#cool map though. real good vibe

[bsptourist]

bandellgalleria

created by Dunking Crumpers

[hopelesslyromanticgay]

An Americano Please Part 4

Word count: 1819 A/N: pretty dialogue heavy chapter. No huge TW's as far as I can tell

Y/N's POV

11 AM rolls around and I'm standing in front of Jenna's apartment complex, anxiously tapping my foot on the ground.

It's a nice day today, not a lot of clouds, which is rare for Autumn here.

"Morning," a familiar voice says. I look up to see Jenna smiling at me, her long black hair swaying with the slight breeze. 

"Hey, how'd ya sleep?" I ask.

"Pretty good, I was really tired," she tells me, pushing her bangs out of her eyes.

"Yeah, working a much as you seem to tends to have that effect," I chuckle.

"I guess it does, but it's not like I can just stop working," she reminds me.

"I get that, everyone needs a job in this day and age," I agree.

"You- you have a leaf in your hair," she giggles.

"I do?" I ask, feeling around my scalp to try and find it.

"Here, let me just..." she gets up on her tip-toes and pulls the leaf from my hair. I find it impossible to conceal my obvious blush.

"All good?" I ask.

"Yep," she smiles.

"Shall we walk?" 

"Lead the way."

We start to walk down the street, quiet at first. Neither of us really know what to say.

"So how come you speak English?" Jenna asks out of the blue.

"Oh, I grew up in an English speaking country, but my parents read in some magazine that raising children bilingually makes them smarter. Turns out they happened to know Romanian, so I kinda just grew up speaking both languages," I explain. 

"I see," she replies.

"They were wrong, by the way."

"Huh?" she inquires.

"It didn't make me smarter, just a more valuable asset to cafe staffs," I joke.

"Ok, that makes sense," she giggles, "so why'd you come here?"

"Who knows, maybe it was to cover up an elaborate crime," I say blankly, "do you speak any other languages?"

"No, just English, but I know a really small amount of Spanish," she confirms, "but I have to know more. Did you murder someone? Am I your next victim?"

"No don't worry," I laugh, "I wouldn't do that to anyone."

We walk a little more in silence, with me pointing out little landmarks as we go.

"That's Casa Zuzulache (this is literly a real place I found it on snapmap) it's an old motel, for some reason it shows up as a night club on a lot of maps though. Confuses a lot of tourists," I chuckle.

"Yeah, I can imagine," she laughs along, "like, you walk into what you think will be the time of your life and all you see is a tired old person behind a desk!" 

We laugh as we continue to walk, I don't know when it started, but at some point, she had slipped her hand into mine, and hadn't moved it since. Normally when someone I like does this, I feel an anxious sort of butterflies, but this. This just feels... right. 

"There's Freya House, it's also a hotel, but it has a decent restaurant. Apparently the soup is bad, but most things I've had there are pretty good."

"Good to know. I haven't gone out to eat much since I've been here. Most places can't accommodate vegans," she says.

"Oh you're vegan!" I exclaim, "no wonder you kept ordering oat milk. I just thought you were really gay!"

She bursts out laughing, "I'm probably some for of gay, but yeah. I'm a vegan." Okay, so by that logic I probably have a chance with her. 

"Where do you film?" I ask, "I could give you some nearby food recommendations."

"That'd be great!" she smiles, "I film at Cantacuzino Castle!"

"Dang," I tell her, "that's pretty cool. It's so beautiful there! As for restaurants:If you have cash to spend, I recommend Canta Cuisine. It's a really nice restaurant. Really plays into the whole 'castle' vibe."

"Ooh cool, you'll have to take me," she grins.

"Bold of you to assume I have the money, haha!" I laugh

"Anywhere else?"

"There's a pretty good pizza place called Eidolon that I'm sure has vegan options."

"If they have fake cheese, I'll go," she laughs, "so what do you like to do around here?"

"My friend Nessa and I like to go to Eidolon every other Friday," I start, "there's not a whole lot to do around here. A lot of the time I just watch TV, feed my betta, work, and go for walks."

"Oh my gosh, you have a betta?" she asks.

"Yeah, her name's cupid!"

"Can I meet her?"

"Sure, I'll take you by my place in a bit if you want," I offer.

"I'd like nothing more," she smiles, "so where are we going right now?"

"You'll see," I reply mysteriously.

"Oh my god you really are gonna murder me, aren't you," she laughs, her eyes lighting up.

"Now why would I murder someone as gorgeous and charismatic as yourself?" I smirk.

"You think I'm gorgeous?" she raises an eyebrow.

"Uhh, yeah. Have you seen yourself?"

"No, I'm a vampire and can't see my reflection," she deadpans.

"Very funny," I respond matching her deadpan, "I don't think you meet the height requirement for vampires though." I reach down to pat her head.

She pouts, letting go of my hand and playfully shoving me, "hey! that's not fair!" 

"Okay, I'm sorry," I fake offense.

"You better be." We continue to walk in a comfortable silence until we get to where I want to show her.

It's about thirty minutes of walking, and the block before we get there, I playfully cover her eyes.

"What's going on?" she inquires hesitantly.

"I don't wanna spoil the surprise!" I reply innocently.

"Okay then." We continue to walk the last block before I finally uncover her eyes.

"Behold," I start to say, "the only English bookstore in Busteni Romania!"

"Oh my god, you're the most amazing human being I have ever met!" she exclaims, practically dragging me through the door.

"You said you liked to read so I assumed this would be fun for you," I tell her.

"Are you kidding? This is the best place ever!" she rushes over to the nearest shelf like a kid in a candy store. I knew this would be a good idea. Her adorable smile tells me just how thrilled she is.

"You're my new favorite person!" she announces. I feel a deep blush creeping up my face.

Jenna frantically searches the shelves, taking a book here and there, but mostly just looking, "I'm gonna come here any chance I get!"

"Mind if I join you from time to time?"

"Only if you bring me coffee," she giggles, she has the cutest laugh, "just kidding, you can join me anytime."

"I just might take you up on that offer." Now it's her turn to blush. 

We stay in the bookstore for about an hour, looking at practically every shelf. By the end, we have more books than we can possibly count.

"Today was really fun, thank you," Jenna smiles, taking my hand in hers.

"Of course, and hey, now you know Busteni a little more!"

"So, are we going to your place or what?" she asks.

"Okay, okay," I laugh, "let's go."

It's not more than a five minute walk from the bookstore to my apartment, which is really nice.

We spent most of the walk in a comfortable silence, enjoying each other's  company.

"Ladies first," I joke, holding the door to the complex for her as we walk inside.

"Woooow, how chivalrous," she laughs along, "cool building."

"Thanks, I guess."

We walk up the painfully steep stairwell to my apartment, Jenna insisted on not taking the elevator, so stairs were the only other option.

"Here's my place," I tell her, unlocking the door. My apartment's not huge, but it's not tiny either. It's a one bedroom with a nicely sized kitchen, perfect for me.

"Wow nice kitchen!" she exclaims, "I should have known you'd have your own espresso machine."

"What can I say, I love my job," I joke, "nah this thing's ancient, but it works great."

"You have a cool place. My apartment doesn't feel like a home yet, more like a hotel room," she confesses.

"Well maybe it's because you haven't made it yours yet," I suggest, "why don't you try decorate it more to your tastes? That is, unless you already have."

"No, I'm barely unpacked, I've hardly lived here for a month."

"Well if you ever need a hand unpacking, give me a call," I smile.

"Okay, I'll take you up on that offer. Now where's this betta fish you were telling me about?"

"Cupid's over here," I guide her towards my bedroom.

"Damn, taking me to bed already. This is moving pretty fast," she laughs.

"Get your mind out of the gutter!" I blush, "Cupid's just in my room." I open the door so she can see the tank.

"Oh my god she's amazing. I used to have a one," she says.

"What happened to yours?" I inquire.

"He jumped out of the tank and suffocated," she says sadly.

"I'm so sorry, that's terrible," I reply, squeezing her hand.

"Probably my first heartbreak," she laughs.

"So what do you wanna do?" I ask.

"I don't know," she admits, "do you want to watch a movie?"

"Sure!" I say, "what are your thoughts on horror?"

"I love horror! You know I've actually been in a few horror movies?"

"That's sick!" I exclaim, "which ones?"

"The new scream, which has yet to come out, and another one called 'X,'" she tells me.

"Scream's a great franchise, it's so cool that you got to be part of it," I compliment her, "I'll try to watch those movies when they come out for sure."

"Oh my god don't," she grimaces, "it's so embarrassing."

"Okay, I just won't tell you if I do," I smirk.

"What were you thinking of watching right now?" she changes the subject.

"There's a new trilogy out called Fear Street if you'd be interested in that? The first takes place in the nineties apparently."

