#I fucking love cyberpunk 2077 world so much

[snaxarba]

SECURE YOUR SOUL

I have been manifesting a Cyberpunk 2077 AU starring Harry Potter as V. Tom Riddle is his sentient brain tumour that he has a complicated relationship with and Draco Malfoy is the CEO of Malfoy Corporation, a mega corporation that has monopoly on corporate security, banking and weaponry, whom Harry has to make a deal with to try and save himself.

Perhaps I will actually flesh out the world more in a fic one day but today is not that day lol.

[pinkydude]

I wanna be your hero I'll be your heat in the night

Valentin & Mitch | 567/?? 🧡🧡🧡

[mercurialmalcontent]

The story formerly known as Night City

:O

(From this ask meme!)

This one is my baby

First, the title -- I came up with the name "Night City" for the city in this book something like 20 years ago. I had heard of the Cyberpunk TTRPG, but after having had someone tell me about it my thoughts on the matter were "Huh. I like Shadowrun better." and I didn't look any further into it. When I found out the big deal city in Cyberpunk is also called Night City I felt very cross about it but was like, well, it's a not super popular TTRPG, most people aren't going to notice or care.

Then Cypberpunk 2077 was announced and I wanted to flip a table. XD I eventually came to the conclusion that fuck that, I am NOT renaming this city, which is considerably different. This isn't cyberpunk; it's a city on the edge of dream, defined by anachronism, warps in reality, and magic barely hidden under the surface.

Anyway.

The very first iteration of the story my Night City appears in was my 2005 NaNoWriMo project which I successfully finished. I wrote more in that universe, attempted a sequel, and had a whole website up for the project for a few years, even (I think I may have still called this specific story its original title of 31 Days). I really, really loved the world and the protagonist and the bones of the story, but as I got older I felt like I hadn't done it justice. It was very... edgy. Too much shock value, not enough genuine horror. My protagonist was so much of a lone wolf it made her seem disconnected from the world, and the plot was very surface-level. Monster back from the dead is killing children for Reasons and recruiting people to turn into ghouls, ho fucking hum.

I've been making stabs at re-writing it for a long time, but there were a lot of false starts (for a while I overcorrected on the edginess, and it got trite). I finally worked out the worst of the kinks in the past year or so and got much more solid and interesting motivations for my different antagonists and have a much better hold on one of my protagonists (who was doing the things he did just for the sake of being edgy and annoying originally, which is like... who cares. Certainly not me). (shoutout to @bleaksqueak who kept throwing me music and going HERE PUT THIS IN YOUR EARS; some of the Silent Hill music got my brain putting pieces together.)

So now? It's about what one protagonist, James, thinks is a conspiracy, but is a horror in plain sight for anyone not in the elite few people who live in safety and comfort under the giant dome that encloses the inner part of the city. To the other protagonist, Maddox, it's a nightmare she already lived through a decade ago; the people who hurt her and killed her friends should be dead, but street children are being murdered again. They meet via horrible circumstance brought about by James's dead best friend, and together they have to find out who's bringing this nightmare back to life... and why the powers that be will do nothing to stop it.

[freeuselandonorris]

tagged by the lovely @goingxmissing tyyyy!!

Last song I listened to: technically it was 'in the end' by linkin park on max f's stream before he started playing valorant and i switched off. but by choice it was my workout playlist (actually forced myself to do a cardio class after work!!) and the song was silly boy by lynks which is an absurdly fun song. HE'S A DICK, HE'S A PIECE OF SHIT! HE'S A FUCKING PISS-SLIT! HE'S THE END BIT OF THE BANANA WHEN YOU PEEL IT!

Favourite colour: i'm very sorry for how angsty mall goth this sounds but it's black tbh. i go through phases with other colours too. rn i'm in a pale green phase and i also like that kind of dusty pale pink that got called millennial pink a few years ago. i'm not really into bright colours though, as a rule.

Currently watching: episode 4 of fallout right this second. i just got to the cameo in this episode and i'm delighted by it. in general, i'm watching fallout, ripley, race against the world and taskmaster season 17 at the moment.

Sweet/savory/spicy: spicy!!! i love spicy food. someone rec me some good spicy hot sauces that are available in the UK pls. i had the buldak 'extremely hot' chicken sauce recently but i didn't feel like it was especially hot and i didn't like the taste much either.

Current obsession: GUESS. but lando aside: mechanical keyboard videos on tiktok (i just got influenced into buying one and i am obsessed with it, it sounds SO. GOOD.) cyberpunk 2077 obviouslyyyy, stardew valley, cawston press rhubarb seltzer, kiwi fruits.

Last thing I googled: "what rice do you use for poké bowl" lmao. i knew it was sushi rice but for some reason my brain just absolutely blanked out on me and ikept going 'risotto rice'??

no pressure tagging @lost-decade @scenetocause @zeraparker @bright-and-burning @glasscushion @monacotrophywife if any of u haven't already been tagged!

[gryptids]

“Nine People you want to know better” tag game

I was tagged by @demekii!! Thank u for thinkin of meeee <3

Last Song: Ike's Rap II by Isaac Hayes. On the album it is attached to another song, but I've just been listening to this part :>

Favorite Color: SO HARD TO PICK... probably cool green, but blue & pink are my honorable mentions.

Last Movie/TV Show: I don't really watch much TV 2 be honest!!! I much prefer nonfiction media, most of my fiction I consume thru books rather than TV/movies. That being said, I do plan on tuning in to the new season of True Detective on HBO 👁👁

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Tie between sweet and savory!!! I loooove sweet drinks, but when it comes to snacks I prefer savory. Catch me drinking sweet chai & salt n' vinegar almonds like nobody's business. My tolerance for spicy food is fairly low.

Relationship status: Happily single

Last thing I googled: The 2019 film Queen & Slim

Current Obsession: The Bald & The Beautiful podcast and Cyberpunk 2077. I don't really care about the plot of the game, more the world that its in. Been watching a looot of ambient driving tours in Cyberpunk 2077 lol (shout-out to DaydreamGaming on Youtube).

Stealing prev's last two questions:

Last Book: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Gideon is so fucking funny I love her so much, I know at least two lesbians who act exactly like her sjlkfjsd.

Looking forwards to: Attending some adult meetup groups at my local library!!

Tagging @official-bagpipes @technicolor-technopath @sauntervaguelydownward @triptrippy @dracula-enthusiast @charlioak @esafagus @cucumberlumber @protoformx and whoever else wants to do it!!! There were some ppl I wanted to tag but Tumblr wouldn't let me so if u see this I am tagging YOU and you should do it 👀

[fyeahnix]

okay I gotta talk about Cyberpunk 2077

I really really wanted to play this game on launch back in 2020 but it was just...not ready so I avoided it. I also know the game was criticized for some things and a bunch of people made thinkpieces about how you shouldn't play it and all that. and like...sure have your opinions about it, that's fine. I was disappointed at the launch, but content wise I wanted to play the game for myself. so I waited until it went on sale for 50% off this year and bought it on GOG (which, if you're interested, that sale happens at least like twice per month).

before I went on vacation to Europe at the end of June, I finally started it. and I was....kinda in shock????

(keep in mind this is pre-2.0 patch so some of this might be out of date when that comes out)

(major story spoilers below)

first off the character creation is......not amazing? like there's plenty of nice preset options but it's limiting. V's gender being tied to their voice is FUCKING AWFUL, and I do not agree with that direction in the slightest. tbh I think that might be the absolute worst part of the game, where it would have been much easier to just...give you an option for pronouns?? like why was that not the direction wtf. and also having your voice and body type be a prerequisite to romance options too?? I just....UGH there's work to be done here.

past that tho, I love how much personality V has and I love the acting. I went with female V with a Street Kid background. it was really nice seeing how she came back from Atlanta to start back up in Night City and how her relationship with Jackie quickly blossomed. and man these two together were so great. imagine getting close to killing someone and getting arrested and then being like "bruh that cop was a fucking asshole and I'm hungry, let's go get some food bruh" and then I saw The Montage.

man....man oh man that fucking Street Kid montage of V doing jobs with Jackie? with the music in the background? I ended up watching that like 2-3 times (because the game crashed) but i genuinely did like it a lot and it really set me up with for the overall vibe of Night City. I dunno maybe I'm easily entertained but it was...just so cool?? I think it really lends itself to the animation and acting in the game overall. while most basic NPCs are nothing special to talk about, the ones who are, who clearly have some mocap going on with their facial expressions, are a fucking treat to watch regarding body language and subtle facial changes.

I somehow avoided all spoilers of the game for nearly three years (also do not have experience in this IP) so I had no idea who Johnny Silverhand was and his significance to V. I wasn't a huge fan of him in the beginning but I quickly grew to like this asshole, especially as the game progresses and you learn more about him and his ideals and his very flawed perception of the world. I really really wanted there to be a solution where he and V live happily in the end, but ofc this genre does not allow happiness lol. It was very cool to hear his input during some jobs even if I thought they were ridiculous sometimes or he was jumping the gun a bit, and it was nice to get to know him better. I eventually came to see him as a bit of an older brother figure for my V. not perfect and offered "sage" advice when he felt warranted. obviously he has some self interest in keeping V alive because that means he stays alive, but it was very sweet to see him change over time to wanting to genuinely help V out.

by the end, I chose the route to storm Arasaka with Rogue because....why the fuck not, it's not my definitive playthrough. Aaaand I got The Sun ending. Rogue died. and I hated that. but more than that I wasn't happy with my V and her situation, but I'll get back to that in a bit. that brings me to the romance option.

again, I somehow avoided all spoilers for this game and while I vaguely remembered seeing Judy in one of the initial trailers from like...3+ years ago, I couldn't fully remember her role in the story or even what she looked like. all I can say is.....fucking love at first sight.

ok so like...I'm a bit of a simp for nerdy girls. and techy girls. and alt girls. and artsy girls. so to have her be nerdy and techy and alt and artsy and also have hobbies outside of that? man....the second I went to her apartment and learned more about her hobbies and interests, I was fucking smitten. it was super nice to be able to see regular people shit out of a romance option in a major game. and on top of that. her drive and interest in standing up to injustices is admirable. I love her, seriously. she's such a great character.

the romance. man.....I wish I had more words for it, but the way it progresses through the questline, the little hints you get about her own interest in you (Johnny mentioning the way she looks at you and you liking it), the way her texting towards you starts to change over time. I feel like it was paced extremely well within the confines of the game. and then....Pyramid Song happened.

at first, I approached this as any other romance in any other RPG. "oh yay, I can fuck the romance option yaaayyy" but nah. this quest fucking....ruined me in the best way possible. it was beautifully done. the acting, the emotional impact of the lake dive, V and Judy's minds melding into one, learning about Judy's past and hearing her memories... even writing this paragraph now I am near tears because that romance was so fucking well done. like yeah the eventual sex scene was great, but everything leading up to that was absolutely fantastic. to have seen this in a game, especially as a lesbian interacting with a character who ALSO is a lesbian, was just.....ugh it meant so much and I know there's no way a straight man wrote this lmfao.

