#Matrix 4 trailer

[biozica]

In this captivating video, we delve deep into the life and career of the remarkable Keanu Reeves. From his early days in Beirut to his iconic status in Hollywood, you'll discover the inspiring journey of a true legend. Join us on this adventure! �� #keanureeves #keanureevesedit #keanureevesofficial #keanureevesmemes #keanureevesspace #keanureevesfans #keanureevesfan #keanureevesmovies #keanureevesquotes

[anim-ttrpgs]

Songs for Eureka Sessions: Deadly/Armed Melee Combat

Masterpost of Eureka song lists & how to choose good music for any TTRPG session.

1 vs 100 - Hardcore Henry

Shut Me Down - Godflesh

Cursed Zone - Okami

Turf – El Huervo

Hydrogen – Hotline Miami

Paris – Hotline Miami

She Swallowed Burning Coals – Hotline Miami 2

Fahkeet – Light Club

Divide – Magna

Final Battle – Resident Evil 1 Remake

Ending – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Another End – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Vengeance – The Guest

Boss 2 – Nightmare Creatures

Piercing Lazer – Castle Crashers

Boss 4 – Nightmare Creatures

Spybreak – The Matrix

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!

You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[galaxyseclipse]

alright, gonna try to be slightly more organized than last time about my thoughts/theories/observations about Side Order also this might be a shorter post than last time because there isn't a whole ton of trailer, it'll mostly be about the artwork tbh

so I'm just gonna start this by saying I really dislike the "it's all New 3's dream" theory, it feels like a cop-out. I'm not saying it is 110% untrue, just that I don't like it and hope it isn't

how do I explain the transition from the train to Inkopolis Square? New 3's on the train to Inkopolis Square(which is fully unlocked after beating Side Order; the option just takes you to SO until then) and falls asleep, one matrix-y transition later and we're in Eight's pov inside of whatever simulation they got dragged into. it's purely to transition the player from New 3 to Eight, and the events are completely unrelated

or I'm utterly, wholly wrong! who knows!

---------

another thing I noticed on my millionth trailer rewatch was this

it's just to the right of the tower in the shot where everything materializes. it looks like a filling cabinet? it's in the last trailer we got too, I checked, but not the first teaser(granted, a lot of stuff wasn't)

I dunno, probably not anything super important, but it's not there in the Square in 2, so I thought I'd point it out

edit: look at reblogs, it's probably actually a set of lockers

---------

I've seen a shockingly small number of people bring up this guy

so far(maybe there's more talk of them on twitter or something idk)

they're clearly pretty prominent, they're next to Acht, Pearldrone, and Eight, so they have to be important, right?

my first guess is that they're something a la CQ Cumber or ORCA, just the one who explains the rules of each level and splats you if you fail. but it feels redundant to have both them and Acht, who already knows a good amount about this place, explaining stuff to you

I dunno I also see twist villain potential from them, just because we haven't seen them before now. like, "hahaha! It was I who fucked up this place, and now that you've helped me hack the mainframe, I can take full control!" or something idk lol

I'm not even gonna try to guess what kind of sea critter they are lmao

---------

now onto the real stars of the show

these fuckers

hopefully y'all already know that I am a firm believer that the one in the center is Agent 4, seeing as they're the only one of the group with ears and tentacles, and those two features bear resemblance to "canon" Agent 4. the rest don't have those, so that one is clearly important, right? am I being delusional? probably

setting that aside, what are these things in the first place? they're most likely related to the fish guys in some way, both being covered in black goo with glowing red eyes

I personally think that they're either mobile versions of the copy machine from the lobby, or some weird, goopy creation of the simulation used to replace enemy Octolings in gameplay(which is a fun twist, haven't had enemy Inklings before) otherwise I have no idea lol. they're enemy units and that's all I've got

---------

there's also this thing

featuring a lot of Acht's head

kinda looks like the Octowhirl to me, but like, less octoweapon-y and more coral-ish, with the same red eyes as the fish; probably a boss of some stripe, or tougher enemy

---------

something else that's probably inconsequential I noticed in the artwork

the different colored color chips have different text on them, probably stating what kind each one is?

notably, the blue one(the one used in the trailer) doesn't have the same text on it, that moved to the red one

---------

I think that's it for now; I have picked apart the artwork as much as I can/want

I'll bet if we get a direct before the 22nd, we'll get one more small trailer or maybe just a repeat of this one. though judging by the trailers Nintendo's been releasing lately, that feels oddly unlikely to me

but idk I'm just a weirdo who likes staring at fictional cephalopods

[sonicasura]

They shouldn’t have underestimated how much Megatron’s judgement was deteriorating.

Should have moved the base…

—————————————

While young Raf was recovering, one of the screen’s suddenly sounded an alarm as dozens upon dozens of ground bridges opened up across the continent. They only stayed open for a few seconds—but it was enough to sense dozens upon dozens of spark signals exiting the portals. The Autobots saw one open up in their own groundbridge bay, every cybertronian there tensed expecting a swarm of Vehicons.

A strange mobile medical berth rushed forward forcing Bulkhead to catch it and make sure the unfamiliar mech on it didn’t tip onto the floor. Following him was a strange spherical storage device leaking grey sealant. The groundbridge closed shortly after as Ratchet rushed over to the medical berth. It had obviously been shabbily modified to become mobile.

Optimus cautiously approached the storage capsule weapon still drawn in case it happened to be an explosive. Yet the Matrix was reacting wildly to what was contained within so an object of harm might be unlikely… What lay within were three ancient looking energon daggers. All three were wrapped in inner panel mesh to keep them from breaking. There was a legible if rushed message scratched into the inside in English.

