Turns out Tetris Elements is my favourite Tetris.

And I’ve played a lot of Tetris. Atari Tetris, Nintendo Tetris, SEGA Tetris, Capcom Tetris, EA Tetris… I’ve even played multiple board game versions—and yes, there are more than you’d think.

But nothing fills me with joy like Tetris Elements, the 2004 THQ release that stayed stuck on Windows and Mac. Never consoles. Never handhelds. Just a weird budget disc for early-2000s computers.

It was meant to follow Tetris Worlds. ImaginEngine built it under THQ’s ValuSoft label. Mostly an educational-games studio, with a little help from a programming shop in India. Small budget, short schedule. The kind of game you’d expect to look rushed.

And it does. But it also tries things other official Tetris games never touched again.

On the surface, it’s simple: Classic mode plus five elemental modes. Earthquake, Fire, Ice, Stratosphere, Tempest. But these aren’t harmless gimmicks. They mess with the core game. Earthquake shakes the board and warps your stack. Tempest forces you to manage two rotating wells. Stratosphere drops meteors that can open perfect holes—or land garbage in the exact spot you needed clear.

Even the safe-looking modes have teeth. Ice will slam a piece straight to the bottom if an icicle hits it. Fire can chain explosions if you heat-drop pieces in sequence. These weren’t casual distractions. They were strange, playable twists on Tetris that you couldn’t get anywhere else.

And then there are the quirks.

The game says it uses the modern SRS rotation system. But pieces spawn in odd orientations, like the letters they’re named after. Wall kicks are inconsistent. The configuration files literally include a “–99, –99” coordinate—developer shorthand for “don’t use this”—as an actual kick entry. It shipped like that.

Hard drops don’t even behave consistently. Sometimes the next piece spawns instantly. Sometimes there’s a pause just long enough to throw off your rhythm. It feels half-finished.

Look in the game’s files and it gets stranger. All the rotation data, piece definitions, and rules are in plain-text .INI files. No encryption, no compression. It’s like the studio assumed no one would bother to check. That’s how players found five unused pieces just sitting there. Pentominoes, oversized blocks, even odd trimino shapes. All fully defined. None ever used.

The audio hides unused tracks too. Better quality than what shipped. There are unused menu graphics, leftover text strings. “Name Exists” sits quietly in the files. There’s even an unused “You Lose” screen. It’s a Tetris game with the workshop still attached.

Even the presentation feels slightly off. Clearing a Tetris flashes the screen white, like the game’s trying to burn your retinas as a reward. The music is fine—light techno, some nods to the classics—but the big feature was loading your own MP3s. And then the game speeds them up in pitch as your stack rises. A nice idea if you like drum ’n’ bass. Less nice if you don’t want your playlist chipmunked mid-match.

Reception at the time was muted. Two critics reviewed it. Scored in the 70s. People moved on. Hardcore players dismissed it. Casual players bought it in a bargain bin, played Fire mode once, and forgot it.

But the quirks gave it a second life.

The .INI structure made it one of the easiest official Tetris games to modify. Fans enabled the unused pieces. They rewrote gravity. They fixed rotation bugs themselves. It became a little laboratory for people who liked taking Tetris apart.

On Mac, it stuck around longer than expected. The disc ran on both OS 9 and OS X. PowerPC Macs could run it cleanly. Classic mode on OS X 10.4 ran even better. Intel Macs killed it, but by then it was already out of print.

On PC, it lived as long as people kept CD drives. No keys, just disc-based protection. When drives vanished, so did the game—until no-CD patches and Archive.org brought it back. Today it runs on Windows 10 with glitches. Windows 11 is hit or miss.

Its reputation now? Not a classic. Not even a cult favourite. Just an oddball entry people dig up because it’s strange, moddable, and unlike anything else in the series.

It’s not polished. It’s not balanced. But it’s an official Tetris that doesn’t fit neatly anywhere in the series history. And somehow, that makes it fit perfectly.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/16494262

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/16494160

I think I don't really need to explain what SKG is. The initiative has been discussed here on Lemmy enough that I think most people have heard of it.

For the hand full of people who haven't: It's a movement aiming to keep games legally playable after support has ended by the support has ended by the devs. Check the official website for more details: https://stopkillinggames.com/

The European Citizens Initiative still accepts signatures for two days. If you have not signed it yet and you are eligible to do so (EU citizen of voting age - that's either 16 or 18, depending on the member country) please do so now. The link for it is on the official website linked above.