I also love how after the relationship starts, Judy continuously texts you for A WHILE afterwards. She tells you random things, brings up her thoughts, and eventually tells you how much you mean to her. It is unbelievably cute and I couldn't stop smiling when I read every new text. I really hope they expand this in the update. And if not....well...I may consider doing this myself in a mod or something lmfao.

I also went through Panam's questline and tho it sucks that I couldn't romance her, I did develop a headcanon for V's interactions with her that I made a post about previously. like idk after seeing and meeting her in her quest, she was not at all who I thought she'd be. I was expecting some like....extremely femme prissy woman like...idk Loba from Apex Legends or something who couldn't break a nail or she'd fuss about it (remember I avoided all spoilers of this game lol). but NAH, def not her. she's more like "hey V, how many tons of dynamite do we need to wake up an entire Wraiths camp?" and you know what? I fucking love that shit.

which brings me back to the ending. I had a headcanon for my V that basically goes like this:

V is a Street Kid merc from Night City who comes back from Atlanta to restart her life. She meets Jackie and they quickly become best friends. All the shit about Arasaka happens and Jackie dies. V starts to have second questions about whether or not reaching the top of Night City and becoming the best merc is really what she wants. She's seen death plenty but Jackie's death has haunted her and now she herself dying. In the midst of doing jobs to survive and figuring out how to fix her situation with the Relic, she meets Panam and quickly becomes friends with her. She was a little interested at first but Panam was not. V respected that and did not persist, but they did become very close friends. V eventually meets Judy as well, and while they started off a little rocky, she ends up liking her and eventually they start a relationship. But having that conversation with Judy at the lake about Judy wanting to leave Night City really gets V thinking. But she carries on. Blah blah blah, story stuff, she becomes close to Johnny as well, but eventually I had it in my head that V really loves Judy as a partner and really loves Panam as her best friend so why not live out the rest of her life traveling with the Aldecaldos? She can leave her merc life in Night City and start fresh with her newfound family, best friend, and life partner.

And what do you fucking know, this is actually possible as an ending lmfao. I only just read the endings right after finishing my playthrough and this will be my ultimate goal the next time I play this V in my....prob 3 or 4 playthrough by then.

anyway, enough story. time for gameplay.

so I usually do stealth builds in these types of games. I chose to go with a stealthy throwing knife build (very fun!) after deciding pistols and bladed weapons that aren't knives weren't really for me this time around. I haven't played a ton of stealth-based games, but generally what I've noticed is that they tend to give you routes/pathways to follow if you pay enough attention. like NPCs will have predefined walking routes, the environment will have certain openings/paths available to navigate and either avoid or kill incapacitate these enemies quickly and quietly. I don't feel like I got that sense in this game here? I dunno if it was poor stealth design, but I do think it was this:

this game really REALLY wants you to utilize a cyberdeck, it feels like. interacting with the environment, whether it's creating distractions or blinding enemies or whatever, seems to be the goal with really working with stealth. I can't say that I hate it, esp since that's a part of the game world, but sometimes doing stealth feels more difficult than it should be because of this perceived expectation to...create your own routes and pathways so to speak. the last like...10-15 hours of my playthrough, I ditched the cyberdeck and went with a sandevistan but had invisibillity cloaking to make up for the lack of a deck. still fun but it did feel like I was using cloaking as a crutch to get out of LOS when spotted lol.

I have no opinions on guns and gunplay in this game as I haven't use them yet, but I'm sure I'll have thoughts for 2.0.

text messages were really cool lol. I know they are bascially just predefined messages but I still liked that and I loved how you can talk to characters on holo instead of visiting them in person. idk I'm a sucker for stuff like this.

the perk system is not great, I oftentimes felt confused on what perks to even get because a lot of them were underwhelming and felt more like Fallout 3's "numbers go up" options. the overhaul 2.0 patch will apparently give us more options to play with in terms of changing gameplay so I am hoping the changes will be reminiscent of going from Fallout 3 -> New Vegas in perk style.

Cyberware is great and this is where I feel the game really opens up in playstyle compared to the perks. I'm happy to see this is being extended and armor will be tied to cyberware instead of clothing in 2.0.

vehicles are cool. I like the variety in them but I feel like there could be more. additionally there's so many of them available for free that it almost makes no sense to buy them unless you're just doing completionist stuff. the handling is fucking awful and I hope that improves in the patch.

Night City is absolutely fucking gorgeous in a dirty and grungy kinda way. I've lived in a major city for most of my life and it def gave me that....really raw inner-city feel with people walking fucking everywhere, cars that nearly won't stop til they hit you, stores and shit everywhere, gang members hanging out on the corner or in front of stores, police stopping someone for questioning, etc. I just love it. a lot of it is window dressing. you can't go into like 99.99% of the stores and whatnot in the game. that might bother some folks, and that's understandable, but I'm completely fine that it's all for show. It helps the atmosphere.

I suppose I could talk about how well this game presents the genre as a whole but...I can't. I don't have the background history and knowledge of the IP itself or the genre to really talk about it in detail. If this game comes across as "baby's first cyberpunk experience" or doesn't go too hard in the punk direction then....fine, I guess? Whatever? I still enjoyed it lol. I would like to experience more cyberpunk as my experience so far has been limited to Shadowrun Returns and Dragonfall, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", and Blade Runner. But yeah I'm not an expert here so I mainly just wanted to talk about the gameplay and presentation.

anyway I think that's about all to talk about really. this was more just...stream of consciousness and rambling than anything lol. I had a really awesome time with the game and thought, despite the shitty launch and character creation thing about gender, that it's def worth checking out. can't wait for the DLC and 2.0 update because I will likely eventually talk about stuff that may or may not have changed. this is gonna be the game I focus on heavily for the next few months until I get sick of it. then I might start exploring with mods.

[cyberpunk-20xx]

about masc!V's VA

cw for general spoilers and mentions of typical-canon violence

I always find it strange that people find masc!V's VA emotionless, or even annoying or plain bad. I'm not gonna say anything about fem!V's VA because I don't pay attention at all to it cus if I do it gives me dysphoria.

I don't, on the other end, find it that strange that most people I've seen with this opinion are in fact cis men.

To me masc!V's VA is actually super emotional, but not in the conventional likeable, heroic way. Jaded and reserved at the same time. I like the VA a lot for doing what I consider great work at presenting us a character who has lived from 2050 to 2077 in a deeply fucked up world where hope is so sparse. A world that we have no idea how fucked up is, even reading about the ttrpg because to me Cyberpunk Red is much less fucked up even if it is already a dystopia.

Just as a reminder, in CP77's NC society:

Amputation without actual health concern is highly encouraged all for the sake of pure performance. And nothing else. Your physical body is socially just disposable. The only way to keep up with the world that keeps eating itself is just to upgrade, and if you don't have the money for it? Fuck you, fuck your ideals, fuck your dreams.

You get suicide baited on the regular by the fucking street advertisements.

Violence against marginalised people is at an all-time all. Sex workers have it even worse than in the real world and that's saying something on how women and queer people are treated in general.

Acid rain is normal.

The majority of the animal population is extinct in the whole world. The cattle industry has collapsed and unless you're Kerry Eurodyne levels of rich, meat is either made of worms or insects and it's not even something hidden or taboo. In fact, it's shown explicitly in ads. Real vegetables and organic food in general is scarce as well. We might, irl 2023, start to be desensitized about it because we're on the brink of the ultraliberal hell that the game is portraying, but human's civilisation started with agriculture, and cattle culture was a big fucking part of that, regardless of one's ethics and morals about meat consumption (do not clown about veganism on this post, people are allowed to value animal life regardless of this video game blurb). In various quests, namely Panam's and River's, we can see firsthand how the collapse of that industry has rotten individuals and left the land in ruins.

Even a mondial star like Kerry or a fixer queen like Rogue are just, in the end, the bitches of the corps they sold out to, and unable to fight back. In fact, they've both given up entirely until V comes crashing into their life, with Johnny in tow. The fandom paints them as charismatic individuals but I really just think that's the rose-tinted glasses effect of us knowing what they used to be, when they tried, and them just being... Pretty conventionally attractive, quippy and sarcastic. But really even those two people who we are presented with as Succesful Individuals TM just... Man they just fucking suck, okay? They're miserable, they don't like themselves, they don't like who they are anymore, they don't have any speck of joy left in their lives, they're both estranged from their kids, alone, and just going on because death is scary. They're so human. They're at the top of the world and in the end they're still nothing in the face of it. Love them both so much but they're heartbreaking.

V always starts the game after having lost everything. Any other fucker in their place would have most likely finished just like a certain Heywood kid with spikey brunette hair. V is an exceptional individual for even having a chance at a second life.

V pretty much has brain cancer and is promised a painful, slow agonising death unless they basically kill themselves, and the less painful way to go is to gobble down medication but then that means giving the body up to Johnny. Johnny's first interaction with them is: violent physical assault and suicide baiting. It's hell. V is in hell. It could not be me if I were honest, I would not bother fighting it and I would not only alt+F4 from life, I would do as Johnny wishes at this point and erase us both at once.