‘Omega Key pieces 3/4. Check in Smokescreen. Don’t let Megatron get these ever.’

————————————

Knockout sped out of the groundbridge in his alt-mode, Breakdown situated on a medical berth turned trailer. Starscream flew out of the bridge as it flickered closed then elevated so he didn’t take a nosedive into the road. The former Decepticon took extreme care in making sure he didn’t run over any potholes or rough patches. Both for his partner’s sake and the sake of the injured organic shapeshifter in his backseat.

(“What are those mutated things?!”

“Terrorcons. Cybertronians brought back from the dead by Dark Energon. Don’t let their Vehicon frames fool you—they have tentacle like limbs in their mouths that can suck the Energon from any mech… All it take is one bite to turn another. You can only beat them by taking out their spinal struts.”

The shapeshifter had already keyed in codes to the groundbridge generator, sending multiple teams of uninfected Vehicons through. Knockout watched the currently a Predacon now welding to create two mobile medical berths… “What are you making?”

“Come on, you’re a medic. Surely a mobile medical berth isn’t the most mind boggling thing out there. I’ll send Smokescreen to the Autobots and set Breakdown on this so you can tow him away from here.”

“But in his condition—“

“He’s stable enough to handle a trip. I know you’ll be careful enough. Besides, you normal cybertronians are vulnerable to being turned.”)

Megatron had been experimenting…

—ROB’d Anon.

This honestly feels like a situation where Dart might get a new transformation if they weren't injured. I'm not surprised Megatron continues to do very stupid and dangerous things. Something that's gonna bite him back soon enough.

[little-pup-pip]

i remember u posting a thing where it shows all the requests you haven't done yet. I just want to see as I requested something long ago in 2023. I'm not trying to seem pushy, I'm just curious!

(this was rhe person that requested a bugbo thing)

Here you go!! This is very long, so I put the list under the cut!

These are the requests sent after I stopped accepting them that I didn't delete for various reasons. If you sent in a request after I closed them on March 14th and don't see it here, you'll need to send a new one (please don't take it personally if I deleted it)!!

Black + squirrel

Asra (the arcana)

Shurara (keroro gunsou)

Ring tailed lemur

Buzz light-year

Rottweiler

Yellow raccoon petre

Lionel Messi

Sonic the hedgehog

Light pink and blue bunnies

Middle school gym class

Jenny wakeman (my life as a teenage robot)

Chris Kratt (wild Kratts)

Yuri (doki doki literature club)

Cole (Lego Ninjago)

Crowley (good omens)

Stingray

Prince + bunnies

CG vil (twisted wonderland)

Alt + Wolf-dog

Golden retriever

Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes)

Kipo (kipo and the age of wonderbeasts, I think)

Leif (my inner demons)

Little big planet 3

Clouds + pastel blue

Outdoorsy + animals

Sun and stars + bunnies

Chase (paw patrol, I actually have two of these waiting)

Cinnamoroll

Eastern red bat

Octopus regression

Tiger CG

Aquarium trip

Pastel coloring + kitties

lavender/grey bunnies

Pastel dolls

Jumping spiders/Leopard geckos

Dr. animo (ben 10)

Shuichi saihara

Black Shiba inu

This is everything left from before I closed my requests!

Osamu dazai (bsd)

Flutist

The dazzlings (equestria girls)

Vampire with Halloween themes

Guardians of ga'hoole

Gromsko (MW2/3)

V (murder drones)

Cg SD-N (murder drones)

Cassidy (overwatch) and cowboys

TMNT Leonardo

Ranboo

Pastel kitty

Lackadaisy

Epithet erased

Another OC named cerys

Pikmin

Slay the princess

Someone's pictures (Idk what to call this one just know that I'm going to do it)

The Magnus protocol

Bive (regretavator)

Donnie darko

Megamind

Jake Peralta (Brooklyn nine nine)

Allister (pokemon)

Umi (idk from where I'll figure it out eventually)

Rottweiler puppy and the creek

Monster tom (eddsworld)

Gnarpy (regretavator)

Xianzhao loufu (hsr)

Cg jing yuan (hsr)

Cupcake and dino

Kitty petre pomni (tadc)

Shiromo (pui pui molcar)

Jack harkness (doctor who)

Pettoism

Cg basil hallward (the picture of Dorian gray)

Cats

Spiderman (again! lol)

Mei (Lego monkie kid)

Cats + cakes

Houndoom (pokemon)

Wolfwalkers from cartoon saloon

Lucifer (hazbin hotel)

Critterspace (drafts)

Minecraft lush caves (drafts)

Ibara saegusa

Llewellyn Watts (Murdoch Mysteries)

Jake (trailer park warlock, drafts)

Cult of the lamb (pet dreaming themed)

Tubbo

Cassie (fnaf: ruin)

Black kitten + space

Grey draik (neopets)

Pumpkin head (still needs more research)

Someone's OC Avery & siblings

Maki harukawa

Brown, lime green and forest green puppy

Dylan (the magic roundabout)

Zombies

Vincent (dead plate)

Osamu dazai (bungo stray dogs, drafts)

Vision CG (marvel, drafts)

Light blue

Bearded vulture

Mind (Chonny Jash/CCCC)

Seam CG (deltarune)

John Constantine (Justice League Dark)

Keralis (Hermitcraft, maybe)

Tula tones (novi stars, drafts)

Eevee + dragons (or witchy themes which I may do instead)

Kitten + stars (I think, the request actually says stairs though and it's been confusing me)

Mushrooms

Grey + Ross federman youtooz (drafts)

Boyfriend.xml (Friday night funkin')

Puppet (fnaf)

Genshin impact (drafts)

Eddsworld

Karako Pierot (hiveswap)

