#(before anyone @s me)

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

Fin or Bin: Hitman 2

I rejected the privacy policy and, as a result, the game locked me out of all of its live service nonsense. As you can no doubt imagine, I'm heartbroken.

I try not to judge a game based on the business practices of its publisher, however microtransactiony and live-servicey they may be, but this elephant in the room is too large to ignore. Vast swathes of the menus in this entirely single-player game are locked away behind signs saying I cannot play them, because I'm in Offline Mode. That's to be expected of functions like leaderboards, but it won't even let me change my starting position within a level because I'm offline. There is no reason a single-player game should arbitrarily lock parts of itself away because I'm not online. If I install the game to a laptop and then take that laptop to Antarctica, I should be able to play it no differently than I do at home (at least until a leopard seal comes and kills me). Deeply unimpressed and it leaves a big black mark on what could have been a great product.

But lets move on from the crushing reality of modern games development and talk about the game itself!

No one plays these games for the narrative, of course, which is a good thing because it seems to want me to care about the history of a man who quite deliberately is No One. Protagonist Agent 47 is a professional assassin who gets pointed at Target Du Jour and then that target is later found dead. Simple stuff. The mission briefings are actually a lot of fun, very slick editing and cool presentation, with a voice over providing some excuse for the murderings that are about to occur (which I think are actually "we just thought it would be cool to have a race track level and a film set level"). Briefing over, 47 enters the scene, and this is where the game doesn't quite hit home for me.

The Sniper taught me to be efficient. Each level is set up in such a way that there are many different methods to kill the target, and the game actually encourages you to replay missions to find the other ways of achieving your goal. For example, at the race track you can poison the winner's trophy, or sneak into the mechanic's pit and 'accidentally' loosen their wheels so they crash, or add sugar to the fuel so their car blows up; any method that results in a grisly end counts, and all that remains is to exit the scene.

Unfortunately, the game gives me a gun. And while I could engineer a clever setup where the film director gets blown off a building by a wind machine that unfortunately had its safety systems disabled and was then set to a dangerously high speed, I can also just left-click his face and be done with it. There's no mission requirement to 'get away' with it, or make it look accidental, and I think that was a misstep.

I recognise this is absolutely a me problem, and I know a lot of people have fun arranging their dominos just-so. I just feel that narratively-speaking I'm supposed to be a ghost, and the gameplay should enforce that.

Fin or Bin:

Here's a fun thing, the package I bought that included this game didn't actually include the full game- each level is technically a separate DLC, and it gave me all but the last two levels. This game is no longer available for purchase, so I literally cannot finish it. There is fun to be had here, and under the conditions of the blog it's a Fin; it feels like I'm having fun despite the game, but I am having fun.

[b4kuch1n]

podcast people in my phone

[obsmiechujek]

Bubbline with some bubbles

[uniiiquehecrt]

Voice actors are NOT the same as actors.

It takes a specific kind of skill-set and training to be able to warp and meld the voice. It takes a certain kind of talent and dedication to hone that talent into the ability to meld the voice and invoke emotion with one's voice alone. Actors are used to using their voice secondarily to their body language and their facial expressions. It's all mirrored back on camera. They do have nuance. But it's a different kind of nuance and a different kind of training to produce that nuance.

Voice actors might get their likeness transposed on their character's design, and maybe their mannerisms might seep into the character's animation. But when it's all said and done: their presence is in their voice. They are bringing a character to life, showing that emotion in their voice, trying to keep a specific accent, drawl, pitch, tone in that voice and keep it consistent for their recording sessions.

The voice actor is like a classically trained musician who can play first chair in a competitive, world-renown orchestra. The actor (who fills the voice actor's role) is like a moot who played violin in beginner and intermediate high school orchestra and thinks they can get into Juilliard with that 2-4 years of experience.

This doesn't mean that the HS orchestra moot can't play. They can even be really good at it. Maybe they won competitions and sat first chair. But they are not in the same league as the person who's been training their whole lives and lives and breathes to hone their craft using the instrument and all of the training they've ever acquired to perfect it. They are not meant for the same roles. They are not in the same caliber. You do not hire the HS equivalent when you want to play complex music in a competitive orchestra.

Actors are not the same as voice actors.

And furthermore, actors - especially big name actors - taking the roles of animated characters for big budget films or TV pilots makes no sense anyways when - at least in the case of TV pilots - there's not a point to hiring a big budget actors anyways. That money could be used elsewhere (like paying your animators), and the talent that is brought onto the screen for X character could then be hired on to voice said character no recasting required.

