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friendlylifecherry · 2 years

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I posted 9,273 times in 2022

That's 6,997 more posts than 2021!

63 posts created (1%)

9,210 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@goddessofroyalty

@featherfur

@crazynekochan

@egberts

@the-irken-pony

I tagged 352 of my posts in 2022

#obey me - 200 posts

#obey me lucifer - 62 posts

#dialuci - 49 posts

#obey me diavolo - 38 posts

#danganronpa - 29 posts

#obey me shall we date - 19 posts

#obey me mammon - 15 posts

#obey me satan - 12 posts

#kiyotaka ishimaru - 11 posts

#obey me mephistopheles - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#and i had to spend the whole time with my jacket wrapped around my waist because my jeggings looked like a murder scene the whole day

My Top Posts in 2022:

Hamefura AU where Maria ends up unlocking her past-life memories of being a Fortune Lover fan who just absolutely adored og!Katarina (to an unhealthy degree) and makes it a mission to make herself a Katarina route, because Katarina deserves to be with someone who genuinely cares about her, not that dirt bag Prince Geordo! If all works out, awesome! If it doesn't, well, she knows the secret route, she knows where to find a good basement

110 notes - Posted October 5, 2022

You know, it's kinda weird, but even though the brothers definitely deserve to get called the fuck out about how they treat Mammon, I don't think I've seen much of Mammon getting mad at whoever was doing the callout. Both because it makes him feel bad to hurt his brothers, and also in a "fuck you, you don't know me/us, this is private family shit" kinda way. Even if it's by MC, Mammon seems like he would still be pissed at them acting like they speak for him and for hurting his brothers (even if they deserve it), like most people in pretty toxic situations when that toxic person gets called the hell out and the person stuck in it gets mad at the caller

150 notes - Posted August 2, 2022

So according to Wikipedia, Melinoë was born at the mouth of the river Cocytus, where Hermes is stationed as a psychopomp just on the border of the living world and the underworld, which is just a hilarious image of a heavily pregnant Persephone taking a break over by the river when she heads into labor. None of the House of Hades is going to get there in time, thus leaving poor Hermes to play midwife in between bouts of trying to get literally anyone else to help

155 notes - Posted December 8, 2022

Lucifer has just enough characters with history with him to feasibly be the main character of an otome game himself. For example:

Diavolo is the clear simp and lonely rich boy with more to him than meets the eye and a very complicated relationship with Lucifer

Simeon as the former childhood friend/first ex who would like to reconcile despite how badly the break-up went [I see them more like brothers in how monks are brothers, don't @ me]

Mephistopheles is the poncy vain jerk who resents Lucifer for past slights but has a nice side to him that he gets super embarrassed about

Solomon is the mysterious weirdo trying to prove to Lucifer that he means no harm and trying to get past all his abandonment issues.

MC is the brand new exchange student that Lucifer warms up to a lot and ends up getting super attached to, despite just how dumb they can be

And for the secret character, Michael, who is a fucking weird dude (I say this with love) and fellow former bestie trying to get close to Lucifer in secret so that Lucifer doesn't push him away again

Add in the brothers and the other characters as a supporting cast and write up some bad endings and you have yourself a good base for a dating sim!

326 notes - Posted July 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Fic idea based on this where the RAD newspaper club is going to the Mausoleum of the demon kings for some fluff piece when one gets the bright idea to head inside and do some stuff for the Demon King, pay some respect and maybe some funny pictures. So as one of the members goes in, the others record for a combination of posterity and a desperate attempt to explain it to the authorities if they get caught where they aren't supposed to be.

But as the little leader gets close to where the Demon King lies, they notice something off; the king should be in eternal sleep but he doesn't seem to be breathing. Not like they would know about how the Demon King sleeps, but it's still weird, isn't it?

Then they get close enough and there's definitely something wrong. They haven't seen the King in millennia at this point, but he has this unnatural grey-ish pallor and his body looks limp, not unlike a corpse.

The leader gets a bright idea: approach and touch the King, just to check if he's alive. This is risking getting eaten and their club members all tell them so, but still, gotta try, right?

A gentle poke, nothing.

A soft shove, nothing.

A whisper in the ear, nothing.

A semi-distant shout from an irate Mephistopheles (he must have called the other members at some point about why they went inside), nothing.

That's when the leader decides to check something; touching his chest to see if he's still alive, checking for a heartbeat. So they use their wings to fly up and reach a careful hand to push onto his chest. Only that it sinks upon their touch, like the Demon King's flesh is mattress foam instead of muscle over bone. But what their fingers sink into is the worst part.

It's a stab wound to the center of his chest, with stagnant black blood leaking out onto their hand and coating their fingers with a revolting sheen.

-----

Mephistopheles can barely tell what's going on between all of the screaming, even as he tries to get back order and get some semblance of an explanation. But then he gets the worst news that he had ever heard in his life.

The Demon King is dead, stabbed in the chest who-knows how long ago.

-----

The news is all over the Devildom within hours. It's understandable, their sovereign had been killed at some point and no one had known. The video evidence of the RAD newspaper club finding out is all over social media within minutes, and it's a mass panic for everyone that sees it. Mourning, fear, furious blaming the angels or the humans or just anyone because this can't be real, this can't be happening. The Demon King is dead, murdered.

Diavolo was the first to find out, Mephistopheles calling him in tears. It felt like the world had frozen in place, he was trapped in shock.

Not because his father was dead.

Diavolo was the one who killed him.

It's that people had found out.

371 notes - Posted June 27, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

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tinderpremiummembership · 9 months

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fggfgdfdgdfgbdf · 9 months

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Tinder requires you to sign up using your Facebook account and is very simple and fun to meet new people.

There’s no limit to the number of people you match and chat with. And it’s very easy to connect with people.

However, if you’re looking for something a little more serious, we’ve got something for local singles everywhere, plus features that give you the best dating experience possible.

Also Read — Free Dragon Ball Legends Accounts with 10K Chrono Crystals

What are Tinder Free Accounts and Passwords

Tinder Plus, Tinder Gold, and Tinder Platinum are the three subscription plans of Tinder that provide the benefits and make it even easier to chat with singles.

But, deciding which premium upgrade is best for you can be tricky since most of the users may end up with the base plan Tinder Plus to get rid of ads and passports to any location.

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queenofangrymoths · 5 years

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The Invitation - Final Draft

I wrote this for a grade. Enjoy. Beth is owned by @allthenewsiesaregay-bitch

The invitation sat on the kitchen table for about an hour. Ash was staring at it when Beth came back from a late shift. “Hey - uh, why are you creepily staring at an envelope?” Ash turned her gaze on Beth, her eyes narrowed as she seemed to be thinking something over. “That doesn’t mean look at me creepily.”

“My sister is getting married.” the sentence rolled off Ash’s tongue. It was a good thing, Jessica planned her wedding a long time ago. It was about time she got married, she’d been dating Cindy for what, five years? Six? Time was starting to blur together for her.

“That’s nice...so what’s the problem?” Beth grabbed a beer out of the fridge.

Ash rubbed her face, frustrated. “I told my family I was dating someone. Just to get them off my back but she’s sent two tickets.”

“So you want me to save you from your mess.” Beth cracked open the beer, lifting the bottle to her lips.

“Mama kept asking when I was going to get married....” Ash pinches the bridge of her nose, breathing in deep. “She means well but I got frustrated. So yeah, I made one up, sue me. Are you going to help me or not?” It came out as a growl, something that only happened if Ash was really frustrated.

“Sure.” Beth took a swing. Ash leaned back in her chair, sighing in relief “Isn’t your family like super catholic thought? How are you going to get around the whole church thing?”

“She’s not getting married in a church,” Standing, Ash got herself a beer.

“Why not?”

“Cuz they’re lesbians, Harold,” She took a long swing. She and Jess were the rainbow sheep of the family. Ash came out by attending the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1987 and getting caught on camera. Jessica came out in the 2000s. No church wedding for either of them. It might bum Jess out but with Ash’s vampirism, that was just fine.

“That fucking sucks.”

Ash shrugged. “It was never in our cards,” they drank their beers in silence. “Thanks.”

“Your welcome.” The following week was filled with preparation for the trip to LA. Ash went dress shopping. She assumed Beth got a suit or something. Vacation days were used to cover the two three day trip. “Hey, babe?”

Ash stopped packing for a split second, blinking from the shock. Did she…? She went out to the living room. “Did you just...call me babe?” Beth was filling out some paperwork, Ash was pretty sure it was about making Draco her emotional support snake.

“Yeah? I figured we’d start using the pet names so it’ll sound natural,” Beth scribbled on a piece of scrap paper, grumbling as no ink came out. “Do you have a pen I can borrow?”

“Give me a sec -” she went into her room, grabbed a pen, and handed it to her. “Here you go..uh, honey,” a blush creped on her ashen cheeks. Get it together, idiot! She reprimanded herself.

Beth wrinkled her nose. “Don’t call me that.”

“Then what do I call you?”

Holding up three fingers, Beth counted them off. “Stars, lover, and darling.”

“You got Lover from Hadestown, didn’t you, lover?” It felt strange - calling Beth ‘lover’ but it wasn’t a bad strange. She liked it, maybe a little too much but she shoved the feeling down.

“Maybe,” Ash laughed, heading back to her room. After a couple days of practice, the pet names slide off both of their tongues with ease. The day had arrived. The bags were packed, there was only one last thing to do before they could head to the airport. “Okay, Draco, you’re going to have to be brave, okay?” Beth stroked his scales as Ash held the sack open. “Babe, give him a boop of good luck.”

“Darling, just put him in the sack.” Really, if they could keep Draco in the cabin - they would. Unfortunately, that was against regulations. Draco would be traveling in a sack in a box, labeled LIVE ANIMAL - SNAKE.

“Give him a boop of good luck, babe.” Beth repeated, determined

“Jesus…” Ash sighed and dropped the sack down. Gently, she booped the ball python’s snout. Draco flickered his tongue, continuing to make heart eyes at Ash. “Now, lover put him in the sack.”

Beth sighed and muttered some encouragement to Draco. Finally, she placed him gently in the sack. After tying it shut, Ash put him in the box and sealed it up. “He’s going to be fine,” Ash told Beth as she put her seatbelt on in the Broom, Beth’s car.

“Yeah. I know.” Beth drove them to the Airport, as they arrived, Ash shuttered.

