#parkour — Public Fediverse posts

My thoughts on: Motorslice; a review

Motorslice is a pretty fresh action-adventure game, released in May of 2026. It was developed by Regular Studio and published by Top Hat Studios.

I grabbed it the moment it dropped on GOG, but it took me a while to finish it and write this review, as you can see by the date of this post… Having a job and things to do kinda take away idle time.

But I’m here, ready to boldly proclaim my opinions on this gem to the uncaring void… and the LLM data scrappers. And the eventual human reader, if there is any.

Aesthetics

You’d think that environments consisting of sand, steel, concrete and yellow orange paint would get stale. They don’t. There’s a surprising variety and it all looks coherent. And quite good to boot. Each area has its own theme that subtly alters the feel of each area, making them unique, despite being so limited.

And the game regularly lets you marvel at the distance you’ve managed to conquer. The vistas of the megastructure are really, really nice. And they are further enhanced by the fact that you’ve been there — they aren’t some skyboxes or flat unreachable scenery. You could say it’s a little marvel you don’t often get to experience.

The character model looks nice enough, though I guess some may be discouragead by the heavily stylised look of P but I don’t have anything against it. And the animations look good, with a few amusing idle ones, as well as all the little things, like the interactive main menu or selfie screenshot mode.

The three types of enemies look abut as good as you could expect from construction vehicles… maybe with some subtle almost eldritch flair. While the bosses are damn good looking. Despite, or maybe precisely because of, being essentially environmental set pieces that need to be climbed and motorsliced (yes, that’s a titledrop) in special areas.

When it comes to the audio side it’s rather minimalist… Or at least it felt like that. Most of the time you’ll hear the environmental sounds, P’s footsteps or her chainsaw’s engine as they echo in the empty concrete halls and corridors.

There are few music tracks of course, and they are pretty nice. I quite liked the one that plays on the bridges between chapters.

Gameplay

The way it plays brings to mind the Prince of Persia games, especially the 2006 reboot. The bulk of the game consists of platforming in the PoP style: running on walls, swinging on conveniently placed horizontal poles, walking on thin beams or clinging to pillars and cracks in the walls.

While I’ve completed the game using the Xbox controller, I did try out a single chapter on keyboard and mouse. Both control schemes worked very well, so it’s more of a matter of preference.

Bulk of the time is spent doing just that, with the occasional gibbed red splat caused by a misjudged leap, bad timing or a fumble with controls. Or deliberately jumping to P’s doom.

Admittedly sometimes the game freaks out and gibs you seemingly for no reason, but those cases were extremely rare… And I’m about 95% sure were caused by physics engine freaking out on a moving platform… And in one place while moving down a vertical crack in the wall in chapter 7.

And then there is that minor wonkiness of switching the face of the grabbed pillar (and pole), but those are relatively minor things (and are an issue on both K&M and a pad).

The game is a linear series of platforming sequences topped by platforming challenges in the guise of bossfights. And damn the bosses are a spectacle and a joy (if sometimes frustrating) to slice. And while it is linear, the path is a cooling and winding one, giving you glimpses of what lies ahead and, conversely, letting you look back and see the path you’ve taken.

The game does have some actual combat sequences, but they are brief palette cleansers… When they aren’t part of a platforming challenge. There are 3 enemy types: the excavator, the drone and the roller. They don’t really matter, as I said, they are there more as a change of pace than anything else. You could almost consider them another obstacle in the platforming than genuine combat encounters. And in general, combat is pretty much vestigial. Which is totally fine, it’s a great platformer first and foremost and they nailed that.

There is the optional objective of finding and collecting orb drones placed all over the levels… But it felt hollow, at least in GOG version, since the developers/publisher did not decide to add achievement support there… Nor any form of offline/local “achievement page”.

Story

There isn’t much of a story, really. P, a “slicer” arrived at a giant structure with the objective of tearing it down. She’s accompanied by a floating… Spherical drone, “Orbie” (which is technically the player character, according to the credits). The duo proceed to do just that: parkouring through the giant structure and destroying aggressive construction machines.

