#dontnod just gets it

[diazmaximoff]

Saw this on Twitter and tbh, I can't detect any lies🤷🏾‍♂️

[maxthesillyy]

theres a surprising amount of people who say the Bay ending fits closer to the themes of “accepting the consequences of your actions” when the Bae ending literally has Max’s biggest consequence of all destroying almost everything she knew

[ettadunham]

why does horizon zero dawn, a game that came out 7 years ago and only got a PC port in 2020 has a remaster in 2024??? this is absurd.

[thealexchen]

I was so surprised to learn that the dance scene in the cabin didn't land with everyone, because it became my favorite scene in the whole game.

The lock being magically sealed beforehand signifies peace and safety: the girls are secure in their special cabin and have the privacy to dance together. Kat leads them and Nora joins, and I love the little parallel that Autumn encourages Swann to join, just like how she invited her to the movies to get away from Corey and Dylan in their first scene together.

What really captured me about the dancing is that it's not any one specific style or even overtly romantic. The girls dance shamelessly, exactly the way someone would sing in the shower or jam out alone in their room, except they're together and completely comfortable with each other, knowing there's no shame or judgement. Even though they've just ran for their lives, even though makeup is melting all over their faces, even though they know Kat is dying-- they keep dancing anyway. The game is telling you: forget that last scene, just live in the moment for a second. That's exactly what the girls are doing, and is what allows the scene to be the most impactful to the audience.

And Swann-- just, Swann. Here's a plus-sized girl who's felt lonely, unattractive, and unlovable her whole life, who's been told over and over that she's too weird and quiet yet somehow takes up too much space at the same time. She's never felt at home in her body. But when she finally joins the dance floor, the shot is framed as her best friends literally pulling her out of the darkness and into the light (I see you, lesbian lighting!). Her dancing is genuinely so enchanting, because here she is smiling with her eyes closed, arms up, spinning in graceful circles around her friends, and she's finally allowed to take up SPACE. She allows her arms to stretch out and allows her body to twirl and lean and sway. THIS is what Swann being comfortable in her skin looks like, and it's simply beautiful.

It's incredible how well the scene is choreographed to make the dances look so un-choreographed and natural. Each couple gets a unique dance and kiss-- even when the rest of the tape may feel rushed, Dontnod decided not to skimp on this beautiful scene. With no words exchanged, it's like the girls' kiss is part of the dance routine, and the kisses are long too. It's a kiss that literally sweeps them off their feet and visually transports them away from their problems and confined lives. Above all, it proves the power of community, and how all of the girls are able to fully blossom in each other's presence and support. I could honestly talk about this scene forever. And DN is pitch perfect, as always, with their song choice, with the girls' dance set to "Lazuli" by Beach House:

In the blue of this life Where it ends in the night When you couldn't see me You would come for me

There's nothing like lapis lazuli Let it go back to me

Like no other, you can't be replaced (There's nothing like lapis lazuli) Like no other, you can't be replaced (There's nothing like lapis lazuli)

[krillonthegrill]

Autumn Lockhart speaks to me in a very specific way - being the only black girl in the all-white (or white-passing, including Nora bc she's definitely got SOMETHING) friend-group, which is exactly how i grew up

like...no, i'm not gonna do your fucking blood pact and possibly get a disease. no, i don't want to go into this abandoned house in the middle of the woods when we're lost. no, i don't want to break into this bar. no, i'm not gonna throw something special to me into this random glowing abyss that just materialized out of nowhere.

i've definitely been in situations that have the same spirit as those (no blood pacts, but just general shenanigans that i was uncomfortable with and no one would listen to my concerns)

don't get me started on the way she worries about them all. or how nervous she is to do anything "too weird". or the way she always ends up doing the things she's uncomfortable with anyway. or how she gets left out.

like...damn, DontNod. you hit the "model minority" nail right on the fucking head

[dalekofchaos]

Corey was always a monster. He didn't need a redemption arc

So um. I don't get why some fans wanted a redemption arc for Corey. Did we not play the same game?? He was always a shitty person.

Corey has been nothing but an unapologetic bigot since the moment we met him and DONTNOD clearly took inspiration from Stephen King villains like Henry Bowers.

He was heavily implied to be abusing and manipulating Dylan and Kat is vocally against him, so, he's angry at Kat for getting in the way of him being controlling. It's also implied that Corey did something to Kat to warrant her wanting to curse him. The letters we get from Dylan to Corey paint a miserable and failing relationship. The letter/exchange from Kat and Dylan suggests Kat TRYING to get Dylan out of an abusive relationship and Dylan trying to defend him.

The only scenes we get of him are hurling slurs at both the girls. If you don't film Dylan or Corey, when Dylan is trying to calm him down he says "don't fucking rush me" "why are you being a bitch all of a sudden" Then if you don't film him during The Abyss chapter, he yells at Kat saying "I will drag you by the ponytail and teach you not to spy on your sister" this is after Kat calls out his plan on stealing the Ranch from the Mikaelsens.

Liking D&D. One smile for like half a second, nodding to the song and responding to a medical emergency the way any remotely responsible adult would have. I don't think that was ever supposed to imply he wasn't an asshole. Also, him being friends with Autumn's cheater ex wasn't a fucking sign that Corey was a prick? Like Autumn said, birds of a feather.

Also Corey's personal home situation while tragic did not justify him being an abusive bigot.

He treated the ranch like his property. Just like Dylan. He used Dylan to get the ranch and to enrich himself. So technically, he's a gold digger.

The ranch wasn't even his. He had just convinced himself that because he was in line to get it, he immediately had ownership, and took it as Kat trying to destroy everything that was 'rightfully his' and a personal attack against him.

Corey's rage that came after just showed the pebbles that were left in the earlier parts of the game: he is not a good dude

Abusers come off like everyone else. They have likes and dislikes. They have friends and people that like them. That doesn't mean they aren't abusive assholes. I've seen friends who are friends with abusers who defend their actions "well I've never seen that happen" Unless you're the target of his abuse or happen to witness it, you might never know.

