#Me and my dating Sims that include combat for some reason

[hiddenbysuccubi]

I took a break before hitting act 3 of DOS2 to run through Rune Factory 4.

[videogame1up]

Some of my favorite games of all time

If you were to ask me what my favorite game of all time is, i would probably say something like "Of all time? I don't know, depending on the day and my mood it could be ten different games" Or something to that effect. The games listed here are a healthy mix of some genuinely amazing, ten outta ten games and some "I played it a lot when i was a kid" With that said this list is in absolute no order, the #1 on this list is not my all time favorite game, just one of them.

10. Sims Bustin out

Alright starting off with a bit of a left curve, but Sims Bustin out is one of my favorite games of all time. Which is a statement i trust not too many people have said. Is Sims bustin out the best Sims game? No, that's probably Sims 2. Bustin out beats out 2 mostly for that sweet sweet nostalgia. Anyone who has played, and gotten into the Sims knows how addicting the game play is, balancing work, personal life, relationships is so much more enjoyable when done virtually than in real life. I have so many memories of booting this game up late at night when everyone had fallen asleep, excited to get a new promotion in my criminal career path. The gameplay of Sims Bustin out is purely addicting, and it's an addiction i haven't really shaken from childhood. Now I'm off to never say or type "Bustin out" ever again

Release Date- December 16, 2003

Consoles-PS2, Xbox, Gamecube

9. Donkey Kong Country

I remember the first time playing this game, my friend invited me over and about half way through i asked "So, whats the plot exactly? Like, are we trying to rescue your girlfriend or something?" I was beside my self when my friend went "Nah, we're getting your bananas back" It's such a funny premise and shows the game doesn't take its self too seriously, beneath the surface of this over the top goofy game is genuinely one of the greatest 2D platformers of all time . One of those games that has infinite replay ability because its so much fun going through these stages. The difficulty curb isn't too crazy, and eases you into some of the most challenging but fair levels from any game. Not to mention this one of the best looking games to come from the Snes, with one of gamings best soundtracks. I genuinely love this game, and believe its worth playing, even if for only a few levels.

Release date- November 18, 1994

Consoles- Snes, Switch (online snes library)

8. Kingdom Hearts

*silence* WHEN YOU WALK AWAY

The Kingdom hearts series has had its up and its downs, it has had it's Organization XIII and it's time travel (for some reason) the original Kingdom Hearts is still a pretty simple and straightforward game which i definitely think helps with it's longevity, i don't know what is going on in Kh3 and i played all the other games leading up to it. KH is a beautiful marriage between Square Enix and Disney, it should not work out nearly as well as it does. The developers really got things right off the bat, the worlds (for the most part, fun fact you can actually skip under the sea) are fun to explore or at the very least, thanks to the enjoyable combat system, they are fun to fight your way through. Each world of course has its own vibes, they have their own unique heartless and boss fights. If you want extra content KH has you covered. Two (pretty difficult) secret bosses to find in the Peter Pan world and Aladdin world. You also have the coliseum to go back to, eventually making your way up to the Hades cup filled with enemies you have fought along the way as well as a few boss fights including of course Hades him self. You can't talk about side content without talking about Sephiroth. You can beat the game, credits will roll, Sephiroth will still kill you. Or for giggles you can attempt a speed run (for me my best time is around 5 hours) Kingdom hearts was also the first game that was purely just mine, after having to share with my siblings no one but me in the house was all that interested in saving my friends and returning back home to Destiny islands. This is game that scratches that nostalgia itch, and is just a genuinely fun game

"Remember what you said before? I'm always with you too, I'll come back to you. I promise"

"I know you will"

Release Date-March 28, 2002

Consoles-PS2,PS3,PS4, Xbox One

7. Wind Waker

Link to the past was my first Zelda game, but Wind Waker is my favorite Zelda game. Wind Waker, how do i love thee, let me count the ways

The open world was vast with so much to see and explore, this is a point of contention as there are those out there who don't like the great sea. And those people are wrong. The great sea offers such a great sense of exploration. Feed the fish to learn about each island (49 of em) take on each enemy outpost you encounter, hunt for treasure, fight sea monsters, explore ghost ships, or simply watch a storm roll in. While Zelda stories are never very deep, i quite like this one. (slight spoilers for a 20 year old game) you discover what happens to Hyrule when it's hero fails to rise, for a cartoony game its story is fairly dark. And of course the game looks fantastic, even going back to play the original gamecube release it still looks very good. Some complain that this is one of the easier Zelda games, but that criticism goes out when you consider Breath of the wild is the easiest Zelda game and that's the one everyone says is perfect. Zelda games aren't meant to be dark souls, and i really do love just sailing around.

"This is the only world that your ancestors were able to leave you. Please....forgive us"

Release date- March 24, 2003

Consoles- Gamecube, Wii U

6. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis)

A.K.A the official Nostalgia representative. The Sega Genesis was the first console i ever played, games like Eternal Champions, Phantom 2040, X-Men, Alex Kid in the enchanted castle, while i do have a soft for these games and many others that kicked off my interest in gaming, not many hold up exceptionally well today, that is of course expect for Sonic on Genesis (I'm cheating here a bit and including the three main line sonic games on the genesis ) These games represented the best that the Genesis had of offer and are still a blast to play to this day. Who wants to play as a slow Italian plumber when you can play as a cool blue hedgehog with attitude. Just try and put your controller down, he will tap his foot impatiently. It was the 90s, and being cool was so cool. Speed? Oh speed was the coolest. Race through the levels with master reaction time jumping over enemies and obstacles to race to the finish. 30 years later, and these games still hold up exceptionally well

Release date- June 21, 1991

Consoles- Genesis, and countless re-releases on nearly every console since the ps2.

5. Red Dead Redemption 2

I wanna be a cowboy baaaaby

There is no such thing as a perfect game, but RDR2 is pretty close. The Story is this game is one of my favorites. Following a gang in the dying days of the wild west, it has some twists. It has some turns. And in the end, it had an emotional and satisfying conclusion. RDR 2 excels at what any sandbox strives for, an amazing world to explore. As fantastic as the story is, the world has so much to see and do and explore. Stranger missions (side missions) scatter the world from becoming hunting friends with a war vet to gathering dangerous and exotic animals that have escaped from the traveling circus. Like searching for creepy Easter eggs? Because great, you can explore a haunted swamp, find a woman imprisoned by her own family, and follow the clues leading to the lair of a serial killer. With over 200 animals living in the world of RDR 2, it really does feel alive. The world is diverse and never a bore to travel through, in part thanks to the fact RDR2 is one of the most graphically impressive games I've ever played.

"When the time comes, you gotta run and don't look back. This is over."

Release date- October 26, 2018

Console-PS4,Xbox one, PC

4. Animal Crossing New Leaf

I bought a 3ds just for this game, i went to Gamestop the morning the game released and bought a Red 3Ds XL along a copy of Animal Crossing New Leaf. I won't get into New Horizons here, but New Leaf is still by far the series has offered. New Leaf was peak Animal crossing, it took the game several steps forward while still staying true to the Animal Crossing formula. You move to a village and become the new mayor, which allows you freedom over your town like never before. With public work projects you could decorate your town, as mayor you could set ordinances so villagers either stay up late with your, or maybe they wake up early with you. The music is arguably the best Animal Crossing has given us. Fortune cookies allowed you to decorate your home with items from Zelda, Mario, Pikmin, Starfox, etc. Forge friendships with your neighbors, try to force the ugly ones out, actually upgrade your shop all the way. Maybe the best part, no incredibly long tutorial. The game just, starts. It's easy for anyone from any age to get into New Leaf.

Release date- June 9th, 2013

Console- 3DS

3. Hit and Run

You ever wanna play gta but your mom wont let you? Just play The Simpsons Hit and Run, its sorta the same game. Hit and Run has a fair amount of flaws, like the fact you essentially repeat the same 4 or 5 missions over and over again. Race that car, follow that car, destroy that car, collect stuff the car drops (worst of these missions) However, i am a Simpsons fan and also it's a game from my youth, it was always going to make it on this list. (I see you Road Rage, get outta here) Even though the missions aren't the most thrilling, the game it self is still a lot of fun to mess around in it. Springfield is honestly pretty faithfully re-created, outside the standard missions there are plenty of extra goodies (level gags, collector cards, bonus cars to unlock, costumes such as cool Lisa, Bartman, Donut head homer and officer Marge) driving around feels good and doesn't take long before you start discovering shortcuts in each level, allowing you to absolutely smoke the computer players. For all these reasons Hit and Run is a game I'll consistently go back to and play

Release date- September 16, 2003.

Consoles-PS2,XBOX,GAMECUBE, PC

2. Pokemon Red and Blue

Is Red and Blue the best Pokemon games? Nah. Are the the only ones I'm nostalgic for? Nah. As much as i love Gen 2 Pokemon games Gold and Silver, i just can't justify having them over Red and Blue. These are the games that got me into Pokemon, i was the Pokemon generation and these games are so important to my childhood i just couldn't leave them off. I was on the playground when kids went "Hey you know you can catch a mew by moving that truck" It pained me that it was never true and Justin's dad did not in fact work at Nintendo. Red and Blue have not held up as well as many other games on this list, and even when the complaint for newer games are "Well this is nothing new" They still add onto and improve upon the original formula, however Nostalgia is an incredibly powerful force and this game like few others has the ability to make me feel 5 again.

"Do you believe in ghost? Hahahaha, i guess not. That white hand on your shoulder, it's not real"

Release date- September 28, 1998

Console- Gameboy

Super Smash bros ultimate

Each new Smash bros game instantly becomes the new best Smash game (sorry, Melee fans) at least that's the case for the general public. Each new game updates and adds onto the previous game, Smash ultimate is a rare beast in that whatever comes after it, can't possibly top it. The next smash game will more than likely be a great game, much like all old smash bro games are, but the next smash won't be able to say "Everyone is here!" The amount of characters and stages really does feel like a once in a lifetime thing. You'll never be able to say "Let's play a round of smash, you'll be Pichu, you can be Snake, you can be Ken, and I'll be Sora" Ever again. Smash ultimate is a game i have fairly regularly gone back to play since it's release in December 2018. As of writing this now i have played Smash Ultimate for 535 hours, that's 22 days of my life spent playing this game, and i have no regrets. I'll boot it up only expecting to play a few minutes but then I'll start playing as one of 80 some characters i haven't give much attention to. Figuring their move set out, figuring out whether or not i want to make them a main or not. Each character feels unique, but the controls are simple enough you never feel overwhelmed stepping out of your comfort zone and maybe trying out a little mac if you're used to playing as a Mega Man. Sakuria and his team created one of the greatest fighting games of all time, a game that will be re-visited years after it's own release.

Release date- December 7th, 2018

Console- Switch

[articianne]

Where should I start if i want to get I to the fire emblem series?

this is going to be a pretty biased answer, so... im sorry in advance! this is also a long one, so I'm putting them under a cut.

u have a fair number of options here. All of the ones I'm recommending released in the last decade, mostly because games older than that are NOT friendly to new players due to their difficulty. once u get used to the combat, then 100% some of the older games are fantastic to get into.

ill put them in order of my recommendation, including the new release of engage! i have vastly different reasons for why i may recommend each one.

1) awakening

this one is the beginning of the more "social" games, i.e. the horny chess stuff (cough dating sim). i think this one is the one that's recommended as a "Start Here!" game the most, and for good reason! i absolutely love it for what it is, and it has a good balance of combat, story, and the matchmaking stuff. i recommend this first to anyone who heard of fire emblem's social mechanics and, as a result, wants to dive in. it also has lore that goes back to the very beginning of fire emblem to FE 1. not much, but it does. from here, u can go back and do older games, or keep going and play the newer ones. Either way u'll be happy with the gameplay choices they added in the last decade or u'll enjoy harder combat from before then. this is my 2nd or 3rd favorite FE game!!

2) engage

i am really surprised i'm able to say this game considering it just came out, but it honestly is a really good place to start, unless downgrading in graphics is a big issue. i honestly have nearly no issues with this one—granted I'm not done with it but it's got a bit of romance for the protag, a tone in the story similar to 80% of the other games, REALLY FUN COMBAT, and somehow literally every other protag in the series without spoiling things for other games.

it is also VERY cheesy, maybe even more than normal, and the plot is fairly predictable (as far as I can tell). but cheese is a mainstay in FE games. if that's not up ur alley, prepare to either cringe or relish in anime. i fucking love it lmao

the only complaint i have, and this is literally my only complaint so i am truly nitpicking, is that for some reason like 20% of the girls in this game have vtuber hair that goes down to their ankles, and i don't know why. I don't know why this was a style choice, or if there's a plot reason, or whatever, but a lot of them have it. I don't even have a problem with "toothpaste pepsi mc" anymore. m!Alear is WILDLY endearing to me, but f!Alear's hair is so fucking long. i just. How.

3) shadows of valentia

im probably an outlier in recommending this, but i swear i have a good reason. this is the newest "classic" game because it's a remake of FE 2—i.e. if u don't care about matchmaking or having the protag marry someone of ur choosing, or if u simply wanna get a taste for the older style of games first before going to the games with more stuff to do, then i recommend this one. The story is fantastic, it's fully voice acted with some of THE BEST acting (and also music) I've honestly ever heard. but i am definitely biased since this is my favorite FE game and one of my fav games of all time. however, it really is just combat and story, with a few spare support conversations between characters for the sake of stat boosts (all the romance is canon within the story—can't change a bit about that).

