Happy Friday the 13th y'all! About a month ago I shared some thoughts about video games I played recently with cool YouTube videos about them, and now I have three titles with really strong visual directions.
Okay, the first one is apparently so unknown that there isn't a single proper video about it. At least not in English. And I don't get why, because I think iS – internal section is simply amazing. The game belongs to a relatively obscure subgenre of shoot 'em ups,called tube shooters. And that's all what can be said about the gameplay - you're in a tube and shoot enemies rotating on its walls. Despite the dozen weapons based on the signs from the Chinese zodiac, the whole thing can be beaten by using just one or two of them (one which bullets spin around the tube and one that shoots directly).
Despite that simplicity, iS reminded me why I don't play "skill based games" if I can describe them this way. I find no fun at all in trying to beat one hard section over and over again, and having to start from the beginning if you run out of lives. But all hail emulator save states, they're the only reason why I can even play games like this one. What make me stick with internal section are its stunning audio-visuals. I wanted to experience everything the game has to offer, even if some parts made me question my willingness to do so. I think their decision to not use almost any textures, which I think is often one of the reasons why old games look, well, old, paradoxically made the graphics of this title timeless, thanks to using abstract geometries and the dynamic nature of iS.

PN03 Review by TheGamingBritShow
Surprisingly, sometimes games that don't deliver even half of their potential still can win your heart. And that happened with Product Number Three for me. I saw it described as "Bayonetta at home" and I think that's why it worked for me. I tried to play Bayonetta years ago. I found it quite confusing, and I quickly abandoned it (but I want to give it a second chance one day). Yet, in P.N.03 we have "this button shoots, this one runs, you can't do both at the same time, three buttons for a special move, ok bye, have fun." This simplicity was what allowed me to just sink into destroying wave after wave of robots and mind you, it took me a few hours to realize that you CAN'T walk and shoot at the same time. I thought "oh, she sometimes doesn't do what I want, it's probably just thanks to these tank controls", before I explicitly read online that "it's how it's supposed to work." I can only congratulate my chess player's reflex and you can see why I found Bayonetta confusing.
Unfortunately I can't deny the fact that P.N.03 is boring and repetitive at times, especially when you want to unlock the best costumes that require you to beat all 50 randomly generated trials, where the biggest challenge is navigating through labyrinths made from a few identical rooms. But I found that I simply enjoyed going through them, also because I love the Clinically Clean Futuristic Aesthetic Early 2000s Edition™ of this game. And the soundtrack, in particular the first song, slaps hard.

You Are Empty: The Janky Soviet FPS That Actually Slaps by GunCanny and Analysis: How BAD Is You Are Empty Really? by JarekTheGamingDragon
I don't know if it's because I know the sad, post-soviet streets and interiors from real life to some degree, but I fell in love with the environments in this title from the very first level. The game itself is a slow-paced shooter, so I had plenty of time to admire them... too much time sometimes, because unfortunately You are Empty can be boring due to its unhurried, clunky as best, gameplay. You just walk and kill smaller or bigger waves of enemies, which, due to the small variety of them, sometimes looks like you're fighting an army of clones. But thanks to its post-apocaliptic aesthetic, You Are Empty manages to be surprisingly tense at times. I even got jumpscamed a few times, even though most enemies are so loud that you immidiately know they're coming. And sometimes the Silent Hill-like ambients gets replaced by intense rock songs that momentarily change the game's genre from "horror" to "come on f*ckers, eat lead!"
Ultimately, what can I say? It was the case with P.N.03 and it's the case here: even if the gameplay is underwhelming, when a game has a strong visual identity, then all flaws and boring sections are forgived by me. Even if this title made me realize that a naturalistic approach in enemi designs (in the form of mutated and diseased body parts) isn't for me.

