#if it did than all the people playing those first person shooter games all need to be psychologically tested

[pastry0w0rlord]

This One Really Missed

They would usually cook so hard with these games but they burned down the kitchen this time I'm afraid.

Lenght/Playtime:

Too short. Too little options. The flow chart of this game is pathetic and can't compare to the other 2. It felt like watching a movie.

Price:

Too expensive, my localized price was 8 bucks but I learned the original is 15 from steam reviews. If you really wanna buy the game wait for a sale, the price is unacceptable for this little decision making and 5 endings total.

Humour:

I only laughed out loud at one joke.

One.

And that was the Hat Man joke. Most of the jokes did not land this time.

The original games had this thing where the dark jokes regarding really sensitive topics (racism, homophobia, slavery, xenophobia, abuse...) landed because they had added context. Like:

- "I thought our photography teacher was a pedophile but turns out he is a white nationalist. That's not... better"

- "Uncircumcised men are gross because the media told me so, I am a teenage girl in late 2000s."

- Every straight person in school accusing Nicole of homophobia and talking over Ari because she got rejected when Ari is only angry that Nicole was mean about it.

- Jeffrey pretending to be a white nationalist, entering a straight club etc. not because his beliefs but because he desperately wants to fit in.

- That whole scene of Nicole's mom screaming at her under medicine influence about how she steals stuff from her medicine cabinet. Then Nicole, after a really morbid argument where she plays the victim to the audience, reveals that she does indeed steal her mom's meds.

- The whole route of Nicole bullying Jeffrey into being a school shooter got kicked off by Jeffrey being creepy in general.

and the list goes on.

The dark jokes had twists which made them funny. In Flip Side someone says something stereotypical or generally morbid out of nowhere and follow it with "I am not racist" or barely any acknowledgement. The biggest examples of this I can think of are the Turkish creep stereotype and the whole FYE ending.

They actually made an '09 game parodying the original. This game is what the series' haters think the first 2 games are.

The.. Feet Stuff..:

I swear it was funny at first, with social commentary and all. But then it kept dragging... and dragging...

Then I realized almost half of the game was dedicated to foot stuff. Cool...

Are the writers aware that all those minutes wasted could've gone to an ending with Jecka's mom whom she kept talking about in the first game?

Jecka:

They should rename Flip Side to "Pity Jeckainator 5000" because holy shit poor girl. The overall game was more bleak and sad than funny. Jecka breaks down sobbing multiple times and no one helps her.

Jecka's Father:

I don't know what they were trying to do with Jecka's father but none of his scenes were funny. In fact it was extremely triggering because I got treated like Jecka in the past by multiple people. Jecka is severely jittery, jumpy and horrified at the smallest yelling. She breaks down crying a lot yelling "don't hit me" and I do not see what purpose repeating her father's screaming at every scene with him serves if it isn't meant to be funny. There were literally times where I went "oh here we go again" and took of my headphones before he started screaming at her.

Nicole:

Guys Nicole is severely out of character in one of the foot fetish routes. I don't care if she is supposed to be a sociopath, that is not Nicole. Sociopaths can still separate right from wrong, they are still people so the "Nicole is a sociopath" argument I keep seeing holds no merit here.

Nicole has shown that she is capable of admitting to her mistakes in the prison ending of re-up.

Also lets put aside her mutual respect for Jecka and pretend Nicole doesn't know her at all. That still feels out of character for her. Think about it. Why does Nicole go after older men when she does?

- She is in danger and needs to act. (Coach Colby route)

- She has no other choice. (The route where her mom kicked her out)

- She is trying to get them arrested. (Her luring one of the faculty outside to get arrested)

Why would she, for no reason whatsoever, go after Jecka's dad?

You would argue that Nicole is a petty person from the Megan-Hunter route, but Megan made Nicole snap. She got provoked. Same with the Ari route. Ari was severely fucked up herself. What did Jecka do?

"I can't cut you in, I need this money Nicole"

That's it? Nicole already mentioned she was selling shoplifted goods as well so what is her objective here if not money?

Emily would do this(which she did), not Nicole, Nicole wouldn't bother. It's too much useless effort. They confused their own characters.

The Text from SBN3:

I am not gonna elaborate but that was so insane, wild and immature.

Some Stuff I Liked:

-Seeing Jecka's side of the first game suicide ending was cool.

-I actually liked the FYE route... until I didn't in the last 5 minutes of it.

-The Hat Man bit was seriously funny.

-The illustrations improved.

But yeah overall... Jecka deserved better than this game. I do not hate it for the small stuff I liked it for, but I will still try to pretend this never existed.

If you are here thank you for reading all of it. I usually don't do game reviews, I hope I didn't ramble too much

[gunsandspaceships]

Shall we play a game? Answers

Here I'll explain why the correct answers are:

Drinks when upset (Steve)

Criticizes everyone (Steve)

Obeys orders (Tony)

Doesn’t trade lives (Tony)

Worked for politicians for personal gain (Steve)

Good shooter (Tony)

Kissed 4 different women after starting a relationship with his partner (Steve)

Asks others for help and advice when needed (Tony)

Drinks when upset - Steve

He can't get drunk, but that doesn't mean he doesn't drink. And he does this when he is upset for some reason. In Captain America: The First Avenger, it was Bucky's death; in Civil War (extended funeral scene), it was Peggy's death.

There is not a single scene in the entire MCU where Tony drank because he was upset.

Criticizes everyone - Steve

I didn't remember that until I started working on the "Nice Guy" Contest and watched every scene with Cap in every movie he was, as well as every scene in every movie with the other OG6 Avengers. And it caught my attention - how often Steve criticizes other people: Fury, Nat, Tony, Bruce, Thor, even Peggy. I even got tired of this.

One of the examples:

Obeys orders - Tony

Steve spent his entire military/paramilitary career doing the opposite - refusing to follow orders and criticizing his commanders. In any hierarchical organization, be it SSR, SHIELD or the Avengers, he took control. Tony, despite being the owner of the Avengers, obeyed him and followed Rogers' orders.

Doesn't trade lives - Tony

Even though it was Steve who said, “We don't trade lives,” he traded them. And more than once. As our winners mentioned, he traded the lives of Wakandans in Infinity War. In Civil War he traded the lives of civilians, special ops operatives, agents (they were killed or injured), Clint (his freedom and life with his family), Scott (his freedom and even life - he didn't stop him when Scott offered to do something that could "split him in half"), Sam (dragged into danger), Wanda (same), Sharon (who risked several times to help him), Nat (who also would be safe if not him), Rhodey (who wouldn't have been injured if Rogers hadn't started the fight), Peter (who he could have killed with the boarding bridge he brought down on him), and Tony. He traded them all for one man and the right to continue to command without anyone above him.

In Endgame, his plan was to bring back 50% of the universe. Before Tony and Bruce explained to them how time travel actually works, the plan was to erase everything that happened after 2018. This means all the people who have been born since then and everything that has happened to the remaining 50% over the years.

Tony had to intervene anyway because they would have done terrible things if he hadn't told them not to change anything in those 5 years. He is the one who does not trade lives.

Even when he is told he can't save everyone - he tries. And sometimes he proves that he can.

Worked for politicians for personal gain - Steve

That's how Steve became captain, in case you forgot.

And that's what Tony never did - work for politicians for personal gain.

Good shooter - Tony

You can find it here:

Kissed 4 different women after starting a relationship with his partner - Steve

In 1940s Steve started a relationship with Peggy Carter. Since then he kissed:

Howard's secretary

Unknown woman (or man? who knows)

Natasha

And Sheron, Carter

Ever since Tony started his relationship with Pepper, he hadn't kissed anyone else. Or did anything else of that sort of things.

Asks others for help and advice when needed - Tony

Steve asked for help. He brought a bunch of people to risk everything and start a fight in Civil War, for example. He never asked for advice though. He always has his own opinion, it is always the right one and he doesn't need anyone else's.

On the other hand - Tony is not above asking others for help, as well as asking for advice and opinions.

[cartoonedin]

sapphire dorm + video games hcs. probably ooc but idc <3

sophia touches grass too much to be considered a gamer girl but after rory introduces her to first-person shooters? you're dead. you're gone. you're her dad you're reporting her but she'll never be dead or gone because pro teams all over the country are trying to recruit her. which country. who knows. she only plays at her friends' houses on saturdays because she doesn't want her brother to snitch on her swearing but sometimes she uses her 'oops i fell off a cliff again and need to call for help' projection and gets banned from those houses too. she and her horse-poop-covered hands hate mobile games. her parents are the reason new candy crush levels are still being added but she has neither the patience nor the long-term planning skills for level one. did the genocide route on undertale in record time because she thought it was how the game was meant to be played. into red dead redemption for the horses and the bearded cowboys who learn about fatherhood via gunfights.

ava is a handheld console girlie. if pokemon nurse were an actual profession she'd be employee of the month thirteen times a year. her animal crossing island has a better economy than every continent combined. that being said the day her brothers introduced her to warioware was the day the world was introduced to true bloodshed. has broken at least one controller because of sheer emotional attachment to a cute character. treats pikmin like a survival horror game and dead space like a sci-fi romcom. got the pacifist ending in undertale and does not understand why other rpgs don't have the mercy option. unless rory's in the game at which point she brings out the laser guns or whatever to get back at him for making her reveal her middle name. you know he's let that slip to more than one call of duty lobby ok let a girl live.

layla's favourite game is google chrome. she's boring and i love her for that. she speedruns minesweeper and solitaire to get her mind off particularly devastating biographies. she's friends with everyone's parents on candy crush and scrabble. she could be a gm on chess.com but she overthinks her moves to the point of losing on time despite playing as white. she's almost been hacked so many times because she can't resist correcting bad moves on word formation advertisements and gets led to online casino #infinity or something. she has a lifelong streak on every new york times game except vertex because you cannot tell me wildstar's constant use of her magic didn't destroy her eyesight even further.

isabel puts the bro in smash bros. rotates between king k. rool, sonic, and greninja because she has a brand and it must be tangential to adhd medication. in the same vein as sophia i think she touches grass too much to be considered a gamer girl but she makes rory keep up with madden and fifa news just to figure out if she's been added to the latest installment. she has a skateboard on her dorm wall but never uses it so i'm thinking she played through the og trilogy of tony hawk's games as a kid and echoed every voice line to the point of perfect memorisation. take the word dude away from her and she's mute. also i think she discovered happy wheels on her mom's computer and ruined several important business presentations that way.

valentina is a slightly grown ipad kid. i'm sorry but you can't tell me she didn't steal her style from dress to impress. also she rates everyone one star on those games not because she's a corrupt voter but because she has a sixth sense for when a bitch is hiding bacon hair beneath a hundred layers of sparkles. up there with isabel in terms of lacking screen time video game wise because i truly believe her family would spend their money on better (read: elite-r) past times but she 1000% plays the sims. one world is for planning fashion moments and carrying on the digital furi bloodline. one world is for drowning people by deleting their pool ladders and saying "not now sweetie mommy's cyberbullying the mayor" to her baby who's on fire.

rory's room looks like a gamestop. idc about his canon phone case he is SILLY. he will play anyone in smash as long as it looks funny next to the other character but he has a soft spot for kirby, yoshi, zero suit samus (isabel side eyes him very hard for this at first but it's still a very gay choice i promise) and wii fit trainer. his personality is held together by goat simulator, untitled goose game, and donut county. also duct tape and blue raspberry gum. he trolls a little (a lot) on first person shooters and mmorpgs mostly so he can pretend with an ounce of plausible deniability that he's just having a fun unserious time when sophia and/or ava beat his ass at both even though they're on the same team.