4) three houses

this is the last one out of the "play this first" i'll recommend, because ill be honest, I'm not a fan of 3h's gameplay. I do like many of the characters, I think the serious tone of the game is great, but the gameplay really soured a lot of it for me. There's a calendar system that steamrolls the story so ur mostly just there for the ride as the hours clock by. As well as that, many of the combat skills that other games share with each other aren't a thing in this one, so combat mechanics can be a hard shift going from this game to anything else.

that being said, this is a great place to start if u want a game that will introduce u to the strategy mechanic that also isn't campy, cheesy, filled with anime tropes, whatever. the game is serious, with different routes and loads of choices for matchmaking galore. the only caveat is literally no other game in the franchise is like this. many of the other games are about light & dark and our friends make us strong and My Whole Personality Is About This One Thing. which i personally LOVE. but if that isn't for u, i would start with 3h, get used to the gameplay, warm up to the idea of campiness. and if u still think it's not for u, then great, u played 3 houses and probably enjoyed it a lot and u can wait until a new game comes out that may match the tone.

hope this helped!

[pink-rathian-official]

At the beginning of 2019, I mentioned I would keep track of every game I finished, and sum up my thoughts on all of them at the end of the year. And now I’m half regretting it because I’m gonna have to write out a short summary for each of these games. Oh well. You’ll be able to find all of them under the Read More, if you’re interested. Will be including an arbitrary score next to each game based on how much I enjoyed them.

Just some fun numbers before we jump in to the meat of the post- In 2019, I beat a total of 41 games. That’s an average of 3.41 games per month, which actually isn’t too bad of a rate!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (5/5) 100% complete! Beaten twice! Without doubt, the best Smash game yet. You didn’t need me to tell you this- if you’ve got a Switch, then you’ve probably got Smash.

Bayonetta (4/5) A classic character action game, and an immense source of nostalgia for me. Play this game or I’ll break your knees.

Bayonetta 2 (4/5) I actually went into this game with low expectations, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as the first game. Fortunately I was stupid and wrong and ended up loving it just as much as Bayo1.

Splatoon 2 (3/5) The story wasn’t particularly the most enjoyable thing ever, although I did sink a pretty decent amount of time into the multiplayer. Still not my go-to game if I’m looking for a quick match.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (4/5) It was enjoyable, although kinda started dragging on towards the end. The side content started feeling very repetitive, especially the shrines- but it was still a genuinely great time.

DOOM (2016) (3/5) I raged a wee bit, gonna admit. Although it was fun, I had a lot of frustrations with the late game.

Cthon (3/5) Doom, but a Lovecraftian roguelike. I’d recommend picking it up on Steam, it’s only USD$4.99 regularly, and USD$1.69 during the Steam sale currently going on.

Fire Emblem: Awakening (4/5) I suck at strategy games because I’m a smoothbrain, but FE:A is totally one of the best 3DS games ever released. Lucina is my daughter and the story made me cry.

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (2/5) I already played the 3DS version, and went into the DE expecting it to be a bit more enjoyable- and while it was, I did find myself getting bored rather quickly.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (5/5) The best TES game ever released according to many fans. While I do still prefer Skyrim more, I can see exactly why so many love it. Planning on returning to do the DLCs soon.

Night in the Woods (4/5) I hate story-centric games, but I liked NITW a lot. The exploration was nice, seeing the town change day-to-day was nice, and the ending was freaky in a good way

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (4/5) An incredibly fun game, very similar to Left 4 Dead but fantasy themed and with rat monsters. Launched my obsession with the Skaven.

Fallout 3 (2/5) Yeah just play New Vegas instead mate.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (3/5) If you separate it from the rest of the relatively mediocre AC series, Black Flag is pretty gud. I like being a pirate. I don’t like tailing missions. I really don’t like ship tailing missions.

Ib (3/5) I played this game a few times through during my obsession with RPGMaker horror games. Still holds up pretty strong, although it’s a wee bit short.

Amorous (3/5) 100% complete! Yeah it’s just a lewd furry dating sim. Does have a decent character maker that I use as a reference for my fursona now though!

Way of the Samurai 3 (4/5) I don’t know why this game slipped under everyone’s radar back on release. Just overall a very Nice samurai simulator, albeit with some combat that takes some getting used to.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (5/5) The best MonHun released yet. World is great, but for some reason it just doesn’t hold me like GU does. Maybe I’m just a boomer.

Super Mario Odyssey (3/5) It’s definitely what you’d expect out of Mario. Not a bad game by any means, but I just didn’t really keep attached to it like most others seemed to.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (4/5) I like being a lawyer, and I love the serotonin rush that I get when cornering a criminal on their logic.

Resident Evil 7 biohazard (4/5) The first RE game I’ve played to completion. I don’t regret it at all, because it was super good. Got some great DLC as well.

SoulCalibur VI (Libra of Soul + Soul Chronicle) (4/5) Loved the character creation, loved gitting gud- did not love some of the side missions in LoS because holy Hell a lot of them are bullshit.

Borderlands 2 (4/5) I hated the first Borderlands, and went into 2 expecting more of the same. Ended up leaving surprisingly satisfied. Great loot n’ shoot all around.

Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition (4/5) It took me a few tries to really get into this one, but once I did I was totally hooked. The ending battle could’ve used a little more love, but it was still by all means a great game.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (4/5) Despite being a clearly rushed game with a drop in quality towards the last few hours, VtmB is still one of the most solid action RPGs I’ve ever played. Still not exactly gonna excuse the last couple of boss battles though.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (5/5) This went from “tumblr meme game that I had no interest in” to “one of the best fucking games I have ever played, and it hurt me deeply.” I don’t think I’ve ever been so invested in a story before, and the trial system was very refreshing.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (5/5) How did they make a story with twists even more mindblowing than the first game? While THH invested me into the series, GD solidified my newfound love for it.

Which (3/5) 100% complete! A very short experimental horror game by indie animator and developer Mike Inel. Not bad at all, and completely worth the free download.

Skullgirls: 2nd Encore (3/5) I never really got good at this game, although the story mode was still very enjoyable. Not particularly something I’m probably gonna be coming back to.

Hollow Knight (5/5) Absolutely spectacular Metroidvania that gives quite a unique challenge. Fell in love with this game so bad that I was constantly thinking about it at work. Please stop comparing it to Dark Souls, it’s such an amazing game on its own merit without needing that comparison.

Undertale (5/5) It’s Undertale, do you really need me to tell you how amazing it is?

Devil May Cry 3 (Dante story) (4/5) Extremely fun and challenging. If you haven’t played this game yet then you are wrong. Beating the first Vergil battle without being hit filled me with very unneeded confidence- the spectacular final battle against Vergil stripped that confidence away.

Ion Fury (3/5) Very challenging, but still super enjoyable. The heroine is a genuine badass, loved hearing her quips. The final boss was garbo though.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (5/5) Sekiro absolutely deserved the GOTY award. Loved the combat, loved the challenge, loved everything about this beautiful game.

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition (5/5) DQXI singlehandedly changed my opinion on JRPGs. A story that’s equal parts awesome and tearjerking, combat that feels truly satisfying, and a quirky world that had me hooked for all 98+ hours.

Danganronpa Another Story: Ultra Despair Girls (4/5) While it absolutely was a good game, something about it didn’t really hold the charm that the other Danganronpa games had. The story was still superb, and the twist at the end was hooh.

Spyro the Dragon (3/5) 120% complete! The nostalgia factor drew me in, the level design kept me. Except for Tree Tops, fuck you Tree Tops.

WarioWare Gold (3/5) Packed with the best microgames from WarioWare’s history, but not enough content to keep me there past the main story mode.

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (3/5) MGS3 is one of my favorite games ever, but the 3DS port’s framerate issues really killed the fun for me.

Halo: Reach (4/5) The story mode was good, but the multiplayer was absolutely sublime. I raged, I cheered, I had the fun I missed out on growing up without an Xbox.

[osmw1]

Dimension Wave   Chapter 6—Revenge and Results

“It’s about time to get revenge.”

I was too caught up in making a killing off of Empty Cans and forgot about my true goal—The Big One. Even if that’s not my true goal, I’m not about to make picking up cans a career. It’s been a week since and my Energy and Skills have been upgraded accordingly. I might have a chance now. I check my status just in case.

Name/ Kizuna†Exceed Race/ Spirit Energy/ 6,340 Mana/ 150 Serin/ 148,540

Skills/ Energy Production VI, Mana Production IV, Fishing Mastery III, Gutting Mastery II, Transmutation I

Energy Production VI Generates 2,000 Energy per hour Costs 2,600 Mana to upgrade.

Mana Production IV Generates 50 Mana per hour Consumes 1,400 Energy per hour Costs 3,200 Mana to upgrade

Fishing Mastery III All actions with a fishing rod receives a 30% buff. Consumes 400 Energy per hour. Costs 400 Mana to upgrade.

Gutting Mastery II All actions with a gutting weapon receives a 20% buff. Consumes 200 Energy per hour. Costs 200 Mana to upgrade.

Transmutation I Converts items to Energy.

Right now, I consume as much Energy as I produce, so I’m only barely scraping by with Transmutation I. Mastery skills are usually unlocked by gaining a certain item count. For Fishing Mastery, it’s based on how many fish you’ve caught. I unlocked Gutting Mastery by obtaining 1,000 items through gutting. Rank I was fairly easy to unlock, but II is a huge leap up. With Fishing Mastery, it jumped from catching 100, to 500, then to 1,000 fish. Gutting Mastery increases similarly.

I heard from Alto that combat Masteries are unlocked by getting a certain number of kills with the appropriate weapon. I’m not sure whether it’s a little-known fact or that no one fully understands it yet, but it’s rumored that using a gutting weapon that’s effective on your opponent will make them drop special items. Though the low damage of gutting weapons is somewhat of a controversial topic. Well, in any case, it seems like people have figured it out. Even for such a controversy, you still gotta use it to get the drops you need.

Right now, I have equipped a set of cerulean, indigo clothes called the “Caterpillar”. There’s a superstition among us fishers that one can catch a lot more by wearing dark colors when fishing at night. It seems like fishers in real life have a similar belief. I’m not sure whether it’s true or not, but since I had been fishing a lot at night for Empty Cans, I’m praying to the gods that my dark clothes will make a difference.

Anyway, time to get fishing today. By the way, it’s early morning right now. It was at noon when The Big One got away that time. It might just mean that I have a chance at noon again. And later today, the three of us… sisters are planning to get together.

I’m definitely catching The Big One. My one week of effort will not go to waste.

I fervently fished for 10 hours. I’ve been catching nothing but herring since six this morning. There wasn’t even so much a sign of The Big One. It might have just really been a coincidence that The Big One bit that time. Even if it takes me days or weeks, I will catch you. Mark my words.

—Herring obtained.

“Another herring? Odd how there are so many of them today.”

Upgrading Fishing Mastery is supposed to increase the catch rate of all fish, but for some reason, I’ve caught nothing but herrings today. I stick it in the creel jam-packed with all the other herring.

“… the God of Herring must be here with me.”

Well, I don’t think any god would show up in a video game. Or no, actually. Maybe there indeed are gods in this game’s world. Who knows?

“… hmm?”

A great shadow appears on the surface of the water. I tightly grasp my fishing rod with ever-growing anticipation. Don’t get impatient. Don’t you dare rush this. Be absolute. I’m no longer the same person I was a week ago. No way I’m letting you get away this time.

“C’mere, c’mere, c’mere…”

I may be wrought with anxiety, but I focus on the tip of my rod and not the shadow in the water. It’s just as I’ve practiced up ‘til now.

“That’s a bite!”

It’s the same snatch I felt on that day before I fell into the sea. I plant myself to the ground and brace myself. Then I felt a strong tug directly from the rod.

That sensation is a little fuzzier than usual. It gets stronger on every tug with the blips like hit detection or something. But I’m not about to lose at this test of might.

“Have at my Fishing Mastery III!”

Carefully and rapidly does this shift in offense and defense change. It’s the strongest opponent I’ve faced thus far. It truly is The Big One.

The battle drew out for another 30 minutes. The Big One was getting tired. Taking the chance, I press on with my attack. My fishing rod creaks and my focus is starting to wane, but since I’m in a game, I think I’ll be alright.

“This is the ultimate showdown!”

The blips continue to pulse through the rod.

And then, The Big One flies out of the water—

“Ahahahaha! What the heck is that?! It’s huge! A huge herring!”

With a dissatisfied look on my face, I met up with my two sisters. Strapped to my back is a giant fish. Correction: it’s The Big One—a giant herring. The Big One was just a herring all along! People point and stare at it on my back. It’s rough.

I was just about to put it into my inventory when Kanata and Tsugumi showed up. And right now, Tsugumi is taking screenshot after screenshot of me… I guess not so much screenshots, but photographs. All screenshots are saved in the USB flash drive we were given for our character creation. But similarly, I’ve taken a few pictures of the fish I caught. And of course, that includes The Big One. For some reason though, people have been striking weird poses when they see me and the fish…

“Don’t laugh at your brother, Tsugumi… pfft!” “Speak for yourself!”