A lot of abusive people shows signs they 'could' be better, but then they revert back to their old ways. It's unfortunately realistic and it's kinda nice that the game painted him in the toxic light he should be seen in, when so many games or shows will try to make them redeemable instead.

I for one, am grateful that the game didn't shy away for Corey being the abusive turd that he was. It wasn't the Abyss that made him this awful. It just ramped up his shitty character.

I am also grateful they didn't go the Billy Hargrove direction by making him "possessed" and wiping away his shitty actions a season ago because fans woobified him enough to get the stupid writers to ignore his racism and abuse of his step-sister.

Also. I've known friends who had a Corey in their lives and it really disturbs me that fans want violent, bigoted and abusive men to be seen anything but the violent and bigoted abusive men they are.

Sometimes people are just awful. They don't need anything more or have something good "deep down". Sometimes, there are no shades of grey and a turd is still a turd.

That's not 'bad writing', that's just real life.

Also. It's not Corey you should be rooting for redemption, it's Dylan for choosing Kat over her abuser. Dylan is the person you should be rooting for, not her abuser.

[acollectcall]

The Final Double Exposure Post

Okay, the game is out now and just wanted to share some final thoughts about Double Exposure and the big problems with it. All spoilers below the cut.

Ultimately, even outside of the brutal murder of Pricefield, gaming's most classic wlw couple, the game is just very poorly written. This post will acknowledge that breaking up Pricefield is terrible writing and they do not do it in a way that makes any remote sense whatsoever. While everyone can sit and say "It makes sense they broke up," it didn't. These characters are characters, ones designed to tell a story. Characters who exist as a bright spot for sapphic and queer people playing video games in 2015.

It's the same thinking as everyone used to say "Well if Nathan just had therapy, he'd be better." And to which it would be answered, "No shit, maybe he would have been better with therapy, but it's a story and he rejected going so no he didn't get better and won't get better because that's not the point of the story." Point being, you can self-justify the Pricefield break up with real world logic all you want, but the fact that even Dontnod is sad about the state of it should be telling. That in addition to the leaks about Square hating Chloe and the D9 narrative team hating her, and it was not done as a good faith way to tell a story. Ultimately, the game encourages you to choose the "Kill Chloe" ending of the original game so that Max can retain her memories of her in a pure way, while also removing her from story. If you choose what the D9 devs believe is the morally evil choice, you get horrible Chloe.

There is SOME good stuff in here, but it's not enough to justify the game's existence. Here are the short amount of pros we compiled for the game: the music is well done, the environments are very nice, and the side characters are fine for the most part.

That's it. Everything else is a con: the story, the handling of Max and Safi as characters, the entire mystery of the game basically being shafted in favor of... making the most important thing about Life is Strange the superpowers. It just seems like this game misunderstands what Life is Strange is or was at any point.

Max is so horribly out of character in this game. Why? Why does she do the things she does? Sometimes she feels like a natural adult version of the original game's Max, while other times she's overly horny to the Nth degree. Max has the ability to cheat on her two love interests, and both love interests reject her in the appropriate timelines of pursuance. Within the text of the game, she uses her powers to circumvent the fact that they've rejected her.

Remember the original game's ending? Nightmare!Max accuses Max of selfishly using her powers to manipulate others to her own selfish end. Ultimately, we're left with the fact that Max used her powers to help get others to like her because she didn't have many friends and was a target of bullying. It's morally dubious, but she wasn't doing any of it for like selfish personal gain. It was an extension of her anxiety.

This game goes around this and makes Max purposefully use her powers for selfish gain. The entire first game revolved around the concept of whether or not she was using it for selfish gain. She wasn't. Now the game forces Max to go through the same exact arc, but this time she is actively being awful instead. Not only cheating, but using it to get around being actively romantically rejected.

Then there's how the game handles its story. Like what the hell is going on here? How does any of it make sense. Spoilers again, but the mastermind is Safi, and Safi is a shapeshifter. She wants to take over with world with Max and collect her own superhumans to form a what? A Legion of Doom? Why? Why is Safi a villain? Her villain arc literally comes out of nowhere and the game does little to sell how she goes from wanting a book deal in the beginning to "I have godlike powers, let's take over the world together." Like honey, WHAT? WHY? And the fact the final choice is to join or refuse her??? LIKE WHAT? WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? WHY WOULD MAX, WHO EITHER HAD TO MAKE THE CHOICE TO SACRIFICE A TOWN OR HER LOVED ONE AND IS ETERNALLY TORMENTED OVER BOTH... SUDDENLY ONBOARD WITH BECOMING JUST A GENERIC EVIL GIRL?

And that's it??? Nothing else in the game matters. The romances go nowhere, thus making breaking up with Chloe pointless since it's not like the game allows Max to pursue a relationship seriously any further. Or just the mere fact she's shitty for doing so. None of the plot points of this game matter, and the mystery the game is built on doesn't matter.

It's like... Here's a murder mystery! Without the murder or the mystery! And then... the game just ends. It just ceases to exist and stops without any sort of... ending that feels satisfying. We get an AVENGERS LEVEL END SCREEN OF "MAX CAULFIELD WILL RETURN."

We think about the endings to the other game's endings. They all have some sort of conclusion that feels like its own self contained experience. You get this long and depressing ending of Chloe dying and her funeral... You get this wistful drive out of Arcadia Bay as Obstacles plays. You get Sean surrendering himself to the police so Daniel can live to grow old and not suffer for the sins of those older than him, and how Sean comes out after. You get to see how Chloe and Rachel grow as time passes to the first game. You get to see how Alex chooses to live her life on her own terms after so long of feeling like she was trapped. You get all of these different endings for the game and here you get... what amounts to the exact same ending depending on your choice which is to be horribly evil supervillain when the time comes or not, and then sequel bait with Diamond and Safi. Why? Why does she have a bleed from her nose? Since when did that become a common occurrence for superpowers? Or storms when powers are overused along with nightmares?

