put it in a way that that no one will ever top, “this dude probably gets a boner when he hears Dick Cheney speak.” Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher

Site Progress & Personal Update: December 2019

Guardian Acorn | Continue, Don't Quit

Gosh it feels like these months are going by in a flash. Things have been going pretty well for me as of late, and I have been quite hard at work. While things are still a bit slower on this blog then they used to be, that is specifically because I’m still working on additional political projects. Specifically, I am trying to get a Facebook group set up for Progressive candidates to interact with their supporters and to build a bigger support base for said candidates.  Thus far I have got 38 candidates to join on and I am still working towards making this a thing.

This is what happens when the higher ups fuck with those less fortunate than them. Those less fortunate get pissed and decide to take things into their own hands, and they raise hell! I apologize if you don’t care about politics and just want to see me talk about vidya Geamz, but I can’t sit this one out. Although I will still try to get some reviews out. Read more

Posted on by Annie Gallagher · 1 Comment

Alabama 2020 Elections: The Progressive Candidates to Support (Pink Tsunami)

CW: Mentions of pedophilia, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny.

After a lengthy break from writing about electoral politics, I have decided to return to the fray so I can put my new knowledge to the test. I fully admit that I did not know as much as I do now about the political process, and I was still forming my new beliefs as I went along when I was writing my 2020 Senate pieces. I’ve decided that I may need a different approach to this series, so I’ve decided that I will write one piece covering the elections of note in each state. Granted I cannot guarantee I can write a piece for all 50 states, but I will try to take care of the most significant ones.

Also unlike last time, I’m waiting until the registration deadlines to write my piece so that they don’t end up hideously outdated in less than a year. Thus far two states have passed the registration deadline, and those are Alabama and Arkansas. Fittingly enough, Alabama is the first state in alphabetical order and has the earliest deadline, so both of these series will start with this state. Read more