But seriously. Who’da thunk that The Big One would be a herring? And why herring? They don’t seem that tasty either… In any case, the three of us managed to meet up together. It’s the first time I’ve seen them in game… and it really boggles my mind.

“Why am I the littlest one?” “I’ve always wanted another little sister!”

Kanate is a Human. It’s no surprise she’s pretty since we’re in a game, but her character is actually beautiful. She’s got two very visible protrusions too. Her chest is big in real life, but these are bigger. But it’s not that simple either. There’s jiggle physics. They have a bit of a sag to them.

“Me too!”

Tsugumi is a Lycanthrope. It’s called Lycanthrope, but instead fox ears flop from her heard and accent her character. Her face, though, looks somewhat like her older sister’s. Her breasts are neither large nor small. To be precise, they’re exactly the size of a dating sim heroine. She’s quite a bit taller than me though… about as tall as a middle schooler?

“That’s your reason for making me a loli?  Oh, but of course.”

And that leaves me, a Spirit. My body is quite transparent, my chest flat, and all in all petite. I look vaguely similar to those two. Mm. We definitely seem like sisters. I can’t help but to sigh.

“… I’d be lying if I claimed I don’t have more I’d like to say, but whatever.” “That’s a satisfied sigh at how cute of a little girl you are, right?!” “So? How has the past week been for you two?” “Totally flew by!”

I ignored her quip and changed topics. Honestly, we wouldn’t be finished until sundown.

“It was super interesting!” “Perhaps it’d be right to say that I’ve just settled in.”

They both begin talking about their past week. Tsugumi, as expected, played the game like a total shut-in. She’s the highest level amongst us. I don’t have levels so I’m not exactly sure but seeing how she’s been hard at work every day, she’s got to be stronger than me, someone who hasn’t even left the beginning area. At least she got together with her pals to beat the first boss to unlock the second city.

Kanate plays a bit a bit more reservedly. Unlike Tsugumi who excels at FPS’s and action games, our eldest sister is more of an RPG-type person. Kanate isn’t someone who would be easily defeated though. If my sisters are fighting each other, the younger one would likely fall first. Of course, against a prodigy like her, it wouldn’t be quick or easy. That’s not to say Kanate isn’t playing seriously. Though she hasn’t been at the frontline as much as Tsugumi has, she spent three days finding her perfect weapon, testing each type out. You can even call her a model gamer.

“How about you, Big Bro Kizuna?” “Ah, yeah, it’s been interesting, fishing.” “Huh? Kizuna, you’ve been doing nothing but fishing?” “Y-Yeah? So what? And I’ll have you know I haven’t even been out of this town yet!”

I was met with ice cold stares. Thank goodness that didn’t awaken any masochistic side in me.

“Uhmmm, Big Bro? Do you wanna go check out the next town over? There’s a river there. And what kind of weapon are you using?” “A gutting knife.” “Is it a little on the weak side? Don’t gutting knives get you extra item drops when you kill monsters with them?” “Yep, that’s right.”

I don’t think they truly understand what they’re for. It’s probably just some kind of joke weapon for them.

“There are some items you can’t get without one of those gutting weapons. Pass them along to me if you get any, okie dokie?” “Is that so?” “I think there are quite a few of those items too. They trade for quite a lot between players. But since it deals rather low damage, it’s not very popular. Plus, it’s not often you get special drops either.”

How interesting. Maybe I can gut monsters too. I’ll try fighting monsters tomorrow. I should probably be looking for a new weapon too. I didn’t feel like I really needed one, so I hadn’t been looking for it, even when I was implementing the Empty Can Strategy. And plus, I have to get the appropriate weapon for each monster type. It’s not likely that I can use my Novice Gutting Knife.

“Do you want me to getcha some good equips, Big Bro?” “There’s the matter of pride when an older brother gets gifted things by their little sisters…” “Whatcha talkin’ about?! I always lend you items when we game together.”

She’s right. Sometimes, this game is too realistic, and it gets me confused.

“Well, it’s not like I’m hurting for money. If you let me know what to get, I’ll pay for it myself.” “Even though you’ve only been fishing?” “Did you see those Iron Ingots that were for sale until not long ago?” “Huh? Yeah. I used some yesterday.” “Actually, I was the one who got the materials for them.” “Really? What were they? Some guy named Altorese said it was a trade secret or somethin’, so I have no clue about it.” “As soon as people found ores, we told everyone about our secret. And that’s why I’m not hurting for money.” “So? What’s ya secret?”

I flashed a smug grin at the floppy fox-eared Tsugumi.

“Those ingots were made from Empty Cans, y’know?”

Seeing the shocked look on their faces is enough satisfaction to last me another week.

contents: /prologue/ /ch001/ /ch002/ /ch003/ /ch004/ /ch005/ /ch006/ /next/

(please support me on Patreon or Paypal)

(check out another title by the same author! or perhaps a bit of teenage romance?)

[ryotaiku]

Games I want to see made

I get a lot of ideas for games I think would be neat. Here are some that I wrote down.

Action/menu hybrid RPG

If you've ever played Kingdom Hearts, that's basically what I'm going for. Something that has you navigating menus mid-combat, but is mostly action-oriented. Maybe have options for ranged/casting builds. Something with more variety than what KH has.

Not like the Final Fantasy 7 Remake. That put too much emphasis on the menus and I hated it.

Minimalist survival game

Breath of the Wild was good at a lot of things, but what it did best was letting you do so much with so little mechanics. To start a fire, you'd chop down a tree (attack button), gather the wood (inventory), gather flint from a rock (attack button, inventory), drop the wood & flint on the ground (holding & dropping items), and hit them together with a metal weapon (attack button). That's only three player-driven mechanics and they tied together so goddamn well. It also has cooking (hold & drop food into a wok), swinging a leaf on a raft to move along a river (attack button), making torches with wood and setting stuff on fire (attack button), I want a survival game that functions like BotW but is explicitly not a Zelda game.

I haven't played Genshin Impact but I'm pretty sure that's not what I'm looking for here.

Non-lethal Hitman w/ Social Manipulation

Yandere Simulator is a pretty well known laughing stock at this point, but there was one idea it had that peaked my interest: Non-lethal takedowns of rivals. People stuck really hard to the murder side of Yandere Sim, but what if we saw more of the social manipulation? A game that had you talking to people to get what you want? If I were to give this a setting, maybe a lowly office worker deceiving their way up the corporate ladder? Start as a janitor, get a desk job, and push people down to bring yourself higher up. That sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

Just make sure it's in the hands of a more competent developer.

Skyrim 2

Okay not a literal sequel to Skyrim, but it does something that I've yet to see replicated by any other game: An open-world, first-person RPG with absolute mod support. One of the biggest appeals of a tabletop RPG is absolute freedom, being able to create and/or manipulate whatever kind of world you want, and Skyrim mods are the closest a video game has ever come to that. Skyrim fills that niche pretty well, but it's held back by a dated engine, poor mod tools, and major instability when modding to begin with; far more than other games with mod support. I promise I'm not Todd Howard in disguise, I just want more sandbox RPGs with bonkers mod communities.

VR Noir

I'm not 100% certain what I want with this just yet. I had a dream where I was in a dark, damp, decrepit building, fending myself off from feral dogs with a handgun. But for some reason the whole thing felt like a VR game? Some mechanics I'd want included are to freeze linear/teleport movement in combat mode, only allowing me to do quick dashes with my analog stick. Bullets should also feel powerful and be in limited supply, making every shot count. If I were to give it a setting, maybe a... noir mystery? A murder in the back alley of a video store. I might develop that idea further.

[pressxtoalex]

My Top 12 Most Anticipated Games of 2018

2017 was an absolute monster of a year for video games, and it’s starting to appear that January is going to be the only time where we aren’t going to be inundated with new releases to play, and inevitably miss out on. However, there are already more than a few games coming out in 2018 that have my attention and think they should have yours, too. Now bear in mind: This is a pretty PS4 heavy list, for obvious reasons, but if you do some Googling, you’ll find a lot of these are multi-platform releases. The other thing to consider, is while I consider myself a great optimist, I have to be real with myself, so no matter what the developers and publishers tell us, you aren’t going to find games like Death Stranding, Kingdom Hearts III, or The Last of Us Part II on this list, because, let’s face it, they aren’t coming out in 2018. Perhaps, the most frightening part of this list, is most of these games have been confirmed for at least the first half of the year, leaving June through December pretty wide open for us as gamers to have a crowded schedule.

12) The Longest Five Minutes

Coming out of NIS America, The Longest Five Minutes takes a twist on the traditional RPG and starts out at the end, facing off against the game’s final boss, however, your character has lost every memory of their adventure, including their name, abilities, and even why he’s in this battle. Throughout the battle, comments made by his allies, and taunts by the Demon King will trigger flashbacks to help fill in the heroes memory gaps. It comes out in just a few weeks on both Vita and Nintendo Switch and the premise alone put this on my radar.

11) Days Gone

We finally saw what Sony’s Bend Studio has been working on at E3 2016, and while it felt more like a “Lookee how many things we can have on the screen at once” they expounded on the stealth aspects of the game at PSX, showing the game to potentially being somewhere between The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn. It sits so low on my list, partly because it’s Bend’s first release since Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and their first console release since Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow, and partly because I’m not 100% sold on this coming out in 2018, but, if I’m over here spoutin’ off Last of Us Part 2 is coming in 2019, then Day’s Gone needs to be hitting shelves in 2018 as to not be cannibalized by a much more established IP. I love the idea of an open world motorcycle game, though, and hopefully, it’s something akin to much under-appreciated Mad Max.

10) The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series The Final Season

It’s pretty firmly established that I love adventure games, and I love Telltale. They hit a home run in 2012 with the first season of The Walking Dead, but while they continue to swing for the fences on various other licensed and popular properties, they haven’t quite fully captured the magic that made The Walking Dead’s first season so special. Sure, Season Two and Season Three had their high points, and Telltale has shown some of the magic in their other games like Tales from the Borderlands, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Batman, but this is their chance to give Clementine, a character we’ve spent six years growing up with, a proper send-off and story, after spending Season Three side-stepping her.

9) God of War

Yo. Real talk, I’m not a God of War guy. I don’t need that much screamy chain man in my life, and frankly, Kratos has just been a dude, to me, that has zero redeeming qualities. Yea, he’s angry because of his tragic backstory, but, like...can you not? Here’s the thing though, Sony Santa Monica has created a tamer, humbled Kratos that seems to have far more to lose. While I think we’re starting to teeter on seeing too much of the game, game director Cory Barlog keeps saying the right things about this installment that has more-than-piqued my interest. And me being interested in a God of War game speaks volumes. 

8) Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion

Adventure Time is the one franchise that has been itching for a quality game under its banner. We’ve had a handful of various dungeon crawler games, top-down Zelda clones, and adventure games, but they’ve either missed on the art style or totally whiffed on the gameplay. Pirates of the Enchiridion may possibly be the Adventure Time game that the series fans have been clamoring for. It’s an open-world game set in the Land of Ooo, with an original story, multiple playable characters, full-cast voiceover, and sailing. The series is wrapping up soon, and this may be one of the last Adventure Time games we see, so here’s hoping this is the one they get right.

7) Church in the Darkness

I’ve had my eye on Paranoid Productions’ Church in the Darkness for a couple of years now. It’s a top-down, procedurally-generated action/infiltration game set in the 1970s where you’re an ex-law enforcement officer tasked with checking in on your nephew, who has recently joined the Collective Justice Mission cult. Each playthrough promises to be different, down to the characters’ personalities and reactions to you being in the camp. If you want to go full-stealth Metal Gear with it, you can, or if you want to go full guns-blazing, go right ahead. The idea of uncovering more of the story based on your investigating, and the varying degree in which characters respond to you each time you play, leave a lot of opportunities for the game to have mass amounts of replay value.

6) Jurassic World Evolution

Hi. I would like to build my own Jurassic World, please. That’s at least what developer Frontier is promising. While I had no idea Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis even existed until it became too rare to justify purchasing, I did spend a lot of my summer in 2012 tapping away at Jurassic Park Builder on my iPhone. Jurassic World Evolution looks to bring that Jurassic Park-meets-Sim City hybrid back to home consoles. Hopefully “Life finds a way” and this game will be exactly what Jurassic-verse fans have been looking for this summer. Just, please, don’t Animal Crossing this and make me have to play every day or risk being infested with weeds and whatnot. That’ll be the quickest way for me to nope out of this.

5) Crossing Souls

Somewhere between the Burger King Kids Club and Stranger Things lies Fourattic’s Crossing Souls. Set in 1986 in California, Crossing Souls is an action-adventure RPG where five kids make a mysterious discovery that thrusts them into navigating two planes of life and death and begin uncovering a government conspiracy. With five playable characters, each with their own style of combat, puzzles, and 80’s arcade references, Crossing Souls is right up my alley in the indie-game realm.

4) Detroit Become Human

Heavy Rain is one of my all-time favorite games. Hell, it’s tangentially linked to where my YouTube namesake came from. While Beyond: Two Souls wasn’t entirely the follow-up a lot of fans were looking for, I have no problem putting all of Quantic Dreams eggs into the Detroit Become Human basket. Between its Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick-style of story, stunning visuals, and varying degrees of story direction, this seems to be the Quantic Dream getting back on the right track. The big question is what side of their spectrum the story is going to fall on.