In the original game, the nosebleeds are a result of Max twists reality around her as the epicenter. It's the physical damage she gets for what her powers are physically doing to existence. The storm? The point is, we don't know why the storm comes.

When did Life is Strange become about superpowers and taking over the world? When did it become all of these things? Like True Colors isn't a perfect game by any means, but for fuck's sake it at least knew the scale of what a Life is Strange game should be. Small town mysteries with a colorful cast we love and hate. To this day, I still think that the Jed stuff is some of the most morally fascinating questions to be raised in the franchise. To have that final choice be to either forgive him or not? It's an incredible final choice that is so intertwined with the game's themes. To leave or to stay afterwards? They're both extremely meaningful, dual choices.

This game does nothing. That's ultimately it. What did we gain from Double Exposure? Nothing. It doesn't continue Max's character in any meaningful way. It does little to build upon the actual lore of the original game. It doesn't actually use any original characters except Chloe and that's solely to drive it in how much they despise her from a writing perspective.

Regardless of how well each game did at telling their stories... They all had something meaningful to say in some way. Even if Before the Storm is not a game that I'd necessarily say is amazing, there is some thought and thematic purpose put to that game. It's still 1000 times the game this will ever be.

When I was first exposed to the game's ending... the emotion I felt was pure and raw bafflement. Not anger. Not sadness. Bafflement and bewilderment. I had no idea what the fuck I just played or what I gained from it? What does Max as a character gain from this story? What do any of the characters in this game gain from the story? Nothing. The game starts and then it ends. And we all gained absolutely nothing from the experience. (And in BtS the ending is fine, because it's a prequel that has to have a clearly defined ending to lead into the first game. You can't break Chloe and Rachel's relationship, it always has to be what it is.)

For a long time I really hated the Life is Strange comics. It felt like a kick in the head to the original game's story. But then after it ended and this came out, we can view it as a more honest and genuine follow up to the games as opposed to... whatever we got here.

The comics focus heavily on Max's perceived guilt over what happened to Arcadia Bay. She comes to believe that she, herself, is the problem in reality. That she makes everyone around her unhappy, including Chloe. While Chloe reassures her this is not true... she ends up displaced and removed from reality... and punishes herself by sending her to a world where Chloe is happy with Rachel.

The rest of the story is Max and Chloe apart for years, as Max wrestles with her guilt... while Chloe waits for her. Chloe waits and knows Max is out there still. Max eventually realizes how wrong she was after self-reflection and being around the alt!Chloe and Rachel helps her realize she was wrong.

Chloe builds them a home.

Chloe comes to move past her own grief, just as Max did.

Chloe helps rebuild Arcadia with her own hands. She decides she has a home. This town, with Max. And then they're together... And that's what matters because... like Michel said: "They have each other."

And that is what Life is Strange was about. These two young women, who were best friends... they grew apart through tragedy and life circumstances... And then they found each other again, fell in love, and even in tragedy had one another to rely on.

I am who I am because of Life is Strange.

I met the love of my life because of Life is Strange.

And no matter how bad Double Exposure is... It can't take away Life is Strange, Max, or Chloe from me.

No.

It can't take them away from us. From all of us who cared enough to stick around this funny little 20$ adventure game from a decade ago.

[simsi45]

The Sims 4 Amber House Pack - PUBLIC RELEASE!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PATREON PAGE!

Oh...my...GOD!!! I can't believe this is actually happening....

After 3 years of hard work, I am here to welcome everyone to:

The Sims 4 Amber House Pack!

It's time to create your own mission style dream house, with this collection of 345 brand new and hella cool build/buy mode items, inspired by Dontnod's "Life is Strange: Before the Storm" game.

EARLY ACCESS: You can get the pack right now, on my PATREON on the 3-5$ tiers, or wait for the 12th of May for the public release!

Please read EVERYTHING included in the post as it contains useful information about the pack!

DISCLAIMER: Simsi45 or The Sims 4 Amber House Pack is NOT affiliated or associated with Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Deck Nine or Dontnod in ANY way. This is a purely fanmade pack made by me, a fan of both games that wanted to get the best of both worlds.

FEATURES:

 345 new items (including sofas, tables, decor, windows, doors and much much more!)

 Search for "amberhouse", "lis", "simsi45" to find most of the items in the build/buy catalog.

 Custom original names and descriptions. (the best I could come up with :P)

 Tons of custom recolors (based on original textures) to mix and match items more easily.

 Heavy modification on original meshes and textures, including english text turned into simlish.

 Everything has been playtested thoroughly.

 Included are a couple of easter egg items from The Sims 2 that I thought fit the theme well.

New lot I made showcased in the trailer and pics (found in the gallery under my tag @simsi45_mods) a recreation of Rachel Amber's house.

LOT INSTALLATION:

Included in the pack is the lot recreation of the Amber House that's featured in the pictures and videos.

You can get the lot by:

Using the gallery. Make a search under my EA id: @simsi45_mods and download the lot as usual. I've included customized pictures to identify my own lot more easily. Make sure you have the "enable custom content" tag ENABLED for the lot to show up in the results.

If you have difficulties using the gallery you can download the lot tray files from the bottom of the post, and move them inside your own tray folder. This can be found in your documents/electronic arts/the sims 4/ tray folder. This way you can install the lot without the need of the gallery.

NOTES:

~ The pack is in an EARLY-ACCESS STATE! I have dedicated a lot of time to test everything but I'm a team of just a single person. If you find any issues please let me know so I can take a look.

~ Because of the amount of items the size of the pack is quite big. I tried my best to make everything as compact as possible with the final size being 1.5 GB of required free space. 

~ The majority of the meshes and textures of these items are ripped straight from the LIS: Before the Storm game, and then each individual item (both mesh and textures) has been heavily modified and edited to fit and function properly within the Sims 4 game's engine. That's why some items will look identical to the original game, some look somewhat different, and some are brand new meshes I made using the original items.