Though, admittedly the game regularly drops bits and bobs of background lore and setting info. Mostly during the “slacking” scenes, where P says a few lines or interacts with Orbie. Which gives some interesting things to ponder about, like the mention of heresy, or the “resets”.

And I have to give them credit: they did set up a sequel beautifully. And a prequel is also possible for pretty much the same reason… Even if that ending is a little bit… flabbergasting. I mean, people complained about Iron Keep in DS2…

Summa Summarum

All in all it’s a damn good fun. In an almost old-school way, with some of the quality of life things of the modern era.

The only bad things I could say about the game have already been said. For me those are tiny, though I’d love to see achievement support for GOG version.

Aside from that its a great game, with almost nostalgic design. Solid 5. Maybe you can tag on a minus, or two if you are bothered by the lack of Achievements… or the looks bother you… But I couldn’t justify anything lower, really.

Go play this gem.

#ActionAdventure #ComputerGames #gameReview #gaming #GOG #Motorslice #parkour #Platformer #RegularStudio #TopHatStudios

Assassin’s Creed – Animus Training Program

Welcome to the Brotherhood !
Cette semaine sur la JDR Academy on découvre le jeu de rôle Assassin’s Creed !
Adapté de la célèbre licence vidéo-ludique, Assassin’s Creed plonge les joueurs dans deux époques. Comme dans le jeu vidéo, ils incarnent deux personnages : à la fois un ancêtre et un descendant. Cette fois, ils sont envoyés en 1942 à Paris, sous l’occupation, à la recherche d’un fragment d’Eden…

Le jeu complet sera en précommande chez l’éditeur Arkhane Asylum Publishing à partir du 18 janvier 2024.

Le scénario est « Préparez vos lames secrètes », disponible dans le kit de découverte du jeu.

Un programme d’entrainement mené par Jordi, avec Artemis, Benzebuth et Timothée 

Retrouvez tous nos podcasts sur www.jdracademy.com

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#action #ActualPlay #animus #arkhaneAsylium #assassinSCreed #assassinscreedfans #assassinscreedmirage #crime #foliesBergères #gaming #jdr #jeuDeRôle #kitDIntro #london #meurtre #mission #nazi #occupation #oneShot #paris #parkour #PartiesPartagées #podcast #rpg #starterKit #training #ubisoft #vf #worldWarTwo #WW2

§1 – Introduction

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Travel Gear

This series covers all the physical things I’ve discovered which make light-weight traveling easier and more fun. (My thoughts on the philosophy, etiquette, and mindset of traveling are in a separate series.) This series of posts is only meant to give you ideas; I certainly don’t expect you use the exact same solutions. For me, the challenge was not to pack as light as possible, but to pack as light as is reasonable.

I’ve read countless articles on travel, written by everyone from ultra-light hikers to seasoned business travelers. Sometimes, I stumbled over useful ideas and then figured out how to apply them. At other times I went searching for a solution to some specific problem I was having. Over the years, I’ve come up with a collection of items, and related tips and tricks, that I find extremely useful.

It’s obviously important to know what to pack, and to be able to pack well. But I believe the most important part of traveling “light” is developing two habits: unpacking and reviewing. Unpacking ensures I’m always ready, and reviewing ensures I’m always improving. The next two parts of this series will go into these two habits.

Why

But first, why travel lightweight? Why not simply grab the largest bag I have, stuff it with everything I might need, and head out the door? Why spend time and money fiddling with travel gear and solutions? I found my answers to those questions by sorting out the following: I’m most free when I have just the clothes on my back, but I will be unhappy, stressed, or in physical danger when I don’t have whatever-it-is that I happen to need. So at the most basic level, packing light is simply the balance of freedom versus preparedness.