3) Dreams

If you listen closely, you can hear the hype-train leaving the station for Dreams. Media Molecule has been a voice in the gaming industry that needs to be heard again. Their style and creativity has been sorely missed, but a few questions remain: Is there a major market for a curation-based platformer, will the customization be as flawlessly executed as we’ve been lead to believe, and will this even hit 2018 despite the developer’s best efforts? It’s hard for me to temper my excitement for a game that has a far more expansive Super Mario Maker feel to it. The in-game campaign may not be the reason to buy the game, so it’s going to be on those that pick up Dreams to keep it alive.

2) Red Dead Redemption 2

I totally missed on Red Dead Redemption. It was at a time where working in gaming retail and feeling that need to play everything, the last thing I wanted to do was play a massive open-world game. Red Dead Redemption 2 feels like my opportunity to atone for this mistake. I loved what I played of Grand Theft Auto V and am dying to see what Rockstar Games has learned from then to now with Red Dead being their first proper current-gen game release. Rockstar has carte-blanche with the gaming industry, so if they came out tomorrow and said, “This is delayed again, and will be delayed a third time” almost everyone would understand. They’re still Scrooge McDucking in their money from GTA-Five, so they don’t need to rush a Red Dead sequel out the door, but they are looking to be the heaviest hitter in 2018 and every developer and publisher has to be waiting for a release date so they know to stay away.

1) Marvel’s Spider-Man

I am absolutely salivating for Insomniac’s Spider-Man to just get a release date. I don’t even need it in my hands yet, I just want to know when I can have it in my hands, and based on recent tweets from the game’s dev-team, we may know sooner rather than later. Not only is this my most anticipated game of 2018, if you were to put a gun to my head and tell me I can only pick one game from this year, I would not even flinch when answering “Marvel’s Spider-Man.” Between the combat, the cinematic uses of QTE’s, to the open environments, I am absolutely sold on this game. The most exciting thing about this release is that, despite what we’ve already seen, I don’t even think we’ve seen a lot of it. Through tweets, and various interviews, I think we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg with this game. Outside of a certain popular character’s appearance in the E3 2017 trailer, we already know they play a larger role than just a cameo, leaving me to wonder if we’re getting a Sons of Liberty situation where the what we’ve seen could be a misdirection to what we’re getting. Regardless, Insomniac Games and Spider-Man are an incredible pairing and I cannot wait to get my hands on this.

So there you have it! My most anticipated games of 2018. I’m sure most of the titles didn’t surprise you, but I absolutely hope I was able to turn your gaze toward some upcoming releases you may not have previously known about. Feel free to drop by and let me know what you’re most looking forward to!

[geekysweetie]

Top 2018 Nintendo Switch Games for Girls

30 New Games For Girls on the Nintendo Switch in 2018

One of the most popular posts on this site is our Top 2017 Nintendo Switch Games for Girls

With a new year, I decided to take a look at the upcoming releases for the Switch in 2018 and make a few suggestions as to what games girls should be looking out for in the year ahead. (There may be a few games that released in Q4 of 2017 also on this list as I wasn’t sure of a few of the release dates). Enjoy! And leave me a comment to let me know what games you’re looking forward to on the Switch in 2018. 🙂 I’ll also soon add a list like this for PS4 and PC games as well.

Top 2018 Nintendo Switch Games For Girls

1.) Project Octopath Traveler

Originally scheduled for a 2017 release, and part of our Top 2017 Nintendo Switch Games for Girls list, Octopath Traveler blends gameplay elements from 16 and 32 bit classics such as Chronotrigger and Saga Frontier. The retro game feel is sure to appeal to many visitors of this site. But that’s not all, Project Octopath Traveler also offers a variety of endings and a branching plot line that is shaped by decisions you make within the game.

 2.) Kirby Star Allies

He’s pink, cute, and the gameplay is fun. Kirby has been a fan favorite of Nintendo gamers for several decades now. In his new adventure, up to four players can join in and you can combine different power ups, as demonstrated in the Nintendo Direct Video above.

3.) Toe Jam & Earl Back in the Groove

Toe Jam & Earl was a childhood favorite of mine. I spent countless hours (or days, or weeks) playing the original two games on Sega Genesis with my best friend. It’s one of the best multiplayer games of my childhood and this new take on the classic, originally slated for 2017, will grace Switch consoles now in 2018. For those unfamillar with the franchise, you run around colorful crazy worlds with zany characters and crazy powerups playing as 2 funky hiphop aliens.

4.) My Time At Portia

My Time At Portia is a cross platform title that features sandbox gameplay in a large open world enviornment. It blends together many gameplay elements from Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Rune Factory, and Atelier. In this game you can raise animals, grow crops, and restore an abandoned workshop. The developers say the game takes place in a post apocalyptic world where humans are few and that you search for relics from the past to create inventions for the betterment of society. Also just like in Harvest Moon and similar games, all of the NPCs have their own schedules, they will go to work, school, and have their own stories for you to discover by interacting with them.

5.) Avabel Online

This is perhaps an interesting one to make the list. Avabel Online is a free to play MMORPG that is already available on many platforms, including Android and IOS devices which makes it already portable and playable on the go. Despite that, I’m including it in the list because I do think the gameplay will appeal to girls. Right now, for example, they are running a special Sanrio promotion (makers of hello kitty). You can get cute (sometimes strange) items to decorate your house or dress up your characters. https://avabelonline.com/landing/sanrio

6.) Moonlighter

A Shopkeeping RPG Simulation game with retro style graphics. You can explore and fight for valueable treasure, as well as craft your own items, and then sell them in your shop. You can also communicate with the NPCs to discover what items they want to purchase. The dungeons are procedurally generated and present new challenges and new loot each time.

7.) Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings

Coming in March 2018, Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is the first Atelier title to hit the Nintendo Switch. Atelier games focus on gathering ingredients and crafting new items. As you can see from the trailer, they feature beautiful anime graphics, and deep stories. Their gameplay is often long, and at times it can get tedious, however, for those who love crafting and exploring, Atelier offers the ultimate crafting system.

8.) Destiny Chronicles

This game looks beautiful, and it is inspired by many classic JRPGs. It features action combat and extensive skill tree customization as well as a light hearted humorous story line. You can enchant and upgrade your equipment, as well as interact with your party members and NPCs.

9.) Revenant Saga

With a level cap of 999, and tons of equipment to collect, Revenant Saga looks to offer some incredible replay value. The ability to tranform in battle and unleash special powers makes combat fun and exciting. While the cute and colorful graphics and dark fantasy story are sure to appeal to fans of classic JRPGs.

10.) Wonderboy: Dragon’s Trap

This remake of Wonderboy III lets you play as a girl. It also lets you toggle between the original Sega Genesis graphics and soundtrack, or the all new graphics and soundtracks created for this release.

11.) Untold Legacy

The retro style graphics appeal to me (and probably most of the readers of my blog). But what really appeals to me is this statement that the Devs make about the storyline: “You will be brought to tears as you uncover the twists and turns in this emotionally story-driven experience that will leave you shocked and surprised as you discover the secrets the world of Touchstone has to offer.” – I am a sucker for a heart tugging story. The Devs also indicate that “The Untold Legacy sets out to recreate some of the most heartfelt and gut wrenching moments imaginable.” These two statements make me very interested in this game.

12.) Yoshi

This game features an art style similar to Paper Mario, and the main character is the lovable, Yoshi, the green dinosaur who first debuted in Super Mario World. The colorful graphics and addictive platformer style gameplay make this game perfect for our list of 2018 Nintendo Switch Games for Girls.

13.) Croixleur Sigma

With a 9/10 and “Very Positive” Rating on Steam, this anime style hack-n-slash RPG is coming to Switch in 2018. The gameplay is reminicessent of several of the newer Hyper Dimension Neptunia games. The local 2 player co-op makes it perfect for the Nintendo Switch. And playing as the cute anime girls make it a game girls will love to play together.

14.) Your Four Knight Princess Training Story

A “Raising Sim” similar to games such as Princess Maker and Graduation 95. Gematsu has an excellent article detailing how you will train your princess in this new 2018 Nintendo Switch Game. Basically it involves scolding or praising your princess at various times, for example during conversations or while exploring dungeons. The story and characters change based on your decisions and how you raise your princess. The princesses each have various parameters that you can train to unlock new skills or increase their stats to help them in battle.

15.) Legrand Legacy Tale of the Fatebounds

Legrand Legacy Tale of the Fatebounds is an impressive indie title with full 3D cinematics and FMV cutscenes. It features tactical turn based combat and interesting city building and mini game mechanics. I’m really looking forward to this title which releases later this month (January 2018).

16.) Shin Megami Tensei V

I haven’t taken time to organize these recommendations in any kind of “ranking” system, but if I had to pick just one game on this list to play in 2018 it would be Shin Megami Tensei V. Atlus’ dark RPG franchise that sparked the Persona spin off games is one of my favorites.

17.) Tohou Sky Arena Gensoukyou Kuusen Hime

This looks like an anime brawler with cute girls and exciting special moves. It’s visually very pretty and looks like combat will be fun too.

18.) Valkyria Chronicles 4

A new title in the tactical Strategy RPG series, Valkyria Chronicles. I’m a huge fan of this series, and this one looks great. It’s due out in March 2018. Valkyria Chronicles is a Sega series known for excellent characters and story lines as well as fun Strategy RPG combat.

19.) The Longest Five Minutes

This humorous RPG launches in February 2018. The tale begins at the end, as you are facing the demon king, but suddenly you’ve lost all of your memories. From there, regain your memories, remember who you are, where you’re from, where you’re going, and your reason for fighting the demon king. The cute and colorful graphics and retro feel are sure to appeal to my readers.

20.) Mulaka

With gameplay reminiscent of Zelda or Castlevania, this action RPG features a story and game world that draw inspiration from Mexican culture. The gameplay trailer above shows various abilities and fighting styles, including the ability to transform into different animals.

21.) Yono and the Celestial Elephants

How could this game NOT make our list??! Look at that elephant. LOOK AT IT!! Has there ever been a cuter video game character in the history of video games? Nope. This adorable little game looks kawaii and charming AF and seems to have some fun puzzles to solve too.

22.) Wandersong

Play as a traveling bard in this cute, happy, colorful paper-cut-out style world. Coming in early 2018.

23.) Goragoa

This puzzle game features gorgeous artwork and requires some outside the box thinking. The soundtrack is also lovely and I’ve heard the story is quite sad as well.

24.) Wargroove

Wargroove promises to be easy to pick up, but difficult to master. Up to 4 players can take control of an army and command it to victory. The colorful retro style graphics really look great and gameplay looks fun and interesting.

25.) Penny Punching Princess

An Action RPG in Which Money Makes the World Go Round. That’s what Nintendo has to say about their latest RPG that lets you bribe monsters to fight for you. Many are comparing this game to Tingle’s Rosy Rupee Land – a game which I’ve never played (nor even heard of).  The colorful and cute graphics caught my eye. I’ll be checking this one out in 2018.

26.) Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory

Nintendo promises new content and features in this release. “Combining both Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion and Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire for the first time on one console, Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory includes all new art, Exemplars, monsters, bosses and challenges not found in the original releases. I’d somehow not heard of this game until now, so now seems the perfect time to pick this one up.

27.) Lost Sphear

From the creators of I am Setsuna, comes a new JRPG for the Nintendo Switch in 2018.

28.) Dragon Quest Builders

Originally part of the 2017 Top Nintendo Switch Games for Girls, this title got pushed back to February 2018.

29.) Mega Man 11

Fan favorite, and often requested, a new sequel in the Mega Man franchise is arriving on Nintendo Switch in late 2018.

30.) Bayonetta 3 – NINTENDO SWITCH EXCLUSIVE

Perhaps one of the most exciting announcements, and why I saved it for last, is that a new Bayonetta Game has been announced and it will be available ONLY for the Nintendo Switch.

Top 2018 Nintendo Switch Games for Girls was originally published on GeekySweetie.com - Geeky & Kawaii Anime, Tech, Toys, & Game Reviews & News

[builtinadaygames]

Scratch the itch: what I played last month #2

Hi, I'm Kevin Beissel and I make games under the name Built In A Day. I also lurk on Twitter @builtinadayKB and have a space shooter on itch.  This is the second itch game post I've done, you can read the first here.  I'm including this preamble from the first post since it lays out the ground rules:

The purpose of this post is to cover some of the free games on itch.io, from a developer and fan perspective.  I'd like to make it a recurring series, maybe a monthly breakdown but who knows.  Like Douglas Adams said, the best part of deadlines is the great WHOOSHING sound they make while flying by.

Before we get to the games, I just want to clarify why I'm doing this and what I hope it accomplishes.  So here's the what, why and how:

The WHAT

Discuss free games available on itch.io

I've got a list of profiles to check out, but please send along any recommendations.

There are no restrictions on genres.  The whole point of this is to be curious and ask questions.  So no dumb rules like "No walking sims" or "No puzzle platformers", which would prolly eliminate half of the available games anyways.

The WHY

I want to become a better developer and playing experimental/small/art/trash games could help.

Getting an audience is hard and getting constructive feedback is even harder.  I can't help the devs covered in these posts with the former but maybe I can with the latter.

The HOW

There is no rating system.