I wouldn't say voice acting as a profession is in danger exactly, but it's certainly being disrespected and overlooked for celebrity clout, and this has ALWAYS been an issue. Shoot, even Robin Williams knew that much - which is why he tried so hard not to be used as a marketing chess piece for Aladdin and got royally pissed off when it happened anyways. People shouldn't go to any movie (but especially not animated films) because "oh famous actor is in it". People should go because it's a good movie and the voice acting is good.

People who honest to god think that voice actors are replaceable because "oh well anyone can voice act" or "I like xyz celebrity so naturally it'll be good" ... Honestly I just wish you'd reassess your priorities because you're missing the point and are part of the problem.

Voice Actors ≠ Actors.

[97-liners]

men and their big wet baby cow eyes

[sergle]

There's something about like. A certain genre of posts / Online Opinions about insecurity/depression/misery/complaints that are so unhelpful that they wrap right around to being straight up hilarious. and it's the ones that are more or less written to the tone of "Feeling bad? That's gross!" Like, just so you know, don't voice your insecurities/ have low self esteem, because that's offputting! You're gross and weird. Don't be insecure about that, though. That would be stupid if you felt insecure about people disliking you for being insecure. Not attractive. You should be thinking about being as attractive as possible. You shouldn't make comments about suicide, even if you're suicidal! Keep those thoughts entirely to yourself. Make sure nobody around you knows you're thinking about this. It would Make Them Uncomfortable. It's better to keep these thoughts in your head where they can fester. Don't post OR talk to friends with complaints about you feeling miserable or depressed. Tbh people who are sad/upset a lot? Kinda a red flag! You are probably miserable because you're a bad person and you've brought this on yourself. If you don't have friends, it's because you're awful to be around. Easy! Solved the problem for you. And no, there is no nuance to this, got it? So, make sure to feel bad about feeling bad, but don't feel bad about it, because, well, that's just gross. And annoying! You might've wanted your brain rotted thoughts to be Peer Reviewed, you might have just needed to vent- you might've been hoping for some comfort, to get things off your chest. Well, don't! Don't talk about thoughts or feelings that are negative with your friends, you'd be burdening them and that's only meant for THERAPY. #SponsoredbyBetterHelp #MentalHealth like, DAMN. that's so helpful. you're so good at helping. I um really liked the part where these are all hard and fast rules that encourage keeping feelings bottled up and keeping your friends at arm's length. That's really funny of you.

[zombieplaguedoc]

Your f/o(s) would 100% be there for you when you're overwhelmed/underwhelmed or overstimulated/understimulated.

they know you can't deal with sudden loud noises, crowds, small places or that you need extra stimulation in certain times

when they notice you starting to get upset, anxious, they'll lead you outside, without gathering attention, to where it's quiet and help you decompress

they'll stay near you, letting you stim the anxiety out without any judgement and help you keep yourself at bay

if you go nonverbal / non speaking when your overwhelmed/stimulation; they'll use sign language in your native language that you taught them, text you, let you write your words down. Or if you don't want to talk, they'll leave it alone and let you take your time until you feel comfortable enough to come back to them.

Your f/o(s) would keep extra gadgets on them, stim toys, maybe on their land yard or keys incase they need to give you one when you need stimulation or need to stim

they would never treat you like a child for it. they know your boundaries, they know how you like to be comforted. They know this is how you cope, how you deal with your struggles, they know you can't control it. They just want to help :)

Antis fuck off, this post isn't for you

[backjustforberena]

"It is ill luck to look upon the face of death." RHAENYS TARGARYEN, 1x8 & 2x3

[mizzical]

F it, im compiling all my dra sketches below because i kind of miss drawing dra stuff

[thatswhatsushesaid]

shitpost dispatches from across the jianghu - mcsweeney's internet tendency edition

note: sources inside the cloud recesses confirm that hanguang-jun is not actually sorry

[crayycrayon]

"nooo mariana and john are gonna get together" get a grip. like seriously fucking get a grip. you guys are so in for "MEN CAN DATE IN CANON MATERIAL!!" but a fucking male and female friendship is too much for you to handle??? can you guys fucking grow up. their interaction in the most recent was so fucking clearly platonic. he literally has a scene extremely similar scene with sherlock.

you guys just hate women. its incredibly blatant. im fully serious. if you got angry at the mariana scene but you were fine with the sherlock scene its not because you "want representation", or because you're "scared of queerbaiting" (which btw s&co isnt even doing!). its because you hate women in key roles. seriously try to explain to me how watching the ONLY MAIN FEMALE CHARACTER actually grow and develop with her male cast and being upset at that isnt blatant sexism.