[dare-to-dm]

Xbox Research

Okay, someone just asked me if my research into xbox games from both the 360 and xbox one era revealed any changes in demographic trends between those two generations.  So now I get to rant about my results!

First!  I will describe the data I was tracking.  I made a list of all the games officially released for both of those systems at the time I started the research.  This came out to about 2000 games for the Xbox 360 and about 4500 games for the Xbox One.

Then I started categorizing each game based on the following factors.

Genre: I chose 27 genres for this project, and allowed each game to get a maximum of 3

Mode: Each game was designated as Single Player, Multiplayer, or Both

Protagonist Gender: Classified as Male, Female, Player’s Choice, Unknown, or Not Applicable

Protagonist Race: Classified as White, Person of Color, Player’s Choice, Unknown, or Not Applicable

I’m going to put the rest of this under a Read More, because there is A LOT

I say I “started” categorizing them, because I will be honest and admit that I did not fully complete all this data for every game in the data set.  I prioritized my research by which games were the most popular, ranked by how many players in my data set had played them.  I did get all of this information for every game played by at least one person in my data set, which comes out to about 3100 games fully categorized.

As for my player data, I took 90 players (45 self identified men and 45 self identified women) and used their achievement data to track which games they played.  This differentiates my data from a lot of stuff that’s widely available because rather than tracking sales, I was tracking what people actually played.  If there’s anything I’ve learned in my years as a gamer, it’s that there’s a big difference between what people buy and what they play.

Anyway, on to the trends!

Genres Rise, Genres Fall

The top genres between to the two systems were fairly consistent.  Top 5 for the 360 were Shooters, Sports Games, Action Adventure, Brawler/Hack’n’Slash, and Racing/Driving Games, in that order.

For the Xbox One, the top genres were Shooters, Action Adventure Games, Platformers, Roleplaying Games, and Sports Games, in that order.

The biggest difference between the two system generations is that producing indie games for console became a lot easier in recent years.  So, not only do we have a lot more games overall for the Xbox One, but many of those are from smaller studios.  I believe this is why platformers crack the top 5 in the One era, and why sports game fell from the 2 spot to the 5 spot.

Some genres did have a dramatic shift in popularity between the 2 systems.  Walking Sims functionally didn’t exist in the 360 era, but there are a full 32 of them in my data set for the One (and they continue to grow in popularity - I believe the number/ranking would be higher if I had continued to track this to the current day).

Party Games (defined as more casual games meant to be played with local multiplayer for short sessions) dropped massively in popularity.  This is no surprise given the shift to online gaming and many franchises dropping split screen capabilities.

Music/Rhythm games also had a massive drop in popularity.  Again, no surprise.  Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Dance Central were once huge franchises, but now there aren’t really any equivalent major releases.

Classic Adventure Games (defined as character/choice driven games with stories but no or little action) have risen in popularity.  Again, this is largely driven by the expansion of indie titles in the space.

Simulation games, survival games and visual novels have also become more popular.  I would argue that survival wasn’t really an established genre in the 360 days, but it definitely is now.

ALSO: The prevalence of game modes has shifted greatly!  In the 360 era, games largely needed to have both single player and multiplayer modes, with fully 71% of games falling into this category.  That has shifted over the years, with only 37% of games for the XBox One era having both.  Numerically and percentage wise, exclusively single player games are on the rise.  That being said, only one exclusively single player game (Fallout 4) cracked the top 20 most played list.  The 360 era had 3 single players games in the top 20 (Hexic HD, The Walking Dead and Assassin’s Creed).  So those publishers who claim that single player titles just don’t sell as well anymore?  You might not like it, but they aren’t lying.

The Glass Ceiling For Women Was Raised a Few Inches

When it comes to gender representation in games, my results largely speak for themselves.

360 Games With

Male Protagonists: 46%

Female Protagonists: 4%

Player Choice: 36%

Not Applicable: 9%

Unknown: 5%

Xbox One Games With

Male Protagonists: 33%

Female Protagonists: 11%

Player Choice: 32%

Not Applicable: 17%

Unknown: 7%

So, women are getting a bigger market share of protagonists these days, but it’s still only a small percentage.

Also, I will note that Player Choice is not always as equitable as it sounds.  In addition to games where you get to create your character, any game with multiple playable characters and even one female option was put into this category.  So, for example, a Dragon Ball Z fighting game with 20 characters would count even if only one of them was a woman.  This type of thing was (and still is) pretty common.

And this probably goes without saying, but for all my gender neutral folks, nonbinary options were not purposefully excluded from this study.  Rather, there were so few relevant examples that any few that could count got lumped in the Not Applicable Category (which also included protagonists of species with alternative gender dynamics).

Things Not Getting Much Better for People of Color

The numbers here are bleak.

Xbox 360 Games With

White Protagonists: 35%

POC Protagonists: 4%

Player Choice Protagonists: 37%

Not Applicable Protagonists: 18%

Unknown Protagonists: 5%

Xbox One Games With

White Protagonists: 35%

POC Protagonists: 4%

Player Choice Protagonists: 26%

Not Applicable Protagonists: 27%

Unknown Protagonists: 8%

As you can see, by market share, people of color have not made any gains.  In fact, if you look at games that give you a choice, there has been a backslide!  I will note that I think this number can largely be explained by the rise of indie games on the platform, however.  Character creation clearly comes with a higher development cost than many indies can afford.  And, well, frankly a lot of stuff indie studios are producing isn’t more progressive in this aspect anyway. 

While these numbers are not promising, there is one area in which things are not as bad as they look.  Namely, popular and triple AAA games are getting more diverse, at least through the avenue of letting your create your own protagonist.

In the 360 era, 7 of the top 10 games features canonically white male protagonists.  You don’t get to a canonically nonwhite protagonist until number 14 on the list (Lee, from the Walking Dead).

In the X Box One era, only 3 of the top 10 games features canonically white male protagonists.  The rest let you choose.  (Lee from Walking Dead is still the most played canonical nonwhite protagonist, followed by Kait Diaz in Gears 5 and Beatrix LeBeaux in Slime Rancher).

This category was particularly fraught because race can be subjective.  For example, can we really say that Kait Diaz qualifies as a person of color?  We’re talking about a franchise that takes place in a fictional earthlike setting, so we don’t have any real history to pull from.  Her skin tone is ambiguous and her voice actress is white.  But I feel her name and design puts her in the category of latino coded, and after a discussion with someone who actually played the game, that’s where I put her.

There were a lot of cases like this in this category, so do look at these numbers with a grain of salt knowing that I often had to make a judgement call as to how to classify a character, and other people may have made different judgement calls.

ANYWAY if anyone has any questions about any of the data I collected, please let me know because I could talk about this all day.

[justaboutdead]

A Brief Overview of some of the Best Video Games I Played this Year

Aight, so I played a lot of video games this year. Big surprise. I did play Armored Core 6, and Sekiro, and Dave the Diver, and Super Mario Wonder, and Tears of the Kingdom. but you’ve heard of all those. You don’t need to hear about them again. For clarification this is about games I played for the first time this year. Not games that necessarily came out this year. In no particular order

1.Rhythm Doctor

Single button rhythm game. Far harder than it sounds. Excellent music, excellent gameplay, excellent story. Go check it out! Seriously.

2.Atomicrops

Twinstick shooter and farming sim hybrid. I got ridiculously addicted to this. Damn amazing game, good for the adhd. Very tight gameplay loop.

3. Shotgun King

Chess rougelike where you are a king with a shotgun. Actually quite strategically complex. Very fun time.

4.Lunacid

Basically a new indie Kingsfield. An excellent time if you enjoy old slow action rpgs. Amazing atmosphere, music, level design, etc. Great time.

7.Citizen Sleeper

If I had to pick a top game from this list, it might just be this. RPG about being an escaped robot victim of capitalism on a space station and all the people you meet there. Made me cry a lot. Very good. Just play it.

8.In Other Waters

The same devs as citizen sleeper made this. Also very very good. About a marine xenobiologist exploring an alien ocean. Also made me cry. Best game about the ocean ive played. Finished it in a single sitting.

9.Mosa Lina

Very neat puzzle game/immersive sim in the strictest sense. Your solution to any give level is truly your own, always.

10.Milk Outside of a Bag of Milk

The sequel to another very good game, milk inside of a bag of milk. Although ofc quite dissimilar from my own experiences, as a person who struggles with intense social anxiety and is generally neurodivergent, I relate a lot to both of these games.

11.Signalis

Survival horror game about being an android who is looking for someone. Another game you just have to play. Very interesting story and themes, and tight, classic-feeling gameplay.

Other games I played for the first time this year and loved, that you’ve probably either heard of before or I didn’t quite like enough to list: What Remains of Edith Finch, Everhood, Paratopic, No One Lives Under the Lighthouse, Hyper Demon, Post Void, Wrought Flesh, Dusk, Exo One, Gris, Into the Breach, Abzu, Antichamber, Humanity, Amnesia Rebirth*

I feel like I need to end every videogames recommendation post now by begging you to play Outerwilds. Trust me, its amazing.

*edit: forgot to list Jusant. Very good game

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-07-22

There are many upsides to the city in the summer. But there's also the horrors.

Listening: I am (I think) almost but not quite done with Paradise Killer, a first-person detective game set on the extradimensional luxury island headquarters of an eldritch cult with a truly incredible soundtrack. A mix of city pop and vaporwave that really goes hard if you love the sound of the perfect imagined city. Here's "Knife and Crystal"

The entire Paradise Killer soundtrack is great, and in game each song has a little snippet of text to go with it, this one's is

The heat helps cook mysteries. People get weird in the heat. They get dangerous. Dangerous people create mysteries.

I'll write this up probably separately and it'll go in next week's monday, since I haven't called the trial yet and still have some snooping to do, but it really is a fantastic game. Try it, if you have the time, I got most of the way through it in about 8 hours.

This music sounds like a perfect summer day in the city we all wish we could be in, where there are exactly as many people around as you want, and you always stumble into what you need.

As a note, I think it is an interesting comparison to the Marielda soundtrack, which feels to me like a very different kind of summer city, a languorous city on the edge, an, overwhelmingly hot city, with only a few afternoon thunderstorms and passing clouds to break an almost oppressive heat. So you know, where I am now. I'll link the title song here too:

I mean the podcast helps sell it, but this would also fit into uh. The spanish civil war? Clarinet is like that sometimes.

