#and sims lags worse than ever

[loveryss]

sims 4 is just straight up unplayable for me right now 🙃 it lags so bad 

[racinginchid3nt]

Happier Than Ever | Part Five

Y/N x Pierre Gasly, Y/N Best Friend x Lance Stroll

Whirlwind romances with professional athletes certainly have their perks, or do they?

Inspired by Happier Than Ever - Billie Eilish

Warnings:

Previous | Next

————————————————————————

Sunday night Y/N texted to let you know that she had moved up her flight and gone home. Rushing to call her, your message went straight to voicemail, a sign that she had turned her phone off.

It took three more days before Y/N Best Friend returned your calls.

“Y/N I am so relieved to here your voice. I know that you prefer to handle things on your own, but please please never do that to me again.”

“I’m sorry.” She said.

“You’re sorry? Babe you didn’t do anything wrong. You have nothing to be sorry about. Are you okay?”

“Physically or mentally?” She asked.

“Both!”

“I have a broken rib and had to get stitches in my foot.”

“What do you need me to do? I can get on a plane right now! Do you need me to order you groceries to your apartment? How can I help until I get there?” You asked.

“No no don’t come! You don’t need to come.”

“I DO need to come. Someone needs to take care of you Y/N!”

“Someone already is…” She whispered.

“Y/N what does that mean?”

“Lance is here.”

“Lance is where?”

“Lance is here. In Barcelona. In my apartment right now.”

“Lance is at your apartment?” You asked, the shock evident in your voice.

“Uh yeah, he showed up Sunday night out of nowhere and he forced me to the clinic.” She replied.

“Remind me to send Lance a fruit basket.” You laughed.

The two of you chatted a bit longer, you repeatedly asking if she was sure that you didn’t need to rush to her side. Wrapping up the call, you made her promise to text you at least once a day, or you would barge into her apartment like Lance had.

————————————————————————

Sunday

The Italian GP had been incredible. While you certainly couldn’t root for Max, watching him win his tenth race in a row had been exhilarating. And the back and forth between Charles and Carlos towards the end had been some of the most exciting racing you had seen all season.

Pierre’s race had gone poorly, the Alpines both running bad. Lance has done even worse, earning himself a P16. He had avoided you all weekend, despite your repeated attempts to thank him for helping Y/N Best Friend. You hoped you could corner him after media, a task he couldn’t skip. But as the interviews wore on and he failed to show up to the media pen, you wondered if he was skipping? Could he do that? If anyone was able to I guess it would be him. He could afford to pay whatever fee the FIA imposed on him.

As you watched the rest of the after race interviews, you couldn’t help but smile looking at Charles. It had been a hard season for the Ferrari diver, and you couldn’t remember the last time he had seemed genuinely happy after a race despite not landing on the podium.

That was where Pierre found you after his press duties. He grabbed your hand and kissed you heavily, taking your breathe away. Dazed you failed to look up at him, missing the angry look on his face as he dragged you back to the paddock.

————

The two weeks between races passed in relative ease. You and Pierre returned to his home in Milan for the short break.

He spent the time working out harder than ever, cycling in the sauna and racing on the sim. Singapore was known for its oppressively warm humid weather every year, and the drivers often went above and beyond to prep for it.

As soon as you stepped off the plane you were sweating. You had never experienced weather link this, and you hoped that the fact that the race was at night would mean it would be a bit more mild.

————

Thursday

You woke up in the hotel room alone on Thursday morning. Checking your phone you saw it was already past lunch, the jet lag having taken its effect on your sleep schedule.

Pulling out your phone, you saw a text.

Replying to his text you out your phone away and made you way to the shower to get ready for the rest of the day.

You spent an hour video calling Y/N Best Friend, talking about the race weekend and what you had planned. This was the longest you had spoken to her since the last race, and it was nice to see her, even if it was through the phone.

When you brought up how she had spent the last two weeks with Lance, a small smile graced her face.

“You so like Lance.”

“It’s not like that.”

“I don’t know why you’re lying! It is totally like that. You LIKE LIKE him Y/N Best Friend! You smile whenever I mention him.” You chastised.

A blush colored her cheeks, supporting your theory even more.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to get too attached to him is all.” She replied.

“I think it’s a little late for that Y/N Best Friend. He’s obviously attached to you.”

“No he’s just being a friend.”

“Babe, friends don’t take private jets to their friends houses and move themselves in for days at a time to make sure their friends are okay.”

As you thought through your statement, a feeling of regret came over you.

“Hey Y/N Best Friend?”

“Yeah Y/N?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t come to Barcelona. I love Pierre and traveling and everything that comes with it, but I hate that it means I wasn’t there for you.”

“Y/N…. I know. There’s a reason I didn’t tell you that I left Saturday night. I just needed some time to really process on my own. Please don’t feel bad about it.”

She quickly turned the conversation to something lighter, discussing the upcoming race and what you were planning to wear.

————

“Babe? Are you here?” Pierre’s voice called out.

“Yeah in here!”

He walked up to you, giving you a gentle kiss.

“Did you get up to anything fun today?”

“No I’ve been hanging out in the room. I talked to Y/N Best Friend for a bit but that’s all.” You replied.

“Do you want to go do something fun?” He asked, eyes twinkling.

“What do you have in mind?” You asked.

“It’s a surprise! Change into some workout clothes.”

————

Pierre had a called for a car to bring you to the surprise while you changed. Sliding into the backseat, he closed the door behind you, before joining you in the backseat.

The car ride took about 20 minutes, going through the city and into the surrounding smaller towns. As you went further and further from the hotel, you wondered where you could be going.

The car stopped in a gravel parking lot, trees and foliage surrounding the area. Pierre opened the door from you, whispering something to the driver, before grabbing a backpack from the trunk of the car. As you looked around at the signs you saw km markers, and arrows pointing in various directions.

“Where are we?” You asked.

“We’re going on a hike.” He replied, smiling.

The hike in its entirety took only 25 minutes, only a few kilometers in length. The two of you chatted as you walked, talking about what had happened at media day and how excited Pierre was for some of the changes made to the car for the race.

The further you walked, the trees started to clear and lead to an opening. As you got closer, Pierre reached for your hand, dragging you towards the edge of the trail. You were standing on the top of a small hill, overlooking the coastline.

He stopped and opened up the backpack, pulling out a small blanket and laying it out. He reached inside and pulled out a small cooler. He had packed for a picnic, sandwiches, bottled water, and some type of cake. When you finished your sandwiches, you turned your focus to dessert.

“What’s that?” You asked.

“Pandan cake. The green comes from the pandan.” He replied.

The taste was unlike anything you had ever tried. Coconuty and hints of banana flavor.

“Where did you find this?” You asked.

He launched into a story about a video that they had filmed that morning for the alpine socials, trying various foods from Singapore and rating them on a scale of 1-10.

You carried on with your chatting, watching the Sun begin to set over the horizon.

————————————————————————

A/N: I got multiple messages from people who were NOT happy with Pierre’s behavior. Do we think this makes up for it at all?

Also, if you haven’t yet read the Lance Stroll x Y/N Best Friend story line yet, you can find part one here

[cybergoth-damsel]

Amazing how big companies pave the way for ever-worsening products. Fortnite's whole addiction strategy revolves around hoarding skins and yet every time their locker interface changes it gets more unwieldy to manage the heaps of garbage clogging up your inventory.

(For the duration of the following paragraphs, please keep in mind that fortnite is currently selling a $40 cosmetic car body)

As of writing, the knockoff-spotify ui only actually changes what you have selected when clicked about 80% of the time. Even when it does, there is noticeable half-minute lag between the selection changing and the detail-editing button actually applying to the selected object. The only reliable element of this interaction is the overjuiced button tweening. There are few useful hotkeys either, so every change is mouse-only as you click through god awful menus and scroll bars.

Even EA distributes more tools for navigating their overflow of microtransaction waste. The Sims 4 at least allows you to search items by color and style, as well as what "pack" it's from. Hell, if you'd at least allow the user to tag the items themselves you'd make an unfathomable leap in navigability. You can't even sort objects by whether or not they're cell shaded - something getting increasingly egregious as Fortnite churns out anime OCs by the minute.

And yet Epic is dead set on forcing Fortnite into the shape of a mEtAvErSe PlAtFoRm. Placing the successor to the Rock Band games behind the 5 minute Fortnite loading screen and ui all for the sake of selling SONGS on the Fortnite store. Rocket Race and Lego Fortnite are both surprisingly competent little games, so much so that you can tell the only reason they're stuck inside Fortnite is so that you have to participate in the same microtransaction ecosystem, with cross-compatibility further obscuring the actual worth of each purchase.

If Epic really wants people to fully buy in to their games-as-service sandbox (that makes VALVE look open source by comparison) I'd like to think they'd at least consider making the experience of booting up the game on modern hardware like... manageable? fine? At least not worse than it has been?

They have a lot of nerve is all I'm saying. Is that clear? Am I communicating that?

[pierregasly]

Would love to hear your full take on Pierre,,,

Sorry this took me a few days to get to, I meant to answer it immediately but never found the motivation :( Anyways, onto Pierre. 

I believe you are commenting on a post of mine where I stated my fear that the Middle Generation of drivers (Charles, Carlos, Pierre and Max specifically) have/are going to miss out on opportunities and will never reach their full potential in F1. This is similar to what happened to the “Lost Generation” which is comprised of drivers such as Daniel, Kevin, Nico and Checo. To reiterate something that another asker was confused about: it has nothing to do with talent. The generations are not lumped together based on talent but based on their similar ages/entrance into F1 and I am speaking on the wasted potential that this group never got to achieve. (For example, Nico’s full potential was podiums--he never got here. And Daniel’s full potential was a championship--which he’ll never get.) 

I am not going to waste your time and state what I said briefly about Charles, Carlos and Max but I will go into depth more so about what I hardly touched upon with Pierre. As I said, Pierre is a phenomenal talent. As much as his podium and race win may have proven it to the world, many still call him a “luck driver” who is not good enough for a higher team. This is, obviously, because of  his time at Red Bull dramatically overshadowed his career. 

I started following Pierre around 2017 when I first got interested in F1 because of the history. In 2017 he wasn’t racing in Europe but in Super Formula so I took the time to catch up on his career thus far (I will go into depth on this in a moment). I didn’t start watching F1 until 2018 and the only driver (non-historical) I really was attached to was Pierre (others would comes later). Obviously, if you remember, Pierre ended up taking P5 in qualifying and P4 in a Toro Rosso in front of the whole world in only a few races at Bahrain. It was absolutely incredible and for the rest of the season until his Red Bull announcement, Pierre was dishing points place after points place after points place in only his first full season in F1. Therefore, while it was only his FIRST FULL SEASON, the jump to Red Bull ultimately felt justified. 

Of course, this did not end up being the case. Our joy over Pierre getting to be in a higher team made us completely and utterly forget the track record Red Bull has left with its second drivers. For those of you who are new to F1 (either coming in 2019, mid-2019 or 2020) you missed out on Pierre’s debut season which was fantastic for the car he was given. Furthermore, if you came in during mid-2019 or 2020 and you think that the treatment RB gave to Alex is horrible--you are hardly touching the surface. The treatment that RB is giving Alex versus Pierre is like taking your sons on summer vacation and then having one of them sleep on the comfy twin bed with two blankets and the other kid on the floor without so much as PJs. We haven’t even touched upon Daniil. Daniil would be like the parents leaving the kid outside to sleep. 

Let’s move on. It is very easy to look at Pierre’s season and tout only negative things. It was not his best moment and, yes, he certainly could’ve done better. However, with what he was given? Are we even sure about that? For example, Pierre become open with the media following his demotion. Not only did RB leave it to the very last moment but they also would:

1) Use Pierre’s car and car parts to test Max. 

2) When Pierre requested a more experienced engineer, he was denied. However, when Alex requested the same thing, he was given it. 

3) RB consistently spoke horribly of him in front of the media. They constantly spoke that he needed to do better and never tried to build him up. 

4) Emotionally pressured Pierre to his breaking limit.