There is no alter ego here, these are not 'angry' reviews.

These aren't even really reviews.

The goal is to focus on the design choices that were made and discuss the reasoning behind them.

I don't really care about being right, I don't really care about sounding smart ("Yeah, no shit" the reader grumbles), I don't really care about agreeing with you.  I'm more interested in looking at the hierarchy of ideas (to borrow a phrase) that form game design.  By working at the ends and working in the middle we can find out more about it, right?

Enough with the formalities, let's get started.

Profile: Bedstuck (@bedstuck)

Game: White

Genre/Style: action, wave-based brawler, melee combat

I've been seeking out lots of action games lately and 'White' has a lot of the things I'm looking for in this genre.  You play through waves of enemies, with a black-and-white art style and fast-paced melee combat.

The visuals are immediately appealing, with great character design choices and fluid animations.  The art style manages to be simple but expressive (it was made for a jam in less than 17 hrs).  Looks like a cool ink based style, like a comic book.  One of my all time favorite movie fight scenes is from 'Book of Eli'.  The opening fight scene is under a bridge and shown only in silhouette, much like the style here.

Spoilers for 'Book of Eli' real quick, so skip to the next paragraph if you haven't seen it:  I saw that movie opening night and took a lady friend to it.  It was our first date together (sadly it was also the last) and she had wanted to see 'the Lovely Bones', that godawful looking Peter Jackson snoozefest, but I'm occasionally charming and persuasive so we saw 'Book of Eli' instead.  After the movie we're walking out to the car and I ask her: "Pretty crazy how his character was blind for the whole movie, huh?" and she goes "What do you mean?"  In her defense, she thought it was weird and boring, but it's still made explicitly clear at the end that the main character is blind, yet she somehow missed that.  None of this pertains to the game 'White', but that's what happens, man.

The combat is intuitive but challenging.  It is melee-based, so you have to get good at timing your jumps and slashing in the correct direction to get the airborne enemies.  There's a dash ability that is crucial for getting to wave spawners and taking them out quickly.  Using the jump and dash abilities in concert has so much potential, both offensively and defensively.

The enemy behavior is nicely varied between melee and ranged types.  There's some square enemies that shoot smaller squares.  At first I thought they might be targeting the player, but after watching them for awhile my guess is that they are based on some randomized pattern.  If they all targeted the player with each shot then even a small amount on screen would be deadly.  Not sure I'm right about this, but my first instinct would have been to target the player; based on what I'm seeing here, the random pattern is a better choice.

I was able to beat the easiest difficulty setting (health regens), but only got to wave five on normal (no health regen) and wave four on original (one hit kills you).  Of course balancing difficulty is a notoriously hard task and, while I hate a challenge in real life, a challenge in a video game is actually appealing.  The tiers of difficulty make sense here and ramp up nicely.  But don't get me started on the "tears" of difficulty, we've all been there.

===

Profile: Hempuli (@ESAdevlog, hempuli.com)

Game: Baba Is You

Genre/Style: Puzzle

If you grew up reading Roger Ebert movie reviews (you know, the ones that were scrawled across the cave walls), you're prolly familiar with the kind of review where he refused to talk about any plot points after the first act, so as not to spoil the joy of seeing it unfold for yourself.  He would go on about the atmosphere, the performances, latent/manifest content and other such things, but would not spoil the mechanics of it.  I'll have to use that format for 'Baba Is You', because you're better off finding out for yourself.

Each level has a set of obstacles and hazards that block the goal.  There are three-word phrases placed in the level as well, and the phrases can be rearranged to create new types of interaction.  For example, "wall is stop" could be changed to several things.  That's all I'll say, because the solutions and the mechanics of it all are so much fun that any more would spoil it.

If you enjoyed something like 'Stephen's Sausage Roll' or if you're a fan of NES/pre-NES visual styles then you should find something to like here.  Just a great concept, superb puzzle design, fun aesthetics, wonderful "eureka!" moments, a must play for puzzle fans.  Hmmm, can I do some more 'pull quotes' or is that enough?  It's a white-knuckle thriller, like nothing you've ever seen, if you play one puzzle game this year make it this one, a non-stop thrill ride, edge of your seat entertainment, breathtaking, gripping, an ending you won't see coming, Harrison Ford has never been better.

I guess you could describe this writing style as "talking to yourself", since this is clearly not written for an actual audience.  But it's important to differentiate between "talking WITH yourself" and "talking TO yourself".  There's a pretty big difference.  Who else am I supposed to talk to?  I'm the only one here, right?  Maybe this writing style is better known as "non-sequitur internet bullshit".  Hey, if Mark Prindle is retired, who else will keep the spirit alive other than yours truly?  Who else?  Maybe this giant peach over here, this giant peach that is wearing a top hat and a monocle, perhaps he can.

But yeah, please do check out 'Baba Is You'.  It communicates its ideas clearly, introduces new elements in a fair manner and controls easily (thank you for the 'undo' button).  I'm usually pretty harsh on puzzle games, put this is great work.

===

Profile: Managore (@Managore, daniellinssen.net)

Game: Walkie Talkie

Genre/Style: side-scroller, level-builder, chat room

Every once and awhile you find something that really comes "off the top rope", so to speak, and conceptually 'Walkie Talkie' does just that.  It is side-scrolling level-building platformer presented as a chat room.  The levels are messages that users type in and most keyboard characters have preset behaviors.

So using the right set of symbols a user can create a solid platformer level, with ramps, moving platforms, turrets, bouncing boulders, disappearing platforms and other hazards.

The game's creator has gone through and marked some levels with a heart, and those are worth checking out for sure. But it's also fun to scroll through and look for random goodness, and some users are good at pointing out fun levels.

I'd recommended plugging in your X360 controller, since keyboard input was a bit tricky.  Even with a controller the movement gets a bit wonky, but two things: this was made for a jam and I'm unbelievably picky about platformer controls, so perhaps I'm overstating this.  And even if I'm not, this game is still worth playing for its conceptually audacity alone.

I was a day one fan of 'Mario Maker' and still enjoy it to this day.  But some of those levels are prone to cutesy bullshit, especially levels using names that scream "Hey, play this because its Pokemon themed!" and pointless levels based on Rube Goldberg-meets-auto-runner non-gameplay.  While 'Walkie Talkie' has plenty of useless entries, that's the result of having user generated content and not the result of authorial missteps.

And like David Mamet once said: "Everyone makes their own fun.  If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun.  It's entertainment."  Of course, David Mamet has said a lot of things, many of which suck.  'Walkie Talkie' doesn't suck tho, far from it.  Unless you mean it sucks in all the praise, which is true, just really poorly worded.  

===

[pathosvignettes]

Real Life The Game - A Review

By Kearu - Beast Mastery Hunter, EU Doomhammer

Note: I originally wrote this back in 2010 which should explain some of the dated references. I recently found it in an old backup; posting it here so I don’t lose it again!

So anyway, I've reached level 40 in this "Real Life" (RL) game and think that I've got enough of a feel for it to give a sensible review. Even though it’s a free-to-play game, should you bother taking time out from Azeroth to play it? Let’s find out.

Leveling up

The first thing you need to know is that the leveling curve is very steep. Getting to level 40 took a looooonnggg time. It doesn't seem to matter how much time you spend logged in, or what you do while you are logged in; you only ever seem to ding about once a year.

Having said that, because you don't ding often it's a much bigger event when you do, and fellow players commonly buy you in-game gifts that are presented to you at in-game gatherings called "parties". As you'd expect, these gifts are worthless fluff for the main part so that they don't break the game balance. 

Making the levelling take so long, is an interesting design decision. In WoW equivalent terms, it would mean that the highest level character would be coming up on level 6 by now. I guess the publishers believe that this game will be around a lot longer than WoW - only time will tell I guess. However, when they claim to have over 6.5 billion players on a single-shard server you do tend to have a hard time believing the marketing hype!

Core game-play

The game play itself has three main elements to it:

Gold grinding;

Resource recovery; and

The actual game itself.

In order to play the actual part of the game you have to spend about a third of your play time grinding gold - this sucks, and is way too high a proportion of the game in my opinion. You can choose a profession and learn skills to make it more efficient, and this can lead to "promotion" which increases your rank and allows you to earn more gold per hour. However, the fact that there are so many gold sinks in the game (some of them are even compulsory and are called "taxes") means that you can never get enough gold from the grinding to really enjoy the game properly.

Three little snippets about the grinding/professions part of the game:

Some people, instead of using the higher gold per hour to reduce the amount of time they grind, just keep grinding to amass huge amounts of gold for no real purpose - go figure;

Apparently, the banker profession became so over-powered recently that it destabilised the entire in-game economy - incoming nerf-bats are widely expected;

There are some RL players who participate in LARP (basically, pretending to be people that you would find in WoW) - how weird is that? I mean, why would you login to the RL game and then spend your time doing everyday normal things that you would do in WoW anyway? *shrugs*

The second part of the game is a kind of reverse version of rested XP. The more you play the game the more sluggish and error-prone your character becomes. To reset your character you are forced to rest for around 6-8 hours of game time. Again, this sucks. The only saving grace is that the designers seem to have acknowledged this and have used cut scenes quite effectively so that it doesn't feel that long. However, the fact remains, having to spend about a third of your play time in a comatose state because of poor game design needs fixing - quickly please.

Once you get past the gold-grind and the resource recovery aspects and into the game itself, it's very different from the normal WoW world we're used to. It's very much a sand-box type of game: there are no quests; no NPCs that I could find (although some players seemed to act as stupidly as NPCs do); and progression is defined pretty much according to the goals you set for your avatar. Sims players would probably like this game. The one thing that I found really bizarre was that, some players, having spent all that time in the grind and recovery phases then log out of the game to spend more time in WoW!

User interface

The user interface has it's good points and it's bad points. It's greatest strength is the very impressive use of VR. You play the game in an all over VR body suit - in-game chat refers to this as a "monkey suit" for some strange reason. The simulation of sensory reception from this technology is quite frankly jaw-dropping. I spent a lot more game-time than I had intended just exploring this new interface: feeling the different textures of in-game objects. Actually having foods that taste different was a revelation. And, being able to smell the world around you really added to the feeling of immersion (although some of the smells were less than pleasant - game designer humour I suppose).

Another plus point of the game is that, despite the bandwidth that must be necessary for this type of experience, I've had no lag even running the game on the highest graphic settings. Graphics by the way are fantastic - you could almost believe some of the rendering to be real objects. I've had the occasional disconnect which has been hard to diagnose but it seems to be correlated with excessive alcohol consumption. Not such a big issue - although the time taken to re-connect with the world seems to be quite random.

The VR design approach does have it's drawbacks though, especially considering that the designers have also decided to include collision detection with just about everything in the game. In particular, this really impacts the combat element of the game; collision detection and an ultra-sensitive user interface means that injuries really hurt. On top of this, the designers have chosen to include perma-death. I mean seriously? You really think that a game that only allows you to roll a single character, where it takes you a year to ding every level and includes perma-death is going to sell?

Creating your first (and only) character

Which brings me onto character creation itself. Firstly, there is no character creation screen - zip, nada, niet. There are two sexes and multiple races but you get no choice about any of this and no chance to change any of your physical appearance attributes. You just login and "bam" you've got a totally randomised avatar. This seems to be a "brave” design decision since you only ever get one character and there are no cash shop options to expand your slots.

There is no HUD in the game (the default view is first person and you can't change it without the illegal use of chemical add-ons), no user manual and no tutorials means that the game can be very confusing initially. Fortunately, more experienced players can volunteer to mentor noobs (in fact you can't currently create a character without at least one mentor). They are referred to in-game as "pa-rents". There are stories about players becoming mentors accidentally, which must be a serious bummer given the impact it has on your play time.

In game support

On related note to in-game help it can be very difficult to get support with the game. Nobody seems to know who the game publisher is, although there are numerous in-game theories. The best approach appears to be crouching on the floor, closing your avatar's eyes and sub-vocalising the help request. In my experience, this has been less than satisfactory. However, since I never received a response from a GM, I can't say whether they received my request and have acted on it or simply ignored it. Some players claim to have encountered GMs (referred to variously as "angels" or "prophets") although there is wide-spread cynicism among the player population, given that these encounters seem to be so rare.

Factions

There are hundreds of factions in RL, nominally based around capital cities of geographic regions - pretty much like normal WoW. However, language generally tends to be faction-specific rather than race specific. You are automatically allocated to a faction based on the random geographical area in which your avatar was created. You can pay to change faction (but not race) although, unless you also train to learn the language related to your new faction, participating in the game will be much harder.

One interesting aspect of the game is that faction leaders are actually players themselves. Periodically, there will be an "election" where all the players belonging to a faction will be asked to choose who they want to be faction leader. Once all the player choices have been registered and counted, the candidate with the most gold becomes faction leader.

Resource management

There is no magic in the game, but there is something called "technology" which is pretty much the same thing and mana is replaced with "electricity". This mana is not an attribute of your character and is available at various nodes in the game world and can also be carried in portable containers. Mana doesn't regenerate when idle unfortunately, which means that when your portable mana supply is low you have to find a node to replenish it which can be a bit of a pain.