Agnes' Magic Still Exists was one of my biggest music discoveries of 2025. Even though I occasionally heard her songs before, she's been singing since 2005 after all, I never really cared about her. But recently, due to the upcoming release, I checked out some of her previous works. I skipped the first two since they didn't look interesting and they have average reviews as best.
Her third album, with a very non-distinctive title, Dance Love Pop (2008), is a decent but forgettable experience. The first two tracks - Release Me and On and On still hold strong, but everything else was mostly meh for me. So, the title perfectly fits, I guess? But the next one, the synthpop Veritas (2013), was a nice surprise. Even though it didn't have a single song I could recall, paradoxically I don't really care about that, because listening to it was plainly fun.
Next is the EP Nothing Can Compare (2019) with the fantastic lead track I Trance. This release also marks a clear boundary between her previous and subsequent works. A step toward more cohesive experiences rather than a collection of singles, but still without some of the polish od the latter. However, Nothing Can Compare started a trend in her albums that is a double-edged sword - interludes.
The already mentioned Magic Still Exists (2021) is where she leans into R&B fully and is my favorite work of hers. It could be 10/10, but the last song is a ballad and I just despise ballads. Skip, next! Oh wait, there's nothing more :v ...Well, ignoring that one, I can't choose which track is my favorite here, because if I listen to one of them, I almost always end up listening to (almost) the whole album again. And again. So I was pretty hyped for BEAUTIFUL MADNESS, especially after the four singles she released as the album rollout. And when the whole thing dropped, unfortunately I wasn't impressed.
The titular BEAUTIFUL MADNESS isn't a song. It's half of one. It could be a fantastic single... But it's 1:50 minutes long. Girl, I'm sorry, what? Why did you make it so short? Then we have some amazing singles, interludes, singles, interludes, singles... you know the drill. I think she reached the point where she simply overused interludes. I didn't mind them in Nothing Can Compare, I even liked them in Magic Still Exists, but here I would prefer to stitch some of that additional fluff into proper songs and release an album with 10 tracks, instead of 8 and a half with 6 interludes.
So in my opinion it's a good album after all, but it could be better. Singles that were strong before still are, nothing changed in this department. But I still like Magic Still Exists more overall.
Additionally I can say two things. First, I wrote this back on January 25th, but forgot to post it. Second, I had a similar situation with Lady Gaga's Mayhem from last year. After Disease and Abracadabra, I thought the album itself would blow me away. It didn't. However, Mayhem grew in me and ended up as my most listened record of last year. And during that bit more than a month, I often returned to BEAUTIFUL MADNESS' tracks. I really enjoy them and just ignore the rest. Especially the songs BALENCIAGA COVERED EYES, MILK, and EGO. Absolutely stellar works. Today I also want to feature one of the best buttons I've ever seen, from to the Indonesian website BolehMail (that unfortunately seems to doesn't have a single working Wayback mirror).

WOO

WEBSITE VIEWS! THANKS Y'ALL! :D
I-Fluid is a type of game with which I have a very short fuse. A 3D platformer with physics-based puzzles is a recipe for a rage quit for me, which surprisingly didn't happen in this case.
So, in I-Fluid we control a water droplet and try to navigate on a cluttered kitchen counter to find the finish flag. But sometimes the goal is a bit more complicated. For example, in one level, the objective is to transport strawberries scattered across the table to a bowl. I have to admit, the developers did everything to make each level unique.
It was released in 2008, and you can see it basically in everything. Textures made from real photos. The designs of the kitchen utensils, especially the lime-white dinnerware. The furniture in the background made of dark wood with silver metal elements. All of it aged like fine wine, especially from the currently popular perspective fixated on the aesthetics of the last 20-30 years, like frutiger aero in this case.
Unfortunately, not everything in my playthrough was smooth. I-Fluid is not just old. It's an old PC title made specifically for Windows XP/Vista, that also uses some outdated Nvidia libraries, so obviously not everything works as intended on modern operating systems. When I tried to run it on fullscreen, it just crashed. Some textures didn't work, even after I installed a fix for it. However, I can live with this, because the most important part is the game is perfectly playable after all, which is not always the case with forgotten PC indies from the pre-Steam era, like I-Fluid.
My only complaints about the title itself narrow down to two points: first, the final part of level 12 is the most annoying section of the entire game in my opinion. The goal is to land on a counter on the other side of the kitchen by using a fish as a catapult. I managed to do it only twice, despite dozens of tries, due to very unpredictable "flying" physics. And worse, when I finally landed where I needed to, I immidiately fell from it to my death. The game registered the landing, but the checkpoint was under the texture, so I ended up softlocked in a "respawning to death" loop. Second, the texts were clearly translated from the developers' native language (French) to English by someone who didn't speak English well. It happened a few times where the in-game instructions were so "understandable" that I had to figure out what to do on my own.
But otherwise, it's a fantastic title and I highly recommend it. If you want to check how its gameplay looks, here is a cool speedrun video.
Btw, one section of I-Fluid has a better jumpscape than anything that PC-98's Dead of the Brain from 1992 (which I played earlier this year) tried to throw at me, and I'm not even joking.

