#also how fucking beautiful is the steelbook???

[redrocketpanda]

Ordered the World Heroes Mission steelbook (which I haven't seen yet) with a Christmas voucher, and flipped it over to be blessed with this TodoBaku image

I had also ordered this t-shirt from redbubble with one of my favourite ever panels that brings me endless joy, also TDBK

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that my soul is clearly screaming out for more TDBK even though my heart is KRBK. That's okay tho, there's room for 3 😂

[natureivy]

what was it like meeting Taron? What was he like?

Oh god where do I even begin

The photo-op was first (I’ll post the pic after this I promise) and like tbh it was feverish and fast-paced, which made me really anxious and I was like shaking as soon as I caught a glimpse of him while standing in line cause he’s just so unbelievably attractive it’s kinda not fair, but in like the few seconds we had with him for it he was really kind and thoughtful asking how we are and saying it was nice to meet us. And when I say he’s attractive I absolutely mean that shit. Like I’ve been pretty blessed to meet some lovely and attractive people, but his beauty is unparalleled because there’s this incredible warmth to his being and presence that makes it feels like your standing next to the sun. Like I don’t wanna get too into cause I don’t wanna come off as creepy cause I have met him now but his body is as unreal irl as you’d imagine it to be like his arms (please kill me I’m gonna die thinking about his arms good lord) and his shoulders and every single inch of him is just… a lot. I can’t even talk about his jawline cause there are literally no words. He put his arm around my back so I had to go on his shoulder and I have to be honest I like blacked out. Also don’t let this man tell you he’s 5′10. I’m 5′8ish and you’ll see in the picture he’s just around 5′9. Regardless, I came out of there in full tears shaking clinging onto Julia like a lunatic

And then the autograph… Y’all if you have to pick this is the way to go cause you while you can’t take pics, you get to have a full real conversation with him and it’s just… yeah go with the autos to actually be able to talk to the man okay. Now our specific autograph session with Taron was… Well completely unreal not what usually happens. I had already seen him at this point, but the sight of him still made my breath hitch like who just LOOKS LIKE THAT??? It got more maddening as the day went on tbh. I think it was autographs when I turned to Julia and said, “I love his nose” cause he really does have the cutest nose.

Also standing in line you could just see how much care and attention he gives to every person he meets. Like he takes his time signing everyone’s things and he makes a point to talk to everyone and look them in the eye and connect with them. With some of the people in front of us he was talking about The Beatles and did an incredibly spot on Paul McCartney impression like this man’s impression game is incredible he kills me.

Note, we haven’t even had our turn yet. He was with the woman in front of us (A lovely older woman in her 50s named Robin that loves Elton and fell in love with Taron in Rocketman and told us she’d leave her husband for him and I’m like okay lady that’s cute but back of the line) when I saw the curtain behind Taron rustling and a face peeked in and it was CHRIS FUCKING HEMSWORTH. This goes to prove my point about how considerate Taron is cause he was so invested in his conversation with Robin that he didn’t notice Chris Hemsworth was trying to interrupt. This is where I come in (probably rude as hell but it’s Hemsworth) and I’m just like, “Taron! Taron, Chris Hemsworth is behind you!” putting my arm in front of his face to point behind him as if I can just come out of nowhere flailing my arm in his face and calling him Taron unprompted but what was I supposed to do. Also Julia was like, “Taron, Thor’s behind you!” like god come on Taron. She’s just really glad she didn’t call him “T” and I’m really glad I didn’t call Hemsworth “Hemmy.” Anyway, Chris Hemsworth comes in and him and Taron hug and they start having this whole conversation in front of us and Chris is like, “Yeah I’m really sorry I missed you last night [Saturday night]” and them talking about needing to get together soon and maybe possibly don’t quote me on this working together someday so that happened!!! And when Chris was leaving he was like waving to us and apologizing for interrupting and I’m like, “My mom loves you!” and he laughed and waved and went on his way.