A quick aside. According to the game lore, this "electricity" is supposed to be a controlled form of a shaman's lightning bolt. Really? Since when has a shaman ever had "control" of their lightning bolt?  LB *crit* LB *crit* CL *crit* *crit* *crit* <shammy dies> <muffled voice from the floor> "Noob tank, can't you hold aggro?". But hey, this is a fantasy game so I'll roll with the lore on this one - not everything has to be believable, right?

Eating and drinking

On a related note, in the game you can eat and drink while standing up! Yay! Strangely, though, players still tend to follow the WoW custom and sit down to eat and drink - go figure.

Eating and drinking doesn't seem to regenerate resources as it does in normal WoW - although this is hard to tell without a HUD - but if you go without eating and drinking for too long your avatar starts to complain and becomes weaker. Conversely, a certain amount of time after eating or drinking, your avatar again complains about having to void the food and drink it consumed and you have to stop to allow this process to happen (the process by the way is quite gross and I won't discuss it here). This is really annoying, especially if you are in the middle of one of the games thousands of achievements.

The strange thing is consuming food and drink takes time, doesn't seem to affect your resource levels and then has to be voided again - what's the point of this game mechanic?

Character afflictions

Diseases and poisons are much longer lasting in RL than they are in WoW but fortunately there are players who have specialised in treating these ailments. The only problem is that there appears to be a game-wide, major, mortal-strike debuff, because recovering from them seems to take forever. In another "brave" game decision, the designers seem to have decided that diseases will affect male characters far more harshly than female characters - one particularly virulent disease is called “man-flu”. I can't believe that this blatant sexism can be tolerated in today's society.

Diseases also seem to affect higher-level characters more harshly, although I can't comment from personal experience. According to in-game chat, there is no end game as such and no level cap. Assuming you survive accidental perma-death to reach the higher levels, you will gradually become more and more susceptible to disease until you perma-death anyway!

If true, this just seems preposterous. It's not as if the game designers will allow you to roll another character after death so I don't understand the commercial reasoning of the publisher. Why would you want to make endgame characters progressively weaker until you force them to cancel their subscription?

Social

A final note about the social side of the game. Clans or guilds are supported albeit informally - for example there are no guild channels. In fact there doesn't appear to be an option to leave any public channels which means that you are constantly bombarded with spam and it can be difficult to make out the meaningful content in the channel. Private channels can be created using "technology" although this does require you to know a personal code for the avatars you want to invite into the channel. Frustratingly these are not assigned at avatar creation and can be changed at any time in-game - so it does rely on the player actively maintaining their social contacts network.

In summary

In summary, there are some good points to this game, and some genuinely ground-breaking and innovative design choices. In the main, though, these design choices have introduced negative game play aspects that really should have been uncovered in open beta. I can only assume that the publisher decided that they were too expensive to change and released the game anyway. It wasn't ready for release and shouldn't have been released and there is no sign of any major patches on the horizon. 3/10 save your money for now.

My only problem now is that I can't work out how to log off and the risk of perma-death is getting higher all the time... HELP ME!

[robin-hood-for-freedom]

Anita Sarkeesian’s final Tropes Vs Women in video games video.  And I feel like we’ve come full circle with this one.  By which I mean, most of the points raised in this one were found in her Damsel videos(her very first ones).  For that reason I probably wouldnt have bothered with this video, but hey this is the last one, with any luck I’ll never have to talk about her again(especially since she seems to want to move into political/anti-trump stuff) besides it gives me a good excuse to rant about Bioshock Infinite(consider this your warning).  

1:09 Well its too fucking bad you just did.  Heres the thing about Bioshock Infinite, while yes racism plays a major role in the games story, at the end of the day, its not really a story about racism.  Its about revolutions, and why they are almost always bullshit.  When you look historically at uprisings and revolutions(with a VERY few exceptions) what you get is a lot of death, a lot of destruction, and little-to nothing to show for it as the regime that takes over is just as brutal and oppressive as the one before.  To that end the moral isnt so much ‘the truth is in the middle’ as ‘violence is not the answer.’  

Now it would be fair to say that point(and the idea of Booker as seeking atonement for his history of violence) does get somewhat muddled by the fact that most of the gameplay consists of violently killing people.  But I’v rarely seen anybody raise that criticism.  Which is why I think a lot of the people upset about Bioshock Infinite didnt really get it.  As Anita clearly didnt.  

1:38 She also uses her tear powers throughout the game as part of gameplay.  But I’m not exactly sure what else you would expect from her.  I mean, as I said most of the gameplay consists of combat.  And while yes, you will later seem to suggest the problem is that lady sidekicks arent more active in combat, that would make no sense for Elizabeth.  She has no weapon knowledge or combat experience, and is clearly shown as being afraid and uncomfortable with how violent Booker is. 

1:59 its a common trope in video games for doors to be exceedingly difficult to open, remember in God of War you have to sacrifice a guy to open one, or hell Anita, you claim to be a fan of Zelda, so you should be familiar with the puzzles needed to open many doors there.  I could go on with examples, but door opening isnt ‘basic and menial’ in games.  

2:18 and these are much more memorable aspects to how the game interacts with her than the door opening thing.  

2:32 Again, I’m not exactly sure what you would expect considering that most of the gameplay mechanics consist of killing people.  And it just occured to me that you dont include any rpgs in this video.  You’d think that would be a good place to look for some positive examples(Whinne for one).  But I digress

3:17 Well after this video you wont have to.  

3:33 Okay, I’m not going to point out that you can find gender-flipped versions of this pretty easily, since Anita herself acknowledges and dismisses these later.  I will however, point out that NOBODY likes escort missions.  That was why Elizabeth and  Ellie in The Last of Us were invulnerable in combat.  Having to protect them through the whole game would have been a huge pain in the ass.  

4:02 I think this is more of a case-by-case basis.  I dont know if I ever actually beat Ico(if I had its been a long time), so I cant really comment too much on this one specifically.  So let’s go back to Elizabeth.  For most players, her tear powers, her bringing you to the future, and what she does at the ending(I wont give spoilers, but I’m sure my readers know what I’m talking about) are far, far more memorable than her lockpicking skills.  What people take away from the game, in this case is much more the narrative than the gameplay.  

4:14 Yep, and pretty much everybody I know agrees thats the one flaw in an othewise near perfect game. Although that said, I did kind of like the parts where you actually play AS Ashley.  It was a nice change of pace.  

4:38 I dont know if I’d say its my favorite part.  But I did like the inclusion of puzzle elements, they were a nice break from the combat.  

4:47 Thats pretty damn broad.  But  I know you are going to immediately qualify that statement.  So whatever.  

5:50 I think you mispronounced ‘badass sniper who can single handedly take out an entire team of Skulls while you hide like a little bitch’(yes I’v done that)

6:00 Are you now implying that compliments are bad?  I’m not even entirely sure what her point is with this section, so I’ll skip it.  

6:45 I’m pretty sure that when you are trapped in a castle full of parasite monsters, pretty much everyones goal and desires are going to be getting the hell out of there.  

7:09 and again I note you haven’t looked at any rpgs.  Because theres pleanty of examples from there...

7:16 unless you are talking about Bioware games, or dating sims, most games arent really about relationships.  

7:40 Again, I’m not going to point out exceptions, because Anita will acknowledge these only to dismiss them.  

8:16 that would be all well and good, if you could demonstrate that such ideas are as commonplace as you imply.  I mean I get that you are assuming feminist theory here, and going through to explain these things might be overly long and distracting.  However, it does mean that people who arent already sold on that ideology arent going to be inclined to accept it.  I guess thats a long winded way of saying that you really should have figured out who your audience is:  Is it fellow feminists?  Gamers?  General audiences? 

[aion-rsa]

Myst: Creators Rand and Robyn Miller Unlock the Secrets of the PC Classic

https://ift.tt/3kBOrgP

In 1991, two brothers—Rand and Robyn Miller—along with a handful of artists and engineers, set out to create a game unlike anything that had come before it, harnessing powerful new PC technology to immerse players in a fantastical island world inside a book. The game was called Myst, a point-and-click adventure full of infuriatingly difficult puzzles and driven by a twisted, fantastical story about a tragically dysfunctional family

Released in 1993, the game was lauded by fans and critics alike, became a killer app for CD-ROM drives, and went on to become the best selling PC game ever (over 6.3 million copies sold by 2000) until The Sims dethroned it in 2002. More than two decades after its release, there are even plans to turn the game into a movie and TV series. Myst is one of the most unlikely commercial success stories in gaming history, particularly due to the fact that the game was so strange, so notoriously difficult, and was made by such a small team (Cyan Worlds, founded by the Miller brothers in 1987).

“I was more of a gamer than Robyn, but both of us settled with Myst on the idea that, well let’s not have people die and start over, because that irritated both of us. We felt like we were building a real world, and in a real world, you don’t just die and start over every five minutes.” Rand says of the initial conceit that led to the creation of the game. “We wanted to add friction that would slow you down but we didn’t think that there were rules to video games necessarily, so we’ll pull out the dying and see if we could do it without that.” 

Indeed, there’s no dying in Myst, a revolutionary idea at a time when “Game Over”s  were a staple in virtually every game on the market. Instead, Myst tasked players with exploring its world and decrypting its story, eschewing combat for puzzles that challenged and engaged you but weren’t life-or-death ordeals.

“I’d love to tell you we knew exactly what we were doing, but we didn’t,” Rand says. “It was just another experiment along the scale of how to make things a little more sophisticated, and even within the game itself, you can see how we were expanding and building more cohesiveness into the worlds as we went.”

Despite its humble origins, Myst was a huge deal for a lot of people in the ‘90s, including me. I remember the thrill of watching it run on the new PC my parents bought for me and my brothers in the mid-90s, marveling at the FMV elements combined with the detailed pre-rendered environments.

“For me, Myst was for games what Star Wars was for movies,” explains Philip Shane, a filmmaker who’s launched a Kickstarter for a documentary about the making of the PC classic. Shane previously co-wrote the Sundance Special Jury Prize-winning documentary Being Elmo (2011). “I was 10 years old when Star Wars came out and, in my mind, I was the same age when I played Myst. Just like with Star Wars today, when you look back on Myst, it was the first time you ever saw something with that level of detail. It was an odd game, but for me it was huge.”

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Myst is responsible for a wave of cinematic, immersive games with rich storytelling that are as popular in 2020 as they ever were. Games like The Witness, Outer Wilds, and Quern draw inspiration from Myst’s original puzzle-adventure formula, while Dear Esther, Gone Home, and The Stanley Parable are heavily influenced by the world-building and environmental storytelling Myst pioneered. 

“I think in our minds, it does feel like we’re building worlds and not necessarily games,” says Rand of Cyan’s approach to making games. “We try so hard to create this consistent flow in our worlds. It’s not easy. It takes a lot of effort to tie the environment with the story and the puzzles. It’s not always perfect. But we make that attempt to make it seem viable as far as worlds go.”

“And so we started coming up with [Myst’s] backstory,” Robyn adds. “And it helped to give us a better understanding of the entire world and maybe a better understanding of where the world should move onto for where we were going with it. We filled out the details, the empty spaces in our minds.”

Rand says that The Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R. Tolkien were a particular inspiration when building the world of Myst. 

“[The Lord of the Rings] felt like you’re just reading one of the books, but the world was much bigger than that. It felt like you had a window. You were just experiencing a small window into a much larger world. And for some reason, that really resonated with us.” Rand explains. “That made those worlds seem so much more real to us. And so, when it came time to do our worlds, that’s naturally where we land. We build backstory and wrapped stuff around the family and what had happened. Stuff that didn’t even need to be told in the little window of the Myst game. But in our world, it gave it weight and I love that.”

The brothers also credit Alice in Wonderland, Tintin comics, and Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island as major influences on Myst.

“We had a couple of months to design the thing, and so it was more of a regurgitation of everything we had collectively in our psyches and aesthetic selves and whatever those influences were,” Robyn says. “Tonally it created something that was mysterious and weird, but it was all these things pressed together into this weirdness.”

Myst’s central tale, of Atrus and his warring sons Achenar and Sirrus, stretches far beyond the original game, to tie-in novels and its four sequels (one of which was developed by Ubisoft independently). Due to budgetary restrictions, Rand and Robyn were forced to act in the game themselves, with Rand playing Atrus and Achenar, and Robyn playing Sirrus (Rand continued to play Atrus in the game’s sequels).

“I would not call it acting,” Robyn says. “The fact that we got anything that looked good out of what we did is a miracle. It was just me and Rand really, and the thing I remember most is that we were laughing hysterically through it.”

“Like Robyn said, it’s a wonder we got anything out of us,” Rand says. “Looking back, in spite of the fact that we would not have cast ourselves had we had a real budget and to do things the way we wanted to, it’s cool again that we as brothers got to play those brothers and look back and laugh at it. I’ve got tapes.”

Though he was a longtime fan of Myst, Shane had never thought to make a documentary about the game until he met with the Miller brothers at a games convention in 2016, where they were presenting a keynote. At an after party, he approached them as a fan, without an inkling that the ensuing conversation would launch him into the next stage of his career.

“I was terrified,” Shane recalls of meeting the Millers. “I went up to them and immediately I thought, ‘Surely someone has made a documentary about Myst.’ So I said, ‘Has anyone ever made a documentary about Myst? And they were like, ‘No.’ And so I was like, ‘Could I?’ And they were like, ‘Really? Yeah.’ In spite of the making of Myst being a 25-year-long story, this was the fastest I’ve ever gone from conception of a documentary idea to green light. It was as fast as the neurons of three people could go. Just a couple of weeks later, my camera person, my cinematographer Kyle Kelly, and I flew out to Spokane and started filming.”