Now the difference between RB and many other teams is that when the going gets tough for their drivers, many teams choose to build their drivers up to set them up for success. RB’s method is to tear their drivers down and hope that they can pick up their own pieces once they become annoyed with humiliation. The demotion was far, far too quick. Think of Alex--he has been getting worse and worse and worse with a year and half of time at Red Bull. Pierre managed half a season before they gave him the boot. The boot was also without warning even despite Pierre getting better and better each race. 

This is all information you probably already know, I said earlier I would touch upon his younger career and how this has been overshadowed and forgotten due to his time at RB. Here are some facts/statistics that will be important for my point later:

Finished 3rd in the French F4 championship with four wins, two poles and seven podiums over the course of only fourteen races despite having three retirements (the 2nd placer had 0 and the 1st placer only had 1). 

In his first season at Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 he finished 10th of 51 different racers and every person but one who finished before him in the championship was older than him. Pierre was only 16 when Stoffel V was 20, Daniil K was 18, Oliver R was 20, Norman N was 20, Nyck V was 17, Paul L was 21, Oscar T was 16, Melville M was 18 and Alex R was 18. 

In his second season of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 he finished first in front of the likes of Esteban Ocon, Oliver Rowland, Jake Dennis, Nyck de Vries, Luca Ghitto and Alexander Albon.

Finished 6th in the 2013 Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Series despite missing half of the season and there being 42 competitors total (everyone ahead of him completed the full season). 

Finished 2nd of 28 competitors in the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series and lost to none other than Carlos Sainz Jr. 

Finished 1st in his second full season of GP2 (now formally classified as F2).

The GP2 race he won in Silverstone happened right after a huge roadcar accident in which his mother ended up in the hospital. Pierre himself fractured his vertebrae and still went on to win the race while his mother was in the hospital and he had a broken bone. 

Was called in to replace a Renault edams driver in Formula E. He was jet lagged, tired and got only a few hours in the sims. He still managed to secure P4 in qualifying and then was set for a P3 finish but he crashed into the wall on the last corner of the last lap and came home in P4. THIS WAS HIS FIRST TIME EVER IN AN FE RACE OR AN FE CAR.

Finished second in Super Formula in 2017 but lost by only half a point. One of the races in the season was abandoned when he was set to win because of flooding and storm. Had it not been abandoned he would’ve finished first at the end of the season. 

All this pretty much brings you up to speed to when he entered into F1 (which all his amazing stuff you should be familiar with). Moving more onto my “take” regarding Pierre. I have shown evidence for why he is an incredible driver, however, now we’re moving onto the not so great bit. I suppose I must answer one question before I move on. 

Do I think Pierre is good enough, against all the rest of the talent in F1, to get consistent podiums if given the proper car? Absolutely. Do I think Pierre is good enough, against all the rest of the talent in F1, to get consistent wins if given the proper car? Absolutely. Do I think Pierre is good enough, against all the rest of the talent in F1, to fight/win a championship one day if given the proper car? This I firmly believe is possible (other thing I’ll get into if someone wants).

The reason I worry and am distressed about Pierre is because I don’t believe he’ll ever get a go at a higher team again. RB really put a shadow over his career, a shadow that is going to worry other teams from placing him into their cars. He has ultimately proven himself with podiums and, of course, the race win. However, seeing as there is so much young talent coming into F1, I don't see there being a place for him. 

Mercedes is set to most likely be Max and George when Lewis retires. Red Bull would never dare to put him in that seat again. Ferrari has their “golden generation” of Charles and Mick to look after. And those are the seemingly “top teams” (if you can even all Ferrari that). Let’s look at the others. Racing Point is going to be Lance and Seb until Seb retires. I don’t see Pierre ever going to Alpha Romeo. And McLaren is set up for the next few years with Lando and Daniel. Haas--I don’t think so. This is ultimately dangerous for Pierre’s career because RB likes to keep fresh meat in their B team car (or if you trust Horner it’s their “sister team” lol). Pierre’s best chance is the escape the RB family. AND I UNDERSTAND that the regulations could make things VERY different in F1 for the future. These are just my hypothesis and guesses--all is subjective and up to interpretation so @ anybody reading this--relax, buddy. So where does Pierre fit in in the future? These are some scenarios I have conjured up. 

1) Mercedes. Let’s say that, possibly. Max never ends up moving into that second Merc seat and instead remains at RB wasting away until they can get him a better car for the rest of his career (ooo burn sorry it’s for the scenario don’t hate me). This would open up a place at Merc for Pierre to truly shine his potential. Most likely, he would play second fiddle to George but hey--it’s still a seat where can utilize that potential. 

2) Red Bull. This would be if they get desperate. I don’t think if given a second chance, Pierre would say no. If Max were still in the team, he would be second fiddle. I can see Pierre going to RB if Max leaves for Merc in the next few years and they want him to lead Yuki or if Yuki doesn’t shine in AT and they end up dropping him they are going to be slim Pickens... I don’t know if being at RB will give him a place where he can utilize his potential but it’s a possibility. 

3) Ferrari. This would be only a chance if Mick doesn’t do great in Alpha Romeo and they need someone to fill the seat of their obvious place holder Carlos. He would be alongside Charles. Other than that.... Ferrari seems pretty set and there isn’t any space. 

4) McLaren. This I don’t see as very possible? I would love to see him in orange but they seem pretty set with Daniel and Lando. I think Daniel is probably going to ride out the end of his career there. Lando seems very integrated into the team and I can’t see him leaving unless he got a better offer like Merc. If Max didn’t end up taking the second Merc seat in the future and remains at RB then Lando might be given an offer which would open up a place that Pierre could possibly take. Do I count this as realistic? Not really, but it could happen. At McLaren I could see Pierre utilizing his potential. 

5) Renault. This is one of the options that seems most realistic to me. They're set with Fernando for the next few years. If they decided, after 2021, to give the boot to Esteban, that would open up a place for Pierre in a French team that would love a French driver (they already have one but Pierre is a FRENCH WINNER). You know that teams loves their nationalism.... Anyways. Or, possibly, Fernando retires after two years (again lol) which would open up a seat for Pierre to take along Esteban. However, I don’t really see Esteban staying long term because Renault probably needs to put one of their Renault babies like Guanyu or Christian in there. 

6) Williams. Lol. No. 

7) Haas. I don’t see it happening really??? I have my reasons but my gut just says... Au revoir.

8) Racing Point. THIS. This I see as 100% 100% a possibility. Let’s say that Seb retires after two years--this would open up a seat. Pierre is a strong, consistent and stable driver who doesn’t make mistakes. Here he could really use his potential!! #PierreInGreen!!

9) Alpha Romeo. As I said... I really don’t see it. They seem pretty busy with all their young guys. 

So to conclude, the future for Pierre lies at either Renault or Racing Point (less chance but possible includes Merc to McLaren). To not take up any more of  your time, this is what I mean by Pierre being an incredible talent who may or may not get a chance at a higher team. He deserves to have more and to have a second chance. He has really proven himself and is pulling the absolutely maximum out of himself. I really want to see him with more, like he deserves. 

Even Charles wanted him as his teammate at Ferrari back in April... that’s saying even more. Everyone on the grid except Esteban rate him highly as a person and as a driver. His potential deserves smth better. He has proven himself time and time again against everyone who told him he wasn't good enough and who still say it was all just luck. There exists luck. But firmer than luck, there exists skill. 

Pierre Gasly is a race winner in an Alpha Tauri. Do not forget that. 

[loth-creatures]

Archivist Troubles

It was up to Martin to do most of the shopping. While Jon was still learning to control his power and his...appetite, they’d decided it was best that he avoid people more often than not. Jon didn’t mind, at least not after the first few days, during which he refused to leave Martin’s side. Once he was confident enough that Martin wasn’t going to slip back into the Lonely though, he realized that the bustle of the market was indeed both tempting to the Eye, and overwhelming to him. Jon might not have been on Martin’s level of Alone, but he also hadn’t interacted with more than one or two people at a time in quite a while. And few of those interactions had actually been amiable.

 At any rate, Jon was content to record statements and even read some novels while Martin went out for tea, or paper towels, or whatever else they’d run out of. He would get his sunshine and fresh air whether he wanted it or not when Martin returned, insisting they take another walk through the countryside. As lovely as these were, Jon was only fit for so many. They’d discovered early on that his preferred romantic pastime was snuggling on the couch.

The last week, however, had been relentlessly clouded and raining. This was initially no problem to a pair of Londoners. If anything, Jon was happier to have more time to do ‘work’ which would soon melt into yet more hearth-side napping in Martin’s arms. 

But then the fog had rolled in. As the landscape grew muted and chilled, Martin grew quiet. Distant. Whether it really was the Lonely calling to him, or just the memory pulled from ordinary mist, it was having an effect. And Jon was worried into not letting Martin out of his sight again. Martin didn’t seem to mind. He didn’t hesitate when Jon insisted on accompanying him into town. It was clear that the fog wasn’t going to recede anytime soon, and they’d already put off getting real dinner for three days. The last of the preservables worth making a full meal out of had been this morning’s breakfast.

Jon immediately regretted his comment that apple-sauce and stale pretzels weren’t fit for dinner when they stepped outside. Since the fog had rolled in, neither of them had set foot outdoors at all, and Jon had forgotten just how cold the outside world could be. He must have gasped because Martin turned with a small spark of amusement in his lately expressionless eyes.

“Jon, maybe you should grab a coat?”

“Oh. Ah, yes.” Jon had gotten very used to sweaters and sweatpants being the only acceptable forms of clothing. How his past-self had insisted on pants or skirts that required belts and shirts that required ties was beyond him now. He grabbed his coat as well as one of Martin’s knitted scarves and they set out down the road hand in hand. The air was damp as well as chill, and it wasn’t long before Jon began to shiver. He tried to hide it. He was pretty sure it really wasn’t all that cold out, and he’d just grown spoiled. Martin definitely wasn’t shivering. In fact, as Jon looked at him, it seemed he was very still, despite the fact that he was walking. His steps seemed to lag, his pace was slower than usual. Being considerably shorter, Jon was usually taking two steps to Martin’s one to keep up. But now it was as if Martin was moving in slow motion. 

“Martin? Are you still with me?” Jon squeezed his hand urgently. 

“Oh! J-Jon?” All at once he seemed to jolt back onto the normal pace of reality, solidifying. 

“I’m here,” Jon said.

“Oh, I, heh, sort of forgot you were there.” 

They picked up the pace, linking arms for more solid contact. Jon wedged himself into Martin’s side as best he could without impeding his gate. The chill seemed to seep right through his clothing and cling to his skin. He was beyond relieved when they made it to the little market, and to see that it wasn't very crowded. The Beholding peeked through his eyes, but he’d recorded a statement before leaving so it was bearable. What was not bearable was the fact that his nose was starting to run. 

////

Martin hurried to grab everything they could possibly need for the next couple weeks. He had absolutely no intention of running out of supplies again while the Lonely had plans to camp on their doorstep. He stamped down the little worm of fear that danced in his gut. If Jon hadn’t been there...He shuddered. There was another reason to hurry, though. He hadn’t failed to notice that Jon was not enjoying the cold. It was impossible not to notice, as Jon was hovering so closely that Martin kept bumping into him with the slightest movement. It was really rather adorable, or at least it would have been if Martin hadn’t started to feel concerned. They’d been outside for maybe twenty minutes and Jon was already sniffling. And if it had only been slightly chilly before, the temperature was rapidly dropping as evening fell. Martin decided to grab some extra tissues and cold medicine. Just in case.

Though laden with baggage, they made an effort to get back as quickly as possible. As soon as the groceries were organized and dinner started, Jon stoked the fire and burrowed into the couch covers. Martin checked over the food again and went to settle beside him, digging in the blankets to find his hands. 

“Geez, Jon, remind me to knit you some gloves.” He started to rub and kiss some warmth back into them. 

“Remind me, to never ever go outside again, especially once it starts snowing.”

Martin chuckled. “But it’ll be beautiful in the snow.”

“Hmm. Write me a poem about it then.” 

“Oh alright, Mr. Jonathan Who-Needs-Fresh-Air Sims,” Martin laughed. “I’m going to check on dinner.”

