#and its like. so u can world build an entire off screen system but the idea that his dad yells more then the one time thats shown on screen

[thetangibleghost]

Despite the weirdness it's been kinda interesting talking to Fridays system in his little roleplay world.

Earlier today we had this convo, which made sense in context he didn't just say this randomly lol

SF: I don't have any memories of my mom

Me: none at all?

SF: none

Me: ....

SF: ....

Me: but other alters do?

SF: obviously.

[vodkassassin]

Hello supreme overlord, ruler of all, writer of the most amazing of sentances and of the nicest of words, could you please write SQQ and SQH interacting in public and forgetting where they are so they just share friendly touches (like touch-starved millenials do) which ppl see and loose their minds over? Like SQH casually throws his hand over SQQ's shoulder and the other just looks pleased youdon'thavetoifyoudon'twantto Ty <3

Moth babe I swear to god

Here’s some platonic cucumberplane for you guys! @overlordmoth

-

Shen Yuan has been in the body of Shen Qingqiu for seven months. Seven warm months of early spring, a beautiful, gorgeous summer befitting of a xianxia world, and a colorful yet mild fall.

He’s been so busy with worrying about the plot, about dismantling the OOC function, about what this exasperating, crazy world (or the System) would throw at him next, that he hasn’t really had the chance to concern himself with the smaller things, like the weather. Especially since those smaller things have been content to be rather wonderful and non-problematic.

Until now, that is. It’s the beginning of his eighth month in this ridiculous place, and it seems winter is finally here.

Yesterday, now that Shen Qingqiu has the belated gift of hindsight, he realizes that all the trees — usually so full of brightly colored leaves in warm tones of oranges and reds and yellows and even some pinks — they’d all gone completely skeletal, very abruptly losing all those final leaves at once. And, seemingly overnight, three feet of snow apparently fell to blanket the mountain sect — because it’s a mountain! Lots of snow! Who’s grand idea was it to build the sect high up on a mountain range? Fuck you, Airplane! — while Shen Qingqiu was asleep, and now….

Shen Qingqiu kicks the door that obstructs his way open with his foot, and Shang Qinghua flinches back in his seat across the room.

“I’m sorry! What? Oh! U—Um, hey bro, what’s —?”

Crossing the office, Shen Qingqiu takes a brief, self-indulgent moment to loom over his fellow transmigrator and watch him sweat, before he whips open his fan and presses the tip of one of its spokes to his mouth in contemplation.

“Scoot over.”

“What?” Shang Qinghua asks, and squeaks when Shen Qingqiu doesn’t wait any longer before plopping down directly beside him and leaning over to burrow into his side. “Sh-Shen bro—?!”

“It’s fucking cold,” Shen Qinqiu hisses, “and I am wearing silk. And I own nothing but silk! Who’s idea was that, huh, Qinghua?”

Shang Qinghua doesn’t make a sound for a few long seconds, but Shen Qingqiu can feel the man trembling. He can’t tell, however, whether it is because the man is nervous or laughing at him.

“I-I would have assumed it was Shen-shixiong’s idea, seeing as how it’s his wardrobe,” Shang Qinghua finally says, voice shaking, and clearly talking about the original goods, whose character and wardrobe he had written himself!

It sounds enough like mocking that Shen Qingqiu gives into his urge and snaps his fan closed, using it to jab his friend — yes, his friend — in the ribs. The shorter man yelps.

“Ow! Bro, c’mon—!”

“I’ll kill you.” Shen Qingqiu tells him in a stage whisper, lifting his eyebrows up to show how serious he is about it.

“You would never.” Shang Qinghua sounds so sure of himself. “You love me too much, bro!”

“Would you stop squirming?” Shen Qingqiu huffs in irritation as the other peak lord’s movements makes him slip off his shoulder and slide down to land in his lap instead. “Shang Qinghua!”

“I didn’t do it!” Shang Qinghua wails, nonetheless teaching out to wrap an arm around Shen Qingqiu’s shoulder and tugging him up a bit to rest against his chest instead. “There, is that better? You know, you interrupted me. I’m trying to work!”

“You can still write with me here, stop whining,” Shen Qingqiu gripes, and leans forward to shove his frozen nose directly against Shang Qinghua’s neck. The man jerks back and whines.

“Stop! You’re cold!”

“I know, that’s why I’m here! Order me a winter wardrobe right now!”

“I don’t have the right forms for that at my desk!” His friend says, a brush dripping ink still held aloft in one hand. “I’ll have a disciple hunt them down for me and do it later!”

“I’ll turn into a popsicle before then! Bitch, do I look like Captain America to you?” Shen Qingqiu demands.

“You ain’t nearly blonde enough,” Shang Qinghua huffs, setting down his brush and rubbing some warmth into his bro’s upper arm. The other sighs slightly and leans even more of his weight into him. Neither of them are very heavy, though, so it doesn’t make much of a difference. “You wanna borrow one of my fur-lined robes until I get you your own?”

“I could kiss you for that,” Shen Qingqiu admits. “Please.”

There’s a loud, strangled sound from the doorway.

Both of them whip their heads around to stare in surprise at the utterly befuddled Yue Qingyuan that stands in the doorway. Slightly behind the sect leader, a red-faced Luo Binghe stares at the two cuddling peak lords with wide eyes. A few seconds tick by in complete silence, before the boy turns away and flees.

“Uh,” Shang Qinghua says smartly.

Shen Qingqiu withholds a groan and smacks his friend on the shoulder with an open palm, burying his face into Shang Qinghua’s neck so that he doesn’t have to look at the still-staring sect leader. “Well, shit.”

“I—” Yue Qingyuan attempts to speak, but his voice fails him immediately, and the three peak lords are left in a stifling, awkward silence.

Shang Qinghua clears his throat. “M-Maybe sect leader should come back later?” He asks.

Shen Qingqiu is suddenly hyper-aware of the arm that his friend has wrapped around him, and the way he’s sitting across Shang Qinghua’s thighs, and mentally swears again. This is a little bit too much for ancient China xianxia sensibilities, isn't it? Fuck.

Yue Qingyuan tries to speak again, but no words come out. After a second, the man settles for giving them a sharp nod. He then turns on his heel and leaves without a word.

Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua stare at one another in silence.

“Awkward.” Shen Qingqiu eventually manages, burrowing even closer against his friend. Honestly, he’s just too fucking cold to be overly concerned about the consequences of this blunder just yet.

“I hate you.” Shang Qinghua says, reaching a hand up to hit him. There’s absolutely no power behind it at all. “This is your fault.”

“It absolutely is not,” Shen Qingqiu denies. “You’re the one who gave me an entirely silk wardrobe. Fuck you.”

“Fuck me yourself, you coward.”

“Please,” someone whimpers, and they turn to see Shang Qinghua’s head disciple cowering in the corner of the room, beet-red face buried into both his hands. “Please, stop.”

“Haha, whoops,” Shang Qinghua laughs nervously. “Sorry, A-Kao! Why don’t you take a break?”

“I’m never coming back,” the disciple says, emotionally. He pushes away from the wall and high tails it out of the offices faster than even Luo Binghe had fled.

The two of them are silent as they watch him leave.

“God dammit,” Shen Qingqiu sighs tiredly. He slumps even further against Shang Qinghua, and the other man adjusts his grip on him. “The System is going to kill me for this later.”

“Not if we kill it first,” Shang Qinghua says, a malicious light appearing in his eyes.

Shen Qingqiu looks up at him. “... I’m listening.”

They both ignore the neon red, flashing warning screens that only they can see.

[indipindy16]

Heyyyyy, so about that doc with the AU ideas.... (Please feed me I yearn for content)

im obsessed with the idea of monoma and aizawa being related to afo lol. you only see like 3 quirks in the whole series that are based on other quirks - what i would call ‘meta quirks,’ that would only have any function in a world of quirked people. so ofc these 3 quirks have to be related:

afo decided to have a bunch of kids, to see if he could make noumus out of them which retained their brains after being given a bunch of quirks. he impregnated a bunch of women lol, but he kept tabs on them. as soon as the kids turned 4 and presented their quirk, they would be kidnapped by the doctor and brought into the lab. most of the kids had quirks based on quirks (seeing quirks, stealing quirks, copying quirks, erasing quirks…) and are various ages. aizawa, monoma and midoriya were some of them, but aizawa got saved by his badass mother when he was still a kid, so he was already gone by the time midoriya and monoma came around. the two of them manage to escape while afo is still recovering from his fight with all might, and since monoma’s mother was killed by afo, he goes to live with midoriya and his mother. they go off the grid and run away from afo. in this au midoriya is quirkless, up until he meets all might and it goes as usual. umm could be from monoma’s pov, and include monoshin because that’s cute. basically after the sports festival, afo finds monoma again and in the summer camp they kidnap him instead of bakugou. (the reason why aizawa was never caught or taken back by afo is because he won the whole sports fest and became too famous/well protected to be easily stolen back - since monoma didn’t make the fight rounds, he’s a perfect target. afo only knew the kids by their quirks, he never actually met them, so he doesn’t realise that midoriya is one of his kids as well because mido has a quirk now.) anyway so after they kidnap monoma back, he and midoriya spill the beans to the ua faculty, aizawa has a midlife crisis over the fact that he now has younger siblings, and afo continues to be a dick who doesn’t pay child support.

just some sweets stuff as well:

Christmas cake: Japanese slang for an unmarried woman over 25 who is considered undesirable as a wife, in the same way that Christmas cakes are considered useless after Christmas Day.

Good thing for Jirou, she never cared much about being ‘desirable’ to the opposite sex anyway.

-> a momojirou story about jirou’s 26th birthday and momo reassuring her that she is the best gf ever, and that she loves her very much. pro hero gfs <3

*

like. the trope of aizawa adopting shinsou? well what about instead… hawks adopting tokoyami?? maybe he comes from a super religious family and they tried to exorcise the ‘demon’ from him, protective services put him in the foster system, and he ends up with really shitty foster families, and his quirk is considered ‘dangerous.’ but then our boy hawks swoops in and goes ‘u know what? i’m not letting my intern get disrespected like this’ and adopts him. obviously hawks is still young himself (22 i think), so he’s not very good at the whole parenting thing, but miruko helps him out. he becomes an older brother figure for tokoyami. gen found family fluff ensues

*

bEST JEANIST AS A TEENAGE FASHION ICON

thats it, thats the idea

*

HAIKYUU AU - no quirks. just volleyball

so the ua boys volleyball team is on the rocks. its been pretty much non-existent and turned to dust at this point. but, it once own the nationals.

izuku’s mum runs this second hand / antique / trinket store, and izuku helps out sometimes. one day, he finds some old sports tapes in the back and watches them - they’re of the year when ua was at nationals, and their striker, yagi toshinori, inspires izuku to play volleyball.

bakugo is on the school team and he threatens / bullies izuku not to join, so izuku has to train on his own. he learns shitty technique, but he ends up building some muscle by clearing out the beach.

izuku gets into ua, and when he goes to apply for the volleyball team, ofc bakugo picks a fight. the other first-years who join the team are todoroki, kaminari, shinsou, kirishima, and iida. there aren’t any second years - they all got expelled - but mirio and tamaki are on the team as third years, and nejirou is the team manager. their teacher sponsor is a new teacher this year, and it’s left ambiguous. there’s the whole ‘get over ur differences if u want to join’ thing, and then woohoo! team!

turns out their teacher sponsor is aizawa. he drags in the now-retired-due-to-injury yagi toshinori to be the coach. when aizawa went to ua, the volleyball team was too small to go to any tournaments - he’s determined to turn it around and let these kids live their dreams.

some ‘canon? what’s that?’ ideas:

just a really wholesome story about inko and mitsuki being besties. met in middle school or something, supported each other through everything… just gals being the best of pals...

or i mean u could make it gay, that’s always an option (and have izuku and katsuki grow up as actual bros, and actually be friendly to one another? what a shocker) - like, the two of them get sperm donors and are pregnant at the same time so the kids can be twins or something. and ofc you’d expect katsuki to be closest to mitsuki and for inko to be closest to izuku, but then to make it a TWIST add some great bonding between inko + katsuki and mitsuki + izuku!! i’ve never really seen any mitsuki + izuku bonding in stories before, so that’d be pretty cool

*

izuku gets hit by a villain’s quirk during a big villain attack when he’s 7, turning him part-cat. the villain dies during the attack, so they can’t erase his quirk’s effects - they’d have to surgically remove the ears and tail, or get an expensive quirk specialist in. izuku decides he likes being a nekomimi, so he keeps them and gets being part-cat officially registered as his quirk. he has better senses and agility, and he can talk to cats now i guess. also his eyes are cat eyes. he doesn’t pass the ua exam, so he goes into the general department instead, but he does really well in the sports festival and gets transferred into the hero course with shinsou. (this is all just because i need a valid excuse to make izuku have cat ears.)

some ‘future au’ ideas:

all of the pro heroes merch lines - deku’s ’t-shirt’ shirts, tokoyami’s edgy emo/goth hoodies, iida’s ingenium trainers, bakugou’s popping candy chocolate, todoroki’s own brand of scar cream, HAGAKURE’S CAMO COLLECTION OMG the possibilities are endless  

---i made hagakure’s camo for her bday drawing

(i use a strikethrough so i know which ideas i’ve used or posted anywhere. i think that once i put an idea on the internet, it’s probably free reign, so if you want to use any of these for fics or art go ahead. i’d just appreciate it is you could link back to me haha)

5 years after graduating from the General Studies department of UA, Hitoshi opened his own agency. As a private detective.

By the time he’s 25, he’s settled in and relatively comfortable with his career choice. So when his work phone rings one day and he’s still half-asleep he easily opens with, “Shinsou Detective Agency. Before you ask, I do not investigate cheating spouses or missing dogs and I do not screen potential employees for companies.” He paused. “I’ll investigate missing cats, though.”

The person on the other end took a harsh breath, like an almost-laugh, and responded gruffly, “Hm. Good to know if Jelly ever gets lost.”

-> aka shinsou is a PI and aizawa contacts him for help on a case. aizawa never sought out shinsou after the sports festival, being too busy with 1-a’s insane antics, and so shinsou went on to never become a hero. maybe he’s also a vigilante on the side? idk. anyway so yeah aizawa gives him temporary permission to use his quirk during the case. they investigate, blah blah, the point is that afterwards aizawa gets shinsou a licence and takes him on as a sidekick (the same way ingenium offered to koichi in vigilantes)

i have new ideas on the daily. this doc is just growing

keep in mind, i have given to you here only a few of the shortest ones. there are several huge paragraphs of full-au ideas (like where izuku has a quirk, and the entire story follows canon)

these are, ostensibly, ideas for fics that i never write because i’m lazy. but some of them i do end up using for art or comics, so... yeah. most of the comics i’ve posted were originally just little scripts in this doc. an example:

yamada and reformed!shirakumo are walking together, with coffees

shirakumo: so then i - oh, your phone’s wringing

(yamada’s ringtone is the nyancat song, and the contact name is ‘daddy’)

shirakumo: haha, you still call ur dad ‘daddy’? i thought you got over that in high school (taking a sip on the coffee)

yamada: (answering the phone, keeping eye contact with shirakumo) hey, shouta, what’s up?

shirakumo: (spits out coffee)

—- made this a comic on tumblr

damn this post is longer than i expected

whelp, i hope you liked it

[aion-rsa]

15 Underrated Game Boy Advance Games

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When the Game Boy Advance hit shelves in Japan on March 21, 2001, Nintendo was still riding the incredible success of the original Game Boy. After more than a decade of the Game Boy’s handheld dominance, though, gamers eagerly awaited the next evolution in portable gaming. The GBA delivered that evolution.

In fact, many features we now take for granted in portables like the Switch can be traced back to the GBA. The addition of shoulder buttons, full 32-bit color graphics, and eventually even built-in backlighting with the 2003 release of the Game Boy Advance SP were all lauded as welcome innovations and improvements. Sadly, the GBA’s time in the sun was remarkably short. Pressured by the upcoming release of the Sony PSP, Nintendo released the GBA’s successor, the Nintendo DS, less than four years after the launch of the GBA.

Yet, GBA games continued to be released all the way into 2008. The GBA is still fondly remembered for its excellent ports of games like Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and for helping launch new franchises like Mega Man Zero and Golden Sun, but its library was much more than just those major titles. Dig a little deeper into it and you’ll find that the GBA was also home to some truly excellent hidden gems that are still worth checking out 20 years later.

15. Urban Yeti!

2002 | Cave Barn Studios

Keep in mind that in the early 2000s, developing games for the GBA was much cheaper than making a console game. Steam wasn’t a thing yet, and cell phones could barely run Snake. So, if you were an ambitious young developer with a goofy idea and a dream, your best bet for making it happen was to put it on Nintendo’s handheld. 

Urban Yeti! is the type of weird, charming experience that typically only finds a cult audience on PCs nowadays. You play from a top-down perspective as the titular Yeti who is looking for his mate in a small city. Most of the time, the game plays like the first two Grand Theft Auto games with even more chances to punch random pedestrians. More importantly, finding a boombox starts a dancing freak out that clears the screen of enemies, and “missions” take the form of minigames inspired by titles like Toobin’ and Root Beer Tapper.

It’s weird and short, but always hilarious, and it’s unfortunately become increasingly obscure since its release.

14. Lady Sia 

2001 | RFX Interactive

Most of the platformers on the GBA were either fantastic SNES ports or dreadful licensed fare, but a few original titles do stand out. The first thing you’ll probably notice about Lady Sia is that it looks great. Its big, bright graphics were a perfect fit for the GBA’s small screen. The gameplay is also surprisingly deep and utilizes combos, magic attacks, and even the ability to shape shift into a sasquatch during boss fights. Yes, this is the second game on the list to feature a playable Bigfoot, but we promise it’s the last.

Lady Sia was fairly well received at the time of its release, and a sequel was even planned in 2003. Sadly, it was canceled due to a lack of funding. 

13. V-Rally 3

2002 | Velez & Dubail

The GBA was released at a time when the vast majority of console games were going full 3D. The GBA, however, was obviously built with 2D pixel games in mind. Those perceived limitations didn’t stop some developers from pushing the limits of what the handheld was capable of, though, as evidenced by the V-Rally 3 team managing to cram fully polygonal cars into the GBA.