Airports. Ash hated airports. Before 9/11, it was so easy. Now it was hell. Beth was uncomfortable and Ash was mildly annoyed. Luckily, she didn’t snap and bite a TSA agent. “Should I ask how the fuck your sister afford first class?” Beth was gently stroking the armchairs, surprised how comfortable they were

“She does the books for some rich companies. They pay her good,” Ash and Jes both could do math. They were too powerful but luckily, only one of them was alive.

“Are you sure she doesn’t embezzle?”

“If she does then good for her.” Ash adjusted her hat. Her sister knew about her...condition, Ash noticed small details about how much thought her sister put into this. They were flying at night, it would be dark in LA when they arrived, and her sister’s wedding ceremony was after sunset. All to make sure Ash wouldn’t die.

The flight went smoothly. When they landed in LA, three hours and fifty minutes later, Beth was eager to get her familiar back. “Walk - walk! Star, you’re going to run into someone!” Ash ran after Beth- her fake girlfriend rushing to the baggage pick up. Miraculously, no one was run over.

“Where is he, where is he?” Beth mumbled as Ash caught her breath next to her. When his box slides down the baggage carousel, Beth rushed forward to grab the box. Ash, on the other hand, went for their luggage. “Got him!” A big grin spread across Beth’s face.

Aw shit, she’s cute. Get it together Ash.“That’s great, lover, let's get out of here,” Airports were always so much nicer when you were leaving. Out on the sidewalk with traffic racing by them, Ash whistle down a cab. Eventually, a cab stopped and they rushed forward. When Beth shoved the bags in the trunk, Ash popped in and told the guy the address of the hotel. “Isn’t this your first time in LA?”

“Yeah.” Beth was looking out the tinted window.

“Do you want to go sightseeing?” It was a couple years since Ash was in the city but Ash knew the city like the back of her hand. Say no, She was tired, in a desperate need for a nap.

“Nah.” Ash sighed with relief, setting into mild silence. When they arrived, Beth paid the cabbie “Keep the change,” They got the bags and Beth stared at the hotel “Your sister is rich, isn’t she.”

“I don’t know” They walked into the hotel, Ash making a beeline to the desk. “I have a reservation for Ash Carissima Lucy Vecellio, made by Jessica Vedattie Agatha Vecellio?” Ash put on her best smile. The clerk continued to type at the computer looking up their reservation.

“Why four fucking names?” Beth muttered but Ash ignored her

“Can I see your ID?” asked the clerk. Ash whipped out her driver's license - the new one, forged with an appropriate birth year and handed it to the clerk. If she carried around her old one, no one believed she was actually sixty-two when she doesn’t look a day over twenty-three.

The clerk checked it over then handed it back “Everything seems to order. Here are your keys. Room 721 on the seventh floor,” The woman handed them two thin cards. “Have a nice evening,”

“Have a nice evening,” Ash repeated, dragging her suitcase to the elevator.

“Really, why four names?” Beth asked again.

Ash pushed the button then hit the >< buttons, making the doors close.“It’s a catholic thing.” Really everything from the first 23 years of her life was a catholic thing. “When someone is confirmed, they take the name of a saint. I picked Saint Lucy.”

“The saint of….?”

“The blind. Our church had a statue of her, it was pretty rad.”

“Please never say that ever again.” Before Ash could retort, the elevator shuddered to a stop and opened its grey doors. Out they went, searching for their room. “This is it.” Beth unlocked the door and walked in. It was a nice room, comfortable enough and then Ash walked into the bedroom

“There are two beds!!”Ash screeched, surprised. Two king-sized beds, cloaked in white sheets stood before her. Beth didn’t respond, she was too busy opening up Draco’s box and releasing the snake.

“Hey, buddy! How was your flight?” Draco poked out of the sack and flickered his tongue.

Ash picked her bed, the right, and pulled her suitcase on top of it. “Alright, lover, we’re here for two days. Tomorrow is the wedding and on Sunday, we fly back home.”

“Sounds good. Your family knows you’re a vamp, right?” Beth scooped up Draco, placing him on her neck and hauled her suitcase on her bed. She opened it, tossing her grimoire on the bed. No witch left home without hers- Beth was no exception.

“The immediate family does,” Ash rushed to the closet to hang up her dress, hiding it from view before Beth could see. “Let’s keep it a secret, what we’re wearing,” They made a deal back in Chicago. Best to keep it a surprise, it made Ash smile. “The rest were told I developed a skin condition and a garlic allergy.”

“Mhm.” Upon finishing unpacking, Ash opened a shampoo bottle and drank straight from it, her teeth stained red. “Blood in a shampoo bottle. Smart.”

“When I moved to Chicago, it was so easy. No one questioned why I had so many water bottles.” She wiped her mouth, not one drop of red on her clothes or sheets. Her eyes brightened once she drank.

Beth looked at a clock. 10:55 glared back in white block letters. “You staying up, babe?”

Ash dug out her pajama shirt from her suitcase, pulling off her shirt. She shook her head, working to unclasp her bra. If this sounds descriptive this is because Beth didn’t, no that’s the wrong word, couldn’t stop watching her. Ash stretched her hands to the sky, her eyes shut.. “No,” she took her time in putting on the old dress shirt, leaving the last three buttons unbuttoned. “Shouldn’t you be setting up Draco’s terrarium, not looking at my tits, Lover?”

“Fuck you.” Ash’s laugh followed Beth out of the room. She was asleep by the time Beth came back in the room, not even stirring as Beth undressed and climbed into her bed. She turned off the lights, the room engulfed in darkness. The only sounds were Ash’s soft breathing, Beth fell asleep pretty quickly.

The first half of the day was calm. Beth woke up to see Ash changing into a casual outfit, to which she quickly closed her eyes. Nope, nope, don’t be a peeping Tom. “It’s about time you woke up,” Ash clipped her bra then slipped into the bathroom.

“How did you know I’m awake?” Beth sat up, rubbing her eyes

Ash replied while brushing her teeth, her words bubbled and barely understandable. “Your heartbeat spiked!”

“Oh...so when is the wedding??” Ash walked out, standing before her in sweats and a loose tank top. “It starts at nine and the reception should end somewhere around midnight or later. We should be there by eight-thirty.”

Beth checked the clock on her bedside, it read 11:50. “We got what, eight hours to kill? What are we going to do?”

“I’m going to get some breakfast. Want to join me, lover?” Was there any way to say no to that smile? Beth didn’t think so as she nodded and got out of bed. After a nice breakfast, they chilled in their room. The fake couple watched several movies with Draco coiled around Beth’s neck. It was after five that things got hectic. A chaotic mess of getting ready, making sure they knew where the garden was, then the waiting game. It wasn’t until sundown after all.

“Hey, are you done yet?” Beth drummed her fingers on her top hat. Getting into a suit was easier than trying to zip up a dress herself and she’d heard Ash stumble and curse several times since she left to change in the living room.

“Just- just get in here and help me!” Ash hissed, her fingers clawing at her back in an attempt to zipper up the back. Beth set her hat on the coffee, walking into the bedroom. Ash was wandering around, most of her outfit complete with makeup and heels on. With three-inch heels, Ash made the height difference between them from three inches to a solid five inches, standing at a solid 6’.

“Hold still.” Ash huffed and folded her arms across her chest. Beth stood on her tippy toes as she zipped up the dress. “Why wear heels- you’re 5 '8,” she grumbled.

“Jealous, lover?” Ash smirked

Beth rolled her eyes then hooked the dress up. “You wish. There, you’re good. You finished?” She checked her watch, they had an hour to walk to the garden and find good seats.

“Give me one sec,” Ash walked to the dresser and picked up one of her perfume bottle. She spritzed some of it on her neck, rubbing it in. “C’mere, lover,” she walked over to Beth and before she could protest - she was hit with a squirt of perfume. “There, we match~” Ash purred, showing her fangs. “You can look now.”

To put it simply, Ash’s dress was gorgeous. Black, of course, sleeveless, and covered in an assortment of flowers giving it shy pops of color. Hands covered by black gloves, if not for her pentagram scars on her left palm, she wouldn’t be wearing them. Her make up was simple, just blush and dark red lipstick. Her dark locks swept over her shoulders. She was gorgeous- Beth considered herself lucky she didn’t blush. “You look great, babe,”

“Darling, who gave you the right to steal Cara Delevingne’s look?” Ash muttered as she straightened Beth’s silver tie. Honestly, Beth needed to wear more suits because damn did she look good. Ash was biting the inside of her mouth to make sure she didn’t say something she’d regret.

“Who says she didn’t steal it from me?” Ash giggled, letting go of Beth’s silver tie. “We should go,”

“We should,” Ash took her fake girlfriend’s arm as they left. “You have one of the hotel keys, right?” Beth responded by patting on her breast pocket. “Good,” then they walked hand in hand to the garden, found good seats, and waited. It was a beautiful wedding, really. Ash cried at least once, using provided tissues to cover her face as she cried blood.

“Okay, this is the hard party,” Ash sniffled as they walked into the reception. “My family is going to mostly ignore us, seeing how it’s not my wedding but Mama is going to hound us for maybe twenty minutes?”

“Do you not...like your mother?” Beth asked, her tone certainly conveyed she might not.

“No, dummy, I just don’t want to get caught.” Ash hissed.

There wasn’t much time between the little exchange between the fake lovers before a yell shattered the villa. “Topolino!!!” an old woman yelled in joy as she rushed towards them, drawing Ash into a big hug. Ash squealed with delight and hugged her back. “My darling girl, you are too thin! Have you been eating enough?” If not for the dynamic between the two women, Beth knew this was Ash’s mother by how they looked alike- her mother was aged, smaller, and round Ash.

“Mama, you know I have, I just miss your cooking!” Ash giggled. The two finally let go of each other and Ash stepped towards Beth, putting an arm around her. “Mama, this is my girlfriend - Beth,” She announced with a smile.

Beth tipped her hat towards Ash’s mother, smiling at her. “Hello, Ma’am,”

Ash’s mother frowned at her. Anna Vani Cecilia Velicello had seen all of Ash’s affairs, the good and the bad. In a short minute, she seized up Beth and Ash, seeing how they held each other. Her daughter seemed so happy holding this woman’s arm and the girl did look harmless. “Are you treating my Ashely well, Beth?”

Ash covered her face, faking shock. “Mama, do you not trust my judgment?!” “Frankly, no, dear.” her mother answered flatly. Ash frowned but it was fair. She had picked several bad choices in who she dated. Now her mother turned her death glare at Beth, waiting for her answer.