////

Jon felt better after being warmed from the inside out with a bowl of hot chowder. Martin had dozed off beside him on the couch, and though Jon was loath to disturb him, he was about to drop his empty bowl. Reluctantly Jon stood to take the dishes to the sink, ignoring the dull ache in his head. He was suddenly so very tired, and he must have thumped a little too heavily into Martin upon returning, for he opened his eyes and yawned. 

“Ready to turn in, Love?” Martin asked gently.

“I just got c-comfortable,” Jon mumbled, suddenly aware of the slight scratching in his throat. Martin didn’t miss the catch in his voice.

“Are you alright?”

“Perfectly.” 

Martin gave him a dubious look, but stood and said matter-of-factly, “Well you can’t spend all night on the couch, Jon, you’ll ruin your back.”

Jon didn’t move. “As if it isn’t already ruined.”

Martin huffed in exasperation. Even though Jon had turned out to be wonderfully sweet when allowed to unwind in a safe environment...He still managed to be stubborn as all hell. In an effortless motion, Martin scooped Jon into his arms.

“Wha--Mahtin!”

“Oh hush, Jon. We’re going to bed, and you’re getting a proper rest, so I don’t have to listen to you complain in the morning.”

“When have I ever complained?!”

“Not with words, love, but you are twice as grumpy when your back’s acting up.”

“Hmph.”

His temper evaporated the moment Martin curled around him in bed, and after hushed ‘I love yous,’ they immediately fell asleep. 

////

Jon was always the first one awake. Years of being the first arrival at the Institute every single morning meant that Martin usually woke to a still steaming mug of tea on the nightstand and the sounds of Jon making breakfast drifting under the door. Once Martin had trained him out of microwave shortcuts, he made perfectly drinkable tea. And though it took him a few tries to get the hang of it again after years of rushed ‘cooking’ and take-out, Jon revealed that he did indeed retain the cooking skills he’d learned from helping his grandmother as a child. 

Because of this, Martin was surprised to wake up to a silent cabin and a warm mass still pressed against him, though rolled into a separate layer of covers. 

“Jon?”

Martin nudged him. He scrunched away, making a noise of protest that turned into a sniffle. 

“Oh, bother. Jon? Jon, please get up and let me look at you?” 

When he could tell that Jon was making an effort to get himself up, he began helping to dig him out of the covers. 

“There you are.”

“M--ahem--Martin? What time is it?”

“Long past when you usually wake up. How do you feel? And don’t say ‘fine.’”

Jon glared at him half-heartedly with one dark eye while rubbing the other with his palm. 

“Well. Not great. Throat hurts, head hurts. Oh, pass me a tissue please.”

When he was done blowing his nose, Martin gently cupped his face, sweeping the greying hair aside and feeling for fever. 

“Jon, you’re burning.”

“Hmm.”

“Dammit, that was fast! I thought you’d picked up a cold yesterday, but didn’t think it’d spiral out of control so fast.”

“It’s probably because I’ve left the Institute. Heh, probably only going to get worse from here then.”

Jon slowly slumped back onto his side, letting out a shuddering breath. He did not look good. 

“Will a statement help?”

“Maybe. There aren’t any left though. Have--ahem-- to wait for Basira’s next delivery.”

“O-okay. Well, we’ve got some medicine in the cabinet. I’ll make you some tea--always helps--and some soup, a cold cloth, if you think that might make your head feel better?”

“Mmm.”

“Jon?”

“Y-yes, thank you, Martin. Just come back to bed when you’ve got all that?”

“Of course. You know I‘ll take care of you, right, Jon?” Martin leaned down to kiss his scarred cheek.

“I know, Martin. You always have.”

@themagnuswriters

[thelambs]

I’m not dead! Just on a slight sim hiatus.

After Star Wars I found myself a little disillusioned with the current state of the game. We get a new pack every month but I’m finding half of each play session is spent contending with bugs that never get fixed. They’ve allocated exactly zero resources to fixing their fucking game and each pack makes the game progressively more broken.

I got an urge to play today and in those few hours:

My ‘unbreakable’ stereos break repeatedly, and whenever my sims attempt to fix them the repair process stalls and they sit in the repair animation endlessly.

Sims caught in rain or snowstorms ‘run inside’ using the wrong animation, using the ‘I have to pee’ walk instead of running.

My FPS drops to the single digits every time I enter or leave build/buy mode- until you open the game menu for some reason.

Townie sims still have hundreds of future cubes and lumps of clay in their inventories.

Simulation lag and stuck or dropped queued actions are worse than ever. Trying to get two sims to interact that are more than 2 feet apart is impossible. They freeze, run a mile away, run a mile back to their original positions, then usually the action just cancels.

Some lots are now failing to load whatsoever, returning an error message. (My save might be on its last legs.)

My famous sims still ‘react with disgust’ to anything that comes within 50 feet (even equally famous family members), which wipes their queues every time. 

The game still refuses to use any of the hardware or resources my PC has available. My GPU utilization will sit in the teens while the game struggles to render 20 fps. I just played through AC Valhalla and Cyberpunk on high settings and got at least twice the frames I can pull from this 6 year-old game. 

It’s funny: if you search EA’s bug report forum for these issues, each one has been around for ages! They literally don’t give a shit. The fun cutesy patch notes come across as tone-deaf and patronizing when you’ve been waiting months for major fixes that haven’t even been acknowledged. 

I’m fine buying packs if the product is functional and I’m having a good time, but like the rest of the community... I’m finding that it increasingly isn’t, and I’m not. Given how quiet simblr has been getting, things don’t look good.

[msjr0119]

One Shot

Come Home

Congratulations to @ravenpuff02 - 💯 followers, YOU GO GIRL! 🙌🏼

I decided to do one of the prompts that you asked for- we both had the same idea about who would be suitable for this prompt 🤣

Book: The Royal Romance - based around the beginning of the second book.

Characters: Drake Walker, Riley Brooks, Maxwell Beaumont, Bertrand Beaumont (mentioned), Liam Rhys (mentioned) - *All characters belong to Pixelberry*

HIMYM Prompt: “Hey baby, it’s me. Can you bail me out of jail? I thought I saw big foot in Central Park so I tackled him. But it turned out to be Russell Brand.”

Word Count: 2100ish

Warnings: fluff, slight smut, swearing, bit of comedy, drama nope sorry not this time 🤣

Tags: @pedudley @kacie-0156 @loveellamae @annekebbphotography @kingliam2019 @bascmve01 @yukinagato2012 @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @queenjilian @texaskitten30 @kimmiedoo5 @axwalker @lodberg @rafasgirl23415 @cordonianroyalty @burnsoslow @desireepow-1986 @rainbowsinthestorm @hopefulmoonobject @cmestrella @nikkis1983 @ladyangel70

*****

Drake arrived in New York City, debating whether or not he would prefer to be here or on the engagement tour. Not knowing how she would react to his unexpected visit. That was if he could locate her. Not knowing if he would succeed in bringing her back to Cordonia. After all the Beaumont’s failed, when she was abruptly dragged out of the palace at the Coronation Ball. Thinking back to Maxwell’s words before he left for the airport- he felt like a failure. Not supporting his best friend during the most possible worse time of his life. Being engaged to Madeleine Amaranth- Countess of Fydelia. Or the worlds most; cruel, manipulative, snarky bitch within court- as Drake and others would describe her. To put her in a positive view, she was ambitious- which was an advantage for a future Queen. But Liam, hell anyone would deserve a chance at love rather than be forced to be with her.

“Hey dude. I’ve been thinking. You know because you’re like a nobody.. no one will notice that you’re not on tour. Why don’t you go to New York and try and get little blossom to return.” Fucking nobody, cheers for reminding me Beaumont!

“Liam needs me more now than ever. Brooks chose to not return. If her sponsors couldn’t persuade her to stay, I’ve got no chance.”

“We all need little blossom here. This is where she belongs. What ya say? I’ll tell Liam where you are, he will be forever grateful.” Providing Drake with puppy eyes, he couldn’t be bothered with Maxwell pestering him. Taking the risk, he packed a bag and headed to the airport. What’s the worse that could happen? He thought to himself.

Being back in the Big Apple brought back memories of Liam’s ‘bachelor’ party- the night that they had met her. Riley Brooks. The girl who had stolen everybody’s heart in an instant. Drake, as well as everybody else assumed that she would have been chosen as Liam’s choice at the end of his social season. As much as it hurt Drake to believe this, he was happy for the two of them. However things never go to plan.

“I choose, Lady Madeleine.”

The Beaumont’s tried their best at the airport to convince her that everything would be fine. As much as it could be. That she had the support of everyone including, Liam. Even if it didn’t seem that way. When they arrived back to the palace without her, Liam’s and Drake’s hearts sunk. Both feeling that they had failed her.

****

After hours of sightseeing, Drake decided that now was the time to get his arse into gear- somehow, some way- he needed to find, Brooks. Avoiding ringing or texting her due to her safety, he decided to go back to where it all began. The Dive Bar. Neither Riley nor Daniel that was there that night was working. He was at lost cause. Having a few drinks, there was a slight bit of hope that Riley would be on the later shift. But she wasn’t. Deciding to return to the hotel via a stroll through Central Park, he considered if it would be a better idea to look for her the following day. If the worse came to the worse, he would go to a shop and buy a SIM card- hoping that she wasn’t one of those people who would ignore unknown numbers.

Sitting on a bench, he did what he did best in Cordonia- people watching. There was a few joggers, a few people just having a walk, young teenagers meeting up with their friends.

“What the fuck is that?” He murmured to himself, wondering if his drinks at the dive bar had been spiked. He could drink whiskey as if it was water. Hearing two young women scream as the figure approached them, Drake’s superman ability kicked in. Running over, he noticed that the figure that had startled the women, was bare footed and extremely hairy. Almost impersonating big foot. Hearing a grunt, Drake tackled it to the floor. Not knowing why.

“What the fuck, man?” Drake looked at the man, soon realisation hit him. It wasn’t ‘big foot’ as his crazy imagination believed.

“I’m so sorry....” seeing the man look at him with anger in his eyes, Drake panicked- thinking about how to calm the situation down.

“Cause baby you're a firework...Come on show 'em what your worth...Make 'em go Oh, oh, oh!...As you shoot across the sky-y-y..... I love your wife’s songs.”

“Mate, she’s my ex wife... the bobbies are here. Thank god.” Bobbies? What is he on about? Turning around he muttered to himself. Fuck.

****

“Okay Walker, you have one call. Make it worth your while.” Drake shook his head, it was a mistake. The NYPD was treating him like a piece of shit stuck on the end of their shoe, as if he was a common criminal. Blaming the jet lag for his inconsiderate actions, he had hoped that there was no press following him around from Cordonia. This is all Liam needs, I can just see the headlines now. “King Liam’s best friend, the commoner Drake Walker has been arrested for attacking the British actor and comedian Russell Brand, in New York City.” Dialling the number, he was praying that she was available to answer. If not he was unsure as to who to ring.

“Hello?” Hearing her voice, he was relieved that she had answered.

“Hey baby, it’s me. Can you bail me out of jail? I thought I saw big foot in Central Park so I tackled him. But it turned out to be Russell Brand. Before you say it, no I wasn’t drunk. Well, I had a few drinks. But we all fuck up at times.”

“Drake?” Pausing, she was unsure as to why she questioned who it was. She would recognise his voice anywhere.

“Yup. Are you gonna help me or what Brooks?”

“What are you doing here? Is this some practical joke?”

“I wish it was... listen... I’m tired as fuck. This is something that Maxwell would probably get himself in to. Please, Brooks. Bail me out, somehow.”

“Fine, but you and I need to talk. If and when they let you out.” Hanging up, he had faith in her. Or so he hoped.

****

The officers allowed Drake to come out of the cell the day after. They explained that the charges had been dropped unexpectedly- if he was to do anything like this again, they wouldn’t be so easy on him. Lucky. That was the word they described him as- especially as he did what he did to a celebrity.

“Hey, marshmallow.”

“You’re a sight for sore eyes.” Hugging her, he was grateful to be out- even if she took her time getting him out.

“Why did you call me baby?” Randomly asking this, he had forgotten calling her that.

“I... Erm... I wasn’t thinking. But now that you’re here... pack your bags. I’m taking you back to Cordonia. Liam needs you.”

