#starfield is fine I guess

[michelledoarty]

Playing Starfield but thinking about him

[ayrennaranaaldmeri]

lol now that i went back and redid the whole thing, the final conversation with shadowheart is actually that fucking bad in general.

(for the good(TM) ending i.e no shar) she has one of the most emotion driven slowburn romances in the game if you do it correctly that is purely committed to each other shit, she literally tells the pc she wants a life WITH THEM WHICH THEY CAN SAY THEY WANT TOO, if her dad is there he tells the pc he hopes shadowheart will want to live near his wife and him, with her paramour, and then larian proceeds to treat relationship is treated like you had a fling and you never discussed your future together, lmao 'you and i had a connection' 'oh i had hoped for more bc our time has been so precious to me' 'come find me when you're free it's not like i just asked you to build a life with me recently' just remove all of the player's autonomy here too, what a fucking joke.

[spookyspecterino]

Just finished the main quest for Starfield and I have many feelings. And those feelings are manifesting themselves into fic ideas.

I guess there isn't really a point to this post other than to get my feelings down in writing and see how it compares to everyone else's.

I've put them all below the cut for those who don't want spoilers.

Ok yeah.. so where do I even start?

The fact that you get split up from your followers and in the new universe everyone is kinda ??? about you. I get it, I do, but like... that hurts so much. I feel so empty. I spent hours and hours talking to them, doing their quests, getting to know them, and bonding--and poof, I'm alone in a universe where none of them are the same and I can't grow close to any of them again.

And at the end, in our original universe, Sam is encouraging us to go into the Unity even though he knows we probably won't end up together in the next universe... BETHESDA that's not ROMANTIC that's TRAGIC. It was like a gut punch hearing Sam say we would miss each other till the end of days but had to do this anyway--and then to say he's bringing CORA, too? HUH?? You're going to not only take her away from her mother and grandfather, but also throw a 12 y/o into a new universe ALONE???

Some things are going to change in my fics, I tell you what. All of it doesn't sit well with me.

And the absolute hollowness of the new universe!! A little bit into it and I'm sitting there going I WANT TO GO BACK, PLEASE LET ME GO BACK. It just feels like the whole thing is entirely NOT WORTH IT.

I've lost Sam, I've lost Cora, and all my other companions. The emotional disconnect from the new universe companions leaves a GIANT hole in my heart. I am hurting. What is the point??

All this has done is inspire me with the most heart-wrenching angst fics I've ever thought of, and to start the whole game over again. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED this game up until this point. And I like how they're trying to do this death/rebirth motif and the impact you the player has on your world. EXCEPT, if you want me to keep playing, the companions are a large part of what made the game good for me and everything after has felt oddly lazy--like they gave up trying to make the game unique and meaningful after. The 10 different NG+ differences are fine. But still empty, and you're left with busy work in the form of artifact collection. I really regret going to a new universe, but the whole game, and your followers, are all pushing you to do it--so the game is pushing you to do this, but for what? I was so excited for the possibilities for what comes next...but it fell so flat for me. At least I can channel this pain into writing fics.

...Ok, well... rant over. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading this jumbled, emotional mess. This isn't meant to be a review either, just my perspective. So if you enjoyed this NG+ aspect, I'm genuinely happy for you. Let me know what your thoughts were on the end of the game, or if I've missed something crucial and I should keep going with my original character.

[ceilingfan5]

🎻you keep asking if your practicing is bothering me but honestly I'm so swept away. play something for me. haha I mean freebird not a like, romantic song, that would be, wild

They smack into each other, literally, like some kind of Hallmark movie. Taako’s got his enormous fluffy cat with the face like a broken human man on a harness leash, and Kravitz was looking at his phone and not the stairs, and luckily they fall off the bottom two and not the top two, because the sun has boiled the pavement and it’s hot enough to fry whatever viscera could’ve erupted from such an impact like sausage and hash at a greasy diner with a stupid name. Waffle Lot of Love. Achin for Bacon. Maybe Kravitz should be worried about how to extricate himself from this situation unscathed, socially or physically, and not thinking of bad diner names. 

Passion for Hashin. No one give him a predatory fried egg loan. 

“Taako!” He manages, after the shit- fuck- sorry he couldn’t hold onto. 

“Kravitz!” Taako gives him a big grimace. There’s a gap between his front teeth, and Kravitz notices it anew every time they run into each other. He’s so pretty. He’s so pretty, and he’s got a cat on a leash, and he’s wearing a purple paisley blouse with billowing wizard sleeves, and booty shorts that Kravitz can assume from experience say something obnoxious on the ass. And flip flops. Okay, maybe one flip flop. The other is on the ground, and his weird cat is sniffing it. “Shit, are you okay, man?”

“Never better,” Kravitz says, struggling deeply. He wasn’t ready for a conversation, let alone one with his hot neighbor with the gap in his teeth and the freckles like a starfield and the long messy hair and the dangly, flashy earrings and the glitter in his dark eyes. “You?”

Taako laughs. 