God damn I have opinions on city-esque music huh.

Reading: Had a bit of a slump coming off of The Traitor Baru Cormorant but I finally picked up Monster and was immediately blindsided by the perspective change. Very interesting. The letter Baru receives from one of the other cryptarchs is making me go insane.

Watching: Movie night this week was RRR, which I have seen a couple times already but did get the joy of watching with some friends who had not seen it at all. There is so much going on, it turns out if you run out of making one movie you can just pivot to making another movie with the same guys and if you do that for long enough you have a three hour feature film.

RRR has lots of subtlety that can be debated but it is also so much fun to watch. It is up front and largely unironic in a way that is very refreshing because it is also done well. There are a lot of bad movies that are unironic and unfortunately that mostly hurts them because they can't deliver on their earnestness.

The thing that really stands out is that it knows how to hold a shot well. So many scenes in the movie just go on forever, whether that's the extended BFF montage or the torture scenes or the slow motion action, it just holds a shot in a way that feels obnoxious at times.

It helps that they're both impossibly hot.

Playing: I picked up a couple VR games in the steam sale to try and expands my horizons. One of those is The Utility Room, a fairly old VR experience based on a VR museum that's even older. Its age shows, it lacks a lot of the creature comforts of more modern games, but it is clever. It uses VR to put you in huge spaces in proximity to enormous objects that move way faster than anything like that does regularly for most people. It's a fun little experiment.

Also got Half Life: Alyx which I am really enjoying, I just got to the part where you get the flashlight which I assume means I'm about to get sosososo scared. VR so dramatically changes the way you think about interaction especially in games. Most obviously, this is a shooter, but in a normal shooter you shoot things by putting them in the middle of the screen and pressing "shoot" and then some HP is deducted. Here I am reminded that even when I handle real pistols I have a bad habit of raising the barrel a few degrees too high and I have to compensate for that. You have to fumble with magazines and rack the slide in the heat of panicked combat where you feel very much like a headcrab is about to tear your face off. It's great.

You also get the sheer physicality of the environment. Valve did not skimp on this game, it's not a little demo or a toy, it's a whole-ass game, and they made sure that almost anything reasonable you can think to do works. You just reach out, you can move barrels by grabbing the rim and rolling them, you can open boxes, you can smash crates. You have a really smart gravity grabber system that makes interacting with the environment less arduous, and some very intelligent use of the fact that you have to switch what's in your hand to make you feel endangered any time you have to put your pistol away to hack a circuit or move an object.

Making: Disastrous burfee making misadventure when a friend said she had been wanting to make burfee and I invited her over. Got mixed up while trying to host and cook simultaneously and didn't boil the syrup long enough, resulting in liquid burfee that did not ever set up into something usable. Salvaged haphazardly with some dessicated coconut to form a structural mesh, but it was not good. Syrup is the most important and least fixable part of a burfee recipe, you really just have to learn to eyeball it to make sure it's right before you continue. Learn from my mistake. Make sure your bubbles are stacking to know you've driven off enough water.

Tools and Equipment: Thin, fine cotton sheets are a great way to avoid messing up pillows if you aren't able to wash your hair as regularly as you'd like, or if you just don't like generic grease build-up. You can keep so many of them on hand and toss them in for washing every couple days.

I didn't have hot water this week because of the annual maintenance cycle, so. You know.

[feralandmoonstruck]

Moonstruck Ch 4. First Date

18+ only! This WIP contains explicit material

“Thanks for grabbing us a table,” Ezra said as he took the seat across from Apollo. A nervous sigh escaped him.

Apollo, all ease, gave him a smile. “It’s nice to see you somewhere outside of the coffee shop.”

“Couldn’t leave all of our meetings up to fate.” He grinned back and picked up his menu.

“I’m glad you thought so too. How’s the unpacking going?”

“Long. I’ve got another six boxes to get through before I’m done.”

“Moving is always a pain in the ass.”

“Tell me about it,” Ezra sighed. “Actually, don’t. I don’t want to talk about moving.”

Apollo chuckled, “What do you wanna talk about?”

“How was work?”

“It was good. Got to work with one of my favorite clients.”

“Yeah?”

“Lizzie’s great. She’s been a client for about three years now.”

Ezra nodded along. “Three years is a long time. I think?”

“I just supplement her other stuff. She’s a professional burlesque dancer but she comes to me for strength and endurance training.”

“I remember those days. I was a gymnast all the way up through high school.”

“Really? That’s awesome!”

Ezra hid a smile in his menu. “Thanks. I got tired of the constant, grueling schedules. Being told what to eat and do and wear every minute of the day. I gave it up the minute I could.”

“Damn. That sounds like it’s even more of a pain in the ass than moving.”

“It was,” Ezra laughed. “The older I got, the more annoyed I became with the food restrictions. Especially during competition season. I started researching more and more about foods and how it intersected with athletics, and it just grew from there.”

“Do you only work with athletes?”

“Nah. I work with everybody, but my special interest lies in athletes and former athletes.”

“That’s really cool, man.”

Ezra grinned. “Do you work every day?”

Apollo shook his head. “My schedule is really flexible, so I can take off when I need to.”

“Did you-”

“Nope. Lizzie was my only client today. Tomorrow I’m booked solid though.”

“Lucky I asked when I did then.”

The waitress arrived to take their order and their menus. When she left, Apollo picked up the conversation where it had left off.

“I’m glad you did. Going another week without getting to see you would have sucked.”

Ezra’s cheeks grew pink.

“Shit. Did that come out weird?”

“What?” Ezra tipped his head to the side, “Weird how? I don’t think it was weird.”

“That’s good. I haven’t been on a first date in years.”

“That makes two of us then. Tell me something else about you? I know you like to run and see the sunrise.”

“I do search and rescue sometimes.”

“Jesus. And I thought my job kept me busy.”

“I don’t like downtime. I like to keep moving.” Apollo took a drink of his water.

“I like downtime, but when it happens at work it just makes the day drag. That doesn’t happen often though. Busy days can drag too, but not in the same way.”

“That I completely get. Sometimes there’s just too much stuff and not enough hours.”

Ezra chuckled. “Those days are worse than unpacking.”

“My offer still stands to help you unpack.”

“There’s only six boxes left.”

“And how long will they take to get through?”

Ezra dropped his head, “Longer than they should.”

“You have my number.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“What do you like to do for fun?”

“I know what you’re gonna think, but I like going to craft breweries. They have fun flavors you can’t find at a store.”

“I don’t drink, so I’ll take your word for it.”

Ezra gave him a smile, “Your turn.”

Apollo returned it. “You’re one of very few people who haven’t immediately asked why I don’t drink.”

“Lots of people don’t drink for lots of different reasons. It’s like me saying I don’t like watermelon.”

“Thanks for that. I like to play video games.”

“Let me guess, first person shooters?”

Apollo laughed. “That’s what everyone always says, but no. They make me mad motion sick. I like co-op RPGs or fighting games. Something I can play with Ilya.”

“Is Ilya your roommate?”

Fuck. That wasn’t supposed to come up yet. Shit. I wasn’t prepared for this. Goddammit I shouldn’t have said anything.

“You good,” Ezra asked at the worried look on Apollo’s face.

“What? Yeah, I’m fine. What about you? Do you game?”

“I play dating and farming sims. Lame, I know,” Ezra laughed.

“Never played one. But if that’s your jam then that’s your jam.”

“They’re super chill.”

“I bet they would be.”

The waitress brought out their food.

“Fate says you should let me try a bite of that,” Ezra said, pointing to Apollo’s crepes with his fork.

“Fate says so?” Apollo chuckled, “better not tempt it anymore than we already have.” He pushed his plate closer to Ezra so that he could take a bite.

“Fuck that’s good. You want some of mine?” Ezra slid his plate towards the middle of the table, offering up his eggs benedict.

Apollo leaned over, cutting out a bite with the edge of his fork. Egg yolk and hollandaise soaked the english muffin, creamy avocado, and the crisp bite of pickled jalapenos burst with flavor within Apollo’s mouth. He closed his eyes and sat back. “I’m definitely ordering that next time I come here. They didn’t have it last time.”

“We could keep sharing,” Ezra offered.

Apollo’s eyes flickered to him. “Do you think it’s what fate wants?”

“It’s what I want.”

“Should we get extra plates?”

Ezra shrugged, “ I don’t mind eating like this.”

“I don’t either.”

They ate a few more bites in silence.

“I wonder,” Apollo said, “if I could replicate that benedict.”

Ezra blinked at him, “You cook, too?”

“Someone in the house has to. You can only live on takeout and pizza for so long.”

“Is there anything you can’t do?”

Apollo shrugged. “Dunno. I can’t do my taxes. Does that count?”

Ezra shook his head and laughed. “You work out, you cook, you like nature, you’re a personal trainer, you’re funny, you’re a Greek god. How have you not been on a date in years?”

“A few reasons. I mostly haven’t been interested in anyone. How have you not been on a date, Mr. doctor, cutie, gymnast?” He took another bite of his crepe. There was one bite left, which he saved for Ezra.

“My last relationship didn’t end great. I haven’t been interested in anyone else since.”

“Sorry to hear that, Ez.”

“It’s whatever. I’ve moved on.” Ezra shrugged.

“I saved this for you,” Apollo said in an attempt to lighten the mood. He spun his plate so the final bite faced Ezra.

“That’s yours, you should have it!”

“Fate says it’s yours now.”

Ezra laughed. “If fate insists, I guess I should then.” He picked up the last bite with his fork and brought it to his mouth. “Thanks, Apollo.”

“Of course.”

“Here, you can have the rest of mine if you want it. I’m stuffed.”

“You sure?”

“Definitely,” Ezra nodded.

“Thanks.”

After breakfast, Apollo walked Ezra to his car. Ezra leaned against the door, shielding his eyes from the sun with one hand so he could look up at Apollo. Apollo adjusted so that his shadow fell on Ezra’s face.

“Um, Ez?”

“Yeah?”

“I have a confession to make.” Apollo’s fingers began to tap against his thigh.

“You’re secretly married and I’m going to be your mister.”

Apollo laughed. “That’s surprisingly close, but no. Well, I mean, kinda? But not really.”

“Now you really have to tell me.”

Apollo’s hand moved from tapping his thigh to running his thumb over the edges of his nails.“I’m polyamorous.”

Ezra blinked, but Apollo rushed on.

“I know. I’m sorry. I really hope you don’t think I was stringing you along. Because I do really like you.”

“Do you-”

“Have a boyfriend? Yeah. His name is Ilya. I hope that’s okay?” Apollo hung his head, heartbeat throbbing against his chest.

“Wow. That’s uh, I was just joking when I said that.”

“I know, but you were really close to the truth.”

“Closer than I expected.”

“Much closer.”

“Well fuck. Okay. If we’re dropping bombs, I guess I should share mine, too.” Ezra took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’m trans.”

Without hesitation, Apollo’s face split into a grin. “Hell yeah! One of my little sisters is trans, too. Her name is Abigail. Maybe you could meet her someday.”