Graphically, V-Rally 3 is undoubtedly the best-looking game on the system. Its surprisingly detailed outdoor tracks could easily be mistaken for an N64 game. You can even play the entire career mode in first-person. Thanks to some surprisingly smooth handling, though, V-Rally 3 proves to be much more than just great visuals. It may not look like much compared to modern racers, but it’s still the undisputed pinnacle of racing on the GBA.

12. Car Battler Joe

2002 | Ancient

Car Battler Joe is a decent RPG mixed with awesome car battling sections that elevate it above most of the GBA’s library. The story isn’t great (your father is missing and you have to find him), but the hook is that in this world, cars are a rarity. As such, you have to build your own Mad Max-style vehicle from spare parts found around the world and eventually battle other vehicles as you work to finish your quest.

That concept alone is begging for a sequel or spiritual successor. Sadly, most people have long forgotten about Joe, and even its re-release on the Wii U eShop in 2015 didn’t garner much attention.

11. Kuru Kuru Kururin

2001 | Eighting

Kuru Kuru Kururin is one of those puzzle games that sounds so simple in theory but ends up being surprisingly complex and a lot of fun. You play as a rotating stick (or “helicopter” in the North American version) that must make it to the goal at the end of a series of mazes. You control how quickly the stick rotates, and you’ll need to master that mechanic as the difficulty ramps up significantly in the later levels. This game remains a remarkably addictive experience until the end.

Though Kuru Kuru Kururin‘s core concept boasts nearly universal appeal, the game was only released on the GBA in Japan and Europe. A localized version finally made its way to North America in 2016 through the Wii U eShop, but Nintendo of America seems oddly stubborn about acknowledging the series. Neither of its two sequels ever made it out of Japan. 

10. Sabre Wulf

2004 | Rare

Most gamers say that Rare peaked during the N64 era with a string of successful platformers and shooters, but old-school Rare still managed to squeeze out a handful of classic games for the GBA after the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. Everything gamers love about classic Rare games is on full display in Sabre Wulf: the cutting-edge graphics, tight controls, and the trademark offbeat British sense of humor.

Unfortunately, Sabre Wulf didn’t find much of an audience. Prior to the release of this title, the Sabreman character hadn’t starred in a game in almost 20 years. The updated gameplay apparently didn’t appeal to older fans, and wasn’t innovative enough to attract younger gamers. It’s aged better than many other GBA games, though, and it’s certainly well worth a playthrough now.

9. Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars

2002 | Konami

While it was never as successful as Hideo Kojima’s other games, the Zone of the Enders series is still fondly remembered for some of the better action games of the PS2 era. Their unique mecha combat and Kojima’s flair for cinematic storytelling helped those games stand out from a competitive pack.

Unlike its console brethren, The Fist of Mars is a turn-based strategy game. That means it’s not nearly as fast-paced as the other Zone of the Enders games, but there is an aiming reticle for targeting enemies, so this is more action-oriented than the typical strategy game.

While Kojima wasn’t directly involved in the development of The Fist of Mars, the writing is surprisingly strong, hitting all the right dramatic and philosophical notes that mecha fans have come to expect from the genre.

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2003 | Griptonite Games

EA released a couple of solid beat ‘em ups for consoles to coincide with the release of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the GBA versions are actually even better than those largely beloved adaptations. Like The Two Towers tie-in released a year prior, The Return of the King is basically Diablo in Middle Earth.

There are a whopping eight different playable characters pulled from the movie. Despite the technical constraints of the GBA, each of those characters plays completely differently. Aragorn is the classic warrior, Legolas is the able-bodied archer, and Gandalf uses magic to fell waves of orcs. They’re even all completely customizable with their own weapons and equipment.

Read more

Games

25 Best Game Boy Advance Games

By Chris Freiberg

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Castlevania: Why the Game Boy Advance Games Are Worth Revisiting

By Chris Freiberg

The GBA version of Return of the King still stands out as one of the best Lord of the Rings games ever made, and future games inspired by Tolkien’s books would do well take a few cues from it. 

7. Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

2006 | Flight-Plan

Thanks to lower development costs, the GBA featured many experiments that led to unusual combinations of genres. For instance, whereas many dungeon crawlers are typically slow, plodding affairs, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story sped things up through fast-paced, real-time battles inspired by the Tales of series. Battles in Swordcraft Story story are an absolute joy since you’re doing more than just scrolling through menus.

The sequel, released just a few months later on the GBA, is also worth checking out. Sadly, while the Summon Night main series is still chugging along, the Swordcraft Story subseries looks to be abandoned at this point. 

6. Klonoa: Empire of Dreams

2001 | Namco

For a brief period in the early 2000s, the Klonoa series felt like it was on the verge of becoming a household name. All of the games were praised for their tight, diverse platforming, and the series’ word of mouth was generally strong, but the games just never seemed to reach a large audience.

Empire of Dreams is a side-story set between the events of the two console Klonoa games. It features the same use of the “wind bullet” to capture enemies and the same creative level design as its console big brothers. While it can’t pull off the 3D effects featured in those games, impressive multiplane backgrounds and advanced rotation effects do help it stand out among the GBA’s crowded library of platformers. 

5. Rebelstar: Tactical Command

2005 | Codo Technologies

Don’t be fooled by the Rebelstar name: this is actually an X-Com game through and through. While there’s no base building or resource management in this GBA title, that classic tactical combat against an alien threat that defines the X-Com series can be found here in all its glory. Then again, what else would you expect? Rebelstar was created by the same guy behind X-Com, Julian Gollop.

Of course, this being a GBA game, Rebelstar’s visuals aren’t quite up to par with an X-Com title. In fact, some may find its more cartoony style jarring when paired with this style of gameplay, but Rebelstar certainly makes for a unique experience compared to the other tactics games out there.

4. Yggdra Union

2006 | Sting Entertainment

The final days of any gaming platform are a dark time typically defined by sporadic releases and shovelware. Yet, every now and then, a bright spot appears for those gamers who haven’t yet moved on to the next generation. As a deep mix of tactical RPG mechanics and card battles bolstered by some of the best 2D graphics on the portable, Yggdra Union is one of the better games released in the GBA’s post-DS era.

While the game’s story isn’t great, the regular banter between party members is charming, and there is a lot of content to keep you busy if the gameplay manages to hook you. A Switch port was even released in Japan last year, so keep your fingers crossed that it makes its way stateside. 

3. Drill Dozer

2006 | Game Freak

Game Freak will always be known for the massively successful Pokemon franchise, but the developer has occasionally dabbled in other genres. The best of those experiments has to be Drill Dozer: a game about drilling. Need to go forward? Try drilling. Backward? Also drilling. What about jumping? Yeah, that actually involves drilling, too. It sounds repetitive, but there are so many different ways use to Jill’s Drill Dozer that the mechanic actually never wears out its welcome.

It might be tempting to check out Drill Dozer via emulation, but it’s actually worth tracking down the original cartridge for this one since it’s one of only two GBA games to feature a rumble back in the cart. It adds quite a lot to the experience.

2. Astro Boy: Omega Factor

2004 | Treasure

A handheld game based on an anime that hasn’t been popular in the United States since the ‘60s sounds like a recipe for disaster, but legendary Japanese developer Treasure could do no wrong in the ‘90s and early 2000s. Like most of the games in the Treasure catalog, Astro Boy: Omega Factor features fast arcade gameplay, massive screen-filling special attacks, and some of the most beautiful sprites the GBA could produce.

Though Treasure was once a prolific developer, responsible for classics like Ikaruga and Sin & Punishment, the company has gone quiet in recent years. The studio hasn’t even released a game stateside in the last decade. However, a re-release of this gem could mark a great comeback for the legendary developer if the licensing could be worked out.

1. Ninja Five-O

2003 | Hudson Soft

Ninja Five-O should have been a system seller for the GBA. The game feels like a lost classic from the 16-bit era. It’s a beautiful combination of Ninja Gaiden and Bionic Commando bolstered by tight controls and an over-the-top story about a magic-wielding ninja who is also a cop. Anyone who has managed to track down a copy swears up and down that it’s one of the very best experiences on the handheld.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Yet, Ninja Five-O was set up to fail from the start. It’s unknown how many copies were made, but it was nearly impossible to find one at the time of its release. Even though the game was developed in Japan, it was never even released there. Media outlets also barely covered it. Yet, the legend of Joe Osugi has only grown over the years, with complete copies of this game regularly selling on eBay for around $1,000. Even an authentic standalone cartridge will set you back several hundred dollars. You know what, though? It’s actually one of the few rare games that may be worth the price. It really is as good as you’ve heard.

The post 15 Underrated Game Boy Advance Games appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[skriak]

TOP 10 NINTENDO SWITCH GAMES 2019 - my arbitrary list!

Sometimes it's good to be proven wrong. I was pretty sceptical when the Switch was first announced, as it didn't seem too different from the Wii U's gamepad. Then I spent two years watching Nintendo enjoy a complete reversal of fortune, to the point of potentially amassing a more compelling library than Sony's or Microsoft's consoles. So that's how I quite suddenly found myself buying a Switch in October 2019, after having resisted the PS4 and Xbone for five whole years, and my free time has since been dominated by this little machine that defied the odds.

Some of Nintendo's business decisions can still seem inexplicable, but releasing a powerful handheld console that can also be docked with a TV at a moment's notice has proved to be an inspired idea, rather than the gimmick the Wii U's gamepad mostly turned out to be. And along with Nintendo's dependable series of top-notch exclusives, the Switch has enjoyed much better third-party support, which is how I ended up buying Dark Souls for the fourth bloody time just because the option to play it portably was too tempting to resist.

The Switch is the first console I've bought since the PS3 and for all Nintendo's quirks, there's a reason the Switch has dominated Christmas wishlists for three years running. Games like Super Mario Odyssey feel like full-size adventures that just happen to have a portable option, as opposed to handheld games you can also play on the big screen. This is the first year in a long while that I've actually played enough topical titles to justify a "games of the year" list, even if my recent Nintendo bias is pretty blatant.

So with that caveat in mind, and in no particular order, here's my entirely subjective list of the best Nintendo Switch games of 2019.

Luigi's Mansion 3

This is a franchise I'd always been curious about and can finally have an opinion on. The process of going from floor to floor of the hotel hoovering up ghosts and solving puzzles is pretty straightforward, but Luigi's Mansion 3 has so much polish and personality crammed into the cartridge. Luigi is immediately lovable as a determined coward, and each level has a wildly different theme that's realised with extravagant audio and visual flair, so progress always feels rewarding. Though this isn't true horror by any means, there can be an unsettling atmosphere and some of the bosses are pretty freaky. I officially love this oddball franchise and am desperate for a chance to play the story again in co-op. Unquestionably a first-class exclusive.

Doom (Switch port)

Not to be confused with the impressive Switch version of Doom 2016, this is the iconic Doom made cheap and accessible. While purists may take issue with some minor technical deviations, this is the first time I've got most of the way through Doom because the portability and *glorious* true dual-stick control makes this easily my favourite version. There's even a cheat menu for when I just want to mindlessly punch hell beasts. The main thing that ages Doom is its maze-like structure, but playing it casually experience alleviates that frustration somewhat. At a grand total of four pounds, this is a BFB (big fucking bargain).

Untitled Goose Game

You know a game is good when the only asterisk I put on my recommendation is that it *may* be overpriced. Untitled Goose Game took the internet by storm this year because it's the quintessential indie game: cute, simple and with anti-authoritarian undertones. As a horrible goose, it's your mission to cause havoc in an unsuspecting English village, interacting with people and objects to cause chain reactions of chaos. Some of the puzzle solutions are maybe a bit obscure, but 90% of the time just messing around with everything in the area will lead to a solution. Untitled Goose Game makes up for its brevity with sheer comedic charm, feeling much better-designed than a "lul so random" affair like Goat Simulator. A honking good time.

Terraria (Switch port)

I have spent literally hundreds of hours on the PC version of Terraria, so when I was broke after buying my Switch the new Terraria port was an obvious cost-effective choice. While the controls aren't as precise, the amount of time spent mining and sorting through loot makes this a great handheld experience. I can't comment on the multiplayer options but few games represent such a sheer value for money, as there's always a new cave to explore or a new boss to overcome. Time has been kind to this 2011 classic, grind notwithstanding.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

While I personally enjoyed the original Yooka-Laylee, it was definitely flawed and I never seriously expected to see a sequel. But Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair launched quite abruptly and did a pretty spectacular job of upstaging its predecessor. All the previous game's half-baked feel has been replaced with clever design touches, like the equippable tonics which grant helpful abilities at the cost of a currency penalty. The titular Lair is actually the final level and available to throw yourself at right from the beginning, but beating it without first obtaining more hitpoints by completing other stages is incredibly hard, which is a great way to incentivize progress without denying more confident players the option of beating the game earlier if they can meet the challenge. Impossible Lair might be this year's biggest surprise, and despite a modest budget I think it's worthy of comparison to excellent 2D platformers like Rayman Legends. Just don't expect to defeat Capital B on your first attempt.

A Hat In Time (Switch port)

I recently reviewed A Hat In Time but at the risk of repeating myself, it's one of the most charming games of the last few years and an incredibly impressive crowdfunded achievement. Mario's offerings may be a grander technical feat, but A Hat In Time is a fast and fabulous journey through a series of weird and wonderful worlds that all feel distinct in content and tone. It's very openly inspired by GameCube-era platformers like Mario Sunshine and Psychonauts and it easily scratches that itch. Simply one of the best original platformers of this generation, and I defy you not to love Hat Kid's cheeky antics.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Switch port)

As someone who thinks the original Spyro trilogy holds up better than most early 3D games, I'd have actually preferred a simple port rather than a full remake, but The Reignited Trilogy is honestly impeccable. The updated visuals are gorgeous while maintaining the general style of those old, jaggy models, and very little of the gameplay or content has changed except for sensible updates like the ability to immediately warp between every level you've visited. Having full dual-analogue control is also an absolute godsend even for a PS1 veteran like me. Though Spyro may seem a bit basic these days when faced with modern platformer marvels, the Reignited Trilogy makes these old favourites accessible again at a generous price point.

Ring Fit Adventure

Yes, I have a Wii kicking around in a box somewhere. No, Wii Fit never held my attention as anything more than a curiosity. Ring Fit Adventure, meanwhile, is limited only by my cholesterol-encrusted heart and dislike of excessive showering. This is an honest-to-goodness attempt at making an RPG out of a workout toy, and the amount of polish put into the game's presentation and hardware implementation is pretty remarkable. Levels involve jogging on the spot and squeezing the ring accessory to collect goodies and overcome obstacles, and periodically you'll engage in turn-based combat where you use a custom selection of exercise moves to deal damage. It's a fantastic idea pulled off much more elegantly than it sounds. The ring accessory unfortunately makes this quite an expensive game, so it'll take a lot of regular use to get your money's worth, but I can honestly (and surprisingly) say that exercise suddenly becomes more compelling when it's presented as a light RPG adventure with anthropomorphic gym equipment encouraging you to take breaks and drink plenty of water.

Pokémon Sword/Shield

Disclaimer: I can only give my impressions from 25 hours of playing Pokémon Shield, so this is DEFINITELY not a full review. That being said, this is still an easy recommendation to existing Pokemaniacs and a good starting point for any new acolytes. While the core formula hasn't evolved (har har) much since the very first Pokemon, Sword and Shield still has a number of modern quality of life improvements that make previous generations show their age. I've had so much fun building a core crew of cute and/or badass 'mons in a weird Nintendo version of Britain, and the online features combine with a VASTLY improved random encounter system to make grinding far less of a concern. The wild area takes some getting used to, but it's satisfying to come back and capture the huge Onyx you had to run away from a few hours before. Even if Pokémon Sword/Shield has some technical blemishes and could have pushed the series further in some regards, it's still easy to see why this franchise has maintained such a beloved status for so long.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-mars-tered (Switch port)

Along with Dark Souls, Red Faction was a game I never even knew I needed on the go, but now I've got it I can't imagine ever going back. A cult classic due to its amazing destruction physics, Red Faction sees you leading a proletariat revolution on Mars, literally tearing down corporate monuments to free the working class from systematic oppression. The open world is a bit claustrophobic and the shooting isn't exactly mind-blowing, but there's a reason I've beaten Red Faction every couple of years ever since its original 2009 release. The Switch port does the game justice and if you set the difficulty to easy then this is one of the best rage-venting experiences money can buy. So yes, I recommend getting your ass to Mars.

[mysticdragon3md3]

JJK ep6-13

My reactions while watching Jujutsu Kaisen ep 6-13.  Please ignore my idiocy. This is more for my own fandom memories. . . .

6:49 PM 12/20/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep6

Haaaaaahhhhh~  Crunchyroll crashed at the beginning of the first commercial break.  Now I remmeber.  I decided to stop watching thru Firestick and reconnect my laptop to my Tv.  

6:53 PM 12/20/2020

Let's try this again.  

I forgot how great this animation was in this series.  I should have paid attention to studio MAPPA before Yuri on Ice.

"rotten mikan"?  

7:18 PM 12/20/2020

The great thing about watching on my laptop instead of Amazon Firestick, is that I can rewind and pause when I need to get food, and I don't have to worry about the Firestick crashing Crunchyroll.  ;u;  

Oh now...Fushiguro is talking to that guys' mom... ;o;

Y'know, everyone keeps describing Fushiguro as "cold", but he's REALLY nice.  A LOT.  

Wait.  She doesn' thave a PE uniform?

Oh, that's cool.  The other freshmen need someone good at close combat, and Yuuji is good at it.  

Oh no...!  SUNSHINE SMILE!!!!  MY HEART...!!!!!!!!!!!!!  GODDAMNIT!...

"I couldn't save anyone...I want to become strong."  Endearing shonen protags!!!!  ;U;!!!!!!

This paper silhouette of Yuuji is hilarious.  Which is really odd, becasue just the other week, I was complaining and complaining about how KNY's drawn-out humor got on my nerves.  Yet this joke has been going on for a while, and it wasn't annoying.  O_o?  