"Sounds fun. I love nineties and eighties music," she confesses.

So that's how we spend our evening, watching the whole entire amazing trilogy.

.... a few hours later ....

"It's getting late, will you walk me home?" she asks.

"Of course," I respond, helping her up from the couch.

We walk home avidly discussing what we had just watched.

"And that reveal with Sarah? Incredible!" she exclaims, "no one would have seen that coming!"

"Exactly! Like, everything you had seen up to that point was just the opposite of what was actually true," I agree.

"Okay but Deena's music taste is phenomenal," Jenna adds, "like it's just so..." she tries to explain the concept but there's really no words to exclaim how good the first movie's soundtrack was.

"And the Cindy and Alice sidestory?" I bring up, "like, so realistic, so queer coded, all around amazing."

"Yeah the representation of so many groups was really well done," she concludes.

"Well, this is my place," she says when we get to her apartment. I wish today would never end.

"Thank you for today, Y/N," she smiles, "I had such a good time, and you made it really special." She gets up on her tip-toes to kiss my cheek. We both stare at each other blushing.

"Good night, Jenna," I squeeze her hand, "It was nice getting to know you."

"I'll stop by the shop for coffee tomorrow, pretty girl," she winks, walking off into the building.

Today was a great day.

Here's some Jenna photos to fuel your brain!!!

[crguang]

ahajsksbywpqp sat guess who has 2 tests in the same week in the same class next week. Not very fun for me. anyway I was think abt Kafka (honestly when am I not is the real question). See if it wasn’t Kafka in ur au and I was r I would definitely turn her in for the money, but I unfortunately think I might like Kafka just like a little bit ig so I don’t think k would be able to do that .

Reread part 3 today is her fingers twitching bc she wants to shoot something or is it just bc Kafka and her fingers. Ok thats not what I meant but also…what I meant was that she works with her fingers a lot I wish she used them on me instrument, guns, etc. we still haven’t gotten an in game Kafka appearance w an actual violin, it probably won’t happen but I’m still holding out. And she’s the highest threat level possible for a criminal but she STILL commits petty theft. She is so I saw someone say that the stellaron hunters were all siblings, Kafka and blade are like the older siblings that have to drive/pay for everything, silver wolf is the gamer (so original) and firefly is the youngest. Wish they had more in game interactions, or like they had synergy, meta wise, since canonically they’re one of the most tight knit groups.

oh also your inbox must be full as fuck so it’s fine if you don’t reply to everything, esp bc you answer a lot of stuff, and even tho someone already said this ur rlly great to talk to ur thoughts are always more coherent than mine. And we all get to simp over hot fictional women together.

ngl I might start playing ptn, like I’ve been seeing screenshots and…wow, I don’t think I have enough storage tho. I think the two types of characters I usually like are tiny mentally ill ones and hot evil women, so…

im so sorry my messages are always so long btw, I keep rambling 😭

-🌠

aaaa study well and good luck for your tests!!! hope you get a good grade and if u dint i will hack i to your prof’s computer and change it for you

im with you entirely, if it was anyone else in that story i wouldve already called the cops LMFAOOO kafka gets privileges because shes hot and my fav unfortunately… for the finger thing, i think its just one of her quirks! in her idle she mimics playing the violin and like you said she has very dexterous hands (even mentions it in a voice line) so i think she’d absentmindedly move them around when her mind is elsewhere. this is the kind of overthinking i was talking about, when i map out a character in my head i think about the most irrelevant stuff that dont matter😭 but imo they add to her charm a little and make her a rounder character, idk. AND YES i love that her crimes go from suicide inducement to petty theft shes so ridiculous hfjfhdhfj that time in her character story where she just walked in a store and took clothes off the rack then left in front of everyone… shes funny as hell😭

i see the SH as family too! silver wolf and firefly are sisters to me, and both of them are def kafka’s little sisters. i think silver wolf is the youngest though, she even gives off sassy youngest child vibes. i wish they could work together too, having them all in one team would be so nice. but it’s also cool that each of them has a speciality, it makes sense for the work they do

my inbox is full i think i have around 70 asks rn…😭 but to be fair a lot of them are veryyy old i just havent gotten around to cleaning up my blog yet, i’ll do it at the same time i change my masterlist and actually make it pretty to look at. i usually try to click on notifs as soon as i see them but like i said, i just forget to type my answers </3

and omg. anon. if your type is mentally ill and hot evil women ptn is literally the game for you. there is an abundance of mentally ill women in there, trust me… like there’s every kind of character you could want in that game— you could give me a specific type and i could find you a character that matches it, you should definitely play. and if you do, do it before the second anniversary ends (starts around mid/late-october) bc trust me you are gonna be upset if you miss shalom :/

dont worry abt ramblingggg i love talking to u and answering every point it’s really nice!!

[paragonrobits]

given the heavy amount of inherent romantic subtext between Fionna and Ice Prince and thus by definition Simon Petrikov (as, even more than Winter King, Ice Prince feels a LOT like an idealized depiction of Simon at his most fancy and subdued sophistication and has no real signs of Ice King at all except for the magic jewels on his cape), I think its not implausible that we're meant to see some kind of romantic vibe or possibility between them

and in particular, Fionna has a few similarities towards Betty that's interesting in this regard; she has a similar impulsive attitude that ultimately drives the plot and her decisions keep forcing Simon out of his passive box, and she has more than a few verbal quirks that are specifically thinks Betty says: compare Betty time traveling and declaring 'I'm leaving past you for now you, dum-dum!" with Fionna bonking him on the head and making him think straight while also calling him dum-dum, which I don't recall anyone else saying.

So with this in mind, what are we to think? Is this deliberate in-universe? It's pretty likely that if it is, it might be coincidental; I don't think you can ENTIRELY rule out Golbetty pushing Fionna in this direction, though I don't know if it sounds right for Golbetty to essentially make Fionna a substitute for her, especially since their character arcs aren't aligned in finding substitutes

what I think IS happening is that both of them have personalities that lean in that general direction; its clear that Fionna is at least interested in the sort of personality Ice Prince represents; the calm and literally cool sophisticated gentleman, which also lines up with Hunter's character, though he's more of a blue collar variation. It's likely that this sort of guy is her type as far as men-aligned people go. (Which makes a contrast given that she gives the impression she still hates baths and probably smells of wet beef, but horrible gremlin x sophisticated gentlefolk IS an excellent character contrast)

Simon is a bit harder to gauge in this direction; we only really have Betty as an established person he was personally interested in. However, we CAN make some guesses with Ice King and the princesses he tried to pursue, most obviously Bubblegum (who might also be the one he pursued the most because she has quite a few things in common with Betty), but from the other princesses he tended to fixate on, there's a few common elements. They tend to be highly intelligent (which, no offense to Fionna, but she IS a Finn variant so... emotional intelligence perhaps but not really a brainlord), very assertive (yeah), impulsive (oh yeah) and even physically powerful (and while Fionna doesn't quite have the power to match up her bravado, she WANTS to); she does map up pretty well to the sort of people Simon has fixated on while he was Ice King.

with this in mind if Golbetty's intent WAS to set them up for whatever reason or get them to move on, respectively, it probably wasn't the most sensible decision given that any crossover romance is the most extreme long distance relationship imaginable but also that DOES sound like a Betty plan. good intention I guess!

[moss-and-marimos]

gimme doodles/character designs for ur tmnt iteration NOW

(no actual pressure i just want to draw them and need ur designs for them)

okay so I dont have much actual art of them bc I have had no time to draw lately, but ill try to like summarize their vibes or give doodles at least Donnie- hes a very anxious angsty guy, is in his lab almost all of the time, always seems to look a bit sad or tired, doesnt really like other people, kind of has similar vibes and shape language to tm(n)t donnie if that helps at all, hes a hybrid spiny soft-shell turtle and spotted turtle, hes got spots on the back part of his shell like this:

and spiky bits at the bottom edges of his shell like this:

so I imagine hes like a dark green kinda grey color mostly besides the yellow spots on his shell, his hands and forearms and legs are always bandaged up and if theyre not covered he has a lot of scars from assorted causes, he usually wears either like black shorts or baggy sweatpants, sweatpants more often, on occasion a hoodie and that becomes much more frequent after the events of the shredder apprentice arc, I forgot to put them in the doodle but he has stretch marks on his thighs and upper arms and is the tallest of the guys but hunches over so much that you wouldnt know, he has scoliosis but not very severely, you can just barely tell if you look at his shell from behind that its a bit misshapen

Raph- Raph is a bog turtle, so is Mikey, this is an older drawing and isnt the most accurate but its like the only good drawing I have of him, usually he does not look anywhere near this happy, the markings around the back of his neck and on the shell are still accurate but otherwise its kinda up to interpretation so do what you will, he also wears hoodies and pants sometimes but not always, his mask tails vary in length bc he chews on them so sometimes theyre short when he doesnt want to or longer when he does want to