“How else am I supposed to treat her, Ma’am?” Beth smiled, being honest as she could be, her pinning heart winning over her mouth.

After a tense moment, Ash’s mother relaxed, a massive worry seeming to be lifted from her shoulders. “Welcome to the family, Beth,” she reached up and patted her cheek. “Enjoy the party! Anthony, stop eating the cookies, you maiale!” then she was gone.

“Your name isn’t a cool pun on your vampirism?????” Beth whispered as they slipped into the crowds, Ash waving to relatives as they went. Her cheeks were already aching from all of the smiling.

“Shut the fuck up, Bethany.” she hissed.

It was later during the reception Beth learned how well Ash could hold her liquor. Not at all. Ashley Carissima Lucy Velcellio was a lightweight. “You’re telling me you are sixty-two years old and a lightweight?” Beth was from the deep south where she had her first beer at thirteen.

Ash giggled, her cheeks red before she covered them. “Yep!” What a troublemaker a drunken vampire could be, the most interesting incident went like this, “I’m not scoopable.” she muttered into her glass. At this point, she was as drunk as a skunk.

“You’re not what?” Beth set her glass on the bar.

“Scoopable. I tend to date people who are shorter than me but dammit, I just want to be held in someone's arms but I’m just not-” she hiccuped, “scoopable.”

“Yes, yes you are,” Beth was standing as Ash scrunched up her face in confusion.

“I’m pretty sure I’m not- oh! Oh!” She squeaked as Beth scooped her up, holding her fine in her arms.

“You ARE scoopable!” Beth declared, watching Ash threw back her head in a full laugh - her fangs on display, glittering in the lights.

“Okay, okay, lover! You’ve proven your point!” Ash giggled. She giggled a lot when she was drunk, Beth noticed. Ash’s cheeks were red, sometimes she slurred her words, and her face was always dangerously close to Beth’s.

“I like keeping you in my arms, we’re finally level.” Ash giggled again. “You’re kind of cute from up here,” it was the last thing Beth got out of her mouth before Ash did the unthinkable - She kissed Beth.

And Beth kissed her back.

“Gods, I’ve been wanting to do that since...like forever,” Ash said with a giggled when they pulled away, licking her lips. She tastes like beer. Normally, she’d be disgusted but right now, she didn’t care.

“You taste like vodka,” was all Beth could say, her brain short-circuited.

“Well excuse me - you don’t taste much better!” But it didn’t stop her from kissing her again. “Pinning sucks, I like kissing better,” Ash against her lips.

“Let’s stop pinning and just kiss,”

“Deal,” Ash giggled and kissed her again but then she stopped. Someone screamed the bouquets were going to be thrown. “Oh! Put me down! Put me down, lover girl!” Beth complied. Ash grabbed her hand, dragging her in the directions of the scream. “Come on, one of us gotta catch it, right?” Ash laughed, drunk and high on Beth’s kisses.

Ash didn’t remember Beth carrying her back to the hotel - her sister’s bouquet of roses and calla lilies clenched tightly in her hand. She did remember changing out of her dress, Beth herding her into bed before Ash pulled her into another kiss That night they slept in the same bed.

In the morning, Ash woke first, her head aching. Gods above, how much did I drink? Ash wondered as she climbed out of the bed. She spent five minutes digging through her bag for some Tylenol. With pills taken and several blood pouches drained, she turned her attention to the sleeping witch. Gently, she touched her lips, her cheeks turning red. We kissed. We actually kissed! The details were a muddled haze of drinking and laughter but she remembered being in Beth’s arms and decided fuck it! What if she doesn’t remember? The anxiety goblin whispered, the color draining out of her cheeks. “What if she doesn’t remember…”

“Only one way to find out...wake up, lover,” Ash, again, decided to fuck it and poked Beth’s cheek. “We need to get ready or we’ll miss our plane,”

Beth opened her dark eyes, blinking them at the vampire hovering over her. Thoughts of last night filled her. The main one being how a drunk, giggling vampire kissed her. Kissed. “You...you don’t have to call me lover anymore,” She forced herself to say it. She doubted Ash remembered most of the last evening. With how much she drank last night, there’s no way she remembers.

Ash frowned. “Listen, I’m all for silent pinning and that shit but I kissed you last night. You kissed me back. So I just assumed we were dating. Guess I assumed wrong-” she didn’t get to finish. Beth pulled her down into a kiss.

“You still taste like vodka,” said Beth when they finally pulled away.

“Oh, sue me.” Ash huffed. “Now come on, we’re going to miss our flight if you don’t get your ass out of bed.” A couple hours, they were back in Chicago and back in their apartment.

“Hey, did you see that Ash and Beth are holding hands?” Calla, the faerie, nudged her girlfriend as they left the building, passing the couple on their way up to their apartment.

“Don’t remind me,” whined the selkie.

“You owe me ten bucks, Shannon.”

“I know, Calla!”

#graded work #bi vampire #gay witch #fake relationship #weddings #GAY #SO MUCH GAY #a snake #DRUNK KISSING AT A GAY WEDDING #scoopable

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arsonsara · 6 years

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Why You Should Get Nuclear Throne

Now if you know anything about me, and I mean anything at all, than you probably know that Nuclear Throne is one of my favorite video games of all time. A few years ago I wrote about Online Functionality for Video Games and used Nuclear Throne as an example, I used to Roleplay as Fish on Tumblr when I first got into the game, I wrote a bit for the askblog @ask-the-campfire-crew, and to this day still follow the community this game has spawned.

Now that Nuclear Throne was announced for the Switch today, and released for the Switch ON THE SAME DAY AS IT’S ANNOUNCEMENT, I think that it’s time that I speak to this game’s strengths and tell you why you should get this game.

If you’re a fan of fast-paced, in your face, unrelenting gunplay that forces you to not only strategically understand the circumstances of your surroundings, the weapons you have, the enemies you’re fighting, and the character you’re playing than you will enjoy Nuclear Throne. It’s game-play has been compared to games like Enter the Gungeon and Hotline Miami (and funnily enough there are Easter Eggs in those games that reference Nuclear Throne.) but i’d liken it to a 2D Version of DOOM. This game rewards you for playing a balancing act between careful planning and positioning and running into perilous situations guns blazing without a care in the world.

And that’s only scratching the surface: Nuclear Throne is a game not only built around frantic 2D-Rougelike Shooter action, but also giving the player a buffet of options that open up as the game goes on. In total there are 12 Playable Characters each with their own passives abilities and active abilities that change how you play, 29 Base Mutations that can give you stat buffs, synergies with certain weapon types, change the way you interact with enemies and much more, and so many goddamn weapons that I wouldn’t even be able to count them all. That doesn’t even go into how each playable character has Two Special Ultra Mutations that turn them into absolute powerhouses of destruction once you reach end-game.

Nuclear Throne’s balance is held up by the three pillars of Characters, Weapons and Mutations. Each character has a passive such as More Ammo from Ammo Drops, More Max Health, Faster Walking Speed, Dual Wielding Weapons and more. Than you have their actives which can be a Dodge Roll, A Shield, a Snare Trap, Blowing up Corpses etc. Because each character is consistent and never changes, you can always rely on the tools that your characters give you. Even if you don’t get favorable Mutations or Weapons you can always rely on the skills of your character.

Than there are Mutations, which you obtain by collecting Rads from killing enemies and leveling up. When you level up you get a random selection of Four of the 29 Mutations which can be stuff like More Max Health, Higher Ammo Capacity, Slower Enemy Bullets, a Damaging AoE around you at all times, and even more. Of course, you wont always get the mutations you want, but you will always become stronger with each new mutation you get. A mutant with mutations is inherently stronger than a mutant without them. So even though you may not get the luckiest draw, you’re still improving and it forces you to get creative and potentially use mutation combinations you haven’t before.

Than there are the Weapons which are vast and large. You can only carry two weapons at a time and can switch between them on the fly, and as the game goes on the more weapons you can get. As you get further in the game, the weapon pool gets larger, but at the start of the game your restricted to beginner level weapons like Revolvers, Shotguns, Wrenches and Screwdrivers. But if you get farther you can get stuff like Laser Pistols, Assault Rifles, Sledgehammers and Shovels. And if you reach Endgame you get crazy shit like Nuke Launchers, Plasma Cannons, Hyper Rifles and THE ELUSIVE SUPER DISC GUN. This means that every time you play you always get that feeling of getting stronger and learn which weapons at each leg of the journey that you prefer. But it also forces you to get good with every weapon. The game isn’t always going to give you your favorite weapon, which forces you to get creative with every option you’re given, and makes it even more rewarding when you DO get the weapon you prefer.

This three pillar structure of Characters, Mutations and Weapons makes Nuclear Throne a game that feels so fresh. Despite the fact that it relies on randomization for it’s weapon and mutation pool, it gives you enough things that stay consistent that you can still get better and continue to improve.

So that’s the basics of Nuclear Throne so what else is there to this game other than being a rewarding but tough as nails 2D Rogue-like? A fantastic story told with little dialogue, a small but welcoming fandom, and a thriving modding community. Let’s go play by play, shall we?

Nuclear Throne has a very simple story on the surface. The Apocalypse has come and gone and now all that remains are Mutants who fight endlessly to survive. However there are legends of The Nuclear Throne, an unknown relic that is said to hold the power to undo the chaotic dystopia that everyone lives in. However as the game goes on, more aspects of the world are revealed with the Unlockable Characters, The new areas you explore, the secrets that lie beneath the surface and repeat playthroughs. As you play the game more and more, more aspects of the world begin to blossom and create a completely new layer to the world of Nuclear Throne. Much more can be said about it’s story but I truly do believe that it should be experienced first hand, as I do most things.

As for the fandom itself, it’s probably been one of the most welcoming that i’ve ever been with. Of course, smaller fandoms to lend themselves to less drama and worry and if you’ve been on the internet long enough than you know that every group of fans has their own bad eggs, but Nuclear Throne does have a fantastic community with wonderful people. There are the old videos done by STAR_ where he has both streamed the game and even created custom versions of Nuclear Throne alongside one of it’s developers, the Askblogs of @verifyingvenuz and the aforementioned @ask-the-campfire-crew (Sadly both of these blogs are on Indefinite Hiatus, but still contain some really good content nonetheless) and fantastic fan artists. Seriously, look in the Nuclear Throne tag on Tumblr you’ll find some really REALLY good stuff.