V's so traumatized that when they lose Jackie, they're still able to function, but not enough to see a blatant trap coming. And when they have to carry Evelyn's corpse out of that tub, they don't have a breakdown, they just tank it. Which is not badass by the way, if you frame this as anything positive you need therapy yourself tbh boo you deserve better.

V's also a cold blooded murderer very easily if you want to take that path, and I'd even argue that the game makes it very hard for them to not be a killer honestly. Even the "non-lethal" optic mod doesn't work that well past a certain point. I've yet to try my hand at a pacifist run.

If you want V to be a good person, a hopeful person, someone who does not sound deeply suicidal and terribly fucked up, someone who's not used to death and treason as their daily lot, someone who's going to make you feel good about yourself when interacting with the world... I don't think you understood the game you were buying, nor that you were paying much attention while you were playing.

I'll be the first to admit have my own biases and gripes with the game's bleak looks on life, at its pretense at being "cyberpunk" when it truly only has the "cyber" part down, but at the same time I gotta give it to it, it's cohesive within its own universe and tone. V's canon, vanilla character makes perfect sense in the settings we are presented with. Masc!V's VA just does a good job of translating that.

But I guess that's not all of it, the difference between my interpretation and the one I made this post about makes sense because it is true that masc!V's VA does not act like the normal hero archetype at all, but like an anti-hero, except without the whole "charismatic leader" bullshit tone and bravado, unlike… Well, Johnny himself.

Masc!V's voice is not only not the voice of a good guy, it also fails to be the voice of a leader, of someone who's got it all figured out, of, well, the alpha male. It commits the crime of not being Good and not being Manly, at once! It even dares to be human and vulnerable at times! No wonder it gets haters lmao.

And the people I see bashing on masc!V's VA are always fucking kissing Johnny's ass for being who he is in the flashbacks, in the legends and at the beginning of the game. And that, to me, is pretty self-explanatory why I cannot relate with their opinion on masc!V's VA.

[bearjam]

You know what. Fuck it. You guys are getting the cyberpunk sketches now. I can’t be bothered to keep waiting. I still need to do yellow, king, Oscar and Parker but honestly that’s so much design research so here’s a little taste of the boys I have done.

Arthur looks insanely smug and honestly like a little silly in the tech wear but I dig it. He designed the eyes that replaced the eyes he had that where damaged in a lab explosion. In this AU he’s a music loving genius turned to science when he founds out his daughter is suffering from a termal disease. He works tirelessly with Parker to come up with new ways to help Faroe be mobile on her own. The tech he was developing was utilized by the company giving him the space and grants to work as a form of military implants. They took his designs and modified them for more military application, specifically stealth.

John comes into play as one of the first successful test subjects of Arthur’s designs, essentially his entire body being replaced by machinery. In order to make him a more efficient weapon, the ability to feel any physical sensations on the tech has been removed. The main part of his body that is still “human” is his facial area. That’s the only bit of him left with skin. He escaped the facility when they proposed replacing the last bit of his humanity with metal so he could be the ultimate weapon.

The butcher was the first in the line of human weapons, honestly he’s very similar to Adam smasher from the cyberpunk 2077 universe, the main difference is that he commonly “loses” control over himself due to his modifications unlike Adam smasher who appears to have primary control over himself with limited use to the drug in game that keeps heavily modified folks from going insane. He is tasked with hinting down John, who is on the run with help from Arthur and Parker once he informs them of what his technology has actually been used for.

So yeah. I’m insane. I love cyberpunk 2077, hate the applications of the world concept in game but still love the universe as a whole. This all came about because I spontaneously rewatched Cyberpunk Edge-runners like two weeks ago. If you’re into anime definitely watch it. If you aren’t, it’s still an amazing story and you should I consider giving it a shot.

Anyway I’m done rambling. Take them off my hands

[reilleclan-blog]

I FUCKING LOVR THIS PORSHE

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Hello hi , so I was reminiscencing about 2020. My whole life (most of my life) I only played call of duty. There was story RPGs here and there but I'd always go back to call of duty. And during 2018-2019 I was really starting to hate the State of COD. I played COD since I was little. Playing against bots b/c I couldn't get xbox online. I played the hell out of ghosts, bo4, Cold War, bo2 a bit, in total I'd probably have 4k hours racking up all together definitely more. And it's not like I didn't like story games or RPGs I think a lot of them outgrew replayability for me. The walking dead, life is strange, Bully. Most of these series I watched others play I never had money like that. But when I started working I played the hell out of these games and then I went back to multiplayers. Fortnite, was something I heavily played and Bo4. (These games I played heavily in high school 2016)

Then as time went on I stopped having ppl to play with and a lot of these games franchises I had loved , I started to despise. I never thought a company would hate their communities as much as they do now. I was strictly console player so I never had a chance to "broaden my horizons" with games and/or everyone was playing the same shit. So when I started to hate these games I took a chance on a game called "Cyberpunk 2077" I had saw clips of the game way back when, and I didn't really know shit about it except it was an open world rpg and u can hack shit.

So yeah I just wanted a change in scenery with my games I'd play. So yeah Cyberpunk released and it was broken. I was unfortunately experiencing it on ps4 anddd yeah the game barely functioned. The areas barely loaded in, yeah it was pretty bad. But I still wanted to see what the game had to offer. So as they made updates I was thrown into this new world that had me interested every step of the way. I don't usually say this but I'd genuinely want to play cyberpunk for the first time again.

Fast forward to 2020 I didn't realize other titles had released during 2020 cause all I was doing was playing cyberpunk. I had got a pc before or after it released but yeah. I was enjoying a shit ton of cyberpunk and learning Valorant. But for the most part cyberpunk was ALL I played for 4years. And idk I just can't believe CP2077 had such a hold on me. I think that's how games should be, I think CP2077 has written the best story I've seen in a very long time. And the different playstyles ppl can have was endless. During those 2 years of playing CP2077 there was countless updates and me STILL discovering new dialogues and choices thru out the game. Side quests and all.

I never thought I'd be a Virtual Photographer but CP2077 even sparked that for me and it's just made me so happy. I hope other games can take a page from CDPR's book to make these fresh and interesting. That may be easier said than done and "subjective" but I think cp2077 will be a top tier ip that everyone is going to love like gta and something like Skyrim. I hope I live long enough for the sequel and the world doesn't drop marshal law before I get to experience it 😎

I've felt this way for a long time but a lot of RPGs don't feel necessarily "fun" most stuff just feels like chores in the game. They slap a $70 price tag on these games just for the game to be broken, cliche story writing, and just bland and done before. A lot of RPGs follow a formula and I just hope these triple A companies break out of their comfort zones and actually create something new or engaging. Ppl deserve new stuff. I'm tired of seeing "10/10s" on games just cause it's "expected" to be good (but when I play it it's mid ashell)

This is my opinion please do not harass me over something like a damn video game this is just my thoughts. And I know this is wild but ppl have different opinions, and I'm not a god damn hive mind ass

[vanilla-blessing]

qb's top 10 seasonal anime of 2022

2022 in anime was a year of many known quantities, but what really ended up sticking out were the shows few saw coming before they took the world by storm, and before we knew it, everyone was watching a guitar-playing pink blob with severe anxiety while drawing her band on every album cover ever made. 2022 was the year I watched a new Gundam for the first time, I experienced unforgettable trash gems like Pride of Orange, ESTAB-LIFE, and Extreme Hearts, and I was let down more by the wasted potential of the Biscuit Hammer anime than any anime I've ever watched, easily. All considered, this year was unusually good on average for the shows I finished, so I ended up with a glut of series I wanted to put on this list that I had to cut down for time. I would make this list longer, but you know, then it might come out in 2024.

Top 10 in order:

Cyberpunk Edgerunners - Studio TRIGGER's take on the world of Cyberpunk 2077 was an unexpected contender - it was announced so long ago I sort of forgot about it, I wasn't expecting much from the batch release of a Netflix-Trigger anime after BNA's messy release, I underestimated the potential of Cyberpunk 2077 as a setting after the very public trash fire of the video game, and it should have been overshadowed by the next thing after a quick Netflix dump in the middle of a season. Should have had its lunch eaten by the similarly edgy violent action of Chainsawman, should have been yet another failed videogame anime, but none of this stopped Cyberpunk Edgerunners from being the anime I enjoyed the most from 2022.

Bocchi the Rock - the breakout hit school band anime of 2022 was also relatively unexpected, although I at least knew it was stacked with talented animators going in, I didn't predict the sheer memetic power of the result. This series shatters the fourth wall over its knee and livens up an already pretty funny manga with demented, free-flowing gags in a particular way that wouldn't work at all without detailed and well planned sequences which come off so naturally it's hard to believe this was originally a (lightly subversive but still) 4 panel strip. The album cover redraws were the best thing to come out of Bocchi and I hope they never end.

Pop Team Epic 2 - some kind of fucked up comic strip but aoi shouta is there? I thought they promised they wouldn't make this

Mob Psycho 100 III - everything I said about the second season of the popular shonen manga adaptation but moreso, it finishes out the series in exactly the way I hoped it would. Third OP is just mad flexing. look how many hands we can draw. Episode 8 changed my life forever. knowing they nailed the landing retroactively improves the whole series for me.

Do It Yourself - original anime by studio PINE JAM, DIY is pure aesthetic hobby-ani with a mildly entertaining cast of extremely animated characters. very enjoyable but may not have enough momentum or things happening for some. soundtrack is another standout by y0c1e but at a noticeably different speed from Gleipnir and Spyce.

Kaguya-sama Love is War: Ultra Romantic - everything I said about the second season of the popular romcom manga adaptation but moreso, it reaches the climactic peak of the series in exactly the way I hoped it would. I'm still reeling from the entire rap battle episode (sub and dub), and can't believe the Starship Troopers ED was real.

My Dress Up Darling (Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru) - excellent manga adaptation, effectively gets across the dangerously horny but strangely wholesome vibe of the series.