~ Some of the original ripped meshes' poly counts were WAY too high so I had to lower the polygons so The Sims 4 wouldn't explode when filling a lot with them. I lowered the polygons and edited most of the items as much as possible without compromising their original look too much. In other words I tried to find the best balance between looks and performance and after lots of testing on my moderate PC system, I can confirm the game runs super smoothly on my end. 

BACKSTORY ABOUT THE PACK (no spoilers):

This pack started with an idea I got back in 2017 when I first played Life Is Strange Before The Storm. When visiting the Amber house, I immediately fell in love with it as I am huge fan of the craftsman architectural style, it's literally all I'd want my dream house to be. The art team has done an incredible job on it, and as I personally find the art style of the Life is Strange series and The Sims 4 to fit very well with each other, I wanted to make these assets available for The Sims 4. Of course back then this all seemed impossible, however a few years later in 2020 during quarantine I revisited the idea as it had been stuck on my wishlist ever since.

To make a long story short, this project has been in the works for about 3 years now, and after a lot of hard work, head scratching and quite a few sleepless nights I managed to overcome all the obstacles I came across (which were a lot mind you) and I'm honestly hoping you'll be as pleased with the results as I am. Seriously this exceeded my expectations as it started as a small little pack for my personal use, to what I'd consider an expansion pack's (or even more) worth of build/buy content.

INSTALLATION:

Due to the size of the pack I had to split it up into multiple parts. You will need a .RAR extractor unpack it. More specifically:

1 -> Download ALL 6 parts of the pack and put them ALL in the same folder. 2 -> Right click the 1st part .RAR file named "Simsi45 - The Sims 4 Amber House Pack.part1" and click "Extract Here"   3 -> Once that's finished a package file will appear, this is the entire pack and you can now move that into The Sims 4/Mods. Simple as that!

CREDITS & THANKS:

~Dontnod, Square Enix, Deck Nine for the original meshes & textures ripped from Life is Strange: Before the Storm that were used to create most of the items.

~EA for some meshes & textures used to convert some items from The Sims 2.

Special thank you to all the patreon members that stuck with me throughout me developing the pack. Although not many I really appreciate every single one of you for the support you've given me and for sticking around!

[ignacia-redhead-vampire]

I bet you do.

All the inconsistencies with the writing

The character assassination

Being too cowardly to say Max is a lesbian despite "writing her as one" (tbf this could be a Squeenix issue)

This tweet just reads as patronizing a side of the fanbase that is reasonably upset with their favorite characters getting assassinated

I'm aware the full game isn't out yet, so who knows maybe the game is good, but no matter how good it is

It can't avoid the stain it has on it

Especially with some.of the potential leaks I've seen

Anyway fuck decknine

Buy Dontnods new game 🙏

[door-insurance]

So I played Life is Strange 2 for the first time ever

I didn’t wanna play it for a long time not cause it didn’t have Chloe or max (tbh I got sick of their asses around BtS they’re not even my faves)

By that point I was in college and had lost interest in the whole franchise but also I was very apprehensive of white creatives writing racism with no input from the group they’re portraying, they don’t usually do a good job

Sometimes they make it cartoony, sometimes they trivialize it, sometimes they romanticize it

So years later adulthood kicked my ass and I came back crawling to this franchise for some comfort, I finished True colors annnnd I finally started 2 after hesitating annnnd

^sketched this while playing

SPOILERS

I actually liked it

I liked Sean, the drawing segment he does- he was such a likable main guy, deserved better honestly.

I also liked Daniel, he was very adorable and I never got it when people called him annoying like no shit the 9 year old is gonna act like a 9 year old- just don’t be a jerk to him, I know he can be frustrating but that’s what taking care of a kid is like

And lis had always been about realistic complex characters, y’all can’t handle a traumatized nine year?

I have two younger siblings and two nieces plus I’ve been a bratty younger sibling to two older sisters

Maybe I’m just used to it?? But honestly Daniel wasn’t that bad

The racism portrayal in the first few episodes was not all that cartoony and it actually felt real at times, like I can check for American news rn and find stories similar to what you see in episodes 1-3 (minus the telekinesis)

Although the gas station racist hick spouting trump slogans was a bit on the nose, it’s more of dialogue thing

Some people thought the gas station detainment was egregious but it can happen unfortunately, especially to vulnerable people in rural areas and by someone of a higher systematic advantage

One other thing I did not like was the love interests, I thought Finn and Cassidy were alright characters on their own but why do we need romance in this game where the protagonists are always on the run?

I don’t like to compare lis 1 to 2 but when it comes to the romance the former did a better job as it spent more time establishing it, plus max stayed in the same place for the majority of the game- but you know what? Sean doesn’t have to be in a relationship right? It can be a one off thing, that’s fine

Which brings me to my next point

How old are Cassidy and Finn?

Cause Sean is still 16 and no, being on the road didn’t mentally age him- he’s not “mature” for his age

He is still a kid

So for some reason Dontnod never really specified their ages but some articles described them as teens (they look 30 to me) and they can be around 18 right? Their lives are hard stress ages you- it happens, we can with live that, it’s just a two years difference

But teens or not

why did they animate a whole knocking the boots scene???

