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Last Year: The Nightmare
Last Year: The Nightmare
2018 | Horror
Premise (0 more)
Gameplay can be slow, needs more options (0 more)
Nostalgic Horror
The survival horror genre has been growing in recent years with more and more titles being released to a growing and receptive gaming audience. The goal for these games is usually simple; survive. The typical set up has four or more players working with one another to accomplish various tasks and elude a dangerous killer who is often randomly selected amongst the players at the start of each match.
The latest game in this genre is entitled Last Year: The Nightmare and it sets players as stereotypical high school students as they attempt to survive against a killer.

Players will be able to select not only their persona but also a class such as Assault or Medic which will help the group survive the challenges ahead. Players will have to accomplish various tasks such as finding fuel for a Stair Car and locating computer disks as they attempt to open an exit which will allow players a time window to escape to safety.

Players will also have to find raw material along the way which can be used to construct and upgrade items such as a football helmet, weapons, and other tools needed for survival.

This is not a run and shoot scenario as weapons can involve a camera flash to temporarily blind your enemy, a mine to give them an explosive welcome, a shotgun, and a pipe with barbed wire and nails.
Playing in locales such as a gym, Bell tower, and a Library, there is plenty of area in which to cover which allows the killer plenty of places to strike. Players can quick travel through vents but may also take advantage of being able to barricade various locales which will slow down the killer but also restrict access for fellow players.

The killers come in three varieties, an axe murderer, a strangler, and a slow-moving but dangerous bulk that will smash, strangle, and throw, any players that get close enough to his range.

The game is available only via Discord currently and has had quite a few bugs to contend with during our numerous play tests most notably with launching and map loading. However when the game does load properly aside from some occasional lag; the gameplay has been solid and enjoyable and the in game chat has certainly led to some enjoyable conversations as we strategize.

The game’s graphics are solid but nothing spectacular and the same can be said for the audio and music. The maps are enjoyable but a little basic and I certainly hope that more of them will be released in the future. I also would like to see more options for the killers and might even be fun to allow more than one into a map to increase the challenge.

The killers are an intriguing mix as taking down players within ask is pretty much what you might expect but being able to last so a player with a chain and strangle them is an interesting new wrinkle. Once players are killed they can be revived after a certain amount of time as players will have to free them from a closet in which they are trapped. The same goes for the killers as once taken down; they will respond after a certain amount of time which also allows players to use a different killer.

Despite the issues; the game is enjoyable but depending on your tolerances some may find it becomes a little old and repetitious after a few games. I have not seen any major differences between playing any of the characters as the Jock seemed to perform exactly as the Nerd without any discernible advantage.

In the end the game is an enjoyable but fleeting diversion as after successfully completing a few rounds; it isn’t compelling enough to keep players engaged for long periods of time and to draw them back again and again.
3 stars out of 5
  
Last Year: The Nightmare
Last Year: The Nightmare
2018 | Horror
The survival horror genre has been growing in recent years with more and more titles being released to a growing and receptive gaming audience. The goal for these games is usually simple; survive. The typical set up has four or more players working with one another to accomplish various tasks and elude a dangerous killer who is often randomly selected amongst the players at the start of each match.

The latest game in this genre is entitled Last Year: The Nightmare and it sets players as stereotypical high school students as they attempt to survive against a killer.

Players will be able to select not only their persona but also a class such as Assault or Medic which will help the group survive the challenges ahead. Players will have to accomplish various tasks such as finding fuel for a Stair Car and locating computer disks as they attempt to open an exit which will allow players a time window to escape to safety.

Players will also have to find raw material along the way which can be used to construct and upgrade items such as a football helmet, weapons, and other tools needed for survival.

This is not a run and shoot scenario as weapons can involve a camera flash to temporarily blind your enemy, a mine to give them an explosive welcome, a shotgun, and a pipe with barbed wire and nails.

Playing in locales such as a gym, Bell tower, and a Library, there is plenty of area in which to cover which allows the killer plenty of places to strike. Players can quick travel through vents but may also take advantage of being able to barricade various locales which will slow down the killer but also restrict access for fellow players.

The killers come in three varieties, an axe murderer, a strangler, and a slow-moving but dangerous bulk that will smash, strangle, and throw, any players that get close enough to his range.