And the last part only applies to the PC version of Nuclear Throne but is still very important. A few years back a project was created called Nuclear Throne Together, which as a Mod made for Nuclear Throne to add Online Co-Op to Nuclear Throne. Ever since it’s release, PC Players can now enjoy Nuclear Throne with up to Four Friends simultaneously. However, with the release of NTT came a thriving Modding Community. Of course, Nuclear Throne mods existed before NTT, but with NTT having built-in support for Nuclear Throne Mods, it’s been bigger than it ever has been. New Characters, New Weapons, Hell even new Game Modes that turn NTT from a 2D Top-Down Shooter to a Platformer! With enough time Nuclear Throne could have a modding community on the same level as games like Quake or Doom!...

With enough popularity, that is. Y’see Nuclear Throne has really only ever been a cult-classic. Very few people know about the game and I feel like that is a damn shame considering how much love and care went into the design behind each and every aspect of it. And even after all of this, after me writing paragraph after paragraph about why you should play this game, I still haven’t even reached the goddamn tip of this Iceberg. So all i’ll say is: Please, buy Nuclear Throne.

It just came out on Nintendo Switch today for $12.99 and has been on PS4 for a while now. However, my top recommendation will always be the PC Version due to Nuclear Throne Together and it’s diverse modding community.

Here is a Link to Nuclear Throne’s Itch.Io page.

And if you can, please spread the word about this game. It without a doubt deserves more love.

#Nintendo Switch #PS4 #Nuclear Throne #Indie Games #Vlambeer #Hotline Miami #Enter the Gungeon

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inveesible · 5 years

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OC FALLOUT COMPANION MEME

Tagged by @scarecrow-forest and @mrninjapineapple , thank you for thinking of me^^

a companion May would probably be a "champion of justice", former member of the Brotherhood of Steel, devoted to helping the defenseless that fight under no banners.

NAME: May (non romanceable companion)

FOUND: Cambridge Police Station during Fire Support, not recruitable until the end of Tour of Duty, but since she is not on the Prydwen anymore, you must looking for her in a random settlement, Diamond City or Goodneighbor.

FLAGGED: unessential, you can kill her right away.

PRESENT: one Rad-Away a day + Occhio di Falco (+50% damages if you take a headshot in V.A.T.S., 100% limbs damages in V.A.T.S.) after personal quest.

MAX APPROVAL PERK: Rampage - when your health drops below 20%, May enters a state of battle frenzy that instantly headshots all the enemies involved. Only works if May is the active companion.

WEAPON OF CHOICE: unnamed Laser Rifle (she says it's a gift) + Combat Knife (even if it's in her inventory, she doesn’t use it in combat and you can’t take it)

I THINK WE SHOULD TRAVEL TOGETHER: (first meeting) “Fine, but remember: if I don't like the way you go about, we are done; if I REALLY don't like the way you go about, YOU are done.” - “Check your supplies first, especially for Rad-X and Rad-Away… and cigarettes.”- (after reached max affinity) “Sure buddy. After you.” – “I was really looking forward to this, thank you.” – “Who drives? *little pause* yep, sorry…”

YOUR THOUGHTS? “Don't you miss taking a bath in a nice, warm and fragrant bathtub? Or taking a shit in a working and clean toilet? *deep sigh*” – “Am I the one always cold or is it a frozen men thing?” – “aaaand with this I officially read all the books here in Boston… *sigh*” – “Too many Raiders, too few composers… *deep sigh*” – and other nostalgic mumbling…

OPEN INVENTORY: “if there is only one pack of cigarettes left, it's mine.” – “sure, take all the Nuka-Cola you want.” – “deposit or withdrawal?”

USE STIMPAK: “NO DON’T WAST-*sigh*, thank you…” – “I'll return the favor, thank you.”

WAIT HERE: “Don't take too long, please.” – “If you don't come back in two cigarettes, I'll leave.” – “Just whistle when you're ready”

FOLLOW ME: “*sigh* about time…” – “*sarcastically* as you wish, your Lordship.”

DISMISSED: “I'll take care of some personal stuff while you're away, be careful.”

SEND HER HOME: “You know where you find me if you change your mind.”

CHANCES OF UNIQUE DIALOGUES IF YOU…: start a relationship with MacCready, Danse or Cait (you can romance them all, but the dialogue will be triggered only the first time) - end forever your relationship with MacCready, Danse, Preston or Cait – side with the Nuka-World Raiders – destroy Acadia with the Brotherhood of Steel.

LOCATIONS COMMENTS:

(Diamond City) “I hate this... city, but unfortunately there is no safer place to do business.” – “if you want advice, stay away from the reporter… Oh, you already know her…” - (if Unlikely Valentine is complete): “Thanks for saving Valentine. If something happened to him I would never have forgiven myself…”

(Goodneighbor) “You should not mess with these people, but if you behave yourself, they are pretty decent folks…”- “Hancock says we can put everything on his tab at the Third Rail, but if you're up for something else, don't count me in.” - (if Long Road Ahead is completed): “I wonder how RJ and Duncan are getting on? Oh, thanks from me too, by the way.”

(Listening Post Bravo) (if Blind Betrayal is complete): “ca-can we just l-leave, please?”

(The Prydwen): “Did I ever tell you I was an “almost Knight”? Then I left for, well, let's say "differences of opinion."

(Cambridge Police Station) (until Blind Betrayal): “Do you mind? I'd like to greet a friend, if is there.”

(Vault-111): “With your permission, I'll wait outside. I seem to go back in time when I go in there…”

(Abernathy Farm) (if Blind Betrayal is complete): “Excuse me a minute, I go check and see how Lisa's doing.”

(any research laboratory): “It’s so weird, I never felt at home even at my home, but here…” – “This was my life before… certainly the best part.”

MAY LIKES THAT: helping innocents - healing Dogmeat – weapon or armour customization

MAY LOVES THAT: killing named super mutants – killing named Raiders – killing named Gunner - entering power armor – flipping the bird to Maxson (*snort* just kidding)

MAY DISLIKED THAT: taking chems - picking owned locks and stealing - taking too much alcohol in a row

MAY HATED THAT: murder - killing cats or domesticated dogs - getting addicted to chems or alcohol - destroying all the three factions in Far Harbor, one “hated” per faction - agreeing to become the new Overboss in Nuka-World

PERSONAL QUEST: before gaining enough affinity to unlock May’s personal quest, your partnership could proceed, end well or end badly depending on your actions from Blind Betrayal onwards:

1 – if you bring May with you and you agree to kill Danse, after talking to him, and then you do, she will leave the party and she will never travel with you again - you can still find her wandering the Commonwealth and you can kill her if you want to [bad end].

2 – if you bring May with you and you agree to kill Danse, after talking to Maxson and then you do, she will attack you immediately, forcing you to kill her first [bad end].

3 – if you bring May with you and you can’t persuade Maxson to spare Danse, May will attack him immediately, forcing the Elder to incapacitate her first, then she will leave the party and she will never travel with you again - if you decide to destroy the Brotherhood in With Our Powers Combined, you will find May at The Castle ready to help you deal with those assholes [bad end].

4 – if you spare Danse, regardless of whether you bring May with you or not, you gain a considerable amount of affinity that unlocks her personal quest (The Sleeping Beauty, read below) - from this moment on, the Combat Knife in her inventory will disappear forever [good end]

5 – if you (or Maxson) kill(s) Danse without bringing May with you, the next time you see her she will ask you for explanations about it, you can tell her that you tried everything to save him, even lying if required, and still unlock her personal quest, but not the “considerable amount of affinity”, you still have to work for that. [good end]

6 – if the events of Blind Betrayal never take place, you being vilified from the Brotherhood and you proceed with With Our Powers Combined, Rockets' Red Glare or Airship Down, May will fight alongside the Brotherhood and Danse, forcing you to kill her [bad end]

7 – you can still reach a “good end” without unlocking May’s personal quest if the events of Blind Betrayal never take place and you destroy The Institute alongside the Minutemen - doing so you get the perk but not Occhio di Falco [good end].

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY: once you gain enough affinity, May will ask you to take her to Vault-111; once there you have to follow her to her cryopod, then she will tell you that this is where [May’s real name] died and where May was born, confessing that she is the creator of the technology that brought the Sole Survivor up to here; you can choose to blame her for everything that happened to your family (and eventually kill her), or tell her that if it wasn't for her, you and your family would surely have died with the bombs dropping, so she will tell you that thanks to this second life chance, she was able to find many things to live for and many people that were worth keeping close to, including you, then May will give you her 10mm, Occhio di Falco, and ask you to get the hell out of there.

I’m tagging YOU, that you read up to here.

Wooo this was a hell of a work XD!

#may #oc meme #long post #sorry about this...#>///<

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dreamfeelx · 6 years

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Hey Gamers,

And so another month has prestiged before our eyes. It’s a whole new month, with a whole new bunch of upgrades and weapons to unlock, and that month is…. let me check my calendar, oh yes, September! Welcome gamers, one and all, to this month’s DREAMFEEL UPDATE.

We got a LOGO

Look how pretty our cute lil cloud boy is! Special thanks to our great pal Ruan Van Vliet for his work on it :)))) <3

Know Your Local Zine

This cool comic zine is now available to buy! It features a amazing comic by Liadh which is great to relax/study to. Also all proceeds go to support Focus Ireland.

https://nicegangforever.bigcartel.com/product/support-your-local-zine-pre-order

THANKS

To everyone who got in touch with us about the interviews! We super appreciate everyone’s kind responses :)

Dark Side Detective 2

The Dark Side Detective folks are running a Kickstarter to fund their next game! Check it outtttttt: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spookydoorway/the-darkside-detective-season-2?ref=card

~aido’s music dungeon V~

Bitter, creaky, and aloof,

You’ll rest soon, eternally.

Was it all for nout?

No, nay, nothing is on the other side

Of these eroded stones,

Placed brick by brick

To hem you in

This dreaded dungeon.

Rotted Cavern I+II by aido

Aido’s monthly radio show o:

https://www.mixcloud.com/DublinDigitalRadio/playlists/rotted-cavern/

Repeater Radio by Frank

https://soundcloud.com/repeaterrepeater/repeater-radio-sias-180818

[GAMERS ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT]

Quick gamer quiz to assure your access to the following game downloads:

Q: What is Mr. Nintendo’s (founder of Nintendo) first name?

Have an answer yet?

The answer is of course: マリオ (Mario).