The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2 - everything I said about the first season of the popular magical girl romcom manga adaptation but moreso, it reaches an inflection point in the manga with exactly the same manic pacing and blatant disregard for breathing room I hoped it would. out of everything else on my list I hope the most this one gets another season, because it kind of needs it.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch from Mercury - original anime in the long-running GUNDAM series which is sort of like Robot Jox for kids. This is definitely the first time I've watched anything from Gundam before it was completed and I immediately regretted not having more to watch as a direct consequence. Half of my enjoyment right now is coming from experiencing it in tandem with the rest of the internet, but it's sure to hold up in retrospect as one of the best modern Gundam seasons. Look forward to a future very annoying post by me claiming g-witch ripped off Granbelm.

Call of the Night - another above and beyond manga adaptation, probably the anime OP of the year. It strongly intensified my longing for studio SHAFT to not be dead anymore.

Assorted Shoutouts

Going by rating number scale rules, Chainsawman and Spy X Family should be here, but I'm not going by rating, I'm going by what I feel deserves more attention. those anime already have too much recognition.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life (Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road) - If you asked me what the most hidden gem is from 2022, this is what I would answer immediately. Irresponsibly complicated and unusual take on the hated isekai genre in the most disrespectful way possible, twisting anything familiar about that tired setting into an unrecognizable pretzel shape. Recommending this is a challenge, because the less I explain the better it is, but nobody would want to watch this on its face. Everyone should watch it though.

Ya Boy Kongming - banger soundtrack and some eye-popping color choice elevates this manga adaptation from average to a certified Cool Time.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: STONE OCEAN - My favorite (not best) Jojo part, the anime greatly improves the readability of the last third from the manga. Tokyo Mew Mew New - It's almost comforting how little they tried to update the love triangle of incredibly shit boyfriends in this remarkably normal magical girl anime reboot. I pleaded for someone to make a normal regular magical girl anime reboot and they delivered something totally acceptable.

Reiwa Di Gi Charat - Dejiko drags society kicking and screaming into the Reiwa era. This is the anime of all time of 1999, 2022 and 2023.

qb - friend of the no show (@queuebae on twitter still, unfortunately)

[ambrosiadreamer]

god i love him sm

transcript:

(1) While Stahelski and Reeves are off posing for photos for this story, a tweet flashes across my phone. It’s a writer saying that one of his clients no longer wants to pay him for his work—because an AI will do it for free. (The client will pay a cheaper rate for him to clean up the AI’s copy, if he wants.) When the shoot wraps, I pull Reeves aside and tell him about the tweet. He’s probably right about the bots, I say. I attempt a joke, but he doesn’t laugh. He gives me a thoughtful look, and then he gets explicit: Corporations don’t care about paying artists. Well, what he actually says is this: “They don’t give a fuck.” It’s a startling moment coming from Reeves, the most pointed and serious I’ve seen him all day. Corporations might not care, but he clearly does. That’s one thing we can say about Keanu Reeves: In a world of fakes and frauds, he’s fighting for what’s real.

(2) "The Matrix just looks more and more wildly prophetic by the day. AI doesn’t control our lives yet, but…

Reeves: [in his best Agent Smith voice] They started making decisions for you. It became our world."

(3) The metaverse!

Reeves: It’s this sensorium. It’s spectacle. And it’s a system of control and manipulation. We’re on our knees looking at cave walls and seeing the projections, and we’re not having the chance to look behind us. Or to the side. I’m sorry to go on here, Chad.

(4) Should I be worried about AIs coming for my job?

Reeves: The people who are paying you for your art would rather not pay you. They’re actively seeking a way around you, because artists are tricky. Humans are messy.

We push back, we have our own ideas.

Reeves: People in power don’t want that, you know? So that’s not your lifetime, that’s like your next birthday. And before then, they’re going to challenge how much they pay you. So everyone’s gonna be an independent worker. Look at all the independence you have! Let’s not have unions.

(5) Well, there were people who made mods to have sex with your character in Cyberpunk 2077 …

Reeves: Getting it on with Johnny Silverhand?! I hope it was good. I’m sure Johnny tried hard.

[tankbredgrunt]

End of year wrap-ups, 2023

It's presently June while I start to write this, and I thought if I wanted to put together a list of media consumed over 2023 I could at least get an early start, for as much my sake of mindfulness and talking about the things I loved/hated. If you're interested too, you can read more; first is video games, then music, then movies and tv, then books. If you feel like talking about anything in here don't hesitate! This is going to be a nightmare to tag though so, I probably won't lmao.

Nothing is necessarily ranked in order either btw, and just because I didn't write any thoughts with something doesn't mean I disliked it. Just no thoughts you know? I could have thoughts though. For the right price.

Viddy Games

For the games I haven't yet beaten but did spent some time playing, I made 12 hours of progress into Hollow Knight and am very keen to get back into it; I played Cyberpunk 2077 for about 47 hours, and am very keen to get back into it; Baldur's Gate 3 has ~9 hours at this moment, and I'm keen, etc; and Starfield has 32 hours in it and I am NOT keen to get back into it. I can get into that later though. 🏆 means I got the Platinum achievement trophy too :3

Last of Us Part 1 (x2)/Last of Us PS4 Remaster (x3)/Last of Us PS3 (x1) 🏆 - 5 stars On top of regular playthroughs, this year also marked the dip into Grounded mode. I completed one Grounded round on the Part 1 PS5 remake, and 2 more on the PS4 remaster (for the achievements). It would be impossible to discuss the reasons why I love this game so much so I will spare yall, a mercy dedicated to anyone who's already had to/gotten to hear me go on about it. I also got two TLoU tattoos this year. Ask me about my theories still though. One of my favorite moments from my 2nd Grounded run (Including one of the nearly-100 fuck ups leading up to that point):

Death Stranding - 5 stars I'm coming in to write about this one retroactively, because I've spent all this time since beating the game thinking about it. Did I understand half of what was going on? Vaguely, but it was beautiful, and heartfelt, and the world was interesting, and it satisfied the need I had to go outside and run my errands. Loved Cliff's character, and his plight as a father, how he carried it with him to the afterlife, and his speech to Sam is on loop constantly as a goosebumps generator. All the webs this story weaved came together and fray in such intriguing ways.

Detroit: Become Human (x2) - 5 stars These were my third and fourth playthroughs of this game and I find myself fonder for this little game each time I play. The perfect example of how a setting is so much deeper for the things it DOESN'T say than the things it does, once you think consider it. Under the cover of fun little robots, this world is so bleak, and I love the thought experiments. A very good example, imo, of what kind of tool cyberpunk really is as a setting. Quantic Dream also slips in one unanswered aspect into each of their stories, and while it's true that the ambiguity can be frustrating, Quantic Dream accidentally does it in a way that I find so alluring. Ra9, in this case, examining the clues on my own, coming to my own conclusions. It lets the world live on after the games have ended. I don't care about having answers--the game focused on what it needed to. It was not a portal into the greater world, it was one into Kara, Connor, and Marcus. We can look at the world on our own.

Disco Elysium - 4 stars Admittedly while this one took me a few months to finish, with a break spanning between November 2022 to March, and often found it VERY dense with information, I still really enjoyed myself. It's also the sort of narrative that is very self-aware, and as such pokes fun at itself, and as another such is sometimes lost under a few too many layers of irony and sarcasm. It's a bit hard sometimes to know what information to take seriously and what to disregard. As wonts these sorts of games the content is made entirely of dialog, very reading heavy, and puts me to sleep--I couldn't imagine playing this game without the stellar voice acting. Haunting and comedic sometimes even in the same line of dialog, I'm glad I found it after the Final Cut was released. Highly recommend, looking forward to another play-through.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 4 stars I loved BotW from the moment I got my Switch on launch day. Interestingly with TotK, I found my high opinion slipping the more I played, and too afterward. It seems more and more to me that Nintendo isn't exactly as keyed into what people are looking for with Zelda as they thought. TotK comes complete with shallow villains and anime tropes and a bastardization of a fair bit of the work done in BotW. It is not a story that is aware of it's own narrative, characters, or concepts. I don't say this as a person who demands to know which timeline and where exactly it takes place, only as someone invested in the universe and hopes to have somethings meaningfully extrapolated on. I'm hungry for subversion. Won't get much of that with this game sadly. That said, where gameplay was concerned I still really enjoyed myself. Before release I was worried how they would fill a world I've already spent 300+ hours exploring, and it turned out the answers were 2 entirely new maps and a largely transformed overworld. Discovering the newness in a world I already knew so well was fantastical. The building mechanics were enchanting, the shrines legitimately challenging, and the world still fun to explore. Don't see myself replaying for quite a while though, if ever, which was also the case with BotW. EDIT: having read and heard of all the nightmares about this games development since I've played it, just have to say 😬 yikes dude. Really recontextualizes the story for me. Idk though the gameplay was still super fun, so where an overall rating is concerned, I'm a bit conflicted. I'll leave it where it is I guess but let the record show it's still a Yikes from me about certain things.

Heavy Rain - 3.5 stars So, in the driver's seat of this, I found myself not doing much else besides complaining. The controls on the PC port are horrible; the 'twist' was less that and more... dishonest; voice acting was rough; David Cage exists; etc. But idk dude!! Something about it was still as charming as the first time!! It's been just about 10 years since I first played it at release, and the nostalgia was strong. It was a perfect distraction from real life at the time, and I've always looked back on the game fondly, though I've never replayed it. There ARE functional things I do dislike about the plot and writing and the awful ending, which discounts its score to the 3.5 star rating, but idk yall. I find Norman dorky and lovable, flawed yet well-intentioned; Ethan is a desperate dad trying to correct mistakes he still can't reconcile with; even Scott's motivations are understandable. I, like one key character, cannot deny that seeing a dad do whatever it takes to save his son? I'll have what he's having.

Oxenfree - 3 stars One thing about me is I have a great hatred for time travel stories. They always inevitably fall short. Oxenfree however used what I believe are the true assets of the trope. The struggle of fate, predetermination, and how-could-anything-be-different. (I also believe a key function of time travel stories is the character's understanding that they aren't the first version of themselves caught in the loops but that's a different convo). Anyway the ambiguous ending was also a big win to me. All in all a fun little game. Give it a try if you want some low-stakes entertainment with a good story.