“Liam needs me? Is he the only one that needs me?”

“You know how I feel about you, Brooks. But Liam deserves you. Cordonia deserves you.”

“But I don’t need or deserve them....”

“Listen, the scandal... we are all figuring it out. We are all clearing your name.. then you can be Queen. The rightful Queen.”

“I don’t care about being Queen! I love Liam. I do. But....”

“But what? No buts. Stop being so stubborn and pack your bags- come home. To your real home.”

“My home is where you are...”

“Well then, Cordonia it is... stop stalling. The longer we take the further in to the engagement tour it will be.”

“Will you just shut up?” Drake was taken aback by her tone of voice.

“Please, just shut up Drake. Jesus, what happened to the man who would throw out a few sarcastic comments then remain silent? During my time in Cordonia, I fell in love instantly. I was going to return, I just needed time to think - away from everyone...”

“Okay, well why didn’t Bertrand and Maxwell explain that then?”

“Because I pleaded with them not to. It’s going to be hard going back... not just because of the scandal. But because of this whole situation... I love you.”

“You... love me?” After their kiss in the Beaumont study and at the Coronation Ball, he just assumed that there were slight feelings from her end. He never expected for someone like her to love someone like him.

“Yes. I love you, my grumpy marshmallow.” Liam’s going to kill me. Kill us. Why can’t I be happy for once? No. I can’t betray Liam.

“I... Brooks... I love you too, Riley.” Desperate to kiss her, he held off from doing this straight away. Instead he pulled her towards his chest. Holding her tightly, he believed that his heart was skipping beats- finally he had a girl return his feelings. Kissing her on the forehead, he inhaled the sweet scent surrounding her. His inner thoughts were battling against each other- wondering what future they could have together. Would Liam actually hate them for falling for each other? Even though they had said those three words, deep down he still needed confirmation from Riley about what she wanted. How they were going to break their friends heart. Would they return to Cordonia? Or would they make a new life for themselves in the states?

“So what now? I don’t know what to do, Brooks. Liam’s going to kill me... Maxwell said he would explain where I was and what I was doing.”

Riley laughed, knowing full well that Maxwell wouldn’t have informed Liam of the truth. The full truth anyway.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Maxwell has told Liam that you are in Texas, with your Mom. It’s a good job that you rung me rather than Liam... At the airport before I boarded the flight, they came up with an arrangement, for me to come back once they had found Tariq.” Opening her mouth she was about to elaborate on the arrangement, however they soon had company.

“I give you one task to do. Bring little blossom back. Not get arrested! And they call me the dopey one.” Hearing his friends voice, he immediately parted ways with Riley leaving a short gap in between the two of them.

“Max. What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be on the engagement tour?” Hence why you insisted that I came!

“Lord Maxwell Percival Beaumont is here in the flesh.” Dramatically bowing, Drake wondered if he was on drugs. “You can thank me for bailing you out. They are still at Fydelia. I won’t be missed. Have you both kissed and made up yet?”

“You know?” Drake questioned, wondering how many other people knew. Feeling like the shittest friend to Liam - in a way he regretted falling hard for Riley.

“I’m not stupid, Drake. You never smile. Ever since this one entered our lives you couldn’t stop smiling even if you tried to hide it by being a jerk towards her. I was just waiting for the two of you to confess it...Little blossom confessed her true feelings at the airport...” Riley blushed, her baby blues sparkled as she looked at him adoringly. Pulling her into his embrace, he knew that Maxwell would advert his eyes or maybe not. The Lord was a sucker for a love story. Drake’s hands drifted towards her hips, as they settled he pulled her closer to him. Leaning down, he kissed her softly to begin with. Before they knew it, their lips were in perfect sync and the kiss became more passionate.

“Aww you two... put each other down.” Breaking the kiss they both witnessed Maxwell wearing a goofy smile before pouting his lips towards them. Drake rest his forehead against hers as he cupped her cheeks. Both gazing into each other’s eyes, they were hypnotised- both hearts fluttering inside of their chests.

“Guys, sorry to break up the romance... but we need to figure out how we are going to tell Liam.”

Fuck.

[dramallamadingdang]

Weeplies!

OK, they’re not wee at all, but they’re for @mortia, @eulaliasims, @an-elegant-simblr, @scibirg, @fuzzyspork, @immerso-sims, @cindysimblr, @acquiresimoleons, @holleyberry, @penig, and @tamtam-go92.

mortia replied to your photoset “House #2 for the pseudo-Amish.  These houses are all small but have at...”

how on earth do you get criquette's lanes all the way up to the house without crossing over roads and losing them?? SORCERY!

I removed the roads from the front of lots with the Lot Adjuster (Bonus: You get ten more tiles in front to build on) and then deleted the road/sidewalk tiles from them and in some cases moved the pedestrian portals. (Didn’t bother with the vehicle ones since there’ll be no vehicles used in this neighborhood anyway.) The road default does the rest; some of the textures are transparent, so you can still see the rural lanes through them where they overlap off-lot. 

eulaliasims replied to your photoset “Yay, I get to do Sims-stuff tonight. And there’s probably other stuff...”

The view from that porch is amazing. <3

Yeah, I figure if you’re living in “country wonderland” you kinda need a porch with a view to appreciate it. :)

an-elegant-simblr replied to your photoset “Spam of the no-waves beach lot, which I’m calling a riverside lot....”

Overgrown is great though! I always go crazy with my gardens, which might cause lag on large lots, but I don’t really care as long as I have a pretty garden :)

I do like the overgrown look, but lag when playing irritates me, so I try to strike a balance. As it is, there’s no lag with just a single testing Sim on the lot, but if there’s more than that...Well, we’ll see how it goes. Plus, when I was originally decorating the thing, it wasn’t going to be a camping spot, more just a fishing/swimming hole sort of thing, so I wanted it undeveloped. But then I decided to add the camping cabin(s) and...Well, that sort of set-up should probably be a little more cleared. Maybe less wild grass and more dirt and trees for campsites. But for now...it’ll do. :)

scibirg replied to your photoset “House #2 for the pseudo-Amish.  These houses are all small but have at...”

I adore this house!

It’s a nice one! I can’t take credit for any of them, though. I didn’t feel like coming up with floor plans myself, so I just went off to a site that sells ‘em and did a search for houses of 1500 sq. ft. or less with four or more bedrooms. A surprising number came up. I’d rather play small houses, and I’m used to cramming large families into them, so this time I didn’t feel a need for big farmhouses. I wanted it to have a more homesteading sort of feel. So, small houses, log construction.

fuzzyspork replied to your photoset “House #2 for the pseudo-Amish.  These houses are all small but have at...”

So tranquil. Too bad they never gave us rideable horses because this neighborhood needs them! After Pets came out I was sure there'd be a "farm" pack that included horses and stuff like chickens to raise. That would have made TS2 done for me. :P

I wouldn’t be surprised if they do a farm game pack or whatever they call them for TS4, given the current popularity of farm games. But yeah, it would’ve been really nice for TS2 and would’ve made sense after both Pets AND Seasons, given that Seasons added the growables. Combined with OFB, farming-for-profit only makes sense, and adding livestock would’ve been the next logical extension. But then, no one’s ever gonna accuse EA of possessing logic, I’m afraid. :)

Soooo, I guess we just have to be happy with Beck’s and Sun and Moon’s animals. At least Beck’s horses are rideable, albeit only around the lot or for a non-playable off-lot ride similar to getting an alarm installed in a car. (Probably uses that coding, in fact.) It’d be nice if they could be used as actual “vehicles,” so that you could, say, ride your horse to the store (I do that, at home in Colorado) and then hitch them up to a hitching post when you get there and stuff, but... *sigh* Only in our imaginations. :) 

immerso-sims replied to your photoset “Spam of the no-waves beach lot, which I’m calling a riverside lot....”

Looks amazing!

acquiresimoleons replied to your photoset “Spam of the no-waves beach lot, which I’m calling a riverside lot....”

Wow it looks so good

Thanks to you both. :) It’s kind of a fun lot.

cindysimblr replied to your photoset “Yay, I get to do Sims-stuff tonight. And there’s probably other stuff...”

oh my. Your game looks way too pretty!

Is there such a thing? :) But thank you. Or rather, thank the people who make lovely neighborhood deco stuff. It’s so much easier to make a pretty neighborhood nowadays thanks to all the stuff they’ve done. 

acquiresimoleons replied to your photoset “Yay, I get to do Sims-stuff tonight. And there’s probably other stuff...”

I love it so far. How do you plan to get rid of supernaturals?

They just won’t be allowed to happen. It’s a religious-isolationist community kinda-sorta based on some aspects of the Amish way of life, and supernaturalism just wouldn’t be acceptable to that sort of mindset. I don’t use the normal methods of making supernaturals, anyway, except when it comes to Plantsims. (And they’ll all do organic farming -- no pesticide -- to avoid that.) Otherwise, it happens via alien abduction and experimentation (a mod) in my game, and I won’t use the hacked telescope in this neighborhood, so the chances of abduction are pretty slim. If it happens and the result is being a “supernatural,” then that person will end up shunned, which means banishment, pretty much, so...yeah, no supernaturals. Except maybe aliens. I haven’t decided whether or not alien babies would be accepted in this community or not. Probably not, though, because babies without marriage isn’t acceptable. But perhaps exceptions could be made when it’s all out of your control and doesn’t happen via sex, anyway. So...I dunno. I’ll make a decision if it happens, I guess.

holleyberry replied to your photo “When Sage got home from work, he invited fiance Emmy over, and it was...”

He also wanted other things. Doesn't mean he has to fulfill that to be happy. Send the man on his vacation. Geez!

Yeah, I know, it’s just...He hadn’t actually rolled up that want before, which I would’ve expected after he scored his woohoo-with-a-fifth-person. It only came up right after he got married, with the post-wedding want roll. It made me give him a side-eye. 

But then, maybe Emmy’d be up for an open marriage. But probably not, with that Fortune aspiration. In my mind, they’re kind of about appearances, like they’d at least want the appearance of the “happily married with white picket fence and 2.5 kids with a (single) beautiful spouse” thing. Unless, of course, they have a Romance secondary, which would blow that away and be a lot more fun, but she doesn’t, so...Yeah, don’t think it’s going to go there. But who knows?

holleyberry replied to your post “And the next evening, after returning from work, Sage had, as usual, a...”

Lock that shit!

Ohhhhhhhh, yeah. :) Well, no, actually I didn’t lock it. I just had him propose right there and then because sometimes ya just gotta go with the flow.

penig replied to your post “And the next evening, after returning from work, Sage had, as usual, a...”

Obviously, he wants that vacation to be a honeymoon!

I guess so! And it’s so weird for him. Like he’s gone nuts. But maybe he doesn’t want to be just like Uncle Simon after all...

tamtam-go92 replied to your post “And the next evening, after returning from work, Sage had, as usual, a...”

Oh my, he really needs some love doesn't He?!

Apparently! He’s usually just not the committing kind, but I guess something happened in his little pixel brain to make him change his mind. :)

penig replied to your post “Replies!”

Ah, yes, Health Crap. Yeah, that is enormously frustrating, but you have to get zen about it or you'll make it worse. (Easy to say...)

Yeah, Zen is the way to go. Mostly I tend to just ignore things and go on with my life as best I can because I’m not going to be one of those people who IS their illness, if you know what I mean. But sometimes it’s just impossible to ignore. At least it’s mostly better now, for the moment.

[thinkingaboutgames]

WHAT’S YOUR FOREVER GAME: or, that...THIS new game is really THAT old game, and I’m cool with that...game.

(random thoughts and video that kinda really sums up five hundred percent what I end up loving so much about a “game” / archetype / franchise I’ve been playing and enjoying for 10 years plus)

So, for whatever reason I’ve decided to write / ramble about something that keeps coming back for my brother and I every few years in our respective / mutual gaming cycles...

That...going / crawling on your knees back to your…“forever game”…

Which, the more I think about it…I’m mostly curious about defining / dissecting the idea of this kind of game…

As well, because we’re in this golden age of video games as “video games as a service”...so I get the feeling that people WANT these games to exist for us…and I kind of think they already do, but...what are they? Are they made, born, or just effectively “sold” to us?