Mikey- Mikey is also a bog turtle, raphs markings are a bit more red and his are a bit more yellow/orange, my Mikey wears a more yellow mask than bright orange, its kinda that yellow-orange shade, I think he has freckles but theyre more like small scale patches that are darker green than real freckles, has the same neck markings and similar shell markings to raph, has either one dot above his right eye that looks like a circular eyebrow or has it on both eyes, for now I'll say just the one though, his mask tails arent as long as Leo but go to about mid-back and the ends are frayed Leo- Leo is based a lot on 2012, all of my turtles are more based on 2012 than any other iteration, his mask tails are very long like all the way down to his waist, theyre cut at diagonals like at an angle at the end and are not frayed, he has more yellow colored stripes that go over his eyes (like rise Leo a bit) but then they run down to his shoulders and down his arms, sides, and legs, and theres also shorter segments on his shoulders that are pretty much just yellow patches. He's a black knobbed map turtle, so just imagine kinda realistic stripes like theirs but stylized. When he uses his powers they glow a really intense blue color and it looks really cool. After the events of the shredder apprentice arc he has a big X scar across the back of his shell

[styrmwb]

I beat Slayers X

losers........ scroll away. u cant HANDEL how cool this game is....

Hypnospace Outlaw is one of my favorite indie games of all time (Slay the Spire is also up there, these two are the peak for me). When I found out there was a sequel I was hyped. It only took my brain... a little under a year to actually play it XD (I gave Hypnospace another playthrough a few days ago cause I never got 100% or did the Plus content so that helped). But giving me more hypnospace universe (the trennisverse, as I've heard) goodness in the form of a game created, in character, by Zane? Fucking Outstanding. I've never really been a boomer shooter guy, so this was like... technically my first one played? I had a blast the whole way through, regardless.

gameplay......

Again, never actually played with my own two hands a boomer shooter before, but of course I've watched Doom gameplay, I've played more modern FPSs. I knew what I was getting myself into, and it felt super easy to maneuver. The weapons were all really fun, and I actually got to feel like each one had its own use, although the Glass Blasta and the Rapid Mutilator were my personal favorites, for power and mobility reasons alike. I loved the map design, which wasn't constant enemies and perpetual combat like I was expecting. There was a lot of downtime that let me explore, see the details put into everything, and to look for secrets. That was my favorite part of the gameplay for sure, although I'm sure for some people they might not like those slower parts and how hard some of the secrets were to find. I know I struggled a bit on some, but I still liked it. I played on the normal difficulty, which felt like it gave me enough of a challenge and enough time to breathe. It was the perfect mix.

atmosfear....

The theming of the game was FUCKING perfect. Hypnospace crushed it with the vibe of early internet forums, and Zane was spot on for a stupid edgy 15 year old of the time. They already mastered the execution, and they got to expand on it further here. The misspellings, the nu metal soundtrack, the graphics, the toilet humor and crude but just innocent enough dialogue, it all gets the vibe exactly correct. Hell, even in real life, with Zane being the irl creator of the game, his twitter, and the way that he advertises his game is perfect. If you don't know what you're getting into, you're gonna think this game is stupid, and I know this cause I've seen quite a few people just not understand what the bit is, and the bit is 50% of the enjoyment of the game. I love it, though. Can't wait for more of this energy in the future.

musik (awsome)

Growing up in the 2000s with younger parents, the general nu metal genre and anything in that era is what I listened to growing up, so this shit is NOSTALGIC for me. I love every song in the game, I love how dirty and rancid it sounds, they literally already got it perfect in Hypnospace, and Slayers X just gives me even more of what I already love. When you're not in combat and you're just walking around, the rock takes a backside for this creepy atmospheric noise which really makes the levels, showing the dingy nature and the (literal) shit. The bonus levels have different soundtracks that get that Doom level sound perfect, which I really appreciated as well.

characterz... (Zane, the coolest guy, and those other idiots.....)

I LOVE how this game's cast feels. The in universe explanations for everything really enhances it. Zane is still that same immature child he was years ago, the game is full of his ego, but you can see in his like, dev dialogue, that he has in fact aged and mellowed out, which is really sweet and saddening to see. The same kid who made bullying pages is now a single dad who clearly loves his kid even if he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, and is dealing with a lot of hardships in life. Like the original game, it's a surface of humor with a really deep inside. You get more of his character by seeing the rest of the cast. Mevin is creepy, obviously evil, definitely not inspired by anyone irl, and Zane's way of physically lashing out at his struggles. Steffanie literally sounds like there's 0 effort being put into her lines, and combined with the secret with Adam, the person that helped Zane code the game, showing annoyance yet still helping him shows that this dude is pathetic but... there's still something in him that makes people want to help him anyways. Mikey is also in on this, putting WAY more effort than anyone would ever need to in this game, but you can tell because of that that there's just something ABOUT Zane that people can't help but want to push him forward for some reason. Again, it's heartwarming and sad, and I love that.

the rest, ig uess...

I don't really know what else to say that I haven't already said; I love this game. It gives me more of what I loved out of Hypnospace, although hyperspecified to Zane (not complaining)

I DO HAVE TO ADMIT THOUGH, I HAVE A SERIOUS BIAS CAUSE ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS HELPED MAKE IT AND I LOVE TO SEE HER WORK, SHE MADE SOME OF THE LEVELS AND SOME OF THE SOUNDTRACK AND SHE'S SUPER COOL AND AWESOME AND SKILLED SHOUTOUTS TO @headachelikeapillow YOU'RE THE BEST

I got a little easter egg in the game which is super cool :) It warms my heart to see my name lead into a fuckin saw chamber (that has literally stopped every streamer I've ever seen play that level in their tracks, it's hilarious)

sorry if I'm breaking an nda you can kill me if you need

Anyways, with that aside;

10/10. BADASS GAME MADE BY THE AWESOMEST DUDE AROUND.... HELL BE RICH AND FAMOUS FOR SURE AND GET ALL THE GIRLS (LIKE HE DOESNT ALREADY BWL)

[blindrapture]

I have been in full-on Recluse Mode lately. in the interest of communicating a little more, let me share with you what games I have been playing lately:

MyHouse.wad (finally! had been meaning to play this for years. I have gotten the default ending and might maybe try to look for more branches of the maze when I feel up to facing all those monsters again.)

FAITH: The Unholy Trinity (fuck, finally, someone made a good horror game. I have gotten the best ending in chapters 1 and 2 and have made it to the final boss of 3.)

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (ah! wow! this is not my kind of horror game. it's honestly a kinda average adventure game but one that has subject matter that makes me feel gross and depressed and not want to play it. which probably means other people will like it a lot more than me, as I am coming to terms with the fact my tastes *are* weird.)

Who's Lila? (oh wow... I was so curious about this one but it's *also* a kinda average adventure game? albeit with a Mario Party minigame permanently attached to the screen that you have to keep playing. the Easy Mode just gives you a lot more time to do that, which is a sign that the developers were simply unable to balance it properly and had to give you a bandaid solution. I may have to just watch some YouTuber play this one, as the story *probably* gets good!)

Cyberpunk 2077 (I found a surprisingly cheap PS4 at a local pawn shop and picked this game up with it. the PS4 is good for watching blu-rays, even more convenient than a dedicated player. for gaming it is *comically* bad. I may have a bias against PlayStation, the fucking failure of a brand whose first-party properties have serious "AI-generated corporate brand" vibes.... but I thought I was just being stupid! but no! the PS4 cannot game. the controller feels like cheap plastic, and the console itself has a cooling fan with the volume of a jet engine and it will *shake my entire bedroom* if I want to play any game, any game at all. even doom 2016, which it should be more than capable of running. the *menus* on doom 2016 push the PS4's fans into overdrive, there is no refuge. in cyberpunk I can at least pause the game every 30 seconds and wait 20 seconds for the fans to go silent, before unpausing and playing for another 30 seconds. ....it's fucking awful. gaming with a permanent headache, my whole body assaulted with noise and vibrations. .......but uh, Cyberpunk itself honestly seems like fun. I don't really give the slightest shit about the aesthetic, but to my surprise they buried a perfectly good game under there. can't say the same about Sony and any perfectly good gaming consoles, though. the PS2 was the last competent console they released, and that's the one I have a *grudge* against, because It killed the Dreamcast. for what!! for decades of garbage consoles afterwards?? get a damn Xbox. or, when you want to actually play games for real and stop fucking around with these childish insecure "GAMING FOR ADULTS" aesthetics, just get a fucking Nintendo, like god intended. mic dropped.)