Scorpion

Border Collie

Mortal Kombat

Puppy + SpongeBob (drafts)

Baby vulture (drafts)

Rain world/slugcat (drafts)

Border Collie

Modded smash hit rooms

Crying child (fnaf)

Agent Smith CG (the matrix)

Rolfe DeWolfe CG (Rockafire Explosion)

Slime rancher

Puppet (fnaf)

Parado (Kamen Rider)

Tally hall

Rockabilly (probably)

Felix Lee

Charles Xavier CG (X-Men)

Naoto Shirogane (persona 4, drafts)

Kitoto

17th century dutch (drafts)

Sees behind trees (drafts)

Allay (Minecraft, I think. Drafts)

Tasmanian devil (drafts, can't figure out if they want the cartoon or animal)

Spamton CG (deltarune, drafts)

Grunge + lop eared bunnies (drafts)

Yume-Nikki (drafts)

Daxter (jak and daxter, drafts)

Madness combat for puppies (drafts)

James Sunderland (silent Hill, drafts)

Shirokuma (Danganronpa, drafts)

Leo (IDW comic, drafts)

[thaliatempest]

❗️NINTENDO DIRECT❗️SIDE ORDER SPOILERS ❗️

After watching the new Side Order Trailer, I have come up with what I think is a pretty solid theory regarding what the DLC is gonna be like!

I believe that the entire DLC will take place in a sort of Matrix-esque Order Simulation, with the end goal most likely being either escape, or locate Marina, who appears to have gone missing, judging by her absence in this trailer. Below are some of the things that I think give credit to this theory.

1. Damage Numbers visible with a techy font

2. The glitchyness and digital particle spawning effects

3. Pearl is a Drone, so she could be controlling it from the outside to act as a guide/companion, similar to the Shel-Drone that Sheldon uses in Splat 2 to deliver weapons. Especially since she was shown as normal in the first preview for Side Order, so she's most likely controlling the Drone externally

4. It's meant to be played over and over again, and the 'starting area' is a white outed Inkopolis Square with techy elements added, adding to the vibe of it being an Order Simulation, and I highly doubt that the real world of Inkopolis Square is like that, as well as the sky box and general environment feeling artificial

5. Dedf1sh mentions themselves being someone who got 'sucked in', giving further evidence that they aren't in the 'real world and are, in fact, within some form of digital simulation

6. The big cascade thing shown at the very end and the area around it gives me Portal GLaDOS/Wheatley main control room vibes, with the big thing in the center potentially housing the simulation Admin, which in this case, has a high likely hood to be Marina, either by her own will or someone else controlling her, given that she was the leader of Team Order, so her running this massive Order Simulation would make sense, whether by her own will or noy

7. The levels and game play shown gives me Training Simulation/Matrix vibes, and the enemies look like skeletal and goopy Salmonids, digitally mimicing a Grizzco shift/Salmon Run

8. The Spire of Order seems TARDIS-esque cause of it seeming bigger inside then out, but this one is just me

That's all I got for right now, but tell me what you think of this theory^^!

[based-bobcat]

The Flash

Yup, I got dragged to see this movie. It’s the best comedy of 1994!

-The opening scene was fine, but it set up the rollercoaster of tonal shifts we were about to jump on. I admit I laughed during the baby shower scene. Barry not being able to touch the people he saves seems like a new handwavy addition so they wouldn’t just speed to, say, Russia.

-Affleck in the Batsuit looks like Dark Knight Returns Batman, especially his face. It didn’t look good at all. Another laugh when WW showed up with that epic musical sting out of nowhere.

-There is no fucking way that Iris West would ever interact with Barry after him schizoing in front of her every single second. 

-The time travel itself was pretty cool, until they used CGI akin to Jimmy Neutron to show the ‘waves of time’ or whatever. Also it looked so much like the cosmic treadmill, you might as well have used it. Made totally not stolen from Flash season 3 stand out even more when he pushed Barry off the not!Treadmill.

-Whoever decided to have Ezra Miller play a dual role should be fired, shot and set on fire in that order. Barry Allen is the most annoying character to ‘grace’ the screen since Jar Jar, and no, film,  outright saying Barry is annoying doesn’t help. It just makes it worse.

-Barry and Barry have a scene in which Barry comes to the shocking conclusion that nobody of the League is around to stop Zod... Even though during MoS nobody was active during that time aside from Batman. They retcon Barry into the same trailer scene Bruce was in, which felt like I was finally watching a comic book. Pointless retcons!  That shows that Barry tried to save a kid and a dad, but failed to save the dad. A nice waste of time because you do see them later, they literally suffer the same fate. Even worse, Barry wasn’t even there this time!

-The usual ‘this is how OUR time travel works’ scene was generic, but spaghetti metaphor was at least an interesting take. Also autism be damned, Bruce can cook a good pasta

-While I usually like Michael Keaton, it seemed like he was phoning it in. He said ‘I’m Batman’ like an old person welcoming you to Target. He looks so bored

-In a later scene he says “You wanna get nuts? Let’s go nuts” in the same bored tone, shot the exact same way and the movie gives a pause for fucking applause. Beyond embarrassing. They also had Batman shield others from bullets with his cape like 5 times minimum and every time he made this face.

-Now the 4 people who follow me and read this will say ‘of course you’d say that’, but Supergirl is the only good part in this fucking shitshow. Rushed as hell, yes, but good. She took off because mankind imprisoned her so mankind bad, and immediately went back because Barry saved her in the span of a literal minute. Could’ve been explored better though. One of the Barry acts like a 4 year old could’ve been cut for Kara coming to terms with the fact that Kal-El isnt out there. Or just adjusting to freedom. Instead she immediately fights Zod, because the movie needs to (They do give her a reason, but only after she agreed to help to stop Zod)

-The reason being, yet another fucking retcon, on this Spaghetti strand Kara is the one with the Birthing Matrix, and Zod killed infant Clark to discover this. I genuinely dont get this change. It’d be more interesting if Clark died on arrival and the matrix was destroyed. So Zod is just Terraforming the Earth as a fuck you to Jor-El. 