Of all the games in the series, the only one that gets a sex scene is the one with the much younger protagonist and his ambiguously aged older looking love interest and I think it’s only with Cassidy you get to do it in the tent

Alex Chen was robbed of a on screen booty call from a beanie wearing lesbian with a sexy radio voice or a buff ass Adonis of a man who was Smokey the bear’s regional manager or something

Anyways I’m gonna move on I’m uncomfortable lmao

*im not hating on people who ship Sean with either Finn or Cassidy, I’m not even tagging your ship names- im just stating my personal preferences on my blog

One last thing I did not like about LiS 2 and it was the one thing that kept me from playing it for years

That one scene from episode 4

So at this point Sean Diaz went through the following:

-lost his father, had to abandoned his loved ones, education and home

-was accused of killing a cop

-had to take care of his little brother on his own while on the run, the same brother with telekinesis and none of them know how to control it

-was harassed, beaten then detained by a racist white man

-had to take refuge in an abandoned cabin with little resources

-the dog that they adopted at the gas station eventually gets mauled

-the one time they found solace at their grandparents house they had to leave abruptly cause the police was hot on their trail

-on their way out they can potentially witness the neighbors kid that they befriended get hit by the police car that’s chasing them

-they find shelter at a nomad campground but oh no they get involved with drug trafficking cause they barely have any other options to make money (unfortunately this happens a lot IRL this isnt egregious)

-Sean now has to deal with the trafficking, making sure that Daniel doesn’t get into any trouble with his powers while fake ass giancarlo esposito is breathing down his neck

-and guess what happens next… Daniel gets robbed into pulling a heist on temu gus fring and it goes badly, Sean can potentially lose a love interest/friend in Finn

-Sean gets hurt, Daniel goes so mad that he blows the whole place up; a shard glass flies into Sean’s eye and he ends up losing it

- Sean wakes up from a coma and learns that his brother is missing and he’s about to be taken to jail

- the one thing that consistently brought him joy during this trip was his art and because of the missing eye he can’t even do it the same anymore cause it hurts now

- Sean has to escape the hospital with a hot wired car, little money and has to drive across two states just to get to his brother

-on the way he dreams of his father, he wants him back he wants his old life back but that’s not gonna happen so he has to move forward

Im not listing all this as examples of bad story telling, a lot of these are real life experiences of homeless people. im just painting a picture of the shit that Sean had went through so far

Cause right after the dream sequence, Dontnod didn’t think all that was enough no you had to see Sean get hate crimed by two lifetime movie, sitcom special of the week racists- be made to either sing or suffer a brutal beating

It added nothing to the plot, it didn’t need a choice system either- it’s a hate crime, you’re not asking Joyce for fucking pancakes or eggs n bacon at the whales diner or hosing down Lisa the fckin plant.

This to me went straight to trauma p*rn category, it’s wheelchair Chloe all over again

I hated it then in LiS 1 and I hated now in LiS 2, this is why I don’t dick ride Dontnod that often

They always had this tendency right before the end they single out a particular character and mentally whip them, they become the writing teams punching bag- they think we didn’t get it the first time that this character is going through it, they just hammer it in with the subtlety of a heart attack and I hate it

“Yeah but it’s there to show Sean’s resolve to find Daniel-“

HE ESCAPED FROM THE HOSPITAL AND THE FEDS, HE HOT WIRED A CAR TO DRIVE ACROSS TWO STATES

He’s starving, dehydrated, suffering from chronic pain

That’s enough

Let the character breathe

You ask why not a lot of people wanna play this game and I’m gonna tell you, as much I enjoyed it myself it’s not an easy game to play- it gets brutal, especially right around the end

I’m not against bleakness or extreme conflict, I’m into that but sometimes that doesn’t translate well to any gaming format- especially a choices matter game that’s meant to be replayed

Some people have asinine reasons not to play LiS 2 like it dealing with racism and those people suck, lis had always dealt with progressive themes like calling out objectification, cyberbullying and sl*tshaming

Racism shouldn’t be the exemption

but misuse of racial trauma and not knowing when it’s appropriate to invoke it is a huge turn off and hella triggering to a lot of non white players and I remember when LiS 2 dropped I’ve seen (mostly white) lis fans at the time proclaiming that not wanting to play it meant that you were racist

Like I said there were probably racists who didn’t wanna touch the games cause of the main characters skin but there were people like me who were apprehensive of the “Let’s go to the mosh pit Shaka brah” people handling racism

This is the same studio that had Ms Grant (one of the few black characters from LiS 1) claim that the white settlers peacefully shared the stolen land with the native Americans

I find that shit harder to believe than the time traveling powers

And they were doing alright in the first episodes they covered stuff like unconscious biases slipping through, dog whistles, polite racism from the grandparents segment, police brutality, racial profiling and being targeted/othered- some of these things I went through when I visited western countries

Then they did the bullshit I feared theyd do…

I really don’t blame myself for being hyper vigilant at the time and honestly I was going through a lot then, even if I wanted to I wouldn’t have touched LiS 2 cause it’s a very heavy tasking game to play

I know I kinda made it seem like I didn’t like this game but I did, its the best one in terms of the choice system

It had more weight to it, seeing Daniel internalizing what you say to him or how you act around him was so cool

Also what the second game has over the first one aside from the choices system is the ending selection- I never liked picking the endings for max, I wanted her to pick the ending or her coding/script to do that

Its definitely more fleshed out technically even though LiS 1 has a special place in my heart it’s always gonna be no. 1- but im also glad that I got to experience the 2nd game for the first time, I liked it

Personal lis ranking

1: Lis 1

2: Lis 2

3: True colors

Discount bin: BtS

My personal fave moments from LiS 2:

- beating up the racist bully and giving him a concussion

-mushroom (rip icon)

- victorias letter

-winning that that bear from that claw machine

-gorillaz song that was not feel good inc

-Brody pointing at a fucked up looking arcadia bay yelling “that’s the past!”- that was hilarious

-Sean paying tribute to Arcadia bay in his sketchbook (this fucking kid man, he’s so sweet he deserves the world- what did he do to make DONTNOD mad at him)

- the wolf animation and the story that plays before every chapter

-this was the worst hate crime in the whole game

[wayhaughtn7]

I’ve finished Lost Records for the second time now and I somehow cried harder this time than I did the first time. I also love the game even more than I already did and I think I can safely say it’s my favorite Dontnod game now. It speaks to so much of my nostalgia for the 90’s while also giving me a heartbreaking story and wonderful characters to experience it through.