“I’m here,” Taako says, like it’s kind of a private joke. “Garyl, knock it off.” And he steps down, past Kravitz, to get the other flop. And he leans on the bottom of the stairwell to put it back on. Garyl levels his laser eyes at Kravitz instead, and doesn’t blink for a very, very long moment. Kravitz is sweating, and not just because it is Satan’s Asscrack degrees. 

“I’m glad you’re here.” 

“What, runnin’ into you and shit?” Taako snorts. “I wasn’t looking where I was going, my bad. And Garyl, I mean, look at him. Little man needs his walkies.” 

Garyl sniffs, and curls his tail around himself. 

“I wish I had some cat treats,” Kravitz admits, and not just because he wants Taako to fall in love with him. “It’s not every day you see a cat on a leash.”

“Guess you should open your blinds more often, dude.” Taako snickers. “Or your balcony, even. Taste the sizzling grill of modern day life.”

”Oh, I don’t want to bother people with my practicing!” Kravitz laughs awkwardly. This interaction has gone on much, much longer than he expected, but also now he’s not sure how to leave, and also he’s not sure how to talk to Taako again. He’s run out of excuses a long, long time ago. “I hope it doesn’t annoy you. I got those sound proofing panels, but they’re not cheap, and I think the vents-”

“It’s fine, Krav,” Taako says, leaning on the stairwell again. Garyl yawns so widely Kravitz has to wonder if that many teeth belong in a cat, even a big one. “I like it.” 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Taako nods, slow, chill, easy,. Kravitz imagines ever having any of that kind of energy, and has to come to terms right then and there with the theory that he would not know how to handle it. “You should play something for me. Not like, romantic, like uh, Freebird.”

“Romantic?” Kravitz says, instead of fucking Freebird, are you serious? Maybe he shouldn’t have. He’s stupid though. 

“Not romantic, I said!” Taako looks hot, all flushed in the sun. 

“Oh,” he says, instead of, but why did you bring up romance anyway?

“Cause that would be wild,” Taako adds, looking harried. “Playing me- romance songs through the walls.”

“Yeah, wild,”  Kravitz laughs, so, so incredibly sweaty. “I mean I know a lot of romantic songs, for weddings and stuff, but, I don’t think they’re your style.”

“Yeah?” Taako bends down and picks Garyl up. Garyl seems completely fine with this injustice, and only makes a gentle mrrrp about it. “What is? My style, I mean?”

“Uh,” Kravitz, who will not admit to having a motherfucking Romance My Hot Neighbor Playlist, scrambles. “Yankee Doodle.”

“Fucking Yankee Doodle, dog??” Taako is startled into raucous laughter. “For why?”

“You’d rock a feathered cap,” Kravitz says, dying on the goddamn spot. 

“Fair,” Taako snickers. “Maybe I’ll have to come over and hear you play that shit on your cello sometime. Not have to experience it through the vents.” 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Taako winks. “If you like.”

“I can play better things-” Kravitz starts, desperately undigging this hole. 

“Nah,” Taako says. “I wanna hear it.” 

“Yankee Doodle and Freebird?” Kravitz isn’t here. He’s gotten heat stroke and passed out and died or something. 

“That’s the mix,” Taako says, voice pitched up trying to hold more giggles in. “Add in that Lazy Town song about baking a cake, and you’ve got a hit on your hands.”

“Only the remix version,” Kravitz says gravely, resigning himself to this fate. 

“Obviously.” 

Both of them nod. Garyl yowls. 

“Gotta take my mans potty,” Taako says, as an exit strategy. 

“For sure,” Kravitz says. “I gotta go, find sheet music for Freebird. And make a blood sacrifice to my printer.” 

“I’ll let you go then.” Taako grins at him. Kravitz is melting, just knowing Taako’s looking at him. “Until our concert?” 

“It’s a date?” Kravitz!! No! What have you done!

“Yeah,” Taako decides. “It’s a date.”

[danshive]

I'm going to start over in Starfield ✨ for two reasons.

One, I want to experience the start of the game again while actually knowing how to use the map menu 🌎

Two, the much more important reason, I think core aspects of gameplay are hidden behind perks I did not take early, and if I start taking them now, it will involve grinding instead of leveling them more naturally.

For example, an NPC once told me to target a ship's engines. "RIGHT! I've seen Star Trek! I'm on this!" I declared, but I couldn't do that. I looked around for a way to do the thing I was told to do, but I was never going to find it. It's locked behind a perk 🤦‍♀️

Bigger for me personally, I didn't immediately unlock the Boost Pack training, and spent actual hours wondering why I couldn't boost using the boost pack I was given and told to use for boosting.

The boost pack mechanic was one of the reasons why I was even playing the game in the first place 🙃

For my first character, I chose the Chef background, because I thought it was a fun background, I figured it wasn't that critical to my first playthrough, and hey, maybe cooking would turn out to be OP or something.

I've yet to find enough materials to cook a single thing (where be the space super market?!), melee weapons that aren't rescue axes seem to be a thing of myth, I don't recall what the other perk even was, and things I consider core elements of gameplay were locked off until I got the right perks without me realizing it.

So... Starting over, and taking what I'm guessing I'll consider to be staple early perks for every character, homogenizing at least the early build for every future character?