-Just now realising that Zod came to Earth because Clark/Lois activated a signal, but without Clark how the fuck did he know where Kara even was?

-Final fight scene had tonal whiplash every five fucking seconds, I kind of tuned out until Kara and Bruce died. Barry and Spaghetti-Barry go back in time, it doesn’t work. OG!Barry finally learns the lesson that CW Flash never fucking learned about time travel, but Spaghetti!Barry keeps going until we get a literal crisis on infinite Earths type shit with Earths clashing into each other. To nobody’s surprise, Spaghetti!Barry is not!Savitar. Well to everyone’s surprise probably since I forgot he existed. They have the gall to say Spaghetti!Barry created himself, using OG!Barry as a way to do so.

-This is after an embarrassing amount of ‘REMEMBER THIS’ zooming in on those other Earths, with DC using the corpse of Christopher Reeves as nostalgia bait. Classy. 

-At least Nic Cage got to play Superman, good on him. Sad he still had to fight that giant spider. Telling that they CGI’d Reeve in, but Adam West only gets an audio clip

-A delicious middle finger to CW because the only reference to that we saw was Zoom-as-Jay-Garrick also known as the moment CW Flash went to shit.

-Anyway the movie ends with a woman hugging a bloody, dirty, crying man who is clearly wearing stolen clothes, then crying homeless man proceeds to steal her can of tomatoes. This is played with sad music and slo-mo. I genuinely haven’t laughed that hard in the theater in years.

-The movie ends with George Clooney as Batman, instead of giving me more Sasha Supergirl. Which they should’ve done. With Henry no longer playing Clark, why not give us Supergirl.

Numbers for movies dont mean shit, but this movie is a 3/10 and that generous. I laughed along with the movie the same amount of times I laughed at it, so that is a win? The people I went with could not name a single thing that they liked. Not a single fucking thing. Reportedly Aquaman is going to be worse. I cant wait.

Lets hope James Gunn turns this around. Not holding my breath

[pluralsword]

Queer Wargaming with Cards

Yeah we do wargaming.

With cards.

Extremely gay cards.

You know, the Transformers Deck-Building Game XD

It's a wargame in the sense that we've collected a bunch of expansions (we have the core autobot game, the core decepticon game, infiltration protocol expansion, and the war for cybertron core game) that would together enable 4v4 gameplay... we calculated that would mean having a card matrix (the battlefield as it were that gets flipped over to reveal allies, enemies, gear, friendly or enemy strategies, bosses, and locations, and battles resulting in defeated enemies leave ruins) of 6 x 6 (36 cards, with one starting polity) cards, and a 21+21+21+5 deck containing the bosses and more polities... (note the game rules go up to 2v2 or 3v1 or 4 player coop/team competitive but if one wants to get in more content and players you just increase the matrix from a 4 x 4 for four players to say, 4x5 for five, and add two cards to boss stacks, going from a 11+11+11+5 to 13+13+13+5, and so on for more players)

as a deckbuilding game, a core mechanic is collecting cards from the field and adjusting your deck and buffing cards and the like, all actions you take are with cards, whether repairing, attacking, blocking, assisting, recruiting, commanding, damaging, and so on. So inevitably you end up collecting a bunch of blorbos, tactics, and gear...

so it's completely unlike any other wargame in that every player is a sort of mass effect style commander who brings their team of blorbos (including humans and non-transformer aliens), gear, and tactics with them to wreck or charm opponents, lead polities, repair the tolls of war, collect relics, take down enemy leadership, protect each other, complete war goals, along with defending ones own leaders...

which is a very transformers premise, come to think of it, but it also feels a lot like ancient war stories, and very gay equivalent, both because of all that and because well, transformers has been very same-gender love uwu intentionally since 2012 which shows no signs of halting, and hit a gender expansive aspect too (the deckbuilding game so far only has sword arcee and overlord but we are sure more will turn up)... so suffice to say that uh we are glad this is the board game we decided to collect for-

its also a lot cheaper than wargames typically are for army building or what have you, and has a built in cooperative or solo mode if you don't want to fight your friends! for reference the amount of money we've spent on the game to now have a vast number of gal characters who would appear on the board is around the cost of a single Manticore missile tank from a certain grimdark game... (although that series is infamous for being much more expensive than other wargames)

speaking of women:

With the cards we have there are 11 different options for playable characters (the leaders of your decks) who either were introduced as gals (Arcee, Elita-1, Slipstream, and Windblade), have at least one gal iteration (Starscream, Skywarp, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime) or would have been canonized as gals but either that was turned down at the time or character cut from a continuity budget (Ratchet and Jazz respectively). If we had the Dinobot expansion that would put us at 12 since Swoop is a gal in Cyberverse.

also the alt modes are on the flip side, transforming is a key mechanic since you need your alt mode to move around usually (respectively, Ratchet: ambulance, Arcee: sports convertible, Elita-1: sports muscle car, Slipstream: fighter jet, Windblade: VTOL jet, Starscream: fighter jet, Skywarp: fighter jet, Ironhide: van, Optimus Primes: truck without the trailer, Jazz: sports car)

Dunno about you but that's a lot of options who are gals for any board game usually... and they vary vastly in capabilities, for example:

-Arcee (from the core/autobot set simply known as the transformers deck-building game) has a skill lay out that is built around moving quickly and gathering maneuvers to use selectively customize personal prowess while playing cards that, in our experience, tends to defeat/eliminate the most enemy npcs on the board (at least until the war for cybertron expansion). she also has strong synergy with her own npc card and the energy blades whose art of hers held by her from the same set.