This time around I got Nora’s comment about her favorite movie being Fried Green Tomatoes and I laughed so hard because it explains so much about her being interested in both Kat and Swann. Kat definitely gives me some Idgie Threadgoode vibes and Swann has a bit of a Ruth vibe.

I actually managed to get what folks call the best ending where everyone stayed to open the box and while I loved it (and it broke my heart even more) I still like my original ending of Swann opening the box alone because it kinda seems fitting for a Swann that romanced Kat to be alone in the end. She’s been alone since they made their promise and losing Kat kinda put her in limbo for 27 years.

I really hope a sequel brings back at least Swann and Kat, but I think based on that epilogue scene all the girls should make a return. But I also want to know more about the Abyss. We know that folks who have disappeared into it have returned before, and that items can escape somehow but we have no real clue how it works. It’s pretty clear from the random shadow figures that keep popping up throughout the game that Kat, Swann, and Corey have always been connected to the Abyss in some way and Kat is clearly reaching out for help. Can you time travel through the Abyss in some way? Is it completely outside of time and space? If Swann manages to free Kat would it be teenage Kat and adult Swann that come out, teenage Swann and teenage Kat, or adult Kat and adult Swann? If Kat can be freed what does that mean for her leukemia? If they both escape would it be in an alternate timeline? Why did it take 27 years for Kat to reach out (clealry Kat sent the package not Dylan)? If the Abyss wanted them to forget how was Kat able to reach out? I just have so many unanswered questions that I want to know the answer to.

This game also gave me one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful and intimate moments I’ve ever experienced in a game with the scene of Swann cutting Kat’s hair. There’s so much emotion in that scene that it’s almost palpable, and if Kat is Swann’s first love/soulmate it’s even more souk crushing. Everything about this scene is just perfection. Kat is normally just a little ball of rage in human form (and who can blame her for always being angry) that her being so subdued in that scene really drives home how much she trusts Swann, especially if you don’t push her about her illness. Such a perfect moment.

I really can’t stop thinking about this game now.

[softpine]

Are you going to play the new Life is Strange?

i can't believe i'm saying this, but no 😭 i can't even muster up enough interest to watch a playthrough on youtube, it's that pointless to me. i'm always saying that deck nine's take on life is strange is just fanfiction, but i've read actual fics with better plot ideas than double exposure... not to mention, the official comic is a good continuation of the bae ending which still has new characters and interesting concepts to explore if that's something you're looking for

i've said it before, but i chose to sacrifice chloe and that's my ending. to me, that's the most natural conclusion of the story. every bit of symbolism in the game lead to that choice. i love the ambiguity of the ending and how it allows you to interpret max's future in any way you want to. did she lose her powers? if she still has them, will she eventually crack and go back in time just to see chloe again? what are the consequences of that? was rachel the cause of the storm, and now that she has chloe back & jefferson has been caught she's at peace?

deck nine heard all those questions and said "ermmm we actually just want to spin our wheels for a bit and shit on every headcanon you've created in the past 9 years, cool? 😃"

it pisses me off that they can just purchase the rights to a beloved game series and completely change canon for no reason.. it's not that serious, i know, but it's so disappointing :( anyway let's all get excited for dontnod's upcoming game lost records instead

[thealexchen]

On sapphic rep in "Lost Records: Bloom and Rage"

Online, I constantly see Lost Records and games like it getting dunked on for daring to represent anybody other than the cishet white man majority. People were clowning on the original LiS and calling it "SJW garbage" back in 2015, but between our recent global political climate and the rise of violent hate crimes against marginalized populations, it's not as easy nowadays to handwave them off as baseless complaints.

That's why it's still a big deal that we have Dontnod out here self-publishing a game about four unambiguously queer women who meet and spend an unforgettable summer together. A game that they want to turn into a new franchise, and they start with the supposedly "harder to market" demographics instead of playing it safe and diversifying after a successful first entry. It's a big deal that DN intentionally centered these four girls and their relationships with each other, away from school and judgmental eyes-- aka, away from the culture of '90s Midwestern homphobia, as much as possible. Their little paradise in the secluded, impossibly beautiful Michigan woods and talks of running away are clearly evoking common queer tropes of secrecy and escape, but the difference is they are so damn happy when they are alone together.

The romances are adorable, but it's obvious how much having genuine friends means to all of them, but Swann and Kat especially. This is a game that truly celebrates female friendship and subverts the cliched cattiness, gossip, and petty drama. If you choose to have Swann admit she's afraid of being unlovable, Kat will simply respond, "We love you." Their platonic bonds don't invalidate their possible romantic feelings, but provide a solid foundation of love and companionship for it instead. Their queerness feels believable because male characters are simply irrelevant to their personal lives. Even in BtS, with two women staff writers, Eliot was still shoehorned in as a Warren clone (except even creepier??) to convince Chloe that Rachel was manipulative.

In Lost Records, these girls are written like any other ordinary teenagers, not eye candy for the implicit male gamer gaze. When they ran down to the lake, I was actually worried we'd get some needless fanservice of the girls stripping to swim in their underwear like in LiS1 episode 3, but nope, there's a cut and the narrative just implies they went swimming offscreen in their swimsuits. They complain and chat openly about their periods, they make gross jokes, they giggle about "mating squirrels," they have acne and insecurities, they get excited about each other's ideas, they're ride or die-- because they're teenage girls.

I have to shout out the two women on DN Montreal's writing team-- Desiree Cifre and Nina Freeman, because I was so excited when I found out that women helped write this game. In short, DN deserves their flowers! Please support this game!

[tangent101]

What-If... Dontnod had written BtS?

I started writing this as I went off on a tangent in another post and realized... why not just keep it separate? So here we are!

I have to wonder... how would things have changed if Dontnod had decided "okay, we'll do Before the Storm and then another Max-and-Chloe adventure. No doubt it would have remained true to continuity.