I don't think it's a good thing that I feel I need to start over to get what I consider basic functionality, but it's (sort of) fine so long as this results in finding the fun 🤷‍♀️

Like, seriously, I enjoy the Bethesda RPG challenge run community and such a lot. I'd really rather not dislike this game. I'm giving it more opportunities to make me happy than I'd give other games because of that.

Bethesda should send various people on YouTube gift baskets 🎁

[alpaca-clouds]

Why I hate the concept of player-sexual characters

Okay, you know what? Let me talk about this. Because it really irks me. Like, it really irks me. I cannot express how much it irks me, to be honest.

I love BG3. And BG3 is doing a lot of stuff right when it comes to queer representation. Not so much in regards to any other form of representation (How is it that there is only one none-white character among your teammates? Why is there literally no body diversity at all? Why is there no fucking combat wheelchair?), but on terms of queer rep the game is doing very good. I mean, literally, most canonical relationships you interact with are queer. You meet a lot more happy queer couples than happy straight couples. Which is nice. And while I could've done with maybe one canonical trans character, you can at least play your player character as trans, which is fucking nice. So yeah, we are getting there.

But for heaven's sake, I will never, ever see player-sexual characters as bi/pan representation. Because they are not. Their universal sexual attraction serves not to define them as characters in their identity, but just for the player to fulfill their own power fantasy in whatever way the player desires. The fact that the characters do not care about what gender the player character has, is not really tied to the character or their story.

Which is why I like it so much more the way that Bioware did it with Dragon Age: Inquisition and some of the later Mass Effect games (is this true for Starfield as well? I have no idea). Where the characters do have a canon sexuality that influences who you can romance and who you cannot romance.

Like, I am in general not a big fan of the Dragon Age games, with the exception of Inquisition, because boy, I got invested into those characters and part of the reason is this. Like, holy hell, I cannot explain to you how invested I got into Dorian and his entire story. Like, back then I was still in egg-mode and I played the game with a female character - but I then did a second playthrough with a male PC just so I could romance Dorian.

Their sexuality is tied to who they are as people.

And sure, yeah, fine. Basically BG3 goes about sexuality in the way of: "The world does not care about it, so neither should you." Like, there is so many queer couples, some have kids that might be their biological kids, because magic, I guess, and nobody really bats an eye. So, I guess something like with Dorian, where part of his story was dealing with a homophobic dad would not happen here. Still, you know, with their supposed bisexuality not playing any role at all, it feels... hollow.

Because it does really feel like this part of them only exists for the player - not as part of their characterization. And I would feel a lot better about it, if it was.

I think it feels partly so offensive to me, because I am a bisexual trans dude and lived as a bi woman for so long. And as that my bisexuality has often been seen by men as something that they can consume in one way or another to act out their personal fantasies. So, player-sexuality/bisexuality in games being used for the player to act out that kinda fantasy feels... wrong.

How could Larian have done it or do it in future games? Well, pretty simple.

Bring in former relationships of different genders, let the characters comment on finding other characters (both in your party and out of it) attractive, allow the non-romanced characters to hook up together or hook up with other NPCs. Make their sexuality part of their story.

I totally would be fine with the characters all being bisexual. Sure, its a bit boring, but I also totally could buy into "in this world bisexuality/pansexuality is the norm" as part of the worldbuilding. But then show it through their interactions outside of being willing/able to hook up with the player character.

Though admittedly, this is in general one of my biggest issue with the writing on the game: Rather than having the characters talk with each other about stuff (outside of the idle banter in your party), they talk to the player character about how they feel about each other. You know, I have seen a lot of comments about how the ending feels unrewarding because apparently (I am closing in on the ending, but I am not quite there yet) after everything is said and done everybody just goes their own way, not acknowledging each other at all. But I think it is a problem in general.

Like, I get that each scene in which the characters interact more significantly than awkwardly standing in front of each other is a ton of work, because you gotta motion capture it - and also rendering it on the system make the workload on the hardware you are using a lot bigger... But it definitely would help the characterization.

To come back to Dragon Age: Inquisition (look, it is the one game I played that worked a lot with this), I had a general feeling for how the other characters related to each other, like, what their relationships were like. I knew how Cassandra felt about Solas and Varric. Or Sera about Cole. Sure, not all character relations were as well defined, but there was a lot happening there. Which here... I mean, I know how Shadowheart and Lae'zel see each other and how that evolves over time. I know how Karlach and Wyll feel about each other. But for example, there is never a scene where Karlach and Astarion argue with each other, even though they are moral-wise fundamentally opposed and probably would argue. Like, when you learn about the ritual and Astarion goes like "I totally should do it!", none of the other characters has an opinion on him planning that, let alone confronts him about it. Or where Gale gets annoyed with Karlach's approach to solving problems by just beating her axe at the problem. Or, like, Halsin and Janeira hanging out with each other, talking about druid stuff. Because outside of single cutscenes and the idle banter, the characters just do not interact a whole lot.

And I think that is a shame. Because they are already fun, engaging characters. But they totally would be more fun and engaging if they had a life outside of their backstory and their relationship to the player character. (And mind you, if you play an Origin playsthrough this does not change, because whatever character you play, still is the player character.)