NOTE WE HAVEN’T EVEN HAD OUR TURN YET. So our turn comes and our stuff slides in front of Taron. Julia and I are both getting our Steelbook copies of Rocketman signed and they give you a sticky note to put your name on so Taron can personalize the autograph (ANGEL). He studies my sticky note and this angel tries so hard but mispronounces my name Megara like MEH-GAR-UH and while it’s annoying when people mispronounce my name he is the only one that gets a pass cause with his accent and voice it sounds so lovely and beautiful. But I correct him and say, “No, Megara (MEH-GUH-RUH) like from Hercules.” And he corrects himself in his beautiful, melodic, angelic voice and says, “Megara. I’ve never heard that before, that’s a beautiful name,” and finishes signing my movie. My soul has ascended by now and he moves on to Julia’s copy while I just study his face and presence. I’ll bring up his jawline again because it genuinely looks like it was hand sculpted by the gods like his face is unreal y’all. His eyes are the sweetest eyes I’ve ever seen. And he’s right they are a green-y blue. And he was wearing a dark navy, almost black at first glance short sleeve t-shirt that fit just right, like I paid a little to much attention to the way it sat on his shoulders and perfectly hugged the curve of his arms, like it was gorgeous, he was- is just utterly and completely gorgeous.

While he was signing Julia’s movie she told him about how many times we went and saw Rocketman this summer and how much we loved it and love his work and he was so happy and his smile ugh!!! She also brought up The Beatles cause she loves them and he talked about how he was at Abbey Road recently to sit it on the remastering of the Abbey Road album and how he met Paul McCartney (later while driving home I would point out to Julia that this means her Paul McCartney number is 1).

While watching some of the autographs before us I noticed how he shook their hands so I figured I’d go in for one just for one more moment with him before we were ushered out, and I put my hand out and he immediately dropped the marker as if offended with himself for not putting his hand out first and god I grabbed his hand and never wanted to let go. We looked each other in the eyes and said our thank yous and nice meeting yous and after he did the same with Julia, backed out of the autograph area slowly trying in to take in our last sights of him. When we were out we struggled to understand everything that had just happened like it was completely unbelievable

We finished off the day by going to his panel (You can watch it here!) and we got really good seats and he was just completely hilarious and charming and beautiful and ridiculous and amazing and it was just all around the absolute best most perfect day and he is genuinely one of the most incredible people I’ve ever had the honour of meeting. As kind and sweet as he seems, and just as gorgeous ❤

[tearasshouse]

Mostly vidya ramblings pt 3C

Previous post here.

Right, software time. A cursory glance at my PSN Profile will show that I’ve met my personal quota of getting the platinum in at least 10 PlayStation titles over the year, with a few PC titles sprinkled in for good measure since hey, I have access to a Windows machine again (though it’s not exactly a games machine, unless your definition of a “gaming rig” is something with a 15W Core i3 and modest laptop Radeon graphics). While I didn’t start out meaning to rank these games, I find I have a tendency to do so anyway and while I’m certainly not saying these games are outright bad, they were absolutely lower on the rung, so I’ve dubbed this part “C” (again, no disrespect to the devs or any who rate these games higher than I do; these are just my personal assessments). These are OK games.

The Darkness 2 (Steam)

Enjoyable, somewhat! I put this down like, ages ago when I picked it up for a song on PC, feeling it was too basic and uh “console shootery” at the time. Often times, having restrictions placed upon something can net great results, and hamstrung as I am by my less-capable hardware, I’ve only been picking up Steam games that could run on lower end hardware, or anything released prior to say, 2015. Surprisingly this runs at something stupid like 200 FPS on my machine with V-Sync off and all settings on High at 1080p, so go figure. Anyway, it’s a short and enjoyable shooter. I don’t know anything about the comics upon which the game(s) are based, but Jackie is a likeable character, the Darkness powers are fun enough, the locations are varied, the supporting cast surprisingly interesting and the plot was actually pretty cool too, with a major sequel hook that we’ll probably never get. 

Ori & The Blind Forest (Steam)

It sorta hovers a bit below 60fps while running at 1080p, but it’s all just a bit reductive when one spends more time looking at the framerate counter than playing a game, no? The blessing and curse of PC gaming I suppose. Anyway, as a Metroidvania the game is a bit annoying. As a piece of interactive fiction, it’s too saccharine and feels like a B-tier Dreamworks production for children which, I suppose shouldn’t be a knock against the game but I have to say --  wasn’t my cup of tea. Reminds me a bit of Child of Light by Ubisoft -- gorgeous to look at, benign if not frustrating to play (those escape sequences can piss off), and young gamers would probably find more to like in the...emotional tidbits than most adults.