There is also a deeper mental level to that balance. Do I feel free and relaxed, or am I worried? For me, it turns out that simply packing more things does not make me feel more prepared or relaxed. Rather, it’s the idea that I know I am prepared which enables me to be comfortable.

Clearly, the less I have to carry, the easier physically are my travels: In a packed car, my bag can fit on my lap. On a bus, it fits in the over-head, where it’s handy through the trip. On a plane, I can travel with just a carry-on-bag, saving me time and money on checked baggage. It’s also easier to not unpack — to just live out of the bag at my destination. It’s quicker to settle down in the evening, and quicker to pack out in the morning. It’s even easier to keep track of my stuff the less of it there is.

Certainly, there are lots of challenges and trade-offs with traveling light. It is not all champagne and roses. But by investing the time to solve problems and get better at the process, I’m able to have a lot more fun. So my challenge was to pack as light as I can, and still have everything I need.

My first task was then to figure out, “What exactly do I need?”

How

The more I dug into these ideas, the more I realized that the only way to know I was prepared — to truly feel prepared — was to thoroughly examine what I was packing and carrying. I wound up asking myself a litany of questions and exploring the answers and solutions: Why am I uncomfortable right now? What could I have brought that I could use right now? I never used this thing-i-packed, so why did I bring it? I’m exhausted after carrying my pack all day; Why does it weigh 30 pounds?

This process of examining all my worries, habits, and situations led me to search for solutions. My habits of unpacking and reviewing, which I mentioned at the beginning, are the result of all this questioning and refining of my travel gear.

Along the way, I learned to not pack based on fear or uncertainty; To not pack anticipating everything that might go wrong. Instead, I learned to prepare only for the scenarios that matter — safety items, spare cash, medication. I also learned to feel comfortable in knowing what I could obtain at my destination if things didn’t go according to plan. This became a sort of “anti-packing,” where I learned what not to pack.

Eventually, I wound up with “systems”, or “kits”, for just about everything. A sleep system, in one stuff sack, that has everything I need to sleep on a bare floor. A bathroom kit, in one zipper-bag, which has everything I need for bathing, shaving, etc. A medical/urgent kit (the “m’urgency” kit) that has what I frequently use, plus what I feel is sufficient for common urgencies.

The more I tuned my gear and systems, the easier packing became. These days, I don’t grab my toothbrush out of the bathroom, find my razor, and wonder what soap may be at my destination; I pick up the small, black, zipper-bag that is my bathroom kit. If I might be sleeping on the floor I grab my sleep system. I always grab the m’urgency kit. I grab the clothes I want, and a stuff sack to pack them. I add in various other things, (described in coming posts,) grab my favorite backpack, stuff the contents, and go!

An exercise

If you really want to get a feel for how much your packing improves, try doing a “test packing” as a starting point for future reference. Note the time, and go pack for a 5 day, 4 night Parkour trip. Let’s presume mild weather, sleeping indoors but on a bare hardwood floor. Let’s say you will be training 3 of the days. Pretend you have no idea what the host conditions are, but assume you have access to a bathroom, shower, wifi and whatever electricity outlets you are used to. (Dealing with not-your-usual electrical systems is a post in this series.) When you are ready to walk out your door, note the time again. Now weigh your stuff and write down the time it took to pack, the weight, and maybe some notes about how you’d feel carrying all that stuff while trying to board a bus, a plane or hop in a car.

Now, as you put everything away, imagine dropping all that on the floor at your host. What if they have to move it while you’re out for the day? Is their dog/cat/toddler going to get into your stuff? Maybe also note your worries: I don’t have a sleeping bag or pad for sleeping on a floor! How do I dry my hair? Look at all these clothes! What if this trip had been to a place with weather extremes, say, you had to train outdoors in freezing temps? What if you knew you’d be video recorded during one of your training days? What if your destination had different electrical power? What if someone threw, or sat on, your bag?! What if… What if…

Recall the two habits I mentioned: unpack and review? You have just done your first unpack and review after an imaginary trip!

ɕ

#Parkour #Travel #TravelGear