“You took that surprisingly well.”

“And you took me being poly surprisingly well.”

“About that,” Ezra said.

All of the air went out of Apollo. His smile disappeared, heart falling to his feet. This is it. This is where he leaves. Fuck!

“When would I get to meet your boyfriend?”

Apollo blinked, trying to reign in his hopes. “Whenever you want. If you want, that is.”

Ezra chewed his lip. “The thing is, Apollo. I’ve never been with someone that’s poly. Hell, I’ve never even met someone that’s poly. Or at least not that I know of. But I do like you. I do. Does he even know about me?”

“I told them yesterday. Kendrick, Ilya’s boyfriend, is the one who found your note in the bag. That was clever, by the way.”

“Hold on. Let me see if I’m following along correctly. You’re dating Ilya, who is dating Kendrick?”

“Yeah.”

“But you and Kendrick aren’t together?”

“Not romantically, no.” Apollo scuffed the toe of his shoe against the ground. “Kendrick and I have known each other since we were kids. He’s my best friend. But, we do sleep together.”

Ezra frowned. “Wow.”

“I know,” Apollo mumbled.

“Where do I fit into this?”

Apollo finally looked up. “I like you, Ezra. I want to keep getting to know you. You don’t really need to worry about Kendrick, he’s not interested in anyone that isn’t Ilya.”

“Except when he’s fucking you.”

“Except then.”

“And Ilya?”

“He’s fine with it. We want each other to be happy. That’s the most important thing for us.”

Ezra nodded. “That’s good. Happiness is important.”

“I want you to be happy, too. Whatever that means for you. For us.”

Ezra’s mouth twisted. “I’m going to need some time to process all of this. It’s.. it’s a lot to take in.”

Apollo nodded. Nervous fingers were clenched into fists to steady them. “I understand.”

“I’ll text you in a few days. Is that alright?”

“Yeah. Sorry to drop all of this on you, but I thought now would be a good time to bring it up.”

“It was. I’ll talk to you soon, though.”

“Talk to you soon.”

Apollo stepped back so that Ezra could get in his car. He waited until the engine started before he moved out of the way and crossed the parking lot to his own car.

Alone, he couldn’t breathe anything that wasn’t Ezra’s scent. It clung to his clothes, the inside of his car, his heart. He inhaled deeply. For just a minute he let himself close his eyes and daydream. Let himself get swept up in every little moment of the breakfast they had shared. That, at least, was worth remembering.

Finally, he pulled himself back to the present and started his car.

[kiba-the-lucky]

Disco Elysium (SPOILERS)

I played through Disco Elysium a while ago. I recommend it if you haven't tried it yet... Don't buy it though, money doesn't go to the original devs anymore, and the people it does go to are shady af.

So, I had tried to play through the game before, but was never really able to actually get through much of the game. Very un-motivated at the time.

But a while ago I actually started a playthrough I'd be able to finish, and I gotta say, I love the game, best game ever made to be honest. Genuinely beats out any other game I've ever played, and that I'd ever play. So I'm making this post to share my experience, and the paths I took to complete it.

Day 1

Sobriety

I easily remembered the whole of the intro, the first day is all I've played at this point, and anything outside of the intro in the Whirling in Rags I did not remember.

I chose one of the template builds, the Thinker, and immediately started thinking of what kind of character I wanted this sad sad man to be. I ultimately decided in making him an ace detective, and horrible socialite, and also swearing him off of alcohol. Pretty much the opposite I imagined he was like before the INCIDENT.

He woke up, he grabbed his things, took a look in the mirror, and saw the beautiful man I would be playing for the rest of the game.

Behold!

He went outside to grab his other shoe, and then conversed with his neighbor for a bit, her being confused at his lack of understanding of who, what, where, why, and how he is. He goes downstairs and meets Kim Katsuragi, his new partner. When asked his name, he came up with "Raphael Ambrosius Costeau." This obviously wasn't his name, as faint bits of memory would later return in the form of "Harrier".

He would then go on to talk to the few people inside the Whirling in Rags at the time, learning about his new debt, and his job as a police officer. Learning about the world as he investigates. Once arriving at the crime scene he immediately throws up. Putting off investigating the body until later. He would investigate everyone around the crime scene, and those at the traffic blockade nearby. Getting a bit of a picture, multiple men carrying a man from a mercenary group to hang him on a tree, the main questions being: Why? Who? Was the man alive at the time, or already killed? He came back to the body, somehow resisting the urge to hurl his internal contents out into the now pre-stained ground. he was able to investigate some while the body hung, but he had an idea, a better idea. Asking for Kim's gun, he was somehow able to convince Kim that he would be able to shoot the body down. And he did it, after all, even if he doesn't remember, he took more off days at shooting ranges than anyone else in his precinct. He was a skilled shooter, and he knew it.

He tried his best to inspect the body, and did a decent job at it, but felt like he wasn't done, and took the body to a fridge to keep it cold to investigate tomorrow. He then went to go talk to the one person available he had not contacted yet.

God, he's ugly.

Managing to avoid sitting in THE CHAIR, he was able to get some information out of Evrart, namely the location of his gun, a rather important thing to have, and a bad thing to lose. Who knows what sort of malicious individual could have found it, and be actively using it for CRIME??

He took the money from Evrart, not because he was agreeing to help him, but because he needed to pay his debt.

He passed by the shipping container, and after yelling at the doors once, he pulled out his crowbar and tried to pry the doors open. In absolute disbelief, he managed to

WHAT THE FUCK

Quickly forgetting about what just happened, and whether or not he thinks capitalism is even an okay practice, he absconds with even more money than he came in with. And investment he said, somehow finagling a cool hundred into his pocket.

At this point, there wasn't much left to do, he had people to interrogate still, but they were elsewhere at the time. So he went back to his room, paid off his debt, and slept the day away.

...But not before tricking Kim into sleeping, and stealing the boots off the dead body, vowing to find the rest of the armor.

Day 2

The Hardie Boys

He went through a whole day without drinking, this is good, this is healing. He knew what he needed to do this day, and first went to investigate the body, as it was early in the day, and the Hardie Boys weren't at their spot yet.

He looked over spots he had already looked at before, but noticed something new.

A bullet hole, in the back of the neck of the body.

This is it, this is new, this implies that the hanging was not the true cause of death, or at least puts it into question.

He was hung post-mortem.

He went to the Hardie Boys for their interrogation at this point. They proved to be very... Strange. It's like they wanted to make themselves seem guilty, practically admitting outright that they hung the body, that they killed them. With the evidence of the bullet hole, this seemed off.

There was nothing else to do at this point.

He went to talk to someone who was near the tree where the body hung, and got directions to a piece of armor.

Harrier told Kim to bring the body back to the police while he went to sleep after a hard day's work.

Day 3

Communism

At this point, Harrier is getting a semblance of personality, a crucial part of any personality being, of course, politics. Harrier became a communist, partially due to the debt really cementing in his mind the idea of the cost of living being bullshit, but mostly just reflecting the beliefs of the player controlling him, who is also a communist.

Before his time, his prime time, Harrier's prime time, there was a war that broke out on this island, a fight between a group of revolutionary communists, and the government, a fight which, ultimately ended with the government winning. Of course, by the time of Harrier, this war was a distant memory of the older people of the island, specifically two people, two possibly gay men who both fought on different sides of the war.

A thought in Harrier's head as he investigated more of the surrounding areas of the body, was that, what if he, himself was the reincarnation of the founder of communism, Kras Mazov?

This was a stupid thought. He kept this thought for the rest of his life.

I'm starting to forget many small details at this point, so I'm going to skim through things.

At this point, Harrier was going into the fishing village, and there... He found his lost badge. In a car. Crashed into the ground. After it had been driven over the bridge connecting the village to the city. Which broke the bridge.

Harrier also joined a group of communists, although it wasn't what he expected, he had a good time with them, whether or not they are fit to lead a new-era revolution. They were fun.

During this time, Harrier also got really into the idea of cryptozoology. Becoming friends with a patron at the Whirling in Rags, and being asked to find her husband, a cryptozoologist. He was found at the fishing village, and he started helping him catch a cryptid, a sort of large bug of sorts, setting traps and lures to try and catch it.

At this point, he also talked to a friend of said cryptozoologist, noticing something strange about him, he got this friend to reveal that he had been keeping, and wearing, a piece of armor belonging to the hanged man.

He had acquired all of the pieces of armor he could at this point.

Day 4

Pew Pew

Today was the day. The day the gun would be found. Harrier's pistol.

It had originally been sold to a pawn shop, then bought by someone, and until today, the identity of that person was a mystery.

That person is "The Pigs", a policiphiliac, a wannabe cop. Possibly insane. Taking multiple things belonging to police, she pretended to be one. In front of the police. Harrier managed to talk her down, and was able to acquire his pistol, before telling her off and continuing the investigation.

It was at this point Harrier had found his style. He was a communist, unfortunately trapped within a reality of ultra-captialism. And at this point he didn't care who knew, which was perfect as he had found a had, a winter hat, worn by those during the war who had sided with the commune.

And thus. Harrier, ultra-communist, was finished.

And he looked damn good.

He also became very good friends with Kim yesterday, and was able to show off his sick pinball skills to him, managing to actually win a game. I only just remembered that.

His investigation was going well, as he was talking to his neighbor again. Klaasje. With her, investigating reports of sexual assault by the victim, reported by the Hardie Boys, although unintentionally. Harrier almost had a mental breakdown, losing touch with his multiple thought-personalities in the process of interrogating her. She revealed to him what actually happened with the victim...

Ellis Kortenaer, an Oranjese mercenary, and Klaasje's lover. During a party involving the Hardie Boys, she and Ellis had went up to her room, and FUCKED had private involvements within. This caught the attention of a so-called corporate assassin, who then shot Ellis in the back of the neck, while he was on top of her. Using his high perception, Harrier took into account the angles, the bullet hole in the window of the balcony, and where Ellis would have been when he was shot.

He deducted that there would only be three places where a possible killer could have be posted.

Klaasje, afterwards fearing that the bullet that hit Ellis was meant for her, and thinking if she covered it up as a group hanging it would not be noticed by who was after her, she gathered the Hardie Boys and another accomplice, deeply involved with the drug issues in Revachol, to fake a hanging.

Kim suggested they arrest her, but another option was to give her a note that makes her obligated to turn herself in.

Harrier took this option, at the behest of his easily-manipulated psyche, his inner thoughts, his personality. Although his volition was against it, his gut feeling, it told him to get Kim to arrest her here and now, but Harrier was too easily convinced by his other, compromised thought-patterns.

Within the day, he investigated two of the earlier mentioned killer's locations, noting that one has had no human life within it for weeks, if not months, the other, he was unable to rule out, being very secluded.