And what has me wondering the most on this topic...most surprisingly...is how the game I’m thinking of for all this...isn’t what I would’ve originally put on my “must play” or “desert island” games lists...

If anything, it would probably be on the “games I keeeeep playing and would never tell anyone about BECAUSE I keeeeeep playing IT!” game list…now that I really think about it…

Which brings me to Everybody’s Golf…

(which is the 7th? I think? Game in the Hot Shots Golf Franchise...but, really, is just the newest in a long line of golf sim off shoots of, what was really FIRST for me personally, (despite 1990s Golf on the game boy technically being the first I played and did love) 1999’s Mario Golf for the N64 (which really had its hooks in me for years, and with every new incarnation, to come…))

Which is a brand new MMO (wooo, the chance to play a live round with my brother...where we can chat and watch shots and shoot the shit while we drink a beer ALMOST like real golf!) with microtransactions…

(...has there ever been a ship you actually helped make float?)

BUT...at it’s core...this, in part, “forever game” of mine, is ALSO the most bloated version of the simplest thing I love...

(and what’s funny to me when I really break down what the “game” is, and how this “game”, through all it’s versions, has been able to feel / be the same “game” because it’s ALSO felt so...formulaicly similar?)

Which is just...hit A to “start swing”….hit A to stop “top swing” (power guage)...hit A again for follow through contact (to stop “accuracy guage”)...

Which is so mechanically simple that it was able to be made on the game boy...and, as well, because it’s part one of what only has to be a two part system of game mechanics who’s formula add up to “re-creating” / making a simulation of what “golf” is.

“aim” mini game + “club swing” mini game = golf

(though, to be fair, the new MMO lets me drive a cart around, explore a little...fish...all on a live course with other players...and it’s all sooo seamless and lag free that I can do other things AND this OR play my own round and fly through it while completely forgetting everyone else and the entire world is there if I wanted to (...until the crazy created characters / bear suit people show up and start spinning around and I can’t forget them...))

the way that...

player controlled “paddle” + player controlled “paddle” + computer controller “ball” = table tennis (Pong)

So, really, my earliest thoughts on this were of me marveling at how a game that...when it stays simple...gets to also feel easy and familiar over the long haul…

(...and how and why I think people jump from top / newest competitive shooter to the next...chasing the technological edge, latest philosophy on “feel”, AND the competition...perhaps more than other genres, while games like madden or fifa can do nothing different until the end of time and will always have a strong player base)

But that’s what brought me to my next thoughts on what makes this possible…

Feeeeel...

Which is easy enough to understand in the close up and most immediate sense with…

How do my hands think and feel about this game?

(...and how do they get to remember...to build up and into being a part of this game?)

(...am I learning to move, then punch, then combo, and fight...adding things up over incarnations until I’m dancing...)(...or seeing an initially arbitrary, but, later on, very important, score climb as my bare bones understanding of a few simple arcade game concepts turn into muscle memory and late game meta strategies?)(...do new game plus runs give me just a little more to see and explore as meters get higher and my hands get more confident, like in shadow of the colossus, or just darker dungeons and toughter fights, like in final fantasty remakes on 3DS / mobile?)(or am I just getting more chicken dinners and or seeing better KD ratios?)

...but, this always becomes interesting, over time, because video games are also, in part, technology...so what we play on can change out from under us...from handheld, to 64 controller, to the gamecube’s cushy cloud (in the case of me playing Golf, then Mario Golf, then Mario Golf Toadstool tour)…

So the game itself (or it’s goals (goal line) and objectives (touchdowns)) can feel familiar…

But how we play...what we play for, and why…can change, add up and be wholly re-interpreted out from under us too...with us learning, borrowing, and abandoning a lot at times even...

(the easiest and quickest example to tie up all those esoteric questions about “what’s it all about”, can be made out of...skateboarding games...and how it’s main contributor / trunk game of the genre, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, evolved from high scores and timed runs on a controller...to a plastic skateboard peripheral (for a second)...and, in a different but still similar sense, from the arcadey, combo chain, game style of Tony Hawk to the trick specificity, unique goal, flow and feel approach to skating that was EA’s Skate franchise)

But that “feel” of everything...as a whole experience, despite some reuse of more simple “parts”...is really about the entirety of that equation adding up into something that can be remembered as “different”…and it’s what makes a game, potentially, infinitely replayable (because it’s worth is always there for it being / feeling so unique).

As another example...there are all kinds of snow boarding games to play (technically, not necessarily within the newest generation of consoles), but, really what that means is that, snowboarding games as a genre, only saw so many incarnations over the years (surfing games has it worse), but...to name a few...

1080 snowboarding (N64), Snowboard kids (N64), Cool boarders (PS), SSX (PS2), Amped (Xbox), Shaun White Snowboarding (PS3), Steep (PS4)...

But each, is wildly different in terms of single player / multiplayer objectives / intent, story mode or competitive replayability, and, yes, though each sees a swell of content, console power and so, depth, breadth, and newness all it’s own, really, they each, ultimately “feel” unique, I feel, and warrant their own specific attention because each is such a different “game”, in terms of what you play for, on, and how...

And each of those games “feels” different because each tries something different for specific reasons…

It’s not quite like golf games, who’s simple idea has been more or less repeated, and kept similar, yet slowly built up and stacked upon with bells and whistles until we swell into a crescendo (like with Everybody’s Golf)…

Sooo...maybe each of those snowboarding games could be seen as having their own “forever game” potential, or any from the genre itself BECAUSE the genre, from game to game, can end up with so much variation in “feel”?

...it all makes me think and ramble in a bunch of different directions lol.

But I’ve only really looked at things from within the realm of sports games, more or less, so far...as well because they are games who’s controls, or “hand feel” (to be most? Specific), are at the forefront of their core experience...

BUT...is this similar to how and where match three games like candy crush, or light and simple puzzle games, number games, or physics games can offer simplicity and immediate return, consistently and conveniently?

OR even beautiful giants like “Threes” can offer a streamlined, brain heavy mountain to climb?

OR the way that real Donkey Kong folks need a standing arcade cabinet to really complete the experience, AND be serious about a record?

Is that how people end up begrudgingly jumping on board with the most modern fighter, and yet...

Some will always end up back at the arcades that are closing down, and hunting down gamecube controller parts, even if no one else is?

Is it allllllll…

What makes a forever game…

“feel”? And NOTHING else, maybe?

...rhythm...pattern...flow of “feelings” and “rewards” to a game?

Why chess, Tekken, and poker are always going to exist in some form, somewhere?

It all makes me wonder...and feel kinda sad and embarrassed for “games” too, because...

Everybody’s golf is a game that ALSO...FAILS...SO much at what it’s ALSO trying to do…

Which is...make itself into THAT game that gets me to hand out more money, but...honestly, they’re in a bind because...why would I?

They’re throwing new clothes, purchasable with COINS, and club upgrades, purchasable with GEMS and TICKETS, at me like nobodies business, but...

(quick aside...I hate microtransactions...it’s why I can’t and don’t wanna play Overwatch anymore...because I don’t have enough friends to enjoy it competitively, and it’s too miserable to end up actually “wanting” anything in the game...because, then, once I do, I have to be miserable and sad and only, on a timed grind to get it...OR, I waste money on slot machine boxes and end up skipping meals and over-drinking to deal with my sadness...in part, because I feel hurt and let down for letting myself depend on / trust a game for some enjoyment...which was a place I used to think was safe for wanting things...)

FINALLY – WHY I POSTED THE VIDEO

THIS, what this video shows, ultimately, maybe...is what ends up being the MOST magical of moments in these mostly “the same” slogs through a very samey kind of game, like these golf franchises...

Wild moments of physics-made chance that turn into something I can send my brother a replay of via my phone, just so we can laugh together, and get excited to send another one back because NOW we have a machine for MAKING these moments between us…

It’s not a scripted event, an achievement, an unlockable…

It’s not a well written plot or bit of story that connected to me more to my soul…

...it’s just...a surreal, or silly...emergent...moment from playing hundreds and hundreds of holes WITHOUT skipping a beat, until…

...I absolutely HAVE to pull the car over from this smoooooth ride to marvel at something that’s spectacular...

It’s something that feels mine...and, sadly, MAYBE couldn’t even be pre-programmed to mean more, or even as much...

And that, really, is I think what’s magical for these games…and what makes a “forever” game different than the games you put on display, in your library, on your desert island...

These are the games who’s moments you don’t brag to everyone about…

Just your closest family, who might have the same itch, and get the same enjoyment out of this little slice of...hundreds of hours…

For those thirty second clips, and two minute laughs...

...it’s JUST a game that let’s me just “play” it, and enjoy the play of it, until I MYSELF make something happen?

And, again, what’s sad, I feel...is that they could add a hundred courses over time, and ask me to buy each one, or season pass, or something, but I don’t know if I’d shell out a time, because...can’t I just keep playing the old ones? Wouldn’t I be fine with it, because, as well, maybe I could afford the DLC this month, but, if my brother can’t...why would I want to send him a clip or something he can’t enjoy, as much, too?

(This led me to another thought / example...Shadow of the collossus...one of my favorite games with FEEL to it...but...if they added monsters and different story scenarios...on and on, forever...I’d probably never touch any of it past the main story because...how and WHY it ends is really one of the most beautiful things about it...same with metal gear solid 3, and other games I could probably think of…

but, the truth is...adding more of that “in between” isn’t gonna help an already great game be better, or even good forever…

and, MAYBE they could keep coming up with meaningful ways to show new / different stories in / through that same original world / game / vessel…

like, I’m sure someone could turn out fantastic dead pan comedy arc using the shadow of the colossus’ game engine, but… just make a new tv show!

...why are they trying to turn each new game (or new tv series), INTO the NEW television set?? as if THIS will be the new vessel through which all stories can / SHOULD flow...)

So...I really don’t know how to help “games” as an industry, with doing the impossible (being both worthwhile, finite AND infinite money machines)…

Because the game I’m currently expecting to play forever...probably won’t get any more money out of me any time soon...

But I’m curious about thinking about it…

Those games you’ll always jump back on board with…

You might not tell EVERYONE to get on that horse with you…

But you’ll ALWAYS put a quarter into the Galaga machine when you’re waiting for your slice of pizza…

...and maybe you’re gonna get the new Red Dead game just to enjoy more horse with your nature...

THOSE forever slices of something...be it a whole, or little bit of who knows what or why, that becomes your “forever game”…

Maybe it’s all feel…

...but is it? I don’t know...but, whatever it is, it’s perfect…

So��once again, and always and forever…

Games...thank you

Love, me

(...rant over...for now...)

[a-perverted-sentimentality-blog]

((Rar anon AGAIN (sorry if I clog your ask box ehehe ^^") Ah! Thank you very much! You are big help! It will be helpful to have WinRAR because I cannot down load things that are in .rar files, which sucks (I think that's right word?) because some things that people put for download are really nice, but I can't have! Edit Grim Reaper?? So have cheats on, kill a sim (2? Because brothers??... Is there even two grim reapers?? Eh?? Confusing) in family, and then add grim reaper(s) to family? (1/?)))

((Don’t worry about clogging my ask box, it’s fine :). More under cut because the “BL00 can’t shut the fuck up” tag is extremely apt.))

((Okay so, in order to edit the Grim Reaper, you’ll need a mod over at NRAAS Industries. Specifically, Master Controller. You will need the base mod, and I think the cheats module. I don’t know for certain since I don’t play without the cheats module, so I’d recommend getting that too just in case. 

Once it’s installed and you’re in game, everything you click on will have an extra interaction, simply titled NRAAS. This is totally fine. Click on either a computer or City Hall and then select the new NRAAS option, and then Master Controller. If you get two Master Controller options to click, click on the one with the orange circle on it. It looks like this:

(Ignore all the other options there, those are irrelevant to this. These are all other NRAAS mods I have in my game, 10/10 would recommend.)

Once you’ve clicked the Master Controller option, you should get a new menu that looks like this:

Select “Sim”.

Then “Advanced”.

And then, “Edit in CAS”.