The Uncharted series - a mixed bag So this doesn't include Uncharted 1, which I played damn near a decade ago when I first got my PS4 and the Nathan Drake collection. My thoughts on that are hazy but one I remember vividly--fuck the ship level. Anyway I mark this as mixed bag because my feelings towards it are complicated. I still felt the essence of NaughtyDog throughout, their care for their characters and sympathetic storytelling. While not as morally gray as their TLoU stuff, and rated Teen, it was still compelling, and despite my intense grievances with the combat systems in 1-2-3, I never questioned whether I would continue with the next game. However. Those grievances. Holy shit. Snap-to-cover is NEVER the answer, game devs. I know and forgive that games 1-3 are over a decade old, developers have better tools and understanding now. See an example of my jimmies being rustled here:

Take a shot each time a headshot doesn't hit. For gameplay reasons only I can't give the first 3 games any higher than 3 stars. And even though 3 has the best story of the 3, gameplay might even knock that one down to a 2. Anywho, the whiplash in quality between 3 and 4 was insane. I played the PS5 port, and loved everything about 4. Loved Sam, loved baby Nate, loved the story. It was as if ND had kept a .txt file of every single issue up till that point and corrected each of them. Seeing the bones of TLoU2 was also nice. Phenomenal game, and I look forward to playing it again sometime soon. Ratings for each game go: Uncharted 2 and 3 - 3 stars Uncharted 4 - 5 stars Uncharted: Lost Legacy - 4 stars Sadly I don't have the tools or plans to play the PSP game. PS Vita? Either way.

Last of Us Part 2 (x3) - 4 stars This was probably my 3rd time playing TLoU2, and while I don't have many strong comments to make concerning the story, I feel like this was finally the first time I truly understood Ellie's character in this game. The truth of her grief and what it was really over. And Abby as well, how she wasn't just a foil for Ellie, but for Joel as well. That said, I do still feel I would love this game so much more if it was just told linearly. The pacing is DOGshit dude, wow. Love it though. I've also completed a Grounded playthrough and got the Plat trophy this year as well, which I only mention for bragging rights 💅

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice 🏆 - 5 stars I don't think I have much to say about this game besides general comments about how phenomenal the experience was. Never played anything like it. Fun exploration, environmental puzzles, great visuals. Combat was good, sound design was excellent. Story was good, acting was amazing. All around VERY thrilled I played.

Assassin’s Creed: Mirage 🏆 - 5 stars I GOTTA SAY, This game surprised the hell out of me. I’m on a journey to play all the Assassin’s Creed games; so far I’ve finished 8 out of ~18. For how badly Valhalla sucked ass I was hesitant to play this one, since it acts as a sort of prequel to a particular character, but DAMN if this didn’t completely surprise me. The world was incredibly fun to explore, and even included environmental puzzles. You will legitimately feel like an assassin with the amount of player freedom this game gives you, and the story was just as good. Best Assassin’s Creed game? 👀 Hard to say till I’ve finished them all but so far it’s absolutely a contender. Basim I love youuuuuu

Unmentioned, in alphabetical order: [Assassin's Creed 1 - 2.5 stars; Assassin's Creed 2 - 3.5 stars; Assassin's Creed: Chronicles: China - 3 stars; Assassin's Creed: Chronicles: India - 3.5; Assassin's Creed: Chronicles: Russia - 3.5 stars; Beyond: Two Souls - 3 stars; Ghost of Tsushima - 4 stars; Gone Home - 3 stars; Indigo Prophecy - 2 stars; It Takes Two - 3 stars; A Plague Tale: Innocence - 3.5 stars; The Quarry - 2.5 stars; SEASON - 3 stars; Spider-Man 2 (2023) 🏆 - 3 stars; Stray - 3.5 stars; Super Mario Wonder - 4 stars; Twin Mirror - 3 stars; Viewfinder - 3.5 stars; A Way Out - 3.5 stars; Where the Goats Are - 3 stars]

Starfield: Putting this one down here at the bottom so I don't start this list out with complaining lol. Anyway the fact this game was nominated for Best RPG at the game awards tells me they don't play some of the games they nominate lol. I don't think I've ever had an experience like this game gave me. I somehow played 30 hours, and had a great time, before realizing it was bad. Nothing happened in the story to stop me, there wasn't suddenly a new gameplay mechanic that I didn't agree with. There was just something in the glamour of those 30 hours that got me. Maybe it was the father figure referring to me with neutral pronouns. But anyway I guess I just came to my senses. I took a break to play something different, came back, and it was an entirely different game. The overworld is barren. They expect you to explore hundreds of plants that have nothing on them besides some minerals and animals you scan. These are laaaaarge swaths of time spent running back and forth in near silence, because not only is there next to nothing meaningful to interact with on these worlds, your companion repeats the same 5 quips the entire time. There are no tools to traversing the overworld more quickly, so you are running for thousands of kilometers so you can scan a useless monument and get 20XP. There is no incentive to exploring, there is no incentive to doing anything other than fast-traveling to your next destination--until the game stops you for not having the appropriate ship parts installed, and you realize it's going to be a 5 hour grind to upgrade that part. Looking back at those 30 hours I enjoyed, this was all still there, but idk man, idk. For this amount of content this should have only been a $30 game, MAX, and they sell it for $70. But I bought it for $70, so who is the real chump here. I think the only thing I truly enjoyed (besides Sam Coe) was the mission 'Entangled', where you are unwillingly forced between two alternate universes, due to an experiment in a research facility. It sits right on the cusp of horror, between one universe where the research facility exploded and nature took it back, and another where the explosion never happened. There is drama, intrigue, decisions, exploration, everything. Nothing else in the game came close at all to touching that and I'm mad I spent so long before realizing it. Who wrote this mission, so I can thank you?

Music (and the lyrics that make it)

My complete 2023 favorites Spotify playlist

Favorite albums: Preacher's Daughter by Ethel Cain Slut Pop by Kim Petras Guard Dog by Searows I Let It in and It Took Everything by Loathe Heavy Glow by Soulkeeper

Individual tracks and my favorite lyric: Master & A Hound by Gregory Alan Isakov 'Where were you when I was still kind?' Sun Bleached Flies by Ethel Cain 'If it's meant to be then it will be.' Don't Keep Driving by The Paper Kites 'There's nothing wrong with a little space. But not right now; don't leave.' Honey Dripping Sky by Georgia 'No matter how hard we try, I won't deny--it's for you.' Coming Clean by Searows 'If I kill you would I have to forgive you still?' Francesca by Hozier 'I’d tell them put me back in it. [Darling,] I would do it again.'

TV and Movies

I am severely illiterate when it comes to movies so the goal this year was to have watched at least one movie a week. Did I succeed,Future Me? [Yeah!]

Kingsman: Secret Service and :Golden Circle - 5 and 4 stars The cinematography?? The choreography? Hello? Across both movies, they were all so incredible. While Secret Service was my favorite of the two, Golden Circle had my favorite fight (though the church scene is a clooooose second)(Pedro Pascal I love you):

Gentlemen Bronco - 2 stars This movie was dull as shit BUT, it had one of my favorite scenes of the year.

Knock at the Cabin - 3.5 stars Just wanna put this one here real quick to get the Worms out--what was the point? Narratively, what was the point? I have been rolling this movie around my head since I watched last night and I'm hoping to read the book soon for better context, but man. While I enjoyed this movie a lot I just do not follow the themes, more so considering the ending. Was it a fight against providence and predetermination, only to prove its own point? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (Mr. Spock)? I can't tell exactly what this movie was asking me. As a rule I generally don't enjoy stories where the psychos are proved right with no closer examination of the themes and circumstances. Like yeah the MCs being a gay couple framed the story differently but that is also just a side effect of having distinctive characters lmao. It also insulated some sacrificial-minority stuff? Weird. And asks no questions about fate or anything, which is a wild loop considering Andrew's previous history with Redmond (a red herring? However I feel if the intro of a red herring completely recontextualizes the larger possibilities of the world, then it's not a good red herring, it's lazy). Ultimately I understand a theme is save your family or save humanity--it's on the DVD cover lol. But yeah man idk. All the other stuff, it made for a weird soup that I just cannot decipher. Anyway. EDIT: I have since read the source novel and it was incredible. I will not be watching any more Shyamalan movies lmao

Pacific Rim - 5 stars I also don't have anything much deeper to say about this than gotTDAMN dude, what a good fucking movie. I decided to watch because of all the Pacific Rim AUs that take place in fandom, and I decided I finally needed to know why and I DO know why now because good lord. What a good movie. That said the sequel was a hot pile.

The Arrival - 3 stars The way this movie had my heart racing the entire time--and shat it all away at the immediate end. Pure whiplash. "You know what surprised me the most? It wasn't meeting them. It was meeting you." What kind of straight nonsense. What kind of anticlimactic. What kind of bullshit. I was immediately snapped to my senses, I'm not over exaggerating. Insanity.