He then investigated a lead from an earlier delve into a drug trafficking ring. Below, where he found his revolutionary hat, in a secret tunnel network. He was assaulted by the accomplice of the fake hanging, Ruby, although not a willing accomplice. Using a device to disorient the two detectives, but after they destroy the device, she threatens to shoot herself. Harrier manages to de-escalate the situation, promising not to arrest her if she puts the gun down, and telling her they just want to talk to her. She does drop the gun, but runs afterwards, back towards central Revachol. Following her, the detectives stumble upon a most troubling scene...

The Mercenary Tribunal

The time has come, a promise from the mercenaries fulfilled. On this day, they have come to exact their revenge. Confronting the Hardie Boys. The detectives intervene, guns drawn, they try to talk down the mercenaries, trying to convince them that they know who did it, that the killer is going to be found soon, but nothing works. They say they already know who did it.

Bullets fly. Time slows to a halt. Harrier has just shot the leader of the mercenaries. He tries to yell for his comrades to shoot him, but he collapses before words could leave his hole-abundant mouth. The mercenary full clad in armor raises his rifle, but Harrier manages to dodge it, while Kim aims a shot at the man. Harrier notices the mercenary standing next to the leader raise her gun, towards Kim. Before he could call out, two shots ring out. Kim is unscathed, and the fully clad shooter is killed instantly... A member of the Hardie Boys has been shot. The leader, in his dying breath, his final moments of living, shoots Harrier.

Harrier blinks, collapsed on the floor, in pain too immense to describe. A lot of good the armor did him, he thought, as he bled out on the ground, seeing in his fading vision a figure, walking up to Kim who is trying to make sure Harrier is still alive. Harrier yells out to Kim.

Day 5

Harrier Du Bois

In the Whirling in Rags, Harrier wakes up, Kim standing next to his bed, explaining the situation, and aftermath. Two Hardie Boys have been killed. All of the mercenaries are dead. Harrier is in too much pain to move properly, unable to run too much, lest the pain take him. He decides to continue the investigation anyways, just one last place to look before it's all over, an island, an abandoned base back during the war.

Harrier, trying to feel better, brings a radio on the ride to the island. It feels badass. He feels badass.

Arriving, he makes his way up to the spot he had seen from the balcony of the Whirling in Rags. On the way, he spots a man, a very old man carrying a gun used by the communist revolutionaries.

After some time of questioning, Harrier discovers this man is a deserter of the army that fought for the commune in the war. The deserter explains some things, finally tired of the life he had been living all these years.

He had been spying on Klaasje from the island, and through a peephole inside the Whirling in Rags back rooms, watching her every move, watching her sleep every night, wake up every morning, watching her stand on her balcony in fear and contentment. He developed feelings for her, through these times watching her, leaving her flowers on her balcony that bloom mainly on the island he lived on.

Something is wrong with him, clearly, but something else is there. Another presence, which shouldn't be there, shouldn't exist.

Cryptid

The creature the cryptozoologist had been chasing the whole time. It was real. It was controlling the deserter through pheromones, controlling his brain processes, making him ignore its presence, but also making him go slowly insane the whole time he had been on the island, and live longer than he had any right to. Once it appears, the link is severed, and the deserter falls limp, catatonic.

Harrier touches it, linking his own fractured psyche with the creature. The conversation is long, a talk about the pale, a mysterious force akin to radiation, that appeared along with humans to the world, although Harrier, for a moment, thinks its talking about him when it mentions the pale coming into existence with "you". It talks about the bad relations between flora and fauna, and humans, with the creatures of the world believing humans will bring the destruction of everything, eventually. It talks about its own history, about how it, as a species, has gone unnoticed for over 4,000 years.

Harrier urges Kim to take a photograph. As soon as he does, Harrier moves away, sensing hostility building up in the creature.

The creature leaves, and leaves behind its nest. In the middle of which lies a helmet, the last piece to the set of Fairweather T-500 ceramic armor.

The detectives agree to leave and, when they get back, they find police officers gathered, finally catching up to Harrier, wanting to take him off the case, thinking he'd do irreparable damage to the stability of the investigation, not knowing that he had already completed his investigation.

The police have no idea of Harrier's recovery over the past week, Kim, having become very close friends with him very quickly, backs up Harrier saying that he has completely stopped drinking, and become a very good cop as well, at the same time also becoming extremely communist, though Harrier insists it won't interfere in his work.

They reluctantly accept this, and the evidence of a cryptid with the photo that Kim took, and in the end, Harrier is back to work, along with Kim who agrees to be his partner for good.

That was my completed playthrough of Disco Elysium. And I will never play it again. I feel like if I even make one, tiny, small choice that differs from my original playthrough, I'll be betraying my original experience of the game.

I recommend, even after reading through basically the entire main plot of the game, and spoilers on the ending, that you still play through the game. This was just my one perspective, and you could get a WILDLY different experience from this. You could become a fascist if you want, or a hyper-capitalist. Or a liberal. You can become a superstar cop, or a cop who is sorry all the time.

For me, I played through the boring cop communism, while accidentally dabbling into capitalism by constantly asking for money from people.

Please don't buy the game. Play it though.

[dracoangel]

So I went and watched that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix. I finished the series last night. So first thoughts when I started:

It was hard for me to want to watch anymore after Epi.1. Not because of the graphic nature (though I was not prepared for the literal blood bath it started with), not because of langauge (that doesn’t bother me at all). But because it confused me. I don’t know if it would have been better if I had played the game beforehand or not. It’s a shame if that’s the case - that you have to play the game to have a better understanding. I can’t help but compare it to something like Arcane, another Netflix series based off a game; I haven’t played LoL in YEARS, only played for a couple months and know absolutely zip about the lore, but I could watch Arcane without any problem and I thoroughly enjoyed it. (I originally was going to compare it to The Witcher but scrapped that, since the series is more based off the books than the game).

It took me another week before going back and starting Epi.2, and I’ll be honest, the only reason I did is because I am sick and had nothing else to watch 🤣 And that night I pounded through 2 or 3 episodes. I was starting to get a better understanding and had even grown to like Maine, Dorio and Rebecca; Lucy was still on my shit list at this point lol and David... well, he wasn’t one of my favorites, let’s just put it that way.

I still don’t have a full understanding of the world and the circumstances that led to people modifying themselves into cyborgs (and why you have fools that go so far as to lose their minds). But I did enjoy most the characters. And I hated most their fates, ultimately leaving 1 (maybe 2? Though I don’t remember seeing him at the start, maybe I missed him in the background somewhere because he seemed to know Maine) of the original crew that David started with alive.

As I said before, I don’t know if I would have understood more if I had played the game; I’m not sure how much backstory/world building the game gives you. Did it make me want to play the game? I mean, a little? I’ve always wanted to play Cyberpunk: 2077, I’ve heard good things (y’know, when the developer’s finally went in and patched some fixes and what-not), it looks like it has an awesome character creator (which is a huge bonus for me) and looks to have a (at least mildly) interesting storyline. But unfortunately its a shooter game, which I can’t do (I’m horrible. no lies) and it’s in first-person (I loath first-person games, I don’t like not being able to see what’s around me, and makes making a character pointless since you don’t get to look at them outside of maybe the occasional cutscene or screenshot taking).

I feel they need to do some kind of prequel to the series (since a sequel is about 90% not gonna happen given how it ended, unless they do another edgerunner team kindof thing). Give a little more background into the world to better understand what’s happening for those who didn’t play the game. I feel like I would have enjoyed it so much more if I understood the world and how things worked.

[gam3rgurl]

First post

Jordan Kantor 

Professor Cavitt 

ENC 1102 

29 Feb 2024 

Gaming Hurts? 

Hello everyone Gamergurl here! For my first official post I wanted to discuss the stigma around gaming being bad or unhealthy for you. Since my blog will go in depth about specific games, I think it is important to go over some broader topics of gaming first to touch the surface of gaming before we really get into it. One of the biggest stigmas around gaming is how it can be dangerous for you in different ways. These ways can range from health- both mental and physical, exposure to insensitive topics such as violence or nudity and of course the gam chats with strangers. While all of these issues are very real and genuine concerns, I am going to focus on how gaming is actually good for you today. 

  To begin, I would like to go over rhythm games first. These games are typically in the style of point and click to match up with a song. These games are good for reaction time. They stimulate the brain and improve hand eye coordination skills. These skills are also building blocks for more hands on or intense games such as shooter games. The National Institute of Health published an article that states “The researchers found that the children who reported playing video games for three or more hours per day were faster and more accurate on both cognitive tasks than those who never played. They also observed that the differences in cognitive function observed between the two groups was accompanied by differences in brain activity. Functional MRI brain imaging analyses found that children who played video games for three or more hours per day showed higher brain activity in regions of the brain associated with attention and memory than did those who never played”. This not only shows how gaming is good for brain development but regular tasks. Memory and reflex demanding games cause the player to exercise these muscles in the brain. While they may or may not realize it, they are doing an activity that is good for their brain and themselves. 

  Gaming is an outlet in so many ways. It can be used for inspiration and a way to express emotions. Personally, if I am in a bad mood or just need a pick me up, I will get online. An easy way to get out anger or sadness is channeling it into a game. An article done by the American Psychological Association states “Simple games that are easy to access and can be played quickly, such as "Angry Birds," can improve players' moods, promote relaxation and ward off anxiety, the study said. "If playing video games simply makes people happier, this seems to be a fundamental emotional benefit to consider," said Granic. The authors also highlighted the possibility that video games are effective tools for learning resilience in the face of failure. By learning to cope with ongoing failures in games, the authors suggest that children build emotional resilience they can rely upon in their everyday lives”. Video games can be calming even though they are known for intense emotions. There are many games that fall into the category of “indie”. These games are typically very calming and have soothing music with slow gameplay. These games are a nice alternative to other stress relievers. Personally, when I am upset or need to get some emotions out, I channel those feelings into an intense game. For me these games are FPS or First Person Shooter. Something in the games relieves that violence I built up and lets it out in a healthy way. Games are also a controlled setting to allow emotions out.   Many games can actually teach you life lessons. My favorite example of this is the GTA franchise. For those of you who are not familiar with these games, you play as a character in story mode or a free roam world option. There are missions where you complete heists, robberies, shootings and more. While all of this sounds reckless and like a horrible idea for a child to have access to, this game has repercussions or consequences. If you break another persons car you have to pay for it with your personal in game currency. Cops can come and get you for doing these bad things such as robberies. And while doing these bad things is the objective of the game, there is the reminder that punishments await. This almost reinstalls the fact that these actions are bad and should only be committed online in a game. An example of a life lesson in games that I like is the don't give up and keep persisting aspect. The Harvard Buisness Review uploaded an article which mentions “Video games can be repetitive. You might fight the same monsters again and again to level up. You might run around for hours collecting sticks just to build one weapon. You might make tons of progress, only to fail at the last moment and be sent back to square one. Games take patience. The same can be said for work, and our lives in general — it can feel repetitive at times. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Think about it — if we didn’t enjoy the small, mundane moments of video games, what would be left? The patience and hard work are what make the glorious cut scenes, rare achievements, and final fights worth it”. These are some lessons that adults have a hard time with, learning this at a young age can be very beneficial for you in the long run. 