[incorrect-fnaf-quotes]

Send asks, please. I’d love to answer AU related asks for any of them—I just want to talk about them. Also doesn’t just have to be AU related, but, anyway.

[starlightwayfinder]

I decided to watch some old KH trailers in honor of the anniversary today, and I have to admit, I don’t think I ever rewatched this one after the release of Melody of Memory. When it was first revealed, we were under the assumption that the Master of Masters was the opponent Kairi was facing, but as we now know, it was actually Master Xehanort. While we were aware that the Master of Masters has more plans and tricks up his sleeve, to think of this line in the context of Xehanort is a little different. It brought to mind an old theory of mine, so I decided to go back to KH3, Re:Mind, KHDR, and MoM to compile as much evidence as possible for it.

(As a disclaimer, it slightly undermines the authenticity of his ‘conclusion’ in KH3, so if you’re a big fan of that scene, feel free to skip this one.)

This line in KH3 is a good place to start. From the get go, it was established that Xehanort planned for nearly every possible outcome of the Keyblade War. I also think it’s safe to say that every action he made was an intentional choice based on these plans. So the question is, what is the “final plan” referenced in Melody of Memory’s trailer? I think the game gave us the answer:

It may be easy to jump to the conclusion that this was just a plan for revenge, since Sora is the one who stopped Xehanort to begin with. However, I want to reaffirm that every action he takes is for a reason that serves his goals. It wasn’t just a plan to make Sora disappear, but likely to make him disappear to Quadratum specifically.

This was even foreshadowed in KH3’s Toy Box world. Young Xehanort sends Sora to the world of Verum Rex—though it’s probably closer to a “data” version in this instance:

YX in particular is very confident that Sora’s overuse of the Power of Waking will lead to his disappearance:

And MX has a similar line in Re:Mind:

Except this is where things get interesting. The Sora in Re:Mind is time-traveling from a point in time after he defeated Xehanort.

Xehanort must know this, because he sees the real Sora (from this point in time) about to begin the final battle in the distance. He then acknowledges that the Sora he’s speaking to is from the future. Unless he witnesses the present Sora time travel during their final confrontation, he can conclude that Sora survives their fight to time travel later on—meaning his plan doesn’t come to fruition. Sora unknowingly reveals his hand in Re:Mind this way, and opens the door for Xehanort to plan accordingly—which is kind of mind-breaking to think about…

It gets even better here, during Sora’s fight with Terra-Xehanort:

Sora brags that, like Xehanort, he can also time travel. To which Xehanort responds that Sora will then also need to make the “ultimate sacrifice”, or in other words, “pay the ultimate price”, as MX said. “Also”—as in, Xehanort has made this sacrifice as well by time traveling. As in, Xehanort will also disappear to Quadratum.

We have evidence to believe that as well. I also like the interpretation that he intentionally planned this to survive the world being purged, but that’s kind of a separate theory.

So to recap, Xehanort was probably aware that Sora would survive their final confrontation in order to time travel afterwards. He correctly predicts that the consequence for time traveling would be to disappear… specifically to Quadratum—something that Melody of Memory considers his “final plan”.

So… why? Why would he want Sora to also disappear to Quadratum? Trying to answer that question leads to the most controversial part of this theory:

It’s really nice to believe that Xehanort gave Sora the X-blade as an admission of his defeat, and I’m definitely not against that interpretation. But it is a little strange that before—and after—this scene, in Melody of Memory, he continues to act like making Sora disappear was his big plan. It doesn’t feel right, if he was supposed to be letting Sora “win” here.

I’ll be very curious to see if Xehanort has a role in Quadratum, and why exactly he “paved the way” for Sora to be there as well. Either way, I am holding out for a geniune change of heart from him, especially if what we saw in KH3 was more of a manipulation.

[birdcatt]

like antennas to heaven

hello? can anyone hear me?

[dukeofthomas]

I need people to realize how horrible 'stalking/constant surveillance/breaking into each other's homes is how the Batfamily show love' is. Like i really need someone to just acknowledge how horrific saying this bullshit is.

Like even fics where they're shown as happy and healthy and with good ties, you've always got this thing where none of them have privacy or any boundaries with each other. Which is directly antithetical to actually having good relationships. And this invasion via hacking and stalking and breaking into homes is portrayed as a positive, good thing; it's just how they show love and care to each other, after all. But for some reason I just personally don't find stalking, lack of privacy or boundaries, and emotional manipulation funny, endearing, or healthy, and just end up disgusted at the attempt to sweep it all under the rug.