I recently watched a few cool videos about video games that I played recently too, so I just want to share them and my thoughts (these videos contain spoilers, so don't say I didn't warn you):
Misfortune - The PS1 game that hates YOU! by SnicketySlice
Yaku: Yuujou Dangi is one of the kusoge of all time. You're really need some outstanding gamedev minds to create the experience like this. It's categorized as horror, but the true horror is hidden in it's gameplay. Watching a few poorly made, short animations over and over again, with a sketchy music in the background, could easily drive insane anybody who would want to get the true ending. God bless emulator save states and walkthroughs. With having access to these two gameplay improvements, I highly recommend Misfortune. If you can beat it's jankiness, you will get a game that will live rent free in your head, for better and for worse. Mostly for worse.
Exploring the Dark Depths of Aquanaut's Holiday | Artdink Retrospective by Dungeon Chill
I have basically the identical thoughts about the both parts of the Aquanaut's Holiday, as the author of that video. Despite my tries to enjoy the first one, it didn't hooked me at all. There was basically nothing to do and I quickly get bored by their environmental emptiness. Even if I'm huge fan of the more experimental, atmospheric games with a minimal gameplay, this one was just too simplistic and more like an outdated tech demo, rather than a proper game to me. But thanks to the linked video, I learned it had a sequel. And same as Dungeon Chill, I really enjoyed it. It's ocean environment is much more interesting to explore. The simple addition of the goal of cataloging marine life gave this title a purpose, that the first one lacked off, and which completely drew me in. The 3D models of animals were really well made in my opinion and option to freely rotate them in the "Log Book" were a nice addition that also made me to spend too much time on Aquanaut's Holiday 2.
So Who Remembers No One Lives Forever and So Who Remembers No One Lives Forever 2 by Indeimaus
The first NOLF, even though frustrating at times, is one of my favorite video games ever made. Last week, I finally gave its sequel a shot and I think it's the case of the continuation living in the shadow of the original. Launching NOLF 2 I expected two things: stealth and comedy. I didn't really get either of them. They made it an fps, where stealth was more a suggestion, rather than the thing that game wanted you to do. But it's something that I can live with. The true letdown was the lack of a proper story, which was one of the main reasons why the first NOLF is such a memorable experience. I saw a comment: maybe it's good they can't make a third part, because they could change it for modern audiences. Ignoring the fact that statements like this cause me to roll my eyes, I think it's exactly what they did in the sequel from 2002. A more grounded and less absurd, action oriented game, theoretically making it easier to gain appeal from a common player. Despite my complaints, I still think it's absolutely worth playing if you've already beaten the first game. It's just a case where I would rate NOLF 1 9/10, while NOLF 2 8/10. Additionally, all of these dramatic headlines like the game you can't play anymore always make me laugh. Somehow, I managed to do so without issues. Magic, ik.
Ps. I found how to insert images in text in the way that you can see above. Looks a bit wonky, but I will take this x)

When I decided that I wanted to expand the section with GSM wallpapers from Polish telecommunications providers, to give these GIFs and JPEGs a bit more context, I didn't expect it would be that hard. Even though I already had some basic knowledge on the topic, and my descriptions are just a few sentences long, the research takes literally hours. The histories of these providers are often very complex because they obviously didn't exist in a vacuum. They are part of a shared market, which causes all of that to merge into one web of, sometimes even international, connections. Someone did one thing, then someone else did that, this, that. Oh my God. Also, because we're talking about companies, their histories are often nothing more than timelines of business events and decisions, which is hard to comprehend for someone who normally isn't interested in such topics. Articles on tech news websites, published for companies' anniversaries like 25 years on the market, are almost always nothing more than simple promotional material that doesn't cover anything important that is actually, well, important to the story of the brand itself and interesting enough to be included in the summary I'm making. So distilling all of that to a few sentences about just one brand fries my brain, because I not only have to summarize what I read, but also do it in English, which isn't my native language.
Especially when I wrote a whole section about Centertel yesterday, just to find today that what I wrote was technically correct but missed an important detail, because at some point their story merges with another important brand (Orange), which fact went under my radar. I thought Orange would have the shortest description of the three big players (they, Plus and the now-defunct Era), but ended as three times longer than Plus' description. I spend too much time on harrasing myself with that business data to not at least try to write something based on it. So today I also expanded the Heyah section, and now only Era is left, which I don't expect to be a short one.

Visual novels from PC-98 are known for two things: beautiful pixel art and the fact that almost all of them were adult titles for straight people, which is not the type of game that I'm generally looking for.
However, Dead of the Brain by FairyTale (1992) is a horror (so still an adult game after all). Due to that, I wanted to play it so much that I somehow missed the fact that it got an English patch a year and a half ago. So it was worth the wait? Unfortunately, not really in my opinion. The game was meh as best. In terms of gameplay, it's typical for that era point-and-click pixel hunting. As someone wrote under a (very good) video Dead of the Brain (PC-98 Paradise) Classic horror adventure (...) by Basement Brothers:
Requiring someone to click multiple times on the same spot without indicating that they're making any progress is some of the worst possible game design. by @mnorris790. Personally, I had to check a walkthrough like three times only to figure out what I had to do next, so it wasn't that bad, because I always try to click everything anyway. But still, figuring out that you have to click a ceiling fluorescent lamp that looks like just a part of the background, or a corridor hidden behind a shelf that registered interaction only when you clicked on one very specific area that also wasn't marked in any way, wasn't fun.
In terms of the story: one dimensional characters that [spoilers*] were nothing more than plot devices that existed solely to be killed. The protagonist cheated on his girlfriend. I wasn't interested in what was happening on the screen, and I only finished this title because it was very short (around 2 hours). Also, I still have a WTF happened? moment when I think about what happened in the final sequence.
At least the pixel art was good. Even if I expected this title to be a bit more gorey, I'm not going to complain in the department of the visuals.
Ultimately, despite all of what I wrote above, I still want to play the sequel, because I heard it's better. Also it's always nice to see when obscure games gets a fan-made English translation, so if you want to play it: , PC-98 Emulation For Beginners by GANG FIGHT, English Patch and xdelta UI - a simple program to apply patches to ROMs.

A few days ago I wondered if I would see any snow in 2025, and it fell at the very last day of the now-past year. But it barely made it into 2026, because it rained through the night, so by morning, all of it melted. Also to me :p New Year by EdanadE (2005-11-30, Deviantart) I wasn't able to choose which GIF I like more, so I used both ;)