Gaming is a way for many people to remain social. Gaming can allow you to connect with many people all over and create unique relationships. I personally have made some great friendships with people online. These relationships may be online but they are very real. As someone with anxiety, I find it easy to talk online. Hiding my face and detailed information about myself can be freeing. These people do not know who you are or what you look like etc. They only know what you tell them. For my senior year of high school I did all of my classes online. I did not do zoom so I had no contact with any classmates or anyone else but the teacher. This made it difficult for me to remain social. I found myself mainly socializing with my online friends. I was able to spend more time on my computer so it was easier for me to see what was going on online already. I would sit in calls with my friends or take mini game breaks in between subjects and assignments. This would be a distresses method for me and a way for me to calm down during class almost like a rest period in between classes. Since I also do have a hard time making friends out in public, this method of connecting with others was super easy for me and comfortable. An article by GEICO states “Past research involving children found that those who played more video games were more likely to have good social skills, perform better academically, and to have built better relationships with other students because of the social and collaborative component to some types of games”. This shows that people who play games are better at being social. 

  It may be hard to believe, but gaming can be a job .There is a broad spectrum of employment that falls under the term “gaming”. This can be from coding and designing to actually playing games for a living. The more common jobs related to gaming are jobs like game design, animation, game development etc. Or there are jobs to play games professionally. This is definitely an interesting career and not one that many can get into. I know this myself because I am trying. I stream on Twitch. It is definitely easier to make this a career if you are very good at a specific game because then people will watch you for the top tier gameplay. Unfortunately, I am not nearly good enough to be considered a pro in any game. My content turns towards funny rather than good. I still try very hard but I know that I am no pro yet. I like to consider my content as a road to success as I am working on improving as I make content. I have been streaming for quite some time now and I just try to have fun with it. At first I tried to be as good as I possibly could, but that got tiring really fast. It is not easy always trying to be the best at any given moment. I learned that as I went on. Now I just have fun and enjoy my time. Trying to be the best took all of the fun out of gaming for me. Once you reach a certain mindset in competitive gaming many people just seem to loose interest, I was a victim to this phenomenon. 

  To conclude, gaming has a natural negative stigma surrounding it. Gaming actually is not a harmful activity. It has many benefits both physical and mental. It can be a source of inspiration or an outlet for emotions. It can be a way to express yourself in many ways. Games can teach you real life applicable facts or skills. I myself use gaming for fun, money and a way to express myself. Nothing is better than that winning feeling you get from a victory or the endless laughs with strangers online.  

SOURCES 

[nihiltism]

oh boy I finished (citation needed) a new game time to add to the veedia tag again

metal: hellsinger (ps4)

this game is Lovely. this game is so fun. I cannot aim to save my god damn life. metal hellsinger accomplished a major feat in having the only possible setup in the entire world to encourage me to play a first person shooter (being, really good metal and rhythm mechanics) and to that I applaud it because I consider fpses to be sort of my mortal enemy? right next to mmos and fighters? im gonna go into it more let me not take up ur entire dash.

the gameplay is Lovely. i did play on easy mode but ough the. shotgun cocking effects to the beat of a good metal song. there is Nothing Like It. the difficulty is Honestly Not Bad ** given some practice time and its very much a delight to play. well. save for one part but ill get to that. its a darkly lit game which is a problem but all of the enemies are color coded, glow, and have their own sounds and that alleviates it a bit.

i will say that the game is. Not Optimized to PS4? it is. Quite Glitchy and while I don't mind most of them i know some people do and there were a few that very much got in my way (i posted the acheron boss glitch a couple hours ago). also sometimes enemies just get stuck in the floor and youre waiting for them to pop up so you can move on. thats fun. also the bug enemies suck. the shield enemies also suck. those arent glitches i just hate them.

as for plot uh. this game was not made for plot. i accept this. its kinda Just Okay but it doesnt really need to be more than that. you play a scary demon lady who wants nothing more than to rip the devil limb from limb. whats better than that. youve got a troy baker skull. the plot there is admittedly pretty cute especially if you try to analyze the lyrics but i am also very much a sap and it hit a specific genre of Relationship In Media That Is So (Kinda Just There) Its Not Even A Subplot which is one of the few genres i can actually stand. i will say i feel i got a bit beauty and the beasted at the ending but like. eh. it wasnt that much. anyway. next point

theres no bad songs in here. my favorite is this devastation easily. ost introduced me to arch enemy which is a band you can all tell I'm normal about. the lyrics only kick in when youre at max multiplier so being able to hear a good drop is a good motive to get decent and not get hit. i think my ranking of songs is this devastation - no tomorrow - burial at night/stygia - dissolution and then everything else is kind of at the bottom in no particular order. not to say i dont like them but theyre all the same level of like. also serj tankian is there. he is lovely. he does the final boss theme (no tomorrow) that I wish I could fucking hear him over damage sound effects and myself swearing. yeah now we get to that

** The Final Boss Is Bad. yeah my main problem (and kinda only Real Problem) with this game is uh. i dont think i can actually finish it? there is an Enormous difficulty spike at the final boss to the point where my first run of lasted a solid Two Minutes if that and i am on easy mode. my friend described it as (game is touhou now) and yeah i can see it. first person touhou. nobody wants to play first person touhou. i dont want to play first person touhou. i didnt actually beat the game i just watched the ending and resolved to get back to it when i feel like it (never) and do better things with my time. like draw unknown in little outfits.

anyway thats My Thoughts. its a good game and i will probably keep playing the levels over n over. for people who dont replay these games over n over it is definitely not worth the money as you can pretty easily slash through all the levels in one sitting if you know what youre doing but i am easily entertained and love rhythm games. stay tuned for doodles of the unknown with my general fashion sense. listen to the two best tunes also. maybe listen to the whole ost after if u like it.

[underburningstars]

Playing with hair

This is a prompt fill up for SFSummerbingo2022 of the 'Playing with hair' square. @starkerfestivals

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

After the whole Thanos fiasco spending time in the lab weekly with Mr. Stark – Tony – is a norm for Peter now. Tinkering on his web shooters, putting new upgrades in his suit, watching Tony work on his suit. This is the best time of Peter’s week. And if Peter also got to see Tony’s muscle flex under those thin tank tops, then it was just an added bonus.

It was a bit hard to accept at first that his feelings towards Tony had long changed from bright-eyed hero worship to something that made his heart clench. Now it’s something he just lives with every day.

This started a few weeks after Tony’s divorce with Ms. Potts, telling him that he can use the lab whenever he wants. Peter was only a little surprised to see Tony join him. But now the lab has turned into a sanctuary for both of them.

With his classes in NYU and spending time with May or his friends, he can only manage to go to the lab once it twice a week. But it’s okay. Peter was content with that. Or so he thought.

Time like these were the hardest to manage to be content with only being Tony’s protégé-turned-friend. Times when tiny touched him. Casually placing a hand in the back of his neck and massage that area, leaning over his shoulder to see what his working on, moving him by a hand on his hip and Peter’s personal favorite, playing with us hair.

No matter how much he tried to tell himself at first that they were all platonic touches, he couldn’t. The fingers pulling at the collar of his shirts, the hand squeezing his hip or the subtle pull of his hair that made it almost impossible to hold back a whimper, wouldn’t let him.

It’s like both of them were waiting for the other to make the first move. The tension between them was palpable. Every week Peter went to the lab vibrating with anticipation and every week he went back wound up and a little disappointed.

Peter was already having a pretty horrible day with his professors thinking that no amount of assignment is too much, people are rude enough to cut in line and the Starbucks barista thinking too much sugar is fun or something. He doesn’t think he’ll survive another day of the ridiculous game if unresolved sexual tension.

Tony notices his sour mood just as he enters the lab.

“Rough day, Pete? You don’t look too well.” Tony’s worried tone made him feel a little better.

“Yeah, had a bad day. Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.”

“If you want maybe we could skip working today and watch something on the TV. We could also get the Chinese takeout you like so much.” Tony’s proposal sounded tempting but today Peter wanted to keep Tony at arms length.

“No its fine. I need to work on the web shooters and focusing on something else would be better.”

“If you’re sure…” the older man trailed off.

“I’m sure. I’ll be alright.”

-

Peter was not alright. It has been more than an hour and he didn’t get anything done. He couldn’t concentrate on anything at all. He kept getting equations wrong and his head was pounding. He knew he was looking at the web shooter equations but hi brain wasn’t catching anything.

“Pete, that’s enough. Stop working now.”

“Its fine I just need a minute.”

“No you don’t. It’s not like you’re doing anything productive by being like this. Just stop for today, okay? If the web shooters are that urgent I’ll take a lot at the for you. Right now we can order takeout and watch Obi-Wan. How does that sound.”

“That sounds wonderful. Best idea ever.” Peter relented with a sigh.

A few moments later they were settled on Tony’s ridiculously comfortable lab couch, Obi-Wan playing on the TV and finished takeout boxes on the table. Peter was feeling more relaxed then ever. Maybe that was the reason the when Tony put a hand on his thigh all, he did was scoot closer and snuggle next to Tony.

“Peter, what are we doing?” Tony’s we’re weren’t above a whisper, as if to not ruin this fragile thing between them.

“I don’t know, Tony. You tell me. You’re the one who started this.”

“Like you weren’t totally on board with everything.” Peter chuckled when he heard the slight in Tony’s voice.

“Yeah I was. And I’m also on board with doing something more than just sneaky 18th century style touches.” Tony straightened them both so that they were now facing each other. He put his hands on Peter’s check so he was now cradling his face and Peter leaned towards Tony’s right hand just a bit.

“Something more, huh? And what would that be?” Tony leaned closer to his face.

“You tell me.” Peter leaned closer too and now their lips were almost touching, warm breath mingling together.

“Something like this maybe.” And Tony kissed him. It stared out soft and chaste. With just a soft pressure on their lips but soon turned filthy. With him climbing on Tony’s lap, Tony licking into his mouth, hands pulling at his hair.

They broke free a while after, both of them panting. Tony’s hands were still playing with his hair when Peter groaned. “Ugh. I love it when you play with my hair.”

“Yeah? I love it too. Your hair’s really soft. And the sounds you make, Pete. Jesus Christ.”

“Mmm. You have really nice hands.” Peter promptly melted when Tony’s nails started scratching his scalp and nuzzle into Tony’s neck.

“Do you wanna grab some dinner with me tomorrow? Then we can carry on where we left off.”

“Tony Stark, are you asking me out?”

“Yes I am and say yes before I back out thinking this was a very bad idea.”

“Nuh uh. No backing outs.” Peter put his hands on Tony’s waist and held him tightly. “Keep playing with my hair just like this and I’ll go dates forever with you.”

“Promise.”

[miekasa]

mie what are your thoughts on gamer!armin? i know we have streamer eren, but do you think armin would game too?

Unfortunately... this is a very cute concept, and I can see almost all boys fitting some kind of gamer/streamer aesthetic :((

He has a pc setup, but I think he might also have a console or two. He would be one of the lucky bastards who got a ps5 for retail price and he’s so lowkey about it even though it’s kind of a big flex (see, now, if Connie or Eren had it they wouldn’t fucking shutup about it ever bye). 