Wow.  So many references!  ^O^  Spirit Gun, Bankai, Rasengan,...LOL  

Gojou-sensei says he's not suited to being a teacher, but he's good at being encouraging and focusing students on what they need to study.  

"Negative emotions are the source of Cursed Energy."  Well, nice to get confirmation on that other episode's implied world-building.

I really like so far how this movie-watching training is about practical, mundane emotional control.  I always liked magic systems that alluded to real life emotional experience, and just added some "supernatural", but kept the way emotions work in reality.

Also, I like how often Yuuji does something foolish or silly, and Gojou not only goes along with it, but often also agrees.  In so many other past series, it would be an excuse to chastise the silly protagonist for some "comedy".  You know the routine.  They go back and forth arguing...One gets insulted or angry at the other's lack of sympathy, the other either gets angry that they're getting yelled at for the other's incompetence, or they're stoically dismissive and then the protag gets insulted at that lack of respect, or the protag tries to justify their foolish actions as reasonable, then the other character argues with them about that,...blah blah blah.  Gojo getting along so well with Yuuji is so incredibly refreshing, you don't understand.  

7:44 PM 12/20/2020

I'll save ep7 for later.  Watching anime takes so much effort when I keep wanting to write reactions AND eat at the same time I'm reading subtitles.  Maybe if my eyes were as fast as they used to be...Ah well.   . . . 10:28 PM 12/20/2020

JUJUTSU KAISEN Episode 7 – Assault

I thought this guy got warned not to fight Gojou head-on?  No, wait.  It was just to seal him vs killing him.  Is he ready to seal Gojou?

Gojou's asking this guy to hold up his hand, while he's drawn all cartoony...  This series' humor---!  LOL  ^O^

That is CLEARLY LOTR...  How is this series getting away so many references!  lol

Gojou is really consideratee, compared to a lot of past mentor characters.  I always appreciate compassionate characters.  ^-^  If this series keeps slipping these traits into most of it's characters, I'm going to really love this series even more than I already am starting to.  ^^;  

"New Humanity"?  Is that what Curses think they are?  Talking like it's superior?  But if they're made up of primarily or only negative emotions/energies/Curses, then they have a limited spiritual/experiential range.  That's stagnancy and evolutionarily inferior.  This series is more and more sounding like my Personal Myth's magic system.  lol  And if they start talking about Domains cancelling each other out by one overtaking the same space with its own energy density...Well, this series may be more in sync with my type of thinking than I realized.  ^^;

He can still interrogat Jougo after decapitating him?  Did they establish that Curses can still function a little after being torn up?  Or am I remembering Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba instead?  

Well, I guess that guy is a former student.  

Flower attack and they're both cartoony again.  LOL  This freaking show and it's humor blended into the tense scenes!  ^O^  ...WAit a sec.  How the hell did MAPPA find a director that could so seamlessly blend all that?!  ...Well, it's anime and anime ahs been doing that blending of tones for years, so why is this so surprising to me?  I guess the contrast is a lot more stark.  And yet, it's not jarring AT ALL!  O.O!  

I like that the attack spell was to take away their will to fight.  Usually, I've only seen that concept with humor instead of a peaceful setting.  It's interesting.  

Suddenly it's classroom ettiquite. These dorks!!!!!!!  ^O^  I love them so much already!  LOL

Halloween?  Are they going to explain why sealing Gojou on Halloween is advantageous?  I love Halloween mythology.  

Wow, this omake has a LOT of animation!  O.o . . .

3:43 AM 12/22/2020

JUJUTSU KAISEN Episode 8 – Boredom

I skipped watching this earlier because I thougth I coudlnt' eat and write reactions simultaneously.  But that just made me not watch anime all day.  ;_;  So I'm going to eat while I watch again.  

Odd they're going for a tournament arc when I thought fans were getting tired of it.  But I guess it's only some anime critics.  

Even stranger that fellow students are being set up as antagonists, when there's already such a strong threat established outside of their comrades.  But I guess it's to futher establish the "higher ups" are corrupt and more of a problem than Curses.  

Okkotsu's place?  Was that the person Fushiguro implied died with him on a mission but wasn't in the same year?

I guess not.  

"Boring tastes in women"????  What if someone says they like a feature and in Aoi's opinion that's a "boring" trait but in that person's opinion, it's a great trait?  I can't believe this guy recognnizes it's ok to like guys instead---he'll understand someone else's differing opinion on that level, but not in how subjective a trait can be valued.  -.-;  Well, "ridiculous character introduction" achieved.  

"Unshakable character"  is a good answer.  

See?  What'd I tell you.  Subjective perception.

I'm starting to like Nobara.  She deciphered Maki's weakness already an just started insulted it.  lol  Not even bothering for a physical attack.  

"I panda.  I no understand human speech."  lol

Interesting how Renin makes sure to insult both herself and her sister instead of just insulting her sister.  

Is it weird I like Nobara even more because she's seriously choking Maki?  Naw.  Must be my pet peeve against bullies making me really want to see Maki suffer.  

Liking Nobara more, seeing how calmly she takes these new antagonists.  

4:04 AM 12/22/2020

Crunchyroll is buffering.  ugh.  I hope it doesn't crash.  I'm watching thru my laptop and everything, so it shouldn't crash like the Amazon Firestick.  ;o;

4:14 AM 12/22/2020

Ok. Looks like Crunchyroll froze.  Finsihed an entire YouTube vid, waiting. I'm going to reset the episode then.  ~_~;

4:15 AM 12/22/2020

Oh wait.  It's working.  ---No, wait.  Buffering again.  Ugh.  It's so hard to watch this series!  Lucky I like it more than Demon Slayer KNY.  Makes watching worth the buffering/crashing.  But Yuuji hasn't been in this ep so far, and it's trying my patience without him.  

4:17 AM 12/22/2020

omg.  It unbuffered for only one second.  o__o;;;;;;;

4:19 AM 12/22/2020

Refreshing the page.  

There's stil buffering, even after reloading the ep.  Ugh.  I'm tired of this.  I can try to watch this ep later.  I'm going to watch YouTube.  

5:28 AM 12/22/2020  

I kinda miss my other fandoms.  Persona 5, FE3H,...Much simpler, or rather relationships between characters felt less vitriolic, even when they disagreed.  Even Akechi got dealt with and eventually taken off screen permamently.  I didn't have to spend (much) time with characters I hated.  At least those series didn't have bullies.  Bullies reallly tick me off.  Which again, is weird pet peeve for me to have since I've never been bullied before.  But certainly makes sense in terms of my depression.  How can people go out of their way to make life miserable for others, when life is already miserable on it's own? I can't forgive that Malice.

These so-called classmates from the Kyoto school don't even know what True Strength is, if they're wasting their time bullying their underclassman or any comrades in general, instead of focusing on fighting Curses.  No wonder the number of Curse-related deaths is so high.  

Ugh.  I need to get past this episode soon, before I get soured on this series and drop it, despite its excellent protagonist, like HeroAca.  There are enough horrible things/people in real life.  Why would I put up with fictional people who aren't a joy to be around, in any way?   . . .  

8:41 AM 12/23/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep8

AND CRUNCHYROLL JUST CRASHED AGAIN!  LOL

I was just trying to re-watch ep8, even that first half that I didn't like, and Firestick crashed again.  I thought it'd be ok since it was the first thing I had the Firestick do this morning, but dang.  

Anyway, I just wanted to reiterate my annoyance with Todou Aoi.  Just because he thinks "tall" and "big ass" are interesting traits and that "taste in women" supposedly reflects an interesting person, doesn't mean those are objective assessments of those traits.  There are no objective assessments of sexually appealing triats!  A trait that could be "boring" to Todou could mean everything interesting to someone else!  What a jerk.  If he wants to fight so badly, he should stop hiding behind excuses and come out and fight.  Idiot.  

And the worst thing is that ridiculous antagonist characters like this are probably going to turn out to be really buddy buddy with a "silly protag" like Yuuji.  Goddamnit.  ~_~;;;; . . . 12/25/2020 ..During breakfast, once again tried to finish Jujutsu Kaisen ep8, but Crunchyroll crashed again on Amazon Firestick.  The other day, Crunchyroll crashed on my laptop too, so I didn't have much hope for watching thru my laptop, which is why I bothered watching thru the Firestick/TV in the first place.  It crashed only after the first few minutes; not even reaching the mid-episode commercial break.   ..Got fed up an watched Jujutsu Kaisen ep8 on YouTube, but it was an edited version that skipped every few seconds.   . . . 11:45 AM 12/26/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep8

During breakfast today, I completely gave up on trying to watch on Crunchyroll.  It's crashed on me too many times on Amazon Firestick/TV and too many times on my laptop.  So I just straight up went for the YouTube bootlegs.  I didn't even try this time.  Because I've tried to watch this episode 8 at least 5 times by now, and I'd like to finish it before Nendoroid Fushiguro's preorder window closes, so I can decide if I should preorder him or not!  How many times do I have to watch this first half of ep8?!?!  And it's full of bullies, no less!  Bullies are my pet peeve!  I've dropped frickin BNHA because of just ONE reoccurring bully character, and the first half of JJK ep 8 has TWO.  So no, I don't want to keep watching the fist half of JJK ep8 over and over and over again!  

Miwa was cute and the gag about her being a Gojou fangirl was funny.  

But it made me stop and wonder why this episode had 2 fanboys/fangirls:  Todou Aoi and Miwa.  What are they trying to say?  Since the traditionalist Kyoto school leader was visiting, is it a statement against blindly following something?  

Another thing discussed in this episode that struck me was the very non-traditionalist, antagonistic towards "the olds" way that Gojou spoke.  It clashed against a lot of the popular Shonen series lately that have background messages about "working hard", "simply accepting things", unquestioning,...and something else I can't quite rmember.  One Punch Man, Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba, and maybe even Boku no Hero Academia  I'll have to watch the 2nd half of this ep again to solidify this thought.  But I did notice something in this episode that made Jujutsu Kaisen seem more counter-culture than a lot of the other popular Shonen series I've seen in recent years.  

Also, what's up with that one month future time skip, only to go back to the present to return to Miwa getting her photo with Gojou?  What?  What was wrong with just showing the sequences chronologically?  The curiosity is going to drive me nuts if I dont' stop thinking about it.  lol  

I also really liked Nobara's cute head lean onto Zenin Maki when she realized how much she respected her.  I'm sorry, but I'm always weak for kuudere girls unconsciously making all the other girls fall for them.  ^.~   . . . 1:59 PM 12/27/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep9

I"m not going to type so many reactions, until maybe after the ep is over, because I'm going to focus on eating instead.  Hopefully, I'll remember all the points I reacted to.

2:29 PM 12/27/2020

Episode over.  Let's see what I remember.  

I liked how in depth it portrayed how real life emotions and grudges can fester until they become these supernatural curses.  That first part of the ep, just about Yoshino's supressed anger, getting bullied, feeling harassed, etc. got a whole lot more screentime than most other demon-hunter or yokai series. (Maybe it's just because he's going to become a kind of major character, seeing as he gets to be in the opening theme sequence.) Usually that type of emotional backstory to explain supernatural phenomenon, does get a poignant exposition, but even though it's effective, it's often pretty quick. (Though, I am referring to the more frequent one-shot characters of each supernatural escapade.) Especially in action demon-hunter series, like Ushio & Tora.  Still emotionally effective, but very short screentime.  But this guy, Yoshino's bullying scene goes on, intercuts with daily slights, for that chaotic feeling of compiling grudges everyday, and then he gets onscreen monologues of his specific thoughts while getting beat up.  It's all very viceral and I apprecate that.  I mentioned before how I like that Jujutsu Kaisen seems to portray real emotions to explain its magic system, instead of just making up a fake mystical power source.  I mean, I'm usually fine with that type of purely imaginary magic system that has only vague explainations (in real life emotions), but JJK feels like it more directly translates grudges into Curses/magic and that feels interestingly refreshing.  

This scene with Yuuji and Gojou introducing Nanami was so funny, I was instantly laughing out loud, several times.  I'm so glad I ended up preordering Gojou's Nendoroid and not just Yuuji's.  lol  

I love how whenever Nanami says he doesn't care, the direction returns to the exact same angle, frame, etc.  Really makes the joke hit each time.  LOL  

But again, like I was writing earlier about my growing suspicion that a lot of current popular Shonen series seem to fetishize hard work (without considering people disadvantaged by the same systems) and even sometimes outright parodying people who expect hand-outs (like One Punch Man)---(though I will append that BNHA does have a character like Shinso that demonstrates how the system is stacked vs people no matter how hard they could work)---It may be just my misunderstanding, but I feel like JJK seems to criticize the system, in contrast. I suspect JJK may be more counter-culture than other popular Shonen series right now.  While checking out other current series like OPM, Demon Slayers KNY, and BNHA, I often run into a moment that makes me uneasy in how eagerly a protagonist throws themselves into accepting the abuses of a system, instead of criticizing the system, and how "heroic" that unquestioning or submissiveness is portrayed.  In contrast, Gojou straight-up explained he doesn't believe in the Jujutsu community's current authority systems.  But now we also have Nanami here pointing out that no matter which system you submit yourself to (whether Jujutsu sorcery or office work), it doesn't matter.  Nothing matters...towards happiness or fulfillment, anyway.  Therefore, he explicitly says that he doesn't put excess effort into anything.  But at the same time, he states that he agrees with Gojou about the current system of Jujutsu authority to be wrong.  I'm sure there was a time when themes of fetishizing hard work, without question, worked for me, but I've gotten too old and seen how the system is stacked against people even when they work hard, and how blind followers of the system fetishize "hard work" as an excuse to not show compassion towards others.  It seems especially important in recent years.  

I liked that Nanami mentioned that explaining your technique can actually make it stronger.  It's an idea I liked to play with but  didn't used much until Persona 5.  The idea that the reality people build in their heads can be influenced by external forces.  It's why in Kingdom Hearts II, just thinking about Maleficent, remembering her, resurrected her.  Everyone's thoughts about her, together combined, adding energy for whatever traces of her to finish manifesting.  It's like how some entities come into existence, simply by enough people sharing the same thought or pouring energies into the same beliefs/images.  Some yokai series use this idea to explain why some entities manifest out of prevaent thoughts/emotions that happen in the same place or centered around a specific object.  It's nice to see JJK also use this idea in both to explain Curses that manifest out of fears people have had for centuries about the mountains/forests/ocean, and also to reinforce a magic attack.  Because seeing this technique used in a magic system for the purposes of combat, and not just exposition to explain an entity, doesn't appear often.  (Until Persona 5).  

Oh, and I REALLY LOVE the art style/animation on Yuuji's Divergent Fist.  *U*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Interesting that they're starting to alreay discuss the concept of humans turning into Curses.  But I guess it's more a display of "some villain's horrifying technique", than the climactic change that a lot of other series use this trope for.  ...I love this trope, by the way.  Just villainizing antagonists as "monsters" always feels flimsy to me, so I like plot reveals about "the random enemies you've been fighting all this time are actually human victims transformed into monsters".  Madoka Magica, Claymore, Kamen Rider Heisei phase 2, Bleach, Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba, etc.  But most of all, I love how this trope forces protagonists to use more empathy, since my favorite ideal is "Compassion as the ultimate True Strength".  

That omake---!  LOL  I really thought this was a flashback about Gojou asking Nanami to help with Yuuji, like he mentioned during the episode.  But it turned out to just be a penis joke!  LOL!!!!!!!!!!  I laughed out loud, "WHAT?!"   . . . 2:26 AM 12/28/2020

Jujutsu Kaisen ep10

Isn't Yuuji going to be sent to infiltrate Yoshino's school.  I hope he can protect them.  

This poor kid Yoshino.  Never been validated before.  He has to hear that it's ok for him to go vs his ideal of Indifference by hating people.  

The body came before the soul.  On this planet, anyway.  And at the very beginning.  Of course now, there's been so much history and accumulation and entities evovled on Earth that there can be entities that begin as souls first and maybe they stay that way or maybe they get souls.  But I think you'd have to go to a whole other star system to find a species that was first on their "planet" that evolved as energy/souls first.  But I'd think most of those species actually started in nebulae than planets.  ..Unelss we're talking about gaseous planets.  

omg I can't believe Yuuji pants'ed that teacher.  It's true that dragging Yoshino along with him woudl've been more expected.  I'm glad the writing called that out.  

Can Yuuji see negative energy on people better now?  Can he see how much Yoshino hates that teacher?  Or was he just reading his expression?  

Interesting that Mahito is distinguishing between protecting the body vs protecting the soul and reinforcing this idea about needing to be aware of one's own soul in order to protect it.  

Aw.  Episode over already?  ;o;  This series is good, but I am trying to catch up, since there are spoilers for this series all over social media and I already ran into a few of them.  

What the hell is this omake.  Why is Nobara's uniform being worn by Panda and Inumaki...And Gojou---Actually Gojo makes sense.  I get the feeling he'll do anything for a laugh sometimes.  lol   . . . 8:38 PM 2/19/2021

Jujutsu Kaisen ep11

Started Jujutsu Kaisen ep11 around 8:10pm.  

8:41 PM 2/19/2021  Just finished.  Hm.  2 sets of previews.  I wonder why.

I finally managed to watch anime again.  ;_;  For many years now, I've had this problem where I can't get myself to watch anime, becaus eI know it's so good and I know it'll be totally engrossing and distracting, that I get preemptively guilty for being so unproductive.  I mean, a lot of times, I can't even multitask _eating_ during anime, because I can't read subtitles as fast as I used to.  So I haven't really watche anime on a regular basis in a long time.  Even though I know I love it.  I guess this is why a lot of my recent fandoms have been videogames instead of anime series.  which I guess doesn't make sense, considering games take as much or more time than watching a series.  Anxiety is wierd.)  There's the inability to multitask, there's pausing every few minutes to write reactions, there's the inevitable daydreaming I have whenever I watch something that's SOOO good that it demands my mental interaction, and if I manage to not write while watching, then there's writing reactions after the episode.  watching anime just takes a lot of time out of me.  I wish I wasn't afraid of that.  Because I'll lose time, wasted on YouTube instead, and a lot of that is just "empty calories" compared to anime watching.  Anyway, I finally managed to watch anime without sitting at my computer, pausing to write reactions at every few minutes.  Finally!  I was searching for a YouTube vid to watch, and everything I clicked was so uninteresting, that I ask myself, "why arn't I watching anime?"  If I wanted something interesting, then go watch anime!"  