~~PERMISSION GRANTED~~

[kffffffzzzzzzzzzchk-chk]

Welcome to the

_G_A_M_E_R__V_A_U_L_T_

Donut County by Ben Esposito

Hey look, Ben Esposito made this game, and then it came out! It’s on PS4 and PC and iOS!

http://www.donutcounty.com/

Kleu’s Music by Caeth

https://caeth.itch.io/kleus-music

Rocks and Ravens by Playfull Bacon

https://playfulbacon.itch.io/rocks-and-ravens

Spiral House by Withering Systems

https://withering-systems.itch.io/spiral-house

Touch Melbourne by Andrew Gleeson & Cecile Richard

https://andrio.itch.io/touchmelbourne

BACK Kittyhorrowshow’s Patreon and a rad spooky 3D game in your inboxxxx monthly. <3

https://www.patreon.com/kittyhorrorshow

xoxo, the dreamfeelz

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xplainthexmen · 5 years

Link

In which Jay would absolutely fight Christmas; we welcome guest X-Perts Christina Strain and Chip Zdarsky; a gift arrives; we consider the relationship of Generation X to Generation X; it is really not okay to leave your discarded skins lying around; D.O.A. is inordinately delightful; Chamber is the punk Shadow; Gateway goes to school; the Generation X TV movie is very, very bad; telepathy is free; the grown-ups are all right; home sucks; freedom rocks; Mondo deserves better; Matt Frewer did most things first; Kevin McNulty has appeared in literally everything; and you remain our favorites, ever.

X-PLAINED:

Mutation, for some value of the term

Holidays and the observation thereof

December 9

Jay’s ideal Christmas

How Chris Bachalo’s name is pronounced (more) (again) (sorry)

Several promotions

Generation X

Generation X #1-4

Generation X

Husk (Paige Guthrie)

M (Monet St. Croix)

Skin (Angelo Espinosa)

Synch (Everett Thomas)

Chamber (Jonothon Starsmore)

The New Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters

Counting Genises

The housekeeping implications of body horror

The M retcon

Continuity in costume design

The Danger Grotto

Emplate (somewhat)

D.O.A.

Penance (not that one)

Scrabble burns

An alternate take on power duplication

Mondo ()

The return of Nanny and the Orphanmaker

Eliot ()

A tentative friendship

How the Age of Apocalypse comes to Generation X

A movie that never fails to disappoint

The vagaries of adaptation

The best on-screen Emma Frost

Gang emails of the 1990s

Refrax

Buff

William Castle

The comedic genealogy of Max Headroom

Hatley Castle

The 2019 Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence

NEXT WEEK: Jay & Miles go on vacation! NEXT EPISODE: Bishop goes solo!

Special thanks to Christina Strain, Douglas Wolk, and Chip Zdarsky; and–always–to Matt Hunter, David Wynne, Tea Fougner, Anna Sheffey, and all of our patrons and listeners!

Check out the visual companion to this episode on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Buy rad swag at our TeePublic shop!

#X-Men #Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men #podcast #XPlaintheXMen #Christina Strain #Chip Zdarsky #Generation X #holidays

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crystalnet · 7 years

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What I Like About FFXV Comrades DLC and December Patch

This game will just not go calmly into that good night-- but somehow, I'm perfectly okay with that. I've overwritten about this game on this blog at this point and yet the updates and content continues to roll out, and all year there's been a good reason to come back to it every couple of months.

Recently the multiplayer DLC Comrades dropped, and I've been playing it off and on for the past couple weeks and beat the main story on it last night and wanted to mention all the things that I really enjoy about it. And even after logging 10+ hours into the thing and technically "beating" it, I certainly plan to continue playing to unlock all the classes and get in on some of that delicious online multiplayer action. Here's what I liked in no specific order:

-The magic system seems preferable to the one in the main-game. Really loved being able to spam spells and have four different spells available, all attached to different weapons.

-class system seems really sick-- I think it was wise to start people as healer because the position is always valuable to have on a party, but as you unlock more, the possibilities for battle stratagems become much deeper. I still have a lot to get after beating the story so it functions in that way as well.

-The lore and story details were pretty substantial! I think we got more story in this than the Prompto or Gladio episodes, as it fills in a literal gap in the narrative. It's like if Ocarina of Time had a multiplayer mode that took place in the 10 year gap between child Link and adult Link.

-Weapon upgrading is really solid in this, and though I think there could be a bit more weaponry to choose from, I haven't unlocked everything and there's a fair bit of customizing to be had, more than the main-game.

-Combat is generally deeper than the main-game? Funny how a lot of the battles seem more involved in terms of the tactics which they call for. Add in the weapon upgrading, magic options, and Sigil/class abilities and this seems significantly deeper than combat in the main game. It's like it used the main-game as a foundation and built a more appealing, deeper multiplayer game on top of that. The only thing the main quest has on it is that it all looks a little nicer. Though I guess character-swapping may balance things out in a couple of weeks. I might add more because this was an all-around very good experience that I still haven't gotten enough of. The only way it could be better to me is if it had a lobby area where you can just like chill with other players. I have a fetish for lobby zones and I get why Lestallum doesn't function in this way but I wish it did. Even if it was only in the hotel there. Just being able to shout Kenny the Crow emojis and maybe even enter into teams/missions would add a lot. But that's like literally my only complaint.

It's just generally cool to fight alongside other players with this combat. It was already a fun system in the offline mode if a bit superficial, but here it's been tweaked and working together with team-mates can be super satisfying. And with a solid character-maker, it's fun to see what other people cook up, as well as to unlock new accessories and such.

So yeah, I'm generally way into this, and judging by all the support, they'll probably end up continuing support of this specific part of FFXV's DLC even further. If they didn't though, it'd still be a great little feature. I can probably still count on one hand the times I haven't been able to get a party for a mission, and it's usually when it's a crazy time of night, so there's definitely been a healthy amount of traffic on the servers.

All in all, I'm still increasingly in this game's corner. I think for a second by the end of the summer when I was getting sick of just the timed quests, I was starting to second-guess my initial love of this game, but by now, there's been so much added and announced that it feels like Square has made good on the potential that might have initially seemed just slightly squandered upon initial play-throughs.

I need to get a handle on how much story content has been added to the main game but beyond extended cut-scenes being patched in, since November we've seen...

-That moogle festivle, which was an okay distraction I guess. Felt superficial though, and I wish we could have run around the city with other players.

-Episode Gladio, and extended Chapter 13- Solid little DLC chapter with the brawl-ier Gladio. These DLC seem a bit odd to me as replay value seems low, but now that character-swapping in the main-game will be a thing in a couple weeks, they function as great tutorials and chunks of lore at their best.

-Off-road Regalia vehicle- I thought this was a nice little bonus Square put out when they really didn't have to. Now no one can complain about being stuck on the roads, and it's pretty fun to drive. Now if only you could turn into the airship from the off-road mode...

-Timed Quests- these were kind of cool earlier in the year when they were first dropping. I missed a few though and so missed out on sweet EXP and now I can't beat that crazy dragon in Leide that's been the quest for months cuz I'm like 20 below level cap now. Damn.

-Episode Prompto- Cooler than Gladio, imo, in that it's metal gear-styled combat is an even bigger departure from the main-game than Gladio was, and yet still manages to feel like part of the XV universe. Also Aranea.

-Assassin's Quest- weirdly fun for how weird and frivolous it was but clearly dev team's time could have been spent more wisely.

-Comrades- A whole freaking game inside of a game. Deeper than just a tacked on multiplayer for sure, almost to the point that it reminded me of FFXI Online glory days during my finer moments of locking in with a team and pulling off dope strategies. Read write-up above, it's rad.

And now character swapping in a couple of weeks and DLC support in '18 announced? Yeah okay, go ahead Square, I'm not even skeptical anymore. Yeah I could trot out one of these tired anti-DLC arguments but I've been generally impressed. This game, like BotW, both seem super rich in the way they can function as foundations. And while BotW never actually needed anything added, XV felt like it was kind of missing something at launch, and so I'm glad to see both games getting continued support. The game feels like an especially unique experience at its best, and so I think it's only right for the developers to spend even more time exploring the possibilities it allows for. I'm sure I'll be writing about a new patch soon, but I leave you with this: If character-swapping is a thing in a couple of weeks, meaning you can play as all 4 members, what's stopping them from making the main-game have online functionality? So you could play through the main game with 3 buddies, all focusing on one of the bros? Then comrades AND main-game online? Move over FFXIV, there's a new online FF experience in town. One can dream, but having seen what Square's done already, I don't think we should rule anything out.

edit: what if you could play the main storyline as your comrade character with other comrades?? Now that’d be some deep and dank role-playing.

#ffxv #comrades #ffxv comrades #comrades dlc #dlc #square enix #final fantasy #final fantasy xv

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Skater XL Review — Ride Like the Wind, Straining the Limits

July 28, 2020 1:00 PM EST

Shred the gnar!

It has been 10 years since Skate 3 released for Xbox 360 and PS3. While it isn’t the best entry in EA’s beloved franchise (Skate 2, baby!), it was the last time we saw a major skateboarding video game release. Sure, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 launched in 2012 and 2015 respectively, but we don’t talk about those dark times. There has been a huge hole in the video game market and it is finally being filled after those 10 long years, starting with Skater XL.

Developed by the California-based team at Easy Day Studios, Skater XL attempts to bring back the simulation style of the Skate franchise, but with its own unique take. It may not be the cleanest landing, with a few frustrating quirks, but it’s certainly a stylish and fun take on a genre I’ve personally missed.

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Skateboarding is, in many ways, a form of expression. Everyone has their own style; someone like The Nuge has a more aggressive style than someone like Daewon Song, who is more tech-focused. In Skater XL, that expression is found in its gameplay. It is arguably the most imperative facet of any skateboarding game. Easy Day Studios has crafted a pretty rad trick system that is incredibly expressive, but comes at the cost of some oddities that break the immersion I would want in a sim-style skateboarding game.

Similar to Skate, Skater XL uses the analog sticks to perform tricks. However, the majority of tricks require both sticks, each representing the skater’s feet; the left stick is the left foot and the right stick is the right foot. In order to turn the board, the player has to use the triggers. For example, if I wanted to do a frontside flip in regular stance, I would want to first position the right foot at the tail, which is done by pulling the right stick down. To initiate the flip, I want to let go of the stick to pop the board, and then flick the left stick to the left, producing that kickflip motion. While doing that, I want to pull the left trigger so the skater does the frontside 180.