He keeps the ps5 in his living room tho, and honestly uses it very casually. It’s really more for when you wanna play games with him, or for when his friends come over and wanna do more multiplayer stuff together. Or for things like Just Dance. 

He would probably also have a Switch but got it as a birthday present or something; he didn’t want to buy it himself/have too many consoles, but since he has it, he does use it (and he really likes it)! Lowkey he takes it with him to some of his more boring lectures and he’s in the back of class playing Kirby lmaooo

His pc setup would probably be all white with a lot of neutral/grey tones, and maybe blue? or like sage green as his accent color, idk I feel like those suit him. His computer case and monitor and desk would be white, but his keyboard/keycaps could be green/blue and the mat for his mouse and stuff. His headphones, too. 

Speaking of which, I think he would have one of those keyboards with the round caps that kinda give typewriter-ish vibes, but are still very clicky and satisfying to type on. He uses his setup for games, but also for work lmaoo so it’s pretty practical. 

I think he would also have pretty lights around his setup. Not the typical rgb/led ones, but maybe those hexagon (?) tile things, or just a simple string of, like, Christmas lights he found at target or something. He always has the lights on if it’s dark out; he doesn’t like the only light source to be from his screens because he thinks it’s too harsh and it hurts his eyes. Baby. 

He has like a fake laptop next to his desk for his cat to play with so that it doesn’t jump on his desk when he’s gaming or doing work.

When he plays games, it’s usually with his friends esp if they’re multiplayer. He doesn’t like gaming with random people, it makes him nervous. Sometimes even his friends can be too much for him after a while lmaooo 

He gets really excited if you wanna play games with him. He doesn’t think he’s the best gamer in the world, but he’s good enough to show you the basics and somehow it feels easier when you’re playing with him. 

Has a thing against first-person shooter games, but he’s a little too good at them. He doesn’t like them because they kind of make him dizzy after a while and because some of them are a bit violent yet... he’s scary accurate at them. Him, Mikasa, and Levi... a little too good at games like that despite never playing them... is there something you guys wanna share with the class...

He complains that you’re “distracting” him when you sit on his lap when he’s at his computer, but it’s highkey one of his favorite things. Even if he’s actually doing work, and not gaming, he kinda sorta really likes that you would just wanna sit in his lap and take a nap. He pokes fun at your for it after tho, let that be known. 

Very protective about food and drinks near his computer. And by protective, I mean they’re not allowed with a six foot radius. Except water, but even then it must be bottled. Food/drinks and technology don’t mix. Not to mention it’s all white, he’s not taking any chances. And he cleans his desk religiously. 

He has glasses he’s supposed to wear when he’s looking at screens for too long. He looks very cute in them. He hates being photographed in them. You have gotten away with taken far too many photographs of him in them. 

Sometimes he just sits in his swively chair for fun. Not to game, not to do work. Just to spin around for a bit. He also likes to let you sit down and spin you around for fun. It’s how you have long conversations and make decisions about what to eat for dinner.

Lets you have a profile on his desktop. He also lets you have a villager on his Animal Crossing island and is very bitter if you do not let him do the same, even though you both have your own islands. 

Even if you don’t play with him a lot, he’ll still get you matching headphones. He’s very shy about it. 

If he streams, it’s probably because Eren or Jean stream too and got relatively popular, and then he did by association. He doesn’t mind it. His solo streams are a lot more calm than Eren’s or Jean’s or Connie’s, but people like them anyway. It’s a lot of fun when they all stream together. 

People really like watching him stream on his ac island. His is so pretty (because he spent 6 straight weeks putting it together when he first got the game. No sleep, no other games. Just him collecting recipes like a little worker bee). 

He usually mentions you off-handedly in his streams, and eventually people catch on that you’re his girlfriend. He wouldn’t necessarily ask you to show your face (and he definitely wouldn’t make you if you didn’t want to), but he would mention to you how much people ask about you. 

He... lowkey... kind of likes how much people like you (and likes the comments that tells him he’s lucky or the jokes about if his girlfriend is single). He never responds to them, but deep down... he... has a thing for them. I will not analyze why here, but I will let you take a guess <2 

He lets you use his computer for anything you need to. If you wanna play (with his friends, without him; which is really fucking funny by the way, because Connie probably wouldn’t even notice that you’re on the mic for at least an hour), or do your homework, or just watch videos, or whatever.

His cat sits on his lap or his desk, or at it’s little mock cat-desk sometimes, but on chill days/when he’s playing calm games, sometimes it his just on his shoulder. Takes a little nappy nap. Occasionally licks his cheek. 

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR: It's. About. Story.

After weeks of complaints about the new Galactic Seasons program, the devs posted a response today. Unfortunately they managed to neatly sidestep almost all of the complaints players have been making en masse: 

1. The PVE objectives funnel a lot of players into areas where the instances are too large for the map to accommodate, such as 30 players on CZ-198. It's thus making those areas miserable to play, and woe to anyone actually trying to complete story (such as Rishi and Yavin 4).

Solutions to this issue would be a) lower the number of players in each instance; b) distribute the objectives more broadly so players don't all converge on a few specific areas. EA/BW said nothing about the former and doubled down on making the objectives narrow for the latter, at least for the first season of GS.

2.  The "RNG" for objectives is very heavily skewed toward PVP and GSF, which are activities many players dislike and do not want to do. It's not uncommon to have both GSF and Warzones come up as the day's POs, and there's only one re-roll.  

3. Re-rolling any objective often results in GSF or PVP coming up again. There's only one, so that often means a player cannot complete their PO (s) for the day. 

As solutions to #2 and #3, players have been asking for a) more re-rolls; b) a way to toggle mission preference between PVE, solo PVE and PVP objectives so they avoid the ones they hate and won't do. 

4. There are no solo weekly POs. 

It seems as though EA/BW is making a conscious effort to ignore all the feedback on what many players actually want from the game and the issues they've expressed both on the PTS and live, to try to push the play styles they - and a small clique of fans - personally favor. It feels to me that they are trying to force the game and the player base to be something they're not. 

SWTOR was marketed as a story based game. Its core demographic comes largely from two single-player, story-based games: KOTOR and KOTOR II. When it was released it was praised for the richness of its storytelling, and the strength of its voiceover artists. 

Not PVP. 

Not raids. 

Not GSF. 

Story. Good, substantial story. 

The writing on the wall is there with other EA/BW games, too. The next Dragon Age was changed from a MMO to a single-player game. Anthem, a game involving group play, failed. Fallen Order, a single-player story based game, did well. 

Mass Effect and Dragon Age are a decade old. KOTOR is an older game, too. People still play them, and want more of them, because of the story. 

Of course, EA/BW would love it if the SWTOR playerbase en masse learned to love PVPing and GSF. It's low-cost content for them. They don't have to do much; just provide the maps and let players kill each other. But that isn't why people play this game, overall. There are far better games for PVP, first-person shooters and space battles, if that is what one actually wants. Heck, there's an entire space battle Star Wars game, Battlefront II, if that is what one wants. 

In SWTOR, it's about the story. It's about the characters. 

Sometimes I feel like there are devs at EA/BW who are trying to do this with the resources they have, and I'm grateful for that effort. The swoop rally had short storylines and characters to talk with. Echoes of Oblivion brought us the best writing since KOTFE. They had a Mandalorian themed flashpoint that brought in a storyline for non-Force users. None of it was IMPS VS PUBS 4EVA!!! which was great. Even the Secrets of the Enclave was pretty good. While I dread what it may be setting up, and it's back to the IMPS VS PUBS 4EVA!!! treadmill which is boring and tedious as fuck, it was designed well and had some really excellent moments. 

But...Spirit of Vengeance was designed initially at a level much more tedious, and requiring better gear, than usual story/solo flashpoints. GSF objectives get way more conquest points that anything else. Some mats are only available through ranked PVP or NiM Ops. And now, Galactic Seasons, which could have been brilliant but seems to be garnering more resentment, anger and lost subscriptions than anything else. 

When is there engagement and interest in SWTOR? When does one see more people posting on the official forums? When do the planets seem busier? When there's new story or event that can be soloed. 

What do people constantly ask for? New stories, new engagement with companions, new strongholds, new world building. 

It's interesting that EA/BW never has to beg or bribe people to play the story. Players do it because they want to. Even KOTFE/KOTET, which are not super popular, do not require player bribes.  The only story content people seem to avoid or revile en masse are the walker missions; Oricon, which needs two ops to be completed; and Makeb, which tellingly has no characters with which the player can bond and engage long-term. 

The class stories? Still being played. I've been through the Sith Warrior story four times, with several clones at various points in the class story working their way through. I've been through the Sith Inquisitor story three times, again, with more clones coming up. Bounty Hunter? Three times, so far.. Smuggler? Twice, so far. Imperial Agent? Twice. I've repeated every class story at least once, and I still keep coming back to do the class stories and planetary stories and side quests, because they are good. Because I like the characters I meet. Because the planets are engaging. 

Shadow of Revan? Still being played. 

I still see people on Ilum. I see people on Onderon and Ossus. Even Zakuul and Iokath. The story content gets played, and played again. One of the things people have requested again and again, in fact, is a way to repeat the story content.  

Voiceover artists are expensive, especially when three languages are being recorded, but players have offered ways to add engagement with companions without speech, such as emails from them. Silent missions. You don't need to have a voiceover artist to animate a short scene of Lana Beniko or Theron Shan dancing on the beach with a PC they've romanced. Even if they cannot keep up every romance, if they just kept up with Lana and Theron it would make players happy. Add in, let's say, four or six selected from the class stories - let's say Scourge, Kira, Quinn, Jorgan, Vette, Risha - and a lot of people would be overjoyed. Four men, four women; equal number from each faction + KOTFE. That does leave an uneven number of mlm/wlw possibilities but there are two of each, as well. And those companions can certainly have platonic friendly conversations with the PC, too. I personally really miss Vette, Talos, Xalek, Blizz, Ashara and Jaesa being in my story. And many others, too.

The things being offered by GS are things that story players enjoy - decos, new strongholds, companions with side story missions - and this makes it even more frustrating that story players are being expected to PVP, GSF and use Group Finder, unless they want to buy their way through, to get them. Don't get me wrong - the fact that it's all optional makes me less angry at EA/BW than Iokath and Oricon did, by a long shot. All the same, it's a shame they're setting it up this way, because if they gave story/solo players objectives that were not PVP and group based, I think they'd be seeing a lot more excitement and engagement right about now. 

Right now, it seems EA/BW is far more interested in catering to a smaller player group who enjoys side content that the rest of the player base has to be actively bribed and coerced to play. Should PVP and GSF get development? Sure, if people enjoy it. Should the game try to funnel the rest of us into it? No. The fact that players don't want to be there, and have expressed that sentiment again and again, and constantly need to be bribed and coerced into it, should be a wakeup call. But EA/BW is still sleeping and hitting the snooze button. 