Doom 2, in QuestZDoom. (in VR. I have the first three Dooms just.. permanently installed on my quest 2, along with Half-Life. this is admittedly still one of the coolest things ever, that I can just play these games in VR whenever I want. anyway, I have never actually played through Doom 2. never done it. never even tried to. so my first playthrough is in VR. I average about 10 maps a day, on the easiest difficulty because I have no shame. I did not know just how troll-y Doom 2 was. I also did not know everyone was just *wrong* about the city levels, I'd always heard the city levels sucked! but no! they're the best part!! I had a blast with the city levels!! god I LOVE mazes!!!)

oh yeah, also, Starfield. (I managed to find a mod that forces the game to not use 4k textures, and that actually solved most of my performance issues. it still stops to load every now and then, but it hasn't crashed to desktop in a long time now. so I went and finished a quest. I do *kinda like* Starfield, I like the promise of freedom, and I automatically love anything that's first-person. I wouldn't mind actually *playing through* Starfield. I already like it more than any Fallout game-- that's just a bias, I find mass media's fixation on Wasteland Post-Apocalyptica to be boring as hell, to the point of ruining whatever good there is to find in the media itself. but it is not as good as Skyrim. maybe it could *compete* with other Bethesda games if it.. was actually optimized properly? but then it wouldn't be a Bethesda game.)

and yeah, I think that's it.

will get back to you when I play more video games.

[abuddyforeveryseason]

Alright, this is it, the last of the Buddies.

This, the Buddy for May 11th, marks the end of this little project. It's my 366th upload. As a compilation of all of my previous drawings (you might need to open it in a new tab to see it better), it technically breaks the rule of using only white, black and red, thanks to compression issues on the drawings for March 18th and September 9th. But, well, I figured I did post stuff that didn't break that rule those days, so it doesn't matter. Besides, the project's finished now.

There are some good ones there too, although a lot of them are traces, so I won't be counting those. I liked the pin for May 18th, that's something I had been working on before I started, and I still think it looks better and more polished than my actual art. The sketchy drawing for May 17th is good too, even if it's kind of phoned in.

May 27th looks cute, and June 17th was a good idea, even if the implementation was a bit lazy; but at least it wasn't a trace for once. June 23rd was cool, though I wish I had made it a gif. Lack of time, I guess.

The woman in July 15th looks pretty good, and the gif for July 25th is pretty badass, even if it was a simple one. July 29th was one of my funniest ideas. I like the shading for September 7th. September 19th and October 1st were also female figures, I'm proud enough of those. Some of the drawings on the template for October 3rd were good. October 16th looks pretty good, something I'd use on a comic.

The first "strip" on October 23rd was a pain to make, but I like the joke in it. The nerdy relationship map on November 15th was fun, but it was more for my benefit, not really special, art-wise.

December 1st was different from my usual style, I like it, even if the anatomy is pretty wrong. The tarot cards on December 17th were an earlier project, but also really nice.

The lighting on the drawing for December 20th was fun to make too. January 16th looks really simple, but I like the vibe of it. The strip for February 3rd was an idea I'm also proud of. More women, on February 11th, 19th and 28th. The negative colors effect on Mach 4th worked better than I expected, too.

I think the gif on March 22nd worked well enough, although I rushed it. The joke on March 26th was something that was on my mind for some time.

There was the strip on April 10th with different versions under the main post, those were nice enough. The gif on April 12th was hard to make, and I'm not too happy with it, but it was an ambitious idea..

The Buddy for May 8th looks the closest to what I had wanted to do as a proper webcomic, so I'm happy with it, although there was some trouble making it, and I was pretty bored with the project already.

But, the best Buddy of the year, in my opinion, was, funny enough, the one for January 23rd. The Rob Liefeld parody. It's funny cause I drew it so it'd look crappy, and, well, it does, but still better than my usual art, just with more lines and cliché Liefeld stuff. Pretty XXXtreme.

It's weird that one of my earlier comic ideas was a Liefeld parody, where a seemingly-normal person would get involved in the world of Liefeld badasses and contrast those comics' anti-logic with the real world. I wrote a lot of it, but gave up about 2/3rds in. Not that there's much point in mocking Rob Liefeld nowadays, anyway.

I'm not sure what'll become of this tumblr now. I'm trying to keep focused on art and distance myself from online dumpster fire discourse, so I'm trying to fill out my new sketchbooks for now.

Anyway, thanks for all the likes throughout the year, I appreciate the interest from everyone who found my silly little OC entertaining enough.

[oneiromania]

Welcome to oneiromania's RP blog!

♥ ABOUT ME ♥

Hi, call me Nei! I'm a 21 year old female student with just a little over a year of RP experience, though I've been writing for a lot longer than that. Ever since I got into the RP scene, I've been itching to write with others and finally let some of that brainrot escape it's fleshy prison. I try my best to be friendly and understanding, and I don't want or plan to get into any internet (and especially Tumblr) drama. I just wanna write!

I like to chat OOC when I vibe with my RP partners, and I'm prone to gushing about the characters, sending songs and playlists relevant to the RP, making Pinterest boards, sharing memes, and so on! I'd appreciate it if my partner shared the enthusiasm, but I get that that just isn't for everyone, and as long as the RP is fun and consistent, and my partner is respectful and understanding, I don't mind a more chill OOC experience.

♠ RULES ♠

Standard DNI criteria. MAPs, TERFs, racists, and other assholes, get the fuck off my blog.

You must be 18+. As I am an adult myself, I don't feel comfortable writing with minors regardless of the contents of the RP. I also prefer to write with people no older than 30.

I mainly write over Discord. I say mainly because I haven't yet decided if I'm going to make RP sideblogs for specific characters! I'll update this post if I do, but generally I don't RP outside of Discord. Additionally, I like making a private server for easier organization, and I like using Tupperbox. If you don't know what that is or how to use it, I'd be more than happy to teach you! But Tupperbox is not a must.

NO REALISTIC FCs. This might seem like a strange rule, but I simply cannot do RP when the faceclaim is a real person. This goes not only for actors, singers, and other celebrities, but really any photos of real people. You can use picrew or neka, or your own art, or even art you found on the internet. (I'm cool with using photos of real life outfits and stuff for reference, though!)

I write fandomless OC x OC, and sometimes CC x CC. I'll list my fandoms later, but generally speaking, I'm currently comfortable writing only a few canon characters.

My preferred ships are MxM and FxF, and I can also do ships with NB and genderfluid characters. I can do MxF as well, but I vastly prefer queer relationships, and I'll only do MxF if I really feel like it fits the RP. I hope you'll understand! Also: ships don't have to be romantic, I enjoy platonic and familial relationships as well, including friends, found family, and even enemies.

I write third person past and present, and I don't accept RP written in first person.

I can write anywhere from semi-lit/literate to novella. It depends on my mood and what the scene requires. Currently, I'm very busy, so I can only do shorter replies – around 2-3 short paragraphs, and likely not super detailed. Please just use good grammar.

Currently, I DON'T do NSFW. I'm comfortable with flirting and intimacy, but I prefer fading to black when it comes to sex scenes. It kind of depends on the RP and my partner if I'm willing to do more, because I need to feel comfy with writing it first!

I don't double. I know doubling means different things for different people, but however you define it, I don't do it.

My activity varies, as I am in college so sometimes life gets stressful or I get busy. I'll likely do at least 2-3 replies a week, though. At least one reply a week is what I ask from my partner.

Limits and triggers will be discussed before the RP.

Work with me when plotting! I CANNOT plot alone or figure out characters alone, if you're going into this with no plot or character ideas whatsoever, we're gonna have a difficult time figuring out what to write.

♦ WHAT DO I WRITE? ♦

I do both angst and fluff.

I like a lot of genres and settings! I have some plots in mind but I'd love to hear what you have to offer! The genres include: fantasy (high, medieval, victorian...), victorian settings, modern, sci-fi, supernatural, horror/thriller, futuristic, slice of life, and more.

I'm open to dark subject matter/whump. Since I enjoy horror, I also enjoy dark and gritty themes, as well as things that might be upsetting to explore. So long as we're both being mature about it, there shouldn't be a problem. This will, of course, be discussed in detail before we start writing.

I'm prone to making OCs on the fly or repurposing existing OCs, so even if I don't have an OC for our specific RP, I can make one in a matter of several days.

I reblog RP prompts and plots and make my own posts when I have an idea for a plot, so check out the rest of my blog and see if you like anything!

♣ FANDOMS ♣

This is a list of fandoms that I'm into! This doesn't necessarily mean I will RP characters from this fandom, instead, I'm listing them in case you're interested in RPing in the same or similar universe! I don't do CCxOC, but I do enjoy putting OCs in an existing fandom's universe, or making a world similar to that of the fandom. I also just get inspired by these fandoms, so if you look at any of these and think, "I'd love to do something inspired by this!", I think we can make some fun plots!