On an obscure lore note, since the Matrix of Leadership card can be picked up by anyone who can play 8 power (having the power and the touch here doesn't seem to function on a morality basis but hey it doesn't always do that anyway), if you do it with her you can effectively play Arcana Magnus, which is close to the name that was considered for her if she had won the choose a Prime poll for the Power of the Primes toyline (for which she ran on a platform of giving up her career as a warrior, serving with honor, and focusing on reparations in the aftermath of the Great War)

-Windblade (war for cybertron bonus pack) can boost one of her cards while on a site (because of her cityspeaker thing) and can for 1 energon also teleport to allies / sites (another reference because of titans often having spacebridges, but also she's a flyer), and then draws a card she has card draw... on top of that for 2 energon she can recruit an enemy of 2-4 power so she can recruit from the start of the game without the matrix of leadership (which is the only other way to do this, from the core/autobot set)- so effectively politician Windblade has made it into the cardgame (which was so exciting to us), and she can also move allied players to an adjacent space when switching to alt mode, her team versatility is very different from Ironhide who is all about focusing on blocking attacks for teammates, or Ratchet who doles out assists and repairs like no tomorrow (this also uniquely positions Ratchet to defend friendly Autobot bosses)

-Slipstream (war for cybertron) is the first real starter sniper/gunship of the lot, she can give her starter cards +1 range and can also battle enemies not in her space with +2 range and +2 power which makes her a killer to rival arcee, and has card draw or can self heal 2 damage and in alt mode can choose a card from her discard to put on top of her deck so she is the deck engine blorbo (insert blue/red deck joke here)

-Elita-1 (war for cybertron) on the other hand has a sort of turn by turn engine because when she recruits an autobot they go on top of the deck for the next turn, so she can determine her next turn draw, and also can boost autobot cards- and most importantly, for each autobot she controls on the field in play, she can deal 1 damage to a target character, so um... Elita can completely mess up enemy players/teams, if she has five Autobots played on a turn she can hit someone in the same space as her for 5 damage... which means -10 points at the end of the game if not repaired! she is a menace even compared to the Decepticons in other other sets because of the amount of damage she can deal mid-late game. If one wants to reimplement the core game co-op/solo rule of a team loses when a character takes 5 damage, but instead do it as the player is taken out until getting at least a damage repaired (for the record we came up with this variant, but otherwise it's a death by a thousand cuts situation where you can keep racking up damage), this makes Elita extremely dangerous for shutting down opponents and also the ideal Autobot wielder of the Star Saber, since that card is in part for dealing damage to other players

-Skywarp (infiltration protocol bonus pack) on the other hand is all about scouting (Jazz from the autobot/core game bonus pack is even more so), utility, disruption, able to teleport upon transforming to altmode, flipping adjacent regions' cards face-up when playing a starter card for the first time on a turn, and able to either cause a friend to discard a hand and draw again -1 (which is handy if your pal does not like their hand and especially if they know what cards are next), or can do the same thing to an opponent to try to mess up their next turn or defensive actions they might take

-Optimus Prime's War for Cybertron variant is the strategic counterpart to her own (for clarification, Transformers Universe Optimus Prime and Yellow Splendid Convoy are she/her Optimi) autobot/core game card autobot card boosting and card draw/blcok capabilities and to Elita-1's guerrilla cqc style: this Optimus can block an attack from anywhere in the field against any player, while having the ability to draw a lot of cards or just build up victory points while on a polity

-Starcream actually has interesting counterplay to Elita in that she (she was a gal in the French dub of TFTM) can spend energon to give 1 damage dealt to her to a target player anywhere... and aside from this can also can battle Decepticons allies to gain their defeat rewards instead of adding them to her deck. Very Starscream

Some reviews of the game said it is lackluster with the lack of energon utility and having a lot near the end of the game- a rule was implemented in War for Cybertron capping the amount of energon one can have to 12, and also another rule (unsure if this was a rule before) established that cards spent to fight people could not have their move points be used after, so the game is now significantly more difficult hehe

We've played it a bunch of times with friends prior to acquiring War for Cybertron, it is easily one of our favorite games not just because of the intentionally queer-coded alien robots' art and personalities being all over the game, but also because the dynamic card synergy is enjoyable and the bosses can really mess you up if one doesn't have the right build. We aren't getting into this because we'd be here all day but the npc's personalities are certainly there: e.g. well known for her martial artist bodyguard iteration, Chromia (war for cybertron) helps players to gather maneuvers and to buff them in combat/diplomacy, along with having significant move and combat/recruiting capabilities herself (this could, for example, help Windblade collect combat and scouting cards, or enable Arcee to be even more deadly). There's other things we haven't tried yet, the Infiltration Protocol expansion comes with the eponymous six phases of Decepticon resource extraction invasion from IDW1 as a playable mode, and the bonus pack (which we have tried) came with Metroplex (who is an Autobot boss location rather than playable card), and also has a 1 vs team mode where the solo player is buffed significantly

anyway, we had to ramble about it because this game is cool as hell

[satoshi-mochida]

Chinese developer S-GAME has announced action RPG Phantom Blade Zero for PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store). A release date was not announced.

Get the first details below, via PlayStation Blog.