For the most part, this trick system is very fluid and fun to play around with. It really does feel like skateboarding. This is also in part due to the physics-based nature of the system. The tricks feel and look different depending on how I would flick the sticks. It also looks pretty natural in-motion. There is definitely a learning curve; when I started playing the early access version a few months ago, it took me about an hour to feel comfortable. But once it clicks, the potential for lines in any given map feels endless.

“For the most part, this trick system is very fluid and fun to play around with. It really does feel like skateboarding.”

However, there are times when these tricks don’t look all that natural. The physics-based system is a bit of a double-edged sword. Yes, I was able to produce incredibly natural-looking flips a lot of the time. But sometimes, and especially when I attempted more advanced tricks like 360 inward heelflips or nollie hardflips, the board does some very unnatural motions. Some flips will kind of just find its way to the skater’s feet mid flip, almost like a magnet. It looks very odd, and was a bit of a damper when I was attempting a line repeatedly because a trick just looks so unnatural.

There are also times when the character’s body would bend in ways it probably shouldn’t. One of the more recurring instances of this is when I would do a boardslide and landing fakie. The skater’s knees would bend in before the landing. While I had a good laugh at how this man just broke his knees and then re-popped them back during a trick, it definitely became frustrating when I was trying to create “realistic” looking clips.

However, most of those odd and unnatural occurrences never frustrated me enough to hate the trick system. Since most of the game is finding spots and attempting lines over and over again, it never felt disheartening to restart a line. It also helps that the spawn point tool is useful. If I was unhappy with a line or my skater’s body contorted in some odd way, I was able to go back to the spawn point I placed instantly. I could also replace my spawn point on the fly if I felt like the current spot wasn’t placed well.

One thing that bothered me initially with Skater XL’s gameplay was the most basic of tricks: The ollie. There were two factors that irked me about the fundamental trick when I started playing. The first, there are really only two different ollie heights; the second, the high popping ollie is comically high. It still kind of bothers me now, because ollieing up a curb will always look so ridiculous, but every level seems to be designed with these ollie heights in mind. So, it doesn’t look so ridiculous all the time. Just sometimes.

Again, everything I’ve talked about, when all put together, really makes for a fun experience. The only aspect of Skater XL’s gameplay I really struggled with finding much joy in was with how it handles transition skating. This isn’t a flaw exclusive to this game. Skating on ramps, particularly bowls and halfpipes, in Skate and Session are also not great. I never feel like I’m in control of my skater when I’m on a ramp. For example, let’s say I want to do a frontside flip on a quarter pipe. I figure if I initiate the trick at the top of the ramp, I would then go back down rather than moving forward on top of the ramp. That was not the case. There were times where I did go back down the ramp, and a lot of times I would just move forward.

“One of the most impressive parts of Skater XL is its replay editor. I absolutely cannot stop messing around with it.”

For bigger ramps, like the halfpipe on the big ramp level, I needed to pump to get enough speed to move up the ramp. However, when I did pump, the skater went way too fast, and more often than not, ended up on top of the ramp rather than going back down it. Sometimes the stars would align, and I was able to perform some sick trick, but even then it doesn’t feel as satisfying as street skating.

One of the most impressive parts of Skater XL is its replay editor. I absolutely cannot stop messing around with it. There is a bit of a learning curve, but the menu for the editor is so clean and straightforward, it really doesn’t take too long to start making cool clips. It actually surprised me how easy it was to make a clip that really looked impressive. I may have a few gripes about Skater XL’s gameplay, but the incredible replay editor will be the reason why I’ll always come back and shred at places like Easy Day High School and Downtown L.A.

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Speaking of those two locations, the maps in Skater XL are all really fun to skate around. Easy Day High School and Downtown L.A. are easily the best of the eight maps available at launch. They are the largest with some iconic spots, like the Leap of Faith and Staples Center. Heck, there is a level that seems to be an accurate depiction of the West L.A. Courthouse (which you can watch Eric Koston skate on above).

The one map I lost interest in quickly was the big ramp. It is super fun to get crazy air of the wooden goliath, but as I said before, the transition skating just isn’t all that fun. For what it is, it is a fun map to mess around with for a bit, but I would rather skate Easy Day High School over that any day.

There really is a lot to love about Skater XL, but it does lack a robust character creator. All in all, there are 11 different player models. This includes four males, four females, and three pro character models. Also, there are several different hair types, hats, clothing, and boards, some of which are from real-life brands like New Balance, Element, Primitive, and Independent.

Despite having all these different brands, there really wasn’t much variety in the clothing or boards available. Every shirt, bottom, and hat type all fit nearly identical. For example, the unbranded jeans looked exactly like the DC branded jeans, just a different color. There aren’t as many board options, either. There are enough options to make a skater with distinguishable features, just not enough to create one that is wholly unique.

“Skater XL has successfully brought back the skateboarding genre…”

From its fun gameplay to its stellar replay editor, Skater XL is a great game to kick off this resurgence of the skateboarding genre in video games. Really, the only thing standing in the way of this game’s success is whether players can get down with the lack of a progression system or campaign. Yes, there are challenges for each map, but they are really meant for newer players who want to learn the ropes or need some ideas for spots or lines to skate. From what I can tell, everything is unlocked at the start, and the “progression system” is the player’s ability to perform tricks in a manner that is satisfying, kind of like real skateboarding. Personally, I love the loop of finding a spot, committing to a trick, and performing it as clean as possible. That is enough for me. But I can see players becoming disinterested if there isn’t really anything to strive for.

I mentioned this in my interview with Easy Day Studios, but I have essentially waited for a game like this to release before I even started working for DualShockers. The once elusive, but now announced Skate 4, and really the skateboarding genre as a whole, has been part of many E3 editorials I’ve written the past couple of years. It is one of the very few genres I really identify myself with. So, to see a small studio like Easy Day Studios create something that is not only reminiscent of the games that clearly influenced them, but overall improves on what its predecessors did, is heartening. Sure, it has its fair share of flaws, but none of them take away from how much fun I’ve had. Skater XL has successfully brought back the skateboarding genre, and I am eager to see how Easy Day Studios supports the game moving forward.

July 28, 2020 1:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/skater-xl-review-ride-like-the-wind-straining-the-limits/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=skater-xl-review-ride-like-the-wind-straining-the-limits

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pctestbench · 4 years

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As much fun as flagship CPU’s are each generation, many gamers can save some serious cash with a lower-tier CPU like the new Intel Core i5-10600K and still have a great time. Since most games are still lightly threaded, a few fast cores offer a better gaming experience than several slower ones anyway. The Core i5-10600K packs 6 cores and 12 threads of high-speed gaming prowess into a modest $262 price point. With a base clock speed of 4.1Ghz and the ability to boost to 4.8Ghz out of the box, the 10600K can easily handle all of your games as well as streaming them to your fans. A 125W TDP and full unlocked overclocking support means you can dial it up a little more if needed. Is this the sweet spot for gaming? Let’s find out!

We want to thank Intel for sending us over the new Core i5-10600K to try out!

Intel’s take on the Core i5-10600K:

Built for serious gamers, 10th Gen Intel® Core™ desktop processors bring the right balance of frequency, cores, and threads, plus support for the latest technologies and advanced tuning flexibility to help put users in control of the real-world gaming experiences that matter most to them.

Obligatory Die Shot:

Important features:

Intel Hyperthreading Technology: Do more simultaneously across 10th Gen Intel Core i9, i7, i5, and i3 processors.

Intel Quick Sync Video: Uses integrated processor graphics to optimize gameplay while gamers stream and record and provides creators with the hardware acceleration they need for the latest video codecs.

Memory Support up to DDR4-2933 Memory Speeds: For smooth gameplay, immersive realism, faster multitasking, and productivity when creating.

Intel Graphics Command Center: Optimizes your Intel® graphics experience.6

Enhanced Core & Memory Overclocking: Gain ultimate control when overclocking your processor and key system components with features enabled by new unlocked and overclockable 10th Gen Intel® Core™ processors.7

Per-Core Hyperthreading Control for Overclocking: allows experienced overclockers to decide which hyper threads to turn on or off on a per-core basis.

Intel Ethernet Connection I225: Now available on the 10th Gen platform, 2.5G Intel Ethernet Connector I225 delivers greater than 2X the network speeds of 1GB Ethernet on existing cabling.

Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201: Now integrated into 10th Gen Intel Core desktop processors, Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) delivers responsive gameplay, nearly 3X faster downloads and more reliable connections. Delivers best-in-class wireless experiences with the freedom and flexibility to game or create anywhere throughout the home or office.

Intel Performance Maximizer: Offers an active core group tuning feature that overclocks each core group tuning feature that overclocks each core group, increasing their performance potential, for maximum gaming performance.

Intel Extreme Tuning Utility: Push performance desktops in new and innovative ways with a new Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility benchmark targeted for experienced overclockers. Now with the Intel Speed Optimizer that is a one-click overclocking feature within Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU). Intel Speed Optimizer will be new for 10th Gen processors and takes advantage of power delivery and thermal headroom within a given chassis or design. Intel Speed Optimizer helps more an unlocked processor’s cores reach nearer to the single-core turbo boost frequency.

Intel Smart Cache: Up to 20M of shared lowest level cache allowing faster access to your data by enabling dynamic and efficient allocation of the cache to match the needs of each core, significantly reducing latency to frequently used data and improving performance.

Thunderbolt 3 support: Thunderbolt 3 ports are the fastest USB-C available, so you can take Thunderbolt 3 SSDs to LAN parties and play games with lightning-fast data transfers.

Intel Optane Memory H10 with SSD Support: Launch apps, games, and project files faster, and stay productive while multitasking.

Quick Specs:

# of Cores – 6

# of Threads – 12

Processor Base Frequency – 4.10 GHz

Max Turbo Boost 2.0 Frequency – 4.80 GHz

Cache – 12 MB Intel Smart Cache

TDP – 125 W

Max Memory Size – 128 GB

Memory Speed – DDR4-2933

Max # of Memory Channels – 2

Processor Graphics – Intel UHD Graphics 630

Scalability – 1S Only

PCI Express Revision – 3.0

Max # of PCI Express Lanes – 16

Sockets Supported – FCLGA1200

TJUNCTION – 100°C

For full features and specs, click here:

A Closer Look

Our review samples showed up in a special box that retail chips won’t be in.

It opens up to reveal a blue acrylic sheet with the Intel logo. You can see two smaller boxes under it.

A finger hole lets you pop the clear cover off.

Inside are two smaller boxes, one contains a Core i5-10600K and the other, the new flagship Core i9-10900K.

Today we’ll be focusing on the i5-10600K.