Fandoms which are bolded are those which I have CC characters I can RP, and I will write the characters I RP next to them

In no particular order:

Alice in Wonderland (the book, the sequel, the animated movie, Alice: Madness Returns)

Demon Slayer

Jujutsu Kaisen

Bungou Stray Dogs (have read the manga up until chapter 88) → can try my hand at a couple of characters!

Fate/Grand Order → Merlin (Caster), Jeanne d'Arc (Alter), Gudao/Gudako, probably more

Hades → Zagreus, Thanatos

Detroit: Become Human

Deep Sea Prisoner games (Mogeko Castle, Wadanohara, Gray Garden)

A Night In The Woods

Bloodborne

Soul Eater (anime)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Arknights (not super confident writing canon characters right now, but I'd love to use the setting)

Spirited Away

Spy x Family

RPGs (Mad Father, Witch's House, Pocket Mirror, Ib, Alice Mare, LiEat I, II and III)

Honkai: Star Rail

Noragami

Death Parade

Black Butler

Tokyo Ghoul

SCP foundation

Corpse Party

Little Nightmares (1 and 2)

and more, probably!

~LINKS~

A link to the overview of my current OCs! There's a short description for each of them, and a few of them have full docs ready, while for the rest, I can explain a bit more about them if you're interested in writing with any of them.

For my plot ideas, search the tag #nei's evil thoughts!

For my writing samples, search the tag #nei's evil scriptures!

I hope to find some more RP partners on here and write some incredible stories! If you'd like to discuss RP, please reach out to me via DMs and I will send you my Discord handle! Happy writing everyone!

[scrunkore]

Scunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 3

welcome back to the scrunko core

25) OneShot (PC, 2016)

It's not often that you fall in love with a videogame protagonist immediately, but I did just that with Niko - the little cat creature is possibly the most adorable kid I've ever seen and I did not want a single bad thing to happen to them ever. Though that's enough about them, the rest of the cast is really nice too, and the actual game itself is REALLY good. The relatively simple item-combining puzzles aren't that special, but the story and world have such a particular vibe to them that I enjoy, especially with the kinda huge extra stuff they added sometime after the initial release of this version. And that's not to mention the extra twists that do very interesting things with the medium, and I do not really want to spoil that if you don't already know about it, so go play it if that's the case. This game is honestly beautiful and I love it, and do play it on PC if you can. [5★]

26) VVVVVV (3DS, 2012)

This game's pretty simple, but it's also kind of a classic little indie joint, and it's really cool that it got a 3DS port that actually makes (admittedly not very interesting) use of the 3D effect, probably due to how early it came out. The core gameplay is just solving puzzles by rapidly flipping gravity up and down and swooping around the world map rescuing your friends, which can be done in basically any order, and it's really quite fun for the most part. Not a whole lot to it beyond that, but its simple graphics are cute and I enjoyed it a fair bit, although I did have to use the available options to make it easier when it was its most difficult - not cheating if the options are there, come on now. Anyway, it's a decent game. [3.5★]

27) Yume Nikki (PC, 2004)

Here it is, perhaps the single most well-known RPG Maker game, as well as one of the most bizarre and cryptic even to this very day. The creator is equally cryptic, and infamously elusive, only giving an interview to Toby Fox with just yes and no answers. Nobody really knows what the game is even about other than the pretty obvious yet not very descriptive answer of "shut-in girl explores a strange and often scary dream world", and it's not like it has a plot aside from the ending that was added at some point for when you get all the collectibles, which I do recommend you try to do for a somewhat complete experience. All you do in it is explore the various weird dream worlds, each one uniquely atmospheric, intricately designed and full of secrets in the most unusual of ways. I don't think it's something you can really assign a numbered score to, it's just a surreal and unsettling experience that's worth having at least once, even if you don't enjoy it. It's fuckin' Yume Nikki, you probably already know how influential it is. [?★]

28-31) BOXBOY! Series (3DS/Switch, 2015-2019)

HAL knows their stuff when it comes to puzzle games, believe it or not, and this really shows with the adventures of Qbby the funny little cube guy. In this consistently solid series, you solve a wide range of puzzles based around creating and destroying cubes to make it to the exit, with each new game introducing its own gimmick to shake up the basic formula and make it more interesting. It's kind of a deceptively simple game, as the puzzles ramp up in difficulty and end up becoming some real head-scratchers, and I appreciate that. The presentation is also charmingly simple, with pleasant audiovisuals, and even a simply story that eventually gets surprisingly interesting in the later entries. Give these games a try to finally see what that one sticker in Kirby: Planet Robobot was all about. [4★]

32) Pokémon Picross (3DS, 2015)

Pokémon and Picross feels like a pretty effortlessly winning formula for a crossover, and this one is... well, it's okay. The puzzles are decent Picross, and the gimmick of catching and using Pokémon to help you out in the trickier stages is pretty good too, but the area where it suffers is in the actual design of the game - it's one of those 3DS titles that is basically a mobile game, with stamina cooldowns and microtransactions to speed up wait times, though like Kirby Clash it does have a cap on how much money you can spend. But that spending cap doesn't make up for the core way in which it's designed. I don't find Picross too repetitive, so I want to be able to play it for hours at a time, but the damn game doesn't let me, and it just feels kinda poorly designed in general. But when I get to play the game properly, it's solid Picross. Maybe the unreleased but eventually leaked Game Boy Color game of the same name is better just for that. [3★]

33) Learn With Pokémon! Typing Adventure (DS, 2012)

This game is such a gimmick but god, I kinda really like it. It's a typing game on the DS, and so to facilitate that they made every copy come with a small Bluetooth keyboard that was pretty good for the original price at the time but of course isn't that good nowadays. But it works quite well, it's responsive enough to play this game, even if it can be kind of awkward sometimes just because of positioning. And the game is quite fun too, it's not very long but it can pose a pretty tough challenge if you're not that good at typing fast, and the typing action is actually quite intense as you get into the harder levels. It's marketed as an educational title to help you learn typing, but I don't think it really does that so much. But it's a fun game, with pretty good music and a funny computer voice reading everything you type out loud, and I am actually glad I shelled out for a complete copy of this obscure Pokémon gem. [4★]

34) Undertale (Switch, 2018)

Yeah, I didn't actually play this one until 2023 despite being a fan of it and Deltarune for quite a while, sue me. There's not much new that I can say about it, but this indie smash hit really does hold up even now that there's a similar game from the same guy that does a lot of gameplay things better. It's filled with unique and charming characters who you can either kill or spare (the latter is what you should do, but the former can be tempting), a really good and somewhat meta storyline particularly if you go for the "true" ending, and some pretty fun bullet-dodging gameplay that can be pretty difficult - though there is an option to grind for several hours and get an item that makes it much easier, no shame in doing that if you can be bothered. You probably already know everything that one should know about this game, but yeah, I liked all those things about it that much more after playing it for myself. It's definitely something you should play if you have interest in it, and I just know Deltarune is going to be way bigger and even better. [5★]

35) Animal Crossing Movie (Anime, 2006)

It's kind of an anomaly that this movie even exists at all, Nintendo rarely makes anime adaptations of their games and they're almost never full movies, plus it's based on Animal Crossing, a game series that doesn't really have much of a story and certainly didn't back in 2006. What they actually end up doing with this one is kinda fun, it's a fairly standard slice of life anime condensed into a movie decently enough, with a very comfortable atmosphere and nice interpretations of some of the characters from the games, and the narrative follows a young girl making friends and taking part in a few of the events from the earliest entries in the series - about what you would expect from it, really. It's not anything special or even particularly good, but it's really nice to see them replicate the vibe and characters of Animal Crossing in anime-movie form, and I do wonder if they'd try something like this again. [3.5★]

36) Tunic (Switch, 2022)

I don't really play very many games that aren't in a language that I understand - it's easy to find stuff in English most of the time - but this game technically counts, because it's specifically aiming for the vibe of playing a game like that, with almost all the text in a totally new language the devs came up with entirely by themselves. And honestly, I kind of love it for that, it combines with the lonely and mysterious vibe that the whole game has. Because the game doesn't tell you much, you kinda have to feel it out as you explore the top-down Zelda-like world fighting monsters and collecting pages of the literal manual while figuring out what's going on with everything. It's filled with cryptic (sometimes too cryptic) puzzles and secrets, with one even leading to a pseudo-ARG that helped people decode its language, and it's clear a lot of love went into this project. Towards the end I did look things up about it, but as it stands, this game is a wonderful adventure that might not be to everyone's tastes, but I certainly really liked it for what it does. [4.5★]

37) Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S (Switch, 2021)

Yes, another Picross game, and this time everyone's best friend Hatsune Miku is there, along with her other Vocaloid friends for good measure. And... that's about it. It's super barebones, only offering puzzles and unlockable music, but that is basically all it needs to be. It's cute, it's Picross with Miku, it does what it says on the tin. I just don't have much more to say about it other than that, it's just an average Picross game that does average Picross things, just without using the actual name Picross. It's fine, it kept me occupied for a few hours. [3★]

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[luckyladylily]

Sea of Stars is good

Sea of Stars is a real good game so far. A real throw back to SNES style JRPGs in a good way. It very much feels like Chrono Trigger, or Secret of Mana, but with a lot of years of game design refinement to shave off a few of the rough edges of the SNES era design without losing any of the heart.