“What’s your plan, knowing you have only 66 days to live?” This journey began with Rainblood: Town of Death, an indie game I made back in 2010. The development process was a creative outlet for me as an architecture student, first in Beijing and later New Haven. When I returned to China, I founded my own development studio, S-GAME, and Rainblood grew into a franchise that would later become Phantom Blade. Most of these titles were for smartphones and never released outside of China, but we still managed to build a fan base of over 20 million players. Now, allow me to introduce Phantom Blade Zero, the spiritual rebirth of the original Rainblood and the game we always wanted to make.

Kung-Fu Punk Phantom World, the universe in which the game is set, is a place where many kinds of powers converge. Here you’ll find Chinese Kung-Fu, intricate machines reminiscent of steampunk, arts of the occult, and other intriguing elements that don’t quite fit into any of these categories. In Phantom Blade Zero, you play as Soul, an elite assassin serving an elusive but powerful organization known simply as “The Order.” Soul is framed for the murder of The Order’s patriarch, gravely injured in the ensuing manhunt, and, though his life is saved by a mystic healer, the makeshift cure will only last for 66 days. Now, he must fight against powerful foes and inhuman monstrosities, all while seeking out the mastermind behind it all before his time runs out. From Louis Cha’s Wuxia stories and Bruce Lee’s films to Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once and Donnie Yen in John Wick: Chapter 4, Phantom Blade Zero draws on a wide range of martial arts icons, but with a twist of its own. What we call “Kung-Fu Punk” instills a heavy dose of punk spirit and our unique visual aesthetic.

Worldbuilding

Phantom Blade Zero unfolds in a semi-open world, consisting of multiple large maps filled with diverse, handcrafted activities. This world of Phantom Blade Zero is bleak and punishing, a constant reminder to never let your guard down. Seeking out the game’s many challenges and power foes will reward you with weapons, armor, artifacts, skills, and other ways to customize or progress your character.

Authentic Action by Mr. Kenji Tanigaki, Action Director

Having a decade of mobile development under our belts, we’ve learned to simplify control inputs for touchscreens, giving players ways to execute elaborate moves without mindless “button-mashing.” We’ve taken these lessons and applied them to action gameplay with a controller. And we’re honored to have Mr. Kenji Tanigaki as our action director, the fight choreography master behind many of the classic martial arts films that inspired us. For Phantom Blade Zero, Kenji-san physically demonstrated each move in the game to be scanned by a camera matrix. This data was then used as reference material for our animation artists, who would then rebuild these moves by hand for use in the game. This is all we can disclose for now, but there is much more to come.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

English

Chinese

[stevin-josy]

BLOG 5: DIGITAL MEDIA: SOURCES AND SIGNIFICANCE

Decoding the Matrix: Paradigm and Syntagm in Film Language

Introduction Every choice in a film — about dialogue, hue, wardrobe — transmits meaning. In The Matrix (1999) the Wachowskis adeptly exploit paradigm and syntagm to maximise the scope of a visual and narrative spectacle. The available choices in each context are called paradigms and the way those choices are arranged to create a cohesive narrative is called syntagm. Now, let’s see how The Matrix exemplifies these semiotic concepts. This is the trailer which showcased the infamous setting of The Matrix while digging farther inside the concepts of paradigm and syntagm.

Paradigm: Decisions Behind The Matrix The Wachowskis use a wide range of paradigmatic possibilities to build the Matrix’s own style. Here are few instances:

Costume Design:

Paradigm: The characters could have been costumed in futuristic armor, military garb or casual wear.

Choice: Neo, Trinity and Morpheus, the protagonists were dressed in shiny black leather and wore shades as per the instructions of the filmmakers. This is everything cyberpunk aesthetic, futurism, and rebellion.

Why? Besides separating the “real world” warriors from the enslaved humans the leather and sunglasses symbolize the “cool” element of rejecting social rules within the Matrix.

Color Palette

Image credit: Screen Rant, accessed from screenrant.com

Paradigm: Filmed in light or pastel colors.

Choice: The real world utilizes a cold, blue color scheme, but the filmmakers chose to add a hint of green to the shots that are set in the Matrix.

Why? On one hand the pale blue colors of the actual world highlight the cold and lifeless nature of the Matrix while the green tint of the Matrix indicates its digital roots conjuring ideas of computer code.

Set Design:

Image credit: "Matrix Free Humanity: Zion Urban Planning" by Sciof, accessed from sciof.fi

Paradigm: The Matrix may be would-be apocalyptic or chaotic. Choice: In the Matrix, the direction by the Wachowskis played out in a bloodless, almost hyper-dream suburb. Why? This kind of aesthetic stands in stark contrast with the rough, deconstructed look of the “real world,” whereby the Matrix is built up in the image of totality.

Syntax: The Arrangement of Significance The converse of this, paradigms, are about the choices to be made, while syntagm deals with how choices combine to generate meaning. The syntagmatic arrangement is clearly shown in the way these components are combined in The Matrix.

The Red Pill vs. Blue Pill Scene:

https://uk.pinterest.com/memn0822/

Paradigm Choices : Although Neo could have been given other options, the producers use the red and blue tablets to represent control and choice.

Syntagm: The speech segment, closeups shots that of the tablets, and Neo's hesitancy adds more tension to the scene. These two potent scenarios

Bullet-Time Sequences:

Image: Courtesy of SlashFilm (https://www.slashfilm.com/917171/the-matrixs-original-bullet-time-method-was-a-little-too-risky-to-work/).

Paradigm: Perhaps, the action sequences were filmed using traditional choreographic as they were in the past. Syntagm: The "bullet-dodging" scene is made iconic to film by the use of slow motion, 360 camera angles, and computer-generated imagery. This superimposing of the fights defies the typical mode of action-scene beats and reflects Neo’s full command of the Matrix.