The game is available only via Discord currently and has had quite a few bugs to contend with during our numerous play tests most notably with launching and map loading. However when the game does load properly aside from some occasional lag; the gameplay has been solid and enjoyable and the in game chat has certainly led to some enjoyable conversations as we strategize.

The game’s graphics are solid but nothing spectacular and the same can be said for the audio and music. The maps are enjoyable but a little basic and I certainly hope that more of them will be released in the future. I also would like to see more options for the killers and might even be fun to allow more than one into a map to increase the challenge.

The killers are an intriguing mix as taking down players within ask is pretty much what you might expect but being able to last so a player with a chain and strangle them is an interesting new wrinkle. Once players are killed they can be revived after a certain amount of time as players will have to free them from a closet in which they are trapped. The same goes for the killers as once taken down; they will respond after a certain amount of time which also allows players to use a different killer.

Despite the issues; the game is enjoyable but depending on your tolerances some may find it becomes a little old and repetitious after a few games. I have not seen any major differences between playing any of the characters as the Jock seemed to perform exactly as the Nerd without any discernible advantage.

In the end the game is an enjoyable but fleeting diversion as after successfully completing a few rounds; it isn’t compelling enough to keep players engaged for long periods of time and to draw them back again and again.

http://sknr.net/2018/12/26/last-year-the-nightmare-2/
  
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Cool for the Summer
Cool for the Summer
Dahlia Adler | 2021 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance, Young Adult (YA)
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A simply wonderful book about finding yourself and love
Larissa "Lara" Bogdan has had a crush on one person for her entirety of high school: Chase Harding, the handsome, beloved football quarterback. But it's not until she comes back from a summer at the Outer Banks that he seems to take real notice of Lara. Like, flirting, asking her out notice. Now, she suddenly has everything she's ever wanted. But Lara can't seem to shake her memories of that Outer Banks summer and the girl she spent it with: Jasmine. Those memories come back in full force when Jasmine unexpectedly shows up at Lara's school on the first day and sees Chase flirting with Lara. Lara finally has Chase now. So why can't she stop thinking about Jasmine?

"How do you tell people who've listened to you babble about your crush on a guy for a thousand years that whoops, you spent the summer fooling around with a girl?"

Oh goodness, this was a great book. I'm so jealous there are so many wonderful YA LGTBQIA books out there now, which I would have devoured as a teen, yet incredibly happy too. I absolutely loved Lara as a character. She's sweet and bookish (addicted to romances) and in that stage where she's finding herself and coming out. It's hard not to relate to that. Adler's characters pop onto the pages--Lara, her mother, Jasmine, and Lara's cast of funny, overbearing, and loving friends. And even Chase, who is truly a good guy. (I appreciated that it wasn't "bad guy" versus "good girl" but two good kids, with their own personalities and flaws, whom Lara had to choose from.)

The book is told in a then and now format, starting out with Lara in high school and then flashing back to her summer in the Outer Banks with Jasmine. As someone who has spent some time in the Outer Banks, I loved the beachy setting, and the book just felt fun, summery, and exciting. You could feel the thrill of Lara and Jasmine falling for each other. It's so rare that we get this in our literature, and it brought back memories of my own first love and that fun, scared, happy feeling, along with all that uncertainly of realizing you were feeling these things for another girl. Adler captures it all so perfectly.

"If I somehow got Jasmine back--if I even wanted her back--what would it mean losing when everyone else found out the truth?"

The premise for this book is fascinating and lovely. Lara suddenly has everything she wants: she has pined after Chase for THREE YEARS. She comes back from vacation with a tan, a new haircut, and a newfound confidence (which no one knows the source of) and he suddenly takes notice of her. She should be in heaven--her friends certainly think so. Faced with having to make all these monumental life decisions, to realize whom she loves, and what she is--it's a lot. The book does such an excellent job of portraying bisexuality and the journey of figuring out who who you are. It's very well done, but also funny and witty. All the characters seem real and, for the most part, true to their age.

Overall, I loved this one. It portrays the queer community very well and does an excellent job capturing teens. The story is fun, sweet, and captivating. I feel like it would speak well to teens and adults who remember that spark of falling in love. I have to go read everything else by Adler now... 4.5 stars.
  
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