Since I'm writing my reactions AFTER watching the episode and I have a very bad memory in general, these are by no means all my reactions:

Sometimes I get confused when Mahito's dialogue slips in some kind of exposition thing about how the magic system in this series works.  Like, a soul's connection to its vessel, effecting the shape of a body.  Yeah, that makes sense, but then he also talks about the reverse not being true---and I'm like, "No, both have to be true, otherwise it doesn't make sense.  I watched FF7AC; there was logic behin Kadaj not being able to house Sephiroth until his body changed to be able to fit Sephiroth.  But psychosomatic effect is a thing that exists in the real world."  Much more than Mahito torturing/experimenting on random people, I was more perplexed by him not recogizing the body/spirit connection not going both ways.  Or like in this episode, when he explained something about his surprise that he really could do something with the shape of his soul.  Didn't he already know he could do that?  But then later in this episode Nanami's internal monologue explained that Mahito must be a new entity and is essentially just a kid playing around, still trying to figure their powers out.  Makes sense.  

Not that I don't understand this magic system, but there seems to be a funamental work around on its restrictions.  Like, Curses/negative energies can't be the only strong magics in a magic system that translates emotions into energy/magic.  Series after series, we see magic based on negative emotions as being outclassed by magic based on positive emotions.  I keep expecting that to be the big twist in Jujutsu Kaisen.  Because a magic system based solely on negative emotions seems strangely restricted.    

Yuuji continues to prove himself to be really sweet an IMMEDIATELY smile-inducing.  It was really nice to see him getting along so fast with Junpei Yoshino.

I was worried about Yoshino and his mom being on bad terms, because of all his repressed anger asides.  I was afraid that maybe she used to abuse him with cigarettes and maybe that was why he had made her promise not to smoke around him.  I can't believe I had _completely forgotten_ that the bullies burned Yoshino's face with cigarettes.  So I was relieved when Yoshino admitted to Yuuji that his mom was nice.  Too bad she immediately was murdered. I feel like Mahito did it; just another experiment.  In the flashback, it was really surprising to see a Japanese mom being ok that Yoshino take time away from school for his mental health, and being so supportive about it.  This manga-ka sure knows how to portray characters as uickly endearing (except Nobara).  

I liked that Yuuji's explaination for his reluctance to kill felt a little more nuanced that the usual answers I hear protagonists give to that uestion.  The line (Yoshino) repeated from Yuuji's monologue was about "being afraid of killing tainting one's soul".  But I preferred how Yuuji explained it before that line.  Something about the temptation of having killing as an option in your arsenal, until it becomes too commonplace, and you lose a sense of taking lives as having any meaning, also losing the sense that lives have value (in preserving or appreciating).  

9:56 PM 2/19/2021

well, that's all I remember so far. . . .

5:45 PM 2/21/2021

Jujutsu Kaisen ep12

6:12 PM 2/21/2021

So the good news is that I actually got myself to watch anime while eating---guilty about distracted unproductivity be damned.  The bad news is that the episode was so good that I stopped eating.  Thsi is my first meal of the day so I really do need to eat.  But I"m not the type of person who can eat popcorn while watching movies.  when I watch something, I give it my full attention.  I don't eat while I'm concentrating.  

Ok.  I guess I should say something about how odd this omake is.  o.o?  Usually you'd have a chibi cameo of a known character.  But I guess we're just getting metaphor instead...or just nonsense.  ^.^;  

Since I avoided sitting at my computer while watching, I'll have to retroactively write reactions again.  

i really loved that this series just had our protagonist TALK to the antagonist, get junpei's story, his reasons for attacking the school, sympathize with him, solve the conflict by promising to help him.  Any other past Shonen series would have had them just fight and then later, after the protag kills the antagonist, he'll learn the "tragic truth" and then carry that regret into his next battles.  I'm glad thee genre is evolving past that.  Not that I don't like that old style---hell, I love that vanilla Persona 5 killed Akechi, instead of redeeming him like P5R---but it's nice to have a variety in the genre.  And Yuuji has proven himself to be a highly sympathetic personality, and curbing genre tropes to accomodate his best qality is really nice.  ;u;  in fact, a lot of the top series in modern Shonen have highly empathetic, visibly emotional, and vulnerable protagonists:  Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba's Tanjiro, Boq no Hero Academia's Midoriya, and now Jujutsu Kaisen's Yuuji Itadori.

I had been considering for a while the idea that people in this series' would coul be turning other people into Curses on purpose.  not just the soul-shape transfigurations that Mahito is doing.  I mean like, manipulating people to be so full of negative emotios that they become a Curse.  Like, is that how Suqna became a Curse?  It's interesting to see this episode kind of foreshadow that idea through Mahito's monologues explaining his manipulations of Junpei.  

I'll admit it.  As a Kingdom Hearts fan, when Junpei was repeating what Mahito taught him about hearts not really existing, all I could think of was Xehanort lying about that to Organization XIII, in order to manipulate them.  ^.^;  

I will say it's really wierd to watch this series act like being able to influence others' souls and being aware of one's soul energy, is a novelty or a rare high level skill...after watching so many series in my life, where that was basic.  Like, in Claymore, that's pretty much HALF of what they do!  There's even a warrior Galatea who is DEFINED by manipulating other's energies.  And I don't mean Jujutsu Kaisen has a bad magic system.  it's really exciting that it's kneecapped its protagonists so much so the audience can anticipate how far they're ascend.  Instituting harsh level, restricting magic system rules, to establish the characters' growth throughout tackling the conflicts of the series' battles, is something I'd wish videogame seqels would do instead of just taking away the protagonists powers.  Don't make the protag start at zero just to give them an up to go to!  Make the system/environment more difficult, to match their increasing power level!  So I'm not frustrated at Jujutsu Kaisen doing this.  But it is strange when your brain is buzzing with, "well, why don't they just do this?" after having watche so many other series' solutions to similar conflicts.  Like, if this was Claymore, any warrior with enough training woul have been able to sync up with Junpei's soul energy and reform him into his body's original shape.  So it feels very odd to be in the POV of a protagonist like Yuuji who doesn't even realize that's a thing that's possible, or at least seems possible within this world's rules.  I mean, Mahito is doing it.  But Yuuji is still a novice student, so he gets a pass; he doesn't become a frustrating protag to follow.  But this series does give the impression that Mahito's ability to transfigure people's souls/bodies is like a power specific to him.  I wonder if his character is just establishing this techniqe into this world's magic system or if it really is just Mahito.  Because so far, it feels like only Mahito.  Only time will tell if Mahito was just an establishing point for this function of this magic system.  

Also, Yuuji, don't rely on that jerk, Sukuna.  lol   . . . 6:24 PM 3/29/2021

Jujutsu Kaisen ep13

Let's see if Crunchyroll will finally let me watch this series.  Well, it's not crashing atthe first commercial before the episdoe starts.  That's a good sign.  

6:32 PM 3/29/2021

Well, look at that. Crunchyroll didn't crash at the 2nd commercial break, right before the opening theme.

6:39 PM 3/29/2021

LOL  Yuuji totally just punched through that Domain?  LOL!  

Whatever potential Fushiguro has that Sukuna is interested in, the story is certainly setting this up this foreshadowing early.  

It's really has been a while since I watched this series. I can't remember where Yuuji got those holes in his back.  

Love these little resolution talks after a big fight in a story.  Impressed that Nanami sidestepped actually answering the philosophy of Yuuji's question and just commented that Yuuji saved him and can save others.  It's that type of good writing I can't do, that always makes my writing get bogged down.  Like in Kingdom Hearts II when Xehanort was asking all these philosophical questions and Riku got caught up in answering them, but Sora had the wisdom to see that the whole line of questioning was faulty or a distraction to begin with.  

Playing a vocal song during the last scene?  Makes it feel like a season finale.  Well, it is ep13, so I guess it's a halfway mark for the season.  

6:52 PM 3/29/2021

I'd had to stop watching when Crunchyroll is actually working well for me right now.  But I've got other stuff to do.  ;o;

Ha!  You were going to skip the previews!  I forgot this series has an omake segment after the ending theme!  

So if Yuuji taught Fushiguro to make meatball...Oh yeah, they think he's dead.  

6:55 PM 3/29/2021

How odd.  Crunchyroll automatically brought me back to teh episode selection screen intead of autoplaying to ep14.  I appreciate it.  But I wonder why that happened.  Is it part of Crunchyroll crashing and glitching on me all the time?  Or did they change their UI?  

[ladystylestores]

How a Colombian market is using AI to combat Covid-19 outbreaks

Image copyright Courtesy of Plaza Minorista

Image caption Shoppers and vendors arriving at Plaza Minorista are screened

When the coronavirus outbreak first hit the Plaza Minorista market, Edison Palacio knew that it would take more than disinfectant and face masks to contain it. So he decided to use artificial intelligence.

Mr Palacio is the director of the densely packed market which sits in the heart of the Colombian city of Medellín.

Every day, up to 15,000 people flood into the giant building where more than 3,300 vendors sell fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, spices, grains and clothes.

Markets like Minorista act as a key food supplier for cities like Medellín. They are a crucial link bringing food grown on farms to a metropolitan area of nearly four million people.

But such crowded markets have become hotbeds for the coronavirus to flourish across the region. Similar outbreaks have occurred in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil.

“Plaza Minorista is a meeting point,” Mr Palacio says. “With the arrival of this pandemic to the city, we immediately became a high-risk zone.”

Tech to the rescue?

At the end of June, Colombian authorities traced more than 300 cases to wholesale markets. Minorista has already been at the centre of two outbreaks.

Image copyright Megan Janetsky

Image caption The market provides a livelihood for many and neither vendors nor buyers want to see it close

Some have closed down entirely. Others have shut down large sections of their facilities, done deep disinfections and dropped building capacity to encourage social distancing.

Minorista teamed up with researchers at the University of Antioquia to install AI technology to control and track the virus at markets. They are among the first in Latin America.

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Mr Palacio explains how they use facial recognition software connected to cameras at the entrances and to security cameras around the building to collect data on the vendors and market-dwellers. Among the data they collect is their age range, gender, and if the person is wearing their mask correctly in order to assess risks and more vulnerable demographics.

Thermal cameras can take the temperature of 200 people per minute, he says. If someone has a high temperature or wears their mask incorrectly, an alarm will go off and alert market security.

Image copyright Courtesy of Plaza Minorista

Image caption The markets have also stepped up their cleaning and disinfecting routine

“We have to learn to coexist with the virus,” Mr Palacio says. “We as administrators of a place like this, with massive flows of people, have a responsibility to implement all of these scientific and technological protocols.”

Risks to privacy

The World Health Organization has declared Latin America the new epicentre of the virus and despite nearly four months of government-mandated lockdown, Colombia has reported more than 165,000 confirmed cases and more than 6,000 deaths.

Mr Palacio wants local governments to further harness the AI technology to curb the spread of the virus and implement it in other crowded public spaces like the metro system and government buildings.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption The metro in Medellín is offering free coronavirus tests…

Image copyright AFP

Image caption …and is enforcing social distancing but it does not yet have AI

The tech has also been used in countries like China, South Korea and Japan.

Privacy watchdogs have warned of the potential danger of AI being misused and some consider that risk to be greater in Colombia where the authorities have in the past been involved in illegal wiretapping scandals, spying on political opponents, journalists and human rights activists.

‘Complex issue’

Nora Restrepo, a U de A researcher involved in the AI project, describes its use as “a complex issue”. She argues that AI has become an increasingly useful tool to combat the pandemic, especially when closing the markets was not an option.

Image copyright Courtesy of Plaza Minorista

She says that cities like Medellín would collapse without the markets, and those relying on them to get affordable produce would have to go hungry. In this case, the sacrifice is worth it, she says, and researchers can take precautions to ensure the technology is not invasive.

Ms Restrepo and her team of researchers plan to test surfaces, residual water, food and staff throughout the building to see where the virus lingers and how effective disinfection efforts are.

They hope to use that data, and what is collected from the AI cameras to build a heat map showing how the virus moves throughout the building.

“It’s not just to detect who may be sick but to look much deeper than that – how we can detect the virus and at what moment we can intervene before it spreads,” she says.

‘My biggest fear’

For Felipe Betancur, the owner of a small produce store, such measures would ease the anxiety he has felt since the virus arrived in Colombia earlier this year.

Image copyright Megan Janetsky

Image caption Felipe Betancur says he welcomes the measures put in place at Plaza Minorista

The 47-year-old ventures to the markets every morning armed with a mask, disinfectant and a face shield to buy goods for his shop.

“It’s impossible to respect two metres distance, or even a metre-and-a-half,” Mr Betancur says. “You’re very close, face-to-face with everyone. This is my biggest fear.”

Market closures would be disastrous for Mr Betancur’s small business, which he says has only been making the “bare minimum” during the pandemic. It would mean he would have to defy the travel restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the virus and incur the additional costs of driving out to rural farms to buy crops directly from farmers.

Image copyright Megan Janetsky

Image caption Felipe Betancur relies on the produce he buys at markets to stock his own shop

Both for the sake of business people like Mr Betancur and to stop the virus from spreading, Ms Restrepo hopes that the AI project at Minorista will be a success.

If it is, it could be expanded to other Latin American cities to minimise the risks posed by large markets.

“We’re facing a new reality, this is a new age in the way we live,” she sums up the challenges ahead.

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Media captionMeet the socially distant robot scientist

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[bltngames]

Game Review: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might just be one of the best games Nintendo has ever made. Ever. Is that too hyperbolic? Should I reign it in a little?

So where does that put us? The Nintendo game I hold in the highest regard is Super Mario 64, which on top of just being a really good game, basically defined 3D character movement for the entire game industry. Everything from Uncharted to Grand Theft Auto and NieR Automata owes something to Super Mario 64 for establishing how to use an analog stick to control the action on screen. It was a revolution.

Breath of the Wild isn’t a revolution. This is a game cut from the same cloth as Skyrim or The Witcher 3 — an open-world fantasy game, with towns full of people and quest logs designed to distract. You’ve technically seen this game before, or at least parts of it, and on the surface it can be easy to brush it off as nothing more than a thinly veiled “me too” clone by way of The Legend of Zelda.

But here’s the deal: you’ve never played Nintendo’s version of this. Those other games I mentioned often prioritize production quality and narrative depth. A quest’s story in my examples is often more important than what you actually have to do in it, with the worst example being multiple quests in Skyrim that send you from one edge of the map miles away to the other edge just to kill a single enemy and then hike the entire distance back for your reward. Even on horseback, a quest like that would take hours of mind-numbing transit. The obvious (and likely intended) solution is to use the game’s fast travel system to teleport to the destination, complete the objective, and then teleport back, turning an all-day gameplay excursion into a something that takes less than 15 minutes. The problem is that this creates a disconnect where everything stops feeling real, because there’s no reaffirmation that these are places that exist. You come to view the world as nothing more than a piece of software that lets you materialize at your destination. There’s no sense of distance, no journey.

That’s simply not true with Breath of the Wild, which goes out of its way to make you feel like a part of the land of Hyrule. Not only does it feel like a real, lived-in space, it feels like one with thousands of years of tangible history. Ruins of what used to be litter the land, some more recent than others, but all purpose-built with a legacy of their own. The environment of Hyrule is as much a character here as anyone else, and its battle-scarred vistas tell a lonely, somber tale.

Zelda is one of Nintendo’s most narrative-rich franchises, which allows it to slip into Skyrim’s skin with ease. Just the same, Breath of the Wild is a game about journeys. It’s a game where you look over your shoulder and think: an hour ago, I was on top of that mountain. I have come so far, done so much, and seen so many things. Yes, it has fast travel and horse riding if you really need to get somewhere quickly. But why would you? Breath of the Wild is a game where there’s always something on the horizon calling out to you. Horses and fast travel might get you in the general vicinity of where you want to go, but never close enough. Eventually you have to take matters into your own hands (often literally) and venture forth by yourself to discover Hyrule’s mysteries, one cliff face at a time. Literally the entire point of this game is to meticulously sift through the world inch by inch, and it manages to feel like magic basically the entire time.

You also connect to this world in other ways. Breath of the Wild features surprisingly robust artificial intelligence and physics systems, and you’re given tools perfect for playing around in this space. Rather than acquire a stable of items from dungeons (as in past Zelda games), Breath of the Wild gives you five core abilities during its tutorial and then turns you loose on the world to use them as you please. Unlike, say, Ocarina of Time’s hookshot, which could only be used on specific hookshot targets, these five abilities are far more utilitarian in their approach. They allow you to interact with the environment in ways most open world games shy away from, like picking up physics objects or generating platforms over tricky terrain. In addition to helping you solve puzzles and navigate the world, many of these abilities have combat applications, leading to fun games of cat and mouse with Ganon’s minions.

In one particular example, I came upon a camp of pig-like Bokoblins that had set up inside the ruins of an old building. I had mostly cleared the place out, but there was still one lone Boko on patrol outside completely unaware of what had happened to the rest of the camp. From the door, he peered inside. Bokoblins don’t have great eyesight, so from the distance he was at, he didn’t really have a chance to identify me before I darted out of sight. He obviously knew he saw something suspicious, so he walked over, grabbed a club from the camp’s weapons pile outside, and then headed inside the ruins to investigate. By this point, I’d climbed on top of the ruins and was watching him from what would be the roof, if this building had one (it did not). He headed to the last place he saw me and sniffed around, hoping to figure out what he’d seen. By now his back was turned to me, so I jumped from my vantage point above him and came down on his head with my spear for a quick kill. This kind of emergent gameplay is a first for The Legend of Zelda, and it makes every combat encounter feel unique.