Spokane is the home of Cyan Worlds and the birthplace of Myst, its sequel Riven (1997), spiritual successor Obduction (2016), and the forthcoming Firmament, the studio’s first major VR release. Shane remembers watching a short, grainy documentary clip of the brothers talking about the making of Myst on a disc included with the original game’s release. “There were these two guys making the game at home,” he recalls. “At one point, the camera pans away and you see all these trees. I was like, ‘Those are the trees from Myst.’ It was like they lived in the game.”

With his documentary, Shane endeavoured to delve into the lives of the Miller brothers on a personal level, which meant spending a lot of time talking to them and picking their brains. Looking back on the making of Myst over a quarter of a century after its release has been an unexpectedly profound experience for Robyn in particular, who hasn’t been involved in making video games hands-on for decades now. Robyn left the company after the release of Riven in 1997 while Rand stayed on as CEO of Cyan Worlds.

“Well, I’d forgotten about Myst,” Robyn says of revisiting the game almost 30 years later. “If I play Myst today, it’s like I’m actually playing Myst [for the first time] and I have to remember things. It’s weird. I haven’t worked on any of that stuff in such a long time, so it’s fun to talk about Myst now.”

Shane says he has every intention of going through the brothers’ archive of tapes but that the success of the Kickstarter will largely determine how much he’ll be able to comb through for the documentary. “Research for a documentary is more time-intensive and expensive than people might know,” he explains. “And a big part of it is time. The more successful we are with the Kickstarter, the deeper I’m going to be able to go [into the archives]. I can’t promise anything, but I want to get that stuff. Rand has a ton of home movies. They both have a lot of stuff that they’ve saved up.”

Currently, Cyan is hard at work on its forthcoming puzzle-adventure game, Firmament. The studio is deep into development, and while Cyan originally targeted a July 2020 release date, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the team to push the release back, announcing in a recent Kickstarter backers’ update that the game likely wouldn’t be finished until 2022. But the team is still working hard on the game from home, and according to Rand, they were largely prepared to work remotely and continue development.

“Firmament‘s probably one of the best storylines we’ve done in a game since I’ve been doing this. It’s really cool,” Rand says. “Whether we can pull it off, I think, Robyn and I talked about this so many years ago is, even for Myst and Riven: you can have big plans for a story, but at some level, it’s about being able to communicate it. Sometimes you just have to simplify it so that it’s satisfying and people get it. So we’ll see what we can do with Firmament, but it’s a great, great storyline.”

When it does arrive, Firmament will be the latest in a long line of memorable experiences from Cyan Worlds. But Myst will always be their crowning achievement, a game that continues to impact its players today. The Miller brothers admit that Myst grew beyond anything they could have possibly imagined.

Robyn puts the enduring legacy of this game best: “We made Myst and we never expected it to continue on this many years later especially. Now it’s so much larger than Myst. It’s got a life of its own. There are so many people who are involved in — whether it’s creating, writing their own stories about it, or painting pictures, or having guilds, or the Mysterium [an annual celebration of the game] getting together every year. It just goes on and on and on, it’s this world that exists out there. This massive thing that is much larger than the Myst games. We feel privileged and humbled to be a part of that, privileged and humbled to have been there at the beginning.”   Shane’s The Myst Documentary is currently in pre-production and will cover both the origin of Myst as well as the current work being done at Cyan Worlds. The project has more than 2,000 backers as of this writing. Check out the Kickstarter here.

The post Myst: Creators Rand and Robyn Miller Unlock the Secrets of the PC Classic appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/33NqwFg

[entergamingxp]

Sakura Wars review – heartfelt, over-the-top anime romp • Eurogamer.net

Originally conceived back in 1996 as a way to offer an RPG franchise on the Sega Mega Drive, the original Sakura Wars series was a mix of visual novel, dating sim and round-based strategy combat. It follows an all-female theatre troupe based at Tokyo’s Imperial Theatre, putting on shows as the Flower Troupe to keep the spirits of the populace high, while also acting as the Imperial Combat Revue, a paramilitary operation tasked with defending the capital from monsters. To do so, they use mechs called Kobu, powered by the strength of their spirit.

Sakura Wars review

Developer: Sega

Publisher: Sega

Platform: Reviewed on PS4

Availability: Out now on PS4

With its anime stylings and a cast of lovable protagonists, the franchise became a wild hit in Japan before its fate was sealed along with the Dreamcast. The west only saw the localisation of the last Sakura Wars game, Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, its New York setting and all-new cast considered a good entry point into a series often deemed to be too Japanese.

This new Sakura Wars constitutes a soft reboot, set a decade after the events of the originals and using established gameplay but featuring a completely new cast. You take the role of Navy ensign Seijuro Kamiyama, who becomes the Flower Troupe’s new captain. It’s your job to help restore the Imperial Theatre to glory and keep Tokyo safe. In order to make a gaggle of women into a real team, you need to get to know them, help them overcome personal struggles and realise their true potential.

Kobu battles aren’t difficult, but winning is satisfying, especially during dramatic moments in the story.

As Seijuro, you spend your time either talking to these women or fighting demons in musou-style action combat. Sakura Wars’ dialogue is built around the series’ patented LIPS system: you get three dialogue choices, but only have a limited amount of time to pick an answer. The dialogue options themselves are recognisable if you’ve ever played another game with dialogue choice – you have a good option, a cautious option and a sleazy, impulsive one. There’s also ‘analogue LIPS’, a conversation option where what Sejiuro says is predetermined, and you only settle on the intensity with which you want to say it.

Just like in a visual novel, the answers you pick determine the other character’s opinion of you. Each of the women conform to established personality types – the bookish one, the short-tempered one and so forth – and you get to know them better the more you talk to each of them. If you gain a character’s trust, you can trigger a ‘trust event’. In this event, which uses first person POV, one of the women will have a personal chat with you that will end in some PG-13 touching. These situations can be deliberately naff – one character just wants to practise a romantic scene in a play – but they are, and this is important, fully consensual and do not reduce the young women only to their bodies, even while ogling is definitely going on. Context and nuance are very important here.

If you’ve played Fire Emblem Three Houses, you’re likely well familiar with staring at your favourite character up close like this.

Action combat is new for the series, and a step away from Sakura Wars’ more typical Fire Emblem-esque turn-based strategy. You can freely move your Kobu around, use light and strong attacks, and unleash a special attack once a spirit point meter has filled. Both in combat and in conversation, your actions influence your team’s opinion of you. Fighting quickly without getting hit raises team morale, which in turn has an effect on attack and defence. Making the girls like you outside of combat also determines your starting morale.

The story of the new Sakura Wars is quickly told: the old Combat Revue, including teams from other countries that appeared in previous Sakura Wars entries, died in a grand battle to seal away the powerful Archdemon, saving the world from certain destruction. Of course it turns out that the Archdemon threat is still very real, and reveals itself just when the Flower Troupe is participating in the Combat Revue World Games, a public battle event determining the reputation of several international combat troupes, because clearly saving the capital against monsters isn’t enough already.

Sakura Wars is firmly dating sim/visual novel first, combat second, as it belongs to a genre of games called ‘gal games’ – dating sims for heterosexual men. The player controls a male protagonist in a setting where they’re almost exclusively surrounded by young, beautiful women, and players may ‘pick’ their favourite. In Japan, gal games are part of the mainstream, so much so that dating sim elements are a natural part of many games you know – take the Fire Emblem or Persona franchises for example. While there are many gal games that take dating to misogynistic, demeaning extremes and borderline illegal territory (I drew the line at Tokyo Mirage Sessions, for advertising often misogynistic and borderline illegal practices in a real industry), Sakura Wars remains above board.

Sakura Wars comedy bits involves running gags like this, goofy and forgettable.

Sakura Wars does regularly dip into bouts of panty humour, having you find women’s underwear or ‘ending up’ in a women’s bathroom for comedic effect. This sort of humour might be immature to western audiences, but it’s a result of a culture that treats bodies in a very different way. I can’t laugh about it, but I understand why it exists. I’m split on the borderline creepy dialogue options, which include asking for a kiss or making sexually ambiguous jokes.

It’s important that, unlike other games which paint you as the hero no matter what you say, these options are always penalised – you’re explicitly encouraged to be a good person, and that expectation entails giving players an option to be bad. I do however need to point out that the creepy options are always played off for laughs, which is pretty jarring considering the overall respectful tone.

Sakura Wars’ real strength lies in the passion with which it delivers its story. Designed like a TV anime, complete with episode previews and title cards for ‘ad breaks’, it focuses on a different member of your troupe with each chapter, while also driving the overall story forward.

The plot doesn’t even remotely make sense and I didn’t mind in the slightest. Nothing about the game is smart, it even spoils its own plot several times with ‘clever’ foreshadowing and likes to fix problem using deus ex machina. “How is this possible?” a character says at one point about a surprising twist in their favour, only to receive the answer “I don’t know, but it is!”… Okay!

The plot is silly and the combat’s simple, but I loved spending time with the main characters and seeing what they have to say and how they react to the increasingly high-stakes plot developments. And boy, do they react. There are life and death situations, fisticuffs, and battles set to the triumphant title theme while characters discover their true strength thanks to the power for friendship. The passion all but incinerates your screen. What’s not to love? It may not make sense, but each episode has a clear dramatic arc that resolves satisfyingly.

Also, Sakura Wars just looks consistently great: each scene is presented from multiple camera angles and almost-static images and anime sequences offer further visual variety. The different environments, while little more than pretty backgrounds for conversations, are detailed and the design of each main character is memorable. I do miss the instantly recognisable style by Kosuke Fujishima, who has designed the characters for previous instalments -here, mangaka Tite Kubo of Bleach fame takes over. The designs of the new mechs however is a new favourite of mine, each coming with their own specialty like a giant hammer or an ice pistol. The demons don’t really get a chance to stand out in battle – if you look closely you can see them stumble and fall overdramatically like kaiju in old Japanese monster films. Everything about Sakura Wars is as over the top as an old monster film, but it’s that very cheesiness that had me enraptured.

They don’t make ’em like Sakura Wars anymore, probably with good reason, but this new incarnation, like the old games, is earnest, unapologetic anime nonsense and wish fulfilment at its best.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/sakura-wars-review-heartfelt-over-the-top-anime-romp-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sakura-wars-review-heartfelt-over-the-top-anime-romp-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[recentanimenews]

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Video Games of 2019

Welcome to the second part of our annual “Staff Picks,” in which the Ani-Gamers team selects some of our favorite anime, manga, and video games of the past year. This time we’re talking video games!

As usual there are a lot of games to cover, and between our two contributors we weren’t able to play nearly as many of them as we’d like. This year saw two standout first-party Nintendo RPGs, including the first-ever original core-series Pokémon games on a home console, the long-awaited release of Hideo Kojima’s inscrutable Death Stranding, a new AAA Star Wars action game (Jedi: Fallen Order), and both Outer Worlds and Outer Wilds. Meanwhile, last year’s big story of game industry unionization has continued to make headlines, notably at the Game Developer’s Conference in the spring, where major industry figures publically expressed their support for unionization. And that’s not the only area where politics had a big impact on gaming in 2019 — Blizzard’s suspension of Blitzchung over his support for the Hong Kong protests highlighted the contradiction between the values held by game industry workers (including pro players) and their bosses. As uncomfortable as these conversations are, they’re vital for building a more ethical industry.

In terms of the games themselves, many of them didn’t make it out of our piles of shame in time for the Staff Picks, but the ones that made the cut cover a wide range of genres, including complex action games, extremely anime JRPGs, and obtuse puzzlers. Enjoy, and feel free to chime in with your own 2019 picks in the comments.

David Estrella

#3: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

The hardest part about Sekiro was mending my relationship with my podcast co-host after debating the ethical conundrum of difficult video games and being made to look like a prick on tape. I’m completely making up what happened so don’t ban me from the site, Evan. Levity aside, the irony is that I never actually finished Sekiro and gave up at an endgame optional boss. A far departure from both Dark Souls and Bloodborne, From Software’s katana-focused revenge story did a Shinobi Execution to my hundreds of hours of experience and I was forced to learn everything over again. Some people really got on board with the action-focused gameplay whereas I flunked out of samurai school, so Sekiro is only the third-best pick from me on my list. If there had been more lore to pick up off the ground, I probably would have finished it, but I think everyone’s favorite fantasy author, George R.R. Martin, has me covered with Elden Ring, which will definitely be closer to what I expect from Hidetaka Miyazaki than what I got from Sekiro.

#2: Resident Evil 2

I originally wrote in Fire Emblem: Three Houses in here but I never finished that game in 2019. Resident Evil 2 (2019) on the other hand is a game I beat again and again throughout the year when I should have been focusing on other games (like Fire Emblem). First released on PlayStation over 20 years ago, the RE2 remake takes every great bit from that classic and reimagines it in the new engine used for Resident Evil 7. Fighting to survive Raccoon City’s zombie apocalypse again with Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield in a game rebuilt for modern standards is not something I expected to see, but I suppose Capcom didn’t want to be shown up by Square Enix reviving the 32-bit era with the upcoming episodic Final Fantasy VII remakes. Conveniently enough, now that I’ve played RE2 inside out, we’re already getting the Resident Evil 3 remake in April, so now I’ve got one more good reason to put off finishing a single run of Fire Emblem in my lifetime.