Allow them friendships and romances outside of the player character. And be it just by having them awkwardly stand together and talk in front of the same tent at camp from time to time. lol

When you have that, their sexuality also would feel real - and not just like a device to propell the player's power fantasy.

Also, for fucks sake, just give us some aroace characters. Q-Q

[davros42]

Rewatching Classic Doctor Who, some episodes I haven't seen in years, some of the animated reconstructions I haven't seen at all.

The Reign of Terror AKA Serial H

The last serial of Series 1, closing it out with another historical.

Director Henric Hirsch gives it all a fine style, even if it did drive him to a breakdown that led him to miss episode 3. There's a LOT of dialogue in this one and relatively little action after the first episode. Ian cons the Doctor into going out for a drink to celebrate returning to Earth and hijinks ensue. The Doctor did get them back to Earth but... it's the French Revolution. They crew breaks into a farmhouse to find out it's a safehouse for royalists, they get caught and arrested, the royalists get shot and the Doctor gets left in a burning building, roll credits over the rising flames.

Sadly, the serial doesn't get any better than that. Despite Barbara going full Shawshank Redemption to try and break out of the Concergerie, The Doctor tricking a simple minded road crew boss and then masquerading as a revolutionary official, and special guest appearances from Robespierre and Napoleon.. Not a lot happens. The direction is solid, the writing is fine, we get the first use of location shooting (and it's not even a quarry!) as well as some good uses of illustrations, maps, and even stock footage to spice up the studio shot footage. The problem is there's no real antagonist (Robespierre, nominally, is the 'main bad guy' I guess) and even if there was, the show's then-current internal logic dictates that history cannot be changed (in historical themed shows only!) which leaves the crew as witnesses to history. They get in scrapes and escape over and over but nothing really comes of it. The actual plot is lifeless and lacking much in actual stakes. Much like the resolution to Marco Polo, Robespierre gets overthrown without much input or assistance from the TARDIS crew. Who then leave disappointed they couldn't have gotten a pre-emptive shot in at Napoleon. The final shot of William Hartnell narrating over a starfield and then the credits rolling is rather lovely way to close out series 1 though. "Our destiny is in the stars... let's go and search for it..."

The history's not great either and the show is decidedly sympathetic to the royalists, taking some slight inspiration from The Scarlet Pimpernel with the subplot of English undercover spies working against Robespierre. There were many, many issues with the revolutionaries but, good grief, under no circumstances do you have to hand it to divine monarchy.

Oh, and not a critique of the original story but the animated reconstructions are quite bad. The 3D CG is cheap, almost every shot is a close up of a face running a basic loop of motion. There are some wider shots which are mostly rotoscoped from existing footage. But for all the pains the existing episodes take to use positioning, editing, and body language to spice up long stretches of dialogue.. all of that it lost in the reconstructions. I would have much rather had the Sealab 2021/Frisky Dingo/Archer style animation of other reconstructions or even a photo reconstruction. The audio doesn't seem to have been mixed/balanced to match the existing episodes either. Too bad the Turks blew up the only known surviving copies of those episodes.

Next time, another odd entry for early Doctor Who... Planet of Giants.

[seerofmike]

mike 2023 year in review

whats up, this is something i started last year where i decided at the end of the year i would talk about 7 movies + 7 viddy games i enjoyed this year (the movies will be 2023 releases, the games will be all over the place). this is so i can look back on the future on the things i enjoyed this year but since im posting it publicly most of these will be written as recommendations i guess

also i did not have a lot of money to see movies this year so most of these will be IP movies :( sawi. also also 2023 was a mega good year for gaming. or so i've heard. most of the big 2023 games this year either came out on consoles i don't own (nintendo + sony releases), are next-gen only as far as xbox goes or unable to run on my dinky little laptop (AW2, the finals, re4, etc) or are just games in genres i dont really give a shit about (bg3, starfield, sea of stars). significant 2023 games i did play this year were dave the diver and dredge but not enough to be on the list. maybe next year hehe

anyways without further ado. my top 7 movies and top 7 games this year, in alternating (movie/game/move/game/etc) AND alphabetical order:

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

yeah you knew this shit was going on here. i saw this movie 8(eight) times in theaters. the first two times were because of the audio issues with the first cut but the rest was because the movie fucked babeeeeey. you don't need me to tell you how good this was

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (2023)

ok listen before i recommend this game i have to be mean to make a point first. if you know anything about me you know i think tarot is stupid as fuck and i think witchy nonsense is. well. just that. nonsense. it makes me roll my eyes especially the particular brand of like. r/WitchesVersusPatriarchy stuff. man i just dont like any sort of spiritualism or religious stuff. with that being said this game fucks tremendously and i cannot recommend it enough

you get to design your own tarot deck and each card will be unique and have meanings based on the templates you're given. you can then use these cards to tell your friends' fortunes. except it goes way deeper than that but i dont want to spoil the twist for you. also it kind of becomes a different game midway through but i like management games so its fine. anyways good game and very repayable with all the card designs you can make and fortunes you can read. art style is also very nice.