Unmentioned, in alphabetical order: [After Yang - 4 stars; Assassin's Creed (2016) - 2 stars; Asteroid City - 4 stars; Barbie - 4 stars; Begotten (1990) - 2 stars; Bullet Train - 4 stars; Come and See (1985) - 3 stars; Dead Poets Society - 3 stars; El Dorado - 3 stars; Grave Encounters - 3 stars; The Green Knight - 4 stars; The Hateful Eight - 5 Stars; IT and IT: Chapter 2 - 4 stars; Jennifer's Body - 3 stars; King of the Hill (all 13 seasons) - episode determinate; Knives Out - 5 stars; Knives Out: Glass Onion - 2 stars; Labyrinth - 2 stars; Lady Bird - 3 stars; Lake Mungo - 3 stars; The Lighthouse - 3 stars; Mad Max: Fury Road - 3 stars; The Magnificent Seven (1960) - 4 stars; The Magnificent Seven (2016) - 3.5 stars; Martyr (2008) - 3 stars; Matrix - 3 stars; Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions - 1 star; The Menu - 4 stars; Midnight Mass - 4 stars; My Own Private Idaho - 3 stars; NOPE - 4 stars; Once Upon a Time in the West - DNF; Possum - 3 stars; The Power of the Dog - 3 stars; RE: Damnation, Death Island, Degeneration, Infinite Darkness, and Vendetta - 3 stars; Saltburn - 3.5 stars; Seven Samurai (1954) - 3 stars; The Shape of Water - 4.5 stars; Skinamarink - 3 stars; Star Trek: The Motion Picture - 2.5 stars; ST: Search for Spock and ST: Voyage Home - 4 stars; ST: The Wrath of Khan - 4.5 stars; The Thing (1982) - 3 stars; The Thing From Another World (1951) - 3 stars; Tideland (2005) - 2 stars; Unforgiven - 4 stars; The VVitch - 3 stars]

Favorite Books

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - 5 stars I have never EVER in my life read a book like this one, and I urge everyone to give it a try. Two men must escort a dying god across the country in order to stop the control of her tyrannical children. If you aren't digging the book, at least try and make it 100 pages in. The beginning, like every chunky fantasy, is a bit of a tough learning experience, and the uniqueness of the prose didn't exactly make it an easier task. However, it makes it extremely lyrical and poetic, and intriguing. The entire package is mind-blowingly unique. AND it ends happily, if that makes you feel better.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers - 5 stars My thoughts on this little story aren't overly complex or anything, I just found the setting very nice, the B plot concerning Earth interesting, and the ambiguous ending intriguing. While the events might be a little harrowing it was the hopeful attitude of the prose and characters that made it very comforting nonetheless. I loved the experience while I was reading it, and think about the ending now, even all these months after reading.

The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr - 4 stars A black sleep car porter tries to keep his job and his sanity after their train is stopped by a mudslide. Before this I can say I'd never read anything in this setting before, and it was what drew me in initially, but it was the writing that really captivated me. The narrative has a very intimate feeling, nostalgic almost, as if you're hearing the story secondhand even as you read. It's also refreshing when a book just says 'cock', and no extra-curricular euphemisms. Where's that video of Taron Egerton saying cock over and over btw cause I can't find it

The Magpie Coffin by Wile E Young - 4 stars The first in a collection of splatterpunk westerns?? It was so fun to read, and the cover is so badass. It knew what it was and it did so well.

In the Distance by Hernan Diaz - 4 stars A young Swedish boy, separated from his brother, fends for himself in the early USA west. I was on hold for this through my library for nearly a month and a half, so by the time I got it in my grubby hands my exciting was pretty high. Though I found much of it slow, I was still somehow on the edge of my seat. It's a crime that this was the Pulitzer runner-up, and that Less by Andrew Greer won instead. It's been a very very long time since I've felt so strongly about the well-being and outcome of a character but Hakan if you're out there--I love you.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - 5 stars

Nothing to add to this decade long conversation other than this holds up :’) I was gasping like I was in high school again, reading it for the first time.

Honorable mentions, in alphabetical order by author last name: [A Psalm for the Wild Built and A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers - 4 stars; How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix - 4 stars; Texas Outlaw by Richard Jessup - 4 stars; Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie - 4 stars; Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - 4 stars; Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum - 4 stars; The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage - 4 stars; East of Eden by John Steinbeck - 5 stars; The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay - 4.5 stars]

LEAST Favorite Books

I'm nothing if not a hater so I wanted to give some space to the books I most disliked.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer - DNF SAUR upset that this won the Pulitzer prize of its year instead of In The Distance by Hernan Diaz. 100 pages into it and I could not find anything redeeming about the main character. Pretentious, bitter. Like maybe that was his arc? He would outgrow that maybe. But it was just not the book nor the characters for me, unfortunately, so I did not stick around long enough for that to happen.

Bath Haus by PJ Vernon - DNF WHEW boy was the writing in this one bad. Like yall ever read a queer book and just know it was written for straight people? Let me find a picture I took of one paragraph.

Yikes and a half, dude. Anyway

Meat by Joseph D'Lacey - 1 star This was just plain bad. Like 'Oh isn't it so crazy they're eating people?? They're treating people like cattle, that's so demented right??' No. Not really. There's cannibalism in the cannibalism genre? Get a grip. I live near Donner Pass, we got cannibalism in the water here. Although maybe I'm also partially to blame for expecting some deeper storytelling from splatterpunk.

The Troop by Nick Cutter - 2 stars I don't know that I have anything really critical to say about this book other than I just didn't enjoy it. Writing was fine, prose was fine. It's told a bit out of order, think Carrie by Stephen King--snippets of interviews and articles detailing the aftermath of the events of the book. I do remember thinking that the facts were contradicting themselves a few times but was really not invested enough to care too deeply. The isolated, abandoned feeling we get from the island was nice, and the atmosphere good, I just don't believe Nick Cutter is a good writer. A bit too many slurs in here as well, methinks.

Books I DNF'd: With 15 in total this was the year of DNFing for me; it's amazing was Prozac can do for a person. (Disclaimer: I've only listed 13 of them here. The other two had to go back to the library before I could finish them so I marked them as technical DNFs :( and it doesn't feel right to include them in this list for haters)

Bath Haus by PJ Vernon (explained above) The Singularities by John Banville (nothing offensive, just didn't vibe. Books will often try way too hard on the opening paragraph and I'm not here for a philosophy lesson as I crack open a book you know what I mean) Heartless by Marissa Meyer (I just don't think YA does it for me anymore) There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins (" ") If We Were Villains by ML Rio (I just don't like being lectured and this book was clearly written for someone who wasn't me lol) Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter (I find that a lot of times thrillers written by women employ stereotypes against men and their 'perverse' sexual tastes. The lines between pornography/fantasy and reality don't seem as nuanced in this genre, unfortunately. A man is not immediately a villain because he enjoys CNC or roleplay, and the pearl clutching is a little tired) Campfire Cooking in Another World by Ren Eguchi (why is every light novel like this:

The Lies of Locke Lamore by Scott Lynch (this was too quippy for my tastes. It was a little too busy being clever and not busy enough being interesting.) Less by Andrew Greer (Mean Gays, the next Tina Fay movie) Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey (just wasn't my cuppa) Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (I read a review that counted how many times Zane Grey used 'sage' in this book. I don't remember the number but there was a lot of them. Too much mormanism going on, just wasn't my cuppa) The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson (only alright, not bad but wasn't going anywhere fast. More of a character focused, soft bit of mystery, which was fine, I just didn't find myself enjoying the characters either) Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett (I just wasn’t vibing you know how it is)

2023 Reading Statistics

I also keep a track of the pages read and ratings, as well as genre, where I read the book and in what format, so I'll put that here too for posterity's sake. And If you'd like, I use GoodReads, and we can be friends!

62 books read 18,217 pages in total 3.25 average star rating 19 (30.6%) of the books read were owned; 43 (69.4%)(nice) were from the library 14 (75.8%) were physical books; 12 (19.4%) were ebooks; 3 (4.8%) were audiobooks

That's it! I don't make reading goals anymore, in terms of how many to read, but I do know I want to TRY and read the copy of Battle Royal I've had since my junior year of high school. And I'd like to try and finish the Tsubasa manga series, since I never made it past volume 15 I think. I can't think of anything other than that! It was a good year!

[ishaslife]

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf or Dragon Age: Dreadful?

Everything in this post is an opinion and a rant.

I'm going to get straight to the point. I don't think it's a surprise that BioWare's promotion and marketing for Dreadwolf has been horrible. First of all, the title itself is a massive spoiler for people who are probably just getting into the series, and secondly; the drip-feeding of "content" for the new game is just plain infuriating. The in-game cinematic released on Dragon Age Day last year is an example. It gave no extra information whatsoever and was basically just a rundown of things we already know from Inquisition. I don't have any issues with the game releasing late, I just wish they'd stop talking about it until they have a proper trailer or release date in mind.

There have been big comparisons made with Baldur's Gate 3 and Dragon Age and I can understand why. Probably because Bioware has worked on Baldur's Gate before but most likely because both of those games have been highly anticipated for some time and resemble each other in many ways. They both have a party and romance system which allows people to get to know the characters better and makes the plot much more interesting. I'm hoping that the new DA game will continue this like its predecessors but that's all I can do, hope. One can only hope when it comes to Dragon Age whereas Larian Studios (the studio that's making Baldur's Gate 3) has had the game available for early access since October of 2020 and constantly takes critique and suggestions on the game and how to go forth with it. Its steady development and polishing (at least steadier compared to DA) have led to its release being finally being announced which is in August this year along with a trailer to boot. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf on the other has been in development for nearly 7 years or more and we have close to no content on it other than some side stories, a behind-the-scenes reel that is 2 years old now, a spin-off Netflix show which was decent at best. And its teasers are now 4 years and 2 years old respectively. Most of this recent "content" doesn't even have anything to do with Solas or the plot of the game. And while I love The Missing comics that have just come out, they are not being marketed as well as they should be.

Trust me, I don't want to have doubts but BioWare isn't making things easy. With so many people leaving the studio and the date being pushed further and further, it's quite hard to stay positive. I absolutely love this world, Dragon Age: Origins and the entire series is my favourite and most likely always will be but I'm starting to lose faith in the developers. I don't want the final game to be ruined and what they don't realise is that their constant drip-feeding is only racking more pressure for their game to be a great success as people except a great deal when the game finally comes out given how we have gotten close to nothing on its story, characters etc. They're making the same mistake that CDPR did for Cyberpunk 2077, hyping up the game with nothing for a while only for it to be a massive disappointment when it came out.

I just hope that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, whenever it comes out, is truly THE game that everyone has been waiting for, in terms of something that BioWare has always been known for; story. DA games have always had great stories and I hope for nothing else with Dreadwolf. Even if the gameplay sucks and the game doesn't look that good, at this point all I care about is the story. Please BioWare, by the maker, don't fuck up your characters and your own reputation.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is truly a game that can either make or break BioWare.

[quaddmgd]

Happy Birthday, Crystal

So today (August 25th) marks one year since I started playing Cyberpunk 2077 and created Crystal. A year is a really long time for me to still play the same singleplayer game with no subsequent playthroughs. Things like that don't happen often, and Crystal means a world to me, so why not ramble for a bit about my memories, feelings towards the game and other stuff. Keep in mind, it's nothing more than a journal entry. Unless you know me a bit better than a typical mutual, you won't find anything of value here.