Crysis 2 (Steam)

So apparently this got delisted off Steam but now it’s back up or something with EA deciding to put their back catalog on the platform or something? Anyway, like this list implies, Crysis 2 is an okay game, nothing more and nothing less. The nanosuit energy depletes a bit too quick for my liking, and you’re really made to feel like a badass only some of the times, in quick and short bursts, not unlike BJ in the new Wolfenstein games by MachineGames (any more prolonged exposure to hitscan weapons and other bullshit will quickly send you to the loading screen). Thing is, I don’t want to feel like a badass only some of the time? I mean, you put a ripped supersoldier type doing the Badass Looking Back At the Viewer Pose on the cover and I expect to be able to do certain things without stopping for a breather every 20 seconds, ya know? If you’re going to give me the power fantasy, commit to it. Or, find ways to keep the flow up and reward mastery to make players earn said fantasy (something the new DOOMs  have done and why those have been so successful). I certainly don’t envy game devs for having to balance this shit, but id Software showed you one way of how you might do that while the Crysis games and those of their ilk just feel slow and unrewarding. 

Quantum Break (Steam)

Really surprised I was able to get this running on my PC but hey, it runs on the Xbox One so how hard could it be? I dearly love Remedy’s games, even if they’re a bit straightforward at times and you get the feeling they’d rather be in the business of non-interactive fiction than games making at times. Well here is a TV show hybrid! Made exclusively in partnership with Microsoft as part of their TV & STREAMING, TV & STREAMING, SPORTS & STREAMING strategy of the 2010s. I didn’t care for the plot, nor the endless email / audiobook / loredumps scattered around, nor the characters, any of it. I will say the final stage with the super high tech offices was a delight (boy wouldn’t I love to live the corpo life in such beautiful, clean office environs). Lance Reddick was a treat as always. Peter “Littlefinger” Baelish shows up to do a thing. Yeah, it’s a Remedy joint through and through. 2019′s Control was such a highlight for me that I’ll take any kind of prototype-y take on it (and QB certainly feels like a rougher, worse version of Control, at least mechanically).

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs / Dear Esther: Landmark Edition (Steam)

These titles were certainly...things that I installed onto my PC and sat through... Yes. Look, I’m not one to dog on walking simulators, and I know the devs have faced tough times recently but I still feel these are acquired tastes and could be appreciably improved in too many ways to name. Of the two, Dear Esther is the one I’d rec because at least that one was quite pleasant to meander around in while Amnesia left me disappointed that I’d wasted my time, physically sick with its subpar performance and muddy graphics, flaccid with its stodgy plot and left absolutely disappointed that I’d wasted my time on such a bizarre and confusing payoff towards the end. Chinese Room, I mean this in the most constructive way possible: maybe try a different type of game next time.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (GOG)

I remember putting in some decent time into the DEMO version of RtCW’s MP mode, being amazed at the time by the particle effects, with child-me just running around the D-Day map with the flamethrower out. Anyway, years later and I finally played the SP campaign. It’s maybe better than Allied Assault’s? It feels more consistently entertaining anyway. Hell I think I like these boomer shooters better than MachineGames’ recent efforts (which isn’t saying a whole lot because I find those games just merely okay). I promise you I’m not just being a crotchety old fart.

Ys: Memories of Celceta (PS Vita)

I’d been playing through this over the spring on my Vita TV, before it bit the dust eventually and I’ve been meaning to go back and wrap up the cheevos. I was a bit lukewarm with Oath in Felghana (my first Ys), but could definitely see the appeal in the series, as boss rush games aren’t really my cup of tea (ie. it’s the journey and not the destination of say, a Souls game that is the meat for me). Definitely a game that would benefit from a 60fps refresh and cleaner graphics than what the Vita can provide. I’ve already got a copy of Ys 8 in shrink wrap and have my eyes set on emulating Ys Seven or grabbing the GOG version. A game where action is king and story or character development is secondary; I would prefer more of the latter to make this more of a JRPG and less of a “predominantly Japanese action game with superficial RPG elements”.