Game looks fantastic. This is excellent pixel art. It stands, in some ways, in contrast to the Octopath Traveler style, which is good pixel art using all sorts of cool effects to look great. Sea of Stars is just fantastic pixel art with no extra effects. It's a more pure style, gives very strong chrono trigger vibes (though not in actual art style, this does not look like the work of Akira Toriyama). It takes full advantage of being on a more powerful system, but it remains a pure pixel art game outside of some very brief animated cut scenes. To my eyes it looks better than Octopath Traveler did.

The combat system is fun and interesting. It's clearly taken inspiration from a wide variety of sources and managed to fit them all together into an interesting whole. We have timed hits, counters, and an interesting free mana system by which you power up your attacks. The upshot is that even in basic battles how you sequence your attacks and what attacks you choose to use has a lot of strategic depth, but that depth comes at the cost of very little complexity once you understand the system. It means you can parse the state and your options very quickly, and while your ultimate goal is to dps down the enemy there are enough competing concerns that it never feels like simply spamming your attacks and heals until the boss dies. It is among the best, if the the best, combat system I have seen in a JRPG.

So far traversing the areas feels fantastic. They clearly cut no corners in design to make it feel like free running or parkour as you explore - climbing, running, jumping all over the place as you find chests and hit switches. The devs clearly understood that style and feel matters a lot in something like this. It really helps that there are no random battles, the battles all occur as the result of enemies on the map, chrono trigger style. This makes exploration fun without a punishment for doubling back to make sure you got everything.

So far the writing is perfectly serviceable and it's got a good sense of humor too. The characters are likable and interesting. I want to see more. Which is good, because we have not hit any story beat that really hooks me. I think it is building up to it though. Setting up a FFIX like lighthearted adventure tone that allows for strong gut punches when a dark shift happens.

One area of weakness in comparison to the old greats is the music. It is good, often very catchy, but it is not on par with something like Chrono Trigger. I am aware that is an unreasonable bar, so I don't hold it against it. I want to really emphasize that the music never detracts. But the fact remains that great moments can be enhanced to defining moments with fantastic music. While sea of stars is served just fine by its sound track, it probably wont be blowing my mind. Unless they saved their effort for the big moments I have not seen, which is a good strategy with limited dev resources.

I wouldn't even mention this as a area of weakness if the game wasn't so great. This is an indie game that's hitting way above it's weight class in quality and feel. I'm not far enough in to say this is a classic yet, but I will not be surprised if Sea of Stars is counted among games like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy 7 in the future. It is only in comparing it to some of the best games ever made that this weakness is even apparent, and I think this game is good enough to deserve being taken that seriously.

[canonically-a-genloser]

Fable smp, I did not type all this out it came from the wiki :>

Ghosty is an adventurer and traveler whose main focus was finding his friend, The Lady of the World. He joined the SMP after being rescued from the End Prison

Aax is an olm hybrid who was discovered by Rae in a cave where he was waiting for someone to return. The cave was souped out with a nice couch and some signs that counted fours as by their logic "if [he] didn't cross over them; it wasn't a full five days". He enjoys fishing, is sensitive to sunlight and has very strong hearing as he was able to speak to Athena through the caves and heard Momboo (Strawberri) in the cave earlier in season two

Athena is a the child of Netherum and a friend to all on the server. They and Jamie are best friends and became Rae's lab assistants early in the SMP. Athena's disappearance during the Halloween Episode kicked off the major lore of the SMP as the server set out on a journey to bring them home.

Centross has a rocky relationship with a number of the other SMP members due to his actions in season one but regrets them and has been actively trying to make up for them.

Chaos is... a vibe. They have dragonfly wings and are decidedly not human but were not always such. They are a mercenary and currently co-king of Sea Side with Ocie.

Easton is a college graduate with a degree in Real Estate. They were adopted when they were younger by Momboo a year before she also adopted Jamie. Currently they are living at the foot of a volcano.

Galahad is a blaze hybrid and is a Nexai Knight that fought under Netherum during the war. They are kind and care for their friends. The cold and water are painful for him to be in.

Haley was a traveler and the first member of the SMP to canonically die. She was a bit of a hermit and didn’t interact much with others on the server before the events that lead to her death, but she was friends with Momboo and Sherbert.

Strawberri is is the embodiment of the land given human form. She’s the adopted mother of Jamie and Easton. She cares a lot about nature and especially the tree in the center of spawn.

Oceana is the embodiment of the ocean given human form. She misses being the ocean and used to freely tell people that she was the ocean before realizing that's probably not something you should tell people. She’s currently co-king of Sea Side along with Chaos.

Rae is a scientist whose main focus of study is dimensions. He started on the SMP primarily researching the End before its discovery, but now is studying several dimensions and the gods (most of them are his family).

Seven is a robot with multiple functions whose objective is doing tasks for others. However in season one he eventually learned how to think more for himself and make his own choices.

Sherbert is an alchemist who has made a number of new potions through trial and error. There are a lot of mysterious occurrences and happenings that surround them. From their left eye constantly bleeding to their house changing on its own.

Ven is a writer that lives at the top of one of the mountains around spawn. They are a bit of a recluse and put signs leading up to his home to deter others from visiting but they have not worked very well. Typically they need to be dragged to events by other people, namely Ocie.

Will is an adventurer. He loves maps and takes notes of the interesting places he finds on his travels. Though he likes wandering, it is lonely and he has been making friends for the first time in a while in the SMP.

Wolf is a wolf-like person formerly known as the dog "Void".

~Remi

That sounds really cool! :D I like their names a lot tbh like that is really cool to me sjdnsnjw

I actually almost panicked when I saw this like 'did Remi really just spend like a half hour typing??' turns out we're good xD brain went ACK-

[callofdutygame24]

Dynamic Villains and Engaging Backstories: Monaghan Shines as the Ultimate Nazi Creep

Vanguard is like most Call of Duty games—split into three main vibes. You’ve got a bunch of stuff to dive into: an epic campaign, some lit multiplayer action, and the thrill of blasting Nazi zombies to bits. If you’re looking to get in on the action, you might want to buy Xbox games to experience all these features firsthand. The campaign tells the tale of Task Force 1 trying to uncover a Nazi secret called Project Phoenix towards the end of WWII. It’s got this cool back-and-forth thing going on, with missions and flashbacks that show how the Task Force 1 squad became legends. Each character gets two missions, and the game kicks off and wraps up with full Task Force 1 missions. Even though Task Force 1 has six peeps, only four—Arthur, Polina, Lucas, and Wade—are hyped up as the main characters and Operators in multiplayer. The other two kinda get sidelined, but the whole squad is dope. They’ve got this solid team vibe that makes them feel real. You’ll catch them vibing together, throwing shade, and diving into their backstories, making the campaign super engaging. Dominic Monaghan’s Jannick Richter is the ultimate bad guy, a total Nazi creep who’s up against our heroes. Even with a gun in his face, you never really doubt that Task Force 1’s got the upper hand. Monaghan nails the villain role, bringing a genuinely unsettling performance as he toes the line of evil, disses Arthur with racist vibes, and starts questioning if his loyalty is worth it.

Engaging WWII Story with Familiar Gameplay in Call of Duty Vanguard

Vanguard’s campaign is pretty straightforward and cinematic, with no collectibles, side quests, or choices to make, which makes it a good option if you’re looking to buy PS5 games that offer a more streamlined experience. Some levels open up a bit, but you’ll quickly hit the limits and be rerouted to the main path. Cranking up the difficulty just makes enemies tougher and you easier to take down, stretching out the nine missions a bit but not changing much. You’ll get some epic moments, like jumping between two trains speeding through Nazi Germany or blowing up aircraft carriers in the Pacific. The war scenes and character stories are well-paced, even if the campaign is on the shorter side. What really pops in Vanguard’s campaign is the story and characters, offering a fresh, character-driven take on WWII. But gameplay-wise, it’s nothing new—we’ve seen this kind of action before. It’s not a bad thing, but the campaign feels like it’s just ticking off the “Yep, it has a campaign” box.