[VERY LONG POST AHEAD]

Long time ago...

I was really hyped about the game before its release in December 2020, my s/o even more than me. There were some signs that it's going to turn out disappointing, but we were keeping our hopes up. Alas, came the release date, the game hit headlines due to it's poor technical state and some broken promises. We were very upset, especially since all we had to play it on was Xbox One and low-spec by today's standards PCs. First updates showed that CDPR has much more to fix than we expected, so our hype has slowly died down.

Since then, I played through Cruelty Squad, Red Dead Redemption 2, multiple Yakuza, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil games, and I couldn't care less about the game at the start of 2022.

Why I got the game?

I only purchased Cyberpunk 2077 in May-June 2022, along with Kao The Kangaroo (2022) which, to be honest, was the main attraction for me. Both games were physical Xbox releases and I only was hyped to play Cyberpunk thanks my to lil bro, who has finished the game twice, and showed me this trailer with a beautiful cover of Never Fade Away - a song very in-line with my music taste.

Speaking as a seasoned video editor, the trailer was masterfully realized, with multiple great cuts showing off the diverse cast and some of the action. Editing, music and the scenes they chose made the entire trailer feel more like a tribute video - obviously this was made with love.

Now, I played The Witcher 3, and I knew that this game will require time and dedication from me - something I couldn't afford at the time. And despite hearing about the next gen patch (update 1.5) bringing the game to a state it should've been released in, I remained skeptical about it being good. No offense, but people (especially on Twitter) tend to overreact and talk about stuff they know nothing about. Even with recent title releases, folks just assume the latest patch made them better and fixed important issues. But then you sit with the game and a proper frame rate analysis is enough to prove such reports to be false.

My life in corpo

Before we get to August 2022, I want to provide some more context regarding the state I was in. I was working a piss-poor corpo job, which was gradually eating away my soul for longer than I'd like to admit. It wasn't fulfilling and it was (and probably still is) full of ungrateful pricks, that were coming up with issues to justify their payrolls, only to send QA on us to not detect any issues mentioned. To keep it brief, it was a very hostile work environment, that was treating people like garbage. But hey, at least they were smiling, right?

Come summer 2022, I was feeling like a shell of a human being, and I'm happy that fate decided that it's time for me get out and take care of myself. I'm not sure where would I be right now if I didn't.

So, my time at the job was coming to an end and I couldn't give less of a fuck about looking for another one. I needed some well-deserved vacation. I was supposed to work until August 31st and during these last few days I was trying to take it really easy.

Still the work was going as usual, so despite of having only few days left, my mental and physical state was as shitty as before. After each remaining day I was a walking corpse, drinking coffee at 10pm to squeeze these additional two hours from a day and try to enjoy some of my hobbies before going to sleep and repeating the cycle.

Starting the playthrough

My job is the reason why my memory is hazy on how I decided that it's time to start Cyberpunk 2077, but it's possible that it was my s/o that encouraged me to do it. She surely wanted to see the character creator with her own eyes, and was always interested in me creating OCs - something I wasn't doing often back then.

So, on August 25th 2022, I started playing Cyberpunk 2077, knowing nothing about the lore, with a sole intention of creating my character and seeing what happens. It was already late and my entire evening was sponsored by coffee, but whatever.

Crystal/Valerie/V

I'm not really sure how long it took me to create Crystal, but I spent an ungodly amount of time on perfecting her looks. I wanted her to look badass and beautiful, maybe end up being a cooler version of me. While I don't think I based her off my looks, my partner noticed that we have similar jawlines and hairstyles (well, I'm a natural blonde, which later I consciously reflected on her while creating her flashback version).

Needless to say, I instantly fell in love with her. And I know I wouldn't create a female character I wouldn't wanna date :>, but I really mean it. She was, and still is, simply perfect.

Her name was Crystal since the moment I was adding finishing touches (like makeup and tattoos), but I wasn't planning on giving her a standalone story. She was supposed to be V, with her name later revealed to be Valerie - a name I really like the sound of, and it fits her nicely. Still, in my mind her name was Crystal - and I have no idea why... she just looks like Crystal.

So here I was with my nomad V, ready to play through the prologue and possibly the rest of the game.

Playing through the game

My first evening of playing ended on me visiting Wakako (I don't even remember the reason you are supposed to go there tbh but if you played, you know these are still introductory quests) and photographing the hell out of C. My lesbian ass couldn't even be bothered to change FOV (and back then I couldn't really see the issue with default FOV screenshots - it took me months to adjust my eyes tbh) but she looked so badass. The photo mode, for industry standards, isn't that bad too, so I was really hyped to play the game, meet more people and shoot pics. While I already loved her friendship with Jackie and the way CDPR handled introduction to some of the cast, I wasn't sold on the story yet.

some of pics made on the first night :>

Then on the next day I went through The Heist and Love Like Fire, and learned that my actions as Johnny led to 2023 Night City Holocaust. Everyone who played through these quests know how full of events and emotions they are. It was 3/4am on Friday (technically Saturday) night, mind you, and I still was living mostly off coffee. That's a lot to take in for a tired mind and in some way it might have helped me immerse in Crystal's position even more. After waking up as her, with Jackie dead, and a parasite in my head that actively wants me to join him, I was just as clueless as to what the fuck happened. All I knew was that she/we need to survive. I can't let her/us die.

Let me tell you, waking up in her apartment, to the original version of Never Fade Away on the radio, was one of the most powerful moments in the game. To me, it has become a theme song for the rest of the playthrough. Leaving the apartment after getting some irl sleep was just as powerful.

the first time C left her apartment after Jackie's death and Johnny's flashback

The playthrough was going alright and I was hooked. I don't think there are many things worth talking about here. One thing worth mentioning is that I was starting to feel a strong connection with Crystal - something I've never felt to such an extent in any game. Maybe it's my background in corpo, which was only coming to an end. Or maybe I subconsciously designed her to help me with some of identity issues I had back then. I will never know for sure, but either way, she has helped me. She was exactly who I wanted her to be, who she wanted herself to be and was constantly brave and punk about it. I was feeling a growing mix of immersion and adoration as I progressed through the game.

And progress through the game I did! I finished plenty of gigs/ncpd jobs and all available side quests before starting the last mission chain (or so I thought - in the end I totally missed the vending machine one and the entirety of Kerry's questline lmao). During this time I was put out of misery of working my job, each day feeling more alive than the last, playing more and more hours of Cyberpunk 2077, shooting many pictures, enjoying my time in Night City and being Crystal.

yeah it might be using default fov but it's still one of my favorite shots

Last Tapeworm, Chipping In and dying

To me, Cyberpunk 2077 was at its best when it was focusing on the relationship between V and Johnny. Last part of Tapeworm was a very powerful moment. There's no way I'll ever forget the conversation she had with Johnny in that apartment. Going from a foe that actively eating your life away, to possibly the only person that's ready to sacrifice their life to save yours, Johnny and his redemption arc are some of the biggest highlights of the game.

The conversation was of course followed by a side quest sequence started with Chipping In, with another memorable scene at Johnny's grave. Seeing how far we've come together, how many people we met, how often we were agreeing with each other - it was like talking to a friend who was right by your side for every important event in your life. And to think that only few days ago I was watching him trying to smash her head against the window...

side quests really were the best part of the story

It's hard to say which moment was more impactful, but for me it all clicked just after the Tapeworm cutscene. If I remember it right, I spent a few minutes more in this apartment block, staring away at the sunset, listening to waves breaking Pacifica's silence. Not even sure if I'll manage to save Crystal, I wasn't ready to finish it anytime soon. I still had a lot to do and it took me an additional day to finish everything and start Nocturne OP55N1, but I was looking at the game differently than before.

It might sound dramatic, but I mean it. For the remaining duration of the game, each time I didn't hear any music, it was just silence of a big city dying from heatstroke and sandstorms, echoing conversations with people I met during my journey, and uncertainty, if I'll even make it out alive in the end. Unfortunately, I can't convey it any better, but it has to do with the atmosphere of this city and CDPR's natural talent for creating gray characters, which Cyberpunk 2077 is full of, and last but not least, my connection to Crystal.

Nocturne OP55N1

So the time has come for me to start the last mission sequence and I knew that it might go bad. The moment I was warned that it's a point of no return, I backed out and went for a walk around the city. Don't know if it was scripted, but the weather was overcast and NC was covered in fog. In my experience it's such a rare occurrence, that either I was "lucky" or it was planned. I visited Judy (VCrystal's sweetheart) for the last time, disappointed by the lack of new dialogues to start, and went back to Megabuilding H10 to see a cute heart made out of consumables by her. I went to sleep in my own bed, probably for the last time.

During my last journey to Embers, Major Crimes by Health started playing on the radio, and I got emotional. Not often games make me cry, but I really didn't want Crystal to die, or my journey to end. It really felt like I was saying goodbye to everyone and not going back.

just look at the weather - shot outside of Embers, before starting Nocturne Op55N1

In the end I managed to go through the Embers section just fine, but very stressed. Then, after suffering through heartbreaking moments at Viktor's Clinic, I got to the rooftop.

Now, I'm not really sure how much time I spent there. Seems like an eternity, looking back on it. No choice felt right (and in the end, none was perfect), but I had to choose something. Unable to decide, I did something I really hate doing - I looked up endings to see which one will let me live happily with Judy... or survive at the very least.

While I didn't know it yet, I chose the happiest ending of the bunch. All I knew is that Crystal will be able to leave Night City with Judy - I didn't know that it'll be impossible to remove the chip in Mikoshi and that there's hope of achieving it in Arizona. Yes, I chose The Star ending.

I still was on the edge of my sit and really scared for C, but deep down, I knew that I probably won't get another chance to mess it up.

The ending was bittersweet and I got an instant hangover. I needed some time to come to terms with it, and make peace with me not getting the happy ending. In the end I managed to create a brief scenario where that guy Panam knows somehow manages to remove the chip, and Crystal and Judy got to live happily ever after.