The one real regret is we'd not have had Steph, and Steph is a character I very much loved from BtS even if I detest the rest of the game. And I kind of doubt we'd have had anything akin to True Colors (which really was just Square Enix letting D9 have a tiny bit of freedom before they forced more Max and Chloe games out of the little scab company).

If Dontnod had worked in an editorial or supervisory level with D9, with a veto power on stuff, then we would likely still have Steph and the like. I'm not sure how much D9 would have liked that though as they seriously wanted to throw Max under a bus in BtS (just as they threw Chloe under a bus in DE). But honestly, I think that any game that DN crafted on its own for how Chloe and Rachel met would be superior to the game we got.

That also ignores the likely executive meddling from Square Enix. While D9 is not without fault with their treatment of women and tolerance of fascists working within the company itself, I strongly suspect that SE is the rot at the core of recent bullshit.

Getting back to speculation of what BtS would have been if Dontnod had crafted the story... it depends. And by that, I mean it depends on the actual internal timeline that DN had created for Chloe's life in the Prime Timeline... and when Chloe first met Rachel. With that we can speculate better using the Timeline Photo Montage videos.

Chloe was 14 when William died. David was married to Joyce before Chloe's 16th birthday party. So the best opportunity for conflict with Chloe... is with the upcoming marriage of David and Joyce.

The photo montage prior to the wedding picture was Chloe running away from home. Chloe is wearing a tanktop in this picture, suggesting warm weather. So. What incentive is there for Chloe to run away from home? David proposing to Joyce. If David is already abusive toward Chloe, then she flees, maybe meets up with a blonde-haired girl camping with her parents as they're moving, and that is the first meeting of Rachel Amber and Chloe Price.

Here is where things get tricky. Because... DN created Rachel to be a bit of a mystery. Having Rachel in the flesh damages that mystery... unless the player is playing Rachel Amber as the main character. In this case... the player gets to choose her actions and decisions. Each person's Rachel can be different while still constrained in specific ways (sort of like how sonnets give structure you have to abide by, but freedom within that structure).

Dontnod could even create inclusion within the first Life is Strange by having the story of Rachel and Chloe meeting described within a journal that Rachel Amber left behind... and Max Caulfield finds the journal in Chloe's truck. It can be a Bae or Bay setting, Max finds the journal either while trying to recover something of hers that fell under the truck seat while driving away from Arcadia Bay's ruins, or when Joyce lets Max get some of Chloe's stuff after the funeral. Bits of the story can be narrated by Hannah Telle as Max reads the journal - and the journal are fixed points in time, the rest of the story being Max imagining how things happened.

Hell, we could even have had Hannah voicing Rachel Amber. I'm sure with a voice coach giving her guidance, she could vary her voice enough so that while it's still Hannah, it's not quite the voice we think of for Max. And given how "similar" Max and Rachel were, having Hannah voice Rachel would be an extra nod to that continuity. ;)

I know a lot of folks like Deck Nine's games. If you love BtS and DE as they are? Do so! You don't need to have this old lady ruin your views of those games. Hell, I enjoyed True Colors. I just don't think D9 can show the love and respect to Max and Chloe and Rachel that they deserve. So this little speculation of "What-If" is meant to wonder. What if?

Edit: Changed the D9 game I enjoyed to True Colors. I've not played DE and have no idea if I'd enjoy it. Nor will I play it, I'm not spending that much money on a game I have a bad feeling about.

[dalekofchaos]

Not interested in LIS:Double Exposure

Okay I saw the Double Exposure trailer and I am not playing it.

Multiple reasons.

The Deck Nine IGN article. I will not support a developer that knowingly protected a bigoted groomer and allowed a Nazi to sneak in White Supremacist signs in the game.

Max learned nothing about the first game. Nevermind there is no Chloe, Warren or anyone from Arcadia insight(we'll get to that) Max apparently formed another codependent relationship that she couldn't let go to the point where she's fucking up reality by creating yet another parallel world. Either Deck Nine is entirely unoriginal or Max didn't learn a damned thing

That is not Max. If your defense is "she grew up" I got news for you. I've looked the same for nearly a decade. I've had friends while changing their aesthetic, they look the same. you don’t look like an entirely new person when you age, the new model looks nothing like max there’s barely even resemblance. Also I know, we all change our style as we get older, but Max's style was unique and it made Max Caulfield who she is. It didn't need to change. Deck Nine just Stephified Max. Was it really that hard to give Max bangs? Not just that. No freckles, eyes and eyebrows look completely different. This is not Max Caulfield.

4. No one from Arcadia Bay returned. It's pretty obvious Deck Nine is either keeping Chloe's fate a secret, but it's also clear they are trying to skirt around the issue of the endings without pissing everyone off. Feels like a copout to whatever ending you chose to give a new cast of characters. For the fans who wanted more time to play as Max and Chloe, I feel bad for you, I especially wanted to see Chloe again. So what the fuck was this supposed to be for then?

Though another point; why the hell are we supposed to be okay with the fact that Max is using her power again to save this brand new character we have zero previous connection to? Especially if the game’s gonna try to straddle both endings to LiS 1; seems very insulting to have Max be okay with doing it for a character we have no previous attachment to, but she’s left her girlfriend to die alone, thinking nobody loved her?

Also you had the perfect chance to make a fucking game that has Max save Rachel. I know I just did a tangent about Max not learning anything, but if you were just going to have Max use her powers again, why the fuck didn't you do it to save Rachel from a fate she never deserved? Godfucking forbid you give attention to Warren, Kate or Victoria. I just wanted to see these characters get some screen time, make cameos or give us SOME hint to what they are up to after the events of the first game. But no, we can't have that. We can't be given anything of substance for Warren, Kate or Victoria. Can't learn anything about their fates in the LIS 2 Save Arcadia Bay ending, can't find out Warren or Kate survived the storm in Wavelengths via talking to Steph during the storm anniversary and we can't see them again in DE. I know it's just a teaser, but seriously why even do a new Max game if we don't even get cameos from these characters? Knowing how Deck Nine is, they are just gonna find a way to demonize Warren to paint him like Eliot, regress Victoria's character and not even give Kate the time of day to mention. Jesus fucking christ, I just wanted to see Max and Warren Go Ape, fun Max and Victoria photodates and to see Max and Kate have one fucking Tea date. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR???