Perhaps Breath of the Wild’s greatest strength is its willingness to embrace this kind of emergent player expression. Nintendo could have very easily locked a lot of its puzzles and encounters down, discouraging all but the one “true” solution, but they didn’t. It brings to mind the elements that made a game like Minecraft so captivating; the only thing stopping you from getting somewhere or doing something is your own ingenuity. Nothing in the game ever has just one solution, and it fully embraces whatever ways you can find to bend its rules. Previous Zeldas were full of jigsaw puzzles that had to be assembled in the same way every single time. Breath of the Wild is more of an actual test of problem solving skills, and one where my answer might be different from your answer and neither one of us is wrong.

Of course, even the best games have their flaws, and Breath of the Wild is definitely not a perfect game. In particular is the game’s performance — I played on the Wii U, and there, Breath of the Wild suffers occasional choppy framerates and sometimes more significant stuttering. Knocking down a Moblin can sometimes make the whole game freeze for up to two full seconds. Zelda is undoubtedly simulating a lot of stuff behind the scenes, between physics, climate systems, fire propagation, and artificial intelligence, so it’s understandable when the game threatens to buckle under it’s own weight, but it’s still a problem worth talking about. My understanding is that the Switch version is also affected by many of these technical issues, but with less severity. But, even on the Wii U, I found them to be momentary annoyances and not anything to really cast the game in a negative light. For 75% of my time in Hyrule, the game performed just fine (and it’s worth mentioning that during the process of writing this review, Nintendo published a patch for Zelda that optimizes the game just a little bit more to reduce framerate drops).

The other elephant in the room deals the game’s systems, particularly in weapon durability and weather. If you use a given weapon too much, it will eventually shatter. Often, I’d leave a combat encounter with fewer or worse weapons than when I started, but once I learned not to get too attached to any given sword, shield or bow, it ceased to be an issue. Breath of the Wild is a game about making do with what you’ve got and building an ever-changing strategy around that. Enemies also scale in strength over time, providing you with a drip feed of slightly more powerful gear as you play. That being said, the game definitely could have benefited from ways to repair fragile weapons, because just about everything breaks after only a few minutes of use.

Weather, on the other hand, was probably the single biggest point of frustration for me in Breath of the Wild. You’re given an on-screen weather forecast, presumably so you can plan accordingly should something like rain come up, but sometimes it can be unpredictable as you move through the world and suddenly shift into a new biome with different weather patterns. In one particularly ridiculous scenario, I found myself stranded on a rocky alcove because if I climbed up even ten feet it would trigger a biome change and begin raining, making it too slick to continue upwards. The moment I’d drop off the cliff (or more likely slip off), the rain would suddenly vanish. Sometimes, it doesn’t make any logical sense at all, such as the time I had to light fires as part of a quest and it began raining just long enough (about six seconds) to snuff out my flames and make me start over. Nothing in the forecast called for rain, nothing on my HUD changed, it just started pouring rain and then instantly stopped. You very quickly learn to dread rainstorms, because there’s not a lot you can do about them except wait for the weather to clear.

Regardless, these problems barely register as a blip on the game’s radar. I know it can be easy to sometimes get frustrated with Nintendo’s output and design philosophies, specifically with regards to past Zelda games like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, but when this company pulls together and fires on all cylinders, the end result is something truly incredible to behold. Breath of the Wild is a tremendous game; even after finishing the game and putting in more than 140 hours, I wasn’t ready to leave Hyrule. I was still finding new discoveries. New places I hadn’t been to yet. No game that I can ever remember playing in the 30+ years since the NES has gotten its hooks into me this deep for this long. It may not be a revolution, but with Breath of the Wild, Nintendo has still run circles around the industry just the same. Under no circumstances should you allow yourself to miss this game.

[tumblunni]

aaaaaugh that was a weird adventure of a normal thing seriously wtf how did I Almost Die from just trying to pay my electricity bills?? the electricity went out at midnight and I was having a WHOPPING GIANT MIGRAINE and seriously i suck at talking to cashiers on the best of days but now i have to call a taxi at midnight and sit there feeling awkward for like half an hour while the guy drives me several miles away to the only electricity place thats open 24/7 and like five minutes in i realized OH SHIT THIS MIGRAINE IS MORE SERIOUS THAN I EXPECTED but like i was trapped in a car and trapped in an awkward social situation! so i was here all dizzy and disassociating and like it felt like the window was a computer screen?? cos im nearsighted a lot and of course its gonna get even worse when i have a dizzy migraine of death doom. i was just so out of it with pain and tiredness and the car shaking me about and just it felt like i wasnt really there but i was still in my house just watching all this on the tv or something. i had to look down at my hands cos they were the only non blurry thing, i had to remind myself that i actually existed and wasnt somehow being erased from the world and replaced by a film reel of some guy sitting in a car?? So I am like Absolutely Fucking Nonfunctional here, and being acutely aware of how i forgot to wear my glasses and apparantly also my socks. Tho in my defense it would have been hard to put them on in the dark anyway! and seriously THIS POOR CAB GUY! like it seemed english wasnt his first language and i felt so bad cos like how can i make it clear that I am the one messing up here?? dude you didnt mishear me i really am slurring everything i say and forgetting half the dictionary. HE WAS SO NICE! I wish i could have like.. been able to register any of his individual faceparts as a coherant whole. I have problems with prosopagnosia even on a good day, but like whoa man i did not have the energy left to concentrate on what this guy even looked like. i feel bad cos i dont know his name either, im gonna remember him as just this big helpful shadow void with a nice accent. HOW DID YOU PUT UP WITH ME EMBARASSING MYSELF SO MUCH, YOU WONDERFUL CABMAN actaully wait do you call them cabs in america aa im sorry this post isnt very america translated i try and generally self-correct to america english cos i know like 90% of my followers seems to be america for some reason i do not understand HELLO AMERICDA FRIENDS TODAY okay so i was Dying in a taxi which is also called a cab, and the company was Capital Cabs which is very good and i love them and they have an automated system so you dont have to talk on the phone and seriously that cut like 50% of terror from this terror day SO ANYWAY I WAS DYING we go all over the place looking for the 24 hours electric place, and then for some reason they are closed?? there was a line outside and i think actually the doors got stuck and the cashiers couldnt get out??? what happened?? i guess i will never know cos i had to leave that mini story behind and find another electric hilariously we found one LITERALLY ACROSS THE ROAD there was THE SAME SHOP ACROSS THE ROAD FACING EACH OTHER MIRROR IMAGE WHAT like seriously fuck im already in a dizzy daze floating halfway out my own body like i didnt need any more evidence im currently in wonderland i want to know this story too, dammit! are those rival stores?? of the same brand?? somehow?? or are they owned by the same person?? because why?? is it like the area was so in-demand of small 24/7 shops that they had to make two within five metres of each other? or is it like they’re the same shop but they didnt have enough space to build the full size they wanted so they purchased two smaller land plots? or something? DID IT JUST EXIST FOR THIS SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCE OF ME NEEDING THE SHOP WHEN THE SHOP IS CLOSED “tumblr blogger tumblunni will show up fuckin migraine stoned on the 9th of november, as the prophecy foretold” omg i just mispelled prophecy as prophey and that sounds like a cute ass oc name holy shit ANYWAY im here dissacoiating my ass off and trying and failing to stick my debit card in the card machine and all the time im like FUCKIN OBSESSING over how sauboh is a really better name. Like faba is still a cute name but sauboh is a COOL name! no name is better than sauboh! and why u wanna this evil man have a cute name anyway?? when u be all cruel in the anime and sand off even the slightest non horrible edges he ever had, like seriously im unreasonably upset that everyone hates faba even more now. when will i get my sneaky science grandpa guy who is not evil for once but merely misunderstood and then i adopt him and hug him many and the all is resolved so yeah im fuckin haviung trouble focusing on what im actually doing jesus christ then i stumble into the store and i pay for my electric and im like ‘no no no fucking shit this migraine is WAY worse than i expected, im going to fucking die’ so i ask if they have any paracetamol but i cant remember the word for paracetamol and its all super embarassing. and like THE GUY LOOKS AT ME AS IF IM CRAZY. He’s all ‘ugh why would we have that, geez’. like wtf?? i mean i know i couldnt remember the name of it but i said ‘headache medicine’ so im sure he understood what i meant. i had a long rambling discussion with the taxi man about how weird that was, he was like ‘no, seriously EVERY 24 hour newsagent sells that stuff’ and i was like ‘no seriously he was rude to me for asking, like wtf’ and then i repeated the story about three more times cos i was currently in the throes of brain death in retrospect maybe the cashier thought i was drunk or something?? or high? i mean you cant get high from headache pills but i dunno maybe they mix badly with booze and he thought he was saving my life. i like to think the best of people! i wish i hadnt jumped to the grumpy conclusion during that moment and then whined like a lil bitch to this poor cab man and seriously he was SO NICE! he was like ‘dude seriously we’d have to drive anothr five miles to find another newsagent shop, im trying to save you money’ and he tried to give me some of the paracetamol he had in his wallet and i was like YOURE SO FUCKIN NICE IM DYING, I COULD NEVER ACCEPT THAT but also in retrospect probably that was a good decision cos even if the guy seemed super nice and trustable its like Good Life Policy to not take medicine from people you don’t know. I am 100% sure tho that he actually was genuine and wasnt gonna fuckin murder me with fakeacetamol HE WAS SO NICE! HIM AND HIS NONDESCRIPT FACIAL REGION! why cant i remember ANYTHING about this man oh and also I was able to give some money to a lady on the street!! i don’t know if she was actually homeless, she said that she had some trouble with a hotel booking or something so she was just stuck sleeping outside for the night. i cant remember if she had any luggage so i cant verify if the story is true, it just made me really sad wondering if it WASNT true and its like she needed to lie or people wouldnt give her money?? like seriously homeless people are the most vunerable yet theyre the ones people have the least sympathy for! wtf having to like like ‘i need the money less’... anyway i also couldnt remember her face and was kinda slurring my words to death and i didnt have much money to give but aaaa i hope i helped!! so yeah fuckin SMASH CUT to the next newsagent place and seriously i swear i blacked out for a minute cos it was just like wow we’re there in 48 seconds yet the clock says a bunch more miles and THEY HAD PARACETALMOL AND I WAS FUCKIN CRYING IN A SPAR MART thenk u cashier man who was probablyh very confused at this guy with no socks also for some reason my mind was wandering to the topic of what i’d do if i got misgendered in a cinema, like holding this fuckin entire fictional argument with this manifestation of my own self doubt WHAT EVEN INSPIRED THAT THOUGHT PROCESS so i’m nigh passing out and the nice cab man takes me home and he tries to make me pay less than the fee on the clock and im like NO DUDE IT WAS MY OWN CHOICE TO GO 2 PARACETAMOL SHOP seriously he was SO NICE why cant i remember his faaaaaace and i usually like to give a tip to the taxi guy even though tipping isnt really a thing in my country cos just i feel like Being Nice Is Nice and i want to thank them for their nice but i DIDNT HAVE ANY MORE MONEY LEFT so aaaa i was only able to give him an extra £0.50 but thank you taxi man i hope you have a good night and good life and the universe rewards you for helping a migraine fucked bunbun this eve and now ive shoved medicines in my fave and im just waiting for them to kick in and i know i should eat something but i feel so nauseous aaarglefargle also nice taxi man told me a story about how the same thing happened to him once except the electric went out while he was in the shower. So he just got blasted by cold water AND had to stumble down the stairs in the dark, and then friggin buy electric while his ears were still fulla soap. Whoa dude your bravery in face of embarassment exceeds my own! i love you platonically mr cab man thanks for making me feel less nervous and such while i was Die so yeah hopefully i will be less die soon ok bye also sauboh is a best name and i need to steal it for an oc or something NINTEND U LET IT SLIP AWAY

[erictmason]

Top Ten: Non-Nintendo Nintendo Games

These days, when one thinks “Nintendo Game”, they’re likely thinking of a game developed by Nintendo. But back in the day, a “Nintendo Game” meant literally anything on a Nintendo system.  And there was quite a bit to offer in that respect, too.  See, before Nintendo’s near-monopoly-level dominance of the market began to break down thus forming a powerful rift between Nintendo and other third-party developers which has yet to fully heal to this day, there was basically no other place to turn BUT Nintendo if you really wanted to get your game out there.  As a result, the legacy of Nintendo’s older systems, and even some of its newer ones, is defined just as much by games developed by other studios as it is by the games Nintendo itself created.  I thus decided, thanks to some inspiration from the_moviebob and the recent revival of his “Game OverThinker” series in the form of Top 10 countdowns, to look at those games across all of Nintendo’s history, and pick my personal ten favorites of the bunch for you to see!

For the record, “non-Nintendo Nintendo game” here means two things:

1.)    The game cannot be developed by Nintendo, nor use any Nintendo-owned characters.

2.)    At the time of the game’s original release, it had to be exclusive to a Nintendo system; games that retroactively received multi-platform releases still qualify.

With that out of the way, here’s my personal picks for the Ten Best Non-Nintendo Nintendo games:

10.) Sonic Colors (SEGA, Nintendo Wii, 2010): Man, remember that brief, magical time from 2008 to 2012 where it looked like SEGA might actually be getting the "Sonic" series back on track?  Well, "Sonic Colors", to my mind at least, is one of the very best games to emerge from that all-too-brief cycle, taking the day-time segments from the previous year's "Sonic Unleashed" and expanding on them beautifully.  The new ways to traverse and explore the game's impressively-constructed stages added a nice amount of depth, collectible red rings lent the game a decent amount of replay value, and even the multiplayer mode managed to provide some amusing little distractions, as well as being cleverly integrated into the single-player campaign by playing a role in unlocking one of the game's big secrets.  Heck, it even featured the debut of a new, significantly less annoying vocal cast for the "Sonic" characters.  Sure, like a lot of Sonic games, it can be fairly rough around the edges, but isn't there something nicely poetic about one of the best things Sonic's done in the last decade being exclusive to a Nintendo console?

9.) Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Silicon Knights, Nintendo Gamecube, 2002): These days developer Silicon Knights feels a bit like the sad punchline to a bad joke after the one-two punch of the disappointing "Too Human" and the atrocious "X-Men: Destiny".  For a while there, though, their reputation was iron-clad, thanks in no small part to "Eternal Darkness", one of the most compelling games, not just for the Nintendo Gamecube, but indeed the entire console generation it was part of.  Mixing Lovecraftian horror with wide-spanning time travel, it's one of the few games to evoke a true sense of existential dread, with the very concept of sanity itself being built into the game's mechanics.  This forces you to witness the strain these incredible events really put on the player character's mind, and thus do your level best to wrestle against that ever present tide, only to find out how very difficult that fight is.  Combined with branching paths to keep you coming back and compelling horror imagery that remains exceptionally potent all these years later (indeed, some of the game's cruder graphics almost enhance the effect), it makes for a truly haunting requiem.    

  8.) The Wonderful 101 (Platinum Games, Nintendo Wii U, 2013): Even fewer games emerged to try to truly take advantage of the Wii U's unique game pad controller than did those which tried to really engage with the Wii's motion controls, but thankfully one of the ones which did was "The Wonderful 101", Hideki Kamiya's exuberant love letter to the Tokusatsu genre.  Basically an Action Game take on the "Pikmin" series, "101" puts you in control of a massive travelling army of superheroes who can unite into various giant constructs to fight evil, with the Game Pad's touch screen providing a quick, easy way to draw up the relevant formations, as well as amusing mini-game segments that use the game pad to show you the inside of a building while needing you to observe the effects it has on the outside up on the TV screen.  The design continuously finds clever ways to challenge the player, and like all Platinum game, it also has an airtight combat system that leans heavily on timing and reaction in the most viscerally satisfying way possible.  All that, and it wears its visual identity proudly up front at all times, an aesthetic that is simultaneously wonderfully unique, even as it is also steeped in obvious, affectionate homage.    

7.) Odama (Vivarium, Nintendo Gamecube, 2006): Here's a game few people have even heard of, let alone played.  This is because, like most games which fit that description, it's a truly bizarre cross-pollination of genres.  How bizarre?  It's a Feudal Japanese War Epic...played through via pinball mechanics.  If such a combination sounds impossible, all you need to do is give this truly one-of-a-kind experience a go, because once you do it'll make you wonder why more people haven't tried it.  Giving the player a bird's-eye-view of various battlefields, you are charged with using your pinball flippers to try and guide the "Ninten Ball" (a massive, wrecking-ball-like pinball stand-in) to hit specific targets, flatten enemies, and try to clear a path to allow your troops to overtake the enemy's territory.  Admittedly, the fact that this is a game of pinball, and thus often subject to as much luck as skill, can make even the early levels tricky to actually get through some times, and it does take a bit of time before the game's full, mythological tone takes hold.  But even so, "Odama" makes its eclectic mixture work, and work remarkably well, pulling you in and keeping you going all the way, revealing new and ever-deepening layers to its game play without ever changing its fundamentals.  If you can find a copy, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

6.) Goldeneye 007 (Rare, Nintendo 64, 1997): Everyone knows the old conventional wisdom: licensed games suck, and movie games suck even harder.  Yet the Nintendo 64 adaptation of the James Bond film "Goldeneye" doesn't just Not Suck, it's a stone-cold classic whose shadow still looms large over the entirety of the FPS genre.  These days, of course, that's primarily attributable to its exceptional multiplayer mode, which even by modern standards shows an absolutely dizzying degree of customization to fit just about any group's preferred style of play.  Want to keep certain stages off the rotation?  Want to play with only a certain kind of gun?  Want to change up how to win a particular kind of match?  "Goldeneye" lets you.  But the single-player shouldn't be taken for granted either, taking some of the movie's best moments and translating them perfectly into playable form.  All that, and it's filled to the brim with brilliant deep-dive references for long-time Bond fans.  No doubt about it, no one does it better than "Goldeneye 007".