SWTOR is a story-based game. Raids, PVP, GSF are all wonderful for those who enjoy them but they are not for everyone. Players in a story based game need story. 

[out-of-this-dimension]

Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others.  We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox.  Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better.  Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all.  Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually.  However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular.  Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive.  I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64.  I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return.  I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies. 

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story.  I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars.  Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky.  Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it.  An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.  

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault.  Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure.  Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault.  This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids.  We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma.  We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma.  That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him.  While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels.  If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels.  Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are.  But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.  

- Revise the scene with Tricky.  I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done.  And why is he suddenly king now?  Did his parents die?  He seems not affected by this at all?  Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it.  Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big.  As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out.  Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously.  And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved.  I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again.  I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive.  This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids.  I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that.  Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask?  I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”.  Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest?  I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off?  They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back.  Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing.  Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning?  Or maybe back in Katina?  And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force.  It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival.  Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen?  I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission.  I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.  

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals.  Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies.  While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well.  While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray.  Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”.  As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion.  Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there).  But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this.  He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids.  Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo?  Are they safe somewhere else?  Where do they go?  How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs.  A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me.  While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out.  I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be.  “But why, Amalia?  Why are you disappointed by that?”  1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes.  2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy.  And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures.  Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later?  Where were the Krazoa in all of this?  Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers?  It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much.  Which I mean, sure.  Family, kiddo game.  I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant.  As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins.  Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations.  Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast.  Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened).  I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it.  I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria.  Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault.  Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible.  It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it.  Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion.  Why?  Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level.  Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team.  Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria.  The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short.  It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware.  I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place?  I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic?  Also where is my revised Adventures music?  Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t? 

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign.  I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints.  I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign.  Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels.  Self-explanatory.  Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.  

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points.  I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers.  It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good.  Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly.  I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it.  And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault.  But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot.  For variety’s sake.  

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind.  So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future.  I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading!  Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s?  Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

[evening-starlight]

Warm Beers

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11

Word Count: 1808

    Kenzie slips out of her room, quietly closing the door behind her. JJ was still asleep, cuddling into one of Kenzie's pillows with the green dinosaur squishmallow John B. gifted Kenzie last year under one arm. He looked so peaceful that Kenzie couldn't bring herself to kick him out, even though it was already eight in the morning, and she could hear her dad downstairs making breakfast.

    "Does JJ want eggs?" Shoupe asks, back turned towards Kenzie when she enters the kitchen. His daughter stops in her tracks and stares at his back. How the hell did he know? Kenzie made sure that everything was put away and that they stayed quiet all night. "You're not as sneaky as you let yourself believe, Z," Victor points out and looks at his daughter with a knowing smirk.

    "Dad, I'm so sorry," Kenzie starts to apologize, knowing she broke one of her dad's rules. Again. No boys were allowed to have sleepovers until after she was eighteen.

    "Don't apologize. I've known since the first night. If I wanted to get you in trouble, I would have," Shoupe points out, turning back to the scrambled eggs in the pan. "You're too good to that boy, you know?"

    Kenzie slides into a barstool and leans against the counter. She rolls her eyes and protests, "He just needs some extra love. You've seen the deadbeat dad he got stuck with."

    "I know. I'm just giving you shit. Now, does JJ like his eggs scrambled or over easy?" Kenzie shrugs. "You're best friends, and you don't know how he takes his eggs? Are you even best friends?" Victor jokes.

    "I'm sorry, I didn't know I had to know his damn egg order to be considered best friends. I'll demote us to acquaintances again," McKenzie sasses with a roll of her eyes. Shoupe laughs at her and dishes his eggs onto a plate.

    "You didn't want any, did you?" He asks as he takes his place next to Kenzie at the kitchen island. Kenzie shakes her head. She wasn't the biggest fan of eggs unless she was low on protein. If they had more cheese than egg, she would eat them, but the Shoupe household was out of cheese at the moment. Which Kenzie considered a crime punishable by death. "Didn't get any sleep last night?" Kenzie shakes her head again as Shoupe's phone starts to ring. He sighs when he sees the caller and answers it. McKenzie slips off her barstool and goes to grab a breakfast shake from the fridge while her dad gets called in early for work.

    He sighs and hangs up, looking at McKenzie. "I have to get going, Z. I'll see you later tonight?" Kenzie agrees and hugs her dad goodbye. He leaves the house with his plate of eggs and his ceramic coffee mug. Victor had already gotten dressed and everything he needed for his workday when he decided he had enough time for breakfast. Which, obviously, got cut short.

    Kenzie moves to the living room couch and sits on the far end, drinking her shake and scrolling through social media absentmindedly while she thinks about her plans for the day. She should probably clean up her bedroom, or she could forget that and go play with the Pouges on the water.

    She glances up from her phone when JJ sneaks downstairs, looking around for the deputy. "He's already at work, Maybank," Kenzie calls up, causing the boy to jump. She giggles and waves him over. JJ jogs over and jumps on the couch next to her. "Good morning, Sleeping Beauty."

    JJ rolls his eyes and slaps Kenzie's phone out of her hands. "What the hell, JJ?"

    "I wanted your attention," JJ shrugs, smiling at her innocently. "The fuckers have work today, so it's just you and me until three. So, what are the plans?" JJ asks, heading tilting. Kenzie rolls her eyes and picks her phone up from the ground.

    "Who said I wanted to hang out with you?" Kenzie jokes. JJ pouts and crosses his arms like a child throwing a tantrum. "I'm kidding, J." Kenzie laughs, pushing JJ's arm lightly. "I thought that I should clean my room but would rather play games," Kenzie suggests.

    "I say we play games all day," JJ inputs, causing Kenzie to giggle. Her eyes catch the Hello Kitty band-aid still stuck on his chin, heightening her giggles into a real laugh. "What?" JJ asks, forgetting the bandaid is stuck there.

    "You have a kitty on your face," She laughs. JJ's hand slaps the plaster and starts to giggle as well. "You look so stupid," Kenzie continues to laugh as JJ claws the Hello Kitty off of his face.

    "You're the one who forced me to wear it last night," JJ exclaims, rolling up the bloody band-aid and tossing it to the floor. "What's the plan, Ken?" He asks, trying to forget the way his heart melted when Kenzie kissed the wound late last night. It didn't mean anything - to either of them - but it was such an innocently sweet thing Kenzie always did to make JJ feel a little bit better.

    McKenzie rolls her eyes, picks up JJ's disgusting plaster between two fingers, and takes it to the kitchen trash can. "I'm always picking up after you disgusting idiots," Kenzie says, shaking her head as she walks back to the living room. JJ just smiles a Cheshire cat-type smile as he lounges on the couch. "Pick a game, Loser," Kenzie instructs as she plops down next to him.

    JJ starts up her game system and scrolls through her options before landing on a first-person shooter he knew he'd beat Kenzie at. As she takes the remote, JJ grabs her legs and sets them on his own. She squeals slightly as she gets pulled closer to him, practically sitting in his lap. When given a questioning look from Kenzie, he just shrugs and starts the game. He just needed a little extra physical love this morning.

    The two yell and push each other when the opposite kills them during their numerous rounds. Kenzie's tongue sticks out the corner of her mouth as she concentrates on the game in front of her. JJ takes notice when he glances over at her.

    Kenzie's hunched over, feet planted firmly on the ground instead of over his legs after he brutally killed her. The controller is clutched tightly in her hands as if the pressure she hit the buttons with would make the attacks hit JJ harder. Her tongue pokes out, and her eyes squint at the screen in concentration. JJ could feel his heart pick up in pace as a smirk spreads across McKenzie's face.

    "Bomb! Headshot, Maybank," Kenzie cheers, jumping up from her seat and doing a small victory dance in front of JJ. He forces the smile that creeps across his face down as Kenzie continues to dance. She was so happy that she won against JJ that she was practically glowing. Her smile spread so far across her face that her chin dimple appears.

    At this point, JJ knew there was something else besides beers and not eating causing his upset stomach. But it didn't hit him until Kenzie turned to face him, smiling wide and eyes bright, that the feeling came up, and he felt like he needed to throw up. Kenzie was one of the most beautiful people JJ's ever had the pleasure to have in his life. Both inside and out. But was he going to confront these feelings? He's JJ Maybank. Of course he won't.

    "I let you win," JJ pouts, crossing his arms and leaning back into the couch. Kenzie giggles and jumps on the couch next to him, knees tucked under her. JJ rolls his head to the side and glares at Kenzie. Her eyes glisten with victory as she stares back at the boy.

    "You didn't let me win; you got distracted," Kenzie points out. She obviously saw JJ staring and used that to her advantage. He wasn't as sneaky as he liked to think he was. Drool was practically flooding out of his mouth as he looked her over. Kenzie was a little flattered that JJ got distracted by her, but it also made her stomach clench.

    "Yeah? By what, Ken?" JJ prompts, sitting up so he's even with Kenzie. Something was yelling at him to lean in, to make a move on his best friend. JJ knew he shouldn't, but the urge to kiss those pretty pink lips grows the longer he looks at them.

    "My unfathomable beauty," Kenzie teases, leaning closer to JJ unconsciously. JJ smirks and glances down at Kenzie's lips again. They just looked so fucking kissable right now. Kenzie's tongue pokes out and licks the soft skin, egging JJ on more.

    Kenzie can feel JJ's breath fan across her face as they slowly gravitate towards each other. This was wrong on so many different levels. They were best friends, and there was the no-Pouge-on-Pouge macking rule. But being this close and this intimate was causing both teens to get upset stomachs and throw caution to the wind.

    The garage door swings open harshly, and the deputy follows soon after, carrying his empty dishes and looking around frantically for something. Kenzie jumps to the opposite side of the couch while JJ leans back into the soft sofa cushions casually. As if they weren't about to kiss.

    "What are you looking for, Dad?" Kenzie asks, scratching the back of her neck. Shoupe takes one look at the teens and rolls his eyes. They looked like love-sick puppies who longed for the other's sole attention.

    "I got to the station and realized I left my badge at home. Have you seen it?" Victor asks, still looking in the kitchen.

    "You didn't have it this morning, so it's probably still upstairs, in your room, on your dresser," Kenzie says, knowing exactly where Shoupe keeps his personal belongings. He sighs out a thank you and goes to retrieve it. The teens stay silent and avoid all eye contact.

    This had got to be the most embarrassing situation Kenzie has ever been in. It was getting hotter in the room by the second, and Kenzie and JJ continue to ignore the other's presence in stiff silence.

    Kenzie's dad yells down that he's found as he trots down the stairs. He places a quick kiss on his daughter's head and eyes JJ suspiciously before bidding his goodbyes and running out the door. The friends continue to sit in silence, staring at the floor, before Kenzie breaks the silence.

    "Are we going to talk..."

    "No," JJ answers curtly and picks up a remote. "Let's just play." Kenzie agrees silently and goes back to fighting JJ, who won't let up on the poor girl.

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