(more under da cut)

Barbie

man i know a lot of people dont like this movie after the hype wore off because its Baby's First Feminism. and that's fine. i don't really think it was trying to achieve some uber deep commentary. but the set design and costuming was great and you could tell the actors and crew were having so much fucking fun and as someone who wants to go into movies i will always like movies where the people making them are having fun.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (2023)

i like the visual novel where everyone dresses in a funny costume and sonic fucking dies ok. it was so cute and had very good characterization for people i didnt think would ever be in the focus of a game again like espio ........go play the murder of sonic thee hedge

Bottoms

this one is probably my 2nd favorite movie of the year tbh. i need more absurdist gay comedies. i wish i could go on about how hilarious this movie is but i dont wanna give away all jokes but anyways go watch the lesbian incel movie and have a good time

Potionomics (2022)

if i had a nickel for every gay witch game i played this year with significant card and management mechanics and appealing art i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

anyways potionomics is absolutely my favorite game that i've played this year. it's not all that similar to cosmic wheel sisterhood despite the basic concept and some gameplay elements. CWS is more like a visual novel. potionomics is a fucking nightmare and i love it SO much.

you brew potions and then sell them by haggling with customers using cards. customers can haggle back and it can get VERY difficult. everything you do takes up limited time slots such as gathering ingredients and brewing potions and visiting your friends and btw you can visit your friends and all of the characters are incredibly charming and i had trouble picking which one to romance. (roxanne my beloved <3) (also the white haired character in the screenshot above is a nonbinary goblin :) ) (this game has CAT PIRATES)

the game also rewards you with befriending the characters and gives you cards the deeper your relationships become and new gameplay mechanics open themselves up to you until the last couple stretches of the game. it's very fun, very stressful, but very rewarding once you figure out how to maximize your profits and use up your time slots effectively. i had a fucking blast.

also the animation is so good. literally the best animation on this sort of stylized 3d model in a game i've ever seen. PLEASE play potionomics.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3

god man. i just love the guardians so much. tbh this is my least favorite movie of the trilogy but all three of them are easily better than nearly every other marvel movie regardless. i love nebula and rocket so much and seeing small moments between them like her choking up when she hears he's okay fucking Gets To Me. i loved me asshole mercenaries who become a found family and try to be good people.

Prey (2017)

prey is not my favorite game this year nor my favorite survival sim but the first five or so hours of this game were the most engrossed i was in a game this year. towards the middle and ending portions it starts to lose me a little bit (the game is still good!) but the beginning was absolutely the best part.

being trapped in space with aliens that can mimic items in your surroundings leaves you extremely paranoid, and combing through the station finding recordings and notes and evidence of the lives of the people who were once there, knowing that most of them are probably dead--while monsters lurk around the corner ready to fuck your shit up--was deeply engrossing. i wish i could erase my brain and experience those first hours again being terrified of everything that moved before i got a shotgun and figured out how to win fights pretty regularly lol

Killers of the Flower Moon

if you're gonna watch a 3 hour movie this year about atrocities committed in the past i'd recommend this one over The Other One tbh. i found it deeply engaging and thought lily gladstone gave a great performance that easily outshone leo. the events of the movie are deeply harrowing and i think there is definitely some discussion to be had about how the movie centers on the white men despite scorses's intentions but the technical work was great and i think it really does a good job of showing just how deep this shit went in the community as opposed to being 'just a couple of bad whites' or w/e other narrative people will try to spin.

Psycholonials (2021)

im gonna go ahead and say right now i don't really recommend this game unless you are familiar with andrew hussie and HS/their other work. i think the game was fine but tbh it probably would not have been on my list if it was made by anyone else. that's not to say it's bad, just like. nothing mind blowing.

that being said i did very much enjoy this game in the sense that, as someone who DOES know a thing or two about andrew hussie, the way they feel about their work (especially HS in the years afterward), it was interesting seeing them make a game about starting a cult by accident, with all the gender fuckery and feelings of paranoia about being cancelled and how out of control its become feeling like a little glimpse into them. watching how manic and obsessive the protag gets with several years of Hussie Context(tm) makes this way more interesting than the game itself if im being fully honest.

if the game truly sucked it wouldn't be on here but do take my word for it that you'd probably appreciate it way more if you were a HS fan LMAO

Skinamarink (2022)

ok so technically skinamarink came out in 2022 BUT it got a theatrical release in january 2023 which is when *i* saw it so i'm counting it as a 2023 movie. anyways skinamarink is simultaneously very scary and also boring as shit and i could never actually recommend this movie to anyone but the fact that it was made at all and made a PROFIT is outstanding to me and i'm obsessed with it as an aspiring filmmaker. an hour and fourty minutes of staring at a dark corner to build atmosphere. fuck yeah

Venba (2023)

this one's very short but i found it very compelling despite how short it was. it almost felt TOO short but i like it for what it is. as the son (and grandson) of mexican immigrants who often regretted migrating for cultural and language reasons this really connected with me and the cooking puzzles were fun but i really wisht here was more of them. it's less about the puzzles though and more about the narrative and i thought it was really smart to make the throughline food. very good game. buy it.