From hereon, there will be a list of options to filter out the Sims to search from (like age, gender, supernatural status and so on). Alternatively, you can immediately hit escape, and Master Controller will load every single Sim in town. Everyone. From premades, to your Sims, to randomly generated neighbours to NPCs.

Once Master Controller has loaded the Sims, scroll down to Reaper, Grim:

Click Grimmy’s name, hit the accept tick, and the game will begin loading up Create a Sim. 

Load up the full body outfits category, and then put Papyrus’ clothes on. The poor guy will be headless and footless at first, like this:

...Ever so slightly weird! The boots his Sim use require World Adventures to be installed, otherwise you’ll have to find something else. Also his gloves require Seasons, but I keep forgetting the add them. Whoops. But anyway, now that he’s headless, put the skull you found on him and presto!

It’s Papyrus!

I do apologise, that was stupid. :v

Once you’ve made Paps, sort out stuff like changing his name, traits and lifetime wish, then you can click the little button in his portrait at the bottom of CAS to save him to your bin.

Oh and your English is fine, no need to apologise! I hope that’s all easy to understand, Master Controller looks pretty daunting at first. 

Also this is unrelated to Undertale, but I would recommend several other NRAAS mods, just to help improve the quality of your game. 

Overwatch helps to clear up any errors that can be caused, remove inactive Sims’ inventory cars, turn off TVs and radios, stuff like that. It does a town wide check at 3am. This does not mean that your saves are immune to corruption. But it should help increase a save’s playability. 

Another thing to help extend a save’s lifespan, so to speak, is to do a total town wide reset periodically. Say, once every four in game weeks, or if you notice something not acting quite right. Master Controller can do that. Again, from City Hall or a computer, click NRAAS > Master Controller > Town > Reset Everything. You’ll then get a conformation message:

Accept, and then it’ll begin. This will very likely take some time! I don’t know how long exactly, I never thought to look into it, but be patient with it. 

Anti Magic Scroll is good if you have several Sims in one household that learn the same things. Say, alchemy potions or recipes. With this mod, the book won’t disappear after initially read, so other Sims can read it too. No need to buy multiple expensive Amnesia recipe books for a house of cooks!

Careers. Want to make use of custom careers? You’ll need this!

DebugEnabler. Initially I’d been recommending this to help clear up game errors, but I think dumb ole me was getting confused between that and Overwatch. Still would recommend DebugEnabler, even if only for doing dumb stuff like making gold statues of Sims. I mean it sounds useful for a save with Mettaton in it :v. Do be careful with it though. I personally haven’t noticed any problems occurring from overusing the debug options, but better safe than sorry, huh? 

Hybrid. Got Supernatural? Want to make the biggest Mary-Sue of them all, the mythical werewolf-vampire-fairy-genie? Use this! I don’t know how this works without Supernatural though. All occult statuses can be used with it, so maybe it’s possible to make a genie vampire if you’ve got only Late Night and Showtime, for example. I promise and guarantee nothing.

Portrait Panel. Are you insane, like me, and fancy sometimes playing more than 8 Sims in a household? You’ll need this. Otherwise you’ll have to manually cycle through portraits of extra Sims with the space bar and that’s a pain in the ass. Portrait Panel ups the limit of portraits to something mental like 20+. 

Register. Want to change role Sims, like festival workers, consignment store specialists? This can also be used to alter the number of wild animals in your town with the Pets expansion, and turn off the tourists from World Adventures. This does not get rid of the NPC magician/acrobat/singers from Showtime though. So either ignore them if you have that expansion, or GO FULL MURDER. It’s fun. :v

Retuner. Annoyed by some seemingly arbitrary restrictions EA places? Change ‘em! This allows children to use rabbit hole functions like raiding the hospital or grocery store for plasma, young adults and older life stages to pull pranks on the school, let children blog or use the phone camera. Or let pregnant Sims do stupid risky shit they shouldn’t like go hot tubbing, roller/ice skate, or even smoke if you have the cigarette mod. I am a terrible person when it comes to Sims. :P

Story Progression. This replaces EA’s own bland, lifeless story progression with a new one that can be tweaked as you see fit. You’ll get notifications (which can be turned off) whenever Sims do something like start dating, marry, get divorced, fall pregnant, have babies, have affairs, adopt pets, take a job, learn a skill etc. This will cause your game to lag. The more modules, the worse the lag. I have the base mod and it is worth any slow down in my opinion, but obviously you may disagree. 

Traffic. Playing a medieval world and want to get rid of cars? This is your mod! It also does things like can increase or decrease the number of ice cream vans or food trucks but why the hell would anyone want to increase the number of ice cream vans those things are creepy and have legitimately stalked my Sims before :|

Traveller. Want to send your Sims on holiday to another town, custom or EA made? This is how to do it. This can be altered in the settings to let pets, pregnant Sims, inactive household friends, babies and toddlers to travel as well. World Adventures isn’t required unless you want to travel to those particular holiday towns.

If you’re of age, I would recommend Woohooer on the same site as well. I won’t go into details about it because I don’t know the ages of anyone who’ll read this and I’m personally uncomfortable recommending a sex mod (even if it’s only for the Sims) to a minor. 

I think that’s FINALLY everything I had to say now, holy shit. Let me know how it’s all going, and if you need more help!))

[rat-game]

On adaptive AI in a jRPG context

In this piece I will talk about rat_games AI, how it will be implemented and why I choose the ways it works to... work that way. One of the main gripes with jRPGs like Final Fantasy, Pokémon and recently Octopath Traveler is the complexity of the AI. F.E.A.R, Left 4 Dead and the Sims implement revolutionary designed AI almost 15 years ago now, how is it then that playing the newest Pokémon the Trainers still work the exact same way.  While I won’t claim that rat_game is the first jRPG to go a step further, doing so is the main motivation behind my entire battle system. Not only do I want it to be easily understandable but I also want it to allow for sophisticated and intelligent AI.  It is fairly easy to write an AI that does well against the player. A trivial approach to an AI in a Fighting Game for example would be to analyze each player input, look up what move is best suited to for example block the attack and then execute this move. A lot of knock-off fighting games like Shaq Fu and Mortal Combat for the original gameboy (yes, they did that) took this approach and it is incredibly frustrating to play against. To remedy this, one approach would be to handicap the fighting game AI with input lag. Instead of processing the inputs and reacting in the same frame, the AI could react let’s say 20 frames later. The problem with this approach is that the AI is still too simple, it will always pick the same (optimal) action just delayed and the player will pick up on this and cheese them by for example spamming a move that will make them commit to a risky action every time and then just waiting it out and attacking. A good example for this is the final boss Dark Link in Zelda 2 for the NES. The fight is very difficult because the enemy can use the exact same moves Link can and you’d think that would make it a fair fight but because the AI is programmed as discussed above you can just stand in the corner making the AI jump infinitely and stabbing them while crouching to win. This exploit only works because the AI is programmed to do one thing depending on where the player is. Back to our hypothetical fighting game: the QA tells you about this problem, what do you do? The next step could be to introduce randomness. Instead of always picking the optimal action, the AI instead flips a coin, if heads they pick the optimal action, if tails they pick another action that’s suboptimal or even chosen at random. As far as I know the newer Pokémon games stop exactly there, difficulty is achieved by configuring how likely heads is in that coin toss, for wild pokemon they will always get tails and pick at random, for the Elite 4 champions they will always pick the optimal choice. I don’t like this approach because I would like my AI to be predictable, even if the enemy has a low difficulty. In my opinion the reason that AI like this doesn’t work is because it does not make use of a fundamental principal of computing: memory. Rarely (in jRPGs) will the AI consider previous moves by the player in their decision making process instead using simply the current state of the battle. For rat_game I tackled this problem maybe a little bit too hard as my AI does not only take into account the action in the current battle but (since my story is about a hivemind taking over the world and all of the bosses have literally the same brain in canon) the enemies take into account all of the players actions in all battles since the started the games story. Another intention with my AI that I rarely see addressed in jRPGs is multiple enemies planning strategies together. Even if the AI does take into account previous states, enemy A will analyze the states and pick an option and enemy B will do the same independently from enemy A. Being a hivemind I want my enemies to plan strategies together. For example one enemy could charge up a strong attack and to help them another enemy will protect them as long as they’re charging so they can’t get interrupted. How, then, will rat_game achieve these intentions? (warning for some programming stuff, it’s okay to skip the next paragraph) 

During battle every move the player does is logged into basically a giant spreadsheet. The data stored however is not the entire game state but rather the part of the state the enemies character has access too. The player for example cannot see how many potions the enemy has left and similarly the enemy should not be able to see how much potions the player has left. Limiting what the enemy can observe in this way will make sure that the player does not feel cheated, if the enemy was controlled by a human they would have the same information the player has about the enemy and my AI should too. Having now generated all this data the AI will attempt to calculate the likelihood of what the player will do next. I studied Data Science and the first thing that springs into my head reading a problem like this is “neural networks!” or “model it as a markov chain!”. While this would work really well it is also in my opinion too sophisticated for my application. My system should only use relatively basic statistical techniques. This can happen on a by-attack basis, for example if the enemy considers casting a spell that prevents healing the attack will query the data set and lookup the average percent of one of the players party members was at before they were healed. Let’s say on average the player heals character A if they go below 40% health. If A is above this threshold the enemy will instead consider other options, if they are below they will prevent healing. This way will make the player feel like the enemy predicted their move but behind the scenes the actual calculation taking place is a simple averaging of the players health. What if multiple moves would be a good choice then? What if instead of preventing healing they enemy could’ve just attack the low-health character and killed them? To allow for this a scoring system will be implemented. Each attack-type will have a way to score how good of a choice it would currently be. Considering our healing decision the AI would look at the number of players it knows to be faster than the attacking enemy. If there are no players faster than them they will give the attack option a very high score of lets say 90 while the healing option will get 40 points. Which option is picked in the end is decided by randomness but rather than a simple coin-toss between two options all decisions are pooled and the likelihood to pick them is proportional to their current score. In our example attacking will have a 90 / (40+90) = ~70% chance to be picked while the heal prevention will have a 30% chance. This approach is similar to the coin-flip discussed above but as there will be way more than just two options and the chance for each options aren’t uniformly distributed making the outcome more predictable. If there is one objectively best answer for a problem the player knows that the enemy will go for that every time and if there isn’t, the player will have to think about what option is closest to it.  Now that we know how the AI works how will we actually make it fun to fight against? Let’s first address difficulty: If every fight in the game had an AI that takes the entire data set into account it would be absolutely exhausting. Not every fight should be this much of a battle (no pun intended), hell, not even every boss should be in my opinion. My way to achieve a smooth difficulty curve is to create tiers of AI: A the very top we have the AI acting as described above: Analyzing all the players move they ever took. The only enemy that will do this is the final boss of the game. By that point the dataset will have grown very big and the more data the AI has the better it will be able to predict. Tiers below this will vary in how much data they take into account. For example the tier below the optimum could be that all moves that happened against an enemy of the same type are taken into account. The next tier could be only this battle, only the last 3 turns, only this current turn, etc.. This granularity will give me a lot of control of how to set how “smart” the enemy should act without actually implementing different AIs. The only thing that changes is how much data is considered. This inherently makes early-game enemies easier because the player just started out and the dataset will be small. This approach has furthermore the side effect that the player will be softly rewarded for switching up their strategy. If all they do is heal the same character and use the same move at first this will work but as they continue doing it the AI will score the option to counter it higher and higher until the point where the players strategy just gets countered completely. Surprising the AI with a creative approach will be the best way to catch them off-guard which may sound like it could make the AI trivial but if this is achieved by the player coming up with a new strategy every battle I am more than willing to let that happen. Another way to reduce the difficulty is a fairly obvious one: Give the enemy worse moves. If the enemy picks the optimal choice but the optimal choice is a move that isn’t that good it won’t feel unfair. This coupled with my AI will hopefully give the player a feeling that the AI does not only scale in the damage values like most jRPGs do but also in how smart it acts and that it reacts to what the player does.  Closing on a personal note I will be honest and say that I have not yet fully implemented this. My engine is already set up on a software-design level to allow for this but I have so far focused on other things. When rat_game was still just a pipe dream I promised myself to make the best AI ever and use all this crazy data science stuff but having taken a step back I realized that sometimes simple is better. What is not better, however, is simplicity to the point of reducing sophistication to the point of what I have so far observed in many of my favorite jRPGs and I hope that my system will present a battle system that’s more engaging and impressive.

