There aren’t many games I love the way I love Parasite Eve. The second one was great too, if you could get over the control scheme, but the first is just… stunning. Even today, pitch perfect. There’re two reasons it was amazing for me: Aya Brea, who was my favorite videogame character for years, and the deep knowledge of biology on display. The science was not only notable and fascinating on its own, it added a mote of believability to the dark, strange shit afoot. And it was a story about women. Fundamentally and inalienably. I wouldn’t have put it in these terms then, but now I recognize how huge that was. It used both scientific fact and cultural constructions of motherhood to tell this story that was totally unlike anything else in the sea of dicks that gaming was and more or less still is.
So while there are a lot of games I dislike or have complaints with, not since my early teens have I hated a game down to its very core the way I hate 3rd Birthday. Aya Brea, who I have to stress, was my fucking hero for a few years in the late 90s and early 00s, was hollowed out and exploited, and the science was replaced with bland squarenix magic asswater. This game’s been out for years and I still get waves of resentment over it.
3rd Barfday
salarta 