#1: Pokémon Sword & Shield

No one should be surprised that I would call Pokémon Sword and Shield my top pick of the year. The only purpose for me doing this is to get it in writing but otherwise, yes, I really loved this iteration of the series. The reasons why I enjoyed it so much have practically nothing to do with the hyped-up gimmicks like Dynamax battles or the shift to console. On the one hand, things like story and environment design could have been much better, and on the other hand, I never want to go back to the old games after experiencing all of the quality-of-life changes made in Sword and Shield. Details that casual players won’t care about or ever become aware of like paying for max EVs with vitamins or using mints to change Natures have completely changed the game for anyone serious about raising Pokémon. If I were asked if these improvements were worth losing over 400 Pokémon from the roster, I would probably cry. Maybe. Maybe it was worth it.

Evan Minto

#3: Katana Zero

I played Superhot on a VR rig once, and it was the closest I ever felt to being a real-life action hero. In that game, “time moves when you do,” allowing you to plan out elaborate, perfectly executed lethal maneuvers in Matrix-esque bullet time. Katana Zero applies a similar concept to the 2-D action-platformer. You play as a samurai assassin in a dystopian cyberpunk future, equipped with a power that allows you to rewind time when you die and slow it down while in combat. The former is mostly experienced as a simple respawn mechanic, but the latter is what turns Katana Zero into a unique hybrid of a puzzle and action game. Each room is filled with bad guys who can one-hit kill you, sometimes so many that defeating them all would be impossible using standard action game timing. Slowing things down, however, turns the game into a sort of puzzle, and allows you to link up dashes, wall jumps, sword slashes, and projectile throws in the span of a second or two. When the game plays the room back in real time, you really do feel like some kind of superhero. It doesn’t hurt that the whole thing is wrapped up in an impeccable audiovisual package, featuring intricately animated pixel art, pulsing electronic music, and a clever dialogue display system that combines animated and colored text. The story is pretty standard stuff for the genre, but the surprisingly funny dialogue does a great job cutting the melodrama. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but Katana Zero is a clever, well-crafted little action game.

#2: Baba Is You

I tried Baba Is You for the first time at a friend’s place, and was instantly sold. After just a few levels, I told him, “this is a game for game designers.” The core mechanic is deceptively, deviously simple: the rules defining how the game world operates are blocks within the world, and you can rearrange them. The early levels are straightforward, if abstract, plays on this concept. Form the sentence “Flag is win” and you’ve got a win condition. Break up the sentence “Wall is stop” and voila: walls are no longer an obstacle. It’s when Baba Is You takes the core mechanic and folds it in on itself repeatedly, however, that this puzzler reaches the realm of obtuse, mind-bending complexity. You can change which sprite represents the player character, or even control multiple players at once. You can separate sprites into layers that prevent them from intersecting with each other. Even the words that form the sentences themselves can be modified! Baba Is You sometimes reaches nearly impossible levels of difficulty, but since you can choose the order in which to try the puzzles, the game will never stop you dead in your tracks. This kind of bizarre, postmodern weirdness is exactly what I come to indie games for.

#1: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I never even finished the easiest half of Fire Emblem: Fates (Birthright), but I was glued to Awakening on the DS, my introduction to the franchise. In Three Houses Nintendo and Intelligent Systems aren’t even pretending that Fire Emblem is anything but a dating sim; you play as a part-time professor, part-time general, and the tactical RPG battles are interlaced with segments where you have to run around your home base talking to all of your students/units (fully voiced this time). At first this cumbersome back-and-forth, combined with a bevy of new combat mechanics, can make Three Houses feel like a game trapped between two conflicting identities, but after a few hours it clicked for me. All of the game’s seemingly mismatched systems, from the battalions to the tea parties, talk to and reinforce each other. Building relationships between your units boosts their stats and opens up opportunities to train them in new skills, all of which make them more effective in battle. Then their battle experience alongside their comrades feeds right back into their relationships. These mechanics have been around in some form since at least Awakening, but here they meld together like never before. Three Houses is a bewildering and sometimes overcomplicated successor to the Fire Emblem legacy, but the whole mess somehow comes together into a spellbinding experience.

Check out our 2019 Manga Staff Picks as well!

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Video Games of 2019 originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on January 8, 2020 at 4:58 PM.

By: David Estrella

[dean28dean-blog]

IPhone & Android (2018 Edition).

Our best iPhone games are perfect if you're planning to pass the time, boredom, or simply wish to sample the very best iOS has to offer. The year might have simply begun, however we currently have a lot of titles lined up to be the best final fantasy xv a new empire hack Android games of 2018. Gamers get to combat in real life and beat the opposition with the use of finest punches and kicks. Amazon Game Studios has actually been truly ambitious with its mobile games in current months and Tales from Deep Area is another champion. Early platformers on mobile games focused on utilizing virtual buttons and D-pads for controls, producing a trend of poorly-controlled video games where the systems for managing these characters simply didn't equate well to mobile devices Final Fantasy XV a New Empire Guide. Simplicity is exactly what makes Crazy Snowboard among the best video games readily available for Android today. So without more ado, here are just 12 of the most addicting video games for iPhone on the Amazon App Shop. Let's have a look at our list of Finest totally free android games of 2018 Part 2. Unsurprisingly, among the first video games launched within the program was Sonic the Hedgehog, the original title very first launched final fantasy xv a new empire cheats for the Sega Genesis and the very first appearance of Sega's platforming mascot. Don't worry, we have actually discovered 11 of the very best apps for discovering Spanish well, and for having fun while you're at it. I think you missed out on one of the very best video games of perpetuity (in my viewpoint): Imperium Galactica II. It never got enough recognition or publication when it was released, however it's an area 4X that includes (relatively) genuine city-building, diplomacy, as well Final Fantasy XV a New Empire cheats as Total War-ish controls of ground and space fights. 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Nevertheless, when you get great at them you'll find that you're continuously told when to stop, in order to regrow something or get to the next level. Likewise consider Final Fantasy XV strategy guide for some titles - while lots of video games don't support an external device, those that do are frequently brilliant to play without needing to resort to a touchscreen for interaction. That single, easy, fantastic mechanic makes Splitter Critters one Final Fantasy XV a New Empire cheats of the very best puzzle experiences in recent memory. The factors are numerous but iOS platform's admirable security, inability to share hacking apps by means of App Shop, and the need to jailbreak the iPhone for setting up such iOS hacking apps are the primary reasons. Our roundup is by no suggests a extensive or total study of Android video games. The gaming phones we were carrying around three years ago can't faithfully play top-end mobile video games we play today. Where Super Feline Tales diverges from old-school platform games final fantasy xv a new empire hack is with its controls. Then this is one of the most intriguing video games you could comprehend on Android, if you are a lover of strategic video games. So it's no surprise that developers continue to produce first-class video games for Apple's mobile devices. Hence, this is a complimentary games to download from the Google play store. Part-time UFO is the videogame equivalent of those claw crane video games you final fantasy xv a new empire cheats discover in arcades and wish to smash since they keep dropping things. This strategy game offers you high quality 3D graphics which makes this video game the most reasonable game of your mobile phone.

[foursprouthappiness-blog]

Men And Women Share Thoughts On What The ‘Dick Pic’ Really Means In Modern Dating

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Men And Women Share Thoughts On What The ‘Dick Pic’ Really Means In Modern Dating

www.collective.world

Bizarre ways people show their “love” in dating

Remember your first date? Tender, innocent, naïve and charged with hormones and emotion? Awww, sweet. Now, remember your first dick pic? Total fail or mutually agreed upon? According to Wellness & Relationship Healer, Sarah Martin, the dick pic is like “A peacock doing its thing, preening and then showing off its beautiful feathers and strutting around; in the animal world, that’s the equivalent of a dick pic.”

If you’re out in the cold, cruel world of dating – ok, it’s not really always that way – you’ve already been vulnerable, stripped emotionally bare, and gone beyond limits that are comfortable. All in search of your fairytale prince or princess. It seems modern dating includes dick pics around the espresso machine at work, boarding a plane, or comparisons while mowing down leftovers and cheap wine. An average 45% of women on dating apps have received unsolicited photos of men’s penises from every angle. Last year OKCupid launched a member pledge on dating etiquette. In part to combat dick pics and online harassment.

“Hey what’s your sign?”

“Want to go to a movie?”

“Here’s a dick pic!”

The first rule of dick club. Give warning and get consent.

There are plenty of reasons men do this. Arrogance, curiosity, addiction, sexual harassment, mommy issues, no social skills, or just plain disrespect. Rules of engagement in dating are being changed. Caroline Pukall, Professor of Psychology shares “It doesn’t help that most people’s dating profiles – a photo and a single line about themselves – effectively reduce them to a one-dimensional SIM.”

As nice as some may think this is. For me, this is a hard no. Not in the world of long term respect. The fast-paced casual dating culture can be fun and liberating for many, but it can also be a warning sign. Relationship author and founder of DatingKinky.com, Heather Claus feels “With so many ways to meet so many people, each individual can seem disposable, so more outrageous behaviors seem acceptable because a rejection now means looking at more profiles and simply trying again. Always more where that came from.”

Sometimes it works out as in the case of Anna from Flirt.com “I found a nice guy online and we started communicating. He was living nearby and called me to meet in person a couple of times, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this. After a couple of days, I’ve refused to go out together I got a picture of his dick in the middle of the night. I was shocked because before this he seemed to be very nice. The next day he wrote me that he got drunk that day and fell asleep and this was his friends who’ve sent this picture and that it was a picture, not a real photo. This incident moved our meeting for another couple of weeks but at the end, I agreed to meet and was happy that I did. P.S. that was almost two years ago.”

Gamifying our lives seems innocent, and swiping right is like candy crush, but it can take away a piece of us. A sort of refuge. A place of silence and strength and respect where people, including ourselves, want to be the best version of us. It creates loneliness.

Now before we get too deep on dick pic thoughts and dating, don’t just take my word for it. Even former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy feels loneliness is a public health issue. “Loneliness is an epidemic because it affects a great number of people in our country, but also because one person’s loneliness can have an impact on another person,” Murthy says.

So, next time you’re about to send a dick pic. Think, would I send this to everyone? Would I want my co-workers to see this? Check your lonely factor because you can get attention in other ways. Since we all have our own opinions, this issue can get slippery because righteousness can come into the equation and make it seem that “shameful” habits are weaponized. Social media, dating sites, and apps become a personal reflection of us and we can broadcast whatever we want to the world. Decide if that is where you want to be remembered.

As a hard and heavy, insatiably sex-driven, sensuality dripping, power hungry Scorpio woman, well, that’s what my horoscope says anyway, why would I even have the conversation about dick pics? Because of the growing trend, and the recourse of the backlash when it is expressed, from most, they are not welcome.

When this is an acceptable way for a man to greet a woman, how are things like equality, boundaries, and respect introduced? We can’t expect to find these things where they don’t exist. There’s a minefield of rules and games in life, but are we really going to connect through unsolicited erections?

Sarah Martin, of Sarah Speaks, looks at dick pics as a warning sign. “I would not place anyone in the category of long-term potential when I had a photo of his dick in my hand. How can you take a man seriously when he sends you a picture of his penis before you’ve even met him, let alone seen him naked?” Speaks, helps people reclaim their power from emotional trauma.

It’s so commonplace, even in the #MeToo era, HUD (Hook Up Dating) App – ironic I know – is launching A.I. from Google to “identify dicks” in their app, says a recent press release. The thought is to block them before they even reach the intended receiver.

There are plenty of places to place your penis on display. HUD, Happn, Hinge, Tinder, Oh Boy Oh Girl, Apply to Date, Coffee Meets Bagel, (yes these are real) and even Facebook’s recent announcement to launch F.B. Dating. Go ahead. Share away, create a scavenger hunt for your future mate. From the tragic to the classic penis shape, you can get a little help with your penis’s resume with the DatingKinky’s video on their ultimate response to the D.

“In my opinion, sending the photo of your genitalia to someone is not a normal behavior, especially if we are talking about someone you have never seen,” states Chief Editor, Alex Reddle from Flirt.com “But the tendency of having sexual relationships without boundaries or so-called “friends with benefits” is easily the attitude young people have to their sex life, so this might be something we are gonna see more often. Some girls getting this type of picture or message actually react to it (this was proved by the study we’ve made last year),” he adds.

There are opinions on both sides. “In the context of a committed relationship, I’d say it’s normal and even sexy to send sexy photos to one another,” shares Sarah Martin “Within a relationship, it’s a safe place and trust and respect live there too, so there is no fear of shaming or being taken advantage of. It’s simply an expression, or extension of their passion for one another, and this can be a beautiful thing.”

If you haven’t gotten a dick pic surprise, congratulations, you’ve beaten the dating system.

Why have the conversation? Because no matter what age you are, (or gender) there has been a shift in psychology that allows for bullying and intimacy shaming on a regular basis. We should ALL have a voice. Taking the dick pic out of the conversation may just make you realize how much or how little you have to say.

Bye Felicia!