Catherine: Full Body (PS4)

I paid $70 for this on day one and I’ve gotta say... should’ve waited for the price drop. I’m a somewhat lapsed Atlus mark, and I still hold the original Persona 5 as my no. 1 in the PS4′s lineup (with Dragon Quest XI possibly being a tie), yet I bought this knowing it wouldn’t really be for me. Why? High difficulty in a genre I don’t play, like at all, a relatively short clear time (in itself not an issue and frankly welcome these days HOWEVER...), and a somewhat unsatisfying payoff despite being a supernatural romance thriller. I bought this as seed money for Atlus’s P.Studio/Studio Zero, in the hopes that Project Re: Fantasy will knock my socks off just like the latter day Persona games have. Because in spite of the contents not really appealing to me, it’s still supremely well made, and it’s not everyday that games like these get made, so there you go. Look, if I could go back in time and put this money towards 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, I probably would, but then the Catherine steelbook is ever so pretty... 

Tearaway Unfolded (PS4)

The OG game is one of the most charming little 3D platformer/collect-a-thons out there, and as far as children’s games (or er, “games that also appeal to children”) go, more of these and less of those please (your Child of Lights and Oris). I’d go as far as to say the OG version is better than the PS4 version, though the PS4 version is also quite good. Really, if I wasn’t going for that stupid Misplaced Gopher trophy, this would probably be an easy shoe-in for the B-tier list, but I place this demotion firmly at Media.Molecule’s feet. That cheevo is cursed.

The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories (PS4)

I’d almost forgotten about this! If that doesn’t qualify for making the C-tier list then I don’t know what else does. I only know of Swery65′s qualities through osmosis, having watched the 2BF’s legendary LP of Deadly Premonition and the gone-too-soon D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die. He’s an interesting person with interesting ideas but crucially, as a game dev, his output is just... kinda mediocre? If not outright bad? Case in point with this game. It looks and runs like garbo; it plays like garbo; the character designs are cute; the dialogue is pretty good; there is a wonderful and gradual “twist” to the main character that was super spoiled for me when people were discussing and promoting it (like, that is my bad, but also internet discourse on any kind of entertainment media is just *fucked*); there’s a lot of semi-colons in this sentence so I’ll stop here. 

And the balls to charge like, what, $40+ for the game on PSN?? I’d gotten it for way less on a sale but in a day and age when $1 could buy you 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and MS might also throw in a curio like this in there just to fill in the gaps, it makes you wonder if these kinds of games can ever turn a profit, especially when the end product is this jank. And these are commercial goods, make no mistake, any aspirations to being an art piece or social critique notwithstanding, so that also brings to the fore the whole aspect of pricing games, relative value, production and marketing costs, blah blah.

IF you like something different, can appreciate games made on a shoestring budget with arguably bad gameplay and technical deficiencies, but has...heart? Then look no further to the output of this man. The most C-worthy of all the titles listed here. 

[grumblesaboutgames]

E3 Is Killing Me (In a few months)

Ok, so, yeah, E3 was pretty satisfying this year. Although I am disappointed that Borderlands 3 was not shown/mentioned (though I 100% expect it for next year, goddammit Gearbox/2K!), there is definitely more than enough new stuff coming out and or announced that I’m content for a while.

My wallet’s gonna be mad at me once we hit October.

But I will definitely be buying the following:

—Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Easy pickup; the first two games have been amazing, and while the challenges that they had in the second game were not my cup of tea, they are way better than that stupid multiplayer crap they crammed into the first one. SotTR looks awesome and given how enjoyable the first two were, I can’t imagine this one will delight me any less. Already preordered my Steelbook collector’s version.

—Forza Horizon 4

My first introduction to the Horizon games was actually FH Presents The Fast and the Furious, which was a free game that really was basically a demo for FH2 with some vague ties to the F&F movies (mostly in the form of Ludacris’s voiceover and using cars from the movies). It was, however, very enjoyable because finally I had a pretty racing game that was focused on simply playing FUN races and doing silly tricks for meaningless points, letting me collect cars but NOT need to modify them in order to successfully race. And, as a bonus, I GET TO DRIVE MY ACTUAL CAR IN THE GAME. Ok, ok, not my ACTUAL car, but so goddamn close it counts (I drive a Fiat 500, the game actually has an Abarth, which is exactly the same shape and functionally the same). So this year’s FH4 is a definite pickup for me, because the Horizon games’ open worlds are very satisfying and fun to mess around in. Sometimes I load up the game and just drive around for funsies, not even entering into races or really doing anything. Just driving around the countryside at high speeds. And now, FH4 will let me do that with changing seasons! Woo!

Also, if you’re on the fence at all about the Horizon games, play FH3’s Hot Wheels expansion. SO MUCH FUN.