5.) Viewtiful Joe/Resident Evil 4 (Capcom, Nintendo Gamecube, 2003/2005) : The entire premise of this list rests upon Nintendo's relationship with third-party developers, and nothing is more emblematic of how poor said relationship has grown in the last two decades than the notorious "Capcom Five", a highly-promoted batch of five games from developer and long-time Nintendo collaborators Capcom, meant to be exclusive to the then-struggling Nintendo Gamecube...one of which was cancelled outright ("Dead Phoenix"),  two of which were Gamecube exclusives that sold poorly ("P.N.03" and "Killer 7"), and then there were "Viewtiful Joe" and "Resident Evil 4", both of which proved popular enough to warrant Playstation 2 ports within a couple years of their respective releases.  But even setting that contentious history aside, these two are indeed both fantastic games, one the stirring debut of a great new franchise from future "Wonderful 101" creator Hideki Kamiya (and steeped even further in his love of Tokusatsu, if you can believe it), the other quite handily the best of its notorious franchise, amping up its action elements while still delivering the shock and gore.  Neither one could save the Gamecube from its premature demise, but both demonstrate a remarkable level of polish, innovation, and engagement.  From "Joe"'s endearing sense of humor and fantastic fighting mechanics capturing the unique charm of the Super Sentai Hero, to "RE7"'s over-the-shoulder camera allowing the game to come at you full-throttle exactly when it counts most, they both prove themselves essentials for any Gamecube library, and a fitting last hurrah for that faded period of time when Nintendo and Capcom basically went hand in hand.  

4.) Mischief Makers (Treasure, Nintendo 64, 1997):  The release of "Super Mario 64" in 1996 revolutionized the world of video games in general, and the platformer genre in particular.  Suddenly, everyone, from long-time favorites like Donkey Kong to lowly also-rans like Bubsy were pumping out 3D platformers in "64"'s image, and the genre's 2D roots seemed destined for extinction.  It would take a lot of guts to put out a "traditional" 2D platformer in that environment, but sure enough, "Mischief Makers" had guts to spare, providing not only a refreshing alternative to the 3D glut but doing so with one of the most unique, best-constructed entries in the entire genre.  See, rather than the usual hop-and-bop strategy, platforming in "Mischief Makers" instead centers on using special dash boosts to make your way to where you need to be, and shake-shake-shaking every last item you can get your hands on.  It's not only a compellingly visceral new layer to things, but one the game explores thoroughly and creatively across its vast, well-varied selection of levels.  Shake an object to transform it, or make it drop an important item, or get it to move in the direction you want; the game finds every angle it can, and each one succeeds.  The Boss Battles are some of the  most satisfying and challenging I've ever played, too.  Even its story, loaded with sharp-witted humor and fantastically memorable characters, adds an extra layer of flavor to the whole experience.  "Mischief Makers" was sadly underappreciated in its day, and hard to find nowadays, but even so, it's an absolutely great game. 

3.) Castlevania (Konami, Nintendo Entertainment System, 1986): Did you see that awesome trailer for the new "Castlevania" series coming to Netflix?  Not only does it make the show look like it is going to be seriously great, it also serves as a stark reminder that, while it may have found renewed success and vitality as a Playstation game thanks to the iconic "Symphony of the Night", "Castlevania" began as, and is primarily associated with being, an NES game.  And what an NES game it was, too.  Throwing basically every last Horror Monster you could think of-Dracula naturally, but also the Frankenstein Monster, Medusa, and no less than the Grim goddammed Reaper-together into one place, mixed well with a unique take on the Gothic Horror aesthetic, and brought to life with some of the best graphics on the system, as well as some of its very best music, the original "Castlevania" offered up a compelling, challenging experience.  Some of that challenge can be more than a bit cheap at times, it's true; like "Ninja Gaiden" (a game which just barely missed this list, for the record), the occasional clunkiness of the controls can lead to deaths that feel unfair.  But for the most part, difficulty in "Castlevania" is earned by way of enemies equipped with tricky patterns, platforming designed to lead you right into the thick of danger, and managing your resources as best you can to insure they achieve the best effect.  There's a lot of depth to the action here, with the wide variety of sub-weapons available to you and the situations you'll encounter.  It all adds up into one of the best, most bizarre, most fascinating games to grace a Nintendo system.

2.) Final Fantasy VI (Square, Super Nintendo, 1994): Like "Castlevania", "Final Fantasy" is a series that, once upon a time, was primarily associated with Nintendo.  But much like their relationship with Capcom, the Nintendo/Square (at-the-time-enix-less) partnership fell apart after the end of the Super NES, and "Final Fantasy" would go on to be much more a Playstation franchise from that point on.  The good news, then, is that the last "Final Fantasy" game to come of that partnership is also one of the very best games in the entire franchise.  It features one of "Final Fantasy"'s most memorable villains in the form of the genocidal mad-clown Kefka Palazzo.  It features one of the series' most memorable, at-once-humorous-but-also-heartwarming sequences in the form of the notorious Opera performance.  And it features one of the franchise's most ambitious narratives, one that takes you to the very literal End of the World and back again.  Meanwhile, the aesthetic, the last time series mainstay Yoshitaka Amano would act as the primary character designer for the franchise, is gorgeously realized, pushing the Sci-Fi/Fantasy angle the series had been refining over the last several years to all-new places, and its soundtrack, composed by another FF veteran, Nobuo Uematsu, is justifiably legendary among fans.  Most of all, though, it's just a gripping RPG from start to finish, taking all the things that had made prior "Final Fantasy" games work and polishing them to an absolute mirror shine.  The combat, the travel, the customization options for your characters..."VI" marked the end of an era.  But what an ending it turned out to be. 

1.) Mega Man 2 (Capcom, Nintendo Entertainment System, 1988): It would seem nearly impossible to believe today, given the relative disarray into which Capcom has allowed him to fall, but once upon a time, Mega Man was one of the true stars of the video game world.  And if you ever need to remind yourself of why, all you need to do is play "Mega Man 2" for the NES.  It is here that the "Mega Man" series as we know it today truly begins, taking the rougher look, feel, and build of its predecessor and granting it a greater degree of polish, depth, and outright fun.  The new Slide mechanic, for example, changes up the pace of the game's platforming considerably, while the more nuanced take on the previous game's rock-paper-scissors system for the various new weapons Mega Man can acquire provides the game with many of its most memorable moments (you ever try to use Metal Man's own weapon against him?  You should!).  The stages are all significantly better designed, too, with sharp, challenging traps mixing with pin-point precise run-and-jump segments, as well as some great new enemies to blast along the way.  The music and graphics are aces too, finally fully realizing the Anime Sci-Fi Kid's Book aesthetic the series is now so well known for, and creating some of the most memorable music ever heard on the system (Dr. Wily's Castle is still an all-time great track).  It even introduced Mega Man's iconic sidekick Rush the robo-dog, giving the character himself that much greater a sense of being a complete character by virtue of having a partner and friend to (literally) bounce off of.  "Mega Man II" is one of Capcom's very best games ever, and it's the single best non-Nintendo game to hit a Nintendo console.

[plug2game-blog]

The Way Wii Were: Maturing With Nintendo's Video gaming Phenomenon - Geek.com

The Nintendo Wii is as dead as it could potentially be. After its meteoric success in 2006, reaching over 100 million units sold, the console reached completion of its life about a decade back. The Wii U failed to choose up the baton and the Switch ditched the Wii brand entirely to breathe brand-new life into Nintendo consoles.

How dead is the Wii? Just days ago Nintendo officially closed down the Wii Shop Channel, cutting off gamers from purchasing brand-new games or redownloading old games from that service ever again. Together with being yet another example of how the video game industry shamefully neglects the concern of was just a extreme reminder of how that entire vibrant Wii period (which does not even feel that old!)is strongly now in the past. So I wish to grieve the Wii Shop Channel and the Wii itself by sharing my fond memories of the console as soon as again.Two current

awareness have put me in a nostalgic state of mind. First, I covered my very first press occasion for brand-new Nintendo hardware by going to the Nintendo Switch unveiling. That together with going to E3 for the very first time last year has made my games journalist pail list much shorter. I also kept in mind that last November was the 10th anniversary of the Nintendo Wii, the massively effective motion-controlled system in between Nintendo's GameCube slump and its Wii U depression. I then started thinking about just how much the console implied to me as an establishing gaming enthusiast. So I decided to write those ideas down.

If you have actually checked out any cover letter of mine you'll know my earliest video gaming memories are playing the Super Nintendo, the finest video game console of perpetuity, with my older sis in the early 1990s. Sorry to make anybody feel old but it's the truth. The Super Nintendo is such a default gaming console to me that I used to call the NES the lowly "regular Nintendo." From there I played the N64, GameCube, various Game Boys, any PC with StarCraft installed, and even a PlayStation or Xbox from time to time.

I've constantly taken pleasure in computer game. I would not call myself a Hardcore Player ™ till about 2003. That's when I started taking notice of gaming market news and reading gaming magazines. RIP GMR and EBGames. That's when I recognized a video games reporter was a genuine task a person might have, setting me down my current ridiculous course. The Nintendo DS was the first piece of video gaming tech I became conscious of before it was officially revealed. E3 2004 was the first E3 I ever enjoyed. Once it came out, I bought tremendously more games for the dual-screened portable compared to past systems. It had an amazing library, but I was also that a lot more into video games. And with the Wii, it was the very first time I was genuinely hyped for a console. I could not wait on that thing to launch.It may sound strange, however the Wii was the only computer game console I had throughout Generation 7. Don't get me incorrect. The Xbox 360 was an excellent system that lived a long life and had a lot of fantastic games. The very same uses to the PlayStation 3 (after it stopped costing $600). I always tried to keep up with news surrounding those systems, specifically once I chose to make this journalism thing work. I totally admit my option to only own a Wii kept me from playing some fantastic games at a time, and considering that then I have actually gone back to try and play the majority of them. I also believe that choice to grow up with nothing however a Wii had a strange however ultimately positive impact on my development as a gaming enthusiast overall.

I'll state it again. I love video games. But the larger gaming community has some problems, especially if you enter it as the nerdy and passive aggressive teen boy I could have easily ended up being at the time. For as diverse and weird and whimsical games can be, specifically during their formative years, gamers can be prone to stiff dogma and overbearing groupthink. There's a conservatism to video games culture (not always political however not always not politically based upon the dark events of 2014) that disappoints me. Its pitfalls trap a great deal of ill-informed kids.

Nevertheless, by only having a Wii, I believe I prevented embracing a great deal of misdirected gamer top priorities. This wasn't my objective. I was simply a Nintendo fan. However it did take place, and I'm grateful. I'm pleased I don't think a system's sheer power is its only worthwhile characteristic, that a game like Super Mario Galaxy, Punch-Out !!, Kirby's Impressive Yarn, or Okami can be gorgeous and fantastic even if it doesn't feature the most technically advanced visuals. I'm glad I do not think "casual players" are some existential threat to a real hardcore gaming lifestyle. I'm delighted I don't wish to create approximate barriers blocking individuals who might wish to get into computer game due to the fact that they don't care about "my games." I'm delighted I do not hate motion controls and do not see conventional dual-analog stick controllers as the perfect last form of video game controllers. I'm thankful I value innovative experimentation with the ways we play video games and not just the video games themselves. And I'm glad that because I grew up reading and disagreeing with numerous hardcore folks who were persuaded favorable Wii experiences like mine were void, I don't fall in lockstep with the rest of video gaming culture, a culture that isn't constantly correct.Most importantly,

I'm delighted I got to play a lot of neat games. The Wii had a lots of games. That's what occurs when you sell 100 million consoles. Numerous of those games were extremely bad, however some were likewise really great, you just needed to want to dig. So dig I did, and in the procedure of reading countless evaluations and newspaper article about appealing upcoming Wii games, I became even more absorbed in the world of games journalism my future profession. The big, high-quality Nintendo games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl (the just video game I ever encamped for) and Metroid Prime 3 were hard to miss, however I likewise played countless neat, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People debuted on WiiWare as did the charming city-building video game Last Dream Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. NBA Jam got a great Wii revival. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is the crossover Marvel vs. Capcom 3 must have been. Boom Blox proves Steven Spielberg possibly comprehends video games as much as he understands film. No More Heroes is an artistic statement. Between discs, downloads, and the Virtual Console, I have nearly 100 Wii games. So I might make this list 4 times as long, however you get the point.

Nowadays my tastes are now more lined up with the bigger gaming culture. I have an Xbox One and a PC along with this task covering video gaming in basic. Ironically enough, that's left me with less time to really play games, so I'm not diving rather as deep as often attempting to discover cool video games nobody is focusing on. I still have a healthy skepticism of gaming industry standards and accepted facts I think comes straight from growing up a hardcore gamer with just a Wii. I believe it made me a better player and a much better video games author. Possibly someplace right now there's a kid with just a Wii U who is learning the very same lessons.Want to find out more?

Here's whatever you require to know about the Nintendo Change.

[spiralingworm]

Let's Switch it up!

So us you probably all know I like Nintendo products. There are couple of reasons for that, but I think nostalgia has a lot to do with it. I liked playing games like Contra or Mario in my younger times, because those games were simply fun. Nintendo still has some great ideas when it comes to game designing. I think Splatoon is one of the prime examples here.

(You’re a kid, you’re a squid now!)

For those of you that don't know about what game am I talking now Splatoon is a team based platforming arena shooter about squids. Oh and paintball... You win by covering map with your team colour, and by turning into a squid you can swin in your paint for higher movement speed and longer jumps. If this very brief explanation doesn't seem exciting for you it's okay, because I really think you need to play it or extensively watch to understand. This whole bizzare concept for a game came from young team of game designers in Nintendo. In the world of really violent shooters like Titanfall 2, Doom or Battlefield the non-violent route seems risky to say the least. Nintendo is known from this high risk high reward move or in other words cheese.

(Triforce... cheese joke...)

Nintendo's whole bussines relies on three fundamentals let's call this a Triforce for humour purposes.

Zelda

Link started his adventure on Nintendo Entertainment System with Legend of Zelda and it quickly proved everyone that he is here to stay. There is something magical about all those games starring Link. Maybe it is everyone's dream for the grand adventure where you save a princess. You know the one that takes place in a kingdom far, far away. You just pick up a sword and charge into unknown. Is it safe out there? Of course not and that is why you have a sword. Maybe it is the fact that Link is just another random noname boy and he simply believes that what he is doing is right. By the way this is courage App... back to the point. I know that this seems like a typical  story in typical world by lazy writer, but I don't know it just works. It is simple and it is fun.

Mario

Platformer about a plumber who saves a princess, but in Mario defense those games actually have very little story to it. This game is all about precise jumps and last second decisions. Nobody actually cares who Mario is, why he is here or why the hell he has a mustache. He just is here to beat King Koopa and his minions and free princess Peach from her prison. Ridiculous? Of course it is, but again this a game about story. Everyone plays Mario for great level design and interesting mechanics or power ups. Thanks to the succes of the first game Mario became an icon for Nintendo. So much so the company venture into other genres with him like kart racing or RPG. He even was briefly considered as a playable character fo Splatoon and thank Jim they went with squids. Mario is on the front line for gaming not just for Nintendo.

Gimmicks

Wait, what? Yes, I think that trying to be as innovative as possible with every product is the fundament of Nintendo and it is the most important one for them. It is at the same time a blessing and a curse for them. I mean just look at the Wii succes versus Wii U failure. Yeah the marketing for the latter was just so painly bad that it is hard to even comprehend, but it is also showing the mentality of Nintendo “Play big or don't even bother”. They create hardware that relies on some new interesting idea and then they will try to build a game that use it to its fullest potential. Most of the times this approach really works and we receive a well balanced gameplay that is just fun to play around. The problem appears when N will try to reinvent a wheel and gameplay will suffer because they refuse to use schematics that simply work. Nintendo is Nintendo biggest enemy in this situations.

(That was actually very good)

Okay so with all that in mind let's talk march 3rd and the upcoming release of Nintendo Switch. Brand new hybrid of handheld and stationary console which was, for a very long time, known under a codename NX. As, hopefully, you can see the premise is simple but actually really exciting. Play your games on a TV and when you need to leave your home just snap Joycon's on the console and take your game with you. Even the click sound is something that still sits in my head and does not want to leave. I don't know this console just spoke to me when on october 20th this clip saw the light of day. It was awesome till like 5 minutes after the clip realeased. It went only down for me after that.

(My excellent hype versus time line)

I think the biggest problem for me is the attitude that Nintendo presented after that. They simply refused to say anything about their shiny new console until January 12th. They didn't want to comment on anything, not even a confirmation that Skyrim would be ported for the device. Why would you show gameplay of a game if you aren't ready to acknowledge it will be on your console. You could say that they wanted to avoid drowning in sea of mud that is christmas, but for me this just shows that you don't believe in your product. You don't have anything new this holiday season so why in the hell you go silent? Okay so maybe this is just my gamer ADHD speaking. Maybe the January presentation will be awesome and it will be all fine.

(I feel kinda meh..)

Well... yes and no. The price is actually quite nice and of course the games are actually really interesting. Of course we already knew a lot about Breath of the Wild and it actually looks really good from gameplay perspective. There is of course new Mario game which looks really weird and awesome at the same time. The hat throwing in particular seems like a mechanic that can provide really hard and really satisfying manouvers. Splatoon is coming back with some more splatting and while it looks like just more of the same it is fine, because this game is just that good. Of course Nintendo wouldn't be itself if it didn't introduce something entirely new to the table.

(Arms a new IP)

Arms is game about putting on some boxing gloves and stepping on a ring to fight 1on1 with some absurd enemy. Oh and your character is also absurd just to let you know. I mean the over stylisation is fine, because at this point you just don't expect anything else from Nintendo. Not to mention that they are the company that actually can deliver when it comes down to simple fun from gameplay. So actually while Arms may as well seem really stupid it can actually work pretty well.

(Series of mini games.)

1-2 Switch is actually series of mini games that tries to show off what an actual hardware can do. In most cases you don't even need to look on the screen to play. There are games like cow milking, wizard fight, cowboy quick draw... Simple stuff that will entertain your guests for like an hour and it will be put back to the box and never shown again. In their defense Wii Sports is on the second place when it comes to copies sold, but it also was bundled to Wii for a very long time. 1-2 is not budled it is a stand-alone product with MSRP 49.99. This is a lot I don't care how many mini games are there.