The new LGA1200 based CPU’s look very similar to the former LGA1151 chips at first glance.

They are the same size, the only difference is the key notches are now about a quarter way up from the bottom instead of very near the top.

The bottom itself is also very similar, with a ton of micro-sized SMT components in the middle, and a grid of gold contacts around it. Let’s strap it in the test bench and move on to testing!

Synthetic Testing

Test Platform:

CPU – Intel Core i5-10600K Mobo – Aorus Z490 Master RAM – 32GB (4x8GB) HyperX Fury RGB 3200MHz C16 GPU – Nvidia RTX 2080 Founders Edition SSD – Kingston KC1000 1TB PSU – Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB Gold 750W Chassis – Open BenchTable Cooling – Custom Liquid Loop (EKWB Velocity CPU Block, EKWB PE240 Rad, 1x DDC Pump)

All testing is performed at stock settings except for enabling XMP (Profile 1: 3200MHz 16-18-18-38 1.35V) and Aorus’s Multicore Enhancement disabled in the BIOS.

Super PI Modded 1.5

“In August 1995, the calculation of pi up to 4,294,960,000 decimal digits was succeeded by using a supercomputer at the University of Tokyo. The program was written by D.Takahashi in collaboration with Dr.Y.Kanada at the computer center. This record should be the current world record. (Details are shown in the windows help.) This record-breaking program was ported to personal computer environments such as Windows NT and Windows 95. In order to calculate 33.55 million digits, it takes within 3 days with a Pentium 90 MHz, 40 MB main memory, and 340 MB available storage.”

With clock speeds hitting 4.8Ghz, it’s not a surprise to see the Core i5-10600K land in the middle of previous-gen flagship territory in this single-threaded test.

CINEBENCH R15

“CINEBENCH is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus, and much more.

CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.”

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Multi-threaded performance, as expected, leads previous-gen 6-core chips thanks to the increased clock speeds 10th gen offers. Single-Threaded performance shows it landing closer to previous i9 chips than i5 chips.

CINEBENCH R20

Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 20 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user. Best of all: It’s free.

In the newer Cinebench R20, we see a similar pattern with the 6-core i5-10600K leading the previous 6-core champion, the Core i7-8700K.

Passmark Performance Test – CPU Mark

“Fast, easy to use, PC speed testing, and benchmarking. PassMark Performance Test ™ allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers.”

Passmark’s Performance Test 10 enjoys the clock speed increase with the i5-10600K and it holds a commanding lead over the previous 6-core chip.

SiSoft Sandra – Cryptographic Bandwidth

“SiSoftware Sandra provides a robust package of diagnostic tools for testing your system and teasing out its problems–or potential headaches.”

SiSoft’s CPU Cryptographic Bandwidth really favors team red’s architecture here but some of Intel’s HEDT chips hold the top spot. We do see a pretty significant increase over the last-gen parts.

Y-Cruncher

Written by Alexander J. Lee “From a high-school project that went a little too far…” y-cruncher, (y for gamma) is a number-crunching program that can compute various mathematical constants.

It was originally a small program specialized for computing the Euler-Mascheroni Constant. (Which uses gamma as its symbol, hence the name). It has since gained the ability to compute other constants.

It is the first of its kind that is multi-threaded and scalable to multi-core systems. Ever since its launch in 2009, it has become a common benchmarking and stress-testing application for overclockers and hardware enthusiasts.

We tested using the built-in benchmarks to compute Pi to 1 Billion Digits in both single and multi-threaded mode and recorded the Total Computation time at the end of the run. Y-Cruncher is also able to take advantage of AVX512 instructions in compatible CPU’s. Due to the thermal load of running Intense AVX workloads, Intel has implemented and AVX offset clock that may scale the CPU’s clock speed back, even below stock speeds when running intense AVX loads. For this reason, we note the CPU’s clock speed in both single and multi-threaded test modes.

It’s interesting to see the 6-core 10600K hang with the 9th gen i9’s on single-threaded and then turn around and stomp the 9900K in multi-threaded testing.

Black Hole 4.2

Let the beast run and benchmark your system in three different tests (Multithreaded, Single-threaded & 4-Threaded) that will test your CPU to the very limit, and score you among hundreds of other systems that have tested.

Multithreaded will test your CPU’s efficiency of running more than one thread without major system lag. The higher you score on this one, the more threads your CPU can handle with a comfortable speed. High multithreaded scores generally mean you can render things faster.

4-Threaded tests your CPU’s performance in games since most games currently run on 4 threads.

Single-threaded evaluates how fast the CPU can handle a single, dedicated thread for processing.

We see AMD’s architecture holding a pretty noticeable advantage but the Core i5-10600K lands where we expect it to here.

Workstation & Productivity Testing

Blender Benchmark 2.82 – BMW27

A new platform to collect and display the results of hardware and software performance tests. Aimed at an optimal comparison between system hardware and installations using open source software and testing content in the public domain.

For real-world productivity, there is zero substitute for raw core count, and this is no exception. We still see the faster clock speeds help the i5-10600K edge out the 8700K though.

POV-Ray 3.7 Standard Benchmark – CPU

The POV-Ray standard benchmark shows similar results with the i5-10600K obliterate it’s older but higher-tier counterpart.

x265 HD Benchmark A benchmark that measures how fast your computer can encode HD (1080p) video in the new H.265 / HEVC format.

Encoding video to HEVC is not that uncommon these days, and the i5-10600K handles it well.

7-Zip

The benchmark shows a rating in MIPS (million instructions per second). The rating value is calculated from the measured speed, and it is normalized with the results of the Intel Core 2 CPU with a multi-threading option switched off. So if you have modern CPU from Intel or AMD, rating values in single-thread mode must be close to real CPU frequency. There are two tests, compression with the LZMA method and decompression with the LZMA method. Once the total passes reach 50, the score is taken

Zipping and unzipping files to send is another frequent task that is even more common in this ‘work-from-home’ world this year. The 10600K handles this readily and edges out previous 6-core parts by around 50%.

Memory & Cache Testing

AIDA64 Engineer Edition

“FinalWire Ltd. today announced the immediate availability of AIDA64 Extreme Edition 1.50 software, a streamlined diagnostic and benchmarking tool for home users; and the immediate availability of AIDA64 Business Edition 1.50 software, an essential network management solution for small and medium scale enterprises. The new AIDA64 update implements AVX-optimized benchmarks for the upcoming Intel Sandy Bridge processors, adds a brand-new video encoding benchmark, and supports the latest AMD and NVIDIA graphics processors.”

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Internal cache performance is pretty well on par with the previous 6 core parts, so no surprises here since they are all the same family after all.

Actual memory bandwidth to the system ram is actually a hair better than it’s i9-10900K sibling here. Interesting.

The new Core -5-10600K has a little bit lower latency overall to system memory than it’s i9 sibling.

Passmark Performance Test – Memory Mark – Threaded

Passmark again shows us with the i5-holding a slight performance advantage over the new i9.

SiSoft Sandra – Memory Bandwidth – Aggregate.

“SiSoftware Sandra provides a robust package of diagnostic tools for testing your system and teasing out its problems–or potential headaches.”

While we expect quad-channel enabled HEDT chips to score higher as we see, most of the Dual-channel parts here all stack up within margin of error.

Synthetic Game Testing

3DMark – Fire Strike

“Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today”

In this synthetic physics test, the increased clock speed on the 10th gen i5-10600K do well here, even against team red’s 8-core parts.

3DMark – Time Spy

“3Dmark Time Spy is a new DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spay is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built “the right way” from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards.”

The more modern Time Spy test shows the same trend with an even wider lead on the 8700K and even Ryzen 7 2700X.

Game Testing

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

Originally created by legendary game designer Sid Meier, Civilization is a turn-based strategy game in which you attempt to build an empire to stand the test of time. Become Ruler of the World by establishing and leading a civilization from the Stone Age to the Information Age. Wage war, conduct diplomacy, advance your culture, and go head-to-head with history’s greatest leaders as you attempt to build the greatest civilization the world has ever known.

Civilization VI offers new ways to engage with your world: cities now physically expand across the map, active research in technology and culture unlocks new potential, and competing leaders will pursue their own agendas based on their historical traits as you race for one of five ways to achieve victory in the game.

Intel bills the new Core i9-10900K as the world’s fastest gaming processor and its smaller i5-10600K sibling isn’t far behind. Only the previous special edition 9900KS can fight it’s way into the 10th gen range here.

Far Cry 5

Anything can happen. Everything will.

Welcome to Hope County, Montana, land of the free and the brave, but also home to a fanatical doomsday cult—known as The Project at Eden’s Gate—that is threatening the community’s freedom. Stand up to the cult’s leaders, Joseph Seed, and the Heralds, as you spark the fires of resistance that will liberate the besieged community.

Far Cry 5 hits modern multi-core CPU’s pretty hard, and can take advantage of more than a couple of cores. Here we see the i5-10600K match up to last gen’s flagship i9-9900K almost perfectly.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.

The latest Tomb Raider also sees a benefit from more CPU power and the i5-10600K delivers a great experience out of the box.

Ashes of the Singularity

Planet by planet, a war is raging across the galaxy. The technological singularity has given humanity the power to expand further than they ever have before. Now, they compete with each other and their sentient artificial intelligence adversaries for control of newfound worlds.

The Core i9-10600K again fights its way into the middle of the 9th gen’s flagship pile and leaves previous 6-core parts well behind.

Overclocking, Power & Thermals

For Power usage, we will be using a FLIR CM78 DC Amp clamp directly monitoring the 12V EPS connections to the motherboard. This gives us a real-world accuracy of +/- 2 Watts across our entire measuring range from 0W to more than enough to melt both 8-pin EPS plugs.

At stock, we peg out at 4.8Ghz on a couple of cores. Thermals are great in the low 70C range, with power draws around 150W.

We’ll enable Aorus’s Multi-Core Enhancement which pegs all cores at maximum Turbo, which is 4.8Ghz. We see a decent jump in score, and power only climbs to around 181W under full load. Temps hover in the upper 70C range with the hottest core hitting 78C.

From here we’ll take over manually and go up to 4.9GHz on all cores. Something weird happens here as the voltage jumps, scores drop slightly and power usage is pretty much the same.

We went ahead and tried for 5GHz and whatever weirdness happened at 4.9Ghz is gone. Temps are back in the mid 70C range with core voltage at 1.356V. Power usage climbs slightly to around 190W.