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem

look at my fucking sons. everyone say thank you spider verse for changing the animation industry. i love how the boys' VAs were just goofing off and having fun and bouncing off each other it was great

This War of Mine (2014)

this one is a survival management game where you have to scavenge for materials somewhere in war-torn eastern europe with some stealth mechanics. some of your characters die very easy and some characters have 'negative' traits like being unable to sneak out or fight or drink up all your alcohol and it's not like the best in its genre but i did spend a ton of time in it. i still need to finish like a single scenario and not a custom game LMAO

[igglemouse]

Life By You Thoughts...

Ok, I just finished watching their presentation a few things super impressed me. Here are the positives!

The overall theme of the game that everything is moddable basically in game. That’s great! I’m sure players will do a lot with that! Also the ability to create worlds it looks like is a big sell and open world will be nice to have. Hopefully it performs better than Sims 3 open world did when it launched. 

No rabbit holes. I mean, this is a pretty big claim when you think about it. They even showed your sim (I will call them sims until they have a name...) shopping and at their job. I hope they realize the kind of expectations they are setting with this. It’s one thing to say ‘No rabbitholes’ and another thing to actually pull that off. I am always skeptical I guess!

The open world and how moddable it is, GIANT selling point.

Conversations? That’s a bold choice! So no gibberish language like Animal Crossing or Sims but they actually have convos...text convos. The trailer did not show any voice acting (I wonder though...with AI....) and people can edit and add their own! Not really sure how this will work out in the long run but I like bold choices! 

The game looks so moddable I honestly wonder what would be the purpose of buying packs (which it looks like they will sell.) maybe they underestimate the determination and skills of modders lol but this is clearly a positive! As a customer/consumer it’s not on me to wonder how they will make money.

Negatives...

on the other hand...the character models look really meh right now IMHO. The portraits on the UI look good, really its the hair textures that just...it kind of looks like someone putting alpha hair on a MM sim...let me show you...

Ok, this is a screen from the steam page, i didn’t edit it in any way. So the character doesn’t look bad really but the hair texture (and that blurry scalp part what is that?) just looks very meh to me. Hopefully they can clean this up but with how moddable this game is probably won’t matter in the long run and the game but just fix whatever they are doing with the hair and I’ll be fine with it personally. I know people might disagree.

Also, EA would get buried for this but they announced that pre-ordering would give you like 3 packs...and the game is launching in Early Access. That’s always a concern when a major publisher like Paradox is doing that. Feels like they have been at this for a long time and are now just pushing it out. I look at the trailer today and think it needs a bit more time. 

The whole presentation of the game is also meh. The UI just looks so bland and has little personality. Makes the game look more like a tool and not a game. Honestly the whole way they presented things made me feel like they were selling me some tool to MAKE a game and not a game itself. 

Another random negative that has nothing to do with this game but there’s so many things coming out this year! I mean I’ve been hyped for Diablo 4 (and even more hyped after the beta) and Starfield for years now! 

I root for this game though and while Early Access always raises a concerned brow from me it’s good to see that a Sims competitor is coming out and coming out this year (at least for now) and Paradox makes some amazing games. Obviously Cities but I’m always suggesting Crusader Kings and Stellaris!

Ok, that was long but those are my thoughts on this game as of now!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Pronouns

Leaving off from the liveblogging for a minute ... let's talk ... gods, I don't even want to call them 'gamers'. I guess Gamers (TM) does well enough. Or TEH GAMERS, I dunno. Something suitably sarcastic about those who make gaming and toxic masculinity their entire personality.

So Baldur's Gate 3 comes out of early access and onto general release and TEH GAMERS start freaking out about the character creation menu. Why? Because pronouns - and how you can choose the genitalia of your character separate from said pronouns and overall gender presentation. Most of them are tearing their hair out about party members flirting with your character whatever gender you're playing and "feeling like they're forced to sex up men" and not understanding how just plain optional all that shit is. But there's still a certain air of, "Hey, at least we've got Starfield coming! Starfield won't go woke on us! Todd gets us! It'll be okay!"

And then Starfield also lets you choose your pronouns separate from gender presentation. And the freak-out redoubles. They bitch moan whine about how "Bethesda's gone WOOOOOOOKE!" and how it's disgusting and why would they do that and blah.

I'm just trying to figure out why the option offends and scares them so much.

Like ... you don't want your character to bone a guy? Just ... have your character say they're not interested. It's fine. Never comes up again.

As to the pronouns ... well, I mean ... just ... match pronouns to gender presentation, and then never think about it again, maybe? If you're getting wildly, hair-tearingly offended by the character creation screen, over one little option that need never be considered again...

I mean, it's ludicrous, honestly, the mental gymnastics they do. Like, someone said, "Well, they need to know the pronouns. What are NPCs going to call you?" and the response was, "...Our name?" Now, I don't know if Starfield sticks you with a generic character name. But in games where they don't stick you with a character name, say like Baldur's Gate 3 ... how the fuck much coding and voice acting would it take to include every single name that has ever been, especially those that people just made up because that collection of syllables sounds good, and implement it in dialogue? And even then, we don't use people's names at all times when we're talking about them. Like, Hawke is Hawke. So when NPCs and companions refer to Hawke, that's the name they use. But there's a reason that DA2 never refers to Hawke by their first name, despite being able to choose it at character creation - not even their family! You get "Brother" or "Sister", Gamlen sticks with, "That troublemaker of yours", and Leandra sticks with pet names. Either way, whether your character has a standardised name or not (like "Hawke" or "Shepard", or a title like "Warden", "Inquisitor", or "Pathfinder"), eventually you're going to get to a point where NPCs need to use a pronoun because no one uses someone's name repeatedly in conversation when a pronoun exists. And TEH GAMERS would just freak out if people used "they/them" for their precious character. Because "MORE WOKENESS", when that's literally all we have to refer to someone whose gender is unknown or uncertain.