Fight Sequences:

Image: Courtesy of CBR (https://www.cbr.com/matrix-4-theory-neo-actually-agent-smith/).

Paradigm: The characters could have just used martial arts, guns, or swords. Syntagm: The Wachowskis mix wire-fu (from Chinese film), gunplay (modern action), and kung fu (martial arts) in their fight sequences. Synthesis of these is combined for instance in Neo's dojo battle against Morpheus which symbolizes training and evolution in understanding the Matrix.

Paradigm vs. Syntagm in The Matrix The interaction of paradigm and syntagm offers cinematic pleasures that give The Matrix its iconic storyline and aesthetic power. Forged through the syntagmatic combination which yields a meaningful pondering narrative that thrills the spectator, combined with the paradigmatic choices made by the director/producers, a cyberpunk universe is constructed. The iconic image of Neo stopping bullets in mid-air, for instance, didn’t happen just because it looked good. The moment works because of the syntagmatic juxtaposition of both the sounds and visuals as well as Neo’s realization of his potential.

Conclusion The Matrix meticulously chooses (paradigm) and formats (syntagm) choreography, costumes and every other element that builds a complex, meaningful cinematic resonance. This is the kind of thing that allows one to see the work of directors like the Wachowskis as building an entire race Universe and not just a few interconnected plot points.

References: • Chandler, D. (2002). Semiotics: The Basics. London: Routledge. • Wachowski, L., & Wachowski, L. (1999). The Matrix. Warner Bros. • Warner Bros. Pictures (2019). The Matrix - Official Trailer [HD]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKQi3bBA1y8.

[elizacassan]

4, 8, 25?

4 Movie of the year? - i watched a lot more movies than usual this year many of which i saw for the first time but i have to be perhaps a bit basic and say v for vendetta it was really very good and the characters stuck with me.......

p.s my oomfies still wont watch matrix 4 with me and i dont know why.

8 Game of the year? - cyberpunk 2077 obviously (but i didn't play many other like. long or high budget games this year. and most of the rest of any sort of game i played were forgettable. sorry). some will know ive been following this game (and then spending some time researching the setting and lore as a whole) since the very first trailer in 2013 so its special to me that i finally got to play it and that so much of it is so Made For Me :tm: its a bit crazy

25 Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one - im not a huge oc guy but i had a lot of fun with fallout 4 ocs. CUH RIIINNNNGGEEE i know but it helped me not disintergrate into gore at my old job so its a win in my book. i made a new player character and made up a story for him and my existing fo4 mc, they are both old models of institute synths made to study their intergration into the rest of society and all of their memories and sense of self before the game were fabricated. one of them discovers this about herself and goes fully awol (far harbour dlc) and the other finds this out and he fully sticks with and backs up the institute. the exist in the same 'world' so they could meet but i never got far enough to consider that lol, they also look very similar, with the concept that the appearances of the synths used in this experiement were all based on a particular random real persons appearance. the idea of them being older models is that they could still have uncanny robot parts juxtaposed against the realistic human appearance. i sketched and wrote a lot about this but its all lost to time as i did all of this on receipt paper at said old job

[leanstooneside]

Volunteering

1. BY MODULES GPL GP2 GPS

2. IN THE RIGID FORMAT

3. ON A MODIFIED RESTART

4. BY IFPL

5. WITH EACH MODULE EXECUTION ENTRY

6. FOR EACH CARD TYPE PRESENT

7. OF A SUBSET

8. IN THE TRAILER

9. ON A PMR OUTPUT MODULES

10. BY ANY MODULE

11. IN NASTRAN

12. OF HARMONICS

13. OF ROWS

14. IN /IFPXO

15. IN THE LOOPING STRUCTURE

16. AS A MATRIX

17. OF DISPLACEMENT

18. BY THE XYPLOTREQUEST CASE

19. ON THE FILE

[galaxyseclipse]

OKAY

so I went through the Side Order trailer a gazillion times, so it's disorganized thoughts/theories/opinions time!

we're just gonna put a cut here in case folks don't want to read a quite long post lol

----------

okay, so I think the whole thing of this campaign is that it's not real. nothing that happens is actually happening to Eight, Pearl, and Dedf1sh. I mean obviously it's happening to them, but it has no affect on the real Inkopolis Square

so, I think it's either (1) a simulation/virtual "what-if?" scenario(probably created by Marina) that got corrupted or (2) that "world of order beyond comprehension" Marina mentioned that probably also got corrupted

either way it's gonna be weird, and is probably connected to computers somehow

my main reasoning for that is that every time we(as in the player) enter an area it literally loads us into the area(bringing in essentially an LoD model, then becoming the player/weapons), which most likely wouldn't happen if we weren't in some sort of virtual world

as well as this trippy glowy matrix-lookin' room thing

also the fact that Pearl is literally a drone clearly designed to look like her, and it doesn't appear as if we see her normally at all in the campaign. so my guess is that the drone is Pearl's "avatar" in this virtual world. this is further proven by her description on the Japanese website

this is a janky translation, but still, interesting wording

but why a drone? and why does it look like her? my only guess is that Marina made that avatar to look like Pearl, so she could be safe in this weird environment? I have no idea otherwise

why do Eight and Ded look normal then? why is Ded here in the first place? I have no idea, other than Ded saying they and Marina "go way back" and Eight maybe choosing to have an avatar that looks like themselves?

obviously a lot of that part of the theory relies on this world being something that Marina created and/or has/had some level of control over. I saw a theory somewhere(unfortunately I don't remember exactly) that was "maybe Marina's being controlled by whatever is all that black stuff and what's controlling the robot fish." which like, that'd be pretty dope ngl, and it'd tie into the "Marina made/discovered this place and it got out of her control" theory. and we've seen Marina precisely one (1) time, and it was in concept art that kinda made her look all glitchy and stuff

so like, I dunno guys, I think 'rina might be in danger...