New Mounting Mechanics with Control Tweaks in Call of Duty Vanguard

Vanguard is a whole vibe compared to Treyarch’s Call of Duty style that’s all about pushing forward, but it doesn’t quite hit the same notes as Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare, even though it runs on the same tech. Coming off Black Ops Cold War, I got totally wrecked trying to play Vanguard like it was a speedy action fest. Vanguard’s fast-paced too, but its map design and destructible stuff—like walls, doors, and cover—call for a bit more strategy. Sometimes you get taken out from the sides or behind, especially on certain maps, while others stick to the classic three-lane setup with their own destructible features. Once I figured out how to play the maps right, I adjusted my game. I started sticking close to walls and objects, checking my corners, and playing way more patiently than usual. Honestly, it was pretty fun to discover a new playstyle and get the hang of each map’s vibe. I’m definitely here for Tactical combat pacing to avoid getting blasted right at spawn, but having the option to crank up player counts is cool too. Vanguard also brings back weapon mounting from Modern Warfare, which I missed in Black Ops Cold War. It even adds a new feature letting you slide along horizontal surfaces while mounted. Sledgehammer made it so weapon mounting kicks in when you ADS near a surface, but that can mess with your aim due to some annoying magnetization. Luckily, you can tweak the controls to ADS+Melee (R3) to mount, which works more like Modern Warfare and Warzone. Still, I’m lowkey puzzled why Vanguard’s default setting is different.

Potential for Year-Round Content in Call of Duty Vanguard

Vanguard’s real challenge will be how it handles post-launch content, since every Call of Duty now gets ongoing—and free—support for a year after dropping. Following the trend set by 2019’s Modern Warfare, Vanguard’s first Season kicks off on December 2. Expect three new multiplayer maps (plus Shipment coming sooner), a new Zombies main quest and Easter egg, extra unannounced Zombies stuff, and Warzone integration with a fresh Pacific map called Caldera. The one area that’s probably gonna stay pretty static is Vanguard’s campaign. With games like Destiny 2 dropping new Seasonal story stuff and missions all year long, it’d be cool to see Call of Duty try something similar. Overall, Vanguard feels like it could be Sledgehammer’s big break. With iconic characters, unique multiplayer maps, and solid integration into the Call of Duty universe, it sets the stage for what’s next, both for the year ahead and whatever Sledgehammer drops in the future.

[howls-memeing-castle]

ALSO I got to have really lovely chats with baristas I’ve not interacted a bunch with at Other Local Café (not to be confused with Local Café, though there is one funky lil dude who slings spro at both Cafés)

And one is a cool funky little drummer in a local band - and I remember seeing him start his first shift (barista I knew prev had been bemoaning having to train some random kid the day before) and he was just an anxious mess the first handful of times I saw him about

But now he’s kinda vibing and letting some personality show and he’s so chill, big fan

And then other lad who is a Massive Fcking Nerdy Queer and I just got to yap with him about fcking elden ring today and he invited me to bring a MTG deck to dick about with cards during the night shift at the cafe

And we talked about Books and the Importance of Maps and Little Drawings which is a hill I will die on

Its been real nice! Even though I do miss Local Café now that I can’t really get morning coffee OR post work coffee there on weekdays since moving :( Other Local Cafe is very nice and good vibes

[socially-normal]

Solo Leveling : Arise

The new Solo Leveling Arise game dropped like an hour ago or sumn and I wanted to dump my thoughts (From Launching the Game to the end of the Tutorial)

Non-Canon Compliant = Red

Canon Compliant = Blue

Pet Peeve = Green

AJUUUUU Nice ! ✧･ﾟ:*

The animation art is better than the anime and it's gen kinda funny. Like obv the animation for the anime is a higher quality in terms of movement but the game really understands the style and energy of Solo Leveling. (Though the anime's animation gets better and better as the anime draws on, the game is good in the beginning which was a big miss in the anime. Seeing the statue's actually look like how they felt reading the manwha was cathartic. Sad to say they didn't make the main statue as hot as it is the second time you see it in the manwha but hey what can you do)

The art style is just SOOOOOOOOOOO good

The visuals for the game are just mwah mwah mwah. The surrounding maps when fighting story enemies aren't canon complaint which like for such a highly anticipated game is a bit disappointing, but it makes up for it in the rest of the interfaces. I always love seeing how the <System> is interpreted in this genre. It's much more true to the manwha itself than the anime did with it which is funny since the anime used a very 3D model for it to show that the [System] was out of place in the world where a 3D game used 2D.

I'm a sucker for the comic panels coming in like an animated slideshow, it's so cool. Imo it's the peak way to respect the og work when you don't have the time or budget to animate them.

The game's extras have really cute voices, I'm a woman liker but I think the guilt attendants the game added in to facilitate stuff are so fun

LIVE LAUGH LOVEEEE new characterssss

The EXP icon just being Sung Jinwoo's face is so funny and for what

The visuals again are so good looking. The quick menu interface is SO well set up that you can understand things with a glance, I also like how it's themed in the way Jinwoo's [System] would be. Uber sexyness

I like what they did with Rasaka's Fang, it's cool in the manwha and obv cuts had to be made for a weapon's redraw ability so it's nice to see how the game made it look like the same blade but how it would look in a more real setting.

Negative Comments . |☂˚｡

I take it back before, the 2D art quality gives such a bad vibe, like its not a bad quality per say it's just really odd looking when they fr could've used their 3D models. Especially when a TON of it is super different in art style and it makes it so suspicious looking. If it isn't done with malicious reasons then it's a super bad social move cause the marketing team should've warned them on what or what doesn't make people think art is AI online.

One thing the anime does better than the game visually on is the transition between Sung Jinwoo as [The Weakest E-Class] to his main look in the series

The game massively caters to fans of the Solo Leveling manwha which don't get me wrong I love when a adaptation knows who the original supporters are, but the anime understood that the [System] and [Gates] genre is pretty new to anime fans. Solo Leveling, rightfully, was MANY of people's first manwhas with the settings and even more people's first exposure to it in anime which is why it took the time to explain what mana crystals were, why people raided gates, the ranking system, slipped in how they determine your rank, etc. The game just assumes you know all of that so it's not a good way to attract fans if the game is their first exposure.

Related, it adds a new feature with activity funding which while getting funds based on your rank is a feature in some [System] and [Gates] settings, it's not in Solo Leveling which can confuse some fans again.

The sprint is super crunchy, it takes a lot of work to know how to use it even out of combat

On that note the animations are so long that if there's anything timed later then it's gonna be a game breaker

The sprint animation is so long and stiff that actually it's unusable in combat, in the main story the enemies are MADE to be too weak to kill you but after it's gen a massive nerf. ESPPPPPPP in the job upgrade thing, it's SO hard to do that

Difficulty Scaling - On that note too actually the job change boss was WAYYY too hard to be in the middle of the tutorial stages where you couldn't die even if you didn't use any skills T>T

More of a pet peeve but I hate locked tutorials, like I get wanting to keep me on track but like let me go to the SETTINGS at least man...

Sung Jinwoo's ENG VA is the only really good one in game. All the main characters have super good voices. But then the side characters just have such bad fits for their VA in English, wouldn't know about Korean yet though.

Just nottttt a fan of like- character profile in their dialogue thing lately- Especially if it's drawn when the character themselves an animated model. In an age of SO much AI art even in games it just feels like such a bad move to be leaving an opening for those kinda comments. It would've wasted less time of an artist, giving the benefit of the doubt there was one, to just use stills of that 3D model you already made.

Average comments ┊•°.

The "Intense Music" is so repetitive it'll quickly give you a headache to the point that if you don't play a lot of games with sound on like I do then it'll stay off to never return. The music overall is kinda repetitive but none of it is AS bad as the Intense Music they have during a story event, the others you can tune out if you try but for some reason not the intense one? Not every game can have like Inscryption level background music but it would've been nice to get something less grating especially when ur trapped in with it for some spots.

The [Gates] reminds me a ton of Path to Nowhere's style for it with like the pillars. Just personally not a fan of that visual in any game.