(Those are of course included in base console, but additional cost...)

I think this is the problem I have with Switch the cost is low, but not as low to reason day one/year one purchase. It may seem like there is a lot games coming to Switch now in March, but no. Mario will be released in holiday season. Arms will be month or two after Switch and the same goes for Mario Kart. Splatoon 2? Summer 2017. Of all that games only Zelda and 1-2 Switch  is coming day one. No, wait Bomberman R... wait no... Do I want to count it? Well early adopters sure as hell will need to do it because there is nothing else they will be able to do with this device.

(Wii U got crap for too big controller. How is it any different?)

There will be no video apps available for them at launch and before you ask. No, not even Youtube. Meaning that you are either happy with Zelda or will use Switch as shiny statue on your shelf. I don't expect Zelda to suck as the matter of fact I can safely claim this will GOTY for 2017, but some choice would be nice. Surely we can compromise I mean Wii U had some awesome internet browser and almost everything worked there. There is only one small exception for this Nintendo Switch will not feature aa internet browser on launch. If and when it will appear remains a secret. Not that you could use internet on the go. Switch will not have sim card slot for 3G or something like that. So maybe let's turn to third parties, indies of this world.

(The indies)

So there will be World of Goo on day one, great. Except people that would want to play this game already did on other devices. We have Binding of Isaac great game that will debut on march 17th, but wait currently only for NA region. Despite claiming on the presentation that will not be region locked we still need to jump through hoopes of company own regional politics. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't sometimes pissed on Sony for the very same thing, but I swear Nintendo is worse. We also have Shovel Knight great game... here actually have a list and sort by date here. It seems like a lot but keep in my mind that most of those are just rereleased products. Please don't exactly believe people saying something along the line of “X game is amazing I bought it on y, z and t, and I will buy it for Switch”. I mean maybe believe them, but are you seriously consider them sane? For comparison PS4 here, and of course sort by date and look at day one/month one anything after that is pointless.

(JoyCon)

Remember when I said that the biggest enemy of Nintendo is Nintendo? I think the villain strikes again. Aside the horrendous accessory prices for Switch. Single Joycons that presumably are perfect for a grown-up. Like hell they are... There is the problem of power. There is reason as to why specifics about GPU or CPU can be found only in rumours and leaks. Official specifications here basicly says “Yes, we have a GPU here.”... Well I hope so. The internet got mad about Mohammad Alavi comment "No. F*** no. No you're not going to be able to fit Titanfall on it. That's the same Zelda from the Wii U [laughs].". This is Respawn Entertainment senior designer saying no to prospect of porting TF2 to Switch. Just to let you know they did exceptional optimisation for PS4 in my eyes. You receive nice 60 FPS and I swear sometimes I blinked and missed the load times for couple MP matches. The amount of work needed to downgrade a game like this so it will work like this is absurd and not worth the money. AAA developers would need to create games specifically for Switch and they will not create games for a platform that doesn't sold well. It didn't sold well because people are not especially keened on buying Nintendo only exclusive device... I mean I have Wii U, but I am not entirely sane... exactly... So the playerbase will stay low and... You see where I am going here? Okay, but you could say Wii and try to shut me down this way.

(Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii)

Well the whole premise of motion controls simply worked for everyone. Gramma, granda, mother, father, uncle, three year old sister, that cousin that hate games. Pretty much all of them know how to swing a tennis racket or play golf using Wiimote. The stereotypical housewives played Wii Sports to stay fit and it was a perfect sell. I mean if there was one thing that nerds don't do is exercise. So no I don't think Switch even remotely compares to what Wii have to offer. Not to mention that those housewives does not have any reason to buy a new shiny box. At this point I am fairly convinced that Nintendo hardware would endure atomic bomb, napalm strike, Cyclops laser beam, dropping from 100 meters and Hugh Jackman.

(That’s right!)

As always only time will tell if Nintendo is a genius or they will need to live through another generation of weak sales. I wish I was wrong. I wish that Switch will be a great game changer, but at this point I think there only be one true game changer. Pokemon. If there ever was a franchise that literally moved consoles and people bought a device only to play one game it is this one. It would also need to come with the news of killing New 3DS. It is possible, but when?

[jamesbyerj]

Prime time with PrimeSonic

Today's guest in our Mod Author interview series is [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/1733280]PrimeSonic[/url] - creator of a number of super useful feature mods for [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica]Subnautica[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnauticabelowzero]Subnautica: Below Zero[/url]. [b]We'll start as we always do. For those who don't know you, can you tell us a bit about yourself? [/b] Hi there. I'm PrimeSonic and I've been using this name on the internet since the very early 2000s, back when "Web 2.0" was still in its infancy. I've been a modder on Nexus for just over a year now, although I joined long ago as simply a gamer looking for mods. My day job is in business software, which isn't remotely as sexy as video games, but it pays well and still scratches that "problem-solving itch" more often than not. I've been working as a professional software developer for about ten years now and I took my first steps into computer programming almost ten years before that. I'm a PC hardware enthusiast and you could call me a gamer in that games have always been an will be an important part of my life. And since we're here to talk about my Subnautica mods, remember that all my mods are open source and publicly available on [url=https://github.com/PrimeSonic/PrimeSonicSubnauticaMods]GitHub[/url]. [b]Given your handle - PrimeSonic - you must be a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog. Which game would you say is the best in the franchise? [/b] The best Modern Sonic experience is still [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/71340/Sonic_Generations_Collection/]Sonic Generations[/url] (Get it on PC for mods). The best Classic Sonic experience is still somewhere between [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/584400/Sonic_Mania/]Mania[/url] or the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=674578957]Sonic 3 & Knuckles Complete romhack[/url]. [b]How do you feel about the upcoming Sonic movie? [/b] As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't exist. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1565179483-1500290244.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1565180021-479003350.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Could you tell us a little about your gaming history?  [/b] My earliest gaming happened on an NES at the babysitter's and whatever demos I could get on our 486 machine downloaded off AOL Kids. I've been a SEGA diehard since the early 90s but Nintendo has certainly had a special place in my heart too. To list off the consoles I've personally owned myself: Genesis, Game Gear, Gameboy Color, Dreamcast, DS, Gamecube, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, Switch. But no matter what the generation of console, I always had games on my PC.   My fond gaming memories are plentiful. I could probably play Sonic 3 & Knuckles in my sleep after all the time I devoted to it. Even after years of exploring the world of Arcanum, I still managed to keep on discovering new things, long after I thought I knew the game in and out. I remember eagerly jumping on Sonic Generations when it released, rushing to buy a new and better graphics card so I could actually play it. I did a couple of tours of WoW with good friends back in the day. In the future, I will get to fondly remember FF14 as the MMO I played side by side with my wife. [b]All of the mods you've shared with our community are from the Subnautica series. What was it about these games that inspired you to start modding them? [/b] It was one of those "right place, right time" things. One of my favourite YouTube gamers ([url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/videos/660]MegaGWolf[/url]) was doing a Subnautica series and I was really liking what I was seeing. Once the game came out of Early Access and I tried it for myself, I was absolutely hooked for weeks following. There were a respectable number of mods out at the time and used a fair number of them from the get-go. But it was the moment that I looked at some of the open-source mod code for myself that everything clicked. This was C#. I knew I could do this. Heck, I do stuff like this for a living. All at once I felt the rush of being able to apply my coding skills to something I was truly passionate about for the first time.   [b]Your newer mods include a suite of upgrades for the Cyclops Submarine. Could you talk us through some of them?[/b] Yeah. Once I saw how big [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/101]MoreCyclopsUpgrades[/url] was getting, and just how much code reuse there was, I knew it was time to break it up and let people pick and choose the parts they want. [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/273]CyclopsSolarUpgrades[/url] - It's finally its own mod again! This is somewhat of a spiritual successor to one of my earliest (and long deleted) mods: CyclopsSolarCharger. This mod adds an upgrade module for the Cyclops that works just like the Seamoth Solar Charger. Unlike the one on the Seamoth, you can add multiple copies of this upgrade module for added effect. Later on, it can be upgraded to a better version, just to give you something to work towards as you get into the later game.   [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/277]CyclopsBioReactor[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/274]CyclopsNuclearUpgrades[/url] - I put these mods together as they were developed in collaboration with the guys of [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/users/66012691]FCStudios[/url]. I don't have any 3D modelling skill or experience. Heck, I can barely make any 2D sprites as it is. But these guys made such awesome work on their own I just knew we would be able to bring our skills together to make something awesome. In both cases, the mods add a new type of reactor that you can build in the Cyclops: a smaller Bioreactor and a smaller Nuclear Reactor. Both will feed power into the Cyclops similar to how those reactors would work in a base. The extra cool thing is that these mods were designed to give players more late-game stuff to work towards. Each one of these mods also includes new upgrade modules that can be equipped to the Cyclops that will enhance all of the bio/nuclear reactors on board at once!   [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/276]CyclopsAutoZapper[/url] - The newest entry (and with updates to come in the future). This mod adds a new upgrade module that taps directly into a docked Seamoth's Electrical Defense System, overcharging it to fend off would-be aggressors. The cool thing is that it's completely automatic. If the Cyclops is under attack, it will engage. It's not really a mod I'd recommend for a player's first play-through, but for Subnautica veterans looking for a new tool to defend the Cyclops, this can make for a fun addition.   There's plenty more, so check out the Requirements tab and see just how many mods were improved, or entirely made possible, by [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/101]MoreCyclopsUpgrades[/url]. [center] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/images/News/14088_tile_1565186843.jpg[/img][/center] [b]If you had to say which one of your mods you are most proud of, which would it be and why? [/b] That honour probably had to go to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/114]CustomCraft2[/url]. Not just because of how feature-rich it became over time or for how it opened up the door to many non-coders to make some of their own Subnautica Mods. No, the main reason I'm proud of it is because that was where I put my brain to the test and created my own C# serialization language from scratch, complete with its own parser. I rarely get the chance to write code that complex, so to see it come together and prove to myself just what I was capable of was sheer joy. I'm just amazed that I was able to wrap my head around the problem in the first place considering that I had never done anything quite like that before. [b]When you play Subnautica, which difficulty setting do you prefer? [/b][b]I've always played on Survival but never actually finished the story. [/b] You really should complete the story at least once. It really does bring everything to a close. As for me, I very much enjoyed my first play-through on Freedom mode, since I was new to the whole survival genre of games and I really didn't want to stress myself over it. But on my second play-through, I understood just how rewarding it can be to play in Survival mode. There was a real sense of progression between having to catch my every meal in the early game to having a replenishing stockpile of food ready to feast on at any given time. These days, when I actually play the game, I spend more time in Creative mode just enjoying the scenery or tinkering with a new base idea. [b]What are your top 3 essential Subnautica mods? [/b] There's so many to pick from and I use so many myself, but if I had to pick just three that all players of all play style preferences should have: [list] [*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/24]EasyCraft[/url] - Makes crafting fun again by taking away the tedium. Once you've used EasyCraft, you won't want to go back. [*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/12]SubnauticaMap[/url] - A well-balanced map feature that feels like a feature that could have been there all along. With the fog of war enabled, I feel it perfectly complements the game's exploration loop. [*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/207]Radial Tabs[/url] - Fixes the crafting trees so you don't have to worry about having too many crafting nodes. With how many crafting related mods there are, this mod here will guarantee that you never have to worry about crafting icons going off-screen. [/list] [b]What tools do you use when creating mods for Subnautica? [/b] It's important to remember that Subnautica wasn't created with a modding framework. So all the mods you see are, more or less, forms of code injection. Mods are made by adding to or replacing the original game code with the mod's code at runtime.   As for the tools to make this happen, I'll list the 2 most important ones. [url=https://github.com/0xd4d/dnSpy/]dnSpy[/url] - Because Subnautica is developed in Unity, and Unity is developed in .NET, the DLL files themselves actually contain a surprising amount of meta-data, rather than just being binary blobs. On that note, dnSpy is a crucially important piece of software because what it does is read all that byte code and metadata and reassemble something that looks very close to the original source code. Sure, it's not a perfect recreation in that you lose some of the syntactic sugar, but it's enough for modders to be able to peek into the game's original code and see what we can do with it.   [url=https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/]Visual Studio[/url] - Looking at the original game code isn't very useful if you can't also write your own and for writing C# code, Microsoft's own Visual Studio arguably sets the bar for what all development tools should offer. I've been using the various versions of Visual Studio in my professional work since the old 2010 edition. It's still a fantastic development environment and, best of all for young coders, it can be free! I may use an Enterprise version of Visual Studio at work, but at home, the Community edition offers everything I could need.   Beyond these tools, everything else is in software libraries that make some aspects of modding Subnautica easier, or just outright possible in the first place. [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/152]You can find more details on all this in oldark1's Modding Tutorial[/url].   [b]If a modder wanted to get started making their own Subnautica mods, what advice would you give them?[/b] Make sure you're comfortable working with C#, with object-oriented programming, and be ready to learn a few things about Unity along the way. I would also say that creating mods for Subnautica can arguably be harder than it was to write some parts of the game in the first place. Remember, we are injecting and replacing code here. There are no files to play around with. No text to tweak. The game doesn't officially support modding. The only modding framework that exists was created by the modding community. So be prepared to dive into some real challenges. You'll be faced with not just expressing your own ideas in your code but also with figuring out how to make them work around someone else's code. But if you're ready to do all that, there is quite literally no limit to what you could do. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1565255441-1080745880.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Have you ever thought about making mods for other games?[/b] At this point, I know I could dive into modding any Unity-based game. Knowing what I know now, a lot more games just became "mod supported" for me, whether they were intended to be or not.  But for right now, I still have Subnautica mods I want to create and others I want to improve. With the limited free time I have to do all that, it may be a while before I dive into modding for another game. It's certainly possible, but likely won't happen for a while. [b]As a Mod Author do you check out other Mod Authors to either compare or learn from?[/b] Absolutely and all the time. I wouldn't have started making any mods in the first place if it hadn't been for the modders who came before me. Their open-source code was an invaluable resource in getting me started. Even today, I'm always checking out what other modders are making. Maybe they've come up with a creative solution to a problem I never thought about or maybe they know Unity well enough to be able to do more with it. Heck, some of the best mods I'm attributed to came from direct collaboration with other modders who shared their skills. Some mods of mine, in part or in whole, simply wouldn't have been possible without the tips and insights I got from other modders in the community. [b]Are there any Mod Authors that you look up to or who inspire you? [/b] In the interest of time, I will pick one: The legendary [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/9322077]RandyKnapp[/url]. This was the guy whose works got me into modding in the first place and whose large collection of high-quality mods made me want to make more of them. [b]To wrap things up, is there anything else you'd like to say to the community?[/b] Never let anyone tell you that you're playing the game wrong. Whether you use one mod over another or none at all, whatever makes the game most enjoyable to you is how you should be playing it. [line] A big thank you to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/1733280]PrimeSonic[/url] for taking the time to respond to our questions. As always, if there are any mod authors or mod projects you'd like to hear about, don't hesitate to send a message to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url]. Published first at Prime time with PrimeSonic

[bjhdillon5236-blog]

Get The Most Out Of Your New Smart Phone - Get Cell Phone Apps Downloads

Aside from some sports programming, there are not many TV demonstrates to. The most popular one is ESPN 3D seen on US-based DirectTV, Comcast, AT&T U-verse and Time Warner cable. DirecTV also has launched n3D - a privileged project with Panasonic and 3net which is actually 24 hour 3D channel from Discovery, Imax and Sony - specializing in general and documentary programs. THE CONS: Unfortunately the LG BD670 does not have any built-in utility area to download BD-Live website content. If having on-board storage space is a consideration for you, the look at LG BD690, it essentially the same player since BD670, but has a 250 GB Hard Direct. A USB device with at a minimum 1 GB of memory will most likely be used while using player get such satisfied. There are no 7.1-ch analog outputs. Disc loading speeds are a little slower in comparison to the average speed of the 2011 players. In spite of this business jockeying, patrons can simply watch Tv shows on their digital devices, lawfully. Apple's iPad, which dominate the new tablet class, has developed into a talented device for completing this task. It made its introduction a year ago with a app apk build in, and continue accomplish new app apk. For instance, HBO just unconfined one. These apps mainly offer delayed, not live, viewing. 6) House remote - That's right a remote for your own. Buying a few special plugin's for your electrical outlets in your house and downloading an app will everyone to do all regarding fancy such as turn to your lights or turn them off a person are are away from home. You also download an app that will allow an individual remote with your computer everywhere in property or everywhere you look that has WiFi. There to become just arriving for a landing amount of 3D content right well. There are about 50 or thereabouts titles provided with over 20 more announce for later this summer. We are slowly seeing more content becoming available. So, may possibly can gather from my list of "popular apps", is the majority of these apps started out as websites and then built into an app for you know what? CONVENIENCE! Everyone (or almost everyone) loathes getting into their browser on their iPad or iPhone to Google (yahoo, or bing) the website and pinch the screen to get the perfect watch. First off all, it is overly time consuming and not to mention, not easy. Mad props to the folks mentioned above for giving us a program. Bravo! Do not forget to use client server computing when generating iPad purposes. Web browsers work on the first step toward client server computing. In theory, is actually always possible get all services on world wide web to pc. Of course, you will need a really powerful computer for this task. However, you not surf the entire web at once, particular? That is the reason web browsers contact servers and download just the you be needing. Install using system located on the USB drive. If you are using Windows, simply download MojoPac, shop for a license for $50, soon after which add all the apps desire. It will run for instance a normal machine, only it's running on the thumb direct. Anything you save will be on the flash drive, any browser cache - everything. Is actually possible to powerful enough to run Photoshop, or World of Warcraft. Worth the cost.

[tumblunni]

Digimon World Next Order!! For once a game that ISNT a weirdly named sequel, even though it still sounds like one. 'Order Points' is the name of the revamped battle system. ^_^ Ive only been playing for about four hours but so far I'm really enjoying it! RANDOM RAMBLING ABOUT MY JOY, AHOY!