Plus it's the hypocrisy that gets to me. For decades I've been hearing these people be all snotty about those of us who are tired of playing YAGWD in every single damn game, and long for character creation screens. They're all, "Well, playing it is optional" and "ARTISTIC VISION" and all of that.

Well, TEH GAMERS? Playing these games is optional for you too. If having more options in character creation than you are personally unwilling to use upsets you so fucking much? Maybe this game isn't for you. I don't pretend that games studios, AAA or not, are actual friends and allies. But they're seeing where the money is and going for our cash instead of yours. They don't need your cash. If you think the gaming industry is dying by becoming more inclusive? Then do what you always tell us to do when we're begging for scraps of representation - either tolerate the way the gaming space is now, or leave it.

You want to play a MANLY MAN? Then go ahead! That option still exists too! But please for the love of fuck shut up about pronouns. EVERYTHING HAS PRONOUNS. Gendered beings have gendered pronouns, so your MANLY MAN has fucking pronouns, okay? Most of us would say your pronouns are "he/him" but I personally think your pronouns are "ass/hole". Now take a breath, put on your big boy undergarments, and either put up with there being options that aren't there for you, or leave. There's the door.

[trainsinanime]

Based on very first impressions, Fallout looks to me like a much better live action TV adaptation of something that didn’t need a live action TV adaption than Avatar The Last Airbender. Live-ATLA is fine, I guess, perfectly acceptable. Fallout is genuinely fun, though. Fallout also seems to be more fun than Starfield so far, so that’s two invalid comparisons it wins for the price of one. I’ll probably watch a few more episodes of Fallout. Not sure I can say the same for Avatar the Live Action Airbender.

[atombombbaby]

Changing my (mod manager) religion

After years of using Nexus Mod Manager, trying out Vortex, and going back to the community-maintained edition of NMM, I am now a complete Mod Organizer 2 convert. It has the best features of the other two put together, but is less confusing (for me) than Vortex. Yes, I find Vortex confusing. Shut up; I'm old.

And ironically, if I understand correctly, the guy Nexus hired to build Vortex is the one who originally made MO or MO2?

I had avoided MO2 for years, assuming it was obsolete, but it's the recommended tool to install and manage Tale of Two Wastelands, so I was like, "Fine, I guess I'll bite the bullet." And then, as I learned more about how to use it, I was continuously amazed.

There's a little bit of a learning curve compared to NMM, but after that, it is SO GOOD! So far I've only used it on Fallout New Vegas/TTW and Starfield, but it works flawlessly with both of those.

Starfield support is only in the beta version of MO2 so far, but the beta works just as well for me as the official release--and the main version will most likely support Starfield within a couple of weeks. (To get the beta, just install the current version, go into preferences, and opt into beta updates.)

Now I have to convert my Skyrim and Fallout 4 installations--which is going to be tedious, but worth it, I think.

I guess there's a reason MO2 has been making a big comeback lately.

(Tale of Two Wastelands is a mod that takes your entire FO3 installation and turns it into DLC for New Vegas, so you can seamlessly travel between both wastelands with the same character. They are completely integrated--you can even take followers from one to the other. It is widely regarded as being the best way to play FO3, and even Josh Sawyer, although AFAIK he hasn't played it, has said he thinks the idea is pretty cool.)

[furylad]

I wish Starfield was a little more narratively consistent about the rules of their universe(s) but at the same time I guess you're not meant to overthink it because "the laws of the universe are more like guidelines anyway" as Barrett points out in some dialogue.

but see. I intentionally sacrificed my LI (Barretttttt) so that I'd have an excuse to go through the Unity and the mixed signals you get from the Emissary vs. members of Constellation of what just happened makes me confused on how to navigate the roleplay at this point.

the actual Starborn make sure to point out to you that every individual version of a person is that version of a person and you'll never find "your" version of a person again. ye that's fine.

but then when you get deep enough into talking with the Constellation members, they mention you or something you said or whatever being familiar.

now I can totally accept that due to some crazy quantum mechanics thing, all consciousness is somehow connected through the multiverse. let's say you die in one world, and your consciousness wakes up in another with no recollection of your previous life, just some weird impressions and dreams or something.

it's kind of like the Unity says; when you become Starborn, you're dying in that universe and your essence scatters over the universe. you're reborn in another universe as a Starborn. but for a regular person who dies, they're probably reborn in another of their own human bodies, in another universe.

this all makes sense to me but it's annoying to be told contradictory things by the characters.

so anyway now I'm sitting here trying to figure out if it's worth it to do the 10 NG runs that apparently give you a "real" end. I want to know more about the mechanics of this multiverse, like where is everyone else who went into the Unity with you? but knowing Bethesda it kinda feels like even after doing the 10 runs, you don't really get much explanation or closure to anything?