My preorder is only waiting for confirmation on whether or not the Ultimate edition comes with the steelbook like FH3’s did, or if there’s another version that does.

—Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

I am a fan of the AC games. I will admit, I prefer the older ones more than the recent ones, but this is largely for the following two reasons: firstly, they have stopped focusing on the ‘present day’ story that I was always intrigued by in the earlier games, and second, the amount of STUFF they have crammed into the games for you to do is starting to get a bit unwieldy.

That said, even though I started but did not finish Origins and haven’t gotten back to it to do so, Origins WAS pretty fantastic. It brought back my present day storyline (though to what degree, I don’t yet know), and was in a setting I loved from school. The combat changes were a bit irritating (though not nearly as bad as the shift from Revelations to III, which was so jarring and bad I had to take a break from AC for a month to reset my brain so I could learn III’s controls without the recent muscle memory fucking me over), but just looking at the map and seeing the sheer size of the world and the huge quantity of side missions demanding my attention is daunting. UGH. But someday.

Odyssey looks beautiful, fun, like a wonderful mix of Black Flag and Origins, lets you FINALLY choose your assassin’s gender (I will absolutely be playing as the female assassin), and brings back naval play as well. I already have my preorder in for the Gold Steelbook edition.

—Fallout 76

I am a bit apprehensive about this one, because of the extremes I’m feeling for it. On the one hand, it is BEAUTIFUL. It is NEW and FRESH. It’s a complete change from the URBAN games we’ve gotten so far in the series. The setting seems so FUN.

On the other hand...they’ve jammed multiplayer into it. Which in itself would not be a bad thing, but they went full online with it, which is a mistake, in my opinion.

I do not, do not, DO NOT want to play Fallout with randos online. With a friend or a few friends, sure. But the idea of playing Fallout 76 with a world filled with random idiots from the real world is concerning to me.

I have not yet placed a preorder. The fan and collector in me wants the steelbook version, but so far the only version confirmed to come with the Steelbook is the Power Armor Edition, which costs an unfortunate $200 and comes with a bunch of stuff I don’t particularly want (though the power armor helmet IS kind of neat). I really wish they just had a steelbook version with the season pass (if applicable) like most games are doing. So we’ll see.

--Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

I am so mad it’s not even funny. No single-player campaign for the first time in CoD history. Literally my favorite part of getting the CoD games. This will not be a day 1 buy for me. I’m still trying to decide if I’ll buy it at all. I might have to pick it up secondhand cheaper later. But I CANNOT support a game that removes the single most important part of the game and franchise for me. The MP looks fun, the Zombies looks amazing, but first and foremost, I generally play alone and a game that has ZERO SP content does not warrant my money.

—LEGO DC Super Villains

I have always been a fan of the LEGO games, they’re all lots of fun, silly, and relaxing games to play in between my more serious stuff (plus relatively easy GamerScore, though the last few years have stretched that a bit with the bigger HUB worlds and increasing number of collectibles). I’ve only played the first DC/Batman game so far in the series, though I own the rest, but this one looks like it’ll be extra fun running around as all the villains.

I am considering preordering this, though I may hold off and purchase it later cheaper solely because I’ll already have so many other full-price games waiting to be played this holiday season. (As it stands, I also passed on getting LEGO Incredibles right away just yesterday for half the same reason...so many other games-including other LEGO games!-that are still waiting for me to get around to)

—Let’s Go, Pikachu!/Eevee!

Of course I was going to get this, even before I saw the whole trailer for it; but seeing co-op was a thing in it sealed the deal and prioritized it for me. I’ll finally get to play a proper Pokemon game with my fiancé!

Already preordered the Let’s Go, Eevee!/Pokeball controller bundle for $100. I was on the fence about whether or not I wanted to get the Pokeball controller, largely because I think it’s massively overpriced; but between wanting my fiancé to get into the game and wanting to have full functionality, finding the bundle of the game with the controller that effectively saves me $10 made the decision for me.

—Kingdom Hearts 3

I haven’t played a single game in the series, but I have vaguely followed them because they always intrigued me. The mix of almost Final Fantasy-like characters with the Disney worlds as always seemed neat. But what really seals the deal for me (and I’ll be putting in my preorder once they announce any versions of it, if there are) is that they are the one series of games my fiancé is actually properly interested in of her own accord, with no encouragement from me. I will be getting this one as much for her as for myself. Groovy.

My poor wallet.