That's not the only avenue to reach our goal however. The EU's Digital Fairness Act just reached its public consultation phase. The new law attempts to provide a lot of consumer protections in the digital realm, such as a ban on dark patterns. It currently doesn't cover the planned obsolescence of video games, but it is open to amendments. And that's where you come in: If you are an EU citizen of voting age, then you can provide feedback to the proposed law and maybe we can get protections for gamers in there.

You can give the feedback on the EUs official website: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14622-Digital-Fairness-Act_en

Warner Bros, famous for such hits as Multiversus, Suicide Squad, and that harry potter quidditch game has decided that 99% of gamblers quit before they hit big.

There are many great games out there that had to shutdown because they couldn't fund their servers (for smaller player bases, 100 US$/mo. should be ok). I know someone personally that wanted to downsize the server because of costs, but that would mean fewer max players in the server, which would mean snowballing is gone and the hype dies. I personally know a few myself, and generally died due to DDOS, one due to constant security threats or other general lack of technical know-hows.

There are also many open source games out there that just needs some extra nudge. So the three thresholds that makes it hard for such games are

1. Funding/sustainability
2. Reaching critical number of players
3. Content creation/marketing

So how about a donation-based community (mostly for server costs), where the community tries a new game every week or month (like a flash mob), and maybe have fun make some videos about it? This is more cost efficient at least in terms of server costs, because potential capacity would be utilised better with multiple games. Just simple social hang place out where we stick it up to the AAA game studios while we breathe some new life into the old games that didn't deserve to die.

Would you join such a community?

Today's game is The Last of Us Left Behind. The DLC is really short feeling, and while i'm enjoying the story it can feel a bit empty in a way? I suspect it's because you play as Ellie and she's kind of a glass cannon, so she gets far less combat encounters than Joel. On top of that she has far less crafting recipes and weapons to use. So the result is just that it feels a lot emptier. It's still a fun time though.

Specifically this is what i'm thinking of when i say empty. It just feels kind of barren for some reason. Maybe it's because the main game is a lot more packed than this.

Enough bitching about it though, i'm far more excited to talk about what i do like. The combat i'd say is a fun new experience. Because Ellie is the glass cannon i mentioned it forces you to play a little more differently. For example there's this one section with Stalkers in the dark. I had to avoid the stalkers and instead play it safe in this closed in ledge. Running around outside was risky so instead i brought them all to me in an enclosed space.

I'm enjoying seeing Ellie and Riley's friendship/pseudo romance too. Not going to be weird about it, but i do like their dynamic, i think they work well together, and it's especially sad knowing what happens to Riley. Both these stories taking place in a mall is cool too. I wish more flashback sequences did a parallels situation like this.

The arcade was a fun Uncharted reference. I did a little nosing around hoping for another one in the arcade but sadly there was none. The DLC is fairly short so i finished this section up and plan to finish the last two chapters tomorrow. After that i'll probably go to Red Dead 1 or Dead Rising 2. Don't be surprised if this shows up a few more times. I'm going to be picking away at this in the background to 100% it i think.

Cheat Sheet Source

• Main Thread.
• Second Thread.
• Another Thread.

Strategy in Practice:

If anyone here is into horror games it would be amazing if you guys can give it a look and consider wishlisting it as it helps me out a lot! I'd love to hear tips or opinions on the game page! Thank you ❤️🎮

Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a lawsuit against Tencent over its upcoming game Light of Motiram, with Sony saying it is a "slavish clone" of the Horizon series.

tldr: Australian pressure group Collective Shout has claimed responsibility for the recent Itch.io and Steam developments that have seen the platforms change how they deal with - and in some cases remove - NSFW games and content from their respective platforms.

The group had already been closely linked with the situation, which has seen Itch.io and Steam scramble to appease payment providers like Visa as they suddenly took an interest in the kind of games available on the platforms, especially those which contravened rules and "standards" the payment providers apparently had. It led to Itch.io deindexing all NSFW content from its browse and search pages, and Steam introducing vague new rules about adult content, while removing a slew of games.

"In response to false claims and misinformation about our campaign, we're setting the record straight," wrote Collective Shout in a Facebook update. "Some have asked why we involved payment processors, and others have claimed we are responsible for Itch.io removing all NSFW content.

"We raised our objection to r*pe and incest games on Steam for months, and they ignored us for months. We approached payment processors because Steam did not respond to us.

"We called on Itch.io to remove rpe and incest games that we argued normalised violence and abuse of women. Itch.io made the decision to remove all NSFW content. Our objections were to content that involved sxualised violence and torture of women."

