Recent reviews by epicslayer7633

OFFICIAL EPICSLAYER7633 APPROVAL?

if can get a bit personal here, this game remains a core memory of my childhood as one of the first puzzle games that really felt like it had a gravitas that captured my imagination. given some of the recent reviews describing a bug rendering mouse and keyboard controls unusable, only slightly surprising given the game's age, there is an undeniable melancholy texturing that memory. games preservation has been an issue for as long as the medium has existed, and indie pc games like this are even more susceptible to the passage of time. unlike other pieces of art like movies or music or books, where the actions and methods of preservation are (forgive me if i'm uniformed) fairly accessible, and, more importantly, can keep most of the artistic spirit and vision of the piece intact. video games are unique in that they are both more technically intricate to produce and maintain and, very distinctly, require an intentional interactivity on the player's end to be properly experienced. as long as the text is preserved, books may be read, as long as the audio is preserved, music may be heard, and as long is the video is preserved, films may be watched. this isn't to say that these other kinds of art aren't ever lost to time, that happens quite frequently, but that whatever form the art is preserved in maintains the "essence" of the artists preferred method of engagement with its audience. video games are different in that, for the most part, they require the proper tools of interactivity to be properly engaged with, whether that be a gamepad or a keyboard or something else; a video recording of a playthrough of a video game is not a meaningfully accurate method of art preservation. video game emulation has been and continues to be an extremely valuable tool in the effort preserve games, but is entirely driven by fans and enthusiasts with interest in those games, and what remains preserved depends on the communities built around them to be maintained. many games on steam which remain available for purchase are essentially non-functional without external support from enthusiasts. perhaps the developers of the swapper will create a patch that fixes mouse and keyboard functionality, or fans who I am unaware of that still enjoy the swapper will create their own patch, but these measures will only go so far for so long. there will come a day, maybe decades from now, when the swapper in my steam library will no longer serve as anything other than a demarcation of what I once experienced.

play it, while you still can