[infotainmentplus-blog]

Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS review: Is it worth that premium? Huawei is one of the few brands keeping the luxury phone trend alive. It doesn’t have diamond-encrusted notches or Vertu-level pricing, but the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS reaches well beyond its Huawei P20 stablemates with a 1,695 euro (~$1980) price. Unlike Vertu’s simple “glue precious stones onto this two-year-old phone” philosophy, Huawei and Porsche Design opted to actually bring tangible improvements to this phone. Is the Mate RS actually worth the price though? That’s what our Huawei Mate RS review will tell you. Huawei Mate RS review notes: I used the 256GB Mate RS for just over two weeks as my primary smartphone. I stuck to home Wi-Fi for the most part but used the Cell C network otherwise. The phone runs EMUI 8.1, based on Android 8.1, and has the May 2018 security patch. Show More Design “This looks just like a Galaxy S9 Plus,” was my first thought upon peeking at the front of the phone. Just like the S9, the Huawei Mate RS has a dual curved display, with curved corners and tapered left and right edges — which make the phone feel thinner than it is — and a notch-less top bezel. With its dual curved display and reflective glass back, the Mate RS certainly feels like a Huawei flagship. The phone’s reflective glass back certainly feels like a Huawei flagship, even down to the separate Huawei and Porsche Design logos. I usually moan about glass backs due to their fingerprint magnetism, but the Huawei Mate RS didn’t gather nearly as many prints as I thought it would. I’m not sure if this is due to an oleophobic coating or a tweaked finish, but it certainly made for a pleasant surprise. The company also changed a few things compared to the Huawei Mate RS’ P20 stablemates, delivering a vertically stacked triple-camera setup in the middle rather than off to the side. The other big design change is that Huawei and Porsche Design shifted the fingerprint scanner to the rear. There’s also an in-display fingerprint scanner, so if you’re going to have two, it makes sense to slap the second one on the back. All in all, there’s some Huawei DNA in here, but the Huawei Mate RS feels very different to the P20 series. Which is a good thing, given our impressions of last year’s Porsche Design Mate 10. Related Articles 40 megapixel shootout: Huawei P20 Pro vs Lumia 1020 Consensus has long held that, when it comes to photography, more megapixels is not always better. Quality over quantity, as they say. Yet in 2018, an industry-leading smartphone shooter boasts a 40 megapixel camera — the … Huawei P20 Pro review: The Galaxy S9 killer 40MP, the world’s first triple camera, 5X Hybrid Zoom, artificial intelligence in all the ways, and the most unique color on any smartphone ever. These are just some of the features Huawei is hoping will … The phone’s power and volume keys are on the right, its IR blaster is on top, and there’s a dual-SIM tray on the left (no storage expansion here). Its speaker and USB Type-C port are at the bottom. There’s no 3.5mm jack here, unfortunately, so you’ll need to use the included dongle for your legacy headphones. The phone has IP67 water and dust resistance, so it can survive a pool dunking or rainy weather, but its glass design makes it less durable, as glass doesn’t usually hold up too well after a tumble. You should probably use the included case or buy one for maximum protection. While it’d be a shame to cover up the Mate RS’ beautiful frame, dropping a phone this expensive would be even worse. Display The Mate RS features an AMOLED screen, much like the Huawei P20 Pro — but this time without a notch. I still don’t understand why more brands don’t retain a minimal top bezel instead of forcing a notch, but c’est la vie. The Mate RS also delivers a resolution boost over the P20 Pro’s Full HD+ display. Its 2,880 x 1,440 screen soundly trumps the P20 Pro, landing between the standard S9 and S9 Plus. You can’t watch 4K videos natively, but text is sharp and viewing photos is a pleasure. We noticed some color shift on the edges of the display, but that’s unfortunately normal for phones with curved displays. Read: The Mate RS doesn’t have a notch because Porsche Design hated the idea The phone’s 6-inch 18:9 AMOLED screen melts into the borders when turned off while delivering those trademark deep blacks when on. Huawei even lets you turn UI elements like the navigation key dock and first-party apps black (these don’t work in third-party apps). In any case, it’s clear the Mate RS screen is a technical improvement over the P20 series. If things still aren’t quite to your liking, you’ve got a few adjustable settings. There’s manual and automatic color temperature adjustment, a blue light filter, and size tweaks for text and other UI elements. Performance Under the hood, the Huawei Mate RS sports the flagship Kirin 970 chipset, 6GB of RAM, and 256GB or 512GB of storage. The internal storage unfortunately isn’t expandable, but it’ll more than enough for most people. The Kirin 970 doesn’t have the latest Arm cores like Qualcomm, nor does it have as many cores as Samsung’s GPU, but the phone is still one of the fastest I’ve used in a while. Apps launch quickly, scrolling through the Twitter feed is usually effortless, and web browsing doesn’t feel slow at all. The Kirin 970 is older than its rivals' flagship silicon, but it still delivers the goods The phone also handles multitasking without breaking a sweat. I tried jumping from the YouTube app to the preinstalled music player to several games and beyond, and came back to find my YouTube video still paused on the same spot. Not bad. In the gaming department, I usually use NASCAR Heat Mobile as my pixel-pushing title of choice, owing to its field of more than 40 cars. The Mate RS offered a very smooth experience, with little perceptible slowdown. We also tried a few more graphically intense games, like FZ9, PUBG Mobile and World of Warships, and all of them ran smoothly (or as smooth as can be for PUBG). So if you want to play visually demanding games on the go, the Mate RS will definitely let you crank things up. We ran the phone through Antutu and GeekBench 4 to get a feel for where it stands compared to the competition. The Kirin 970 shows its age here, lagging behind Qualcomm and Samsung’s latest silicon. The Mate RS’s scores are closer to last year’s devices, like the OnePlus 5T and Google Pixel 2 XL. The Antutu score of 210,117 lags behind the OnePlus 6‘s more than 260,000, and the Mate RS’s GeekBench 4 numbers aren’t as impressive as the OnePlus 6’s 2,454 single-core/8,967 multi-core figures. So the Mate RS delivers smooth performance in practice, despite benchmarks that lag behind other 2018 flagships. Battery Endurance is another story — this phone chugs on and on. The Mate RS’ 4,000 mAh battery easily handled a day of music videos on YouTube, sprinkled with WhatsApp messaging. Heck, I got between seven and eight hours of screen-on time out of the phone most days, all while listening to YouTube for most of the workday too (Wi-Fi and mobile data enabled, auto-screen brightness and smart resolution enabled). If you need a phone that can deliver two days of usage, the Mate RS won’t need to stretch as much as rival devices. Unlike the P20 series, the Porsche Design phone also supports wireless charging, which worked fine with my Samsung convertible charging pad. However, the phone often vibrated, indicating it wasn’t charging properly. Moving the pad to a flat position fixed the issue. Charging time wasn’t as brisk as a fast charger, but it certainly beat charging through a computer. There are two fast chargers in the box (with American and European plugs), presumably for the benefit of the high flyers this phone is marketed towards. Cabled charging will get you to 50 percent capacity in around 30 minutes compared to 45 minutes or so with wireless charging. Fingerprint scanners Huawei might not be the first company to include an in-display fingerprint scanner, but the Chinese brand might be the first to include two scanners. After using the Huawei Mate RS for a while, I can see why. Editor's Pick Vivo Nex review: Frustratingly imperfect, undeniably desirable (Update: Video added) The best part of the move to truly bezel-less phones is the weird and wacky solutions to the question of where to put everything that used to live above and below the display. Front-facing cameras, … The under-glass fingerprint scanner takes about a second or two to unlock. It’s “fast” enough to not be a major issue, but long enough that you can’t just quickly tap and go as with the rear scanner. I don’t really mind the unlock time, but the accuracy can be irksome. It felt like maybe one out of every four or five attempts were unsuccessful. Sometimes three attempts in a row didn’t do the trick either. This is sadly par for the course at this stage of the under-glass scanner game. Blindly trying to unlock your phone via this scanner (made by Goodix) is an issue too, as you have to hold on a very specific part of the display. Even subtle haptic feedback would’ve improved the experience. A Vivo Apex-style approach (made by Synaptics), which turns the entire lower half of the display into a scanner, would’ve been cool, but the tech probably isn’t ready yet (Vivo even switched from Synaptics to Goodix with the Nex, the commercially available version of the Apex concept phone). If the under-display scanner was the only option, I’d probably get used to it. Fortunately, the rear scanner is present, more accurate, and as fast as they come, so I never had to. The rear scanner supports the usual Huawei tricks like swiping down for the notification shade, lateral swipes for browsing photos, and acting as an extra shutter key. If unlock speed and accuracy are important to you, use the rear-mounted scanner; the in-display scanner is just too slow and unreliable. My only real complaint here is I’m not always sure when I’m touching the scanner. I would’ve liked the ridge around the fingerprint scanner to be more prominent or the scanner to have a different feel from the rest of the back. Speaking of biometrics, the Huawei Mate RS doesn’t use any fancy 3D facial recognition, but face unlock is super fast anyway. I’d say it probably takes one or two seconds at most for the phone to recognize my mug. Unlock times and accuracy are generally fine in low-light, but pitch black darkness is a no go. Camera The Huawei Mate RS has a virtually identical camera setup to the P20 Pro. It’s got a triple camera setup on the back (40MP f/1.8, 20MP monochrome f/1.6, 8MP telephoto with OIS), and a 24MP front-facing shooter. Daytime shots are vibrant and sharp — though not always perfect. I noticed some color bleeding on occasion (mainly when using the wide aperture mode) and Android Authority’s own Rob Triggs previously explored the P20 Pro’s tendency to over-sharpen images. Focusing isn’t always reliable either, (especially when using the aperture mode) though overall the phone is a photography powerhouse. The Master AI mode also automatically tweaks settings when it recognizes a scene. It works well for flora, food and landscapes, but I found it occasionally annoying. When I wanted to take a photo of a page from a book, the phone insisted on switching to the document scanning mode. This could be useful, but a “do you want to scan a document” prompt would’ve been preferable when all I wanted was to share a page on Twitter. The company’s camera app could also do with a few UI tweaks. Why is there a quick toggle for Moving Images but nothing for HDR? As it is, you have to dive into the settings menu to enable HDR. The phone generally delivers great dynamic range, although HDR does a good job of taming elements like clouds and the sky. It’s not quite as dramatic as the difference between SDR and HDR on the Pixel 2, but it has its uses. It still tends to occasionally saturate everything and give a cartoony look to scenes, but Huawei is way past the ghosted HDR snaps of the Ascend P8. Overall the Mate RS is a photography powerhouse, but it has its quirks. The triple camera combination delivers two more major perks: better digital zoom (up to 5x) and better low light shots. You don’t quite get DSLR-quality zoom, but I was very happy with results most of the time. Either way, it’s preferable to the bog-standard zoom of most other phones out there. A shot at 1X zoom. A picture at 3x zoom. Going to 5x zoom yields many details. The Huawei Mate RS delivers great night shots on its own, but its night mode takes things up a notch. When set to auto, the phone basically acts like it’s doing a long exposure, but it’s actually stacking a series of shorter exposures to reduce blur and improve brightness. The results can be fantastic, although some elements can look weird (cars won’t leave light trails but will still look blurry). DOWNLOAD THE FULL-RES PHOTOS The night mode also lets you adjust shutter speed and exposure. When you adjust the shutter speed, it actually behaves more like a manual mode, delivering proper long exposures. Nevertheless, if you want to do light painting and other low-light tricks, Huawei’s dedicated mode is still available here, offering presets for the usual stars, traffic lights, water, and so on. Huawei’s aperture mode is back too, along with the ever-popular portrait mode feature. Blurry edges still creep in when you look closely, and portrait lighting effects are unpolished and feel like a lame copy of the iPhone’s effect. Still, I like the added flexibility of the aperture mode, especially when combined with the preinstalled filter that delivers color pop effects. Hopefully, the company will add more editing options, because I’d like the ability to highlight exactly what should appear in color or monochrome. As it is now, you can adjust the aperture to tweak the effect, but that’s all. Everything in focus tends to get the color treatment. Fortunately, these leaves were grey already. The Huawei Mate RS supports 4K, 1080p at 60fps, 1080p at 240fps, and 720p at 960fps recording, to name the main video shooting modes. The super slow-mo isn’t quite as nifty as Sony’s solution, which allows you to record a standard clip and tap a “slow-mo” button when you want to record a 960fps snippet. The 720p resolution makes for some jagged edges, and focusing can occasionally be an issue, but it’s a neat tool to have nonetheless. It's disappointing the extra cash doesn't get you photos any better than the P20 Pro, but the results are still great. The 24MP selfie camera does the job just fine as well, although it can blow out backgrounds like the sky during the day. Unfortunately, HDR isn’t available via this camera, which is a shame. Portrait mode shots are also a treat here, though my habit of throwing in a thumbs up throws off the dodgy edge detection. Low-light shots predictably see a drop in detail and jump in noise, but there’s always a screen flash to help. On one hand, it’s disappointing to see your extra cash isn’t buying anything more in the camera department compared to the P20 Pro. On the other, the P20 Pro’s photography experience is so great that I’m happy with the results anyway. Software EMUI 8.1 shows how far the Android skin has come, with its mix of skeuomorphic design and Samsung’s TouchWiz. It’s still not everyone’s cup of tea, but it delivers some useful features and carves out its own identity. As with many Chinese skins, Huawei ditches the app drawer out of the box. I’ve grown used to this change after using the Xiaomi Mi 4 and Huawei P9 as daily drivers in recent years, but you can always turn the feature on in the display menu. EMUI has plenty of useful features, but there's still room for improvement The company also opted to include a gesture-driven UI, like last year’s P10 series. Fortunately, this isn’t enabled by default so you can easily avoid it. I would’ve liked to see a Samsung-style faux home button, as the ability to press hard to go home, no matter the app, has become mighty convenient after using the Galaxy S8. Speaking of older additions, Huawei retained the double knuckle tap gesture for screenshots, which, in theory, I find more intuitive than Samsung’s wax-on-wax-off palm gesture. It’s not the best gesture in practice, as the phone occasionally misses my double tap. You can always just hit power and volume down instead. There’s a theme store for changing up the look of EMUI, a phone manager hub (for tweaking mobile data settings, cleaning up storage and more), the preinstalled music, video, and gallery apps, and Huawei’s Health app. Other solid software features include a biometric safe for media and apps, an eye comfort mode for filtering blue light, a mobile data blacklist for apps, Dolby Atmos support, flip to mute, drawing a letter to open apps, and a simple, easy UI for anyone that finds EMUI a bit too complicated to navigate. There’s also bloatware like Booking.com and Quik, though it feels like Huawei is long past the Galaxy S4 stage of tossing in everything and the kitchen sink. Specifications Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS Display 6-inch curved OLED display 18:9 aspect ratio 2,880 x 1,440 resolution Processor Huawei Kirin 970 RAM 6GB Storage 256GB or 512GB Cameras Rear: 40MP main camera 20MP monochrome lens 8MP telephoto lens Front: 24MP camera Battery 4,000mAh Non-removable Wireless charging Software Android 8.1 Oreo Porsche Design skin Colors Red, Black Price 256GB version: €1,695 (~$2,103) 512GB version: €2,095 (~$2,599) Availability April 12 - China, Hong Kong, and Macau Sometime later - France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and Switzerland Gallery Pricing and final thoughts The 256GB Huawei Mate RS has a European price of 1,695 euros, compared to the P20 Pro’s 899 euro (~$1,050) price tag. Meanwhile, readers in the U.K. can expect to pay 1,500 pounds (~$1,980). Up the ante to 512GB and you’ll be paying 2,095 euros (~$2,450). It’s unclear if the U.K. will receive the 512GB model. For what it’s worth, the device retails for 26,000 rand (~$1,920) here in South Africa, which is more or less in line with European pricing. The Huawei Mate RS is available in black or red. So fans of the twilight P20 Pro are out of luck. The phone may be eye-wateringly expensive, but it’s more than just a rebranded Huawei flagship — unlike previous Porsche Design phones. Between the notch-less OLED screen, generous storage space, wireless charging, and dual fingerprint scanners, the phone certainly has several notable perks. So if you like the idea of a P20 “Premium” and don’t mind spending the cash, it’s definitely worth a look, even if you don’t end up walking out with one. Everyone else should wait for Huawei’s next flagships which may well include some of the same additional features. That’s it for our Huawei Mate RS review. What do you think of this premium phone? Let us know in the comments. , via Android Authority http://bit.ly/2m3QMEw