Collective Shout shared a timeline of the campaign on its website, noting how it began with No Mercy, a game which involves extreme sexual violence, being brought to its in March. The group's actions - a mixture of petitioning, emailing, and lobbying - began in early April and led to the game being removed from sale later that month.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33613807

This article discusses how Mouthwashing was allegedly deindexed on Itch, implying that it was due to censorship, but that is not the case.

The response from Itch on the matter:

Archive that proves the game wasn't indexed since 2024

I sincerely apologize for unintentionally helping to spread misinformation. May this post serve as a warning that Mouthwashing was not censored and that we must remain cautious about what we see on social media.

(i feel so stupid, now i hate Gamespot)

I hope there was too easy

Today's game is The Last of Us. I finished the main story today, and damn, am i not ready to let this game go. I'm in love with the Cyclical nature of the story (i'm a sucker for those kinds of plots) and the ending, amazing. I knew the gist of the ending so i thought it wouldn't hit as hard, but damn. I loved how bitter sweet it was. I like Joel's ultimate decision to save Ellie. It's selfish but it makes for such a bittersweet story.

For the main Screenshot i considered one of Joel running away with Ellie, but i think it was more appropriate to go with the top one, along with it plain looking better in my opinion.

I noticed this funny poster on the wall while running too. It's funny to see a 4th wall break like this. I just know somewhere on the internet this probably contributed to some sort of Dream Theory or something back when the game launched.

I also had Joel's model turned off in the Photo Mode on accident when i went too get the screenshot so i got this humorous photo of Ellie floating. Who knew she had psychic powers?

The walk to the hospital was a great chapter too. I loved the journey there and the fight with the infected was fun, albeit difficult. It was fun how calming it was, and nice to see Ellie enjoy herself after the events of the last chapter, especially with how it seemed to be weighing on her. It was cool too for the sudden drop, as in how suddenly the peace is interrupted by a large volume of infected before chucking you into a river. It really snapped me out of the false sense of security the game had kind of lulled me into.

I'm going to start Left Behind tomorrow, and then I think i want to try and 100% the game. I'm not quite ready to let it go yet and want to see all it has to offer so i think that will be my next goal. I'll probably go back to Red Dead 1 or Dead Rising 2 to play at the same time, i'll see though.

I Cannot wait for this game to release

Will be delisted from PC (via Steam), PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. I cannot find if this effects GOG. I would assume so.

Some notes based on frequent comments:

• Not my petition, I'm just sharing it.
• I don't live in the USA.
• You can sign a petition and call them to complain. The numbers are downthread.

I’ve beat Fallout NV as a true pacifist - no companions, no death caused by me.

It is funny, because it really doesn’t seem to fit the themes of the game to be a pacifist. You end up doing things that would (IMHO) be more fucked up ethically. It’s also hard for me to leave Vulpes alive - killing him is an every play through thing.

I’ve tried playing Morrowind and Oblivion as a pacifist. Morrowind you can get pretty far, but the Sixth House Base quest requires the death of an NPC. Oblivion… lol. You can sorta try if you don’t count dragging along companions from uncompleted quests, but that doesn’t fit the spirit of the challenge.

I wish more video games allowed you to play pacifist. I play most video games with the least violence possible, but even really well written stories like Planescape: Torment need you to solve some problems with violence.

I’ve really appreciated games like Undertale and Dishonored too.

Today's game is some more of The Last of Us. I'm determined to see this one through to the end (and maybe a little addicted). I'm so upset i didn't pick this game up earlier, but with how the narrative is, it's probably for the best i waited until i could understand it. It really reminds me of the novel The Road, which i'm pretty sure the game referenced. I wouldn't be surprised if it was an inspiration too.

I got to the point where Ellie was fleeing from the guys hunting her and met David. I noticed that he kind of seems to be a mirror Joel which i think is intentional. Even down to his appearance is similar. It is a shame he turned out to be evil because i kind of like the guy when the game forced you to get along with him. Still though, much prefer Joel over him.

The fight with the Bloater in the room really caused me some problems. It took a few tries but Ellie is built like a glass cannon so i struggled a bit. Still though, i eventually made it and wiped the floor with the thing by throwing a ton of Moltovs at it.

I gotta say, this whole winter chapter too is shaping up to be one of my favorites. It's really pretty. I've always had a soft spot for snowy landscapes and this is no exception. I really hope we get more time here outside of being hunted by these guys.

I dont want to skip entirely over the Dam section though, so before i end off for tonight (and probably end up staying up late to play some more) here's a really gorgeous screenshot i got of this billboard. The game's effects are perfect and i just love the detail on how this rain is done. I was honestly mesmerized. I know it's just some lame rain, but damn did it look good.