Hacker Cinema
A Night in the Woods
2011 · Film · 82 min
Directed by Richard Parry
Brody, his girlfriend Kerry and their friend Leo go hiking in Dartmoor. That night jealousies, sexual tensions and strained relationships come to a head turning what should have been a peaceful camping adventure into a trip to terror. As collective paranoia reaches fever pitch it becomes clear that there is a much darker force at work in the ancient eerie surroundings. Who or what is after them? And can any one of them survive a night in the woods?
1 positive2 neutralfrom 3 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
3 comments on Hacker News
Fez - beautiful art, beautiful music [0], nostalgia with a modern take
Journey - beautiful game that does not center on combat
Braid - good art, great puzzles and a game mechanic that is fully realized and explored (time rewind)
Cuphead - gorgeous art, like playing a Fleischer brothers cartoon
Monument Valley - simple but perplexing puzzles wrapped in gorgeous art
One Hour One Life (and, smaller in scope but Passage) - an MMO where you spawn as a helpless baby then grow into a full adult in one hour. The game forces others to cooperate or else you die within the first few minutes [1]. Passage was one of the first games that took me aback [2].
Not sure if "memorable" is the right word for it but "addictive" and "things I play too much" are: Beat saber, Pistol Whip, Crypt of the Necrodancer (all beat games)
For nostalgia reasons: Doom, Angband, Nettreck, (original) Legend of Zelda.
Games I haven't played but have heard are good: The Witness, Legend of Obra Din, Undertale, Transistor, Night in the Woods, Dwarf Fortress
The AAA games, or their equivalent, are like blockbuster movies to me: well scripted, well animated, have lots of "game feel" but ultimately lacking in the artistry it takes to make a memorable game. AAA games can have an impact on people in that way but I suspect this is mostly due to someones first exposure to a full game which usually happens in their teen years. You can probably guess my age from the games I like for nostalgia reasons.
EDIT: added features I like about the games and some links
[0] https://music.disasterpeace.com/album/fez-ost
[1] http://onehouronelife.com/
[2] http://passage.toolness.org/
Lately I’ve been finding that I enjoy very story-centric games more and more. I loved Night in the Woods, Detroit: Become Human, Red Dead Redemption, Life is Strange, God of War and others for their story telling ability. I still play other games and am a big fan of FROM SOFT games (although they have incredible storytelling in their own way), but the story-heavy games suck me in like no TV series or movie ever has. I think it’s a mixture of interactivity and simply being longer than a movie that makes it easier to connect with and care about characters.
As an aside, I almost hated Celeste. I’d given up on it and uninstalled it, but was prompted to try again by a YouTube comment (of all things) and when I did, a few screens after where I stopped, it got good. Incredibly unbelievably good. I’m glad I gave it another chance!
This seems really trivial, but I noticed an immediate quality of life increase when I switched from video games to physical pub games like darts and billiards.
When I come away from an hour long video game session, my body has been physically sitting and staring at a screen as I move my fingers, so it's actually a physical state physical similar to "work" and doesn't actually leave me feeling energized and relaxed. If I spend an hour throwing darts or shooting pool (even alone at home as a solitary activity), I stand up (better for my posture) and my body feels like it's engaged in a physical task in a way that actually lets my mind relax. It leaves my brain (and mind) both feeling better. And there's also the fact that pub games lend themselves to the social "let's meet up with some friends at the pool hall" kind of activities more than video games do, at least my experience.
Other examples of "physical" hobbies might include playing a musical instrument, creating something physical (woodworking, crocheting, origami, drawing, sewing, painting, cooking), these often tend to be the kind of quiet meditative activities that give your mind a rest and actually feel like taking a break from work (as opposed to certain video games, which can actually feel more stressful on a chemical level; one of the reasons I quit playing games like Dota and Counter-Strike is that I'm pretty sure they kept my adrenaline and cortisol levels high for an unhealthy amount of time).
As an alternative to giving up video games, maybe consider playing different kinds of games. Even as I spend less time playing video games, I work in the video industry, and so I play a large variety (partly out of a sense of professional responsibility, and partly because I'm curious about what my friends in the industry are doing), but rather than spend 100 hours playing a Battlefield or Call of Duty each year I'll play a lot of smaller video games that deliver a complete experience in less than 5 hours. Playing a smaller narrative game like Night in the Woods felt like an emotionally fulfilling experience similar to watching a movie, whereas playing a multiplayer game like Battlefield or Overwatch just felt like hopping into an adrenaline-fueled meat grinder for an hour every day.