[be21zh]

Jun 13, 2018

these 2 dawns both dreamed of enemies and my revenge. yesterday on my jog route, the old sinister, an elder man, a mad cow, again challenged me physically, took a narrow way in advance me. he copied my route twice, always bragged his mule energetic and orthodox. It really disgusting me but I trusted God the killing upon profane, anytime anywhere. it took me longer to roam when I caught sight of my mission on the earth progresses so step by step and devising broken. God dad, enemies took our road to sabotage our beautiful world's descending. near my dorm, the neighbor room of my dorm, is a half size room previously for cleaner keeping tools, now occupied by dorm administrative staff, a likely lesbian. dorm authority previously never put woman among mans' area, but the cheap cow insisted lodging among all man dorms, just for steal and spying me. day by day it hided herself in the shabby shelter to surveillance me, to profane me. likely she arranged that to take advantage of public asset for private interest, or the SOE under PRC tyrant's direction to threaten me with the trick. as to larger aspect, these 2 weeks quite satisfying: dorm internet access upgrade to chinaunicom fiber optics, whose download speed stable at 2MB/s. upload speed almost the same. I completed downloading OSes on our raspberry pi within 2 hours for 2 or 4 system images. with the utility, I can safely try more Linux distributive and more prepared for Linux world which so attractive comparing Microsoft under PRC blackmail. now my son and my raspberry pi both equipped with more elegant OSes, ready to go further and higher on the ward free informative universe. the ISP in the pass week gradually picked up to surveillance me. it already blocked me 2 days last week, forced me surfing domestic sites includes its homepage, where I found cheap but gracious mobile phone number with modest data plan, 15 CNY/mon. I had already persuaded by its sms to have a free of charge deputy phone number, but later contact refuted me saying the data plan includes deputy card requires at lease 128CNY/mon consuming. but on the website, I saw an independent phone number only costs 30CNY, so I immediately ordered one, in rhythm of rain in an aimless night besieged by deadly blockage from open web. It's so meaningful and rewarding, that I can't wait to add the new asset to all my zhone GA contacts. Monday express informed me the arrival of the sim card and I fetched immediately, even the staff of the unicom missing and handled over her colleague. Sunday I busy with trying enable other 2 GA chrome device management within google admin panel before woz returning from his painting class his mom arranged years. even failed due to google policy, we glad the 2 GA didn't bundled with central administrative which usually bans full google play store access, as status quo. my son uncertain about my blame last Monday upon his adopting a corrective glasses his mom suggested in favor of Chinese so said innovation, but never trustworthy. he tried to flattered me by turning on English podcast proactive as I frequently urged while he always loosed to abid. but I don't care, and glad to reunite him in the fruitful weekend. his internet ISP once boasted speed of 30MB but never satisfying, rather just lagging and broken frequently, likely in PRC surveillance's ordain. I even can't update his Linux smoothly there. each time when I visit my son and launch update, it's bottle neck and upset our patience. God laughs the dirty trick and burning brains wasted among all ghosted communism China wholely in ash. God dad, I'm so contented by my new internet that I here end this post soon. grant my son satisfying web and rich content of play. grant us ward free web, for otherwise I see only darkness of dictator propaganda, coarse of manipulation of social consciousness. bring me sooner my Royal China, my Crown Queen from Japan, Asoh Yukiko. bring me closer my dream land and peace of God's mercy upon Chinese and China, my vested land from my glorious ancestor. thx for this sunny morning, Dad God.

May 29, 2018

dreamed with my son roamed in remote place near Tianjin, northern China, my university city. I carried my passed mother's corpse and search for service to bury it. we were refuted once for too expensive. then near country fair we met Gao Jun, my once alumnus who soon after army train in beginning of PRC campus migrated from our major Philosophy school into Economics, but stayed in dorm of our class girls. her husband or brother inquired our problem and extended his help, out of Chinese taboo, while Miss Gao remained her self-possessed normally among guests in her spacious house in my dream. we likely rested there and waited for more money remit from our relatives, or aided by Gao to settle our funeral. the northern China countryside scene lonely detailed in dream, different from my hometown, central China. last night it drizzled, left wet ground when I went to dorm canteen for breakfast. last night I put 2 pillows in stack and its the highest pillow I ever had with my own, for the cover of my pillar sent to laundry and no replacement. I always admire American family pillars in its episodes, large and soft and qualifies, but never found within domestic market includes online e-commerce. yesterday I half day roaming in dorm, except reading informative web as routine for one or 2 hours. my life more and more turned like an elder's, or even worse, like those retired gathered in gate ball game yard outside near my dorm window view. they found no fun in the game, no challenge, no exciting, but just gather and moving. still there are fights among common Chinese, like the dorm canteen. the operational couples loathed to invest more on food materials, but spare no efforts to advertise, to celebrate its anniversary. the result is fewer and fewer customers. I usually have less than a bowl meat in a week there together. it doesn't hurt me much as a mandated vegetarian, but let me slender. and the business possibly reined by PRC surveillance against me. recent months my throat more and more choked by phlegm, I had to cough hard to spit it. my backbone also turned inflexible: after standing up it takes quite few seconds to waist straight from sitting. usually the most exciting moment in a week is gathering my son, woz, on Sunday weekly. his sinful mom tentative separates us, frequently change my son's timetable to drive my son away from my side. God dad, the drizzle turns heavier. dad God, my life runs full and merry. no matter how sinister attempted to ruin it. grant us our web business booming and self-relies. bring us sooner Royal China for better future. bring me my Crown Queen from Japan, Asoh Yukiko, for my second baby, billing zhu. God dad last salary means so much for us. my worn shoes, which embarrassed me again last raining Sunday when it was wet being handled to spa keeper, now replaced by new one. my son glad with his new chromebook bag he chose his own. God dad, in coming alipay credit returning day, let us anxious free. thx God dad, for surfing hard time so smooth regardless PRC war time preparing period, thx for skipping us from trifle grudge in the failing and doomed authority.

May 26, 2018

this month my salary from QRRS exceptionally supportive: nearly 600 additional totals ￥3600, and my younger brother gifted me ￥200 for update my wrecked shoes. with it, I bought my son, woz birthday cake a dearest one, ￥128 fruits cake titled 和风莓语. we designated praying for Japanese spiritual and English.the cake shop near my dorm and kindly offered us a set of stainless steer cake knife and forks. my son lately returned from his school, near 7 pm, for his school forced even grade 7th students to have night class aiming better performance in rat race entrance exam of elite senior middle school. his mom this time actively joined us in celebration. woz, and all us likely enjoyed the delicacy, fruit cake. after first round of eating cake, my son lent himself to my planned task abrupt, setup his new account in google chrome for easy access family asset book. that lasted more than an hour and wonderfully done. I then left, urging my son listening and watching more English as cliche. on bus station, the last bus line missed. I walked 2 bus stops to return my dorm, and busy with publishing video and photo captured in the ritual birthday onto web till 11 am. in this deep sleep I dreamed 2 kind of different animals, 獾 badger and a kind of Chinese sound like "揉", both like sloth or pangolin. the training and performance of district summer sports game Qiqihar municipal requisites on going now again, near 8 am and loudly outside. I saw in these days how the expropriation costs, esp young lives, their decency and creativeness in change of collective cheap mob. dad, my son's class was lucky out of the chaos. guide us away from burning turbulence of PRC war time preparation. grant us our job meaningful and rewarding material and spiritual. in this windy morning, dad God, let the world witness how plenty our joys, perfections in our living spectrum.