[ainyan]

Have you told anyone? About what/who you are?

"Have you told anyone? About who you are?"

Cip'rys leaned against the console, gazing out at the starfield streaking past the ship. "Only you," she replied, her voice low. "And maybe I shouldn't've even done that, but you had a point. Probably for th' best."

Risha tapped her nails against her arm, frowning at the Chiss's back. "Will you tell the others?"

The captain shook her head, eyes reflecting off the plasteel viewport, glinting back scarlet. "Ain't no reason to," she replied gruffly, "and better they don't know. What they don't know can't be dragged from 'em later."

The smuggler grimaced. "Thanks, I think," she said dryly, and Cip'rys tossed her a quick grin over her shoulder.

"I wouldn't worry too much. Even if they reported my escape, it's been a long time. I doubt they remember me." The captain's words were not quite as certain as she sounded. "I ain't the only Chiss smuggler that works with th' Republic, I'm just the best."

Risha snorted. "The most humble, too."

Cip'rys chuckled, and the faint tension in the atmosphere dissipated as she turned away from the stars to study the human's face. "What's the point in false humility?" she asked with a cocky grin. "We all know I'm th' best captain, with th' best ship and best crew in th' whole damn galaxy."

The hyperdrive computer chirped and Risha turned, glancing down at it. "Coruscant inbound," she reported, reaching out to pull the lever that would drag them back into normal space within spitting distance of the Republic's capital world. "You sure about this, captain? SIS's been tryin' get their grubby paws on you for years."

The Chiss laughed. "Please. You think I can't handle a simple SIS agent? You watch. I'll have him wrapped around my pinky quicker'n you can say 'spy'."

Risha eyed her thoughtfully. "S'long as that's all he's wrapped around," she muttered. At Cip'rys's inquisitive look, the smuggler smirked. "Do you really wanna get in bed with the SIS?"

That startled a laugh from the Chiss. "Oh, stars no!" she exclaimed. "I might be horny, but I ain't stupid. I'd never let a spy near my bed." She gave a grim chuckle. "At least," she conceded, "not one I knew about."

The other smuggler grimaced, but said nothing more on that subject. "S'long as you think with what's up and not down, I guess we'll be fine."

Cip'rys reached out to briefly touch Risha's arm. "Trust me," she said, and grinned.

Original Ask Meme

Thank you for the ask!

[knowledge-based-wumpus-agent]

rambling initial starfield impressions

I'm not that deep into starfield but its aesthetic just isn't clicking for me so far. It's too... real? Like it just isn't zany enough for me to justify the amount of violence you're asked to do. Maybe it's just because I played Fallout and The Elder Scrolls as a kid but like my brain can accept being attacked by "bandits" or "raiders" or whatever (especially in Fallout where the setting is VERY dog-eat-dog) but every time I run into some pirates in Starfield my brain just goes "why are neil armstrong and buzz aldrin trying to kill each other :(" It just doesn't feel cool to do. Like one bullet and their suits should depressurize and that seems fucked up. I wish it were more out-there in a Warhammer sort of a way. As-is I feel like Mr. American Psycho, shooting people with a gun while listening to Holst's Planets.

And like, I made my guy a Chef and I'm trying to explore the whole cooking system but at the end of the day the core gameplay loop involves killing and looting. Which I'm not opposed to in a game! But like why should I go out and put myself in extreme danger when New Atlantis just seems... fine? Can I just stay there and hang out? Does constellation work usually involve so much gun murder? Sarah does not seem like the kind of person to be killing on the daily she seems very Normal.

I don't know why this feels so dissonant to me when I've also been doing all kinds of fucked up shit in Baldur's Gate with no remorse. I guess in Baldur's Gate you usually have like opposing goals to your enemies, and when violence breaks out its like coming after a period of tension between two parties that comes to a head. Whereas in Starfield, it's like, I walk into a pirate base, and they just start shooting, can we not talk this out? No? I have to brutally kill like thirty dudes JUST ME? Okay.

[danshive]

I'm of two minds about the Starfield✨ stealth missions I mentioned earlier that didn't really require stealth.

On the one hand, I really think stealth should have been more of a factor in these sneaky missions. In spite of armed guards in plain view, you're basically fine so long as you're not seen while interacting with things with red "stealing" icons.

On the other, you can get these missions almost IMMEDIATELY after the tutorial bits of the main story, and I wouldn't want all my options to be gated behind perks.

It also seems as this quest chain advances, there'll be some actual trespassing scenarios (as in "you will be in trouble if spotted," and not pretend trespassing in which no one cares). This might be intended as a potential introduction to playing as a rogue.

I guess what I'd have preferred were more optional objectives that would reward stealth? Like, let the newbie player not get completely stuck, but let the clever and/or perky player potentially get better rewards.

Also, I've decided "perky" is a valid word to use as an adjective to mean "a character in a video game with a lot of perks."

It's a valid use of perky now. I've forever modified English.