sidenote: I don't really like the "Marina's the antagonist/villain" theory. it just doesn't feel in character for her to do something like that on her own will. I'm down for puppet Marina, but I just don't think she'd cause this herself

----------

something that I've seen bounced around a lot is "you can play as either an Inkling or an Octoling!" using this as proof

my honest opinion? this is a reused text string for the Run Speed Up ability. I don't think we're playing as anyone other than Eight, who is canonically an Octoling

which sucks because I'd be down to play as Agent 4, but whatever, guess they don't get adventures anymore >:(

----------

we're gonna go back to Dedf1sh(or, Acht, I guess) for a second:

this line is weird

sucked into what? the simulation? how? why? did Eight and Pearl get "sucked in" too? or is she referring to the metro?

and how does she know so much about the tower? like the color chips and whatnot? have they been here a while?

SO MANY QUESTIONS AND SO FEW ANSWERS!!

----------

also, the color chip they hold out in that cutscene appears to say "AGNT" on it

it could also say "ACHT", but I don't see why

what does this mean? does it mean anything? who knows!?

wait I got another picture of it in Eight's hand:

it kinda looks like it says "AGNT 7" on it? I dunno maybe I'm just reading things I wanna see lol

it does more strongly resemble the Latin alphabet than the other scripts in this series though, so it's definitely worth pointing out imo

----------

gameplay opinions: looks fun!

folks are saying it looks like a rougelike, and even after looking it up multiple times I still have no idea what the fuck that means

skill tree thingy with the chips and stuff looks cool, hopefully it's implemented well, or at least not in a way that makes it more inconvenient to use it than go without

a bit of a bummer that it doesn't look like you can attack while flying around with Pearl though lmao. but I do like how she looks like she can use bombs(folks have pointed out a hyperbomb in one shot too :3c), and even (maybe, the shot's kinda weird) a singular killer wail speaker

also the design of the drone is fuckin' adorable

like lookit this thing

----------

aesthetic-wise, not bad, I like the muted, pale tone of everything

...except for Acht for some reason?

like, I love Dedf1sh, and am very excited for their inclusion, but also:

octo kinda sticks out like a sore thumb

maybe that's the point, maybe that's why she's helping us, to restore the colors to this simulation or whatever it is, hence the color chips and the soundboard looking thing....

hey wait a second am I onto something?

whatever, anyway, I like how it looks, and the small portions of soundtrack we've gotten so far sound great

----------

also, something pointed out in the comments on the trailer and I thought was morbidly interesting:

those appear to be meat grinders.....

uh, yeah

not sure what kind of substance is coming out of them, but uh, yeah those strongly resemble meat grinders

Eight's gonna die because they were unable to use any small kitchen appliance and starved lmfao

----------

alright, that's all I've got for now I think lol

I wouldn't be surprised if we got one more trailer in like January or something with the release date maybe a Splatoon direct? probably not

[jcmarchi]

Jason Voorhees Gets A Dedicated MultiVersus Trailer

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/jason-voorhees-gets-a-dedicated-multiversus-trailer/

Jason Voorhees Gets A Dedicated MultiVersus Trailer

Jason, alongside Agent Smith from The Matrix, had a cameo in the last MultiVersus trailer, but now he is the star. The footage shows off his moveset, like hitting opponents with a machete, collapsing them in a camp bunk bed, and hitting them with a sleeping bag stuffed with the body of another player. You also get a look at at least one of his alternate costumes.

[embedded content]

MultiVersus is a free-to-play game and will launch on May 28 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. 

For more, read Game Informer’s MultiVersus review after its first launch back in 2022, and then check out Joker’s MultiVersus gameplay and his Batman Who Laughs alternate costume. 

Are you jumping back into MultiVersus next week when it launches? Let us know in the comments below!

[obsessiveviewer]

OV423 - Monkey Man (2024) & Girls State (2024)

This week, I give a solo featured review of Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man in both a non-spoiler and spoiler section. Then, in this week’s secondary review, I give a non-spoiler review for the new documentary, Girls State on AppleTV+. I also share some thoughts on the new Joker: Folie à Deux trailer, Kevin Smith’s upcoming movie, the new Drew Goddard Matrix news, and more.

  Timestamps

Show Start - 00:28

News - 04:07

Feature Review

Monkey Man (2024) - 23:39

Spoiler - 45:40

Secondary Review

Girls State (2024) - 1:08:24

  Closing the Ep - 1:27:02

Patreon Clip - 1:30:17

  Related Links

Start Your Podcast with Libsyn Using Promo Code OBSESS

Kevin Smith Comedy ‘The 4:30 Movie’ Acquired By Saban Films

Tim Robinson & Zach Kanin Comedy ‘The Chair Company’ Gets HBO Pilot Order; Adam McKay Producing

New ‘Matrix’ Movie in the Works from ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ Director Drew Goddard

Joker: Folie à Deux - Official Teaser Trailer

My 2024 Podcast and Writing Archive

One Year of Criterion Channel - Dec 24, 2023 - Dec 23, 2024

Movies I Own But Haven't Watched/Rated Yet

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Obsessive Viewer

Obsessive Viewer Presents: Anthology

Obsessive Viewer Presents: Tower Junkies

As Good As It Gets - Linktree

  Mic Info

Matt: ElectroVoice RE20 into RØDEcaster Pro II (Firmware: 1.3.4)

  Episode Homepage: ObsessiveViewer.com/OV423

  Next Week on the Podcast

OV424 - Civil War (2024) & Late Night with the Devil (2024)

Check out this episode!