5. Deck Nine are literally just swiping DontNod’s characters for the purposes of chasing that brand recognition. It's just copy pasting lighting in a bottle and milking a cow out of this franchise. BTS was remotely successful because of Chloe and Rachel's relationship. True Colors is fun at first, but realize it's just a hollow imitation of the first game. DONTNOD's story was original, fun and unique. I had problems with it but it was still THEIR story on their terms and not developed from a place of corporate cynicism asking for preorders ASAP that come bundled with a box of tissues and bobbleheads of dead teenagers. Read recent interviews from DONTNOD and you can TELL they got burned by SquareEnix over this. I hope they can channel that into something with Bloom and Rage because I’d love to see them recapture that magic again.

I had fears of what would happen if Deck Nine ever got their hands on Max. And looks like I was right to be worried.

To be clear, I think making stories with someone else’s character is great and cool and it’s literally what fanfiction is and technically, MUCH of mass media now IS “fanfiction”. The difference here is DONTNOD deliberately wanted LIS 1 canon left alone, near as I can tell. But no, Square Enix wanted a franchise and Deck Nine was more than happy to milk the cow for all it was worth and Deck Nine has shown they don't understand DONTNOD's characters

The game looks like it's repeating everything about the first game, but none of the charm that made it great. It's beat for beat the same fucking game. Dead friend, murder mystery, but without the ambiance, charm or magic that made the first game good. Deck Nine is completely unoriginal, DE is a soulless cashgrab and their hyperrealism killed the entire essence of the game and its characters.

It's quite literally a copy and paste of True Colors, but with Max.

And when we just look at this. Double Exposure is just soulless. It's style over substance and I knew. I just KNEW that if Deck Nine got their hands on Max it would be half-assed and soulless shit like this. They dared to slap Max's name on a Steph lookalike and then just do True Colors again, but more hollow.

There's something just so disappointing about the change in art style over the years. The art direction in the first game was charming and now it just feels kinda soulless. The awkward chunkyness of the models really made it stand out but now it feels way too smooth

life is strange going from one studios passion project to another’s cashgrab is one of the biggest modern tragedies in the world deck nine they could never make me like you. All the charm of the franchise from the cartoonish artstyle to the episodical releases has been completely stripped away it’s just very disappointing to see.

This meme is literally Double Exposure.

[bulletbilltime]

Finished Lost Records tape 1. Thoughts below (spoiler warning)

Kat you legend... you icon. It took me a bit to warm up to her even if I still liked her, but she fairly quickly became my fave.

Genuinely the main 4 are almost on par with Max Chloe Rachel and Alex Steph Ryan. Loved their friend dynamic so much.

My character ranking is probably Kat > Swann > Autumn = Nora?? I don't have too many thoughts about Autumn and Nora but I do still really like them a lot!!

Honestly the vibes in this game are like a blend of LiS1 and True Colors... might be my fave presentation-wise of the three ngl, even if LiS1 does have the unique painterly style

I LOVE THE CAMCORDER MECHANIC SO MUCH. I love taking photos of things around me with my phone so that was a godsend to me y'all.

Me seeing the bike in the woods: "Ooh this could be a fun setpiece!" Swann: "omg kat and nora you should roleplay your sister and her bf" Me: "WHAT NO I DIDN'T WANT THIS WHAT THE FUCK NOOOOO THAT'S SO WEIRD 😭😭😭 KAT BESTIE I'M SO SORRY THAT MY PLAYER CHARACTER IS A DUMBASS"

Me picking the option that ruins the moment in the makeup scene before the finale very much giving "didn't select the option that makes Amberprice kiss in Before the Storm" (because I thought it would have been too forward and not work. like an IDIOT). Apparently nothing happens even if you don't fuck it up anyway? I think?? so oh well. Still was hilarious tho. Drawn to the no-rizz option like a magnet 💀

The ending made me so mad and sad tho like WHY WAS IT MY FAVE 😭😭😭 I do love how you're led to think she's coughing bc "oh this is bc something evil from The Abyss is taking over her" and it's not. It's just illness. But also NOOOOOOOO 😭😭😭😭

GOD I am hoping we get to see 2022 Kat, but I know it's not very likely. Extremely tragic 😢

Having to wait 2 months for the next update is so cruel. At least I have smth to look forward to. I guess.

GAME IS GOOD THOUGH. It gave me the same feeling I got from my first True Colors playthrough all the way back in 2022 (ironic, I know). I will probably replay it sometime in the near future!

As for ships? uhhhh tbh I don't have any strong leans so far. The allure of polyship is very tempting. Otherwise tho I do see a bunch of teases of Nora x Kat and Nora x Autumn in the game which make those make sense to me. I think my current fave pairing might be Swann x Kat tho? But there's not really a runaway fave atm like Chenrich or Pricefield were at first

OK but that same feeling of "queer escapism" I felt before with stories like One Last Stop and LiS 1 / TC hit me like a truck with this one. Just like this idea of finding your people to go out on adventures with, and share memories that'll stick with you for the rest of your lives. As someone who didn't really figure out her queerness until wayyyy later & was a bit of a shut-in, it's hard to not watch those kinda stories and long for a more adventurous coming of age story that I just never got to really live 😔

Swann's excitement at seeing poop in the woods is hilarious to me. Girlie you are such a dork (positive)

Honestly all of them are dorks (positive). I adore them and would fight anyone who tried to hurt them

Praying for a group reunion and happy ending that I very much doubt Dontnod will let us have. LET THEM BE HAPPY AND FRIENDS (or poly idk I'm not their boss)