The health bars are kinda long? I just don't get the point of a x10 health bar for a boss when you're knocking off half of them with one skill. But hey maybe it feels nice for other gamers

[alolanroy]

2024 Watch Thread-Part 2

part 1: https://www.tumblr.com/alolanroy/739287467975458816/watch-thread-2024-pt-1

Resident Alien S1: Decent humor and it did a pretty good job of the small town with many interlocking sub-plots vibe. I wouldn't say that it is consistently laugh-out-loud, but you really never know when it'll floor you. I do kind of wish they toned down the attempts at serious drama, because this is a fish-out-of-water alien show, how serious can I take it? 5/10

Helldivers 2 at Launch: It scratches my multiplayer itch. Maybe the trick to making a successful live-service game was to...make it fun? The balancing is just teetering enough to be a blast. I didn't even mind the horrible queueing problems, nonfunctional matchmaking and level breaking bugs once I had half an hour of actual playtime. 8/10

Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger: I'll be honest, in the beginning I was worried we might drop it, but it won me over hard. And I mean maybe my second favorite sentai so far (Donbrothers will remain undefeated for all time). While simplistic, the writing manages to unfurl a web of history, personality and cultural identity. While the choice to film most of it on green screed made it look awful most of the time, the strong writing and acting pulled it through, especially in the later chapters where the reveals kept getting bigger and the characterization swings. Personal favorites are Kaguragi's backstory, which feels out of a proper prestige drama and the two-parter on earth. It saves up its budget and goes ham. 9/10

Forbidden Planet: While I find a lot of this movie repulsive for its 50's-ass gender politics, I choose to say 'wow, cool robot'. I see why Robbie is iconic and was disappointed by how little of him I got. Its tedious pacing makes me appreciate how Star Trek TOS distilled this formula into the blueprint for great TV. (Sidenote: I gotta figure out where this ancient alien megastructure vibe comes from. I feel like a lot of dwemmer related skyrim mods are repeating this without knowing it.) -4/10

Ice Station Zebra: Nice of them to start the plot in the second half after the intermission. For such a basic thriller, they seem to think this was a cinematic event with all of its intermission cards and posturing. Did they think the submarine set was worth half the runtime? I find its red-scare politics kind of pathetic and I've seen more complex thrillers air on Cartoon Network on weekdays. 3/10

Ultraman Geed the Movie: Connect! The Wishes!!: A team of scientists distilled tokusatsu summer movies into a thick paste and molded it into the shape of a tourism ad for Okinawa. The results made me cancel my plans to watch the ultraman movies and doubt if I actually like Geed. 1/10

Skyrim: Midwood Isle: Really impressive stuff here. A good variety of locations and a satisfying main quest. The reveal of a mirror map filled with locations and daedric realms really got me excited. The only downside is that some of the back and forth with the mainland got old and the LOTD patch didn't work. I'm a little surprised this doesn't get talked up more. 8/10

Dune Part II: Incredible watch. Gorgeous visuals and really strong performances all around. Great cinematography and violent sound design really made me FEEL the power (the lackluster theater speakers could barely handle it). I do feel a lot was lost in the cracks though and didn't hit as hard as the first, but boy am I glad I saw it. 8/10

The Mummy Demastered: This is a very good video game. An efficient love letter to metroidvanias (and boy I can see the metroid) with some neat ideas and that Wayforward polish. If you like these sorts of games, what are you doing here? Go play it! The paired-back scale means none of the ideas get old, and none of the backtracking is egregious. But my real favorite spin was the varied and interconnected environments that flowed so well together. 8/10

On a sidenote: this really feels like a mirror into another universe where the Dark Universe actually took off. In a way, it made me more excited for it than the actual movie. It made me wistfully muse about what might have been (committee driven slop movies)

Born to Fight (2004): This movie occupies the same part of my brain as RRR. I'll overlook almost any nationalism if resolves in an hour-long string of white-knuckle Olympic sport action. Genuinely some of the most insane stunts I've seen committed to film. My watch group was hooting and hollering! 8/10

Death Code Ninja: Sometimes Godfrey Ho's chop-shop ninja movies are an ironic good time. This is not one of those times. It couldn't hold any of our interests. -3/10

Blue Submarine No. 6: This owns. It was so continually visually interesting and the art so distinct I didn't even mind the early CG. Sure a few threads might have been underdeveloped, but I admire how much of a non-traditional ending it had. Conclusiveness doesn't have to come from nukes and resolution doesn't have to be on screen. Honestly, good on them for redirecting most of the strange sexual energy to the fish girl, though I don't know how to feel about her role in the end. 8/10

Ninja Knight: Thunder Fox: man this sucked. At least two white guys in ninja outfits killed each other with shotguns at the end. -2/10

Money Plane: Just because it could be a whole lot worse doesn't mean it couldn't have been a whole lot better. Try having your wrestlers have action sequences that let them fight good. -5/10

Chop Socky Chooks: Sometimes we put bad TV on the wheel to see what would happen. Apparently, these things are supposed to be chickens, but without any form of exposition or attempt to set the stage in the first episode, I can't really say. I don't know which is worse, the radiation of vague racism or how aggressively bad this is on 'TV you watched when you are home sick from school' standards. -2/10

Gridman Universe: It's hard to talk about gridman without going on a series of digressions about the purpose of fiction, growth and the Ultraman Fandom. Most of it I would describe as some cute fan service without much meat, and a plot that just kinda happens. But my cynicism melted away in the final act. Man, I love the passion in these designs. 7/10

Werewolf Santa: I felt nothing. 2/10

Undertale Yellow: Perhaps my standards for fangames have gotten a bit high, but I was a little disappointed. There are some good gags, don't get me wrong, but the overall energy kinda drags. I don't think it helps that the boss battles are more transparently endurance tests for the defense minigames. I never felt like I was talking them down, just that I was letting them monologue at me until they let me go. Maybe it pulls some zingers in the last half but I can't bring myself to care. 3/10

American Ultra: This might be Black Panther for stoners, but to me, it is just Max Landis's wish fulfillment. the half hour we stomached felt longer than some seasons of netflix. 3/10

Thankskilling 3: Possibly one of the biggest delights of the year. Extrapolating from Thankskilling 1, I was worried this would be the bad kind of self-aware. Instead, the watch party was floored by the tireless barrage of joyful camp. They cracked the code, just mixed up the bits enough so that another gets old and washed it over with cinematography good enough that it too becomes a joke. I'll give this the rare +/-8 for being legitimately great and entertainingly bad (intentionally)

Viking Seige: First of all I feel lied to. This poster is nonsense. There were no dragons or longboats. Instead, it is a single-set zombie 'thriller' that would have been alright under normal circumstances. Still, the overall momentum isn't really there and the quality of performances is uneven. 4/10

Los Campeones de Justicieros (1971): Luchadors, little people, mad scientists, and non-stop jazz. Especially non-stop jazz when it is least appropriate. -7/10

Spy Kids Armageddon: This isn't nostalgia for the originals speaking, this was just a legitimately inferior product. The design philosophy of making a movie with everything a kid could want but camp for the adults is absent. Netflix original tier. -4/10

Zone of the Enders Dolores, i: The first act had me nearly drop the show. The worldbuilding was sloppy and the character design and environments were totally incongruous with the sci-fi setting this was supposed to be selling. However, when it remembered it was supposed to be a space opera, the show became much more watchable. By the end I was surprised how attached I had become. 7/10. It would've been higher if the beginning wasn't so tough.

Zone of the Enders 2167 Idolo: The story that it has is good, but it sure is in a rush to have it over. What I find interesting is that in many ways this is one of the more complicated mecha designs that Sunrise animated towards the end of the cell era. It makes me a bit sad now knowing how much of a downgrade the early Digipaint sequel is from a visual standpoint. 7/10

Godzilla X Kong The New Empire: THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN! I initially recoiled at the possible return of the podcasting gang, but all returning characters benefit from a more solid group dynamic that avoids the cringe the series hadn't quite shaken. The monster madness is as camp as it comes, but I the cinematography made me feel like I was having a panic attack with all the rotating. 7/10

MacGyver: I bounced right off this. Maybe it gets better in later seasons, but the pilot and the first batch after that were cheesy in a bad way. I don't like Anderson's accent and the vibes are too cartoon-drug-psa-episode. It could barely hold my attention 4/10

Battle Beyond the Stars: Forgot to add this one. I've seen enough 7 samurai 'in space' but the cast was varied enough be counteract the dull male lead with the fun factor. 6/10

Outer Wilds: Few games out there are real originals. And I'm glad to have played as much as I did. I've given the writing major props for making this silly setting feel real and consistent. A personal highlight was landing on the sun cannon station first try without knowing what it was because of my raw uncut skill. However, I don't really feel like definitively scoring on this one since I paused playing it for about a year right before getting to the finishing sequence. I honestly had no idea how to pick things up again. It felt like I ruined it for myself and resorted to watching a playthrough of the end. I'd probably say maybe a 7-8? A few of the environments cross the bridge between exciting to traverse to dull and maze-y wandering.

Lensman (1984): Gorgeous, and occasionally kind of charming, but not enough to overcome the general malaise of the non-starter plot. The vague Heroes-Journey shaped plot doesn't bother to explain what a lensman is or what the titular lens does until the final moments. There wasn't really enough there to not make sense. It almost says something about how resistance can take many shapes, even insignificant ones, but I almost feel like it does so on accident. 5/10