I beat the game on September 4th.

Feelings Feelings Feelings

See, there's a reason I'm talking about the ending and my feelings about it in such detail. I really fell in love with Crystal. After all, it's the first time I got so immersed into a character and I can't put my finger on why exactly.

Maybe it's because it's the prettiest character I have ever created, maybe I just saw parallels in our stories or feelings, maybe I subconsciously made up all the connections in my head. Meh, it's probably a bit of everything, on top of a really good story, even if most of it is hidden in side content.

The thing is, I was in the right place, at the right time and, like I said, it all just clicked.

Back then, I was tired, angry, feeling exploited and robbed of soul. She was there to help me stop thinking about it, get revenge in a way, even if on a fictional corporation, however dumb it might sound. And the more I was thinking about her, dressing her up in cool clothing (bra + edgerunner combo ftw), the more I strived to be like her. I learned to love myself a bit more, I started dressing up for myself again, putting some makeup on just to stare at the mirror and enjoy the end result, maybe even shoot some selfies. It's almost like, on top of everything I already said, I was trying to express myself through her, which has in return influenced me. I hope that makes sense.

Crystal Hartley

Now, it took me some time to create her own story and separate her from V. And I wouldn't probably do it if it wasn't for my s/o. She was already working on her OCs story, and after many tries she finally talked me into writing my girl. The last modification date of the document with the initial version of the story is February 25th - exactly 6 months after starting the game. Since then, I made some changes and the end result can be seen here. It helped me further resonate with her and she didn't have a deadly chip inside anymore, at the cost of her not getting to know Johnny. She remained a warrior, a true badass who's not scared of anything.

Honestly she was and still is inspiring me. Being it her as V or real Crystal I wrote a few months back, she suffered hardships, she had her all-time low moment not that long ago, but she recovered and she always stands brave against all odds - knowing that in the end everything will turn out just fine.

For now, C has got some closure. She's living in Night City, she has a loving and beautiful girlfriend she's thinking about all the time, they're still doing gigs and getting in trouble together <3 While she still recovers from what happened in her nomad family, she has Elegy, Misty, Claire and Saul to help her deal with it. She's in a good place right now.

Other girls

Some time ago I made EV, a girl that was originally a Cyberpunk version of my Evie from Red Dead Online, albeit I made her personality a polar opposite to Evie's. I don't have a lot about her, really - she's beautiful, photogenic, conveys vibes the best out of all of my OCs. She's probably going to end up as my canon V. She and Johnny are a match made in heaven... or hell. Actually if I put them together in the same body Night City might end up in flames.

Then there's Thalia. A girl I initially only mentioned as a friendly gang member in Crystal's mega lore post. She wasn't hanging around with Crystal's group of friends, but they got really close after getting to know each other during a party. Officially, she sacrificed herself to save Crystal and the rest when they got overrun by enemies. She did survive, with help of [REDACTED] and is looking for Crystal in Night City to reunite with her and [REDACTED]. Hopefully they meet soon! It'll probably bring some unpleasant memories back, but in the end Crystal will reunite with Thalia and, with Elegy, they'll make a dream team.

Some stats!

Why not wrap it up with some interesting data!

Since I started Cyberpunk 2077:

I got all the achievements and I intend on doing the same for Phantom Liberty

according to Xbox I played the game for 268 hours* **

I made 3405 captures, taking up a whopping 36 GB of space*

421 of these captures were made during my initial playthrough

* - at the time of writing ** - including time I was afk

Conclusion

So... I just wanted to post some thoughts about Cyberpunk 2077 and, especially, Crystal. Going from a game I wasn't even that stoked to play, to an ongoing hyperfixation, that has helped me through tough times and still influences me to this very day! I even made some internet friends!

When I was working on a standalone story for Crystal, I decided that her birthday is the day I first played the game - 25th August... today.

Happy birthday, Crystal <3

[jennajaeger]

My general feelings on my F/Os' canon love interests and how I picture my dynamic with each of them:

Prince Eric (The Little Mermaid):

Eric is MY GUY. BESTIE. HIMBO EXTRAORDINAIRE. We high five each other as we pass each other in the hallway because we both have the best wife in the world. Literally the epitome of this meme:

Me: "The stars are so beautiful tonight."

Eric: "You know who else is beautiful?"

Both of us in unison: *sighing dreamily* "Ariel~"

Keyleth (Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina):

So admittedly I have not finished the series yet but as far as I can tell, Vax and Keyleth have a very "right person, wrong time" type of relationship? Like, I get it, they're always gonna love each other, they're just never going to be in a place where they can BE together? And I mean......that works for me :P I feel marginally bad about stealing her man because she's so sweet and deserves a break, precious bean, but if it works it works <3

Meryl Stryfe & Milly Thompson (Trigun Stampede):

I felt so bad the moment I started watching the show because I was like "oh god another female character I'm gonna have to throw under the bus in the name of self shipping" but honestly so far in the 23 version I read their dynamic as platonic?? And just in general, I love her <3 She's a tough little cookie; and I haven't properly met Milly yet but I just know I'm gonna love her :P girl frankly you deserve to have Nick maybe you'll mellow him out a little good heavens XD

Helen Wick (John Wick franchise):

I will always have a moment to pay homage to our lord and savior Helen Wick who died to give us the best action franchise of the modern age, girl you were a real one and rest easy knowing I am going to RIDE THE TRAUMA OUT OF YOUR HUSBAND

Tess Marshall (Barbarian):

SHE DESERVES S O MUCH BETTER OH MY GOD I mean they both do, they're stuck in this terrible movie :P In a better world I would love to be friends with Tess, and act as Keith's filter because good lord boy you're cute but you're dumb as fuck sometimes XD Also if I ever see Keith's ex-gf I'm throwing hands

Alt Cunningham & Rogue (Cyberpunk 2077):

god I'm glad these two are Johnny's exes XD I'm sure I would have liked Alt a lot more had I known her when she was, y'know, alive, but as a......tech ghost or whatever, she's not a lot of fun :P As for Rogue, she's a bitch, I KNOW she's a bitch, and I respect her for it. She DID stab Johnny in the back though and I'm not about to let her forget it.

Alys Rivers & Helaena Targaryen (House of the Dragon):

I haven't properly met Alys yet but I'm looking forward to it, I feel like I'm gonna like her :P And Helaena is A SWEETHEART, an absolute darling, I would love to sit with her and have tea while she does her embroidery and listen to her talk about anything that comes into her pretty little head because THE GODS KNOW SOMEONE HAS TO. I will also be her "dump your shitty husband" friend so fast XD Like, LOOK AT AEMOND. LOOK AT HIM. HE'S RIGHT THERE GIRL I WILL SHARE.

Anyone Dream has ever been romantically involved with and yes I'm including Hob Gadling (The Sandman):

I have nothing but love and respect for Dream's past partners (Calliope babe I'd die for you) and I just love the idea that we have like, dinner together and they all just spill the tea about the shit Dream got up to in past decades :P

Vision (Marvel Cinematic Universe):

I have no problems with Viz, he was a good man. Wanda really could have done BETTER in my opinion, but y'know, she could have done a lot worse too, so :P And thanks to Viz we have the boys, Billy and Tommy <3

Martin Blackwood (The Magnus Archives):

I don't hate Martin. He's a sweetheart. But I need him to not even BREATHE in Jon's direction, because that is MY MAN. Nothing personal :P

Mikasa Akerman (Attack On Titan):

I will meet that bitch in the FUCKING PIT IT IS ON S I G H T LEAVE HIM ALONE!!!!!!!!

[alpaca-clouds]

I freaking love Indie Games

Let me talk about something positive today. I wanna talk about Indie games. Because I freaking love Indie Games.

I... was for a long time not much of a "gamer". I mean, I had my Pokémon games and Digimon and I played quite a bit of Resident Evil for a variation of reasons. Also I did play Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. But... I was not that much of a gamer. I had these few Japanese franchises and other than that I just did not do much in terms of gaming.

When I then started university and got my first desktop PC back then - one powerful enough to handle games - I got Bioshock and from there really got into games. So, I played it all. The big franchises. You know it. Dragon Age, Bioshock (which I can basically play with my eyes closed), Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and so on and so forth. You know those games. But...

Well, a couple of years ago, I noticed that I stopped looking forward to those new releases. And I think it started really with Cyberpunk. Because Cyberpunk 2077 was a game I was so freaking hyped for and I wanted to get it on release. But then... all the news about the crunch came out, I felt less and less like it. And then the game was all buggy af. And... yeah, I never got it.

But I also kinda fell out of love with the entire AAA game industry. So many of the games are created through crunch. So many of them are filled with endless tidium to stretch out the runtime. And every bit of diversity that is in there still very much feels like it is there for those diversity points - not out of actual conviction.

I did not game much for a long while... Until I started playing the Supergiant games, after getting them in a Steam sale. And let me tell you: I fucking loved Transistor. That was such an interesting Cyberpunk game. I enjoyed the heck out of it.

So, obviously I played all the Supergiant stuff. And yeah, sure, I had played a couple of other Indie games before (Undertale and Oxenfree come to mind), but I never had looked into Indie games before. And then I did and hell yeah.

Not all Indie game studios treat their developers good. No. But chances are higher that they do, compared to the big studios.

More than that: There is just more variation of indie games out there. Genres that in mainstream seem basically dead (including my beloved Metroidvania) are still alive and well within the indie sphere.

And diversity in Indie Games is actually true diversity. Often enough done by own voices. There are not only games that feature marginalized groups, but also those, that actually center around those experiences.

Also, most Indie Games actually respect my time. Other than AAA titles, that fill their world with endless nothing, Indie titles are often way more consciece. Something I can play through within 10-20 hours - but if I like can replay again and again.

And don't get me started with accessibility. Like, fuck. One should think that it should be possible for the big studios to make their games just a little bit more accessible, right? Yeah. Somehow still not happening.

So... Yeah. Sure, I am still gonna play my Digimon and Pokémon games. But for the most part I am sitting in my Indie corner and am quite happy here.

Especially because... well... It also seems more sustainable, right?