* First off, its a sequel to the original Digimon World rather than to Cyber Sleuth, so do a bit of research before you buy it, I'd say. Its more of a tamagotchi hybrid rpg than a regular turn-based one. Lots of hugging virtual pets and feeding em snacks! But this has always been my fave genre so I'm happyyyyyy~ * I named my two digimon Hershey and Zephyr cos they started off as terriermon and lopmon. But they immediately diverged off into wildly different digivolution paths instead, so now the names dont make sense XD By some grand coincidence they ended up becoming snowogremon and icedevimon at the same time, so that's what they are now! :3 my popsicle buddies! * Hershey's favourite food is mushrooms/vegetables, and Zephyr is a bit of a diva who hates everything except mineral water. Its funny since Hershey is the fragile magic user of the duo, and then we have this hulking ice shoulderblades yeti being all 'no my carbs'. DUDE WHY U GO AGAINST UR EVOLUTION REQUIREMENTS aaa but i luv u anywayyyyy * Hershey lucked out and got a super powerful technique early on by random chance, this thing that costs 700 mp to deal 700 damage, when everything else is like 50 power. And then they lucked right out of it again, cos Icedevimon cant use that move XD fifteen seconds of power as a rookie... * why do the levels mean basically nothing, yo? the game says this redvegiemon is level 3 but its stronger than the level 6 everything else in the area. Maybe the game is just dumb and levels dont take into account digivolution level? Like.. this is stronger cos its not a rookie, and they didnt even bother to make the level counter say 13 or something so the player could actually tell  Well, now i know to ignore that thing entirely and just judge on their digivolutions! * The difficulty is far lower in the actual raising aspect yet higher in battles... its weird... * Its also a shame that training no longer has unique animations! It doesnt have any animations at all, its just push button dispense stats. They did at least clear up the problem of having to walk manually between each training area and waste valuable time, now there's just one training area that contains all the different trainings in a neat quick navigation menu. But its also a bit less charming and less gamelike when its JUST menus. BUT on the other hand they did mitigate it a bit by throwing in new features like a roulette roll to get bonus stats, and a whole system of complex ways you can win an extra turn on it. (Training next to each other, training opposite skills, having max happiness, someone having just digivolved, one stat gets a bonus turn each day at random...) * Its really nice that the intro of the game has you meet your digimon partners in fully evolved mega form and have a few scenes of dialogue with them before they get poofed down to digieggs by the villain. It helps mitigate the weirdness of your partner digimon being the only digimon that cant talk! * BUT ALSO. NOW THEY TALK. !!!!!! * You get some cute random dialogue popups on the bottom of the screen as you adventure around, and each digivolution has a different set of stuff to say. Its still very minimal and can get repetitive, but its adorable and helps you get more attatched to these lil doofs! * Also its hella nice that you can now pick to play as a girl, for the first time in the tamagotchi-style digimon games! I actually think her design looks cooler than the dude, he just has a streak of blue hair while she has this awesome poisonous-looking striped ponytail that bleeds pixels as you run! Badass! * ALSO thank you for english dubbed dialogue yo. Its not perfect but then again namco bandai games rarely are XD And they included an option to have the original japanese voices if you prefer! * I missed Jijimon so much. Why he never get to appear in anything aside from this spinoff series? He was in one episode of Tamers but that was an awful cameo He has THE MOST STEREOTYPICAL grandpa voice in the english dub and i luv im * The environment design so far is a lot more basic and boring than the old ps1 game for some reason? It seems to fall prey to the usual ps4 designer logic that making stuff BIG makes it automatically good, even if its just annoyingly huge spaces to traverse with barely anything in them. And so far its just been Generic Field A, B and C, with only occasional stuff like a giant battery to let you know its the digital world. And the main town is super small now that everything training has been smooshed into one building... * Its also a lot less sandboxy and interesting to explore, and the digimon recruitment quests kinda suck. I've already found three guys and all of them were fetch quests to gather a certain amount of an item. And now you also have to gather certain amounts of an item from special gathering spots in order to actually build the new shops, which is annoying because its in these huge boring maps that you have to backtrack thru again and again * The battle system is VASTLY IMPROVED, holy SHIT! Its like they somehow read my brain?? Back when i played the first digimon world, i would always get so frustrated at the auto battle and its bad AI that i'd just mash the X button even when i had nothing to do. Somehow I thought it would make my digimon stronger. AND NOW IT ACTUALLY DOES!!! The X button has been remapped to the new cheer function, and if you cheer at the right moment you get more or less Order Points. if you use them you can manually select to use a move at the right timing, use a move without consuming MP, or use a special super move! (waaaay easier than the shoulder buttons thing in the old game) It spices up a very inactive battle system! * Oh and HELL YEAH FOR QUIDE PUZZLE SYSTEM THINGIE! In the first game you had NO WAY OF KNOWING what requirements you needed to meet for each digivolution, or what digimon could turn into what, until after you'd already unlocked it. You had to consult fanmade guides if you wanted to try 100% completion. Now the guide is an actual ingame menu where you unlock tips as rewards for various good actions as a virtual pet owner. You'll likely never unlock all the guide points for a particular digimon stage before you're already past it, unless you raise the same one a bazillion times. But the lil tips every now and then can be useful enough to help you choose which direction to take your training! Just a lil 'oh, ive already hit the HP requirement for this one? i guess I'll try and go for it!' or 'oh darn this one requires maximum deliquency, i guess i wont get it so I should try for something else'. Its useful. My only complaint is that maybe the way to unlock them could have been less random and less easy? Its just a random chance whenever they eat food/get praised after a good thing. * Ultimately so far the few bad points arent bad enough to ruin the enjoyment for me. It just seems a little soulless and rushed, maybe? But I'd enjoy literally anything in this genre, I've been waiting so long for a sequel that even if this was terrible I'd still adore it! And its far from terrible, its just a lil bland. It probably wont have as much replayability as the first game, but it still feels like it'd be fun for one playthrough! * Also, Hershey and Zephyr are my new lil best friends. SUCH A CUTE GIANT MONSTERS YES YOU IS        

[johnmkenney]

Game of the Year 2018

2018 was an interesting year for games.  While there wasn’t as much depth as previous years, the games that stood out were truly something special.  This was certainly a year where big franchises that had been dormant for a few years came roaring back, but more importantly some developers released some truly unique new IP that took the industry by storm.  All of this combined for some great experiences that won’t soon be forgotten.  There wasn’t a ton of games I thought were fantastic outside of the top 10, but this was one of the most difficult years to order the top 10 as the quality of each game was unbelievable.

As always, the rules for inclusion are as follows:    

The game must have its final retail release in 2018.  Thus, anything in an alpha/beta state or Steam Early Access does not qualify.  This rule is still being under consideration for removal.

In the case of episodic games, they must have their final episode delivered in 2018 to make the list.

While this list is comprehensive, I haven’t played everything.  Games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Dragon Quest XI, Hitman 2, Forza Horizon 4, Florence, and The Messenger all seem great but are unfortunately all still on my backlog.

Most importantly: the game has to be really good.  No-brainer there.

Honorable mentions:

While this year wasn’t as competitive past the Top 10, there were a few other games I played that deserved mentions as my final cuts:

Monster Hunter World - This was a causality of not having enough time to get deep enough in the game, but from what I played MHW does a great job making the series more accessible to a broader audience. Octopath Traveler - The game oozes style and has a great combat system, but unfortunately the late-game repetition and disjointed story keeps it from becoming something great. Yoku’s Island Express - It was truly a unique idea to mix pinball with Metroidvania, and it pays off with a fun game and a great soundtrack. 

Without further ado, here are my top 10 games of 2018:

10. Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Bandai Namco/Sora - Switch)

The follow up to Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS, this entry once again delivered.  Nintendo managed to bring back every character that has ever been in a Smash game, including characters that were cut from previous installments for various reasons.  The team managed to make enough subtle tweaks to most characters to keep the brawler as entertaining as usual.  However, the standout mode in this version has to be in the massive single-player Spirits system.  There are over 1,000 unique spirits to collect in this game, and to unlock most of them you need to complete a special battle that represents the character of the spirit you are trying to unlock.  These clever fights help pay homage to characters that don’t make the cut for Smash, and it is a nice touch to help add several dozens of hours of fun moments.  

9. Into the Breach (Subset Games - PC, Switch)

Following up to their 2012 indie hit FTL, Subset Games is back with another clever run-based adventure.  Into the Breach is something all its own though, as this turn-based strategy game tasks you with using a few mechs to defend various cities and structures from an invading alien menace.  Customization is key here, as you are able to unlock multiple squads and pilots that help completely modify your strategy to save the world.  One of the more brilliant parts of the game is that almost all the information is provided to you prior to each turn.  You know exactly where each enemy is going to attack the following turn, so the goal isn’t just to eliminate your foe, but also disrupt them.  If you see your opponent is poised to barrel ahead in a straight line towards a building, you can use a ranged attack to instead knock it of its path so that it instead rams into another adversary.  While it is incredibly challenging to have the perfect turn, everything is within your control so you know it was your fault if things go wrong.  Ben Prunty also delivers an incredible soundtrack yet again, as his melodies help really set the atmosphere for each tense battle. 

8. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Studios - PS4/XBO)

Easily the most talked about game of 2018, Rockstar’s prologue to their 2010 western is an incredible technical achievement.  The amount of detail that goes into every aspect of this game seems mind-blowing, and it is quite easy to lose yourself in the world that has been created.  The story is also one of the biggest improvements in the game this time around, as seeing how Dutch’s gang fell leading to the events of the previous installment is a fascinating tale.  The protagonist, Arthur Morgan, has one of the more gripping character arcs seen in the past few years.  There is an absolute ton to accomplish in this game, as it is constantly introducing new side quests as well as presenting random stranger events that help make everything feel very alive.  Unfortunately, sometimes the gameplay gets in its own way, and some of the later missions can be a repetitive slog despite the gripping story being told.  This is one not to be missed, but there’s just enough keeping it from being a true classic.

7. Donut County (Ben Esposito - iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, XBO)

Donut County is easily the weirdest game on this list as this is a game where you play as a hole.  While in most games that have pits you are used to avoiding them, here you are actually trying to have as many characters and objects fall into a hole as possible.  The puzzles aren’t difficult at all, but every time you suck something up, the hole gets larger so that you are able to go after larger items until nothing is left on screen.  It is a unique concept that works, and it is something that anyone can play.  What ties everything together though is the tremendous cast of characters in the game, as BK the raccoon and everyone around him will keep you laughing the entire way through.  There is a journal in the game, the Trashopedia, which includes hilarious descriptions written by a raccoon describing real world items.  It is worth ready every single entry.  The soundtrack does a great job pulling everything together, and the game only being 2 to 3 hours makes it a great quick jaunt for everyone.

6. Tetris Effect (Monstars Inc/Resonair - PS4)

At this point, everyone knows what Tetris is.  So, there’s nothing new that can be done with Tetris, right?  Wrong.  Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the mind behind Lumines, helped gets the rights to Tetris so that his studio could help work on a version of Tetris that functioned similar to his music-based puzzler.  While he only served as a producer on the title, his influence is clearly seen.  The hallmark mode, Journey, has you making a specific number of lines as the speed changes based on the tempo of the song that is playing.  All the while this is happening, interactive backgrounds also animate to the rhythm.  Once you hit your line goal, you keep your blocks on screen, but you are then transported to another song and environment to continue on with its own tempo with a new count of lines to achieve.  While the game was initially built for VR, it plays just fine on a normal TV and will have you glued trying to get that classic four line namesake.  The presentation also extends to multiple other challenging modes, including trying to build the highest combo as well as using 3 or 4 blocks to clear every line on a puzzle.  The weekly events will keep you coming back, and overall this a great package to help revitalize one of the best games ever created. 

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man (Insomniac Games - PS4)

While the previous generation saw great comic success with the Batman Arkham series, it was often wondered when some other classic heroes would get a resurgence in the gaming world.  It took a while, but Insomniac found a way to capture that lightning with their PS4-exclusive Spider-Man.  Skipping the origin story that has been told to death at this point, you are transported into the life of Peter Parker years after he has already become Spider-Man and several of his foes are already locked up in the Raft.  Certain characters have yet to become their iconic villainous forms yet, while others are already terrorizing New York City like the Shocker.  A unique Spider-Man story is told here, as with the change of canon you aren’t sure the twists and turns each character arc is going to take which always keeps you on your toes.  Most importantly, the gameplay here is a blast.  Previous Spider-Man games always have trouble making it feel fun to swing around the city, but Insomniac’s version has you darting around the city with ease.  Random events happen in the city in real time, and everything is so tightly packed that you can accomplish anything even if you only have small amounts of time to play.  There are great nods to Spider-Man and Marvel lore through with Peter’s costumes and collectibles.  The underrated gem of the entire experiences are the sequences where you play as Mary Jane and Miles, as their ventures help show that everyday people are just as important to Peter’s success as Spider-Man is.  

4. Return of the Obra Dinn (3909 LLC - PC)

Definitely the most unique game on the list this year, Return of the Obra Dinn casts you as an insurance claims collector that needs to catalog the deaths and disappearances of a few dozen people from an abandoned ship that has just returned.  Ok, that might not sound captivating at first, but stay with me.  Lucas Pope (creator of Papers Please) made one of the most novel puzzle games here, as you are given an empty journal and an artist’s rendition of everyone who was aboard the doomed vessel.  You are then able to walk up to any corpse on the boat and be instantly transported back to the exact moment of their demise.  Sometimes you hear brief dialogue, but mostly you are just able to walk around a still scene of the exact moment of their death.  Here, you walk around and try to figure out who the person is, how they died, and who else was there.  While you can typically figure out how the person died, the true puzzle solving comes with finding out the names of who each person is from their involvement in other scenes, and it creates a deep loop of investigation and revisiting moments.  There truly is nothing like this game, and the unique look helps it give it a style all its own.  

3. God of War (Sony Santa Monica - PS4)

While multiple franchises saw returns this year, none had more of an impact than the return of God of War.  Previous installments in the series saw Kratos as a bloodthirsty screaming god looking for revenge, but this time around he moved away from Ancient Greece to Midgard for a quieter life where he is taking care of his son Atreus.  His wife in this realm has recently passed, and your objective is to honor her last wish of spreading her ashes at the highest point in the realm.  Part of what makes this entry in the series so satisfying is that it slows down the adventure and gives more weight to the combat as well as more options to vanquish your foes.  The light-RPG system implemented helps you determine what skills Kratos can utilize and lets your specialize your character more than previous games.  While the combat is great, the world and its story is what takes center stage here.  Kratos’ relationship with his son makes for great moments throughout and does a lot more to humanize Kratos compared to previous games in the series.  The supporting cast does a great job of making the world feel alive as well, especially Mimir who will help give insight to the history of everything around you in real time as you travel.  Kratos’ return is a triumph, and it helped make me care about a franchise that I thought I had lost all interest in.  The ending was left very open, so its very exciting to see where Sony Santa Monica goes from here.

2. Dead Cells (Motion Twin - PC, PS4, Switch, XBO)

Early Access has been a system that has certainly had its ups and downs, but Dead Cells just may be the best thing to ever come out of the program.  There have been games in the past that have attempted to fuse Metroidvanias and rouge-lites, but none have succeeded like this.  It’s simple, at the beginning of every run you are given a melee weapon and a choice of one other weapon, all of which differ depending on what you have unlocked so far.  From here, you’re free to explore the first level of the game and keep any upgrade that you find.  Also along the way you occasionally pick up cells from enemies, which serve as your currency for upgrades.  However, if you die before the end of a level, you lose everything that you picked up so far in that area.  This helps build tension when you’ve gotten a rare blueprint for a new item or a large number of cells, as you want to make sure you can reach the collector who will essentially bank your cells and let you buy things to improve future runs.  Its a loop that works.

While the upgrade system, the unique weapons and skills, and branching paths help set this rogue-lite apart, the true glory in Dead Cells is the combat and how tight the controls are.  There are few 2D action games that feel this good to play, and it makes some of the more frantic levels an absolute blast.  You’ll certainly get to the first boss in an early run, but he’ll likely demolish you.  Improve yourself a little bit, and the next time you get back to him you see progress but still no victory.  Hone your skills more, and the next thing you know it you are trouncing the first boss every single time you get to him.  Then as the game ramps up in difficulty in the following levels, you learn to adapt in new ways to advance even more.  After tons of runs and hours, you’ll eventually find yourself at the final test: The Hand of the King.  He is without a doubt the hardest aspect of this game that will do everything to crush what you thought was a perfect run.  But when you finally have a run that allows you to land that final blow and defeat him, it is something special that encapsulates the beauty of perseverance in this game.  This just might be the best rogue-lite since Spelunky.

1. Celeste (Matt Makes Games - PC, PS4, Switch, XBO)

At the beginning of the game, you’re told that Celeste is a game about climbing a mountain.  While that is very true, it’s about much more than that.  Celeste is a precision platform that stars a young girl named Madeline who is setting out to climb Celeste Mountain to prove she can do it.  Her intentions aren’t crystal clear at first, but she’s told by one of the other NPCs that she’ll fail.  She has told by her mother in a dream sequence that she’ll fail.  She’s followed by a dark version of herself that tells her that she’ll fail.  It becomes evident quickly that this is a game about conquering your own anxiety and doing something outside of your comfort zone.

While Celeste draws inspiration from games like Super Meat Boy and I Wanna Be the Man, there is enough to give the game its own identity here.  This game is punishing, but at the same time it is incredibly fair.  Anytime you die, you are sent back immediately to the beginning of the screen.  This allows you to easily evaluate how you made a mistake adjust or fine tune your strategy from there.  Soon obstacles that seemed impossible are nothing to you, and you instead need to figure out how to get through the next roadblock.  You get better and learn something every time you die, and that helps you propel forwards better than other similar games in the genre. There are also collectibles hidden on most screens known as strawberries, and they serve as an extra challenge to help make each level even harder if you want to take the extra step.  But the true difficulty lies in the bonus B-side and C-side levels that unlock should you find the other collectibles in each level.  These are remixed levels that are shorter than the main game but present new twists on the mechanics of each world, leading to one of the most rewarding feelings should you be able to conquer these.  They are not for the faint of heart.