5.1Ghz is pretty easy to get stable on the i5-10600K but requires a bit more voltage. We ended up going up about 0.05V to just over 1.4V, which kicked temps into the low 80C range. Power usage jumped to around 214W.

We tried for 5.2Ghz on all cores, but out particular CPU just wasn’t having it. We pushed voltage up to 1.45V and still couldn’t get it fully stable and temps were crashing into the 100C range pretty much instantly at that voltage. Sometimes you win the silicon lottery, sometimes you don’t. Your mileage may vary but our particular slice of silicon hit a wall above 5.1Ghz all core.

Conclusion

Intel’s Core i5 tier of chips are often a favorite of gamers. They provide solid performance at a price that still lets you invest in a good GPU to go with it. 6 cores at these clock speeds is plenty of power for high frame rate gaming, or a bit less competitive gaming while streaming. The street price of around $275 is pretty much on par with previous offerings in this tier but lands a decent chunk of change above a similarly positioned red offering. In most of our gaming tests, it did fight toe to toe with previous-gen 8-core chips that bring $500+ still, so it’s a decent leap forward.

This is the lowest tiered offering this generation that is still unlocked, but given the modest overclocking headroom we found, a more competitive selection might be the locked i5-10600 for around $225 for those on a budget. If you score well in the silicon lottery, 6 cores at 5.2Ghz are certainly a force to be reckoned with though if our testing is any indication. All in all, this is a great choice for many gamers and the platform as a whole makes it pretty easy to recommend.

Good job Intel!

[sc name=”award-editors-choice” ]

Intel Core i5-10600K 10th Gen LGA1200 CPU Review As much fun as flagship CPU’s are each generation, many gamers can save some serious cash with a lower-tier CPU like the new Intel Core i5-10600K and still have a great time.

#10th Gen #Core i5 #Core i5-10600K #Intel #LGA1200 #Z490

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majornelson · 7 years

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Top Microsoft Gaming Moments Of 2017

Will Tuttle, Xbox Wire Editor in Chief, shares some of the biggest moments in 2017 for Microsoft and the Xbox team.

During E3 this year, we showed the biggest and most diverse Xbox games lineup ever. Many of those games are coming in 2018, and as gamers we cannot wait to share them with fans. Among Microsoft Studios exclusives games are new IP like Sea of Thieves (launching March 20), deep gameplay in fan-favorite franchises like State of Decay 2, and the explosive return of a celebrated franchise to Xbox with Crackdown 3 – all releasing on Xbox One and PC. That’s in addition to all the great ID@Xbox and cross-platform games (more on that below), and as well as other unannounced surprises to come.

As we prepare to step into the new year, it’s a great time to reflect on our favorite gaming moments of 2017 on Xbox and PC. We released the world’s most powerful console Xbox One X with the largest games lineup in Xbox history, including more than 1,300 titles and over 220 exclusives. Among those were incredible 2017 releases from Microsoft Studios, third party publishers and innovative independent developers, with over 85 specifically enhanced to take advantage of the power of Xbox One X. We also offered new ways for gamers to access content, interact with spectators and participate in the game development process.

The excitement capped recently with The Game Awards, where Forza Motorsport 7 took home Best Sports/Racing Game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds won Best Multiplayer Game, and Cuphead snagged three awards, including Best Independent Game.

Join us as we look back at our top 10 games moments of 2017.

The World’s Most Powerful Console Launches

Reception to Xbox One X has been incredible and we’re so grateful for our fans. One of the things we’ve enjoyed most is seeing how developers are taking advantage of the world’s most powerful console, with 4K Ultra HD, HDR, Dolby Atmos and other exciting features and improvements. Xbox One X truly is the best place to experience games with many enhanced games available and more adding support as we move into 2018.

The Biggest PC Game of 2017 Comes Exclusively to Console on Xbox One

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds took the gaming world by storm in 2017. Over 25 million players experienced PUBG on PC and console fans got a shot at winning their own chicken dinners with its exclusive release on Xbox One as part of the Xbox Game Preview program last week. The reception from Xbox fans has been phenomenal with over one million copies sold in the first 48 hours alone. Through the Xbox Game Preview program, fans get to be a part of the development process, and PUBG on Xbox One will continually receive content updates including the new desert map, Miramar, optimizations, and more exciting stuff in the months ahead.

Xbox Game Pass Opens up a New Way to Play

Launching Xbox Game Pass was a big moment for Xbox this year. Giving fans more options to diversify and expand their library of games, as well as discover new experiences has been important to us, which is what we set out to achieve with Xbox Game Pass. We have been excited by the amazing fan reaction and engagement with Xbox Game Pass, which gives unlimited access to over 100 great games on Xbox One.

Xbox is the Best Place to Play Multi-Platform Games

This past year, we worked with fantastic publishers and developers across the industry to make Xbox the best place to play their games. Players responded by playing more than 1,870 third-party games for over 12 billion hours. The Xbox community demonstrated how Xbox Live is the fastest and most reliable gaming network by logging in more than 3.7 billion hours in multiplayer across games from our partners. This has inspired our partners to enhance over 80 Xbox One X games with any combination of benefits like faster loading times, higher resolution textures, HDR support or steadier framerates. We’re looking forward to a great 2018 full of new games and even more Enhanced games with our players and partners.

Forza Motorsport 7 Sets a New Bar

Throughout the years, Turn 10 Studios has worked hard to push the award-winning Forza franchise to new heights, and the pinnacle (so far) was this year’s Forza Motorsport 7 – a game built from the ground up to showcase native 4K gaming at 60 frames per second on Xbox One X. It was an honor bringing the community the most comprehensive, beautiful and authentic racing game ever made. In September alone, more than 7.9 million unique players raced in the Forza community. Next up is the Xbox One X Enhanced version of Forza Horizon 3 coming January 15, and we’ll have more exciting news in the months to come.

Original Xbox Games Join Backward Compatibility Collection

One of the big highlights this year was bringing Original Xbox classics into the Xbox One Backward Compatibility program. Compatibility is important to Xbox, to developers and their games, and our community. In 2017, we added 136 Xbox 360, 13 Original Xbox and seven enhanced Xbox 360 titles, which helped contribute to the more than 400 titles available today and 740 million hours of Backward Compatible games played to-date.

Independent Developers Drive Innovation

Every year, we look back at all the great games released by independent developers around the world, and 2017 was a banner year for great independent games. First off, we launched the Xbox Live Creators Program in August and it’s already flourishing with more than 100 games playable on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs today. And ID@Xbox continues to be the home for creativity, innovation, and just plain rad games. From console exclusive Cuphead to Thimbleweed Park, What Remains of Edith Finch to Aer, or Fortnite to Tacoma, and favorites like Ark, Smite, Warframe and Rocket League ID@Xbox has fast become a super relevant way for independent developers to bring their creations to the Xbox One and Windows 10 community. With Deep Rock Galactic, Battlerite, The Darwin Project, Black Desert, Full Metal Furies, Robocraft, Below and hundreds of others in the pipeline for 2018, 2017 may get a run for its money!

Minecraft Becomes First Game Ever to Unify Players on PC, Mobile, and Console

2017 was a year focused on breaking down barriers for Minecraft. With the release of cross-device multiplayer in the Better Together Update, Mojang and the Minecraft team brought tens of millions of Minecraft players together on the game they love where they want, when they want and on the device they want. In 2018, Minecraft players can look forward to cross-device multiplayer on Nintendo Switch, a whole new world of under-the-sea adventures with the Update Aquatic, a spiffy new graphics engine powering the Super Duper Graphics Pack, and more.

Mixer Unlocks New Interactive Streaming Experiences

For the Mixer team, 2017 was about community growth and innovation. We welcomed a ton of new streamers, expanded our existing communities and added new ones, and made huge investments in new features like 4-person Co-Streaming, Mixer HypeZone and our new mobile app for iOS and Android that make Mixer the best place to stream and watch for console, PC, and mobile gamers alike. Seeing communities, creators and game developers unite around new experiences on Mixer has been incredible – Telltale Games using “Crowd Play” enables the audience to control story decisions, for example, or developers using new means of interactivity in Minecraft, The Darwin Project, Death’s Door and more. 2018 will bring even more interactive games as well as new capabilities for streamers.

Reinvesting in Age of Empires

Celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the Age of Empires franchise with the community at gamescom this year was epic. We announced Age of Empires IV there, which has long been on many fan wish lists. Add that we are partnering with Relic Entertainment, one of the best RTS developers in the world, and there is a lot to look forward to with the storied PC franchise. It’s just the beginning, as Age of Empires: Definitive Edition launches early next year, and Definitive Editions of Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III are planned in the future.

The SteamVR library comes to Windows Mixed Reality

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update brings mixed reality to your PC this holiday season, and along with it a catalog of over 2000 of the most popular VR games available with SteamVR. Windows Mixed Reality headsets don’t require any external cameras or sensors, and set up in just minutes so you can enjoy the immersive action of the top VR games available today, along with all of the apps in the Microsoft Store.

On behalf of the entire Xbox team, thank you to all Xbox fans. You are what makes gaming on Xbox great and the motivation that drives our team. 2018 is going to be an amazing year, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out your own personal Xbox Year-in-Review to see how you gamed in 2017. Happy holidays!

via Xbox Live's Major Nelson http://ift.tt/2z5zOtb

#Xbox Live's Major Nelson

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techhowl · 7 years

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Best Notification Apps for Android

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Best Notification Apps for Android

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Push notifications have been one of the best things to happen to phones, drastically revolutionizing communication in daily life. But every new version of Android – even the same version on another device – brings with it a host of new changes to the way notifications are viewed and handled and a new bundle of woes to users to were accustomed to the older version.

Contents

0.0.1 Your smart phone really could be smarter and we found these 10 apps that will definitely make your phone top of the class at handling notifications and making your life just a tad bit easier.

1 Best Android Apps for Smarter Notifications

1.1 1. APUS Message Center – Intelligent Management

1.2 2. Heads-Up Notifications

1.3 3. AcDisplay

1.4 4. DynamicNotifications

1.5 5. Echo Notification Lockscreen

1.6 6. Smart Notify – SMS, Calls and Notifications

1.7 7. Shouter – Notification Reader

1.8 8. Floatify Lockscreen

1.9 9. Horntell – Smart Notifications

1.10 10. Desktop Notifications

2 SPECIAL MENTIONS

Your smart phone really could be smarter and we found these 10 apps that will definitely make your phone top of the class at handling notifications and making your life just a tad bit easier.